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	Half a billion people could be pushed into poverty by coronavirus by Oxfam International, UNU Wider, agencies   Apr. 2020   The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could push half a billion more people into poverty unless urgent action is taken to bail out developing countries, said Oxfam today. The agency is calling on world leaders to agree an 'Economic Rescue Package for All' to keep poor countries and poor communities afloat, ahead of meetings of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and G20.   Oxfam's new report 'Dignity Not Destitution' presents fresh analysis which suggests between six and eight percent of the global population could be forced into poverty as governments shut down entire economies to manage the spread of the virus.   This could set back the fight against poverty by a decade, and as much as 30 years in some regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa. Over half the global population could be living in poverty in the aftermath of the pandemic.   The analysis, published today by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, was conducted by researchers at King's College London and the Australian National University.   An 'Emergency Rescue Package for All' would enable poor countries to provide cash grants to those who have lost their income and to bail out vulnerable small businesses. It would be paid for through a variety of measures including: The immediate cancellation of US$1 trillion worth of developing country debt payments in 2020. Cancelling Ghana's external debt payments in 2020 would enable the government to give a cash grant of $20 dollars a month to each of the country's 16 million children, disabled and elderly people for a period of six months.   The creation of at least US$1 trillion in new international reserves, known as Special Drawing Rights, to dramatically increase the funds available to countries.   Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director said:   'The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe. But for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty.   G20 Finance Ministers, the IMF and World Bank must give developing countries an immediate cash injection to help them bail out poor and vulnerable communities.   They must cancel all developing country debt payments for 2020 and encourage other creditors to do the same, and issue at least US$1 trillion of Special Drawing Rights'.   Existing inequalities dictate the economic impact of this crisis. The poorest workers in rich and poor nations are less likely to be in formal employment, enjoy labour protections such as sick pay, or be able to work from home.   Globally, just one out of every five unemployed people have access to unemployment benefits.   Two billion people work in the informal sector with no access to sick pay - the majority in poor countries where 90 percent of jobs are informal compared to just 18 percent in rich nations.   Women are on the front line of the coronavirus response and are likely to be hardest hit financially. Women make up 70 percent of health workers globally and provide 75 percent of unpaid care, looking after children, the sick and the elderly.   Women are also more likely to be employed in poorly paid precarious jobs that are most at risk.   More than one million Bangladeshi garment workers - 80 percent of whom are women - have already been laid off or sent home without pay after orders from western clothing brands were cancelled or suspended.   Many wealthy nations have introduced multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus packages to support business and workers, but most developing nations lack the financial firepower to follow suit.   The UN estimates that nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost. Micah Olywangu, a taxi driver and father of three from Nairobi, Kenya, who has not had a fare since the lockdown closed the airport, bars and restaurants, told Oxfam that 'this virus will starve us before it makes us sick'.   Delivering the $2.5 trillion the UN estimates is needed to support developing countries through the pandemic would also require an additional $500 billion in overseas aid.   This includes $160 billion which Oxfam estimates is needed to boost poor countries public health systems and $2 billion for the UN humanitarian fund. Emergency solidarity taxes, such as a tax on extraordinary profits or the very wealthiest individuals, could mobilise additional resources.   'Governments must learn the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis where bailouts for banks and corporations were paid for by ordinary people as jobs were lost, wages flatlined and essential services such as healthcare cut to the bone. Economic stimulus packages must support ordinary workers and small businesses, and bail outs for big corporations must be conditional on action to build fairer, more sustainable economies', added Vera.   # In 2018 there were 3.4 billion people living on less than $5.5 per day according to the World Bank. Researchers used mathematical models to predict how many more people would fall below World Bank poverty lines of $1.90, $3.30 and $5.50 a day based on a 5, 10 and 20 percent drop in GDP. A 20 percent drop in GDP would mean an estimated 434.4 million more people living on less than on $1.90 a day, 611.8 million more people living on less than $3.30 a day and 547.6 million more people on less than $5.50 a day. This represents rise between 6 percent and 8 percent on current levels.   Oxfam is working to raise more funds to scale up its cash transfer programming and food assistance in vulnerable communities across the globe, to allow the most vulnerable households to buy food and basic necessities.   http://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty http://www.wider.unu.edu/news/press-release-covid-19-fallout-could-push-half-billion-people-poverty-developing-countries http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/dignity-not-destitution   * Dignity Not Destitution: An Economic Rescue Package for All: http://bit.ly/2JNDUhF Visit the related web page
	Shaping a new social contract through the pandemic by Business & Human Rights Resource Center, agencies   Dec. 2020   The fashion industry’s decision to cancel billions of dollars of clothing orders at the start of the pandemic has left garment workers across the world facing chronic food shortages as wages plunge and factories close.   Interviews with nearly 400 garment workers in Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Lesotho, Haiti, Ethiopia, El Salvador, Cambodia and Bangladesh conducted by human rights group Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), found that almost 80% of workers, many making clothes for some of the world’s largest fashion brands, are going hungry. Almost a quarter of those surveyed said that they were facing daily food shortages.   The majority (60%) of those interviewed were still employed in clothing factories supplying overseas brands. The report found that across all nine countries, workers had experienced an average 21% drop in wages since the beginning of the year, leading to many being unable to cover basic living costs.   Others had lost their jobs when their factories closed or sacked or suspended workers after brands cancelled orders or pulled their business at the beginning of the pandemic.   “Brands bear substantial responsibility for the destitution garment workers are facing,” said Penelope Kyritsis, director of strategic research at WRC.   Prof Genevieve LeBaron, a professor of politics at Sheffield University and a co-author of the report, said the debt workers were running up was one of the most alarming aspects of the research.   She said that “75% of the 400 workers we talked to said they were borrowing money to buy food, and almost half of these workers are still working at the same factory that employed them before the pandemic, which means that even those who have managed to keep their jobs are taking on debt to cope with falling income.   “What is most significant is that garment workers from nine countries with very different worker and industry demographics are all experiencing the same difficulties … This is a system where the workers at the bottom are taking all the risk and paying the price when things go wrong.”   Global Fashion brands cancelled an estimated $15bn of orders when the global lockdown closed retail outlets earlier this year.Clothing companies used force majeure clauses in their contracts with overseas suppliers to cancel existing orders. Many of these orders had already been completed but brands refused to accept shipment, leaving suppliers stranded with millions of dollars of unsold stock.   Factories were also forced to shut because of Covid, and the refusal of foreign buyers to continue to pay workers’ wages while business was suspended has, the report said, led to mass redundancies and hours and pay being slashed.   Worker Rights Consortium said that although some retailers have subsequently agreed to pay for cancelled orders in full, others are still refusing. A recent analysis of government import data for US and European markets identified a $16bn hole in clothing imports for 2020, largely due to cancelled orders.   “What is most concerning is that brands are now seemingly exploiting their suppliers’ desperation for orders by demanding lower prices and slower payment schedules, increasing the downward pressure on wages and making more job losses inevitable,” said Kyritsis.   The report says that the fashion industry should provide cash support to overseas workers throughout the Covid-19 crisis and ensure that workers are getting legally mandated severance and termination pay.   http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/majority-of-garment-workers-have-gone-hungry-during-pandemic-as-brands-responses-to-crisis-impact-suppliers-research-reveals/ http://www.workersrights.org/press-release/global-survey-garment-workers-report-widespread-hunger-during-covid-19/   Apr. 2020   Shaping a new social contract through the pandemic, by Mary Robinson and Phil Bloomer - Business & Human Rights Resource Center   The actions of governments, business, investors and civil society in response to COVID-19 will shape our futures.   In the midst of our COVID-19 pandemic, there are rising calls for government and business to form a 'new social contract'. This would tackle the immediate economic hardship, and more fairly share the burdens and benefits from our economies. This comes from actors as diverse as the International Trade Union Congress and the Financial Times.   In contrast, too many business leaders appear willing to abandon their social license to operate by passing the costs of this crisis to vulnerable workers in their supply chains.   This approach not only exacerbates the immediate humanitarian suffering but also polarises further our unequal societies, creating greater public distrust of markets.   The scale and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic grows each day. This is also true for its impact on business and for the rights of workers and communities that depend on those businesses for their livelihoods.   Millions of workers have been laid off in the supply chain factories of Asia and Latin America; the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association reports that a quarter of the 4 million garment workers are laid-off or sacked through to mass cancellations of fast fashion orders; ten million workers have registered as unemployed in the United States in two weeks. These are just a few examples of the harm catalogued in our portal on the impact of COVID-19 on business and human rights.   While the virus does not discriminate, our societies response does. The various impacts of our response to the pandemic are exaggerating the already extreme inequality that stalks our societies: migrant day-labourers in India are moving, en masse, from their slums to their home villages to avoid utter destitution; migrant workers in the Gulf construction industry are having to live in a 'virtual prison' after a COVID-19 outbreak; and the UK Institute of Fiscal Studies reports that the low-paid, women, and young workers are seven times more likely to work in UK sectors that have now been shut down.   In these extreme conditions, the relevance of the values and standards of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights grows exponentially with the pandemic. These values must inform our search for adequate responses to humanitarian suffering now, and the search for solutions to 'Build Back Better', as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has put it.   The good news is patchy, but there is some: first, where governments have acted intelligently and decisively on World Health Organisation advice, the economic impact of the virus is less and is declining. Second, some governments have rapidly scaled up their social protection for workers laid-off by the crisis - 75% of wages paid by the Government of Denmark, and 80% in the UK.   Equally, a small cluster of companies appear to be acting with some responsibility H&M and Inditex agreed to honour signed contracts with their suppliers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Myanmar, and Primark belatedly issued a similar commitment. Unilever, Patagonia and KiK appear to be adopting similar approaches, and the International Chamber of Commerce's 'Save our SMEs' campaign combines a call for business support with labour rights.   The tragic news is that many international brands appear to be abandoning the 'social' part of their Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) responsibilities. Companies such as Urban Outfitters are invoking 'force majeure' clauses in their contracts to prevent delivery and payment for produced orders.   Of course, non-payment to their suppliers will likely mean no wages for the workers who have spent the last weeks working to produce their clothes, often at the very point that women workers are laid off without severance pay. In our polarised world, these corporate actions serve to reinforce the collapse of public trust in global markets that associates them with rootless corporations, hyper-inequality, precarious employment, and climate breakdown.   Companies actions in this pandemic will be remembered by their stakeholders and by governments. The advances in business thinking on human rights in the last two decades will not simply be rolled back, but rather reinforced by this crisis.   The Financial Times now sees a very different world emerging for business and labour: Governments must see public services as investments rather than liabilities, and look for ways to make labour markets less insecure. Redistribution will again be on the agenda and wealth taxes will have to be in the mix.   The primacy of the state is being reinforced by this crisis. This may soon lead to regulation to change the purpose of markets away from the primacy of the shareholder towards wider stakeholders to deliver shared prosperity and shared security - including climate security.   There are now loud voices calling for any major economic stimulus by governments to be redistributive and learn the lessons of the 2008 financial crash. Stimuli should protect the majority, and also act to differentially benefit responsible businesses and investors that are willing to be part of this long-overdue re-purposing of our markets.   And the same principle should ensure greater support to companies paying a living wage, respecting workers freedom of association and right to collective bargaining, while reducing CO2 emissions.   We live at a time of convergent crises: pandemic, climate breakdown, and unsustainable inequality. Forward-thinking business leaders and investors are already embracing care for human rights and the environment, and have due diligence plans to build resilience in preparation for the disruptive shocks to come.   Strikingly, the convergent crises are making these leaders more vocal in their advocacy for smart government regulation to support urgent market transformations. Responsible European companies and investors currently lead this advocacy, with support for a human rights and environmental due diligence law, the Sustainable Finance Action Plan, and the revision of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.   Over 100 investors back three investor statements of support for due diligence laws, as do 50 German companies. And three Swiss business associations representing more than 300 companies advocate a national due diligence law. These leading companies should now add a strong component to their advocacy for governments new social protection schemes in response to the pandemic: to insist that corporate bailouts using public funds should require companies to deliver time-bound plans to embrace human rights due diligence, respect for workers rights, and science-based emission-reductions, at a minimum.   The lessons from both the global economic crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic are that our dominant business model is unsustainable and must be transformed.   Assertive states are essential in this transition. The UN Guiding Principles and the Paris Agreement, with a new emphasis on corporate due diligence, workers rights, and social protection, point the way to a more resilient and inclusive future for global markets.   Our response the pandemic now will shape our futures. With the planned scale of global economic stimulus, governments, business and investors have a unique chance to bring human rights and climate responsibility to the heart of business models and our economies. We should be brave enough to grasp this opportunity.   http://www.opendemocracy.net/en/shaping-new-social-c-ontract-through-pandemic/ http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/covid-19-coronavirus-outbreak http://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/09/imf-make-covid-19-funds-transparent-accountable http://www.taxjustice.net/2020/03/27/could-the-wealth-in-tax-havens-help-us-pay-for-the-coronavirus-response/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/04/letter-imf-managing-director-re-anti-corruption-and-role-civil-society-monitoring http://www.fidh.org/en/issues/globalisation-human-rights/don-t-wash-your-hands-of-human-rights-obligations-corporate-due
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