Governments worldwide are adopting a range of ad-hoc schemes, including paid furloughs, cash transfers and family support to cope with the current crisis. But what are the limitations to such supports and what can be done?
“Financing gaps in social protection Global estimates and strategies for developing countries in light of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond”:
This ILO working paper has just been released in October. This paper provides updated regional and global estimates of the costs and financing gaps for targets 1.3 and 3.8 of the SDGs relating to social protection and health care in 2020 and projections of incremental financial needs for reaching universal coverage in 2030. The estimates incorporate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financing gaps for both social protection and health care in 2020 and, to a lesser extent, its projected effects in 2021.
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—soc_sec/documents/publication/wcms_758705.pdf
“Social protection for migrant workers: A necessary response to the Covid-19 crisis”:
Migrant workers are often over-represented in some of the sectors hardest hit by the crisis (hospitality, domestic work), while at the same time they also face more health-related risks as they often carry out essential jobs such as in health care, agriculture and agro-food processing. Even if It is widely recognized that migrant workers are major contributors to social and economic development, they face specific challenges in accessing social protection, including health care and income security, making them more vulnerable to the health and socio-economic impacts caused by COVID-19.
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—soc_sec/documents/publication/wcms_748979.pdf
Covid-19 and Social Protection:
Even before COVID-19, 69 per cent of the global population was either not covered, or only partially covered, by social security. With the current ad-hoc schemes nothing is done to change the underlying circumstances of all the millions of vulnerable workers and individuals worldwide, and no action is taken to put them in a better standing to face future crisis.
https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_759106/lang–en/index.htm