Publication: Impacts of COVID-19 on the Private Sector in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations
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2020-11
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2020-12-02
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The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having a significant negative impact on the private sector in developing economies, and businesses and individuals in fragile and conflict-affected situations are among the most severely affected. The pandemic has evolved rapidly from a health emergency to a global economic crisis, spreading through the real sector and posing growing risks to financial systems. Notable sector-level impacts include supply and demand-based shocks to infrastructure and private healthcare; disruptions to imports, exports, and global and local value chains; and declining agribusiness activity that threatens food insecurity, all leading to financial sector instability. This note examines these sector-level impacts and provides recommendations for how the development community can address them. It advocates, among other things, for balancing short-term, sector-level relief and restructuring efforts with planning for a medium-term to long-term recovery, leveraging upstream interventions to “Build Back Better,” and collaborating with governments and development partners. As fragile and conflict-affected situations face further pandemic-related setbacks on top of already substantial hardships, it is critical that the global development community prioritize support to these vulnerable populations.
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“International Development Association; International Finance Corporation. 2020. Impacts of COVID-19 on the Private Sector in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations. EMCompass;Note 93. © International Finance Corporation. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34857 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”
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