COVID-19 Resources

Here you can access FSN Network's growing collection of resources related to food security programming and the COVID-19 pandemic

Sacha Myers / Save the Children

COVID-19 Resources

If you have additional resources you think would be useful for the community, please send them to us at info@fsnnetwork.org.

For more resources, join IDEAL for its COVID-19 Learning Series, which convenes emergency and non-emergency activity implementers to share with each other knowledge, learning, and practical approaches for adapting programming in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (NRM)

Guidance on Supporting Safe and Functioning Food Markets During COVID-19 by the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
This guidance was written to help support safe and functioning food markets while maximizing safety precautions to limit COVID-19 transmission.

COVID-19 and Agroecology Reading List by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
This list focuses on agroecology resources related to COVID-19 and will be continually updated and expanded as more resources become available.

Seed System Security Assessment: Specific Tools by SeedSystem
These tools are prepared by seed system and livelihood specialists to aid with COVID-19.

We Need to Change How We Grow Our Food by Medium
This blog focuses on how the industrial food system has helped create the structural conditions for this outbreak.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Livelihoods in Africa – The Effect on Remittances by FinDev Gateway
This webinar explores the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in Africa.

Seed Security Lessons + COVID-19 Lessons by SeedSystem
This guidance includes the effects of COVID-19 on seed systems as well as practical guidance for program response and is written by Louise Sperling (seedsystem.org) and Shawn McGuire (FAO).

COVID-19 Response: LEGS Guidance Note by the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS)
This guidance note aims to highlight ways in which the LEGS Approach can be applied in the current situation, both to inform on-going operations and also to guide preparations for the pandemic’s eventual recovery phase.

Solutions to Keep Agricultural Inputs Flowing in Crisis: Program Learning During COVID-19 by CARE
This resource focuses on the need for agricultural input during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food Security on the Frontlines: Using Agroecological Solutions for Household Food Production During Covid-19 and Beyond by SCALE
This blog focuses on how agroecological solutions can reshape and rethink food production in ways that support longer-term resilience.

Alternative Livelihoods

How will COVID-19 affect the world of work? by International Labour Organization (ILO)
This blog focuses on how COVID-19 will have far-reaching impacts on labor market outcomes.

Minimum Economic Recovery Standards Guidance in Response to COVID-19 by The SEEP Network
This resource summarizes how the MERS Standards can help you adapt your current programs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA)

Theory of Change (TOC) Review PowerPoint by IDEAL
This resource explains the process of using the Theory of Change and encourages staff to continue using the diagram throughout the activity cycle as a tool for learning, reflecting, and adapting.

From Ebola & Cholera to COVID-19: Applying lessons from responses during Cholera and Ebola outbreaks to COVID-19 response by CARE
This document draws lessons from some of the most severe epidemics in recent memory—the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, West Africa Ebola outbreak from 2014-2015, and the Haiti cholera outbreak in 2011 to inform COVID-19 response.

Online Collaboration Guide for Facilitators: A resource for using digital technology for collaboration and learning by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX)
This guide offers how to leverage digital technology for effective work, learning, and collaboration.

Facilitating Intentional Group Learning by FSG
This guide provides detailed instructions on how to conduct high-energy, inclusive, and productive experiences for group learning.

Reimagining Strategy in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis: A Triage Tool by the Center for Community Investment
This blog focuses on how COVID-19 is beginning to reorder community priorities and fundamentally reshape the work of community institutions and initiatives.

Adaptive leadership in the coronavirus response: bridging science, policy and practice by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
This briefing paper sets out key principles for what this might look like and proposes a roadmap for policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers to move towards such an approach as they tackle the unfolding crisis.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and CLA Toolkits by the USAID Learning Lab
USAID Learning Lab hosts three toolkits to provide USAID staff and implementing partners with the resources to plan, implement, and integrate monitoring, evaluating, and CLA-related practices into USAID programming.

Food Security

Recommendations for Adjusting Food Distribution Standard Operating Procedures in the Context of The Covid-19 Outbreak by the World Food Programme (WFP)
This resource aims to guide the revision of Food Distribution Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the COVID-19 context at the country level, to minimize the risk of exposure of personnel, partners, and beneficiaries.

Guidance for Cash-Based Transfers in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak by the World Food Programme (WFP)
This resource provides guidance and advice on cash-based transfer operational continuity while reducing the risk of COVID-19 contamination.

Coronavirus and the Implications for Food Systems and Policy by USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) and Northwestern University
This blog discusses how countries, governments, and communities' responses to COVID-19 may have profound implications for food security, nutrition, and food systems policy more broadly.

CVA in COVID-19 Contexts: Guidance from the CaLP Network by The Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP)
This resource intended to help organizations understand and prepare for likely impacts of COVID-19 on their work, consider whether CVA is right for the contexts in which they operate and – if so – the considerations at each stage of the program cycle for how to deliver safely and effectively.

Food Systems and Nutrition Resources by the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN)
This list of resources focuses on how the current global outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted food systems around the world.

Establishing Remote Monitoring and Assessment Capacities for COVID-19 Response: A Practical Guide by the Food Security Cluster
This resource focuses on remote monitoring tools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy Briefs by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
This collection of policy briefs presents a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the pandemic’s impacts on these areas.

Cash and Voucher Assistance During COVID-19 by CARE
This tip sheet answers frequently asked questions in regards to using cash and voucher assistance during COVID-19.

COVID-19: Potential impact on the world’s poorest people by the World Food Programme (WFP)
This resource is a WFP analysis of the economic and food security implications of the pandemic.

Q&A: COVID-19 pandemic – impact on food and agriculture by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
This brief focuses on the most frequently asked questions on the impact COVID-19 will have on food and agriculture.

COVID-19 Tip Sheets by Mercy Corps
These tip sheets focus on how COVID-19 impacts 1) cash, vouchers, & goods, 2) CVA payments & digital data management, and 3) nutrition and food security.

CVA & COVID-19: Adapting Delivery Mechanisms by the Cash and Learning Partnership (CaLP)
This video addresses field practitioner's challenges in relation to CVA programming and COVID-19.

Gender and At-Risk Populations

Gender Implications of Covid-19 Outbreaks in Development and Humanitarian Settings by CARE
This resource outlines how COVID-19 outbreaks in development or humanitarian contexts could disproportionately affect women and girls in a number of ways.

The COVID-19 Outbreak and Gender: Key Advocacy Points from Asia and the Pacific by Gender in Humanitarian Action (Asia and the Pacific)
This resource focuses on emerging gender impacts and recommendations in relation to the COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia and the Pacific.

COVID-19: How to include marginalized and vulnerable people in risk communication and community engagement by the World Health Organization (WHO), et al.
This resource outlines how important it is to include an inclusive lens in risk communication and community engagement about COVID-19.

Protecting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Promoting Gender Equality by the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA)
This resource focuses on how disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse.

Overcoming the ‘tyranny of the urgent’: integrating gender into disease outbreak preparedness and response by the Gender and Development Journal
This resource focuses on the gender dimensions of disease outbreaks, and preparedness policies and responses, by providing a multi-level analysis of gender-related gaps.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Violence against Women and Girls by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAID)
This resource focuses on emerging evidence that suggests there are several ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact on violence against women and girls.

Identifying & Mitigating Gender-based Violence Risks within the COVID-19 Response by the Global Protection Cluster and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee
This document presents an initial summary of potential GBV risk mitigation actions, based on established good practice, that is starting points to address GBV risks in this unprecedented situation.

Gender and Social Inclusion and COVID-19: Impacts and Recommendations for Agriculture and Market Systems Project Implementation by the ACDI/VOCA
This resource provides recommendations for how development organizations can address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women and girls.

Gender, Youth & Livelihood Programs in Food and Water Systems: COVID-19 Guidance by CARE
This resource focuses on how the operating environment for food and water system programs that focus on gender, youth, and livelihoods has changed in light of COVID-19.

Rapid Need Assessment: An inclusive response to COVID-19 in Nepal by Humanity & Inclusion
This assessment focuses on how persons with disabilities face significant barriers to protect themselves and their family from the COVID-19 and its broader impacts in Nepal.

Including People with Disabilities in Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Guidance for Development Partners by Sightsavers
This document provides practical guidance for development partners to develop disability-inclusive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic during the emergency phase of the COVID19 pandemic.

Resources to Support Inclusive and Equitable COVID-19 Response by the Minimum Standards for Mainstreaming Gender Equality
This blog lists resources to support inclusive and equitable design, programming, and implementation for COVID response and recovery efforts.

Humanitarian Assistance

COVID-19 Response Portal by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP)
This portal holds a collection of guidelines, tools, papers, and lessons learned from the ALNAP Membership which is relevant to responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Learning Resources by DisasterReady.org
This collection of resources from health organizations such as WHO, CDC, KonTerra, and EJ4 will help COVID-19 responders work safely and promote infection prevention, preparedness, and well-being.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Summary of Guidance for Nutrition in Emergencies Practitioners by the Global Technical Assistance Mechanism for Nutrition (GTAM)
This resource provides an overview of available guidance and tools on COVID-19 to assist Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE) practitioners in integrating COVID-19 preparedness and response to humanitarian nutrition responses.

The Sphere standards and the Coronavirus response by SPHERE
This resource outlines how individuals, communities, and humanitarian actors best respond to the COVID-19 outbreak using the Sphere Handbook.

Leadership during a Pandemic: What Your Municipality Can Do by Pan American Health Organization, et al.
This resource was designed to assist mayors, their municipal leadership teams, and other local leaders to work together to prepare, respond, and recover from a pandemic.

Scaling-Up Covid-19 Outbreak Readiness and Response Operations in Humanitarian Situations, Including Camps and Camp-Like Settings by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
This resource addresses the needs and considerations required in humanitarian situations in scaling-up readiness and response operations for the COVID-19 outbreak through effective multi-sectoral partnerships.

Global Humanitarian Response Plan: COVID-19 (April – December 2020) by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
This resource is a joint effort by members of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), including UN, other international organizations and NGOs with a humanitarian mandate, to analyze and respond to the direct public health and indirect immediate humanitarian consequences of the pandemic, particularly on people in countries already facing other crises.

Guidance Note: Cash and Voucher Assistance in Response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Health Cluster
This guidance note focuses on the role of Cash and Voucher Assistance to reduce financial barriers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically, in countries targeted by the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.

COVID-19 Portal by FinDev Gateway
This resource hub provides a collective space for the FinDev Gateway community to share experiences, ideas, and lessons learned for global microfinance and financial inclusion during COVID-19.

COVID-19 and fragile places: Building resilience to a pandemic by Mercy Corps
This blog focuses on how the coronavirus is the latest of many risks calling for responses that strengthen resilience.

COVID-19 Rapid Markets Impact Report by Mercy Corps
This report highlights the economic and food security impacts of COVID-19, with an emphasis on how local economies and market actors are coping and adapting.

Application Lab for Emergency Implementers: Summary of Resources on Participant Targeting by IDEAL
The following is a comprehensive list of resources shared during IDEAL’s Application Lab for Emergency Implementers, including resources referenced in homework assignments by participants.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Guidelines for Adapting Third-Party Monitoring in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak by i-APS
This resource aims to provide actionable guidelines for adapting TPM approaches in the current COVID-19 pandemic, and is designed to be used with country- and program-level risk assessments to minimize the risk of exposure while ensuring program accountability.

Best practices for conducting phone surveys by J-PAL
This resource is a living document that aggregates crowd-sourced tips and factors to consider when conducting remote surveys (in particular phone surveys) while practicing social distancing.

Impact evaluations in the time of COVID-19 by the World Bank
This resource focuses on the immediate response in terms of what COVID-19 might mean for both interventions and ongoing surveys.

Tipsheet: CARM & COVID-19 by Mercy Corps
This tipsheet serves as guidance to help field teams think through different ways to mitigate the spread and impact of COVID-19 through CARM feedback channels.

Collecting Data with Mobile Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries During COVID-19 by RTI International
This resource lists tips for researchers considering collecting survey data using short message service (SMS) that use text messaging or interactive voice response (IVR)/automated voice surveys.

Using mobile phone surveys to track resilience and post-disaster recovery: a how-to guide by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
This toolkit aims to help development and humanitarian actors to decide whether mobile phone surveys could be of use to them and inspire them to carry out, document, and share their experiences in conducting remote surveys.

Guide for Adopting Remote Monitoring Approaches During COVID-19 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
This guide aims to provide information for Agency staff and implementing partners on remote monitoring techniques and when they can be employed.

Nutrition

COVID-19 Nutrition Resources by USAID Advancing Nutrition
Produced by USAID Advancing Nutrition, this extensive collection of resources related to multi-sectoral nutrition programming and COVID-19 will be updated as new resources become available. If you have additional nutrition resources related to COVID-19 you think would be useful for the community, please send them to info@advancingnutrition.org.

WASH

Global WASH Cluster COVID-19 Resources by the Global WASH Cluster
This resource is a Google Drive managed by the Global WASH Cluster with collected global, regional, and country-level resources for COVID-19.

Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management for the COVID-19 virus by the World Health Organization (WHO)
This resource supplements the IPC documents by referencing and summarizing the WHO guidance on water, sanitation and health care waste that is relevant to viruses, including COVID-19.

UNICEF WASH Programme contribution to COVID-19 prevention and response by The United Nations Children's Fund is a United Nations (UNICEF)
This resource outlines that the provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygienic conditions play an essential role in protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including the current COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 Emergency Response: UNICEF Hygiene Programming Guidance Note by The United Nations Children's Fund is a United Nations (UNICEF)
This resource provides guidance on which aspects to consider when planning and implementing a hygiene promotion campaign as part of a broader risk communication & community engagement strategy.

Messaging for WASH and Health Sectors, including on COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO)
This set of resources is a set of five documents with key messaging for supporting WASH in HCF advocacy. The set includes key messages and talking points, including for WASH & COVID-19.

COVID-19: Resources for Social and Behavior Change by Compass
This is a curated collection of social and behavior change (SBC) resources that address proper hygiene techniques, correction of misinformation, stigma reduction, and more.

Risk Communication and Community Engagement for COVID-19 by the READY Initiative
This page includes the recording and webinar materials from the READY Initiative's webinar on this topic.

COVID-19 for SBCC Practitioners, Part 1 and Part 2 by the 2020 International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit
These two webinar recordings include helpful tips and resources for social and behavior change communication in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Promotion Materials by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
These printable posters can be used to help raise awareness about handwashing in highly visible public areas, such as schools, workplaces, and restrooms. They are designed for all audiences, and some are available in multiple sizes and languages.

Behavior Change: A Step-by-Step Guide for Interventions by Action Against Hunger
This guide aims to guide organizations wishing to design a behavior change strategy, step by step. Here you will find tools that will allow you to choose the methodology that best suits your context and objective.