Responding to the Impact of COVID-19 and Putting the Vulnerable First

The COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout could push up to 86 million more children into household poverty by the end of 2020, according to UNICEF. The pandemic’s massive socioeconomic effect has also exposed and widened the already existing and persistent inequalities among people and countries. The International Labour Organization on the other hand estimates that half of working people could lose their jobs in 2020 and the pandemic could cost the global economy US$10 trillion. These grave effects of the pandemic will mostly affect directly vulnerable groups, most of who are people that rely on the informal economy, women, children, migrants, refugees, and forcibly displaced persons and more generally, low-income households. These group face greater challenges in accessing services such as health, education, and housing and sanitation infrastructure and the disparities in access will be exacer- bated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work at End Child Poverty towards responding to the COVID-19 pandemic has been well aligned and cognizant of these vulnerable populations, especially children. Since March 2020, we joined fellow initiatives of Arigatou International in instituting the collective ‘Faith in Action for Children’ campaign that would rally religious leaders and religious communities to increase their actions in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children.