Water in the COVID-19 crisis: Response, recovery, and resilience

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Water is essential for drinking, sanitation, and food production; for billions of people, however, water access and quality are limited. The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified the impacts of these water inequalities. Claudia Sadoff and Mark Smith of the International Water Management Institute assess the role of water in the current responses to COVID-19 and in future phases of recovery and resilience. Their recommendations range from emergency provision of water to high-risk groups, through developing new innovations…

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The Indirect Health Effects of COVID-19: Lockdown Measures and Service Provision

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As we head into June, reports have continued to emerge that highlight the magnitude of the indirect effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on  health systems around the world. The pandemic has created additional barriers for patients accessing essential care, whether it be restrictions on movement, transportation restrictions, stigma, impoverishment from loss of livelihoods, or avoidance of care due to concerns over contracting the virus. The authors of this article’s aim is to highlight some of…

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How can Covid-19 be the catalyst to decolonise development research?

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Covid-19 is an unprecedented moment, halting life as we know it. For the global development community, the effects have been profound. Several NGOs have had to scale back or completely stop their operations overseas, while local actors and civil society are rapidly organising to respond to the crisis through their own creative ways. For those who work in international development think tanks, research that requires fieldwork has been paused and left us fully reliant on…

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COVID-19 and Crime: A response develops at the UN

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During the pandemic, the dynamics of illicit markets have been evident, as we have analyzed in other publications of our COVID Crime Watch series. Cybercrime activities have expanded as lives move deeper online; criminal groups have enforced quarantine patrol and delivered groceries to communities affected by lockdown measures; and, in one theory, the illicit pangolin trade may have caused the viral transfer that has now become a global crisis. Recognizing that this crisis is first…

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As Global Health Players Pivot To COVID-19 Responses, We Need Coordinated, Real-Time, Formative Evaluations

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An estimated $15.9 trillion has been mobilised to respond to the health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of this has gone to multilateral and bilateral funders to support low- and middle-income countries’ (LMIC) governments. But how is this money being spent, and how is it impacting country budgets and expenditure more broadly? Of the total $15.9 trillion mobilised for COVID-19, multilateral funders⁠—including the IMF, UN, EU, Gavi, and the Global Fund⁠—have committed…

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COVID-19 aid funding: The many pots and pitfalls

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Economists say it will take trillions of dollars to soften the impact of coronavirus in the developing world. Money is needed to fund welfare for millions of adults and children facing destitution – or death – from the crisis, through sickness, unemployment, or inflation. This article summarizes some of the major givers, and which agencies and countries have called for what support in the humanitarian (short-term) aid sector. But tracking aid funding is notoriously hard,…

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Look back and learn: How past pandemics and epidemics inform COVID-19 response

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Some issues in today’s global health crisis are all too familiar. This article provides eight takeaways from The New Humanitarian’s 25 years of reporting.   Read more

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COVID-19 and People on the Move

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COVID-19 leaves few lives and places untouched. But its impact is harshest for those groups who were already in vulnerable situations before the crisis. This is particularly true for many people on the move, such as migrants in irregular situations, migrant workers with precarious livelihoods, or working in the informal economy, victims of trafficking in persons as well as people fleeing their homes because of persecution, war, violence, human rights violations or disaster, whether within…

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COVID-19: South Sudan rumor tracking overview – Issue #3

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The Risk Communications and Community Engagement Technical Working Group (RCCE TWG) was created in response to COVID-19 in order to develop best practices around community engagement given threat of pandemic in South Sudan. This product is a joint effort between members of the Communications and Community Engagement Working Group (CCE WG) under the Rumor Tracking Subcommittee (RTS) of the RCCE TWG and highlights rumors and public perceptions recently collected across the country. This initiative captures…

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Aggravating circumstances: How coronavirus impacts human trafficking

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The coronavirus is not only claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, but is also causing a global economic crisis that is expected to rival or exceed that of any recession in the past 150 years. Although decisive action and containment measures are helping flatten the curve of infection, such measures inevitably deepen and lengthen the economic recession. Poverty, lack of social or economic opportunity and limited labour protections are the main root causes and drivers…

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