Health and Healthcare Systems

'Millions facing starvation' - Global political and business leaders on the economic impact of COVID-19

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2020.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. Image: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Alice Hazelton

"Unless we open up our economy, we have millions facing starvation."

That was the straightforward assessment of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on the impact of COVID-19 during a virtual meeting of the Forum's COVID Action Platform on 20 May.

Khan explained: "In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either [on] daily wages or get paid weekly or are self-employed. When we locked down, like the whole of the world, to stop the spread of the virus, all these people became unemployed. When we're talking about 25 million workers, you're talking about 25 million families and it has affected almost 120-150 million people...unless the men and women work, they cannot feed their families."

Launched in March, the Forum's platform aims to convene leaders from governments and the business community for collective action to protect people’s livelihoods, facilitate business continuity and mobilize support for a global response to COVID-19. To date, more than 1,500 people from more than 1,000 businesses and organizations have joined the platform.

To find the latest updates on the Platform, check out our recently-launched highlights blog.

Discover

What is the World Economic Forum doing about the coronavirus outbreak?

In addition to Khan, participants on this week's webinar included: Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Netherlands; Werner Baumann, Chief Executive Officer, Bayer AG, Germany; and Meenakshi Gupta, Co-founder, Goonj, India.

Here are some key quotes from the session:

"Debt relief is the key issue...if the weakest link in the chain is not supported effectively, we will all be damaged."

Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Netherlands

"The response has to be global. There has to be a way of picking up countries that are struggling right now, especially in the developing world."

Imran Khan, Prime Minister, Pakistan

"When no vaccine is available, the name of the game is testing, testing, testing...[and] as we learn more about the virus, we are more and more concerned about how dangerous it really is."

Werner Baumann, CEO, Bayer

"In the past, India's informal economy has been its strength - but in a lockdown situation where daily wages aren't possible, it leaves many with no choice."

Meenakshi Gupta, Co-founder, Goonj
Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Related topics:
Health and Healthcare SystemsEconomic Growth
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

COPD kills more than lung and breast cancer combined. It's time to change that

Nitin Kapoor

November 22, 2024

A historic leap in cancer vaccines – here’s what you need to know

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum