Lebanon: Almost three-quarters of the population living in poverty 

COVID-19 will be responsible for pushing a further 8.3 million people in the Arab region into poverty, according to a new policy brief issued on Wednesday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The Asia and Pacific region’s economic recovery from COVID and other global shocks, must be anchored in an inclusive “new social contract”, to protect the vulnerable in the years ahead, according to a new Economic and Social Survey of the region, published on Tuesday by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

More than half of the people living in Asia and the Pacific lack any social protection coverage, leaving populations vulnerable to ill-health, poverty, inequality and social exclusion, a new UN report has found.