What is the impact of COVID-19 and global development challenges on multidimensional poverty? How do policies provide a buffer or support those in poverty to emerge with their wellbeing enhanced? This panel considers the many pressures on multidimensional poverty and how we can 'build back better'.
Long Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented and disproportionate impact on people in poverty across the world. The pandemic is set to increase poverty in all its dimensions, reversing positive trends in poverty reduction and setting many countries back in terms of achieving the SDGs. Pre-existing social, demographic, spatial and other inequalities are being reinforced, thereby challenging efforts towards greater social justice. The pandemic occurred against the backdrop of mounting global challenges in relation to climate, fragility and populism. At the same time, the pandemic is seen as an opportunity to 'build back better' and to reshape systems in ways that benefit those traditionally marginalised.
Roughly 18 months after the onset of COVID-19, this panel - organised by the DSA Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Dynamics Study Group - explores how the pandemic and other pressing global challenges such as climate change, economic contraction and populist movements have 'unsettled' progress towards reducing multidimensional poverty. It also considers the effectiveness of policies that aim to counteract these challenges in relation to multidimensional poverty.
Contributions to this panel provide empirical insights into the relationship between COVID-19 and multidimensional poverty.
We simulate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on multidimensional child poverty in the MENA region. Results show that as many as 12 million children could have been pushed into multidimensional poverty in the short term, and about 64 million over medium-long term
Paper long abstract:
Children in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are heavily impacted by the socio-economic crisis generated by the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. However, children remain marginal and almost invisible in the current policy debate which is mostly centered on the response to the employment and economic aspects of the crisis.
To address the lack of direct evidence about children under the COVID-19 crisis, we simulated the potential impacts of the current crisis on child multidimensional poverty, considering two different time frames.
The simulation analysis estimates that in the initial months of the COVID-19 crisis, the number of children living in multidimensional poverty could have increased by more than 12 million in MENA countries, compared with the pre-crisis scenario. For the medium-term scenario, the simulation analysis indicates that the number of multidimensional poor children could stand at 64 million, half of the population under-18 of the countries included in the analysis, and around 10 million more than in the pre-COVID baseline. These numbers could be the results of effect of the protracted economic crisis on education, access to health and on child nutrition status.
This article forms part of a British-Academy project ‘Towards early childhood education by 2030 for all children in Lebanon’ exploring multidimensional poverty reduction for deprived Lebanese children and Syrian child refugees in the context of Covid19 and draws policy implications.
Paper long abstract:
This article draws on empirical research from a British-Academy funded project ‘Towards early childhood education by 2030 for all children in Lebanon’ exploring reduction of multidimensional policy via inclusive educational access for deprived Lebanese children and Syrian child refugees. Equality of access to education is critical for enhancing the life chances of deprived children in order to rupture the intergenerational transfer or poverty and inequality. Lebanon is an example of a middle-income country that has committed to the roll out of universal education for all children. Since 2011 Lebanon has hosted approximately 1.5 million refugees from the Syrian conflict, half of whom are children. It has the world’s highest concentration of refugees per capita and aims to integrate all children (including Syrian refugees) into its public schools. However, the emergence of Covid19 at a time of increasing economic, political and social unrest in Lebanon is proving a major complicating factor in reducing multidimensional poverty. Using intersectional life course analysis this article examines the material, perceptual and relational impacts of Covid19 on low-income Lebanese and Syrian refugees and their families. Specifically, it explores how widespread closure of schools has exacerbated pre-existing difficulties experienced by deprived and stigmatised groups of children in accessing inclusive education, many of whom, in the context of a global pandemic additionally lack access to technology to participate. This article explores the lived experiences of children in navigating access to inclusive education, whilst revealing impacts on their socio-economic and psychosocial wellbeing and assesses implications for policy.
This paper critically examines the major social protection responses that Arab countries have implemented since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to address poverty and inequality, which were exacerbated by the crisis. It then identifies implications for future social policy reforms.
Paper long abstract:
This paper critically examines the major social protection responses that Arab countries have implemented since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to address multidimensional poverty and inequality, as well as the increased social and economic needs resulting from the crisis. Combining social policy and international development conceptual frameworks, the paper first employs the life-cycle approach that is dominant in the global social policy literature to map the range of social protection Covid-19 interventions. Second, the paper undertakes an institutional and political analysis of the interventions with a view to offering insights on future reform of social policy systems in the Arab countries. To this end, we question to what extent the current interventions form the basis for a move towards more comprehensive, potentially universal systems of social policy and social protection. The paper is based on on-going research for a report to be presented to the UN-ESCWA which benefited from a comprehensive literature search of relevant national and international policy documents as well new data on the coverage and expenditure invested in Covid-19 responses by the Arab governments. A decade after the Arab Spring, the paper assesses what new lessons emerge from the current crisis about the readiness of Arab governments to deal with inequality and deprivation using more comprehensive and redistributive social protection means.
People living in poverty have been more exposed to the contagion of Covid-19. This study shows which dimensions and indicators of multidimensional poverty are highly correlated with a higher rate of infections and deaths from Covid-19 at the communal level in Santiago, Chile.
Paper long abstract:
What characterizes the communes of Santiago in which the Covid-19 has spread more intensely? Poverty in their territory appears as one relevant factor. We carried out a statistical analysis to understand if the multidimensional poverty of the communes correlated with the rates of infection and death by Covid-19. Natural disasters and pandemics, such as COVID-19, can expose people confronting shortcomings in these dimensions, and in many of them simultaneously, to a greater risk. We considered 5 dimensions -education, health, housing, work and social security, environment, and networks- and 5 indicators among them that are theoretically linked to greater vulnerability to the virus: schooling, malnutrition, social security, overcrowding and housing condition. The results show that the overcrowding variable appears as the one that most correlates with the contagion rate, since the spread of the virus is facilitated when bedrooms are shared and when it is difficult to isolate a member of the household who becomes ill. Both the lack of the education indicator and the social security can be related to a greater exposure to the virus. Homes where its members have informal jobs or lower levels of schooling must often expose themselves to the virus by going out to work, despite the fact that health regulations prohibit it, because they do not have labour protection, or they cannot telework. Lastly, children with malnutrition face greater risks from the disease, either due to malnutrition -weaker immune systems- or obesity -risk factor-.
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