COVID-19 and Community Responses

Publication: Policy Brief

This policy briefing examines how governments, multilateral organizations, and international financial institutions can leverage existing and new community-based responses to deal more effectively with the health, social, and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Launch of COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (UNPhoto/Mark Garten).

Governments around the world are stretched to their limits trying to cope with not just the health risks of the COVID-19 virus, but also the economic fallout as people lose their jobs and entire sections of the economy close down. In this policy briefing, Pathfinders adviser Scott Guggenheim argues that governments must harness an underutilized but highly effective tool—traditional community solidarity and volunteerism.

Download the full briefing here.

More Resources

  • Blog October 12, 2026 Global Governance

    Electing ICJ Judges: The Complex Battle for a Seat on the World’s Highest Court

    This piece utlines the process for electing five new judges to the International Court of Justice that is forthcoming next month (November 2026) at the United Nations. The International Court of Justice was established as a principal organ of the United Nations at the same time that the UN itself was established in 1945, and its statute was adopted when the UN Charter was adopted.

    Headshot of a person with gray/white hair and a collared shirt.
    Mark Simonoff
  • Foreign Policy in Focus uses analysis from Thibault Camelli and Ronny Patz's policy brief, How to End the United Nations’ Current Financial Crisis… and Prevent Future Ones, published earlier this year to inform this piece on the United Nations' current financial state.

    Source: Foreign Policy in Focus, October 6, 2026

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