Tag: COVID-19

UN reform and the COVID-19 pandemic – what role for the UN to better serve the world?
Covid-19 / DIE

UN reform and the COVID-19 pandemic – what role for the UN to better serve the world?

The Covid-19 pandemic not only threatens to undo development gains and reverse progress in achieving the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. It also presents an early and serious test for the reform of the UN development system (UNDS), where major reform decisions were taken in 2018 to reposition the UNDS for improved, integrated and strategic support in line with the 2030 Agenda’s interlinked nature.

Covid-19 and democracy - Tackling the pandemic without doing away with democracy
Covid-19 / DIE

Covid-19 and democracy – Tackling the pandemic without doing away with democracy

Governments around the world have restricted basic democratic rights such as freedom of assembly, stepped up state monitoring of citizens, muzzled the media with new laws and arrests, and expanded their own powers as part of their Covid-19 policy. Those making foreign and development policy must monitor this carefully. The Covid-19 pandemic is a catalyst for democracy’s demise.

Power Shifts and the Risk of a "Crisis Within the Crisis": COVID, Oil and the MENA Region
Covid-19 / IAI

Power Shifts and the Risk of a “Crisis Within the Crisis”: COVID, Oil and the MENA Region

COVID-19 triggered a collapse in oil prices from approximately 60 to 20 dollars per barrel between January and April 2020. Signs of a rebound are visible but prices remain well below the breakeven for many producers. If prices stay this low for long, or if they fall again after a partial rally in a relapse scenario, the world may witness a crisis within the crisis, with even further adverse effects on the world economy.

Building trust, not tracking, should be the cornerstone of Covid-19 debt relief
Covid-19 / ODI

Building trust, not tracking, should be the cornerstone of Covid-19 debt relief

Debt relief is back. Again. The “once-in-a-generation” debt cancellation of 15 years ago has returned to the agenda as indebted countries struggle to finance their response to Covid-19. Suspending collection of debt repayments is one practical thing – among others – that rich countries can do relatively quickly to free up money for poor countries during this crisis.

Now more than ever: European businesses and due diligence in times of Corona
Covid-19 / ECDPM

Now more than ever: European businesses and due diligence in times of Corona

Because of COVID-19, many European companies are understandably focusing on their financial figures and the safety and wellbeing of their direct employees. Given the gravity of the crisis, the larger supply chain and the human rights and environmental due diligence therein risks falling off their agenda. But do these difficult times absolve companies from their due diligence responsibilities?

Responsibility for the poorest countries - How the international financial institutions are responding to the pandemic
Covid-19 / DIE

Responsibility for the poorest countries – How the international financial institutions are responding to the pandemic

World Bank Group President David Malpass expects the corona crisis to result in a deeper global recession than the Great Depression of the 1930s. The pandemic will hit the world’s poorest countries even harder than industrialised nations, especially as the former have barely any fiscal leeway. Their social-security and healthcare systems are not sufficiently robust.

African regional responses to COVID-19
Covid-19 / ECDPM

African regional responses to COVID-19

This note summarises and reflects on the different roles played by the African Union and a sample of the continent’s regional organisations in shaping collective, coordinated regional responses. It finds that the AU has played an effective role in communicating about and shaping African responses, with technical legitimacy provided through the Africa CDC. The AU has also been able to inspire collective action in a unified call for international solidarity.

Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: A necessary horizon for the post-crisis recovery, but how to do it?
Covid-19 / IDDRI

Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: A necessary horizon for the post-crisis recovery, but how to do it?

The current health crisis has shown, both in its emergence and in its impacts, multifaceted and interconnected risks and vulnerabilities, both in humanitarian and social, economic and environmental terms. Most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are concerned, individually and above all in their indivisibility, which constitutes the core and added value of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In the context of post-crisis reconstruction, more than ever, the implementation of this universal agenda is a necessity, particularly to reduce vulnerabilities to crises by optimising the interactions between the SDGs. This post proposes some avenues.

How to build back greener in the Covid-19 recovery
Covid-19 / ODI

How to build back greener in the Covid-19 recovery

The pandemic offers an opportunity to shape climate-friendly recovery packages that both boost shorter-term job creation and incomes, and generate long-term sustainability benefits. Polling shows large popular support for recovery packages to prioritise climate change.

The impact of COVID-19 on remittances for development in Africa
Covid-19 / ECDPM

The impact of COVID-19 on remittances for development in Africa

This paper stresses the importance of filling the development financing gaps that have been widened by shrinking remittances and suggests adaptations and increases in official development assistance (ODA) as an immediate solution to cushion some of the short-run effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also, the paper highlights the short- and medium-term measures that policymakers and development partners in both sending and receiving countries should take to lessen the decline in remittance flows.