COVID-19 in an African Context: What the Pandemic Has Taught Us About the Development Economics Curriculum and the Need for Reform

Deane, Kevin; Chukwuma, Julia and Lombardozzi, Lorena (2023). COVID-19 in an African Context: What the Pandemic Has Taught Us About the Development Economics Curriculum and the Need for Reform. In: Yusuf, Abdullah; Morelli, Carlo and Feraboli, Omar eds. Post-Crash Economics and the Covid Emergency in the Global Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 49–68.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31605-0_4

Abstract

The public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa has been inseparable from economic concerns. The economic impact of COVID-19 has highlighted a range of issues that have long been debated in development economics, such as the role of the state, the lack of public financing for health systems and social protection programmes, the informal sector and fragility of livelihoods and macroeconomic impacts resulting from economic crises in the global north. However, these themes are not currently adequately addressed in depth in mainstream development economics curricula, which traditionally focuses on the application of core neoclassical theory to low-income countries, and more recently has been augmented with the behavioural approach and a focus on experiments and empirics. This chapter will review the economic challenges experienced by low-income countries during COVID-19 and the implications for reform of the development economics curriculum

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