If there is one thing to learn and treasure from the devastating experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is the need to rethink the way communities and societies need to come together into a renewed social contract, that no longer hides the deep inequalities of the ‘old’ normal.
Discussions about the world that will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic have already started apace. Many commentators are wondering whether the crisis offers the opportunity to set the world on a more sustainable and equal path.
With the global economy going into a steep recession, developing countries are facing considerable financing shortfalls. Confronted with its most severe crisis since WWII, Europe needs to adopt a global perspective, as it cannot successfully address it in isolation. There is a moral imperative to help vulnerable people in distress and foster global solidarity to prevent catastrophic outcomes.
The human impact of the Coronavirus is widely reported but new research from the Overseas Development Institute highlights the outbreak will have a significant economic impact on the world’s poorest economies – even if they have no confirmed cases. The Overseas Development Institute have developed a Vulnerability Index, which shows Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Philippines, followed by Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia and Nepal are at greatest economic risk.
Ten years after committing to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies, EU governments still lack concrete plans to put an end to taxpayers’ money being spent in a way that accelerates the climate crisis. While EU Member States are supposed to report on their fossil fuel subsidies and plans to end them as part of their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), new analysis shows that none of the draft plans present a comprehensive overview of subsidies nor a clear plan to end them.
As 2018 begins, the challenges of humanitarian crises are momentous. Humanitarians are responding to large-scale emergencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. “These challenges are complex but there are reasons for optimism” writes Larissa Fast. In her blog on ODI website she claims that the opportunities to increase
