Targeting the World’s Slums as Fat Tails in the Distribution of COVID-19 Cases

A recent article by Corburn et al. lays out the policies that would help slum communities in the global south deal with COVID-19. That article notes the vulnerabilities of people in these informal settlements and argues that any assistance program must recognize these realities so that the policies do not further jeopardize the survival of large segments of the population of these communities. This note extends the arguments in that paper, focusing on some of the logistic issues involved in providing assistance to informal settlements. It argues that such assistance is essential not only for the help it would provide to people in these settlements but also because the residents of these communities should be key targets of assistance. Because of the location and occupation of most of the residents of these communities, targeting them simultaneously addresses health and economy-wide concerns generated by COVID-19. Their characteristics make them much more likely to be afflicted by the virus and spread it to others. The main conclusions of this note with respect to policy are that the scale of such assistance is likely to be larger than has so far been proposed, that in countries with limited testing ability slums provide one of the most effective places to target assistance, that the role of community groups in providing the assistance is difficult to exaggerate, and that philanthropy has a role to play in supporting innovation.