2. Delivery of Social Protection
Programs to Combat COVID-19
in Africa
Jan Duchoslav and Kalle Hirvonen
International Food Policy Research Institute
3. Social protection in Africa
• Common policy tool to address poverty and food insecurity
• Focused on rural areas
• COVID-19 disproportionally affects service and industrial
sectors (i.e., urban areas)
• Existing programs ill-suited to respond to COVID-19
• Social protection programs adjusted or new ones put in place
4. Social protection during the pandemic
• Designed to protect against chronic poverty and income shocks
• Pandemic affects health, income, food systems, logistics…
…is social protection still effective?
• Limited but encouraging evidence:
• Kenya: UBI ⇒ ↑ food security, ↑ health (Banerjee et al. 2020)
CT ⇒ ↑ micro-enterprise performance (Brooks et al. 2021)
• Ethiopia: PSNP ⇒ ↑ food security (Abay et al. 2020)
• Elsewhere: CT ⇒ ↑ food security, ↓ asset depletion (Bottan et al. 2021,
Londoño-Vélez and Querubin 2020)
6. COVID-19 measures in Malawi
[CELLRANGE]
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0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1-Mar
8-Mar
15-Mar
22-Mar
29-Mar
5-Apr
12-Apr
19-Apr
26-Apr
3-May
10-May
17-May
24-May
31-May
7-Jun
14-Jun
21-Jun
28-Jun
5-Jul
12-Jul
19-Jul
26-Jul
2-Aug
9-Aug
16-Aug
23-Aug
30-Aug
6-Sep
13-Sep
20-Sep
27-Sep
4-Oct
11-Oct
18-Oct
25-Oct
1-Nov
8-Nov
15-Nov
22-Nov
29-Nov
6-Dec
13-Dec
20-Dec
27-Dec
3-Jan
10-Jan
17-Jan
24-Jan
31-Jan
7-Feb
14-Feb
21-Feb
28-Feb
Confirmed new cases (7-day moving average) Event
Schools
closed
International flights suspended;
Public transport limited to 60% capacity
International flights resumed;
Schools partially reopened
Schools fully
reopened
Schools closed;
Night-time curfew;
Work from home;
Land borders partially closed
Fuel prices
reduced
Urban CT
program
began
Schools
reopened
Fuel prices
increased
Public transport
restrictions lifted
Urban CT
program
announced
Urban CT
program
funded
7. Conclusion
• Social assistance is effective in improving food security and
protecting assets
• Emerging (but thin) evidence of effectiveness during pandemic
• Existing and new social protection programs used to counter
pandemic effects
• Room for improvement:
• Coverage
• Targeting
• Implementation
9. References
• Abay, K. A., G. Berhane, J. F. Hoddinott, and K. Tafere. 2020. “COVID-19 and Food
Security in Ethiopia: Do Social Protection Programs Protect?” Discussion Paper no.
01972, IFPRI, Washington, DC
• Banerjee, A., M. Faye, A. Krueger, P. Niehaus, and T. Suri. 2020. “Effects of a Universal
Basic Income During the Pandemic.” Working Paper, Innovations for Poverty Action,
Washington, DC
• Bottan, N., B. Hoffmann, and D. A. Vera-Cossio. 2021. “Stepping Up During a Crisis: The
Unintended Effects of a Noncontributory Pension Program During the COVID-19
Pandemic.” Journal of Development Economics, 150 (102635).
• Brooks, W., K. Donovan, T. R. Johnson, and J. Oluoch-Aridi. 2021. “Cash Transfers as a
Response to COVID-19: Experimental Evidence from Kenya.” Working Paper, J-PAL,
Cambridge, MA.
• Londoño-Vélez, J., and P. Querubin. 2021. “The Impact of Emergency Cash Assistance in
a Pandemic: Experimental Evidence from Colombia.” The Review of Economics and
Statistics (forthcoming).