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The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) celebrated until yesterday (Oct 19) the International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW), bearing the slogan 'Celebrating the Fundamentals of Infection Prevention.'This year's campaign targeted all PHCC staff and health centre patients, as well as community members to raise awareness of the importance of infection prevention, establish good infection prevention practices, and encourage community and staff to follow proper procedures and practices to prevent infection and reduce illness and deaths from infection.“PHCC strives for establishing strategies for proper procedures and practices to prevent infection through lectures and workshops delivering health education, as adhering to personal hygiene and proper cough and sneeze etiquette is a key element for infection prevention,” said Dr Ahmad Hashem, Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) coordinator at PHCC’s Communicable Diseases and Infection Prevention Department.The campaign also focused on spreading comprehensive awareness among staff and patients at health centres to prevent the spread of infection, given that many microbes are transmitted through direct contact at the workplaces.The Covid-19 pandemic shed light on the vital role of IPAC practitioners. They continue to actively work in preventing health care-associated infections and flu outbreaks and overcome other daily infection-related challenges.PHCC ensures to prevent infection at health centres by providing alcohol-based detergents and raising awareness among its staff and patients about hand hygiene through holding events and creating educational material.Hand washing with water and soap is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent the spread of many kinds of pathogenic infections, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, the major cause of mortality among children. Every year, around 3.5mn children under the age of five die due to diarrhoea and pneumonia.Dr Hashem explained that antibiotics are a powerful weapon against bacterial infections, but they do not work against viral colds and the flu, noting they should be used only when necessary.To limit the spread of infections that cause respiratory diseases, such as influenza, severe pneumonia, and Covid-19, cough and sneeze etiquette should be followed, he added.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) director general Gilbert F Houngbo has underscored the vital importance of embracing multilateralism and global collaboration to create a more equitable and just world. He was addressing an event hosted by Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), a QF partner, on “From G20 to the SDG Summit: Where Do We Stand on Decent Work and Social Justice?”After an introduction by Dr Gerd Nonneman, professor of International Relations and Gulf Studies at GU-Q, Houngbo provided an in-depth overview of the ILO’s commitment to advancing social justice, combating workplace inequalities and discrimination, improving labour conditions, expanding social protection, and promoting gender equality on a global scale.In a world that has become more fragmented, he said, global co-operation is needed more than ever. “Despite our exit from Covid-19, we continue to face compounding crises and sweeping transformations that pose significant challenges to our efforts to advance social justice as the precondition for peace and stability.”He also noted that transformative technologies, including AI, are reshaping economies and societies. He highlighted a recent ILO study that predicts that AI will likely enhance the productivity of more jobs than it replaces, but will likely result in major economic and social changes, requiring heavy investments in reskilling workers.In an on-stage conversation with Dr Nonneman, the director-general explained the ILO’s working process as a unique trilateral organisation made up of states, employers and trade unions. He also addressed Qatar’s labour reforms, noting that the government had engaged closely with the ILO. He praised the positive steps taken in Qatar and the country’s continued commitment to progress, but also recognised ongoing labour-related challenges, particularly concerning migrant workers.Dr Nonneman said: "Our students had a unique opportunity to hear directly from, and discuss with, the head of this major international organisation, that even pre-dates the UN, dedicated to addressing labour-related issues worldwide, and to learn about the challenges of dealing with these issues through international diplomacy, negotiation with multiple stakeholders, and technical assistance. These sorts of conversations equip our students with the nuanced understanding and critical thinking abilities they will need to grow into future leaders and decision-makers.”

From the 1960s until the mid-2010s, hunger was on the decline around the world. But, despite record food production, the trend is reversing, with around 828mn people affected by hunger globally in 2021 – an increase of 46mn from 2020 and 150mn from 2019.The problem is not confined to low-income countries. Large numbers of people in wealthier countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil are unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. Our recent research suggests that inequitable food systems and widespread hunger could become the new normal.In the UK, the world’s sixth-largest economy, roughly one in seven people experienced food poverty in September 2022, with more than 2,000 food banks operating across the country; there were fewer than 100 a decade or so ago.In Brazil, poverty and food insecurity had fallen to their lowest levels by the early 2010s. But much of this progress has been reversed in recent years, owing to a recession that began in 2014 and deepened in 2015. The economic crisis coincided with, and was amplified by, a period of political turmoil, resulting in the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff in 2016.When former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, his government made no effort to reduce hunger or poverty, and the Covid-19 pandemic soon exacerbated both. By 2022, an estimated 125mn Brazilians – more than half of the population – faced some degree of food insecurity, with 33mn living in hunger. Black and brown communities, women-led households, and low-income families with young children are disproportionately affected.As in Brazil, hunger in South Africa, where I grew up, is rooted in historical legacies, and food insecurity persists despite the constitution’s explicit recognition of people’s right to adequate nutrition. Nearly 45% of the population experienced moderate or extreme food insecurity between 2018 and 2020 – twice as many as in Brazil during that period.We produce more than enough food to feed the world’s population. So, what is going wrong, and how can it be fixed?The first problem is that governments remain unwilling to act. In the UK, there is a lack of political will to address deepening inequalities, and the country’s inadequate welfare system has forced food banks and charities to pick up the slack. That will change only when rising levels of hunger start to cost politicians votes.In South Africa, civil-society organisations and the media are working to raise awareness about food insecurity and hold the government to account. Since March 2022, for example, the online newspaper Daily Maverick has published a series of articles about hunger in South Africa under the title “Food Justice.” Many NGOs in the country, like Gift of the Givers, provide food to those in need, while other groups pressure the government to deliver on its mandate to ensure the right to food. Such efforts certainly point in the right direction, but much more needs to be done.The second problem is a familiar one worldwide: victim blaming, like the UK politicians who claim that people use food banks because they cannot cook or manage their household budget. This is as inaccurate as it is unproductive: structural disparities and power imbalances, not individual choices, are driving food insecurity, hitting small-scale farmers, marginalised groups, and women the hardest.To overcome the underlying systemic hunger and poverty, the people most vulnerable to food insecurity must be at the centre of efforts to create more equitable food systems that improve both their access to nutrition and their livelihoods. That means supporting community-led initiatives that are designed with marginalised groups’ needs in mind. It will also be critical to develop local and national policies that target historical inequities and to ensure that those suffering from hunger are included in decision-making at all levels.The UK city of Brighton and Hove offers a good example of how community groups and government officials can work together to address hunger and poverty. By using a “whole-system” approach, whereby different departments of the local government (including health, planning, and transportation) collaborated with school kitchens and community organisations, the city was able to improve access to healthy food and reduce childhood-obesity rates. Moreover, successive food and food-poverty strategies since 2006 have enabled stakeholders to identify relevant issues and adapt programmes as needed. This long-term vision, coupled with a cross-sectoral approach that is not limited to food organisations, has been key to the city’s success.Ultimately, co-ordinated action is fundamental to creating more equitable outcomes. We need to question how food systems function and who benefits the most from them. Researchers, activists, and charities must work with local, national, and global leaders to correct the structural shortcomings in the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food.In a world that produces enough food for everyone, we should never accept hunger as an immutable fact of life. No one should worry about where their next meal is coming from, or if it’s coming at all. – Project SyndicateStephen Devereux, a development economist with expertise in food security, is a research fellow with the Food Equity Center at the Institute of Development Studies.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said on Monday he would not “dismiss out of hand” recent calls for him to stay in the post past the end of his scheduled term in 2025.The German was elected for a first eight-year term in 2013 and re-elected for a further four-year spell in 2021.Allowing the 69-year-old former Olympic fencing champion to remain in the post beyond 2025 would require a change to the Olympic Charter that currently limits a president to two terms.But several committee members on Sunday urged Bach to stay on during an ongoing IOC session meeting in Mumbai.Bach told a press conference on Monday: “I had heard some rumours before and some members wanted me to continue my mandate but I did not expect this would come to the session.“There were mainly two motivations for them. A number of these colleagues think and feel an election campaign so early would disrupt preparations for the Paris 2024 Games which are so important to the Olympic movement.”Bach, whose time in office has been marked by an attempt to make the process of bidding and staging an Olympic Games more streamlined and less expensive, added: “They also wanted to express their recognition for the work accomplished by the IOC in the last 10 years and wanted to show their strong support.”As IOC president Bach has had to confront several thorny problems, including the Russian doping scandal following the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.He also led the IOC’s response to the year-long delay of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.And he has lately found himself responding to the consequences for the Olympic movement of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - an issue for many international sports federations.Term limits for the head of the IOC were imposed in an attempt to avoid a repeat of lengthy spells at the summit such as that enjoyed by former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, with the Spaniard in charge for 21 years from 1980-2001.“I believe this is human that I was really touched and appreciated this show of support and friendship for me,” said Bach.“For these reasons it is a matter of mutual respect and personal relationships that you do not dismiss such a thing out of hand.”Bach added his answer would not be given out “over the media”.“This has to be discussed with the people concerned,” he added.

With her ambitious Bridgetown Agenda to reform the international financial architecture, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has become a powerful advocate for climate justice. But she is not the only world leader rising to meet the profound challenges we face today. A new generation of leaders from the Global South are making their voices heard.Kenyan President William Ruto, for example, is forging a new path toward climate-positive growth in Africa: by taking advantage of its abundant natural resources and realising its green-manufacturing potential, the continent could supply the developed world with goods and services to accelerate the clean-energy transition. In Latin America, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for a new Marshall Plan to finance global climate action. And Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now in his third non-consecutive term as Brazil’s president, aims to tackle hunger, poverty, and inequality, promote sustainable development, and reform outdated global governance arrangements during his country’s G20 presidency in 2024.After a decade of protectionism and fragmentation, these initiatives seek to build a global consensus around enacting sorely needed reforms. The post-Covid-19 world is currently experiencing what the G20 has called “cascading crises,” including a dramatic surge in energy and food prices, unmanageable debt burdens in the world’s poorest countries, and a record number of climate disasters. Developing countries need at least $1tn annually to make significant progress on the climate transition and to achieve their development goals. But the costs of inaction are even greater.Our collective future hinges on a dramatic increase in funding, and the place to start is a levy on windfall revenues from fossil fuels. The global oil and gas industry’s revenues were around $4tn in 2022, according to Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency – an astonishing $2.5tn more than the average in recent years.Where has this money come from? The short answer is consumers. Some of the world’s richest companies are raking in bumper profits from a cost-of-living crisis – largely fuelled by high energy prices – that has disproportionately affected the poor and vulnerable. The largest beneficiaries of this effective tax on the global economy have been petrostates, whose total export revenues, when complemented by the export earnings of countries like Canada, Australia, Iraq, and Iran, totalled almost $1tn in 2022.The biggest of these countries, whose per capita incomes are among the highest in the world, are well able to pay a voluntary levy on their exceptionally high hydrocarbon-export revenues into a global fund for sustainable development. A 3% tax on the 2022 export earnings of the United Arab Emirates ($119bn), Qatar ($116bn), Kuwait ($98bn), Norway (around $174bn), and Saudi Arabia ($311bn) would raise roughly $25bn in total.It is fortuitous that this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) will be held in one of these countries, the UAE. Outlining his plan of action in July, COP28 president-designate Sultan al-Jaber named “fixing climate finance” as one of its four pillars, arguing that “all forms of finance must be more available, more accessible, and more affordable.” Similarly, he has called on donor countries with overdue pledges to “show me the money.”But as president-designate, the UAE has the responsibility to take the lead. The best way to kickstart COP28 would be for al-Jaber – who is also the managing director and group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company – to announce that his country will contribute $3bn of its windfall earnings to a global finance facility and that it will seek to persuade its wealthy Gulf neighbours to do likewise. More than half of the contributions could go to the Loss and Damage Fund, which was agreed at COP27 but still has gained little initial funding, with the rest used as capital and grant funding for new facilities for climate mitigation and adaptation.And the international community must use this levy to kickstart a wider financing program for the developing world, based on the principle that rich, historically large polluters with the capacity to pay should contribute more to help poorer countries adapt to global warming. Not only should aid budgets be raised, but the International Development Association, the World Bank’s financing facility for the poorest countries, must also receive a generous replenishment next year.Providing $90bn in concessional finance for low-income countries is at the heart of the proposals from the economist N K Singh and former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H Summers in their two volumes of reports to the G20, the first proposed ahead of the recent G20 summit in New Delhi. As they argue, the system of multilateral development banks (MDBs) must increase its overall capacity, which means tripling its annual commitments to $300bn in non-concessional finance for middle-income countries.As part of their proposals, which include recapitalisation of the World Bank itself, they favour the wider use of guarantees. High-income countries could and should provide such guarantees that will enable MDBs to borrow from capital markets on attractive terms.Such initiatives, if properly managed, could mobilise private-sector lending, which is essential to meeting our climate objectives. And it is the combination of the levy and the use of guarantees that, if agreed at COP28, could be the platform for achieving $1tn in annual financial flows to developing countries by 2030.Seventy-five years ago, under the original Marshall Plan, the US lent $13.3bn ($169bn in today’s money) to Europe for its postwar reconstruction. It was a remarkable act of global leadership that helped secure decades of stable economic growth and international co-operation.While today’s world and the crises it faces are very different, the scale of the response must be equally ambitious. Countries in the Global South are charting a way forward. Now, their rich counterparts in the Global North must step up and provide the necessary funding. The money is there, but we need the political imagination and will to use it, before the next crisis arrives. – Project Syndicate[Permacrisis: A Plan to Fix a Fractured World by Gordon Brown, Mohamed A El-Erian, Michael Spence, and Reid Lidow was published on September 28, 2023.]l Gordon Brown, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are nearly 80 years old. As they meet in Morocco for this year’s meeting, there is talk of reform to reflect a changed economic world.Much has altered in the 12 months since the October 2022 meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which took place in Washington, DC. A year ago the meeting was held fully in person for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdowns. As delegates gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco for the 2023 summit earlier this month, the pandemic was a much lower item on the agenda. Climate change, economic resilience, geopolitical tensions and a need to revive global co-operation were the dominant themes.There have been significant changes at the World Bank in the past year, with a change in president, and the publication of a roadmap for evolution of the institution. The document makes the sobering assessment that after decades of progress, growth and poverty reduction have stalled. It refers to rising debt, inflation, increasing cost of finance, and macroeconomic imbalances. The long-standing commitment of the institution to encourage prosperity and eliminate poverty has been adapted to include combating climate change, which threatens to undermine these objectives.A challenging macroeconomic situation of increased inflation and interest rates comes at a time when climate change has moved from a projected future to a disruptive reality, with catastrophic floods and record temperatures around the world in 2022 and 2023. In June, Ajay Banga began his tenure as president of the World Bank. He is an appointment from the private sector, having previously been CEO at Mastercard, and has identified as a priority raising additional capital for projects to address the climate crisis.A month after his appointment, the World Bank announced the appointment of a Private Sector Investment Lab, comprising 15 leading CEOs and chairs. The body is co-chaired by Mark Carney, UN special envoy on climate action and finance; and Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential plc. Its primary purpose is to mobilise more private capital for World Bank programmes in emerging markets. The Lab’s initial work is on scaling transition finance for renewable energy and energy infrastructure.Separately, many experts in emerging market finance have identified ways in which the World Bank can leverage its existing resources more effectively. Former World Bank staffer Inder Sud, in a letter to the Financial Times, argued that the bank needed to broaden its range of development financing in an age where emerging markets are increasingly middle-income.Global co-operation is a priority. There have been moves towards economic nationalism in some parts of the world to subsidise strategic industries, or reflecting security concerns. Some of these policies are understandable, but the IMF warns of ‘geo-economic fragmentation’ and emphasises the need for shared endeavour to confront complex global challenges.Both the IMF and the World Bank are under pressure to be more representative of the world that they serve in their structures, with greater say for the Global South. They are post-Second World War institutions, set up in July 1944 at the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire, USA. In an interview with the Financial Times in early October, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF, acknowledged the need to ‘constantly change to reflect how the world’s economy is changing’ and to look at representation. China has just 6% share of voting power at the IMF, but represents about three times that proportion of the global economy.As Western institutions, the IMF and the World Bank have naturally promoted Western policies. This encourages private sector development and fiscal responsibility, and discourages price subsidies and capital controls. There is much merit in these priorities, but some argue that the conditions around fiscal restraint that the IMF has imposed as part of its bail-out packages have resulted in too much austerity. Malaysia rejected IMF assistance following the 1998 Asian financial crisis, and imposed capital controls, but by some measures had better economic recovery than nations which did accept IMF loans.To be fair, both institutions have shown themselves capable of reform and adaptation, and remain powerful institutional players with a decisive role in economic development. They will need to keep on adapting. The world has changed significantly in the past 12 months, never mind the previous 80 years. The next article will address the major themes to emerge from this month’s meeting.The author is a Qatari banker, with many years of experience in the banking sector in senior positions.

Launched in 2020 to ensure patients had access to essential services during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Urgent Consultation Service at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has now handled more than 600,000 calls from the community.The physician-led service offers patients a range of healthcare services, including non-urgent medical consultations, prescription refills and home delivery and reviewing patient’s medical status when they don’t have an upcoming scheduled clinic appointment. Head of Urology at HMC and also manager of the service Dr Khalid al-Rumaihi said the Urgent Consultation Service continues to provide fast and easy access to essential healthcare services for patients. “Telemedicine has really revolutionised how we provide care to our patients and the Urgent Consultation Service is a vital part of that,” Dr al-Rumaihi said. “Currently, the Urgent Consultation Service continues to fulfil a vital role in the organisation in helping our patients access care. We receive great positive feedback from our patients who now have more convenient access options to our healthcare services through virtual and telemedicine options. It means they can have routine issues dealt with by a physician without having to physically visit one of our hospitals,” he added. The telephone-based Urgent Consultation Service allows patients to speak to healthcare professionals to obtain appropriate diagnosis. The service is available through the 16000 number. Current specialities covered by the service include General Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Neurology, Urology, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, ENT, Pain Management, Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, Oncology-hematology and Mental Health.

Where will Europe’s borders end? On October 6, EU leaders convened in Granada, Spain, to discuss a question that has captivated Eurocrats, think-tanks, and journalists throughout the bloc since the start of the war in Ukraine.While the European Union already granted Ukraine candidate status in June 2022, the European Council is expected to vote on beginning formal accession talks on December 15. But the debate in Spain shows that the question is no longer really about Ukraine and the western Balkans; it is now an existential question with far-reaching implications for the EU and its role in a fast-changing global environment.The EU appears to be moving toward radical reinvention, a “refoundation” built on three pillars, each of which is the subject of fierce debate. It is looking for a grand bargain between geopolitical imperatives and liberal values.The first pillar is security. As the EU shifts from a peace project to a war project, it is forced to reconsider some of its core assumptions. Most obviously, European leaders must give up their aversion to hard power. But it is still unclear how this process will play out: Can European governments unite and develop their own military capabilities, or will they squander their money on ready-made equipment from the US and South Korea?National borders, once regarded by EU leaders as malleable, have taken on a new meaning following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At its core, the enlargement debate is about defining the borders of the bloc’s sphere of influence, ensuring that countries like Ukraine and Moldova can pursue a European future rather than being treated as buffer states between the EU and Russia.The EU’s shifting understanding of security underscores the significance of enlargement. Given the strategic use of immigration, energy, and critical raw materials, as well as the growing nationalisation of technological innovation and regulation, member states cannot rely on Nato alone to meet all their defence needs. Only by expanding and strengthening the EU can the safety of European citizens be ensured.That brings us to the second pillar: the economy. Europeans, arguably more than any other group, believed in the transformative power of economic interdependence and its ability to convert erstwhile adversaries into allies. But given Russia’s weaponisation of its energy exports and China’s threats to restrict medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU is now pursuing greater self-sufficiency to mitigate potential risks.But Europe can never achieve complete self-sufficiency. Instead of pursuing “strategic autonomy,” European leaders must focus on fostering diverse relationships with multiple partners, ensuring that we have alternatives should one country ever try to blackmail us. For example, Ukraine and the Balkans could offer critical inputs and labour, thereby helping to shore up Europe’s global standing.But this is also where the push for enlargement might face significant opposition. On a recent visit to Warsaw, I witnessed the ramifications of the grain crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. Although Poland is a staunch advocate of Ukraine’s entry into Nato and understands the geopolitical rationale for enlargement better than most countries, it also has strong reservations. One major concern is the potential for economic upheaval that would adversely affect Poland’s agriculture sector. And then there is the less-than-appealing prospect of Poland turning into a net contributor to the EU budget should Ukraine become a member state.The third pillar is values. In the past, Europe was divided between the liberal cosmopolitan EU member states and those outside the bloc, which required gradual integration and transformation, one chapter of the acquis communautaire (the body of EU law) at a time. But now, this dichotomy is evident within the EU itself, with countries like Hungary and Poland embracing illiberal nationalism.Enlargement offers a potential solution for both camps. For Europe’s liberals, it represents an opportunity to implement internal reforms through rule-of-law conditionality and qualified-majority voting. This approach would, one may hope, mitigate the nationalist tendencies that have often hindered efforts to establish a unified foreign policy. By contrast, Europe’s illiberals believe that by admitting Serbia under autocratic President Aleksandar Vučić and potentially a more nationalistic Ukraine, the collective strength of the illiberal bloc would be great enough to challenge Germany and France, the EU’s de facto leaders.The victory of liberalism is far from guaranteed. At the moment, all eyes are on Hungary and Poland, which will hold a critical general election today (October 15). Meanwhile, the political heirs of Benito Mussolini are already in power in Italy, and France might follow suit if Marine Le Pen wins the 2027 presidential election.Nevertheless, Europe is on the cusp of a new era. The current situation is reminiscent of the post-Cold War years, when European leaders debated whether to enlarge the bloc or deepen its integration. Hoping to have their cake and eat it, they tried to do both. But when the Balkans spiralled into chaos, commentators drew parallels between the EU’s leadership and Nero fiddling as Rome burned. Today, the EU faces a similar danger, as profound existential dilemmas are reduced to bureaucratic debates over budgets, processes, and institutions.To thrive in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment, the EU must expand and deepen its integration. But achieving this might prove more challenging in 2023 than it was in 2004. Instead of guiding Ukraine, Moldova, and the Balkans through the same accession process that Poland and Hungary undertook, the EU must create new, innovative frameworks. This may result in a messier structure of overlapping circles, rather than the Europe of “concentric circles” envisioned by the bloc’s leaders. But if the European project is to survive, it must reinvent itself to find a grand bargain, not merely expand its borders. – Project Syndicatel Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of The Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict (Bantam Press, 2021).

Qatar National Bank (QNB) attributed the continued stagnation of the global industrial sector to three main factors, which are: demand imbalances resulting from unusual patterns in consumer behavior, the negative shock to supply chains resulting from the RussoUkrainian conflict, in addition to the Chinese economic deceleration.QNB's report said that the Covid-pandemic and unprecedented policy stimulus measures boosted manufacturing activity above trend levels. With lock-downs and social distancing measures, a temporary change in consumer behavior and spending patterns away from services led to an exceptional global demand for physical goods. The report added that by the end of the pandemic, with the normalization of economic policies and activities, manufacturing began to weaken, and the outlook gradually started to turn gloomy as the demand for services recovered. This was well reflected in the pattern of global trade volumes, which track closely the evolution of manufacturing activity.Importantly, manufacturing weakness has been transpiring across all the major economies for several months. The recent data releases show that manufacturing has been contracting in the US, China, and the Euro Area, with particularly negative conditions in the latter, where activity indicators suggest a deep contraction. The report mentioned that the demand imbalances built by unusual consumer behavior after the pandemic shock led to the recent period of protracted weakness in manufacturing activity. The demand for goods, such as electronics, cars, real estate and home building equipment was "pulled forward," as their utility increased during lockdowns. However, the end of the pandemic created a surge in "repressed" service spending, and a re-balancing of the previous consumption trends. Moreover, given the "pulling forward" of the consumption of goods during the pandemic, there is naturally an extensive period of weaker demand.The report considered that the supply shock created by the RussoUkrainian conflict has been particularly negative for European manufacturing. Lower energy availability at higher prices weigh on industrial competitiveness, particularly of the most exposed countries, such as Germany. In the Euro Area, the latest releases show that industrial production is 4% below its peak of December 2021. In Germany, structural headwinds such as high taxation, labor shortages, and lack of investment in infrastructure have compounded with the energy crisis to create a sharp manufacturing downturn. In fact, industrial production in Germany never recovered to its pre-pandemic levels: it is currently 7.4% below the level of February 2020, and maintains a downward trend that started in 2017.On the other hand, the economic deceleration of China is weakening its role as a world growth engine, and this is especially relevant for manufacturing. During the four decades of 1980-2019, economic growth in China averaged 9.5% per year, but the pace over the last two years has been much weaker, with growth of 3% last year and around 5.5% expected for this year. The strength of the Chinese economy is important for global manufacturing, given its influence through supply chain linkages, the appetite for imported commodities, and a growing influence in investment flows across China-influenced emerging markets.Trade linkages with China, for example, are vital for many other emerging markets and specially in Southeast Asia, but also for some advanced economies in Europe, such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Given the importance of the Chinese economy, its slowdown implied an important headwind for global manufacturing in recent months. (QNA)

As a firm believer in multilateralism, I was heartened that the UN General Assembly adopted a political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response at its first-ever high-level meeting on the subject in September. It confirms that world leaders recognise the existential threat of pandemics and are committed to breaking the panic-neglect cycle, whereby policymakers pull out all the stops to fight disease outbreaks, only to turn their attention elsewhere once the crisis ends.The landmark declaration has generated much-needed momentum for a global pandemic treaty, which is currently under development at the World Health Organisation (WHO). But translating a political commitment into a meaningful agreement requires significant buy-in from WHO member states, and negotiations are sure to be arduous.As this process unfolds, we must implement practical measures to preserve the knowledge gained during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to improve upon the innovative mechanisms that emerged from it. Any eventual treaty can thus enter into force with many working parts already in place. And, in the meantime, the world will be better prepared for the next infectious-disease emergency.The pandemic may have faded from our collective consciousness, but with official Covid-19 deaths nearing 7mn and the pandemic’s cost to the US economy alone reaching $14tn, it is clear that a more strongly co-ordinated global response is required to protect against future threats. And make no mistake: another pandemic is an evolutionary certainty. In addition to the current rise in Covid-19 cases, the world is already experiencing more climate-related health emergencies, including outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera and yellow fever.The good news is that some progress is already being made on this front. The Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility, established in 2020 by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (whose board I chair), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the UN, and the WHO, has delivered nearly 2bn doses of vaccines. The vast majority went to lower-income countries, where 81% of health workers and 67% of older people received at least two doses. Averting more than 2.7mn deaths, the initiative is undoubtedly the most successful response to a global health emergency in history.As we prepare to phase out Covax at the end of the year, Gavi has already devoted considerable effort to assessing the facility’s shortcomings and has taken practical steps to do better next time. That means, from the outset, having enough cash to preorder vaccines on behalf of lower-income countries – just like wealthier countries reserved Covid-19 doses. It also means incentivising investment in vaccine-production capacity across Africa and in other underserved regions that were hit hard by export bans.Building up manufacturing networks, if done right, is a multi-year process. But it is necessary, as is immediate access to cash, to counter the tendency, apparent during the pandemic and rooted in national self-interest, to direct scarce supplies to the countries with the most money rather than the most need. And more needs to be done to ensure that countries are prepared, to improve vaccine readiness, and to sustain a broad coalition of partners ready and willing to implement a co-ordinated response.Countries need the most help coping with rapid case surges that can undermine their ability to provide other public-health services. This means investing in existing health systems, especially outbreak prevention and detection, and recruiting and training future vaccinators. It will also be important to redouble efforts to bring up to date childhood vaccinations, which dropped sharply during the pandemic; otherwise, we run the risk of causing health systems to collapse under the weight of multiple crises.To increase vaccine uptake requires more than expanding manufacturing capacity. It will be necessary to invest in and capitalise on innovation, whether mRNA technology, a new delivery method like needle-free patches, or something else entirely. We should also stockpile reserves of vaccine candidates for deadly diseases such as Sudan ebolavirus or Marburg virus, so that, in the absence of fully licensed antigens, there is still a first line of defence when an outbreak inevitably occurs.Finally, a co-ordinated network of partners from across regions and sectors must be established to advance this work. Covax was nimble enough to provide an end-to-end solution, from funding research to delivering shots in arms. Now, a broader group of stakeholders from civil society, the private sector, humanitarian and emergency agencies, development banks, and regional organisations must work together with global health agencies, funders, and countries to start preparing for the next pandemic.Pathogens will not wait for policy deliberations. While we must do everything in our power to help achieve a global pandemic treaty, we must also build a broad vaccine coalition in the meantime – or risk being caught flat-footed once again. – Project SyndicateJosé Manuel Barroso, a former president of the European Commission and prime minister of Portugal, is Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

British no-frills carrier EasyJet on Thursday said it had reached a deal worth close to $20 billion for 157 Airbus planes and alterations to a previous order with the European planemaker as the sector recovers from the pandemic.It will allow "fleet modernisation and growth to continue beyond 2028 while providing substantial benefits including cost efficiencies and sustainability improvements", EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said in a statement, adding there was an option for 100 more jets.Delivery for the 157 firm orders is due between 2029 and 2034.The announcement comes as the aviation sector is in full recovery mode after suffering huge losses during Covid pandemic lockdowns.EasyJet on Thursday said it would reinstate shareholder dividends after signalling record pre-tax profits in the final quarter of its financial year, or three months to the end of September."We have delivered a record summer with strong demand for EasyJet's flights and holidays with customers choosing us for our network, value and service," said the carrier that flies mostly across Europe.- Plane orders –EasyJet on Thursday said it had "entered into conditional arrangements" with Airbus for 157 aircraft -- 56 A320neo and 101 A321neo.It has agreed also "to exercise conversion rights within its current order book to convert 35 A320neo deliveries into A321neo aircraft".The deal as a whole was worth $19.9 billion at list prices and "will deliver lower fuel burn, CO2 emissions and operating costs per seat", EasyJet said.Airlines tend to win big discounts on the list prices of planes ahead of delivery."Further information's needed on how these planes will be funded, with less capital-intensive option of sale leasebacks potentially an option," noted Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.Following the updates, the airline's share price slumped 3.8 percent to 420.30 pence in early London trading."Investing in airline shares has always been a challenge, and the events of the last week have underscored how external factors can undermine progress," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.The Israel-Hamas conflict "has weighed on the sector as a whole, while a fire at its home airport in Luton is also potentially damaging".Airlines this year have battled also high inflation, notably increasing costs for jet fuel and wages.But for EasyJet, "the planned return to dividend payments and ambitious new growth targets (are) clear signs of management confidence in prospects", Hunter added.

New Zealand's centre-left Labour government heads into Saturday's general election facing an uphill struggle to secure a third term in office after losing charismatic leader Jacinda Ardern.The 43-year-old stepped down in January, leaving Chris Hipkins to take over as Labour party leader and prime minister.Despite a reputation for political nous, dry humour and a deep fondness for sausage-based snacks, Hipkins has struggled to keep up support in the face of a severe cost of living crisis and multiple cabinet scandals.He is also battling a sense that, after two terms in office, New Zealand may be ready for a change.According to pre-election opinion polls, his Labour party is lagging behind the conservative National party and barely cracking 30 percent of the vote."It's been a tough three years for New Zealand," Hipkins admitted early in the campaign, as the Covid-19 pandemic's aftermath was still being felt and inflation hit six percent."We go into this campaign as the underdog. We're going to turn this around and we're going to win," he said.But Hipkins has struggled to emulate Ardern's popularity, which gave the party a landslide victory in 2020.Ardern won praise for her decision to swiftly close New Zealand's borders during the pandemic, resulting in one of the lowest Covid-19 death rates in the world.Her handling of dual 2019 disasters also won international acclaim. That year, a white supremacist attack on Christchurch mosques left 51 dead, and a volcanic eruption claimed 22 lives.Ardern, who is in the United States to take up a fellowship at Harvard, this week urged New Zealanders to "vote for what you believe in".She said the Labour government needed a third term to build on its work in tackling child poverty and inequality."Labour has had two terms in office. Long enough to make progress but not long enough to finish the job, and our country needs them to finish the job," she said.Opposition leader Chris Luxon, a former airline executive, is waiting in the wings to take over.His National party could win enough seats to form a coalition government with the ACT party, although recent polls suggest they may also need the support of more populist New Zealand First."The result is in the hands of the New Zealand people. That's why I keep saying if they want change they have to step up to the plate and party vote National to make that happen," Luxon said Thursday on the campaign trail.Luxon has criticised Hipkins' leadership, asking how he could run the country if he couldn't control his cabinet.Hipkins has admitted to a "messy" few months in government, during which a quartet of ministers either resigned or were sacked.Both Luxon and Hipkins are trying to woo voters with a promise of lower household bills.Hipkins has offered a 10-point plan including free prescriptions and basic dental care for the under-30s, plus scrapping tax on fresh fruit and vegetables.Luxon is promising tax cuts worth up to NZ$125 per week to an average-income family, partly paid for by a controversial plan to tax top-end luxury homes bought by foreigners.