Can a virus accelerate change in Africa?

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African intellectuals are calling for a different discussion about how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Isn’t this the right time to propel changes that have often been postponed? African leaders fall easily into response mode, not to the crises they face but to the advice they receive. Perhaps COVID-19 can herald structural transformation in the continent. Admitting this is too good a crisis to be allowed to go to waste, here are five reasons…

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Peacekeeping in the shadow of COVID-19 era

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COVID-19 has had an immediate impact on UN peace operations. Troop rotations have been frozen, and interactions with local populations minimized. Yet the long-term economic and political consequences for peacekeeping look more severe.   Read more

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Enhancing access to services for migrants in the context of COVID-19 preparedness, prevention, and response and beyond

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The United Nations Network on Migration is committed to supporting all partners in pursuit of the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, recognizing that this cooperative framework provides an invaluable tool for ensuring inclusive, collective responses to COVID-19 and its impact. To that end, this briefing is part of a series by the Network looking at different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they relate to migrants and their…

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Trust in science and in government plays a crucial role in COVID-19 response

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Control of epidemic diseases relies on public compliance with government decisions and scientific advice. What does trust have to do with it? According to Danielle Resnick, a lot: Changing the behavior of citizens depends upon it. She highlights multiple gaps in trust in different pandemic responses around the world, and outlines the factors underlying them—and offers insights into how politicians and scientists might build the trust needed in leading ongoing mitigation responses to COVID-19 and…

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COVID-19: An opportunity to reflect on approaches to and the conducting of elections in Africa

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There are more than twenty countries scheduled to hold elections in Africa in 2020. This raises complex and difficult questions such as do we encourage countries to proceed with elections at the risk of increasing the spread of COVID-19, or do we ask countries to postpone elections at the risk of creating potential unintended constitutional and/or political tensions. Generally, electoral processes are already an involved endeavor! Electoral processes include campaigns by a multitude of political…

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Building Back Better: A Sustainable, Resilient Recovery after COVID-19

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For the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis to be durable and resilient, a return to ‘business as usual’ and environmentally destructive investment patterns and activities must be avoided. Unchecked, global environmental emergencies such as climate change and biodiversity loss could cause social and economic damages far larger than those caused by COVID-19. To avoid this, economic recovery packages should be designed to “build back better”. This means doing more than getting economies and livelihoods…

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COVID-19 and Crime: A response develops at the UN

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During the pandemic, the dynamics of illicit markets have been evident, as we have analyzed in other publications of our COVID Crime Watch series. Cybercrime activities have expanded as lives move deeper online; criminal groups have enforced quarantine patrol and delivered groceries to communities affected by lockdown measures; and, in one theory, the illicit pangolin trade may have caused the viral transfer that has now become a global crisis. Recognizing that this crisis is first…

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COVID-19 and People on the Move

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COVID-19 leaves few lives and places untouched. But its impact is harshest for those groups who were already in vulnerable situations before the crisis. This is particularly true for many people on the move, such as migrants in irregular situations, migrant workers with precarious livelihoods, or working in the informal economy, victims of trafficking in persons as well as people fleeing their homes because of persecution, war, violence, human rights violations or disaster, whether within…

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Aggravating circumstances: How coronavirus impacts human trafficking

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The coronavirus is not only claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, but is also causing a global economic crisis that is expected to rival or exceed that of any recession in the past 150 years. Although decisive action and containment measures are helping flatten the curve of infection, such measures inevitably deepen and lengthen the economic recession. Poverty, lack of social or economic opportunity and limited labour protections are the main root causes and drivers…

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Negotiating States of Emergency

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As states across the globe adopt a state of emergency approach in response to COVID-19, this report helps inform consideration of COVID-19 dynamics by asking how countries emerging from periods of conflict have sought to include commitments regarding the various parameters of states of emergency in peace agreements. At the end of a conflict, when and how do governments scale back states of emergency and what types of restraint do they put in place to…

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