Studying intergovernmental responses to Covid-19 in the Global South

PSRP researcher Dr Kathryn Nash has been awarded £1861 from the University of Edinburgh College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences fund for research on Covid-19 related challenges to study the responses of Global South regional and sub-regional organisations to the Covid-19 crisis.

Responses at the international and national levels have been widely tracked.  However, many regions in the Global South have more recently dealt with public health crises and frequently deal with trans-border challenges. Responses from Global South intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) to the Covid-19 crisis may provide examples of effective strategies that other regions could adopt.

This project will gather information on the responses of IGOs to the Covid-19 crisis through the collection of primary source documents, such as press releases, joint statements, declarations, resolutions, and other similar documents. It will then produce research on the responses of organisations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to answer two questions: First, how have IGOs responded? Second, what strategies developed to react to this crisis will become part of standard operations and potentially inform responses to future crises?

The initial outputs from this study will be a series of blogs on the responses of regional and sub-regional organisations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.  In addition, Dr Nash will collaborate with the University of Edinburgh Covid-19 response governance mapping initiative to provide information on regional and sub-regional responses in Africa that will feed into their work on detailed case studies of governance responses in African states. In the medium-term, the project will produce detailed reports and articles on regional and sub-regional responses to Covid-19 that ties in with our broader work on IGO responses to trans-border peace and security challenges.

The project is being led by Dr Kathryn Nash in collaboration with Monalisa Adhikari and Hannah den Boer.

Read more about our work on Covid-19.

Image: Illustration by Laura Makaltses via Unsplash