Blog Post (D&I) – Page 8 – The International Civil Society Centre

COVID-19 Resources for Civil Society #3

15th April 2020 by Thomas Howie

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

Click here to view all available pages.

Click here for our latest events news.

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

The sections are:

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

Strategic 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).

Policy positions: Civil society’s policies 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

Arundhati Roy: ‘The pandemic is a portal’ (Financial Times).
Much-quoted and moving piece from the novelist on how coronavirus threatens India — and what the country, and the world, should do next.
Coronavirus: global scenarios, research and impact (Inside Geneva podcast).
What the coronavirus mean for us, our society, our economy and our future? Interviews with Dr Margaret Harris of the World Health Organisation and Professor Vinh-Kim Nguyen of the Centre on Global Health at Geneva’s Graduate Institute.
Coronavirus Portal & News Updates (United Nations).
News Portal of the UN on COVID-19.
How are International Development Agencies Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis? (Center for Global Development).
This blog summarises the current challenges and responses for/of official development agencies, and offers some considerations as they continue to respond to the crisis.
We Mapped How the Coronavirus Is Driving New Surveillance Programs Around the World (OneZero).
Overview of digital tools in 28 countries around the world, as of 9 April. To be updated weekly.
Volunteer COVID-19 Tech Support (COVID Tech Support).
A community of volunteer technologists who’s mission is to find technology solutions to problems that will arise due to the COVID-19 crisis.

2. Strategic Analysis

Coronavirus Pandemic-Specific – Response Scenarios and Economic Impacts

How Will the Coronavirus Reshape Democracy and Governance Globally? (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace).
An excellent summary of how the virus may reshape democracy and global governance. Four areas of concern: centralisation of power, abridgement of fundamental rights, expanded state surveillance, banishing protests.
Virus could push half a billion people into poverty (BBC).
The economic fallout from the coronavirus could increase global poverty by as much a half a billion. It will be the first time that poverty has increased globally in 30 years, according to a new report.
Working Paper – Estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on global poverty (United Nations University).
COVID-19 poses a real challenge to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty by 2030. In some regions the adverse impacts could result in poverty levels similar to those recorded 30 years ago.

Future Scenarios

Coronavirus spells the end of the neoliberal era. What’s next? (Open Democracy).
Will the world after COVID-19 be “Fortress Earth” or societies transformed?
Power, equality, nationalism: how the pandemic will reshape the world (Guardian).
COVID-19 has intensified the rivalry between the US and China – but it has also strengthened international cooperation. Will nations be more united or divided, more – or less – free?
There will be no ‘back to normal’ (Nesta).
As we adjust to an emerging new world, Nesta has brought together various – often opposing – views about how things might change, looking at political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental consequences of the pandemic.
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.
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?
What are the “new normals” that COVID-19 might be pointing to? (UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Innovation Team).
An initial scan (from late March) of what is already emerging right now as trends that could stay with us once COVID-19 passes, with a particular focus on the Asian context.

Intersectional Analysis

Africa

Open Letter: The time to act is now (Mail & Guardian).
More than 100 African intellectuals appeal to the leaders of the continent stating that urgency should not be a mode of governance. Rather, this crisis is an opportunity to review public policies, to ensure that they work in favour of all African populations and not just the African middle class.

Biodiversity and Climate Change

How COVID-19 might help us win the fight against climate change (World Economic Forum).
As the world recovers from COVID-19, short-term fixes mustn’t prevent us from addressing longer-term risks like climate change: five actions to address the global climate change crisis.

Data and Digital

Coronavirus Is Changing How We Live, Work, and Use Tech—Permanently (Singularity Hub).
During this pandemic, we’ve hit “fast forward” on many existing tech trends. From remote work and virtual events to virus-monitoring big data, technologies familiar more to a fringe tech community are centre stage and most likely here to stay.
COVID-19 brings a wave of cyberattacks against NGOs (Devex News).
Is cybersecurity becoming, at last, an issue? Aid groups say they are coming under an increased number of cyberattacks as they try to work through the disruption of COVID-19.
COVID-19: Why is contact tracing useful? (Netzpolitik.org).
Is virus tracking on mobile phone apps an appropriate technical solution to mitigate the crisis and to lift the lock-down or another important step to mass surveillance?
Data protection in times of coronavirus: not a question of if, but of how (NOYB – European Centre for Digital Rights).
GDPR allows data to be used in the event of epidemics – a legal review of various coronavirus measures and projects that are intended to contain the spread of the virus by using data.
Do it now. Right away (Le Monde Diplomatique).
View from France: The editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, Serge Halimi, asks whether the world will be saved, but only for the rich few, as in 2008? He is not optimistic: This crisis may turn out to be a dress rehearsal for sweeping aside the last resistance to digital capitalism, and the coming of a society without human contact.
States use of digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights (Amnesty International).
More than 100 civil society groups signed a joint statement setting out conditions to be met if surveillance technology is to be used to fight the pandemic.
Tracking coronavirus: big data and the challenge to privacy (Financial Times).
Following a tour d’horizon on the various approaches on how to use GSM data in order to track the epidemics and exit the lock-down the author discusses the contradictions of the common good and the right to privacy.
Why voluntary mobile phone tracking does not work (Netzpolitik.org).
For the authors, the idea that an app can help to tackle the crisis shows first of all our faith in technology. Then, the idea is dismissed that those apps can be introduced based on the principle of voluntariness.

Gender Equality

Why COVID-19 is different for men and women (BBC).
COVID-19 has profoundly different outcomes for men and women – and not just in terms of their health. For a virus that infects people indiscriminately, why does gender have such an effect?

Multilateralism and international cooperation

UN launches major humanitarian appeal to keep COVID-19 from ‘circling back around the globe’ (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).
Funding Appeal by UN Agencies (WHO and others) providing a narrative that if properly funded, many lives may be saved.

Vulnerable Populations

On the virus and poor people in the world (Martin Ravallion).
Reliable public data and communication are crucial at this time. Sharper trade-offs and harder constraints can emerge in poor places. Routine recommendations for social protection in developing countries may need to be rethought in this pandemic. A rapid, bold, forward-looking response is needed, and there is an important role for the private sector.
What About Migrants And Refugees? The Stark Reality Faced By The World’s Displaced During COVID-19 (Green Queen).
An Asian perspective on the impact of the pandemic on refugees and migrant labour in the region.

3. Policy Positions

Dignity Not Destitution: An ‘Economic Rescue Plan For All’ to tackle the Coronavirus crisis and rebuild a more equal world (Oxfam).
The economic impact of COVID-19 is where the big dominoes are falling. Jobs have evaporated, remittances dried up, access to affordable food is compromised. Oxfam’s proposal suggests six pathways for navigating the immediate effects on women and men coping with poverty.
Employment Situation Amidst the Epidemic (Oxfam Hong Kong).
Oxfam Hong Kong’s COVID-19 response includes understanding the economic impacts and business closure implications for low-income households, and advocacy messages for the HK Government to relieve these difficulties. Useful reference for other responses.
Joint Leader’s statement – Violence against children: A hidden crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic (WHO & Others).
A joint statement of WHO, UNICEF and ICSOs under the ‘Joining Forces Coalition’ on the impact of vulnerable children

4. Operational and Leadership Advice

General

Adapting to COVID-19 for CSOs’ Long Term Impact and Viability (Change the Game Academy).
This article describes the immediate challenges of COVID-19 for the resource base of many CSOs, particularly those in the Global South. It gives good advice on navigating this crisis.
Getting ahead of the next stage of the coronavirus crisis (Mckinsey).
Find out two practical steps your organisation can take to help stay ahead.
Interrupted transmission – zooming in on video conferencing privacy policies (NOYB – European Centre for Digital Rights).
Review of privacy policies of major video conferencing tools, such as Zoom, WebEx, Wire, and others.

Fundraising

Coronavirus and Fundraising: What to Expect and How to Prepare (Gail Perry’s Blog).
Advice on keeping in touch with donors and not giving up on the communication flow, but using the time for re-strategising and rethinking your work of a fundraiser.
Love for fundraisers in a time of coronavirus (fundraising.co.uk).
It gives perspective and some tips for fundraising practitioners to stay healthy, motivated and productive during corona crisis.
Managing your NGO in the times of COVID-19 (Funds 4 NGOs).
Some very helpful suggestions on overall management of an NGO during the corona crisis with relevant links.

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.

A platform for solidarity – our response to Coronavirus disease COVID-19

15th April 2020 by Åsa Månsson

As for many, the coronavirus pandemic has turned a large part of the Centre’s work upside-down. Our team is busy connecting remotely and trying to implement all recommendations out there on how to do virtual leadership, team meetings and coffee breaks.

Our Programmes and Events

We are making several changes to our programmes:

We moved our Power Shift Lab and Solidarity Playbook workshop to the virtual space and will do so for both the upcoming Vision Works and Scanning the Horizon meetings. Although we hope that physical gatherings can take place in the second half of the year.
Our Leading Together meeting, which provides space for exchange for ICSO Directors of Programme, Policy and HR, will focus mostly on what the current crisis means for our work, both in the short and mid-term.
This year’s Innovation Report on ‘Civil Society Innovation and Urban Inclusion’ will include adaptive responses from some of the urban programming case studies to the COVID-19 response and strategic reflections on the future of pandemics and cities.
As part of our Leave No One Behind partnership, we have started talking to our partners about whether we can help provide data on how the current crisis is affecting already vulnerable groups in our action countries. This is challenging, but some important steps are being taken already.
Our focus on the ‘Interconnectedness of Trends’ with the Scanning the Horizon futures community this year is more relevant than ever, as we look to potential post-pandemic futures. Our remote meetings in May will gather insights from different sectors on analysing complex possible futures. We will plan the next steps for collaborative working on both the urgent and the important: COVID-19, civic space and climate change.

Our role during the corona crisis

In addition to these revisions of our current programme, we believe there is also a further role for us to fill in this crisis. We see that although many organisations are focused on internal challenges, there is a need and a clear interest to connect with others, to reflect together and to show solidarity with each other.

These are a few things we are doing to help facilitate conversations between organisations:

We bring together Directors of Human Resources and People of the ICSOs for discussions on how they manage the situation. The exchange has focused on issues such as how to deal with the mental well-being of staff, how to get staff or volunteers back to their home countries and how to go about the anxiety and worries of partners.
Every week, we are curating strategic analyses, quality articles, podcasts and videos on what this crisis might mean for the civil society sector in the mid- to long-term perspective. Our ambition is to help organisations filter through the flood of information and opinions out there.
We are talking with other convening bodies such as InterAction, BOND, VANI and CIVICUS, about how to jointly support the discussion around what a post-corona world would look like and mean for civil society. This discussion will focus on bringing together COVID-19 foresight efforts and diverse perspectives and supporting our member organisations with the best tools and analysis to navigate the longer-term implications of the pandemic.
As a part of our Scanning the Horizon group, we convened Strategy Directors from the ICSOs to discuss how organisations see the current developments in light of their respective strategies. There is a lot of interest to work together to understand how to prepare for new, highly uncertain, futures – stay tuned.

As the pandemic continues to create uncertainty, we will offer ICSOs and partners a platform to convene and share insights about how best to respond. Here a few things that we hope to see:

More exchange and collaboration: Although it is tempting to focus on our internal issues, both the unprecedented immediate and the unknown future should call for more joint reflection. There is no time for each of us to deal with this without learning from others.
More focus on intersectional approaches: If anything, the past weeks have shown us how developments are interlinked and that change in one area will have immense consequences in others. We have to get better at linking things up.
Using our precious face-to-face time far more intentionally: This might feel minor, but I don’t think it is. Will we, after this, better appreciate our time together with colleagues and partners from all over the world? Will we better prepare for these meetings and make better use of the joint time? Really listen to each other? I certainly hope so.

For all of the above, we need to take a deep breath, listen well and look beyond the scope of our respective organisations. So in a way, we all need to practice now what each of us should also do in times of business as usual – show leadership and focus on the collective aim. Let us show that this is possible.

Finally: This is my last blog as a member of the Centre, as I am moving on at the end of this month. I am incredibly grateful for everything that I got a chance to learn from all of you over the past years – thank you! I won’t go far, so let’s continue moving things forward together. See you out there.

Åsa Månsson

Special Projects

Wikimedia Foundation

In May 2020 Åsa left the Centre and joined Wikimedia Germany in a role working on organisational development’. Between 2010 and 2013, Åsa acted as manager of the INGO Accountability Charter (Accountable Now). In September 2013, Åsa took up the role as Director of Development, innovating the Centre’s fundraising and communication efforts. Since October 2016, Åsa has been Director of the Global Standard and has additionally taken on the role as the Centre’s Programme Director in mid-2017. Originally from Sweden, Åsa earlier worked for a consultancy, evaluating social projects within the public and civil society sector. Åsa studied European Studies and Sociology at universities in Gothenburg and Berlin. She completed her education with a Master’s thesis on the role of civil society in European governance.

Civil Society in the Corona Crisis

7th April 2020 by Wolfgang Jamann

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 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.

COVID-19 Resources for Civil Society #2

6th April 2020 by Thomas Howie

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.