Ecosystem degradation is a major threat to livelihoods and sustainable development across the globe. Habitat loss also increases the risk of pandemics, serving to remind us of humans’ complex and delicate relationship with nature. While the origins of COVID-19 remain unclear, this is a crisis that continues to affect human health, livelihoods and economies worldwide, and threatens to overturn decades of development gains.
This is certainly true for Africa. In Ethiopia and countries across sub-Saharan Africa, vast informal economies mean dependence on hourly or daily wages. Many of these jobs ended with the introduction of pandemic-related restrictions and curfews. Consequently, even though infection rates and deaths in this area of the world remain comparatively low, COVID-19 led to the region’s first recession in 25 years and may still inflict greater economic damage. The ongoing pandemic also continues to exacerbate existing inequalities and could push 39 million more Africans
Ethiopia’s social safety net effective in limiting COVID-19 impacts on rural food insecurity From
Share this to :
BY KIBROM A. ABAY, GUUSH BERHANE, JOHN HODDINOTT AND KIBROM TAFERE
Multiple studies have documented the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the poor and vulnerable. Over the past decade, rigorous evaluations have shown Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) yielding positive results in addressing household poverty and food insecurity in the low-income districts it targets. As the pandemic suddenly raised economic stresses on poor households, a new study by Kibrom Abay, Guush Berhane, John Hoddinott, and Kibrom Tefere shows the PSNP has been effective in blunting those impacts. This and other recent research demonstrate the value of social protection programs in longer-term development strategies, particularly for fragile regions subject to disease, climate and other shocks. John McDermott, series co-editor and Director, CGIAR Research Program on