CS Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya's Health MinistryThe Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe has underscored the role of social protection programmes’ to ease economic challenges associated with the Covid 19 pandemic. Speaking when he delivered the Guest of Honour speech at the twenty-third African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Virtual Senior Policy Seminar, Kagwe noted that well thought out social protection programmes will act as safeguards for the economically vulnerable. Social protection initiatives, he said, support positive health outcomes by mitigating economic shocks, such as income losses resulting from the measures governments have imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19. “Social protection is an effective way to protect immediate human needs and to cushion economic reversals by protecting productive assets,” he said. The current Covid-19 pandemic is damaging business ecosystems, affecting livelihoods, and threatening to overturn sub-Saharan Africa’s development progress and growth projections.

Source: Standard Digital March 31, 2021 12:45 UTC