A robust humanitarian response to COVID-19 is in everybody’s interest. The pandemic is set to wreak havoc in low and middle-income countries with fragile health systems, where vulnerable populations lack the means to implement the most basic protective measures such as handwashing and social distancing. These are places where the disruption could increase the risk of other outbreaks, and reduce the ability to deal with other threats. COVID-19’s other impacts, such as loss of livelihoods or increase in violence against women and children, if not mitigated, could also have devastating consequences.
The authors argue that this crisis will call for a new approach rather than a reversion to old business models, and that the UN’s appeal of March 25 misses an opportunity to address that head-on. Donors should respond quickly and generously to the March 25 appeal, but think twice about whether UN agencies should be the principal platform for financing this effort. Instead, donors (and ideally the UN itself) should explore making creative use of pooled fund models and quasi-developmental funding tools to finance a response that will blur the boundaries between relief, public health, and development; and between international and local.