Family Support Organisation RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

In early 2020, the corona virus pandemic (COVID-19) struck countries around the world, presenting enormous challenges to health systems and spurring widespread shutdowns, school and business closures, and job losses. Nearly all countries are facing an unprecedented economic downturn. The Family Support Organisation Group has been at the forefront of the global response. In March, the Board of Executive Directors approved a new fast-track facility to help countries address their immediate health needs and bolster economic recovery. The Family Support Organisation deployed the first set of projects under this facility in April, aimed at strengthening health systems, disease surveillance, and public health interventions. To soften the economic blow, International Max Grant Funding and MIGA moved quickly to provide financing and increase access to capital to help companies continue operating and paying their workers.

The Bank deploy grant is also to support countries’ responses to COVID-19 through a series of new operations, the restructuring of existing ones, the triggering of catastrophe drawdown options, and support for sustainable private sector solutions that promote restructuring and recovery. The pandemic could push about 100 million more people into extreme poverty in 2020. Countries impacted by FCV challenges are particularly vulnerable to the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic. Our support in these settings focuses on investing in prevention, remaining engaged in crisis situations, protecting human capital, and supporting the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including forcibly displaced populations. The poorest and most vulnerable countries also face food insecurity, as supply chain disruptions and export restrictions threaten the food supply. To address this, we urged countries to ensure that food supply chains continued to flow and function safely and helped them monitor the impact of the pandemic on people’s ability to buy food. We advocated for strong social protection programs for the poorest and most vulnerable to ensure that people can afford to eat and access basic food supplies, while helping protect livelihoods.

Our research and knowledge products looked at the widespread impact of the pandemic—including economic updates, a report on declining global remittance flows, and a policy note on the shock to education and children’s futures. But long after the immediate crisis subsides, countries will need support in mitigating its impacts and boosting long-term growth. Our policy recommendations offered countries ways to achieve this, including by improving governance and business environments, countering disruptions in financial markets, investing in education and health for better human capital outcomes, facilitating new investments through greater debt transparency, expanding cash safety nets for the poor, reviewing energy pricing policies, and implementing reforms that allow for capital and labor to adjust quickly to post-pandemic structures.