LocationsUNDP's support to national response to COVID-19
Support to the National Response to contain the impact of COVID-19
Situational Analysis
Iran is one of the most impacted countries by COVID-19 pandemic. Within the first 15 days of the first recorded case, the pandemic spread to all 31 provinces of the country. The country’s health system is under pressure exacerbated by the imposed sanctions. Through the increase in the local production of PPEs as well as support from 30 countries and international organizations including the UN, Iran is implementing control measures to control the number of casualties and fight the pandemic. The impact has gone beyond the public health domain and has become a humanitarian and development crisis.
The country may lose up to 10 per cent of GDP rendering 500,000 people unemployed under the worst-case scenario. The government is implementing a National Mobilization Plan for COVID-19. It has announced a $10 billion relief package for businesses and households for 3 months and include a moratorium on utility bills. The pandemic affects particularly marginalized and vulnerable population including women headed households, migrants, HIV affected population and other groups. Economically, groups affected comprise of 4.5 million households, of which 1 million are from unemployed and poor and 2.5 million are self-employed, semi-skilled, unskilled and temporary workers.
The UN system in Iran has developed the Crisis Preparedness and Response Plan (CPRP) to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the vulnerable population and communities. UNDP, as part of the CPRP, is leading the socio-economic response together with UNICEF.
Areas of intervention
Socio-economic impact and needs assessment
UNDP has extensive experience in job-promotion and livelihoods, and in the strengthening of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. It could leverage its well-established partnerships with government agencies, communities and private sector for immediate socio-economic response and recovery by:
Designing and implementing large livelihoods and economic recovery programmes, providing immediate socio-economic relief to the most affected households
Enhancing social protection schemes by technically guiding and providing seed capital for better-designed and better-targeted cash transfers, including through the adoption of COVID-19-informed conditionalities
Developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the government and other organizations to assist affected businesses
Inclusive and integrated Crisis Management and Response
As part of the UN Crisis Preparedness and Response Plan, UNDP is the lead on the early recovery framework for COVID-19. It can:
Support public awareness and community engagement
Facilitate multi stakeholders’ coordination and response
Manage large grants schemes
Provide integrated policy advice for social safety nets, economic resilience and recovery
Health System's and Procurement Support
UNDP is the principal recipient of grants for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Iran. UNDP, together with WHO and UNICEF, is supporting the Government for international procurement of medicine/medical supplies to strengthen its health system. UNDP is well-positioned to respond to COVID-19:
By providing procurement services for health supplies, including through socially-responsive procurement – leveraging micro and small enterprises and women-led enterprises for such provision.
Expert advice on the specification, quantification, sourcing and quality assurance of health products and equipment
Community outreach for health supplies
Resources
UNDP has so far allocated $452K for socio-economic recovery and health system support. It has also submitted $1.2 million proposal to EU/ECHO for additional PPE support to the country.
The main focus of UNDP support is to help vulnerable populations cope with the impact of CVOID-19. It also aims to develop health system capacities for treatment and preventing the spread of COVID-19. As part of the crisis response and management, it is also leveraging non-governmental organizations to advocate for the adoption of life-saving precautionary measures at community and household levels, in collaboration with other UN partners.
Programme Area |
Required |
Available |
Gap |
Socio-economic needs assessment and response |
$7,500,000 |
$286,000 |
$7,214,000 |
Crisis response and management |
$800,000 |
$0 |
$800,000 |
Health System Support |
$3,200,000 |
$ 166,000 |
$3,034,000 |
Total |
11,500,000 |
$ 452,000 |
$11,048,000 |