South Sudan is experiencing a distressing economic period. Government revenue has shrunk to historic lows and debt, both domestic and external, is mounting, marked by unsettled salary arrears and outstanding loans. A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout of just-concluded civil strife is largely to blame. The pandemic and conflict have dramatically impeded oil sales, collection of non-oil revenues, and access to remittances and foreign aid. While income levels have dropped drastically, the…

In a recent report, the World Bank has shown  that exclusion is costly to both  societies and economies. At the individual level, such costs include poorer educational outcomes and mental and physical health, lost wages and lifetime earnings, to name a few. At the national level, the economic cost of exclusion can be captured by forgone GDP and human capital wealth. Globally, the loss in human capital wealth due to gender inequality alone is estimated at…

Since the start of the pandemic, concerns have been raised about the possible consequences of government containment measures and how overwhelmed healthcare facilities may have resulted in, and continue to pose, different kinds of challenges to women, men, girls, and boys, along with gender conforming and non-conforming LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) individuals with or without disabilities. Women, men, girls, boys, and LGBTQI+ individuals are adapting creatively and resiliently to the pandemic’s…

This report is an overview of the gendered impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods, income and employment of women, men, girls, and boys in different countries affected by humanitarian crises. These countries were included in the August 2020 INFORM Severity Indexand have gender-disaggregated data and analyses available at national or subnational levels. The report can be used by staff of humanitarian, donor, and operational actors covering a global or crisis-specific portfolio to roll out gender-nuanced,…

This report provides an overview of publicly available information on the identified and projected impacts of the pandemic on gender-based violence (GBV), healthcare provision and access, and other health-related risks. The report focuses on countries experiencing humanitarian crises which have undertaken gender analyses at the national and subnational levels.   Download

Peacebuilding traditionally depends on face-to-face meetings, but social distancing makes these difficult. This blog post looks at what this means for the ‘localisation agenda’ and how the problems could be overcome. Around a third of COVID-19 cases and fatalities are happening in places dealing with humanitarian or refugee crises, or those that are more vulnerable. Indirectly, the pandemic is likely to cause increased poverty, starvation, higher child mortality rates, lower life expectancy and less education….

Key points: Efforts to situate gender-based violence (GBV) within the COVID-19 pandemic remain inadequate. Based on the knowledge that the public health crises of violence and infectious disease are intersecting, we use a syndemic perspective to examine their shared influence in humanitarian settings. When the humanitarian community exclusively prioritises the lives saved from infectious diseases, such as Ebola and COVID-19, the lives impacted by interrelated factors, such as GBV, can be overlooked. This narrative leverages…

Most discussion of Africa’s response to COVID-19 takes place at the national level, focussing on the role of formal state authorities. However, less is known about the role of ‘public authorities’: traditional chiefs, self-help groups, kinship networks, professional associations, faith-based groups, civil society organisations, multinational companies, humanitarian agencies, organized criminal gangs, militias and rebels. These often operate below the national level and are particularly important in areas where the state is weak or absent. To…

To understand communities’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), along with their information needs on COVID-19, this KAP assessment was conducted by the Turkish Red Crescent Society (TRCS), with support from IFRC, under the Community Based Migration Programme (CBMP) from 20 July to 12 August 2020. The assessment has been conducted via TRCS’ social media platforms, phone interviews and online consultations/focus group discussions (FGDs) with refugees and local people in 16 TRCS Community Centre locations. Comprising…

Strengthening health systems and maintaining essential service delivery during health emergencies response is critical for early detection and diagnosis, prompt treatment, and effective control of pandemics, including the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Health information systems (HIS) developed during recent Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) provided opportunities to collect, analyze, and distribute data to inform both day-to-day and long-term policy decisions on outbreak preparedness. As COVID-19 continues to…