Ethiopia

The chapter shows that the government’s pandemic responses were focused on prevention. The government declared a state of emergency, postponed the national elections, mobilised resources, and made liquidity injections into the economy to control the outbreak's spread. The non-state actors donated several resources and engaged in awareness creation in collaboration with the state. However, the policy responses did not adequately tackle the impacts of the pandemic on various social groups, e.g. increased gender-based violence and early marriage of schoolgirls, more men than women losing jobs during the period due to business closure mandates and job losses were more prevalent in urban areas. Interestingly, the pandemic promoted structural changes and innovation. The chapter reflects on the gaps in social protection initiatives and recommended a strengthening and institutionalisation of existing social protection programmes to reach more people in a timely manner.