Two-year pandemic widens gap between rich and poor

JANA-MARI SMITH WINDHOEKNearly two years after the World Health Organisation (WHO) first sounded the alarm about a novel coronavirus outbreak spreading fast across the globe, analysts say the pandemic not only exposed Namibia’s socio-economic cracks, but widened them considerably.“The pandemic has exposed Namibia's socio-economic fault lines - particularly inequality, lack of sanitation and access to clean water, and the generally poor state of health facilities and services,” Graham Hopwood of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said.Political analyst Henning Melber added that in Namibia, “given the socio-economic disparities and poor-rich divide, the ‘haves’ suffered much less from the effects of the pandemic than the ‘have nots’. The pandemic thereby reproduced the stark divide.”The pandemic highlighted the cushioning afforded to wealthier Namibians, while poor Namibians felt the brunt of its punch, University of Namibia economics professor Omu Kakujaha-Matundu said.“While the elite were sipping champagne, the poor were sleeping on empty stomachs during the hard lockdown. Disaster can strike at any time, and improving service delivery should be the order of the day, not a last-minute rush to deliver services to the poor during pandemics,” he said.Kakujaha-Matundu warned that the pandemic will leave in its wake a “poorer Namibia, with increasing unemployment levels and income disparities.”Ultimately, Hopwood said a crucial lesson from the pandemic is for Namibia to “do much more to address these issues and lift Namibians out of poverty and deprivation”.VaccinesMelber added that some of the issues plaguing Namibia are not unique, but a global challenge, including widespread fake news that has undercut vaccine uptake.“Maybe government could have been more proactive to create awareness and enlighten the people. On the other hand, the same phenomenon exists elsewhere and is not limited to Namibia or southern countries,” he said.Kakujaha-Matundu, however, pointed out that the vaccine roll-out was not helped by President Hage Geingob’s unwillingness to stand first in line for the jab once vaccines became available.“At no moment did he act as the leader of the nation,” he said.Hopwood added that government, in particular the health ministry, offered a lacklustre vaccine drive, which paled in comparison to the efforts made by Namibia’s First Lady Monica Geingos and her team.“There’s been little imagination or innovation in government communications. This has contributed to the very slow uptake of vaccines.” MistakesMeanwhile, Hopwood believes that while the first hard lockdown imposed in March 2020 was necessary at the time, “tragically we did not use this period to build up the capacity of health services to the necessary level”.He said government’s biggest failure in the past two years was the lack of preparation and planning for subsequent waves of Covid-19, with fatal consequences during the third wave in mid-2021.“There was really no excuse for this and it led to the loss of lives.”Kakujaha-Matundu said “Namibia was caught napping without adequate and up-to-standard health facilities, oxygen supply, ICU beds, etc.”A sliver of good news, he noted, was that the deadly crisis ultimately led to a boost in oxygen supply at health facilities, and an improvement of the diagnostic capacities at laboratories.Hopwood added that government’s short-lived emergency income grant should have been supplemented with other welfare initiatives to help those most in need.Beyond“It will take quite a time for the economy to come back to pre-pandemic levels - mind you, the pre-pandemic levels were also nothing to write home about,” Kakujaha-Matundu said.He warned that government’s tendency to “wait for things to unravel” should make way for decisive action going forward.Melber added that a priority now is “to implement and action targeted policies to tackle the living conditions of ordinary Namibians”.He warned that if these plans and policies do not have a visible effect, “it will most likely also influence voters choices”.

Two-year pandemic widens gap between rich and poor

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Namibian Sun 2022-05-26

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Two-year pandemic widens gap between rich and poor

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Namibian Sun 2022-05-26

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