Assessing differential socio-demographic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban livelihood capitals in suburban Accra, Ghana

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a debilitating socio-economic impact on livelihoods across the world. Extant studies show that livelihood capitals in developing countries have been hard hit due to their vulnerability and the minimal support system available to help people respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the extent of the pandemic’s impact on livelihood capitals may not be the same for the various socio-demographic groups. Using quantitative techniques, this study examines the differential impact of the pandemic on the livelihood capitals of different socio-demographic groups in suburban Accra, Ghana. The study found significant differences in the pandemic’s impact on the livelihood capitals for various socio-demographic groups, such as gender, income, household sizes, and age groups. The findings show how framing the pandemic’s impacts through an urban livelihood capital-socio-demographic nexus lens enables a more complex, socially conscious, and locally placed understanding of the health risks. Furthermore, findings provide impetus for disaster interventions to transcend normative policies and practices that oversimplify disaster risks from a single vulnerability context and focus on at-risk groups.