You ’ve Got Money: Mobile Payments Help People During the Pandemic

By Sonja Davidovic, Delphine Prady and Herve TourpeJun 22 2020 (IPS) The practical challenge of quickly getting financial support in the hands of people who lost jobs amid the COVID-19 economic crisis has baffled advanced and developing economies alike. Economic lockdowns, physical distancing measures, patchy social protection systems and, especially for low-income countries, the high level of informality, complicate the task. Many governments are leveraging mobile technology to help their citizens. Togo, a small West African nation of 8 million, was able to quickly distribute emergency financial support to half a million people in less than two weeks using mobile phones. The technology helped deliver benefits to women in particular, and it supported a transparent rollout of the program. Informal workers in Morocco are also receiving government help through their phones quickly and efficiently. Social assistance and cash transfers Many emerging and low-income countries are scaling up direct support to households and individuals because they cannot directly protect jobs. Missing data on employment status and blurry lines between corporations and individuals in the informal sector hinder the effectiveness of labor market policies. Therefore, governments bet on cash transfers when trying to boost their social protection systems, while trying to expand their coverage. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of measures announced since the beginning of the pandemic are in the form...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Aid Economy & Trade Financial Crisis Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Labour TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news