How Covid-19 Shrank Civic Space

How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted civic space? What has changed, who has been most affected and why? How are communities, partners, stakeholders and staff in Christian Aid programmes responding? What must be done to protect and expand this space?

This new study urgently raises issues of participation, freedom of assembly, surveillance and operations in an increasingly restricted civic space since the onset of Covid-19. Some of these are long-term issues, now being exacerbated by the pandemic.

Our research gathers both primary data and long-term experience to guide our own, and our partners’ policy, advocacy and programmatic work in protecting civic space. We present primary data from Bangladesh and Nigeria, and case studies from Colombia, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (IoPt), Myanmar, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.