THE NEED FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE AND PEACEBUILDING IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to fragile and conflict-affected contexts, some donors have focused on public health and humanitarian assistance while cutting back on peacebuilding and governance programs, which are not viewed as producing immediate, tangible impacts on the spread of COVID-19. However, when strained state-society relations are part of pre-existing conflict dynamics, responses to COVID-19 that fail to incorporate governance and peacebuilding approaches run the risk of undermining their intended public health goals while also further exacerbating cycles of violence. In such contexts, longstanding political grievances and mistrust inform the narratives through which communities understand the spread of COVID-19 and responses to it by the government and international actors. These perceptions simultaneously limit the willingness of communities to comply with COVID-19 public health regulations and can amplify other drivers of violent conflict. This interaction between the COVID-19 pandemic and pre-existing sources of fragility is a threat multiplier, magnifying existing grievances and posing lasting challenges to resilience and peace. The ongoing crisis in Northeast Nigeria is a particularly relevant context for examining how fractured citizenstate relations, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic are connected to one another. It also provides a case study for identifying how donor funding and programs should be oriented to address both the spread of the disease and broader governance and peacebuilding goals concurrently.