The Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES) Virtual Annual Conference 2020: “What Pillars for Resilience of the Socio-Economic Models Post COVID-19 Pandemic in the Mediterranean?” took place online on Zoom, on the 17th and 18th December 2020. The conference was broadcasted live on Facebook with great success, as over 2,500 persons watched the broadcast and the related posts of the conference reached over 16,000 people.
The EMEA-EMNES research published in 2020, shows that countries exhibiting socio-economic vulnerabilities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic had lower capacity to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. In other words, the countries that have built a resilient system could better respond to the pandemic and rebound. Several pillars, including digitalisation, financial inclusion, social protection and safety net, regional integration via regional value chains, have been explored by EMNES research to offer economic policy answers on the design of recovery models post COVID-19.
Against this background, the EMNES Annual Conference 2020 aimed to discuss and to disseminate the results and conclusions of the work accomplished under EMNES policy research. The Conference included EMNES Researchers, EMNES Fellows, Associate Committee and Advisory Committee members, international economists, policy experts and policy makers.
The first day of the Conference, 17 December, started with the Keynote Speech “The socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and paths to recovery in Europe” by Daniel Gros, Distinguished Fellow and Member of the Board, Centre for European Policy Studies – CEPS, who highlighted 3 factors of resilience: “Efficient administration, Political responsibility and Debt Sustainability”.
Keynote speaker of the second day, 17 December, was H.E. Hala El Said, Minister of Planning and Administrative Reforms, Egypt. At her intervention regarding the “Pillars of Resilience Post COVID-19 Pandemic in the Mediterranean” she mentioned the importance of factors of resilience especially during a crisis: “Find the appropriate policy balance, regular communication with the citizens and localisation”.
The EMNES Virtual Annual Conference 2020 was moderated by Prof. Rym Ayadi, President, Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) and Director, Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES). Closing the Conference Prof. Ayadi underlined that “EMNES will continue its research to explore and to analyse resilience factors of the socio-economic development models and to provide policy recommendations for the Mediterranean and Africa”
A report of the event will soon be published and disseminated through EMNES websites and social media.
The videos and the program are available at the Conference website: https://conference2020.emnes.org/
The Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies – EMNES is coordinated and promoted by the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association – EMEA
