Nothing to learn from East Asia?

‘Although most East Asian economies have successfully contained the pandemic without nationwide ‘stay in shelter lockdowns’, many governments have seen such measures as necessary. But lockdowns are blunt measures, with inevitable adverse consequences, especially for businesses and employment. 

‘Many countries have thus imposed lockdowns, citing China’s response in Wuhan. But as the first WHO fact-finding mission to China noted, “The majority of the response in China, in 30 provinces, was about case finding, contact tracing, and suspension of public gatherings—all common measures used anywhere in the world to manage [infectious] diseases.

‘Lockdowns were limited to a few cities where contagion went “out of control in the beginning”. The key lesson from China was “all about…speed. The faster you can find the cases, isolate the cases, and track their close contacts, the more successful you’re going to be.”

Read here (IPS News, Jan 19, 2021) 

Intellectual property monopolies block vaccine access

‘The authors of “Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)" argue that IPR are the main stumbling block. Meanwhile, South Africa and India have proposed that the World Trade Organization (WTO) temporarily waive its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules limiting access to COVID-19 medicines, tools, equipment and vaccines.

 ‘The proposal – welcomed by the WHO Director-General and supported by nearly 100 governments and many civil society organisations around the world – goes beyond the Doha Declaration’s limited flexibilities for national emergencies and circumstances of extreme urgency. But Brazil, one of the worst hit countries, opposes the proposal, together with the US, the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Australia and Japan, insisting the Doha Declaration is sufficient.’

Read here (ksjomo.org, Dec 14, 2020)

Unconventional measures for extraordinary times no excuse for more abuse

‘...There are widespread concerns that bolder expansionary fiscal policies are likely to be abused by typically short-termist governments of the day, tempted by macroeconomic (ethno-)populism, and unconcerned about the medium- and long-term consequences of increased spending, borrowing and debt. 

‘Only much better governance, transparency and accountability can minimise harm due to likely ‘leakages’ and abuses associated with increased government borrowing and spending. Such fiscal policies typically involve governments borrowing, especially by selling bonds and other securities, including to central banks. 

‘Publics often presume that governments tax first in order to spend. In fact, they usually spend first, and then tax. Poorly accountable governments often take advantage of real, exaggerated or imagined crises to pursue more populist macroeconomic policies to secure regime survival and benefit the politically well-connected.’

Read here (ksjomo.org, Dec 3, 2020)

Finance Covid-19 relief and recovery, not debt buybacks

‘In the face of the world’s worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, a sense of urgency has now spread to most national capitals and the Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions. Unless urgently addressed, the massive economic contractions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses to contain contagion threaten to become depressions.

‘Nevertheless, many long preoccupied with developing countries’ debt burdens and excessive debt insist on using scarce fiscal resources, including donor assistance, to reduce government debt, instead of strengthening fiscal measures for adequate and appropriate relief and recovery measures.

‘Most debt restructuring measures do not address countries’ currently more urgent need to finance adequate and appropriate relief and recovery packages. In the new circumstances, the debt preoccupation, perhaps appropriate previously, has become a problematic distraction, diminishing the ‘fiscal space’ for addressing contagion and its consequences...

‘Despite her earlier reputation as a ‘debt hawk’, new World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart recognizes the gravity of the situation and recently advised countries to borrow more: “First fight the war, then figure out how to pay for it.” Hence, in these COVID-19 times, donor money would be better utilized to finance relief and recovery, rather than debt buybacks.

‘Multilateral development finance institutions should resume their traditional role of mobilizing funds at minimal cost to finance development, or currently, relief and recovery, by efficiently intermediating on behalf of developing countries. They can borrow at the best available market rates to lend to developing countries which, otherwise, would have to borrow on their own at more onerous rates.’

Read here (IPS News, Oct 17, 2020) 

The world after Coronavirus: A Pardee Center video series

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis of unprecedented scale, with aftershocks that will be felt in virtually every aspect of life for years or decades to come. The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at the Pardee School of Global Studies is pleased to present “The World After Coronavirus,” a video series featuring more than 100 interviews with leading experts and practitioners from Boston University and across the world, exploring the challenges and opportunities we will face in our post-coronavirus future.

The series is hosted by Prof. Adil Najam, the Inaugural Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies and former Director of the Pardee Center. Each episode is around five minutes long, and is an edited version of a slightly longer conversation between Dean Najam and our featured guest.

The entire series is curated on the Pardee Center’s YouTube channel.

• Ban Ki-moon on The Future of the United Nations
• Leon E. Panetta on The Future of Public Service
• Richard N. Haass on The Future of ‘The World’
• Lawrence Lessig on The Future of Expertise
• Fred Swaniker on The Future of Education in Africa
• Nicol Turner Lee on The Future of Technology and Work
• Paul Webster Hare on The Future of Diplomacy
• Michelle A. Williams on The Future of Public Health
• Kara Lavender Law on The Future of the Oceans
• Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz on The Future of the WTO
• Alanna Shaikh on The Future of Global Health
• Barry Hughes on The Future of Disruptions
• Mariette DiChristina on The Future of Science Journalism
• James J. Collins on The Future of Synthetic Biology
• Sharon Goldberg on The Future of Cybersecurity
• Jeffrey D. Sachs on The Future of Global Sustainable Development
• Guy Kawasaki on The Future of Digital Marketing
• Ian Bremmer on The Future of Geopolitics
• Umar Saif on The Future of E-Commerce in the Developing World
• Janine Ferretti on The Future of Environmental Performance
• Judith Butler on The Future of Gender and Identity
• Richard Florida on The Future of Cities
• Martin Rees on The Future of the Future
• Julia Kim on The Future of Happiness
• Jeremy Corbyn on The Future of Politics (and Part 2)
• Ian Goldin on The Future of Globalization
• Judith Butler on The Future of Hope
• Robin Murphy on The Future of Robots
• Thomas Lovejoy on The Future of Nature
• Sandrine Dixson-Declѐve on The Future of the Green Economy
• Mary Evelyn Tucker on The Future of Religion and Ecology
• Mark C. Storella on The Future of Health Diplomacy
• Paul R. Ehrlich on The Future of Population and Extinction
• Adela Pineda on The Future of Literature
• Peter Gleick on The Future of Water
• Ricardo Hausmann on The Future of Tax Policy in Developing Countries
• Ramachandra Guha on The Future of Globalism
• Ann Marie Lipinski on The Future of Journalism
• Peter Frankopan on The Future of the Silk Roads
• Ha-Joon Chang on The Future of Developing Economies
• Alice Ruhweza on The Future of the Food System in Africa
• Elizabeth Economy on The Future of U.S.-China Relations
• Ibram X. Kendi on The Future of Racism
• Peter Maurer on The Future of Humanitarianism
• Jessica Stern on The Future of Extremism
• Angus Deaton on The Future of Despair
• Danielle Citron on The Future of Cyber Civil Rights
• Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on The Future of Human Rights
• Elizabeth M. Mrema on The Future of Biodiversity
• Dani Rodrik on The Future of Global Trade
• Nahid Bhadelia on The Future of Infectious Disease
• Vali Nasr on The Future of the Middle East
• Graham T. Allison on The Future of Thucydides
• Rachel Kyte on The Future of Renewable Energy
• David Miliband on The Future of Refugees
• Vala Afshar on The Future of Digital Business
• Kevin P. Gallagher on The Future of Economic Multilateralism
• Karen H. Antman on The Future of Medicine
• Adm. James G. Stavridis on The Future of the Military
• Thomas Piketty on The Future of Inequality
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram on The Future of Food Security
• Kevin Outterson on The Future of Health Law
• Bill McKibben on The Future of Environmentalism
• Laurie Garrett on The Future of Pandemics
• Malik Dahlan on The Future of Muslim Societies
• Sandro Galea on The Future of Mental Health
• Michael Barber on The Future of Government
• Peter Singer on The Future of Meat
• Phil Baty on The Future of Global Higher Education
• Sunita Narain on The Future of Global Cooperation
• Adil Haider on The Future of Emergency Medicine
• Michael Woldemariam on The Future of Africa
• Lucy Hutyra on The Future of CO2
• David Chard on The Future of Education
• Sakiko Fukuda-Parr on The Future of the SDGs
• Francis Fukuyama on The Future of Democracy
• Mark Blyth on The Future of Growth
• Claudia Juech on The Future of Data Governance
• Tom Tugendhat on The Future of the Nation State
• Rachel Nolan on The Future of Immigration
• Achim Steiner on The Future of International Development
• Michael Kugelman on The Future of South Asia
• Enrico Letta on The Future of the E.U.
• Marcia McNutt on The Future of Science
• Jorge Heine on The Future of Latin America
• Harvey Young on The Future of the Fine Arts
• Kishore Mahbubani on The Future of Asia
• Yolanda Kakabadse on The Future of Sustainable Development
• Atif Mian on The Future of Debt
• Parag Khanna on The Future of Supply Chains
• Noam Chomsky on The Future of Neoliberalism (and Part 2)
• Neta Crawford on The Future of War
• Perry Mehrling on The Future of Money
• Larry Susskind on The Future of Problem Solving in Crises
• Ellen Ruppel Shell on The Future of Work
• Kishore Mahbubani on The Future of World Order & Global Governance
• Saleemul Huq on The Future of Global Climate Policy
• Andrew J. Bacevich on The Future of National Security
• Muhammad Hamid Zaman on The Future of Humanitarian Relief
• Vivien Schmidt on The Future of Europe
• Jon Hutton on The Future of Conservation

Read here (Pardee School of Global Studies, Sept 29, 2020) 

ISDS enables making more money from losses: Predatory law firms exploit emergency Covid-19 measures

‘With the Covid-19 contagion from late 2019 spreading internationally this year, governments have responded, often in desperation. Meanwhile, predatory international law firms are encouraging multimillion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits citing Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery measures... Transnational corporations (TNCs) can claim staggering sums in damages for alleged investment losses, for either alleged expropriation, or more typically, indirect ‘damage’ caused by regulatory changes, in this case, Covid-19 government response measures...

‘Foreign registered real estate or property companies can also sue governments that protect lessees or tenants who cannot make their lease or rent payments as contractually scheduled after their operations are shut down or disrupted by emergency regulations imposed. Pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies can also appeal to such arbitration tribunals to claim losses due to price controls and ‘violated’ intellectual property rights for Covid-19 tests, treatments, medical and protective equipment as well as vaccines.’

Read here (ksjomo.org, August 18, 2020) 

Only governments can prevent Covid-19 recessions becoming depressions

‘In March, French economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, both at Berkeley, proposed that governments help ease pain and disruption with payer-of-last-resort programmes, with adversely affected businesses reporting unavoidable monthly overhead and maintenance costs to qualify for government aid.

‘Such a payer-of-last-resort programme would reduce hardship for workers and businesses. It could enable businesses to temporarily suspend or scale down operations, to limit haemorrhage and avoid insolvency, and to pick up quickly as conditions improve. It would maintain ‘cash flow’ for families and businesses, minimising Covid-19 shocks’ adverse secondary impacts on demand (e.g., due to fired workers spending less on consumption), while enabling more rapid recovery as demand resumes.’

Read here (ksjomo.org, July 30, 2020)

Fight pandemic, not windmills of the mind

‘Reversing emergency expansionary measures too soon risks aborting recovery and may even trigger new recessions. Even an assets fund manager has acknowledged, “Like a course of antibiotics, an economic relief package is most efficacious when administered to completion”.

‘When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to balance the budget in 1937 after securing re-election, the ensuing downturn ended the recovery, only revived after deficit spending resumed in 1939. Also, countries that abandoned fiscal expansion for consolidation from 2009 had worse recovery records than others.’

Read here (IPS News, July 28, 2020)

Covid-19 compounds developing country debt burdens

‘Covid-19 is expected to take a heavy human and economic toll on developing countries, not only because of contagion in the face of weak health systems, but also containment measures which have precipitated recessions, destroying and diminishing the livelihoods of many.

‘The unique, but varied and changing nature of the pandemic and efforts to contain contagion, and the specific challenges of relief, revival and reorientation imply that neither ‘one size fits all’ nor other formulaic solutions, e.g., to address financial crisis, are appropriate.

‘Policy measures will not only need to address the specificities of the Covid-19 crises, but must also take into consideration the legacy of earlier problems, including the burdens of accumulated debt and debt-servicing.’

Read here (IPS News, July 23, 2020)

Rethink food security and nutrition following Covid-19 pandemic

‘The Covid-19 crisis has had several unexpected effects, including renewed attention to food security concerns. Earlier understandings of food security in terms of production self-sufficiency have given way to importing supplies since late 20th century promotion of trade liberalization.

‘Food systems need to be repurposed to better produce and supply safe and nutritious food. Ensuring that food systems improve nutrition is not just a matter of increasing production. The entire ‘nutrition value chain’ — from farm to fork, from production to consumption — needs to be considered to ensure the food system better feeds the population.

‘Food systems have to improve production practices, post-harvest processing and consumption behaviour. Resource use and abuse as well as environmental damage due to food production and consumption need to be addressed to ensure sustainable food systems.’

Read here (IPS News, July 2, 2020)

Unsung heroines: Who cares for the carers?

Even before Covid-19, the world was facing a care crisis. The plight of often neglected, under-appreciated, under-protected and poorly equipped ‘frontline’ health personnel working to contain the pandemic has drawn attention to the tip of the care crisis iceberg. Oxfam’s annual early 2020 Davos report, Time to Care, estimates that 2.3 billion people will need care by 2030, 200 million more than in 2015, including 100 million more older people and an additional 100 million children aged 6 to 14 years.

Read here (IPS News, June 11, 2020)

Economic ghosts block post-lockdown recovery

‘As governments the world over struggle to revive their economies after the debilitating lockdowns they imposed following their failure to undertake adequate precautionary containment measures to curb Covid-19 contagion, neoliberal naysayers are already warning against needed deficit financing for relief and recovery.’

Read here (IPS News, June 9, 2020)

Politics, profits undermine public interest in Covid-19 vaccine race

‘Some pharmaceutical giants, e.g., Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Sanofi, claim they do not expect to profit from the Covid-19 vaccine. But such recent industry promises not to profiteer from making the vaccine globally available are hard to reconcile with the record that drug research and development has long been driven by the prospect of massive profits.

‘Such firms have been urged to make the Open Covid pledge to voluntarily relinquish their IP rights (IPRs), at least until the Covid-19 pandemic is over... Governments can also use ‘compulsory licencing’, permitted by World Trade Organization rules, to enable companies that do not have the IPRs, to make, manufacture and sell generic versions of patented medicines...’

Read here (IPS News, May 26, 2020)

‘Passing the buck’ becomes reckless ‘conspiracy blame game’

‘Celebrated UK imperialist apologist historian Niall Ferguson, now at the Hoover Institution, cites the venerable New York Times (NYT) for the now oft-repeated claim that China unleashed seven million potentially Covid-19 infected, and therefore infectious, Wuhan residents on the rest of the world for most of January before imposing a lockdown.

‘Ferguson eventually conceded that he had wrongly alleged that regular flights abroad left Wuhan after 23 January, but retaliated by questioning Bell’s other scholarship, including his recent book on China, and insisting that China should have cancelled all international flights in an updated blog.’

Read here (IPS News, May 12, 2020)

Argentina responds boldly to coronavirus crisis

‘Despite Argentina’s fiercely divisive politics, the new President insisted on standing with leaders from across the political spectrum in a rare display of unity to announce the 19 March lockdown. The national government is working closely with state governors as well as all health providers, securing private sector cooperation without nationalization.

‘Meanwhile, the armed forces are building triage centres in case of a surge in infections while social, religious and business groups work together to deliver food to more than two million in the greater Buenos Aires area alone.’

Read here (IPS News, May 5, 2020)

All-of-government, whole-of-society involvement needed to fight virus

‘To enhance efficacy and minimise disruptions, an ”all of government“ approach at all levels needs to be developed, involving much more than public health and police enforcement authorities. Human resource, social protection, transport, education, media, industry, fiscal and other relevant authorities need to be appropriately engaged to develop the various required transitions and to plan for the post-lockdown “new normal”.

‘Another condition for success is “whole of society” mobilisation and support. Government transparency and explanations for various measures undertaken are important for public understanding, cooperation, support and legitimacy. The authorities must also realise how measures will be seen. Singapore’s apparent early success, for example, was not what it seemed as it had overlooked official disincentives for possibly infected migrant workers to cooperate...’

Read here (IPS News, April 28, 2020)

Kerala’s Covid-19 approach: Less disruptive, less costly and more effective than most others

‘Some key features of Kerala’s response, undertaken by a government with very limited fiscal resources, are instructive:

1. All-of-government approach: involving a range of relevant state government ministries and agencies to design measures to improve consistency, coordination and communication, and to avoid confusion.
2. Whole-of-society approach: wide community consultations, including experts, to find the most locally appropriate modes of limiting infections, along with means to monitor and enforce them.
3. Social mobilisation: communities were provided essential epidemiological information to understand the threat and related issues, ensure compliance with prescribed precautionary measures, and avoid panic.
4. No one left behind: adequate supply of essential commodities, particularly food and medicines, has been ensured, especially to protect the most vulnerable sections of society.’

Read here (IPS News, April 9, 2020)

‘Consider this: COVID-19’ with Jomo Kwame Sundaram

On March 30, 2020, Sharaad Kuttan and Melisa Idris interviewed Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram on Covid-19 and its fallout. In their Astro Awani show, ‘Consider this’, they covered the three topics:

1. ‘Not a normal crisis’. View here
2. Is government looking over its shoulder? View here
3. A war time approach? View here