| dc.description.abstract | The Covid-19 crisis had a particularly negative impact on informal workers. In general, these workers have little to fall back on and work on a day-to-day basis. Lockdown like measures, aimed at containing the novel virus, forced them to stay home, making it difficult for informal workers to provide for themselves and their families. This research focuses on the impact of, and reaction to, the Covid-19 crisis on informal worker in Kampala, Uganda.
Uganda, a country where informality dominates the economy, implemented a particularly strict lockdown, which put a halt to all economic activity between March and May 2020. This crisis -the lockdown and the new economy reality, shaped by this crisis- made this demographic especially vulnerable and insecure. Due to this crisis, their livelihood security has been severely compromised, as it prevented them from buying food, from paying rent, from sending their children to school, from engaging in social activities, or paying for medical expenses. In response to all this, informal workers devised a series of livelihood strategies of short-term and long-term nature to alleviate the pressure on existential needs and rebuild assets. Furthermore, a significant number of workers chose migrating back to their rural origins -return migration- as their livelihood strategy. While with no doubt the time during strict lockdown between March and May 2020 had the greatest impact on the wellbeing of informal workers, the general effects, the Covid-19 crisis had on the Ugandan economy, and the problems that emerged from this changing economic environment, still persist. Workers in Kampala are facing a growing competition for certain activities, a decrease in demand, a limited capacity to rebuild businesses and the pronounced hand to mouth functioning of interactions. This new economic landscape is challenging both those who originally stayed in Kampala and those who left, to come up with effective and innovative strategies to adapt to this new reality. | |
