The pandemic is eroding health systems, disrupting routine health services, deteriorating labor markets, and limiting access to nutritious diets. And the world’s poorest people are bearing the brunt of the crisis. Hundreds of thousands of additional deaths among children under age 5 are expected in 2020, along with tens of thousands of additional maternal deaths. According to a recent study, if routine health care is disrupted and access to food is decreased, the increase in child and maternal deaths could be devastating: 118 low- and middle-income countries could see an increase of 9.8 to 44.7 percent in under-5 deaths per month and an 8.3 to 38.6 percent rise in maternal deaths per month. At the intersection of many deprivations are women and girls living in poverty, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons, who face the greatest hardships. Even before the pandemic, these groups were dealing with food insecurity due to insufficient income; they routinely confronted challenges in accessing essential health services and were excluded from social
protection systems, where they existed.
