tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/social-solidarity-75480/articlessocial solidarity – The Conversation2021-11-03T14:46:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1681432021-11-03T14:46:07Z2021-11-03T14:46:07ZStudy shows the power of networking in alleviating hardship during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428559/original/file-20211026-23-1lc7xef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Typical day in low-income communities in the Strand, Western Cape, South Africa</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hazel Swanepoel/Building Bridges</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The national lockdown imposed by the South African government to contain the spread of COVID-19 in <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/speeches/2020/cram0323.pdf">March 2020</a> disrupted economic activity, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_753060/lang--en/index.htm">education</a> and other social activities. This led to job losses and many <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_753060/lang--en/index.htm">psycho-social problems</a>, putting an additional <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2020.1869368">strain</a> on poorer communities.</p>
<p>Their inability to pay for services <a href="https://www.municipalservicesproject.org/sites/municipalservicesproject.org/files/publications/Cost%20Recovery%20and%20the%20Crisis%20of%20Service%20Delivery%20in%20South%20Africa%20-%20complete%20manuscript.pdf">means limited or no access</a> to water, electricity, housing and healthcare. They often rely on non-profit organisations to help them. </p>
<p>The non-profit sector’s <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/cape-ngos-in-dire-straits-as-funding-gets-withdrawn-17807045">overstretched</a> resources have come under even more pressure during the pandemic.</p>
<p>These entities realised that working in silos was not effective. They needed to <a href="http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/cpgp/article/viewFile/22478/19762">coordinate their efforts</a>. </p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, they had <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.22096">identified networking</a> as a way to improve their effectiveness. Networks – or coalitions – are alliances for combined action. They share resources, ideas and information to achieve shared objectives.</p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>The main aim of our <a href="http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/cpgp/article/viewFile/22478/19762">study</a> was to find out what made networking difficult and what made it possible. </p>
<p>We explored the value of networking as a way to strengthen relationships among service providers in the Strand, Western Cape area. The place has high rates of unemployment and not much infrastructure. Intentional and unintentional injuries are common. </p>
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<p>Various community entities and external institutions provide support and services to the area. They make up the Local Network of Care and they are involved in social services, early childhood development, healthcare, job opportunities, youth programmes, community safety initiatives, pastoral counselling, and education. </p>
<p>The Local Network of Care consists of 69 active local organisations and social actors from multiple sectors. Among them are NGOs, the non-profits <a href="https://www.buildingbridges.org/">Building Bridges</a> and <a href="https://smartnpo.com/">SMART NPO</a>, the <a href="https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/Colleges/Human-Sciences/Schools,-departments,-centres,-institutes-&-units/Institutes/Institute-for-Social-and-Health-Studies-(ISHS)">University of South Africa</a>, the <a href="https://www.samrc.ac.za/extramural-research-units/MaHRU">South African Medical Research Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/">City of Cape Town</a>.</p>
<p>Data for this study draws on the notes we made as researchers over a three year period. We also drew on newspaper clippings, institutional reports, meeting agendas and network meeting minutes.</p>
<h2>Barriers and enablers</h2>
<p>The networks involved in the study were able to ensure that the most vulnerable people received health and safety information and food parcels during the pandemic. They also sourced and distributed personal protective equipment among front-line network partners and local creches. </p>
<p>The study identified these key barriers to the effectiveness of networking:</p>
<ul>
<li>competing priorities and limited staffing, which hampered regular attendance of meetings </li>
<li>ineffective communication </li>
<li>scarce resources </li>
<li>competing for limited funding.</li>
</ul>
<p>We found important enablers of networking to include:</p>
<ul>
<li>mobilising and sharing assets and resources </li>
<li>collectively developing and endorsing a social contract </li>
<li>provision of a safe space<br></li>
<li>effective and continuous communication<br></li>
<li>organisational commitment<br></li>
<li>mutual support, sharing and collaboration.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The power of networking</h2>
<p>COVID-19 exposed the vulnerabilities and fragility of disenfranchised populations globally. But it also highlighted the role of networking in coordinating resources and aiding those in need. </p>
<p>The restrictions limited face-to-face interaction. Still, our findings show that human agency and solidarity through networking were valuable in addressing the psycho-social and economic challenges in poor communities. In times of crisis, this is a vital resource.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/cpgp/article/viewFile/22478/19762">study</a> indicates that networks create connections and build capacity. They bring together resources to improve and nurture relationships between groups.</p>
<p>The network partners discovered that different organisations working in silos reached a small number of vulnerable people. It was important to understand what everyone was doing, and how they could address social issues collectively. </p>
<p>Through collective efforts in addressing common community challenges, they were able to generate positive and sustainable change. For example, through the City of Cape Town’s <a href="https://joub.co.za/woman-for-change-program-available-at-cape-town-learnership/">Women for Change Programme</a>, the city provided part-time jobs for local women. They also received training by other network partners, and were recruited into mentoring programmes run by others. </p>
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<p>The study also highlighted the importance of effective communication channels to share information about meetings, events, resources, jobs and study opportunities. This was important because staff shortages made it difficult to attend monthly networking meetings. The network partners used WhatsApp Web Messenger as a networking tool. </p>
<p>Through the network partners, residents were able to access essential services. These included referrals for counselling and substance abuse treatment, education, social welfare, safe houses, and emergency healthcare. </p>
<p>The network collectively applied ingenuity to find innovative ways to support vulnerable people. For example, various task teams were formed to provide food hampers and run soup kitchens.</p>
<p>For network partners working in communities where overburdening challenges are common and progress is slow, the networking meetings and communication platforms provided a safe and supportive space. The space gave affirmation and emotional support to network partners to help them deal with overwhelming challenges they face in such poor environments, and also to share gains.</p>
<h2>Value of networks</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/cpgp/article/viewFile/22478/19762">study findings</a> show the possibilities and value of creating and sustaining local networks that allow people to participate and collaborate. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">Pandemic underscores gross inequalities in South Africa, and the need to fix them</a>
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<p>Through networking, local organisations maintained connections during COVID-19. They also encouraged a humanising ethos, and mobilised local resources to help the most vulnerable. </p>
<p>The study shows that people are more likely to be able to develop shared responsibility for others during a crisis if they focus on actively building social networks and connectivity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naiema Taliep receives funding from the University of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ghouwa Ismail receives funding from the University of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council. </span></em></p>The network collectively applied ingenuity to provide essential care and support to vulnerable people.Naiema Taliep, Senior Researcher, University of South AfricaGhouwa Ismail, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social and Health Sciences , University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1612882021-05-25T14:56:06Z2021-05-25T14:56:06ZCOVID-19: Global South responses have shown up social policy challenges – and strengths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401844/original/file-20210520-21-1cbkgte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A volunteer delivers food parcels in Masiphumelele informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic is more than a health crisis. It has also revealed other fault lines such as weak and inadequate social service delivery systems and institutional challenges. The poverty and inequality fault lines are unlikely to be redrawn or removed if new and innovative evidence-based solutions are not found to respond to these interlocking problems.</p>
<p>One of the questions I attempt to answer in this article is what we might learn from social policy and social development responses in the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/en/country-rankings/global-south-countries">global South</a> to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and to help COVID-19 recovery.</p>
<p>My lens is a southern one largely because the social development approach – and related social protection policies that have come to be the bedrock of government responses to the pandemic – originated in development contexts in the <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol45/iss4/6/">mid and late 1990s</a>. </p>
<p>During the 1990s the exponential growth of social protection policies to reduce poverty, vulnerability and inequality served to reset development thinking and action internationally. Examples of pioneering programmes are child support grants in South Africa and <a href="https://theconversation.com/landmark-study-shows-how-child-grants-empower-women-in-brazil-and-south-africa-157537">Brazil’s Bolsa Familia</a>.</p>
<p>By 2018, over <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/29115/9781464812545.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y">140 countries</a> had implemented a diversity of social protection measures. Across Africa close to <a href="https://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2019/African-governments-committing-more-resources.html">50 new programmes</a> have been initiated in the last 20 years.</p>
<p>Different strategies have been used such as food assistance, school feeding schemes and public employment programmes. But cash transfers that are paid regularly to selected beneficiaries or categories of people based on an assessment of need have led the way. </p>
<p>Some authors <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198754336.001.0001/oso-9780198754336">label this</a> a “revolution from below”. </p>
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<p>Social protection policies have been the bedrock of social policy responses to the pandemic. They have played a big role, protecting people from falling deeper into poverty or from the brink of starvation. </p>
<h2>Impact of social protection</h2>
<p>Advocates of social protection in the global South have argued that social policies have had positive social and economic multiplier effects. Evidence from <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/b11f17a88671217a6cb5ddaa10d0a012/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=6289">a systematic review</a> of non-contributory social assistance (funded from taxes and or development assistance as opposed to schemes made up of employer and employeee contributions) shows improvements in monetary poverty, education, health and nutrition. There were also improvements in savings, investment and production as well as work seeking and empowerment. The study was done in low- and middle-income countries over 15 years, based on data from 165 studies. </p>
<p>Social protection programmes have come in for criticism, particularly from policy makers and politicians on the right of the political spectrum. They have been accused of <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/we-need-change-how-we-think-and-talk-about-social-grants/">making people work shy</a>, and for <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-policy-and-society/article/abs/relationship-between-the-child-support-grant-and-teenage-fertility-in-postapartheid-south-africa/5F083EC4C6C245AA6DD4AF524FAE2FCC">encouraging teenage pregnancy</a>.</p>
<p>The review found no effects of the payments on adult work effort or increased fertility. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316081860_The_impact_of_cash_transfers_on_women_and_girls_A_summary_of_the_evidence">Another study</a> found positive effects on women’s and girls’ well-being, especially in education and employment, along with increases in women’s decision-making power and choices.</p>
<h2>Pandemic responses</h2>
<p>Early in the pandemic, countries had to address several questions as the virus spread and lockdowns became inevitable. These included: who needed the most help; what types of interventions were needed; what coverage levels should be; and how long they should be in place.</p>
<p>Consideration also had to be given to what the most cost effective interventions would be, how to ensure accountability of public spending and the long-term implications.</p>
<p>The responses that emerged were largely adaptive, built on existing social protection systems. Most countries increased benefit levels. In others, new beneficiaries were added to existing programmes and new programmes were established, such as in South Africa. About half (47%) of cash transfers are new programmes in 78 countries (reaching 512.6 million people), while one-fifth (22%) of measures are <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33635">one-off payments</a>. </p>
<p>In December 2020, Ugo Gentilini, who is the social protection lead at the World Bank, and his colleagues at the bank and UNICEF collated the first <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33635">Real-Time Review of Country Measures</a> to respond to COVID-19 in developing countries. This shows that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Country-level responses increased significantly, with 1,414 social protection policies planned and implemented in 215 countries. </p></li>
<li><p>Social assistance made up close to two-thirds of all the programmes in this data base while the rest complemented these with social insurance schemes and labour market programmes. But cash payments were by far the most popular response in low-income countries (90%) and less than half in high income countries. Social assistance strategies included cash transfers (conditional and unconditional), social pensions, in-kind food as well as food voucher schemes and school feeding schemes.</p></li>
<li><p>There were major regional differences. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean there was a much bigger emphasis on social assistance. Europe and Central Asia and North America used more social insurance measures.</p></li>
<li><p>Social insurance programmes such as paid unemployment, sick benefits, health insurance, pensions, contribution waivers or subsidies were identified.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The overview provided a number of valuable insights and lessons.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-president-extends-special-covid-19-grant-why-this-is-not-enough-153942">South African president extends special COVID-19 grant. Why this is not enough</a>
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<h2>Lessons</h2>
<p>The first lesson is that countries with pre-existing systems of social protection and institutional capability were able to scale up more rapidly, and to implement the programmes fairly effectively.</p>
<p>Second, those that had registration systems and databases were able to do so faster. For example, India was able to reach <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33635">30 million beneficiaries</a> in a month in the early stages of the pandemic because of effective digital registration and inter-system data sharing. Access to identity documents, mobile phones and bank accounts also facilitated the outreach and impact in India. </p>
<p>This points to powerful innovation that is continuing to evolve in the global South. </p>
<p>The analysis also gives insights into the weaknesses of the current systems. One is that low-income countries with limited resources were more reliant on external resources such as development assistance to fund social protection. Middle and upper middle-income countries had a little more fiscal leverage to do so themselves. </p>
<p>For instance, South Africa, an upper middle-income country with high levels of <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29614">inequality</a>, was able to fund its relief programme through its own resources. This brought an additional <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/1.-Spaull-N.-Daniels-R.-C-et-al.-2021-NIDS-CRAM-Wave-4-Synthesis-Report..pdf">5.3 million people</a> into the social protection net.</p>
<h2>Community level support</h2>
<p>There was an additional factor in the global South that came to the fore during the crisis that shouldn’t be ignored. This is the contribution of humanitarian assistance and community level mutual solidarity responses such as food relief that emerged in response to the pandemic.</p>
<p>Bottom-up community social solidarity initiatives have not been adequately documented but played a critical role in some countries to fill the holes in the safety nets. </p>
<p>These are age old indigenous and resilience building systems that should not go unnoticed.</p>
<p><em>This is an edited version of <a href="https://www.iassw-aiets.org/announcements/6603-katherine-kendall-memorial-award-lecture/">the speech</a> Professor Patel delivered to the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Council on Social Welfare on Social Work Education and Development Online Conference as the recipient of the 2020 Katherine Kendall Memorial Award.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leila Patel receives funding from the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation for her Chair in Welfare and Social Development. </span></em></p>Early in the pandemic, countries had to address several questions as the virus spread and lockdowns became inevitable.Leila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1382192020-05-14T14:06:43Z2020-05-14T14:06:43ZLocal networks can help people in distress: South Africa’s COVID-19 response needs them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334699/original/file-20200513-156645-gaokbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social solidarity networks have an edge over government: speed, innovation, and local responsiveness</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In South Africa a range of social solidarity networks have emerged to respond to the COVID-19 <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-05-08-hunger-numbers-millions-millions-millions-need-food/">hunger crisis</a>. They are a vital part of the societal response because of their speed, innovation, and local responsiveness. They complement the central role of government. Yet the government is struggling to develop this partnership and risks stifling solidarity networks with bureaucratic control.</p>
<p>Government responses to crises are crucial. But the scale and complexity of the current crisis are too great for the government acting alone. It is constrained by its prior way of working, which emphasises standardisation and control. It also lacks information about who is in need (beyond grant recipients), and it lacks the supply chains to get help to them quickly.</p>
<p>This is not necessarily a criticism of this particular government. All governments are struggling with the fallouts of COVID-19.</p>
<p>We know from the extensive scholarly literature on disasters that governments are inherently constrained in responding rapidly to the local impacts of disasters. For instance, after the <a href="https://siepr.stanford.edu/system/files/shepherd%20and%20williams%202014.pdf">Black Saturday fires</a> in Australia, neighbourhood networks were crucial in alleviating suffering because the aid from the government and other large organisations was slow in coming and often inappropriate for local needs.</p>
<p>We have been participating in or studying a number of such emergent solidarity networks and <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/spontaneous-venturing">“spontaneous venturing”</a> efforts that are responding to the COVID-19 crisis in South Africa. They include the examples described below, as well as others, such as the responses by the <a href="https://www.southernafricafoodlab.org">Southern Africa Food Lab</a>. These experiences and research have shown us how existing and new networks can play an important role and how this role needs to be strengthened. </p>
<h2>Solidarity networks</h2>
<p>Locally embedded actors can build on local knowledge and relationships developed prior to the crisis.</p>
<p>For example, Christine Fyvie has been working with the NGO <a href="https://boostafrica.com/">Boost Africa</a> for many years in one of Cape Town’s most vulnerable communities, Dunoon. She had set up after-school clubs to help children from particularly vulnerable households. This gave her useful information about which households were at particular risk and how to channel food and other essentials to them.</p>
<p>Even so, ensuring that the food was getting to those most in need has been a challenge. She told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some individuals or groups make use of distributed food to enhance their power in the community. Others won’t put up their hand even though we know they really need it. It is only possible to navigate these tricky dynamics with some knowledge of the community and with some trust among its members.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This trust is especially vital in pre-empting competition within communities as the need for food grows. It is also crucial because the need for speedy responses makes traditional accountability mechanisms difficult to adhere to.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">Pandemic underscores gross inequalities in South Africa, and the need to fix them</a>
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<p>Spontaneous venturing shows how innovation can match the growing need with diverse sources of supply. For example, the social enterprise <a href="https://www.foodflowza.com/">Food Flow</a> has created novel network connections in response to the crisis. It was established just before lockdown started in Cape Town, when Ashley Newell and her partner, Iming Lin, realised that small farmers in their area were losing their customers among hotels and restaurants, while vulnerable households were going hungry.</p>
<p>They came to know about this because of their local knowledge and networks: Iming is a farmer herself and both Ashley and Iming had been actively involved in local social development efforts. </p>
<p>Their response was to use donor funding to buy food from the local farmers and deliver it to local NGOs working in low-income communities.</p>
<p>The initiative struck a chord. They initially hoped to redirect about 150 bags of produce a week. But by the end of their first week, they had raised so much money that they had facilitated the delivery of 3,500. (Each provides for about 10 meals.)</p>
<p>This scaling-up required radical innovation, based on existing relationships. Ashley told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We thought we could use a mobile payment system like Snapscan to enable donations, but it was taking too long. I had a friend at Webtickets (an online events booking company) and they were willing to put us on their site, even though it was meant for something entirely different.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our third example is the remarkable emergence of Community Action Networks (CANs) in diverse neighbourhoods in Cape Town (and now also elsewhere in the country). An initial objective of each CAN was to ensure that vulnerable members of the local community would be supported during lockdown. But given social and spatial inequalities in the city, their purpose soon grew to promote and show solidarity across communities. This has been expressed most strongly in the pairing of CANs in poorer and better-off areas, to support the exchange of information and ideas, and to ensure that essentials could be channelled to those most in need.</p>
<p>There are over 2,000 volunteers registered in about 150 such Community Action Networks in the Cape Town metropole, and there are about 20 pairings between CANs. They are connected in an overarching network called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/CapeTownTogether/">Cape Town Together</a>, which emphasises that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we act locally, while also drawing on our collective experience and energy to share lessons and resources across the city.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Community Action Networks have facilitated an impressive exchange of finance, food, and other physical resources. They are also exchanging information about local needs and how best to address them.</p>
<p>But there’s a risk that government could stifle initiatives like this. It has sought to exert control by, among other things, insisting that food parcels adhere to strict requirements and are vetted by <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-05-05-how-red-tape-is-hampering-the-hungry-from-receiving-food-in-south-africa/">local municipalities</a>. </p>
<p>There are good reasons for such regulation. But the risk is that this impulse to control civil society responses ignores the magnitude, complexity, and human costs of the hunger crisis, as well as the inherent constraints that the government faces in responding. The bureaucratic limitations that have made the civil society response necessary may now impose themselves on the response.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>The examples above show the importance of the local knowledge and relationships, the innovation, and the local responsiveness that solidarity networks can bring to addressing the COVID-19 hunger crisis. A first step is to recognise and celebrate these vital contributions.</p>
<p>A second step is for the government and other large organisations to recognise the complementarity between their own efforts and those of emergent solidarity networks. Building this into a partnership requires efforts on both sides.</p>
<p>Protagonists in solidarity networks must show that they are diligent in abiding by strict standards of health and safety. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/CapeTownTogether/">Cape Town Together</a> is showing how this can be done.</p>
<p>Government officials must help rather than hinder solidarity networks by sharing information, by expediting permits to allow appropriate movement, and by generally adopting a supportive posture. Such coordination and collaboration is already happening. But the scale and severity of the hunger crisis require a much stronger and ambitious partnership between the government and civil society.</p>
<p><em>This article has been written in a community of practice including Alecia Sewlal, Ashley Newell, Christine Fyvie, Jenny Soderbergh, Mandy Rapson, Sarita Sehgal, and Thanyani Ramarumo (all research students at the UCT Graduate School of Business).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Annika Surmeier receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 799041.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jody Delichte, Ralph Hamann, and Scott Drimie do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More effort must go into building synergies between emergent local efforts and the government response.Ralph Hamann, Professor, University of Cape TownAnnika Surmeier, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Global Fellow, University of Manchester & University of Cape Town, University of Cape TownJody Delichte, Phd Candidate, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape TownScott Drimie, Adjunct Professor, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1381712020-05-13T13:40:27Z2020-05-13T13:40:27ZWhat South Africa needs to forge a resilient social compact for Covid-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334400/original/file-20200512-82397-mqplfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Abuses by police and the army point to the need for citizens to be involved in security and other crisis response measures </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/full-speech-cobid-19-crisis-will-not-last-forever-but-impact-needs-extraordinary-budget-ramaphosa-20200421">called for</a> “a new social compact among all role players – business, labour, community and government – to restructure the economy and achieve inclusive growth”.</p>
<p>In South Africa, ‘social compact’ has often been used narrowly to describe pacts between stakeholders on specific sectoral issues. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2019.1682925">A resilient social compact,</a> as we use the concept, requires a dynamic agreement between the state and society on how to live together, and how to address issues of power and resources. </p>
<p>For such an agreement to contribute to peace and societal well-being, it must be reflected in the mechanisms, policies and responses that uphold the agreement. This needs to be done in a way that’s flexible and responsive, especially in times of crisis.</p>
<p>This approach recasts the concept of social compact (or social contract) as a tool for addressing issues of conflict, crisis and transition. <a href="http://www.socialcontractsforpeace.org/publications/#FindingsDocuments">Research across nine countries</a>, including in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2019.1706436">South Africa</a>, found that social cohesion is a key driver. <a href="http://www.socialcontractsforpeace.org/research/concepts/">Social cohesion</a> builds on the concept of social solidarity, which lies in areas of trust and respect, belonging and identity, and participation. </p>
<p>Its achievement also rests on progress by other drivers. These are inclusive political settlements addressing core issues dividing people, and institutions delivering fairly and effectively. </p>
<p>To move in the direction of a resilient social compact, Ramaphosa’s call will fall on deaf ears unless there are some fundamental changes to the way in which the pandemic is being managed.</p>
<h2>Solidarity and cohesion</h2>
<p>The first is that there needs to be a critical focus on how vulnerable groups are affected differently.</p>
<p>South Africa’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-underscores-gross-inequalities-in-south-africa-and-the-need-to-fix-them-135070">stark socio-economic inequalities</a> – within and across racial groups – are core issues that continue to divide people. This is true economically as well as spatially, psychologically, socially and politically. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lockdown-is-riling-black-and-white-south-africans-could-this-be-a-reset-moment-138044">Lockdown is riling black and white South Africans: could this be a reset moment?</a>
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<p>Lockdown restrictions, therefore, affect people differently. In <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/publication/the-economics-of-south-african-townships-special-focus-on-diepsloot">townships</a> – apartheid-era residential areas that are predominantly black – loss of work means loss of livelihoods with <a href="https://socialjustice.sun.ac.za/blog/2020/04/statement-policy-brief-coronavirus-covid19/">grave challenges</a> accessing food, health and education. Suburbanites – who are mostly white – on the other hand, have tended to be more preoccupied by loss of freedoms related to jogging, dog-walking, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/lockdown-is-riling-black-and-white-south-africans-could-this-be-a-reset-moment-138044">accessing liquor and cigarettes</a>.</p>
<p>These differences demand, secondly, that greater attention be given to how policies are being implemented. </p>
<p>Addressing these issues could ensure that social cohesion and social solidarity are nurtured through this crisis. </p>
<p>People need to feel included and that they belong – and that policies and practices deliver on expectations and agreements. When this fails, and human rights are violated in the process, these bonds and relationships suffer. Trust in the state, its institutions and associated legitimacy needed for their functioning, falters.</p>
<p>Human rights abuses by the security forces in the wake of the lockdown have included shootings, baton and gun beatings, teargassing, humiliation, abusive language, water bombing, invasion of private backyards, and <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-calls-for-military-ombudsman-to-investigate-abuse-by-sandf-members-during-lockdown-45758138">even death</a>. This has occurred especially in townships.</p>
<p>The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently identified South Africa as among <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/raises-alarm-police-brutality-covid-19-lockdowns-200428070216771.html">15 countries</a> where human rights violations associated with COVID-19 restrictions were <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25828&LangID=E">most troubling</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s missing</h2>
<p>In the current COVID-19 context we are seeing fissures that dangerously undermine the bonds and relationships between the state and citizens. These are common in fragile and transitional contexts.</p>
<p>Many security forces members are following on the path Ramaphosa set with his peaceful <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-27-in-quotes--ramaphosa-on-police--army-as-a-force-of-kindness-chancers-and-saving-lives/">messaging</a> to guide them in defending citizens against the pandemic.</p>
<p>But, some are <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/da-calls-for-military-ombudsman-to-investigate-abuse-by-sandf-members-during-lockdown-45758138">abusing their power</a>. </p>
<p>These abuses echo the experiences of black South Africans under apartheid when obedience was secured with authoritarian rule and aggression. </p>
<p>In addition, developing a national COVID-19 response has brought glaring inequalities to the fore – and the country’s persistent <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-19f475f86a">racial geographies</a>.</p>
<p>These too challenge the goal of achieving a resilient social compact.</p>
<p>Resentment among some township residents has grown, and various forms of civil disobedience have resulted. Vuyo Zungula, leader of the African Transformation Movement, one of the smaller parties represented in parliament, observed on his Twitter page:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Until I see Whites, Indians getting the same treatment for breaking the Lockdown rules I will view the SANDF and SAPS as the enemy of the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>If the lockdown is enforced through coercion rather than consent, and the dignity of citizens is not respected, a resilient social compact won’t ever be viewed as anything more than rhetoric. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-has-raised-social-grants-why-this-shouldnt-be-a-stop-gap-measure-138023">South Africa has raised social grants: why this shouldn't be a stop-gap measure</a>
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<p>COVID-19 presents profound challenges for citizens and the state. Building trust and cooperation, between state and society, and between social and stakeholder groups in society, is paramount.</p>
<p>What then is needed?</p>
<p>First, there needs to be vigilant government commitment against coercion. Swift action must be taken against abuses by the security sector. And there needs to be effective communication with those affected by the abuse. This should accompany strong assurances of accountability and justice, and upscaled training of the military and the police in crisis response functions.</p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://socialjustice.sun.ac.za/downloads/posts/2020-04-ml-csj-statemement-on-policy-responses-to-coronavirus-covid19.pdf">two-way communication channels</a> that offer the means to build trust and legitimacy of government actions need to be established. These should focus on fostering <a href="https://www.sfcg.org/our-media/">innovative ways</a> for citizens to access information and participate in crisis response strategies. This can occur through surveys, via radio and mobile applications, or radio call-in shows. </p>
<p>Township and suburban residents must take part in the security and other crisis response measures. Widely accessible and consistent messaging is needed, such as the township education undertaken by the <a href="https://c19peoplescoalition.org.za/">C-19 People’s Coalition</a>. The alliance brings together social movements, trade unions, and community organisations working to provide an effective, just and equitable response to the pandemic.</p>
<p>Its members distribute leaflets in Gauteng townships in local languages, as they demonstrate social distancing and the wearing of masks while they mobilise and strengthen networks of food production, distribution and consumption. These may well have benefits beyond the COVID-19 crisis. </p>
<p>Finally, social solidarity is forged when each segment of society works together for the greater social good. Such efforts are widespread in <a href="https://www.solidarityfund.co.za/">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://thedetail.tv/articles/activist-response-to-covid-19">around the world</a>. These stories need to be shared with a view to strengthening longer-term transformation efforts in the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ramaphosa’s call for a new social compact will fall on deaf ears unless there are some fundamental changes to the way in which the pandemic is being managed.Erin McCandless, Associate Professor, School of governance, University of the WitwatersrandDarlene Ajeet Miller, Senior Lecturer, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359972020-04-28T15:12:34Z2020-04-28T15:12:34ZCan the philosophy of ubuntu help provide a way to face health crises?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329766/original/file-20200422-47841-e3kg06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A member of the South African National Defence Force hands out pamphlets informing township residents about COVID-19 in Johannesburg. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African communities, within South Africa and beyond, are diverse and complex, informed by different rules, values and beliefs. But public health emergencies demand that governments take decisive action which affect communities and individuals. In doing so, it’s easy to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265160500244942">override civil rights and liberties</a>, and to suspend community consultations, engagement and shared governance in favour of quick decisions. This can have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2019.1609472">negative impacts</a> as experience from the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2016.0305">Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa</a> showed. For example, failure to sufficiently interact with communities regarding initial protocols designed to make burials “safer” resulted in locally offensive policies that made little headway in transforming practices.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508422.2019.1583565">article published</a> earlier this year, we argued that it might be useful in public health to draw on local philosophies that value the exchange of benefits and sharing of responsibilities. In particular, we suggest using the philosophy of Ubuntu to promote the idea that public health is more important than individual wellbeing. Through its emphasis on humanity, compassion and social responsibility, Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) has the potential to reduce conflicts between individual rights and public health, and might help governments gain community support for actions in emergencies.</p>
<p>We grounded our article in the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, as experienced in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28753109">Malawi</a> and <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4058-5#auth-1">Ghana</a>. The article highlighted how Ubuntu and related notions of humanity might guide people’s thinking about how individuals are responsible for the welfare of the wider society during a health crisis, and vice versa. </p>
<h2>Lessons from the H1N1 pandemic</h2>
<p>During the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2017.1341225">2009 H1N1 pandemic in Malawi</a>, people were forcibly vaccinated with conflicting results. The vaccinations were delivered late, few cases of H1N1 had actually been reported and there was little community engagement prior to the programme. Furthermore people were forced to agree to a technology that might not benefit them personally, although it would benefit the community at large. People were unwilling to cooperate. With limited community support and contention about infection and prevention, only 10% of the population was vaccinated. </p>
<p>Our work on Ubuntu and related philosophies to support adherence to public health measures during pandemics in a way that is acceptable both to society and to individuals, emerged from the shortfall of this campaign, and the challenges of establishing community support. This did not happen in the case of Malawi. </p>
<p>To achieve this requires advanced preparations, such as having Ubuntu as a decision-making framework to guide policymakers. </p>
<p>Public health measures that limit people’s liberty, such as quarantine or restriction of movement, can create ethical problems. People may <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l4062.full">resist cooperating</a> if interventions are considered unfair and unacceptable. They may retaliate with violence against <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30570442">health workers</a> and police. The challenge is to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508422.2016.1274993">balance individual and public health goals</a>.</p>
<p>Lockdowns and “social distancing” have been introduced in most countries to contain the spread of COVID-19. They have been reasonably well observed in much of the world. In South Africa, however, police brutality, violence and resistance were reported in the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-03-31-police-use-sjamboks-and-rubber-bullets-to-enforce-hillbrow-lockdown/">first days</a> of the lockdown and have <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-16-lockdown-why-the-state-has-won-cases/">continued</a>. This reflects the militarised approach of the country’s police minister, <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele-confirms-55-arrests-day-1-lockdown-curb-spread-coronavirus-covid-19-28">Bheki Cele</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This war we find ourselves in … is not a war against any citizen of this country, but is a war against a common enemy, the coronavirus. Whoever breaks the law and chooses to join the enemy against the citizens will face the full might of the law and police will decisively make sure that we defend the people of South Africa.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Military and police interventions may flatten the COVID-19 epidemiological curve. But the approach adopted may be unacceptable and still may have limited effect. It raises ethical concerns, tarnishes the reputation of law enforcement officers, and damages public trust in the police, military and health officials. In the longer term, lawmakers and law enforcers may do better to make legal systems worthy of respect than to try to instil fear of punishment. </p>
<p>People obey the law primarily because they respect legitimate authority. Accounts of enforced action to control <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/understanding-social-resistance-to-the-ebola-response-in-the-forest-region-of-the-republic-of-guinea-an-anthropological-perspective/79914D998AA67442119F1C45E274764E">Ebola</a> and <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4058-5">H1N1</a> suggest that a sense of emergency may override attention to other issues. These include communication with different groups of people, mitigation for economic fallout, massive unemployment, potential escalation of crime for survival, and the harsh effects of lockdown on the poorest people. </p>
<h2>Better decision-making in emergencies</h2>
<p>Social solidarity seems a useful way for governments to think about pro-poor policies and interventions. At the core of Ubuntu philosophy is the notion of collective solidarity. It means the self is perceived primarily in relation to others. The emphasis is on interdependence.</p>
<p>Ubuntu’s solution to social problems is to understand that people cannot survive by simply obeying laws created or imposed by the state. Its solution to social order rests upon individual acceptance of common community norms and goals.</p>
<p>Extending the concept of Ubuntu beyond sentimentality isn’t easy. Some may argue that it is too demanding on the individual and, in reality, does little to reconcile individual and community interests.</p>
<p>Ubuntu was used effectively by Nelson Mandela to encourage community cohesion, although notably not in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00020184.2017.1346347">response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic</a>. This contrasts with the use of ubuntu in state communication to mitigate the transmission of HIV in Uganda, as we described in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10508422.2019.1583565">our recent article</a>. </p>
<p>Further, in South Africa, despite its value in communicating leadership goals, its use to policy appears to have declined in recent years. To be sure, migration, shifting consumer values, trade and globalisation have had an impact on local value systems. “Traditional African” principles of what is right and wrong have been diluted by Western norms and practices, by neoliberalism and models of growth that centre on consumption. Now is perhaps the time to revisit our priorities and values, and to reconsider how government and communities might work together.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/documents/Metz%20--%20African%20Values%20Human%20Rights%20--%202011.pdf">debates</a> about what constitutes Ubuntu. But it does provide a language for people to use when taking action to prevent disasters, even if this involves practices such as lockdowns. Ubuntu asks simply that people regard others and do good. I am because we are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ubuntu provides a language for people to participate in preventive action, even if this involves practices such as lockdowns.Evanson Z Sambala, Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandLenore Manderson, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Brown University, USA, and Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the WitwatersrandSara Cooper, Senior Scientist in Cochrane South Africa at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Honorary researcher in the Division of Social & Behavioural Sciences in the School of Public Health, UCT, South African Medical Research CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1350022020-04-13T20:25:25Z2020-04-13T20:25:25ZWhat is solidarity? During coronavirus and always, it’s more than ‘we’re all in this together’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327109/original/file-20200410-46372-1v71f29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C407%2C2150%2C1123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman claps above a banner reading "everything will be all right," in Rome. This phrase has appeared on social media and at balconies and windows across Italy as the country faces coronavirus. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Medical researchers around the world are involved in an unprecedented collaboration to test experimental treatments for COVID-19. When Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, announced the initiative in mid-March, he called it the “<a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---18-march-2020">solidarity trial</a>.” </p>
<p>Across the globe, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-19-coronavirus-solidarity-help-pandemic/">local expressions of solidarity appear to be spreading</a> as individuals take it upon themselves to act on behalf of others in need. </p>
<p>From the WHO to government leaders <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/you-re-not-alone-in-this-canadians-are-caremongering-through-the-covid-19-pandemic-1.4859369">and citizen actions</a>, <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/trudeaus-sunday-coronavirus-update-for-far-too-many-people-home-isnt-a-safe-place-to-be-full-transcript/">expressions of solidarity</a> may appear to be a good and common-sense <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/coronavirus-social-distancing.html">response to the crisis</a>. Yet, as American author Barbara Ehrenreich suggests, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/barbara-ehrenreich-is-not-an-optimist-but-she-has-hope-for-the-future">fascists, religious zealots or nations at war</a> also unite in solidarity to advance their agendas. Some groups can mobilize solidarity <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/08/welcome-age-anger-brexit-trump">for destructive purposes</a>. </p>
<p>While solidarity may be a fundamental human need, the meaning of solidarity and what it requires of us is elusive. In my work, I explore how realizing solidarity depends on education. <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203113059/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203113059-13">Teaching for solidarity</a>
requires <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18633">relationships, intentions and actions grounded in explicit ethical and political commitments</a>. I am interested in how the values that underpin these commitments define the differences between “us” and “them.”</p>
<p>Whether we are confronting a pandemic, global warming, income inequality, racism or gender-based violence, solidarity depends on how we come together. It is defined by how we understand and enact our responsibilities to, and relationships with, each other. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327128/original/file-20200410-87635-6gvcb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People stand on their balconies for a physically distant show of social support amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Milan, Italy, in March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)</span></span>
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<h2>Equally responsible for a debt</h2>
<p>The word solidarity has its <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-015-9245-1_1">roots in the Roman law of obligation</a> that held a group of people bound together — <em>in solidum</em> — as equally responsible for a debt. The contemporary uses of the concept go back to the French Revolution and <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k454802b/f811.image.texteImage">the ideal of human solidarity</a> articulated by philosopher and “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Leroux">champion of socialism</a>,” Pierre Leroux. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crimes-of-solidarity-liberte-egalite-and-frances-crisis-of-fraternite-90010">Crimes of solidarity: liberté, égalité and France’s crisis of fraternité</a>
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<p>For Leroux, solidarity was necessary for human well-being and flourishing. But in their 1848 <em><a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marx-publishes-manifesto">Communist Manifesto</a></em>, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels conceptualized solidarity as an expression of the shared experience and specific political needs of the working class. </p>
<p>Solidarity has also been a central concept in <a href="http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/solidarity.cfm">Catholic social teachings</a> since the end of the 19th century. It figures prominently in liberation theology, in which <a href="https://think.nd.edu/the-option-for-the-poor-and-christian-theology/">solidarity and communion with the poor is a fundamental spiritual commitment</a>.</p>
<p>This brief history illustrates that solidarity depends on some idea of what it means to be “us.” In my forthcoming book, I explore the educational challenges that arise when people invoke solidarity in colonial societies. </p>
<p>I examine what happens when solidarity is contingent on others being more like us, thinking more like us and believing what we believe.</p>
<h2>Universalistic solidarity</h2>
<p>German philosopher <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-015-9245-1_1">Kurt Bayertz points to four uses of the concept of solidarity</a>. </p>
<p>The first, universalistic solidarity, suggests all human beings have a moral duty to work together for the benefit of all. This is implied whenever someone says “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/we-re-all-in-this-together-the-phrase-uniting-toronto-in-long-lonely-battle-against-covid-19-1.5508850">we’re all in this together</a>.” </p>
<p>While compelling, this view of solidarity ignores differences and potential conflict between the needs and values of different groups. It overshadows how <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-not-the-great-equalizer-race-matters-133867">the impact of a crisis isn’t equal among different groups</a>.</p>
<h2>Civic solidarity</h2>
<p>The essence of civic solidarity is that we don’t necessarily have a personal relationship with those on whose behalf we take action.
Civic solidarity involves an indirect commitment through taxes or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/business/coronavirus-bills-charity.html">charity contributions</a>. Practising physical distancing is also an act of civic solidarity. </p>
<p>Lacking a personal sense of <a href="https://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol21/iss1/7/">connection to and reciprocity</a> with those who benefit from civic solidarity can <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/italys-fight-against-covid-19-depends-on-continued-solidarity/">undermine solidarity efforts</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-federal-local-governments-consider-fines-prison-to-enforce-social/">which may lead to the need for legal enforcement</a>.</p>
<h2>Social solidarity</h2>
<p>Bayertz’s third use, social solidarity, refers to how societies stick together, but also to how certain groups act together as a community to protect their interests. </p>
<p><em>Maclean’s</em> magazine contributing editor Stephen Maher suggests that in the United States, Donald Trump supporters’ <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/life/escape-from-florida-my-2400-km-drive-back-to-the-sanity-of-canada/">acceptance of the president’s early response to the virus, which downplayed its possible impact, reflected low levels of social solidarity</a>.</p>
<p>But this is misleading. Trump’s right-wing conservative supporters don’t lack social solidarity. Rather, their sense of solidarity coheres around a commitment to ideals of freedom from restrictions and protecting their financial resources and investments as a way to ensure their own well-being.</p>
<p>Likewise, there is a strong sense of solidarity among conservative <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-trump-and-religious-right-rely-on-faith-not-science-134508">religious groups that rely on Christian faith over science to protect themselves</a>. </p>
<p>A strong sense of social solidarity is crucial for advancing all kinds of political agendas and values.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327116/original/file-20200410-40265-o17cqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People prepare places to sleep in a parking lot acting as a makeshift camp for homeless people on March 30, 2020, in Las Vegas. A shelter closed when a man tested positive for COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Locher)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political solidarity</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-03400-3.html">Political solidarity</a> revolves around issues of inequality related to class, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Political solidarity usually involves one group acting in support of another, even though <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/feminism-without-borders">groups may not be affected equally by injustices</a>. </p>
<p>Political solidarity raises questions about identification, privilege and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520301597/solidarity-of-strangers">reciprocity</a>, as expressed, for example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/14/solidarityisforwhitewomen-hashtag-feminism">through the hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the concept of political solidarity is crucial for addressing how <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/world/europe/coronavirus-inequality.html">pandemics exacerbate existing social inequalities</a>. Ignoring this actually <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-covid19-xenophobia-racism/607816/">undermines</a> other forms of solidarity.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-breaks-down-solidarity-with-migrants-135355">How Covid-19 breaks down solidarity with migrants</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Three critical aspects of solidarity</h2>
<p>Whatever form we invoke, it’s helpful to remember three aspects of solidarity: </p>
<p><strong>Solidarity is always about relationships.</strong> We cannot be in solidarity alone. Who are we in solidarity with and what defines that relationship? </p>
<p><strong>Solidarity always requires us to be intentional about our commitments.</strong> What is the aim of our solidarity and where do those commitments come from? </p>
<p><strong>Solidarity requires actions that also change us, perhaps even a sacrifice.</strong> What am I willing to do and give up in order to ensure the well-being of others, whether they are like or unlike me?</p>
<h2>Toward creative forms of solidarity</h2>
<p>Acknowledging the ethical and political commitments that we bring to solidarity is crucial. Otherwise, solidarity can “turn against us,” as Barbara Ehrenreich suggests. </p>
<p>For instance, some solutions, such as physical distancing, become <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/04/06/covid-19-hamilton-police-urged-to-not-ticket-homeless-during-pandemic.html?fbclid=IwAR11s5o12W_Q3V7ikVfPWSeHxtdyoVxWfYN6ld1tLt5xzf2ED_1jnfpEuUM">impossible for communities that are already under-resourced, such as the homeless</a>. <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/us-eu/relations.aspx?lang=eng">Otherwise allied</a> nations like Canada and the U.S. find themselves in conflict as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2020/04/06/if-donald-trump-turns-the-covid-19-pandemic-into-a-trade-war-justin-trudeau-knows-just-how-to-fight-it.html">both seek to ensure the supply of personal protective equipment</a> for health-care workers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327305/original/file-20200411-109282-1c0a22x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist Jeff Saint works on a mural of a crying eye with images symbolizing the historic coastal whaling city, New Bedford, Mass., reflected in its pupil, surrounded by coronavirus spores on March 31, 2020. He and fellow artist Ryan McFee hope to eventually replace the spores with flowers as the virus is defeated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Peter Pereira/The Standard-Times via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Being explicit about ethical and political commitments will become increasingly important as governments ask us to compromise our personal freedoms and civil liberties to contain the spread of the virus. </p>
<p>Such compromises and the global character of the current crisis demand that we also <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18633">think of solidarity as creative</a>.</p>
<p>As the “crisis blows open the sense of what is possible,” <a href="https://youtu.be/xUP0swVDmtg">in the words of journalist Naomi Klein</a>, we are forced to imagine new ways of being with one another. We also have the <a href="https://twitter.com/lizar_tristry/status/1246559344000290816?s=20">opportunity to rethink our values and intentions</a>, and to re-narrate the stories we tell about who we are, where we belong and with and to whom we share a debt.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The word ‘solidarity’ is echoing around the world in the COVID-19 pandemic. But where does the term come from and what does it really mean?Rubén A. Gaztambide-Fernández, Professor of Curriculum & Pedagogy, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1353552020-04-07T16:33:09Z2020-04-07T16:33:09ZHow Covid-19 breaks down solidarity with migrants<p>The spread of the coronavirus Covid-19 is pushing governments to act with urgency and define strategies to control the movement of people in the global context. The refugee issue was at the centre of this debate until a few weeks ago, but has now taken a back seat after a foreseeable shift in governmental priorities. However, migrants continue to arrive in Europe and be crowded into reception centres, which are currently experiencing a crisis of tragic proportions.</p>
<p>What is the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on the refugee issue? How can the directives on social distancing be adopted in reception centres, and by extension in all the other sites of collective forced confinement? What effect can the pandemic have on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forms-and-outcomes-of-citizens-mobilisations-during-europes-refugee-reception-crisis-122834">interaction of migrants and non-migrants</a>, on both the solidarity practices that have emerged since the summer of 2015, and the hostile attitudes toward migrants and refugees?</p>
<h2>European disunion</h2>
<p>The fragilities and divisions caused by the pandemic are undermining the <a href="https://time.com/5805783/coronavirus-european-union/">governance of the European Union</a>, particularly on issues related to the mobility of people. Countries are <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/health/coronavirus-response/travel-and-transportation_en">closing in on themselves</a>, as internal and external border controls are rapidly intensifying.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324306/original/file-20200331-65514-b83fwv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=638&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ec.europa.eu</span></span>
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<p>At the same time as the first coronavirus infections and deaths were recorded in Italy, Turkey was engaging in a geopolitical conflict with Europe by <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/inside-europe-turkey-opens-border-for-migrants/av-52651447">opening its borders</a>, pushing thousands of migrants into the transit camps in Greece. Athens’ reaction and diplomatic pressure from the EU have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/world/europe/turkey-greece-border-migrants.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR0Q71K954sxYRTNN4tFdPj-XHMaVRXyKqOBRFtuPIGdob3SJ1MzH3OJfdM">held back Ankara</a> after two weeks of border tensions.</p>
<h2>Death and violence on the rise on Greek islands</h2>
<p>The spread of Covid-19 in Europe coincided with a peak in tensions in the five Greek islands hosting more than 42,000 asylum seekers. Thousands of migrants amassed in and around the Mória camp, the main hotspot on the island of Lesbos, saw their already <a href="https://giuliopiscitelli.viewbook.com/album/between-olive-trees-and-mud?p=1">miserable living conditions</a> worsening sharply.</p>
<p>Suicide attempts and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/child-killed-in-lesbos-refugee-camp-fire">fatal accidents</a> keep occurring with frightening regularity. The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) held an <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/resources/library/media/20200323RES75640/20200323RES75640.pdf">appeal to the EU Commission</a> to evacuate the most vulnerable population from the camp.</p>
<p>On-the-scene reporters such as German photojournalist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk3v8sRDcik">Michael Trammer</a> denounced attacks by far-right groups against migrants, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/we-left-fearing-for-our-lives-doctors-set-upon-by-mob-in-lesbos">humanitarian activists and journalists</a>. These groups come from the Greek mainland, but are likely to be supported by others from <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/23294/greece-far-right-activists-in-violent-clashes-to-defend-europe-against-migrants">continental Europe</a>.</p>
<p>After five years of increasing pressure, part of the local population is now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyHIZRNGsVs">turning against migrants</a>. Hostile sentiments spread among the very same society that had shown <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/10/57f7732d4/volunteers-saved-lives-lesvos-nominated-nobel-peace-prize.html">great solidarity</a> during the 2015-18 reception crisis. The island of Lesbos is representative of the magnitude of the tragedy that migrants are experiencing in Europe. In many other places, however, similar problems require urgent action, such as on the border with Bangladesh where <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/a-rohingya-coronavirus-catastrophe-looms-if-their-internet-blackout-continues/">millions of Rohingyas are at risk</a> within the world’s largest refugee camp.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3TQslfF-lok?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">There is little protection against Covid-19 in the Mória refugee camp.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unenforceable health measures</h2>
<p>Public heath measures and social distancing rules intended to fight the Covid-19 pandemic are absolutely irreconcilable with the reality of imprisonment, as evidenced by the <a href="https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/03/10/coronavirus-carceri-in-rivolta-altri-3-detenuti-morti-a-rieti-nuove-proteste-a-siracusa-e-caserta-a-foggia-evasione-di-massa-23-ricercati-la-procura-di-milano-apre-inchiesta-sulla-sommossa-a-san/5730183/">riots sparked in Italian penitentiaries</a> during which several inmates died. These events should draw public attention on the global issue of the <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/prison-jail-coronavirus-release-abolition-incarceration">application of anti-contagion regulations in overcrowded prisons</a>, where a possible explosion of the virus would be catastrophic.</p>
<p>Other overcrowded places include collective centres for asylum seekers and irregular migrants across Europe, whether they are transit or detention centres. Unsurprisingly, the actions taken by many governments in order to deal with the migration issue under the Covid-19 emergency are oriented toward reducing – and eventually stopping – the arrival of new migrants. For example, the responsible institutions in <a href="https://www.fedasil.be/fr/actualites/accueil-des-demandeurs-dasile/coronavirus-mesures-dans-les-centres-daccueil">Belgium</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-stops-accepting-refugees-over-coronavirus/a-52826716">Germany</a> have decided to stop registering new asylum applications for an indefinite period of time.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, calls and mobilisations for the regularisation of irregular migrants continue to spread. Hundreds of migrants in the French detention centres are currently on a <a href="https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1584466767-liberer-tous-etrangers-sans-papiers-retenus-dans-cra-migrants-coronavirus-epidemie-expulsions">hunger strike</a>. Humanitarian organisations held <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/solidarieta/2020/03/21/news/_subito_una_sanatoria_per_difendere_gli_stranieri_irregolari_dal_coronavirus_e_dallo_sfruttamento_lettera_di_sindacati_e_a-251909165/">an appeal to the Italian government</a> to guarantee the right to health to tens of thousands of irregular migrants employed in the agricultural sector in the country. </p>
<p>For the moment, the only country that followed a principles of solidarity is Portugal, where those migrants who were waiting for their applications to be processed have been temporarily <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/29/coronavirus-portugal-grants-temporary-citizenship-rights-to-migrants">regularised until the 1st of July</a>.</p>
<h2>Solidarity at risk</h2>
<p>All these appeals and mobilisations show that the principle of solidarity toward migrants and refugees rests on solid foundations, at least within the civil society. However, the coronavirus emergency and the rules of social distancing are leading to the rarefaction – and often the complete disappearance – of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forms-and-outcomes-of-citizens-mobilisations-during-europes-refugee-reception-crisis-122834">practices of direct solidarity</a> that characterised the 2015-2018 reception crisis.</p>
<p>These practices were often transformed into structured and sustainable supportive actions, and became a fundamental component of the reception and integration network in Europe. The reception centres around which citizen movements had developed, such as the <a href="http://www.bxlrefugees.be/">BxlRefugees</a> platform created to help asylum seekers and refugees in Belgium, have now been closed to the outside world.</p>
<p>As one of the most vulnerable, most isolated and less visible groups, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/18/ngos-raise-alarm-as-coronavirus-strips-support-from-eu-refugees">unaccompanied minors</a> risk to be abandoned to their fate.</p>
<h2>Collective fear fuels xenophobia</h2>
<p>As shown in Greece, the far-right did not miss the opportunity to capitalise on the collective fear for the virus and revive their xenophobic message. Also in the mainstream political debate, however, the migration issue often merges with the new virus emergency. This is the case of Viktor Orbán, who directly <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200313-hungary-s-pm-orban-blames-foreign-students-migration-for-coronavirus-spread">blamed migrants</a> for the spread of Covid-19 in Hungary.</p>
<p>With similar intentions, Donald Trump has spoken of a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/11/politics/read-trump-coronavirus-address/index.html">“foreign virus”</a> since the beginning of the crisis. In Italy, part of <a href="https://youmedia.fanpage.it/video/aa/XnaJrOSw1AH3g-fz">mainstream journalism</a> is translating one of the most recurring leitmotifs from the migration debate into the Covid-19 debate. Those populist politicians and opinion leaders who accused NGOs of facilitating the smuggling of migrants in 2015-2018, are pointing the finger at them today for not being supporting national hospitals during the current crisis. The reality is different, however, as shown by the case of <a href="https://www.emergency.it/cosa-facciamo/risposta-covid/">Emergency</a> which is largely involved in first-line care.</p>
<h2>A hierarchy of emergencies</h2>
<p>It is clear how all these arguments take advantage of the radical shift in priorities that European governments have undergone in the last few weeks. At the national and local level, strategies to face the pandemic have included a gradual increase in social control measures. Police operations have been implemented with the aim of controlling and punishing those who do not comply with confinement rules. There are currently hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.interno.gov.it/it/coronavirus-i-dati-dei-servizi-controllo">daily checks</a> in Italy, but police corps are active throughout Europe, on the national <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JS69SSUJ6w">borders</a> and in the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200318-france-coronavirus-lockdown-violation-attestation-epidemic-christophe-castaner-public-health">city streets</a>.</p>
<p>In the eyes of millions of citizens trying to cope with the huge stress and anxiety of isolation, any sort of violation to the anti-contagion rules will be seen as unacceptable. Any exception to the rule of confinement will be seen as a privilege at the expense of national security. Hostile reactions in the case that such privileges will be granted to migrants are sadly predictable.</p>
<p>Sadly, the nationalistic egoism that embedded within slogans such as “Britain first”, “La France d'abord” or “Prima gli italiani” – to give just a few examples – risks becoming more present than ever. Until the end of the Covid-19 crisis, any emergency or disaster that forces people to migrate will be seen as less urgent, less important than the emergency that forces us to remain confined to our homes.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The photographer <a href="https://giuliopiscitelli.viewbook.com">Giulio Piscitelli</a> provided the reportage pictures in this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The health crisis is pushing governments to try to control the movement of people, but migrants continue to arrive in EU reception centres, which are currently experiencing a crisis of tragic proportions.Alessandro Mazzola, Post-doc Research Fellow, Sociologist, Guildhall School, City of London Corporation, Université de LiègeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1346762020-03-29T08:33:09Z2020-03-29T08:33:09ZCOVID-19 compromises social networks. What this means for people in humanitarian crises<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323191/original/file-20200326-133027-1ljilxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iraqi, Iranian and Somali asylum seekers at a tent camp in the Netherlands</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ROBIN UTRECHT/AFP/GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The novel coronavirus is now being transmitted through the six continents. A key concern is for those who are already extremely vulnerable – those who are caught in ongoing humanitarian emergencies, such as those in Syria, South Sudan and the Rohingya refugee crisis.</p>
<p>For people caught in these emergencies, a public health response will be a challenge, but there is another factor that has been largely overlooked: the role of people’s social networks – and how these networks might be compromised by the pandemic.</p>
<p>In crises, whether the threat is severe drought, floods, famine, conflict, or displacement, <a href="https://fic.tufts.edu/publication-item/facing-famine-somali-response/">people turn</a> for help first to their social network. Research in several countries shows that social connectedness is the main (in some cases, perhaps the <em>only</em>) source of help that ordinary people have when caught in a crisis. Assistance from these networks includes food, shelter, money or credit, forms of employment, emotional support and information or advice.</p>
<p>But what happens when the threat is embedded in that very social network? What happens to the source of support that people have learned to count on, when everyone is affected by the threat in terms of both their health and their livelihoods?</p>
<p>The current global pandemic is an unprecedented situation where the survival resource of the world’s most vulnerable people – their social networks – may become compromised and an additional risk, because the virus is transmitted between people.</p>
<p>This has massive implications for responses to this pandemic. How will it amplify the impact of existing humanitarian crises? </p>
<h2>Social networks in crises</h2>
<p>During the series of shocks (drought, hyperinflation, and conflict) that hit Somalia in 2011, aid agencies <a href="https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/famine-in-somalia/">were hobbled</a> by the restrictions of Al-Shabaab - a terrorist group that controlled much of the affected area - and by counter-terrorism <a href="https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/CounterTerrorism_Study_Full_Report.pdf">legislation</a> in western donor countries that criminalised the diversion of aid that ended up in the hands of terrorist groups. As a result, most of the formal assistance that could have averted the crisis was very late to arrive; the crisis spiralled out of control and led to famine, <a href="https://fews.net/sites/default/files/documents/reports/Somalia_Mortality_Estimates_Final_Report_1May2013_upload.pdf">killing</a> a quarter million people.</p>
<p><a href="https://fic.tufts.edu/research-item/food-security-and-resilience-in-somalia/">Our research</a> showed that in large parts of the affected area, people mostly had only their own social networks to fall back on. </p>
<p>Those with stronger networks - particularly with people outside the affected area, or not subject to the same hazards - were the best able to cope with the crisis. </p>
<p>Social networks support their members best when only some people in the network are affected by a particular threat. People who had networks that expanded into the global diaspora of Somali people were able to cope with the crisis much better than those whose networks consisted only of people who were suffering the same fate. The latter types of networks soon ran out of resources to share, and could no longer support people.</p>
<p>Recognising and protecting social solidarity is more important than ever. But even physically distant sources of support are at risk during this pandemic. </p>
<p>Unlike previous crises, where social connections outside the immediately affected areas were mobilised to help, this pandemic knows no boundaries - people in the diaspora are also locked down, and as vulnerable to the virus as people caught in refugee or internally displaced people’s camps. Their livelihoods have been severely disrupted too.</p>
<h2>Building networks</h2>
<p>The pandemic will also affect people’s ability to forge new social connections and maintain their existing networks.</p>
<p>During the recent crisis in South Sudan, <a href="https://www.mercycorps.org/currency-connections">our research</a> shows that households mostly relied on their relatives, neighbours and friends, informal livelihood and community groups in times of need. </p>
<p>While the conflict, displacement, and family separations disrupted households’ support systems, new forms of social connections emerged. <a href="https://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/wages-war">Similar results were found in Syria</a>, where households’ social connections were critical for successful coping and livelihood adaptation during the conflict, especially in densely populated besieged areas.</p>
<p>Even in Haiti, which has had a heavy presence of international aid efforts, social networks are often the first and only means of survival. After the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, even in the midst of significant international aid, most Haitians <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24601934">relied on</a> one another for survival and recovery.</p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Humanitarians - both local and international - will have to pay attention to what a pandemic like this does, not only to their own programming, but also to the functioning of social networks. We don’t actually know what the effects will be. </p>
<p>In the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, stigma, rumours, and movement restrictions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884263/">affected</a> social and economic networks, particularly of survivors and health workers. </p>
<p>Likely, the COVID-19 pandemic will limit the support people are able to mobilise through their networks, certainly in person but also through their distant connections. But in what ways, and who will be most affected by this, remain to be seen. </p>
<p>In times of crises, people’s assets can sometimes become liabilities. The current global pandemic is an unprecedented situation where the very fabric of survival for the world’s most vulnerable people – their social networks – may both become compromised and an additional risk. The humanitarian field needs to work fast to understand the implications and to adapt to this crisis that has challenged the way we work in so many ways.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeeyon Kim receives funding from DFID, the Center for Resilience and Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at USAID. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Maxwell receives funding from DFID, the Swiss Office of Development Cooperation, FAO, Action Against Hunger, REACH, and USAID.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sabina Robillard has recently worked on projects with CDA Collaborative Learning, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Save the Children Denmark, and Concern International. </span></em></p>The survival resource of the world’s most vulnerable people – their social networks – may become compromisedJeeyon Kim, Senior Researcher for Resilience at Mercy Corps and a Visiting Fellow, Tufts UniversityDaniel Maxwell, Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts UniversitySabina Robillard, Doctoral student at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1224092019-08-29T07:43:53Z2019-08-29T07:43:53ZSouth African taxpayers will bear the brunt of National Health Insurance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290066/original/file-20190829-106524-m1bdl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The proposed National Health Insurance has raised questions about the government's ability to manage a complex health system </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s government recently released the National Health Insurance (<a href="http://www.health.gov.za/index.php/nhi">NHI)</a> Bill whose aim is to extend universal healthcare to all South Africans. </p>
<p>But the Bill has sparked a great deal of controversy. The impact on private health care, quality of service and the government’s ability to manage such a complex system have been widely questioned.</p>
<p>One of the toughest questions being asked is: how on earth will it be funded?</p>
<p>The memorandum on the objects of the Bill explains that the NHI will be financed in various interrelated phases as determined in consultation with the National Treasury. Costing <a href="https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/what-nhi-will-cost-south-africa-taxpayer/">estimates vary</a> from the health department’s “guesstimated” R259 billion last year, to the Institute of Race Relations calculation of R450 billion.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africas-plans-for-universal-healthcare-are-pie-in-the-sky-121992">Why South Africa's plans for universal healthcare are pie in the sky</a>
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<p>National Treasury is currently doing the costing exercise. It has said it will <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2019/2019082201%20Media%20statement%20-%20Budget%20Council%20meeting.pdf">release more information</a> at a later stage. </p>
<p>What’s known about the funding proposals can be gleaned from the Bill itself. These four proposals target the same low-hanging fruit, namely income tax.</p>
<h2>The four sources</h2>
<p><strong>Source 1: Existing tax revenue</strong>: This pool of general tax revenue includes funds currently directed to the provincial health departments (the so-called “provincial equitable share” and “conditional grants”). </p>
<p>The main public health funding stream consists of around R150 billion per year, which would be tapped for the NHI. The memorandum notes that this shifting of funds would occur in one of the later phases, and would require amendments to the National Health Act of 2003. It would also be dependent on how functions are shifted from provincial to national level; for example, if central hospitals were brought to the national level.</p>
<p><strong>Source 2: Scrapping medical scheme tax credits</strong>: This entails the reallocation of funding for medical scheme tax credits paid to various medical schemes towards the funding of the NHI. In other words, the current tax relief provided for by the medical tax credits would fall away. The impact on, for example, a family of four, would amount to just over R12 000 per year. This means that the tax owing to SARS would increase by about R12 000 per year for the main member of the medical scheme.</p>
<p>Calculation of medical scheme tax credit = (R620 + R209 + R209) x 12 months = R12 456.</p>
<p><strong>Source 3: Payroll tax on employeer and employee</strong>: The memorandum envisages that the payroll tax will be “small”. The Bill does not, however, quantify its “smallness” – or indeed, the magnitude. </p>
<p>In my view this payroll tax is in essence a tax on labour and productivity. For example, the payroll tax would inevitably result in reduced earnings or, worse, job losses. </p>
<p><strong>Source 4: Surcharge on personal income tax</strong>: The Bill does not contain any information regarding this surcharge, other than that it would be charged on an individual’s taxable income. This extra tax on taxable income could be viewed as a penalty (or disincentive) for increased productivity and wealth – yet another reason why some might participate in the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/295552/south-africas-tax-revolt-is-already-happening/">silent tax revolt</a>. </p>
<p>Despite not knowing the percentage of additional tax that might be levied, it is important to look at the number of taxpayers who will have to bear this additional tax. This metric is called the tax base.</p>
<h2>The tax base</h2>
<p>The country has a narrow <a href="https://www.sars.gov.za/About/SATaxSystem/Pages/Tax-Statistics.aspx">tax base</a>, defined as the number of individuals who were <em>assessed</em> for personal income tax. This is not to be confused with the number of <em>registered</em> individual taxpayers, which has increased by 4.9% from 2016/17 to 2017/18. The increase may be ascribed to the revised employee registration process which was introduced by the South African Revenue Service in 2010. </p>
<p>This process requires employers to register all individuals and issue them with a tax certificate, regardless of the amount of income earned. However, many of these taxpayers fall below the tax <a href="https://www.sars.gov.za/TaxTypes/PIT/Pages/default.aspx">threshold</a> and are thus not assessed. They are also <a href="https://www.sars.gov.za/AllDocs/Documents/PAYE%20tables/2020%20tables/PAYE-GEN-01-G01-A03%20-%202020%20Monthly%20Tax%20Deduction%20Tables%20-%20External%20Annexure.pdf">not liable</a> for the tax employers deduct from salaries and wages and hand over to the South African Revenue Service.</p>
<p>Conversely, the number of taxpayers actually assessed (or taxed) showed a sharp decline. In the 2013/14 tax year, a total of 5,991,934 individuals were assessed. This figure dropped to 4,898,565 individuals assessed in 2016/2017. The tax base therefore shrunk by about 18.2% from 2014 to 2017.</p>
<p>In contrast, the personal income tax burden shouldered by these individual taxpayers has increased. This can be expressed as the average personal income tax paid per assessed taxpayer. In the 2013/14 tax year, the tax burden amounted to R45,702. This burden expanded to R65,601 in 2016/2017, representing a whopping 43.5% increase from 2014 to 2017.</p>
<p>The overall result is that relatively fewer taxpayers have to carry an increasing burden of tax collections. Given the country’s poor economic outlook, credit rating downgrades, high unemployment figures and the myriad of social grants paid to millions of dependent individuals, it is clear that the tax base is already severely strained. </p>
<p>The NHI will simply add to this burden.</p>
<h2>Social solidarity</h2>
<p>The Bill attempts to make the extra tax burden more palatable by saying that the money will be collected “in accordance with social solidarity”. This is an interesting phrase used by the drafters of the Bill. “Social solidarity” is a concept that was developed by the Frenchman <a href="http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/social-solidarity">Émile Durkheim</a> in the late 1800s. Its core principle is that of collective action and enabling individuals to feel that they can enhance the lives of others. </p>
<p>The social solidarity envisaged by the memorandum is that of income cross-subsidies between “the affluent and the impoverished”. All well and good, until one considers that the payment of taxes is not a voluntary action done for the wellbeing of others. It is a legal obligation imposed by the State on its citizens. Social solidarity, therefore, implies a sense of altruism. A duty to pay income tax can hardly be said to be an act of selflessness.</p>
<p>Of course, what probably offends most taxpayers is not the communist undertone of social solidarity, which harks back to “<a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm">from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs</a>”. Rather, it is the sense of frustration with a government rife with corruption, the widespread misuse of public funds and the brazen lack of accountability. The NHI funding proposals may very well be perceived as adding insult to injury for the 4.9 million individuals paying personal income tax.</p>
<p>It is somewhat of a relief that (according to the memorandum) tax options will only be evaluated as part of the last stage of implementation. Hopefully, the National Treasury will do a full impact analysis and take into account the economic and fiscal environment prevailing at the time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122409/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lee-Ann Steenkamp is affiliated with the South African Institute of Tax Professionals (SAIT).</span></em></p>The South African government is going ahead with the National Health Insurance scheme but has yet to detail how it is to be funded. What seems certain is that taxpayers will foot the bill.Lee-Ann Steenkamp, Senior lecturer in taxation, University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB), Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.