Time to Choose Your Favourite Coronavirus Songs. So far…..

March 31, 2020
Sod it. I know these are horrible times for everyone out there, but the Covid-19 pandemic is producing some fine music videos, and anyway, Eurovision has been cancelled and we could probably all do with a laugh or some inspiration (or both), so please welcome Coronavision…. Firstly, when I tweeted and asked for people’s favourites, a number of you thought
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How to Confront the Coronavirus Catastrophe: New Oxfam Briefing

March 30, 2020
Some excerpts from today’s briefing: Oxfam is proposing two things that the G20 and other leaders can do simultaneously. The first is to develop a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response to tackle the disease head on – preventing and delaying its spread, saving lives now and into the future. The second is to create an economic rescue plan
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Covid and Development Nutshell: FP2P round-up week beginning 23rd March

March 28, 2020
No excerpt
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Across Africa, COVID-19 heightens tension between faith and science

March 27, 2020
In times of crisis, faith can be a source of huge personal comfort and community resilience. But as Covid-19 arrives in Africa, some faith leaders are making things worse. This is an edited version of a piece by Amanda Lichtenstein, Rosemary Ajayi and Nwachukwu Egbunike that went up on Global Voices yesterday. Leaders in Africa are grappling with faith in their
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Why Debt Relief should be part of the Covid Response

March 26, 2020
This blog was launched slap bang in the middle of the 2008 global financial crisis. Its early months were dominated by discussions of its impact on poor countries and communities. So yesterday I had a plus ca change moment when I read a cluster of excellent pieces discussing the need for urgent debt relief for poor countries struggling to cope
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How to stop Coronavirus Lockdown Leading to an Upsurge in Violence Against Women

March 25, 2020
Guest post from Mwanahamisi Singano, a feminist activist  Member of FEMNET The world is witnessing an unprecedent health pandemic.  With more than 440,318 confirmed cases of COVID19 across the world, and almost 20,000 deaths (at the time of publication), the world is shutting down. Everyone is being asked to stay home and be safe, but one thing that everyone has forgotten is that homes are not
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‘The Saviour of the Mothers’ in times of Covid-19: A Brief History of Hand-Washing

March 24, 2020
Guest post by Vanita Suneja of WaterAid Covid-19 is currently   occupying our collective mind space.  Apart from avoiding mass gatherings, the foremost message given through public media and health advisories across the world is on hand hygiene. We are being been advised to clean our hands regularly and thoroughly with soap and water or with alcohol-based sanitizer. Hand washing is
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Links I Liked, Covid Edition

March 23, 2020
CAD: Corona Attention Deficit. Is it a thing? Certainly feels like it – my aim this week is to stop endlessly browsing social media and take advantage of lockdown to get stuck into some serious reading. In the meantime, here are some of the fruits of my twitchy social media-hopping…… Coronaviral: the best memes, tweets and cartoons to get you
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Development Nutshell: Audio Summary of FP2P Posts, w/b 16th March

March 21, 2020
No excerpt
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COVID-19 and the Global Education Emergency

March 20, 2020
By Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario Nous sommes en guerre. ‘We are at war’—President Macron, 16 March 2020. With global attention rightfully focused on immediate health impacts, the fact that COVID-19 has brought about an unprecedented immediate global education emergency of unimaginable magnitude, is now catching attention. On 4 March 2020, UNESCO released its first update on
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What Might Africa Teach the World? Covid-19 and Ebola Virus Disease Compared

March 19, 2020
This is an edited-down version of a post by Paul Richards that first appeared yesterday on African Arguments, launching its promising new ‘Debating Ideas’ series. Covid-19 is a flu-like illness (symptoms include fever, cough, and breathing problems) caused by a corona virus (SARS CoV-2). Like Ebola, the virus causing Covid-19 circulates within populations of bats and crossed over to humans
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Why Abortion is becoming more available and safer around the world

March 18, 2020
If you were to buy just one issue of The Economist a year, the edition just before International Women’s Day is usually a good bet. Even though it seldom mentions IWD directly, the issue usually sneaks in some fascinating gender-based pieces (eg this 2017 article on gender budgeting). This year it ran pieces on femicide in Latin America; sexism and
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