African women, the main victims of poverty in 2021

Pandemic requires, the African Development Bank has revised its estimates upwards. By 2021, 39 million Africans could fall into extreme poverty. Women are the main affected.

Last July, the African Development Bank (AfDB) feared that the coronavirus would push 50 million Africans into extreme poverty. The institution initially estimated that 425 million people on the continent would live below the poverty line in 2020. For information, the population is considered extremely poor when it earns less than $ 1,90 a day, in power parity. 'purchase.

But the arrival of Covid-19 has shaken up the AfDB's forecasts. In its report "African Economic Outlook 2021", the institution affirms that "the pandemic has caused a global economic crisis. Africa's GDP contracted by 2,1% in 2020 - the continent's first recession in half a century. It is estimated that without appropriate support, approximately 39 million Africans could fall into extreme poverty in 2021, with disproportionate effects for women ”.

The AfDB forecasts “an economic growth of 3,4% in 2021” in Africa. But the consequences of the pandemic are likely to weigh on the continent ... "In 2020, the pandemic pushed about 30 million Africans into extreme poverty, and it is estimated that about 39 million people could fall in 2021, insists the African Development Bank. The most affected are those with low levels of education, having few assets and working in the informal sector ”.

Female occupations more affected than male occupations

The institution fears, beyond the simple number of Africans who will fall into poverty, that inequalities will increase "because of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable groups such as women, young people and women. low-skilled workers in the informal sector ”. For the AfDB, “women and female-headed households could represent a large part of these new poor”.

The reason is simple: "Women are more vulnerable than men to job losses in times of crisis: they represent 39% of global jobs and about 54% of total job losses during the pandemic," writes the AfDB, which ensures that "the risk of job loss due to Covid-19 is much higher for women than for men, in part because the pandemic has affected sectors where female employment is high".

The institution calls for strong measures from the governments of African states. Because the poverty in which women are plunged has real consequences: “The loss of income among women often has long-term effects such as increased levels of child malnutrition, dropping out of school, poor health and child labor. children. If they are not mitigated, the negative effects of the pandemic will have short-term repercussions on well-being and lasting consequences for human capital and growth, ”insists the African institution.