Fireside Chat - Resisting the Fragmentation of the World Economy

Analysts are trying to understand why the COVID-19 pandemic is progressing in Africa at a much slower rate than expected. According to one report, the continent had by the beginning of May seen 37,000 infection cases and 1600 fatalities, compared to the rest of the world, which has 3.2 million cases and 228,000 deaths1. Various explanations have been proffered to explain this disparity: Africa’s warm climate, the youthfulness of the continent’s population (60% of the population is u ...

In the field of health, important results have been achieved on the African continent as shown by recent data in terms of life expectancy and the availability of treatment for the major causes of morbidity. In spite of this, the recent episode of the Ebola epidemic, which required the mobilization of substantial human and financial resources, but above all international aid, shows that health systems remain vulnerable to major shocks. The current context of the Covid-19 pandemic poi ...

They live in the shadow of death: the United States has 2,650 death-row inmates, 740 in California’s San Quentin State Prison alone. Today, these prisoners fear another executioner, the invisible COVID-19. The condemned on death row live in single cells, some having spent many decades in solitary confinement. The suicide rate is high, and many die of natural causes before their rendezvous with the special execution team. These prisoners hardly ever receive visitors, and for them th ...

Data recently released on the first-quarter global domestic product (GDP) performance of major economies have showed how significant the impact of COVID-19 has been on economic activity and jobs, with large contractions across the board. The ongoing global recession is poised to be worse than the “great recession” after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, especially from the standpoint of emerging market and developing economies. The depth and speed of the GDP decline will rival th ...

Un examen, nécessairement à grands traits, des incidences économiques et sociales pour un pays, en l’occurrence le Maroc, d’une soudaine pandémie qui s’est déclarée sur presque la plupart des régions de la planète, ne peut être qu’un simple prélude d’une large étude exhaustive à entreprendre le moment venu. Et ce pour des raisons évidentes, à savoir que la crise en cours induite par le primat du sanitaire, pouvant évoluer, ensuite, en une forme de dépression économique que divers pr ...

Digital technological innovation, combined with new financing approaches, can make a significant contribution in the field of access to energy. This is the case in Kenya, where payas- you-go solutions, combined with solar home systems and an extensive mobile network, have enabled thousands of Kenyans to access clean and affordable off-grid electricity. This policy paper identifies the drivers of the development of pay-as-you-go solutions in off-grid systems in Kenya, assesses their ...

An examination, inevitably bound to be broad in scope, of the economic and social implications for a country, in this case Morocco, of a sudden pandemic that has broken out in virtually most parts of the world, can only be a prelude to a broader and more comprehensive study to be undertaken in due course. For obvious reasons, especially as the current crisis induced by the primacy of health, could later evolve into a form of economic depression as various multifaceted aid and suppor ...