Social Protection and Social Determinants of Health in COVID-19 and Related Disasters: What Can We Do About Them?

Abstract

Health of the populations and individual health statuses are influenced by their social position and social situations determine the health of people. In this sense, health is not only a ‘state’ but also a resource that needs to be nurtured over people’s lifetimes. Poverty, or lack of material resources impact health adversely and in particular, result in infectious diseases as people are forced to live in damp, crowded conditions. This is particularly relevant in the face of outbreaks of diseases that can shut down economies and force people into poverty where such conditions exacerbate.

The SARS-COV-2 viral outbreak is a currently ongoing pandemic worldwide is a case in point. This has resulted in widespread lockdowns in different countries. While lockdown is used as containment measures to control the spread of the virus and limit viral infection, it also has the downstream effect of shutting down part or whole economies, thus leading to further worsening of poverty and social distress. The World Bank has estimated that in the wake of COVID-19, 60–70 million more poor people will be added to the pool of already existent poor population around the world, due to emergence of noveau poor.

So what needs to be done? One possible way to address the problem of poverty and ill-health of societies in the wake of COVID-19 is to strengthen social protection measures. Social protection refers to the funds catering to the mix of programmes and policies governments establish to protect the vulnerable members of the society from poverty-related adverse life events and circumstances. These programmes prevent and mitigate adverse consequences of poverty by providing a scaffold so that people can lead a sustainable healthy life and maintain their mental, physical and social well-being. Beyond such protection, such programmes ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.

Hence, the goal of this chapter is to examine social protection policies and develop models to address what may happen and what needs to be done to strengthen social protection systems for securing the health and well-being of vulnerable populations in the face of unforeseen phenomena such as natural disasters and outbreaks that threaten the structure of existent social protection and threaten the sustainability of the target populations.