Where have we got to on Covid and debt relief?

April 30, 2020
Guest post by Ana Caistor Arendar, Head of Inequality Campaigns and Policy at Oxfam GB Over the past weeks, we’ve seen some of the richest countries in the world struggle with the effects of Covid-19 and the health and economic emergency it has brought in its wake. But at least they have the resources to cushion the blows (should they
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Fast Research can fix government feedback loops broken by Covid – great example from Bangladesh

April 29, 2020
I’ve been thinking about feedback in terms of the way Covid is playing out on the ground. Or rather, the lack of it. Lockdown interrupts/diminishes the flow of information from the ground to governments. Decision makers, be they politicians or senior officials, can’t send out researchers or underlings to find out what’s going on in the villages, cities and shanty
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Social movements in and beyond the COVID-19 crisis

April 28, 2020
Interface Journal are putting together brilliant compilations of readings by/on social movements and how they are dealing with the current Coronavirus pandemic. We will be republishing these compilations as they are rolled out, to join efforts in amplifying the voices of activists and those organizing communities through the crisis. They have a call for submissions below, please write in! And
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Covid Links I Liked

April 27, 2020
My essay on Covid-19 as a Critical Juncture and the Implications for Advocacy has been published by Global Policy. Huge thanks to all the people who commented on earlier drafts, including the 130 who rocked up to the Global Policy/LSE webinar – video here. My plan is now to move on to monitoring the impact and response in developing countries,
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Featured image for “Covid Development Nutshell: audio summary of FP2P posts, w/b 20th April”

Covid Development Nutshell: audio summary of FP2P posts, w/b 20th April

April 25, 2020
No excerpt
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Voices from the Ground: Stories of Community Resilience & Entrepreneurship in the Pandemic

April 24, 2020
Guest post by Yogesh Ghore and Farouk Jiwa, of the Coady International Institute For the last 60 years the Coady Institute has been working with community leaders and organisations supporting leadership and knowledge building at the grassroots level. Many of our 9,000 graduates from over 133 countries, and partners across the world, are on the frontlines in the fight against
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How is Covid-19 affecting Civil Society worldwide? How is it Responding?

April 23, 2020
I’m a huge fan of the work of Saskia Brechenmacher and Thomas Carothers at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who regularly contribute brilliant pieces like this one to FP2P on issues of democracy and civil society. They (along with Richard Youngs) have just published a really useful survey of the impact of Covid-19 on civil society worldwide, drawing on
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On Covid-19 Social Science can save lives: where do we start?

April 22, 2020
Second installment from Heather Marquette In yesterday’s post, I looked at some of the social and political complexities around Covid-19 and measures to tackle it, bringing in some graphics to try to better communicate what this means and what we need to worry about. Today, one more graphic (an important one, I think) introducing a process to help structure thinking
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Using Graphics to Cut Through Covid’s Complexity

April 21, 2020
Guest post from Heather Marquette The international Covid-19 response so far makes clear that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’, and that the urgent interpretation and application of science is hugely challenging and is framed by political room for manoeuvre.  ‘One size doesn’t fit all’ is easy to say, but hard to do. As well as its immediate biological effects, the
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Links I Liked

April 20, 2020
Really wise approach to policy-making in near-total uncertainty: No-Regret Policies for the Crisis in Developing Countries by Stefan Dercon WFH is especially tough if you happen to be Banksy’s wife. Wonderful. Examples of Covid’s horrible knock-on effects are growing: Food rations to 1.4 million refugees cut in Uganda due to funding shortfall; Coronavirus derails measles vaccination across the globe Campaigning
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Featured image for “Covid and Development Nutshell: audio summary of the week’s FP2P posts”

Covid and Development Nutshell: audio summary of the week’s FP2P posts

April 18, 2020
No excerpt
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More Covid analysis by African authors, and a first instalment from India

April 17, 2020
The responses to yesterday’s post were so enthusiastic that I’ve put together a second instalment and included a couple of links at the end to Indian authors. Seems like it would be a useful exercise to keep publishing these kinds of syntheses as the crisis evolves, so if you see particularly perceptive or striking analyses from Africa, Latin America or
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