According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), COVID-19 has pushed 75 million to 80 million people into extreme poverty throughout Asia as of last year. Progress has also been negatively impacted in areas such as food security, health, and education, all of which are inextricably linked to poverty and contribute to keeping people who are the furthest behind, experiencing the most severe forms of poverty, trapped and unable to escape.
Before COVID-19, many countries across Africa were making significant gains in human capital, improving health and education outcomes for girls and boys and empowering women and youth to reach their full potential.
Informal employment, defined through the lack of employment-based social protection, constitutes the bulk of employment in developing countries, and entails a level of vulnerability to poverty and other risks that are borne by all who are dependent on informal work income. Results from the Key Indicators of Informality based on Individuals and their Households database (KIIbIH) show that a disproportionately large number of middle‑class informal economy workers receive remittances.
The article discusses the use of social invesment as a strategy to lift people out of poverty in Nigeria. In the last quarter of 2020, the unemployment rate increased to 33%. With a Gini coefficient of 35.1, Nigeria is one of the eight countries with the highest inequality in income distribution in the world. Social protection has been widely acknowledged as a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach to poverty reduction though articulating priorities of government towards sustainable development. It appears to be one of the paths to reduce poverty in Nigeria.
How do intersecting vulnerabilities affect the quality of youth inclusion in labour markets in Niger and their ability to move out of and remain out of poverty? How do different forms of livelihoods, education, training or migration affect youth inclusion? How do these models vary by gender, generation and area of residence?
