The Covid-19 outbreak has by now emerged as an unprecedented and massive global health and humanitarian crisis. The poorest and the most marginalized are the most affected, and will be disproportionately disadvantaged as this crisis continues.

Thus we need to plan for a response which takes care of both short term/ immediate requirements like food security, testing, awareness building, supply of personal protective measures etc. as well as long term planning like strengthening the healthcare infrastructures at different levels, livelihood planning for the poor & disadvantages etc.

Also this response has to happen at scale. Thus any single NGO or institution or dept alone will not be capable of responding to such a crisis. We also require different skill sets and all of them might not be available with one entity. Thus there is a requirement and a need to proactively prepare a list of credible NGOs at the State and District level so that they can be mobilised and deployed at a short notice.

Similarly, the government could consider creating an internal departmental task force composed of the department/institutions who are having interaction with CSOs to prepare such a list.

CSOs on the other hand create a network where NGOs of different skill sets come together and deliver an integrated program at scale.