International Relations

A fluctuating economy, high unemployment, enormous violence against women and girls – what was already a difficult situation in Mexico has been made far worse by the coronavirus pandemic. Dawid Danilo Bartelt, Head of the Mexico City Office, describes the country’s approach to tackling coronavirus.

Transformative responses is a transnational network which aims to increase our systems' resilience by addressing the socio-economic and ecological challenges at the intersection of finance, ecology and inequality with concrete actions and policies to mitigate crisis and initiate structural reform.

The world's attention is fully focused on tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. But in the shadows of this crisis, Israel is quietly planning to annex parts of the Westbank.  How likely is annexation and what will its consequences be?

The Covid-19 pandemic affects different groups of people differently. It is, however, possible to argue that asylum seekers, migrants and refugees scattered across the globe are among the most vulnerable groups to the outbreak. Yet, what are the key challenges facing migrants and refugees in Turkey, particularly challenges in accessing healthcare services during the pandemic?

El Salvador, like many other countries in Central America and the world, is in a situation bordering on tragedy, facing a pandemic under the immense structural failures resulting from centuries of environmental and human exploitation. 

In its fight against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, India is facing its greatest social and economic challenge since independence in 1947. Persisting political and social contradictions have become more visible than ever before. Media reports are shifting the focus away from areas that really matter for the preservation of a democratic social fabric. Yet the current situation also leaves a ray of hope. 

The countrywide lockdown is necessary to curb the spread of Covid-19 but, for many, isolating in the home presents a more immediate, and dangerous, threat than falling victim to the disease.  

Quiet streets and empty malls on Friday nights. In the eyes of overseas visitors, the city might still seem lively, but for Hongkongers like me the vibrant buzz of this city has been replaced by fear, personal isolation, and the smell of rancid surgical masks.

With low testing rates, but rising numbers of infections, Myanmar’s government is virtually flying blind trying to get on top of Covid-19 with a lockdown. The collapse of clothing exports to Europe has led to a sharp rise in unemployment, while armed conflicts continue, mostly in Rakhine State, and critical coverage of it has become a criminal offence.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economy are dramatic. The virus is shaking all major economies simultaneously. At the same time,  the crisis is acting as an accelerator for the developing countries that were already highly in debt. An interview with Barbara Unmüßig, President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, on the latest developments.