Human rights, the environment and COVID-19: Key Messages

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The COVID-19 crisis reveals a clear truth about catastrophic risk in an increasingly globalized world: an effective response requires immediate, ambitious and evidence-based preventive action at the international level. To avert future global threats, including pandemics, we must protect rights to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment upon which we all depend for our health and wellbeing. A human rights-based approach to the COVID-19 crisis is also needed to address its unequal impacts on…

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Covid-19 Is a Feminist Issue

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Across the Asia-Pacific and around the globe, there is emerging evidence that Covid-19 is having a disproportionate impact on women and girls, particularly women of color, including on their economic opportunities, rights and security, and voice and leadership in decision-making. Tough measures to control the disease—such as closing businesses, restricting personal freedoms, and reducing community interaction—have caused fear, anxiety, and crushing economic uncertainty, all of which are shown to contribute to violence against women and…

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Faith Actors in the COVID-19 Response

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Faith plays a role in the lives and behaviours of 84% of the world’s population5 and faith leaders in particular can exercise considerable influence in many communities during the current crisis. Faith leaders can be a positive influence, sharing accurate information, modelling healthy behaviours and responding to the most vulnerable. However, without support and engagement, they can also support the spread of misinformation and myths about COVID-19.   Download

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Reopening schools too early could spread COVID-19 even faster – especially in the developing world

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Low-income countries face a very different set of circumstances to high-income countries when it comes to reopening schools after lockdown. In developing countries, adults and the elderly generally have more contact with children than those in advanced economies. A new study predicts that delaying school openings could save lives.   Read more

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‘I have nothing to feed my family…’ COVID-19 risk pathways for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries

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This is the first in a series of briefs. It focuses on the short-term effects of covid-19 and associated lockdowns on adolescent girls and boys in LMICs. The next brief will focus on the effects of the pandemic six months after lockdowns. The authors draw on AGIP’s covid-19 risks and opportunities for adolescent girls framework, focusing on six key domains: health; education and learning; livelihoods and social protection; age- and gender-based violence; water and sanitation;…

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COVID-19: The Sky Hasn’t Fallen Yet In Africa

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While the continent has a number of lessons for the rest of the world regarding handling COVID-19 and pandemics, its comparatively lower testing rate is raising concerns that  the official figures from the region do not accurately capture the true extent of pandemic. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates predicted it could claim about 10 million lives in Africa. His wife and co-chair of the Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates, added…

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Youth, livelihoods and COVID-19 in South Sudan

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RVI is working in partnership with the Catholic University of South Sudan with a team of young researchers to study the dynamics around youth, violence and livelihoods in South Sudan. The project aims to understand decision-making among young people, their livelihood options and sources of trust, association, and influence. The study focuses on rural and urban youth in and around the towns of Bor, Yirol, Torit, Leer, Mayendit and Juba. Whilst some research has been…

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On Wellbeing in the COVID-19 Era: Are Cash Transfers Enough?

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‘If the [cash transfer] programme stops, I have no reason to live anymore. I keep a bottle of poison on the top of my closet and I think of drinking it if things get worse’ – 80-year-old cash transfer beneficiary, Jenin, West Bank, 2016. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent development-related policy interventions, this contribution asks: what does it mean to be ‘well’? Drawing on policy-making, development economics, mental health studies and feminist…

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The Evolution of Human Trafficking During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated human lives, the global economy, and educational systems. Given the enormous financial hardship on families, the mass movement of people, and the closing of schools, the risks of human trafficking have increased. In this environment, multidisciplinary interventions coupled with innovation, technology, and entrepreneurial thinking must remain a priority. This post is part of the Council on Foreign Relations’ blog series on human trafficking, in which CFR fellows and other leading experts assess new approaches…

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The COVID-19 pandemic and children 5 months on

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The UN Secretary-General has warned that, while not being “the face” of the pandemic, children could be its “biggest victims.” Indeed, what until last year was pictured as a promising “Decade of delivery” now risks turning into a “lost decade” for development. As things stand now, the pandemic could not only halt, but even reverse progress towards the 2030 Agenda. We are just beginning to understand more clearly what the potential impact of COVID-19 on…

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