The expansion of access to finance and other anti-poverty programming such as cash or asset transfers can have strong impacts on poverty alleviation—but only for certain types of beneficiaries.

Since early 2020, IPA and the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) have partnered to improve understanding and measurement of consumer protection issues in mobile telecommunications and digital financial services and to test new consumer protection solutions One aspect of this partnership has been to further develop UCC’s analytical tools and processes related to consumer complaints logs.

As COVID-19 continues its march, how have families in West Africa weathered income shocks, disruptions to education, and strains on public health systems? What trends have emerged in households’ coping mechanisms when facing food insecurity and employment losses? What portion of respondents is committed to getting vaccinated? How is each government responding to these challenges, how have messaging strategies persisted or changed over time, and what can decision-makers learn from each other?These and other questions have been at the forefront of decision-makers’ minds while forming policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.