Every day, through media reports, social media and our own personal observations, we see, hear, and feel the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has affected our world, our nations, our immediate environments, and our families and friends. We know that it a crisis of health, but also a far broader crisis of overwhelming proportions, threatening livelihoods, economies and societies. It is having the greatest impact where inequalities are most pronounced and where there is least resilience. By putting the lives of millions of people at risk, creating uncertainties and heightening existing fragilities, it has become a truly global challenge.
Crisis also brings opportunity, however. We are finding immediate responses to the pandemic, and as the vaccine roll-out gradually moves forward – albeit unequally – thoughts are also turning to recovery. This seems, therefore, to be a critical juncture to explore, and work towards, a genuine transformation of ideas, policies, programmes and practices. Against this backdrop, a special issue of the IDS Bulletin, “Building a Better World: the Crisis and Opportunity of Covid-19”, considers what lessons are arising from the crisis, and how this is shaping opportunities to build back a better world, so that people who live in poverty or who are marginalised do not continue to be left behind.
How to collectively shape a shared future
Many of the articles in the Bulletin draw on thinking and practice that has emerged from a strategic partnership between two highly engaged organisations: Irish Aid, within Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, whose core focus on Food, Protection and People, as outlined in Ireland’s International Development policy, A Better World, is echoed throughout this Bulletin; and IDS, whose strategy emphasises the need for “Transforming Knowledge, Transforming Lives”, and a vision of a more equitable and sustainable world, where people everywhere can live their lives free from poverty and injustice. Across all the articles, the contributors reflect, fundamentally, on a core question: how can a shared future be collectively and equitably shaped – and even transformed – in the light of Covid-19?
This is a question that has felt directly relevant to us, as co-Editors of this Bulletin. In our professional roles we are associated with organisations and institutions that seek to make a positive difference in the world, but we are also citizens. We belong to communities, and have personal stakes in a better future for all. Do citizens, communities, governments and non-state actors have sufficient understanding of what has brought us collectively to this point in the pandemic, more than one year since it was declared as such by the WHO? Is there a shared vision of where we hope to go from here? And do we have the knowledge, skills, tools commitment, patience and political will to get us there?
Reaching and protecting the furthest behind
Through a range of analyses and focused case studies, the Bulletin provides evidence from countries including India, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ethiopia on the impact of the pandemic on universal development challenges. These include health systems, food equity, social protection, gender equality, local governance, and freedom of religion or belief. The article on health systems asks us to reimagine the pandemic as a “syndemic”, given the multiple intersections between all these different dimensions, the impact of which is further magnified when they are combined.
In March 2020, WHO Health Emergencies Programme head Michael Ryan said that, “No one is safe until we are all safe”, and that reaching and protecting the most vulnerable is essential if we are to deal effectively with the pandemic. The Bulletin consistently highlights that to respond effectively to the challenge of reaching those furthest behind first, we require an understanding of the complex, intersecting and dynamic factors that create disadvantage and marginalisation.
As we write in our editorial introduction:
It requires changes and deliberate choices to comprehensively address the fluid and multidimensional aspects of poverty, inequality and injustice. Barriers to participation and development must be identified, acknowledged and tackled, and flexible, adaptive approaches adopted in order to address structural and societal norms…Efforts will be needed in building the resilience of those communities and countries affected by conflict and chronic poverty, whilst also building preparedness and resilience to deal with future shocks, which may include further epidemics.
If this crisis has taught us anything, it is about the importance of not simply reacting to events that have materialised, but also in anticipating and predicting likely future shocks and building in capacity to deal with sudden surges. Many of the articles in this Bulletin draw on conceptual and theoretical framings that help us understand better where we have come from and where we may be heading; and offer practical examples of community resilience, experimentation, innovation and collective action, demonstrating that it is genuinely possible to build forward differently.
To this end, we make several recommendations for donors and policy-makers in particular:
- Prioritise those furthest behind first, through inclusive and deliberative planning processes.
- Think longer-term, but lay the groundwork for transformative approaches in the immediate, short term response.
- Localise strategies by responding to diverse and specific contexts, and enabling collaboration.
- Coordinate with key actors and researchers across sectors, integrating perspectives, methods, and disciplines as needed.
- Pursue and promote flexible, adaptive approaches that can respond to uncertainty and complexity.
- Establish firm foundations for comprehensive social protection, strengthen health systems, and build the resilience of food systems.
As co-editors of this Bulletin, we have had the opportunity to delve deeply into its content, and feel a strong and personal connection with the urgency and resonance of what the contributors have to say. The Irish concept of community solidarity – meitheal – captures the need for committed and collective action by members of the global community to co-create a better future post-Covid-19. By resisting working in silos, strengthening the multilateral system and following the principles set out in this IDS Bulletin, international aid donors can help accelerate our efforts to reach those furthest behind. The evidence reminds us of the enormity of the current crisis, but it is also a rallying call for higher-income countries to remain faithful to their global commitments to the SDGs.
Working together to tackle these universal challenges means we will be better prepared and more resilient for the future. We hope very much that the articles in this Bulletin reach a wide audience. We invite readers to engage in conversation and dialogue around the challenges, and the opportunities, which are discussed in its pages.
This special issue of the IDS Bulletin was funded by the Government of Ireland as part of the Strategic Partnership between Irish Aid and IDS, focusing on Social Protection, Food Security, and Nutrition. The collaboration brings together research and capacity development with policy, programmatic, and influencing know-how to support action that more effectively reduces poverty and injustice.
