Review on socio-economic impacts of 'Triple Threats' of COVID-19, desert locusts, and floods in East Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia

East Africa region is facing an unprecedented triple socio-economic threat caused by the combined effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the upsurge of desert locusts, and recent severe floods. The socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic with the massive economic impacts of desert locust, and flooding resulted in devastating implications on livelihood and food security situation in East Africa. The overall objective of this review is to assess and compile the widespread socio-economic impacts of the three threats in East Africa evidence from Ethiopia. To achieve this objective, in this review, all relevant information were collected through different search engines of PubMed/PMC/Medline, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, Google, and Science Direct databases. In addition, local media news, reports relevant to the topic from local and national governments, international organizations, and NGOs were used. The review found that the threats do not just have short-term impacts on socio-economic conditions of the people in the region in general and in Ethiopia in particular, they exacerbate prevailing food insecurity and undermine livelihoods and development gains that took years to build. Restriction measures introduced by governments to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic inside their boundaries would have adverse socio-economic-impacts on the people of their countries. Prolonged cessation in economic activities due to the pandemic with the overwhelming effects of flooding and desert locust will result in a permanent loss in the economy of Ethiopia and its GDP is expected to fall by 3% in 2019/2021. The findings of this review can help and inform that the observed impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, desert locust, and floods call for policy measures to curb future occurrences. Countries' preparedness for these threats is crucial to prevent the adverse socio-economic impacts and loss of human lives. Therefore, to ensure socio-economic recovery within a reasonable period the governments need to make credible commitments in each country of the region. Particularly, the government of Ethiopia should put in place plans and resources to improve the risk resilience capacity of the people to cope up and minimize the adverse effects of such disasters in the short-term basis and, also to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future in the long-term basis.

Automated summary

The East Africa region is grappling with an unprecedented triple threat from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the upsurge of desert locusts, and recent severe floods, leading to devastating impacts on livelihoods and food security. Governments need to implement policy measures to address future threats, enhance resilience, and ensure economic recovery.