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On 25 November 2021, the CORE Knowledge Translation Services team at the Institute of Development Studies, UK, hosted an online clinic session to facilitate the sharing of experiences and mutual learning on how CORE projects have or can adapt their research activities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The clinic was attended by 22 CORE members from 12 projects and featured contributions from two CORE projects: The Youth Question in Africa: Impact, Response and Protection Measures in the IGAD Region and A New Digital Deal for an Inclusive Post-Covid-19 Social Compact: Developing Digital Strategies for Social and Economic Reconstruction. This learning guide captures the practical insights and advice from the event, to help inform the practice of participants and other projects across the portfolio.

Since February 2021, countless lives have been lost in India, which has compounded the social and economic devastation caused by the second wave of COVID-19. The sharp surge in cases across the country overwhelmed the health infrastructure, with people left scrambling for hospital beds, critical drugs, and oxygen. As of May 2021, infections began to come down in urban areas. However, the effects of the second wave continued to be felt in rural areas. This is the worst humanitarian and public health crisis the country has witnessed since independence; while the continued spread of COVID-19 variants will have regional and global implications. With a slow vaccine rollout and overwhelmed health infrastructure, there is a critical need to examine India's response and recommend measures to further arrest the current spread of infection and to prevent and prepare against future waves. This brief is a rapid social science review and analysis of the second wave of COVID-19 in India. It draws on emerging reports, literature, and regional social science expertise to examine reasons for the second wave, explain its impact, and highlight the systemic issues that hindered the response. This brief puts forth vital considerations for local and national government, civil society, and humanitarian actors at global and national levels, with implications for future waves of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries. This review is part of the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform (SSHAP) series on the COVID-19 response in India. It was developed for SSHAP by Mihir R. Bhatt (AIDMI), Shilpi Srivastava (IDS), Megan Schmidt-Sane (IDS), and Lyla Mehta (IDS) with input and reviews from Deepak Sanan (Former Civil Servant; Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Policy Research), Subir Sinha (SOAS), Murad Banaji (Middlesex University London), Delhi Rose Angom (Oxfam India), Olivia Tulloch (Anthrologica) and Santiago Ripoll (IDS). It is the responsibility of SSHAP.

भारत में फ़रवरी 2021 से अनगिनत जानों की हानि हुई है जिसने कोविड-19 द्वारा हुए सामाजिक और आर्थिक प्रलय को बढ़ा दिया है । देश भर में तीव्र गति से बढ़ते संक्रमित मामलों ने बुनियादी स्वास्थ्य ढाँचे को हिला दिया है, जिससे आम आदमी अस्पताल में बिस्तर, आवश्यक दवाइयों और ऑक्सिजन के लिए हाथ पांव मरने के लिए मजबूर हो गया । मई 2021 तक शहरों में संक्रमण का प्रभाव कम होना शुरू हुआ। हालाँकि गाँवों में दूसरी लहर का प्रकोप जारी है । आज़ादी के बाद देश सबसे बड़ी और बुरी मानवीय तथा सार्वजनिक स्वास्थ्य संकट का साक्षी बना है, जबकि क्षेत्रीय और वैश्विक स्तर पर लगातार फैलते हुए कोविड-19 प्रकारों के विविध परिणाम होंगे । धीमी गति से शुरू हुआ टीका करण अभियान और स्वास्थ्य सेवायों पर अत्यधिक भार को देखते हुए, भारत की प्रतिक्रिया, संक्रमण को और फैलने से रोकने के लिए उपायों की योजना, भविष्य के लहरों के खिलाफ तैयारी, की जाँच करने की बहुत अधिक ज़रूरी है । यह संक्षिप्त भारत में आई कोविड-19 की दूसरी लहर का सामाजिक विज्ञान समीक्षा व विश्लेषण है । यह दूसरी लहर की जाँच हेतु उदीयमान रिपोर्ट्स, साहित्य, क्षेत्रीय सामाजिक विज्ञान का एक चित्र खींचता है, उसका प्रभाव समझाता है, और उन सभी व्यवस्थित मुद्दों को उभरता है जो सही प्रतिक्रिया देने में रुकावट सिद्ध हुए । यह संक्षिप्त वैश्विक और राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर स्थानीय और राष्ट्रीय सरकार, नागरिक समाज और मानवतावादी विचारकों के लिए महत्वपूर्ण चिंतन रखता है, जिसमें लघु और मध्यम आय वाले देशों में कोविड-19 की भावी लहरों के लिए निहितार्थ हैं । यह समीक्षा भारत में कोविड-19 प्रतिक्रिया पर सोशीयल सायन्स इन ह्युमेनीटेरीयन एक्शन प्लेटफोर्म (SSHAP संक्षिप्त) का हिस्सा है । इसे मिहिर आर. भट्ट (ए.आई.डी.एम.आई.), शिल्पी श्रीवास्तव (आई.डी.एस.), मेगन श्मिट-साने (आई.डी.एस.), और लैला मेहता (आई.डी.एस.) द्वारा दीपक सानन (पूर्व सिविल सर्वेंट, सीनियर विजिटिंग फेलो, सेंटर फॉर पॉलिसी रिसर्च), सुबीर सिन्हा (एस.ओ.ए.एस.), मुराद बानाजी (मिडलसेक्स यूनिवर्सिटी लंदन), रोज एंगोम (ऑक्सफैम इंडिया), ओलिविया तुलोच (एंथ्रोलोजिका), और सैंटियागो रिपोल (आई.डी.एस.) से इनपुट और समीक्षा के साथ एस.एस.एस.ए.पी. के लिए विकसित किया गया था । यह एस.एस.एच.ए.पी. की जिम्मेवारी है ।

Indigenous peoples have experienced heightened vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic and face disproportionately high COVID-19 mortality. To better address these vulnerabilities, it is critical to adapt COVID-19 programmes to the particular needs of indigenous peoples, as articulated by indigenous voices. It is also vital to link up with responses already ongoing and led by indigenous peoples to mitigate this crisis. This SSHAP brief discusses key considerations for COVID-19 response and recovery, with a particular focus on the Amazon region of South America. The considerations in this brief are drawn from a review of evidence and insights provided by indigenous leaders and researchers from several different continents. The considerations are rooted in key principles for indigenous community engagement, as articulated by indigenous peoples and organisations. This brief may be of interest to health and development policymakers and practitioners working in indigenous communities and territories and can be read in conjunction with the SSHAP background report on ‘Indigenous Peoples and COVID-19.’

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing social inequalities and vulnerabilities, with the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups bearing the greatest health, social, and economic burdens. Beyond documenting these vulnerabilities, there is a need to mitigate them and support the resilience of marginalised communities. ‘Community resilience’ can bolster community capacity to cope with the pressures of various shocks; this brief explores how its concepts can be applied to epidemics. It reviews the grey and academic literature on different approaches to community resilience. It covers 1) terminology, 2) lessons from practice, 3) the context of community resilience, 4) a systems approach, and 5) key human and social capacities. Social justice, inequality, equity, and fairness are highlighted as themes in need of further development for resilience as it relates to epidemic preparedness and response. This brief was developed for SSHAP by IDS (led by Megan Schmidt-Sane with Tabitha Hrynick) with Anthrologica (Eva Niederberger).

As the unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is a need to robustly support vulnerable communities and bolster ‘community resilience.’ A community resilience approach means to work in partnership with communities and strengthen their capacities to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, including its social and economic fallout. However, this is not resilience which returns the status quo. This moment demands transformative change in which inequalities are tackled and socioeconomic conditions are improved. While a community resilience approach is relatively new to epidemic preparedness and response, it frames epidemic shocks more holistically and from the perspective of a whole system. While epidemic response often focuses on mitigating vulnerabilities, there is an opportunity to use a resilience framework to build existing capacities to manage health, social, psychosocial, and economic impacts of an epidemic. This makes a resilience approach more localised, adaptable, and sustainable in the long-term, which are key tenets of an epidemic response informed by social science. This brief presents considerations for how health and humanitarian practitioners can support communities to respond to and recover from COVID-19 using a community resilience approach. This brief was developed for SSHAP by IDS (led by Megan Schmidt-Sane with Tabitha Hrynick) with Anthrologica (Eva Niederberger).