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Gender, Masculinity, and COVID-19

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Gender is shaping the COVID-19 crisis in real and significant ways. Beyond the direct, visible practices that by now we all should understand—stay home, wash your hands, step back six feet—gender and its interactions with class, race, and immigrant status impact a number of dimensions of this crisis. From epidemiology to the vulnerabilities of front-line health workers, from the distribution of care work within families to the implications of quarantine for domestic violence, the author…

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“COVID-19 is like a death sentence to women in South Sudan; after years of conflict, it is taking away our plans”

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“Since a COVID-19 case was declared in South Sudan, I have not been myself. I was worried. How will we survive without our farm work? Only God knows how long it will take to stop this dangerous disease”, says 45-year old Elder Atim, a farmer. At least 95 percent of the people in South Sudan are dependent on farming, fishing, and herding for food and income to meet their daily needs, according to the Food…

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Adapting social protection in the wake of Covid-19

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Everywhere you look, and even if you didn’t realise it, countries are using social protection to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic on a massive scale. Whether it is huge unemployment support packages in the UK and France, new and adapted cash transfer, food voucher, and school feeding programmes, unemployment insurance or subsidised sick leave, all are examples of using and adapting social protection to address a shock affecting large numbers of vulnerable people simultaneously. This…

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The Politics of Food in the Time of COVID-19

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The intersection of the pandemic and hunger sets the stage for the politicization of urgent humanitarian assistance, particularly food. Around the world, leaders who are insecure about their own popularity and legitimacy often compensate by placing a high priority on projecting strength and control. These leaders may be particularly anxious about responding to COVID-19. The threat is difficult to counter and it resists permanent solutions, foreclosing opportunities to bask in the glow of victory. Worse…

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COVID-19 and Conflict Sensitivity Implications in South Sudan

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In this blog post, Leslye Rost van Tonningen, the Director of CSRF, reflects on conflict sensitivity implications of COVID-19 responses in the South Sudanese context.   Conflict sensitivity is more important in times of crisis or rapid change.  In current crises, such as South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia or Myanmar, conflict sensitivity and context analysis are particularly critical, as the decisions with regards to who is supported, how they are supported and the support they…

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Planning for the World After COVID-19: Assessing the Domestic and International Drivers of Conflict

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This article examines how COVID-19 contributes to domestic and international drivers of instability. It argues that the best way to address these challenges is through improved dialogue at the international and local level.   Read more

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To help respond to Covid-19, African governments should prioritise taxing the rich

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So far, policy discussions about tax responses to Covid-19 have focused overwhelmingly on how to offer immediate tax relief. There is a clear sequence in these discussions: tax relief today, expanded revenue collection in the future to compensate. This blog explores a less conventional argument: that African governments may want to think much more immediately about sustaining—and even expanding—taxation of rich individuals in particular. It outlines the arguments for this strategy and examines the nuts…

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Governance Implicationsof Epidemic Disease in Africa: Updating the Agenda for COVID-19

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African countries have much experience with epidemics of communicable diseases. Nonetheless, certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic are new; for example its impacts on the global economy, and the extreme restrictions on social interaction that are recommended as mitigation measures. Other aspects of the pandemic are familiar; for example high levels of illness that overwhelm limited health care capacity, a spike in mortality, and the conjuncture of these two elements with a severe economic downturn.This…

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COVID-19 and Gender-based Violence in Conflict: New Challenges and Persistent Problems

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PSRP research on gender-based violence and its relationship to conflict includes useful insights on the likely impacts of the COVID-19 restrictions in conflict-affected settings. This blog distils some of the most pertinent insights from PSRP research, drawing in particular on Jessica Doyle and Monica McWilliams pathbreaking longitudinal study of the impact on women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) of the formal end to conflict in Northern Ireland; Aisling Swaine’s comparative study of the evolution…

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What did we learn from preparing for cross-border transmission of Ebola virus disease into a complex humanitarian setting – The Republic of South Sudan?

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Background Following the West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak (2013–2016), WHO developed a preparedness checklist for its member states. This checklist is currently being applied for the first time on a large and systematic scale to prepare for the cross border importation of the ongoing EVD outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo hence the need to document the lessons learnt from this experience. This is more pertinent considering the complex humanitarian context and…

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