Larry Elliot is a renowned United Kingdom economics editor working for the Guardian newspaper.
Like many journalists across the globe, he has been keeping his ears to the ground on pulsating stories on the devastating effects of Covid-19.
Daily, the world is riveted to an avalanche of narratives, some alarming and disturbing, painting a gloomy and horrendous picture, reminiscent of the biblical Armageddon era.
Other narratives paint a positive image of hope and reconstruction after the pandemic.
If nothing dramatic happens for many countries battling the effects of Covid-19, who have taken the route of lockdowns to prevent the further spread of the virus, there are fears that the impact of the pandemic could be worse than the global recession experienced in 2008.
Like any other nation, Zimbabwe has not been immune to the global trends, where countries are battling to remain operational against a backdrop of serious challenges posed by this pandemic.
Looking at the events of the past four weeks during lockdown in the country, where most companies closed as a preventative measure against the spread of Covid-19, Zimbabwe’s economic changes look inevitable.
Some companies, small business and projects will find it difficult to operate unless there is solid economic intervention or package to stimulate growth.
Government’s decision to unveil a stimulus package to support companies that have been badly affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, as part of measures to avert mass job losses and save livelihoods, should be lauded
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said the soon-to-be announced stimulus package will provide the much-needed economic relief to companies and industries reeling under the effects of the global pandemic.
As has become norm, women and children will be hardest hit by the effects of the economic challenges that Covid 19 will bring to nations and eventually cascades to the households.
A recently released policy brief by the United Nations on the impact of Covid-19 on women, painted a sad and gloomy picture on how the reduction of economic activities across will impact negatively on women as household frontrunners.
Emerging evidence on the impact of COVID-19 suggests that women’s economic and productive lives will be affected disproportionately and differently from men. Across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. They have less access to social protections and are the majority of single-parent households. Their capacity to absorb economic shocks is therefore less than that of men, noted the report.
When the Government ordered the closure of Mupedzanhamo market in Mbare, Harare and several other markets for informal traders as part of a litany of measures to stop the further spread of coronavirus, hundreds of women found themselves out of employment and with no other source of income. The majority could be seen wandering aimlessly and breaching the lockdown provisions in respective residential areas, as they engaged in illegal vending of different wares.
It is undisputable that across states and cities, women constitute the huge percentage of people who are unemployed with the majority living below the poverty datum line, be it in the cities or in rural areas.
2020 The Herald