COVID-19

City local governments have been facing multiple challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic to secure adequate financial resources for response and recovery. This report assesses the impact of the pandemic on local governments’ financial situations through cross-country analysis and comparison.
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Restrictions on the use of public space and social distancing have been key policy measures to reduce the transmission of SAR-CoV-2 and protect public health. At the time of writing, one half of the world’s population has been asked to stay home and avoid many public places. What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public space once the restrictions have been lifted? The depth and extent of transformation is unclear, especially as it relates to the future design, use and perceptions of public space.
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There are over twenty serious vaccine preventable diseases with immunization estimated to save 4-5 million deaths annually. Typically, individual vaccination campaigns in a single country target a million to tens of millions children and during the last decade, 1 billion children are estimated to have undergone vaccinations.
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Experiences from previous pandemics and large-scale shocks show that these crises often affect men and women differently. Specifically, the effectiveness of policy actions and the prevention of costly reversals in the progress achieved towards greater gender equality will crucially depend on how gender considerations are reflected in the examination of potential impacts of and responses to COVID-19.
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Maintaining the delivery of basic urban service—including waste collection and management—is becoming a growing challenge to cities grappling with the fallout from COVID-19. Every year the world generates over 2 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste. The World Bank estimates that by 2050 annual waste generation will increase by 70 percent—to 3.4 billion metric tons. In low-income countries, the volume of  waste is expected to triple by 2050, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
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The COVID-19 global pandemic altered every aspect of urban life in recent months. In response, city transportation officials around the world have quickly implemented new street design and management tools to keep essential workers and goods moving, provide safe access to grocery stores and other essential businesses, and ensure that people have safe space for social/physical distancing while getting outside.
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