Short-term evidence on wellbeing of rural Ethiopian households during the COVID-19 pandemic

Harold Alderman, Daniel Gilligan (), Melissa Hidrobo, Jessica Leight, Alemayehu Taffesse and Heleene Tambet

No 4, SPIR learning briefs from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: In Ethiopia, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the first known case of coronavirus arrived in mid-March (on March 13, 2020), weeks after the pandemic had spread rapidly in parts of Europe and the United States. The government swiftly imposed restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, closing schools (on March 16, 2020), limiting travel and encouraging people to remain at home. Such restrictions were needed to keep the pandemic from overwhelming a healthcare system with limited capacity to respond to an infectious disease outbreak. Only limited information is available about the effect of these restrictions on economic activity, food security and livelihoods in Ethiopia. A survey of residents of Addis Ababa conducted in May 2020 found that more than half of households reported lower-than-expected incomes and more than one third were extremely stressed about the situation. These results further showed that poorer households were more severely affected, although the food security situation in Addis, while declining, was not yet dire.

Keywords: surveys; household income; social welfare; livelihoods; food security; social safety nets; rural areas; Ethiopia; Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:spirlb:4

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