Search for Common Ground (Search) recently consulted over 30 teams around the world to understand their perspectives on needs and opportunities around the COVID-19 crisis, drawing from their experiences working in fragile contexts, with women and girls, and on other health crises such as the Ebola epidemics in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Based on these local insights and analysis, this discussion paper provides a snapshot of the gendered impact…

Reflecting on a potential COVID-19 vaccine trial during a television interview in April, a French doctor stated, “If I can be provocative, shouldn’t we be doing this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatments, no resuscitation?” These remarks reflect a colonial view of Africa, reinforcing the idea that Africans are non-humans whose black bodies can be experimented on. This colonial perspective is also clearly articulated in the alliance between France, The Netherlands,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for forcibly displaced persons and the humanitarian organizations working to support them. With restrictions on movement and limited access to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and stateless persons across the globe, UNHCR is supporting displaced communitiesto take the lead in the prevention of, and the response to, the existing and emerging protection needs of women, men, girls and boys of diverse backgrounds. This brief provides an overview of…

The world is seeing an increased incidence of shocks –whether from natural hazards, epidemics like COVID-19, or conflict. Shocks are often responded to through humanitarian systems that run parallel to national public service delivery systems. This approach misses opportunities to strengthen national systems to manage future shocks, and is increasingly viewed as being unsustainable. Under the Maintaining Essential Services After Natural Disasters (Maintains) programme, the authors are undertaking operational research across six countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh,…

This report presents the outcome of a public perception survey on COVID-19 in South Sudan. The data analyzed in this report was collected in South Sudan’s 10 states between the 1st and the 31st of May 2020.

The number of domestic violence cases reported to the South African police between March and April dropped by 69.4%. This figure makes it tempting to believe that in South Africa, unlike many other countries, lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic reduced family and domestic violence. However police statistics, call numbers to hotlines and counts of women accessing services during lockdown tell us little about the number of women and families actually experiencing violence at…

As schools and nurseries start to open, the education sector is taking stock of the likely short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And they’re going to be big. The direct shocks of school closures will lead to learning loss, higher drop-out rates, adverse health and nutrition effects, and worsening inequality. In the medium- to long-term, the economic crisis in the wake of COVID-19 is almost certainly going to lead to less money for…

African economies are facing a COVID-19 induced crisis. Global demand for raw materials has collapsed. International tourism has virtually halted. And even wealthier governments on the continent have been unable to provide the financial support necessary to prop up their struggling sectors. In response, African finance ministers in April asked creditors to reduce their debt repayments. Several economic leaders on the continent have similarly called for a two-year debt freeze and urged the IMF and…

This report presents three scenarios on the potential impact of COVID-19 in Africa and compares that to a pre-COVID-19 baseline, using the International Futures forecasting platform, IFs. The likely impacts are then examined on economic growth, per capita income, poverty and the attainment of selected SDG targets with a forecast horizon to 2030. The report concludes with four main policy recommendations aimed at reducing vulnerability and strengthening Africa’s resilience. These recommendations aim to make a…

New research by Oxfam and partners reveals that while COVID-19 and the related containment efforts have caused increases in women’s – and men’s – unpaid care workloads, women are still doing the bulk of this work. Women living in poverty, single mothers and essential workers as well as those belonging to minority racial and ethnic groups are being pushed furthest to the margins. It shows the real consequences this has for the health, economic security…