The good, the bad, the ugly: What went wrong during India’s Covid-19 response

‘According to our village-level digital entrepreneurs in the SoochnaPreneur programme at Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), the four essential systems that were massively hit by the pandemic were education, healthcare, finance, and citizen entitlements. When the pandemic was raging, our SoochnaPreneurs reported that all people wanted was food and rations, a device to access online education for their children, the ability to talk to a doctor or health worker to learn how to keep themselves safe, and to make some money to meet their daily needs from the confines of their homes. Ironically, given the stringent nature of the lockdowns, all this needed access to the internet.

‘However, across the country, lack of access to resources, high levels of digital illiteracy, and the deepening digital divide exacerbated by the pandemic acted as major roadblocks in India’s COVID-19 response. Even as the government announced relief packages—food grains and cash payments—the mechanisms of delivery to beneficiaries at the last mile were unclear.’

Read here (IPS New, Nov 23 2021)

WTO finished without TRIPS waiver

‘Unlike the more flexible arrangements of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO framework and negotiating priorities have undermined developmental aspirations. The South has been undermined by rich countries’ betrayal of the 2001 Doha compromise. After ‘softly’ killing the ‘Development Round’ promised then, rich countries can now redeem themselves by supporting the waiver.

‘Almost two years after COVID-19 was first recognized, the pandemic continues to threaten the world, with poor countries and people now worse affected. The devastation could be partly mitigated if developing countries could meet their pandemic needs without fear of litigation for IP infringement. A TRIPS Council meeting is scheduled for 16 November, before the four-day WTO Ministerial Council meeting from 30 November. The waiver would also encourage renewed international cooperation, long undermined by destructive rivalry and competition.

‘By refusing to make concessions, rich countries would not only jeopardize the WTO, but also the world’s ability to urgently contain the pandemic. With complementary financial resource transfers, they can restore the goodwill urgently needed for international cooperation and to revive multilateralism.’

Read here (IPS News, Nov 16, 2021)

End vaccine apartheid

‘Vaccine costs have pushed many developing countries to the end of the COVID-19 vaccination queue, with most low-income ones not even lining up. Worse, less vaccinated poor nations cannot afford fiscal efforts to provide relief or stimulate recovery, let alone achieve Agenda 2030.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Excluding by appropriating:
• Profits booster
• Profits over science
• Apartheid booster
• Vaccine equity necessary

Read here (IPS News, Sept 7, 2021)

Privatised health services worsen pandemic

‘Decades of public health cuts have quietly taken a huge human toll, now even more pronounced with the pandemic. Austerity programmes, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, have forced countries to cut public spending, including health provisioning.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• ‘Government is the problem’
• Neoliberal reforms worse
• Unhealthy reforms
• Austerity kills
• Government not main problem

Read here (IPS News, Aug 24, 2021) 

Prioritising profits reversed health progress

‘Instead of a health system striving to provide universal healthcare, a fragmented, profit-driven market ‘non-system’ has emerged. The 1980s’ neo-liberal counter-revolution against the historic 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration is responsible.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Alma-Ata a big step forward
• Primary healthcare
• Lalonde Report turning point
• Neo-liberal ascendance
• Healthcare financing key
• Philanthropy rules

Read here (IPS News, Aug 24, 2021)

Central banks must address pandemic challenges

‘Hopes for an inclusive global economic recovery are fast fading. As rich countries have done little to ensure poor countries’ access to vaccines and fiscal resources, North-South “fault lines” will certainly widen.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Enhancing relief, recovery, transformation
• Macroeconomic policy coordination
• Central banks’ developmental role
• Supporting transformation
• Bolder actions needed

Read here (IPS News, Aug 3, 2021)

European duplicity undermines anti-pandemic efforts

‘Despite facing the world’s worst pandemic of the last century, rich countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) have blocked efforts to enable more affordable access to the means to fight the pandemic. Everyone knows access for all to the means for testing, treatment and prevention – including diagnostic tests, therapeutic medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines – is crucial.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• European deceit
• Big Pharma law
• European deceptions
• Inflexible ‘flexibilities’
• Bogus claims

Read here (IPS News, Jul 20, 2021)

Rich country hypocrisy exposed by vaccine inequities

‘No one is protected from the global pandemic until everyone is’ has become a popular mantra. But vaccine apartheid worldwide, due to rich countries’ policies, has made COVID-19 a developing country pandemic, delaying its end and global economic recovery.

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Systemic inequities
• Leftovers now charity
• European hypocrisy
• New North-South divide
• Reject new apartheid, cooperate

Read here (IPS News, Jul 13, 2021)

Developing country solidarity needed to overcome pandemic

‘As rich countries have delayed contagion containment, including mass vaccination, in developing countries, much weaker fiscal efforts in the South have worsened the growing world pandemic apartheid.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Lessons from first wave
• Sustaining businesses, nurturing economies
• One size cannot fit all
• Who can we count on?
• Relief, recovery, reform

Read here (IPS News, Jul 6, 2021)

Pandemic relief policies need more resources, better design

‘Pandemic relief measures in developing countries have been limited by modest resources, fear of financial market discipline and policy mimicry. COVID-19 has triggered not only an international public health emergency, but also a global economic crisis, setting back decades of uneven progress, especially in developing countries.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Struggling to cope
• Urgent financing needs
• COVID-19 recessions different
• Government as ‘payer-of-last-resort’
• Policy blind spots
• Diverging recoveries
• Appropriate relief measures
• Recoveries threatened

Read here (IPS News, Jun 1, 2021)

 

Developing countries desperately need Covid-19 financing

‘Failure to sufficiently accelerate comprehensive efforts to contain COVID-19 contagion has greatly worsened the catastrophe in developing countries. Grossly inadequate financing of relief, recovery and reform efforts has also further set back progress, including sustainable development.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Uncertain and unequal recovery
• Global disparities
• Insufficient international support
• Leveraging the new SDRs
• Financing options for developing countries

Read here (IPS News, May 25, 2021)

Put people before profits for progress

‘Millions of people are expected to die due to delayed and unaffordable access to COVID-19 tests, treatment, personal protective equipment and vaccines. Urgent cooperation is desperately needed to save lives and livelihoods for all.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Vaccine apartheid
• Pfizer profits
• What the pandemic demands
• Technology transfer needed
• What the world needs now

Read here (IPS News, May 18, 2021)

US support for vaccine waiver welcome, but more needed

‘Thanks to President Biden, the US now supports a suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights to increase vaccine supplies. However, without vaccine developers sharing tacit technical knowledge for safe vaccine mass production, it will be difficult to rapidly scale up vaccine output.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Waiver delayed is waiver denied
• Foot dragging for profit
• Vaccine monopolies not yet IP dependent
• Vaccine profits kill
• TRIPS discourages knowledge sharing
• Accelerate vaccinations for all

Read here (IPS News, May 11, 2021)

IMF, World Bank must urgently help finance developing countries

‘Covid-19 has set back the uneven progress of recent decades, directly causing more than two million deaths. The slowdown, due to the pandemic and policy responses, has pushed hundreds of millions more into poverty, hunger and worse, also deepening many inequalities.’

Read here (IPS News, Mar 30, 2021)

End vaccine apartheid before millions more die

‘At least 85 poor countries will not have significant access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023. Unfortunately, a year’s delay will cause an estimated 2.5 million avoidable deaths in low and lower-middle income countries. As the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General has put it, the world is at the brink of a catastrophic moral failure.’

This story is well argued and contains several relevant and informative links under the following subheadings:

• Vaccine apartheid
• Suppressing vaccine access
• Big Pharma’s price gouging
• Hypocrisy
• Biden must act
• Sharing knowledge crucial

Read here (IPS News, Mar 23, 2021)

Prioritise pandemic relief, recovery: No time for debt buybacks

‘Developing country governments are being wrongly advised to use their modest fiscal resources to pay down accumulated debt instead of strengthening pandemic relief and recovery. Thus, debt phobia risks deepening and extending COVID-19 recessions by prioritising buybacks...

‘With ‘collective action’ complications affecting negotiations, and the greater number and variety of heavily indebted countries and creditors, equitable debt buybacks are impossible to negotiate. Worse, prioritising buybacks means rejecting former debt hawk Reinhart’s current pragmatic advice to “First fight the war, then figure out how to pay for it”.

‘The urgent priority is for fiscal resources to strengthen relief, recovery and reform measures. Prioritising debt buybacks, instead of urgently augmenting fiscal resources, may thus contribute to another “lost decade” or worse.’

Read here (IPS News, March 9, 2021)

Neoliberal finance undermines poor countries’ recovery

‘After being undermined by decades of financial liberalisation, developing countries now are not only victims of vaccine imperialism, but also cannot count on much financial support as their COVID-19 recessions drag on due to global vaccine apartheid...

‘Undoubtedly, distressed developing countries desperately need foreign exchange to cope. But IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s call to boost global liquidity with “a sizeable SDR” (Special Drawing Right) allocation was blocked by the Trump administration, who objected that it would give China, Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela access to new funds.

‘The Financial Times (FT) argues that the proposed new SDR1tn (US$1.37tn) issuance – almost five times the US$283bn issued in 2009 – is justified by the scale of the crisis. For the FT, it would be “the simplest and most effective way to get additional purchasing power into the hands of the countries that need it”...

‘With 85% of IMF votes required to issue new SDRs, and the US holding veto power with 16.5%, Biden administration support is vital. For SDR issuance under US$650 billion, the White House only needs to consult, rather than get approval from the US Congress.’

Read here (IPS News, Mar 1, 2021)

Developing countries struggling to cope with Covid-19

‘The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is adversely impacting most developing countries disproportionately, especially the United Nations’ least developed countries (LDCs) and the World Bank’s low-income countries (LICs).

‘Years of implementing neoliberal policy conditionalities and advice have made most developing countries much more vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic by undermining their health systems and fiscal capacities to respond adequately.’

Read here (IPS News, Feb 23, 2021)

IP, vaccine imperialism cause death and suffering, delay recovery

‘Vaccine developers’ refusal to share publicly funded vaccine research findings is stalling broader, affordable vaccinations which would more rapidly contain COVID-19 contagion. The pandemic had infected at least 109 million people worldwide, causing over 2.4 million deaths as of mid-February.

‘Avoidable delays in preventive vaccination are imposing terrible burdens on the world economy and human welfare, with economic disruption demanding more relief and recovery measures. They have cost US$28 trillion in lost output globally, with developed countries contracting by 7% in 2020.’

Read here (IPS News, Feb 16, 2021)

Covid-19 pandemic has shown humanity at its best – & at its worst: WHO DG before the UNICEF Executive Board

‘Ultimately, our fight is not against a single virus. Our fight is against the inequalities that leave children in some countries exposed to deadly diseases that are easily prevented in others; Our fight is against the inequalities that mean women and their babies die during childbirth in some countries because of complications that are easily prevented in others;

‘And our fight is to ensure that health is no longer a commodity or a luxury item, but a fundamental human right, and the foundation of the safer, fairer and more sustainable world we all want.

‘History will not judge us solely by how we ended the COVID-19 pandemic, but what we learned, what we changed, and the future we left our children.’

Read here (IPS News, Feb 11, 2021)