Coronavirus is double trouble: half a billion more people in the world could fall into poverty if support plans are not quickly implemented for the poorest countries, the NGO Oxfam said on Thursday 9 April.

In a report titled "The Price of Dignity", Oxfam says that between 6% and 8% of the world's population could fall into poverty as governments shut down entire economies in order to control the spread of the virus.

"This could constitute a global decline of ten years in the fight against poverty, and a decline of 30 years in certain regions such as in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East or North Africa", more than half of the world's population is threatened with falling below the poverty line as a result of the pandemic, adds Oxfam.

Women on the front line

In the absence of social protection systems, the poorest countries would be more affected as well as the disadvantaged populations, including women. To avoid this, Oxfam recommends granting direct financial aid to those most affected, and priority support for small businesses by conditioning financial aid granted to the largest on measures in favor of vulnerable populations.

She also pleads for the cancellation this year of the debt repayments of the poorest countries, citing the example of Ghana which could "provide 20 dollars per month to each of the 16 million children, disabled and elderly people. of the country for six months "if he was freed from the deadlines on the payment of his debt.

Emergency solidarity taxes

Other recommendations include increasing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights (SDRs) by at least $ 1 trillion to enable it to help the poorest countries, increasing the official development aid from donor countries now and the creation of emergency solidarity taxes by taxing extraordinary profits, the greatest fortunes, speculative financial products and activities having a negative impact on the environment.

"France can decide without waiting for the cancellation of the debt payments due to it by the developing countries for 2020 in order to help them immediately to face the crisis," underlined in particular Robin Guittard, campaign manager at Oxfam France.

With AFP

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