Walking Together Indicator (WTI): Understanding and Measuring World Inequality

Socio-economic inequality may be addressed at a different scale. Its impact at a micro and macro level on very many social issues is well-known, as well as its effects on global development being extensively reported in literature, where inequality is often seen as a clear barrier on the path to a sustainable development. That becomes extremely critical in light of major global challenges, such as climate change. The quantification of inequality in the different contexts, its interpretation, as well as its impact on society at a different level are object of major interest and discussion within the scientific community. Inspired by the famous African proverb "if you want to go fast go alone;If you want to go far go together", we propose an indicator-Walking Together Indicator (WTI), based on a simple model to foster transparency and broad communication. It relies on the statistical standard deviation to facilitate the measurement of inequality looking at single metrics (e.g., GDP) as well as considering broad categories (e.g., Economy) composed of multiple indicators. Despite evident limitations, simplifications (context-less comparison among countries) and approximations (significant lack of data), the study conducted on well-known macro indicators presents a fundamental coherence in the result. Indeed, it shows a reducing inequality in the main trends. On the other side, the performed computations also point out a relevant exception for the main economic indicator, which is characterised, overall, by an increasing inequality among the considered countries. Such a contrasting trend is partially explainable looking at the simplifications in the model, which neither considers dependencies among indicators nor assumes weighting. The indicator provides a very encouraging and optimistic figure. However, the recent pandemic has shown a world running at different speeds. It advises a more conservative interpretation of the indicator as the exception related to economy is relevant.

COVID-19 vaccine equity in doldrums: Good governance deficits.

This paper explores whether inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines can be attributed to governance deficits, particularly for developing and emerging countries where poor governance is widespread, but also for developed countries, where governments' performance fell short of expectations. These shared performance deficits beg questions about the impact of governance quality as well as the interplay of ethics in governance when life-or-death decisions must be made. It also explores the impact of COVID-19 on development, especially in the areas of poverty and employment. The findings of the paper show that there is a positive correlation between vaccine equity and good governance, meaning that countries with higher scores in governance rankings have more access to vaccines and have vaccinated most of their populations. Similarly, countries with relatively lower scores in governance rankings have poor access to and distribution of vaccines and have only covered a limited number of their people. The paper further points to disastrous societal impacts of COVID-19 vaccine inequity on poverty and employment, which have hindered global development.

Vaccine value chain: An overview and challenges

Vaccination, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is a success story in global health and development that saves millions of lives each year. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of immunizations in combating Covid-19 was highlighted, and vaccination was recognized as the most effective technique for paving the way out of the epidemic. However, this technique faces a number of challenges, most notably in the vaccine value chain, which has been linked to a number of factors, including market volatility and vaccination demand, which make raw material supply difficult, particularly during pandemics when it is critical to deliver an effective, safe, and high-quality product quickly. Add to it the complexity of production, the difficulty of maintaining the cold chain throughout storage and distribution, quality control and testing, tougher regulatory requirements, and a myriad of other barriers to fulfilling vaccine objectives. As a result, recognizing and resolving difficulties is crucial for establishing a reliable vaccination value chain. In this article, we will give a general framework of value chain then we will discuss the vaccine value chain, including its characteristics, issues, and obstacles, as well as the context of Covid 19 and prospective advancements. © 2022 IEEE.

COVID-19 and the International Political Economy of Risk and Resilience

This forum contribution highlights the confluence of two distinct trends in the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. On one hand, many of the worst socio-economic costs of the virus and control measures have been disproportionately borne by marginalized workers, primarily in the global south. Often these impacts have not overlapped with the public health costs of the virus itself. In this sense the pandemic has highlighted the ways that risks in the global political economy are unevenly and systematically distributed. On the other, early indications are that highly individualized notions of ‘risk management’ and ‘resilience’ will be central to post-crisis global development agendas. At the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic has made the systemic and unequal nature of risks in the global political economy visible, then, many of the most marginalized segments of the world’s population are being asked to take responsibility for managing those risks.

Quantifying the impacts of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals using machine learning models

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed severe threats to global sustainable development. However, a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is still lacking. This research quantified the post-COVID-19 SDG progress from 2020 to 2024 using projected GDP growth and population and machine learning models including support vector machine, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting. The results show that the overall SDG performance declined by 7.7% in 2020 at the global scale, with 12 socioeconomic SDG performance decreasing by 3.0-22.3% and 4 environmental SDG performance increasing by 1.6-9.2%. By 2024, the progress of 12 SDGs will lag behind for one to eight years compared to their pre-COVID-19 trajectories, while extra time will be gained for 4 environment-related SDGs. Furthermore, the pandemic will cause more impacts on countries in emerging markets and developing economies than those on advanced economies, and the latter will recover more quickly to be closer to their pre-COVID-19 trajectories by 2024. Post-COVID-19 economic recovery should emphasize in areas that can help decouple economic growth from negative environmental impacts. The results can help government and non-state stakeholders identify critical areas for targeted policy to resume and speed up the progress to achieve SDGs by 2030.

Searching for a new global development trajectory after COVID-19

A growing number of policymakers and scholars refer to the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis as a turning point in the evolution of globalisation. Following these interpretations, a relative theoretical deficiency in analysing the contour of the newly emerging global development perspective is identified. We explore the post-war evolution of world capitalism (from World War II and beyond), focusing on the following pillars: the formation of international regimes, the generation of main types of innovation, and the successive articulation of world development and crisis phases. The current transition period of the post-COVID-19 era constitutes, in its essence, a mutational crisis of the global accumulation regime and mode of regulation, accelerating the transition towards a 'new globalisation'. The generation and application of functional, institutional, and organically perceived business innovation seems to constitute the main component for a sufficiently re-stabilised new global development trajectory.

Beyond rich and poor: Identifying global development constellations

Motivation: The COVID-19 pandemic is the most recent instance of global development problems being liable to occur anywhere, challenging the assumption of a world divided into “developed” and “developing” countries. Recent scholarship has increasingly opted for the term “global development” to capture this changing geography of development problems. Purpose: Our article contributes to these debates by proposing a novel empirical approach to localize global development problems in country contexts worldwide. Methods and approach: Our approach rests on a universal understanding of “development.” We identify countries that are particularly relevant for global problem-solving and consider not only the problem dimension but also countries' capacities to address these problems. Findings: Our results show that countries with the most severe combinations of problems cover a range as broad as Afghanistan, Nigeria, and the United States. Two thirds of countries with above-average contributions to global problems are governed by authoritarian regimes. We also find that middle income countries, whether lower-middle or upper-middle as defined by the World Bank, have little in common apart from their income level. Policy implications: Our analysis shows that traditional development concepts of a binary world order and of foreign aid as financial transfer to remedy imbalances are not enough to address constellations of global problems and capacity that have long evolved beyond rich and poor. © 2022 The Authors. Development Policy Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of ODI.

Megatrends of the world politics

In the study, we identify and analyse how conceptual and applied aspects of megatrends of world politics are treated in the expert-academic community by outlining the specifics of megatrends of global development in the international political sphere. The paper summarises the megatrends of world politics that will shape the world by 2030. There is a threefold transformation of the modern political organisation of the world: the transformation of the Westphalian world political model, which is determined by globalisation, the transformation of the modern international system, largely due to integration as a megatrend, and the transformation of political systems. Global governance will be carried out in new formats, which will be reflected in the intensification of the institutions of collective world leadership. A change in the hierarchy of leading international actors, a rethinking of the power of leading global actors (US and EU), and the emergence of new potential political and economic global leaders are projected. The centre of world development is moving, the economic centre is shifting to the east and south. One of the central megatrends of world politics is the decline in human security, which became even clearer during the SARS pandemic, COVID-19, which will lead to the transformation of the modern international order. To these megatrends of world politics, we also adjoin the virtualisation of socio-political relations, a new model of change of political power and governance in individual countries, reideologization of world politics, inversion of fundamental values, universalization of migration flows.

Engineering Education: Resiliance And Purposeful Change

Engineering education is undergoing rapid change. Programs across the world have instituted route-and-branch reforms and are navigating a path towards new educational models. This transition has been proactive, carefully planned and rolled out over time frames determined by the institution. Over the past eighteen months, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated major changes to program design and delivery. Here, changes have been reactive, unexpected, and introduced at speed. The timing of the Special Issue places it at the conjuncture of these two contrasting change processes. The editorial considers global developments in engineering education in this unique context. It begins by looking back to 2018. It then moves forward to the present and considers how programs have progressed along their planned change pathways, despite the sudden program changes instituted by the pandemic © 2021, Advances in Engineering Education.All Rights Reserved.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children With Special Needs: A Descriptive Study.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, children with special needs may have challenges. To determine emotional and behavioral challenges, 116 children aged 4 to 6 years, who received special education, were evaluated. COVID-19 negatively affected the families at a rate of 94.6%; 76.5% of the children's daily routines were worsened. Although the one-on-one time duration with the mother and father increased (73.5% and 66.7%), reading books (40.6%), play (17.2%), and overall activity durations (25.7%) decreased. The median screen time increased from 1 to 3 hours. According to the families, there was a regression in development in 18.8% of children. Special education practices at home were ceased by 17.2% of families, and a significant difference was found between the groups with and without regression in development in terms of the frequency of continuing special education at home. The development of children with special needs is an ongoing urgent situation; thus, besides protecting and promoting physical health during the pandemic, families and children should also be supported for developmental needs.

Investigating the Psychology of Financial Markets During COVID-19 Era: A Case Study of the US and European Markets.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has imperatively shaken the behavior of the global financial markets. This study estimated the impact of COVID-19 on the behavior of the financial markets of Europe and the US. The results revealed that the returns of the S&P 500 index have been greatly affected by a lockdown in the US owing to COVID-19. However, the health crisis generated due to the novel coronavirus significantly decreased the stock returns of the Nasdaq Composite index. The results also showed that the economic crisis generated from the pandemic in Spain has had more impact on the IBEX 35 as compared to the health crisis itself. On the other hand, in the long-run, Italy's stock markets are more affected by the health crisis as contrasted with the economic crisis, while, in the short-run, both lockdown conditions and economic instability lower the stock returns of FTSE MIB. The UK stock markets witnessed that in the short-run, deficiency of health management systems imperatively damaged the stock returns of the London Stock Exchange. The investigation revealed that deficiency of health systems and lockdown conditions have imperatively damaged the structure of financial markets, inferring that sustainable development of these nations is at risk due to COVID-19. The study suggested that governments should allocate more of their budget to the health sector to overcome a health crisis in the future.

COVID-19 and the case for global development.

COVID-19 accentuates the case for a global, rather than an international, development paradigm. The novel disease is a prime example of a development challenge for all countries, through the failure of public health as a global public good. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the falsity of any assumption that the global North has all the expertise and solutions to tackle global challenges, and has further highlighted the need for multi-directional learning and transformation in all countries towards a more sustainable and equitable world. We illustrate our argument for a global development paradigm by examining the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic across four themes or 'vignettes': global value chains, digitalisation, debt, and climate change. We conclude that development studies must adapt to a very different context from when the field emerged in the mid-20th century.