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From insight to action: Gender equality in the wake of COVID-19

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The impacts of crises are never gender neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception. While men reportedly have a higher fatality rate, women and girls are especially hurt by the resulting economic and social fallout. Impacts on women and girls have worsened across the board. Women are losing their livelihoods faster because they are more exposed to hard-hit economic sectors. According to a new analysis commissioned by UN Women and UNDP, by 2021 around 435 million…

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‘Building Back Better’: Youth, Risk, and Resilience in the coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

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The COVID-19 pandemic – as well as the governmental and societal responses to it – feed into, feed off, and trigger pre-existing local, national, and global patterns of inequality and exclusion. Unsurprisingly, these responses have also had generational and gendered manifestations. The profile of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, provides a powerful mirror image of the interconnected structural ‘violence of exclusion’ that young women and men described so powerfully through The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study…

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Learning in a COVID-19 world: The unique risks of falling behind for children in humanitarian settings

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Whilst over one billion children worldwide have been affected by school closures as a result of the global pandemic, this analysis presents the unique ways in which children in fragile and conflict-affected settings have been further affected by the virus. By highlighting the existing challenges faced by school-age children in humanitarian settings, this analysis focuses on how these pre-existing vulnerabilities have been compounded by COVID-19, how approaches can be best adapted to ensure these children…

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Why the COVID-19 response needs International Relations

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The COVID-19 pandemic affects all countries, but how governments respond is dictated by politics. Amid this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has tried to coordinate advice to states and offer ongoing management of the outbreak. Given the political drivers of COVID-19, the authors of this article argue this is an important moment to advance International Relations knowledge as a necessary and distinctive method for inclusion in the WHO repertoire of knowledge inputs for epidemic control….

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The Future of Mediation in the Post-COVID World

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What – from the perspective of global peace and security – are some of the most critical existing trends that are being intensified? What impact might this have on the dynamics and mechanics of peace processes? And, to help us seek clarity on how to act in light of these intensifying trends, what are the key questions we still need to answer to help define the future of mediation? It is incumbent on mediators and…

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COVID-19 has many lessons for African Civil Society Organizations

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been without a doubt the most pressing issue throughout much of 2020. Across the world, as infection rates and deaths rose, the effects of the pandemic were felt across all sectors of society. Medical services have been overwhelmed, businesses have been shattered and governments have struggled to deal with the crisis. Across the length and breadth of the African continent, civil society organisations (CSOs) have not been spared. Read more.

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Africa trade and COVID-19: The supply chain dimension

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Key Messages domestic product (GDP) for the continent is projected to contract. Comparative value chain analyses show some similarities: adaptation includes shifting manufacturing towards the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). The shutdown of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in India and China, increased prices of raw materials and export restrictions imposed by other countries have exposed Africa’s vulnerabilities. There is a renewed focus on boosting intra-regional trade in the pharmaceutical sector. Covid-19 has strengthened the case…

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Shifting forms of mobility related to COVID-19

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COVID-19 highlights the fact that infectious disease outbreaks and human mobility are intrinsically linked, yet the links are complex. On the one hand, the movement of people can contribute to the spread of these diseases, creating pandemics in the worst cases. On the other hand, such outbreaks also have wide-ranging consequences for human mobility. They can lessen movement directly by order of governments, and indirectly, for example through economic impoverishment. Simultaneously, pandemics can shift mobility…

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COVID-19 and systemic resilience: What role for migrant workers?

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While governments restricted movement and access to workspaces at the height of the pandemic, many also declared certain jobs “essential”, exempting them from the most severe restrictions. Migrants play an important role in essential sectors in many countries.3 As a consequence, migrants doing essential work – including those typically considered “low-skilled” workers, such as crop pickers, care assistants and cleaners in hospitals – have in many countries been designated “key workers” whose supply needs to…

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Rights in a pandemic: Lockdowns, rights and lessons from HIV in the early response to COVID-19

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One of the main lessons learned from the HIV response is that human rights-based approaches and community empowerment must be at the centre of any pandemic response. Discrimination, overreliance on criminal law, curtailing civil society operating space, and failing to take proactive measures to respect, protect and fulfil human rights can hamper mobilization of communities to respond to health issues—a necessary ingredient for an effective response. Overly restrictive responses—especially those that do not take the…

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