Articulating social and environmental policy for post-COVID-19 recovery:

Opportunities to respond and build back better whileleaving no one behind in Latin America and the Caribbean
POLICY BRIEF
Environmental considerations can be integrated in theresponse to and recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
This document presents feasible examples and policy
tools that integrate and complement social protection
goals with environmental sustainability.
In fact, the relationship between poverty andenvironment has been recognized by the Forum of
Ministers of Environment of the region. Its latest
Declaration (Buenos Aires, 2018) reaffirmed its
contribution to integrate the environmental dimension
in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, therefore,
to reduce poverty and inequality.
.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, thenumber of people living in poverty reached
184 million (30.2% of the population), ofwhom 62 million live in extreme poverty(10.2% of the population) (ECLAC, 2018),
and the COVID crisis is pushing thisnumber higher.

The increasing pressure on land and natural resources,
and the consequent degradation of the environment,along with the impacts of climate change, have severe
economic and social repercussions for the poor
(UNDP/UNEP, 2017) and can impede the sustainabilityof the response and recovery actions related to theCOVID-19 crisis in the medium and long terms. Social
protection is a fundamental mechanism to contributeto the full realization of social rights and, therefore,
has been recognized as an essential instrument toaccelerate the progress towards the SDGs and, in thecase of the COVID crisis, is being used by governments
as a basic response and recovery mechanism to reachthe most vulnerable

As of 2015, Conditional Cash Transfer(CCT) programmes served one fifth of
the region’s population —132 millionpeople and 30 million households—
with an investment equivalent to 0.33%of regional GDP, or US$ 153 per capita(ECLAC, 2017).

ARTICULATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR COVID-19 CRISIS RECOVERY: OPPORTUNITIES TO RESPOND AND BUILD BACK BETTER WHILE LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.

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Currently, countries throughout the region
have implemented a set of immediate
measures to protect the labor force andhousehold income and to reduce social
impact on the poor through subsidies,
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) oradvanced payments through ongoingsocial programmes and protection
schemes. Additionally, countries are also
designing or implementing monetary,
fiscal and social measures to preventa collapse of the economic system
considering, among other measures, theexpansion of social protection systems toreach underemployed and self-employedworkers, youth, women, children and theelderly (ECLAC, 2020).
The following policy options and examples
show concrete solutions for:

Including the environment insocial policies.

Buildingresilience
andadaptation to climate change
through social programmes.

Integrating a social equality
component in environmental
policies.

Linking food security programmes and theenvironment, to ensure the activation andrestorations of sustainable livelihoods.

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Beneficiaries of the Microfinance for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (MEbA) projectthat seeks to provide vulnerable rural and peri-urban populations with access to
microfinance products and services that allow them to invest in activities that improvetheir income, increase their climate resilience and allow them to sustainably use
ecosystems and their services. Photo: MEBA - UNEP.

ARTICULATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR COVID-19 CRISIS RECOVERY: OPPORTUNITIES TO RESPOND AND BUILD BACK BETTER WHILE LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.

Main policy options
Conditional Cash Transfers programmes can
include incentives to environmental conservationand sustainable production and consumption athousehold level.
Social protection must be articulated with other publicpolicies and be a key transformative and redistributive toolto achieve the welfare of all, to protect the most excluded
groups and to support a structural transition towards
more sustainable economic and development models.
For example, CCT programmes can incorporate actions topreserve the natural resource base, on which the populationand production depend.
Bolsa Verde in Brazil provided an additional cash transfer orgreen grant conditioned to the protection of ecosystems tomore than 76,000 families living below the poverty line.
Cash for work programmes have supported the creation ofjobs in the recycling sector for Venezuela's migrants. Recycling
cooperatives are common in several countries of the region anda source of green employment for vulnerable populations whenformalized.
Environmental policy instruments such as Payment
for Environmental Services can improve the qualityof life of the rural population while protecting key
resources.
Environmental conservation, and sustainable natural
resource management initiatives, such as Payment for
Ecosystem Services (PES), can include a pro-poor component
to ensure that marginalized and vulnerable populations
benefit from them.
· BANCO2 engaged 72 private companies to offset theirenvironmental footprint through direct payments to poorfamilies that protect 1,800 Ha. of forest in Colombia.
· Quito´s Water protection Fund supports activities upstream
to restore and plant forests as well as to promote sustainable
livelihoods upper basin of the Guayllabamba River and its
direct area of influence engaging more than 40.000 leaders,
professionals and students.

ARTICULATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR COVID-19 CRISIS RECOVERY: OPPORTUNITIES TO RESPOND AND BUILD BACK BETTER WHILE LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.

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Countries in the region can adopt social
protection policies that generate resilience todisasters and climate change.
Innovative approaches and methods can be useful at
the local level to facilitate the integration of adaptation
to climate change, risk management and social
protection systems, from the small scale of CCTs tolarge public investments in resilient infrastructure.

· Adopting silvopastoral production systems in 2,500
cattle farms associated to FEDEGAN in Colombia haveincrease water flow (by 72%), reduce soil erosion (by7 tons/Ha), increase 32% biodiversity and sequestrate
14,000 tons of carbon per year.

· Measuring climate vulnerability at household level
allowed to better target the beneficiaries of social
programmes in Dominican Republic and reduce theimpact of extreme climatic events.
· The Microfinance for Ecosystem based Adaptation(MEBA) have helped to implement practices that build
resilience to climate shocks and has so far issued
almost 14,000 microcredits in Colombia and Peru.
The linkages of social protection systems
with food security and sustainableagriculture are key to creating opportunities
for a sustainable exit from poverty.
There is ample potential to simultaneously address
food security and poverty reduction while limiting
impacts on ecosystems. This implies a combined
response to social, economic and environmental
challenges, in which support for the resilience of themost vulnerable communities must be accompaniedwith strengthening the rural economy and improving
productive capacities.
· The Mexican Special Programme for Food Security
integrated an environmental component with 1,200
comprehensive projects for soil conservation and water
storage for irrigation, as long as other conservation
practices such as terracing and reforestation.
· The Quesungual system in Honduras ensures higher
yields of corn (42%) and of beans (38%) and better wateruse, less fertilizers and 6 times less soil loss than slashand-burn farm plots, by combining several practices
that are environmentally sustainable (no burning,
manage stubble, natural regeneration and no tilling thesoil, among others).

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Ecosystem-based adaptation demonstration farm (EbA) in Oxapampa, Pasco, Peru.
Photo: MEBA - UNEP. Photo: MEBA - UNEP.

UNEP can provide support and solutions tointegrate environment in the social responseto the crisis and recovery related to COVID19
in all the options described above.
Contact:
piedad.martin@un.org
For more information:

ARTICULATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FOR COVID-19 CRISIS RECOVERY: OPPORTUNITIES TO RESPOND AND BUILD BACK BETTER WHILE LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.