Photo: Jakob Polascek
A Major Transformation
M
ost of us have always known it; others had to learn it the hard way last year: physical health is the most valuable asset in our lives. In 2020, people in Europe and around the world faced the biggest health crisis since World War II and the first pandemic since the Spanish flu about a hundred years ago. Millions of people have died and many more have fallen ill. By the time this report is published, in the first half of 2021, we’re still not quite out of the woods. Due to the restrictions needed to contain it, the health crisis soon became an economic crisis with far-reaching economic and social consequences. As a result, we learned that financial health is the second most valuable asset for us individually but also for entire societies. Physical and financial health are also closely intertwined. Illness often leads to economic hardship, and financial worries often trigger physical or mental problems. In both cases, prevention is the best medicine. At this time when the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly left masses of people unemployed or in a precarious economic situation, ERSTE Foundation took a major step forward in its focus on “financial health”. Together with key stakeholders, we set up the Foundation for Economic Literacy last year to help enhance general economic literacy throughout Austria and integrate economic and financial education into school curricula. Economic literacy is the primary factor in providing for a financially healthy life. In addition to threatening our health and the economy, the coronavirus pandemic also had a major impact on other spheres of life. As a result of emergency decrees, we had to accept severe restrictions to fundamental democratic rights:
freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, the right to education and the right to meet other people, especially those closest to us, were temporarily suspended. Entire industries suffered enormous economic slumps due to imposed closures. The dynamics of globalisation suddenly had a downside: chains of infection stretched across continents, while supply chains were abruptly disrupted. With borders closed, important goods were unavailable in the short and medium term. Theatres, museums, and concert halls remained empty, and access to culture was blocked. At the same time, many of us were amazed to see what is possible when things get serious. The crisis gave an enormous boost to digitalisation, which enabled bridging solutions for home schooling and working from home, but also innovative formats of collaboration and tools for maintaining access to arts and culture. Systemically important services continued to run smoothly, cashless payment was increasingly accepted, and medical research delivered results in record time. The most frequently cited positive effect of the Covid-19 crisis is the seven per cent (2.4 billion ton) drop in global CO2 emissions in 2020 compared to the previous year. We are witnessing a major transformation in society. After overcoming the pandemic, we will not return to a pre-crisis state. ERSTE Foundation and the entire civil society, but also banks, must and will seize the opportunities that this crisis presents. The digital world must also be accessible to NGOs, for example (something we are working on with the start-up Two Next). In view of the solutions we urgently need to tackle the climate crisis and the social and societal upheavals in its wake, the foundation will have to break new ground
Financial health is the second most valuable asset of our life.
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