Author(s)
Cécile Le Grix
AID LOCALISATION
“All eyes are on local actors”: COVID-19 and local humanitarian action. Opportunities for systemic change, Veronique Barbelet, John Bryant, Barnaby Willitts-King, Briefing Note, Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI, juillet 2020.
The ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused a substantial shock across the humanitarian sector. Travel and access restrictions meaning that international staff and initiatives cannot be deployed have led to a renewed focus on the role of local humanitarian actors. This briefing note considers the early implications of Covid-19 for driving systemic change towards more local humanitarian action and leadership, and more complementarity between international and local actors.
COVID-19: A watershed moment for collective approaches to community engagement? Oliver Lough, Kerrie Holloway, Briefing Note, HPG, ODI, 2020.
Effective communication and community engagement (CCE) is a critical component of the response to Covid-19 in humanitarian settings. CCE has a vital role to play in supporting affected people to make informed decisions, manage risk, and highlight their evolving needs and priorities. Collective approaches to CCE can add value in the Covid-19 response by ensuring the right actors are working in the right configuration to deliver the best results, reducing duplication while increasing effectiveness. But, to date, attempts at collective CCE have experienced a number of challenges. To strengthen collective approaches to CCE, this briefing note suggests a few recommendations.
https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/covid-19_cce_briefing_note_web.pdf
Local response in a global pandemic: A case study of the Red Cross response to Tropical Cyclone Harold during COVID-19 in Vanuatu and Fiji, Tom Bamforth, Linda Kenni, Railala Nakabea, Australian Red Cross, 2020.
This case study explores the double impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold and the COVID-19 pandemic in Vanuatu and Fiji, and lessons it provides on the localisation of humanitarian response. It examines the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement’s experience in supporting local response leadership and seeks to contribute to wider learning and debate about localisation and the complementary roles of national and international humanitarian actors. The overarching context of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the provision of international surge assistance to Category Five TC Harold was highly restricted. This combination of circumstances provided a rare example of locally-led humanitarian response to a natural disaster where in-country international response was largely absent.
A window of opportunity: Learning from COVID-19 to progress locally-led response and development think piece, Australian Red Cross, Humanitarian Advisory Group, the Institute for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University, 2020.
This think piece documents the research conducted between April and October 2020 by a group of organisations to examine the shifts underway in the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance in the wake of COVID-19 in the Pacific, and the emerging practices of local staff and organisations. It sets out three propositions about how, in the context of COVID-19, the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance has changed, and suggests that the sector has a critical window of opportunity to learn and build on the opportunity for positive change. The paper concludes with a series of questions that this analysis raises, and next steps for deepening the research.
Engaging Community During a Pandemic: Experiences of Community Engagement During the COVID-19 Responses in Camps and Out-of-Camp Settings, Hattie Plexico Sinclair, Kristin Vestrheim, Norwegian Refugee Council, 2020.
Community engagement (CCCM) usually necessitates time spent with communities to build trust and ensure the community representation structures are inclusive and accountable. This report presents examples from different agencies on how they approached community engagement in their Covid-19 responses, the tools and methodologies used, as well as the challenges they encountered and how they attempted to overcome these. And it puts forward some reflections on how CCCM and other sector agencies can take steps to ensure community participation in this and future pandemic responses.
COVID-19 and Community Responses, Scott Guggenheim, Center on International Cooperation, NYU, 2020.
This policy briefing examines how governments, multilateral organizations, and international financial institutions can leverage existing and new community-based responses to deal more effectively with the health, social, and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. In the fight against COVID-19, they must harness an underutilized but highly effective tool—traditional community solidarity and volunteerism.
https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/covid-and-community-responses-web.pdf
RISK REDUCTION AND RESILIENCE
Reimagining resilience in a post-pandemic world, Munich RE, septembre 2020.
This report explores how our society could become more resilient to a disastrous situation like that of COVID-19 caused by climate change. It underlines the importance of accepting highly probable, highly impactful, and often neglected events. Climate change will require better coordination and more effective sharing of information than has taken place in the response to the pandemic. Also, the lessons learned by countries, states, and cities who have made the most progress in terms of disaster prevention will help other regions to become more resilient.
The impact of COVID-19 on climate change and disaster resilience funding: Trends and signals, Adriana Quevedo, Katie Peters and Yue Cao, Briefing note, Flood Resilience Alliance, ODI, 2020.
Prior to Covid-19, concerns were being raised that funding for climate and disaster resilience was insufficient to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework. Since the pandemic, initial signals are that the funding gap will widen. Opportunities exist to harness co-benefits for pandemic recovery and climate and disaster resilience. To leverage climate and disaster resilience finance, especially during the Covid-19 response, decision-making needs to be more risk-informed and incorporate risks from multiple threats. This briefing note suggests a few recommendations to improve the implementation.
Spreading Disease, Spreading Conflict? COVID-19, Climate Change and Security Risks, Beatrice Mosello & al., Adelphi, Climate Diplomacy, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profound global impacts. While all countries have been affected, COVID-19 is hitting especially hard those that were already struggling with poverty, conflict and the impacts of climate change. This paper explores how COVID-19 compounds the known climate-fragility risks, with a specific focus on contexts that are already characterised by situations of fragility and conflict. It focuses on identifying general pathways that could be applied to different contexts and periods.
COVID-19 RESPONSES: CASE STUDIES
Responding to COVID-19, Global Accountability Report 1, March to May 2020, Médecins sans frontières, 2020.
Covering the period from March to May 2020 and tracing some earlier activities back to the beginning of the year, this report provides an account of how MSF projects around the globe have shifted gears to accelerate outbreak preparedness and adapt their projects in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It looks at key data from MSF activities in Europe – the epicentre of the pandemic from March to late May. And then, the report discusses MSF’s approach in managing the major staffing, logistics, supply, and financial challenges of responding to COVID-19.
https://www.msf.org/msf-and-covid-19
The greatest need was to be listened to”: The importance of mental health and psychosocial support during COVID-19. Experiences and recommendations from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, ICRC, IFRC, 2020.
This report describes the experiences of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in different countries in terms of psychological support during the COVID-19 pandemic. These examples show the importance of a holistic and integrated response that meets the different mental health and psychosocial needs of people affected by the pandemic.
Adopting a Sustaining Peace Lens to the COVID-19 Response, Céline Monnier, CIC, NYU, 2020.
This paper highlights some of the key challenges for peacebuilding in the immediate COVID-19 period as well as in the longer term, based on interviews with 25+ individuals across the UN system and with member states. It documents the ways that entities across the UN have made positive steps toward implementing a sustaining peace approach, and closes with recommendations for deepening these gains across the system.
https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/adopting-sustaining-peace-lens-covid19-web-final.pdf
Last Refuge or Last Hour? COVID-19 and the Humanitarian Crisis in Idlib, Tayseer Alkarim, Hanny Megally, Leah Zamore, CIC, NYU, 2020.
The plight of Idlib is one of the most complex humanitarian dilemmas of our time, influenced by prolonged conflict, a looming COVID-19 outbreak, and the ongoing failure of the international community to take effective action. This policy briefing delves into the roots of the humanitarian crisis in Idlib, details the current capacity of the exhausted healthcare system amid the ongoing conflict, and examines what these constraints mean for mounting a response to the spread of the coronavirus. The authors explain how donors and international humanitarian organizations can take action now to support local institutions, increase testing and treatment capacity, improve availability of PPE and public information, and press for an immediate ceasefire.
https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/idlib-covid-19-briefing-web-final.pdf
African regional responses to covid-19, Alfonso Medinilla, Bruce Byiers, Philomena Apiko, Discussion paper n°272, ECDPM, 2020.
This note summarises and reflects on the different roles played by the African Union and a sample of the continent’s regional organisations in shaping collective, coordinated and cooperative health responses, and in addressing the economic impacts of the pandemic. It discusses the various initiatives taking place at the continental and regional levels to understand what role these bodies are playing in addressing COVID-19, and relates these to past ECDPM work on the political economy dynamics of regional organisations. The insights drawn are important for understanding the ongoing response, but regional cooperation and coordination will also be important as countries and regions begin to exit from lockdown.
Least Protected, Most Affected: Migrants and refugees facing extraordinary risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, IFRC, 2020.
From the outset of the pandemic, and on a global basis since January 2020, National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have been on the ground working to prevent, address and respond to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 and to reduce the economic, social and psychological impacts of the virus. This paper describes the barriers migrants face in accessing essential services during COVID-19, with a particular focus on those who are undocumented or irregular, and other migrants, including people seeking asylum and refugees, whose survival, dignity, or physical and mental health and well-being is under immediate threat.
OTHER DOCUMENTS
Responding to COVID-19: Guidance for humanitarian agencies, B. Ramalingam, N. S. Singh, A. Mahieu and K. Blanchet, ALNAP Rapid Learning Review, ALNAP, ODI, 2020.
This Rapid Learning Review outlines 14 actions, insights and ideas for humanitarian actors to consider in their COVID-19 responses. It summarises and synthesises the best available knowledge and guidance for developing a health response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income settings.
https://covid19.alnap.org/help-library/responding-to-covid-19-guidance-for-humanitarian-agencies
Financing the reduction of extreme poverty post-COVID-19, Marcus Manuel, Liam Carson, Emma Samman, Martin Evans, Briefing note, ODI, 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic has wiped out years of progress in ending extreme poverty. Current predictions are that an additional 250 million people will fall into extreme poverty by 2030. To reduce extreme poverty, many countries urgently need to step up public investments in education, health and nutrition, social protection, water, sanitation and hygiene – sectors that are also critical in developing resilience to future pandemics. This document also makes recommendations to donors who should prioritise their aid to achieve the 0.7% target.
https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/reducing_poverty_post_covid_final.pdf
From pandemics to poverty: hotspots of vulnerability in times of crisis, Vidya Diwakar, Briefing papers, ODI, 2020.
This brief outlines countries, sub-national areas and populations in or near poverty that need to be explicitly prioritised in the response to coronavirus. There is an urgent need to ensure that the measures governments take are sensitive to the needs of their poorest and most vulnerable people.
Alternatives Humanitaires N°15, « Focus COVID-19 (2) : Retours d’expériences et enjeux d’avenir. Lessons learned and future challenges », novembre 2020.
This issue of Alternatives Humanitaires focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the humanitarian sector. The different articles explore what the French response can learn from the experience of Médecins sans frontiers, the Canadian response, the relationship between health and housing, the issue of localisation, and the impact of the pandemic on African civil society and on refugee camps in Bangladesh.
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Pages
p. 60-67