Guest post from Heather Marquette The international Covid-19 response so far makes clear that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’, and that the urgent interpretation and application of science is hugely challenging and is framed by political room for manoeuvre.  ‘One size doesn’t fit all’ is easy to say, but hard to do. As well as its immediate biological effects, the

Really wise approach to policy-making in near-total uncertainty: No-Regret Policies for the Crisis in Developing Countries by Stefan Dercon WFH is especially tough if you happen to be Banksy’s wife. Wonderful. Examples of Covid’s horrible knock-on effects are growing: Food rations to 1.4 million refugees cut in Uganda due to funding shortfall; Coronavirus derails measles vaccination across the globe Campaigning

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Although Covid’s impact in poor countries is starting to look pretty terrifying (as, often, is the political response), the debates that I see are still being framed largely in Northern terms of self-isolation, PPE and all the rest. And often it’s advice from well-meaning northerners about how Delhi, Nairobi or Cape Town should be responding. In search of other views,

Pope Francis generated a lot of buzz this Easter in a letter to ‘our brothers and sisters of popular movements and organizations’. As you’re probably tired of hearing by now, I’m an atheist, but fascinated by the role of faith groups and leaders in shaping social and political change, so I took a look. Some of the writing is beautiful,

How to combat Covid in crowded informal settlements where people share bathrooms and toilets? In 100 informal settlements in Cape Town and other cities, IBP South Africa is working it out on the ground. This guest post is from IBP’s Albert van Zyl More than 5 million South Africans live in informal settlements—sprawling, crowded communities that frequently lack even the

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This guest post by Graham Teskey was originally published on the Governance and Development Soap Box blog Pandemics are depressingly common in human history. We all know about the plague, cholera and the Spanish ’flu. What Dani Rodrik called ‘hyper-globalisation’ has stormed across the world since the end of the cold war and has resulted in massive increases in the

Guest post from Katherine Marshall, Olivia Wilkinson and Dave Robinson Ebola and COVID-19, two devastating infectious diseases that spread rapidly through populations, crossing boundaries of all sorts, put local, national, and international health systems to crucial tests. They also try religious communities, locally and globally. We are learning vital lessons from both experiences. First, religion and science must combine their

I was on a fascinating Zoom check-in on this late last week, involving researchers of the Action for Empowerment and Accountability research programme (I’m on its advisory board). A4EA is focussing on Pakistan, Mozambique, Myanmar and Nigeria, but the conversation took in a few other places as well. Things that jumped out as new, or at least new angles on

Huge apologies for posting the wrong podcast (a recording interrupted by a phone call from my brother, ending after 2m with an unacceptable expletive). Here’s the right one. Thanks Katy for alerting me to the screw-up, but it kind of worries me that it was only after 100 downloads that anyone told me!

My LSE students are a challenging lot (not as in ‘problem’; as in ‘challenging’) and their questions got me thinking about Covid-19 as a critical juncture. The result is this short-ish (12 page) paper (much improved by the students’ comments on earlier drafts). Please send comments. We will also be discussing it on Zoom next Wednesday (8th April) 2.30-3.30pm UK