In Ukraine and around the world, June marks Pride Month for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) inclusion advocates. While annual public demonstrations for equality have been postponed due to the coronavirus, NDI and its civil society partners are continuing to explore innovative ways to engage new audiences and raise awareness of LGBTI issues.

In Libya, child members of ethnic minority groups begin school at a significant disadvantage. While the educational system is almost entirely based in the Arabic language, many ethnic minority families speak only their indigenous languages in the home. Elementary school students find themselves struggling to learn simultaneously, the concepts being conveyed and the language in which they’re being taught,; all in a context divorced from their cultural heritage and identity. 

In times of crisis, marginalized communities are often overlooked as governments, under pressure to move quickly to deliver policy responses, neglect the particular social vulnerabilities of these groups. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in Libya, the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI’s) civil society partners from the “Access” campaign have been advocating for inclusive policies to recognize the particular challenges faced by persons with disabilities (PWDs). At the onset of the pandemic, proposed government policies did not incorporate the needs of PWDs.

In Yopougon, a suburb of Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital Abidjan, angry youth gathered on the evening of April 5th to destroy a planned COVID-19 testing center. This testing center was one of many the government was constructing across Abidjan in response to an increasing number of cases -- 261 as of April 5th. But in contrast to citizens around the world all demanding not just more tests, but more accessible tests, the young people in Yopougon had a very different reaction to the government’s COVID-19 response. Why?