Exposed and unprotected: Sex worker vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 health emergency in Mozambique.

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 have been shown to disproportionately affect the marginalised groups in our societies. We studied the impacts of national restrictions on young adult sex workers in Mozambique, and actions at individual, governmental and civil society level to mitigate against these impacts. The country case study was part of a multi-country qualitative research, including fifty-four semi-structured interviews with female sex workers (N = 38), outreach workers (N = 10) in Maputo and Quelimane, and informants with key positions in national COVID coordination bodies, the Ministry of Health and civil society organisations (N = 7). While restrictions impacted all sex worker participants, the COVID crisis was found to deepen existing class differences and further incite violence against the most visible and economically vulnerable category of street-based sex workers. Parallel enforcement of morals against this group of 'urban undesirables' resulted in bodily harm and further degradation of the female sex worker under the guise of COVID emergency decrees, while restrictions weakened protection from peers and outreach workers against abuse by the police and other perpetrators. The State needs to act against unlawful police action and include impact mitigation strategies in its public health response to COVID in order to protect the most vulnerable.

Challenges and needs for social behavioural research and community engagement activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Mozambique.

After the Ebola outbreaks the world is again facing a challenge in which human behaviours and contact history play crucial roles in determining the trends in disease spreading within and across communities. With the onset of the recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, several issues related to conducting social behavioural sciences research and related community engagement activities arise, especially in rural areas of low-income countries, where the coverage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is limited and their application on field-based research would imply a biased selection of relatively more privileged minorities with access to on-line and other communication platforms not requiring physical contact. This article enumerates and discusses the different technical challenges that social behavioural sciences research and community engagement activities face in times of public health emergencies caused by pandemics such as COVID-19. It also highlights the possibility of using alternative approaches to maintain the engagement with members of rural communities in research and social action activities, as well as the ethical challenges arising from such approaches.