1st April 2020: What has happened till date

Hello friends,

We are pleased that our initiative - the #COVIDActionCollab has rapidly taken off the ground. This note will give you a sense, an update, on the happenings since we started to come together.  

The overall framework is available and is being constantly streamlined on the basis of expert advice and on the ground learning.

Ten working groups are operational: Calibrated Response, Health, 6 and Livelihoods, Human Resource, Financing, Infrastructure, Equipment and Materials, Information, Marketing and Communication, Governance. Daily catch up within the group and amongst the team leaders help us take stock of progress and cross-group coordination. Many partners are involved and adding tremendous value to the working groups.

Over 128 partners and 924 experts and volunteers have joined the Collaborative - of diverse profiles - community organisations, private institutions, civil society, academic, media, networks, and associations - these come on board with very critical thematic expertise, including health, technology, livelihoods, etc. 

Let’s zoom in on some significant achievements to date.

1. Leveraged presence in districts and states to re-purpose actions towards the COVID response. 
   1. Indore Healthy City- to COVID response 
   2. Phia Foundation working formally with the Jharkhand Government on migrant outreach
   3. Efforts are on to engage the government in Karnataka, Telangana, Tripura and Pondicherry
2. Moving physical wellness clinics to a scaled helpline meant for vulnerable communities. The helpline is comprehensive primary care support layered with COVID powered by community health workers and nurses. 
3. PHANA (a network of private hospitals and nursing homes ) - supporting a public health approach including fever clinic set-up
4. The experts in the collaborative produced several guidelines: Self-care, Home-care, Elderly care, and community-based testing protocols, along with very specific awareness materials. 
5. Low-cost ventilator designers were linked with validation sites and now on way to identify local manufacturers.
6. Several funders have committed support (IIFL, Morgan Stanley) and more on the way. The good news is many of them are first time funders of humanitarian response. 
7. Our volunteer database has an astounding 924 volunteers as of 31 March 2020.
8. Team of financing experts are focused on systems for resource estimation (demand and supply)
9. Strengthening procurement and supply:
   1. Identification of Materials both Medical patients and Non - Medical purpose
   2. Vendor Database for the supplies of Medical and Non-Medical material
      1. Availability of the materials (Medical and Non-Medical items) with the Vendors with a tentative timeline for supplying.
      2. Ideation, design and supply chain of jugaad materials to repurpose and reuse (IIT and IISc). 

To learn more about CAC and partner with us please visit: https://covidactioncollab.in/