TY - JOUR
T1 - How Financial Resilience Shapes Social and Public Health Policy Choices in Africa
T2 - Empirical Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic
AU - Okumu, Moses
AU - Ansong, David
AU - Koomson, Isaac
AU - Chen, Ding Geng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Society for Social Work and Research. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/3/1
Y1 - 2024/3/1
N2 - Objective: Scant evidence exists indicating how governments in African countries consider the economic vulnerability of their populations when insti-tuting initial social control policies. This study examined possible clusters of financial resilience among African countries and how these clusters predicted the length of social control policies. Method: We harmonized country-level financial resilience data from the World Bank 2019 Global Findex database, data on COVID-19 cases from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and social control data from government press releases. We used multivariate cluster analysis and geographically weighted regression to assess the level of savings, domestic remit-tance, self-employment, wages, emergency funds, and agricultural income—all predictors of financial resilience. Results: We found two profiles of financial resil-ience: 41% of countries were financially resilient, and 59% were not. We also found that financial resilience profiles predicted longer durations of initial social control policies but in varying directions and degrees depending on the country. Conclusion: The study sheds light on the heterogeneity of financial resilience among African countries and extends our knowledge of financial resilience vis-a-vis pandemic re-sponses. Social protection programs must be developed and implemented to help populations cope during and after the pandemic.
AB - Objective: Scant evidence exists indicating how governments in African countries consider the economic vulnerability of their populations when insti-tuting initial social control policies. This study examined possible clusters of financial resilience among African countries and how these clusters predicted the length of social control policies. Method: We harmonized country-level financial resilience data from the World Bank 2019 Global Findex database, data on COVID-19 cases from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and social control data from government press releases. We used multivariate cluster analysis and geographically weighted regression to assess the level of savings, domestic remit-tance, self-employment, wages, emergency funds, and agricultural income—all predictors of financial resilience. Results: We found two profiles of financial resil-ience: 41% of countries were financially resilient, and 59% were not. We also found that financial resilience profiles predicted longer durations of initial social control policies but in varying directions and degrees depending on the country. Conclusion: The study sheds light on the heterogeneity of financial resilience among African countries and extends our knowledge of financial resilience vis-a-vis pandemic re-sponses. Social protection programs must be developed and implemented to help populations cope during and after the pandemic.
KW - Africa
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - financial inclusion
KW - financial resilience
KW - personal savings and emergency funds
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192701580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85192701580&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/717770
DO - 10.1086/717770
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85192701580
SN - 2334-2315
VL - 15
SP - 43
EP - 67
JO - Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research
JF - Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research
IS - 1
ER -