The growing COVID-19 crisis threatens to devastate social and economic crisis over the months and years to come in developing countries, United Nations Development Program or UNDP has warned.
In a statement CRN saw, it said income lost is expected to exceed 220 billion US dollars in developing countries and nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost.
‘With an estimated 55 percent of the global population having no access to social protection, these losses will ring across societies, impacting education, human rights and, in the most severe cases, basic food security and nutrition’, says UNDP.
It added that under-resourced hospitals and fragile health systems are likely to be overwhelmed.
‘This may be further exacerbated by a spike in cases, as up to 75 percent of people in least developed countries lack access to soap and water’.
Poor urban planning and overpopulation in some cities, weak waste disposal services and even traffic congestion impeding access to healthcare facilities, may all add to the caseload.
‘This pandemic is a health crisis. But not just a health crisis. For vast swathes of the globe, the pandemic will leave deep, deep scars’, noted Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UNDP.
The official added that ‘Without support from the international community, we risk a massive reversal of gains made over the last two decades, and an entire generation lost, if not in lives then in rights, opportunities, and dignity’.
UNDP in close coordination with the WHO is helping countries to prepare for, respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNDP anticipates a minimum of 500 million USD need to support 100 countries.