World in a dire need of cooperation in order to come out of the COVID abyss

Amid the serious blows and damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world now has some key development challenges including meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and tackling emerging global issues. At the same time, the coronavirus infection has wreaked havoc in the developmental efforts of many small and developing economies while pushing millions into poverty. The World Bank estimated that 97 million people fell into poverty worldwide due to the spread of coronavirus in 2020 alone. The numbers could go increase as the situation has gone from bad to worse in many countries, including in South Asia and Africa, after the second and third waves of the pandemic.

As small and developing countries are longing for basic health services and COVID-19 vaccines, the world’s developed nations are still being blamed for hoarding more than their required quantity of vaccines despite the pleas of the world’s most desperate populations for vaccines and anti-epidemic supplies. . Under such circumstances, poor nations are doubly troubled because neither had they succeeded in vaccinating their citizens, nor are they able to focus on other challenges including issues of food insecurity, climate change, poverty reduction and other pressing matters.

Worse still, the domestic and international supply chains have been disrupted in many of countries because of border closures, trade restrictions and confinement measures, forcing enterprises to be more resilient. In late 2020, key UN agencies including International Labor Organization and World Health Organization expressed their serious concerns, stating that “The pandemic has decimated jobs and placed millions of livelihoods at risk. As breadwinners lose jobs, fall ill and die, food security and nutrition of millions of women and men are under threat, with those in low-income countries, particularly the most marginalized populations, which include small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples, being hardest hit.” People in many Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing countries are in a dire need of cooperation to come out of the abyss, and to tackle the challenges of economic woes and stalled growth in recent months.

Advanced health care, disaster relief, pandemic management and technology have gained the highest levels of attention in the ongoing tumultuous period caused by the pandemic. It is in these areas that more cooperation and integration is vital.. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic impacted emerging economies, especially those are dependent on tourism revenue, foreign investment and remittance from migrant workers.

Against this backdrop, regional and global cooperation and coordination is imperative to tackle the emerging challenges, and those of the past,, and to share the benefits of innovation in a win-win manner on the basis of sincerity, mutual trust and equality.

Amid hardships, China has demonstrated a glimmer of hope for the developing world to overcome global challenges due to the fact that China has always advocated for global unity and cooperation. China has provided huge quantity of supplies to the rest of the world. It has assisted other countries, especially other developing countries in their vaccination drives as statistics show that every one out of two doses of vaccines administered in the whole world comes from China.

In addition, other key global players should also help in shifting overall policies and promote more investment in technology in changing contexts in order to return to a normal situation. Likewise, rich countries, as well as giant multinational companies should extend their best possible support and express solidarity for the cause of humanity. Many underlying problems have posed serious threats to humanity across the globe, in countries from Afghanistan to Yemen, from Sri Lanka to Sudan, to name just a few. This is the time to forget polarization and division, and a time to embrace collective action and joints efforts in addressing the immense we all face.

Mahendra Subedi is a Nepali journalist and social researcher specializing in the area of migration. Subedi was a CAPPC Fellow in 2019.

The opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of People's Daily Online.