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Rabia Nasimi, Strategic Development Manager at Afghanistan and Central Asian Association, explains some of the challenges refugees face during lockdown.

Refugees in the UK are at a heightened risk from Covid-19 due to pre-existing inequities but the virus is also great opportunity to reset refugee policy,

Four years in, is the Grand Bargain achieving system-wide change in the international humanitarian aid sector?

By Julia Schmidt, Policy Analyst, Archita Misra, Policy Analyst and Johannes Jütting, Executive Head, Partnership in Development for the 21st Century (PARIS21) This blog is part of a series on tackling COVID-19 in developing countries. Visit the OECD dedicated page to access the OECD’s data, analysis and recommendations on the health, economic, financial and societal impacts of COVID-19 worldwide. Earlier … Continue reading Combating COVID-19: Data everywhere but not the kind we need

Die wirtschaftlichen Folgen der Corona-Krise treffen Entwicklungsländer mit voller Wucht, gleichzeitig stehen weniger Ressourcen für ausgleichende Maßnahmen zur Verfügung.

Das CorA-Netzwerk und weitere Organisationen fordern die Bundesregierung in einem Positionspapier auf, das Thema Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte prioritär zu behandeln.

An diesem Freitag starten, mit dem Treffen der Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU-Mitgliedstaaten, die Verhandlungen zu dem von der Europäischen Kommission vorgeschlagenen EU-Aufbauplan „Next Generation EU“. Insgesamt sollen 750 Milliarden Euro mobilisiert werden, um damit die EU aus der durch die Covid-19 Pandemie verursachten Rezession zu führen. Gleichzeitig laufen die Verhandlungen zum nächsten EU-Haushalt (Mehrjähriger Finanzrahmen, MFR) für die Jahre 2021-2027, der nach dem Vorschlag der Kommission 1,1 Billion Euro umfassen soll.

In ihrer diesjährigen Frühjahrsprognose zur wirtschaftlichen Lage der EU geht die EU-Kommission für das zweite Quartal von einer um etwa 16 Prozent niedrigeren Wirtschaftsleistung im Vergleich zum Vorjahr aus. Sie erwartet einen Einbruch des Bruttoinlandprodukts im gesamten Jahr um etwa 7,5 Prozent – dieser fällt damit deutlich gravierender aus als in der Finanzkrise 2009. Mit dem EU-Aufbauplan sollen insgesamt 750 Milliarden Euro mobilisiert werden, davon 500 Milliarden Euro in Form von nicht rückzahlbaren Zuwendungen und die verbleibenden 250 Milliarden Euro als Kredite, die über den Haushalt der EU verteilt werden.

Diese Beträge machen deutlich, dass die damit zu finanzierenden Investitionen die Transformation zu nachhaltiger Entwicklung und Klimaschutz unterstützen müssen, wenn die mit der 2030 Agenda und dem Pariser Klimaabkommen beschlossenen Ziele erreicht werden sollen. Wie kann dies gelingen? Besteht im Zuge der derzeitigen Krise nicht die Gefahr einer Rückkehr zu überholten Geschäftsmodellen, die Nachhaltigkeits- und Klimazielen entgegenstehen?

Erst vor wenigen Monaten präsentierte Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen den Europäischen Green Deal (EGD) als ambitioniertes Programm für ihre Amtszeit. Mit dem Green Deal als Wachstumsstrategie verfolgt die Europäische Kommission mittel- bis langfristige Ziele auch mit Blick auf die 2030 Agenda und die darin beinhalteten 17 Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Ein zentrales Ziel ist das Erreichen von Klimaneutralität bis 2050, was die Transformation von Sektoren wie Energie, Industrie, Landwirtschaft und Verkehr erfordert. Es ist daher positiv, dass sich die Vorschläge zum EU-Aufbauplan und zum MFR auf den Europäischen Green Deal beziehen und damit Klimaschutz und weitere Nachhaltigkeitsziele in den Bereichen Biodiversität, Agrar- und Kreislaufwirtschaft als besondere Prioritäten in den Blick nehmen. Die genaue Umsetzung des Green Deal wird zurzeit zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten und mit dem Europäischen Parlament verhandelt. Weiterhin sollen die Mitgliedstaaten ihre eigenen nationalen Konjunkturprogramme im Einklang mit nationalen Klima- und Energieplänen entwickeln. All dies muss aber noch konkretisiert werden.

Neben der Verwendungsseite sind aber auch die Refinanzierung und die regulativen Rahmenbedingungen nachhaltigkeitsrelevant. Die Tilgung der für den Aufbauplan aufgenommenen Schulden soll über den EU-Haushalt von 2028 bis 2058 erfolgen. Dies bedeutet eine massive Neuverschuldung für eine ganze Generation, die soziale Auswirkungen mit sich bringt, und verdeutlicht, wie sich die heutigen Entscheidungen und Investitionen auf künftige Generationen auswirken.

Zur Finanzierung der aufgenommenen Mittel schlägt der Aufbauplan unter anderem die Ausweitung des Emissionshandelssystems, eine Digitalsteuer oder eine Plastiksteuer vor. Solche Instrumente können effektiv zur Erreichung der Klima- und Nachhaltigkeitszielen beitragen.

Ab Juli hat Deutschland die EU-Ratspräsidentschaft bis Ende des Jahres inne, die nun durch die Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie und deren Bewältigung geprägt sein wird. Die Ratspräsidentschaft sollte also dazu genutzt werden, diese Prozesse um den EU-Aufbauplan und den MFR in einer Weise mitzugestalten, die entscheidende Impulse für eine Orientierung an Klima- und Nachhaltigkeitszielen setzt. Bereits im Juli wird ein weiterer Gipfel der EU-Staats- und Regierungschefs stattfinden, bei dem eine Einigung über den EU-Aufbauplan erreicht werden soll.

Auch die Einigung in der EU auf ein neues Zwischenziel beim Klimaschutz zur Verringerung klimaschädlicher Emissionen bis 2030 um 50 bis 55 Prozent gegenüber 1990 steht noch aus. Diese nachgebesserten nationalen Klimapläne (Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs) sollen in der zweiten Jahreshälfte beschlossen werden. Dies sollte bei den Verhandlungen um den EU-Wiederaufbauplan berücksichtigt werden, damit Investitionen in Bereiche fließen, die das Erreichen dieser Ziele ermöglichen. Dazu könnte die Festlegung eines CO2-Mindestpreises im europäischen Emissionshandelssystems gehören oder die Ausweitung der CO2-Bepreisung auf alle Wirtschaftssektoren.

Soziale Aspekte, Gesundheit und Bildung sowie die internationale Dimension kommen im Europäischen Green Deal bislang noch zu kurz. Der Aufbauplan spricht demgegenüber durchaus soziale Themen und die internationale Dimension an. Wenn beide Konzepte sich an den verschiedenen Nachhaltigkeitszielen orientieren, kann der EU-Aufbauplan in Verbindung mit dem Green Deal eine Chance sein, langfristige Ziele der Transformation hin zu nachhaltiger Entwicklung zu erreichen.

Dieser Text ist Teil einer Sonderreihe unseres Formats Die aktuelle Kolumne, die die Folgen der Corona-Krise entwicklungspolitisch und sozioökonomisch einordnet. Sie finden die weiteren Texte hier auf unserer Überblicksseite.

• Das Corona-Virus als Chance für die internationale Zusammenarbeit
• Warum Soziale Sicherung in der Corona-Krise entscheidend ist
• Wie wir der Klimamigration nach der Corona-Zeit begegnen müssen
• Parallelen zwischen der Corona-Pandemie und dem Klimawandel
• Was wir in der Corona-Krise von und über Afrika lernen können
• Wie die EU und aufstrebende Mächte ihre Zukunft nachhaltig gestalten können
• Wie die Corona-Krise das „Recht auf Stadt“ infrage stellt
• Droht durch Corona eine Verschuldungskrise in den Entwicklungsländern?
• Vertieft die Pandemie die digitale Kluft?
• Pandemiebekämpfung mit demokratischem Weitblick
• So reagieren die Internationalen Finanzinstitutionen auf die Pandemie
• Für einen gerechten Zugang zu Impfstoffen und Therapien gegen COVID-19
• Marginalisierte Menschen als schwächstes Glied in Pandemien
• Mit Anreizen und Regelungen zu Fairen Lieferketten
• Von COVID-19 zur Klimapolitik
• So reagieren wir auf COVID-19 inklusiv und gemeinwohlorientiert
• Warum die Corona-Krise für rechtspopulistische Regierungen besonders schwierig ist
• Was bedeutet der EU-Aufbauplan für den Europäischen Green Deal?

Die Weltgemeinschaft steuert auf gleich mehrere globale Krisen zu. Dabei handelt es sich nicht nur um eine Gesundheits- und Wirtschaftskrise, sondern ebenso um eine Menschenrechtskrise. Die Folgen werden besonders für die bereits mehrfach Benachteiligten am schwerwiegendsten sein.

Corona pandemic threatens development success in eastern Africa

Even before Covid-19, food security was deteriorating at a global level. According to the World Food Programme’s Global Report on Food Crisis 2020, the number of people suffering food insecurity rose from 113 million in 2018 to 135 million in 2019. The member countries of the Eastern African regional organisation IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) accounted for about 20 % of the people concerned. The IGAD members are Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Sudan. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, they normally depend on about 8.5 million tons of cereal imports per year.

Agriculture is by far the most important industry in this world region. However, rain fall has become ever less predictable in the course of the climate crisis, and rain-fed agriculture has suffered accordingly. Recurring droughts and flash floods severely affect livelihoods (see my comment in Opinion section of D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/05). The infrastructure that is needed in view of the changing climate has not been built to a sufficient extent.

This year, things look particularly bad. One of the problems is a devastating locust plague which resulted from unusual weather conditions. For many decades, these insects have not haunted eastern Africa so harmfully. Even if this was the only problem, IGAD members would struggle to cope. Unfortunately, there are several more problems.

Covid-19 is spreading in the region. The global pandemic arrived relatively late in mid-March. At first, it only increased slowly, but it suddenly changed gear in May. By mid-June, Djibouti, the smallest IGAD member, had counted 4,500 infections and 43 dead, according to worldometers.info. To a considerable extent, the urgent health crisis has distracted governments’ attention from the plight of small farmers and pastoralists.

State capacities tend to be weak in this world region – and that is true of infrastructures too. Diminished harvests mean higher food prices. Subsistence farmers suffer in particular. Most people’s livelihoods depend on agriculture, so a crisis in the sector must make poverty worse. People’s self-esteem and community cohesion are affected negatively. Compounding problems, the Covid-19 pandemic means that health-care institutions are even more overburdened than they normally are. Issues such as malaria, measles, Guinea worm and others are not getting the attention they need. Vaccination programmes and veterinary services for livestock farmers have been winding down to considerable extent.

When disasters strike, the international community normally offers some support. This year, however, all governments are absorbed by domestic worries. Depressingly, African countries have so far not managed to coordinate the kind of trans-border action that the pandemic requires. That political and social instability haunts many countries, adds to the problems.

Eastern Africa did see progress in the past 20 years. Food security had improved, poverty was reduced, and indicators for health and education had become better. Two global initiatives were helpful, first the Millennium Development Goals and since 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals. The global community must not allow the positive developments to be undone. In the recovery efforts in the post-Covid-19 era, hard hit countries will deserve special attention.

Belay Begashaw is the director general of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A) in Kigali, Rwanda.
bbegashaw@sdgcafrica.org

Defying a civil war, photographers and other artists are fanning around Tripoli to search for beauty amid the destruction

Over a year ago, as armed clashes began, a core group of ten photographers gathered to support and encourage each other in documenting the city known as the “bride of the Mediterranean”. Calling itself “Corners of Tripoli”, the group decided to look for hidden corners as well as places in plain view that capture the character and pulse of the city.

In only a year, that core group has ballooned to 16,000 photographers who have taken on the mission of capturing their city in images. The group, composed mainly of amateurs but also including some professional photographers, has produced many thousands of striking images showing Tripoli’s great variety.

The group has expanded to include members with other talents in addition to photography. Members now include painters and other artists as well as historians knowledgeable about Tripoli’s history, says Ali Jawashe, a founding member who administers the group’s Facebook account.

The spread of the novel coronavirus posed challenges to taking pictures, but also provided inspiration. “We respond to Covid-19 by showing people with hope and purpose,” says Riad Zbeida, another founding member. “We show doctors and nurses at work, and parents and kids doing interesting activities while staying at home, to illustrate the message to stay home.”

Members took nearly 5,500 pictures during a single month at the height of the pandemic, says photographer Nada Abu Gharara, a 21-year-old media student at the University of Tripoli. Her photography focus had been on landscapes, showing sweeping views of the city and its surroundings. But her membership in the group introduced her to other styles, such as close-up photography of small subjects such as plants or household objects.

On Saturdays, group members take excursions to selected corners of Tripoli, where their varying artistic sensibilities produce very different representations of similar locations. Destinations have included Tripoli’s historic quarter as well as forests and other natural spaces.

The group plans to create an exhibition of its works and hopes to attract more members. “We invite members of all ages to join and learn about different types of photography, including techniques to photograph details so tiny they cannot be seen with the naked eye,” says member Salah Al-Osta.

He is an expert in capturing tiny objects in detail, called macro photography. “The most excited thing is to see the curiosity in the eyes of young photographers when they notice a very small thing in nature and can create a beautiful detailed portrait from it,” he says.

In the face of Libya’s ongoing and bloody civil war, in which several foreign powers are involved, Libya’s photographers keep focusing on the life that continues in spite of it all. Taken together, the pictures tell a story of love, patience, beauty and hope, says journalist Nada Alshalhi. “They speak of a charming city resisting a war that was never their choice in the first place.”

Link
Corners of Tripoli Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2368541289852364

Moutaz Ali is a journalist in Tripoli, Libya.
ali.moutaz77@gmail.com

 

In Pakistan, meltwater from glaciers is causing devastating flash floods, and the dwindling of ice-shields affects the entire nation

More than a century ago, a catastrophe struck Barikan Kot. This mountain village was flooded by a sudden outburst of water from the Hinarchi glacier. The reason was the bursting of an ice wall which had held back a lake of meltwater that had formed on the glacier. About 100 families lost their homes and livelihoods as rocks, earth and debris were swept over the village and its orchards and fertile land.

In the past, this kind of flash flood occurred rarely. That has changed. The Bagrote valley in the Karakoram mountain range in northern Pakistan now suffers several of them every year. Global warming is affecting glaciers all over the world, and the Hindu Kush Himalaya is no exception. Especially in the summer months, melting ice leads to new glacial lakes which, in turn, can cause flash floods.

Aisha Khan of the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change (CSCCC) – a private organisation working on climate change – warns that glacial lake-outburst floods are becoming ever more likely. “The impacts are catastrophic,” she points out. In recent years, several dozens of people have been killed, and many more families have lost their livelihoods. The local communities tend to be disadvantaged and poor. According to Aisha Khan, the challenge is to tell them in simple language why the environment is changing and what they can do to adapt.

The civil-society activist insists that women in particular must be prepared to respond appropriately. They have a crucial role to play in evacuation, first aid and rescue and relief operations, Aisha Khan says. She wants all risk-management measures to reflect both the social conditions in the village and the scientific insights.

Syed Zahid Hussain Shah agrees that the risks are increasing and must be controlled. He was the field manager of a project run by the government of Pakistan and the Pakistan office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) that served this purpose from 2011 to 2016. He reports that the Hinarchi glacier is only 16 kilometres long today. It was about 12 % longer 30 years ago, and its ice-shield was higher too.

Pakistan has more than 7,000 glaciers. According to an estimate, there are more than 3,000 glacial lakes, of which 36 are dangerous. Some 7 million people are exposed to the risk of glacial lake-outburst floods, which typically occur in July and August, the warmest months.

The project Zahid worked for took several risk-mitigating initiatives in Bagrote valley. A bridge and protective walls were built. Moreover, streams were excavated and made deeper, so they can carry more water. The project set up four digitised weather stations that automatically relay information pertaining to possible glacial lake outbursts. Thanks to them, it has become possible to warn local communities early on.

The weather stations have helped to save many lives. Hussain Ali, who lives in a mountain village, appreciates them: “Early warning allows people to shift to safer places.” Nonetheless, he says that flash floods have killed more than 20 people in his area in recent years. Moreover, such extreme weather events have killed livestock and destroyed orchards and fields. Several dozen households were therefore forced to move from the mountain villages down into the valley, where it is easier, but nonetheless still quite difficult to eke out a living for people who have lost all assets.

The government of Pakistan and UNDP are now running a follow-up project in the region. It is called the “Scaling-up of GLOF risk reduction in Northern Pakistan (GLOF-II)” project. GLOF stands for glacial lake-outburst flood. The budget for the years 2017 to 2021 is $ 37 million. The project will cover 15 districts and benefit approximately 29 million people.

The mountain regions of Pakistan’s neighbouring countries Afghanistan, India and China face the same kind of risk for the same reasons. Irfan Tariq, a former director general of Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change, points out that “the entire Hindu Kush Himalayan mountain range is a very sensitive ecological system”. It is very difficult to control or limit the impacts of climate change on glaciers, he says, so Pakistan’s government is closely monitoring the glaciers.

The big picture

The melting of the glaciers has impacts far beyond the mountain ranges. Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayas feed Asia’s most important rivers, including the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Mekong and the Yangtse. Hundreds of millions of people depend on these waters. Indeed, Asian civilisations have benefited from the glaciers stabilising water supply throughout the seasons for millennia (see Sheila Mysorekar in the Monitor section of D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/09). As the glaciers dwindle, human-built infrastructure will have to serve the functions the glaciers performed naturally in the past.

In this context, dams matter very much. Related infrastructure is vulnerable to glacial lake-outburst floods however. Should a major glacial lake outburst cause a veritable mountain tsunami, the damage may be serious. Syed Mehr Ali Shah from Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources says: “We are very much concerned with the bigger glacial lake-outburst flood events, with regards to the safety of our existing hydraulic infrastructures, which include Tarbela dam.” This dam is more than 140 metres high and serves the purposes of hydropower, irrigation and flood control.

There are several major dams in northern Pakistan, and a new one is currently being built. The wall of Diamer Bhasha dam will be more than 250 metres high. The safety of these structures is very important, says Mehr: “We need to protect them from any kind of dam-break phenomenon.” The officer expresses his confidence in the structures being strong enough to withstand typical glacial lake-outburst floods. He says the Diamer Bhasha reservoir has been designed to bear any dam-break wave that occurs due to such flood. At the same time, spillways ensure that excess water can be channelled away.

But even if dams can be built to withstand flash floods, mega dams cause environmental problems in their own right. Experts warn, moreover, that ever more sophisticated and expensive infrastructure will be needed to adapt societies to global warning. If environmental change spins out of control, adaptation will prove impossible for ever more people.

Ultimately, there is no alternative to mitigating climate change. Pakistan, however, only emits about one ton of carbon per head and year, according to Climate Analytics, an independent monitoring initiative. This comparatively small figure means that other countries which emit far more must assume responsibility and assist countries like Pakistan to build their resilience to climate change.

Syed Muhammad Abubakar is an environmental journalist based in Pakistan.
s.m.abubakar@hotmail.com
Twitter: @syedmabubakar

COVID-19 is not merely a health crisis, it is also an economic crisis. While it impacts on workers of all ages, it is youth who are disproportionately at economic risk.  More than one in six young people – often young women – have lost their job since the beginning of the pandemic. In Africa, the pandemic has amplified a number of challenges that young people were already facing, including an increase in insecure or informal work and the lack of social protection. Consequently, researchers undertaking studies in this domain must be mindful of the possible COVID-19 implications. Research teams in the frame of the Boosting Decent Employment for Africa’s Youth joint initiative have recognized this and are taking measures to update their plans for data collection and analysis using novel and creative means. The researchers shared their context-specific approaches and the challenges encountered, and highlighted the importance of integrating gender and diversity considerations in their projects during our first virtual roundtable discussion.

The first virtual roundtable discussion on Boosting Decent Employment for Africa’s Youth took place on 28 May. It brought together the eight teams conducting in-depth research on the topic and invited guests from INCLUDE, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The discussion’s objectives were twofold: First, it explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlighted the winning and losing sectors in which youth are represented. Thereafter, the discussion pivoted to the operational impacts on the ongoing research projects and how the teams are responding to these challenges in practical ways.

Young, mostly informal, workers and entrepreneurs are facing a triple shock due to the pandemic. COVID-19 is exacerbating youth’s vulnerabilities in the world of work, disrupting their plans for education and training, and delaying their transition into the labour market. This also has consequences for mental health. These were some of the global findings of the latest edition of ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work presented by Susana Puerto Gonzalez, ILO’s Senior Youth Employment Specialist and Coordinator of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth. Although the data collected for Africa may be scarce, with 95% of young people in Africa (±15–35 years old) working in the informal economy, it can be assumed they are among those who are, and will be, hardest hit, by the long-term economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

Building on this global picture, the research teams carrying out field work in a number of Sub-Saharan countries (Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) shared the following context-specific implications of COVID-19 on the labour market for young people:

• Lockdown, or partial lockdown, and the subsequent scaling down of economic activities has had serious implications for youth employment in all countries focused on by the researchers.
• Import-dependent sectors, service delivery, personal services like hair salons, retail and tourism are among the hardest hit sectors.
• Youth with wage jobs face a reduction in available working hours, fewer training opportunities and shorter-term job contracts with less security.
• An increase in gender-based violence and fertility rates caused by the pandemic is expected to lead to a reduction in the economic opportunities for young women in the long term.
• Opportunities are emerging as well. IT-related jobs, personal protection products, new global value chain models and diverse services, such as new delivery services in Ghana, among other things, hold promise. New skills will be in demand, including soft skills and digital skills, but there is a concern that this new demand will exacerbate existing vulnerabilities for different groups of youth.
• Gender and diversity considerations, such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, location etc., will affect how youth access new job opportunities post-pandemic.
• The pandemic highlights the importance of decent employment and exposes the risks and fragilities associated with informality. A number of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) now have an incentive to register. There is hope that opportunities in the key productive sectors will be prioritized to create decent jobs for youth post-COVID-19.
• Political engagement plays a critical role. The COVID-19 crisis may provide an excellent opportunity to adjust or completely redesign a number of national policies related to stimulating youth education and employment.

The research teams also discussed the implications of this changing landscape on short-term data collection activities and how it might taint the results of their studies. Nicholas Awortwi, Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) in Ghana, kick-started the discussion. Nicholas shared the importance of being flexible in terms of planning and creativity in finding ways of using the COVID-19 crisis to generate knowledge and integrate it into primary research plans. He experienced this first-hand when conducting a survey on how Ghanaian local governments are reacting to COVID-19 on the local level, in preparation for the launching of the Democratic Development Local Governance (DDLG) platform. One way is to adapt field activities and transition to phone surveys and interviews. Although it has some shortcomings, this method may be possible for a number of researchers. The experience of ILGS shows that in addition to new problems, COVID-19 has amplified a number of challenges already faced by respondents prior to the pandemic. Thus, such an approach may generate new, but also more profound, insights into the ongoing research.

The importance of possible COVID-19 implications for respondents, such as the emergence of new or exacerbation of existing challenges, and the consequent need for adjusted data collection plans was agreed on by all research teams. The researchers are also using new technology and social media to remain in contact with respondents and stakeholders (including WhatsApp groups). This said, remote data collection may prove challenging for certain groups of young people, especially young women, as not all have access to the Internet or control over their mobile phones. As a result, teams are putting in place mitigating strategies to ensure that no respondent is eliminated unfairly. The researchers agreed that the data collected prior to the pandemic will have to be revisited and adjusted, and that additional data may need to be collected to capture the growing demand for new skills and sectors post-COVID-19. Other teams have taken the opportunity to include a dedicated COVID-19 lens to their research by adding a short survey module to gain a better understanding of how the lives of youth are impacted by the current pandemic. In one case, these findings will complement the initial analysis and shed light on the role of soft skills in how young people weather the crisis. The research teams collectively agreed that the pandemic will surely have consequences for the recommendations that emerge from the ongoing studies for policymakers and practitioners.

 

This article is based on discussions during a virtual roundtable organized by IDRC in partnership with INCLUDE and ILO on 28 May 2020.

Het bericht COVID-19 as an amplifier of youth employment challenges in Africa: implications for research verscheen eerst op INCLUDE Platform.

A discussion of the relationship between services and state legitimacy from the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC).

This brief reflects on previous shocks to examine the affects of Covid-19 in rural Africa.

We explore how armed groups across the world have reacted to Covid-19 and the implications this will have on humanitarian responses.