Context: Pandemic has widened gaps between countries, and within them
Impact of the pandemic
Economic contraction: Affected 190 countries, leading to a 4.3% contraction of the world economy.
Perpetuated inequalities: On three interconnected fronts:
Inequalities in access to and availability of vaccines:
The Duke Global Health Institute’s assessment shows that wealthy countries had taken an early lead in striking purchase deals, in effect, cornering a lion’s share of available vaccine doses.
The Covax global initiative to support vaccinations in 92 developing nations simply did not have enough funds at the time to secure doses.
Loss of livelihood and standards of living:
The World Bank estimates suggest that up to 150 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2021.
The per capita in- come levels in low-income countries fell by 3.6 % in 2020, with output falling by 0.9% – the largest contraction in 30 years.
This will lead to a reversal of the hard-fought gains in the living standards of the poor and widening the north-south divide.
The pandemic and lockdowns led to job losses in lower skills sectors, whereas simultaneously positive job growth is visible in high-skill service sectors such as ICT and finance.
According to the IMF, commodity-dependent countries, tourism-based economies and physical contact-intensive sectors will face difficult prospects going forward.
Nearly 90% of all enterprises in Asia and Africa are MSMEs, and many rely on small supplier networks, which are also badly affected.
Gender inequality across sectors:
According to a survey, female-owned businesses were 5.9 percentage points more likely to have faced closure than male-owned ones during/post-Covid-19.
Women are more likely to be employed in low-paying, insecure and informal jobs, even as the global gender pay gap remains persistently high at nearly 20%.
Way Forward:Need for collaborative international efforts:
The Covax initiative needs an estimated minimum of $2 billion in additional funding to lock in some doses till early 2022.
According to IMF research, $50 billion worth of investments towards vaccinating the world by early 2022 can yield economic returns worth $9 trillion by 2025.