COVID-19: New UNDP Data for 189 Countries Reveals Huge Disparities in Ability to Cope & Recover

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has released two new data dashboards that highlight the huge disparities in countries’ abilities to cope with and recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic is more than a global health emergency. It is a systemic human development crisis, already affecting the economic and social dimensions of development in unprecedented ways. Policies to reduce vulnerabilities and build capacities to tackle crises, both in the short and long term, are vital if individuals and societies are to recover from shocks like this.

Preparedness of countries to respond to COVID-19

UNDP’s Dashboard 1 on Preparedness presents indicators for 189 countries – including the level of development, inequalities, the capacity of a healthcare system and internet connectivity – to assess how well a nation can respond to the multiple impacts of a crisis like COVID-19.

While every society is vulnerable to crises, their abilities to respond differ significantly around the world.

For example, the most developed countries – those in the very high human development category – have on average 55 hospital beds, over 30 physicians, and 81 nurses per 10,000 people, compared to 7 hospital beds, 2.5 physicians, and 6 nurses in the least developed countries.

Georgia has 26 hospital beds, 51 physicians and 41 nurses per 10,000 people which places it in the group of countries with high-level health sector preparedness. This readiness was clearly important in shaping Georgia’s successful management of the pandemic.

However, there are clearly other factors at work in determining how preparedness translates into specific country outcomes. The caliber of leadership, timing of responses and levels of popular trust all help to explain why some better endowed countries performed so much worse on infection and mortality rates than other countries entering the crisis with fewer resources.

Vulnerabilities of countries in a crisis like COVID-19

Preparedness is one thing. But, once a crisis hits, how vulnerable are countries to the fallout? UNDP’s Dashboard 2 on Vulnerabilities presents indicators that reflect countries’ susceptibility to the effects of this crisis, including poverty, social protection and labor programs, and an economy’s exposure to the immediate economic impacts of travel bans.

Travel bans and lockdowns are especially risky for countries that rely heavily on tourism and remittances. With tourism accounting for 21.7% of GDP and remittances worth 12.6% of GDP, this is where Georgia scores as particularly vulnerable to economic shocks from COVID-19. The relatively high national poverty line, 20.1%, is another cause for concern.

These vulnerabilities put a premium on a carefully crafted socio-economic recovery plan that “leaves no one behind,” in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. To support governments in this process, the UN has launched a new framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19. UNDP leads this effort in Georgia on behalf of the UN family.