"The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment"

Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been ratified in global and national forums, they have not yet been incorporated into operational planning within governments or international organizations. The weak link between the policies and the investments needed for their implementation is one barrier to progress. An assessment of the resources required is a critical first step in formulating and implementing strategies to achieve the MDGs. This is especially true for policies to promote gender equality and empower women. Although enough is known about such policies to implement them successfully, the costs of such interventions are not systematically calculated and integrated into country-level budgeting processes. Using country-level data, the paper estimates the costs of interventions aimed at promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda. It then uses these estimates to calculate the costs of such interventions in other low-income countries. Finally, the paper projects the financing gap for interventions that aim directly at achieving gender equality, first for the five countries, and subsequently for all low-income countries.

The financial requirements of achieving gender equality and woman's empowerment

Although the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been ratified in global and national forums, they have not yet been incorporated into operational planning within governments or international organizations. The weak link between the policies and the investments needed for their implementation is one barrier to progress. An assessment of the resources required is a critical first step in formulating and implementing strategies to achieve the MDGs. This is especially true for policies to promote gender equality and empower women. Although enough is known about such policies to implement them successfully, the costs of such interventions are not systematically calculated and integrated into country-level budgeting processes. Using country-level data, the paper estimates the costs of interventions aimed at promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda. It then uses these estimates to calculate the costs of such interventions in other low-income countries. Finally, the paper projects the financing gap for interventions that aim directly at achieving gender equality, first for the five countries, and subsequently for all low-income countries

Ending Africa's Poverty Trap

macroeconomics, Africa, Poverty Trap, poverty

Toward Free and Fair Trade: A Global Public Good Perspective

The world\u27s rich nations have long preached the advantage of free trade for the world\u27s developing nations. But it simply has not been a level playing field. This in-depth piece shows how and why. The authors argue that the free trade regime is often rigged against the developing nations, and they propose mechanisms to make trade not merely freer but fairer

Toward Free and Fair Trade: A Global Public Good Perspective

The world's rich nations have long preached the advantage of free trade for the world's developing nations. But it simply has not been a level playing field. This in-depth piece shows how and why. The authors argue that the free trade regime is often rigged against the developing nations, and they propose mechanisms to make trade not merely freer but fairer.

A scoping review of global literature on Long Covid: Understanding the definitions, prevalence, symptomatology, and future perspectives for research

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has infected 58,30,38,110 people globally as of 9 August 2022 and claimed 64,16,023 deaths. (WHO situation report, 2022) There have been constant efforts from the scientific and medical fraternity to sequence, diagnose, treat, and prevent COVID-19. Numerous studies are being conducted to understand the risks, consequences, and trajectory of long covid, which is synonymously also referred to as Long-haul Covid, post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS) Globally, the definition of long covid proposed by WHO (World Health Organization. A clinical case definition of the post-COVID-19 condition by a Delphi consensus.), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Post-COVID conditions”) and the British National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are most commonly used. Over time, as the pandemic perpetuated, in a subset of patients, some symptoms persisted beyond the 4-week acute COVID-19 period into a post-acute phase and have been termed as 'long COVID'. Based on the timeline of symptom persistence, long COVID has been distinguished as post-acute COVID (from 4 to 12 weeks after the onset of symptoms) and long COVID (more than 12 weeks post-onset) (Nalbandian,2021; Yong, 2021). According to the definition proposed by the British National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the post-COVID-19 syndrome is defined by the persistence of symptoms for at least 12 weeks after onset. (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. COVID-19 Rapid Guideline: Managing COVID-19; NICE: London, UK, 2021). Long covid studies in Asian countries, particularly in India, are few. The exact number of people affected by long covid symptom (LCS) is unknown and vastly varies across different geographic locations. There have been several attempts to quantify the prevalence of long COVID using various methods, including national surveys and patient-led studies. However, this has only made it difficult to compare the findings. The UK’s Office for National Statistics has estimated that two million people in the UK are living with long Covid, the highest figure since official surveys began. On average, 1 in 5 people have symptoms beyond five weeks, while 1 in 10 have symptoms persisting over 12 weeks. A recent systematic analysis showed India alone has nearly four crore people who have experienced these symptoms of long Covid since 2020. Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain asymptomatic or experience mild-to-moderate acute COVID-19 symptoms. Only 15% progress to a more severe disease requiring hospitalization, and approximately 5% can be classified as critically ill. The long-term consequences of Covid-19 and its etiology are poorly understood. However, studies have shown that, like SARS-CoV-1, COVID-19 has long-term effects and several complications even after hospital discharge. A survey found that in survival analysis, the chance of full recovery by day 50 was merely 20%. The COVID-19 symptom app study reports that 13.3% (558/4182) patients had symptoms lasting 28 days or more, and 4.5% (189/4182) patients had symptoms for eight or more weeks, and 2.3% (95/4182) patients had symptoms lasting over 12 weeks. The average time for COVID-19 recovery was 25 days after the onset of disease in adult subjects, reports an Indian study. LCS has also been related to the female sex, the presence of pre-existing conditions at the start of the clinical picture, and hospital admission, including extended ICU stays. Two recent prospective studies, one from Switzerland and the other from Italy, reported persistence of symptoms in 32% of the outpatient COVID-19 subjects (n=669) and 83% of hospitalized COVID-19 subjects(n=143), respectively. Besides physical dysfunction, survivors with long COVID symptoms at two years, had lower HRQoL, worse exercise capacity, and more mental health abnormality. Their health-care use increased after discharge than survivors without long COVID symptoms.Although unprecedented efforts are constantly being made by research commentaries, social media, polls, patient groups, and scientific articles to describe the chronicity of COVID-19, individual recovery from COVID-19 infection varies, and it is not fully understood why some people experience persistent symptoms over a more extended period than others. The COVID-19 pandemic being relatively new, the initial research has focused on the acute phase symptomatology and treatment. Therefore, an accurate characterization of long COVID symptomatology in its distinct phases has remained elusive. It is still not well understood how sex, gender, age, ethnicity, underlying health conditions, viral dose, or progression of COVID-19 significantly affect the risk of developing long-term effects of COVID-19. This suggests that long Covid is either less important at the population level, or many people are sick and are not seeking care. Our review explores what is currently known about Long COVID, what is speculated based on sound evidence, and what is not yet known. This is a scoping rather than a systematic review. Our early understanding of long COVID departs primarily from small prospective cohorts and cross-sectional online survey studies. But a significant limitation of these studies is that they have mainly focused on hospitalized patients during the acute phase. Even though subsequent studies have followed up with patients to present the fluctuating multiorgan sequelae of acute COVID-19, the sample population studied is tiny. Therefore, the evidence is still minimal. Also, due to the heterogeneous distribution of people who suffer from long covid globally, it is critical to establish a precise categorization of long COVID to help people better understand their symptoms. This will help direct research into prevention, treatment, and preparedness for the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic