Covid-19 and related restrictions will reportedly set back decades of progress fighting poverty, hitting the most vulnerable in society the hardest. Some estimate the pandemic will push as many as 115 million more people into extreme poverty in 2021 alone. All of this against a background of a global scramble for vaccinations that might leave lower-income countries years behind, and some donors, such as the UK, significantly cutting their aid budgets.
Often inconceivable numbers are thrown around, overwhelming and hard to imagine the real and personal impacts on people’s lives and wellbeing. We need to inject lived experiences into the discourse on Covid-19 to develop enduring and workable solutions.
Join us to discuss how the global community can use this moment to ensure people living in poverty around the world are not left behind when we ‘build back better’. We will share recent ODI research interviewing people living in poverty in lower- and middle-income countries across the world and will ask: How has Covid-19 changed or exasperated the issues faced by people living in poverty, and how should global policy and programming pivot to meet their needs?
The event will be chaired by The Economist International Correspondent Avantika Chilkoti, who will be joined by:
- Dr. Joyce M. Mutinda, Chairperson of the National Gender and Equality Commission for Kenya
- Santosh Mehrotra, Director General at Institute of Applied Manpower Research
- Nicola Nixon, the Director of Governance at the Asia Foundation
- Amanda Lenhardt, ODI Research Associate
