Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread around the world affecting public health and having cascading impacts on nearly every aspect of human life. Challenges from COVID-19 extend far beyond the illness, to include disruption of the global economy and local socio-economic relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to challenge vulnerable populations and communities long after the infection numbers peak. Many vulnerable populations around the world are experiencing a new complexity the virus is bringing to existing challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, obstacles to social, economic, and labor mobility, and access to education. Understanding these second-order impacts will help officials as well as civil society organizations mitigate negative effects and strengthen responses to address growing economic, health, and education needs.

The Cities’ COVID Mitigation Mapping program (C2M2) builds on global networks of geospatial experts to analyze second-order impacts of COVID-19. The goal of this program is to increase the capacity to understand the distribution and gaps in resources available to vulnerable populations in urban communities. This program has three regional hubs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where select local organizations, with regional geospatial and community development expertise, identify and work with various local project partners to develop and guide C2M2 projects in each region.

C2M2 projects build local capacity to utilize open data and geospatial technologies, strengthen international partnerships, and create new data and analyses to inform data-driven decision making for planning to mitigate COVID-19 second-order impacts. Project partners will focus on key themes: food security, informal economy, tourism, health, and mobility to address second-order impacts of COVID-19.