World Development[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Responding to COVID-19: Community volunteerism and coproduction in China.
Miao Q, Schwarz S, Schwarz G
World Dev · 2021 Jan · PMID 32834397 · Full text
The COVID-19 pandemic created a critical need for citizen volunteers working with government to protect public health and to augment overwhelmed public services. Our research examines the crucial role of community volunt...
The COVID-19 pandemic created a critical need for citizen volunteers working with government to protect public health and to augment overwhelmed public services. Our research examines the crucial role of community volunteers and their effective deployment during a crisis. We analyze individual and collaborative service activities based on usage data from 85,699 COVID-19 volunteers gathered through China's leading digital volunteering platform, as well as a survey conducted among a sample of 2,270 of these COVID-19 volunteers using the platform and interviews with 14 civil society leaders in charge of coordinating service activities. Several results emerge: the value of collaboration among local citizens, civil society including community-based groups, and regional government to fill gaps in public services; the key role of experienced local volunteers, who rapidly shifted to COVID-19 from other causes as the pandemic peaked; and an example of state-led coproduction based on long-term relationships. Our analysis provides insight into the role of volunteerism and coproduction in China's response to the pandemic, laying groundwork for future research. The findings can help support the response to COVID-19 and future crises by more effectively leveraging human capital and technology in community service delivery.
Policy options for galvanizing Africa's rice sector against impacts of COVID-19.
Kathiresan A, Nagai T, Haneishi Y
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834396 · Full text
Demand for rice consumption in Africa has outstripped the current local production capacities. As a result, African markets have become heavily dependent on importation, especially from Asia. During the COVID-19 pandemic...
Demand for rice consumption in Africa has outstripped the current local production capacities. As a result, African markets have become heavily dependent on importation, especially from Asia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rice production in both Asia and Africa is likely to be reduced. It is also likely that the major Asian rice exporting countries will resort to stockpiling of their local production, and restrict volumes of (or ban) rice exportation. Such measures could affect demand-supply dynamics and trigger a price crisis in African rice markets. Based on the lessons learnt from the Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemics and the 2007-08 food price crisis, African nations need to moderate the impact of such a crisis through appropriate policy actions.
What happens when the money runs out? Forest outcomes and equity concerns following Ecuador's suspension of conservation payments.
Etchart N, Freire JL, Holland MB … +2 more , Jones KW, Naughton-Treves L
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834395 · Full text
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are now a prominent policy instrument for conserving tropical forests. PES are voluntary, direct, and contractual: an ES buyer pays an ES steward for adopting conservation practices...
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are now a prominent policy instrument for conserving tropical forests. PES are voluntary, direct, and contractual: an ES buyer pays an ES steward for adopting conservation practices for a fixed term. A defining feature of PES is its 'quid pro quo' conditionality, e.g. stewards are paid only if they deliver contracted conservation outcomes. Most studies on PES effectiveness focus on the compliance with contract conditions. By contrast, the 's compliance has received scant attention despite the fact that PES programs across the globe have delayed payments, suspended re-enrollment, or shut down altogether. 'Use-restricting' PES depend on the continued flow of funding to pay for conservation; however, institutional, political, and economic factors can disrupt or terminate PES funding. What happens when the PES money unexpectedly runs out? Do stewards continue to conserve or revert to their former practices? We use mixed methods to study equity concerns and forest outcomes of an unexpected, two-year interruption in conservation payments to 63 private landowners residing in Ecuador's Amazon and enrolled in the Socio Bosque program, compared to similar landowners who did not enroll. Using quasi-experimental methods, we found that during the payment suspension period enrolled properties did not maintain their conservation outcomes where deforestation pressures were high (e.g. close to roads). Where deforestation pressures were low, enrolled properties continued to conserve more, on average, than similar properties not enrolled. Findings from 40 interviews and 26 focus groups conducted before, during, and after the payment suspension exposed profound landowner uncertainty regarding their contract rights. Poor official communication and imbalanced PES contract terms reinforced power inequalities between the state and rural ES stewards. Our work highlights the need to plan for financial volatility and to protect participants' rights in PES contract design.
COVID-19's impacts on migrant workers from Bangladesh: In search of policy intervention.
Karim MR, Islam MT, Talukder B
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834394 · Full text
Migrant workers play a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh, pumping approximately USD15 billion into the economy that directly contributes to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh every year. These worke...
Migrant workers play a significant role in the economy of Bangladesh, pumping approximately USD15 billion into the economy that directly contributes to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh every year. These workers and their dependents are in a socially vulnerable and economically difficult situation due to the dire impacts of the COVID-19. Migrant workers from Bangladesh in other countries are facing adverse impacts such as unemployment, short working hours, isolation, poor quality of living, social discrimination and mental pressure while their dependents at home are facing financial crisis due to the limited or reduced cash flow from their working relatives. A significant number of migrant workers have been sent back to Bangladesh and many are in constant fear of being sent back due to the impacts of COVID-19 in their host countries. Thus, COVID-19 intensifies numerous socio-economic crises such as joblessness, consumption of reserve funds by family members, and shrinking of the country's remittance inflow. In this situation, the most urgent and important need is to give financial security and social safety to the workers abroad and those who have returned to Bangladesh. Apart from diplomatic endeavors to maintain the status quo of policy, the government of Bangladesh may take initiatives to provide financial support to these workers as a short-term strategy to overcome hardships during the pandemic and design a comprehensive plan with a detailed database of all migrant workers to create a need-based and skilled workforce as a long-term solution. These strategies can mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 at present and address migration related problems in future.
Are responses to the pandemic inclusive? A rapid virtual audit of COVID-19 press briefings in LMICs.
Yap J, Chaudhry V, Jha CK … +2 more , Mani S, Mitra S
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834393 · Full text
Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic may leave many people behind through a variety of exclusion processes as basic information about the virus and its spread is shared with the public. We conduct a rapid virtual audit of...
Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic may leave many people behind through a variety of exclusion processes as basic information about the virus and its spread is shared with the public. We conduct a rapid virtual audit of pandemic related press briefings and press conferences issued by governments and international organizations in order to assess if responses have been inclusive to the hearing-impaired communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We analyze COVID-19 press conferences and press briefings issued during Feb-May 2020, for over 123 LMICs and for international organizations (e.g. the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO)). Our virtual audit shows that only 65% of countries have a sign language interpreter (SLI) present in COVID-19 press briefings and conferences. This number is smaller in low-income countries (41%) and Sub-Saharan African countries (54%). Surprisingly, none of the international organizations including the WHO has a SLI present during COVID-19 press briefings. We recommend all countries and international organizations to reconsider ways to make press conferences accessible to a wide audience in general, and to the hearing impaired communities in particular by including a SLI during their COVID-19 briefings, a primary step towards upholding the sustainable development pledge of "no one gets left behind."
Beyond banning wildlife trade: COVID-19, conservation and development.
Roe D, Dickman A, Kock R … +3 more , Milner-Gulland EJ, Rihoy E, 't Sas-Rolfes M
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834392 · Full text
One of the immediate responses to COVID-19 has been a call to ban wildlife trade given the suspected origin of the pandemic in a Chinese market selling and butchering wild animals. There is clearly an urgent need to tack...
One of the immediate responses to COVID-19 has been a call to ban wildlife trade given the suspected origin of the pandemic in a Chinese market selling and butchering wild animals. There is clearly an urgent need to tackle wildlife trade that is illegal, unsustainable or carries major risks to human health, biodiversity conservation or meeting acceptable animal welfare standards. However, some of the suggested actions in these calls go far beyond tackling these risks and have the potential to undermine human rights, damage conservation incentives and harm sustainable development. There are a number of reasons for this concerns. First calls for bans on wildlife markets often include calls for bans on wet markets, but the two are not the same thing, and wet markets can be a critical underpinning of informal food systems. Second, wildlife trade generates essential resources for the world's most vulnerable people, contributing to food security for millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Third, wildlife trade bans have conservation risks including driving trade underground, making it even harder to regulate, and encouraging further livestock production. Fourth, in many cases, sustainable wildlife trade can provide key incentives for local people to actively protect species and the habitat they depend on, leading to population recoveries. Most importantly, a singular focus on wildlife trade overlooks the key driver of the emergence of infectious diseases: habitat destruction, largely driven by agricultural expansion and deforestation, and industrial livestock production. We suggest that the COVID-19 crisis provides a unique opportunity for a paradigm shift both in our global food system and also in our approach to conservation. We make specific suggestions as to what this entails, but the overriding principle is that local people must be at the heart of such policy shifts.
Challenges to NGOs' ability to bid for funding due to the repatriation of volunteers: The case of Samoa.
Tierney A, Boodoosingh R
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834391 · Full text
Although there are an increasing number of funding facilities accessible for non-government organisations in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, critics suggest that it is still insufficient. Non-government organis...
Although there are an increasing number of funding facilities accessible for non-government organisations in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, critics suggest that it is still insufficient. Non-government organisations provide many essential services across the world, especially in the developing world, where they supplement or in some instances extend the government services. With services from health to gender issues to humanitarian support, non-government organisations continue to grapple with insufficiency of core and programming funding and unstable staffing. In Samoa, technical assistance through government volunteers supplemented the need for expert human resource and enabled the ability to apply for funding. With the mass repatriation of government volunteers such as Australian Volunteers, American Peace Corps and Japanese International Cooperation Agency, it resulted in a sudden and massive gap in technical human resource, equipped to apply for the rapidly expanding number of funding options. Through the experiences of a non-government organisation worker and an academic researcher based in Samoa, this piece shares the current experiences and potential repercussions of this sudden change in the non-government sector and suggestions moving forward to utilize the existing expertise in country in the academic sector to support non-government organizations to access funding.
Information flow and COVID-19 recovery.
Chundakkadan R, Ravindran R
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834390 · Full text
This study examines whether the flow of information pertaining to COVID-19 helps to contain the pandemic. We capture the information flow of the pandemic using the Google Search Volume Index for the keyword in 33 states...
This study examines whether the flow of information pertaining to COVID-19 helps to contain the pandemic. We capture the information flow of the pandemic using the Google Search Volume Index for the keyword in 33 states and union territories in India. We find that the information flow is inversely related to positive cases reported in these regions. This result suggests that internet inclusion is a relevant factor in the fight against the pandemic.
Understanding China's wildlife markets: Trade and tradition in an age of pandemic.
Zhu A, Zhu G
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834389 · Full text
Environmentalists have long been concerned about the rate at which China is consuming and trading in threatened and endangered wildlife. The recent COVID-19 global pandemic has made wildlife consumption an issue that con...
Environmentalists have long been concerned about the rate at which China is consuming and trading in threatened and endangered wildlife. The recent COVID-19 global pandemic has made wildlife consumption an issue that concerns everyone around the world. Formerly obscure practices like wet markets and commodities like pangolin scales or bear bile have gained international notoriety. Along with that attention has come increasing politicization and ideological polarization. Beyond the global fight against the pandemic, there has been another global struggle over the meaning and origin of the disease, as evidenced by the spread of terms like "Wuhan Flu" and "bat soup." What has become obscured by the news cycle struggling to keep up with the rapid spread of the virus and the political sound and fury surrounding it is any meaningful understanding of China's wildlife consumption and trade. Deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and history, the wildlife trade is not going away anytime soon. Despite a national ban, already wet markets are returning across China. Addressing the wildlife trade in China, we argue, requires first understanding it.
Psychological stress responses to COVID-19 and adaptive strategies in China.
Song M
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834388 · Full text
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) developed into a pandemic on March 11. COVID-19 not only brought life crisis, but also incurred psychological stress: tension, anxiety, fear and despair among affected popula...
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) developed into a pandemic on March 11. COVID-19 not only brought life crisis, but also incurred psychological stress: tension, anxiety, fear and despair among affected populations. How to help people overcome traumatic stress reactions and get out of psychological crisis has become a public concern that needs to be resolved in time. This article reported the psychological responses caused by the COVID-19 epidemic in China based on relevant experience and studies. The anti-epidemic measures of self-quarantine and social-distancing were deployed to contain the spread of COVID-19, but inevitably caused a certain extent of side effect: frustration and anxiety in the general public. Especially, the front-line medical rescue staff and COVID-19 patients were more susceptible to developing psychological disorders. Correspondingly, adaptive strategies and public health policies were rapidly implemented in China to deal with outbreak-caused mental stress. The psychological impact of COVID-19 and coping strategies adopted in China provided warning and reference for countries that are and going to be affected by this natural disaster.
Sensemaking and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic: A complex adaptive systems perspective on policy decision-making.
Angeli F, Montefusco A
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834387 · Full text
Governments worldwide are under enormous pressure to effectively and promptly address the increasingly complex crisis presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. To understand the difficulties inherent to policymakers' sensemaki...
Governments worldwide are under enormous pressure to effectively and promptly address the increasingly complex crisis presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. To understand the difficulties inherent to policymakers' sensemaking and learning processes during this unprecedented challenge, this article develops a perspective rooted in complexity theory. We highlight that, just as complex adaptive systems, societies affected by the pandemic and by the subsequent containment policies present non-linear and unpredictable outcomes, which highly depend on the social systems' initial states and on the behavioral rules governing the actions and interactions of the agents composing the systems. This analysis underlines that any decision-making process in a highly complex crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic is inherently inaccurate and short-sighted. Far, however, from suggesting a policy paralysis, with this perspective we highlight the need to embed complexity thinking in policy decision-making and we present a roadmap for learning based on a flexible and adaptive approach, locally optimal solutions, and the need for international cooperation and transparent dissemination of data.
Digital contact-tracing and pandemics: Institutional and technological preparedness in Africa.
Arakpogun EO, Elsahn Z, Prime KS … +2 more , Gerli P, Olan F
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834386 · Full text
Several countries in Africa have either deployed or considering using digital contact-tracing (DCT) as part of their Covid-19 containment strategy, amidst calls for the use of technology to improve the efficiency of trad...
Several countries in Africa have either deployed or considering using digital contact-tracing (DCT) as part of their Covid-19 containment strategy, amidst calls for the use of technology to improve the efficiency of traditional contact-tracing. We discuss some of the complexities entailed in using DCT in Africa. Adopting a socio-technical perspective, we argue that if DCT design and deployment are not well thought out, it can lead to unintended consequences, particularly in a continent like Africa with disproportionate levels of digital divides and other structural inequalities. We suggest that any adoption of DCT by African countries must take account of their compatibility with local resources, values, social structure, and domestic political factors. Accordingly, we propose a process of whereby DCT adaptation is made to accommodate the unique institutional and technological characteristics of African countries by leveraging local practices learned from previous pandemics like Ebola to develop a to (digital) contact-tracing.
Equity as both a means and an end: Lessons for resilient food systems from COVID-19.
Klassen S, Murphy S
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834385 · Full text
Food systems are important sites of economic stress, political response and adaptation. Access to food is also an important marker of how well a society distributes its wealth, reflecting the state of political accountab...
Food systems are important sites of economic stress, political response and adaptation. Access to food is also an important marker of how well a society distributes its wealth, reflecting the state of political accountability, economic redistribution, and the society's level of commitment to uphold the right to food. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the interconnected weaknesses of our food, social and economic systems and offers lessons for building more just and resilient food systems. We focus on three lessons learned anew in the pandemic: (1) food insecurity both reflects and reinforces inequity, (2) food workers are essential yet treated as sacrificial, and (3) racialized migrant food workers face unique forms of inequity. These lessons - chosen for their ethical salience, global relevance, and political urgency - show how interconnected inequities revealed by the pandemic are undermining resilience. We conclude with specific policy recommendations for redress, both within and beyond food systems. This will not be the final global pandemic, nor is it the only shock that regions are currently experiencing. COVID-19 is an opening to think about how societies might center justice and equity in efforts to build back better. Governments should take this opportunity to invest in structural changes to reduce persistent inequities in food access due to poverty, health outcomes, decent work and overall wellbeing, especially for racialized communities and migrants.
Compounding crises of social reproduction: Microfinance, over-indebtedness and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brickell K, Picchioni F, Natarajan N … +4 more , Guermond V, Parsons L, Zanello G, Bateman M
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834384 · Full text
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit at a time when microfinance is at its historical peak, with an estimated 139 million microfinance customers globally. Cambodia's microfinance sector is one of the fastest growing, and like o...
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit at a time when microfinance is at its historical peak, with an estimated 139 million microfinance customers globally. Cambodia's microfinance sector is one of the fastest growing, and like others in the Global South has moved from offering entrepreneurial capital to everyday liquidity, and even disaster relief. In this Viewpoint, however, we argue that the promotion of microfinance as market-based relief and recovery from the pandemic should be a source of concern, not comfort. We firstly suggest that as a result of the health and economic impacts associated with COVID-19, credit-taking is likely to escalate further in terms of the number of borrowers and loan amounts. Second, we contend that a growing reliance on MFIs will leave households undernourished, and further vulnerable to its disciplining and extractive impulses. Third, we argue that the interplay between over-indebtedness, pre-existing malnutrition challenges, and the global public health crisis of COVID-19 represents a major challenge to gender equality and sustainable development. Coordination between the Cambodian government, microfinance lenders, international investors, and development partners is vital to offer debt relief. Furthermore, to reverse the reliance of so many households on the microfinance industry for survival, inclusive socio-economic policies and public welfare services must be prioritised.
Distress migration and employment in indigenous Odisha, India: Evidence from migrant-sending households.
Bhattamishra R
World Dev · 2020 Dec · PMID 32834383 · Full text
We convey responses from migrant-sending households in western Odisha from interviews on migration conducted during the lockdown. The majority of migrants are indigenous (referred to as Scheduled Tribes or STs in India),...
We convey responses from migrant-sending households in western Odisha from interviews on migration conducted during the lockdown. The majority of migrants are indigenous (referred to as Scheduled Tribes or STs in India), come from very poor households and have little or no education. Prior to the lockdown, the majority of migrants engaged in seasonal, temporary migration-working in dangerous, informal, low-skilled odd jobs for low wages for a few months to supplement incomes at home the rest of the year. Lack of local employment alternatives is cited as the primary reason behind migration. After the lockdown, in the absence of income from migration, households with former migrants hope to earn a livelihood locally-with assistance from National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), India's public works program. Besides providing employment, NREGA works can include physical and health infrastructure which improve connectivity of health workers. NREGA works can also include community assets, such as facilities for irrigation, rainwater harvesting and plantations as well as child-care centers under India's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program. We posit that in the long run, this can improve health, education levels and livelihoods of the local communities, addressing not only the immediate need for local employment but also distress migration in the future.
Viewpoint - Handwashing and COVID-19: Simple, right there…?
Ray I
World Dev · 2020 Nov · PMID 32834382 · Full text
COVID-19 is a disease with no proven pharmaceutical intervention and no proven vaccine. In such circumstances, prevention is all we have. The role of handwashing in the prevention of communicable diseases has been known...
COVID-19 is a disease with no proven pharmaceutical intervention and no proven vaccine. In such circumstances, prevention is all we have. The role of handwashing in the prevention of communicable diseases has been known for over a century, yet it remains severely neglected as a public health investment, to be periodically re-discovered during pandemic-scale infections. Over 26% of the global population has no access to a handwashing station in the home; for many low-income countries this proportion rises to over 50%. In other instances, the water is unaffordable or the supply has been shut off on account of unpaid bills. But when there is no water in the home or yard, or no mechanism for delivering enough water, good hand-washing is extremely difficult. Well before COVID-19, global cost-benefit analyses of water and sanitation investments, with benefits measured in time-savings as well as health, showed significant net benefits in all sub-regions of the developing world. This Viewpoint paper argues that, in the current crisis and its aftermath, it is imperative for governments and donors to prioritize and generously fund affordable, reliable, and accessible water services in underserved regions of the world. More than ever before, this is a foundational investment for health, dignity and development.
Sustainability and development after COVID-19.
Barbier EB, Burgess JC
World Dev · 2020 Nov · PMID 32834381 · Full text
Developing countries are highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to the lack of international support for ensuring progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet the mounting financial...
Developing countries are highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to the lack of international support for ensuring progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet the mounting financial burden faced by all countries means that additional support is unlikely to be forthcoming in the near future. It is critical that developing countries find innovative policy mechanisms to achieve sustainability and development aims in a cost-effective manner. This requires identifying affordable policies that can yield immediate progress towards several SDGs together and aligns economic incentives for longer term sustainable development. We identify three policies that meet these criteria: a fossil fuel subsidy swap to fund clean energy investments and dissemination of renewable energy in rural areas; reallocating irrigation subsidies to improve water supply, sanitation and wastewater infrastructure; and a tropical carbon tax, which is a levy on fossil fuels that funds natural climate solutions. Such innovative and cost-effective policy mechanisms do not require substantial external support, and they foster greater progress towards achieving the SDGs in poorer economies.
Bubble in, bubble out: Lessons for the COVID-19 recovery and future crises from the Pacific.
Edwards RB
World Dev · 2020 Nov · PMID 32834380 · Full text
This note presents three important facts on the COVID-19 pandemic and 22 developing countries, namely those in the Pacific. First, social protection systems are less common in the Pacific than in the rest of the world, m...
This note presents three important facts on the COVID-19 pandemic and 22 developing countries, namely those in the Pacific. First, social protection systems are less common in the Pacific than in the rest of the world, meaning the region is not particularly well equipped to deal with the sharp decline in economic activity associated with the disease and standard policy responses (e.g., lockdowns) without plunging a large share of the population into poverty. Second, aggressive travel restrictions and effective domestic policy responses have spared many Pacific countries from the worst impacts of COVID-19. Ten countries have not had a single confirmed case. The experience of the region thus offers helpful lessons for other developing countries in keeping the crisis at bay. Third, the relative success of Australia and New Zealand in managing the virus provides an opportunity to pilot and test in the region what a carefully managed pathway to allow the tourism, migration, and remittances, that many countries depend on, to begin flowing again. Against its relative success, the Pacific has a unique opportunity to show the world how to safely emerge from the current crisis and address underlying vulnerabilities before the next one.
Covid-19 outbreak and the need for rice self-sufficiency in West Africa.
Fontan Sers C, Mughal M
World Dev · 2020 Nov · PMID 32834379 · Full text
In the decade since the 2008 global food crisis, West African countries have made efforts to raise domestic rice production and to make the region self-sufficient. Today, West Africa produces nearly two-thirds of Africa'...
In the decade since the 2008 global food crisis, West African countries have made efforts to raise domestic rice production and to make the region self-sufficient. Today, West Africa produces nearly two-thirds of Africa's rice. The region's rice import dependency has fallen from nearly half of local consumption in 2010 to about 30%. In spite of this improvement, the region remains the world's second largest rice importer. The situation of Benin, Burkina Fasso, Gambia and Niger remains challenging with rice import dependency still exceeding 70%. Production in some countries has fallen even below the 2010 level due to civil strife, climatic changes and macroeconomic difficulties. Countries of the region, on average, allocate less than 5% of their budget to agriculture, less than half the share committed in the Maputo Agreement. The Covid-19 outbreak and corresponding preventive lockdowns have posed a new challenge as food supply chains were stretched; production, transportation and consumption fell sharply; and household income was affected. In addition, closure of frontiers and temporary trade disruption in major Asian rice exporters has led to increase in rice prices in the international market. In late April, rice futures rose to reach a level not surpassed since 2011. This threatens to further aggravate an already fragile food security situation in the region. The crisis again points to the need for greater efforts at the national and international level to achieve food security. West African countries will need to enhance public spending on agriculture with a greater focus on measures aimed at improving rice productivity.
How health inequality affect responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Okoi O, Bwawa T
World Dev · 2020 Nov · PMID 32834378 · Full text
The COVID-19 outbreak has infected millions of people across the world, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and collapsed national economies. Recognizing the importance of handwashing in preventing the spread of COVI...
The COVID-19 outbreak has infected millions of people across the world, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and collapsed national economies. Recognizing the importance of handwashing in preventing the spread of COVID-19, concerns have arisen about the condition of millions of Africans who lack access to hygiene facilities and clean water services. This paper compiles evidence from the WHO-UNICEF data to show the health disparities that limit the capacity of African countries to effectively address the COVID-19 disease along with recommendations for addressing the challenge.
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