ISTP News

The global COVID-19 pandemic is manifesting differently in every country. The new video of our "ISTP4Public" series sheds light on how the urban poor mitigated their risk of infection in Accra and Johannesburg at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. Researchers Antoinette van der Merwe from the Swiss Minerals Observatory and Kathrin Durizzo from the Development Economics Group talk about their research's main findings and the policy implications.

COVID-19 has already challenged many countries, causing concern about what will happen in African countries. To understand how the urban poor mitigate their risk of infection, ISTP PhD student Antoinette van der Merwe together with researchers from the University of Ghana and the University of Pretoria conducted a survey with 1,400 poor households in Accra and Johannesburg. They concluded that a costly shutdown of public life is only effective with a well-informed population.