IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Danielle Resnick is participating in an International Growth Centre (IGC) webinar that explores the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers and discusses necessary policy measures to enhance social protection coverage and support mechanisms to protect informal workers if they lose their livelihoods.

Ongoing IGC surveys of traders in Nigeria and Sierra Leone show they have less customers, challenges restocking, and drops in income after national lockdowns were implemented in those countries. Informal traders are particularly impacted by social distancing rules and have less access to clean water and sanitation. Additionally, with 90% of women across Africa employed in the informal sector, COVID-19 threatens their economic self-sufficiency from plying their trade and contributing to the livelihood of their household.