In 2017, the Congo Research Group (CRG) published a comprehensive study of companies owned by members of former President Joseph Kabila’s family, using publicly available documents to show their involvement in over 80 corporations around the world. This gave them ownership over 450 miles of diamond concessions along the Angolan border, contracts worth millions working on mining projects, shares in the largest mobile phone company, and vast tracts of farmland. The contrast between the family’s relative poverty before it came to power in 1997 and this wealth is striking. However, it was difficult to as-sess the value of these assets or the overall wealth of the family and its members, or to prove any crimes beyond conflicts of interest.
COVID-19 has provided a sharp reminder of the key role citizens’ perceptions and attitudes play in shaping the outcomes of public policy. This experience is changing the way governments use data to combat the pandemic and set priorities for the recovery.
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended life and livelihoods in Bangladesh. This report calls attention specifically to the impact of COVID-19 on migration – on Bangladeshi migrants themselves, who were compelled to return to their places of origin due to various circumstances during the pandemic, as well as their families and communities.
Six months ago, a new government was put into place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following the breakup of the coalition between President Félix Tshisekedi and his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. How do Congolese perceive the Sama Lukonde government today? How do people view the new government’s first measures, including the creation of a “state of siege” in North Kivu and Ituri, as well as the work of parliament?
Over the past decade, the Democratic Republic of Congo has experienced several outbreaks, including cholera and Ebola. Yet, as with COVID-19, whose first case in the country was announced on March 10, 2020, the Congolese health system is still unable to cope with these epidemics today without significant financial support from external partners. This has not prevented the government from creating several ad hoc structures, often budgetary, that are supposed to contribute to the fight against the spread of Covid-19. These include the multisectoral committee, the technical secretariat, the advisory board, the presidential task force, and the national solidarity fund against the coronavirus. This new report demonstrates how the multiplication of structures in the response to epidemics does not solve the problems raised by the previous responses: poor management of human and financial resources, poor circulation of information and rivalries between actors.
