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 (C19), to inform and support their responses.
This week, features resources on: Intimate Partner Violence during the COVID-19; the resilience of African Food Systems, Tackling the C19 youth employment crisis in Asia and the Pacific and the impact that that C19 has had on Myanmar’s conflicts.
Many of the core C19 themes continue to be covered this week, including: including: increasing gender based violence during C19; the divides between people/groups exacerbated by C19; and the dramatic implications of rising food insecurity.
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. It is the result of one day of work, and is thus indicative but not 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 separate searches of 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”)
(“COVID-19” OR “coronavirus”) AND (“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”)
Plus separate searches of Google Scholar with the keywords:
(“COVID-19” OR “coronavirus”) AND (“developing countries” OR “Africa” OR “Asia” OR “Middle East” OR “Latin America” OR “Pacific”)
(“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”)
(“COVID-19” OR “coronavirus”) AND (“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 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
Thanks to Priscilla Baafi for research assistance support, and Professor Heather Marquette for expert advice.