Poverty pandemic

COVID-19 could push more than half a billion additional people into poverty, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), with UN University research positing that fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will trigger an increase in global poverty not seen since 1990.

In a report issued yesterday, the World Bank advised that a large share of the “new poor” in the COVID-19 pandemic will be concentrated in middle-income countries as well as countries already struggling with high poverty rates.

This, as the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that the equivalent of almost 200 million full-time jobs will disappear in the coming months, resulting in US$3.4 trillion in lost income this year.

The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) meantime anticipates in its latest report a nearly 4.5 percentage point increase in the rate of poverty this year, meaning “nearly 30 million more people across the region will find themselves in situations of poverty, [and] an additional 16 million will join the ranks of the extreme poor”.

The Bahamas’ poverty rate has not been assessed by the Department of Statistics since 2013 and at that time, 43,000 people in The Bahamas were living in poverty (on less than $354 per month).

Over three quarters of the country’s poor was Bahamian, and Haitian nationals were the segment of the population most likely to be living in poverty.

What is now being globally dubbed The Great Lockdown has by its very nature laid bare longstanding social inequalities, has stretched the assistance capacity of countries and has created new risks for vulnerable populations.

Though the Minnis administration has acknowledged that the poor and those in non-traditional professions would be most at risk due to business closures and lockdowns, a coordinated strategy to mitigate against pandemic-related slippages into poverty, while safeguarding those already below the poverty line, has not been communicated.

With a large number of the country’s work permit holders being low income earners who have been deemed ineligible for unemployment assistance via the National Insurance Board (NIB), risks of deeper or new conditions of poverty among immigrant populations and the social implications thereof, should be given urgent attention by government.

Regardless of one’s nationality or immigration status, poverty not only makes individuals more vulnerable to the scourges of a pandemic, but can also make fighting a pandemic more difficult for governments, because the poor often lack access to the level and quality of resources which can best enable them to cooperate fully with emergency orders.

Safeguarding against the impact of loss of income and poverty for households can be best accomplished when the state works in tandem with the private sector and civic organizations to bring assistance to those in need.

Outreaches such as Great Commission Ministries on New Providence have reported an exponential increase in demand for meals and grocery items, due to the large number of newly unemployed persons on this island.

Given the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on disposable incomes of would-be donors to charities and outreaches, new or additional state subventions must be considered since these organizations already have systems in place to distribute resources to those struggling to put food on the table.

What the current pandemic has also exposed is the extent to which a loss of community and civic engagement over the years has led to residents going hungry when they otherwise would be safe if neighbors looked out for one another.

Necessity remains the mother of invention and as such, members of our communities should put heads, talents and resources together to devise the best and safest ways to get meals and provisions to needy neighbors while adhering to social distancing and sanitation guidelines.

The Bahamas has sufficient resources that no one should have to go hungry, but even and often in a land of plenty, poverty exists and persists because the plight of the vulnerable is not tangibly and genuinely prioritized.

COVID-19 is this generation’s global poverty pandemic.

Those of us who can, must do what we can for others who are currently unable to provide for their most basic needs.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/24/poverty-pandemic/