COVID-19 pandemic is affecting urban areas all around the world, especially high-density public spaces and informal settlements. Despite the willingness to act, local Municipalities in Mozambique often lack technical and financial capacities. To support them, UN-Habitat in the context of the Urban Task Force for COVID-19, prepared this manual for markets’ spatial adaptation for COVID-19 prevention.

This report covers activities undertaken at the corporate, regional and country levels for the period March-August 2020. It outlines key areas which are shaping UN-Habitat’s work related to COVID-19 and the consequences of the global pandemic for longer-term work on post COVID-19, learning from this crisis and building back better cities for all.

The issue brief on “Integrated Territorial approaches to the COVID-19” is part of the ongoing response initiatives by UN-Habitat in the light of Covid-19 pandemic. It provides a framework to enhance flows of people, goods, information and services while integrating interventions such as social protection and health services provision to slow infection rates.

The UN Secretary-General has launched the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19 to save lives, protect societies, recover better. As part of the response, the UN Secretary-General is issuing policy briefs to provide ideas to governments on how to address the consequences of this crisis and COVID-19 in an urban world is part of this series .

COVID-19, a global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), is crippling the global economy and upending people’s lives thereby threatening sustainable development across all its dimensions. Africa is also facing the dire consequences of the crisis, necessitating timely response, recovery and rebuilding policies and strategies. Globally, urban areas are the epicenters of the epidemic accounting for most of the confirmed COVID-19 cases.

COVID-19 pandemic is affecting urban areas, especially high-density public spaces and informal settlements. Despite the willingness to act, Mozambique Municipalities often lack technical capacities and tools for planning. To support them, UN-Habitat in the context of the Urban Task Force for COVID-19, supported 12 Municipalities to map vulnerabilities of their urban areas and prioritize response actions.

In cities and urban areas in East Africa, livelihoods and incomes of populations are seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for those living in informal settlements. These urban populations are more vulnerable to food insecurity and unstable livelihoods as they mainly depend on the informal sector. It is estimated that the number of food insecure people in East Africa will increase to more than 41 million people because of COVID-19 including 14 million urban dwellers.

China has good and efficient systems in place to fight against epidemics. China has set in place strict containment measurements which have been proved to reduce the spread of the disease, managed to reduce the public health crisis and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The presented Guidance Papers summarize specific measures for infection prevention and control of the disease from the Wuhan experience.

Local authorities have played a major role to curtail COVID-19, particularly in vulnerable urban settings, while maintaining critical services.
To identify problems and suggest solutions, UN-Habitat assessed 34 Unions of Municipalities and 5 individual municipalities, covering 52 per cent of Lebanese municipalities. The report highlights key urban challenges and proposes several mitigating measures.