Covid-19

COVID-19, Climate and Clean Fuel: Charting a path for Africa’s Inclusive Green Economic Recovery

As the TCP clean fuel case study demonstrates, an intersectional approach is needed in order to address the pre-existing issues of climate change and income and gender inequality and the manifold impacts of the pandemic on health, wealth and stability of nations across the African continent. One approach with a lot of potential is to support private sector development by encouraging collaboration between the public, NGOs and private sectors as demonstrated by TCP’s clean fuel initiative.

The Dangerous Road Ahead for Universities and the Teaching-Research Nexus

In this discussion, I want to highlight and briefly discuss why research and expertise has to become an even more important feature of teaching and learning initiatives. This might sound uncontroversial, but in the past two decades, significant funding for Australian universities has come from international students’ fees. Arguably, the nexus between teaching and research during this time also shifted along with the availability of more funds for universities to invest in research as an important activity in and of itself. The university sector is potentially on a dangerous road if it does not establish a healthy approach to the teaching-research nexus.

Symposium Introduction: Vulnerabilities in the Trade and Investment Regimes in the Age of COVID-19

In this symposium on vulnerabilities in international economic law (IEL), the contributors focus on the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for trade and investment regimes in the global south. The contributors offer a diverse range of perspectives from the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and Africa to demonstrate how the pandemic has intensified existing vulnerabilities and created new forms of inequalities in trade and investment. Each contribution offers a reflection on how the pandemic intersects with an aspect of IEL and presents concrete policy steps that have been, or could be, taken to redress the negative and harmful effects of the pandemic, be them intentional or unintended. Common to all contributions is the question of how we - an international community of scholars, activists and policymakers – can make trade and investment regimes more resilient, inclusive and sustainable.

PanDEBTmic – Potential Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kenya

As the Covid-19 disrupts life as we know it globally and nationally, it will test to the core the ability of the state to defend its citizens from experiencing the most holistic crisis we have ever faced as a country. Kenya has lived through curfews, food shortages, economic difficulties but all at different stages and periods. With growth prospects reduced, lower than expected tax revenues, and Kenya’s debt to GDP levels is already in the doldrums.