Disrupt & Innovate

One month of WHO-declared pandemic has meant one month of crisis mitigation for civil society leaders. Ensuring staff care and safety and maintaining the continuity of operations was and is a priority task for any leader these days. In addition, staying healthy, looking after family and friends, is more than an activity on the side. We are grateful for all the efforts that have been undertaken to stay as safe as possible in the sector.

Civil society organisations (CSOs), big and small, global and local, are ‘system-relevant’ – it matters to millions of people that we remain operational and support the most vulnerable and their environment. It comes as no surprise that the SDG principle to ‘Leave no one behind’ has become a unifying theme of solidarity in response to the Coronavirus around the world, mirroring what our organisations stand for.

For CSOs to remain operational in the future will mean refocusing on the potential and foreseeable impacts of the crisis in countries of the global South – a humanitarian, health and food security crisis yet in the making. If we have learned anything from past disasters – man-made or so-called ‘natural’: it is always the most marginalised, the poorest and the least protected who will bear the highest burden. 

We cannot yet foresee whether direct or indirect consequences of Coronavirus will affect livelihoods most. For example, the indirect ones on the horizon might be much graver in the medium to long term – such as re-direction of aid flows towards domestic issues, dwindling global solidarity and growing nationalism, scarcity of economic resources, to name but a few.

Four weeks into the crisis and civil society leaders are strategising and planning for mid-term and longer-term implications. Information (and opinion) overload still need to be interpreted, but there are some valuable resources that are useful for thinking and planning ahead. The Centre has collected a number of pieces that will help navigate the immediate and longer-term future, and so have other civil society networks. 

Already, numerous valuable advocacy initiatives are kicking in. They are occurring in order of urgency rather than priority, such as:

• advocating for flexible use of resource towards donors, 
• addressing social consequences of the economic fallouts,
• advocating for the upholding of Human Rights in times of crisis, 
• addressing the digital dimensions of surveillance vs case tracking, 
• campaigning for the protection of the most vulnerable. 

And we hear encouraging statements from global leaders like WHO Executive Director Thedros Ghebreyesus, making sure that the poorer continents do not become testing grounds for the wealthier nations. 

As more advocacy statements and initiatives are being rolled-out, we need to make sure that there is not a competition of concerns and mandates, but that we remain connected over the aims that we all share.

Further ahead is scenario planning. Futurists and foresighters are looking at weak and strong signals on post-Coronavirus situation. The most unlikely scenario will be “business as before”, once a vaccine or treatments are found. The biggest questions appear around so-called ‘systems changes’ – is the globalist, capitalist, financial and political system good enough in times of increasing global challenges? Where will our societies drift – back into nationalist and inward-looking behaviours, or forward towards global solidarity, interconnected actions and multilateral governance? And how will the current experience affect our dealing with ‘the other’ large global crisis around climate change?

Highly relevant to these future systems will be the role of organised civil society, whether it is around aid, social discourse, political decision-making or framing the narratives that hold our societies together. Civil society in the ‘sector’ (of development, social justice, environment and human rights) has undergone continuous transformations over the past decades, but it is challenged to keep pace with the current crisis, its responsibilities, and yes, the opportunities that come with it. We should not let others define the future of the values and systems that matter for civil society around the world.

Our most significant contribution to overcoming this crisis will be working in collaboration, focusing on the solidarity and empathy. Our humanistic values that bind us and the societies we work in demand that we are forward-looking and strategic in our actions, irrespective of the high operational pressures out there. Putting people, unorganised and organised civil society at the centre of post-Coronavirus planning is the task we need to unite behind and show collective leadership.

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 Resources

Wolfgang Jamann

Executive Director

International Civil Society Centre

Dr. Wolfgang Jamann is Executive Director of the International Civil Society Centre. Until January 2018 he was Secretary General and CEO of CARE International (Geneva). Before that he led NGO Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and the Alliance 2015, a partnership of 7 European aid organisations. From 2004-2009 he was CEO & Board member of CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg and President of the CARE Foundation. Previously, he worked for World Vision International as a regional representative in East Africa (Kenya) & Head of Humanitarian Assistance at WV Germany. After his Ph.D. dissertation in 1990 he started his career in development work at the German Foundation for International Development, later for the UNDP in Zambia. As a researcher and academic, he has published books and articles on East & Southeast Asia contributing to international studies on complex humanitarian emergencies and conflict management.

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. This selection is based on what the International Civil Society Centre and its staff find useful. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know.

This week 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 analysis: 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).

NEW: Policy positions: Published policy pieces by civil society actors that respond to challenges posed by COVID-19.

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

    1. Staying up-to-Date

• Global Issue: COVID-19 resource page (World Economic Forum).
  WEF resource page including: government responses, avoiding infection and spread, finding a vaccine, impact on trade, travel, workforce and financial markets.
• COVID-19: how are African countries coping? (The Guardian).
  In this podcast, Prof Trudie Lang talks about the outbreak on the continent and explores how a history of responding to Ebola and other public health emergencies could help.
• Tackling COVID-19 in Africa (McKinsey).
  An unfolding health and economic crisis that requires bold action.
  
• We need creative campaigning more than ever during the coronavirus crisis (MobLab).
  This is an essential window for social change campaigners to not only defend rights, but also drive quantum leaps forward. Here are four critical new realities MobLab believes advocacy campaigners and organisations need to address in order to remain effective.

Inspiring civil society responses from around the world

• Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding  (A Society is Only as Strong as its Most Vulnerable Members).
  First in a series of articles on the role of civil society in supporting local response action, via interviews with frontline responders. Here, with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network (WASH-Net) in Sierra Leone.
• Indian Civil Society Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 (VANI).
  Initiative to present an Indian sector response collecting CSO inputs on COVID-19.
• What will coronavirus do to one of Africa’s largest slums? (Fast Company – Shining Hope for Communities).
  Local civil society responses in Kibera, Nairobi, to the challenges social distancing, frequent handwashing and disinformation in one of the largest slums in Africa.

    2. Strategic Analysis

Coronavirus Pandemic-Specific – Response Scenarios and Economic Impacts

• Cities after coronavirus: how COVID-19 could radically alter urban life (Guardian).
  Good summary of which urban adjustments might endure beyond the pandemic – densification for sustainability or disaggregation for public health control, digital infrastructure for safer ‘smart’ cities, and community vs. corporate interests.
  
• McKinsey COVID-19 briefing materials – Global health and crisis response (McKinsey).
  Useful piece on how corporations are dealing with COVID-19, short- and long-term. Includes five strategic phases and scenarios.
  
• What Will the World Be Like After Coronavirus? Four Possible Futures (Singularity).
  Four potential post-pandemic economic scenarios, looking at distributed/centralised response and protection of life/exchange value as the guiding economic principle.
  

Future Scenarios

• Amartya Sen writes: Overcoming a pandemic may look like fighting a war, but the real need is far from that (Indian Times).
  Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power to order everyone to do what the leader wants — with no need for consultation. In contrast, what is needed is participatory governance and alert public discussion.
• The Corona Effect: Four Future Scenarios (Zukunftsinstitut).
  Good short scenarios. The Zukunftsinstitut describes four possible scenarios of how the COVID-19 crisis can transform the world, change the way we live and do business. It looks at two axes: optimism/pessimism and connected/disconnected societies.
• COVID-19 and Scenario Planning: A Thought Experiment on the Short and Long Term Impacts of the Present Crisis (Innovation Labs).
  Interesting white paper with sections on coping with uncertainty and sixteen scenarios of the future with COVID-19.
• Not Fit for this Future (Aarathi Krishnan).
  The global pandemic has shown up the fundamental cracks in our global systems and structures, our failures in reducing inequality, fragility and vulnerability. Our global institutions, structural pillars and narratives need to be radically reimagined.
• Post COVID-19 reorganisation scenarios (Multiverse Design).
  This report contains a comprehensive look at what might emerge post-COVID-19 as the fabric of our reality changes. It’s a modular set allowing everyone to navigate what’s next and create hundreds of scenarios for different contexts/organisations.
• The world remade by COVID-19: Planning scenarios for resilient leaders (Deloitte).
  Deloitte and Salesforce hosted a dialogue with the world’s best-known scenario thinkers to consider what might life be like after the crisis passes, and what will it take to thrive in a world remade, in four possible scenarios.

Intersectional Analysis

Africa

• The People vs 4G internet and other corona stories from Kenya (Wangui Kimari).
  An opinion piece on how COVID-19 mitigation strategies will not work for the poor in Africa, and how inequalities will be widened as a consequence.
• How COVID-19 affects inequality in Africa (INCLUDE).
  Weekly updated news item on the policy responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the impacts of this pandemic on African societies. It takes a specific inequality lens on the consequences for key vulnerable groups, and consider the broader impacts on inclusive development for the region.

Civic Space

• The Worry of Governance: Coronavirus and Emergency Politics (From Poverty to Power).
  What could happen to state-society relations and the functioning of states once the pandemic has been brought under control? Which of the unprecedented actions that governments are now taking will have impacts – positive or negative – on these relationships and how?

Data and Digital

• Mobilising collective intelligence to tackle the COVID-19 threat (Nesta).
  The changes the pandemic will bring to bear on existing systems will be seismic, including the data governance ecosystem, integral to our everyday lives.
• What will the first pandemic of the algorithmic age mean for data governance? (Ada Lovelace Institute).
  The changes the pandemic will bring to bear on existing systems will be seismic, including the data governance ecosystem, integral to our everyday lives.

Gender Equality

• Feminist Resources on the Pandemic (Center for Feminist Foreign Policy).
  The response to the current pandemic is in dire need of feminist perspectives, especially as we are already seeing the gendered impact it is having. This is a useful and up-to-date resource page for feminist dimensions of the pandemic.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• Lessons from coronavirus for the future of ‘aid’ (Development Initiatives).
  How a coordinated and well-funded global response is needed to combat health crises. This blog is the second in DI’s series on Global Public Investment and the future of foreign aid.
• This global pandemic must be the impetus for a new era of international cooperation and financing for Global Public Goods (Development Initiatives).
  The COVID-19 crisis highlights just how much the world needs a well-coordinated and well-resourced system of international public financing. Global public investment offers an ambitious approach towards pooling resources and knowledge.

Narratives

• COVID-19 – an unfolding story that hasn’t been written yet. How can we shape the narrative?
  Key storytelling features to emphasise during this time – about the beginning, middle and end – and other resources on how to communicate during the pandemic. The narratives we use about COVID-19 way we respond strategically will shape how others refer to this time in the future.
• This is a Love Story: thinking globally during COVID-19 (Kirsty McNeill, Save the Children’s Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns).
  12 rules for communicating during COVID-19

    3. Policy Positions

• Business and COVID-19: Supporting the most vulnerable – Business Fights Poverty COVID-19 Response Framework (Business Fights Poverty).
  Useful reference from the private sector – this response framework sets out practical guidance on how businesses can support the most vulnerable in their value chains, communities and beyond.
• Call for a Feminist COVID-19 Policy (Feminist Alliance for Right).
  This statement has been endorsed by 1160 individuals and women’s networks and organisations globally, from more than 100 countries, to demand states adopt a feminist policy to address the COVID-19 pandemic in a manner that is consistent with human rights standards and principles.
• CBM Global COVID-19 resource (CBM Global)
  Key advocacy messages, questions to ask on disability inclusion and resources to learn more.
• Collecting Open Government Approaches to COVID-19 (Open Government Partnership)
  Crowd-sourced examples of open government approaches to tackling COVID-19 being implemented, either by governments themselves or civil society, citizens or the private sector.
• Key policy responses from the OECD (OECD)
  Policy responses spanning a range of topics, from health to education and taxes, guidance on the short-term measures needed in affected sectors and a specific focus on the vulnerable sectors of society and the economy, and analysis on the longer-term consequences and impacts.
• Oxfam media briefing: How to confront the coronavirus catastrophe: The Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response needed now (Oxfam).
  G20 and other leaders can develop a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response to tackle the disease head on – preventing and delaying its spread, saving lives now and into the future.
• Responding to COVID-19: A social security protocol for civil society (CIVICUS).
  CIVICUS’ draft ‘social security protocol’ in response to the projected economic and social impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic, intended as a voluntary commitment from CSOs to lead by example.
• Towards A People-Focused COVID-19 Response (ActionAid India)
  Stopping the spread of infection, ensuring protection and reducing the impact of lockdown: The swift measures by the Indian government to close  borders and enforce social isolation must be implemented with due respect for civil rights/liberties, and without the use of indiscriminate force.

    4. Operational and Leadership Advice

• COVID-19 and the disability movement (International Disability Alliance)
  Recommendations toward a disability-inclusive COVID-19 response – hub-page with recent updates/resources as they become available. In English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic.
• COVID-19 reveals weak spots in NGO contingency planning (Devex).
  The business continuity plans of many NGOs, detailing how to keep operating in the face of unprecedented disruption, are inadequate or nonexistent, according to the latest findings of a poll about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development sector.
• COVID-19 resources for NGOs and humanitarian action (ICVA)
  The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) is collecting guidelines, tools, statements, papers and links, including humanitarian coordination, forced migration, community engagement, inclusion and diversity, and funding.
• Key considerations: informal urban settlements and COVID-19 (Institute of Development Studies).
  Key considerations for protecting informal urban settlements from the  impacts of COVID-19, amid heightened concern due to the combination of population density and limited infrastructure. This briefing discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local action.
• Resources for civil society in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (CIVICUS).
  CIVICUS’ civil society resources webpage outlines the key priorities shaping CIVICUS’ response, which includes information others can use to build their operational/advocacy responses.
• Responding to Coronavirus: Learning from each other (Center for Public Impact).
  Digital platform sharing innovative examples of how individuals, organisations and local authorities are changing the way they deliver services in the age of COVID-19.
• Save the Children’s COVID-19 Program Framework and Guidance and Companion Pieces (Save the Children).
  Save the Children’s planning assumptions and priority areas for implementation over four phases of programming: preparedness, initial response, large-scale response, and recovery. The guidance allows staff to locate which phase their country/community are in and implementation of key actions and activities by sector.
• The COVID-19 Learning Pathway (Open Access) (Save the Children).
  Save the Children’s new learning resource to support responders in their work within the new environment created by COVID-19. It covers a number of critical topics, including public health, child protection and gender/equality.

• 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 frequently 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 Coronavirus news and analysis. This selection is based on what the International Civil Society Centre and its staff find useful. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know.

There are three sections to this page:

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

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

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

    1. Staying up-to-Date

• Devex articles, including how the COVID-19 outbreak is reshaping the global development sector
• Overseas Development Institute blog series assessing the implications of the coronavirus outbreak – from the impact on the global economy to its effects on climate change, and people living in poverty

    2. Strategic Analysis

Coronavirus Pandemic-Specific – Response Scenarios and Economic Impacts

• The Economic Impact of COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Center for Global Development).
  Analysis of short and medium-term economic impacts and what should be being done right now by IMF to minimise the impact.
• Will Africa’s economies buckle under the coronavirus? (Institue for Security Studies).
  Africa has so far been relatively resilient concerning infections, but the opposite is true for economic effects.
• Are pandemics increasing and what do they cost? and COVID-19 Virtual Summit (Singularity University) – Videos.
  In the first video Robert Muggah shares insights into the spread and impact of pandemics, why they are becoming more common, and how cities can help minimise threats now and into the future. The second link presents all presentation and discussions from Singulairities virtual summit on COVID-19,
• What Might Africa Teach the World? COVID-19 and Ebola Virus Disease Compared (African Arguments).
  A look at the links between community mobilisation and epidemiologists in the case of Ebola and what that can teach us in the case of COVID-19.
• Coronavirus vaccine: when will it be ready? (Guardian).
  Human trials will begin imminently – but even if they go well and a cure is found, there are many barriers before global immunisation is feasible.

General Analysis

• ‘We can’t go back to normal’: how will coronavirus change the world? (Guardian).
  Recommended. Some believe the pandemic is a once-in-a-generation chance to remake society and build a better future. Others fear it may only make existing injustices worse.
• Neither A Black Swan Nor A Zombie Apocalypse: The Futures Of A World With The COVID-19 Coronavirus (Journal of Futures Studies).
  Summary of why this pandemic was predictable and four main emerging scenarios.
• The Coronavirus Pandemic and the New Normal, with Jamie Metzl (Singularity University) – Video, and After coronavirus the World Will Never Be the Same. But Maybe, It Can Be Better (Singularity Hub).
  A useful overview of big picture trends and links to wider geopolitical issues, and a ‘new normal’ for 18 months at least until a vaccine is found.
• Planning for the World After the Coronavirus Pandemic (World Politics Review).
  Second-order effects and unpredictable interactions of the pandemic with other global issues are still unclear. International cooperation is needed for these, and the urgency of a public health emergency should not crowd out the need for slower-moving but still important priorities.
• How the Pandemic Will End (The Atlantic).
  Recommended – US-focused but clear global relevance and endgame scenarios. The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out.
• Six ways coronavirus will change our world (Exponential View).
  Scientific collaboration, digital quarantines, genomic technologies, remote everything, self-sufficiency, and nativism.
• 16 Ways Coronavirus May Change the Way We Look at the World (Singularity Hub).
  A list of 16 positive changes to the collective mindset this era of emergency may bring.
• Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus (Financial Times).
  We face two particularly important choices during this crisis which could change our lives for years to come: between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment, and between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.
• After this pandemic we can do better (Amnesty International).
  David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary-General at Amnesty International, on what we can choose to differently as a result of coronavirus’ impacts throwing into sharp relief what our renewed priorities should be.

Intersectional Analysis

Biodiversity and Climate Change

• ‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for COVID-19? (Guardian).
  Telling piece on the links between increasing habitat and biodiversity loss globally and the potential for further future mass pandemics.
• COVID-19: a dress rehearsal for the climate emergency? (Forum For the Future).
  Summary of what we can learn from the COVID-19 response that might allow us to be better equipped to address critical sustainability challenges.
• COVID-19 – The Low-Carbon Crisis (Michael Liebreich).
  Climate-positive shifts in societal behaviour, policy, technology and business processes during the crisis may sustain for lower carbon emissions in the longer term.

Cities and Urbanisation

• Coronavirus threat looms large for low-income cities (International Institute for Environment and Development).
  Weak infrastructure and lack of basic services mean urban settlements in low-income countries are highly vulnerable, and handwashing and isolation responses to the virus are not possible.

Civic Space and Human Rights

• States should put human rights at the centre of all responses to COVID-19 (CIVICUS).
  CIVICUS outlines the risks of governments using the crisis as a pretext to undermine the rule of law, attack human rights defenders and silencing political critics.
• Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response (Human Rights Watch).
  A comprehensive summary of human rights concerns posed by the coronavirus outbreak, drawing on examples of government responses to date, and recommends ways governments and other actors can respect human rights in their response.
• Coronavirus and Civic Space Preserving Human Rights During a Pandemic (International Center for Not-For-Profit Law).
  The article discusses how international law provides a framework to uphold human rights during crisis response.
• Do We Have to Give Up Some Personal Freedoms to Beat Coronavirus? (Singularity Hub).
  An open but less competent government is likely to perform poorly in a public health crisis, as is a competent but closed government. We need open societies to combat the virus.

Data and Digital

• The rise of the bio-surveillance state (New Statesman America).
  States can only achieve two out of three in the ‘coronavirus trilemma’ of limiting deaths, gradually lifting lockdowns, or upholding cherished civil liberties, and bio-surveillance may outlive the immediate crisis, even in liberal states with strong pluralist institutions.
• As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets (New York Times).
  Mass digital surveillance to track entire populations to combat the pandemic now could open the doors to more invasive forms of government snooping later.
• Checking our instincts: We need to remain evidence-based and standards-driven in times of crisis (Data governance).
  Five evidence-based and standards-driven rules to guide responsible data governance and data use in times of crisis.
• How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic (Foreign Affairs).
  Taiwan’s fusion of technology, activism, and civic participation as a solution.

Gender Equality

• Unchecked corporate power paved the way for COVID-19, and globally, women are at the frontlines (Cambridge Core Blog).
  The pandemic puts a spotlight on the urgency of questioning, challenging and resisting underlying discriminatory systems which disproportionately affect women.
• Coronavirus: Five ways virus upheaval is hitting women in Asia (BBC).
  Across Asia, women are being disproportionately affected by the significant social impacts of the virus, here are five ways in which this is happening.
•  The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism (The Atlantic).
  This and past pandemics affect men and women differently.

Global China

• How Will COVID-19 Impact China’s Belt & Road Initiative? (The China Africa Project) – Podcast.
  COVID-19 is the single greatest challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative since its launch in 2013, as its interconnectedness once widely regarded as a huge opportunity is might now be seen as the potentially dangerous liability of dependence on China.
• Is China a Safe Haven? (Matthews Asia).
  China may become the global economic and financial haven, as consumer demand is healthy (buffered by deep household savings) and it has domestic COVID-19 infections under control.

Multilateralism and international cooperation

• What COVID-19 means for international cooperation (Brookings).
  The pandemic could strengthen nationalism and isolationism and accelerate the retreat from globalisation, or spur a new wave of international cooperation like after World War II.
• The Coronavirus Could Reshape Global Order (Foreign Affairs).
  China Is manoeuvering for international leadership as the United States falters.

Populism and Authoritarianism

• How the Coronavirus Revealed Authoritarianism’s Fatal Flaw (The Atlantic).
  China’s use of surveillance and censorship makes it harder for Xi Jinping to know what’s going on in his own country.
• Coronavirus could be used by authoritarian leaders as excuse to undermine democracy, experts warn (The Independent).
  Worries coronavirus could reshape politics by eroding democracy in some countries.
• How European populists are using coronavirus as a political tool (Aljazeera).
  Refugees, aid workers placed under quarantine in Italy as far-right leaders across Europe call for tighter borders.

    3. Operational and Leadership Advice

General

• Coronavirus strategy for NGOs (Associates for Change).
  A suggested 4-point strategy you may want to consider for the current outbreak.
• Resources for INGOs (BOND).
  Useful resources, especially for those based in the UK, but some useful regardless

Remote working

• Understanding the Videoconferencing Tools Available to Your Nonprofit (TechSoup)
• Nonprofit Resources for Remote Work During the COVID-19 Outbreak (TechSoup)
• Coronavirus Tech Handbook

• 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.