This cross-country synthesis study draws from four country studies, focusing on Albania, Ethiopia, Pakistan and South Africa, to calculate what the opportunity cost of budget reallocations was during the covid-19 pandemic. The research on which this synthesis is based took an exploratory approach to the methodology applied in each country to enable readers to learn from the process as much as from the results.

OPPORTUNITY COST OF COVID-19 BUDGET REALLOCATIONS: SOUTH AFRICA

This brief forms part of a cross-country study on the opportunity cost of reallocating budgets in response to disasters. The study, which this brief is based on, seeks to identify and quantify the opportunity costs associated with diverting funding from planned budgeted activities in South Africa, using the covid-19 pandemic as a case study to analyse public expenditure decisions, with a focus on what was not spent as a result of the pandemic.