While governments worldwide are continuing to struggle to implement forms of remote learning with equal access for all, the education crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic is still being exacerbated globally. However, a recent landmark White Paper jointly issued by the world’s largest education organizations recall that this learning crisis isn’t really a new one.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to education systems worldwide. At the peak of the pandemic, approximately 1.5 billion learners globally were affected, with schools in many countries closed for months at a time to contain the spread of the virus.

Families, communities and school leaders across the world also suffered, trying to ensure that gaps in learning were minimized. Governments worldwide are continuing to struggle to implement forms of remote learning with equal access for all. The education crisis is being exacerbated globally.

However, a recent landmark White Paper jointly issued by the world’s largest education organizations highlights an important message: the learning crisis was always there.

The learning crisis

Before the pandemic, the World Bank’s Learning Poverty data estimates that 53 percent of students in low and middle-income countries lived in ‘learning poverty’ – defined as the number of 10 year olds in a country unable to read or understand a simple story in their language.

Recent projections by teams at UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics (UIS) and the World Bank’s Learning Poverty team have estimated that this number will rise due to the pandemic – by approximately 10 percent more.

Source: Education Commission, 2020. Out of the 53% of children in Learning Poverty, 44% are in-school children, who fail to meet minimum proficiency, and 9% are out-of-school children. The World Bank team estimates an additional 10% of children will enter learning poverty in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic closures. The team’s estimates are from their ‘pessimistic’ simulation projection.

The majority of these new additions to the population of learning poor are in fact from countries with relatively higher performing education systems. This is not because the education systems in these will suffer more from the impacts of the pandemic, but rather because the levels of learning are already so low in many low- and lower-middle income countries, that there is just less scope to reduce.

In the lowest-income countries, 90 percent of 10 years olds were already learning poorly.

The potential shock to funding for education

None of this means that the COVID-19 pandemic will not have a huge impact on the learning crisis – it undoubtedly will. The children who were already below the line of being able to read are likely to sink even deeper into learning deficits.

In addition, children in these contexts may suffer the most from the other impacts of school closures. For example, nutrition may be affected due to the loss of subsidized or free school meals, and other services children can access through school facilities.

However, the greatest long-term impacts on learning will likely be due to the ensuing financial crisis rather than directly as a result of school closures. The White Paper paints a bleak picture of rising costs for education systems, at a time when both domestic finance for education and international aid are at high risk of being cut.

The paper sets out the urgent need to close the financing gap for education globally, and to target funding to the most cost-effective approaches to deal with the fundamental systemic issues that caused the learning crisis to begin with.

Keeping focused on foundational learning

With the urgency surrounding rectifying the learning losses caused by the pandemic, there is also a risk that a focus will be on technology-enabled learning and children who are newly ‘learning poor’.

However, there is a risk that this will divert attention from the pre-pandemic learning crisis that already existed due to fundamental structural issues. There are no silver bullet solutions offered in this paper, and indeed there is a stark warning against the potential harm that unrealistic and unviable approaches to education technology can cause.

Instead, the paper strongly advocates for a focus on foundational learning driven by a renewed focus on the education workforce and on proven interventions such as differentiated instruction.

With this in mind, it is essential that policies and reforms not be reactionary and shortsighted. The unintended consequences of diverting attention away from the fundamental learning crisis will further widen the gaps of learning levels.

As political leaders grapple with ever more difficult trade-offs of solving the learning crisis, the hope is that they will heed this advice.

This blog was originally published on the GPE website and authored by by Myra Murad Khan, The World Bank, Kirsty Newman, Asian Development Bank, and Thelma Obiakor,  CSEA

A primary revelation in this pandemic-era world is the importance of digital readiness. While the pandemic is disrupting socio-economic activities, it is fortunately also happening at a time of rapid digitalisation, allowing economic players to respond and adapt to the situation accordingly. Swathes of the world are now operating largely online, allowing functional continuity as much as is possible, without personal interaction. However, differences in digital readiness across and within countries are hindering the ability of large segments of the world to co-opt and harness digital technology to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This inequality in digital readiness is reflected in Nigeria’s education sector, where learning was disrupted for almost 40 million learners nationwide. The digital infrastructure divide in Nigeria paints a bleak picture for the prospect of distance learning. With only about 40 percent of Nigeria having access to the internet, and 50 percent of the population having limited/no access to the electricity grid, the current prospects of digital technology for education during this crisis are slim. Beyond the infrastructure shortcomings, however, another problem threatens distance learning even more: The digital divide is more than just an infrastructure divide—it is also a literacy divide.

Digital Literacy

The nature and scope of digital literacy are so nuanced and complex that the term ‘digital literacy’, defies fixity and definition. For simplicity, in this article, I will use a definition provided by the American Library Association; ‘the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills’. In reality, it is a lot more complex, but the underlying fact is that at the most basic level, a digitally literate person is equipped with the digital-age skills required to effectively use technology and achieve valued output through it. This involves being able to connect to, safely navigate through, and benefit from internet services and applications. More functionally, it involves acquiring the skills that students and job seekers need to secure jobs and meet the needs of the modern digital economy. Investments in infrastructure development is crucial, but it is not a silver bullet; without a comprehensive effort to improve digital literacy through basic education, Nigerians (especially the disadvantaged and vulnerable) will be unable to fully leverage the potential of these investments. 

Current Basic Education Framework

The main goal of education is to prepare students for the demands of work and social life by equipping them with the skills to understand and address the core challenges/themes of the modern era. This means providing the skills and knowledge for students to solve the challenges of, and thrive in the age (time) they live in. 

Unfortunately, the basic education curriculum in Nigeria is not designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge in this modern digital economy. The traditional foundation of Nigeria’s basic education system consists of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, colloquially known as the 3Rs. This foundation can be traced back to the 19th century, when the early Christian missionaries brought Western education into Nigeria (around 1843). This basic foundation was pertinent to developing the skilled workforce required by the industrial revolution. It was sewn into the fabric of Nigeria’s education system, and at the time, it was pertinent to us too. However, two centuries later, the skills-demand of the world has changed, and this change must be reflected in the foundation of our education system; as the skills-demand of the world is evolving, so should our education system. The current curriculum served well for the needs of the past, but the skills they offer will soon become obsolete. 

Technology is taking a greater role in our lives and everyday functioning, and digital literacy is becoming increasingly crucial to success. A student today needs to be able to do more than read, write and do basic arithmetic; they need to be equipped with skills that enable them to take on the challenges of the digital revolution, much like the 3Rs did for students of the industrial-age. Current conversations about incorporating digital learning into classrooms revolve around changing how teaching is done, with different recommendations for how to embrace and utilize technology for teaching and learning. However, to meet the demands of the digital economy, it requires changing not just how we teach, but also what we teach. Students need to be equipped with the skills to become both users and creators of technology. 

DRAW: A new framework

The pandemic presents a case for overhauling the basic education curriculum with the aim of adequately preparing the current and next generation of students. The entire 3Rs terminology is obsolete, and should itself evolve too. As a replacement, I propose DRAW: digital literacy, reading, arithmetic, and writing. 

• DRAW incorporates digital literacy into the very core of Nigeria’s basic education, and emphasizes it as the channel through which the other three tenets of the curriculum will thrive. It retains the foundation of the 3Rs because, though digital tools are important, they will not be the only tools that students need. Incorporating digital literacy blends the arts and humanities with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, ensuring that all students are digitally equipped at the most basic level. 
• As a word, DRAW immediately recognizes the importance of engendering an education system that sparks creativity (the highest order of learning) and problem-solving, and equips students to understand and express their knowledge in different ways. It provides equal weighting to the knowledge in the arts, humanities, and STEM fields, because it prioritizes digital knowledge as an educational tool through which students across all disciplines can analyse, interpret, create and communicate their ideas. DRAW ensures that all students are digitally equipped at the most basic level, harnesses technology to amplify the creativity and capabilities of students across all subjects, and enhances career prospects across all sectors/fields.

The ideal DRAW curriculum will be both current and futuristic in its design, and will advance a vision for students’ success in the new global economy. The digital literacy competencies would involve developing, en-masse and from a young age, an understanding of the machines and technologies that make the digital age possible. It includes (a non-exhaustive list) areas such as coding, cyber security, machine learning, computational thinking, robotics, and interface design. It is important to note that incorporating digital literacy is not simply about learning technology or digital tools for the sake of it. It involves engaging with the traditional and well established methods of understanding the world, and developing new insights and methods of the digital world and its potential impact on traditional core subject knowledge.

The details of this particular framework will require an in-depth analysis of Nigeria’s industrial needs, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, in order to identify how to build a framework that positions us to be competitive in the digital global economy. And on a more holistic level, it would also require an in depth analysis of the financial and teacher qualification requirements. But largely, it will entail synthesizing current global themes (e.g, environmental literacy, global awareness, entrepreneurial literacy, social and cultural issues), digital literacies, and key life and work skills (e.g leadership, productivity initiative, flexibility accountability), into the training on traditional subjects, in order to reflect the evolving nature of subject knowledge. This addresses the fact that students will require a different form of knowledge and set of skills than generations before, in order to develop expertise and competitiveness in even the traditional subject areas. Ultimately, to ensure the successful marriage of the different features, teaching methods must inspire creativity, foster collaboration, motivate critical thinking, and support communication. 

Why is Digital Literacy Important? COVID-19 and the Future of Work

Prior to this pandemic, the future of work was already changing, but the pandemic has accelerated both the pace, need and uptake of technology. It has thrust us further into a digitized world, expediting the transition to the digital age by stimulating both the demand and supply-side of digital technology. Current adaptation strategies being incorporated to ensure continuity in the world of work, schooling, health and governance, are likely to persist even after economies world-wide have successfully reopened and start to recover. Intentional effort needs to be placed on preparing current and future students to succeed in this changing landscape. With the current curriculum, the average Nigerian student is ill-equipped to embrace and meet the demands of such a digitized world, so it is pertinent that we draw away from the curriculum of the past. 

On a national level, if we want to create a workforce that will be engaged and competitive in the digital economy, equal emphasis needs to be placed on developing skills as is on infrastructure. A key strategy will involve developing the skills to not just use technology, but also create innovative technology that can be used. On an individual level, in the post-COVID world, the phrase ‘leave no one behind’ will take on a different meaning in education. When students are not able to learn the skills they need to thrive in the new digitized economy, it creates a cohort of people who are unable to fully access and utilize digital services, are ill-equipped to meet the skills-demand of the world economy, are constantly steps behind the competition, and are caught in a pervasive web of incapability. 

This article was first published on Brooking Institute

Over the past six months, the coronavirus-induced school closures have limited access to learning for students worldwide, resulting in learning losses that could last a lifetime. In Nigeria, where learning levels were already low, the school closures threaten to completely derail the efforts toward achieving sustainable development goal four (inclusive and equitable quality education for all). With the gradual decline in the incidence of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the government has started implementing a phased reopening of the economy, including reopening schools. In August, many students in transitional grades (Primary 6, JSS3, and SS3) resumed classes to complete their specific grades and transitional exams.

On September 3, the government announced its approval of a phased reopening of schools for all grades, and schools across the country are beginning to grapple with how to reopen safely. As of  September 21, many states, including Lagos, the epi-center of the pandemic, will begin another phase of reopening. In light of the threat of a second wave of the virus and the acute learning losses resulting from the school closures, two factors are key: first, reopening schools in adherence to adequate health and safety guidelines, and second, recovering learning losses and improving upon the pre-pandemic learning levels that plagued Nigeria’s educational system.

REOPENING SCHOOLS

When deciding on the best approach and timing to reopen schools across the country, the Nigerian government faces a tradeoff. On one hand, students returning to schools and childcare settings in greater numbers will allow more families to return to work. This might be especially relevant for communities where lower-income parents cannot afford to forgo work outside the home. However, return to school carries the public health risk of a resurgence of COVID-19 infection among students, staff, and communities. The recommendations below are meant to augment the guidelines released by the federal government to ensure schools reopen safely.  

A Phased Approach

An initial selective reopening of schools, followed by a gradual increase in numbers, will make it easier to keep student groups small and dispersed. Priority for reopening could include factors such as:

• Specific educational groups such as vulnerable and low-income students who are less likely to be equipped to benefit from remote learning tools launched by the government, and more likely to rely on school for non-academic support, such as school meals.
• Specific grades, such as pre-primary and primary students who may have a lower risk of infection compared to older students, and require more childcare when out of school. Nigeria has already resumed classes for some transitional grades, where older students may be more prone to comply with social distancing measures and will be able to prepare and write high-stakes exams to move from one level of education to the next.
• Specific types of schools, where exposure to COVID-19 is reduced due to size, capacity, current enrollment, and the capability to comply with hygiene guidelines.
• Low-risk geographic areas, based on the progression of the pandemic and trends in the number of new confirmed cases and hospitalized patients.

The phased approach should also include staff. Those at higher risk from COVID-19 due to age or underlying medical conditions should be identified before school reopening and prioritized to stay home.

Guidance for Schools

The following examples should be taken into consideration:

Infrastructure- Section off common spaces and adapt floor markings to direct foot-traffic flows and help students and staff maintain social distance.

Health and sanitation-Remind and train students, teachers, and staff on why, when, and how to comply with infection prevention and control measures such as hand washing, social distancing, and other hygiene measures. 

School scheduling- Divide students into cohorts (i.e. by grade) and assign different cohorts different days to come to school to reduce the overall concentration of students. 

Support for Major Stakeholders

As schools prepare to reopen, the Nigerian government should coordinate with different stakeholders.

• Engage with parents and teachers to define and clearly communicate roles and responsibilities.
• Link public health and school authorities to design, communicate, and deploy a set of public health messages and training for school staff, students, and parents.
• Distribute a “Safe School Reopening Checklist” to facilitate reopening decisions and compliance.
• Ensure back-to-school strategies are implemented appropriately.

Revamping, Not Recovery: Prioritizing Learning

To address the poor learning levels pre-pandemic, and the learning losses induced by the pandemic, it is imperative to incorporate innovative measures to support and accelerate learning when schools reopen. We draw on the available evidence to highlight five crucial approaches.

1. Focus on Foundational Learning. This relates to the minimum level of competency required for effective functioning of an individual for higher learning or transition to work. Foundational learning focuses on reading and comprehension (in the language of the learner’s immediate environment) and arithmetic. Typical school schedules and curriculum in Nigeria consist of foundational learning plus other school subjects. However, given the time and learning lost to COVID-19, at least the next two school calendars should place greater focus on foundational learning.
2. Implement frequent, decision-relevant learning assessments at the school level. As schools reopen, there is a need to know how far behind students are, and how fast they are recovering. Assessments at the school level, rather than large-scale surveys, will equip school leaders and teachers with locally-relevant information.
3. Leverage school reopening to introduce Teaching at the Right Level. School systems in Nigeria are mostly organized by grades, with teaching targeted at grade or age levels. The Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach centers school organization and teaching on the skill-level of different learners.
4. Pilot and test tailored blended learning approaches. School closures induced by the pandemic have resulted in a surge in the development and uptake of educational technology around the world. However, geographic barriers have given way to new barriers -- digital divides -- with most schools in Nigeria unable to leverage technology for learning during the pandemic, meaning that students at schools with fewer resources are likely to fall behind. Innovative approaches that are cognizant of infrastructure and knowledge disparities will be crucial during and after the pandemic to ensure a variety of learners can take advantage of in-person and remote opportunities suited to their needs. 
5. Prioritize the needs of vulnerable students. Given inequalities in learning levels for students that experience various dimensions of poverty and exclusion, it is important to prioritize reopening schools and areas with an overrepresentation of vulnerable populations, including students from low socio-economic backgrounds, rural areas, the Northern region, and students in public schools.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The bulk of the responsibility for the school reopening recommendations outlined above lies with state governments and private school leaders. However, the federal government can support this effort in a number of areas:

1. Augmenting state and private sector resources that are already depleted due to the COVID-19 shock, and allowing state governments more flexibility in spending their subvention from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
2. Being flexible with curriculum standards, so that content fits with local needs and realities.
3. Sharing knowledge and learning on successes and failures in the Nigerian context, to be better prepared in the event of a second wave.
4. Setting in motion key directions for the long-term restructuring of Nigeria’s education system. The pandemic has made clear that technology is crucial to the education system going forward. It is imperative to integrate digital education and technology into the school system and expand curriculum from the conventional 3Rs (writing, reading, and arithmetic) to a curriculum that is cognizant of the realities of the modern world.

Click to download the PolicyBrief by IDInsight and CSEA

The past three decades have been defining moments in human history. More than 1 billion people have been lifted out of poverty and humanity has rallied around a common purpose contained in the Millennium Development Goals and later Sustainable Development Goals. Global trade at about 59% of the world’s GDP in 2019, has enabled both developed and developing countries to tap into the global supply chain and spurred shared prosperity. This progress has deepened the existing development compact in the North South Cooperation, while producing new ones like the South South Cooperation (SSC), a modality for knowledge and development solution sharing among developing countries.

Then COVID-19 strikes and now threatens this significant progress.  As at 28th   May, 2020, more than 5.9 million have been infected, with about 350 thousand deaths. For the first time in more than three decades, poverty headcount is expected to increase this year. Many countries will experience recession or even depression and global trade is expected to decline. This puts development cooperation at a crossroad as to whether to be strengthened or dampened. In this piece, we make a case for strengthening development cooperation at this critical juncture amid COVID-19. We illustrate the beneficial effect of international cooperation from the lens of Africa- China relation, which is couched in the SSC ideas of equality and mutual benefit. While COVID- 19 crisis could affect international cooperation and disrupt prevailing global order, it is crucial to ensure no negative effect on the SSC, given susceptibility of many developing countries to adverse economic shocks. The SSC as demonstrated in the Africa-China relation is key to economic recovery and achievement of the sustainable development goals of leaving no one behind.

Before COVID-19 (BC): The good old days

Diplomatic and economic relations between Africa and China have been growing strongly over the past years. While several factors are driving this relation, it tends to reflect a two-way dynamic and symbiotic engagement for economic development. Africa has recorded about 24years of continuous growth and sustained poverty reduction in part driven by expanding export opportunities to the global south, while China development miracle benefited from natural resources from other developing countries.

In 2018, the value of China-Africa bilateral trade reaches $185 billion, which represents more than 16-fold increase from 2002. By comparison, the value of US-Africa trade in 2018 stood at around $61 billion. Although trade balance is skewed in favour of China export to Africa, it remains a win- win situation with access to quality and varieties of products. In addition, China through its Accessions Programme for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which entails capacity building and special funding, has ensured trade facilitation and strengthened the participation of many Africa countries in the World Trade Organization activities.

Another important dimension in the Africa-China relation is in the area of development assistance. The conventional wisdom tends to view relations among countries in the global south as limited to knowledge sharing. However, China and many other developing countries have scaled up their engagement to include financial modalities in form of project and programme aids. For example, the share of China’s development assistance between 2000 and 2014 is estimated at about USD354.3 billion, which exceeded the contributions by the majority of the OECD countries over the same period.

Similarly, through the ambitious Belt and Road Initiatives, China’s infrastructure support to African has expanded. Overall, 40 African countries have signed on to the strategic initiatives for large infrastructural projects to reduce the infrastructural gaps and lower trading costs. For Africa, this could support regional integration efforts that require greater connectivity across countries and lower barriers to intra-regional trade.

To be clear, the Africa-China relation is not without its challenges, especially in terms of technology transfer, debt, and displacement of the local manufacturer base. However, the creation of engagement platforms like the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) provides opportunities for deliberation and regular evaluation to address those challenges.

COVID-19: Testing our resolve

The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to reshape international cooperation in many fundamental ways. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast, African economy is expected to decline by 1.6% in 2020, while China’s economy will slow down to around 1.3%, the lowest growth in over four decades. This is already manifesting in lower trade relations as China-Africa trade fell by 14% in the first quarter of 2020[1]. Prolonged crisis will worsen this trade and growth, reversing some essential aspects of Africa-China cooperation.

The disruption of the global supply chain is another area that aftershocks of the pandemic might affect international relations. Nationalists see the crisis as an opportunity for deglobalization and protectionist policies. For developing countries, the global supply chain has positively improved their participation in international trade, greater exposure and adoption of advanced technology and promoted industrialization and high economic growth in recent years. Without international production fragmentation, the income gap between developed and developing countries will have widened and the tremendous progress made in poverty reduction could not have been achieved.

While Africa has not been substantially integrated into the global supply chain, it has indirectly benefited from global demand for more inputs and natural resources. Moreover, the African industrialization plan is built on upgrading strategy from low to high-value added activities. Given that China’s development trajectory also follows this trend, there is a lot that Africa can learn through international cooperation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic could halt this engine of growth, pushing the world into a past and unproductive period of autarkic states.                                                                                                                         .

Tough time never last but tough ‘relation’ do

The COVID-19 is a test of robustness of the present architecture of international relations. While the weakness in the North-South cooperation is revealed in terms of imbalance of power, the strength of south-south cooperation is revealed with emphasis on coordination rather than competition in responses. For Africa, the crisis illustrates the need for greater regional integration and stronger collaboration with countries in the global south. Africa-China relation is built on the principle of mutual benefits, non-conditionality and horizontality and equality, which are core attributes needed to fight and speedily recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. These principles can aid economic recovery in the following ways.

1. Coordination on recovery efforts: China experience with fighting COVID-19 virus in rural and among vulnerable populations needs to be widely shared with developing countries with similar conditions to effectively curb the spread of the virus. Coordination in economic responses is also crucial, such as through debt sustainability for highly indebted countries. Given the shock to demand in many countries and the resulting foreign exchange shortages, barter exchange and other modalities can be adopted between China and African countries.
2. International coordination on epidemic prevention and control: More interdependencies among nations mean any disturbances anywhere can spread globally. Building a strong epidemic prevention and control is needed in the post-pandemic era. However, such a system should not be limited to coronavirus alone, but to any other potential risk to international cooperation.
3. Greater integration of Africa into the global value chain: As part of rebuilding efforts, China- Africa relation needs to shift more towards greater linkages of Africa into the global value chain. The relation can only be sustained when benefits are fairly spread.

This article was first published here

The COVID-19 has now spread to every country in Africa, as of August 28, 2020, there are 1,220,511 confirmed infections, 28,850 deaths, and 953,643 recoveries across the continent. In Kenya, so far, there are 33,389 confirmed cases with 567 deaths. The first coronavirus case in Kenya was reported on March 13, 2020, and since then the Kenyan government has taken some measures to curb the spread of the virus by closing schools, airports, churches, mosques, restricting public gatherings, imposing curfews and restrictions on movement around the country.

Although it helped slow down the spread of the virus, these mitigation measures also caused some challenges to the poor and vulnerable groups. The majority of Kenyans are working in the informal sector, which accounts for 83.6% of the total employment in 2018.

In May 2020, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey that shows that Kenya's labour participation rate has drastically decreased due to COVID-19.

This reduction in labor participation rates due to job losses have resulted in a loss of earnings which in turn led to shifts in the habits of food purchases as very poor households are only buying very basic food.A new survey by GeoPoll shows that 86% of Kenyans are worried about not having enough money to purchase food.

Also, poor people are having a hard time meeting their everyday expenses and paying bills such as rents, and according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics survey 30.5% of Kenyans who are renting apartments and houses cannot pay their rent.

On March 15, 2020, the Kenyan government announced that schools and colleges would be closed across the nation and that online learning or technology-mediated learning on TV, radio, and mobile phones should be adopted.

However, this causes a big challenge for students in rural villages due to lack of internet connection, electricity as well as electronic devices such as computers, laptops, and smartphones which in turn makes online learning not accessible for students in marginalized communities.

Furthermore, school closures have also affected students who depend on the school feeding programs as their primary source of food. The strict measures imposed by the Kenyan government to fight COVID-19 have negatively affected women and girls as gender-based and sexual violence have increased significantly.

For instance, the calls to national helplines reporting domestic violence incidents have increased from 86 calls in February to 1108 calls in June. In addition, many girls are engaging in transactional sex in order to be able to buy food as many families have suffered from an income loss. This has increased the number of teen pregnancies whereas there have been more than 4000 pregnancy cases just in one county since schools closed in March.

Furthermore, some regions have reported that hundreds of girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation and child marriages. In addition, night curfews present some challenges to pregnant women as they have struggled to find transportation to hospitals.

There has been an incident where a driver who was taking a woman in labour to give birth in a hospital during the curfew has been stopped by the police and beaten brutally. The pandemic has also effected the refugees as there are thousands of refugees in Kenya who live in overcrowded spaces with little access to clean water and hence this makes it very difficult for refugees to practice social distancing and regular hand washing.

For instance, in the Kakuma Refugee camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, which have 196,666 refugees, social distancing is not an option as many households live near each other. The nationwide evening curfew has negatively impacted shopkeepers in Kakuma Refugee Camp because their most busy hours are usually between 7 pm and 9 pm.

As in the rest of the country, schools in Kakuma are also closed, but remote learning is not an option due to the lack of access to electricity, electronic devices as well as a poor learning environment due to overcrowded homes. Furthermore, due to the restricted movement imposed on refugees, they cannot travel to nearby towns to access remittances, which are vital for their survival.

The measures taken by the Kenyan government to support the poor and vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic though being useful, however, it has not fully considered the households with the lowest income. The Kenyan President provided a fiscal stimulus package to support Kenyans living below the poverty line. This package includes a 100% relief on income taxes for individuals whose monthly income is less than 24,000 Kenyan Shillings (225 US$).

Furthermore, the income tax rate has been reduced from 30% to 25% and turnover tax rate has been reduced from 3% to 1% for all micro, small, and medium enterprises while value-added taxes (VAT) has been reduced from 16% to 14%. These tax cuts might help businesses from collapsing, and increase the disposable income for individuals, hence boosting domestic demand and consumption. In addition, 10 billion Kenyan Shillings (93 million US$) has been devoted to supporting the elderly, orphans, and other vulnerable groups in the form of cash transfers. The government has created a COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of 2 billion Kenyan Shillings from the recovered corruption proceeds to support the most vulnerable groups in these uncertain times.

The Central Bank of Kenya in collaboration with Safaricom (telecommunications provider) has waived mobile money transaction charges and increased daily limits for mobile transactions so that to encourage more people to send and/or receive money and to reduce cash handling in order to curb the spread of the virus. The Kenyan government has also developed an Education Emergency Response Plan to ensure continuity of learning in the short, medium, and long term. In the short term, it ensures the continuation of learning through remote learning programs while in the medium term, it will help students who had fallen behind in their studies to catch-up. In the long term, it focuses on improving the education system in Kenya so that it can be able to deal with risks and pandemics more smoothly in the future.

Regarding the spike in the cases of gender-based violence, the president ordered an investigation into these cases and the immediate prosecution of all criminals. However, refugees are not eligible for all the Kenyan government's support measures due to their legal status.

Overall, the Kenyan government has taken reasonable measures to support the poor and vulnerable groups during this pandemic. However, many people who are in dire need of this support do not receive them. The various tax cuts that have been announced by the Kenyan government will only benefit a small percentage of Kenyans who pay taxes, but it will not be helpful for the majority of the population that relies on informal and agricultural jobs. The reduction in VAT is not beneficial for poor households since they either suffer from a reduced or a loss of income, a better policy will therefore be to abolish VAT on essential goods.

Also, the 10 billion Kenyan Shillings that have been devoted to supporting vulnerable groups will need to be increased and should cover more groups. However, Kenya cannot fund more significant fiscal intervention due to its' very limited fiscal space and high public debt. Also, due to high corruption in Kenya, the government should be transparent and held accountable for using these funds to ensure that they end up benefiting the targeted groups and not in the pockets of corrupt leaders. Furthermore, these policy responses might not have helped the vulnerable groups due to the lack of a clear framework and good quality data to identify the most vulnerable.

All in all, the Kenyan government should work more on strengthening their social welfare programs, connecting more households to electricity, ensure access to clean water to everyone in the country, invest more in the education and health sectors as well as other basic needs that are crucial for improving the living standards of Kenyans and ensuring that they handle future risks and pandemics more smoothly. Furthermore, besides local efforts, support and aid from the international community are needed and debt relief.

This article was written by Dara Salih, Research Intern at CSEA