Data for research report "Navigating Civic Spaces During a Pandemic: Pakistan Report"

This dataset was created as a part of the Navigating Civic Spaces project within the larger Action for Empowerment and Accountability (A4EA) programme at IDS. The dataset contains newspaper articles and social media reports regarding changes in Pakistan’s civic space amidst the pandemic.<br>This dataset is a repository of 700+ news articles and social media posts in English, Urdu and Sindhi focusing on changes in Pakistan’s civic space between June 2020 and March 2021. The data is tabulated through content type, source, source type, date, title, summary, issue covered, online link to the content, and key actors involved. The issue covered: has ten themes in accordance with recurring themes in Pakistan’s context. The themes are: crisis in health sector, education and controlling the narrative, marginalizing religious minorities, missing persons, media and narrative slips, violence against women, labour and livelihoods, regulating civic spaces, politics and governance and Covid-19 management. The event type includes restricting space, opening space, changing rules, changing discourse, civic action and popular protest.<br><br>This data can be viewed on Excel Viewer.<br>Summary of Report-This report provides an overview of how different actors responded to the pandemic in ways that affect civic spaces. The research identified areas of civil society which underwent some forms of public mobilization, whether through articulating new or ongoing claims, forming new associations, or using innovative strategies to respond to shrinking civic spaces. The discussion sheds light on new forms of social and political action, in particular the opposition political alliance (Pakistan Democratic Alliance) that was formed in September. It ends with an assessment of the implications of these changes in civic spaces for the governance context in Pakistan.<br>