CIC staff, fellows, and partners are working to shed light on the intersections between the global coronavirus pandemic and the issues we study, from the future of multilateralism and the global humanitarian response to the ongoing work of building peaceful, just and inclusive societies. This is a regularly updated collection of our articles, blog posts, and policy papers on COVID-19.
Afghanistan faces many hurdles in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: a prolonged armed conflict, a lack of social protection systems, limited healthcare capacity, and insufficient preparedness and coordination mechanisms. This briefing provides an overview of the current state of the COVID-19 response in Afghanistan against the background of the ongoing conflict.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, policymakers must navigate public perceptions of coronavirus risk and government responses. This briefing pulls together data from several global polls conducted over the past month and a half to provide a descriptive summary of trends in public opinion towards COVID-19, with a particular focus on levels of public trust in government and other institutions, and on public perceptions of the trade-offs involved in calibrating lockdown measures.
Formerly a small local militia, Guidon Shimiray’s Nduma Defence of Congo-Rénové (NDC-R) is today one of the most powerful armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A new report from CIC's Congo Research Group (CRG) draws on 18 months of fieldwork to provide the first in-depth investigation into the origins of this armed group, showing how it is part of a proxy war led by the Congolese army.
The humanitarian crisis in northern Syria is on the verge of becoming a COVID-19 catastrophe. A decade of conflict has left the healthcare system in ruins—and millions of displaced people in Idlib province were already suffering due to a lack of shelter and sanitation. This policy briefing delves into roots of the humanitarian crisis in Idlib, details the current capacity of the exhausted healthcare system amid the ongoing conflict, and examines what these constraints mean for mounting a response to the spread of the coronavirus.
