The COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the entire world, with more than 22 million cases reported. The social and economic effects of COVID-19 are being felt with greater intensity across least developed, developing and emerging market economies irrespective of their income level. Most of them have experienced a drop in their GDP and losses in employment and income leading to greater poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. The slowdown in economic activities as a result of the COVID-19 is being predicted by many leading economists to be a recession of a greater magnitude than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Existing estimates suggest that the crisis may result in a US$ 2 trillion shortfall in global income (UNCTAD 2020), halve global growth from 2.9 percent in 2019 to 1.5 percent in 2020 and increase global unemployment by at least 25 million. The crisis has severely disrupted economies and labour markets in all world regions, with estimated losses of working hours equivalent to nearly 400 million full time jobs in the second quarter of 2020, most of which are in emerging and developing countries. According to the International Labour Organization, the continued sharp decline in working hours globally due to the COVID-19 outbreak means that 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy – that is nearly half of the global workforce – faces threat to their livelihoods.