The current lockdown in Zimbabwe is going to provide a stern test for its informal economy, which is the country’s dominant economy and employs 90% of people.
If the government seeks to reduce its massive deficit by cutting public spending after the pandemic subsides, this will burden the poor and public sector workers, increasing inequality.
Children play in the Blikkiesdorp township in Cape Town.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
South Africa won’t flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curve unless all citizens have the means to stay at home. But for many, it’s either they stay at home and starving, or go out to make a living.
Health of society depends on a decent social welfare system, absence of extreme poverty and inequality.
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COVID-19 has brought to the fore the interdependency of business and society. It’s time for amendments to the social contract that underlies societal support for business.
Waiting for free rations in Sindh province.
Nadeem Khawer/EPA
Pakistan is using technology to distribute emergency support as part of its coronavirus stimulus. But its criteria for eligibility must be more nuanced.
An unemployed man in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, collects trash for resale before South Africa went into a Covid-19 lockdown.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
In India handwashing practices have come under scrutiny as millions of Indian poorest return home from major cities. Many do not have access to basic amenities.
Alan Collins, Nottingham Trent University and Adam Cox, University of Portsmouth
We must put in measures to protect the young as well as the old.
Leaders of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska voted to postpone the 85th Annual Tribal Assembly because of the pandemic.
Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
American Indians and Alaska Natives are the most impoverished and marginalized group in the US. Tribes are working to protect their people from the coronavirus, but they have few resources to do so.
Covid-19 awareness event at a government hospital in Siliguri, Bengal on 21 February 2020.
Diptendu Dutta/AFP
The COVID-19 pandemic must be managed in India in a tense economic context and with a largely privatised health system.
A taxi rank marshal sprays hand sanitiser on a commuter wearing a mask as a preventive measure as she arrives at the Wanderers taxi rank in Johannesburg.
Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
Reactions in South Africa give little reason for hope that the virus will bring people closer together or trigger more energetic action against poverty.
An old bicycle next to paddy fields in Central Java.
Wikimedia Commons/Azisrif
Rapid motorisation has made the Indonesian city of Solo prioritise policies to support motorised vehicles, paying little attention to cycling and marginalising poor women.
Slow or unreliable internet access is a reality for millions of Americans.
ben dalton/Flickr
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing people to study and work online. It’s also sparked a need for news and information. That’s a challenge for the 24 million Americans who lack broadband internet access.
Female workers during a soil fertilization process.
cifor/flickr
Female labour participation in Indonesia has stalled at 50% for the last three decades. This is a bit of a mystery because Indonesia’s economy has grown dramatically over the same period.
Access to clean water remains a huge problem in Zimbabwe and many other African countries.
EFE-EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
All eggs in supermarket Morrisons will soon be free range. But this – and other measures intended to promote ethical consumption – could impact badly on the worst off.
Short-term schemes make it difficult to assess, but nine basic income-style programmes from Canada to Iran reveal some fascinating outcomes.
Aimee Stephens worked for a Detroit funeral home for six years before telling her employer she wanted to be issued a female uniform.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images