Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic
Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data limitations. The advent of new data sources, including national accounts and phone survey data, provides an opportunity for a thorough reassessment of...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2023
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/130259 |
| _version_ | 1855532531826294784 |
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| author | Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom |
| author_browse | Abay, Kibrom A. Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom Yonzan, Nishant |
| author_facet | Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom |
| author_sort | Abay, Kibrom A. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data limitations. The advent of new data sources, including national accounts and phone survey data, provides an opportunity for a thorough reassessment of the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent expansion of social protection systems on the evolution of poverty in Africa. In this paper, we combine per capita GDP growth from national accounts with data from High-Frequency Phone Surveys for several countries to estimate the net impact of the pandemic on poverty. We find that the pandemic has increased poverty in Africa by 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points in 2020, relatively smaller than early estimates and projections. We also find that countries affected by Fragility, Conflict and Violence experienced the greatest increases in poverty, about 2.1 percentage points in 2020. Furthermore, we assess and synthesize empirical evidence on the role that social protection systems played in mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa. We review social protection responses in various African countries, mainly focusing on the impact of these programs and effectiveness of targeting systems. Although the evidence base on the protective role of social protection programs during the pandemic remains scarce, we highlight important findings on the impacts of these programs while also uncovering some vulnerabilities in social protection programming in Africa. We finally draw important lessons related to the delivery, targeting and impact of various social protection programs launched in Africa in response to the pandemic. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace130259 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| publisherStr | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1302592025-02-24T06:49:39Z Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom conflicts coronavirus coronavirus disease coronavirinae covid-19 data fragility poverty social protection surveys violence Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in Africa has been as difficult as predicting the path of the pandemic, mainly due to data limitations. The advent of new data sources, including national accounts and phone survey data, provides an opportunity for a thorough reassessment of the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent expansion of social protection systems on the evolution of poverty in Africa. In this paper, we combine per capita GDP growth from national accounts with data from High-Frequency Phone Surveys for several countries to estimate the net impact of the pandemic on poverty. We find that the pandemic has increased poverty in Africa by 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points in 2020, relatively smaller than early estimates and projections. We also find that countries affected by Fragility, Conflict and Violence experienced the greatest increases in poverty, about 2.1 percentage points in 2020. Furthermore, we assess and synthesize empirical evidence on the role that social protection systems played in mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa. We review social protection responses in various African countries, mainly focusing on the impact of these programs and effectiveness of targeting systems. Although the evidence base on the protective role of social protection programs during the pandemic remains scarce, we highlight important findings on the impacts of these programs while also uncovering some vulnerabilities in social protection programming in Africa. We finally draw important lessons related to the delivery, targeting and impact of various social protection programs launched in Africa in response to the pandemic. 2023-04-17 2023-05-04T18:03:12Z 2023-05-04T18:03:12Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/130259 en http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38014 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136481 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136411 Open Access Oxford University Press Abay, Kibrom A.; Yonzan, Nishant; Kurdi, Sikandra; and Tafere, Kibrom. 2023. Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of African Economies 32(Supplement 2): ii44–ii68. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejac041 |
| spellingShingle | conflicts coronavirus coronavirus disease coronavirinae covid-19 data fragility poverty social protection surveys violence Abay, Kibrom A. Yonzan, Nishant Kurdi, Sikandra Tafere, Kibrom Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title | Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full | Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_short | Revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | revisiting poverty trends and the role of social protection systems in africa during the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | conflicts coronavirus coronavirus disease coronavirinae covid-19 data fragility poverty social protection surveys violence |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/130259 |
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