COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the globe at a speed that caught governments unprepared in both developed and less developed countries. A global pandemic, caused by a little- known coronavirus, resulted in a major health crisis, which quickly transformed into an unprecedented economic and social crisis. Diverse and uncoordinated Policy responses struggled to respond to the trade-off between saving lives and maintaining the economies afloat. The “Post-COVID 19” state of the world will, however, remain uncertain. The EMEA-EMNES research published in 2020, shows that countries exhibiting socio-economic vulnerabilities prior to the pandemic had lower capacity to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. In other words, the countries that have built a resilient system could better respond to the pandemic and rebound. Several pillars, including digitalisation, financial inclusion, social protection and safety net, regional integration via regional value chains, have been explored by EMNES research to offer economic policy answers on the design of recovery models post COVID-19. Against this background, the EMNES Annual Conference 2020 aims to discuss and to disseminate the results and conclusions of the work accomplished under EMNES policy research.
The EMNES Annual Conference 2020 includes EMNES Researchers, EMNES Fellows, Associate Committee and Advisory Committee members, international economists, policy experts and policy makers.
The Euro-Mediterranean Network of Economic Studies (EMNES) new socio-economic vision stems from the quest for long-term economic policy solutions aiming at more inclusive, sustainable and employment driven socio-economic development in the region.
With the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, EMNES contributed actively to the EMEA regional policy research initiative on COVID-19 launched on 18 March 2020.
As of March 2020, EMNES research covers the following areas:
- The role of institutions and labour markets;
- The role of the private sector and Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in achieving an inclusive development model;
- Social business and social inclusion;
- Health policy;
- Entrepreneurship and innovation;
- Finance, employment and inclusive growth;
- Human capital, skill mismatches, job creation and migration;
- Macroeconomic policies, productivity and job creation;
- Economics of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership;
- Regional integration and job creation;
- Sustainable development and sustainability;
- Scenario analysis and foresight;
This list of research topics is evolving.
Progress of work: www.emnes.org
