ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MONETARY POVERTY: A REVIEW OF INDIVIDUAL PRACTICES

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of poverty assessment methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The social and economic challenges and transformations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging negative economic consequences and a global impact on the standard of living for the population. The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in various long-term consequences for the economy and society, with the direct impact of COVID on the rise in poverty being evident. The category most at risk accumulates the population living in poverty, which is disproportionately affected by the economic consequences of the coronavirus. The poor have a lower level of social and economic resilience, meaning they have less ability to cope with the consequences of natural disasters and recover from them independently. Therefore, it is important to identify successful practices for assessing the impact of the COVID pandemic on the poverty level. An objective understanding of the vulnerability of impoverished individuals in non-standard, shock situations that arise suddenly requires the establishment of somewhat different mechanisms for rapid response and the provision of social support. However, first and foremost, there is a need for the operational assessment of the consequences of non-standard situations on the welfare and living conditions of the poor. Rapidly assessing the social vulnerability and poverty of the population as a result of epidemics is often a challenging task, as there is a lack of systematic and official information about the social and economic status of the population. The monetary approach dominates in poverty assessment because precise measurement is a prerequisite for the formation and implementation of government policies to reduce poverty. Using only one poverty criterion does not allow for a correct assessment of the scale, level, and depth of such a multidimensional phenomenon. Only the use of a whole system of criteria will allow for an assessment of the impact of different processes, including crises, on the scale, level, depth, and profiles of poverty. The combination of multiple methods for determining poverty provides critically important information for assessing the impact of various crisis situations on the well-being of the poor.