LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 5 2021 (IPS) – Most people around the world were glad to see the back of 2020: From the devastating bushfires in Australia to the plagues of locusts through East Africa stretching across Arabia to Pakistan, extreme weather, melting ice sheets at the poles, and Covid-19 that still engulfs the globe.

Trevor Page

But 2021 threatens to be even worse than 2020: The economic impact of lockdowns, inward-looking, wall-building governments with self-interest trumping internationally agreed values. And then to quote David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme: “We could be facing multiple famines of Biblical proportions” and “We’re o…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 2021 (IPS) – Vaccine developers’ refusal to share publicly funded vaccine research findings is stalling broader, affordable vaccinations which would more rapidly contain COVID-19 contagion. The pandemic had infected at least 109 million people worldwide, causing over 2.4 million deaths as of mid-February.

Anis Chowdhury

Avoidable delays in preventive vaccination are imposing terrible burdens on the world economy and human welfare, with economic disruption demanding more relief and recovery measures. They have cost globally, with developed countries contracting .

Avoidable vaccination delays
National capacities to cope…

District Manager, HRLS Program, conducts a client workshop in the presence of the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Sakhipur Upazila, Tangail. Cedit: BRAC

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 16 2021 (IPS) – The 410 Legal Aid Centers that I manage in Bangladesh for BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Services received approximately 35,900 requests for assistance in 2020. Almost all of them involve gender-based violence against women and girls.

In Bangladesh, gender-based violence comes in many forms: physical abuse; husbands throwing wives out of the home in domestic disputes; husbands demanding that their wives get more dowry money from their families, and child marriage, am…

Across the world, several key mutant strains have emerged thanks to ongoing virus replication in humans.

Apr 28 2021 (IPS) – With new COVID cases a day and hospitals and crematoria facing collapse, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called the situation in India “”.

India’s has blamed the people for not following COVID-safe public health directives, but recent data shows mask use has only , from a high of 71% in August 2020 to a low of 61% by the end of February.

B.1.617, or what has been called th…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 8 2021 (IPS) – With the pandemic setting back past, modest and uneven progress, huge disparities in containing COVID-19 and financing government efforts are widening the North-South gap and other inequalities once again.

Developing country pandemic
Developing countries are struggling to cope with their generally feeble health systems. These had been weakened by funding cuts and privatisation policies prescribed by both Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs): the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 has become a “”.

Anis Chowdhury

Developing countries – especially lower middle-income…

As Nepal faces breaking point amidst its worst outbreak, the United Nations and its partners launched in May 2021 the calling for US$ 83.7 million to mobilize an emergency response over the next three months to assist 750,000 of the most vulnerable people affected by the pandemic. The plan was endorsed by the Nepal Humanitarian Country Team and the ’s COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre and lays out critical areas of support required to complement the Government of Nepal’s response efforts. Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jul 23 2021 (IPS) – Following the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstall the House of Representatives and appoint after a prol…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 21 2021 (IPS) – As developing countries struggle to cope with the pandemic, they risk being set back further by restrictive fiscal policies. These were imposed by rich countries who no longer practice them if they ever did. Instead, the global South urgently needs bold policies to ensure adequate relief, recovery and reform.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Bold fiscal responses needed
Governments must mobilise and deploy resources sustainably and fairly, consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With rich countries’ refusal to help more, adequate government financing is crucial.

Taxation is typically a more sustainable, effective…

COVID-19 cancelled out the last 12 years of advancements in finding and treating people with TB. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 2021 (IPS) – Before COVID-19 came along, tuberculosis (TB) was a primary focus of health authorities in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, were diagnosed with TB in the region, but epidemiologists estimated that 1 million more had TB but were neither diagnosed nor treated.

The scope and intensity of the global TB epidemic is fueled by antiquated and inadequate TB drugs, most of which were develop…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec 14 2021 (IPS) – Failure to vaccinate most in poor countries sustains the COVID-19 pandemic. Rich country greed and patent monopolies block developing countries from affordably making the means to protect themselves.

Mutant menace
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has been . Numerous replications in hundreds of millions of hosts have generated . Some mutations are more resilient than others, and better able to overcome human defences.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Early data suggest the B.1.1.529 Omicron variant is than others, including Delta, and possibly to existing treatments and vaccines. Health authorities the are WHO’s latest ‘variant of concern…

A woman is vaccinated against COVID-19 in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. February 2022. Credit: UNICEF/Jospin Benekire

BUENOS AIRES/ DHAKA/JOHANNESBURG, Feb 11 2022 (IPS) – In 2021, Global South countries came out on the short end of vaccine supply deals. In 2022, they are building capacity to produce vaccines themselves.

Latin America’s vaccination rate is among the highest in the world. Chile leads the way with 86 per cent of the population completely vaccinated, followed by Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador. Some countries even achieve rates of over 90 per cent for those having received the first jab.

The region, which had been struggling wi…