On 30 June 2020, a panel discussion was hosted by Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism [ GRFDT ] on the topic “The Pandemic In Africa: Local Responses And Global Strategies”.
During the panel discussion, Miss Sanusha Naidu, a foreign policy analyst said that cooperation has to be a zero-based engagement post-COVID-19 and it should not be defined in a dilemma.
Analysis
According to Miss Sanusha Naidu, the world is trying a lot to find the right mix or right muddle to be addressed as the world is facing structural and systematic risks resulting from COVID-19. This engagement is to find whether it was a shock or boon to a system.
Cooperation
Sanusha feels that the word cooperation is very much asymmetric where power is related to the relationship. While saying at the point of departure, we cannot see cooperation as we saw it previously. There is a need to think out of the box or to think there’s no box.
Zero Based Engagement
With no conceptualization of Zero-based engagement, we should start thinking from the point where everybody is equal. COVID has equalized us in a very dramatic and systematic way, which was earlier disrupted from a neoliberal perspective, says Miss Naidu. African government has the opportunity to not just eventually redefine agencies but to recalibrate agencies to its advantage.
Quoting Antonio Gramsci, “The crisis precisely exist because the odd is dying with the new cannot be born”, she said that the problem we have is that it cannot be from the same book.
Migrants and COVID-19
To Miss Naidu, COVID has defined not only medical comorbidities but also the structural comorbidities. There were no earlier questions on migrants or how much they contribute to the economy. Migrants are not treated at par with the native citizens, whether they may be laborers or asylum seekers. This is a critical dilemma. The challenge is not redoing what we were doing, but to do it with much more consciousness and a clear consensus and that’s what means humanity, she concluded.
Unnikrishnan V is pursuing a Masters in Economics. He has a deep-rooted interest in Migration, Development, and Health issues. Twitter Id – @unnikrishnan_21