Covid-19 Pandemic and Nepal’s Road to Post-Pandemic Recovery
Nepal reported the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the entire South Asia region in Jan 2020. In the following months, as the virus began spreading to countries around the world and in South Asia, following China and other countries’ footsteps, Nepal too imposed a nationwide lockdown beginning the fourth week of March 2020 with an aim to mitigate the crisis. However, the nationwide lockdown, that ultimately lasted for almost four months, didn’t do much to control the spread of the virus but rather severely hit the country’s key economic sectors. Some of the initial impacts of the pandemic across sectors have been visible and based on our analysis Nepal is going to suffer in the long-run due to some steps taken during the first two years of the pandemic. However, if Government of Nepal (GoN) takes some cautious steps and formulates relevant plans and policies, we can think of Nepal minimizing some of the possible long-term damages from the pandemic.
In our study, we identify key sectors of the Nepali economy and dig into the details of their performance over the period, prior to and during the crisis. Based on available evidence so far, we also come up with a few recommendations that if GoN and other key policy stakeholders work on can help Nepal secure a healthier post-pandemic economic recovery.
June, 2022
Vaccine Cooperation of LMICs across South and South-East Asia
SARS-CoV-2, commonly known as Covid-19, and its subsequent mutated variants have disrupted the entire world since the first virus case was confirmed in the Chinese city, Wuhan, in late December 2019. Though strict restrictions by governments worldwide have helped control the spread of the virus to some extent, vaccines are the only way to manage the crisis in the long run. As the virus does not discriminate against people based on their gender, age, race, or nationality, equitable distribution of vaccines needs to be at the forefront if we wish to minimize the damage from the ongoing pandemic. This paper compares the pandemic’s impacts on five LMICs and the efforts made by the respective governments to manage it. The document aims to learn from those LMICs and provide applicable and feasible policy interventions that Nepal can take better to manage the Covid-19 and other future public health crises.
October, 2021
