Paper short abstract:

Our paper empirically explores the complex web of public policies and health action mechanisms during the covid-19 crisis in Congo-Kinshasa. It is part of the anthropology of development and the aid industry, extended to two of its 'new frontiers'

Paper long abstract:

Our paper empirically explores the complex web of public policies and health action mechanisms during the covid-19 crisis in Congo-Kinshasa. It is based on a field study and is part of the anthropology of development and the aid industry, which has been extended to two of its 'new frontiers': public action (Olivier De Sardan, 2011), which operates over the long term and discreetly, and humanitarian action, which is 'marked by urgency and media coverage' (Goamere and Ost, 1996). From this dual perspective, we will examine the economic and health responses of the Congolese public authorities during the state of health emergency declared during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic (March to July 2020). We would like to emphasise the rapidity of the Congolese government's reaction to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This promptness is remarkable in a context where state services are generally seen as weak, failing or absent, and where the various public actors, whether political or administrative, tend to act without coordination. However, the day-to-day governance of the state of health emergency was sometimes faulty and chaotic, thus contributing to the generalisation of risk denial in the population. Resistance by citizens to the restrictive measures prohibiting their daily survival activities has fostered the emergence of competing risks and created new vulnerabilities, aggravating the situation of precariousness and socio-economic vulnerability of workers in the informal economy.