In the first in a new Wilson Center series on “medical diplomacy” in Latin America, the region hardest hit by COVID-19, Professor Cynthia Sanborn of Peru’s Universidad del Pacífico examines the geopolitical implications of China’s robust pandemic response.

In her article, “Latin America and China in Times of COVID-19,” Sanborn outlines Beijing’s “timely, strategic, and significant” contributions to Latin America’s COVID-19 response, beginning almost immediately after the virus reached the region. China’s support has included medical supply donations, the speedy sale of masks, ventilators, and ambulances, and a promised $1 billion donation for coronavirus vaccines. This Chinese effort has vastly outstripped U.S. support. However, Sanborn says the geopolitical consequences are uncertain. Ideological divisions in Latin America and intensifying “superpower rivalries” complicate the region’s dealings with China. Moreover, Latin America’s economic relationship with China remains “concentrated in the export of natural resources and commercial agricultural products,” limiting its contributions to Latin America’s economic diversification and development.

By Thomas Carothers and David Wong

August 11, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has been a trigger for many autocrats to step up repressive measures. But the poor handling of the pandemic by many non-democratic governments, as well as the longer term economic fallout, spells longer-term political trouble for them.  Read the full article here.

Executive Director, West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI)

Introduction

One sector in West Africa that has found itself crippled on many levels by COVID 19 is the third sector and specifically non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community based organisations (CBOs). The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on March 11 that the Corona Virus emergency had now become a full blown global pandemic and many organisations have found themselves in dire circumstances as this crisis hit without warning. Their plight has been compounded by the measures deployed by governments across West Africa to respond to the pandemic, including lockdowns, border closures, social distancing and bans on public gatherings (OECD Country Tracker, 2020). Read more here.

Originally published in the ISTR African Network Newsletter

Director, Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI), South Africa

Background

COVID 19 has caused a lot of damage to societies across the world. As of Thursday 21 May, there were over 5 million confirmed cases, close to 2 million recoveries and more than 238 172 deaths globally. In Africa, the virus started slowly but has since been on the increase in several countries. However compared to most European countries and the United States of America, Africa’s numbers are still very low. Africa has a population of 1,216 billion and as of the 21st May 2020, Africa’s confirmed COVID 19 cases was 95 058, with 38 115 recoveries and 2 995 deaths. South Africa has the biggest numbers (18 003 confirmed cases, 7 950 recoveries and 339 deaths), followed by Egypt (14 229 confirmed cases, 3950 recoveries and 680 deaths). Other countries with high numbers include Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tunisia, Senegal and Cameroon. Only Lesotho has zero infections at the time of writing. This raises a number of questions. Is this due to the measures that Lesotho might have taken ahead of time to make sure there are no infections. How long will this continue for? Is there a possibility that this is because of poor testing especially given the close proximity between Lesotho and South Africa.  Read more here

Originally published in the ISTR Africa Network Newsletter

On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the Corona Virus a Public Emergency of International concern. Uganda’s President reacted fast by declaring a two weeks national lockdown on 30th March with several measures that restricted movements and promoted social distancing. Uganda confirmed its first case of the virus on March 22, and since then, 89 people have been infected, fifty-two of these recovered and the rest active but no deaths. On 14th April, a three weeks lockdown was again imposed, followed by the most recent- an extension on 5th May for another two weeks. However, the lockdown and the ensuing restrictions have had unprecedented impact on the livelihoods of Ugandans. This is a case of domestic violence in Uganda as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here

Originally published in the ISTR African Network Newsletter 

The PhiLanthropic Year COVID-19 Special Edition

The PhiLanthropic Year is a bilingual journal that specializes in the transmission of scientific and professional knowledge within the philanthropic sector, and more specifically, grantmaking philanthropy. The journal meets the need of rendering available, in French and English, knowledge mainly produced by or highlighted by the scientific activities that take place within the Canadian Philanthropy Partnership Research Network (PhiLab).

Broadly, two developments have affected NGOs in Bangledesh. (read more here)

Coronavirus volunteers aren’t just a source of free labour – don’t take advantage of them

Matt Baillie Smith, Professor of International Development, Northumbria University, Newcastle

"The diverse groups of volunteers responding to COVID-19 around the world are a source of positivity and hope.

But volunteers are not simply a source of free labour. Volunteering is both political and influenced by social and cultural factors. Keeping volunteers safe and well demands investment, and how they are engaged and by whom has consequences during and beyond a crisis." ....read more.

There is new urgency behind our data efforts as we work with our partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Fidelity Charitable to help address the current crisis and emerging threats around the world. We are leveraging our data, findings, collaborative research, and network in a number of ways. These include, identifying opportunities and challenges for sector resilience, measuring and understanding individual behavior in response to crisis, identifying and scaling best practices for mitigation, and understanding how to leverage emergent generosity action for longer term culture shifts.

We want to help the social and charitable sectors to realize the opportunities for a positive legacy of this crisis.

Our Research Priorities

We are implementing measurement processes right now to answer this need:

• Meta-analysis of research on the impact of economic shocks to the social sector and distilling findings for actionable insights.
• Analyzing 990 and our unique transactional datasets to uncover deeper insights and identify key indicators. We’re using tools we developed with our collaborators and making the code and data open for others.
• Global social and media listening to measure the conversation, test interventions, and connect engagement to action. We’ll use this to identify the opportunities for scalability, mitigation and recovery.
• Fielding survey research in global markets to establish baseline attitudes, values and self-report behavior. We’ll run a second round after GTNow to measure impact.
• Developing values and behavior dashboards to track longer term trends and forecast.
• Coordinating our network of 47 global teams and US working groups to gather data, collaborate on research and share findings and best practice.
• Working with our platform partners to collect and analyze transaction data to identify current and emerging trends and forecast opportunities and risks.

Key Insights

1. Three out of ten organizations have entirely stopped their services. In comparison, six out of ten responding organizations’ ability to deliver services and/or programs has been affected by COVID-19, and the rest are either providing their regular services or to a greater extent.
2. CSOs with relatively smaller budgets working outside the Kathmandu valley are comparatively vulnerable and more worried than CSOs inside the valley.
3. Mobility of CSOs is limited due to lockdown, due to which CSOs ability to provide service to vulnerable population are severely affected.
4.  CSOs need support in reevaluating their future directions in fundraising, financial scenario planning, technological upskilling, and strengthening organizational resilience.
5.  CSOs are responding to COVID-19 in numerous ways. Nine of ten responding organizations are informing their beneficiaries and communities on risks and steps to protect from COVID-19, six out of ten organizations are collecting some kind of data at the local level, five out of ten organizations are building a coalition with other organizations for relief and support. Similarly, CSOs are coordinating with local governments for relief activities, combating fake news, and fundraising.

This special edition includes the following articles:

• Philanthropy and the Coronavirus crisis: Making the shift towards a preventive model
• Infographic: Philanthropy and the Coronavirus crisis: Making the shift towards a preventive model
• Philanthropy during COVID-19: The urgency of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lens
• L'architecture collective des solidarités à l'épreuve de la COVID-19
• Les trois horizons de la réponse philanthropique au Québec : chronique des cinq premières semaines de COVID-19
• La philanthropie et les projets internationaux selon la Fondation KBF CANADA
• La mobilisation face au coronavirus par le secteur philanthropique Brésilien
• Interview: Jessica Cytryn and Rachel Cheng of the Montreal Restaurant Worker Relief Fund
• 211 Teams playing critical role during COVID-19 Pandemic
• Action publique, comportements et philanthropie en contexte de COVID-19 : quelques réflexions à partir du Sénégal
• La crise provoquée par la COVID-19 et l’impact financier en philanthropie

https://engageforgood.com/special-covid-19-social-impact-research/

https://www.e-ir.info/2020/04/27/ngos-on-coronavirus-mode-the-risks-of-business-as-usual/

Kind regards, 

Daniel A. Diaz, University of Manchester, daniel.diazvera@manchester.ac.uk 

by Saskia Brechenmacher, Thomas Carothers, Richard Youngs

This article draws on comparative insights and examples provided by members of Carnegie’s Civic Research Network. 

Click here for the link.

After over 25 years as a nonprofit Executive Director and leadership coach and educator for senior nonprofit leaders, I now also teach at California State San Bernardino and Claremont McKenna College. My research focuses on how nonprofit leaders manage their emotions. Two discrete emotions I emphasize are loneliness and secondary trauma - I have published this year on how these emotions emerge in organizations in Human Relations, Nonprofit Management and Leadership and Leadership and also recently in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Please feel free to email me at tonysilard@gmail.com if you are interested in collaborating on future research. 

Please also check out my new book, Screened In: The Art of Living Free in the Digital Age, which includes ten years of research on how technology is affecting us and our relationships. 100% of the proceeds from the book go to nonprofit education programs. Also, here's my new Psychology Today article on moving through loneliness during the pandemic. (Please send out to your students, it may be helpful for them as they try to get through this challenging time.) If you like this article and want more, you can receive the weekly articles I'm writing for free at The Art of Living Free Blog.

Warmly,

Tony

We adapted the instrument developed by The University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Institute. We aim to launch the initial report by the end of the first week of May. We have used KoboToolbox to deploy the multilingual (English & Nepali) survey. Please feel free to reach out to Dipendra K C (dipendra@sgs.tu.ac.th) if you need a copy of the XLS survey.

"I urge foundations not to abandon their DEI lens. Instead, they must understand the ways in which the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 are DEI issues as well. Or, better yet, they should consider the ways in which race, gender, and sexual orientation (among other facets of identity/axes of oppression) shape how, and to what degree, the effects of COVID-19 are experienced differently across Canada. Contrary to what New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Madonna claim, COVID-19 is not “the great equalizer.” Rather, foundations need to be acutely aware of how COVID-19 reinforces and magnifies persistent structural inequities in our society. In doing so, foundations will be better poised to face this crisis head-on and—just as importantly—be better equipped to take on future crises."

Read the full article here: Philanthropy During COVID019: The Urgency of a Diversity, Equity, and Diversity (DEI) Lens

"The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked an unprecedented state of emergency in Quebec, Canada, and the rest of the world. Reassuringly, we are also witnessing a wave of solidarity, mutual aid and generosity that rises to the challenges emerging alongside the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The strength and resilience of philanthropy, when faced with large scale international issues, has already been discussed this past Januaryduring the Australian bushfires^[1].

 Manifestations of solidarity will continue to increase with the recent announcement of the UN’s “Global Humanitarian Response Plan” paired with a 2 billion dollar call for donations. The Secretary-General, António Guterres, who has already spoken out against the “million” deaths caused by lack of solidarity, has reinforced his claim, on March 25th of this year, by calling out the inevitable need for solidarity at the global level, as “countries’ individual responses will not be enough”. Within this global pandemic, what role does philanthropy play?"

The article is available in different formats and has been published on various platforms as listed below.

In French

Long version: Face au coronavirus, une mobilisation sans précédent des organisations de bienfaisance,

 Short versions:

• PhiLab in Le Devoir: Face au virus, l’apport de la philanthropie 
• PhiLab in The Conversation: Covid-19: Comment aider en temps de crise ou le grand défi de la philanthropie

In English:

Short version: 

• Philanthropy and the Coronavirus crisis : Making the shift towards a preventive model

 We hope these resources can help push other third-sector entities to reflect on the many opportunities. PhiLab is also working on an upcoming special edition on the current pandemic specifically and how the Canadian philanthropic sector is reacting. I will be forwarding the different resources and articles that come from it here. If you have any questions or would like to participate in this edition as guest writers, please do not hesitate to contact me at mac_donald.katherine@uqam.ca .

https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/media-releases/open-letters/4346-open-letter-donors-and-supporters-must-act-to-ensure-civil-society-resilience-against-covid-19-pandemic

Because it is a global issue and we are all touched by the massive changes going on in response to it I thought I might offer some thoughts about the coronavirus pandemic.

For researchers and scholars this is is a time of overwhelming complexities, multilayered effects and an unknown future. For the third sector, predominantly organisations concerned with human services and human rights, it is a time of great challenge. Across the world, governments have really struggled to respond to every aspect of social need and protection. The messages people have been getting have been confusing and, in some cases, confusing and insufficient. There are also the huge threats emerging to democracy and human rights as those in power begin to possibly overstep their powers and exercise ideological agendas under the auspices of ‘protective measures’.

The obvious ways we can measure and understand the impact of the coronavirus is though data and personal stories and how the media reports the details. What is evident is that with the varied messages and measures about and for isolation, marginalised people, usually cared for or supported by third sector organisations and volunteers are largely excluded from national strategies. People who are homeless, people at home in dangerous or precarious safety situations, people on temporary visas and refugees and people with uncertain legal status mostly cannot benefit from the many efforts by governments to address the widespread health needs, unemployment and other economic consequences of stopping usual services and community activities. Therefore, the many organisations that generally provided services to marginalised groups also need to be part of economic and social strategies. More that ever community based and international NGOs should be included in national and local strategies for minimising the health, social and economic impact of the pandemic. It would be good to pass on examples, from around the world, of how the third sector has stepped up and made itself heard during this crisis.

For example, here, in Australia, third sector organisations were listened to and responded to after they began to get lots of calls from women now trapped at home and at risk of domestic violence (DV) - with no capacity to escape a situation exacerbated by restriction of movement, their partner losing work and becoming unemployed, a rise in alcohol abuse and other factors of control creating extra risks to their safety. The Australian government has made a large funding allocation to increase the capacity of DV Support services to assist in this time of crisis. This is on the back of reports that came out of China indicating a dramatic rise of DV due to home isolation strategies to limit the pandemic.

So I invite you to contribute to this blog and keep us thinking and engaging!

Ruth Phillips

ISTR President

Here is a link to her article published in the India Development Review, "How funders can respond during COVID-19: From having check-in conversations to proactively disbursing funds, here's what funders can do to support their grantees during this crisis."

We do not seek to replicate or provide links to every resource page. 

Rather, ISTR's Covid-19 resource page assists third sector scholars by highlighting especially relevant research material and links to other especially relevant pages and organizing it by sub-field and region. 

Take a look here: https://www.istr.org/page/COVID_Resources.  If you know of something we should add to this page, please post something below or email us at secretariat@istr.org.