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Showing all Blog Posts in Covid 19
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Blog post
Increasing COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: Evidence from Mozambique
The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with widespread food insecurity and falling living standards. To fully recover, countries will need not only an effective rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, but also significant public trust and acceptance to ensure that they are taken up. In Mozambique, we conducted a study on how the...
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Timeliness and coverage of child vaccinations across India
Despite free vaccinations for children below 12 years of age under the Universal Immunisation Programme, one-third of global child deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases occur in India. In this article, Debnath and Chaudhuri use nationally representative data from 2005-06 and 2015-16, to examine the timeliness and coverage of routine immunisation in the country....
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The growing concerns around vaccine hesitancy in India
Vaccine hesitancy will prolong the return to normalcy, and abysmal figures such as a mere 10% having been fully vaccinated in India by early August of this year, are a wakeup call for policymakers and healthcare administrators. Health workers face stiff resistance from people who believe that vaccines cause impotence, lack of trust in vaccine efficacy, serious side...
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Can consumer incentive schemes enhance VAT revenue collections in developing countries?
There has been a resurgence in the adoption of consumer incentive schemes within the realm of revenue collection in recent years, due in part to technological advancement, digitisation of records, and the rise in digital payment platforms such as mobile money. These schemes can help address evasive practices that some retail firms currently engage in. Their success however,...
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How COVID-19 lockdowns and car-free days affected air pollution in Rwanda’s capital
Rising levels of vehicle traffic, industrial activity and urban sprawl are contributing to rising levels of air pollution across the global South. This is particularly the case in cities where urbanisation is progressing fastest. In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the population has surged from less than 500,000 in 2000 to more than 1 million today. It is set to increase to...
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Vaccine uptake and resistance: Lessons and policy levers
As new variants of COVID-19 are disrupting global efforts to end the pandemic, governments need to work faster to immunise populations and curtail the spread. This blog examines lessons and policy solutions for global immunisation efforts, drawing from recent evidence on vaccine acceptance in low- and middle-income countries. With the urge to vaccinate their populations...
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Prospectus of city growth: Rethinking planning in Amman
City administrations worldwide found themselves grappling with urban development issues that became more pressing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Greater Amman Municipality conducted a retrospective assessment effort to better understand its early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IGC hosted a webinar examining the city’s self-assessment experience, which...
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Winners or losers? The COVID-19 impact on Zambian manufacturing firms
The demand- and supply-side shocks on Zambian manufacturing firms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have had mixed effects on firms’ sales and exports. In a recent survey of firms’ experiences, government response measures have reportedly been unaligned to these needs and thus underutilised as a set of support services. As a part of an ongoing IGC project on the...
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Cash transfers as COVID-19 relief: Evidence from Ghana
Well-targeted mobile money transfer programmes can be an effective policy tool to smooth consumption during pandemics, especially among the neediest populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economic activity and imperilled the livelihoods of people across the globe. Its effects on the poor in developing countries has been particularly severe, as these citizens are...
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Money or power? Choosing COVID-19 aid in Kenya
Participants in an experiment comparing demand for cash transfers and electricity subsidies in urban Kenya, overwhelmingly prefer cash given the proliferation of mobile money via platforms like M-PESA and preference for short-term liquidity. Conversely, in rural Kenya, slightly more respondents opted for electricity token transfers given that they face saving constraints...