GENEVA (ILO News) — The COVID-19 crisis has exposed devastating gaps in social protection coverage in developing countries, and recovery will only be sustained and future crises prevented if they can transform their ad hoc crisis response measures into comprehensive social protection systems, according to new analysis from the International Labour Organization.
According to data in the brief, 55 per cent of the world’s population — as many as four billion people — are not covered by social insurance or social assistance. Globally, only 20 per cent of unemployed people are covered by unemployment benefits, and in some regions the coverage is much lower.
The ILO warned that gaps in sickness benefit coverage can force people to go to work when they are sick or should self-quarantine, increasing the risk of infecting others. The related loss of income increases the risk of poverty for workers and their families.
“The COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call. It has shown that a lack of social protection affects not just the poor, it exposes the vulnerability of those who have been getting by relatively well, because medical charges and loss of income can easily destroy decades of family work and saving,” said Shahra Razavi, the Director of the ILO’s Social Protection Department.