At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, cases and deaths were concentrated in large urban centers. However, with time, rural communities also began to bear a higher burden from the virus’ impact.
As part of efforts to find possible solutions to these burdens, researchers from IITA and Cellule d’Analyses des Indicateurs de Développement (CAID) conducted an in-depth study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to assess COVID-19’s impact on gender equality, youth, and social inclusion within households, during the early days of the pandemic. The researchers chose Kwilu, Kwango, Kongo Central, and Kinshasa in western DRC, areas that were more exposed to the virus and accounted for 68% of the total 54,193 cases by 2 August 2021.
In 82.1% of households across the four communities, the household head and their spouse were interviewed, and where possible, two people within households were separately interviewed. In the remaining households, different household members were interviewed, such as the household head and their brother/sister or the spouse and her/his child.