Implications of Covid-19 Pandemic on Human Security in the Accra Metropolis, Ghana

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated measures to contain it impacted every facet of the individual's life. This study investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic affected human security among informal sector workers in the Accra Metropolis by using a qualitative study approach. Purposive, snowball and convenience sampling methods were adopted. Interviews were conducted with fifty-seven (57) respondents in Jamestown and New Fadama communities in the Accra metropolis. Key informants from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection were also interviewed. The findings revealed that not only COVID-19 threaten public health, but it also threatened economic security, food security and political security. Self-reported outcomes included mental health challenges such as anxiety, panic disorders, fear, loss of sources of income, lack of economic and physical accessibility to food and violation of civil rights such as freedom of movement and association. Spirituality, spending time with family and switching of businesses to more viable ones were some of the strategies adopted by some respondents to cope with the stressors occasioned by the pandemic. Government intervention in free food distribution to ameliorate the impact of the pandemic on the vulnerable group during the lockdown was not apparent in the lives of the targeted population. From the findings, there is a need for the government to address issues of poverty and economic recovery as well as bridge the inequality gap in the country by providing basic social amenities such as pipe-borne water to every household to ensure that the underprivileged are not deprived of basic human needs such as water.