Operational Guidance for Appropriate Interaction with Armed Actors in the Context of the COVID-19 Response v1.0

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Armed actors are or will likely be involved in an affected government’s response to COVID-19 in a number of ways. This operational guidance by OCHA provides practical approaches to navigating humanitarian operating environments where domestic armed actors are responding to COVID-19 as part of the government’s efforts, where peacekeeping forces and/or foreign armed actors (military and/or police) may possess unique capacity to support humanitarian requirements, or where a combination of the above is observable. The…

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From cholera to corona: The politics of plagues in Africa

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Like any other disease, the coronavirus COVID-19 has in itself no meaning: it is only a micro-organism. It acquires meaning and significance from its human contexts, from the ways it infiltrates the lives of the people, from the reactions it provokes, and from the manner in which it gives expression to cultural and political values. The danger of the coronavirus and its attendant illness, coronavirus disease, is best understood as the product of a particularly…

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Gender implications of COVID-19 outbreaks in development and humanitarian settings

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Informed by lessons learned from past public health emergencies, this analysis shows that COVID-19 outbreaks in development or humanitarian contexts could disproportionately affect women and girls in a number of ways, including adverse effects on their education, food security and nutrition, health, livelihoods, and protection. Even after the outbreak has been contained, women and girls may continue to suffer from ill-effects for years to come. Download

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Preventing global food security crisis under COVID-19 emergency

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The COVID-19 outbreak is showing a new trend. While the situation in China has improved dramatically, several countries, especially the Republic of Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran, have been reporting more new cases. In fact, these countries have reported more new confirmed cases than China, most of which are in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic in Hubei province. That the first case in Africa was reported from Nigeria on Feb 28, the day when…

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Civil War & the Global Threat of Pandemics

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This essay confronts the collision of two potential global threats: the outbreak of infectious pandemics and the outbreak and protraction of civil wars. Specifically, it addresses the potential that civil wars can elevate the risk that an infectious outbreak will emerge; the possibility that civil wars can reduce the capacity to identify and respond to outbreaks; and the risk that outbreaks in areas of civil conflict can generate political and security challenges that may threaten…

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A gendered human rights analysis of Ebola and Zika: locating gender in global health emergencies

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Globally gender remains a key factor in differing health outcomes for men and women. This article analyses the particular relevance of gender for debates about global health and the role for international human rights law in supporting improved health outcomes during public health emergencies. Looking specifically at the recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks, what we find particularly troubling in both cases is the paucity of engagement with human rights language and the diverse backgrounds of…

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