Covid-19: International Response

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I wholeheartedly endorse the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone. I declare an interest as chair of the UK board of the charity Search for Common Ground, which is a global leader in peacebuilding, currently implementing over 140 programmes and successfully partnering with the UK Government in more than 20 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. I therefore want to address my comments to the impact of Covid-19 in fragile and conflict-afflicted areas.

Covid-19 can shift relationships between civilians and authorities. Poor responses by the authorities may decrease trust, increase risks of violence against civilians and disproportionately impact marginalised groups. Many authorities have relied heavily on security forces to enforce restrictions, putting security actors in high-stress, close-contact situations with civilians, for which most lack adequate gender and de-escalation training. We know that economic frustrations triggered by the pandemic can fuel perceptions of injustice, inflame tensions in communities or increase competition for access to resources, which may increase violent activity.

Covid-19 is also likely to undermine women’s economic security and girls’ education. The pandemic is significantly disrupting many majority-female market sectors in fragile countries, such as domestic services, hospitality and petty trading in marketplaces. This threatens women’s economic security in the longer term, especially if women recover financially more slowly than men, as happened following the Ebola-related disruption in west Africa. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past. Restrictions on markets and border crossings interrupt informal trading, which is frequently women’s only path to financial independence. UNODC has warned that the crisis is creating the environment where women and girls are more at risk to trafficking. We know that temporary school closures disproportionately impact girls’ education and that girls are far less likely to return to school after income cuts leave their families unable to afford schooling for all their children.

All these impacts will have a much greater effect on conflict-afflicted and fragile states. I very much welcome the announcements to which the Minister referred and I appeal to the Government to ensure that a focus on peacebuilding is a continuous thread through all the programmes that she described.