a step forward towards social justice

Beyond the health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected economies and people’s livelihoods around the world. Experts forecast an additional 250 million people in extreme poverty by 2030, and that it will take 10 years of economic growth just to bring extreme poverty numbers back to where they were before the crisis¹.

In low and middle-income countries the consequences of social distancing measures are estimated to result in 271.8 million people acutely food insecure (or directly atrisk)² due to loss of income.

As clearly put by Jean, a 33-year-old father from Bangassou, Central African Republic, who benefited from a cash for work program: “The increased prices are a problem, and almost all business has ground to a halt, especially temporary work. Our usual employers are no longer looking
for labour. Day labourers are not hired as they were before.”³

As countries are implementing recovery plans, and vaccination campaigns are starting to be organized, it is crucial that countries focus on rebuilding their economies towards greater social justice. Through this policy brief, Action Against Hunger – France (Action Contre la Faim / ACF-F) calls upon development partners, specifically international finance institutions, to support the implementation of universal social protection systems in low and middle-income countries through fairer and more redistributive fiscal policies, in particular in relation to ongoing and upcoming recovery plans.

¹ 1 Overseas Development Institute, M. Manuel, L. Carson, E. Samman and M. Evans, Financing the reduction of extreme poverty post-Covid-19, novembre 2020
² World Food Program, Global Update on COVID-19: November 2020 Growing Needs, Response to Date and What’s to Come in 2021, November 2020, p.6
³ Interviewed by Ground Truth Solutions as part of the Cash Barometer initiative qualitative report in the Central African Republic, 2020. For privacy reasons, name is fictional.