Refugees and other migrants are part of the global workforce of essential workers responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: every day they save lives and contribute to our economies and societies. Yet their contributions can be hidden, their skills undervalued, and their rights denied. These examples of reforms, new initiatives, and campaigns to recognize and better support migrant essential workers in the COVID-19 response demonstrate that change is possible. Regular updates! ODI collected already more than 80 examples worldwide and presents them with an impressive visualization.
Category: Security in cities
Cities SHIFT: Capacity building and networking for climate- and people-friendly mobility report
“With the pressing issues of congestion, air pollution, inequality, and climate change, the question is no longer if a sustainable and ecomobile transportation system will exist but when. Effective implementation can be realized by making an informed decision. This is imperative because you cannot manage what you do not know. This report demonstrates how the EcoMobility SHIFT+ tool can be adopted to assess and measure the transportation system of six cities in China, India, and Uganda. The EcoMobility SHIFT+ is a useful tool for local authorities to measure, assess, and act to improve ecomobility. Furthermore, evaluation and monitoring is an essential step in the process of developing sustainable urban mobility plans.”
Tackling coronavirus (COVID‑19) Contributing to a global effort
On its microsite about COVID-19 the OECD is compiling data, analysis and recommendations on a range of topics to address the emerging health, economic and societal crisis, facilitate co-ordination, and contribute to the necessary global action when confronting this enormous collective challenge.
In addition it offers “a country policy tracker”.
What are countries doing to contain the spread of the coronavirus? How are countries helping people, small businesses and the economy to weather the crisis and beyond? This Country Policy Tracker helps you to navigate the global response.
In addition – on city level – a summary can be found in the briefing note on
Cities policy responses
https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/…
Cities may be better equipped than the rest of their country to respond to the COVID19 crisis due to their well-developed health care facilities. However, cities are densely populated places where people live and gather, thus at risk of spreading the virus due to the close proximity among residents and challenges to implement social distancing. The briefing note provides examples of measures taken by cities to respond to the current coronavirus epidemic, clustered around six categories: i) communication and awareness raising, ii) workplace and commuting; iii) social distance; iv) vulnerable groups; v) local service delivery; and vi) support to business.
If you wish to submit examples of how your cities respond to COVID-19, please contact
Incremental community-based exit strategies for initiating and removing COVID-19 lockdowns
“Many nations across the Asia-Pacific have implemented guidelines for social distancing and introduced lockdowns to control COVID-19. However, now many leaders face the question of how they will be able to relieve their communities of the protective constraints in place. Who decides when safe is ‘safe enough’, or what level of residual risk is acceptable? Getting this wrong is something no leader can afford. By applying a community-based incremental approach to the easing of lockdowns, tailored to demographic and social stratifications of risk, much of the guesswork can be eliminated.”
Cities for Global Health
As of 2 April, 1 p.m., 43 cities shared already 144 initiatives – worth browsing it! And share your own!
The global crisis generated by the COVID-19 outbreak is pushing cities of all shapes to give immediate answers to an emergency that is seriously threatening not only citizens’ health, but the social cohesion, the economy and the infrastructures of our territories.
While the virus spreads regardless of administrative boundaries, territorial scales or weather conditions, affecting millions of individuals simultaneously in different ways, it drives us to overcome management barriers. In metropolitan spaces, the collaboration of central cities and peripheries can make a huge difference to ensure that quality of life is not further threatened under scenarios of fragility and that no one is left behind.
Collaboration between administrations of different levels is key to deal with this crisis. Seeking to foster collective responses and facilitate the access of decision-makers to first-hand experiences about how urban areas across the globe can deal with situations alike, local and regional governments of all sizes from across the globe are invited to share:
Initiatives (e.g. plans, strategies, policies) designed specifically as a reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak
Initiatives designed to face other health emergencies such as sanitary crisis or epidemics.
COVID-19 in informal urban settlements
“Most of the information about COVID-19 and who is at risk is based on data from middle and high income contexts. Many of the recommendations (to wash hands, self-isolate and physically distance) assume basic living conditions and access to essential services (e.g. water, space etc). […] Many of these strategies will not be possible to the same degree in low and middle income countries (LMICs), and especially not in urban informal settlements. With 1 billion people living in informal settlements, there is an urgent need to consider feasibility and develop locally appropriate approaches. This brief sets out key considerations for protecting informal urban settlements from the spread and impacts of COVID-19 and discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local action.”
Public Health Protection and Epidemic Control at Municipal Level
What kind of measures are necessary to sustainably protect citizens from infectious diseases and epidemics? How have German municipalities organised their response model? And what is the situation like in other cities and regions around the world? Moreover, what can be done to strengthen local health systems? These questions were at the heart of the dialogue event ‘Public Health Protection and Epidemic Control at Municipal Level’.
In cooperation with the City of Frankfurt’s Public Health Department, the international urban networking platform Connective Cities invited German and international stakeholders from Brazil, Jordan and Liberia to exchange their experience and showcase their good practices in Frankfurt from 25 to 27 November. This event attracted medical doctors and staff from municipalities, state governments and ministries as well as experts from the field of infectious disease control and crisis management.
The primary objective of this event was to map out practicable prevention strategies and to collectively identify project ideas for controlling and responding to biological hazards
Much of this is more relevant today than ever.
Further information and impressions of the event in the short documentation, in the detailed report and in the video (on YouTube)
The impact of COVID-19 in informal settlements – are we paying enough attention?
As we in the global North brace ourselves for the coronavirus pandemic we are being told to wash our hands (for 20 seconds!) and self-isolate if sick. But what if you cannot do either of those things? One billion people live in slums or informal settlements where water for basic needs is in short supply – let alone 20 seconds worth – and where space is constrained and rooms are often shared. Yet discussion about vulnerability in these contexts has been startlingly absent.
A recent IIED blog raised the issue of poor infrastructure in ‘slums’ and informal settlements and rightly concluded that an overhaul of urban planning and development is needed to bring about improved infrastructure and public health. But in the meantime, we need to consider how COVID-19 could impact people living in densely populated and unsanitary environments, and what could mitigate the worst of these impacts. This is challenging as the health and social needs of these populations are often invisible.
So what are the health experiences, challenges and priorities of people in informal settlements? How do residents organise to address existing health threats? And how does this provide a basis for a COVID-19 response? These are the questions IDS and SLURC have been exploring as part of an ESRC research project on post-Ebola urban health in Sierra Leone, and also in a new GCRF funded hub on Accountability for Informal Urban Equity – ARISE.
Some of the insights from this research and some potential lessons for COVID-19.
How Are Cities Dealing With The COVID-19 Outbreak?
More than half the world’s population live in urban areas. Cities are hubs for transnational businesses and traffic movements. When infectious disease outbreaks occur, cities accelerate the spread and transmission of the disease through increased human contact. But cities also play a central role in preparing for, mitigating and adapting to pandemics. Those that are open, transparent, collaborative and adopt comprehensive responses are better equipped to manage pandemics than those that are not. This article explores why cities like Taipei and Singapore seemed better prepared to deal with the current COVID-19 outbreak and why it is important to learn from past pandemics.
Reclaiming Play in Cities Report
The report, launched at the 10th World Urban Forum, reviews the evidence around learning through play and the impact that city and urban environments have on children’s access to play and ultimately, their overall development.
Play is increasingly being recognised as the engine of optimal child development, future happiness and achievement. Modern play has become a multi-dimensional, multilayered experience, where narratives and characters flow easily between different play-spaces. From virtual, online and augmented life-worlds into the physical domain and back again, play has become a seamless set of interlinked experiences and opportunities for learning and pleasure.
It is therefore imperative that we design and build cities that meet the needs of children: seeking their input during the design process, providing them with access to play and education, and facilitating their social and cultural interactions.
To better understand the complexity of play in cities and support the design of play-based interventions for children optimal development the report offers a first-of-its-kind Urban Play Framework. The Urban Play Framework assesses four Dimensions
critical to ensure a play-friendly environment for optimal childhood development: they focus on children’s needs, time and opportunity to play, the support and facilitation that enable Learning through Play, and the socio-cultural and urban systems that contribute to play in cities.