The world economy has been greatly wounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. The severest of the impact has been on the poor and vulnerable across the world.
Health wise, global efforts to obtain a vaccine are yielding positive outcomes, as two vaccines by Pfizer and BioNtech pharmaceutical companies have shown to be more than 90% effective in late-stage clinical trials.
But while there is growing belief that we are nearing an end to the pandemic, an UNCTAD report published on 19th November, 2020 warns that the economic damage will to a large extent, reverse the gains so far achieved with the SDGs and further worsen inequalities.
Based on a thorough assessment conducted, the global economy is estimated to contract by a staggering 4.3% in 2020, and that the crisis could send an additional 130 million people into extreme poverty. Most of whom will be in Africa, due to the continent’s high vulnerability and limited capacity to adjust and respond to the shocks.
“Moving rapidly across borders, along the principal arteries of the global economy, the spread of the virus has benefited from the underlying interconnectedness- and frailties- of globalization, catapulting a global health crisis into a global economic shock that has hit the most vulnerable the hardest,” says Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General of UNCTAD
“Emerging from the natural environment and paralyzing our societies and our economies, the coronavirus disease demonstrates the interdependence implicit in the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is derailing global efforts to achieve them.”
Thus, unless immediate policy actions are taken, especially in favour of the poor and vulnerable, the United Nations SDG agenda 2030 may be missed. The report shows that a better recovery must dwell on renewed trade policy that tackles the twin challenges of market concentration and environmental impact, the report says.
“Addressing trends that were already weakening our journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development should not be lost to the community of nations.”
Areas of the SDGs that require crucial concern
Goal 1: Ending Poverty in all of its forms
Economies all over the globe, developing and developed alike, have been negatively affected by the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic, but with considerable differences.
Nonetheless, the economic and social impact of the pandemic is gravely damaging in weakly-structured developing economies, especially those in Africa and other developing economies.
These uneven impacts of the coronavirus disease on the world’s poorest is partly blamed on the way the world economy is set up, such that they lack the resources to adjust to the shocks of the pandemic, the report says.
Among developing countries, the impact of the pandemic on poverty rates is expected to be severe, particularly in Africa and LDCs. Africa accounts for 13 percent of the global population but it is expected to account for over 50 percent of global population of global extreme poverty in 2020. LDCs, of which many are in Africa, account for 53 percent of global extreme poverty in 2020.
One reason for such high projected estimates of the impact of the crisis is the lack of social protection and labour programmes in these economies which makes it challenging to cushion the impact on these vulnerable groups.
Goal5: Gender Equality
The effects of the pandemic is disproportionately hurting women and risk reversing decades of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Despite the fact that, the pandemic has increased fatalities in men more than women, it has also increased associated economic and social crisis among women, and the reasons are numerous. Women are likely to lose their jobs than men because their participation in the labour market is often temporary and part-time based.
Also, women are less entitled to social protection than men as eligibility depends on formal employment and women are mostly found in informal jobs.
In Africa, for example, around 90 percent of women are in informal employment compared with about 83 percent for men, a 2018 ILO study reveals.
Women-dominated sectors are the hardest hit in this pandemic due to the physical distancing rules and travel restriction rules that have led to the collapse of many businesses.
Goal6: Clean water and Sanitation for all
Limited progress in achieving Goal 6 of the SDGs has also increased the vulnerability of poor countries to the crisis.
Lack of access to water, which is essential to reduce the spread of the coronavirus has made containing the disease in developing countries much more challenging.
Although, globally, some progress has been made regards enhancing access to water, it is still the case that, two-out of five people do not have access to basic hand washing facilities at home.
A roadmap for Better Recovery
In the report, the UNCTAD provides a roadmap for recovery that requires an urgent action on the restructuring of global trade and cooperation.
According to Dr. Kituyi, “Covid-19 has been painful and course-altering, but it is also a catalyst for needed change.”
“We need to reshape global production networks and reset multilateral cooperation for the better.”
A better recovery constitutes “a fairer, greener and healthier globalization that can be nourished by a more resilient approach to multilateralism.”
Thus, despite the grim outlook, it is still possible to turn COVID-19 into the finest hour of the United Nations and build a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future.”
