This report analyzes the Philippines’ ambitious response to the economic risks and dislocation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020: a set of targeted income support measures that intended to cover unprecedented shares of the population. It...

This essay summarises the broad contours and key characteristics of the Indian government’s social policy response to the global Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing nationwide lockdown. The principal strategy of the Indian government was to implement a large and at times bewildering array of...

In 2016, after 25 years of international isolation, Uzbekistan started to open up and modernize its economy. In this phase, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the economy and society hard. The government reacted with a harsh lockdown. As an immediate crisis response, it allocated funds from international...

Pakistan, a developing country with the fifth largest population in the world, was already developing the Ehsaas program, an umbrella initiative of 134 policies and programs focused on the inclusion and uplift of marginalized people, before the advent of Covid-19. Being a neighbor of China and...

This report analyses citizens’ attitudes towards and support for government initiatives aiming to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in Moldova. It draws on mixed-methods research carried out in Moldova in June and July 2020 by questionnaire...

This report outlines Morocco’s social policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic in two main parts. First, it de-scribes the Special Fund dedicated to the management of Covid-19, created in the wake of the health emergency and the subsequent general lockdown from March to June 2020. Second, it...

To mitigate the negative socioeconomic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jamaican government has targeted the poor and vulnerable through social protection programmes. Jamaica’s social policy response included (conditional and unconditional) cash transfers, one-off payments, in-kind...

This report analyses Ghana’s policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with particular attention to the social sector. It highlights the various policies that were adopted to help minimise the impact of the pandemic, ranging from the provision of free/subsidised water and electricity, and the...

The major landmark in Eswatini’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was the adoption of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Regulations 2020 under Section 43 of the National Disaster Management Act, Legal Notice No 72 of 27 March 2020. Though this statutory instrument provides mainly for containment...

The social policy response of the Nicaraguan government to the Covid-19 pandemic has been negligible. No significant social policy measures were adopted to alleviate the negative effects that this health crisis has on the general population. No quarantine or state of emergency was declared. The...