COVID-19 and Well-being
Life in the Pandemic
COVID-19 and Well-being: Life in the Pandemic explores the immediate implications of the pandemic for people’s lives and livelihoods in OECD countries. The report charts the course of well-being – from jobs and incomes through to social connections, health, work-life balance, safety and more – using data collected during the first 12-15 months of the pandemic. It also takes stock of what has happened to human, economic, social and natural capital that, beyond their effects on people’s lives today, shape living conditions for years to come. It shows how COVID-19 has had far-reaching consequences for how we live, work and connect with one another, and how experiences of the pandemic varied widely, depending on whether and where people work, their gender, age, race and ethnicity, education and income levels. The report also examines the role that well-being evidence can play in supporting governments’ pandemic recovery efforts. It argues that a well-being lens can prompt policy-makers to refocus on the outcomes that matter the most to people, to redesign policy content from a more multidimensional perspective, to realign policy practice across government silos, and to reconnect people with the public institutions that serve them.
Also available in: French
Social capital and COVID-19
Social capital is about social norms, shared values and institutional arrangements that foster co-operation. Volunteering via official organisations, already on a downward trend, dropped in 2020, but signs of increased solidarity were also visible across the OECD, and charitable giving rose. Faster adoption of and adherence to containment measures in communities with higher interpersonal trust also led to fewer COVID-19 cases. The 2020 increase in trust in institutions in face of the common threat of COVID-19 started to wear off by early 2021. The pandemic forced governments to make difficult choices about temporarily restraining personal freedoms, to fast-track new regulations and cut back on impact assessments and active stakeholder engagement. Progress towards gender parity in politics, a proxy for the inclusiveness of institutions, continued but remains far from parity, including in COVID-19 task forces. More digital parliamentary practices have both positive and negative implications for female political participation.
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