BRIEF March 14, 2022

Monitoring COVID-19 impacts on Households in Latin America and the Caribbean

Family from Peru in their food store in times of Covid19

Family from Peru in times of COVID19 - Victor Idrogo / World Bank

To monitor the welfare impacts of COVID-19 on households, the World Bank and various partners have implemented High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) in more than 100 countries around the world (see more details here). The COVID-19 Household Monitoring Dashboard has been developed to provide comparable cross-country information on the effects of the crisis on various outcomes.

The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region has been a pioneer of the global HFPS efforts. This website gathers information on all the rounds of High-Frequency Phone Surveys implemented in LAC and knowledge products based on the data collected. The website will be updated frequently to account for the latest data and analysis.

Phase I (2020)

In 2020, the World Bank conducted a series of High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) to help assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the welfare of LAC households and inform policies aiming to contain the effects. Three waves of surveys were collected between May and August 2020 in the following thirteen countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru.

The surveys provide a comprehensive outlook of the consequences of COVID-19 in terms of wellbeing, gathering information on multiple dimensions such as employment and income, food insecurity, access to health, education and financing services, and coping mechanisms resulting from measures imposed to mitigate the spread of the disease. They also inquired about households’ quarantine compliance and knowledge of the disease.

Chapeau

Policy Briefs

Blogs

Methodology

Technical Note HFPS Phase I

Technical Note on Sampling HFPS Phase I

Micro-data Library

ARG| BOL | CHL | COL | CRI | DOM | ECU | SLV | GTM | HND | MEX |

PRY | PER

Phase II (2021)

To continue monitoring how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected welfare, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joined forces to implement a second phase of High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) in LAC, one and a half years after the onset of the pandemic. The initiative was supported by the Joint Data Center, the Global Financing Facility, and the Caribbean Regional Resilience Building Facility.

In this second phase, data collection was expanded to 24 countries in the region: the 13 countries included in the first phase plus Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Brazil, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Lucia, and Uruguay. Two waves were collected between May 2021 and January 2022. In addition to employment, income, food insecurity, and access to services, the surveys collected information on gender issues and access to digital and banking services during the pandemic.

Chapeau

Policy Briefs

Blogs

Methodology

Technical Note HFPS Phase 2

Technical Note on Sampling HFPS Phase 2

Country briefs

By country:

ARG: Wave 1 - ENG | SPA

ATG: Wave 1 - ENG

BLZ: Wave 1 - ENG

BOL: Wave 1 - ENG | SPA