A joint press release about the recent cooperation with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and our Network on a series of high-level, closed doors virtual expert seminars for the AU-EU partnership.
On 29 June, G20 Ministers responsible for development policy convened for the first time under the Italian Presidency. The meeting saw the adoption of a detailed and ambitious policy communique that in addition to prompting international action is also expected to further inform the deliberations of other G20 ‘tracks’ that may affect developing countries. It seems particularly strategic to us that the meeting of Finance Ministers at the end of this week in Venice picks up and further develops on these commitments.
The success of the G7 summit will be judged primarily on whether concrete measures are agreed to accelerate the global response to the pandemic.
While infection rates soar, and vaccine access remains highly unequal, there has perhaps never been a public policy challenge where national and international interests are so closely aligned. We know that no one is safe until everyone is safe, but COVAX will only cover around 30% of eligible populations in low- and middle-income countries with its current financing of $9.6 billion.
Refugees have been supported by innumerable cash or voucher interventions implemented by international humanitarian and development actors during the Covid-19 pandemic, but only a few of these have explicitly aligned or integrated with government social protection responses. Refugees residing in low- and middle-income countries have mostly been excluded from government social protection responses, and where they have been included (largely in Latin America and the Caribbean) this typically represents a continuation of pre-pandemic policy.
If 2020 was the year of “mask diplomacy”, as countries raced to tackle the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and acquire the necessary protective gear and equipment, 2021 is likely to be remembered as the year of “vaccine diplomacy”. Growing competition between states to secure the necessary quantities of vaccines to inoculate their population has already become an established feature of the post-COVID international system and such trends are only likely to increase in the near future.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the current state and prospects of partnership between the East African countries and the European Union on migration and forced displacement. The pandemic has exacerbated the root causes of migration and forced displacement. Read here about the implications and the steps should taken to move forward.
