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132. Powering Through the Pandemic
- Author:
- Ashwini K. Swain
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for Policy Research, India
- Abstract:
- The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are consequential for India’s long-term electricity goals. While exacerbating the existing weaknesses in the sector, the pandemic could also affect the trend toward an electricity transition. This report is an attempt to understand the impact of the pandemic on India’s electricity, government responses, and thus, suggest a structural approach to building a resilient electricity future. We find that the Covid-19 caused disruptions in the electricity sector are pervasive and have alarming secondary effects and long-term consequences. While the Central and state governments have been swift to recognise the disruptions, the band-aid approach, focused on fixing existing patterns in the sector, appears inadequate to challenges. Ironically, the long-term electricity reform agenda – proposed in major legislative and policy amendment proposals – shaped in times of a pandemic has failed to internalise the challenges thrown-up and insights gained from the Covid-19 experience. The combination of Covid-19 disruptions, technological driven cost reductions in renewable energy, and the longstanding financial and governance problems of the sector combine to create a ‘critical juncture’ for the sector- a moment to envision a new and alternative configuration of technology, institutions and politics that could transform Indian electricity. While this a long-term and complex conversation, the report suggests illustrative pathways toward these goals.
- Topic:
- Government, Electricity, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
133. “The Political Striptease Show Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Unattractive, Off-Putting”
- Author:
- Sergey Ryabkov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- East View Information Services
- Abstract:
- Interview with Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, World Health Organization, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Europe
134. Coronavirus: Political Philosophy
- Author:
- A. Shchipkov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- East View Information Services
- Abstract:
- THE CRISIS caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Yesterday, we were living under the slogan, “Live as friends in a society without borders”; today, we are advised “to remain home and avoid con- tacts.” Each country is for itself. The slogan, “Less state and more mar- ket” has been pushed aside: anyone and everyone asks the state for help and protection. Yesterday, medicine was optimized to earn money; today, the sacred principle of profit has tumbled down. In January, hospitals were closed; today, new hospitals are being built. On the other hand, not all consequences of the pandemic are clear; we have not yet reached its end to verify the information collected about immunity, vaccines and virus mutations. We can only guess whether the pandemic happens only once or will regularly repeat itself. Today, the economy lives amid deep-cutting changes imposed by the pandemic. Promptly ended, they will be nothing more than temporary changes; if they continue for many years, they will change the very foundations of the economic, social and political systems. Overlaid on the other symp- toms of a world crisis (including a financial crisis), the pandemic created a synergetic effect. Time has come to assess possible results.
- Topic:
- Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
135. Two Superpandemics for One Humanity Is Too Many!
- Author:
- A. Krutskikh
- Publication Date:
- 01-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- International Affairs: A Russian Journal of World Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations
- Institution:
- East View Information Services
- Abstract:
- Interview woth Andrei Krutskikh, Special Representative of the Russian President on International Cooperation in the Field of Information Security, Director of the Department of International Information Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
- Topic:
- Cybersecurity, Public Health, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
136. COVID-19: Lessons and Implications for Public Policy-Making Processes in Cameroon
- Author:
- Peter SAKWE MASUMBE
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Nkafu Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- Public policies can rightly be viewed as a political system’s responses to public demands and problems arising from its environment in domains as, transportation, education, agriculture, health, law enforcement, security, business, and so on, depending upon whether a chosen policy approach falls within the armpit of constituent, distributive, re-distributive, regulatory policy type. Policy problems are conditions or situations, which generate a human need, deprivation or dissatisfaction, self-identified by a group or groups of people, for which relief is sought for a large number of people in society. On the contrary, it is not a policy problem if it affects only a few persons in society. Talking of the political system, it comprises the identifiable and interrelated institutions and their activities, otherwise known as governmental institutions and political processes, which authoritatively allocate values in form of decisions, which are binding upon society. Certainly, binding as these decisions are, and going by this view of public policies; what character of policy responses has Cameroon enunciated against COVID-19; and what are the lessons and implications of these responses on the human capital and economy Cameroon now in the future? Are the policy responses against COVID-19 akin to impromptu approach with weak physiognomies? Are there alternative policies open to Cameroon for combating COVID-19?
- Topic:
- Health, Health Care Policy, Public Policy, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Domestic Policy, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Cameroon
137. Struggling with Scale: Ebola’s Lessons for the Next Pandemic
- Author:
- Jeremy Konyndyk
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The next pandemic is a matter of when, not if. Preparing for this inevitability requires that policymakers understand not just the science of limiting disease transmission or engineering a drug, but also the practical challenges of expanding a response strategy to a regional or global level. Achieving success at such scales is largely an issue of operational, strategic, and policy choices—areas of pandemic preparedness that remain underexplored.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, Ebola, Public Health, and Pandemic
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
138. Tackling the Triple Transition in Global Health Procurement
- Author:
- Rachel Silverman, Amanda Glassman, Kalipso Chalkidou, and Janeen Madan Keller
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- There have been impressive gains in global health over the past 20 years, with millions of lives saved through expanded access to essential medicines and other health products. Major international initiatives backed by billions of dollars in development assistance have brought new drugs, diagnostics, and other innovations to the fight against HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and other scourges. But behind these successes is an unacceptable reality: in many low- and middle-income countries, lifesaving health products are either unavailable or beyond the reach of the people who need them most. While each country’s context is unique, a reliable, affordable, and high-quality supply of health products is a vital necessity for any health system. In its absence, lasting health gains will remain elusive.
- Topic:
- Health, Public Health, Pandemic, Procurement, and Medicine
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
139. Accelerating the Development of a Universal Influenza Vaccine
- Author:
- Aspen Institute
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- The Sabin-Aspen Vaccine Science & Policy Group convened in 2018 to explore challenges and opportunities to develop a universal influenza vaccine. The group’s recommendations on how to overcome the scientific, financial and organizational barriers to developing a vaccine are synthesized in this report published in July 2019.
- Topic:
- Vaccine, Pandemic, Medicine, and Influenza
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
140. Global Oncology in Rwanda
- Author:
- Darja Djordjevic
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Last summer, two major pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Cipla, reached an agreement to sell sixteen standard chemotherapy drugs at very low cost (purportedly only slightly higher than the manufacturing cost) to six African countries: Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria.1 This negotiated deal also included a plan for top American oncologists to simplify cancer treatment protocols, which an IBM team would then make available through an online, open-access tool. This development signaled an important moment in the politics of global health, one of growing awareness and advocacy around cancer in Africa and the Global South. While this particular deal was a positive and overdue development in the battle long-fought by care providers across the world who look after poor people with cancer, we have to wonder for how long such a deal will last, alongside other pressing concerns. Further, how does this initiative fit into the broader political economy of a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry always in search of new markets, with Africa being a potentially massive one?
- Topic:
- Public Health, Pandemic, and Cancer
- Political Geography:
- Global South