Ebola, COVID‐19 and Africa: What we expected and what we got

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Democratic Republic of the Congo’s fight with Ebola was just settling when WHO declared COVID‐19 to be a global pandemic on March 12, 2020. This has caused concomitant setbacks in the treatment and control of major health issues like HIV, tuberculosis, measles, and malaria in the country. This, coupled with civil unrest and risk to the safety of the health workers, is a ‘perfect storm’ waiting to unfold. Military contingents as peacekeepers are having the…

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Community Approaches to Epidemic Management in South Sudan

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This briefing summarizes findings from the mid-point of the Community Approaches to Epidemic Management in South Sudan research project. The project is run by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and funded by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) via the East Africa Research and Innovation Hub (EARIH). The project, which began in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, is designed to document how communities across South Sudan have created systems and structures to…

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Protect the progress: Rise, refocus, recover

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The past decade has largely been a time of progress for many women, children and adolescents around the world. Under-five deaths reached an all-time recorded low in 2019, more than a billion children were vaccinated in the last 10 years, and more girls are staying in schools than ever before. Yet, progress has been uneven and fragile, with global factors such as conflict, the climate crisis and COVID-19 threatening to reverse it. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic…

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The Effect of COVID-19 on Peace Agreement Implementation: The cases of Colombia, South Sudan and the Philippines

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Brief points: There has been no indication of a reduced commitment to implementing the peace agreement on the signatories’ part, but delays in implementation activities are reported. In Colombia, the Kroc Institute has recorded fewer implementation events for the past few months. In South Sudan, the cantonment sites are near collapse, and training centers responsible for training 83,000 unified national forces have faced limitations. In the Mindanao, phase three of the decommissioning process targeting 14,000…

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Consequences of underfunding in 2020

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The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian needs globally, particularly in low and middle-income countries, which currently host more than 85% of the world’s refugees. The pandemic is destabilizing entire sectors of the economy, with millions depending on fragile incomes that are now at risk. More generally, violence, persecution and civil strife continue to uproot millions. Few conflicts have abated in recent months, while some, such as in the Democratic Republic of the…

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Research ethics practices during COVID-19

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Pandemics and emergencies are marked by multiple and mutually reinforcing challenges that render populations more vulnerable, including impacts on personal health and wellbeing, livelihoods, the physical environment, and the economy. Organizations supporting research under these circumstances have a responsibility to respond to the substantial ethical challenges that arise in such contexts by adjusting research processes and funding arrangements to protect the people being researched, as well as all researchers.   Read more

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Gender responsive budgeting and the COVID-19 pandemic response: a feminist standpoint

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Acknowledging the need for more gender work in Public Administration, this paper engages feminist standpoint theory to analytically frame the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic from a feminist perspective. By assessing the differential impact of the pandemic on women and men in the United States across several sectors of the political economy and society, it is apparent women face immense obstacles in the labor market, as well as in access to health, food and housing….

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COVID-19 and the Sahel

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When the first COVID-19 cases reached the African continent, early estimates painted a dim picture of the impact of the pandemic on the region. Editorialists, public figures and think tanks predicted a widespread outbreak in the face of governments and health systems lacking the capacities to counter it. On 9 March 2020, the first two cases of COVID-19 were announced in Burkina Faso, followed by Niger on 19 March and Mali on 25 March. The…

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Facing the challenges of the Sahel in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

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The general situation in the Sahel-Saharan region continues to be of concern to the African Union (AU) and the international community. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is adding an additional element to the multidimensional crisis that the Sahel has already been experiencing for a decade. This is resulting in a negative impact, to say the least, on the actions that were underway in the fight against insecurity and for the promotion of sustainable development….

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The Human Capital Index 2020 Update : Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19

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The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries. Measuring the human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by her 18th birthday, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers. In this way, it underscores the importance for governments and societies of investing in the human capital of their citizens. The HCI…

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