Role of social protection in fighting food insecurity during COVID-19 in Pakistan : A study based on special survey for evaluating socio- economic impact on wellbeing of people
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Abstract/Description
Pakistan has entered the global health crisis of COVID-19 with a feeble economy. The real GDP growth is expected to slow by 3%, while the IMF estimates that around 40% of people in Pakistan will be living under the poverty line in the wake of COVID-19 with people living in already vulnerable conditions are worst affectees (WFP 2020). Loopstra et al. (2016) suggest that social protection helps to mitigate income shocks, thus is helpful in reducing food insecurity. The objective of this paper is to study the role of cash transfer to households as social protection in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on food security in Pakistan. The special survey evaluating socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on wellbeing of people conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) published in January 2021 will be utilized in this study. The data on food access and cash transfer is utilized on household level for before and during lock down period. The households are matched using propensity scores on the basis of household covariates. The near neighborhood method is used to match and compare treatment and control groups to avoid selection bias (Azeem et al., 2019). The results are expected to show that households with some cash transfer are better-off in terms of food availability and cash transfer has helped households to sustain COVID-19 shock. Moreover, female headed households are more vulnerable than male headed households.
Keywords
Social protection, Food insecurity, COVID-19, Socio-economic impact, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
JEL Codes
I23, I24, J16
Session Theme
Socio-economic Impact of Covid-19 - Session IIC
Session Type
Parallel Technical Session
Session Chair
Dr. Uzma Iram, Assistant Professor - AERC, University of Karachi
Session Discussant
Dr. Aqdas Afzal, Program Director & Assistant Professor, Social Development & Policy Program, Habib University
Start Date
3-4-2021 2:30 PM
End Date
3-4-2021 4:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Tariq, R., & Sadik, F. (2021). Role of social protection in fighting food insecurity during COVID-19 in Pakistan : A study based on special survey for evaluating socio- economic impact on wellbeing of people. CBER Conference. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/esdcber/2021/day2/12
Role of social protection in fighting food insecurity during COVID-19 in Pakistan : A study based on special survey for evaluating socio- economic impact on wellbeing of people
Pakistan has entered the global health crisis of COVID-19 with a feeble economy. The real GDP growth is expected to slow by 3%, while the IMF estimates that around 40% of people in Pakistan will be living under the poverty line in the wake of COVID-19 with people living in already vulnerable conditions are worst affectees (WFP 2020). Loopstra et al. (2016) suggest that social protection helps to mitigate income shocks, thus is helpful in reducing food insecurity. The objective of this paper is to study the role of cash transfer to households as social protection in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on food security in Pakistan. The special survey evaluating socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on wellbeing of people conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) published in January 2021 will be utilized in this study. The data on food access and cash transfer is utilized on household level for before and during lock down period. The households are matched using propensity scores on the basis of household covariates. The near neighborhood method is used to match and compare treatment and control groups to avoid selection bias (Azeem et al., 2019). The results are expected to show that households with some cash transfer are better-off in terms of food availability and cash transfer has helped households to sustain COVID-19 shock. Moreover, female headed households are more vulnerable than male headed households.
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