What the humanitarian and development community should be doing in response to coronavirus Covid-19

What the humanitarian and development community should be doing in response to coronavirus Covid-19

Relationship strengthening

As the Covid-19 impacts continue to be felt globally, all actors should be coordinating and complementing the work already being conducted and the planning that is being revised now.  Ensure your organisation has strong working relationships with key UN agencies including WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank, as well as with government line ministries including Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Sanitation and Public Works and so on.  It is also important that your organisation is connected with local and international academic institutions and think tanks to ensure you are feeding in and learning from the latest ideas on covid-19.  Many organisations including Islamic Relief, MSF (Doctors without Borders), Red Cross, Oxfam, World Visit, Plan International, and International Rescue Committee are already doing tremendous work and you should be connected with these leading organisations in the field and at headquarters.

The impact of Covid-19 will require us to support more local partners and may require humanitarian actors to conduct more remote management tan what we traditionally prefer for public health responses.  Draw on already existing learning networks, communication tools, and established local networks to ensure learning, monitoring, and engagement occurs.

How to respond?

We need to work with communities to protect people from infection and slow the transmission spread.  Additionally, we need to reduce the secondary impacts of Covid-19 on access to education, employment, food and other essential support.  Here is some quick tips on what should be considered during your program design, and community and partner engagement.

Health interventions

• Health, education and engaging communities in a culturally appropriate way, so people are aware of the risks and how to protect themselves. Be prepared to respond to public perceptions and countering misinformation on key public health measures.
• Supporting data collection and analysis to help understand more about risks and treatment for Covid-19.
• Strengthening infection prevention and control in health facilities. Direct provision of supplies, as well as system strengthening around screening, triage, isolation and referrals of patients with Covid-19.
• Support governments and ministries of health improve surveillance systems by training staff on how to diagnose cases, trace contacts and establish registers for reporting infections.
• Supporting supply chains by pre-positioning Covid-19 commodity packages in health facilities and exploring local sources of supplies.
• Direct provision and support to essential health services at health centres and in the community.

Education interventions

• Work with communities to identify innovative ways to ensure early childhood development and education activities can continue however possible in the safest way for children.
• Assist education actors and ministry of education with preparing distance learning tools for students who may have school disrupted, support governments to set up distance learning and help parents to teach their children at home.
• Consider the best ways to communicate information and prevention strategies to children and families. We’ll also help to prevent stigma and discrimination as a result of the virus.
• Consider the continuation of other essential services linked to schools including health screenings, feeding program, services for children with special needs, and dental visits.

So what are you and your organisation doing differently today to better support communities?