This document and risk assessment tool provides practical guidance and recommendations to support the special role of religious leaders, faith-based organizations, and faith communities in COVID-19 education, preparedness, and response.
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L’ampleur de la pandémie du COVID-19 constitue une menace réelle pour les populations de l’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone comme pour les systèmes de santé et les économies des pays membres du Partenariat de Ouagadougou.
Toutefois, la survenue de cette crise additionnelle dans une région déjà fragilisée par des défis sécuritaires et humanitaires, exige une réponse appropriée du Partenariat du Ouagadougou. Cette réponse du PO, tout en reconnaissant la nécessité de mesures fortes contre le COVID-19, doit préserver les acquis en matière de santé sexuelle et reproductive, et protéger le droit des femmes et des familles à la planification familiale maintenant et après 2020.
Source: La Réponse du Partenariat de Ouagadougou au COVID-19
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This brief considers the rationale for shielding individuals at high risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19 in low and middle-income countries.
It provides an overview of proposed approaches to shielding, discusses the categories of individuals who may be identified for shielding, and outlines the likely difficulties of these measures and ways to mitigate them. It is noted that the authors are not aware of any precedent for targeted shielding of specific groups in low- and middle-income countries during this or any other outbreak. As such, shielding as an approach is untested.
The authors attempt to provide considerations regarding the feasibility and challenges of this approach, particularly in low- and middle-income settings. Decisions on shielding, they write, will need to pay particular attention to the local socio-economic context, be made in collaboration with local actors, and be continually adapted in light of emerging evidence about the approach’s effectiveness, the characteristics of the COVID-19 and the trajectories of the outbreaks.
Source: Considerations and Principles for Shielding People at High Risk of Severe Outcomes from COVID-19
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The Communications Network created this site to share and crowdsource best practices, resources, and examples of effective crisis communication from foundations and nonprofits covering the pandemic.
Users are encouraged to add their own information about upcoming events, seminars, webinars, and resources.
Source: COVID-19 Crisis Comms Triage Kit
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In February 2020, the Healthcare Federation of Liberia (HFL) was officially launched and elected its first governing board. The HFL will provide coordination among all private health stakeholders across Liberia and act as a consolidated voice to advocate for improved quality of care and increased collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
The launch of the federation followed an assessment of Liberia’s private health sector, conducted by the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project in 2019, which identified the need for a unifying body as a vehicle to improve the private health system. The HFL’s organizational strategy was to focus on strengthening standards within—and accreditation of—private facilities, providing access to business financing and supplies of essential commodities, such as for family planning.
However, on March 16, 2020, Liberia recorded its first COVID-19 case. As of April 10, Liberia has recorded 37 cases and five deaths. The most important task for the HFL in its first month of operation, therefore, became coordinating an effective private sector response to COVID-19. This report tells the story of how Liberia responded to the pandemic.
Source: A Coordinated Public-Private Sector Response in Liberia to COVID-19
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The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behavior change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioral sciences can be used to help align human behavior with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts.
In this article from Nature, the authors discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behavior, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, they note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. They identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.
Source: Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic Response
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In this report, the Partnership for EvidenceBased Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a consortium of global public health organizations and private sector firms, brings together findings from a survey conducted March 29-April 17, 2020 in 28 cities across 20 AU Member States, along with epidemiological measures of disease transmission and indicators of population movements and unrest, among others. Synthesized, these data provide a first-of-its-kind snapshot of baseline conditions in Africa during this rapidly evolving pandemic.
The following recommendations are made:
Source: Responding to COVID-19 in Africa: Using Data to Find a Balance
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While the COVID-19 pandemic will increase mortality due to the virus, it is also likely to increase mortality indirectly. In this study, the authors estimate the additional maternal and under-5 child deaths resulting from the potential disruption of health systems and decreased access to food.
The results of the study show that if routine health care is disrupted and access to food is decreased (as a result of unavoidable shocks, health system collapse, or intentional choices made in responding to the pandemic), the increase in child and maternal deaths will be devastating. The authors hope these numbers add context as policy makers establish guidelines and allocate resources in the days and months to come.
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This factsheet uses a sample of fact-checks to identify some of the main types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation seen so far. Building on other analyses (Hollowood and Mostrous 2020; EuVsDIS 2020; Scott 2020), the authors combine a systematic content analysis of fact-checked claims about the virus and the pandemic with social media data indicating the scale and scope of engagement.
The analysis concludes that misinformation about COVID-19 comes in many different forms, from many different sources, and makes many different claims. It frequently reconfigures existing or true content rather than fabricating it wholesale, and where it is manipulated, is edited with simple tools.
Source: Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation
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There is now emerging a wealth of commentary on the gendered implications of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. We know that crises can spur new ways of behaving, sometimes leading to shifts in gender norms and underpinning sustained change towards gender equality. But with the fast spreading coronavirus pandemic many gender inequalities have already been intensified as existing discriminatory and harmful norms continue or worsen in the face of change such as violence against women, which has intensified globally under lockdowns and in the face of economic stress.
ALIGN is currently analysing what leads to shifts in gender norms both during and after crises to enhance knowledge and innovation among our community, and we will be sharing new resources as they become available. Highlighted on this site are resources produced by ALIGN and their partners relating to Covid-19 (and non-communicable diseases more broadly) and gender norms.
Source: Gender Norms and the Coronavirus
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This website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Breakthrough ACTION Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-17-00017. Breakthrough ACTION is based at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP).The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Breakthrough ACTION and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or Johns Hopkins University.
