Martes, 31 de marzo de 2020 (Continuación)

InternacionalEconomía, , ,

How do the world’s poorest nations tackle a global health crisis like the current coronavirus outbreak? After the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the World Bank launched the Pandemic Emergency Financing (PEF) facility — an insurance-based mechanism to raise money for pandemic responses in low-income countries through “catastrophe bonds” and derivatives.

The coronavirus pandemic is exactly the situation for which the PEF was designed. Most of the PEF-eligible countries are reporting covid-19 cases and urgently require billions of dollars to scale up their public health response. So far, the PEF has yet to pay out a single dollar. Here’s what happened and why.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate, ,

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron — the self-designated cheerleader for a more ambitious and integrated Europe — concluded at the end of a fruitless six-hour teleconference with European Union leaders that “what is at stake is the survival of the European project.” A day later, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, in a rare late-night address to the nation on a day that saw the highest number of deaths in Italy from coronavirus, warned that “everyone [must] understand the seriousness of the threat faced by Europe before it is too late.” Answering his own question, Mattarella noted that E.U. leaders have not.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,  

An emergency tends to reveal the core character of national leaders, along with that of the political systems that produced them. What’s truly exceptional about the coronavirus pandemic is that it is confronting scores of countries simultaneously with the same awesome challenge. We are learning a lot about the state of global governance as a result.

In one category are the democratic populists, such as President Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Their response to the spread of the novel coronavirus has been to spew misinformation, minimize the threat and dodge accountability. Trump predicted the virus “is going to disappear . …  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía, , , ,

Les mesures prises pour lutter contre l’épidémie de Covid-19 obligent désormais des millions de personnes à travailler chez elles. Politiques et employeurs encouragent le «télétravail», «travail à distance» ou «travail à domicile» pour tenter de remédier aux effets économiques désastreux de la crise sanitaire, et permettre de limiter les contacts entre individus. Cette (re)découverte du télétravail a pourtant révélé pour beaucoup un impensé, sur le plan technique, social et légal. Les travailleuses et travailleurs n’ont d’autre choix que de s’en remettre à leur employeur et à la compétence des services informatiques et juridiques de l’entreprise (lorsqu’elle en dispose) pour organiser le travail à distance.…  Seguir leyendo »