Are we asking the right questions?

Choices and Challenges in Assessing COVID-19 Impact on the Vulnerable in Bangladesh

The first working paper of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh puts forward a framework to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable population groups in a developing country context. Bangladesh has been used as a case study. The pandemic has not only exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities of these groups but has also induced new ones. Policy actions towards recovery and resumption—both immediately and over the medium-term—need to be informed by genuine and disaggregated evidence based on realities on the ground. The paper urges a need to have conceptual, analytical and methodological clarity on the relevant issues. Towards this end, it explores the current state of knowledge on the topic and digs deep into the existing literature to analyse these issues. The paper offers a set of analytical questions to construct the assessment framework. The resultant framework presented can be adopted and replicated across national contexts.

Authors: Debapriya Bhattacharya, Sarah Sabin Khan and Towfiqul Islam Khan

Working Paper