Introduction Eduardo C. Tadem In July 2020, the Program on Alternative Development (AltDev) of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS) entered into a partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Jakarta Office for a four-month research project on Producing Evidence to Promote Equitable COVID-19 Response and Recovery Policies. The collaboration between the UP CIDS AltDev and the UNESCO has the objective of supporting the Philippine government in the decision-making process focused on the mitigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through: (1) Identifying critical policy areas where the pandemic and the government’s response and recovery have significant social and economic equity implications; (2) Conducting research to collect inequality data/evidence that employs participatory methodologies and is geared towards filling specific gaps in the availability of data/evidence for inclusive policymaking; and (3) Informing public discourse and contributing towards devising coherent and equitable policy solutions in critical policy areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted on the economies, polities, and social fabric of practically all countries and their peoples around the world. As states confront the COVID-19 pandemic and struggle to contain its spread, reports of infections and deaths continue to mount. The UP CIDS AltDev–UNESCO project focuses mainly on the issue of equity and thus looks at the impact of the health crisis on specific marginalized and vulnerable populations. As the UNESCO project document puts it: 1