The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a global crisis with short- and long-term implications for health, the economy, and social relations. The negative impacts of the crisis are expected to be more pronounced in developing countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need for policymakers in these countries to monitor the extent of the spread as well as ongoing and future implications. Against this background, G²LM|LIC is launching a special call of interest for research on COVID-19 in low-income countries (see the list of eligible countries here). Relevant Two types of research are needed:
- First, research aiming at collecting data utilizing innovative approaches (e.g., mobile technology, internet, etc.) to give insights on the current status of the pandemic as well as the economic and social impacts of different measures taken by governments to curb the spread of the pandemic.
- Second, innovative research projects with designs that allow for longer-term impact evaluations of the pandemic and measures taken by governments, using wide-range of research methodologies and data sources (e.g., administrative data, publicly available data, private sector data including remote sensing data, online or phone surveys, etc.). These can be new or in addition to existing longitudinal surveys as long as they address the implications of COVID-19.
The two types of research should particularly focus on the five wide-ranging research themes of G²LM|LIC:
Theme 1: Facts about gender, jobs, and poverty
Theme 2: Fertility and labour markets
Theme 3: Barriers to gender parity
Theme 4: The future of work: automation, urbanization
Theme 5: Policies and welfare: costs and benefits of gender parity
Research projects focusing on vulnerable groups, other than women, e.g. informal workers, migrants, factory workers, etc. are also welcome to apply in this special call. Priority will be given to research providing evidence-based policy recommendations to help in achieving quick policy responses to COVID-19 challenges. Capacity building is of the imperative to the mission of G2LM|LIC, to this end, we expect proposals to engage local researchers in the core activities of research.
Funding can be provided only to institutions and may be used only to fully or partially fund COVID-19 related research. We expect individual funding amounts will not exceed 30,000 euros but if you have an exceptional higher requirement, please get in touch.
Please send a short (two pages double-spaced) proposal describing the research idea together with an estimated budget to this email covid19.g2lmlic@iza.org as soon as possible, but no later than 03 May 2020. The first round of assessments will start on 24 April with all the proposals that have been submitted until that time. A more detailed project description may be required at a later time.