South Sudanese Youth Agency in a time of Covid-19

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Summary: The emerging picture and activities of youth in South Sudan challenges and transcends the uncritical conceptions and imagery of young South Sudanese as a characteristically violent, dangerous and criminal constituency. Although they are precluded from social, economic, cultural and political structures of power, young people continue to create and consolidate spaces to excercise and exhibit their agency. Knowing that a significant population is offline, youth peace activists in South Sudan have painted wall murals…

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Global Democracy and COVID-19: Upgrading International Support

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This report assesses the impact that Covid-19 is having on democracy around the world. It examines how international democracy support organisations and donors are responding to the challenges related to the pandemic and calls for a stronger and reformulated international democracy support both now and into the longer-term future. Rather than getting immersed in inconclusive debates about which kind of political system is set to deal best with Covid-19, the report calls for a more…

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Gender equality needed to address COVID-19 in conflict and peace

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“If we do not change the face of politics, if we continue to ignore the lessons of decades of women’s activism, if we continue to spend our resources on weapons rather than on social services, we will have a harder time recovering from this pandemic, preventing the next one, or overcoming the climate crisis. It is an easy choice to make.”   Read more

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In South Sudan, Civic Activists Take On COVID

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For South Sudan, COVID-19 is simply the newest plague. The world’s youngest country already faces civil war, repression, displacement, economic collapse, climate change, hunger—even swarming locusts. South Sudan’s people enter the fight against COVID under nearly the worst conditions of human development, and with 39 percent of them displaced by warfare. With a government that has been unable to provide even basic services, South Sudanese must rely on their emerging civil society, and international partnerships,…

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COVID-19 and the Other One Percent: An Agenda for the Forcibly Displaced Six Months into the Emergency

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In March, Refugees International laid out the main factors that make forcibly displaced people so vulnerable to the virus, along with recommendations for key measures to guide the response. Those recommendations have stood the test of time. Nonetheless, over the last three months, the virus has spread in both expected and unanticipated ways. Measures to contain that spread have had enormous and often unintended consequences, particularly for those in need of humanitarian assistance. Drawing on…

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Disasters meet political unrest, displacing millions in East Africa

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An unprecedented overlap of natural and man-made disasters are plaguing the Greater Horn of Africa region. We have seen one million displacements in two months, communal tensions reignited, and pre-existing vulnerabilities exacerbated. In recent weeks, our news channels have been flooded with stories about the Covid-19 pandemic, political and social unrest around the world, natural hazards upending people’s lives, and even a locust infestation, which surfaced in Sub-Saharan Africa then migrated towards Asia, destroying crops…

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‘All eyes are on local actors’: Covid-19 and local humanitarian action

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Key messages Covid-19 is shining a light on the failure of the humanitarian system to reform. This is especially true in regard to the localisation agenda, which has seen only incremental changes towards more local humanitarian action, leadership and complementarity. The pandemic could usher in more local forms of humanitarian action, and greater complementarity between local and international actors. There is anecdotal evidence of change in discourse, commitments and practice at the global and country…

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To vote or postpone? Elections in Africa in the time of COVID-19

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More than 20 African countries were to hold elections this year. As countries tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, there are valuable lessons learned from important elections held during previous Ebola outbreaks.   Read more

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Developing countries urgently need more policy space to fight COVID-19

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The global economic crisis triggered by the spread of COVID-19 has sent many of the world’s developing countries into an economic death spiral. At the first signs of panic in early March, investors fled to the ‘safety’ of deeper financial markets and the US dollar in particular. Capital flight, rising spreads, falling export revenues and collapsing exchange rates compounded an already precarious debt position in many countries, tipping a number into default and leaving many…

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Africa’s Varied COVID Landscapes

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Precise analysis of COVID-19 in Africa continues to be hindered by limited testing and reporting of cases. There is a wide variance in testing capacity, commitment to testing, and reporting of coronavirus cases and deaths. As a result,  countries that are undertaking the most tests or reporting the highest number of cases may not necessarily match those countries most impacted or at risk from the pandemic. Recognizing these data limitations, it is noteworthy that the…

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