In this comment, Jesse Griffiths argues that to avoid a devastating debt crisis across the developing world sparked by Covid-19, debtor countries will have to stand together and negotiate hard with creditors to agree necessary debt standstills, restructurings and debt cancellation. Promising signs are emerging that African countries are beginning to provide this necessary leadership. This week, G20 leaders agreed to suspend debt repayments for 76 of the world’s poorest countries until the end of…

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.” Those were UN Secretary General António Guterres’ words on 23 March when he launched a global call addressed to armed actors around the world to declare ceasefires. According to Guterres, the coronavirus crisis demands a redirection of all attention and resources, as well as facilitating the work of health personnel and humanitarian actors to allow access to the most vulnerable populations affected by violence and…

Dozens of prominent intellectuals, writers and academics from across Africa have co-signed an open letter addressed to the continent’s leaders, asking them to use the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to spur “radical change” in direction. “In the call, we urge African leaders to also think beyond the current crisis as a symptom of deep structural problems Africa has to confront if it is to become one day sovereign and an…

This brief reports on attitudes and practices relating to physical distancing measures in Eastern and Southern Africain the context of the current global COVID-19 outbreak. Where relevant, it also includes insight and learning from the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It sets outpractical considerations for the formulation of communication strategies and messaging on the subject of physical distancing related to COVID-19, taking into account the numerous challenges regarding implementation…

REACH put together this brief to summarize key findings on trends in communication preferences and modalities from past REACH assessments. The key finding is that disseminating information about COVID-19 should adopt a multi-channel messaging strategy and work through existing community communication structures. It was reported to REACH that community information sources generally do not change during an emergency  

This USIP event, which took place on April 15, 2020, looked at creative solutions on how to respond to the confluence of coronavirus and conflict. USIP President and CEO Nancy Lindborg shared lessons from her experience responding to Ebola in West Africa and discussed why COVID-19 is a unique challenge to conflict-affected regions. This was followed by a panel discussion with experts from around the world on how security sectors are responding to coronavirus, how…

Hugo Slim argues that as the global aid community continues to scale up and adapt to the worldwide emergency around COVID-19, it is rightly engaging with different layers of moral decision-making to agree what is an ethically good response and not just a quick reaction.   Read more

This Quick Impact Survey is part of ACAPS’ efforts to better understand the current COVID-19 crisis and its impact on current humanitarian operations. It was sent to humanitarian organisations worldwide and conducted over four days. Key findings Measures imposed by governments or taken by organisations to protect staff and the recipients of their services have not stopped operations. While operations are affected almost everywhere, they largely continue. Important adaptations have become necessary to ensure continuation…

Many African countries have introduced lockdowns in order to halt the spread of coronavirus, but, as Alex de Waal and Paul Richards argue, ordinary people have to be involved in choosing the solutions that will work for them. Read more

At International Alert, as in every other peacebuilding organisation around the world, they are emerging from our initial shock at the speed at which the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has swept the globe. In this blog post, Rebecca Crozier is providing four ways of how peacebuilders can respond.   Read more