COVID-19 emergency income grant and food security in Namibia

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• lockdown
• income grant
• food security
• household
• Namibia‌

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F16. J01. J31. J71

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Stage 1 which took place from 28 March to 4 May 2020 was classified as full lockdown while stage 2 (strict precaution) took place from 5 May to 1 June. Stage 3 (moderate precaution) and stage 4 (relaxed precaution) took place from 2 June to 29 June, and 30 June to 17 September. Stage 5 (a new normal) took place from 18 September to 30 December 2020.

2 It is important to emphasize that this research is purely an academic exercise that is neither motivated nor supported in kind/cash by any national or international institutions.

3 Detailed explanation and functional specification of the various matching estimators used in this analysis can be found in the work of Abadie & Cattaneo (2018).

4 See Abadie & Cattaneo (2018) for detail explanation of the IPW methods