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COVID-19 Update Severe Impact of Pandemic on More Than Two Billion Working People WorldwideThe United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) this week raised the alarm about the need to support those countries with limited capacity to fight COVID-19. "The peak of the disease in the world's poorest countries is not expected until some point over the next three to six months. However, there is already evidence of incomes plummeting and jobs disappearing, food supplies falling and prices soaring, and children missing vaccinations and meals," states a May 7 UN press release. Mark Lowcock, the United Nations' Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called for swift and determined action to avoid the most destabilizing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in those countries. "The COVID-19 pandemic is hurting us all. But the most devastating and destabilizing effects will be felt in the world's poorest countries. In the poorest countries we can already see economies contracting as export earnings, remittances and tourism disappear," said Lowcock. "Unless we take action now, we should be prepared for a significant rise in conflict, hunger and poverty. The spectre of multiple famines looms." The OCHA is calling on countries to contribute an additional U.S.$6.7 billion to the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, to carry through its work to the end of 2020. The global plan is the primary international fundraising mechanism to respond to the humanitarian impacts of the virus in low- and middle-income countries and support their efforts to fight it. The plan brings together appeals from WHO and other UN humanitarian agencies. The plan has been updated and expanded to include nine additional vulnerable countries: Benin, Djibouti, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zimbabwe, as well as programs to respond to the growth in food insecurity. In a similar vein, the International Labour Organization (ILO) recently issued a report which informs that the pandemic and containment measures threaten to increase relative poverty levels among the world's so-called informal economy workers (generally workers who are self-employed or unorganized) by as much as 56 per cent in low-income countries.[1] In high-income countries, relative poverty levels among informal workers is estimated to increase by 52 per cent, while in upper middle-income countries the increase is estimated to be 21 per cent. In a May 7 press release, the ILO notes, "As many as 1.6 billion of the world's two billion informal economy workers are affected by lockdown and containment measures. Most are working in the hardest-hit sectors or in small units more vulnerable to shocks. "These include workers in accommodation and food services, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, and the more than 500 million farmers producing for the urban market. Women are particularly affected in high-risk sectors, the report says. "In addition, with these workers needing to work to feed their families, COVID-19 containment measures in many countries cannot be implemented successfully. This is endangering governments' efforts to protect the population and fight the pandemic. It may become a source of social tension in countries with large informal economies, the report says. "More than 75 per cent of total informal employment takes place in businesses of fewer than ten workers, including 45 per cent of independent workers without employees. "With most informal workers having no other means of support, they face an almost unsolvable dilemma: to die from hunger or from the virus, the briefing says. This has been exacerbated by disruptions in food supplies, which has particularly affected those in the informal economy. "For the world's 67 million domestic workers, 75 per cent of whom are informal workers, unemployment has become as threatening as the virus itself. Many have not been able to work, whether at the request of their employers or in compliance with lockdowns. Those who do continue to go to work face a high risk of contagion, caring for families in private households. For the 11 million migrant domestic workers the situation is even worse. [...] "The countries with the largest informal economies where full lockdowns have been adopted, are suffering the most from the consequences of the pandemic. Informal economy workers significantly impacted by lockdown varies from 89 per cent in Latin America and the Arab States to 83 per cent in Africa, 73 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, and 64 per cent in Europe and Central Asia." Unionized workers also face uncertainty and insecurity due to insufficient protective equipment and health and safety measures being provided by employers and the lack of enforcement by governments. The International Trade Union Confederations (ITUC) conducted its third COVID-19 survey April 20 to 23, with the participation of 148 trade unions in 107 countries, including 17 from G20 countries and 35 from OECD countries. It found that "[t]rade unions from just one in five (21 per cent) countries would rate the measures that are in place to protect workers from the spread of the virus at work as good. Most (54 per cent or 58 countries) would rate these protections as fair. Twenty-six countries (24 per cent) would rate the protections as poor." The ITUC also points out, "Workers need official recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease and governments to require reporting and recording of work-related cases, as well as compensation schemes and medical care for victims for work-related COVID-19 and for their bereaved families." As various countries move to "reopen economies" to some degree, the ITUC informs that workplace safety is still sorely lacking around the world: "In the Americas 44 per cent of countries say measures for safe workplace are poor, and in Africa 41 per cent of countries say workplace safety is poor. Only 25 per cent of countries in Europe rate measures to protect workers from the spread of the virus as good. "While many countries continue to respond to high levels of infections and deaths, shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health and care workers is a serious issue in the majority of countries. "Under half (49 per cent) of countries said that they always or very often have adequate supplies of PPE available for all health workers and care workers responding to the virus. Fifty-one per cent of countries said PPE supplies are sometimes, rarely or never adequate, exposing the risks faced by millions of frontline health and care workers responding to the pandemic." Note1. The definition of the informal economy varies, with the ILO itself giving a somewhat complicated definition based on various national conditions. The organization Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing provides this relatively concise and informative definition: "The informal economy is the diversified set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs, and workers that are not regulated or protected by the state. The concept originally applied to self-employment in small unregistered enterprises. It has been expanded to include wage employment in unprotected jobs."
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