<p>This project aims to establish the causal impact of education on ability to cope with both the sanitary crisis and the economic crisis generated by a pandemic.We propose to leverage a randomized controlled trial initiated in Ghana in 2008, in which 682 adolescents from a sample of 2,064 received a scholarship for secondary school.The scholarship offer led to a large increase in secondary school enrollment.Since 2008, we have tracked this cohort, with an attrition rate as of 2019 of only 5 percent.</p>

<p>COVID-19 is causing major health and economic challenges for low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa.The Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS) is uniquely situated to address numerous key questions about the effects of the pandemic.The KLPS is a 20-year longitudinal survey on health, educational, nutritional, demographic, social, and labor market outcomes among a sample of thousands of Kenyans who were participants in one or more randomized health, skills training, and financial capital interventions during childhood and adolescence, and collects intergenerational data on their children.</p>

<p>Social distancing is one of the most important health behaviors limiting the spread of COVID‐19, but people may practice it insufficiently for multiple reasons: they may not believe or realize that community norms have shifted towards support for social distancing, and they may not realize its public health benefits.This project is supporting Mozambique’s effort to promote social distancing, in collaboration with the government’s health research center for the central region.In a representative sample of 3,000 households across three provinces, many of whom were displaced by Cyclone Idai, researchers are evaluating two different messaging approaches to promote social distancing.</p>