Combating poverty amidst a pandemic

The UN has published the annual report to the Commission for Social Development focused on challenges in reducing poverty globally, particularly in economically under-resourced countries. The Commission meets annually in the first half of February and focuses on “development policies” in the broadest sense. (As stated in my recently published contribution to “Accessible Technology in the Developing World” the term ‘developing country’ is quite fraught.)

Leaving that aside for a moment, the summary of the impact of the pandemic on persons living in poverty or on the economic margins of impoverishment are staggering. None of the issues comes as a great surprise but the succinct nature of such overviews is powerful – if not to say overwhelming:

School closures disrupted the delivery and implementation of many initiatives (such as school feeding and free food programmes) that are aimed at addressing malnutrition among children in many countries. 

School closures also made it more difficult to retain girls in school and increased the incidence of gender-based violence, child abuse, child marriage and child labour.

While online education was implemented during the pandemic, the existing digital divide combined with inadequate training of teachers threatened access and the quality of education.

As online learning does not sufficiently address their special needs, students with disabilities are at greater risk of being left behind. 

The pandemic severely affected mental health, especially among young people.

The limited capacity of hospitals and inability for outreach workers to deliver treatment owing to restrictions on movement has limited access to health screenings and treatment, with negative impacts for all people, especially older persons, people living with HIV, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrants and other minority populations. 

Other challenges include the low density of health-care workers in rural areas and increases in out-of-pocket health expenditure. 

National policies and measures implemented by Member States to combat hunger and poverty in times of the coronavirus disease pandemic and beyond: challenges to get on track towards the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda  E/CN.5/2022/5