Tracking the impact of Covid-19 on people’s lives in Africa.
Covid-19 affects the whole world but not everyone’s experience will be the same. In sub-Saharan Africa — where only 15% of the population had access to a basic hand washing facility with soap and water — people are particularly vulnerable. Inequality in our society means low income levels, lack of healthcare, and inadequate education remains a reality for many, and they are ill-equipped for the consequences of a pandemic. Governments and civil society organisations have to make careful, difficult decisions that balance the need to protect people’s health and their incomes.
To ensure those decisions have positive impacts, decision makers need data they can trust. In Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, that data is being provided by FinMark Trust and insight2impact (i2i) and their partners. Data for Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia are being rolled out shortly. They are conducting telephone surveys to find out the impact covid-19 is having on people’s livelihoods — and they asked us to design and build a platform that makes the gathered insights more accessible and easier to use.
The covid-19 tracker includes questions on behaviour changes, food security, income levels, and access to basic medications, medical services, and financial support. By understanding how covid-19 is affecting people’s daily lives, decisions can be made that help people cope if their income suddenly drops and they can’t afford to buy food or medicines. To ensure the information remains relevant, these surveys will be repeated during the coming months, allowing decisions to be made on current evidence. The repetition here will be crucial to the success of a response that balances both health and economic concerns.
“Two million Nigerians rely on family members for income — what happens if funds can’t be transferred during this crisis,” said Oluwatomi Eromosele, Research Officer at EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access). “People need access to savings and credit to cope with income shocks. With these surveys we aim to understand how covid-19 is affecting people’s access to finance and what impact this has on their ability to buy food, medicine, and other essential items.”
When our scientists, designers and developers discussed how the data should be presented, their aim was a design that would be easy to interpret and add to. A simple bar chart satisfies current needs but the charts will evolve as more data comes in. The way we present the data will adapt to the amount and frequency of data collected, and throughout the project we will highlight changes in trends.
The first survey completed in April 2020 revealed the greatest change in infection avoidance behaviour — things like hand washing, wearing a face mask or avoiding large groups — had occurred in South Africa. Considering the fact South Africa has the highest rate of infection of the countries surveyed, this was expected and it’s a positive sign that people are aware of the measures they can take to avoid infection.
In Nigeria, where 40% of Nigerians live below the poverty line, financial security is an ongoing concern that’s intensified in the wake of covid-19. In the week of 8–17 April, 50% of respondents to the survey said they had a smaller income than in the previous year. Couple this with the finding that 87% of people said the availability of emergency funds was either not very possible, or not at all possible, and we begin to see that many Nigerians are in a precarious situation.
At the time of writing, the reported number of deaths in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are far lower than the numbers observed in Italy, Spain, or the USA. However, the African nations are starting from a far different situation and the precarious reporting systems may conceal the full infection numbers. Whereas Europe and Central Asia has 51 beds and 24.9 physicians per 1,000 people, sub-Saharan Africa has just 8 beds and 2.1 physicians per 10,000 people.
In response to the covid-19 outbreaks, the governments of Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa all imposed restrictions such as the closure of business, curfews, and the mandatory use of facemasks in public. However, the combination of closed markets and lost wages can make life extremely difficult for people who are unable to stockpile food or lean on other income sources. The lowest-income households reported an expectation that they would run out of food and money in less than a week.
Organisations like FinMark Trust and i2i have a critical role in helping decision makers effect better policies and changes around covid-19. The effects of covid-19 and its associated lock downs ripple down supply chains. If one part of the chain breaks, others will fall. In today’s global economy, problems in Africa will be felt in Europe, Asia and the America’s. We are all connected.
Protecting people now is important for the future of all our nations. The crisis has highlighted the deep inequalities our global society has allowed to flourish. To stop inequality becoming a chasm that cannot be closed, we must act now to protect the health, livelihoods, and future of those who have the least.
We’ve already seen how communities can stay home for their neighbours, and how our online connections can raise awareness, direct help to where it’s needed, and share ideas. We don’t need to gather at international meetings to make things happen. We can use the tools we have at our fingertips to gather information and share it in ways that make it easy to use. Just look at the covid-19 tracker. The FinMark Trust / i2i surveys were done in Nigeria, Kenya, and Africa, and reports on the livelihood impacts of covid-19 across these countries. This data was then visualised by a team in Spain on a platform that can be viewed by anyone across the world.
Across Africa technology is being used to ensure water, soap, and sanitisers are delivered to the places that lack them. Phones are providing access to health advice without the need to visit a clinic. Providers of the popular mobile payment services are removing fees to make it easier for people to pay for goods or send money without using physical cash. Innovation now could spur even greater change in the future. Enabling people to support each other has never been more important, and we’ll continue to support the organisations who raise others up.
