Planning for the World After the Coronavirus Pandemic

by , | Apr 6, 2020


In an article written for the World Politics Review, Global Dashboard authors David Steven and Alex Evans call for a coordinated global action plan in response to the coronavirus pandemic in which governments, businesses, and individuals collectively create the impetus for change.

The report contrasts the 2008 financial crisis with the current pandemic through the lens of Stewart Brand’s ‘layers of change’, examining the potential first-, second-, and third-order effects of the outbreak from the initial public health emergency to the further-reaching and longer-lasting impact on our societies.

Writing in the wake of a decade that has seen a significant “erosion in our capacity for collective action”, the authors posit that the need for such action is greater than ever, outlining the long-term challenges facing the world after the coronavirus pandemic, and urging decision makers to make space for these challenges in their response to the crisis.

Read the full article at World Politics Review.

Authors

  • Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017). He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development. Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.

  • David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy.


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