UBT_Covid192021 - Mobilities and Socialities: COVID-19 in the Drylands of Africa and Beyond

In the world’s drylands, the COVID-19 pandemic is adding uncertainty to the lives of people already facing challenges from climate change, political instability, food insecurity, poor services and land conflicts. It is also exposing the relevance of local strategies for living with environmental variability, such as strategic mobility. Most research on COVID-19 in the drylands has focused on the health implications and not on the effects of state-enforced containment measures. Most critically, these works are only slightly informed by the perspectives of members of affected communities. We propose to address these gaps by exploring two dimensions of dryland lives and livelihoods that have been most affected by control measures – mobility and sociality. Adopting a transdisciplinary and participatory framework, we will investigate the socially differentiated impacts of the evolving COVID-19 restrictions, and local responses to them. Under current travel restrictions, data will be provided by collaborative researchers living in 18 dryland countries – farmers, pastoralists and students; women and men of different ages and socioeconomic statuses – who are directly affected by the containment measures and report on their experience thereof. We are applying to the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence for funding to support our research on the medium-term dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic in the drylands. More specifically, we will explore how changes in im/mobility and sociality interconnect with food security, land issues, environmental conservation, religious discourses, (electoral) politics and education. Pandemic waves, mutations and emerging vaccine conflicts make this examination of COVID-driven impacts and responses in some of the most marginalized regions urgent. Exploring the multifaceted and unfolding COVID-19 experience in dryland areas can illuminate questions about dryland livelihoods, while contributing to theoretical debates about mobility and sociality.