Rapid livelihood assessment : impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the Maldives : assessment phase I, 28 May 2020

Abstract

The report is commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Government of Maldives and the assessment was completed with support from UNDP Maldives. The rapid assessment aimed to understand the extent and nature of impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Maldives economy and to explore the impact on employment and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The assessment aims to support timely economic response planning for the Maldives. This is the first edition of the assessment report. The assessment report will be updated, when remaining data collection activities are completed and the dataset is fully analysed. To guide the overall direction and scope of the assessment and to provide technical support and quality assurance to the data collection, a technical team composing of key partners were formed (see list of technical members above). The technical team met on a weekly basis and has to this date, provided support to develop the assessment methodology, data collection tools and provided quality assurance on reporting and analysis. The assessment was designed using a phased approach with two key themes and steps. The first step aimed to capture the theme on the impact of the crisis on employment in the tourism sector as it is the largest industry in the Maldives, the largest private sector employer and the sector most exposed to the external shock. The assessment therefore aimed to focus on the resort population which approximately is composed of 44,954 employees out of which 47 percent were local.17 This phase of the assessment aimed to look at impact through three areas; (i) impact on resort operations and employee life on the resorts, (ii) impact on employment and (iii) perceptions on the future. The second step involves looking at the second theme of the assessment, which is the impact of micro, small and medium enterprises. This component of the assessment aims to look at the impact on businesses, the various