REUTERS/Siphiwe SibekoPhoto by Dursun
COVID-19 & Conflict
ACCORD has rapidly adapted to the new COVID-19 reality and has refocused and restructured a significant proportion of its staff and effort on identifying & monitoring, tracking & analysing, and preparing & responding to COVID-19 related social unrest and violent conflict in Africa.
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ACCORD’s focus on COVID-19
ACCORD has adapted to the new COVID-19 reality, refocusing and restructuring a significant proportion of its staff and its effort on identifying & monitoring, tracking &, analysing, and preparing & responding to COVID-19 related social-unrest and violent conflict in Africa.
Through our networks across Africa, and supported by available online data, ACCORD identifies COVID-19 related incidents and trends that may provide early warning of rising tensions that could develop into social unrest and violent conflict. Once the incidents are captured in the dataset, ACCORD analyses the trends and publishes a weekly COVID-19 Africa Conflict and Resilience Monitor, in order to share the information and analysis with all stakeholders.
ACCORD then works with its in-country networks and other local, regional, continental and international partners and stakeholders, to encourage and support interventions aimed at mitigating, and where possible preventing, COVID-19 related social unrest and violent conflict.
This week's
COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor
25 Nov 2020
This week’s Monitor is a special edition on the Lake Chad Basin, with all the authors confirming that this region presents a complex and multidimensional crisis characterised by humanitarian emergencies, violent extremism, poverty and the effects of climate change. This complexity has now been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This edition features Ambassador Mamman Nuhu, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, who opines that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly contributed to heightened economic needs, and threatens people’s livelihoods within the region.
Dr Abubakar G. Iliya argues that COVID-19 has had severe impacts on the citizens of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states in Nigeria, who were only recently starting to recover from the effects of Boko Haram’s violent insurgency. The efforts of multiple stakeholders to drive stability through development in the Lake Chad Basin has the potential to offer lessons for other regions in Africa, as argued by Dr Jide Martyns Okeke.
While DrFatima Akilu acknowledges that COVID-19 has increased the exposure of those already vulnerable, in particular women, she points to the role of community resilience in assisting various communities to adapt to and cope with the additional effects presented by the pandemic. This week’s edition ends with a contribution by Dr Cedric de Coning and Dr Florian Krampe, reflecting on how climate change and related environmental challenges have increased social vulnerabilities, with COVID-19 becoming an additional stress multiplier.
Feature Articles
COVID-19 exacerbating existing security, social and livelihood challenges in the Lake Chad Basin region
The Lake Chad Basin is faced with a multidimensional crisis, largely as a result of a complex combination of factors that include terrorist activities, extreme poverty and a changing climate. The combination of these factors has triggered significant insecurity and the displacement of populations. The area has grown into one of the most complicated humanitarian emergencies in the world, with threats to the livelihoods of over 45 million inhabitants. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region has therefore exacerbated existing challenges, making an already dire situation worse. The pandemic has significantly heightened the economic needs in the region and has presented serious challenges to the livelihoods of people in this region. These factors feed into conflict triggers, which contribute to further instability in the Lake Chad Basin.
25 Nov 2020
Using the African Continental Free Trade Area to adapt and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic
Some of the key words in the unprecedented era of the COVID-19 pandemic are disruption, damage, change, adaptation, recovery and resilience. Against the background of these words, what is clear is that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the status quo as we knew it. In this change, the pandemic has also challenged the interdependence of economies, leading to the disruption of global and regional supply chains. Some of the countries’ early responses to the pandemic were increased protectionist measures, especially with regard to the supply of personal protective equipment.
18 Nov 2020
Future implications of the impact of COVID-19 on governance and public service
What will governance and public service be like post COVID-19? We will not and should not revert to “business as usual” after this crisis. We should draw on the maxim from the United Nations (UN) 2030 agenda – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – to “leave no one behind” in achieving a more sustainable, equitable, inclusive and secure/peaceful future. We should start a dialogue about the current and future implications of COVID-19 on governance and public service.
11 Nov 2020
COVID-19 News
An introduction to Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
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ACCORD is an African based global conflict management institution and think tank with 28 years of experience.
The COVID-19 crisis had disrupted ACCORD’s usual work, but the Institution has rapidly adapted and it has now refocused and restructured a significant proportion of its staff and effort on identifying & monitoring, tracking &, analysing and responding to the COVID-19 related social-unrest and violent conflict in Africa.
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