COVID: How the crisis has touched Africa (Telos)

Telos-Europe published an op-ed by research fellows, Antoine Bouet, Julie Kurtz, and another co-author write that, “As INSEE publishes the results of a study showing that inequalities in living standards and monetary poverty remained stable in France in 2020 thanks to the exceptional measures taken by the government [1], it is interesting to ask whether the economic crisis linked to COVID-19 has unfolded elsewhere in a less lenient manner for the most vulnerable. Take the case of Africa.” Senior research fellow David Laborde, of IFPRI, carried out a global simulation of the economic consequences of COVID-19 using a global model connected to a dataset on 300,000 households worldwide [3]. He concludes that 150 million people in the world have become poor, with this number increasing by 50.5 million in Africa south of the Sahara. Today, an international effort, coordinated between international institutions and African governments, is clearly needed to address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on vulnerable African populations.