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The adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global tourism industry necessitated several responses from policymakers in order to support the industry's recovery and post-pandemic growth. Southern Africa hosts tourism-sensitive and connected economies, with many tourists who arrive in one country, often visiting neighbouring countries. Using the United Nations World Tourism Organisation's policy framework for COVID-19 mitigation, recovery, and stability for the tourism industry, this paper critically examined the Southern Africa's level of support for mitigating the impact of the pandemic and their recovery strategies for the tourism industry. Data were collected from publicly available policy and strategic documents. Findings reveal non-compliance to referenced benchmarks, lack of regional policy direction from SADC, and divergent levels of support among the member countries. The paper recommends, among others, a revision of the SADC's regional tourism programme, collaborative tourism governance through increased regional integration, and improved destination attractiveness of the Southern African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of learning losses and altered schooling patterns in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). Five major trends emerge from a review of the evidence. These include significant learning losses (38–118% of a year of learning), widened learning inequality, lowered grade repetition rates, increased secondary school enrolments and an unprecedented rise in candidates writing and passing the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination. School completion significantly increased in 2021 and 2022, spurred by COVID-19 adjusted assessment and promotion practices in Grades 10 and 11. Larger numbers of youth also achieved a NSC pass or Bachelor's pass enabling access to university. With twin pandemic shocks of learning losses and secondary school enrolment increases, remediating losses and realigning progression rules to effective assessment practices should be prioritised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the effects of the government's COVID-19 economic stimulus and relief package (emergency/one-off income grant of ND750) on household food security in Namibia during the period of the lockdown. The analysis reveals that a household that received the income grant ($42 equivalent) experienced about 11%−17% reduction in food insecurity compared to their non-recipient counterparts. We also found that the effect was relatively higher in female-headed households than in male-headed households. The positive effect is supported by a higher proportion (53%) of the beneficiary households who were satisfied with the policy. These findings underscore the need for the government of Namibia to institutionalise and sustain the income grant policy as a safety net and extend it to cover other vulnerable households in the post-pandemic. Such a programme should be gender-responsive and targeted at household heads who make decision over food consumption and other household arrangements for a bigger impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the short-term impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on firms in a developing country i.e. Zambia. This is motivated by the characteristics of the Labour market in developing countries where informality dominates, and female workers form a larger proportion of the informal workforce. The Zambian version of the World Bank Enterprise Survey conducted just before the pandemic (September 2019 to March 2020) and during the pandemic (June 6 to 17 July 2020) is used to explore the experience of firms in terms of changes in the number of employees and firm survival. Results suggest that informal workers are more likely to lose their jobs while firms that are at least partly owned/managed by females are also less likely to survive. It is argued that policy actions that protect informal workers are salient especially since future pandemics cannot be ruled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to ignite a conversation on the challenges of the ongoing 'novel' surrounding the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in the Southern Africa region. The global COVID-19 pandemic started with the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It is understood that different countries, regions and territories will have different, context-specific challenges in fighting the pandemic. These will differ from country to country and therefore necessitates contextual research. By sharing African perspectives on swift action against this coronavirus, this paper is intended to appraise the nexus between the coronavirus and tourism in order to prepare tourism practitioners for the recovery strategies that will be needed to address the damages caused by the pandemic. This paper points to tourism researchers focusing on the Southern African region and possible key areas for further research as the coronavirus situation unfolds. It draws from published material and document analysis, including from academic research, media reports and social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence in the global literature that women have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis and associated lockdowns. In this paper, we use five waves of the National Income Dynamics Study - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) to track the gendered effects of the pandemic in South Africa during the first year of the crisis. We focus here on the impact in the labour market and on unpaid care work in the home. We find that, relative to men, women were more severely affected in both spheres, yet they benefited less from the government income support provided to unemployed and furloughed workers. The evidence from the NIDS-CRAM survey from the first year of the pandemic therefore suggests that gender inequality in South Africa has risen, undoing some of the gains of the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus pandemic has had devastating effects on urban lives and livelihoods throughout the world. A major concern in the global North has been the hollowing out of central cities caused by remote working. The consequences for cities in the global South extend further and deeper because their economies are weaker, social and spatial inequalities larger, and healthcare systems more fragile. The paper explores the uneven trajectory of COVID-19 for people and places in South African cities, drawing on unique individual panel data. It shows how communities that were already the most vulnerable have been hit hardest by the pandemic, triggering hardship, hunger and social unrest. Local institutions will have to play a stronger role if society is to manage pandemics better in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts an analysis of employment uncertainty in South Africa during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, using NIDS-CRAM and five waves of Statistics SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS: 2020-Q1 to 2021-Q1). We find that much of the differences in estimates of labour force states including employment, unemployment and not economically active, are due to different initial conditions and different reference periods between the two surveys, as well as the way that uncertain job attachment is measured in the questionnaires. This leads to higher estimates of employment in NIDS-CRAM compared to the QLFS for both a pre-pandemic baseline and over the entire period investigated (February 2020 to March 2021). This implies the two data sources are not strictly comparable, but rather complementary when analysing different aspects of the labour force. We discuss the implications for labour market research based on these data sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use data from waves 1–5 of NIDS-CRAM to investigate labour market outcomes in 2020/1 for four age groups: youth (aged 18–24), prime-age adults (aged 25–39), middle-age adults (aged 40–54) and older adults (aged 55–64). We contrast outcomes just before and just after the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown (February and April 2020) with outcomes one year later (March 2021), and study transitions between the periods. We find that although the NIDS-CRAM employment-to-population ratio was near identical in February 2020 and March 2021 (56.4% versus 56.6%), there had been extensive churning between the two periods. By March 2021, 23% of the February 2020 employed had lost work and 30% of the non-employed had found work. Amidst these changes, youth experienced the largest employment-to-population ratio increase, while older adults suffered the largest decrease in employment and a decline in participation rates (changes not statistically significant). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a longitudinal telephonic survey of adults, this paper provides empirical evidence from South Africa on early childhood care and education (ECCE) attendance trends just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 39% of adult respondents living with children aged 0–6 indicated that at least one child had attended an ECCE programme in February 2020. After a period of ECCE programme closures and lockdowns, estimates fell to as low as 7% in July/August 2020, partially recovered to 28% in November/December 2020, dropped again to 7% in early February 2021 but then recovered significantly to 36% by April/May 2021. A decomposition analysis suggests that a large part of the recovery in ECCE attendance in 2021 was attributed to higher reported perceived ability to be able to afford ECCE programme fees. This could relate to lower fee ECCE programmes resuming operations in anticipation of government relief payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has rapidly spread throughout the globe, and recovering from the pandemic will be a massive test on economic systems. The pandemic has severely affected the accommodation sector as global travel has come to an almost complete standstill as of April 2020. This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the economic impacts of the pandemic on guesthouses in South Africa and the response measures adopted by this sector. Through online surveys, the empirical results show that guesthouse operations were severely disrupted by the pandemic, leading to a critical decline in revenue and a pronounced threat to job security. Despite implementing various response measures and strategies, guesthouses were somewhat concerned about the future of their businesses due to the uncertainty of the pandemic. This research can assist in developing intervention measures to support guesthouses in addressing the economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]