CARE is a leading humanitarian organization committed to saving lives and fighting poverty and social injustice. Working alongside a vast network of partners globally, CARE works to rebuild and improve lives of the most disadvantaged, poor and vulnerable communities. Through community based efforts, CARE works to prevent spread of diseases, increase improved health awareness and access to safe drinking water and sanitation, build awareness and bring communities together to expand economic opportunities as well as access to natural resources while protecting the environment.
CARE seeks to influence policies and challenge social norms that affect the lives of women, children and the most vulnerable communities through strong networking of partners, advocacy and awareness on gender and women’s rights, leadership campaigns and skills training. CARE also works actively in emergencies by providing aid to survivors of war and natural disasters. CARE partners with a range of stakeholders, including local NGOs and other civil society organizations, social movement, government agencies, research and academic institutions, private sector and donors to support the most vulnerable communities and populations.
The Problems
The pandemic has severely affected the poor, vulnerable, and socially excluded communities working in formal and informal sectors especially landless, daily wage earners, migrant returnees, and unskilled labourers are at the pressure from both ends – infection risks and financial impacts.The prolonged lockdown, and reduced access to income generation, combined with the likely depletion of savings can put further pressure on coping capacity of these households and their ability to access basic needs. Further this pandemic has restrained vulnerable populations’ access to market information, and agricultural inputs supply and output market actors. Due to the disruption of the market system, vulnerable households are not getting fair prices for their production, leading to their reduced income. On the other hand, smallholder producers have made losses in production. They need real time market information and virtual access to the market to keep their earnings prospects alive and meet essential needs. In a limited/restricted mobility context due to pandemic, digital platforms are only the solution to connect small holder farmers with the market for production, inputs and marketing of products at reasonable price.
