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COVID-19 and Development Co-operation: we know a lot about what works, let’s use the evidence

By Per Øyvind Bastøe, Wendy Asbeek Brusse and Jörg Faust

The recent statement from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee calls for sustained action to address the crisis in the poorest countries of the planet. In these societies, the pandemic will encounter weak public health systems. Lock-down measures will crush fragile economic structures and worsen the social situation for many people, particularly among the most vulnerable groups in society. Continue reading “COVID-19 and Development Co-operation: we know a lot about what works, let’s use the evidence”

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The Coronavirus pandemic and the irrelevance of the SDGs

By Remco van de Pas

We are awakened to a new reality. The pandemic outbreak by an infectious pathogen comes to no surprise to the Global Health community. The World Health Organization (WHO) has prepared for pandemic scenarios and response plans since over a decade, albeit that they have been written for an influenza virus, not for the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic that we currently face. What is unpresented though is how countries fall back on their own security and economic matters, and that multilateral cooperation is under severe constraints. A large part of the planet’s population is currently under some form of quarantine and travel restrictions. This is unprecedented in human history. Continue reading “The Coronavirus pandemic and the irrelevance of the SDGs”

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How do we live with corona?

By Ghassan Baliki, Tilman Brück, Neil Ferguson, Patricia Justino and Wolfgang Stojetz 

People who live through extreme events are, often deeply, altered by the experiences they have. Even when those experiences take place predominantly in the physical realm, they are also events of consciousness. They come not only with physical impacts but also with emotional ones, and consequent to that, changes in behavioural choices, and maybe even preferences. Continue reading “How do we live with corona?”

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Displaced women and girls in Latin America threatened by COVID-19

By Natalia Cintra, Jean Grugel and Pia Riggirozzi 

Health emergencies exacerbate almost every form of social injustice in the global South. State biases, governance failures and inadequate and inappropriate policy responses leave legacies that can be as bad as the disease itself. In situations of crisis, public service provision and access to health and welfare services can rapidly deteriorate. Continue reading “Displaced women and girls in Latin America threatened by COVID-19”