Box 2.11: Social protection measures to reduce vulnerabilities

Nevertheless, the impacts of this crisis have been distributed unevenly, with youth and women especially hard hit. Among informal workers, for instance, some 42 per cent of women workers are engaged in the most high-risk sectors, compared to 32 per cent of men.85 Discriminated groups such as Roma, migrants and indigenous peoples are also more likely to be working in the informal sector and are therefore disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn triggered by the pandemic.86 Even in developed countries with some form of welfare system in place, the implications of the pandemic on economic security and social mobility have been profound, with one study by the London School of Economics highlighting the bleak prospects for “Generation COVID” as already limited employment opportunities have further contracted.87

Across the world, numerous governments attempted to reduce the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable sectors through wage subsidies schemes, often designed to reach at-risk sectors. In Cambodia, for instance, a temporary programme was set up to support workers in the garment and tourism industries.88 In many ways, the level of support is remarkable: in the OECD, by May 2020 some 50 million jobs were being supported by different forms of job retention schemes including dismissal bans, short-time work schemes and temporary wage subsidies in response to the pandemic, around 10 times as many as during the global financial crisis of 2008/9. In many cases, countries had to simply deploy pre-existing short-time work (STW) schemes in response to the decline in demand generated by COVID-19.89 Some cities took specific measures to support local businesses and safeguard jobs, such as Milan, which provided productive project programs and mutual aid funds. Meanwhile Barcelona, long renowned as one of Europe’s creative capitals, provided subsidies, tax exemptions, special investments and advance payments to arts companies, cultural programmes and shows to mitigate the effects of the crisis. Notwithstanding the temporary measures implemented by many governments and city authorities to support workers and employers to survive the economic shock of the pandemic, it is vital that these efforts are sustained over time to avoid enterprise closures, job losses and reduced income. The painful experiences of the pandemic also offer an opportunity for cities to reflect on how the landscape of work and employment, formal and informal, could be transformed in the medium term to strengthen health and labour protections while supporting the creation of decent and productive jobs for

Box 2.11: Social protection measures to reduce vulnerabilities

Securing more stable livelihoods for people at risk of losing their job and shelter has been a key action of cities to reduce exposure to COVID-19 related socioeconomic downsides. The most common social protection measures adopted by local governments worldwide include:

• Wage subsidies and dismissal bans to ensure keeping jobs and security of income in time of crisis.

• Short-time work (STW) schemes aimed at ensuring continuity of employment together with adequate compensation for workers who, due to lower demand of services and goods, had to reduce their daily working hours.

• Unemployment benefits and protection schemes used as a key mechanism to provide income security through unemployment benefits to the millions of workers who have lost their jobs.

• Food transfer and vouchers to protect food access by increasing purchasing power for those who need it or by directly providing food through government or community-based programmes and organizations.

• Measures to ensure housing affordability such as rent freezes, moratoria on mortgages, housing vouchers and rent subsidies, bans on utilities shut off.

• Expansion of registries and social assistance to include more of the population, such as extending health insurance coverage to those who had lost jobs and expanding eligibility for employment programmes to protect informal workers.