More than a third of the world’s population has had no public money to cope with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report by Oxfam reveals.
The humanitarian organisation said in a statement that the report, titled, Shelter from the Storm, reviewed government programmes used to inject additional money to help people and found none of them adequate to meet everyone’s needs.
The report found that 41 percent of the 126 countries studied had social protection schemes consisting of one-off payments, now long exhausted; only 13 percent had programmes that lasted longer than six months.
It also noted that eight out of ten countries have not reached even half their citizens. But the report added that some countries like South Africa and Namibia were better prepared with near-universal social benefits in place prior to the pandemic.
‘Overall, the world has spent an additional $11.7 trillion this year to cope with the fallout from the [Covid-19]’, the statement read.
‘Of this, $9.8 trillion (83 percent) was spent by 36 rich countries against just $42 billion (0.4 percent) in 59 low-income countries’.
According to the report, rich countries have only increased their aid to developing countries for social protection by $5.8 billion – the equivalent of less than five cents for every $100 raised to tackle Covid-19.
‘The [Covid-19] united the world in fear but has divided it in response’, Oxfam Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said.
‘The pandemic sparked a laudable global effort that reached more than a billion more people with social protection support over 2020 but, as of today, more people still have been left behind entirely. That need not be so’.
People, according to the report, are falling into debt, skipping meals, keeping children from school and selling their assets.
Bucher said that social protection was both a lifeline and a human right, and one of the most powerful and affordable investments to reduce inequality, vulnerability, poverty and need.
‘The case for overseas aid, progressive taxation and international solidarity has never been stronger, precisely because of this desperate time in which we are living through’, he said.
Oxfam urged governments to commit an additional two percent of their GDP into social protection programmes and ensure minimum income security for children, the elderly, mothers, and people living with disabilities.
Source: Oxfam
Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection