The major question facing policy-makers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Annual Meetings this week will be how to support economic recovery. Until the Covid-19 pandemic is contained, there will continue to be great uncertainty about the future health of the global economy. We can however be certain that as the world emerges from the crisis, economies will be smaller, firms will have gone bankrupt and governments will be more indebted and…

This paper aims to consolidate available information on the impact of COVID-19 on stranded migrants, to gauge a better understanding of their evolving challenges and needs, and to serve as a first step towards the (re)design of tailored programmes, advocacy and responses. The analysis is based on the qualitative and quantitative data collected by IOM on the impact of COVID-19 on migrants through various primary and secondary sourcesas part of its Impact on Migrants initiative….

This year’s “indifesa” Dossier cannot help but address the global consequences of the pandemic. With almost all countries imposing lockdowns of varying intensities, schools and health centres have closed, workshops, seminars or awareness sessions have been impossible to organise, and millions of girls and young women confined to isolation. Nowadays, there is already a worrying rise in abuse, forced marriages, school dropouts, cyberbullying, online sexual violence and female genital mutilation. This report offers a significant…

COVID-19 hit a world woefully unprepared to fight it, because countries had failed to choose policies to fight inequality. Only one in six countries assessed for the CRI Index 2020 were spending enough on health, only a third of the global workforce had adequate social protection, and inmore than100 countries at least one in three workers had no labour protection such as sick pay. As a result, many have faced death and destitution, and inequality…

3In the wake of the fear and uncertainty that emerge during a pandemic, stigma and discrimination quickly follow, exposing people to violence, harassment and isolation, and hampering the delivery and uptake of essential health services and public health measures to control the pandemic. The stigma that arises during a pandemic can exacerbate existing inequalities, including those related to race, socioeconomic status, occupation, gender, immigration status and sexual orientation. The presence of stigma specific to certain…

Early in 2020, as the world was beginning to realise the magnitude of the humanitarian and societal consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to see the huge psychological implications of the virus itself and the measures to prevent it. Worries and fears about losing loved ones, becoming sick or about health systems being over-loaded continue to be common among the people we support. Moreover, measures imposed by governments to prevent the spread of the…

Summary: There is little to no published research on process mapping being conducted during health emergen-cies to improve the current outbreak response. Our research shows that despite the chaos and complexities associated with emerging pathogen outbreaks, process mapping can address immediate response priorities while simultaneously strengthening components of a health system. This methodology could be applied to any country that has an outbreak, including COVID-19 cases. There is an acute need in the global health…

The securitization of health is not a new phenomenon. However, global responses to the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa reveal the extent to which epidemic preparedness and response is now shaped by geopolitical concerns. UN Security Council Resolution 2177 epitomizes this. The resolution asserted that “the outbreak is undermining the stability of the most affected countries … [and] the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security” (UN 2014: 1)….

At the intersection of health, climate and conflict risks, four key pathways through which COVID-19 can exacerbate climate-related security risks stand out: Increased pressure on livelihoods and resources. The combination of COVID-19 and climate change impacts can put additional stress on livelihoods and resources, and reduce adaptive capacity, which in turn can exacerbate conflict risks. Negative impacts on migration as an adaptation strategy. Measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic can increase the…

In the space of nine months, COVID-19 has spread to more than 190 countries, with over 30 million cases reported. Over one million lives have been lost. The pandemic has laid bare long-ignored risks, including inadequate health systems, gaps in social protection and structural inequalities. It has also brought home the importance of basic public health, and strong health systems and emergency preparedness, as well as the resilience of a population in the face of…