A medical officer preparing to give a COVID-19 vaccine in Somalia in May 2021. Credit: Mokhtar Mohamed/AMISOM

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2022 (IPS) – With the outbreak of Monkeypox in non-endemic countries leading to a scramble for vaccines, global health advocates are again calling for equity to be prioritized in the international response.

Equity was a top concern during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency health response. The World Health Organization (WHO) helped spearhead several in an attempt to reduce disparities between nation…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 8 2024 (IPS) – For some time, most multilateral financial institutions have urged developing countries to borrow commercially, but not from China. Now, borrowers are stuck in debt traps with little prospect of escape.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

More debt, less growth since 2008
The last decade and a half has seen protracted worldwide stagnation, with some economies and people faring much worse than others.

The 2008 global financial crisis and Great Recession have recently been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, US Federal Reserve Bank-led interest rate hikes and escalating geopolitical economic warfare.

Following Reagan-inspired tax …

Inge Kaul is Senior Fellow, Hertie School, Berlin and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Center for Global Governance, Washington DC. She can be contacted at .

BERLIN, Germany, Apr 3 2020 (IPS) – My recent study on “The G20@10: Time to shift gears” 1 shows that, during the past decade, the main joint, collective action of the G20 has been to issue communiqués and other types of statements.

As a group, G20 Leaders have expressed concern about all kinds of challenges, recommitted themselves to goals already agreed in other multilateral meetings or –even repeatedly – stated in earlier G20 communiqués.

They have also lauded other entities for actions they have taken or aske…

Credit: Samuel Otieno/UNHCR

IBADAN, NIGERIA, Apr 21 2020 (IPS) – Since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic late last year in Wuhan, China, the global community has witnessed unprecedented to curtail, contain and control the disease. Many have proven to be . But others required critical context consideration.

For instance, the risks threatening the livelihoods of millions of people who are dependent on the informal market for their survival. Another example is the fact that the security measures being imposed are extracting a from ordinary citizens.

The situation is a learning curve for all countries.

The at national level have inc…

MILAN, Italy, Jun 4 2020 (IPS) – The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inherent fragility of food systems, Marta Antonelli told an international video conference organised by the Barilla Center for Food Nutrition (BCFN).

However, she said, it also offered an opportunity to reset the way food is produced, distributed and consumed.

The pandemic disrupted the food system, triggering food insecurity and resulted in sharp increases in the cost of food up to 10 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Jobs were lost, children who received one meal a day at school lost access to this source of nutrition, and the pandemic would see an increase in the number of people…

Credit: @ Mahnaz Yazdani

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 16 2021 (IPS) – Inequality characterizes the world we live in, predisposing how we act and think. We perceive our existence as composed of dichotomies – men and women, young and old, black or white, as well as a difference between those who have and those who do not have access to wealth, health, education and influence. Dichotomies are also born out of comparisons, about how things are now and how they could have been, how they were before and how they are now.

COVID-19 is on the mind of a majority of the world’s population and as in everything else what is happening to us it is influenced by inequalities. Many are…

Credit: UNICEF/Nahom Tesfaye

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 11 2021 (IPS) – Thanks to President Biden, the US now supports a suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights to increase vaccine supplies. However, without vaccine developers sharing tacit technical knowledge for safe vaccine mass production, it will be difficult to rapidly scale up vaccine output.

Waiver delayed is waiver denied
The CEOs of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca had the US President to reject the waiver request. Nevertheless, on 5 May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced US support for a vaccine waiver. The hope is that many, mainly rich countries will now stop opposing th…

During the pandemic, there was little support from the government when it came to making funding and resources available to the nonprofits that were working closely with communities. | Picture courtesy: Digital Empowerment Foundation

Nov 23 2021 (IPS) – From its devastating economic impact and the migrant crisis to the startling death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic in India unfurled one crisis after the other. The glaring gaps in our system, which had always been there, became even more prominent during the pandemic. There is one question at the back of everyone’s mind that still remains unanswered: What went wrong?

No entity can operate in isolatio…