World Development[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Can transparency and accountability programs improve health? Experimental evidence from Indonesia and Tanzania.
Arkedis J, Creighton J, Dixit A … +4 more , Fung A, Kosack S, Levy D, Tolmie C
World Dev · 2021 Jun · PMID 34083862 · Full text
We assess the impact of a transparency and accountability program designed to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes in Indonesia and Tanzania. Co-designed with local partner organizations to be community-led...
We assess the impact of a transparency and accountability program designed to improve maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes in Indonesia and Tanzania. Co-designed with local partner organizations to be community-led and non-prescriptive, the program sought to encourage community participation to address local barriers in access to high quality care for pregnant women and infants. We evaluate the impact of this program through randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving 100 treatment and 100 control communities in each country. We find that on average, this program did not have a statistically significant impact on the use or content of maternal and newborn health services, nor on perceptions of civic efficacy or civic participation among recent mothers in the communities where it was offered. These findings hold in both countries and in a set of prespecified subgroups. To identify reasons for the lack of impacts, we use a mixed-method approach combining interviews, observations, surveys, focus groups, and ethnographic studies that together provide an in-depth assessment of the complex causal paths linking participation in the program to improvements in MNH outcomes. Although participation in program meetings was substantial and sustained in most communities, and most attempted at least some of what they had planned, only a minority achieved tangible improvements, and fewer still saw more than one such success. In our assessment, the main explanation for the lack of impact is that few communities were able to traverse the complex causal paths from planning actions to accomplishing tangible improvements in their access to quality health care.
"If we move, it moves with us:" Physical distancing in Africa during COVID-19.
Bicalho C, Platas MR, Rosenzweig LR
World Dev · 2021 Jun · PMID 36568882 · Full text
Health behaviors to prevent the spread of infectious diseases are often subject to collective action problems, and social norms can play an important role in inducing compliance. In this paper, we study knowledge, belief...
Health behaviors to prevent the spread of infectious diseases are often subject to collective action problems, and social norms can play an important role in inducing compliance. In this paper, we study knowledge, beliefs, and behavior related to one such practice during the COVID-19 pandemic - physical distancing - using an online survey of social media users in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. We find that, while there is widespread knowledge that physical distancing reduces the spread of the virus, respondents underestimate their peers' support for policies designed to enforce physical distancing, expect others to practice physical distancing, and do not maintain physical distance themselves. However, more than half of respondents wrote a message to encourage others to practice physical distancing. Findings from survey experiments suggest that making salient the social and material costs for not keeping physical distance were insufficient to encourage compliance, suggestive of the absence of a social norm of physical distancing at the time. Given the large gap between own attitudes and expectations of others' attitudes toward lockdown policies, we propose that providing information on the extent of public support for physical distancing in citizens' own words may encourage compliance in the future.
Food insecurity and compound environmental shocks in Nepal: Implications for a changing climate.
Randell H, Jiang C, Liang XZ … +2 more , Murtugudde R, Sapkota A
World Dev · 2021 Sep · PMID 34012190 · Full text
Food insecurity is a key global health challenge that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Though climate change is associated with an increased frequency of extreme weather events, little is known about how mu...
Food insecurity is a key global health challenge that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Though climate change is associated with an increased frequency of extreme weather events, little is known about how multiple environmental shocks in close succession interact to impact household health and well-being. In this paper, we assess how earthquake exposure followed by monsoon rainfall anomalies affect food insecurity in Nepal. We link food security data from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey to data on shaking intensity during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and rainfall anomalies during the 2015 monsoon season. We then exploit spatial variation in exposure to the earthquake and monsoon rainfall anomalies to isolate their independent and compound effects. We find that earthquake exposure alone was not associated with an increased likelihood of food insecurity, likely due in part to effective food aid distribution. However, the effects of rainfall anomalies differed by severity of earthquake exposure. Among households minimally impacted by the earthquake, low rainfall was associated with increased food insecurity, likely due to lower agricultural productivity in drought conditions. Among households that experienced at least moderate shaking, greater rainfall was positively associated with food insecurity, particularly in steep, mountainous areas. In these locations, rainfall events disproportionately increased landslides, which damaged roads, disrupted distribution of food aid, and destroyed agricultural land and assets. Additional research on the social impacts of compound environmental shocks is needed to inform adaptation strategies that work to improve well-being in the face of climate change.
South-South humanitarianism: The case of Covid-organics in Tanzania.
Richey LA, Gissel LE, Kweka OL … +4 more , Bærendtsen P, Kragelund P, Hambati HQ, Mwamfupe A
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 36570101 · Full text
Tanzania's President sent a plane to Madagascar in May 2020 to bring a shipment of Covid-Organics, a purported cure and prevention for COVID-19. The herbal remedy was described as a gift to help African countries in need...
Tanzania's President sent a plane to Madagascar in May 2020 to bring a shipment of Covid-Organics, a purported cure and prevention for COVID-19. The herbal remedy was described as a gift to help African countries in need. Drawing on preliminary data in English and Kiswahili from unstructured participant observation, social and legacy media available online and shared through contact channels, and ongoing conversations, we explore the Tanzanian policy response to COVID-19. What can the exemplary case of Covid-Organics in Tanzania help us to understand about South-South humanitarian assistance (SSHA) in times of crisis? We suggest that Covid-Organics has enabled the government to project a link to latent debates about Pan-Africanism and Julius Nyerere's legacy and Madagascar's SSHA has provided an opportunity for a public reflection on Africa's place in the world. For some, the remedy's 'Africanness' is its comparative advantage, even promising a continental renaissance. For others, the lack of scientific evidence or approval by global health authorities like WHO is delegitimizing. These findings suggest that receivers of SSHA make sense of it in both a broad, post-colonial discursive context and in a specific context of local contestation. If the promise of this particular form of aid is its ability to transcend deep divisions between North and South, the case of Covid-Organics suggests that SSHA draws on deep ideologies of Pan-Africanism; is increasingly important in crises that are global; and like other forms of humanitarianism, reflects elite politics and priorities rather than prioritizing the distribution of humanitarian goods and decreasing inequality.
Dark and bright spots in the shadow of the pandemic: Rural livelihoods, social vulnerability, and local governance in India and Nepal.
Gupta D, Fischer H, Shrestha S … +6 more , Shoaib Ali S, Chhatre A, Devkota K, Fleischman F, Khatri DB, Rana P
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 36570100 · Full text
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to lives and livelihoods around the world. These disruptions have brought into sharp focus experiences of vulnerability but also, at times, evidence of re...
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to lives and livelihoods around the world. These disruptions have brought into sharp focus experiences of vulnerability but also, at times, evidence of resilience as people and institutions gear up to respond to the crisis. Drawing on intensive qualitative enquiry in 16 villages of Himalayan India and Nepal, this paper documents both dark and bright spots from the early days of the pandemic. We find intense experiences of fear and uncertainty, heightened food insecurity, and drastic reductions in livelihood opportunities. However, we also find a wide range of individual and collective responses as well as a patchwork of policy support mechanisms that have provided at least some measure of basic security. Local elected governments have played a critical role in coordinating responses and delivering social support, however the nature of their actions varies as a result of different institutional arrangements and state support systems in the two countries. Our findings highlight the changing nature of vulnerability in the present era, as demographic shifts, growing off-farm employment and dependence on remittances, and increasing market integration have all brought about new kinds of exposure to risk for rural populations in the context of the present disruption and beyond. Most importantly, our research shows the critical importance of strong systems of state support for protecting basic well-being in times of crises. Based on these findings, we argue that there is a need for greater knowledge of how local institutions work in tandem with a broader set of state support mechanisms to generate responses for urgent challenges; such knowledge holds the potential to develop governance systems that are better able to confront diverse shocks that households face, both now and in the future.
The redistributive effects of pandemics: Evidence on the Spanish flu.
Basco S, Domènech J, Rosés JR
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 36570099 · Full text
Which are the effects of pandemics on the returns to factors of production? Are these effects persistent over time? These questions have received renewed interest after the out-burst of deaths caused by Covid-19. The Spa...
Which are the effects of pandemics on the returns to factors of production? Are these effects persistent over time? These questions have received renewed interest after the out-burst of deaths caused by Covid-19. The Spanish Flu is the closest pandemic to Covid-19. In this paper, we analyze the impact of the Spanish Flu on the returns to labor and capital in Spain. Spain is an ideal country to perform this exercise. First, the "excess death rate" was one of the largest in Western Europe and it varied substantially across regions. Second, Spain was transitioning towards industrialization, with regions in different stages of development. Third, Spain was developed enough to have reliable data. We identify the effect of the Spanish Flu by exploiting within-country variation in "excess death rate". Our main result is that the effect of the Spanish Flu on daily real wages was large, negative, and broadly short-lived. The effects are heterogeneous across occupations and regions. The negative effects are exacerbated in (i) occupations producing non-essential goods like shoemakers and (ii) more urbanized provinces. Quantitatively, relative to pre-1918, the decline for the average region ranges from null to around 30 percent. In addition, we fail to find significant negative effects of the flu on returns to capital. Whereas the results for dividends are imprecisely estimated (we cannot reject a null effect), the effect on real estate prices (houses and land), driven by the post-1918 recovery, is positive. Experts on inequality have argued that pandemics have equalizing effects especially in a Malthusian setting, due to real wage increases. Our findings suggest that, at least, for a developing economy like Spain in the early 20th century, this result does not apply. Indeed, we document that the flu pandemic was conducive to a (short-run) reduction in real wages. In addition, we interpret our heterogeneous results as suggestive evidence that pandemics represent a demand shock.
COVID-19 and small enterprises in the food supply chain: Early impacts and implications for longer-term food system resilience in low- and middle-income countries.
Nordhagen S, Igbeka U, Rowlands H … +3 more , Shine RS, Heneghan E, Tench J
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 36570098 · Full text
Food and nutrition security play an essential role in weathering and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic-and in achieving sustainable development. In most low- and middle-income countries, micro, small, and medium-sized ent...
Food and nutrition security play an essential role in weathering and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic-and in achieving sustainable development. In most low- and middle-income countries, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play an essential role in food supply chains and thus in ensuring food and nutrition security. However, limited attention has been paid to how these critical food system actors are being impacted by the pandemic and associated measures. This paper helps fill that gap through analysis of data from 367 agri-food MSMEs in 17 countries, collected in May 2020 and capturing early impacts of the pandemic on their operations. About 94.3% of respondents reported that their firm's operations had been impacted by the pandemic, primarily through decreased sales as well as lower access to inputs and financing amid limited financial reserves. Difficulty with staffing was also widely cited. Eighty-four percent of firms reported changing their production volume as a result of the pandemic; of these, about 13% reported stopping production and about 82% reported decreasing production. Approximately 54% had changed product prices as a result of the pandemic. The probability of being severely impacted was significantly higher for firms with <50,000 USD in annual turnover; a larger decrease in consumer mobility for grocery/pharmacy shopping also increased the probability of a severe impact. Surprisingly, the youngest firms and those with the fewest employees (controlling for turnover) were less likely to be severely impacted. Over 80% of firms had taken actions to mitigate the pandemic's impact on their operations and/or staff, and about 44% were considering exploring new business areas, with some seeing opportunities for growth. We conclude by discussing implications for policy responses to address immediate challenges as well as increase long-term food system resilience to support further progress towards sustainable development.
Informal mhealth at scale in Africa: Opportunities and challenges.
Hampshire K, Mwase-Vuma T, Alemu K … +12 more , Abane A, Munthali A, Awoke T, Mariwah S, Chamdimba E, Owusu SA, Robson E, Castelli M, Shkedy Z, Shawa N, Abel J, Kasim A
World Dev · 2021 Apr · PMID 33814676 · Full text
The extraordinary global growth of digital connectivity has generated optimism that mobile technologies can help overcome infrastructural barriers to development, with 'mobile health' (mhealth) being a key component of t...
The extraordinary global growth of digital connectivity has generated optimism that mobile technologies can help overcome infrastructural barriers to development, with 'mobile health' (mhealth) being a key component of this. However, while 'formal' (top-down) mhealth programmes continue to face challenges of scalability and sustainability, we know relatively little about how health-workers are using their own mobile phones in their work. Using data from Ghana, Ethiopia and Malawi, we document the reach, nature and perceived impacts of community health-workers' (CHWs') 'informal mhealth' practices, and ask how equitably these are distributed. We implemented a mixed-methods study, combining surveys of CHWs across the three countries, using multi-stage proportional-to-size sampling (N = 2197 total), with qualitative research (interviews and focus groups with CHWs, clients and higher-level stake-holders). Survey data were weighted to produce nationally- or regionally-representative samples for multivariate analysis; comparative thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. Our findings confirm the limited reach of 'formal' compared with 'informal' mhealth: while only 15% of CHWs surveyed were using formal mhealth applications, over 97% reported regularly using a personal mobile phone for work-related purposes in a range of innovative ways. CHWs and clients expressed unequivocally enthusiastic views about the perceived impacts of this 'informal health' usage. However, they also identified very real practical challenges, financial burdens and other threats to personal wellbeing; these appear to be borne disproportionately by the lowest-paid cadre of health-workers, especially those serving rural areas. Unlike previous small-scale, qualitative studies, our work has shown that informal mhealth is already happening , far outstripping its formal equivalent. Policy-makers need to engage seriously with this , and to work closely with those on the ground to address sources of inequity, without undermining existing good practice.
The impact of iron-biofortified bean adoption on bean productivity, consumption, purchases and sales.
Vaiknoras K, Larochelle C
World Dev · 2021 Mar · PMID 33658742 · Full text
Staple food crops tend to be low in micronutrients; therefore, individuals whose diets rely heavily on them can suffer from micronutrient deficiency. Biofortification addresses this issue through the breeding of staple c...
Staple food crops tend to be low in micronutrients; therefore, individuals whose diets rely heavily on them can suffer from micronutrient deficiency. Biofortification addresses this issue through the breeding of staple crops that are micronutrient-dense and high yielding. One such crop is iron-biofortified beans. Ten iron-biofortified bean varieties were released between 2010 and 2012 in Rwanda, a country with high rates of bean production and consumption, to address iron deficiency. This study evaluates the effect of the most widely adopted of these varieties, RWR2245, on household yield, land cultivated under beans, bean consumption, purchases, and sales. Because the adoption decision could be endogenous, we use a control function approach to quantify the impacts of adoption. RWR2245 provides a yield gain of 20%-49% over traditional bush bean varieties. In our preferred model specification, we find that over a 12-month period, growing RWR2245 for at least one out of two annual growing seasons increases the length of time beans are consumed from own production by 0.64 months (19-20 days), reduces the length of time beans are purchased for consumption by 0.73 months (22-23 days), and increases the probability of selling beans by 12%. Adoption can thus improve household nutrition via two channels: primarily by increasing iron intake via substituting biofortified harvested beans for less nutrient-dense beans from the market, and additionally by increasing household income that can be spent on nutritious foods through the reduction in bean purchases and increased likelihood of selling beans. Moreover, the sale of iron-biofortified beans implies the availability of iron-dense food in markets, also benefiting households that purchase beans. These findings are promising for the continued adoption of iron-biofortified beans in Rwanda and elsewhere and provide evidence that biofortified crops are an effective investment for nutrition, food security, and poverty reduction.
Navigating women's reproductive health and childbearing during public health crises: Covid-19 and Zika in Brazil.
Marteleto LJ, Dondero M
World Dev · 2021 Mar · PMID 35495087 · Full text
Abstract loading — click title to view on PubMed.
A Cash Plus Program Reduces Youth Exposure to Physical Violence in Zimbabwe.
Chakrabarti A, Handa S, Angeles G … +1 more , Seidenfeld D
World Dev · 2020 Oct · PMID 33633431 · Full text
Violence against children and adolescents, a highly prevalent problem, is a clear violation of child rights and has detrimental effects on later life outcomes. Programs that alleviate poverty address a structural determi...
Violence against children and adolescents, a highly prevalent problem, is a clear violation of child rights and has detrimental effects on later life outcomes. Programs that alleviate poverty address a structural determinant of child vulnerability and can thereby reduce child abuse. This paper investigates whether the Government of Zimbabwe's Harmonized Social Cash Transfer (HSCT) Program, which combines cash transfers with complementary services, affects youth exposure to physical violence. The analysis uses data from a non-experimental impact evaluation and a difference-in-differences approach. Results show a 19-percentage point decline in the incidence of physical violence among youth four years into the program. HSCT-induced enhancements in beneficiary households' purchasing capacity and food security, improvements in caregiver subjective well-being, and reductions in youth participation in economic work for pay could be mediating the program's effects on youth abuse. This paper adds to the relatively scarce evidence on the impacts of anti-poverty policies on young people's susceptibility to physical violence in developing countries.
Poverty and COVID-19 in Africa and Latin America.
Bargain O, Aminjonov U
World Dev · 2021 Jun · PMID 33612919 · Full text
Since March 2020, governments have recommended or enacted lockdown policies to curb the spread of COVID-19. Yet, poorer segments of the population cannot afford to stay at home and must continue to work. In this paper, w...
Since March 2020, governments have recommended or enacted lockdown policies to curb the spread of COVID-19. Yet, poorer segments of the population cannot afford to stay at home and must continue to work. In this paper, we test whether work-related mobility is effectively influenced by the local intensity of poverty. To do so, we exploit poverty data and Google mobility data for 242 regions of nine Latin American and African countries. We find that the drop in work-related mobility during the first lockdown period was indeed significantly lower in high-poverty regions compared to other regions. We also illustrate how higher poverty has induced a faster spread of the virus. The policy implication is that social protection measures in the form of food or cash trasfers must be complementary to physical distancing measures. Further research must evaluate how such transfers, when implemented, have attenuated the difference between poor and non-poor regions in terms of exposure to the virus.
Demographic, health, and economic transitions and the future care burden.
King EM, Randolph HL, Floro MS … +1 more , Suh J
World Dev · 2021 Apr · PMID 33519035 · Full text
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of infections and deaths worldwide, forced schools to suspend classes, workers to work from home, many to lose their livelihoods, and countless businesses to close. Throughout th...
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of infections and deaths worldwide, forced schools to suspend classes, workers to work from home, many to lose their livelihoods, and countless businesses to close. Throughout this crisis, families have had to protect, comfort and care for their children, their elderly and other members. While the pandemic has greatly intensified family care responsibilities for families, unpaid care work has been a primary activity of families even in normal times. This paper estimates the future global need for caregiving, and the burden of that need that typically falls on families, especially women. It takes into account projected demographic shifts, health transitions, and economic changes in order to obtain an aggregate picture of the care need to the potential supply of caregiving in low-, middle- and high-income countries. This extensive margin of the future care burden, however, does not capture the weight of that burden unless the quantity and quality of care time per caregiver are taken into account. Adjusting for care time given per caregiver, the paper incorporates data from time-use surveys, illustrating this intensive margin of the care burden in three countries that have very different family and economic contexts-Ghana, Mongolia, and South Korea. Time-use surveys typically do not provide time data for paid care services, so the estimates depend only on the time intensity of family care. With this caveat, the paper estimates that the care need in 2030 would require the equivalent of one-fifth to two-fifths of the paid labor force, assuming 40 weekly workhours. Using the projected 2030 mean wage for care and social service workers to estimate the hypothetical wage bill for these unpaid caregivers if they were paid, we obtain a value equivalent to 16 to 32 percent of GDP in the three countries.
COVID-19 and armed conflict.
Ide T
World Dev · 2021 Apr · PMID 33519034 · Full text
This article studies the impact of COVID-19 on armed conflict. The pandemic has significant health, economic and political effects. These can change the grievances and opportunity structures relevant for armed conflicts...
This article studies the impact of COVID-19 on armed conflict. The pandemic has significant health, economic and political effects. These can change the grievances and opportunity structures relevant for armed conflicts to either increase or decrease conflict risks. I analyse empirical evidence from Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Yemen from the first six months of 2020. Results suggest that COVID-19 provides little opportunities for health diplomacy and cooperation, but it also has not yet driven grievances to a level where they became relevant for armed conflicts. Four countries have encountered temporary declines in armed conflicts, mostly due to strategic decisions by governments or rebels to account for impeded logistics and to increase their popular support. Armed conflict levels have increased in five countries, with conflict parties exploiting either state weakness or a lack of (international) attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a worrisome trend given the tremendous impacts of armed conflict on human security and on the capabilities of countries to deal with health emergencies.
Corrigendum to "Learning from past pandemic governance: Early response and public-private partnerships in testing of COVID-19 in South Korea" [World Development 137 (2021) 105198].
Park J, Chung E
World Dev · 2021 Apr · PMID 33519033 · Full text
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105198.].
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105198.].
Short-run environmental effects of COVID-19: Evidence from forest fires.
Paudel J
World Dev · 2021 Jan · PMID 33519032 · Full text
The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has raised questions about changes in economic production and subsequent effects on the environment. This article employs satellite data on real-time active f...
The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has raised questions about changes in economic production and subsequent effects on the environment. This article employs satellite data on real-time active fire locations in Nepal to evaluate the short-term environmental effects of COVID-19. Using plausibly exogenous variation in the number of reported COVID-19 cases across the country, this study finds that the incidence of COVID-19 led to a strong negative effect on the incidence of human-induced forest fires. Results indicate that an additional reported case of COVID-19 resulted in a 4.54% decrease in the number of forest fire incidents and a 11.36% reduction in fire radiative power associated with these events. Findings also show that districts with smaller areas of community-managed forests per capita experienced a 8.11% decrease in the number of forest fire incidents. Restrictions on movement of people across districts in response to the pandemic likely reduced the incidence of forest fire events in Nepal. These short-run estimates of environmental benefits, which do not account for negative consequences of the virus outbreak on health and labor market outcomes, partially offset the social cost of pandemics in the developing world.
Climate risk, culture and the Covid-19 mortality: A cross-country analysis.
Ozkan A, Ozkan G, Yalaman A … +1 more , Yildiz Y
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 33495666 · Full text
Why have some countries done significantly better than others in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? Had some countries been better prepared than others? This paper attempts to shed light on these questions by examining the...
Why have some countries done significantly better than others in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? Had some countries been better prepared than others? This paper attempts to shed light on these questions by examining the role of climate risk and culture in explaining the cross-country variation in the Covid-19 mortality, while controlling for other potential drivers. In our analysis, we consider climate risk, readiness to climate change and individualism as main indicators reflecting the climate and culture status of individual countries. Using data from 110 countries, we find that the greater the climate risk; the lower the readiness to climate change and the more individualistic the society, the higher the pandemic mortality rate. We also present a series of sensitivity checks and show that our findings are robust to different specifications, alternative definitions of the mortality rate; and different estimation methods. One policy implication arising from our results is that countries that were better prepared for the climate emergency were also better placed to fight the pandemic. Overall, countries in which individuals look after each other and the environment, creating sustainable societies, are better able to cope with climate and public health emergencies.
Stigma, Trust, and procedural integrity: Covid-19 testing in Malawi.
Ferree KE, Harris AS, Dulani B … +3 more , Kao K, Lust E, Metheney E
World Dev · 2021 May · PMID 33456104 · Full text
An emerging consensus in public health views testing for Covid-19 as key to managing the pandemic. It is often assumed that citizens have a strong desire to know their Covid-19 status, and will therefore take advantage o...
An emerging consensus in public health views testing for Covid-19 as key to managing the pandemic. It is often assumed that citizens have a strong desire to know their Covid-19 status, and will therefore take advantage of testing opportunities. This may not be the case in all contexts, however, especially those where citizens perceive stigma associated with the Covid-19, have low trust in health institutions, and doubt the procedural integrity of the testing process. This article explores willingness to receive a free Covid-19 test via a vignette experiment (conjoint design) embedded in a phone survey conducted in Malawi in May 2020. The experiment varied test provider (public clinic versus international health organization), proximity to illness, and reassurance of confidentiality. We find that Malawians expect higher uptake of testing in their community when the international health organization offered the test rather than a public clinic, an effect we attribute to higher trust in the organization and/or perceptions of greater capacity to ensure procedural integrity. The confidentiality reassurance did not substantially alter beliefs about the privacy of results, but did increase doubts about the willingness of community members to get tested in a public health clinic. Our findings suggest the importance of considering the demand side of testing in addition to well-known challenges of supply.
The moral and political economy of the pandemic in Bangladesh: Weak states and strong societies during Covid-19.
Ali TO, Hassan M, Hossain N
World Dev · 2021 Jan · PMID 35722450 · Full text
As the Covid-19 pandemic spread in 2020, the government of Bangladesh ordered a lockdown and promised a program of relief. Citizens complied at first, but soon returned to economic and social life; relief proved slow and...
As the Covid-19 pandemic spread in 2020, the government of Bangladesh ordered a lockdown and promised a program of relief. Citizens complied at first, but soon returned to economic and social life; relief proved slow and uncertain, and citizens could not rely on government assistance. The government tacitly and then officially permitted the lockdown to end, despite a rising Covid-19 caseload. This article draws on theories about state capacity to make and enforce policy to understand why Bangladesh proved unable to sustain a lockdown deemed necessary to contain the pandemic in this densely populated, low income country. Drawing on original qualitative mobile phone-based research in six selected communities, this article examines how the state exercised its capacities for coercion, control over lower factions within political society, and sought to preserve and enhance its legitimacy. It concludes that despite a) the growth in the capacity of the Bangladeshi state in the past decade and b) strong political incentives to manage the pandemic without harm to economic wellbeing, the pressures to sustain legitimacy with the masses forced the state and its frontline actors to tolerate lockdown rule-breaking, conceding that the immediate livelihood needs of the poor masses overrode national public health concerns. Chronically unable to enforce its authority over local political elites, the state failed to ensure a fair and timely distribution of relief. The weakness of the Bangladeshi state contrasts with the strength of widely shared 'moral economy' views within society, which provided powerful ethical and political justification for citizens' failures to comply with the lockdown, and for officials' forbearance in its enforcement. The Covid-19 pandemic highlights both the importance of state capacity in managing novel shocks from within the global system, and the challenges in settings where weak states are embedded in strong societies.
The mutual constraints of states and global value chains during COVID-19: The case of personal protective equipment.
Dallas MP, Horner R, Li L
World Dev · 2021 Mar · PMID 33293754 · Full text
Shortages of critical medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic have turned global value chains (GVCs) in personal protective equipment (PPE) into a political lightning rod. Some blame excessive outsourcing and forei...
Shortages of critical medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic have turned global value chains (GVCs) in personal protective equipment (PPE) into a political lightning rod. Some blame excessive outsourcing and foreign dependency for causing shortages, thus urging greater state intervention; others applaud GVCs for their flexibility and scaling up of production, while blaming states for undermining GVC operations. Using policy process-tracing and monthly trade data of seven PPE products across the US, Europe, China and Malaysia, this paper goes beyond the binary debate of either the 'failure' or 'success' of GVCs to show when and under what conditions states interacted with GVCs to produce mixed outcomes in provisioning countries with PPEs. We identify interactions between the type of state intervention and two key structural features of GVCs - geographic distribution of production and technological attributes of the product. Conceptually, the paper demonstrates the of states and GVCs, and highlights structural factors involved in the relationship. Looking to the future of GVCs, we caution against wholesale declarations that GVCs should be abandoned or maintained, instead concluding that paying attention to GVC structure, states and their interactions are crucial.
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