What Triggers Economic Insecurity and Who Is Most at Risk?

A full recovery from the pandemic crisis is not possible without addressing economic security and reducing inequality. Otherwise, people and families who already faced more insecurity are likely to be excluded from the benefits of recovery. This policy brief highlights inequality in the experience of economic security focusing on the risks to livelihoods and the protections against those risks as laid out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In recognizing the right to “security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond one’s control”, the Universal Declaration highlights the crucial importance of economic security to everyone’s rights and well-being.