ODI live events podcast

Please note this podcast is in English. To listen to the event in Arabic, please visit https://soundcloud.com/odi-live-events/coronavirus-and-local-peacebuilding-efforts-in-north-africa-soundcloud-a.

In March, after UN Secretary-General Antοnio Guterres called for a global cease-fire amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many political analysts saw an opportunity for peace. However, the stark reality in many conflict zones today shows that, so far, that opportunity has been missed. Cease-fires are being ignored, and the politics of the pandemic have enabled violence rather than deterred it – a trend that has serious humanitarian implications. But in North Africa, the pandemic and subsequent surge in violent conflict have not stopped local actors from continuing their work, with some impressive results.

Join USIP and ODI for a discussion featuring peacebuilding experts and practitioners from North Africa. The online conversation looks at the implications of Covid-19 on peacebuilding at the local level in three particular North African contexts: Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt.

في مارسوسط جائحة كوفيد19 و بعد أن دعا الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة أنطونيو غوتيريس إلى وقف إطلاق النار في العالم ، رأى العديد من المحللين السياسيين فرصة للسلام. ومع ذلك، فإن الواقع في العديد من مناطق الصراع اليوم يظهر أن هذه الفرصة قد ضاعت. فقد تم تجاهل وقف إطلاق النار - وهو اتجاه له تداعيات إنسانية خطيرة. لكن في شمال إفريقيا، لم يمنع الوباء وما تلاه الجهات الفاعلة المحلية من مواصلة عملها، مع بعض النتائج المثيرة للإعجاب.

انضم إلى USIP و ODI لإجراء مناقشة تضم خبراء وممارسين في بناء السلام من شمال إفريقيا. تبحث المحادثة في تداعيات Covid-19 على بناء السلام على المستوى المحلي في ثلاثة سياقات خاصة بشمال إفريقيا: ليبيا وتونس ومصر.

As governments wrestle with the trade-offs between continuing their lockdowns in support of public health during the Covid-19 crisis and easing restrictions to boost ailing economies, everyday life is changing. While it is hoped that some aspects of life before Covid-19 will resume, a new ‘normal’ will also likely emerge. And this is also the case with research and data collection.

As this webinar reveals, the pandemic has brought new and existing challenges to the fore, not least in relation to doing research and data collection to inform programming and policy.

Drawn from first-hand practical experience of research in Nigeria, Gaza, Tanzania and Bangladesh, this live interactive event co-hosted with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explores adaptations and solutions to the challenges of doing research during Covid-19 including the role of digital technology; how researchers are keeping safe and how ethical issues are being addressed; and the need to reconsider potentially extractive practices.

We discuss the recent announcement by the UK government to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with perspectives from the Commonwealth, Development Assistance Committee countries and the aid sector.

In these unprecedented times, millions of refugees face lockdown in environments where social distancing or access to essential financial or medical support are limited or non-existent. As families and communities struggle to access resources, schools or opportunities, child-marriage and unsafe underage labour are beginning to take priority over education, and concerns are mounting that adolescent refugees will be left behind during the pandemic response.

Based on real-time virtual interviews with adolescents within refugee contexts, we examine age- and gender- specific vulnerabilities of adolescent refugees. We spotlight adolescent refugee voices from the Palestinian, Rohingya and Syrian refugee crises and identify key priorities for policy and programming, as well as putting forward recommendations to address critical education and protection gaps for adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is posing unprecedented challenges across the world, putting considerable strains on leadership, the health sector and our way of living. Insurgent groups from the Taliban to Al Shabab, have provided health advice and produced propaganda highlighting their action against Covid-19.

Gangs in Rio have sought to enforce pandemic restrictions and notorious cartel leader El Chapo has produced health kits emblazoned with his likeness, unmasking in some cases state fragility and institutional weaknesses. While some armed groups have used the pandemic as another means of waging their propaganda, armed groups in Mali, Central African Republic and elsewhere, have heeded the UN Secretary General’s call to halt the violence in aid of efforts to combat Covid-19.

As we launch the ODI Centre for the Study of Armed Groups, we discuss how armed groups across the world’s conflict zones have reacted to the pandemic, and the implications this will have for humanitarian responses, peacebuilding efforts and development aid.

'What if some African governments are doing a better job than our own of managing the coronavirus?' (New Yorker, May 2020)

Covid-19 has gripped the world, shaken the multilateral system and caused widespread uncertainty. One thing remains clear, there is no going back and adaptations will need to be made to shift towards a new normal. The key to this will be developing new forms of cooperation between countries and communities around the globe.

Early signs from Africa are that in many countries the response to Covid-19 has been effective – perhaps because they were able learn from how the pandemic unfolded across the world from China to Italy and through Europe. But contrary to commonplace narratives about aiding Africa, recent events highlight opportunities for Europe and elsewhere to learn from Africa. Beyond the immediate response to the pandemic, countries across Africa will face considerable challenges in the recovery, with an urgent need to finance weakened economies and to adapt existing approaches to trade, labour markets and social protection.

This event explores what new approaches and enhanced forms of collaboration will need to be built between Africa, Europe and beyond, as well as delivering on the many commitments being made.

Convened in partnership with the European Think Tanks Group, this event is the first in a series of engagement ahead of the upcoming European Union-African Union Summit and is also part of the ODI at 60 global reset dialogue series, challenging decision-makers to provide more sustainable and equitable pathways for the future.

The spread of the Covid-19 virus is testing the health and economic systems of individual countries and the world as a whole. The standard response ‘toolkit’ initially focussed primarily on containing the spread of the virus, with some adjustment of economic and social policies required to address the needs of people in or near poverty.

Across countries there are growing concerns about the impact that the pandemic and the policy responses will have on the lives of the poorest and most marginalised who may be least able to withstand Covid-19 on top of their existing vulnerabilities and crises. While the impact of the pandemic is still in its initial stages across many low and lower middle-income countries, its peak is expected during the next few months.

This webinar brings together researchers, practitioners and policy makers to discuss the impacts of the virus and short-term policy responses on the world’s poorest, and the adjustments to immediate policy responses needed to prevent impoverishment, hunger and destitution.

The effects of the Covid-19 crisis in sub-Saharan Africa through trade, commodity prices, remittances, tourism and global value chains are likely to be devastating. The World Bank is forecasting a decline in growth in the region from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1 and -5.1% this year, estimating African economies could lose between $37 billion and $79 billion in output losses. This will have huge financial impact.

On one level, economies will struggle to achieve financial stability and recover as concerns mount on issues around debt sustainability. On another level, the crisis will impact African countries financial sector development (FSD), which may also have implications for how policies and regulations are formulated and implemented in a post-Covid world.

This webinar convenes finance experts and sector stakeholders to discuss the post-Covid trade-offs between financial stability and economic renewal for African countries and what specific FSD policies, and regulation are important to address the fall out and ensure stability after the pandemic.

This event is part of the ODI at 60 global reset dialogue series, challenging decision-makers to provide more sustainable and equitable pathways for the future.

Decades-long commitments to supporting more ‘local’ responses to crises have not resulted in significant shifts in the traditional humanitarian system. Funding, decision-making and capacity continue to be concentrated in large international aid actors. Experts are now highlighting the critical role that local responders will play in relation to Covid-19 given their ability to act fast, engage communities and maintain delivery in the context of national and international travel restrictions. Will this lead to a reset of the humanitarian system? Or, beyond the rhetoric, will it be business as usual?

This event launches the Humanitarian Policy Group's (HPG) new report, From the ground up: it's about time for local humanitarian action, which brings together two years of research on examining humanitarian action, power imbalances and local capacity. Using report recommendations, we discuss whether Covid-19 is unlocking some of the barriers to more locally-led humanitarian responses in practice.

This event is part of the ODI at 60 global reset dialogue series, challenging decision-makers to provide more sustainable and equitable pathways for the future.

India’s federal government has taken a cautious approach in response to the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis. The initial fiscal support provided was equivalent to just 0.8% of GDP – despite millions of workers losing their jobs since the lockdown has been put in place. More recently, Prime Minister Modi has promised a much larger economic stimulus package, although there seems to be limited direct grants or subsidies available. This stands in contrast to the much larger fiscal support packages being put in place by governments around the world.

Yet is ‘doing whatever it takes’ a realistic option in India? The crisis comes at a time when the economy was already weakening, and the government is unable to rely upon the central banks to refinance debts denominated in foreign currency. How then should the government steer a course between providing relief from the crisis and concerns for the stability of the macroeconomy?

This is a joint event co-hosted by ODI, the National Institute for Public Finance and Policy and the Centre for Policy Research.