Dear RDI Network,
We are currently being bombarded with news regarding COVID-19 to the extent that it might seem – and, most of the time is – overwhelming. Nonetheless, it is important to remind ourselves that it is essential to be prepared and well informed about what is and what is to come. The development sector has been acutely affected by the pandemic. In order to support our members to continue to adapt and utilise best-practice, we have created a broad list of resources that will be featured semi-permanently in our online newsletter. Subscribe here if you’re not already on our list.
Different topics are discussed and everyone, whether you are a development practitioner or a researcher, will find something useful and noteworthy. The resources provided in the newsletter will change periodically, but we also invite anyone to send us through any requests or additions they wish to be included in the library of resources.
Our curated resource list is divided into four different categories:
- Leadership – supporting managers and leaders to guide staff wellbeing
- Nothing About Us Without Us – focusing on needs and lived experiences of people from under-served and marginalised communities
- Adapting Community Engagement – ensuring research still engages with local communities, albeit a little differently
- Adapting M&E Approaches – effective solutions to continue monitoring and evaluation data collection
We want to filter and reduce the noise produced by this sudden overload of information. As Vu says, time for organising and advocacy for just change is now.
Leadership
- Workplace quiz: COVID-19 Employee Well-Being Tool. Use the tool to quickly gauge the collective emotional and mental well-being of your team. Developed by Emplify.
- DLP COVID-19 Leadership Observatory. Supporting leadership by collecting and summarising leadership focussed pieces most useful for understanding developmental leadership during the crisis. Weekly newsletter. [Newsletter subscription]
- Highlighting Migrant and Refugee Women’s Leadership in COVID-19 in Australia’s Health Response hosted Harmony Alliance [webinar]
Nothing about us without us
Inclusive COVID-19 communication
- Translated resources for COVID-19. Supplied by the Department of Health, Australia. [Webpage and PDFs]
- Our Site: Disasters and Crises [Webpage & PDFs]. Easy-read English templates to explain COVID-19, precautions and restrictions. Includes Zoom instructions for people with disabilities to reduce social isolation. Developed by Women with Disabilities Australia.
- COVID-19 Statistic Traffic as Text Format. Suitable for countries without access to highspeed internet, visual data and statistical graphs [webpage]
Supporting locally-led development
- The Localisation of Humanitarian Assistance as a Response to COVID-19. By Alexander Betts, Evan Easton-Calabria and Kate Pincock. UNSW [Webpage]
- The pandemic can be a catalyst for decolonisation in Africa. By David Mwambari. Al Jazeera [Webpage]
- COVID-19 accentuates the case for a global, rather than an international, development paradigm. World Development on ScienceDirect [Journal article – PDF. Full access]
- Pacific Hub’s COVID-19 Aid to the Pacific Tracker presents data on what has been donated or pledged to Pacific Island Countries to support them in dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. Developed by Griffith University. [Website]
- Guidance Note by Humanitarian Advisory Group and Glow Consultants to: Remote Humanitarian Monitoring released May2020 [pdf]
Supporting vulnerable peoples
- Living Guidelines – supporting Australia’s healthcare professionals with continually updated, evidence-based clinical guidelines for caring for people with COVID-19. Weekly updates from the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce. [Webpage]
- Social Science in Humanitarian Action – resources that include emergency response news and several briefings related to the impact of COVID-19 in affected and vulnerable communities and regions. [Webpage]
Supporting gender equity and LGBTIQA+ peoples
- Effects of COVID-19 on LGBTIQA+ people. Briefing note. By Edge Effect. [PDF]
- LGBTQ+ people left out by exclusionary COVID-19 aid practices – an opinion piece written in The New Humanitarian. [Blog post]
- COVID-19 – Why Gender Matters. A collection of articles from ODI discussing various gender issues to be addressed during the pandemic. Ranging from the increase of domestic violence, to health, to livelihoods. [Webpage with PDF downloads]
Supporting people with disability
- A COVID-19 webinar series by Inclusion International, the international network of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. [Webinar series]
- Disability ethics in the coronavirus crisis by Dr. Satendra Singh. [Article]
- COVID and disability by DevPolicy. [Blog post]
- COVID-19 & Disability-Inclusion. Inclusion advisory hub for different disabilities and development initiatives. From DID4All. [Webpage]
Adapting Research & Community Engagement
- Resources for Community Engagement during COVID-19. Guidance note, checklist and tip sheet. By Michelle Farrington and Ricardo Fal Dutra Santos. Oxfam [PDF]
- Doing fieldwork in a pandemic. By Deborah Lupton. Innovative Social Research Methods [Google Docs]
- Adapting approaches to deliver quality education in response to COVID-19. By Patrick Hannahan. Brookings [Webpage]
- Engagement in time of COVID-19 [Webinars]. Free webinar series from MosaicLab. Topics include appropriate engagement, connecting with those ‘hard to reach’ and the right methods and activities in an online environment.
- Resources for junior researchers with social research project affected by COVID-19. Developed by University of Technology Sydney (UTS). [PDF]
- Sharon Friel speaks with Joan Leach and Shirley Leitch about COVID-19 and communications. [Podcast]
Adapting M&E Approaches
- Adapting evaluation in the time of COVID-19. Part 1: MANAGE. By Alice Macfarlan at BetterEvaluation. [Webpage]
- 8 Ways to Digitize Your MERL Practices During COVID-19 Response [Webpage] from ICT Works
- Qualitative M&E During COVID-19: Sharing Tips for Remote Data Collection. [Webinar Recording]. From the IDEAL online series: Monitoring and Evaluation of Food Security Programs in a COVID-19 Environment
- Collecting Data with Mobile Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries During COVID-19. [Webpage] Tips from Charles Lau from RTI International
As always, everyone at the RDI Network wishes you to remain safe, sane and informed. We will do everything in our power to keep providing you with relevant articles, webinars and other resources to help you make the best possible decisions. Together, we will get through these trying times, and we will emerge better and more prepared for what is to come.
