Southern Voice is pleased to announce that six outstanding proposals have been selected to research responses to COVID-19. Teams come from across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The pandemic is having a significant impact on every sector and country around the world. Yet, the effects are more extreme for developing countries in the Global South.

In light of that, Southern Voice launched a call for research proposals to the network members. The aim is to explore three different thematic areas:

  • Reducing the social impact of the crisis;
  • Economic and fiscal recovery;
  • and accountable and inclusive institutions during the pandemic.

It is a unique opportunity to learn across sectors, countries and regions. It enhances the possibility to implement evidence-driven policy approaches in a  timely, and context-sensitive manner.

The selected teams and proposals

Lockdowns and the consequences of the economic crisis have exacerbated social and economic imbalances within countries. That is why the following proposals explore the impact of the problem within the unique contexts of their respective countries:

Under the ‘economic and fiscal recovery’ theme, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (Bangladesh) and the Institute of Policy Studies (Sri Lanka) will collaborate to research how COVID-19 has severely disrupted the global apparel sector and its value chains. This study will explore whether a value chain-based solution is possible for medium-term recovery of the apparel sector.

Espacio Publico (Chile) and the CIPPEC‘s (Argentina) research will tackle the underlying problems of inequality.  The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated them. The team’s research objective is to identify the social challenges posed by the health crisis. They will do that through an analysis of the impact that criminalization of quarantine infringements has had on vulnerable groups in both countries.

FUSADES (El Salvador) and CEQI will assess the distributional effects of income losses induced by the pandemic, linking them to poverty and inequality for the households of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In addition, the research will encompass policy responses that are necessary to mitigate the crisis. It will make forward-looking recommendations to improve social protection mechanisms.

IPAR-Rwanda and EPRC (Uganda) will research the nexus between digital technology access and education. The teams’ research will focus on accessible and inclusive schooling, including innovative ways to leverage Public-Private-Partnerships to improve access for all.

IPS (Sri Lanka) and SAWTEE (Nepal) will focus on post-pandemic recovery to build more sustainable, resilient and inclusive food systems in Sri Lanka and Nepal. By first understanding the short-to-medium and long-term impacts of the pandemic on food systems in both countries, and their adverse effects on vulnerable groups, the research will propose policy solutions. These will aim to support the recovery from the initial shock, and build up the overall resilience of food systems to withstand future shocks.

STIPRO (Tanzania) and NARO’s (Uganda) will research the pandemic’s effect on the fish value chain. Possible mitigation approaches will be explored with a comparative analysis of a ‘total lockdown’ situation in Uganda versus a ‘no lockdown’ situation in Tanzania.

The outcome of the research will form an Occasional Paper series of evidence-based policy solutions in the mid to long term. It will build on the ongoing work among Southern Voice member think tanks.

The Occasional Paper series will be available by the beginning of 2021.

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