Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters COVID-19 and Humanitarian Crises -- How Will NGOs Respond?
Before the coronavirus became a global pandemic, the world was confronting a series of humanitarian crises; ranging from wars to natural disasters. Much of the responsibility for providing emergency relief to people caught up in these kinds of crises falls on international non-governmental organizations, INGOs. Now, many of these organizations are taking on the additional responsibility of responding to the impact of the coronavirus in places already beset by crises.
So, how does a large INGO prepare its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what will that response look like? I was glad to be able to present these questions to Susannah Friedman. Susannah is the Humanitarian Policy Director for CARE, which is one of the larger global humanitarian organizations. It has a staff of over 6,000 and works in over 100 countries.
We start by discussing the importance of a $2 billion funding appeal launched by the UN to coordinate a global response to COVID-19. We then discuss how this pandemic is impacting the day-to-day work of CARE and what CARE is doing to prepare for COVID-19 in the places where it works. This includes an extended conversation about the particular impact of COVID-19 on the health and safety of women and girls already in vulnerable situations.