Inclusive COVID-19 Recovery in Palau

Pandemic Impact in Palau

In the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the tiny nation of Palau in the Pacific Ocean is taking measures to ensure that it will not be left behind.

By closing its borders in March 2020, the government has been largely successful in delaying the spread of the virus, with only five confirmed COVID-19 cases by December 2021, and protecting its modest population of 18,169 people. Palau was among the top countries in the COVID-19 vaccination leaderboard when the nation reopened its borders in January 2022 to jumpstart the tourism industry. About 96.34% of the population had been fully vaccinated by then, the highest in the Asia and Pacific region. As of 20 March 2022, while COVID-19 cases have surged to roughly 4,000, almost 47,000 vaccine doses have been administered, inoculating the entire population.

However, the main impact of the pandemic in Palau is more socioeconomic than health related. The total lockdown has brought the country’s vibrant tourism industry to a standstill, leaving thousands unemployed and many households with diminished incomes.

Palau’s Coronavirus Relief One-Stop Shop Act (CROSS) offered immediate social assistance to the larger population. However, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted small segments of the populace that now need special attention. These include

• homebound older people and persons with disabilities (PWDs), including those with preexisting health conditions, who are largely dependent on caregivers and the financial support from their families;
• small farmers and women producers in rural areas who have been cut off from markets and have difficulty getting temporary unemployment benefits; and
• women and children survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, as incidents reported to the police rose by more than 200% from March 2020 to July 2020.

For Palau to survive the pandemic, the country must strengthen its social assistance programs to mitigate the short-term economic impacts of COVID-19 while building the resilience of residents against future shocks. Palau also needs to expand its existing social protection programs to respond immediately to vulnerable groups and develop a more adaptive social protection system for the future.

Make Room for the Marginalized

To help Palau ensure inclusive recovery, ADB approved a project to address the needs of poor and vulnerable groups affected by COVID-19. The project is financed with grants from the Asian Development Fund, the Ireland Trust Fund for Building Climate Change and Disaster Resilience in Small Island Developing States, and the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific (formerly Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction). The project will

• implement welfare support to highly at-risk older people and PWDs,
• deliver food security and income-generating support to small agricultural producers, and
• implement multidisciplinary responses to address family and gender-based violence.

“The project’s beneficiaries—the elderly, people with disabilities, small farmers and women producers, and women and children survivors of domestic and gender-based violence—represent the most needy and vulnerable in Asia and the Pacific,” ADB project officer Ninebeth Carandang said.

Welfare support for older people and persons with disabilities

The project will respond to the immediate physical, mental, social, and environmental needs of low-income, homebound older people, and PWDs quarantined in their homes. The government will work with community-based organizations and volunteers to strengthen existing social protection services. Some of the activities to ensure the health and social well-being of the elderly and PWDs include gender-responsive case management that facilitates access to the full range of social and health services; community-based wellness promotion; training for family and community caregivers; assistance in developing home gardens; and support for home improvements to ensure healthy, safe, and accessible living conditions.

Food security and income-generating support for small farmers

The pandemic has affected Palau’s agricultural value chain, particularly small farmers. Through the Palau Visitors Authority, Bureau of Agriculture, and local partners, the project will support small agriculture producers to increase production and augment earnings while reducing vulnerability to climate change, particularly sea-level rise, by promoting upland taro production. The project will support upland taro farmers and selected women’s farming cooperatives in expanding taro production and enhancing business management practices. The project will also help establish an agriculture support center, comprising a plant distribution nursery and food processing facility, which will provide a guaranteed market for purchasing raw agriculture products from small farmers.

Responses to address family and gender-based violence

Gender-based violence has reportedly increased in many countries due to pandemic lockdowns. The project will deliver integrated case management support for survivors of gender-based violence, including a free 24-hour hotline, crisis counseling, and multisector referral pathways. It will also implement a social marketing campaign that informs key service providers of available services and referral pathways and helps change community social norms on gender-based violence. Finally, in partnership with nongovernment organizations, the project will help ensure that survivors of family and gender-based violence, especially during the pandemic, receive high-quality, culturally sensitive, non-judgmental services.

Inclusive and Resilient Recovery

Palau has concrete plans for the near future. The 2020 National Master Development Plan aims to increase sustainable economic growth and ensure that the benefits of such growth are shared equitably among its residents. The country’s latest medium-term development strategy—Actions for Palau’s Future—includes a vision of “life with dignity” and these specific goals:

• Ensuring that the basic needs of all Palau residents are met;
• Reducing vulnerability by preserving safety nets represented by the Palauan ethic of sharing and caring, and providing universal access to productive land and sea resources; and
• Giving compassionate and timely assistance to people who fall through the safety nets.

The ADB project is aligned with these goals. The project is estimated to have 1,650 direct beneficiaries, an estimated additional 1,400 frontline workers who will be trained on gender-based violence referral pathways, and at least 12,000 people to be covered by a gender-based violence prevention campaign. By focusing on mitigating the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on poor and vulnerable groups and strengthening these groups’ social and economic resilience, the project is a testament to the commitment of ADB’s financing partnerships to ensuring inclusive and resilient COVID-19 recovery.