This weekly Covid-19 Conflict and Governance Evidence Summary aims to signpost DFID and other UK government departments to the latest evidence and opinions on Covid-19, to inform and support their responses.
This week, many of the key themes that emerged at the start of the Covid-19 continue to be discussed, including: allegations of corruption related to Covid-19 funds, increasing authoritarianism, gender-based violence, and risks to gender inequality. A newer theme being discussed is the situation of youth e.g. regarding the vulnerability of young people, and providing a new deal for youth.
This week’s summary features policy papers reflecting on the resilience of institutions (transparency, accountability, and participation) in responding to Covid-19 (published by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)); the challenges Covid-19 poses to globalisation (Long Crisis Network) and to global governance (Council on Foreign Relations); whether Covid-19 could ‘jump-start’ national reconciliation in Palestine (Carnegie); and guidance and reflections on conflict sensitivity in the Covid-19 world (Saferworld). Most papers and blogs
fall under the broad area of governance, with fewer focusing on conflict.
The summary uses two main sections – (1) literature: – this includes policy papers, academic articles, and long-form articles that go deeper than the typical blog; and (2) blogs & news articles. The articles in section (1) that are journal articles, or that explicitly state having been peer-reviewed, are highlighted in yellow. It is the result of one day of work and thus is not intended to be comprehensive of all issues or publications.
Methodology
Due to the emerging nature of the Covid-19 crisis, this rapid weekly summary includes blogs, and news articles, in addition to policy and academic literature. The sources included are found through searches of Google Scholar, Google, and ReliefWeb with the keywords:
(“COVID-19” OR “coronavirus”) AND (“developing countries” OR “Africa” OR “Asia” OR “Middle East” OR “Latin America” OR “Pacific”) AND (“conflict” OR “peace” OR “violence” OR “resilience” OR “fragility”) OR (“authoritarian*” OR “democra*” OR “corrupt*” OR “transparency” OR “state legitimacy” OR “non-state actors” OR “state capacity” OR “state authority” OR “politic*” OR “state institutions”)
The searches are restricted to articles published in the previous seven days, in English. This is complemented by: a focussed Twitter search (using just the pages of a small selection of research organisations, and key scholars/thinkers, including those funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID)); and through email recommendations from DFID advisors and leading experts. This is a trial and error approach, which will be refined and changed over the coming weeks. If you have literature to include in the weekly summary, please email – s.herbert@bham.ac.uk