The COVID-19 Development Innovation Agenda: An Economic and Financial Lens

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A successful response to both the coronavirus’s health and economic costs in less developed countries requires that we move quickly to accelerate innovation and learning. The innovation agenda comes from the uncertainty associated with any emergent crisis. To support the public health response, innovation is needed to make behavior change easier to adopt and sustain. To meet the needs of firms working to rebuild markets, impact investors should be seeking to create innovative financial products…

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The Nature and Magnitude of the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Sudan

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This analysis uses laboratory data to examine the COVID-19 infections in South Sudan. Preliminary findings point to the underlying concerns. First, the COVID-19 preventive measures instituted in March are ineffective, with at least 100 new cases of the virus likely to be recorded daily in the coming weeks or even days. Second, the effect of the virus varies by both age and sex of patients. At greater risk of infections are the elderly and women….

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COVID-19 in South Sudan’s Borderlands: A view from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal

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Focusing on South Sudan’s borderland with Sudan, in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, it is clear that the national response to the virus, particularly the border shutdown, has rapidly become a new factor in Sudan and South Sudan’s cross-border political economy. The direct impact of COVID-19—like the consequences of Khartoum’s political transition and the establishment of the Transitional Government of National Unity in Juba—are yet to fully materialize in this borderland. This update summarizes the current political…

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Examining Government Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: Success, Failure and Lesson Learned for Future Management of Public Health Crisis in South Sudan

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The paper will provide an examination and highlights on Government Response to the Corona Virus (COVID-19) Crisis. Critical examination will be on registered success, failure and lesson learned for future management of public health crises in South Sudan. The paper also looks at the gender responses and approaches in managing the virus and finally offers some lessons learned and strategic policy recommendations that help the government to better handle and manage the future of this…

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COVID-19 should help in rethinking peace support in Africa

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Peace support operations (PSOs) across Africa are adapting their responses to the new reality of COVID-19. Since the outbreak, PSOs have provided critical support in the fight against the pandemic in situations where protracted conflict has destroyed the health infrastructure of many African countries. Both the contribution of PSOs in responding to the risk posed by COVID-19 and the effect of the pandemic on operations show that the UN Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) agenda –…

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South Sudan: Health Care Access for IDPs and Returnees May 2020

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IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) and WHO’s Health Service Functionality (HSF) teams collaborated to produce this joint analysis on health care access for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees in South Sudan. The interactive report provides a countrywide summary of gaps in access to functional health facilities by IDPs and returnees. Download

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Justice for Women Amidst COVID-19

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This rapid assessment builds on what we know about women’s existing justice needs as documented in an earlier Justice for Women report (2019). It examines the impacts of COVID-19, policy responses and outlines policy recommendations for the period ahead. Using a gender lens, the report documents major threats to women’s lives and livelihoods associated with COVID-19 – namely, curtailed access to justice institutions, rising intimate partner violence (IPV), threats to women’s rights to sexual and…

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COVID-19 and Conflict: Is Peace the Cure?

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In this blog post, International Altert’s CEO Michael Young shows how a renewed focus on SDG 16 could help fight COVID-19 and salvage the Global Goals.   Read more

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Crossfire and Covid-19: Double crisis for displaced civilians

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At a time when governments around the world are asking people to stay at home and limit their travel to contain the spread of Covid-19, armed conflict and violence are forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. Between 23 March and 15 May 2020, armed conflict in 19 countries has displaced at least 661,000 people.   Download

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Homegrown solutions to Pandemic problems: Community-led response to disease

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In this blog, Paul Richards reflects on what aid agencies in South Sudan can learn from the Ebola response in West Africa. Perhaps the most critical is that the response to an infectious disease is most effective, and conflict sensitive, when it works with communities and supports their initiatives, and is least effective when local knowledge is ignored or disregarded. The number of cases of COVID-19 in South Sudan is rising, and there is a…

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