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	Building a more equal world by SDG Action, ODI, UN Stats, agencies   June 2021   The pandemic makes the Sustainable Development Goals even more relevant, even more critical to ensure that we leave no one behind, by Amina Mohammed - Deputy UN Secretary-General   COVID-19 has shaken the pillars of our world with all-encompassing disruption: societies, economies, and people are reeling. According to United Nations estimates, the pandemic has pushed over 150 million people into extreme poverty, and we are forecasting sharp declines in the UN Human Development Index.   While rich countries have eased some of the pain by spending more than 10% of gross domestic product on rescue packages and other measures, emerging economies and the poorest countries have lower budgets and little fiscal space, and face liquidity shortfalls that constrain their responses.   The crisis has also highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities across the world. This is particularly the case for gender equality, where we risk losing a generation of gains. Women have been pushed out of the labor force and into poverty in higher numbers, and are absorbing the burden of skyrocketing care responsibilities alongside the economic and health consequences. All of this has also been accompanied by an alarming increase in male violence against women and girls.   The pandemic has hit the most vulnerable hardest, including: people caught up in conflicts or disasters; children and youth; persons with disabilities; people lacking social protection; those in the informal sector.   It has caused immense psychological suffering for millions with limited mental health services. And it has exposed the perils of encroachment on wild habitats, which are the primary pathways for emerging infectious diseases. With biodiversity declining and climate change intensifying, the current crisis must also be a wake-up call to transform our relationship with nature.   A new urgency   The upheaval has underscored the urgency of the SDGs. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is designed to address the very fragilities and shortcomings that the pandemic has exposed.   This means that COVID-19 recovery is an opportunity to invest in the SDGs and to find a path that: promotes public health; revitalizes economies; safeguards the environment; closes the digital divide; brings people in from the margins; builds long-term resilience, sustainability, opportunity, and peace.   But doing so requires bold policy choices. We need to put the SDGs, women’s full inclusion, and the aims of the Paris Agreement on climate change at the heart of the pandemic recovery.   We need to make sure that countries have the resources to continue responding to the pandemic and to recover better, including through debt relief. And we need to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines.   Raising ambition   It will be critical to raise ambition on three major fronts: poverty, gender equality, and climate action.   Ending poverty and ensuring equality will require a major expansion of social protection systems and a reimagining of education, health, jobs, and financial systems.   Tackling gender equality will require funding and political will to achieve equal participation in all realms of decision-making, advance economic inclusion, invest in the care economy, and enact laws and national emergency plans that prevent violence by men against women and girls.   We have seen in the last year the effectiveness of women’s leadership in achieving better outcomes for all, and so can build on those successes.   Responding to the climate emergency will require: halving emissions by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels); ending environmentally harmful subsidies and the building of new coal-fired power plants; investing in renewable energy; shifting to sustainable food systems; taking advantage of nature-based solutions; ensuring just transitions; achieving net-zero emissions as soon as possible.   Beyond the benefits for the health of people and planet, the transition to net zero will bring substantial new opportunities for employment.   Financing will be crucial and developing countries will need solid packages of support. We also need a reinvigorated multilateralism: networked to promote closer cooperation among international organizations, and inclusive to bring in civil society, local authorities, and other sectors and stakeholders.   Pummeled as we have been by the pandemic, we can still draw strength from the human spirit displayed so widely across these challenging months: the heroics of essential workers, the collaboration of scientists to produce vaccines in record time, the passion of young climate activists, and the engagement of those calling for gender equality and racial justice.   The appetite for change is palpable. The 2030 Agenda provides the guiding light towards a safer, more equitable and peaceful world for today’s and future generations.   * UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Aug. 2021 Update (25pp): Ending hunger and achieving food security for all: http://bit.ly/3zTFYMD   June 2021   Building a more equal world, by Max Lawson - Head of Inequality Policy, Oxfam International   The coronavirus crisis swept across a world that was already extremely unequal. A world where a tiny majority of over 2,000 billionaires, mainly men, have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.   A world where nearly half of humanity was forced to scrape by on less than $5.50 a day. A world where the richest 1% has consumed twice as much carbon as the bottom 50% for the last quarter of a century, driving climate destruction. A world where the growing gap between the rich and poor both built on and exacerbated age-old inequalities of gender and race.   According to the World Inequality Report 2018, between 1980 and 2016 the richest 1% received 27 cents of each dollar from global income growth. This is more than twice that of the bottom 50%, who only secured 13 cents of every dollar. If the economic system is left to distribute the fruits of growth so unevenly, it will never eliminate poverty. It is also completely unsustainable.   Analysis of the origins of the wealth of the world’s richest shows how much of it is unearned. Oxfam has calculated that two thirds of billionaire wealth only exist because of inheritance, economic monopolies, and crony connections to government.   Inheritance simply creates a new aristocracy, and monopolies and cronyism are signs of a dysfunctional economy, not a functional one. It’s an economy that makes life more expensive for ordinary people.   This inequality is the product of a flawed and exploitative economic system, which has its roots in neoliberal economics and the capture of politics by elites. It has exploited and exacerbated entrenched systems of inequality and oppression, namely patriarchy and structural racism, ingrained in white supremacy. These systems are the root causes of injustice and poverty.   They generate huge profits accumulated in the hands of a white patriarchal elite by exploiting people living in poverty, women, and racialized and historically marginalized and oppressed communities around the world.   Inequality’s harm   Inequality has multiple impacts on humanity and human progress. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently found that in countries with higher income inequality, gaps between women and men in health, education, labor market participation, and representation in institutions like parliaments are also higher. The gender pay gap, where men earn more than women, was also found to be higher in more unequal societies.   Those living in unequal societies are less happy, less healthy, less educated, live with more crime and violence, and live shorter lives. It leaves many more people living in fear and many fewer in hope.   In the first months of the pandemic, a stock-market collapse saw billionaires, who are some of the biggest stockholders, see dramatic reductions in their wealth. Yet this setback was short lived. Billionaires had recovered almost all the money they had lost within eight months. Their fortunes have continued to increase since then.   At the same time that the greatest economic shock since the Great Depression began to bite, the virus saw hundreds of millions lose their jobs and face destitution and hunger. This in turn is set to reverse the decline in global poverty we have witnessed over the last two decades.   It is estimated that the total number of people living in poverty could increase by between 200 and 500 million. The number of people living in poverty may not fall back to its pre-crisis level for over a decade.   The virus exposed the fact that most people on Earth live just one paycheck away from penury. They live on between $5 and $10 a day. They rent a couple of rooms for their family in a slum. Before the crisis hit, they were just managing to get by, and starting to imagine a better future for their children.   They are the taxi drivers, the hairdressers, the market traders. They are the security guards, the cleaners, the cooks. They are the factory workers. The virus has shown us that for most of humanity there has not been a permanent exit to poverty and insecurity.   Instead, because of inequality and the hoarding of the proceeds of growth by the richest, at best there has been a temporary and deeply vulnerable reprieve.   While it is too soon to have the full picture, most initial studies point to a significant increase in inequality. The IMF, World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have all expressed concern that, left unchecked, the coronavirus will drive up inequality.   The fact that the virus has impacted economically on every country on the planet at the same time, means it is likely that almost every nation will see an increase in inequality. That is something never seen before in history.   This view is supported by Oxfam’s survey of 295 economists from 79 countries around the world, where 87% of them projected that there would be an increase or major increase in inequality in their country in the next two years.   Governments face a choice   An increase in inequality is almost certain. Yet the extent of this increase, and the speed with which it is reduced and greater equality achieved, is in turn the choice of governments across the world. The World Bank has shown that if leaders choose to act to reduce inequality, we could return to pre-crisis levels of poverty within three years. Conversely, if governments allow inequality to increase, the number of people living in poverty by 2030 will still be higher than it was before the virus hit.   If governments seek to reduce inequality, 900 million fewer people will be living in poverty by 2030 than if inequality is left to increase.   In 2015, all governments agreed for the first time to reduce inequality, as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10. This was a historic moment. It was also agreed that the fight must be against inequality in all its forms.   The gap between rich and poor undermines progress on education, health, and gender equality. More equal societies are societies that are more likely to be able to meet all of the SDGs.   Since then, progress in the fight against inequality has been painfully slow. Oxfam’s Commitment to Reducing Inequality index (CRI), which surveys 158 countries, shows most governments are failing to set clear goals and put plans in place to reduce the gap between rich and poor.   The good news is that this inequality is not inevitable. Clear, concrete steps can be taken by governments of all income levels to reduce inequality.   South Korea has increased taxation of the richest, increased the minimum wage dramatically and introduced universal social protection. Sierra Leone has introduced free secondary education and increased taxation of mining corporations.   Some governments have also taken dramatic steps to protect their populations in response to coronavirus. Bolivia has scaled up cash transfers by 322% to cover 97% of the population. Ecuador and Argentina have increased taxation on the richest to help pay for the recovery.   To reduce inequality, governments must dramatically improve their efforts on progressive spending on key public services like health, education, and social protection. They should increase progressive taxation, including taxation of wealth. They should increase workers’ pay and protection.   These measures should be done as part of national inequality reduction plans under SDG 10, setting clear, time-bound targets to reduce the gap between rich and poor.   Sadly these countries are the exception, not the norm. The majority of nations are simply failing to do what they can do to reduce inequality.   Coronavirus offers us a vital opportunity to imagine and build a more equal world. We must not waste it.   http://sdg-action.org/building-a-more-equal-world/ http://sdg-action.org/healing-people-and-planet-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/ http://sdgs.un.org/ http://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021 http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/2021#docs http://www.unsdsn.org/ http://civil-20.org/2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/C20-Policy-Pack-2021-Buildiing-a-sustainable-future-for-all-1.pdf http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/   http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-virus http://www.2030spotlight.org/en http://www.socialwatch.org/node/18613 http://odi.org/en/delivering-the-global-reset/ http://odi.org/en/events/global-reset-inequality-and-time-for-a-new-social-contract/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/10/imf-encouraging-world-financial-leaders-walk-blindly-towards-austerity http://financialtransparency.org/ftc-reveals-new-covid-bailout-tracker/ http://www.cesr.org/human-rights-economic-policy http://socialeurope.eu/for-workers-another-year-of-living-dangerously http://www.gi-escr.org/private-actors-public-services   http://www.sdg16toolkit.org/ http://www.forus-international.org/en/high-level-political-forum-2021 http://action4sd.org/sdg-progress-map/ http://undocs.org/A/HRC/48/23 http://voicesofsdg16plus.org/videos/ http://tapnetwork2030.org/blogs/ http://www.act4sdgs.org/ http://www.srpoverty.org/2021/06/28/press-release-world-needs-to-prepare-for-next-crisis-by-setting-up-global-fund-for-social-protection-now http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/civil-society-call/ http://report.hdr.undp.org/   http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/climate-change-indicators-and-impacts-worsened-2020 http://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ http://www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment http://reliefweb.int/report/world/technical-note-impact-covid-19-child-poverty http://www.wfp.org/stories/people-are-not-starving-they-are-being-starved-humanitarian-bodies-issue-joint-call-famine http://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/why-all-countries-should-contribute-ending-global-poverty http://reliefweb.int/report/world/covid-19-inequalities-and-building-back-better-policy-brief-hlcp-inequalities-task-team http://www.transparency.org/en/blog/tracking-corruption-across-the-sustainable-development-goals Visit the related web page
	Falling Living Standards and Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Crisis by WFP, FAO, Innovations for Poverty Action, agencies   July 2021   There was a dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020, the United Nations reported this week.   With a multi-agency report estimating that up to 811 million people were seriously undernourished last year.   The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 is the first global assessment of its kind in the pandemic era.   The report is jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).   Previous editions had already put the world on notice that the food security of millions – many children among them – is at stake.   “Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of people around the world,” the heads of the five UN agencies write in this year’s Foreword.   Disturbingly, in 2020 hunger shot up in both absolute and proportional terms.   More than half of all undernourished people (418 million) live in Asia; more than a third (282 million) in Africa; and a smaller proportion (60 million) in Latin America and the Caribbean.   But the sharpest rise in hunger was in Africa, where the estimated prevalence of undernourishment – at 21 percent of the population – is more than double that of any other region.   On other measurements too, the year 2020 was sombre. Overall, more than 2.3 billion people (or 30 percent of the global population) lacked year-round access to adequate food: this indicator – known as the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity – leapt in one year as much in as the preceding five combined.   Gender inequality deepened: for every 10 food-insecure men, there were 11 food-insecure women in 2020 (up from 10.6 in 2019).   Malnutrition persisted in all its forms, with children paying a high price: in 2020, over 149 million under-fives are estimated to have been stunted, or too short for their age; more than 45 million – wasted, or too thin for their height.   A full three-billion adults and children remained locked out of healthy diets, largely due to excessive costs. Nearly a third of women of reproductive age suffer from anaemia.   Globally, the world is not on track to achieve targets for any nutrition indicators by 2030.   In many parts of the world, the pandemic has triggered brutal recessions and jeopardized access to food.   Yet even before the pandemic, hunger was spreading; progress on malnutrition lagged. This was all the more so in nations affected by conflict, climate extremes or other economic downturns, or battling high inequality – all of which the report identifies as major drivers of food insecurity, which in turn interact.   On current trends, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World estimates that Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger by 2030) will be missed by a margin of nearly 660 million people.   Transforming food systems is essential to achieve food security, improve nutrition and put healthy diets within reach of all the report highlights.   Six “transformation pathways” to counteract hunger and malnutrition drivers.   Depending on the particular driver (or combination of drivers) confronting each country, the report urges policymakers to:   Integrate humanitarian, development and peacebuilding policies in conflict areas – for example, through social protection measures to prevent families from selling meagre assets in exchange for food;   Scale up climate resilience across food systems – for example, by offering smallholder farmers wide access to climate risk insurance and forecast-based financing;   Strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable to economic adversity – for example, through in-kind or cash support programmes to lessen the impact of pandemic-style shocks or food price volatility;   Intervene along supply chains to lower the cost of nutritious foods – for example, by encouraging the planting of biofortified crops or making it easier for fruit and vegetable growers to access markets;   Tackle poverty and structural inequalities – for example, by boosting food value chains in poor communities through technology transfers and certification programmes;   Strengthen food environments and changing consumer behaviour – for example, by eliminating industrial trans fats and reducing the salt and sugar content in the food supply, or protecting children from the negative impact of food marketing.   The report also calls for an “enabling environment of governance mechanisms and institutions” to make transformation possible. It enjoins policymakers to consult widely; to empower women and youth; and to expand the availability of data and new technologies.   Above all, the authors urge, the world must act now – or watch the drivers of hunger and malnutrition recur with growing intensity in coming years, long after the shock of the pandemic has passed.   Gilbert Houngbo, president of Ifad, said enough food was being produced to feed everyone and the crisis was a failure of the food system to meet people's needs.   “It is clear that, unfortunately, the pandemic continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, particularly the most vulnerable and those living in countries affected by conflict, climate change and inequality,” he said.   Houngbo said the pandemic had underlined the importance of investing in rural areas, which have suffered some of the worst effects of poverty and the climate crisis, as well as conflicts that can both be fuelled by hunger and cause it.   He said small-scale farmers were the most reliable suppliers of food and should receive more investment to help reduce hunger.   He said the growing shift towards local food production in some African countries was encouraging.   “In some of the world’s poorest countries, agriculture has the potential to become a thriving and successful sector that feeds its communities, creates jobs and provides economic and livelihood benefits,” he said.   UNICEF Director Henrietta Fore: "The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted — and continues to disrupt — all of the systems related to good nutrition. From food and health, to social protection programmes for families who are suffering financially.   "This means that millions of children are still struggling to access the nutritious and safe diets they need to grow, develop and learn to their full potential.   "For example, a national survey in Indonesia found that 31 per cent of households reported food shortages, compared to just three per cent in the previous year. And 38 per cent reported eating less than usual, compared to just five per cent the previous year. We’re seeing similar findings around the world".   In a UNICEF survey, 90 per cent of 135 countries reported a decline in coverage of essential nutrition services during the pandemic — and on average, 40 per cent of the world’s basic nutrition services were disrupted.   "The pandemic alone is not to blame for the food and nutrition crisis. As this year’s report reminds us, conflicts, climate change and economic recessions are also driving food and malnutrition insecurity and threatening the resilience of food systems, which are the cornerstone of good nutrition".   "Famines should be consigned to history, yet in multiple countries they loom again.. Poverty is shrinking incomes and placing nutritious, safe, and diverse foods and diets out-of-reach for millions of children and families.   "In 2020, an estimated 149 million, or more than 1 in 5 children under 5 years of age were suffering from stunting. And 45 million were suffering from wasting".   "We need to build the resilience of local food systems to external shocks, such as conflict and climate change, that leave communities across the world vulnerable to malnutrition".   “The report highlights a devastating reality: the path to Zero Hunger is being stopped dead in its tracks by conflict, climate and COVID-19,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.   Children’s future potential “is being destroyed by hunger”, he insisted. “The world needs to act to save this lost generation before it’s too late.”   Jean-Michel Grand, director of Action Against Hunger UK, said: “Every year global hunger levels rise and every year it seems the international community kicks the can further down the road. What percentage of the world’s population needs to be going hungry before governments start to take this issue seriously?   Will we have to wait until famines are widespread? Because this is an inevitable consequence if we continue to mishandle and underfund this issue".   Food security indicators   World hunger increased in 2020 under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. After remaining virtually unchanged for five years, the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) increased from 8.4 to around 9.9 percent in just one year.   It is projected that 811 million people in the world experienced hunger in 2020. That is 161 million more than in 2019.   Hunger affects 21.0 percent of the population in Africa, compared with 9.0 percent in Asia and 9.1 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.   In terms of numbers, more than half of the world’s undernourished are found in Asia (418 million) and more than one-third in Africa (282 million).   While the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity (measured using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale) has been slowly on the rise since 2014, the estimated increase in 2020 was equal to that of the previous five years combined.   Nearly one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of almost 320 million people in just one year.   The sharpest increases in moderate or severe food insecurity in 2020 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Africa.   In Northern America and Europe, food insecurity increased for the first time since the beginning of FIES data collection in 2014.   Of the 2.37 billion people facing moderate or severe food insecurity, half (1.2 billion) are found in Asia, one-third (799 million) in Africa, and 11 percent (267 million) in Latin America and the Caribbean.   Close to 12 percent of the global population was severely food insecure in 2020, representing 928 million people – 148 million more than in 2019.   At the global level, the gender gap in the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has grown even larger in the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity being 10 percent higher among women than men in 2020, compared with 6 percent in 2019.   The high cost of healthy diets coupled with persistent high levels of income inequality put healthy diets out of reach for around 3 billion people, especially the poor, in every region of the world in 2019.   Notably, Africa and Latin America show an increase in the unaffordability of heathy diets between 2017 and 2019, but it is likely that increases will be seen in most regions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   http://www.fao.org/3/cb4474en/online/cb4474en.html http://www.wfp.org/news/un-report-pandemic-year-marked-spike-world-hunger http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-says-41-million-people-now-imminent-risk-famine-without-urgent-funding-and-immediate http://reliefweb.int/report/world/brief-state-food-security-and-nutrition-world-2021-transforming-food-systems-food   June 2021   COVID-19 Data Explorer: Global Humanitarian Operations Monthly Highlights. (OCHA)   Food prices are at their highest in almost a decade and severe outbreaks of COVID-19 risk further deteriorating food insecurity.   The FAO Food Price Index averaged 127 points in May, an increase of almost 40 per cent from the same period last year and the twelfth consecutive monthly rise to its highest level since September 2011.   In comparing the cost of a food basket over the past three months (March-May) to the same period in the past five years, the cost is at least 30 per cent higher in 11 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) countries with the cost being 6 times more in Sudan (534%) and Syria (531%) and almost three times more in South Sudan (174%).   With 110 million people in acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) in HRP countries at the end of June, the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent public health and social measures further risk deteriorating food insecurity.   The most vulnerable people in the world are experiencing a successive and more severe wave of the pandemic this year with less capacity to cope and, for many, an alarming state of hunger. With the food security sector of the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) only 30 per cent funded, and the nutrition sector less than 20 percent funded, it is critical funding for food assistance is urgently scaled up.   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/covid-19-data-explorer-global-humanitarian-operations-monthly-highlights-30-june-2021 http://gho.unocha.org/ http://www.wfp.org/news/pandemic-job-losses-conspire-high-food-prices-push-food-out-reach-millions   June 2021   Alliance2015 research on COVID-19: country reports   Alliance2015 members jointly conducted a survey in 25 countries, covering 16,000 women and men in a two-month period in the final quarter of 2020. The multi-sectoral research provides striking information on the direct impacts of COVID-19 on food security, WASH, health, education, income, and on the indirect ones, related to indebtedness, psychosocial status, domestic and community cohesion, offering an understanding of some of the impacts of the pandemic that people are dealing with.   * Alliance2015 is a network of eight European non-government organisations engaged in humanitarian and development action.   http://www.alliance2015.org/multi-country-research-on-covid-19/   May 2021   The Chronic Poverty Advisory Network: Covid-19 Poverty Monitoring Initiative offers interviews with people living in or near poverty, analysis, and perspectives of those adversely affected.   Bulletins investigating the negative social and economic impacts of the pandemic in the Philippines, Zambia, Malawi and Ethiopia.   We found that for many people living in poverty, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions are double shocks upon existing vulnerabilities and crises, such as drought, natural hazards and conflict.   Ethiopia key findings   Higher costs of food staples combined with reduced income are causing households to reduce daily meals and threaten food security. Many households interviewed said they eat one meal per day less than before the pandemic and some households reported skipping meals for an entire day.   There has been a higher rate of school drop-out, and increased rates of child marriage.   Support networks have been disrupted. A number of respondents identified these support networks as being critical to their wellbeing, noting material and psychological strains due to these disruptions.   "The poorest who do not have necessary items and depend on daily subsistence have been most affected. About 600 households did not have enough food for immediate consumption. We organised the community to contribute grain to support the poorest. It was not enough." Key informant, Amhara, Ethiopia   Philippines key findings   Most micro-businesses such as neighbourhood stores and tricycle transport service have seen as much as a 60% drop in income due to a nationwide lockdown from 15 March to 1 June 2020. As the lockdown was eased, the financial situation of many micro-businesses improved but not to pre-pandemic levels.   Most respondents said they have significantly changed their food expenditures and are eating less as a consequence of their loss of income due to the pandemic.   Women, especially divorced or separated women, have been the hardest hit by livelihood losses and added caring responsibilities.   Many people have faced the double shock of the pandemic and devastating natural disasters. Some respondents' houses were destroyed in typhoons and others’ crops were ruined by drought, increasing the financial challenges brought on by the pandemic.   “There are days in a week when my family waits for me to come home with my morning’s earnings to buy food for lunch. If the amount is not enough for all of us to eat, the children eat first then I go out again to earn some more for a meal for my wife and myself.” Male respondent, Bicol region, Philippines   Malawi key findings   Pandemic-induced market disruptions are having the greatest impact on our interviewees, with trade disrupted in local markets, farmers unable to sell goods and the prices of staple goods increasing. Many who have lost livelihoods report cutting out a meal a day - some even report cutting out two meals per day.   Many also noted that the costs of masks, while relatively small, were preventing poorer households from accessing markets where they are required.   Girls are at high risk, with school closures linked to increased rates of teenage pregnancy, child marriage, child trafficking and protection concerns.   “A lot of children will drop out of school. Already from the previous closure of schools, a lot of girls here were pregnant and ended up in early marriages. If the schools remain closed for a long time, we expect lots more girls to drop out due to pregnancies and enter into marriages.” Key informant, Balaka, Malawi   Zambia key findings   Impacts of Covid 19 build on a half-decade of impoverishment due to interconnected droughts, loss of employment, inflation and the debt crisis, in a situation where few impact mitigation measures were put in place.   Small business owners and informal workers report loss of income. Some micro, small and medium enterprises such as bars, cinemas, lodges, hotels, salons and barbershops were completely shut down while others were allowed to operate with restricted hours and conditions.   All respondents say the price of essential food and non-food items (such as healthcare) have gone up, leading to nutrition being considered a ‘luxury’ by some households who report only focus on filling their stomachs. This has been a trend pre-Covid as well as has loss of employment.   Older people have been significantly impacted by the pandemic, with some reporting they are going days without food. Movement restrictions have also limited their contact with support networks, such as relatives and church communities.   “We only eat when someone helps out, otherwise we spend days without food, and we recently ate a few days ago. Our only focus is to fill our stomachs, the type of food doesn’t matter, and we, therefore, eat whatever we come across. Nutrition is a luxury; we are okay as long as we fill our stomachs.” Female respondent, Zambia   http://www.chronicpovertynetwork.org/blog/2021/5/19/covid-19-is-a-double-shock-for-many-people-living-in-poverty http://www.chronicpovertynetwork.org/covid-19   Feb. 2021   Falling Living Standards and Food Insecurity during the COVID-19 Crisis, report from Innovations for Poverty Action   The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in living standards and rising food insecurity in developing countries across the globe, according to a new study by an international team of economists.   The study, published Feb. 5 in the journal Science Advances, provides an in-depth view of the health crisis’s initial socioeconomic effects in low- and middle-income countries, using detailed microdata collected from tens of thousands of households across nine countries. The phone surveys were conducted from April through July 2020 of nationally and sub-nationally representative samples in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. Across the board, study participants reported drops in employment, income, and access to markets and services, translating into high levels of food insecurity. Many households reported being unable to meet basic nutritional needs.   “COVID-19 and its economic shock present a stark threat to residents of low- and middle-income countries—where most of the world’s population resides—which lack the social safety nets that exist in rich countries,” said economist Susan Athey, of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “The evidence we’ve collected show dire economic consequences, including rising food insecurity and falling income, which, if left unchecked, could thrust millions of vulnerable households into poverty.”   Across the 16 surveys, the percentage of respondents reporting losses in income ranged from 8% in Kenya to 86% in Colombia. The median, or midpoint of the range, was a staggering 70%. The percentage reporting loss of employment ranged from 6% in Sierra Leone to 51% in Colombia with a median of 29%.   “Painting a comprehensive picture of the economic impact of this global crisis requires the collection of harmonized data from all over the world,” said Edward Miguel, the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, Director of the Center for Effective Global Action, and a co-author of the study. “Our work is an exciting example of fruitful collaboration among research teams from UC Berkeley, Northwestern, Innovations for Poverty Action, The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Kenya, Yale, and many others working in multiple countries simultaneously to improve our understanding of how COVID-19 has affected the living standards of people in low- and middle-income countries on three continents.”   Significant percentages of respondents across the surveys reported being forced to miss meals or reduce portion sizes, including 48% of rural Kenyan households, 69% of landless, agricultural households in Bangladesh, and 87% of rural households in Sierra Leone — the highest level of food insecurity. Poorer households generally reported higher rates of food insecurity, though rates were substantial even among the better off. The steep rise in food insecurity reported among children was particularly alarming given the potentially large negative long-run effects of under-nutrition on outcomes later in life, according to the study.   Survey results from Bangladesh and Nepal suggest that levels of food insecurity were far higher during the pandemic than during the same season in previous years. In most countries, a large share of respondents reported reduced access to markets, consistent with lockdowns and other restrictions on mobility implemented between March and June 2020 to contain the spread of the virus. The amount of social support available to respondents from governments or non-governmental organizations varied widely across the surveys, but the high rates of food insecurity reported suggest that support was insufficient even when present, the researchers state.   The study shows that in addition to increasing food insecurity, the pandemic and accompanying containment measures have undermined several other aspects of household wellbeing. Schools in all sample countries were closed during most or all of the survey period. Respondents also reported reduced access to health services, including prenatal care and vaccinations. Combined, these factors could be particularly damaging to children, in the long run, the researchers note.   “The pandemic’s economic shock in these countries, where so many people depend on casual labor to feed their families, causes deprivations and adverse consequences in the long term, including excess mortality,” said study co-author Ashish Shenoy, of the University of California, Davis. “Our findings underscore the importance of gathering survey data to understand the effects of the crisis and inform effective policy responses. We demonstrate the efficacy of large-scale phone surveys to provide this crucial data.”   Current circumstances may call for social protection programs that prioritize addressing immediate poverty and under-nutrition before tackling deeper underlying causes, the researchers state. They suggest policymakers consider identifying poor households using mobile phones and satellite data and then provide them mobile cash transfers. The researchers also recommend providing support for basic utilities, such as water and electricity, through subsidies and by removing penalties for unpaid bills. They note a fundamental link between containing COVID-19 and providing economic relief as households facing acute shortages may be less willing than others to follow social distancing rules so that they can find opportunities to meet basic needs.   * Researchers on the study represent the following institutions: University of California, Berkeley and the Center for Effective Global Action; The World Bank; Innovations for Poverty Action; University of California, Davis; Northwestern University, Global Poverty Lab and the Kellogg School of Management; Yale University and Y-RISE; University of Basel, Switzerland; Princeton University; Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, Nairobi, Kenya; Stanford University; WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Columbia University; London School of Economics and Political Science, International Growth Centre; Vyxer Remit Kenya, Busia, Kenya; American University; University of Goettingen, Germany; Harvard University; and Wageningen University, Netherlands.   http://bit.ly/34wX7hZ http://www.chronicpovertynetwork.org/covid-19 http://www.wiego.org/events/ILO2021 http://www.wiego.org/statistical-picture http://www.theguardian.com/the-future-of-work--forging-an-inclusive-economy/ng-interactive/2021/nov/16/more-than-2-billion-workers-make-up-the-informal-economy http://idronline.org/news/covid-19-results-in-a-staggering-77-percent-increase-in-poor-households/ http://www.wider.unu.edu/how-covid-19-changing-development-wider-webinar-series http://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty http://odi.org/en/tagged/poverty/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/ http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/covid-19-reveals-flaws-in-development-practice-tackling-inequality-requires-transformation/ http://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621149/bp-the-inequality-virus-250121-en.pdf Visit the related web page
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