The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic crisis is threatening Asia and the Pacific region’s progress in achieving critical targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday said.
According to the Key indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2021 report, the pandemic pushed an estimated 75 million to 80 million more people in developing Asia into extreme poverty as of last year, compared with what would have happened without COVID-19.
The ADB said that assuming that the pandemic has increased inequality, the relative rise in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, may be even greater.
The multilateral agency said that progress has also stalled in areas such as hunger, health and education, where earlier achievements across the region had been significant, albeit uneven.
According to the report, about 203 million people or 5.2 percent of developing Asia’s population lived in extreme poverty as of 2017.
Without COVID-19, that number would have declined to an estimated 2.6 percent in 2020, the ADB said.
“Asia and the Pacific has made impressive strides, but COVID-19 has revealed social and economic fault lines that may weaken the region’s sustainable and inclusive development,” Yasuyuki Sawada, ADB chief economist, said in a statement.
“To achieve the 2030 SDGs, decision makers need to harness high-quality and timely data as a guide for actions to ensure that the recovery leaves no one behind–especially the poor and vulnerable,” Sawada added.
Among reporting economies in Asia and the Pacific, which refers to the 46 developing and three developed ADB member economies, only about one in four posted economic growth last year.
As unemployment rates increased the region also lost about 8 percent of work hours, affecting poorer households and workers in the informal sector.
The economic damage brought about by the pandemic had further intensified the challenge of meeting global development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
UN members unanimously passed 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as SDGs, in 2015, creating a blueprint of ambitious tasks from ending hunger and gender inequality to expanding access to education and health care.
The goals had a deadline of 2030. — with Reuters
