Population-adjusted COVID-19 data: an analysis of Africa

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Population-adjusted analysis of COVID-19 active cases, while not capturing the speed at which the pandemic spreads, is a useful indicator of the relative strain put on countries from a public service delivery perspective. For instance, while the worst hit countries in terms of raw numbers of confirmed cases are South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Algeria, the countries bearing the biggest burden in terms of both adjusted total confirmed and current active cases are relatively…

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Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment of Wasting in Children 0-59 Through National Health Systems in the Context of COVID-19

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This document serves as a tool for implementing the recommendations reflected in existing WHO and UNICEF guidance on the delivery of services through national health systems for the prevention, early detection and treatment of child wasting in the context of COVID-19. This note reflects broad guidance for all levels of the health system, including community health services that offer prevention, early detection and treatment services for child wasting. WHO and UNICEF recognize that context-specific adaptations…

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The impact of COVID-19 on women and girls in South Sudan

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In this blog, Flora Francis Bringi reflects on the social impact of COVID-19 on South Sudanese women and girls. Drawing on her work in the field of Gender with a number of South Sudanese NGOs including her current appointment as Managing Director for Ana Fii Consultancy, Flora highlights some social problems that South Sudanese women and girls face in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Sudan and shares some insights for the adoption…

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Checklist for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Socio-Economic Country Responses to COVID-19

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To help countries tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of the pandemic, with a focus on at-risk groups, the UN issued the UN framework for the immediate socio- economic response to COVID-19 (SERF) in April 2020. The SERF sets out the strategy and blueprint for the UN’s urgent socio-economic response to countries and societies in the face of COVID-19. Organized by the five streams of work that constitute the SERF (Health First; Protecting People;…

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Make or Break: The implications of COVID-19 for crisis financing

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Covid-19 is the first global pandemic in a hundred years. It has tested the international crisis response and financing system in novel ways, aggravating well-known challenges and casting light on other unanticipated shortcomings. It has exposed fundamental weaknesses in global preparedness, including substantial under-investment, a tendency to adopt narrow thematic approaches and a widespread failure to prepare for secondary socioeconomic impacts. It has exposed critical dependencies in crisis response systems, including the risks that major…

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How to Integrate Gender into Socio-Economic Assessments

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The COVID‑19 crisis is affecting everyone, but women and girls are being differently impacted and could face disproportionate economic, health and social risks. These gender-differentiated socio-economic risks must be recognized for an effective COVID-19 response and recovery. This in-depth checklist can be used to guide UNDP Country Offices, UN sister agencies, countries and other partners to ensure that key gender equality considerations are taken into account when conducting a Social and Economic Impact Assessment and…

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Peace and Conflict in a COVID-19 World: Implications for International Responses

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While much remains uncertain, it is clear COVID-19 is both a multidimensional crisis and an opportunity for change. Addressing the multidimensional risks of the pandemic and the way they interact will be key to miti-gating the overall impacts of the disease. Due to the conflict-inducing policy responses to COVID-19 that have emerged during the first half of 2020, the way in which peacebuilding approaches are integrated into national and international responses in future will be…

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Gambling with COVID-19 Makes More Sense: Ethicaland Practical Challenges in COVID-19 Responsesin Communalistic Resource-Limited Africa

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Informed by evidence from past studies andexperiences with epidemics, an intervention combiningquarantine, lockdowns, curfews, social distancing, andwashing of hands has been adopted as“internationalbest practice”in COVID-19 response. With massivetotal lockdowns complemented by electronic surveil-lance, China successfully controlled the pandemic incountry within a few months. But would this work forAfrica and other communalistic resource-poor settingswhere social togetherness translates to effective sharingof basic needs? What ethical and practical challengeswould this pose? How would communalism be translat-ed in special…

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Building back with Justice: Dismantling inequalities after COVID-19

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In this report, Christian Aid is calling for a global response package to deal with the immediate impacts of the crisis to build social and economic resilience to future crises, tackles poverty and inequality, and set the world on a trajectory to meet the Paris climate commitments.   Download

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Journalism: The essential non-essential

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As a consequence of the pandemic’s financial effects, news organizations have been forced to adapt to the changing times. Many—in Kenya, South Africa, the US and beyond—are closing down or letting staff go. Can journalism survive? Is it our essential non-essential?This post is from the partnership between the Kenyan website The Elephant and Africa Is a Country. We will be publishing a post from their site every week, curated by Africa Is a Country Contributing…

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