“Procurement challenges in the context of COVID-19 range from disruptions to sourcing active pharmaceutical ingredients, export restrictions, and transport interruptions to quality assurance issues, reduced household income to cover out of pocket spending, and domestic financing pressures amidst uncertainty in the future of health aid.”
“Most of us have been living with closed schools and some version of lockdown for four months now. For all the reimagining of education in the 21st century, nobody predicted that the greatest disruption of all would come from a virus.”
“To answer our question—what kind of growth is needed to end global poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 in the wake of COVID-19—we start by reviewing the study of the poverty-inequality-growth relationship over the last half a century.”
“It is better, cheaper, and more dignified to frontload responses to the pandemic and its secondary effects. Waiting and then reacting when the full impacts are already visible would be a more expensive proposition. Delaying action not only shifts the burden to the future, but the price of the response will also exponentially increase, as the crisis cascades and reverberates for years to come.”
“Refugees living in low- and middle-income countries are especially vulnerable to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, COVID-19 will likely lead to widespread loss of livelihoods and an increase in poverty among refugee populations.”
“As countries around the world begin to ease or entirely lift their lockdowns, reports of the indirect effects the coronavirus pandemic on health systems continue to emerge.”
“The IMF owns about 90 million ounces of gold that at market value today is worth about $150 billion. The gold can be called ‘functionless’ for the IMF. It does not generate interest or investment income and it does not constitute collateral against which the IMF could borrow. Its only apparent purpose is to add to the reassurance of the Central Bankers of member countries that their funds are safe with the IMF.”
“Accounting for differences in the distribution of age, sex, and relevant comorbidities yields substantial differences in the predicted IFR across 21 world regions, ranging from 0.11% in Western Sub-Saharan Africa to 1.07% for High Income Asia Pacific.”
“Policymakers in low-income countries have implemented a range of fiscal measures to provide income support to the households and sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, made possible by expansionary fiscal policy and international support.”
“There is an economic and financial innovation agenda that goes beyond the medical response to COVID-19, and which will be important even after a vaccine is developed, both because of the economic costs we are incurring now, and because of potential lag times in vaccine coverage in developing countries.”
A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa