Key Messages

CHAPTER 2

Unequal Impact of COVID-19 on MENA Households

Minh Cong Nguyen, Gildas Bopahbe Deudibe, and Romeo Jacky Gansey

Key Messages

• In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, high-frequency phone surveys conducted in many countries and economies in the Middle

East and North African (MENA) region offer a snapshot of the impacts on households in several key areas: jobs, earnings, health care, and social protection.

• COVID-19 has economically affected households along the entire income distribution, with more severity for those in the bottom 40 percent.

• Workplace closures continue to disrupt labor markets, leading to losses in working hours, job losses, and work stoppages, which vary with job sector and household profiles.

• Once lockdown measures are lifted, many return to work and start earning an income again. Yet not all return to work, and for those who do, incomes earned are lower than before. In addition, those in the bottom 40 percent are less likely to fully recover.

• The pandemic has increased the level of stress about access to food—such as in Djibouti, Gaza, Lebanon, and the Republic of

Yemen, where food insecurity is widespread. Food insecurity affects the most vulnerable in particular, and especially the poor.