TPL and Ryerson University present: How to Confront Global Inequalities.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed the greatest test of international solidarity in many decades. At the outset, the political leaders of many western democracies pledged, ‘we are all in this together’. Yet the pandemic has imposed a severely unequal toll within societies and across the world. In advanced industrialized democracies, Covid-19 has exposed the special vulnerability of the elderly, frontline workers with precarious contracts and inadequate social protection, and ethnic and racial minorities. Their counterparts in the global South have suffered even greater challenges. The greater prevalence of informal work, weaker health systems and strained public finances limited the capacity of many governments in Latin America, Asia and Africa to respond adequately. Persistent vaccine nationalism by rich northern democracies has created gross inequities in the manufacturing and distribution of tests, medicines and vaccines. Many poorer countries, whose citizens still await their first dose, now face a looming debt crisis.

What explains these severe global inequities? To what extent does the trajectory of the pandemic reflect deeper structural imbalances in the world political economy and the regimes that govern it? And what reforms are necessary to create a more just international order?

The renowned feminist development economist Jayati Ghosh addresses these questions in conversation with Sanjay Ruparelia.

This event is co-sponsored by the Canadian International Council.

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This event is part of our On Civil Society series.

Generously supported in part by Chris M. Reid

On the Frontlines of Democracy is a new public lecture series to analyze its prospects in the twenty-first century. Around the world, democracies face serious challenges, old and new. Can we protect our constitutional democracies in an era of popular mistrust, severe partisanship and resurgent nationalism? Can they reduce inequalities of power, wealth and status, defend deep diversity and confront climate change in the new digital age? Can we develop innovative strategies to revitalize civic engagement and empower public institutions to renew the promise of collective self-rule? And what can Canada offer, learn and do to promote the prospects of democracy, in a spirit of mutual learning, in our post-western world?

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Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please call or email us if you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation to participate in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. At least three weeks notice is preferred. Phone 416-393-7099 or email accessibleservices@tpl.ca

Jayati Ghosh: How To Confront Global Inequalities