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AfricaSource

Mar 24, 2020

COVID-19 pandemic: In a nation of extreme inequality, South Africa’s poorest are most at risk

By Alyssa Harvie

A major economy and transit hub, South Africa will be greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But not all South Africans will be affected equally: nearly thirty years after apartheid, South Africa is still plagued by deep societal divides. As one of the most unequal nations in the world, the virus will affect strata of society very differently.

Africa Coronavirus

Alyssa Harvie was a program assistant with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. Her research interests center around human rights, mental health, peacebuilding, and reconciliation. Previously, she was an intern at Global Impact, where she gained experience in non-profit consulting, and at Human Rights Watch, where she monitored current events and human rights abuses in Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. She also interned twice at Invisible Children, where she contributed to the development and implementation of the organization’s communications strategy and created Crisis Tracker briefs on armed group incidents in the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Alyssa was a participant in the 2019 US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship program for Swahili in Arusha, Tanzania.

Alyssa holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from American University’s School of International Service, along with a minor in French and a certificate in community-based research.