Today I release my first annual report on the impact of COVID19 on people in poverty, scrutinizing the recent wave of social protection. I find that most measures are maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty: https://bit.ly/2Fix7xx 

COVID19 is pushing millions into poverty, but the question is not how many, but why: governments were ill-equipped to deal with its socioeconomic impacts, not because they could not anticipate it, but because they never recovered from the austerity imposed after 2010.

The data is clear. Plummeting public investment in healthcare led millions into poverty, as private insurance coverage increased and hospital beds declined. Care work is undervalued and precarious. Social services are underfunded and overwhelmed. People in poverty pay the price.

In this context, one-off cash transfers are mere palliative for most, and not even a guaranteed one. 1,400+ protection measures since the pandemic started; yet too often beneficiaries must traverse systemic obstacle courses, all but ensuring that many slip through the cracks.

Please share our statement calling on States at #UNGA75 to rethink social protection as a true source of resilience, not palliative, so we can come out stronger of this crisis. #HumanRights