Islamic Relief’s Global Covid-19 Response & Recovery Programme 2020/21

The Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest global health emergency in nearly a century with huge long-term consequences for the global economy. It has disrupted people’s lives, livelihoods and children’s education and is disproportionately affecting the poor and those in existing humanitarian crises, conflict zones and refugee settings in all IRW countries. IRW and its country programs launched significant response efforts to confront Covid-19’s primary and secondary impact. Initial responses were focused on short-term lifesaving needs including risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), strengthening of health systems to take care of Covid-19 affected patients, and provision of emergency food security assistance to those impacted by lockdowns. IRW also recognised the need to act on the secondary impact through livelihoods work in subsequent phases to guide a more holistic recovery effort focused on secondary impacts of Covid-19.

The purpose of this evaluation is to map IRW global Covid-19 response and recovery programs and assess their effectiveness with reference to outcomes and outputs as well as draw lessons for future programming and preparedness. This evaluation, which was conducted over April and May 2021, is in line with IRW’s commitment to learning and accountability to communities and partners.