Recovering the lost heritage of emergency relief

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Local traditions of crisis management—especially those resistant to predatory capitalism—have largely been forcibly shed along the path to “development.” The age of COVID-19 is the time to recover them.   Read more

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African Girls in the COVID-19 pandemic

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As countries across Africa experience the impact of COVID-19 across health systems, economies and communities, progress made in the last decade in achieving the rights of adolescent girls’ risks being lost. African governments must act in urgency to address this “invisible crisis” and protect the important gains made to protect, and empower girls over the last decade. COVID-19, an unfolding global health crisis, is revealing a grim impact on millions of adolescent girls across Africa….

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Migrant workers and remittances in the context of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa

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Main Messages African migrants stimulate economic growth and development in areas of destination,transit and origin through their labour, skills transfer, consumption and investments. Their remittances also make significant contributions to food security, human capital, rural development and overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in areas of origin. The impact of COVID-19 affects migrant workers disproportionally. Often precarious working conditions and overcrowded living and transport arrangements increase their vulnerability to contagion and loss of employment, threatening their…

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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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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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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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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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