Building community resilience during COVID-19: Learning from rural Bangladesh

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought overwhelming challenges to developing countries which are already resource-constrained and lack adequate social safety nets. Specifically, lockdown has adversely impacted marginalized communities (e.g., labourer, fish wholesaler and small business owner) and informal sector employees who rely on meager daily wages for their survival. Set in the contested climate of the emergency response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Phulbari, Dinajpur, Bangladesh, we examine the early response of the community to the pandemic. Drawing on 24 in-depth interviews with members of this community, we find that the existing central and regional government structure has failed to deal with the crisis. Yet, we show how collective effort at the local community level, led by volunteers and community leaders, is crucial in the fight against hardship during lockdown.