Covid 19 data intelligence

Uganda has a vibrant entrepreneurial business community with an estimated 1.1 million micro-, small-, and mediums-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across almost all sectors of the economy. To fully realise the potential of Uganda’s MSMEs, they require access to finance. 

This report details the preliminary results of a COVID-19 healthcare utilisation and seroprevalence survey (HUTS study) from three communities in South Africa, and shows an overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence of 35.8% as of end January 2021. This suggests a substantial increase in seroprevalence during the second COVID-19 wave – most likely as a consequence of the greater transmissibility of the 501Y.V2 variant.

The recent civil unrest created unfortunate scenes of consumers queuing for basic foods. In such a crisis, our competition authorities are mindful that suppliers may be able to take advantage of vulnerable consumers by charging higher prices, despite the underlying costs not changing to the same extent.

The ASISA Foundation asked their long-term learning partner, Genesis Analytics, to investigate the financial resilience of past WageWise workshop participants who faced extreme financial shock in the early months of Covid-19 (July 2020). Here are some of our findings.

MSMEs account for over 90% of businesses and create employment for about 60% of workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. MSMEs will also play an important role generating the 450 million new jobs required by 2035 to cater for the growing youth population of Africa. This year the United Nations focused on them as the “key to an inclusive and sustainable recovery” post the Covid pandemic on the annual Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day. Read more about the challenges:

Genesis, the MEL partner of the ASISA Foundation, assessed the extent to which financial education, in particular the financial education provided by their WageWise programme, builds resilience during economic downturns. The survey found that individuals who had received some form of financial education prior to the pandemic, fared much better compared to their counterparts. In particular, they had existing savings, less debt, and they were able to continue to provide for their families, even with reduced incomes due to the pandemic.

Genesis, in partnership with the NICD, PHRU and Epicentre, are excited to share the preliminary findings of the Healthcare UTilisation and Seroprevalence (HUTS) survey. The survey is currently running in the households of three South African communities (Maritzburg, Klerksdorp, and Mitchell's Plain). This report shows that 35.8% of survey participants had antibodies for COVID-19 as of 31 January 2021.

The world remains in crisis and levels of trust in institutions are low. According to the global 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer people around the world now trust business more than government, the media or NGOs. Will business rise to that confidence in 2021?

How can organisations collect meaningful and quality data virtually and understand the needs of program participants, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Read our work with The SEEP Network where we document learnings from recent virtual data collection in Rwanda, to counter limitations of the ongoing lockdowns and travel restrictions.