Covid-19 as a Syndemic: A Feminist Intersectional Perspective on Moroccan Civil Society’s Crisis Management

Descrizione prodotto

Sara Ansaloni

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing inequalities present in Moroccan society, giving renewed visibility to the concept of syndemic, developed by Singer (1996) by combining the notions of “epidemics” and “synergy”. Accordingly, the complex interplay of biological and environmental vulnerabilities amplifies the disease burden and moves along consolidated fault lines of society. From a feminist intersectional perspective, the present research proposes a new model of analysis with the purpose of investigating Moroccan social protection response to the sanitary crisis and the impact of Covid-19 on vulnerable communities. The disease associated with people’s social identities – gender, social class, ethnicity, and disability – that already underpin patterns of discrimination, increase exponentially the degree of vulnerability of a given population. Furthermore, by exploring the CSOs’ crise management initiatives, that include the adoption of a community-centred approach and the employment of technologysupported solutions, it will be possible to reformulate the country’s human development model and design a more efficient EAP. Through the comparison of MENA’s countries, Moroccan government, and CSOs’ best practices, the research findings shed light on the necessity of enhancing cooperation between governmental and non-govern­mental bodies. Therefore, the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be an opportunity for reconsidering bottom-up decentralization through sustainable localized development, participatory decision-making, and state-CSOs cooperation.