Overcoming COVID-19: World Leaders Must Finance a More Equal World to Beat Pandemics

High school graduation, Accra, Ghana, 2013. Credit: United NationsBy Winnie ByanyimaGENEVA, Apr 8 2021 (IPS) Leaders at this year’s World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings (April 5-11) will determine how best to recover from one of the biggest crises the institutions have faced since their founding in 1944—COVID-19’s impact and its economic aftermath. Given the need to fund treatment and vaccines, there is pressure to scale back funding for social provisions. But doing so would prove a catastrophic—and costly—mistake. Instead, leaders must boldly finance a more equal world. The issue isn’t just that COVID’s impact is unequal; it’s that inequalities, especially gender inequality, hamper an effective recovery. They undermine the world’s readiness for future pandemics and shocks, and block achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It is one thing to call for these inequalities to be addressed—and another to allocate funding to rectify them. We must invest in rights for them to be actualized. COVID-19 has dramatically widened gaps between women and men in wealth, income, access to services, the burden of unpaid care, status and power. Pre-pandemic, 132 million girls were out of school. Twenty million more secondary school-aged girls could be out of school post-pandemic. Many will not go back, putting them at greater risk for violence, HIV, teenage pregnancy, child marriage, poor health and poverty. Because of COVID-19, two and a half mil...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Education Environment Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Poverty & SDGs Sustainability TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news