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Blog post
COVID-19 and informality in sub-Saharan Africa: Containing an economic crisis
Containment measures prevent informal workers from sustaining an income. Policies that support the informal sector are required to prevent an economic crisis. Informal employment involves working arrangements that are not subject to the protection of national labour legislation, income taxation, or entitlement to social protection or certain other employment benefits (see...
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Blog post
Power planning in fragile and conflict-affected states
Traditional methods of energy planning are likely to provide results that may be inappropriate in fragile and conflict-affected countries. The risks of violence and damage, significant delays and cancellations in infrastructure projects, or projects coming in at very high cost, are rife in these states. Security issues can significantly hamper, or make infeasible, the...
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Blog post
Reigniting economic growth after COVID-19 in Uganda
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has come at an enormous cost to both developed and developing countries, and Uganda is no exception to this. Decisive policies to promote household and firm survival alongside longer-term planning for growth will be crucial to Uganda’s recovery. Early this year, the Government of Uganda took decisive action to limit the spread of COVID-19,...
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Blog post
Invest in energy access for a resilient recovery from COVID-19 in fragile environments
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many inequities, both within countries and across the world. The least developed countries and those affected by fragility and conflict have been particularly hard hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19, experiencing unprecedented declines in commodity prices and remittances and a collapse in earnings at the household, firm, and national...
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Blog post
Poverty eradication in Mozambique: Progress and challenges amid COVID-19
Poverty has improved over the past 20 years; however, the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardises the gains achieved, pushing people into extreme poverty. Mozambique achieved independence in 1975, but it was only after the end of the civil war in 1992 that it began to experience some economic progress. The number of people living in poverty in 1996-97 was about 12 million,...
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Blog post
Poverty eradication in India: Successes and shortcomings of social protection
While social protection programmes in India have helped reduce poverty significantly, they are not without their problems. COVID-19 reversed the gains and has plunged millions into further poverty, disrupting the informal economy, and hitting migrant labourers the hardest. Schemes like MGNREGA are being sought out by the government and desperate citizens to tackle...
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Blog post
How to increase the value of COVID-19 data: Lessons and reflections from PAD’s multi-country survey
How can researchers ensure that data collection in the midst of a pandemic is worth the time and effort? As the COVID-19 pandemic gathered pace in mid-March, Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) launched a rapid, multi-country phone survey to monitor the impact of the disease on our end-users. We were not the only ones with this idea, however. Convenience surveys...
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Blog post
Conflict during COVID-19: Averting a legitimacy and debt crisis in Africa?
Good governance and debt contingency planning are essential for containment and mitigating the economic impacts of the pandemic to avoid a deeper crisis. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising conflict, and escalating debt in Africa is a toxic cocktail that could soon implode. Governments and multilateral lenders need to work out pragmatic ways to neutralise...
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Blog post
Poverty eradication in Pakistan: Past, present, and future
While the current government in Pakistan has taken a multi-dimensional approach and introduced some measures to eradicate poverty, along with specific COVID-19 emergency interventions, many challenges still remain. We lay out our thoughts below on whether Pakistan is on track to achieving SDG1 by 2030, given that another 10 million are expected to move into poverty due to...
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Blog post
Overcrowding and pandemic risk hotspots in Rwanda
Proximity between people, otherwise known as population density, is the foundation of prosperity and productivity in cities. There is no empirical link between the spread of COVID-19 risk and city population density. However, when population density is not well managed and becomes overcrowding, the risk of COVID-19 and other contagious diseases, rises. The COVID-19...
Blog post
Power planning in fragile and conflict-affected states
Traditional methods of energy planning are likely to provide results that may be inappropriate in fragile and conflict-affected countries. The risks of violence and damage, significant delays and cancellations in infrastructure projects, or projects coming in at very high cost, are rife in these states. Security issues can significantly hamper, or make infeasible, the...