Sonar-Global Highlights

The SoNAR-global Vulnerabilities Assessment digital and its output

This paper describes the process, advantages and limitations of a qualitative methodology for defining and analyzing vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implemented in Italy in two sites (Rome and outside Rome, in some small-medium sized municipalities in Latium) in 2021, this investigation employed a mixed digital research tool that was also used simultaneously in four other European countries. Its digital nature encompasses both processes of data collection. Among the most salient is that the pandemic catalyzed new vulnerabilities in addition to exacerbating old ones, particularly economic. Many of the vulnerabilities detected, in fact, are linked to previous situations, such as the uncertainties of labor markets, having in COVID-19 to the greatest negative effects on the most precarious workers (non-regular, part-time, and seasonal). The consequences of the pandemic are also reflected in other forms of vulnerability that appear less obvious, having exacerbated social isolation, not only out of fear of contagion, but because of the psychological challenges posed by containment measures themselves. These measures created not mere discomfort, but behavioral changes characterized by anxiety, fearfulness, and disorientation. More generally, this investigation reveals the strong influence of social determinants throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, creating new forms of vulnerability, as the effects of social, economic, and biological risk factors were compounded, in particular, among already marginalized populations.

Full text

Sonar Global in ISIDORe – requesting social science services

Through their involvement in ISIDORe, Sonar-Global partners are offering various European Commission-funded services. These include: Social sciences preparedness and response interventions | Post-intervention evaluation | Scale-up services for qualitative analyses and epidemic response | Cost benefit analysis of epidemic response measure | Community surveillance and social dimensions of outbreak investigation

Social science services via ISIDORe
ISIDORe website

OPERATE-SOC AMR Curriculum

As part of its capacity-building activities, Sonar-Global partners are delighted to publish the OPERATE SOC AMR curriculum. This training curriculum is an intended resource for trainers who aim to provide interdisciplinary training into the social dimensions of AMR in practice, using a One Health framework as a point of departure. This curriculum includes a training handbook and a MOOC called "The Social Dimensions of Antimicrobial Resistance", hosted by the University of Amsterdam in Coursera.

OPERATE-SOC AMR curriculum
MOOC "The Social Dimensions of Antimicrobial Resistance"