LOCAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TOWARDS COVID-19 PANDEMIC

STRATEGIES, PLANS, ACTIONS, OUTCOMES, IMPACTS

A WORLDWIDE SURVEY AND COMPARISON

The "IGU-CGoG COVID-19 Action Plan", launched by the IGU Commission on Geography of Governance (https://sites.google.com/site/igugeogov/home), on 25 March 2020, aims to collect and to curate a list of resources related to the strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions taken by local government towards the COVID-19 pandemic, around the world, and its outcomes and impacts.

The "IGU-CGoG COVID-19 Action Plan" has three main goals *:

1. First, in the coming weeks and months, we aim to collect evidence of the strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions taken by local government around the world towards the COVID-19 pandemic, making it available to all, as soon as possible, in this website, in a way that this information can still be useful during the current pandemic.

2. Second, to promote joint comparative research on the responses of local government towards the COVID-19 pandemic, its outcomes and impacts, and lessons for the future, to be carried out by members of the IGU Commission on Geography of Governance, and other interested partners, as soon as possible in the coming months.

3. Third, to present, discuss, and publish the outcomes of the comparative research on the worldwide responses of local government towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific meetings and/or panels, as well as publications, will be considered in the 2021 and 2022 activity plans of the IGU Commission on Geography of Governance.

*-The proposed actions are fully aware of the current priorities in the fight against the pandemic. Desk research or field work will only be carried out when ethically acceptable.

The "IGU-CGoG COVID-19 Action Plan" aims to address the following research questions:

1. What strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions have been adopted by local government to control and shape the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic locally?

2. What strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions have been adopted by local government to tackle the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health, on society and on the local economy?

3. What strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions are local government employing to distribute resources and care among local populations and what cooperation with local community organizations and citizen initiatives during the pandemic?

4. What has been the relationship between local government strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions towards COVID-19 pandemic and public behaviour?

5. How has local government strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions towards COVID-19 impacted on the effects of the pandemic?

6. How effective were different local government strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions, taken in different countries worldwide, in reducing the local spread of COVID-19?

7. What changes have been introduced in central-local relations (decentralization / re-centralization) and what innovations in multi-level governance have been tried to tackle more effectively the COVID-19 pandemic?

8. What has been the role of inter-municipal cooperation and metropolitan government in this context?

9. What is being done through cross-border municipal and regional cooperation during the pandemic?

10. What local government strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions are being designed, in different countries worldwide, for the post COVID-19 crisis?