International organisations began to assess the risks resulting from the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic, in particular the damage caused to the economic and social institutions.
Progress made in alleviating poverty and improving the conditions of the sick and underprivileged has been significantly impacted. Disruption to education, social work and other services need to be evaluated as well.
The recent UN report on the COVID-19 confirms that the pandemic has been particularly damaging to the most vulnerable and impoverished segments of the population, widening social imbalances that countries have been trying to address for more than 15 years.
According to the report, global efforts to achieve the objectives set out under the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, have been disrupted the pandemic, derailing the roadmap charted by most countries in meeting these targets.
Everyone today feels that the pandemic has become a challenge for countries and peoples that could create more crises and disasters and cause further delays in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
There are shortfalls in the achievements of goals related to, for instance, improving maternal and child health, expanding access to electricity and increasing the representation of women in government, among other areas.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has become the worst human and economic crisis for the global population. The number of deaths has exceeded 570 thousand people, while the number of cases is close to 13 million people in 196 countries.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirms that the progress made on the delivery of the 17 SDGs continues to fall short of intended targets.
Today, due to the widespread pandemic, it is considered an unprecedented health, economic and social crisis that makes the achievement of these goals even more difficult. The pandemic does not affect everyone uniformly — the magnitude and intensity vary across different groups of people.
The report shows that the poorest, most vulnerable and the most affected by this pandemic are children, elderly, handicapped, and migrants and refugees, while women bear a disproportionate burden.
The main findings of the report expect that about 71 million people in the world will be pushed into extreme poverty in the current year 2020, the first increase in global poverty since 1998.
This is caused by lost incomes along with declining ways of social protection for them and high prices. Because of this crisis, about 1.6 billion workers, or half of the world’s workforce, will be weakened and affected greatly, as estimates indicate that their income has decreased by 60 per cent because of this crisis. More than a billion slum dwellers around the world are at great risk from the effects of the pandemic.
In the educational sector, the closure of schools by 90 per cent around the world effects 1.57 billion students and causes more than 370 million children to lose the school meals on which they depend.
As for access to computers and the Internet in homes for distance learning, many countries reported their peoples’ ’inability to do this.
As more families fall into extreme poverty, children in poor and disadvantaged communities are at much greater risk of falling prey to child labour, child marriage and trafficking — which necessitates greater monitoring and preventative action by global authorities.
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