In April 2020, Globesight launched the COVID-19 global response tracker under its Advocacy and Knowledge arm, a weekly round-up of the latest COVID-19 response developments across the globe.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that there was a significant information gap, particularly around the situation in the Global East & South, which are areas of focus for Globesight. We also knew that the support needed across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia would be immense. While we often work behind the scenes, we wanted to bring to light greater awareness of the COVID-19 situation and response to help make sure key stakeholders could be better informed in their decision-making around the pandemic.
The COVID-19 global response tracker, in tandem with the Stay Safe Africa COVID-19 tracker, which focused on Africa, provided timely and relevant updates and analyses of key philanthropic efforts and institutional responses to COVID-19 across the private, philanthropic, and multilateral sectors. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, global and national funding and aid were invested to respond to the devastating impacts of the new health crisis. As the world rapidly mobilized around the unique, evolving needs of this challenging and unprecedented pandemic, Globesight found it was important to provide a resource to track the movement and impact of global aid.
From April 2020 to September 2021, Globesight systematically tracked the COVID-19 response and gathered key insights on the effects of the pandemic across relevant sectors. Knowing where and how aid flows contributed to better understanding the successes, gaps, and shortcomings of this unprecedented worldwide mobilization effort. The COVID-19 trackers added significant value to our understanding of funding mechanisms and opportunities in times of crises and provided perspectives into trends at play in the aid and philanthropic sectors. They presented an opportunity to evaluate how swift, efficient, and equitable aid responses were throughout the many deadly COVID-19 waves that countries encountered, and to demonstrate the need for similar systematic monitoring resources that can capture rapid developments in real-time. After a successful run with over 75 trackers sent out, the COVID-19 global response tracker concluded in September 2021. The tracker’s archive can be accessed here as a resource.
The COVID-19 situation remains ongoing. Today, more than ever, we need an integrated response across global health and development issues to address underlying challenges. Our decision to bring to a close these trackers is not because we feel that the situation has been resolved vis-a-vis COVID-19. We will be bringing forth more of these thoughts with platforms like 2030.solutions and other forums.