Morocco’s COVID-19 Crisis Could Push Over 1 Million into Poverty, Report Finds

The emergence of the coronavirus threatens to push 1.058 million (1,058,000) Moroccans into poverty according to the report from a strategic note jointly published by the High Commission for Planning (HCP), the United Nations and the World Bank. It deals with "the economic and social impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic".

According to the World Bank, monetary poverty is measured by the family’s ability to meet basic needs for food, shelter, clothing and other products that can generally be obtained through market purchases or self-supply.

The report states that "the social and economic impact of the crisis will be felt more by workers in the informal sector, who represent the vast majority of active Moroccans and the foreign population, migrants and refugees".

The particularly vulnerable sectors are tourism, transportation, installment sales, short-term contract workers and those who cannot do their work remotely.

The three institutions call for attention to be paid to monitoring multidimensional poverty, innovation in data collection and analysis, and investment in the continuity of public services in the areas of education and health during and after the crisis. They recommend: "The decisions made in the coming months will be crucial to working towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals".