COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 12 August 2020
12 Aug 2020
During the COVID-19 crisis ACCORD’s analysis will be focused on the impact of the pandemic on conflict and resilience in Africa.
During the COVID-19 crisis ACCORD’s analysis will be focused on the impact of the pandemic on conflict and resilience in Africa.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed massive inequalities within our societies and has brought to light the unique burdens that women globally carry. As we respond to the impacts of COVID-19, both in the immediate and long term, we have an unprecedented opportunity to completely redesign our ways of living through innovative and large-scale action that can cater for the magnitude of transforming the African continent. The allocation of response resources should be dually focused on the immediate needs of managing the virus and, simultaneously, on the future, to dismantle the structural and systemic barriers that reinforce inequality and disenfranchisement. We have been presented with the opportunity to reimagine and redesign our society into one that is vibrant and equitable. We must place women at the core of the response and beyond.
In 1956, my generation of women organised and mobilised 20 000 women across South Africa to march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Our protest action was against the oppressive system of apartheid. Today, as we commemorate the importance of the 1956 Women’s March in South Africa’s history, I want to assert that the struggles we faced then are not dissimilar to what today’s generation of women is being called upon to respond to.
The call for a global ceasefire by United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres came at an appropriate time, when the world needed to stop fighting and focus on the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic looming over us. However, more collective and inclusive action is required to make this a reality.
Africa: The African Women Leaders Network – A Movement for the Transformation of Africa Source: allAfrica / Bineta Diop, African Union Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security & Phumzile
COVID-19 and Conflict: Advancing Women’s Meaningful Participation in Ceasefires and Peace Processes Source: UN Women This brief addresses the importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation to an effective
The era of coronavirus (COVID-19) is unprecedented and offers an opportunity to manage prison populations on the continent in a different but innovative manner. It is imperative that governments consider the need to decongest prisons through a number of measures to ensure the human rights of prisoners and to further limit the spread of COVID-19 to the outside population.
During the COVID-19 crisis ACCORD’s analysis will be focused on the impact of the pandemic on conflict and resilience in Africa.
Africa’s diplomatic system has adjusted swiftly to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) realities of conducting business. This is visible in the flurry of virtual consultations among decision-makers to chart common ways forward. The high number of African Union (AU)-led consultations over the past few months reflect a deep-seated conviction that collective action is the best way to address Africa’s challenges effectively.
Some of the measures put in place by governments to contain COVID-19 appear to be linked to an increase in organised crime that profits from, among others, smuggling people and goods such as alcohol and cigarettes (that have been banned as part of the COVID-19 measures).