COVID-19 and Other Challenging Contexts for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Youth

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year humankind had to face one of the biggest challenges in recent history as a result of both the spread of COVID-19 and the declaration of a global pandemic whose impact has been – and will continue to be – global. Ensuring the comprehensive protection of children and youth against the backdrop of such a disproportionate challenge, raises the need to build capacity to design and implement effective public policy. It further requires that innovation, inter-institutional alignment and cooperation competencies between public, private, non-governmental and multilateral actors be developed.

While as a society we are moving a still-incomplete learning curve forward, the UN General Assembly provides a perfect setting for examining the challenges that have arisen in a highly complex environment, while evaluating proposed approaches based on the experience of different institutional and non-governmental actors.

The Colombian Government has set up this side event designed to encourage constructive discussion to provide proposed solutions whilst contributing to getting back to the path to wellness and social progress that has been threatened by the current emergency.