The pandemic highlighted the critical role of the digitalisation of public services and digital access to them for the effective participation of citizens in the economy and society, both during the pandemic and in postponed pandemic economic reconstruction. [...] Overall the research finds that in the countries covered by this study – Nigeria, South Africa, India and Sri Lanka and Peru and Columbia – governments missed the opportunity afforded by the crisis to deploy digital strategies effectively to mitigate the social and economic effects of the pandemic and lockdowns in support of more equitable social compacts. [...] It was with this opportunity in mind that Research ICT Africa (RIA), LIRNEasia and the Institute of Peruvian Studies in Peru set out to understand the implications of the pandemic in six countries in Africa, Asia Global South lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic 9 and Latin America (LAC) and to examine the interplay between digitalisation and formality and informality; the visibility of citizens and. [...] The first and second phases of the research set out to understand the status and potential role of digitalisation and datafication in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. [...] The variation in economic impacts as a result of the pandemic are due to a number of factors including the rate at which the virus spread, the economic make-up of each country, external factors impacting on each economy at the onset of the pandemic, and by different policy and regulatory responses by each government in response to the pandemic.
- Pages
- 89
- Published in
- South Africa
