Month: April 2020

This page is part of a series of COVID-19 resource pages that we are creating to help civil society actors.

Click here to view all available pages.

Click here for our latest events news.

On this page, you will find links to readings, podcasts and videos related to the latest COVID-19 news and analysis. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know. Many thanks to our volunteer researcher Ineke Stemmet.

The sections are:

Staying up-to-date: Links to sites that will keep you abreast of important developments related to our sector and the latest news.

Strategic: We look at the impact and responses to COVID-19 in a general and intersectional way (i.e. impacts on human rights, climate change, etc).

Policy: Civil society’s policies that respond to challenges posed by COVID-19.

Operational: A list of what your organisation can do now to navigate these unprecedented times.

    1. Staying up-to-Date

• The impact of COVID-19 on global poverty: Why Sub-Saharan Africa might be the region hardest hit (World Bank)
  COVID-19 is taking its toll on the world, causing deaths, illnesses and economic despair. But how is the deadly virus impacting global poverty? Here we’ll argue that it is pushing about 40-60 million people into extreme poverty, with our best estimate being 49 million.
• COVID-19 response hub (Witness)
  Civic media depicting the grassroots realities of COVID-19 is vital. This resource hub supports vulnerable communities worldwide using video and technology to expose the unseen impacts of the pandemic, as well as counter lies, mobilise action, and preserve vital evidence that will help advocate for justice in future. It supports a broad-based community, including frontline healthcare workers, community leaders and social justice activists.
• Creative Public-Private Collaborations in Taiwan and South Korea Bolster the Fight Against Coronavirus (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  Cooperation between the public and private sectors in Taiwan and South Korea are enabling prompt response to the challenge of distributing important health products during the COVID-19 crisis.
  
• Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID-19 (UN OCHA)
  This COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan aims to fight the virus in the world’s poorest countries, and address the needs of the most vulnerable people, especially women and children, older people, and those with disabilities or chronic illness. Coordinated by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it brings together appeals from the WHO and other UN humanitarian agencies.
  
• In the Northern Triangle, rising food insecurity tests NGO adaptability (Devex)
  A heightened risk of food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has mobilised NGOs in the region — even those that don’t typically engage in humanitarian response — to ensure that people in both rural and urban areas will have access to food.
• Multidimensional Poverty and COVID-19 Risk Factors: A Rapid Overview of Interlinked Deprivations across 5.7 Billion People (Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative)
  How can poverty data help with the crisis? This briefing uses the 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to identify where people are lacking in up to 3 key poverty indicators that provide timely and relevant information for the COVID-19 response.
• Remote technologies find a role in COVID-19 response (Devex)
  On technologies (drones, video conferencing, mobile apps, etc.) in use to deliver services remotely in various countries to overcome the confinement.
• Report: The Impact of COVID-19 Across Africa (Geopoll)
  This study examines the perceptions and impact of COVID-19, with data collected from more than 4,500 Africans across 12 nations. Results show high levels of fear surrounding the virus its effects on economic stability and food security: 72 % are very concerned about the virus, and 80 % worried about having enough to eat in the past week.
• Social movements in and beyond the COVID-19 crisis (Oxfam From Poverty to Power)
  Summary of readings by/on social movements and how they are dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic, amplifying the voices of activists and people organising communities through the crisis.
• The AfCFTA gets locked down for the year (Institute for Security Studies)
  The African Continental Free Trade Agreement was supposed to be implemented on 1 July 2020 which would have had positive impacts on Africa’s economic growth and cooperation. This date has been postponed, but the article argues that this could be used as an opportunity for Africa to become independent by using its regional value chains.
• Voices from the Field: How NGOs Are Responding to COVID-19 (TechSoup NGO Source)
  This blog highlights some organisations taking extraordinary measures to act within the constraints of the pandemic and use this opportunity to make lasting change.
• Voices from the Ground: Stories of Community Resilience & Entrepreneurship in the Pandemic (Oxfam From Poverty to Power)
  Stories of how local communities are coping with and responding to the global crisis on four key issues: production of face masks, awareness-raising, protection of the most vulnerable, and food systems.
• Podcast: Women Leaders are Flattening the Curve (Foreign Policy )
  This podcast explores how the response to COVID-19 of countries such as New Zealand and others have been better than others. The countries who have responded better in relative terms all have one thing in common: female leaders.

    2. Strategic

Climate Change and Biodiversity

• The Effect of Coronavirus on Pollution in the UK (The Eco Experts)
  The analysis looks at how much COVID-19 social distancing measures for 12 weeks (from Boris Johnson’s 19th March announcement) will reduce emissions in 5 main areas: public transport, road vehicles, air travel, energy usage, London pollution.
  

Civic Space and Human Rights

• Coronavirus pandemic is becoming a human rights crisis, UN warns (The Guardian)
  Guardian article on the new UN briefing on COVID-19 and human rights.
• Now more than ever: European businesses and due diligence in times of Corona (European Centre for Development Policy Management)
  An article on how beneficial it is for companies to uphold their responsibility of protecting their workers’ human rights during the pandemic in order to keep their supply chains afloat.
• UN Policy Brief: COVID-19 and Human Rights – We are all in this together (United Nations)
  This UN report shows that the COVID-19 public health emergency is fast becoming a human rights crisis, with authoritarian responses, surveillance, closed borders and other rights abuses. People — and their rights — must be front and centre in response and recovery.

Data and Digital

• Artificial Intelligence against COVID-19: An Early Review (IZA Institute of Labor Economics)
  This article provides an early, and necessarily selective review, discussing the contribution of AI to the fight against COVID-19, as well as the current constraints on these contributions.
• As content moderators go home, the content could go down (Witness)
  The sudden shift to broaden algorithmic content moderation during COVID-19 has significant potential human rights implications: from hate speech staying on platforms in vulnerable societies, to the removal of critical war crimes evidence at scale from YouTube.
• COVID-19: arming Africa with debt, aid and open digital delivery partnership (The Africa Report)
  Africa has led the world in leapfrogging through mobile and Fintech. As a result, we can now spread accurate health messages, collect data on symptoms from citizens, trace outbreaks, track financial flows through open budgets and contracts, map geospatial data with ground-truthed data collected by local ‘factivists’ and all this information can be analysed by collaborations of data scientists and AI to help predict, prevent and invest.

Food security

• WFP chief warns of ‘hunger pandemic’ as COVID-19 threatens food security (Devex)
  An already bleak global food security picture will be compounded as the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic destroy livelihoods, disrupt supply chains, strain national budgets, and restrict trade, the Global Network Against Food Crises has warned.

Futures

• How Will Covid-19 Affect the Role of NGOs? (Dianova)
  Lidiya Grigoreva, from the Office of the UN Director-General in Geneva, reflects on how the future of NGOs could look like after the pandemic.
• A better society can emerge from the lockdowns (Financial Times)
  Amartya Sen on how history shows some crises lead to improved equality and access to food and healthcare.
• After the Immediate Coronavirus Crisis: 3 Scenarios for Global Development (Global Policy)
  Three scenarios for how the world might look after the immediate COVID-19 crisis has passed: (i) an ugly scenario of a global meltdown, (ii) a bad scenario of a return to the pre-COVID-19 state of climate breakdown and considerable inequality, and (iii) a good scenario of a transition towards global sustainable development (a considerable challenge).
• Click Here: New Normals During and After COVID-19 (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  Links from SSIR’s editors to interesting news, essays, tweets, research, videos, podcasts, and more.
  
• Coronavirus is accelerating eight challenging megatrends (Sydney Morning Herald/The Telegraph)
  The forces that will shape all our futures – the global tensions, the economic policies, the political ideas, the new technologies – are being sped up. We are about to experience the next 20 years in 12 months, and we need to get ready for it.
• COVID-19 as a Critical Juncture and the Implications for Advocacy (Global Policy)
  Duncan Green’s essay on the possible longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on political, economic and social systems, the potential impact on the aid sector, and the implications for progressive advocacy, whether by CSOs or others, in defending past gains, building on new opportunities or heading off new threats.
• Not back to normal (Elephant in the Lab)
  The bureaucrats lost control. When leaders take away uncertainty, many people feel comforted. More pessimistic and sceptic people may develop dystopian ideas, and conspiracy theories find a fertile ground to flourish. Optimistic and naïve people dream of the COVID-19 crisis supporting a revolution towards a better and more sustainable world. But uncertainty is a fundamental characteristic of complex systems, and a crisis confronts us with many alternative scenarios for the future. Plan for the unplannable.
• Podcast: At a Distance (The Slowdown)
  A new documentary podcast series on the bigger picture and the interconnectedness of things, calling leading minds to get a whole-earth long-view perspective. Includes: the power of long-term thinking, finding a ‘whole society’ consensus, COVID-19’s impact and the climate crisis, and many more fascinating topics.
• This is the best time to plan for urban Africa’s next health emergency (Quartz Africa)
  COVID-19 should trigger an extraordinary convening of coordinated emergency foresight teams across sectors and geographical boundaries to develop and effect strategies and action plans for a long-term change to reduce vulnerability to, and the risk of future emergencies.

Gender Equality

• COVID-19: Post-Pandemic Starts During the Pandemic: Feminist Lessons from Post-War Failures (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)
  A gendered analysis on the reopening of certain countries and how these policies often exclude women and an intersectional gender curiosity. The article argues that women should be visible in policy responses during the crisis, as it will be difficult to make this a priority post-crisis.
• COVID-19: The gendered impacts of the outbreak (The Lancet)
  A gendered analysis of COVID-19 looking at how the virus affects men and women differently with regards to deaths, vulnerability and healthcare workers. It argues that a gendered analysis is important for readiness and response issues.
• Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Planning and Ending Gender-based Violence, Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage (Reliefweb)
  Vulnerable women are facing more risks now than ever before. This article predicts that gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and unplanned pregnancies will increase due to the impacts of COVID-19.
  
• Why abortion and contraceptives are essential healthcare (Amnesty International )
  The COVID-19 pandemic is stretching healthcare systems around the world to a breaking point. As a result, many people are finding it harder than ever to access abortion and contraception. Here are five reasons why sexual and reproductive health services need to remain available and accessible – during and beyond the pandemic.

Global China

• China, the coronavirus, and the liberal international order (Open Global Rights)
  China’s apparent success in tackling COVID-19 will bolster its authoritarian political system—and its restrictive approach to human rights.
  
• Coronavirus: Will China come out on top? (BBC World Service) Podcast
  This podcasts brings together different experts and explores and debates China’s global future with regards to economics and security. China was hit first and will probably emerge out of the crisis first, however it still faces various economic, demographic and global challenges.

Leave No One Behind – Inclusion

• COVID-19 and Conflict: Seven Trends to Watch (Africa Portal)
  The global outbreak has the potential to wreak havoc in fragile states, trigger widespread unrest and severely test international crisis management systems. Its implications are especially serious for those caught in the midst of conflict if the disease disrupts humanitarian aid flows, limits peace operations and postpones diplomacy efforts at diplomacy.
• Inclusive, empathetic communication will be a game changer in the Covid-19 emergency (Masimanyane Women’s Rights International)
  A South African perspective which argues that the language used around the COVID-19 pandemic can have an exclusionary effect on those living in poverty, migrants and the most vulnerable in the community.
• Redefining vulnerability in the Era of COVID-19 (Lancet)
  Article focusses on vulnerable people who carry more of a risk regarding COVID-19. It argues that people who are not necessarily deemed vulnerable at the outset of the pandemic could become so as a result of policy responses.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• Henry Paulson: Save globalisation to secure the future (Financial Times – non-subscription syndication here)
  The world will be a very dangerous place if we do not fix multilateral institutions.

Narratives

• The coming battle for the COVID-19 narrative (Vox)
  COVID-19 (along with climate change) will alter how we think about the economy and public policy, but also the ways in which people talk about their livelihoods and futures. It will likely prompt a leftward shift on the government-versus-markets axis. But more important, it may draw on social values going beyond compliance and material gain to include ethical motivations of solidarity and duty that underpin community.
  

Pandemic Specific Consequences and Responses (economic, health & social impacts)

• An Inclusive, Green Recovery is Possible: The Time to Act is Now (OECD)
  Statement from OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, on why governments have a unique chance for a green and inclusive recovery.
  
• Coronavirus: for Africa’s sake, the West should be selfish this time (The Africa Report)
  Carlos Lopes, former head of UNECA, argues that the “developmental state model”, that achieved poverty reduction and social transformation in South East Asia and China, is inspiring Africa. The role of the post-pandemic African state is to implement Keynesian economic policies, albeit in a modest way and with limited resources. But: “The key role of the state is back”.
• COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: regional challenges and geopolitical implications (International Institute for Strategic Studies)
  A regional analysis of how Southeast Asia and individual governments are faring in the fight against COVID-19.
• COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on a new kind of class divide and its inequalities (The Guardian)
  The pandemic deepens the class divide as for new classes are emerging: The Remotes, The Essentials, The Unpaid, and The Forgotten.
  
• Former World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has a 5-point plan to defeat COVID-19 (Fast Company)
  Dr. Jim Yong Kim has the only plan to squash COVID-19 and reopen the economy, with five points: social distancing, testing, contact tracing, isolating those who have been in contact with positive patients and quarantining those who may be infected and treatment.
  
• Here’s what to expect during the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bill Gates (Fast Company)
  Bill Gates has published a fascinating blog which looks at where the COVID-19 pandemic goes from here, exploring everything from the virus’ exponential growth to treatment and vaccine timelines.
• How Will Coronavirus End? It Depends on Our Immunity. Three Possible Outcomes (Singularity Hub)
  Here’s how immunity works, and a look into possible futures in our fight against COVID-19.
  
• The Macroeconomic and Social Impact of COVID-19 in Ethiopia and Suggested Directions for Policy Response (Addis Abeba University)
  Brief analysis about the possible macroeconomic and social impact of COVID-19 virus on the Ethiopian economy, with the aim of informing the Ethiopian government and the public at large on what the likely magnitude of the economic problems could be.

Populism and Authoritarianism

• Amartya Sen writes: Overcoming a pandemic may look like fighting a war, but the real need is far from that (Indian Express)
  Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power with no need for consultation. What is needed for dealing with a social calamity is participatory governance and alert public discussion.
  

    3. Policy

• Policy brief: Environmental health and strengthening resilience to pandemics (OECD)
  COVID-19 highlights the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to human health. Enhancing environmental health through better air quality, water and sanitation, waste management, along with efforts to safeguard biodiversity, will reduce the vulnerability of communities to pandemics and thus improve overall societal well-being and resilience.
• Statement on the COVID-19 response from civil society members of OGP Steering Committee (Open Government Partnership)
  The civil society members of OGP’s Steering Committee has released this statement on COVID-19 and its risks to open government. Focused on the need to sustain democratic values, the statement is a call to action to governments, donors and international organisations.
• The time to act is now (Africa Is a Country)
  A letter from more than 90 African intellectuals to African leaders about the continent’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    4. Operational

• The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Learning Pathway – Open Access (Humanitarian Leadership Academy)
  The COVID-19 Learning Pathway aims to enable humanitarians, including local responders, to be best equipped to respond to the global COVID-19 pandemic. More than 5,000 learners have already signed up.
• Urban Considerations for World Vision’s COVID-19 Response (World Vision)
  What puts cities at higher risk of COVID-19 transmission? Poverty and marginalisation of specific groups and spaces creating hotspots of the pandemic in urban areas. This document serves to provide specific recommendations to the four strategic objectives of WV’s global response to COVID-19 in urban contexts, and considers needs beyond prevention and response.

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 Resources

Thomas Howie

Communications Manager

International Civil Society Centre

Thomas joined the Centre in June 2017 as the Communications Coordinator. He is responsible for developing and implementing the Centre’s global communication strategy, as well as the Disrupt & Innovate platform – a place for civil society professionals and activists to discuss current innovations and future trends in the civil society sector. Prior to the Centre, Thomas worked for 5 years in the European Parliament firstly as the Digital and Social Media Coordinator for the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, and then, after the 2014 European elections, for Jude Kirton-Darling and Paul Brannen as Head of Communications, where he worked on issues such as the EU-US trade deal, issues around Brexit and as a specialist on the Petitions Committee. Thomas graduated from Bristol University with BSci in Geographical Sciences and holds an MA in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, where he completed research into the role of civil society in the post war peace settlement in northern Uganda.

This page is part of a series of COVID-19 resource pages that we are creating to help civil society actors.

Click here to view all available pages.

Click here for our latest events news.

On this page, you will find links to readings, podcasts and videos related to the latest COVID-19 news and analysis. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know.

The sections are:

Staying up-to-date: Links to sites that will keep you abreast of important developments related to our sector and the latest news.

Strategic: We look at the impact and responses to COVID-19 in a general and intersectional way (i.e. impacts on human rights, climate change, etc).

Policy: Civil society’s policies that respond to challenges posed by COVID-19.

Operational: A list of what your organisation can do now to navigate these unprecedented times.

    1. Staying up-to-Date

• Cities and Coronavirus (COVID-19) Portal (C40 Knowledge Hub)
  C40 staff and cities have identified a range of compelling resources relevant to cities’ efforts to understand and combat the virus’ spread and impact. This collection will be updated as new resources are identified.
• COVID-19 brings a wave of cyberattacks against NGOs (Devex)
  Aid groups say they are coming under an increased number of cyberattacks as they try to work through the disruption of COVID-19.
• Curfews are a safer plan than total lockdowns to slow COVID-19’s spread in informal economies (Quartz Africa)
  W. Gyude Moore, former Liberia public works minister and visiting fellow Center for Global Development, on the difficult challenge of adapting social distancing measures and public health measures to informal economies which lack a comprehensive safety net to support those shut in.
• France Says Apple Bluetooth Policy Is Blocking Virus Tracker (Bloomberg News)
  The article sheds light on a conflict line between states demanding changes to the operating system of mobile phones so as to “develop a sovereign … solution”. Apple, on the other hand, claims that the current configuration of its operating system is designed to protect the users’ privacy.
• COVID-19 Africa Watch (Milken Institute)
  A hub for information, analysis, and the global response to COVID-19’s impact on Africa.
• Key sources on COVID-19 impacts on Food and Nutrition Security (Food & Business Knowledge Platform)
  The short- and long term-consequences of COVID-19 on food systems globally are becoming increasingly visible. This is an overview of key resources related to the COVID-19 impacts on Food and Nutrition Security, which is being continuously updated with research and information.
• Source overview: COVID-19 and older people (HelpAge)
  Studies confirm the high risks for older people from coronavirus. A health crisis can isolate older people and the risk of this happening is far higher in countries with less developed health systems where access to medical services and other forms of care and support can be challenging.
• What are the responses to the COVID-19 crisis in West Africa? (WATHI)
  Portal aggregating pieces on the response in West Africa in particular, in English and French. Many by outside organisations and a mix of African and non-African authors.
• What we’re reading on conflict & governance (Heather Marquette, University of Birmingham)
  Resources round-up on COVID-19 and governance.
• Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance (Tomas Pueyo)
  This piece arguees that strong coronavirus measures today should only last a few weeks, that there shouldn’t be a big peak of infections afterwards, and it can all be done for a reasonable cost to society, saving millions of lives along the way. If we don’t take these measures, tens of millions will be infected, many will die, along with anybody else that requires intensive care, because the healthcare system will have collapsed.

    2. Strategic

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• Analysis: Coronavirus set to cause the largest ever annual fall in CO2 emissions (Carbon Brief)
  Carbon Brief gathers the latest evidence on how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting energy use and CO2 emissions around the world.
  
• Coronavirus: What Are the Chances We’ll Change Our Behavior in the Aftermath? (Singularity Hub)
  Both the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change represent “environmental” problems that are socially driven. A major difference, however, is our global responsiveness to one, but not the other. Perhaps the silver lining here is what the pandemic can and should teach us — that a commitment to action leads to change.
• Coronavirus shows the enormous scale of the climate crisis (Wired)
  The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cause the biggest-ever annual drop in carbon emissions, but how we recover will determine the future of the climate crisis.
• How COVID-19 Could Impact the Climate Crisis (Human Rights Watch)
  Will the rebound impacts after lifting lockdown overshadow the positive effects on air pollution measured during the COVID-19 crisis?

Cities and Urbanisation

• Responding to COVID-19 in global south cities (C40 Knowledge Hub)
  This article provides solutions to some of the biggest COVID-19 response challenges raised specifically by mayors of global south cities in the C40 network, based on measures already being implemented by cities worldwide. It draws experiences and approaches mostly from cities across Africa, South Asia and Latin America.

Civic Space and Human Rights

• 2020 World Press Freedom Index: “Entering a decisive decade for journalism, exacerbated by coronavirus” (Reporters without Borders)
  The 2020 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders (RSF) shows how suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic correlates with a country’s ranking in the Index.
• Civil Society and the Coronavirus: Dynamism Despite Disruption (Carnegie Endowment for Peace)
  Essential reading. COVID-19 is catalysing new forms of civic activism. International supporters of civil society should step up their efforts to bolster these local responses.
• COVID-19 and Chinese Civil Society’s Response (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  An outpouring of aid from nonprofits, foundations, and businesses in the nation first to face the epidemic provide some lessons and caveats for other regions now dealing with similar challenges.
• How is COVID-19 affecting Civil Society worldwide? How is it Responding? (Oxfam From Poverty to Power)
  Duncan Green summarises the key points from Carnegie’s article on ‘Civil Society and the Coronavirus: Dynamism Despite Disruption’ to blog length.
• ‘It’s overwhelming’: On the frontline to combat coronavirus ‘fake news’ (Politico)
  Social media giants are relying heavily on a global network of independent fact-checkers. From the Balkans to Brazil, journalists and researchers — mostly working in isolation at home — have been given access to the companies’ inner workings, including data about how possible fake posts are performing on the platforms. Scrolling through piles of misinformation, the fact-checkers’ goal is to debunk as many falsehoods as they can. However, the job is taking a toll on their mental health.
• Surviving COVID-19: Why we need to listen to African women’s organisations (African Women’s Development Fund)
  As the threat of COVID-19 emerged into full global view, African women’s rights organisations started to raise red flags around what effective responses needed to consider – but would likely leave out. They were prepared with the familiarity of what crisis means for women, and that if we fail to take into account women’s needs, we are not going to survive this.
• The need for a people-driven response to the coronavirus pandemic (The Elephant/Africa is a Country)
  Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, African governments should stop seeing non-governmental actors as a threat to their own legitimacy.

Data and Digital

• COVID-19, Disruption Of Education And The Digital Divide (Development Works Changemakers)
  How COVID-19 has disrupted education and the digital divide – the extent of disruption, impact on nutrition, demands on parents, technology to the rescue, the digital divide’s implications for becoming part of the learning society, and opportunities for learning during a lockdown.
• How Access to Technology and Other Strategies Can Keep Education Afloat in the Time of COVID-19 (Development Works Changemakers)
  What is required to enable school learners and students to derive the best possible benefit from technology? This is a snapshot of approaches followed by schools, teachers, parents and learners during the lockdown period. Collaborative multi-dimensional effort and the role of education ministers are key.
• “The Emergency and the World of Tomorrow” (El Pais) Article in Spanish
  In this article, the philosopher Byung-Chul Han discusses confuzianism, big data, and souvereignty, as well as the immediate and long-term effects of the ongoing pandemic on Europe and Asia.

Futures

• After the pandemic: How will COVID-19 transform global health and development? (Devex)
  Devex asked 21 leaders and big thinkers to share their insights and predictions for how the COVID-19 crisis might transform the fields of global health and development. Here is what they said.
• All the things COVID-19 will change forever, according to 30 top experts (Fast Company)
  Tech execs, VCs, and analysts on the pandemic’s lasting impact on how we live, work, and think – working from home, digital migration, virtual education, healthcare, venture capital, transportation, manufacturing, and new business.
• InterAction’s NGO Futures Digest (InterAction)
  InterAction’s NGO Futures Digest aims to help the sector adapt and evolve in a rapidly changing world (especially US-based organisations). During the COVID-19, extra emphasis is on leadership skills during times of massive change, and insight from those analysing the emerging world. The latest digest looks at ‘mapping scenarios for what the new normal might be’. Subscribe here.
  
• On COVID-19 Social Science can save lives: where do we start? (Oxfam From Poverty to Power)
  A process to help structure thinking about the short-, mid- and long-term issues of COVID-19 and the vital role of social science in understanding this.
• Ten key messages to navigating a crisis (Rohit Talwar)
  How can we draw on the work of futurists and foresight professionals to enhance our responses to the current crisis and increase resilience against future shocks?
• Will we settle for just beating the virus, or will we build a better world? (Fast Company)
  Having experienced the social and economic trauma of this crisis, we should decide not to tempt our fate any further.

Gender Equality

• Women at the core of the fight against COVID-19 crisis (OECD)
  Making up 70% of the health care workforce, women are exposed to a greater risk of infection and shouldering most responsibilities at home. Quarantine and states of emergency increase the risk of job and income loss, violence, exploitation and abuse or harassment. Policy responses must have a gender lens and account for women’s unique needs, responsibilities and perspectives.

Leave No One Behind / Inclusion

• COVID-19 and the disability movement (International Disability Alliance)
  International Disability Alliance Key Recommendations toward a Disability-Inclusive COVID-19 Response
• Rapid perception survey on COVID-19 Awareness and Economic Impact (BRAC)
  BRAC conducted this rapid perception survey to get an overall sense of the general awareness level among the less-economically fortunate section of the population and to get a snapshot of their economic distress.

Livelihoods

• Coronavirus: Will COVID-19 speed up the use of robots to replace human workers? (BBC)
  As the pandemic grips the world, we cannot forget about another threat to humanity’s way of life – the rise of robots. For better or worse the robots are going to replace many humans in their jobs, analysts say, and the coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the process.
  
• Finding Africa’s path: Shaping bold solutions to save lives and livelihoods in the COVID-19 crisis (McKinsey)
  The impact of COVID-19 in Africa could be devastating, unless governments, development institutions, and the private sector act with extraordinary speed and agility in the weeks ahead.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• Global response to COVID-19 in Africa must protect lives, livelihoods, and freedoms (OECD/African barometer)
  Overview of Africa’s levels of readiness for COVID-19, and the likely politics of the response. Limiting the effects of the pandemic on Africa and saving lives requires an urgent global response, but the international community must also provide support in ways that strengthen, rather than undermine, Africans’ freedoms.

Pandemic Specific Consequences and Responses (economic, health & social impacts)

• COVID-19: Protecting people and societies (OECD)
  COVID-19 is affecting social relations, trust in other people and in institutions, personal security and sense of belonging. This OECD policy brief looks at the broad range of effects that COVID-19 will have on different aspects of people’s well-being, with a focus on specific population groups such as children, women and the elderly.
  
• Coronavirus: Responsibility and Fragility Revue (Médicale Suisse) – Article in French
  The coronavirus won’t be the Big One. But the risk is there that humanity will one day face a highly lethal pandemic. In that case the only way to survive is openness, knowledge sharing, organizational intelligence, and the willingness to anticipate and prevent. It is therefore about culture, solidarity, and civilisation says the Swiss medic and journalist Bertrand Kiefer (Article in French).
  
• Five key steps for a health systems response to COVID-19 in Africa (Options)
  Countries with particularly fragile health systems can take five steps to overcome the challenge of responding to the pandemic and continuing to provide vital services. Memories of rapidly learning from scratch how to cope with the Ebola outbreak are still fresh in West African countries.
• ‘Millions hang by a thread’: extreme global hunger compounded by COVID-19 (The Guardian)
  Coronavirus ‘potentially catastrophic’ for nations already suffering food insecurity caused by famine, migration and unemployment.
• Mitigating COVID-19’s impact on Africa’s food systems (Nutrition Connect)
  Latest in a blog series on opportunities for building back better food systems and nutrition. African Development Bank economists, Martin Fregene and Atsuko Toda, remind us that the pre-existing crises in Africa of locusts, droughts and foreign exchange losses, now with COVID-19, looks to be converging on an imminent food crisis on the African continent.
• Using Graphics to Cut Through COVID’s Complexity (Oxfam: From Poverty to Power)
  Helpful picture-‘explainers’ to help frame thinking on COVID-19, communicate the complex problems we’re all facing and how to use social science and political research to tackle these.

Vulnerable populations

• COVID-19 & Migration: Resources page (SDC Network on Migration and Development)
  The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on migrants and displaced populations wears many faces. This page summarises resources on this particular theme.
• Will COVID-19 Harm or Help Displaced Populations? (Political Violence at a Glance)
  The COVID-19 pandemic poses myriad threats to vulnerable populations, including the more than 70 million migrants and refugees forcibly displaced from their homes globally. However, there are also reasons to anticipate some positive side effects for our collective treatment and management of migrant and refugee populations.

    3. Policy

• Accelerating Tech for Inclusion in a Time of Crisis (The German Marshall Fund of the United States)
  Digital technology has gained traction in the global fight against the virus and has helped millions cope with isolation. As the crisis has also exposed gaps in access to technology, the article advocates for an acceleration of tech development and policies for inclusion and against a digital divide in western societies.
• Coronavirus: Impacts on freedom of expression (ARTICLE 19)
  Website monitoring and reporting on the impacts of COVID-19 and government overreach on Freedom of Expression. Includes a new briefing on tackling misinformation.
• A statement from civil society and academia on the situation of international migrant workers from India during COVID-19 Pandemic (ActionAid India & many more)
  As the origin country of one of the largest migrant populations in the world, India has many reasons to worry. Temporary labour migrants from the country are increasingly vulnerable due to the loss of employment, lack of access to healthcare and other basic services – especially in GCC countries where almost 50 % of Indian migrants are located. Indian academic and civil society organisations are endorsing this list of immediate and long-term solutions. Please contact us if interested in adding your name.

    4. Operational

• Care International Gender and COVID19 Programme Guidance (Care International)
  This one-pager is helping CARE countries prioritise, adapt and maintain gender programming and organisational work during the COVID-19 pandemic, with priorities identified by a Global Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA).
• Care International Gender-Based Violence and COVID19 Guidance Note (Care International)
  Movement restrictions and other COVID-19 safety precautions have increased risks of domestic violence and intimate partner violence. The need for specialised gender-based violence (GBV) services and risk mitigation across programming is increasingly important. This guidance is helping CARE staff adapt existing GBV prevention, response and risk mitigation programming, internal and external messaging.
• Identifying & Mitigating Gender-based Violence Risks within the COVID-19 Response (Global Protection Cluster/Inter-Agency Standing Committee)
  An initial summary of potential gender-based violence (GBV) risk mitigation actions, based on established good practise, that are starting points to address GBV risks in this unprecedented situation.
• Tough Times Call For Tough Action: A Decision Framework For Nonprofit Leaders & Boards (SeaChange)
  SeaChange has a decade of experience working with nonprofits with respect to risk management, lending, financial analysis, mergers/collaborations, and restructuring/dissolution. This briefing note summarises their advice to organisations grappling with COVID-19 and the best practices they are seeing in the field.

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 Resources

Thomas Howie

Communications Manager

International Civil Society Centre

Thomas joined the Centre in June 2017 as the Communications Coordinator. He is responsible for developing and implementing the Centre’s global communication strategy, as well as the Disrupt & Innovate platform – a place for civil society professionals and activists to discuss current innovations and future trends in the civil society sector. Prior to the Centre, Thomas worked for 5 years in the European Parliament firstly as the Digital and Social Media Coordinator for the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, and then, after the 2014 European elections, for Jude Kirton-Darling and Paul Brannen as Head of Communications, where he worked on issues such as the EU-US trade deal, issues around Brexit and as a specialist on the Petitions Committee. Thomas graduated from Bristol University with BSci in Geographical Sciences and holds an MA in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, where he completed research into the role of civil society in the post war peace settlement in northern Uganda.