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A United Nations report, released Thursday, said the Covid-19 pandemic will drag Arab countries, pushing millions of people (a quarter of the population of the Arab region) to the brink of poverty and increasing suffering people affected by armed conflict in the region.
In the report, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia expects the economy to contract by as much as 13 percent, bringing the total loss in the region to about $ 152 billion.
The committee added that the repercussions of the pandemic are expected to push an additional 14.3 million people below the poverty line, bringing the total number to 115 million, or about a quarter of the total population of the Arab world. More than 55 million people in the region depended on humanitarian aid before the pandemic, including 26 million forcibly displaced people.
Containing the pandemic and its impact on the economy
Arab countries as a whole have recorded more than 830,000 injuries and at least 14,717 deaths, an infection rate of 1.9 per 1,000 people and 17.6 deaths per 1,000 cases, which according to the Nations United, is below the global average of 42.6 deaths.
Despite the rapid move by most Arab countries to contain the virus in March by enforcing home quarantine, restricting travel, and banning large gatherings, including religious practices such as prayer in mosques, rituals of the Hajj, etc., these measures caused enormous economic losses, and the authorities had to reduce them in Lebanon. And Iraq and the West Bank, which have led to an unprecedented increase in the number of victims.
According to Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, “the region’s economy is suffering from multiple shocks due to the virus, as well as the sharp drop in the prices of oil, remittances and tourism”.
Oil prices are at an all time high, adding pressure to already squeezed budgets in the Gulf states. Middle-income countries, such as Jordan and Egypt, have seen remarkable declines in remittances from citizens working abroad, and tourism has been hit in unprecedented ways.
Libya and war-ravaged Syria reported relatively small casualties in Yemen, where five years of civil war sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The virus is spreading in the government-controlled south, as rebels in the north hide the number of injured and dead.
Rola Dashti, chair of the United Nations committee, says Arab countries must “turn this crisis into an opportunity” and tackle old problems, including weak public institutions, economic inequalities and over reliance on fossil fuels.
The pandemic has exacerbated vulnerabilities, including conflict situations, weak public institutions, lack of diversification of economies, inadequate coverage of social protection systems and high levels of unemployment and inequality.
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