From the outset of the global pandemic in March 2020, eight NGO-UNESCO partners: Make Mothers Matter, The International Federation of Business and Professional Women, International Catholic Cooperation Center for UNESCO, The Association Montessori Internationale, OMEP: World Organization for Early Childhood Education and Care, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Movement ATD Fourth World, South Asia Foundation decided to collaborate, together with their local associations, in solidarity actions to share the voices of the most vulnerable and to understand the changing situations on the ground.
The exchanges on the Facebook solidarity pages opened on all continents via the Internet have enabled local associations to connect rapidly with one another and share reliable information with international NGOs.
Faced with this unprecedented health, economic, social, cultural and humanitarian crisis:
What major challenges do local populations face?
To what extent is civil society mobilised?
What concrete consequences of the crisis should be considered when defining future post-COVID priorities?
The project report that you can read and download here provides some food for thought in response to these questions.
Based on real situations, experienced by people on different continents and spontaneous initiatives created to fight the pandemic and protect the weakest, this project of solidarity between NGO-UNESCO partners lies within the UNESCO framework and its shared values. UNESCO supports this project and you can read the article on the UNESCO website.
This contribution is based on our conviction that the indispensable reconstruction of “living together”; will be impossible without strengthening civil society partnerships, particularly with local NGOs, to meet the populations; specific needs and to work towards building a more peaceful and just world.
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