Author: Robert Vysoudil

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

• 4 Non-Obvious Trends That Matter During This Pandemic (Singularity Hub)
  A non-obvious trend is a “unique curated observation of the accelerating present.” Four trends being amplified by the current situation are: (i) revivalism, (ii) human mode, (iii) instant knowledge and (iv) flux commerce.
• Civic Freedoms and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of Restrictions and Attacks (CIVICUS)
  CIVICUS has documented several alarming civic space trends since the pandemic: (i) unjustified restrictions on access to information and censorship; (ii) detentions of activists for disseminating critical information; (iii) crackdowns on human rights defenders and media outlets, and (iv) violations of the right to privacy and overly broad emergency powers.
• COVID-19 has blown away the myth about ‘First’ and ‘Third’ world competence (The Conversation)
  One of the planet’s – and Africa’s – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
• COVID-19 strategies Africa can learn from (Institute of Security Studies)
  The United States’ failing coronavirus response experiment holds some important lessons for Africa.
• COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 26 May (World Economic Forum)
  This daily round-up brings you a selection of the latest news updates on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, as well as tips and tools to help you stay informed and protected. Today’s top stories: WHO warns of second COVID-19 peak; trial of hydroxychloroquine suspended; rights group warns of impact on children; and how to stay safe while flying.
• Gender Data Series: Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls (Devex/Facebook)
  Devex and Facebook have launched this series of 10 practical virtual events to create a better understanding of the gender-related issues highlighted by the current pandemic and to share important lessons learned about how data can help inform better responses to the current crisis.
• Grassroots innovation and the COVID crisis (Podcast) (Nesta)
  In this fortnightly podcast series, Nesta will explore how organisations it supports are working tirelessly to shape their communities for the better in response to the pandemic and what it might mean for their cause in a post-COVID world.
• In Senegal, a new COVID-19 test will cost just $1 and take 10 minutes for results (Fast Company)
  A coronavirus test in the U.S. can cost hundreds of dollars and take hours, or even days, to process in a lab. But a new test that will be produced in Senegal will cost around $1—and one version of the test gives results in only 10 minutes.
• New media voices are telling Kenya’s COVID-19 stories – from the ground up (The Conversation)
  In Kenya, the entry of journalistic “strangers” is increasing the possibility of hearing a greater range of candid, critical, citizen-centric stories. These can either be provocative or unsettling in their violation of standard journalistic ethics and norms. But they speak to the disruptions in journalism thriving in the digital space and are likely to last well beyond COVID-19.
• The Economic Impact of COVID-19 around the World: Remittances, Updated Growth and Poverty Projections, and the Reintroduction of Barter in Fiji (Center for Global Development)
  Here is a roundup of the most recent analysis from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, divided into sections: growth and income analysis, sector and sub-population analysis, economic policy responses, and commentary.
• Three ways human rights groups can create hope during COVID-19: An OGR Guide on Hope-Based Communications (Open Global Rights)
  Here are three simple steps human rights groups can use to tell their own story in their response to the pandemic, and to any populist attempts to take advantage of it: (i) talk about community, not crisis, (ii) focus on collective action and (iii) start telling a confident story of tomorrow, today.
• What African Nations Are Teaching the West About Fighting the Coronavirus (Tne New Yorker)
  African governments, unlike their Western counterparts, aren’t relying on common sense. Judging from the numbers, and interpreting them with the scientific information that’s understood so far, Africa has made the better bet.

    2. Strategic

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• Coronavirus Crisis: Exploring the Human Impact on Nature (Chatham House)
  This interview explores the ways in which human activity has changed nature, which increases the risk for a global pandemic as it increases the likelihood of pathogens transmitting from humans to animals and ways in which economies can become more sustainable after the crisis.
• Migration is a safety net during climate change disasters (Institute for Security Studies)
  With climate threats high across Africa, COVID-19 restrictions may prevent people from moving as a survival strategy.
• Migration is a safety net during climate change disasters (Institute for Security Studies)
  Movement is a critical resilience strategy for communities affected by climate change. Climate threats are currently high across much of Africa, with floods, droughts and the biggest locust outbreak in generations. Increased restrictions on movement due to COVID-19 may intensify the effects and put people at even more risk.
• The COVID-19 pandemic is not a break for nature – let’s make sure there is one after the crisis (World Economic Forum)
  This article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has negative environmental consequences, especially in rural areas, and suggests ways in which these could be mitigated during and after the crisis.

Cities and Urbanisation

• Building Better Cities After COVID-19 (Podcast) (Exponential View)
  How do we build better cities after the coronavirus crisis? The World Bank’s Sameh Wahba joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how the World Bank partners with technologists to help cities on the frontline of the pandemic, and how the dynamism of urban density can be harnessed to build the livable and inclusive cities of the future.
• Coronavirus will reshape our cities – we just don’t know how yet (The Guardian)
  The development of cities has been by affected by the disease for centuries, so what legacy will COVID-19 leave on urban life?

Civic Space and Human Rights

• Coronavirus response in West Africa and the Sahel: Human rights must not be forgotten (The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes)
  This article analyses the positive response of West African countries, countries in the Sahel, and the global community to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes responsible multilateralism and prioritising inclusion and equality.
• Fit for the future: Can we emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis? (Alliance Magazine)
  Civil society was not ready for COVID-19. Benjamin Bellegy (WINGS), Chris Worman (TechSoup) and Lysa John (CIVICUS) discuss the investments needed in civil society and its philanthropic and technical infrastructure, and the actions we must take to emerge wiser and stronger from the current crisis and to be prepared for crises to come.

Conflict and Humanitarian

• How the coronavirus increases terrorism threats in the developing world (The Conversation)
  As the disease wreaks its havoc in areas poorly equipped to handle its spread, terrorism likely will increase there as well. Recent research identifies a potential link between the pandemic and an uptick in violence, as food insecurity makes citizens angry at their governments.

Data and Digital

• Call by global leaders: work together now to stop cyberattacks on the healthcare sector (Humanitarian Law & Policy)
  This article calls on governments to take a stand against cyber attacks on hospitals and healthcare facilities during the pandemic, as this has become an increasing risk to the safety of healthcare staff and patients.
• Cybercrime and COVID-19: A concern for financial stability during the pandemic (The South African Institute of International Affairs)
  Cybercrime has long posed a significant risk for financial stability in African countries given limited capacity and attention to managing cyber risk. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic exacerbates existing challenges.
• The great unwinding: Charting post-COVID futures for the internet (Nesta)
  This piece explores competing forces and the different futures for the Internet they might lead us to: will we see the incumbent tech giants use COVID-19 to further solidify their power or are we entering a period of more government control? Could the push for further centralisation be counterbalanced by an emergence of more bottom-up, grassroots redistribution efforts?

Futures

• Healthcare will never be the same: 8 experts on the future of medicine around the globe (Fast Company)
  The leaders of the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Doctors Without Borders, and more tell us how healthcare is being transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Out of the Belly of Hell: COVID-19 and the humanisation of globalisation (openDemocracy)
  Anthony Barnett’s lengthy essay argues that the pandemic has swallowed neoliberal globalisation. The long-term effect of the 1968 uprising has created “humanisation” which creates the opportunity to become globalisation’s defining influence.
  
• The case for degrowth in a time of pandemic (The Ecologist)
  We need to build systems capable of scaling back production in ways that do not cause loss of livelihood or life to be more resilient to crises.
• The Pandemic’s Geopolitical Aftershocks Are Coming (The Atlantic)
  Western capitals aren’t just worried about the risk of a resurgence in coronavirus cases. Beyond the epidemiological challenges lies a slowly amassing threat that is not pathological in nature, but economic, political, and military. This is the geopolitical second wave, and its power is already starting to concern Western leaders.
• What are the weak signals of Covid-driven transformation, and will we hear them? (From Poverty to Power)
  The Covid pandemic is bound to be a game-changing critical juncture for some issues in some places – maybe in all places, who knows. But what kind of transformations and how soon will we know?

Gender Equality

• Global Health Security and Pandemics: COVID-19 and Gender Inequality (video) (Mile End Institute)
  In this video, Professor Sophie Harman explores the gendered nature of pandemics and the extent to which the coronavirus crisis impacts on women in terms of health, but also in terms of personal and economic security.

Governance

• Governing Africa during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic (Webinar) (Institute for Security Studies)
  How will COVID-19 compound Africa’s governance challenges, and is the continent prepared? This seminar discusses current governance realities on the continent, lessons for African governments and what to expect post-COVID-19.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) Report comment: towards a new post-COVID-19 world order? (Institute for Security Studies)
  International relations experts agree the pandemic will be a major catalyst for new dynamics in the international system. The resulting shifts have the potential to redefine inter-state relations and global governance in ways that require Africa and the global South, in general, to reposition themselves. We are likely to see increased competition between the US and China, rising nationalism and weak global leadership.

Narratives

• Where is the power in the pandemic? (podcast)  (Oxfam)
  This introductory episode of the Power in the Pandemic podcast explores power structures, decolonisation, social movements and narratives.
  

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

• A novel idea: integrating urban and rural safety nets in Africa during the pandemic (The Conversation)
  Many African governments lack the financial and administrative capacity to launch new large-scale formal safety net programs. But they may still be able to run smaller programs which help people safely migrate back to more food-secure rural areas, simultaneously reducing the risk of transmission.
• Coronavirus weekly: where next for globalisation after the crisis? (The Conversation)
  COVID-19 is the starting point for a reconfiguration of the global system. Academics in The Conversation’s network analyse the impact of the pandemic on globalisation.
• Migrant Remittances Will Plummet. Here Is What That Means for Global Development (Center for Global Development)
  A new wave of this global crisis will hit developing countries later this year. Not through the virus itself, not through economic shutdowns inside those countries, but through slashing the money that international migrants send home: workers’ remittances.
• The African Continental Free Trade Area and measures to facilitate trade could significantly mitigate COVID-19’s economic impact in Africa (Brookings Institution)
  This article explores the effects that COVID-19 will have on African economies and how these can be mitigated by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement if it is implemented as soon as possible.
• Time for a rights-based global economic stimulus to tackle COVID-19 (Open Global Rights)
  During this pandemic, economic rescue packages—nationally and globally—must protect the socio-economic rights of those most at risk.

Populism and Authoritarianism

• Culling the Herd: A Modest Proposal (London Review of Books)
  A provocative commentary by Eli Zaretsky stating that the poor masses were wilfully deprived of health care in the same way it was made to believe that it had no right entitled to jobs, housing and good schools.
  

    3. Policy

• In a pandemic, be a positive disruptor and not an ambulance chaser (Open Global Rights)
  In moments of crisis, it is critical that social justice advocates remain focused on ethical and transformative advocacy, not reactive short-term change.

   4. Operational

• Can we understand COVID-19 fast enough – and well enough – to make a difference? (From Poverty to Power)
  For a relatively short period, with COVID-19, there is scope for aid actors to work collectively to embed more locally-led, politically-informed and adaptive types of monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) in aid and development practice.
• COVID-19 Rapid Gender Analysis (Multiple countries) (CARE)
  Rapid gender analyses (RGA) seeking to explore the implications of COVID-19 in Uganda, Malawi, West Africa and Asia-Pacific to inform current CARE programming in these regions, and serve as reference to any other stakeholders working in these areas with similar target groups.
• COVID-19: How leaders can create a new and better normal (World Economic Forum)
  The ability to embed rapid and nimble decision-making into company cultures will be equally important through crisis recovery and into the next normal. But managing in this new and unfamiliar environment demands more from leaders.
• Leading a Global Team Through Crisis Means Focusing on Local Details (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  Three steps every global organization should take to care for staff, and build resilience during COVID-19 and beyond: Step 1: Gather Accurate Local Pictures of the Crisis, Step 2: Focus on Team Members’ Mental Health and Well-Being, Step 3: Heed Local Constraints and Priorities.
• To face COVID-19, the human rights community must first protect its own workers (Open Global Rights/CIVICUS)
  The COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-up call to civil society to strengthen the social protection measures in our own industry.
• Why Informal Social Protection could be the missing piece in the COVID Response (From Poverty to Power)
  Informal social protection practices are deeply embedded within communities and humanitarian actors should consider how these existing support mechanisms that are based on social connectedness and trust could be harnessed in humanitarian aid.

• 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. 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

• A billion people live in the slums of the world’s megacities—and they’re being missed by coronavirus plans (Fast Company)
  Sprawling urban areas in Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh are all seeing COVID-19 infections rise rapidly.
• Africa facing a quarter of a billion coronavirus cases, WHO predicts (The Guardian)
  Africa will have fewer deaths than Europe and US because of its younger population and other lifestyle factors
• Coronavirus in Africa: Contained or unrecorded? (BBC)
  Africa has had less than 100,000 cases so far, but WHO experts believe the continent will have a prolonged outbreak over a few years – and, aid workers say, the huge focus on containing the virus has led to other health issues being neglected. Here, five BBC reporters give a snapshot of what is happening in their countries.
• Coronavirus: World Bank warns 60m at risk of ‘extreme poverty’ (BBC)
  Up to 60m people will be pushed into “extreme poverty” by the coronavirus warns the president of the World Bank.
  
• COVID-19 pandemic has derailed progress on sustainable development goals, says WHO (The BMJ)
  The rate of progress towards the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is too slow and is being further “thrown off track” by the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization says.
• COVID-19 to slash global economic output by $8.5 trillion over the next two years (United Nations)
  A forecast by the UN Statistical Division estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely cause 34.3 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020, with 56% of this occurring in Africa. An additional 130 million people may join the ranks of people living in extreme poverty by 2030. The pandemic is disproportionately hurting low-skilled, low-wage jobs and further widen inequality within and between countries.
  
• DRC has seen epidemics before, but COVID-19’s toll on older people leaves me sleepless (The Guardian)
  Anatole Bandu, country representative for HelpAge in DR Congo, gives a testimony on the deadly impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the elder population in Kinshasa.
  
• How data can mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls (webinar) (Devex)
  Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have been more willing to share their data. This development is timely, given that the need for data-driven approaches — allowing greater impact and agility — is more critical than ever, particularly for women and girls.
• Power in the Pandemic (Podcast) (Oxfam)
  This new podcast captures voice from across the world about their experiences of the coronavirus. This first episode considers how COVID-19 has made us rethink power structures, with David Mwambari on a Post-Corona, Pan-African vision and why now is the time to decolonise, and the effects of the virus on social movements and narratives.
• Social distancing: When extreme weather and coronavirus collide (BBC)
  People being displaced by extreme weather events around the world are being forced to break COVID-19 social distancing safety guidelines, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and other humanitarian agencies.
• The problem with predicting coronavirus apocalypse in Africa (Al Jazeera)
  Claims that Africa will be hit the worst by the pandemic ignore African epidemiological know-how and action.
• The World Food Program’s Coronavirus Fight—and How You Can Help (Singularity Hub)
  To make sure WFP’s programmes are disrupted as little as possible, it is looking to implement creative, tech-driven solutions to food supply chain, production, and delivery systems—and innovative startups and individuals can help.

    2. Strategic

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• The hidden toll of lockdown on rainforests (BBC Future)
  With fewer planes in the sky and cars on the road, the lockdown has brought many benefits to the environment. So why is it harming tropical rainforests?

Civic Space and Human Rights

• How Africa can reduce COVID-19’s impact on displaced persons (Institute for Security Studies)
  Africa’s 25.2 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons are some of the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19. This article explores the ways in which African states can protect these vulnerable groups.
• Imagining our Post-Pandemic Futures (Open Global Rights)
  COVID-19 is challenging the human rights movement to adapt, transform, and look ahead—so as to meet urgent demands now while laying the groundwork for a better future. This Up Close series explores the glimpses this pandemic has provided of what a better future could look like and asks just what kind of human rights practice is needed now to get us there.

Data and Digital

• Coronavirus contact-tracing apps: can they slow the spread of COVID-19? (Nature)
  While the global tech companies Google and Apple are changing the operating systems of their smartphones, consortia in different countries are developing so-called COVID-19 tracing applications. The article describes the different approaches, in particular to privacy, and expresses concern that poor adoption could blunt the efficacy.
• COVID-19 has blown apart the myth of Silicon Valley innovation (MIT Technolgy Review)
  The most important failures revealed by Covid-19 is our diminished ability to innovate in areas that truly count, like health care and climate change.
• Responding to crisis with digital payments for social protection: Short-term measures with long-term benefits (The World Bank)
  In many developing countries, the scale of emergency payments to millions of people via GSM phones is unprecedented. The crisis shows the importance of what might be called universal basic infrastructure. Not just visible things, like labs, ventilators, and apps. But also inclusive digital ID and government-to-person payment systems
• Why coronavirus will accelerate the fourth Industrial Revolution (The Economist)
  The pandemic’s silver lining is the chance to experiment with technologies and co-operative approaches across borders that could lead to safer, more sustainable and more inclusive global futures.

Food security

• COVID-19 is disrupting a food industry already thrown into turmoil by climate change (UN Environment Program)
  The COVID-19 pandemic together with droughts experienced in South East Asia is disrupting the food industry and rice production in particular, placing over half of the global rice production at risk.

Futures

• Four Pathways to Better Decisions (Global Dashboard)
  How do you make good decisions when you’re playing (COVID-19) whack-a-mole? Here are four recommendations to improve decision-making: (i) form an independent red-team, (ii) empower a ‘mole-spotting’ unit, (iii) embrace foresight to manage risks and (iv) build in real feedback loops. This is how experimentation feeds learning and defers to frontline expertise.
• Why coronavirus may make the world more accessible (BBC Future)
  For many people with disabilities, options like remote working have been needed for years. Workplaces around the world have now made this shift. Are there other ways the world could become more accessible, too?

Gender Equality

• 5 actions to help bring the most marginalized girls back to school after COVID-19 (Brookings Institution)
  This article argues for radical inclusion in education systems across the world after the COVID-19 pandemic. It suggests five ways of doing this effectively.
• COVID-19 Discussion Paper #1: Gender & the COVID-19 Crisis in Conflict-Affected Contexts (Search for Common Ground)
  This discussion paper provides a snapshot of the gendered impact of the current pandemic in fragile contexts. It identifies key risks for women and girls and provides recommendations for policymakers within donor agencies formulating their response to COVID-19.
• COVID-19: Women’s Leadership Sets the Example (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)
  This article explores how the approaches by women leaders to COVID-19 has been different than those of male leaders. It argues that women leaders show solidarity with their people, an approach that should be taken by all leaders.
• Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and COVID-19: The Complexities of Responding to “The Shadow Pandemic” (CARE)
  COVID-19 creates a perfect storm of complications, whereby cases of GBV are likely to rise significantly, while at the same time the ability of survivors to seek help, or the capacity of providers to respond effectively, is more limited than ever. This Policy Brief explores what can be done to mitigate these effects.
• How “de-biasing” humanitarian organizations could lead to more gender-equitable programming during COVID-19 and beyond (Harvard Humanitarian Initiative)
  This article argues that addressing gender biases in humanitarian organizations now could improve COVID-19 response efforts as well as other emergency response programming in the future.

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

• Conflict & Resilience Monitor (The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes)
  This weeks’ ACCORD COVID-19 Conflict Monitor identifies twelve African countries that may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19 related social unrest, and in some cases, a violent conflict.
  
• COVID-19 in South Asia: India and Pakistan’s regional responses and China’s regional ambitions (podcast) (International Institute for Strategic Studies )
  This podcast explores India’s and Pakistan’s responses to COVID-19 and how this may affect their relationship with China and the broader region of South Asia.
  
• How Covid-19 restrictions and the economic consequences are likely to impact migrant smuggling and cross-border trafficking in persons to Europe and North America (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
  COVID-19 travel and movement restrictions are not stopping the movement of people fleeing conflict, human rights abuses, violence and dangerous living conditions, while the economic consequences of the pandemic are likely to lead to an increase in smuggling of migrants and trafficking in person flows from the most affected countries to more affluent destinations.
• The Pandemic Exposes Dangers of the Informal Economy (Foreign Affairs)
  The pandemic has deepened the precariousness of informal work in the US and OECD countries, just as it has in India and other developing countries. The informal sector, incl. gig work, arose out of decisions to dismantle welfare programmes, labour protection, reject or weaken universal health care.
• With the global focus on COVID-19 pandemic, measles remains a silent killer in parts of Africa (Doctors without Borders)
  This article describes the devastating impact of measles in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Chad. It argues that with international attention focused on COVID-19, the neglect of other illnesses could create another health crisis in these areas.

    3. Policy

• A Call to Action on Open Budgets during the COVID-19 Response (From Poverty to Power)
  Countries now have a choice about where their response to this crisis will lead — either to less transparency and trust or to more openness and accountability. More than 100 organisations have signed the Call to Action urging governments to choose the more open path.
• A Perfect Storm: Domestic violence, economic hardship and COVID-19 in Latin America (Care International)
  We are faced with a historic responsibility to help shape whether COVID-19 is remembered as a moment in which global solidarity is forged and political will is mobilised in support of a more equal, inclusive, sustainable and just world order where women and girls are central to the response – or whether gender equality (in Latin America) is set back by decades.
• Corruption risks in Southern Africa’s response to the coronavirus (Transparency International)
  Six Southern African chapters from Transparency International and the Botswana Center for Public Integrity are urging the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to accelerate governments’ response to the global pandemic and ensure that additional lives are not lost to corruption.
• COVID-19 and mixed population movements: emerging dynamics, risks and opportunities (UNHCR / IOM)
  In this discussion paper, the UN agencies UNHCR (refugees) and IOM (migrants) take stock of what they are already observing and anticipate developing as the COVID-19 crisis evolves in countries of origin, countries hosting large refugee and migrant populations, countries of transit as well as countries of destination.
• Rethinking anti-corruption for COVID-19 (From Poverty to Power)
  In many countries, corruption and governance constraints will limit the rapid scaling up of responses to COVID-19. This will not only undermine treatment responses but result in cycles of unsustainable lockdowns and massive economic deprivation.
• The COVID Crisis Is Reinforcing the Hunger Industrial Complex (MIT Press Reader)
  In the United States, miles-long lines of motorists waiting for a few sacks of groceries have become seared into the public imagination demonstrating that charity has become the governing metaphor of the pandemic response, replacing justice, which itself has been placed on a ventilator.
• World leaders unite in call for a people’s vaccine against COVID-19 (Oxfam)
  More than 140 world leaders and experts have signed an open letter calling on all governments to unite behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19. The letter, which marks the most ambitious position yet set out by world leaders on a COVID-19 vaccine, demands that all vaccines, treatments and tests be patent-free, mass-produced, distributed fairly and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge.

• 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. 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

• Coronavirus hits development pros’ livelihoods (Devex)
  Report on potential impactins of pandemic on the development sector, aid practitioners express concern over job losses due to reduced donor funding.
• How COVID-19 has changed the use and communication of evidence (Nesta)
  Seven emerging trends from the COVID-19 pandemic that have led to the return of experts and evidence.
• How Freetown is enabling behaviour change to manage COVID-19 (C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group)
  Freetown’s city government led by Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr acted early and is already delivering a city-wide COVID-19 response plan which incorporates lessons learnt from the Ebola crisis. This article details the three main strategic elements and actions being taken with the support of partners.
• Low COVID-19 death toll raises hopes Africa may be spared worst (Financial Times)
  The continent has limited confirmed virus fatalities but experts warn it is too early to draw conclusions.
• Smart cities during COVID-19 (Nesta)
  How cities are turning to collective intelligence to enable smarter approaches to COVID-19.
• Where have we got to on COVID and debt relief? (Oxfam From Poverty to Power)
  Even before COVID-19 hit, 64 countries were spending more on paying back their debts than on healthcare. That’s why there has been a growing movement calling for urgent debt relief to give debtor governments immediate access to much-needed funds to fight the virus and its brutal economic impacts.

    2. Strategic

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• Podcast: Sorry, Nature Isn’t Returning (Foreign Policy )
  This podcast explores the way in which nature has been given a break during the pandemic, but concludes that this is only a short term consequence and will not have lasting positive effects on nature.

Data and Digital

• Podcast: Coronavirus: is mass surveillance here to stay? (BBC World Service)
  This podcast explores the question of whether the mass surveillance that has been employed by most governments around the world to help curb the spread of coronavirus is worth the loss of personal privacy.
• COVID-19 has taught us the internet is critical and needs public interest oversight (Brookings)
  This article focuses on the way in which the pandemic has made the internet a necessary commodity in our everyday lives. 
• Five ways collective intelligence can help developing countries face COVID-19 (Nesta)
  As developing nations gear up to tackle COVID-19, the ideas for collective intelligence projects might provide some support.

Food security

• Building the future of food during the crisis (Forum for the Future)
  COVID-19 has exposed the strengths, fragilities and weaknesses in our food system, which was primarily focused on maximising output, driving profit, convenience and choice. How are those operating in the food system starting to respond to this immense challenge? Three different ways of thinking about this future are emerging: managerial, entrepreneurial and visionary.
• Locusts, floods and COVID-19: a potentially deadly combination for malnourished children across the Horn of Africa (Reliefweb)
  The return of swarms of desert locusts – with more expected to hatch in May – coupled with the impact of COVID-19 and a return of flood season will devastate the chances of survival for malnourished children in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Futures

• How COVID-19 Will Change Us: Seven Lessons from the Most Consequential Pandemics in History (Center for Strategic & International Studies)
  This article recalls past pandemics to establish seven lessons that have been learned from them and how these might be manifested in the same way after the current COVID-19 pandemic.
• How the Coronavirus Is Changing the World (Spiegel International)
  Everything will be different after the COVID-19 pandemic. But how? Who will emerge as a winner amid all the changes sweeping the globe? Six economists, diplomats and pollsters share their prognoses for the post-coronavirus future.
• Podcast: The World Ahead COVID-19 and the perils of prediction (The Economist)
  This future-gazing podcast series examines speculative scenarios and provocative prophecies. As the COVID-19 situation worsens, host Tom Standage explores what the pandemic reveals about the perils of prediction and what other future threats we might be overlooking.

Gender Equality

• Video: 4 key actions to include women’s needs in the COVID-19 response (UN Women)
  This short video provides four practical ways in which women’s needs can and should be taken into account during the pandemic.
• ‘Calamitous’: domestic violence set to soar by 20 % during the global lockdown (The Guardian)
  Data from the UN population fund, outlining increases in abuse, FGM and child marriage, predicts a grim decade for many women.

Global China

• Assessing the Early Response to Beijing’s Pandemic Diplomacy (Council on Foreign Relations)
  Responses to China’s post-COVID overtures are largely falling along pre-existing political fault lines.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• COVID-19: Multilateralism Matters (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)
  This article looks at the challenges that multilateralism faces in the time of COVID-19, but also at the opportunities and efforts already being made to strengthen multilateralism.
• Expertise, Coronavirus, and the New Normal (Council on Foreign Relations)
  North-South divide in the time of coronavirus may be a preview of what will emerge on another side of the pandemic. This article argues for a more decolonised approach to global health during COVID-19.
• The Hurdles to Developing a COVID-19 Vaccine: Why International Cooperation Is Needed (Chatham House)
  The article explores the challenges of creating a COVID-19 vaccine and how global cooperation and leadership is necessary to save the most vulnerable in the world.

Narratives

• COVID–19 Message Testing Analysis (Development Engagement Lab, University College London)
  The Development Engagement Lab (Aid Attitudes Tracker phase II) has been thinking about development communications in COVID-19 times, testing messages with the UK public on a range of questions to understand support for international cooperation, using UK aid to invest in developing countries’ health systems, and how poverty interacts with the disease. The results shed some light on how we might best communicate our work in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• No crystal ball needed – evaluating the COVID-19 response (Humanitarian Exchange and Research Centre)
  Judgement without parole: The humanitarian sector has demonstrated it is incapable of reforming itself. Ed Schenkenberg analyses: The issue, not new but underlined again by the COVID-19 response, that stands in the way of real progress, is the role of the individual agency in relation to the collective response.
• What narrative and behavioural sciences tell us about how to campaign during coronavirus (MobLab)
  What we can learn from Mindworks’ behavioural science approach to understanding action around coronavirus response.

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

• COVID-19 could stall Africa’s integration agenda (Institute for Security Studies)
  Freedom of movement within Africa is one of the African Union’s main goals. This goal is hindered by the outbreak of COVID-19 which could have lasting negative effects on whether this goal will be attainable even after the pandemic.
• No crystal ball needed – evaluating the COVID-19 response (HERE-Geneva)
  Sooner or later, governments, UN organisations, NGOs, and others will undertake after-action reviews and evaluations of their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many of the the lessons of COVID-19 evaluations can be understood right now.
• Podcast: COVID-19 in fragile states: fighting conflict in the midst of a pandemic (International Institute for Strategic Studies)
  This podcast explains Africa’s vulnerability and challenges for peacekeeping due to ongoing conflicts and fragile states.
• How to Make Sense of Uncertainty in a Coronavirus World (Singularity Hub)
  Countries are pursuing five major public health strategies to control virus transmission: antibody tests, distancing, prevention, treatment and viral testing. These strategies arise from things we can control based on the things that we know at any given moment. But what about the things we can’t control and don’t yet know?
• Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the African Economy (African Union)
  This report by the African Union uses a method of scenarios in order to explore the potential impact of the pandemic on various dimensions of African economies. It focuses on the possible socio-economic repercussions in order to propose policy recommendations to respond to the crisis.

Populism and Authoritarianism

• Global: Crackdown on journalists weakens efforts to tackle COVID-19 (Amnesty International )
  Ahead of World Press Freedom Day, Amnesty International is highlighting cases where authorities may have put the right to health at risk by cracking down on freedom of expression and access to information.

    3. Policy

• Community leadership is key to halting COVID-19: Social Solidarity while Physical Distancing (The Movement for Community-Led Development)
  This website outlines a deep dive in the critical community-led strategies to defeat this unparalleled pandemic. MCLD intends these points and references to support collective advocacy and action.
• COVID-19 and true solidarity on the internet (Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society)
  Digital technologies have reduced the effort required for solidarity-based action. Using hashtags, issuing personal calls to action via private social media profiles, offering neighbourhood help and undertaking organisational activities with increased responsibility to express solidarity. The relationship between individuality and collectivity has changed due to a structural transformation. Nowadays, the constitution of individuality no longer takes place in the private sphere but on the basis of social networks.
• Take Robust Actions to Manage COVID-19 Crisis in South Asia: Joint Statement of South Asia CSOs (Asia Pacific Regional CSO Engagement Mechanism: South and South-West Asia Working Group)
  In order to address the issues and challenges regarding the COVID-19 crisis, multiple CSOs of South Asia have jointly released this statement to draw the attention of Governments of South Asia, international communities and to affirm COVID-19 response and recovery actions as inclusive, participatory, accountable and rights-based.

    4. Operational

• Mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19 (C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group)
  This article sets out approaches that city governments are taking to monitor and mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, with five priority issues: cash flow support and guidance for affected SMEs and marginalised groups; monitoring local economic impacts; working with local industries, trade unions and NGOs; and supporting job opportunities, particularly for green jobs.
• The $90Bn Question: Can we reach 700 million people in response to COVID-19? (The Cash Learning Partnership)
  Digital cash delivery may be more efficient but might be excluding the most vulnerable people and widening existing digital divides: In low-income countries, the offline population remains disproportionately poor, rural, elderly, and female. Only consolidated beneficiary information aligned to cross-sector and multi-organisational collaboration will be critical to delivering at scale.
• Three Things Nonprofits Should Prioritize in the Wake of COVID-19 (Stanford Social Innovation Review)
  Why organizations need to examine their social impact, economic viability, and capacity to deliver in order to remain relevant and viable both now and into the future.

• 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. 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.