Social Protection and Covid-19

As a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, social protection systems all over the world have been put under intense pressure to meet increased demands for support.

These examples delve into the practical consequences of these changes in beneficiaries’ livelihoods across a range of countries.

Long Read

Privacy International has been researching how emergency welfare responses have been handled in different countries in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the variety of socio-economic and political contexts of the countries researched, PI has found that a lot of them share common concerning elements along the benefit disbursement process, namely the automation of eligibility processes, lack of transparency, excessive data collection, security issues in disbursement methods and more.

Myanmar’s Covid-19 Economic Recovery Plan (CERP) includes more than 50 measures over a 15-page document. With only two items being assigned a specific budget, the Economic Recovery Plan appears largely aspirational. Beneficiaries and relevant areas to target are picked from data from township
The National Commission Action for Sierra Leone is providing one-off cash transfers to households in response to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cash recipients are being selected through field action from NaCSA and other governmental bodies. A scoring matrix based on ten assessment areas of
In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Mozambique, the government started implementing the National Response Plan of Social Protection which aims to pay cash transfers to 1,582,179 beneficiaries. These cash transfers are done via mobile phone through the service Mpesa. Throughout the roll-out of
In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Mozambique, the government started implementing the National Response Plan of Social Protection which aims to pay cash transfers to 1,582,179 beneficiaries. These cash transfers are done via mobile phone through the service Mpesa. Since then, there have been
Kwenda is a social protection program started in Angola in May 2020 to support people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and it is expected to last for 3 years. The program is backed by 420 million USD funding from the World Bank and has 4 distinct components. In July 2021 the Angolan government
As a result of the challenges emerging from Covid-19 to disburse financial assistance, the government of Paraguay decided to change its food security programme, Ñangareko, from an in-kind benefit to a bank transfer consisting of a one-off payment of PYG 500,000 (= +/-73USD). The Ñangareko Programme
A new COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme for ID Poor Households was launched in June 2020 to respond to the needs of the most vulnerable groups of the population, including the needs of children aged 0-5 years old, persons with disabilities, the elderly, persons living with HIV/AIDS, and those
The Jordanian government implemented at least 8 different social protection measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The successful implementation of rapid response projects across social insurance, social assistance and refugee protection was an incredibly important means of protecting low

 

 

In January 2021, the World Bank agreed to loan the Lebanese government $246,000,000 to finance an "emergency social safety net" project in response to Covid-19 and Lebanon's ongoing economic crisis. As part of the project, the Lebanese Government must provide cash-transfers to approximately 147,000
A welfare benefit being rolled out in Nigerian in response to Covid-19 reportedly relies on highly data-intensive techniques. The Rapid Response Registration Cash Transfer Project was set up by the Nigerian government to provide support to poor Nigerians located in urban and semi-urban areas that
A third-party, privately-owned electronic wallet platform is being used to disburse welfare benefits in Honduras. The Single Voucher is a one-time subsidy delivered through an electronic voucher that can be exchanged for food, medicine and /or medical supplies. The benefit is disbursed in the form
A welfare benefit introduced by the Peruvian government not only relies on unclear eligibility criteria, but has been shown to exclude many. Peru's Stay at Home bonus targets 2.7 million poor and non-extreme poor households. Those eligible are identified through the National Household Register
In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Mozambique, the government started implementing the National Response Plan of Social Protection which aims to provide cash transfers to 1,582,179 beneficiaries. The selection of priority areas to enroll people was based on a multimethodological approach using
Kwenda is a social protection program started in Angola in May 2020 to support people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and it is expected to last for 3 years. The program counts with 420 million USD funding from the World Bank and has 4 distinct components. Besides aiding with the effects of the
As part of a collaboration with Unicef and the World Bank, the Malagasy government launched Tosika Fameno. Tosika Fameno is an unconditional cash transfer programme aiming to support 189,400 households affected by the pandemic. The benefit aims to address the needs of citizens in vulnerable