The combination of four forces—constrained supply, reduced resources, suppressed demand and worsening socioeco-nomic inequality—creates a likelihood that the indirect effects on health and nutrition will be more harmful than the direct health consequences of the disease. Projections already suggest that COVID-19 could lead to up to a 45% increase in child deaths and a 39% increase in maternal deaths across low and middle-income countries. Such a back-slide would undermine dramatic gains made since 2000. Under-five…

This K4D Helpdesk report addresses the question of “What is the evidence telling us about the immediate and medium/longer-term impacts of COVID-19 on conflict and security (e.g. peace, mediation, conflict prevention, peacekeeping) across the region?”   Download

In March, Refugees International laid out the main factors that make forcibly displaced people so vulnerable to the virus, along with recommendations for key measures to guide the response. Those recommendations have stood the test of time. Nonetheless, over the last three months, the virus has spread in both expected and unanticipated ways. Measures to contain that spread have had enormous and often unintended consequences, particularly for those in need of humanitarian assistance. Drawing on…

An unprecedented overlap of natural and man-made disasters are plaguing the Greater Horn of Africa region. We have seen one million displacements in two months, communal tensions reignited, and pre-existing vulnerabilities exacerbated. In recent weeks, our news channels have been flooded with stories about the Covid-19 pandemic, political and social unrest around the world, natural hazards upending people’s lives, and even a locust infestation, which surfaced in Sub-Saharan Africa then migrated towards Asia, destroying crops…

Key messages Covid-19 is shining a light on the failure of the humanitarian system to reform. This is especially true in regard to the localisation agenda, which has seen only incremental changes towards more local humanitarian action, leadership and complementarity. The pandemic could usher in more local forms of humanitarian action, and greater complementarity between local and international actors. There is anecdotal evidence of change in discourse, commitments and practice at the global and country…

More than 20 African countries were to hold elections this year. As countries tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, there are valuable lessons learned from important elections held during previous Ebola outbreaks.   Read more

The global economic crisis triggered by the spread of COVID-19 has sent many of the world’s developing countries into an economic death spiral. At the first signs of panic in early March, investors fled to the ‘safety’ of deeper financial markets and the US dollar in particular. Capital flight, rising spreads, falling export revenues and collapsing exchange rates compounded an already precarious debt position in many countries, tipping a number into default and leaving many…

Precise analysis of COVID-19 in Africa continues to be hindered by limited testing and reporting of cases. There is a wide variance in testing capacity, commitment to testing, and reporting of coronavirus cases and deaths. As a result,  countries that are undertaking the most tests or reporting the highest number of cases may not necessarily match those countries most impacted or at risk from the pandemic. Recognizing these data limitations, it is noteworthy that the…

In 2016, the United Nations Secretary-General mandated the Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman Every Child (IAP) to review accountability and progress in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).1,1a Work for this report began before COVID-19, however, impacts of the pandemic (in both real time and in the projected implications) have been considered throughout this report. In this report, the IAP highlights what is working and what is not….

This report is divided into four sections. The first explores how the pandemic has affected civil society’s capacity to operate. It covers both practical matters, like the inability to visit communities in person, as well as the issue of shrinking civic space. The second section describes and analyses how local peacebuilders view the pandemic as occasioning violence and stimulating drivers of conflict. The third discusses the dearth of coordination between government and civil society, as…