The COVID-19 pandemic is having unprecedented social, political and economic effects on economies of developed and developing countries. Global recession is projected the longer this pandemic persists. The impact could also be disproportionately distributed across countries, no exception for countries in the Mekong subregion, having small and low-income countries faced severe consequences given their weak health system, limited fiscal and monetary policy options, and a relatively strong reliance on external trade. Few seem to know the long-term effects of this pandemic. We, however, could observe the short and immediate impacts. Rapid- and post-pandemic response and high-quality research, therefore, are timely and needed to inform policymakers, the private sector, academia, development partners and the public who need to make evidence-based and informed decision on what need to be done to mitigate the risks and to ensure that a better system is established to deal with similar crisis in the future. This is the main objective of the proposed project. Given its multiplicity of the impact, this project examines three dimensions: (1) macro-economic policy responses to mitigate the crisis, (2) social protection and micro, small and medium enterprises and (3) democratic governance The project leader is the CAMBODIA DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE INSTITUTE (Cambodia) and is conducted in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and Business Management (FEB), National University of Laos, the Centre for Analysis and Forecasting (Vietnam), Centre for Economic and Social Development (Myanmar). The project is funded by the International Development Research Centre (Canada).

1-Research Papers

2-Policy Brief

3-Presentation at workshops and conferences

4-Survey on the impact of Covid-19

      - Impact of Covid-19 on MSMEs

      - Impact of Covid-19 on household 

      - Impact of Covid-19 on labor immigration