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Summer Issue 2020

How is COVID-19 changing development? WIDER Webinar Series

The webinars feature eminent researchers and development specialists discussing the implications of COVID-19 for global development efforts and on the economies and societies of the Global South.

Blogs

The end of poverty postponed? – over a billion people living in poverty and a $500 million per day loss of income for the poorest people in the world could soon be reality

by Andy Sumner, Chris Hoy, and Eduardo Ortiz-Juarez

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines as the death toll rises and economies falter. However, far too little attention ...

In Conversation with Deepak Nayyar on ‘Resurgent Asia’ – FP2P Podcast and transcript

by Duncan Green

Duncan Green: I recently skyped Deepak Nayyar, Professor of Economics at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to discuss his new book, Resurgent Asia.

Is COVID-19 really an exogenous shock?

by Dev Nathan and Govind Kelkar

'We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.' – Albert Einstein | Economists invariably divide shocks into two types: endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous shocks arise from within the economic system.

Double dividends and mixed blessings –what would the pioneers of development economics make of new trends in developing economies?

by Andy Sumner, Arief Yusuf, and Kunal Sen

Today, we see clear trends in developing countries of a potentially troubling ‘new normal’ for economic development. We see ...

News

Press release: COVID-19 could drive global poverty back over one billion people as the world’s poorest face up to US$500 million per day in lost income

In dramatic new numbers researchers estimate that extreme poverty could spike as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, on the day the postponed meeting of the world’s richest nations, the G7, should have finished. The researchers are now calling for urgent global leadership from the G7, G20, and the multilateral system, and propose a three-point plan to address the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty quickly.

SA-TIED celebrates South Africa's Youth Month

Young people are at the forefront of efforts to bring about change in society. They are passionate about and committed to actions which will improve their livelihoods and those of future generations in Africa.

For any action to be effective and sustainable it must be backed by evidence-based research and effective policies. That’s why the SA-TIED programme is playing its part in supporting young scholars to ensure their economic research is top-of-the-class, and that they’re exposed to leading policy makers.

Kunal Sen joins panel on implications of the COVID-19 crisis for labour and employment in India

ILO and ISLE organized a virtual conference on implications of the Covid-19 crisis for labour and employment in India: impact, strategies and perspectives during 8-9 June 2020 via Zoom. A number of distinguished scholars and public personalities discussed the Implications of the Covid-19 crisis for work and employment around three broad themes: impact of Covid-19, strategies to deal with the impact, and perspectives for the future in four Web panel discussions.

Ongoing work on the effect of COVID-19 on the economies, states, and societies of the Global South

Working Paper

Precarity and the pandemic – COVID-19 and poverty incidence, intensity, and severity in developing countries

Background Note

Making a COVID-19 vaccine globally available once developed – decoupling production of the vaccine from its development

Working Paper

COVID-19: macroeconomic dimensions in the developing world

Working Paper

COVID-19 and global poverty – are LDCs being left behind?

Working Paper

Healthcare equity and COVID-19 – assessing the relative effectiveness of egalitarian governance and healthcare system capacity on the COVID-19 pandemic

Blog

The labour market implications of COVID-19 for Bangladeshi women

From the network

Opinion: The debate around intellectual property rights and the COVID-19 vaccine

By Arnab Acharya | How will the demand for a vaccine at over 7 billion doses be met — involving large-scale production and distribution — and how will it be affordable?

The Natural Resources Podcast | Benefits to the Fore

Are the extractives good or bad? Tony Addison discusses in this episode how to assess what the industry is doing for us - including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Call for proposals | Climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa: The impacts and responses for women and girls

The Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) is accepting project proposals on Climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa: The impacts and responses for women and girls until 25 August 2020. This initiative aims to produce evidence for policy interventions that increase women’s leadership in climate change solutions and mitigate the negative effects of climate change on gender equality.

Publications

Journal Article | Vulnerability to natural shocks – assessing the short-term impact on consumption and poverty of the 2015 flood in Mozambique

by Vincenzo Salvucci and Ricardo Santos

Mozambique is among the most disaster-prone countries in the world. A bigger than usual, and mostly unexpected, flood occurred in ...

Research Brief | Social protection as a political brand – example from Malawi

Social assistance programmes have proliferated across Africa alongside redemocratization — the return of multi-party systems with regular, competitive elections. Competitive elections in Africa can provide an incentive to welfare policy reform because they push ...

Research Brief | Pushing for policy innovation – the framing of social protection policies in Tanzania

Until 2010s, social protection was not high on the political agenda in Tanzania. Yet in 2012, the government approved the implementation of a nationwide conditional cash transfer programme. What led ...

Photo by Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank

Research Brief | Understanding elite commitment to social protection in Rwanda

The Rwandan government introduced the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) with donor support in 2008. The VUP comprises public works, unconditional direct support for those unable to work, and a financial services component that promotes financial ...