As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the world, close to four billion people in over 90 countries are under mandatory lockdowns. The virus has in its wake taken both tens of thousands of lives and millions of livelihoods. Countries continue to grapple with the challenges of testing, quarantines and lack of medical facilities and equipment. It is also evident that global trade and national economies will take a much worse battering than expected. Focus created this special section of the website to capture some of the impacts of COVID-19 in Asia
Latest Articles/Statements
Case Study on COVID-19 and Small-Scale Food Producers in India
October 2020 What impacts is COVID-19 (including measures put in place by the authorities) having on food systems, food security and the right to food? Indian policy makers are erroneously promoting the perception that Indian agriculture is the ‘bright spot’ in the...
COVID-19 Snapshots from Asia
Synthesis of Inputs and Testimonies of the Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Security in Asia Prepared for the CSM Global Synthesis Report on COVID-19. October 2020 Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible the stark realities of long-standing, multi-generational...
COVID-19, Distorted Development, and Degrowth
The following paper was presented at the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute's Webinar "Sustainable Social and Economic Recovery after COVID-19" on September 17, 2020. What I’d like to do is focus on some economic vulnerabilities exposed by COVID-19 and...
The subversion of the Philippines’ Indigenous People’s Rights Act
The following paper was presented under the title The Philippines’ Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997: Challenges to Realizing the Full Potential of a Progressive Law at a discussion on the crafting of a law to advance the rights of indigenous people in Thailand,...
Collective struggle, collective strength
By Galileo de Guzman Castillo, Joseph Purugganan, and Bianca Martinez As we commemorate today the International Day of Peace, let us all stand in solidarity with various peoples’ movements and learn from the grassroots communities the importance of analyzing the roots...
Our disease is landlessness
Cambodian farmer Oum Samorl and her family lost their farm to a corporate land grab 15 years ago. They have never stopped feeling the loss, especially during the pandemic. Oum Samorl remembers the day in June 2006 when tractors invaded her family’s farm in Cambodia’s...
New report surveys COVID impact on vulnerable Cambodians
More than 150 attendees gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday for the release of a new report titled "The Impacts of COVID-19 on Farmers, Sex Workers, Garment Workers, and Students in Cambodia", organized by Focus on the Global South, along with Social Action for Community...
COVID Bulletin 05: The autocrats are failing
View this email in your browser Bulletin Issue 05: August 26, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic will soon enter its seventh month with more than 23 million detected infections globally. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines are currently the worst affected in...
TJG Statement: 2020 International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples
In celebration of the “2020 International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples” with the theme: COVID-19 and Indigenous Peoples Resilience, we in the Kesefanangguwit Timuay (Timuay Justice and Governance), an Indigenous Political Structure (IPS) of the Teduray and...
Postscript to Independence
By Galileo de Guzman Castillo WHAT FREEDOM? We shall find / We shall discover / What is ours we shall recover — Cynthia Alexander, “Malaya”. Is it freedom when some are more equal than others? In all dimensions of life and its discontents Violence of a broken system...
