WASHINGTON: Progressive International (PI), a global coalition of progressive activists and organisations, on Wednesday launched a working group to promote “a people-first” approach to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
“Almost a year after the first cases of Covid-19, the global response fails to put people first and focus on collective wellbeing. Instead, the rich and powerful propose to hoard any vaccine, stoke divisions, fail to support livelihoods and seize more power by rolling back democratic protections,” PI’s Blueprint Coordinator Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla said.
The working group is made up of academics, activists, and organisers from across the world. Their mission is to develop just and equitable policies that put “people first”.
The group will produce a blueprint for movements, parties and peoples to respond to the pandemic and its overlapping crises, the PI said in a press release. The working group will consider three broad areas—health and safety, trade and finance, and labor rights and social policy. In all areas, it will develop policies that put “people first”, the release said.
The PI called for stronger incoordination in tackling the pandemic. “It took the coronavirus pandemic to bring this home: a vast, punishing global pandemic requires a vast, enabling global response. Unfortunately, for all the noise in the last few months, this is exactly what we do not have,” it said.