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Distributional Impacts of COVID-19 in MENA
FIGURE 1.2
Stringency Index across Countries in MENA Shows Big Variations in Size and Timing of Containment Measures Average stringency index 100 90 Average stringency level (%)
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
BHR PSE MAR
DJI QAT IRQ
DZA SYR IRN
EGY TUN
KWT YEM
LBY LBN
21 20
21
ary bru
Fe
Jan
ua
ry
20
02
0
20
r2 be
De
cem
er
20
20 No
ve
mb
20 20
er
Oc
tob
er mb
pte Se
ARE OMN SAU
20
0 02
0
st 2
02 Au
gu
0
0
02
y2
Jul
e2
02
Jun
20
y2
20
ril Ap
Ma
20
20 20
20 rch
Ma
ary bru
Fe
Jan
ua
ry
20
20
0
MLT JOR
Source: World Bank calculations based on data from Our World in Data (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2021), https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data. Note: The stringency index is a composite measure based on nine response indicators, including school closures, workplace closures, and travel bans, rescaled to a value from 0 to 100 (100 = strictest). If policies vary at the subnational level, the index is shown as the response level of the strictest subregion. December data represent only until 10th of the month.
while others faced reduced mobility because of social confinement measures imposed by governments. These disruptions hit the self-employed and those in the informal sector in contractual jobs the most. Supply chains fell short because of disruptions in transportation and businesses, thereby heavily hampering economic activity. Stringent workplace closures have been relaxed in many countries, but the current measures continue to have a widespread impact. Overall, about 80 percent of MENA’s workers currently reside in countries with some sort of workplace closure measure in place (figure 1.3). This share reached a peak of more than 90 percent for a period of five months from April to September 2020, then slowly declined until end-October, after which it started to increase slightly again. Specifically, lockdowns of workplaces for all but essential workers (that is, the most stringent of possible measures) continue to affect a sizeable share of the global workforce. As of end-2020, almost 20 percent of the region’s workers were living in countries with such lockdowns. More recently, the most stringent workplace closure measures have begun to be targeted at highly infected
