Civil Society Mobilization in Times of Crisis: Case Study of the Response of Civil Society Actors to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Gorno-Badakhshan

Abstract

After long denial, the government of Tajikistan, under pressure from the internal public and the WHO, at the end of April, confirmed the existence of cases of Covid-19 infection in the country, more than a month later than other Central Asian countries (not counting Turkmenistan). However, in the aftermath, the government displayed reluctance in terms of introducing decisive measures to combat the pandemic, while civil society actors – from non-governmental organizations to community volunteers - begun to act. Particularly, a mass mobilization of non-state actors started in the country’s remotest region, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast. Community volunteers launched an information campaign on social media that was aimed at raising people’s awareness about the disease, urging them to take precautionary measures. Thereafter, civil society actors – NGOs, informal volunteers, and community activists – became major players in almost all aspects of combatting the pandemic, from supporting healthcare facilities with food and medicines, providing medical workers with protective equipment to inducing people to comply with quarantine measures and social distancing. Moreover, following the continued inaction of the government, the volunteers openly criticized the authorities through social media platforms. Surprisingly, the generally restrictive government turned a blind eye to such bold initiatives by civil society groups. Thus, this thesis aims at examining the case of the civil society mobilization against the Covid-19 pandemic in GBAO, in order to seek answers to the following questions: How the civil society mobilization became possible? What were the driving forces of the mobilization? What implications the mobilization had on the state-civil society relations?