Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Conventional campaigning tactics, such as door-to-door visits and town hall meetings to connect and talk to constituents, are not currently possible in many countries due to COVID-19 guidelines and concerns over risk of virus transmission. Clear guidelines that have the agreement of major parties are needed to ensure appropriate electioneering keeps election candidates and voters safe. Consider the need to:

• Develop an agreement between major political parties on the rules they commit to follow to ensure the safety of their election campaigns
• Identify alternative campaigning methods that are appropriate, such as:
  • Increased use of telephone and postal campaigning
  • Online platforms to support webinars and online town hall meetings with candidates to interact with voters
  • Increased involvement of volunteer helpers in constituencies
• Identify campaigning methods that are not appropriate, for example:
  • Driving voters to voting booths
  • In-person public appearances in places where crowds may then gather
• Appoint an arbitrator to advise on the adherence to agreed rules and the appropriateness of campaigning methods
• Consider how positive and negative campaigning may affect public mood at an already stressful time
• Communicate rules to campaign offices well in advance to allow preparation
• Communicate the campaign rules to the public

Formal learning from COVID-19 is beginning to take place at national and international levels, to capture rapid dissemination of information and lessons. Similar approaches at local government levels are identifying emerging trends in response and identifying gaps and opportunities for the future e.g. The Ney report on Local COVID-19 outbreaks: Lessons learnt and good practice from Leicestershire’s experiences of responding to a local surge in COVID-19 cases. Consider:

• Learning can capture information in cities or regions
• Learning can be undertaken by individual local governments or a consortium through mechanisms such as peer review (see ISO 22392)
• Lessons may be disseminated within a single locale or more widely. The may be between cities or regions or internationally with organisations such as the Global Resilient Cities Network

We provide a few examples of formalised international learning and the key issues addressed to provide consideration for similar pieces of work at local level.

• The UN has developed The Compendium of Digital Government Initiatives in response to the COVID-19 to capture emerging trends in digital responses of UN Member States against the COVID-19 pandemic, and provide a preliminary analysis of their main features
• The Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) collects and organises up-to-date information on the responses of health systems and also captures wider public health initiatives
• New Zealand’s Independent Review of COVID 19 Clusters in Aged Residential Care Facilities which provides lessons on care facilities for the elderly and recommendations for improvements
• Korea’s COVID-19: Testing Time for Resilience which includes information on holding elections during COVID-19
• Consideration of how to learn lessons through debrief, assessing performance and peer review