Introduction

Introduction

As the full scale of the impacts from COVID-19 continues to unfold, high-frequency phone surveys (HFPSs)—conducted in many MENA countries and economies during the pandemic—offer a snapshot of the impacts on households in several key areas, including jobs, earnings, health care, and social protection. Between April and December of 2020, Djibouti, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the West Bank and Gaza, and the Republic of Yemen implemented one or multiple waves of data collection by phone. For eight of these —Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, the West Bank and Gaza, and the Republic of Yemen—we were able to obtain the microdata, which are explored in this chapter. These phone interviews represent an unprecedented data collection effort aimed at producing up-to-date information on the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 and the associated economic crisis on households and individuals in the region.

COVID-19 affects household welfare through nonincome and income channels. Household income can be reduced when sick household members are unable to work. More importantly, COVID-19-induced lockdowns can limit the ability to work, and reduce the intensity of work, resulting in lower income for many households. The crisis also reduced nonlabor incomes such as remittances, while its impact on government transfers is ambiguous: some households may receive increased welfare benefits because of the crisis, but others might lose existing advantages because governments are aligning their spending with reductions in revenue collection.

The pandemic’s impacts on household welfare that occur through nonincome channels, such as increased health spending due to illness, reduce disposable income and limit resources available for other consumption goods. Also, because lockdowns have caused schools to close, students’ learning experiences have been disrupted. And worldwide disruptions in production and transport services contributed in many places to higher prices of basic items such as food, thus lowering living standards.

This chapter reports highlights of the results of phone interviews with households conducted in 2020. It focuses on six areas: employment, work intensity, earnings, access to health care, access to food security, and social protection. The findings show that the impact has been unequal. Although all households have been affected, those at the bottom 40 percent of the welfare distribution have been hit the hardest.