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Blog post
Mozambique’s response to COVID-19: Challenges and questions
The pandemic presents global challenges. How will countries with existing challenges and limited healthcare and revenue capacity respond to the crisis? Within a couple of days of the first case of COVID-19 being reported in Mozambique, the government put into place a stringent set of rules to control mobility. All sports and cultural activities were suspended, several...
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Blog post
COVID-19 underscores need to overhaul social policies across Africa
Social assistance transfers fail to reach the poorest sections of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. The COVID-19 crisis requires an expansion of our relief efforts beyond traditional social transfers, and is a call to re-envision social policy once we emerge from the carnage of this crisis. COVID-19 is as egalitarian as climate change. In that, it is not (Dell et al.,...
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Blog post
Behavioural economics of lockdown compliance: In search of lost time and well-behaved neighbours
There are some crucial insights that behavioural economics and surrounding psychological evidence can bring to bear on public policies of a lockdown. Such insights are particularly pertinent to leveraging humans' 'predictable irrationality' in its design. Applying this evidence suggests that, where lockdowns are implemented, it might be better for policymakers to impose...
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Blog post
Event highlights: Global leadership to support Africa’s response to COVID-19
Part of IGC's response to addressing the economic challenges of COVID-19 in developing countries is a series of online public events that explore the role of global leadership in assisting developing countries, the economic impact of the pandemic in the Middle East, and what policy measures are needed to address the challenges facing migrant workers in...
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Blog post
Ghana lifts the lockdown: Has the government reneged on its commitment to contain COVID-19 at all costs?
Along with many other countries, the government of Ghana announced a lockdown of the economic hubs of the country as part of its measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In expressing the government’s commitment to containing the pandemic, the President declared, “we know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring people back to...
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Blog post
COVID-19 and the impact on women
Preliminary figures show that women and men are being infected by COVID-19 in roughly equal numbers, but the mortality rate is higher for men. This is potentially due to sex-based immunological or gendered differences, such as the prevalence of smoking. However, the scarcity of gender disaggregated data makes any effective comparison difficult. Moreover, research on...
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Blog post
The long road towards supply chain trade in Africa
Low-cost inputs trade, simple rules-of-origin, and digital connectivity are key to regional trade integration and global value chain participation. The recent Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in force since May 2019, is an important opportunity to develop and deepen supply chain trade across Africa. Evidence shows that integration into production networks -...
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Blog post
Engaging with mosque imams for effective responses to COVID-19
Authors’ note: The results discussed in this blog are based on a pilot. These findings are preliminary and are being presented for initial consideration and discussion. We will update this blog once information from wider research is available. In order to combat the spread of COVID-19, a large number of Islamic countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and...
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Blog post
The structural constraints limiting Zambia’s economic response to COVID-19
Health pandemics, like other calamities, are great revealers. Not only do they come at a colossal cost to human life, but often expose and lay bare the structural problems riddling an economy. The COVID-19 pandemic is emblematic of this. It has affected 184 countries around the world with preliminary estimates indicating that it will cost the global economy at least USD 1...
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Blog post
When a failure to diversify meets COVID-19: Implications for Nigeria
Africa’s most populous nation faces a greater challenge than most from COVID-19 with its government revenues decimated following the crash in oil prices. As Africa’s largest economy with a population of close to 200 million, Nigeria is critical to the COVID-19 response in the region. One in five sub-Saharan Africans are Nigerians and the economic and social impacts of...
Blog post
What happens after the lockdown ends? Lessons from the 2015 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone
There have now been over 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, with the number of deaths moving towards 350,000. Policymakers in many countries have responded to the pandemic by implementing measures related to social distancing and a large share of humanity remains in some form of lockdown condition. As a consequence of the uncertainty caused by the...