Poverty and the role of social protection systems in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic

Kibrom A. Abay, Nishant Yonzan, Sikandra Kurdi and Kibrom Tafere

No 23, MENA policy notes from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: Key messages • The pandemic increased poverty in Africa by less than expected, approximately 1.5-1.7 percentage points in 2020. • Countries affected by Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) experienced the greatest increases in poverty. • An emerging literature establishes that social protection programs in Africa during the pandemic had positive impacts and was generally pro-poor, suggesting a key cushion-ing role played by the expansion of social protection on trends in poverty. • However, delivering shock-responsive social protection in Africa continues to face im-portant challenges related to targeting, coverage, timeliness, and financing. • Early targeting analyses for some countries during the pandemic show that targeting was broadly progressive in some countries and regressive in some other countries.

Keywords: conflict; covid-19; data; health hazards; living standards; social protection; pandemics; poverty; risk factors; surveying; data analysis; data collection; economics; fragility, conflict, and violence (fcv); conflicts; risk; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:menapn:136481

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