The Covid-19 Learning, Evidence and Research Programme in Bangladesh (CLEAR) is a 2.5 year FCDO-funded programme to support an evidence-informed Covid-19 response and recovery in Bangladesh.

The pandemic has disrupted production in agriculture, industry and the informal sector- creating a new class of poor. Disruption in access to basic services like health care, education, social protection, and nutritional services, have adversely and disproportionately affected the most vulnerable groups. Gaps in the existing evidence-base mean that there is an urgent need to gather evidence on a number of priority areas to analyse the social and political impacts of the pandemic and create a coalition of actors who will champion use of this evidence to develop effective policy and programmatic responses.

CLEAR will build a consortium of research organisations to:

• deliver policy relevant Covid-19 research and evidence for Bangladesh
• support increased evidence uptake among policymakers
• share lessons from the Covid-19 response to better prepare for future shocks

Research themes

CLEAR will focus on three priority development sectors relating to the pandemic – social protection, the secondary impacts of health measures, and education. In each sector research will examine:

• national level governance and policy responses – including state-citizen relationships, the role of the state in effective service delivery, spaces for dissent
• local engagement and service delivery – what happens within communities at local level? VAWG, citizen interaction, volunteerism
• innovations – digital innovations in service delivery, workers’ rights, innovations in health/ education/ welfare service delivery

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is the lead implementing partner of CLEAR and will lead the co-development of the research agenda, identification of research partners, and management of research grants.  As part of this management role we will support these grantees in the design and delivery of effective policy engagement activities and support learning across the cohort of partners and stakeholders.

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