Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

GENEVA, 14 MAY 2020 —More than 140 world leaders and experts, including the President of South Africa and Chair of the African Union, Cyril Add caption Ramaphosa, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, the President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall and the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have signed  an open letter calling on all governments to unite behind a people’s vaccine against COVID-19 . The call was made just days before health ministers meet virtually for the World Health Assembly on 18 May. The letter, which marks the most ambitious position yet set out by world leaders on a COVID-19 vaccine, demands that all vaccines, treatments and tests be patent-free, mass produced, distributed fairly and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge. Other signatories include the former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, the former President of Mexico, ...

Reproduced with permission from here by IPBES Expert Guest Article by Professors Josef Settele, Sandra Díaz and Eduardo Brondizio [1]   and Dr. Peter Daszak [2]   on 27 April 2020 There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic - us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are a direct consequence of human activity – particularly our global financial and economic systems, based on a limited paradigm that prizes economic growth at any cost. We have a small window of opportunity, in overcoming the challenges of the current crisis, to avoid sowing the seeds of future ones.    Diseases like COVID-19 are caused by microorganisms that infect our bodies – with more than 70% of all emerging diseases affecting people having originated in wildlife and domesticated animals. Pandemics, however, are caused by activities that bring increasing numbers of people into direct contact and often conflict with the animals that...

Guest blog by Daniyal Bilal who is a student at the University of St. Andrews studying Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. He is a passionate Artificial Intelligence Enthusiast, applying Mathematics and AI for socio-economic issues. Originally published here. The world is passing through an unprecedented challenge. Eruption of COVID-19 from China in almost no time has escalated into a global health emergency. Further creating havoc by disrupting every fabric of societies and economies around the world unsparingly. Besides health toll, social breakdowns, an unprecedented economic crisis and looming political interruptions in many parts of the world are already on the horizon. This global pandemic has susceptibly exposed deficiencies and underlying gaps within global systems, institutions and supply chains. After-shocks of COVID-19 are expected to prevail over a long period of time with inevitable social, economic and health challenges globally.     Imp...

By Gabriele Koehler,  a development economist searching for gender-just, climate-just and economically-just policy approaches.  Just out: The Politics of Social Inclusion. Bridging Knowledge and Policies Towards Social Change by Gabriele Koehler, Alberto Cimadamore, Fadia Kiwan and Pedro Manuel Monreal Gonzalez.  This blog was originally published at IDEAS here. Acute deaths, chronic deaths  The COVID19 pandemic is frightening. The staggering number of deaths in just a few months is numbing our minds and breaking our hearts. Medical disasters such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, or natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, earthquakes, or man-made disasters such as nuclear power plant implosions affect a large number of people in one incident. They are acute. They are distressing. They ought to not be happening. At the same time, despite the enormous morbidity and mortality of the Covid-19 virus, year upon year, chronic medi...