What: The SDG Moment serves to place an annual spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will be held at the beginning of the United Nation’s General Assembly’s High-Level Week. It takes place as the world experiences a deeply uneven response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which risks creating a two-tier recovery with significant implications for the advancement of the SDGs, especially in developing countries. Convened by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Moment will provide world leaders with a platform to showcase the bold plans, actions and solutions that are needed to end the COVID-19 pandemic and set the world on course towards achieving the SDGs. Held in advance of major meetings on food systems, climate, energy, jobs and social protection, the SDG Moment event is expected to build the momentum needed to deliver on the Decade of Action and Keep the Promise of the SDGs. The event will include more than 30 heads of state, a key debate with UN leaders on the COVID-19 Response and Recovery and a musical performance by K-pop band BTS, Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generation and Culture of the President of the Republic of Korea. Leaders from business, civil society, local authorities, the SDG Advocates and the UN will highlight how to take solutions to scale. Why: To get the SDGs back on track and prevent the worst impacts of climate change, a profound shift in economies and societies is now needed that benefits both people and planet. In the last 18 months, COVID-19 has disrupted economies and livelihoods, deepened inequalities and risks sending over 70 million people into extreme poverty. In the same period, progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been too slow and biodiversity loss has continued at an extraordinary pace. This is compounded by a deeply uneven global response to the pandemic with the world’s poorest countries and people suffering the most. The SDGs are the north star for the transformation required to overcome the pandemic and usher in a sustainable and inclusive future for everyone. Recognising this urgency, the UN will launch a new campaign, Keeping the Promise ahead of the SDG Moment. The digital campaign will call on people around the world to make a promise to take action for a better future for all. Users will be asked to choose from 11 promises inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals – the world’s to-do list to protect our planet and all its people. More information is available: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-moment https://un.cheerity.com When: 8 am-5 pm, Monday 20 September 2021 (New York time ) Where: Follow on UN Web TV

The Resident Coordinator's Office in collaboration with the Samoa Bureau of Statistics has completed the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Samoa. The exercise covered a wide range of topics to understand how the global crisis upended everyday life in Samoa, particularly concerning household income, job loss, government support, access to information, healthcare, mental health, children’s education, public safety and community relations. The timely initiative resulted in gaining important insights into key issues related to COVID-19 in the aftermath of the State of Emergency (SOE) and border closure. Despite the data limitations, the results showcase how Samoans across the country adjusted their lives and behaviour. The findings are expected to help policymakers and government officials make informed decisions as the crisis continues. The main findings are summarized below: Access to information: Most Samoans are well-informed about the developments related to COVID-19 and its spread, relying on television, internet/social media, and radio to access information. The use of the internet/social media is somewhat higher among urban households. In rural households, the use of radio is also prevalent in addition to television and internet/social media. Similarly, the source of information also varies across age groups, with the use of television and radio increasing consistently with age to replace the internet and social media. Access to healthcare: Despite the initial strict lockdown and continuation of the SOE, the number of Samoans facing difficulty in health services or buying medicines has been extremely small – only 3% of households faced a challenge seeking health services and 2% in buying medicines, indicating no disruption in healthcare/medicine provision as the SOE continues. Among the few households that faced difficulty in seeking healthcare, the main reasons were due to lack of cash, increase in drug prices and shops simultaneously running out of medicines. Limited transportation was also a factor for some households, particularly in Savai’i. Job loss and household income: Nearly 11% of the households across Samoa had at least one member lose their job due to measures related to COVID-19. The job losses were distributed uniformly across the formal and informal sectors and had various degrees of impact on household income. However, most of the households only witnessed a slight or moderate decrease in income. Moreover, 17% of the respondents also reported a decrease in their personal income due to the continuation of the SOE, with a slightly higher share among those with higher education. To cope with the financial stress, a considerable proportion of affected households relied on domestic farming and remittances from friends/family members. Government support: As part of the emergency response, the Government of Samoa announced a stimulus package in April 2020 that included a nationwide reduction in electricity tariffs. In addition to these tariff reductions, nearly 11% of the households also reported receiving additional support from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the need for further support among recipients was considerably high, especially concerning fulfilling their immediate needs. Among the households receiving additional assistance, 68% said they would like to see the government provide cash transfers to residents, while 61% said they would benefit from food packets to cope with the crisis. The additional support provided by the government was also insufficient to significantly boost household income, as only 10% of households receiving such support said their income had increased much as a result. Food security: There was no major issue related to food insecurity or disruption in the food supply/production, with most of the households being able to purchase food items when needed. Even among the small number of households facing difficulty in buying food, the reasons were mainly due to lockdown measures rather than lack of cash or increase in food prices. Approximately 70% of the households also reported no change in their consumption despite the economic crisis. Even among the households consuming less over financial concerns, the incidence of extreme hunger was relatively rare. In most cases, household members ate less or not at all only on some rare occasions. Education and remote learning: Across Samoa, nearly one in five children were not able to receive any education at home during school closure. The distribution of those receiving an education was also uneven across the country, with children in urban areas attending schools remotely at a significantly higher rate than their peers in villages. Online learning platforms were available to 24% of the school-going children, even though a larger share of children (48%) had access to electronic devices such as computers/smartphones/tablets. There was also a strong demand for online schooling among households, with over half of the households saying they would like to have more online equipment provided by the schools for remote learning, while 30% expressed the need for an online platform in general. Public safety and community relations: Despite the continuation of the SOE, communal relations and public trust in Samoa remained largely unaffected, or even improved. Only 4% of the households reported that their relations within and outside their community had deteriorated due to COVID-19, while nearly 60% of the households reported no change and one-third said their relations had improved within and outside their community. Similarly, the perceived threat of physical violence in the community was also largely absent among most of the population. Likewise, most Samoans indicated that the situation concerning other crimes and safety issues, such as theft, verbal abuse, violence/intimidation by police, conflicts, vandalism as well as domestic violence, had either stayed the same as before the pandemic or improved during the state of emergency. Overall, only about 6% of the households reported deteriorating crime compared to the situation before the COVID-19 crisis. Read or download FULL REPORT  

Social protection is a universal human right. The need for social protection is a critical concern for governments across the globe, with the adoption of social protection mechanisms expanded significantly around the world in the past two decades to reduce poverty, inequality and exclusion. The advent of the global COVID-19 crisis with its huge economic and social costs has put even more emphasis on having in place solid social protection floors — or the first level of social protection in a national social protection system — that are country-tailored to provide the most efficient mechanisms for protecting the most vulnerable people. What is Social Protection? A mix of policies and programmes aimed at preventing and protecting all people against poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, throughout their life cycle placing emphasis on vulnerable groups — by promoting effective labour markets, and enhancing their capacity to manage and to respond to disaster, economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability, and old age. The Global Social Protection monitoring platform launched in March 2020 shows that the need for social assistance, social insurance and active labour market programmes to respond to and offset the impact of the pandemic is on the rise. As of December 2020, a total of 215 countries have planned and implemented 1,414 social protection measures. Each country is trying to come up with its best mix of programmes to manage existing and new sources of risks and vulnerabilities. National social protection policies are needed to provide an overall strategic agenda for the development of nationally owned social protection floors and effective and coherent implementation of social protection measures. Asking the pertinent questions now is a must as Samoa seeks to carve out its path in establishing a formal social protection (SP) system. “Existing social protection measures in Samoa are ad hoc and fragmented, and are not geared towards addressing life cycle vulnerabilities, especially amongst the poorest and most vulnerable groups, families and individuals. They are not considered as investments towards building human capital, resilience and economic growth. Social protection programmes can mitigate the negative and dramatic impacts of crises or shocks on the local economy, livelihoods and poverty levels.” — the draft National Social Protection Policy. The proposed National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) A draft National Social Protection Policy is the subject of intense deliberations and consultations over the next couple of months. While the draft policy itself is not enough to build a social protection policy, it does provide a clear picture of what needs to be established in order to protect citizens against social and economic risks. The proposed NSPP wants to ensure that ‘Samoa’s society and citizens are protected against the risks of vulnerability, poverty, inequality and exclusion through their life cycle’. The Policy aims ‘to prevent and reduce national and lifecycle poverty, vulnerability and inequality prevalence and risks in Samoa’. Its goal is ‘to establish a gender-sensitive and age-appropriate social protection framework to ensure a minimum social protection floor for all Samoan citizens for a life of dignity. This proposed National Policy aims to promote collaboration and partnerships for the realisation of this national development agenda, the adoption of international best practices as well as promoting the strengths of local institutions, principles and values, in ensuring the development of a sustainable, inclusive and forward-looking social protection for Samoa and its people. A consultation was held in June 2021 to further gauge the level of interest and ownership amongst the key stakeholders. The formulation and finalisation of the National SP Policy is a matter of ongoing discussions between the Government and stakeholders on what is suitable and sustainable for Samoa. What social protection measures are currently in place? Samoa’s social protection system is composed of informal and formal social protection mechanisms. The key elements of the informal social protection system include support from extended family, community, and churches. Although in Samoa, the informal social protection system has been stable and promoting social cohesion and social capital while acting as a safety net cushion, the main concerns with the informal SP are its irregularity and unpredictability. Moreover, it is based on bonding which is more and more under threat in many countries due to the breaking down of extended family in favour of single-family. The formal social protection system is heavily biased towards the senior citizens with zero or small coverage of the other citizen groups such as children, working-age population, as well as persons living with disabilities. The formal social protection schemes are: (i) Samoa national provident funds and (ii) the accident compensation schemes — both forms of social insurance; (iii) senior citizens benefit scheme and (iv) Samoa school fee grant scheme — both falling under the social assistance category; and (v) ) registration of jobseekers and limited support in seeking employment — a form of labour market services that require further expansion. The main merits of a formal social protection system are regularity and predictability. It is rights-based and ratified by law (in most countries by Constitution). The development of the proposed National SP Policy also looks at how the role of informal institutions in social protection could be strengthened. A mammoth task ahead Due to the magnitude of the task at hand and the number of actors involved to make it a reality, discussions around social protection continue. The proposed SP Policy argues that social protection needs to be incorporated into and is an integral part of Samoa’s overall development agenda. Embedding social protection into the overarching development framework of Samoa will facilitate national ownership of that agenda and ensure that social protection is making positive impacts on the livelihoods, well-being and welfare of Samoan citizens now and in the future. Social protection is not about handouts to the poor alone. A social protection floor aims at providing coverage for the basic needs that income-less individuals have while helping them to return to the labour market and generate means for themselves and their families. Social protection is about guaranteeing that the basic needs of persons living with disabilities are being met and specialised services are in place. Ultimately, through social protection as a fundamental component of the social contract, governments commit to ensuring that people facing the loss of income due to unemployment, sickness, disability or ageing are helped to transition to safety without developing dependency. Cash transfers alone are not sufficient to guarantee sustained poverty prevention and alleviation. The social protection system will allow people to acquire skills and find jobs through dedicated labour market services. The complexity of human behaviour and facilitating positive and real change that originates from individuals and society require well-designed interventions in order to achieve impact and maintain people’s motivation to work and strengthen self-reliance. Social protection instruments regarding schemes, programmes and mechanisms must be provided together with other complementary developmental initiatives, in order to facilitate sustainable progress in preventing and reducing poverty and vulnerability and for improved inclusivity, self-empowerment and social cohesion. Social Protection is a cornerstone of achieving the ‘Leaving No One Behind’ commitment of governments through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More specifically, SDG Target 1.3 calls on all countries to ‘implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including social protection floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable’.    

An official letter from the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented to the Honorable Prime Minister of Samoa, Fiame Naomi Mataafa, reaffirms the support of the  United Nations towards building a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous Samoa. The Resident Coordinator Simona Marinescu presented the letter on behalf of the Secretary-General. She was accompanied by the UN Country Team in Samoa that included representatives of the WHO, FAO, UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA and ILO. She also informed the Hon. Prime Minister on the strategic development plans and programmes undertaken by the UN in Samoa in collaboration with relevant partners. The Prime Minister warmly welcomed the UN Country Team and conveyed a great appreciation of the continuous support of the UN to the development agenda of the country. Samoa was the first UN Trust Territory that became the first Pacific island nation to gain independence 58 years ago, and the UN has been a trusted partner since.