TY - CHAP A1 - Afeworki Abay, Robel A1 - Kasaye, Demelash A1 - Kleibl, Tanja T1 - Overcoming the socio-economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic: social work perspectives and postcolonial reflections from Ethiopia T2 - The coronavirus crisis and challenges to social development: global perspectives N2 - The coronavirus pandemic is the most challenging health emergency in generations, as it has already impacted on the capacities of health infrastructures and is dramatically affecting the local and global economy. Since the global spread of the pandemic, the importance of social distancing as well as the hygiene measures for self-protection and protection of other persons has been enforced, to reduce the rapid spread of the coronavirus. However, these ever-more restrictive protection measures are often not feasible for many, especially marginalized and subaltern groups in the Global South, as state-funded social security systems are very limited there. Therefore, it is not surprising that these developments pose a huge socioeconomic threat as well as potential for social and political unrest, especially to those communities living in already politically fragile and precarious situations in countries such as Ethiopia. Developing Santos’s understanding of social work epistemologies of the South’ and based on a small-scale explorative qualitative study in cooperation with Addis Ababa University, this chapter highlights the impact of historical postcolonial inequalities as well as contemporary political conflicts on the agency of Ethiopian Social and Community Workers as well as their perspectives regarding the multiple crises they confront. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84678-7_37 SP - 431 EP - 442 PB - Springer International Publishing ER -