COVID-19 has directly killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It is also taking a deep toll on the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of millions of people across the globe. The socioeconomic fallout from COVID-19 has resulted in sharp declines in household income due to job losses and/or reduced livelihoods options.
Declining remittances is leading to steep increases in poverty and hunger, particularly in low-income developing countries. Those living in fragile and conflicted- affected contexts are at heightened risk. Unless quick action is taken, decades of development gains will be rolled back, posing a significant threat to achieving the 2030 Agenda and its vision to ‘leave no one behind’.
As COVID-19 charts its deadly course across the world, it is magnifying existing inequalities and vulnerabilities as well as creating new ones. Pandemics amplify existing gender inequalities and other overlapping patterns of social and economic exclusion and discrimination experienced by marginalised groups such as those living in extreme poverty and people with disabilities.