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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Sunday, 12 July 2020
Global ‘catastrophe’ looms as Covid-19 fuels inequality.
A coronavirus awareness campaign organised by Unicef, in Afghanistan.
Photograph: Ghulamullah Habibi/EPA
The pandemic has exposed and reinforced deep inequalities across the
world, with the true extent yet to be seen, according to a major new
report.
The crisis in the poorest countries threatens to escalate into a
catastrophe as job losses and food insecurity mount. “The economic,
social and political impacts are only starting to unfold,” says Building
Back with Justice: Dismantling Inequalities after Covid-19, to be published by Christian Aid later this month.
The number of people facing acute hunger
could double to a quarter of a billion in 2020 without urgent support.
Some countries have already seen big increases in the cost of food. In
parts of Afghanistan, for example, wheat prices have risen 20%.
In
India, 80 million migrant workers have lost employment in cities,
leaving them hungry and homeless and their families without crucial
remittances they depend on.
Routine healthcare, such as immunisation and maternity care, has been
severely disrupted. “In many countries, the disruption to
non-coronavirus-related healthcare could cause more deaths than the
virus itself,” the report says.
Precautions against Covid-19, such as regular hand washing, are more
challenging in countries with poor sanitation. According to the report,
three billion people – about 40% of the global population – do not have
access to a basic hand-washing facility at home. In Ethiopia and
Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s second and fourth most populous
countries, fewer than one in 10 people can wash their hands at home.
Percentage of households which have handwashing facilities in the world’s poorest countries.
Nine out of 10 school students across the world have lost part of
their education. Many – especially girls – in poorer countries may never
return. “Experience from the west African Ebola epidemic shows school closures
led to higher rates of permanent dropout for girls, and to a rise in
child labour, neglect, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancies and early
marriage.”
The report adds: “There is growing evidence that women are
bearing the heaviest social and economic burden during the crisis.”
Women do most social care and health work, and tend to work in the
lowest-paid roles in these sectors. They are more likely to work in the
informal economy, face a heavier care burden at home, and are more
exposed to violence at times of economic crisis.
The report highlights the contrast in the way richer countries have
mobilised huge sums of money to support their economies with the
response of poorer countries already burdened with massive debt. Germany
and Italy have spent more than 25% of GDP on economic stabilisation
whereas Malawi, Kenya and DRC have spent less than 1%.
The debt repayments of the world’s poorest countries were suspended
from 1 May until the end of this year, but Christian Aid is calling for
“a comprehensive 12-month cancellation of debt principal and interest
for 76 low-income countries”. Debt cancellation, it says, “could be one
of the fastest ways to free up resources for some of the countries worst
affected by the pandemic and its economic impacts”.
The charity also wants to see a crackdown on tax abuses and tax avoidance, and the introduction of wealth taxes.
For example, in India a flat rate 4% wealth tax on 953 ultra-rich
families could raise just over 1% of GDP, enabling the government to
double its health budget, it says.
The pandemic needs coordinated action at global, national and local
levels, but the response has been “characterised more by competition
than by collaboration”. The UN and international financial institutions
have been sidelined, with governments prioritising national responses.
Recovery from the crisis must be green and sustainable, says the
report. “The level of the challenge should not be underestimated.
However, the crisis has also demonstrated that governments can intervene
decisively when the scale of an emergency is clear and the public
supports action. The aim must be to decouple growth from greenhouse gas
emissions, and to halve global emissions by 2030 and be carbon free by
2050.”
In a foreword to the report, Jayati Ghosh, a leading development
economist, says vision and ambition are needed to prevent catastrophe
and “to enable a broad-based and equitable global recovery that
radically transforms our economic and social relations, and puts people
and planet at its centre.”
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