<p>Escaping Poverty (EP) explores the link between mental health and efforts to improve economic productivity for those in extreme poverty through a multi-arm field experiment with a sample of 7,330 households.It identifies barriers to exiting poverty through random assignment of anti-poverty asset transfer and training program intervention components, as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy.In particular, EP examines the link between psychological distress and poverty from two perspectives.</p>

<p>COVID-19 and the related regulations and restrictions such as market and border closures, shelter-in-place, and product bans, are likely to significantly affect trade and food security in developing countries.This project explores how the pandemic affects Kenyan small-scale cross border traders’ businesses, food prices as well as trade informality, and corruption.It&nbsp;also looks at how resilience varies across traders' characteristics such as gender, trader size, and industry.</p>

<p>&nbsp; The coronavirus pandemic threatens unprecedented economic disruptions in Africa, where poverty and limited government resources for mounting effective responses may compound its negative effects (CGD 2020).This study will examine the pandemic’s impacts on small businesses in Rwanda, which play a unique role in the economy, comprising—as in many low-income countries—the vast majority of businesses and contributing more than 60% of employment and GDP (World Bank 2011).The pandemic jeopardizes not only the livelihoods of these firms but the wider economy through channels ranging from disruptions to inputs to negative shocks to demand and the health and earnings of employees.</p>