Download or read book Synopsis Assessing the impacts of COVID 19 on household incomes and poverty in Rwanda A microsimulation approach written by Diao, Xinshen and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rwanda, as elsewhere, different types of households experienced the economic effects of COVID-19 differently. We use a microsimulation approach to show the importance of these differences to better understand COVID-19’s impacts on their income and poverty status. Main results: Nationally, during the lockdown period between March and May 2020, the simulation results estimate declines in household income by 33 percent on average. The urban population experienced the largest declines, averaging 40 percent during this period. Unlike patterns seen with other shocks, middle-income households experienced the sharpest declines in income during the lockdown of an estimated 33 to 35 percent. The share of individuals falling into poverty was highest among those in urban, middle income (Ubudehe 2) households (27 percent). However, the greatest absolute number of individuals in poverty remained concentrated in rural areas during the lockdown. Poor individuals in the lowest expenditure quintile remain in the most severe poverty, with average expenditures during the lockdown estimated at 54 percent below the poverty line. Under both the fast and slow post-COVID economic recovery scenarios used in the simulations, household incomes nearly return to pre-COVID levels for all household categories by the end of 2020. However, these results do not capture the potential longterm impacts of the substantial shocks of the pandemic to incomes, assets, and individual wellbeing. These modeling results suggest that targeting should be a central component of the design and implementation of social protection programs and economic recovery policies to support a diverse set of beneficiaries. These beneficiaries include rural farming households and poor households, as well as nonagricultural household, and households in the middle expenditure quintiles.

Download or read book Synopsis Assessing the economywide impacts of COVID 19 on Rwanda s economy agri food system and poverty A social accounting matrix SAM multiplier approach written by Aragie, Emerta and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rwanda’s policy response to COVID-19 has been widely praised for its rapid, systematic, and comprehensive approach to containing the pandemic. Although the economic consequences of the actions taken are unavoidable, the country expects to return its economy to its high-growth trajectory as the pandemic subsides. We used economic modeling tools designed to estimate the short-term economywide impacts of the unanticipated, rapid-onset economic shocks of COVID-19 on Rwanda. In this brief, we present a synopsis of the results of this analysis. • During the six-week lockdown that began in March 2020, we estimate Rwanda’s GDP fell 39.1 percent (RWF 435 billion; USD 484 million) when compared to a no-COVID situation. • Rwanda’s GDP in 2020 will be between 12 and 16 percent lower than a predicted no-COVID GDP, depending on the pace of economic recovery. The losses in annual GDP are between RWF 1.0 and 1.5 trillion (USD 1.1 to 1.6 billion). • While GDP for the industrial and services sectors were estimated to have fallen during the lockdown period by 57 and 48 percent, respectively, exemptions of COVID-19 restrictions for the agricultural sector limited the decline in agricultural GDP to 7 percent compared to a no-COVID situation. • During the lockdown period, the national poverty rate is estimated to have increased by 10.9 percentage points as 1.3 million people, mostly in rural areas, fell into temporary poverty. Poverty rates are expected to stabilize by the end of 2020, increasing only by between 0.4 and 1.1 percentage points over the pre-COVID situation. While these figures are encouraging, they mask the impacts on poor households of the sharp poverty spike during the lockdown and the inherent complexity of poverty dynamics post-lockdown. Looking forward, the speed and success of Rwanda’s economic recovery will depend critically on expanding Rwanda’s social protection programs, supporting enterprises of all sizes, providing broad assistance to the agri-food system, and restoring international trade.

Download or read book Assessing the economywide impacts of COVID 19 on Rwanda s economy agri food system and poverty A social accounting matrix SAM multiplier approach written by Aragie, Emerta and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-05-17 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rwanda’s policy response to COVID-19 has been widely praised for its rapid, systematic, and comprehensive approach to containing the pandemic. Although the economic consequences are unavoidable, the country expects to return its economy to its high-growth trajectory as the pandemic subsides. We use economic modeling tools designed to estimate the short-term economywide impacts of the unanticipated, rapid-onset economic shocks of COVID-19 on Rwanda. - Results show that during the six-week lockdown that began in March, Rwanda’s GDP fell 39.1 percent (RWF 435 billion; USD 484 million) when compared to a no-COVID situation in the same period. - Results further show that Rwanda’s GDP in 2020 will be between 12 and 16 percent lower than a predicted no-COVID GDP, depending on the pace of the recovery. The losses in annual GDP are between RWF 1.0 and 1.5 trillion (USD 1.1–1.6 billion). - While GDP for the industrial and services sectors were estimated to have fallen during the lockdown period by 57 and 48 percent, respectively, exemptions of COVID-19 restrictions for the agricultural sector limited the decline in agricultural GDP to 7 percent compared to a noCOVID situation. - During the lockdown period, the national poverty rate is estimated to have increased by 10.9 percentage points as 1.3 million people, mostly in rural areas, fell into temporary poverty. Poverty rates are expected to stabilize by the end of 2020, increasing only by between 0.4 and 1.1 percentage points. While these figures may be encouraging, they mask the impacts on poor households of the sharp poverty spike during the lockdown and the inherent complexity of poverty dynamics post-lockdown. Looking forward, the speed and success of Rwanda’s recovery will depend critically on the expansion of Rwanda’s social protection programs, boosting enterprises of all sizes, support to the agri-food system, and restoration of international trade.

Download or read book The gendered impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic in Kenya Niger Rwanda and Uganda Evidence from phone surveys written by Bryan, Elizabeth and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2023-09-22 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in every part of the world, including on vulnerable populations in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries. This report explores the ways in which men and women in rural areas of four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)—Kenya, Niger, Rwanda, and Uganda—experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and associated income losses, as well as their responses to the crisis. To identify and monitor the differential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and men in rural households, IFPRI conducted phone surveys in selected regions of the four focal countries, with financial and technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The surveys traced gender differences in responses to the pandemic and associated restrictions, such as choice of coping strategies, access to public assistance, and changes in the care burden for men and women.

Download or read book Poverty and food insecurity during COVID 19 Telephone survey evidence from mothers in rural and urban Myanmar written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2020-10-07 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar’s Dry Zone. Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 – median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences. These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.

Download or read book Assessing the Impacts of the COVID 19 Wage Supplement Scheme written by Glenn Abela and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Microsimulation models have been particularly useful when dealing with the economic welfare impact of COVID-19, particularly since such models offer a way to obtain timely and policy-relevant information in the absence of detailed household-level survey data. This study uses EUROMOD, a static tax-benefit microsimulation model calibrated for Malta, to evaluate the microeconomic impact of the wage supplement scheme introduced in Malta in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the year 2020. Results suggest that the wage supplement scheme had a number of positive effects. First, it dampened average income losses, both across the income distribution and within economic sectors irrespective of the extent to which these were impacted. In particular, the results show that the scheme's impact across the income spectrum was progressive in the sense that it shielded the lowest earners relatively more. Poverty rates are invariably lower under the wage supplement scenario, than under a scenario where the scheme is not enacted, whilst its impacts on income inequality are ambiguous. Importantly, the size of the shock suffered by the worst-hit households declines markedly in the presence of the scheme. Future work can benefit from the availability of household survey data to conduct a more thorough assessment of the impacts this study attempts to measure, and in so doing, serve as a validation tool against which simulation exercises such as this can be compared.

Download or read book Modelling the Distributional Impact of the COVID 19 Crisis written by Cathal O'Donoghue and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, the State has had to respond rapidly and quite severely to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus. This has had significant implications for many aspects of life with differential impacts across the population. The lack of timely available data constrains the estimation of the scale and direction of recent changes in the income distribution, which in turn constrain policymakers seeking to monitor such developments. We overcome the lack of data by proposing a dynamic calibrated microsimulation approach to generate counterfactual income distributions as a function of more timely external data than is available in dated income surveys. We combine nowcasting methods using publicly available data and a household income generation model to perform the first calibrated simulation based upon actual data aiming to assess the distributional implications of the COVID-19 crisis in Ireland. We extend the standard definition of disposable income by adjusting for work-related expenditure, housing costs and capital losses. We find that market incomes decreased along the distribution of disposable income, but decreases in euro terms were more pronounced at the top than at the bottom. Despite this, inequality in market incomes as measured by the Gini coefficient increased over the crisis. Once we account for the decline in housing and work-related expenses, households situated among the bottom 70% of the distribution actually improved their financial situation on average, whereas losses are recorded for the top 30%.

Download or read book Evaluation of Rwanda s COVID 19 Response from the Perspectives of Decisionmakers and Frontliners written by Umutoni Linda Nzabamwita and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than a year since the first detection of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, commonly known as COVID-19, the virus spread globally and has had drastic social and economic impacts. Presently, safe, and effective vaccines as well as a strong public health response remain the best strategy to control the pandemic. Rwanda took a proactive approach in the preparedness and response guidelines and strategies, and implementation of interventions to respond to this pandemic. This evaluation provides an evaluation of these policies, and response interventions implemented as well as strengths, challenges, and lessons learned from the perspectives of the professional involved in the response. This evaluation consisted of a literature review to identify and describe the preparedness and response policies designed and implemented to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also consisted of key informant interviews with professionals involved in different sectors of pandemic responses to identify the strengths, challenges, and lessons learned. The Rapid and Rigorous Qualitative Data Analysis (RADaR) technique was used to draw key themes were drawn from the interviews. Findings from the study identified three main themes as part of the response which was (1) coordination and comprehensive planning, (2) risk communication and public awareness, and (3) response interventions. It also identifies the key lessons learned and recommendations from the respondents. This study provided a local, on-ground perspective on the management of the pandemic in Rwanda. The Government of Rwanda developed and implemented country-wide policies and cross-cutting response interventions to minimize the spread and impact of COVID-19. However, there are still lessons and challenges to take into consideration for a better, more effective response that minimizes the socioeconomic impacts and poor population health outcomes.

Download or read book Poverty and Food Insecurity During COVID 19 written by Derek Headey and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myanmar had one of the lowest confirmed COVID-19 caseloads in the world in mid-2020 and was one of the few developing countries not projected to go into economic recession. However, macroeconomic projections are likely to be a poor guide to individual and household welfare in a fast-moving crisis that has involved disruption to an unusually wide range of sectors and livelihoods. To explore the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on household poverty and coping strategies, as well as maternal food insecurity experiences, this study used a telephone survey conducted in June and July 2020 covering 2,017 mothers of nutritionally vulnerable young children in urban Yangon and rural villages of Myanmar's Dry Zone.Stratifying results by location, livelihoods, and asset-levels, and using retrospective questions on pre-COVID-19 incomes and various COVID-19 impacts, we find that the vast majority of households have been adversely affected from loss of income and employment. Over three-quarters cite income/job losses as the main impact of COVID-19 - median incomes declined by one third and $1.90/day income-based poverty rose by around 27 percentage points between January and June 2020. Falling into poverty was most strongly associated with loss of employment (including migrant employment), but also with recent childbirth. The poor commonly coped with income losses through taking loans/credit, while better-off households drew down on savings and reduced non-food expenditures. Self-reported food insecurity experiences were much more common in the urban sample than in the rural sample, even though income-based and asset-based poverty were more prevalent in rural areas. In urban areas, around one quarter of respondents were worried about food quantities and quality, and around 10 percent stated that there were times when they had run out of food or gone hungry. Respondents who stated that their household had lost income or experienced food supply problems due to COVID-19 were more likely to report a variety of different food insecurity experiences.These results raise the concern that the welfare impacts of the COVID-19 crisis are much more serious and widespread than macroeconomic projections would suggest. Loss of employment and casual labor are major drivers of increasing poverty. Consequently, economic recovery strategies must emphasize job creation to revitalize damaged livelihoods. However, a strengthened social protection strategy should also be a critical component of economic recovery to prevent adversely affected households from falling into poverty traps and to avert the worst forms of food insecurity and malnutrition, particularly among households with pregnant women and young children. The recent second wave of COVID-19 infections in Myanmar from mid-August onwards makes the expansion of social protection even more imperative.

Download or read book Social Distress and some Relief written by Ihsaan Bassier and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Up-to-date, nationally representative household income/expenditure data are crucial to estimating poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic and to policy-making more broadly, but South Africa lacks such data. We present new pandemic poverty estimates, simulating incomes in prepandemic household surveys using contemporary labour market data to account for job losses between 2020 Q1 and 2021 Q4. Improving on much of the existing literature, we use observed rather than simulated shocks and allow for uneven impacts of the pandemic by employment sector and demographic characteristics. We present three updating methods, using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) Wave 5, the Living Conditions Survey 2014/15, and the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). Giving primacy to NIDS Wave 5 produces the largest estimate of pandemicperiod job-loss-induced poverty: a headcount ratio increase at the upper-bound poverty line of 5.2 percentage points (3.1 million people/13 per cent) and poverty gap increase of 3.8 percentage points (21 per cent). Giving primacy to QLFS data produces the lowest estimated change: a headcount ratio increase of 3.0 percentage points (1.8 million people/7 per cent) and poverty gap increase of 2.5 percentage points (12 per cent). Simulating receipt of the Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress social grant substantially mitigates poverty effects, with a poverty headcount increase of 1.1-3.4 percentage points and a poverty gap increase of 0.2-1.5 percentage points.

Download or read book COVID 19 Affects Everyone but Not Equally written by Jose Cuesta and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: COVID-19 (Coronavirus) does not distinguish borders, race or gender. Everyone is affected but not equally. Women are at risk of seeing structural socioeconomic gaps deepen with COVID-9(Coronavirus), along with worsening violence and social norms. The authors explore the extent to which COVID-19 (Coronavirus) will exacerbate gendered employment, income generation and, ultimately, poverty gaps. The authors explore a new but sprawling literature discussing the employment effects of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). The authors also develop a simple microsimulation methodology to estimate the poverty impacts of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) (versus a counterfactual of no COVID-19 (Coronavirus)); the specific poverty reduction impacts of mitigation policies; and the distinctive impacts by gender. The authors test our microsimulation approach in Colombia, a country that has implemented an unparalleled number of mitigation measures and has reopened its economy earlier than regional neighbors. The authors find that the poverty impacts of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) are daunting (between 3.0 and 9.1 pp increases of poverty headcount). Mitigation measures vary considerably in their individual capacity to reverse poverty (from no effect to 0.9 pp poverty reduction). A fiscally neutral universal basic income (UBI) will bring about larger poverty reductions. Importantly, both men and women report similar poverty impacts from the pandemic and mitigation policies. The sheer magnitude of the downturn, the design of interventions and our own measure of poverty explain this results.

Download or read book Measuring Food Security Using Household Expenditure Surveys written by Lisa C. Smith and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Universal Basic Income Debate and Impact Assessment written by Maura Francese and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-12-10 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper discusses the definition and modelling of a universal basic income (UBI). After clarifying the debate about what a UBI is and presenting the arguments in favor and against, an analytical approach for its assessment is proposed. The adoption of a UBI as a policy tool is discussed with regard to the policy objectives (shaped by social preferences) it is designed to achieve. Key design dimensions to be considered include: coverage, generosity of the program, overall progressivity of the policy, and its financing.

Download or read book Global Wage Report 2020 21 written by INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE. and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ILO flagship report examines the evolution of real wages around the world, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The 2020-21 edition analyses the relationship of minimum wages and inequality, as well as the wage impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. The 2020-21 edition also reviews minimum wage systems across the world and identifies the conditions under which minimum wages can reduce inequality. The report presents comprehensive data on levels of minimum wages, their effectiveness, and the number and characteristics of workers paid at or below the minimum. The report highlights how adequate minimum wages, statutory or negotiated, can play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the crisis

Download or read book Monitoring Global Poverty written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-11-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2013, the World Bank Group announced two goals that would guide its operations worldwide. First is the eradication of chronic extreme poverty bringing the number of extremely poor people, defined as those living on less than 1.25 purchasing power parity (PPP)†“adjusted dollars a day, to less than 3 percent of the world’s population by 2030.The second is the boosting of shared prosperity, defined as promoting the growth of per capita real income of the poorest 40 percent of the population in each country. In 2015, United Nations member nations agreed in New York to a set of post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the first and foremost of which is the eradication of extreme poverty everywhere, in all its forms. Both the language and the spirit of the SDG objective reflect the growing acceptance of the idea that poverty is a multidimensional concept that reflects multiple deprivations in various aspects of well-being. That said, there is much less agreement on the best ways in which those deprivations should be measured, and on whether or how information on them should be aggregated. Monitoring Global Poverty: Report of the Commission on Global Poverty advises the World Bank on the measurement and monitoring of global poverty in two areas: What should be the interpretation of the definition of extreme poverty, set in 2015 in PPP-adjusted dollars a day per person? What choices should the Bank make regarding complementary monetary and nonmonetary poverty measures to be tracked and made available to policy makers? The World Bank plays an important role in shaping the global debate on combating poverty, and the indicators and data that the Bank collates and makes available shape opinion and actual policies in client countries, and, to a certain extent, in all countries. How we answer the above questions can therefore have a major influence on the global economy.

Download or read book Designing Fiscal Redistribution The Role of Universal and Targeted Transfers written by Mr.David Coady and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a growing debate on the relative merits of universal and targeted social assistance transfers in achieving income redistribution objectives. While the benefits of targeting are clear, i.e., a larger poverty impact for a given transfer budget or lower fiscal cost for a given poverty impact, in practice targeting also comes with various costs, including incentive, administrative, social and political costs. The appropriate balance between targeted and universal transfers will therefore depend on how countries decide to trade-off these costs and benefits as well as on the potential for redistribution through taxes. This paper discusses the trade-offs that arise in different country contexts and the potential for strengthening fiscal redistribution in advanced and developing countries, including through expanding transfer coverage and progressive tax financing.

Download or read book When schools shut written by UNESCO and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: