In late 2019, corona virus which is popularly known as covid-19 was discovered in the city of Wuhan, China, and later on the whole world experienced a global pandemic which emanates from this part of the world and then transcends across borders with negative health conditions which resulted in millions of death across the six continents of the world.On 30th January 2020 covid-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHIE) by world health organization (WHO) with an official death toll of over 3million people in 2020. The waves of covid-19 pandemic disrupts economic activities across the world with poorer nations bearing the brunt the most. Low-income countries(third world countries) gross domestic product (GDP) and also their national income (NI) drops as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. Many low-income countries economy went into recession and depression during this time. Most of these low-income countries and poorer countries have to solicit for international loans from the super powers and international donor agencies to service their economies to cushion the effects of covid-19 pandemic on their national economies. During this time international borders were closed and poorer countries that depended on exports as the mainstay of their economies suffers the fate of covid-19 pandemic as international businesses came to a standstill.
Global economy shrinks as international trade were stalled as a result of international border closures which affected global businesses due to the restrictions of movement of people and goods and the national lockdowns imposed by countries across the world to combat and curtail the widespread of covid-19 global pandemic. lnternational trade and the free movement of people and goods across countries were greatly hampered. Critical sectors of the economy such as the hospitality and tourism sector,aviation sector, manufacturing sector, banking sector, entertainment and creative industry sector and the educational sector were the worst hits due to the stringent control measures put up by the world health organization (WHO) as covid-19 regulatory safety guidelines which limits the numbers of people in social gatherings to a maximum of 50 persons which countries globally uphold to,and implements in their countries as safety measures to checkmate the ravaging impacts of covid-19 virus across communities and countries of the world.
The advent of the covid-19 pandemic brought about job losses in almost all sectors of the economy,and this also resulted to decline in working hours. According to the international labour organization (ILO) monitor,statistics shows that; in 2020, 8.8% of global working hours were lost relative to the fourth quarter of 2019, equivalent to 255million full time jobs. Globally, the decline in working hours in 2020 translated into both employment losses and a reduction in working hours to those who remained employed, with significant variation across regions. ln total,there were unprecedented global employment losses in 2020 of 114million jobs relative to 2019. ln relative terms,employment losses were higher for women 5.0% than for men. Employment losses in 2020 translated mainly into rising inactivity rather than unemployment, accounting to 71% of global employment losses. lnactivity increased by 81million, which resulted in a reduction of the global labour force participation rate by 2.2% point in 2020 to 58.7%. Global unemployment increased by 33million to 220million in 2020. The covid-19 pandemic crisis exacerbated young people's disconnection from the labour market, highlighting the all too real risk of a lost generation. Young workers were particularly hard hit by the crisis in 2020 across all regions and country income groups, resulting in an employment loss of 8.7%, as opposed to 3.7% for adults. Global labour income is estimated to have declined by 8.3% in 2020 relative to 2019 which amounts to in monetary terms to US $3.7trillion, or 4.4% of global gross domestic product (GDP) of 2019.
The continuous national lockdown policy implemented by countries across the world to curtail covid-19 pandemic affected people's livelihoods, source of income and employment which resulted to massive job losses which negates the sustainable development goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) which in turn exacerbates poverty and global hunger during this periods. This invariably stands as a stumbling block to the achievement of the united nations (UN) global mandate to eradicate poverty (SDG1) and global hunger (SDG2) by 2030 through the universal adoption of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 to make the world a better place now for us to live and the future unborn generations.
In conclusion,the coming of covid-19 global pandemic in late 2019 is one of the many global health challenges facing humanity and the world at large. International organizations and global leaders are making concerted efforts through the financing and provision of vaccines to countries across the world most especially low-income and poorer countries to help fight covid-19 our common enemy to save people's live and the global economy from total collapse to recover better in the new normal era.
#WHO #GlobalGoals #SDGs #ILO #AfricanUnion #ECOWAS #CYPLP #Unesco #Unicef #UN.
Comrade Enobong Ekwere is a social influencer, blogger, human rights activist, SDGs advocate and a global citizen. He is the program manager of children and young people living for peace (CYPLP) a youth focused and a think- tank non- governmental organization based in Kaduna,Nigeria. He can be reached via tel:+2347082558952
Email: julyenobong2020@gmail.com
: enobongekwere825@gmail.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/enobongekwere
Website: www.cyplp.net.ng
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