The impact of Covid-19 on Sustainable Development Goals
This article is co-written by Isaac Ng
Sustainable Development Report 2020 has recently just assessed the disruptive impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the world. It is THE force majeure of 2020 where many lives are still being affected, jobs lost, and progress that humankind has achieved as a collective in the global economy was lost in just a scant 3 months. Undoubtedly, Covid-19 has also adversely affected the progress of sustainable development goals that were set by the United Nations General Assembly. The impact of Covid-19 on each Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is briefly summarised below.
SDG 1 (No poverty): With the outbreak of the virus, many businesses could not operate due to mandatory lockdown, causing a surge in unemployment due to furloughs and layoffs. This economic downturn has the largest impact on the poor. Without jobs or any savings, the poor has no choice but to sink further into poverty as they struggle to put food on the table. World Bank is projecting that 40–60 million[i] will be pushed into extreme poverty (income below USD$1.90 per day). This is the first increase in global extreme poverty since 1998, wiping out progress made since 2017.
SDG 2 (Zero hunger): At the peak of the outbreak, international shipping and trade completely shut-down. This has caused some degree of food shortages, especially in countries that rely on food imports. Paradoxically, there was also higher food loss due to transportation challenges (supply chain backlog) and reduced labour availability. Staple food like wheat rotted away in barns without access to transport, processing, or storage. Oxfam warned that 121 million more people face being pushed to the brink of starvation, which is a rise of 82%[ii].
SDG 3 (Good health and well-being): As of 17th of July 2020, there are 12.2 million confirmed cases and 553 thousand deaths since the outbreak. Besides, Covid-19 has inadvertently increased mortality from other causes due to the overburdening of the health system. Moreover, the lockdown implemented by many countries is also giving rise to mental health problems such as loneliness and chronic depression. In severe Covid-19 infections, fatal complications in the brain include delirium, nerve damage and stroke; however, even for individuals with mild cases of coronavirus, a few were either experiencing temporary brain dysfunction, brain inflammation, strokes or nerve damage[iii]. Latest study on coronavirus antibodies also indicated that in some patients, the antibodies can disappear[iv], and if so, herd immunity might not be a long term viable strategy.
SDG 4 (Quality education): The outbreak of Covid-19 has caused many schools to close for fear of an outbreak amongst students. Many schools and higher education centres have moved to online classes to continue with the academic curriculum. However, this move to online classes is only possible for countries that have high internet penetration. African youths remain the least connected as around 60% have no existing digital footprint, so access to quality education would be poor during this pandemic period[v]. Furthermore, fresh workforce (i.e. interns and fresh graduates) could not get the required training in their respective industries due to many businesses not operating. This could decrease the competence of new workforce once the outbreak has passed.
SDG 5 (Gender equality): In past recessions, men faced greater risk of unemployment than women. A larger fraction of employed men than employed women work in construction, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and utilities; wheras, working women are more likely to be employed in the government or health and education services sectors compared. Those who are not in critical occupations and who are unable to telecommute because of the nature of their occupation are more likely to be laid off during this current recession[vi]. A greater share of men than women work in telecommutable and/or critical occupations, thus in US alone, jobs held by women accounted close to one third of the payroll decline in March 2020[vii]. In addition to that, women are more likely to be single parents who will be hit harder by the economic downturn that is now in full swing[viii]. These factors would definitely slow to progress of equal pay for years to come. Also, women are more likely to suffer from increasing frequency of domestic violence during lockdown.
SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation): Washing hands is the first line of defence to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to experts, washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds, repeatedly throughout the day, is critical. However, in many developing countries, the message ignores an important question: What if you don’t have enough clean water to meet the needs? Globally, three billion people do not have access to even basic hand-washing facilities at home. Nearly a billion people experience only partial access or regular shutoffs even when they do have piped water, making frequent hand-washing difficult or impossible. It is unclear if Covid-19 has an impact on clean water and sanitation but what is clear is that lack of access of clean water and sanitation can increase infection rates of Covid-19.
SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy): The outbreak of Covid-19 has caused a slowdown of economic growth, contributing to a reduction of energy prices. However, the fall of energy prices also decreases the incentives for using renewables which could cause more people to rely on fossil fuels once again.
SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth): The progress of higher level of productivity and economic growth have been severely impacted. Due to lockdown of many countries, virtually every country is experiencing an economic crisis. With trade disruptions, business closures, mass unemployment, sharp decline in tourism activities and massive public deficits. It would take years for the global economy to recover completely. The very few sectors that are experiencing growth are tech companies and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), the former because businesses and consumers are migrating to e-commerce and e-entertainment for most of their daily activities, and the latter is because of protective gear needed to reduce risk of exposure to coronavirus.
SDG 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure): This is moderately impacted by the outbreak of Covid-19. Obviously, there was a decline in industrial output and some companies went bankrupt. However, the outbreak of the virus also accelerated uptake of technology for e-health, e-commerce, e-governance and e-payments. Moreover, the effort to find a vaccine for Covid-19 have increased collaboration between scientists and pharmaceutical companies from many countries which have brought some countries diplomatically closer.
SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities): There was a disproportionate negative health and economic impacts on vulnerable groups (including refugees and migrants), especially in countries with low safety nets. Furthermore, there is higher proportion of job losses among the lowly skilled. Workforce and families with higher income tend to have occupational flexibility that allow themselves to conduct social distancing. Workforce and families with lower income however tend not to have the same kind of occupational flexibility, engaging in work that requires closer human contact like cashier, making them more susceptible to coronavirus infection. Also, the poor tend to live in higher density communities and dorms which exacerbate infection.
SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities): There is a rise in poverty and vulnerability among urban communities, especially lower income households. The shutdown of public transport made access to public/green spaces difficult or non-existent, which is particularly more adverse for the lower income community too. On the other hand, the lesser movement has resulted in a sharp short-term reduction in pollution levels which is actually a positive impact on the environmental sustainability of cities.
SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production): There is a short-term reduction in the use of natural resources due to the decrease in global economic activities. However, due to this decrease in consumption and production, there is also growing pressure from different industries on their respective governments to loosen up on existing regulations and to postpone new legislative measures that promote sustainability, in the hope that deregulation can spur demand growth which is very much sought after. On a separate note, the high usage for PPE has led to large amount of plastic pollutions.
SDG 13 (Climate action): The impact of coronavirus on climate action is still unclear. There is a short-term reduction in GHG emissions due to the lockdowns imposed worldwide. Yet, the slowdown on economic growth has led to reduction on oil prices which can stimulate demand for fossil fuel. Also, there can be reduced monetary incentives to invest in renewable energy. In addition to that, there is pressure by various industries to reduce the environmental safeguards so that they can get their businesses back on track quicker.
SDG 14 (Life below water) and SDG 15 (Life on land): The threat to terrestrial and marine biodiversity has decreased slightly (if only momentarily) during the lockdown due to reduced economic activities and consumption. There were even cases of wild animals re-entering cities when the streets were empty due to widespread lockdown. However, there is now demand pressure for deregulation so that the various industries can get back on track as soon as possible, at the expense of nature and environmental protection.
SDG 16 (Peace, justice, and strong institutions): Since the outbreak, there is pressure on all governments around the world to mitigate the health and economic fallout of the pandemic. There is also pressure to increase accessibility of healthcare in countries that have not yet achieved universal health coverage. This would exacerbate public deficit and debts of many countries worldwide. To reduce public unrests, some countries might disrupt legislative processes, close off public debates, suspend freedom of information laws, and abolish transparency policies. There have also been concerns that some vulnerable democracies would become totalitarian states as heads of nations use Covid-19 as a pretext to justify the need for authoritarianism. In some countries, there are vocal minorities that scorn the government mandated social distancing and compliance to wearing PPE, reason being that this mandate undermines justice by taking away people’s choice to choose what is ‘good’ for themselves.
SDG 17 (Partnerships with goals): Responsiveness of international aid community to the needs of poorer countries could possibly be reduced due to majority of the world resources being spent to fight Covid-19. There is a possible reduction in international remittance and cross-border financing. Moreover, borders between countries are still closed to reduce transmission. This would lead to slowdown of international trade and could cause debt crisis.
REFERENCES:
[i] https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/impact-covid-19-coronavirus-global-poverty-why-sub-saharan-africa-might-be-region-hardest
[ii] https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/hunger-linked-1to-covid-19-could-cause-12000-deaths-a-day-oxfam-warns-1010165.html
[iii] https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2020/07/606967/brain-problems-linked-even-mild-covid-19-infections-study
[iv] https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibodies-study-herd-immunity-unachievable-spain-2020-7
[v] https://www.fairplanet.org/story/online-education-on-the-rise-widens-digital-divide/
[vi] https://voxeu.org/article/impact-coronavirus-pandemic-gender-equality
[vii] Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020), “The Employment Situation — March 2020”, Tables B-1 and B-5, USDL-20–0521.
[viii] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/what-the-covid-19-pandemic-tells-us-about-gender-equality/
