Initial COVID-19 responses in Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Uganda: Documentation and learning from March to May 2020

COVID-19 has emerged as a huge shock that will affect all public social systems directly and indirectly. This report synthesises the findings from a series of rapid situation analyses on the initial response to COVID-19 in the first few months of the outbreak – March to May 2020 – in five countries: Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

The Maintains programme has conducted a rapid review of the experiences and challenges of scaling up the response to COVID-19 in the first three months of the outbreak in five countries. The review focused on Maintains’ core social sectors of health, nutrition, social protection, and education, as well as cross-cutting themes of gender and inclusion, disaster risk finance, and governance. This report presents an analytical framework to assess the response, synthesises the learning, and identifies successes and challenges.