Rescue: From Global Crisis to a Better World, by Ian Goldin

 Covid-19 has created a pivotal moment. Everything hangs in the balance. The pandemic compressed into a year trends that would otherwise have taken decades to emerge. It has brought us to an inflection point in history. By seizing this historic moment, we can turn the tide to shape our individual and collective destiny, and in so doing we would rescue humanity from catastrophe and create a better world. […]

It is business as usual that led to our disastrous situation. To prevent future pandemics, which could be much more deadly than Covid-19, and to stop catastrophic climate change, we need a radical change in direction.

The pandemic has taught us that to defeat a virus we need to act collectively, and has highlighted what Amartya Sen has explored in his many books: that for individuals to flourish they require key capabilities – nutrition, health, education, freedom of expression, and jobs and income. […] Re-evaluating our lives requires going beyond the unhealthy addiction to economic growth as the only or best measure of progress. No one can flourish without a livelihood, which is why creating meaningful work and incomes for all who seek it, and overcoming poverty, is a necessary foundation for a healthy society. 

https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/rescue-from-global-crisis-to-a-better-world-by-ian-goldin?utm_source=digest_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_digest

The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All, by Martin Sandbu

The attitude to the remaining pillar—the postwar social market economy—is more complicated. Ultimately it is also the most consequential, for, as I will argue, the other two pillars of the Western order will stand or fall depending on whether it can deliver on its economic promise.

The Western-style social market democracy that thrived in the postwar decades was an unwritten but firm social contract. One of its vital elements was economic solidarity: a promise that everyone would share in the fruits of growth. Common to most of those rallying behind illiberal or nationalist forces is their sense that the economy has changed for the worse in general, and for people like them in particular. The reason why the slogans about restoring past greatness—“ Make America Great Again” and “Take Back Control”—have such appeal is that the economic and social order of the postwar decades is remembered not as something to be rejected but as something to be restored.

Behind the illiberalism and nationalism, therefore, there is a prior economic claim. This claim is that the economic opportunities on which previous generations thrived have dried up, and those that still exist have been closed off and reserved for an elite to which “normal people” don’t belong. Those turning against the Western order are those who feel left behind in it, but not just that: they feel left behind by their own—betrayed by the elites who constructed the system and were entrusted with making it deliver.

https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/the-economics-of-belonging-a-radical-plan-to-win-back-the-left-behind-and-achieve-prosperity-for-all-by-martin-sandbu?utm_source=newsletter_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Over 2 billion workers globally are informal — what should we do about it?

In informal wage employment, workers may have better paid jobs with some de facto benefits, though not the same security of tenure and social security benefits as formal wage workers. Other informal workers have poorly paid jobs in manual work, such as on farms and construction sites. In the latter case, informal employment is a last resort job to avoid unemployment. A more accurate characterization of informal labour markets in developing countries is as two-tiered, with informal workers either being in ‘lower-tier’ or ‘upper-tier’ self/wage employment.

Climbing the job ladder - Creating opportunity and mobility

It is critical for policy makers to understand that the informal economy is not monolithic and account for its heterogeneity. While the goal of reducing informality is a desirable objective, it is also important to find ways to move workers right at the bottom of the heap  —the lower-tier informal workers— to the upper tier of the informal labour market. Lower-tier informal workers are the most vulnerable and make up the majority of the working poor. 

https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/over-2-billion-workers-globally-are-informal-%E2%80%94-what-should-we-do-about-it

Citation: Institute or the United Nations University

Unlocking the Power of the Private Sector to Build Resilient and Equitable Health Systems

When done right, strategic public-private collaboration can help countries to protect essential health services as part of their COVID-19 response and recovery efforts , reclaim health gains achieved before the pandemic, and build more resilient and equitable health systems.

For transformative impact, the private sector must be integrated across the health system – health financing, 

https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/unlocking-power-private-sector-build-resilient-and-equitable-health-systems

Citation:  Worldbank

Environmental health and strengthening resilience to pandemics

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic highlights the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to human health. Enhancing environmental health through better air quality, water and sanitation, waste management, along with efforts to safeguard biodiversity, will reduce the vulnerability of communities to pandemics and thus improve overall societal well-being and resilience. Exposure to ambient and indoor air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular, respiratory and developmental diseases, as well as premature death, and makes individuals more vulnerable to COVID-19. Water access and quality and biodiversity protection are key to battling the spread of pandemics, while effective waste management is essential to minimise possible secondary impacts upon health and the environment.

https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/environmental-health-and-strengthening-resilience-to-pandemics-73784e04/

Spotlight: The hidden pandemic

People are worried about jobs, finances & the future

In a recent OECD survey, 44% of households report having at least one member whose work had been disrupted by the crisis – such as by a job loss, a lay-off, a retention scheme, reduced working hours, unpaid leave or resignation.

People are concerned about their overall financial, social and economic well-being and that of their families. Many say they haven’t been able to cover usual expenses, such as rent, mortgage, utilities or credit card bills. Many are unsure if they have the right skills and knowledge to secure a good quality job in the next decade.

People are also worried about adequate long-term care for their elderly relatives and about whether they themselves will be able to afford to retire one day.

https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/en/#spotlight

Technological advancements in the life sciences bring new possibilities for how we treat disease and grow food

 Inside the Bio Revolution

The convergence of science and technology can help address some of humanity’s most pressing problems.

“Health and nutrition are among the most basic needs of societies around the globe. It’s the definition of systemic relevance,” Baumann says. “Based on the converging worlds of genes, cells and data, the Bio Revolution leads to a new foundation for scientific breakthroughs in those areas.”

“As societies, we should dare to ask: ‘What if?’” he says. “What if diseases like Parkinson’s or cancer weren’t diseases we treated, but cured? What if we could create a carbon-positive agricultural system? What if underserved communities had everything they needed to take care of their everyday health?”

https://partners.wsj.com/bayer/innovating-life-science/inside-the-bio-revolution/

Citation: Bayer

Food Security and Poverty—a precarious balance

 “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

Analysis based solely on food availability frequently resulted in policies that exacerbated the problem.

There are many reasons why people may not have access to food even when enough is available in the aggregate. One of the most fundamental is that there is no guarantee that a market economy will generate a distribution of income that provides enough income for all to purchase the food they need. Thus, the World Bank’s central poverty reduction mission is critical to achieving food security for all.

This profoundly important—and seemingly-simple—definition of food security from the World Food Summit of 1996 actually has four elements:

1. Enough food must be available to meet people’s needs.

2. People must have access to the food that is available under normal circumstances.

3. Volatility in production or prices must not threaten this availability, and

4. The quality of food that people consume must be adequate for their needs.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/food-security-and-poverty-a-precarious-balance

Citation:  WorldBank

Profit with Purpose: Reforming Business to Address 21st Century Global Challenges

Even prior to the pandemic, the concept of corporate purpose was gaining increasing traction amongst businesses and investors. Much of that interest stemmed from growing concerns about climate change and businesses’ role in contributing to it. With COVID-19, corporate purpose has taken on heightened significance and the agenda has moved beyond environmental concerns to include a broad range of social issues around health, inclusivity and diversity. 

What can corporate purpose do to address the social, political and environmental challenges of the day? The answer is an immense amount, once it is understood what is meant by it. Corporate purpose is why a company exists, is created and its reason for being. 

https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/profit-with-purpose-reforming-business-to-address-21st-century-global-challenges?channel_id=747-trust

Citation:  OECD

The poverty risk has shifted from the elderly to young people

 Over the last decades, we have seen a shift in the risk of being poor from older to younger age groups. 

https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/the-poverty-risk-has-shifted-from-the-elderly-to-young-people?utm_source=newsletter_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Citation: OECD

Ramping Up Sustainable Food Production: Why everyone has a stake in the Food Transition for all

One of the major challenges of the 21st century is what we at Carrefour call the Food Transition. In 2019, Carrefour defined its “raison d’être”, its mission, as the Food Transition for all. What it entails is simple: providing food that is healthy, sustainable and accessible for everyone.

Finally, we recognise the need to work collectively to achieve our goals. We all—the private sector, civil society and governments—have a role to play.

https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/ramping-up-sustainable-food-production-why-everyone-has-a-stake-in-the-food-transition-for-all?utm_source=newsletter_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Citation: OECD