Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in Four African Countries
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the attempts to limit its spread have resulted in profound economic impacts, and a significant contraction in the global economy is expected. This paper provides some of the first evidence on the socioeco...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/955251604433596591/Socioeconomic-Impacts-of-COVID-19-in-Four-African-Countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34733 |
| Summary: | The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
and the attempts to limit its spread have resulted in
profound economic impacts, and a significant contraction in
the global economy is expected. This paper provides some of
the first evidence on the socioeconomic impacts of and
responses to the pandemic among households and individuals
in Sub-Saharan Africa. To do so, reduced-form econometric
methods are applied to longitudinal household survey data
from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda -- originating
from the pre-COVID-19 face-to-face household surveys and
from the novel phone surveys that are being implemented
during the pandemic. The headline findings are fourfold.
First, although false beliefs about COVID-19 remain
prevalent, government action to limit the spread of the
disease is associated with greater individual knowledge of
the disease and increased uptake of precautionary measures.
Second, 256 million individuals -- 77 percent of the
population in the four countries -- are estimated to live in
households that have lost income due to the pandemic. Third,
attempts to cope with this loss are exacerbated by the
inability to access medicine and staple foods among 20 to 25
percent of the households in each country, and food
insecurity is disproportionately borne by households that
were already impoverished prior to the pandemic. Fourth,
student-teacher contact has dropped from a pre-COVID-19 rate
of 96 percent to just 17 percent among households with
school-age children. These findings can help inform
decisions by governments and international organizations on
measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
and reveal the need for continued monitoring. |
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