Covid-19 has pushed governments to find new ways to help the poor

FRADIA BULAGE, a school nurse in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, says the 100,000 shillings ($29) the government gave her last year through a scheme to help the country’s poorest 500,000 households was not nearly enough. The one-off payment amounted to about a week of her pre-pandemic salary. Her school, like all Uganda’s, had been closed for the best part of two years, due to covid-19 lockdowns, and reopened only last month. Strapped for cash, she stopped paying utility bills. Instead of turning on the tap she bought water by the jerrycan; for light she relied on candles. Her mother, who lives in a village, sent cassava in the hope of saving Ms Bulage’s household from hunger.