'COVID-19 worst crisis in Asia-Pacific since WW II'
The study, Beyond The Pandemic - Building back better from crises in Asia, has been prepared by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Anadolu Agency reports.
It said that countries across the region suffered economic contractions along with interruptions in trade, disrupted supply chains, and the collapse of international tourism, leading to widespread job losses and increases in poverty.
It proposed four critical interconnected areas: broadening social protection, investing in a sustained recovery, keeping goods and information flowing and mending a broken relationship with nature.
«If countries in Asia and the Pacific can combine concerted national action with coordinated regional cooperation, they – and the world – can emerge from the pandemic more prosperous, sustainable, resilient and unified.»
The surging pandemic has also aggravated many «underlying ills and highlighted gaps» in social protection, with more than half of the region's population completely unprotected throughout their lives.
According to the study's simulations for 13 developing countries in the region, if governments offered universal child benefits, disability benefits, and old-age pensions, at a conservative benefit levels, more than one-third of people would be lifted out of poverty.
«In the poorest households in Indonesia, [the] Maldives, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, this basic social protection package would increase purchasing power by around 50%,» it said.
Providing a basic social protection package would require an investment of 2% to 6% of the GDP. «Countries need therefore to extend coverage to everyone, while also ensuring that benefits are sufficiently high to make a difference in people's lives.»
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