The United Nations independent expert on poverty is warning that the worst impacts from the coronavirus pandemic on poverty are yet to come, and that measures taken by governments to protect people so far have been insufficient.
“The social safety nets put into place are full of holes,” said Olivier De Schutter, a Belgian legal scholar appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council as special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. “These current measures are generally short-term, the funding is insufficient and many people will inevitably fall between the cracks,”
He warned that 176 million additional people worldwide could fall into poverty, with $3.20 per day being used as the poverty baseline.
“Families in poverty have by now used up whatever reserves they had and sold their assets,” he said. “The worst impacts of the crisis on poverty are still to come.”
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