The COVID-19 outbreak is muddling Governments, businesses and individuals to a potent cocktail of life and livelihood. What we are now witnessing is havoc on countries around the globe. It is already transforming the lives of billions of people, causing a health crisis across the world, eventually forcing the economy to face turmoil.
To put it into context, the COVID-19 situation is having an intriguing impact on the Earth, its resources and eventually on human lives. The pathogens are more likely to travel faster and it’s one of those times where the Government, corporates and the social purpose organizations (SPO’s) need to act collectively and in collaboration to not let the ship sink before it’s too late. We need to analyze, work and invest in what we are good at with the given resources.
With the pre-eminence on human lives, there is no doubt that the GDP will have a multiplier effect. Education might face a long crisis where parents may prefer their children to go to nearby schools. The spike in food prices may have a demand-supply gap ultimately leading to the unavailability of groceries. The pandemic might have an effect on mental well-being, which often takes a back step when we talk about public health.
In such a scenario, there can be an interplay of the three sectors and looking forward as a Development Manager (DM hereon), we should play an important role is to develop a strong shield to the people in large against the risk associated with the pandemic.
- Scalability of testing: Since the Government resources are definite and the labs are limited for testing. First and foremost the challenge is to enlarge the testing centers and making it both accessible and affordable. In this scenario, the corporates can contribute through CSR and help in mass screening. For this, a Corona Prevention Fund (CPF) can be created. SPO’s can also contribute through donors and funders to have a large scale impact. As a DM, it’s critical to ensure if the testing centers are within reach of the community in a more purpose-oriented direction by expanding its collective strength with available resources.
- Limited medical apparatus: Whatever is accessible by the medical shops and what the Ministry of health and family welfare has distributed has limited space. The challenge is of production of medical apparatus in which corporates can invest and provide infrastructure. Also, the SPO’s can think through effective and innovative ways to help in the reachability of the medical apparatus. It’s important in such a scenario, a DM should have a sense of urgency but not for a solution and putting the right tool to use.
- Minimize the negative impact: The effect such pandemic has is across various spectrums and such a situation can force people into a psychological fear. The students may fear to go to school/colleges. In this case, the Government can give recognition to online classes and corporates infrastructure for holding online classes. SPO’s can spread awareness through online platforms. In order to streamline priorities, the DM should review the situation at large and help to maintain the confidence of the people by minimizing negative impacts on health by public announcements in communities and designing creative ways of thinking as a systems thinker. Since it’s a non-program factor the consequence remains unknown, thus as a DM, it’s essential to make people aware of the effects. For Example: providing innovative ways like Graphic cards with catchy phrases can bring people’s attention.
- Providing resources to communities to increase their resilience: Due to definite resources of the Government, SPO’s can play an active actor to provide resources like food and shelter to people who are stuck in borders and who are not getting proper delivery of resources. By advocating the rights of the communities and people in general, a DM can endorse and influence for providing sustainable critical public health infrastructure and community support at the time of crisis. For example: collaborating with the vendors and public sector to voice the impact on the livelihood of people and providing them essential services through home delivery.
- Effective communication: The digital and online media across the public is believed to be having mixed information about the spread of the virus. One of the examples of misinformation being the Telangana landlords leaving doctors homeless who feared the spread of COVID-19 in the locality. In such a scenario, proactive communication is needed to reduce the detrimental impact on people. A DM can bridge the gap through social media platforms by creating a buzz through effective communication and right guidance to social distancing and awareness.
- Human-animal interactions: The shutting down of food resources not only affect humans but make animals vulnerable to find alternative options as trash on the streets vanish and dumps remain empty. As the search for food intensifies and affects the food chain, a DM should emphasize on their voice by collaborating with some SPO’s who work for helping animal’s rights and provide means to reach out to the street animals and others in need.
- Small business: A small business is a means of livelihood and also a place to get a daily supply of goods in rural and urban settlements. The Government can, therefore, allow e-commerce to run operations and give recognition like Zomato and Big Basket being considered as “essential services”. Where the SPO’s can increase the supply chains by bringing small business into the picture. Thus, a DM can implement strategies to supply groceries from vendors, ration shops and milk shops with the help of the public sector through different supply chains
- Financial security: As stores are closing and factories are getting shut, daily wage workers job is getting lost. Corporates should be committed to providing salaries and wages without any cut. The Government is already providing salaries to all employees without any cut. The SPO’s can provide additional coverage and support with the help of a DM for the most vulnerable workers.
There is no doubt that the situation has created concerns and built fear on the society at large. The streets are deserted, the stock market has taken a hit, the Rupee is weakening, financial markets are declining, but the most pressing problem is the supply of water, delivery of meals, cost of services for testing and equipping supplies. However, there have been some valiant steps taken to control the further spread and minimize the damage to the people. For example: a task force has been set up to map technologies to fund nearly market solutions.
But that may not be enough, first priority should be given to health measures, to contain the spread disease by supplying large cans of sanitizers, free of cost to the communities where water supply is an issue. Second, to give doorstep delivery ration where the Government and the startups can work together to deliver meals wherever necessary. Third, the Kerala Model should be adopted the all the State Governments to delivery mid-day meals at home since people from marginalized families send their kids to school because they get free mid-day meals. Fourth, to provide direct cash transfer through Jan Dhan accounts of the daily wage earners and low income earning people. Fifth, corporates can provide “Community package of essential items” to move from general to more focused support so that people who can’t afford to buy commodities can have access to critical supplies in this situation.
However, the challenge is to have a smooth transition where both life and livelihood doesn’t get affected. In essence, it’s not only the action that matters but timely addressing the situation matters. We are behind the curve but the success will depend on the state’s capacity to keep a check on its aptness to lay out essential services to large sections of the society with the corporates stepping up its efforts to tackle the challenge and SPO’s accessing the situation and its consequent in the sections of the society which need the most help, especially the daily wage earners, small business, labourers and vendors. A DM is a mediator who has to collaborate and support the 3 sectors, communicate by raising voice through different platforms, and advocate the rights of the beneficiaries. We should ask ourselves that in a country where close to 81% are employed in the informal sector, will they have enough to eat at the end of the day?
About The Author: This piece has been written by Shradha Bahuguna, who is a student of the ISDM Class of 2020 in the 1 Year Post Graduate Program in Development Leadership.