Priority Setting during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Going Beyond Vaccines

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Successful vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a decisive development in the international response to the pandemic. It also has substantial implications for how governments and international bodies deploy their resources, as major decisions will need to be made in a fast-moving and uncertain environment. Current trends in vaccine development have stimulated much commentary on how vaccines deemed to be the safest and most effective should be allocated, both at the global level (to ensure…

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RVI researchers organize public health messaging in South Sudan

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In April 2020, when COVID-19 reached South Sudan, many of RVI’s South Sudanese researchers decided to return to their hometowns to avoid what they believed would be a large outbreak in the country’s capital, Juba. Following discussions with friends and family, the researchers proposed that RVI work with them to conduct a programme of messaging and awareness-raising on COVID-19.1 These activities would draw on the strong network of chiefs established during the five years of RVI’s…

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Q&A: COVID-19 has Pushed Women Peacebuilders from Key Leadership Roles

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Women need to be given roles as negotiators, not just offered representation through advisory groups, Agnieszka Fal-Dutra Santos from the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) told IPS. Santos spoke with IPS after the Wednesday, Oct. 28 webinar “Beyond the Pandemic: Opening the Doors to Women’s Meaningful Participation”. At the conference,  policymakers and analysts spoke about ways to ensure that women have more leadership roles in society. Santos was responding specifically to comments by Kavya…

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Open letter from African intellectuals to leaders over COVID-19

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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…

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“Vulnerable people are hit much harder, which is also what we’re seeing during the current coronavirus crisis”

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According to Thea Hilhorst, Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, disasters don’t just happen completely out of the blue, and they are never equally distributed, either. Disasters only turn into disasters in places where people are vulnerable to their impact. And vulnerable people are hit much harder, which is also what we’re seeing happen during the current coronavirus crisis.   Read more

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