Overview : Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa had a rapid spread of the virus which set back the progress made in the country’s socio-economic development. COVID-19 hit South Africa when the country is already experiencing slow growth and high inequality, with the vulnerable most hit as challenges such as unemployment, loss of livelihood, and food insecurity deepened. Also, they tend to lack access to energy resources; clean water and sanitation; and clean and safe living environment which threatens their health and put them under higher risk of COVID-19 exposure. In order to protect the vulnerable during the pandemic and provide for the community needs, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been providing holistic COVID-19 response including Protecting Vulnerable Groups and Co-ordinating Community Response to COVID-19, reaching out to vulnerable communities in 5 provinces (Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal, North-West, Western Cape). As part of the initiative, a Community Environmental Empowerment and Action Campaign has been designed to address the key drivers that communities identified for responding to COVID-19. Key drivers include safe living spaces, environmentally sustainable energy sources, and access to water and sanitation. The campaign seeks to target the youth, women, elderly people, and people with disabilities in 3 rural and informal settlement communities on topics of - The constitutional right to water and the community’s role in waste removal and clean community spaces.
- Fire safety, access to water in vulnerable communities and the communities’ role in sanitation when addressing the spread of COVID-19.
The key messaging behind this campaign is around the importance of addressing the challenges that low-income communities face and how this is impacting their efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 and that when these challenges remain unaddressed, they are in fact a human rights violation. We therefore request for quotes for the production of the campaign material as detailed in the terms of references found in one of the link of this notice. |