Informal Workers and the Social Protection Response to COVID-19: Who Got Relief? How? And Did it Make a Difference?
Laura Alfers, Ghida Ismail, Marcela Valdivia
Abstract
In March and April 2020, it became clear that the world was facing an unprecedented \npandemic and government after government began imposing strict lockdown measures. As \nthese measures were implemented it also became increasingly obvious that workers without \naccess to social protection–the vast majority of informal workers–were bearing the brunt of \nwhat was fast becoming a health AND economic crisis. \nThe government response has–at least at first glance–been impressive. There has been an \nunprecedented expansion of relief measures, particularly cash and food, to populations \nalready considered vulnerable, but also to new groups such as informal workers. In fact, it \nwould be fair to say that the question of how to expand relief measures to informal workers \nhas been one of the questions central to the COVID-19 crisis.