Collective Co-operation is necessary in global fight against COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreck havoc across the globe affecting economies, communities and lives, there has been continued call for a coordinated global response plan. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put in place measures for countries to follow and individual states have done the same for their citizens. The UN has been calling for solidarity and unity while responding to the pandemic yet collective efforts remain low.

COVID-19 has made the global economy to experience a shock more sudden and severe than ever experienced in recent history. There is no aspect of the global economy that has not been impacted by the pandemic. However, global response has been characterised by national interests and mutual suspicion. China and the U.S, the two world powers haven’t put their geopolitical tensions aside and formed coalitions to fight the pandemic. In fact, the global leadership of the United States has been missing and has instead been replaced by President Trump attacking the global health organisation.

While the entire globe, communities and individual lives have been affected by the pandemic, the reality remains that people with low incomes and daily income earners have been hit hardest by social distancing and lockdown measures. A global response to this pandemic would ensure that support reaches people worst hit economically by the pandemic.

As many parts of the world remain under lockdown to contain the spread of the virus, it is misleading to think that solutions to this global pandemic are at the individual level of government measures. While the theory of realism in international relations (IRs) assumes that the international system is a jungle and states are always competing for political and economic might. And the world has witnessed these realistic tendencies in the fight for face masks, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ventilators. It’s only through a global humanitarian response that all countries can get access to these resources and build their capacity to mitigate the devastating impact of the virus.

In International Relations studies, it remains the reality that the responsibility of a state is first to its citizens and it’s not surprising that states have turned inwards to protect their citizens first. However, the thing to note is that the world is fighting a global health crisis that has spread to every corner of the globe because of its interconnectedness. This makes international cooperation a vital component in solving this pandemic and ensuring it doesn’t re-emerge. Leaders around the globe have got to realise that it’s in their national interests to act outwardly and globally in a coordinated approach to fight the virus because no country will feel safe until the entire world is free from COVID-19.

Globalisation has made the world interconnected in many different ways that finding a country that is completely isolated from the rest of the world is hard. When transnational crises hit, their impact is felt across the globe because they are not respectors of borders or geography. Solving them therefore, requires collective responsibility. With COVID-19, even if one country defeats it, for example Mauritius has been officially declared free after total recovery of all its coronavirus cases, the risks of the virus returning are very high as long as it continues to affect the rest of the world.

Leaders accross the world can’t risk being complacent to the dangers of this virus on the rest of the world. Once the virus is left to spread to countries and places where social distancing and constant hand-washing is impossible (which is already the case), it is likely to reappear in countries that are recovering. This global health crisis requires leaders to rise to the occasion and come up with a global response plan to serve both national and international interests like the world witnessed during the 2008 global economic crisis.

There have been efforts to salvage the collateral damage to economies and societies in form of emergency financing by the World Bank – $160 million and the IMF -$ 123 billion. In addition, the G-2 in their virtual summit on the COVID-19 pandemic held in March, agreed to suspend debt payments for the poorest countries. These efforts have been appreciated by the international community but more still needs to be done if largely indebted countries are to afford measures that are currently being implemented by the developed world.

And while scientists are working around the clock to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, infectious diseases experts have expressed concern that once an effective vaccine is here, there is likely to be a scramble for the limited doses as there won’t be enough doses to vaccinate everyone quickly. In countries with fragile health systems, deploying the vaccine might be a big challenge. Such countries are in urgent need of international support to put in place temporary health systems that will allow them vaccinate their populations. It’s only through a unified global response plan and commitment from states, businesses and individuals that enough funds can be raised to make treatment and a vaccine available to everyone.

Individual state response continues to prove futile until we have all hands on deck in form of multilateralism and collective leadership. While some countries have handled the pandemic incredibly well, leaders in some countries continue to bury their heads in the sand, are sceptical and wishing the virus away if not resorting to scapegoatism. The unfortunate actions of such leaders are likely to prolong the stay of the virus in the world. Using East Africa’s example where countries like Rwanda and Uganda took stringent measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 while their counterparts like Tanzania and Burundi continue to treat it as a hoax. As a result, Uganda has seen a steady rise in coronavirus cases all which are imported cases from truck drivers entering the country, majority of which are foreigners from neighbouring countries.

The above example also goes to show that collaboration has also failed both at regional and continental level. There have been little signs of inter-governmental cooperation in fighting the pandemic. As such countries have not committed much efforts to support multilateral organisations like the African Union, the East African Community in coming up with a unified response. For the case of Europe, the EU remains divided on the stimulus package to extend to its members and the pandemic has left its highly indebted members like Italy and Spain less able to support their economies and citizens as compared to their counterparts like Germany and Netherlands. With support from EU not coming through fast enough, this has deepened the divisions within the block.

Although it has been argued that pandemics like COVID-19 are democratizing experiences where people whose privilege and power would normally shield them have been in quarantine, tested positive or lost loved ones. The reality remains that the effects of COVID-19 are more devastating for the poor as compared to the rich, and it’s only through a global response plan that poor people in emerging and poor economies can be supported to have food and medical supplies they need to survive COVID-19.

The earlier states unite, the faster they will find sustainable solutions to this pandemic. And until populations accross the globe behave in a collectively responsible manner, shall we see life returning to a semblance of normal. After the pandemic, many aspects of life are never going to be the same again but a united world is a much stronger world.

By

Patricia Namakula,

Head of Research and Public Relations