Webinar : Political Economy in the North-South relations amid COVID-19

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Webinar : Political Economy in the North-South relations amid COVID-19

May 22, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to the international community and is due to heavily impact the global economy in the short and long run. The virus has infected over 4 million people and caused almost 300.000 casualties globally. During its spreading, mass production hastily witnessed shutdowns and supply chain disruptions, causing worldwide undulation effects encompassing all economic sectors. A steep contraction in household consumption, rising inflation and unemployment rates, and an abrupt halt in global tourism are some of its most visible consequences. Resilience of national economies vis-à-vis the current situation varies widely depending on many factors, including containment measures’ efficiency and effectiveness as well as the economic support governments consider deploying. Yet, the highly interconnectedness of the world means that fighting the virus – and navigating its economic consequences – must include both national measures and global ones. In this webinar, we reflect on alternative options for economic recovery. Trade agreements, debt relief measures, impact investments, green strategies – these are just some of the instruments available in the toolbox. The panel will address ways in which existing and new channels for cooperation between the global north and south can be leveraged to achieve the best possible way out of the crisis, with a long-term outlook on what kind of global economy we want to rebuild.

Speakers

Otaviano Canuto

Senior Fellow

Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Affiliate Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institute. Former Vice President and Executive Director at the World Bank, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Vice President at the Inter-American Development Bank. ...

Rym Ayadi

Founder and Scientific Director, Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association

Rym Ayadi is the Founder and President of the Euro – Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA). She is Founder and Director of the Euro-Mediterranean and African Network for Economic Studies (EMANES). She is Senior Advisor at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS); Professor at the Bayes Business School, City University of London and Member of the Centre for Banking Research (CBR); Chair of the European Banking Authority – Banking Stakeholders Group (EBA- BSG). She is also Associated Scholar at the Centre for Relationship Banking and Economics (CERBE) at LUMSA University in Rome. ...

Len Ishmael

Senior Fellow

Ambassador, Dr. Len Ishmael is a Senior Fellow of the Policy Center for the New South and a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is the Global Affairs Advisor of the Brussels Diplomatic Academy and visiting Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Mohammed 6 University, Morocco. Dr. Ishmael is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on COVID-19’s Regional Task Force for Latin America. She is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and European Union, and past President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former Director & Head of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic ...

Ian Lesser

Vice President; Executive Director, Transatlantic Center, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Brussels

Staff Expert Ian Lesser Vice President, Foreign Policy; Executive Director, Transatlantic Center Brussels Expertise: Policy, NATO / Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Affairs / North-South Relations / Terrorism / Proliferation / International Security & Geopolitics / Energy Related Topics: Security and Defense, European Union, Wider Atlantic, Mediterranean , Mediterranean Strategy Group, Turkey, Grexit, NATO, NATO and the Mediterranean, Understanding America Ian Lesser is vice president for Foreign Policy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and a member of GMF’s executive team, managing programs across the organization. He also serves as executive director of the Transatlantic Center, the Brussels office of GMF, and leads GMF’s work on the Mediterranean ...