This paper, published by Emerald Open Access and available to read and download here draws on  the results of our Listening to Young Lives at Work phone survey conducted to assess the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the young people of two longitudinal cohorts (aged 19 and 26 years old at the time) of the four countries that participate in the Young Lives research programme: Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.    The authors first review the pandemic experiences of these four countries, which differed significantly, and report on the responses of the individual young people to the pandemic and the measures taken by governments.  They focus on how the pandemic and policy responses impacted on the education, work and food security experiences of the young people and conclude by stressing the challenges that COVID-19 is creating for meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, in particular in making it more difficult to ensure that no one is left behind.