A story of resilience and fragilities: the impact of COVID-19 on horizontal cohesion in conflict-affected countries (2021)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought along with it massive challenges related to health response, socio-economic impacts, and information sharing; and communities in conflict face additional hurdles in maintaining stability during this period. To mitigate the mutual influence of conflict dynamics and COVID-19 response, Search for Common Ground (Search) has partnered with the European Union to produce research on a quarterly basis addressing key themes faced across six conflict-affected countries, namely Kenya, Nigeria, Palestine, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen. Each report includes concrete recommendations for maintaining the credibility of pandemic response efforts, minimising the negative effects of the pandemic on conflict dynamics, and identifying opportunities for collaboration. This second thematic report is an attempt to analyse horizontal social cohesion in conflict settings throughout the pandemic. The report builds on insights from Search’s Quarterly Conflict Snapshot Reports.