Why social capital matters in the fight against Covid-19

We have seen various contexts where the Covid-19 has been thwarted with contact-tracing apps, testing, and lockdowns, but without building social capital, how far can these be implemented successfully?

In the fight against Covid-19, the importance of a country's healthcare efficiency, governance standards, and strong social capital cannot be overstated. But, precisely, what is social capital?

Social capital refers to the characteristics of the societal organisation such as norms, trust, and reciprocity, and it is what allows for government collaboration and cooperation. While social capital is difficult to quantify specifically, it is commonly measured by looking at the levels of confidence in society, the degree of connectedness within that society, and the strength of its established norms.

When a common threat emerges, such as a pandemic, people must stand together to fight against it. Enforcing useful norms is easier when this type of social capital is strong. Individual compliance with government regulations is even higher in a crisis for the sake of mutual gains. 

To fight against Covid-19 almost every country around the world has to put restrictions and uphold that until the number of infected persons falls, but often, developing countries like Bangladesh have to ease restrictions i.e, lockdown due to public opposition even though infection levels are high. 

The effectiveness of lockdown depends on the strategy and every strategy is not suitable for every country. I think it has already been proven that this lockdown concept is not effective, at least for Bangladesh, Then why can't we think of anything else?

It is not possible to guide human behaviour only by the enactment of formal rules, but by the interaction between such rules and beliefs, social norms, values, cognitive means of processing information and by the other factors as well. Laws can be self-defeating when they undermine social norms whose upkeep is required to make those very laws effective. 

We can take the example of Taiwan, as it is one of the countries that are successfully fighting against Covid-19 to the present. According to a study of Taiwan, social capital affects behavioural intent to take health-protective actions like getting vaccinated, wearing a mask, washing hands, maintaining social distance, etc. 

The study found out that a community's ability to obey health advice was linked to its level of social capital. The people who reported having more neighbourly support and confidence in the government were more likely to follow the government's guidelines. 

Sweden set another excellent example of how social capital has aided adherence to health advisories in the current fight against Covid-19. Rather than enforcing strict laws, the Swedish government encouraged people to behave responsibly and obey social distancing guidelines. 

As a result, classrooms, gyms, restaurants, and other public facilities have remained open, and public life has remained largely unrestricted. Even though they were not required by any laws to do so, still they continued to follow health advisories.

Given that the inability of the government to perfectly track individual's behaviour is one of the obstacles to enforcement, social capital will be a critical determinant of how people react to and comply with regulations and guidelines in the coming days. 

But how do policymakers make use of social capital to encourage and promote responsible behaviour throughout the country?

To begin, building confidence is essential for managing the current pandemic as well as for future crises. There is no exception to this, because people cannot completely process advice from the government in an atmosphere with a high degree of unpredictability, so enforcement tends to be focused on emotion and general feelings through community compliance and cooperation, which can be boosted by increasing confidence, especially in the healthcare system. 

We all know the current scenario of our health sector, but as mentioned earlier, in the fight against Covid-19, there is no exception to this. Moreover, it will also, crucially, prepare leaders to cope with the next crisis. 

Individual prominence can also be a way to develop individual responsible behaviour until it becomes a societal norm, for instance, political leaders, celebrities and social media influencers can encourage people to mask-wearing, vaccination, maintaining social distance and other health advice. 

Although social capital is vital, it is also significant that the messages getting to the public about Covid-19 guidelines and regulations have to be as far as possible, accessible, and open.

This is true in Singapore, where many community-based organisations and associations act as intermediaries between the government and the general public to promote health advice for further enforcement. It is pathetic but true, we do not have any other option except to encourage people to maintain social distance until the pandemic is over or we get a proper vaccine.

As we do not know when we will get rid of this pandemic, we should always look for a durable solution rather than a fragile solution like lockdown.

Nusrat Tayba Mim is studying Law and Human Rights, at the University of Asia Pacific (Email: nusrattaybamim@gmail.com)

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.