THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 AND WAY FORWARD

THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 AND WAY FORWARD

At this point “Corona virus” and “Covid-19” are terms that we are intimately familiar with. We are either in enforced lockdown or self-quarantine and working from home, and when venturing out in public, we all do so while taking extensive steps to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

The coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) came out of the blue and has wreaked havoc on all aspects of life as we knew it. Both our social and economic lives have been profoundly impacted. These impacts are many; some obvious and some perhaps surprising or unexpected. 

For us at SRC,  the effect of Covid-19 on our conference/events management business has been the most impactful. In the few months since the outbreak became a global pandemic, we have seen a substantial decline in the Meetings, Incentive, Conference and Events (MICE) sphere. This decline has been driven primarily by government enforced lockdowns around the world, airlines being grounded and fear among travelers. The question on all our minds is – How do we bounce back? 

These factors have had a knock-on effect on other sectors of economies too. We are seeing impacts on things such as education delivery, food production and agriculture, construction, manufacturing and all the way to banking and finance.

Covid-19 has also had a major impact on social and professional relationships and habits. We have changed how we interact with family and friends and also how office work is done. These changes are profound and have implications to our health and psychological well being as individuals and in our communities.

It is not all doom and gloom, however. In this short time, people around the world and in Tanzania have come up with innovative solutions to deal with the negative impacts of Covid-19. There are people creating and selling home-made masks, others have constructed hands-free sanitizing systems among the many creative ideas that have cropped up. Other opportunities have also been identified and exploited as evidenced by the rapid growth of delivery services in Tanzania to give one example.

At SRC Agency, we have determined to start a series of articles to share with our readers and followers our experiences and lessons learnt from around the world and focusing on Tanzania. We will also be inviting guest writers who are experts in their respective fields to share with us their insights as relevant to these trying times we are all going through. In this way, it is our hope and expectation that we can help highlight important issues and therefore not only spread awareness, but also help drive innovation and solutions.