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    Africa’s Lockdown Dilemma: High Poverty and Low Trust

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    Date
    2020
    Author
    Egger, Eva-Maria
    Jones, Sam
    Justino, Patricia
    Manhique, Ivan
    Santos, Ricardo
    Metadata
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    Impact
    Abstract
    The primary policy response to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in high-income countries has been to lock down large sections of the population. However, there is growing unease that blindly replicating these policies might inflict irreparable damage to poor households and foment social unrest in developing countries. We investigate this concern using Afrobarometer data from 2019 for 30 sub-Saharan African countries. We create a multidimensional index of lockdown readiness based on living conditions and explore its relationship with forms of trust and the potential for social unrest. The index reveals that just 6.8 per cent of households overall and 12.2 per cent in urban areas meet all conditions for a lockdown. We further show that weak readiness is not offset by high levels of social trust, which can be vital for effective public health interventions. As such, strict lockdown policies may not only be difficult to enforce, but also heighten the risks of conflict.
    URI
    https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/15698
    Citation
    Egger, E.M.; Jones, S.; Justino, P.; Manhique, I. and Santos, R. (2020) Africa’s Lockdown Dilemma: High Poverty and Low Trust, WIDER Working Paper 2020/76, Helsinki: UNU-WIDER
    DOI
    10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2020/833-7
    Is part of series
    WIDER Working Paper;2020/76
    More details
    https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/africa%E2%80%99s-lockdown-dilemma
    Rights holder
    © UNU-WIDER 2020
    Rights details
    https://www.ids.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IDSOpenDocsExternalDocuments.pdf
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    • IDS Research [1599]

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