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
India’s Child-care Workers Fight for Recognition and Just Wages
Thousands of anganwadi (child-care) workers and helpers are on strike across multiple states in India. These women who are from marginalised backgrounds are India’s frontline warriors in the battle against hunger and child malnutrition. Despite this, they are not...
Grey Economy and Sickly Recovery: Informal Women Workers in Pandemic-Ravaged Philippines
Last month, on January 27, the Duterte administration’s economic managers released a joint statement declaring, “The door to our economic recovery is now fully open (…) the strong 2021 performance shows us that we are on the correct path to a resilient recovery (…)...
No Recovery Without Justice
As the Philippines entered the second year of the pandemic, the Duterte administration geared up towards pursuing economic recovery. Despite peddling optimistic projections for the economy and vague platitudes about “real change for future generations,” the political...
Rebuilding a Democratic Public Economy is a Feminist Issue
The COVID-19 pandemic manifested in a world racked with accelerating climate change, recurring financial crises, deepening economic fragility, continuing armed conflicts and shrinking democratic space. These are systemic crises and they are gendered. Strategies and...
Sama-Sama:Music Beyond Borders
AMP3’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic by Joseph Purugganan A year before the pandemic, the Asian Movement for Peoples’ Peace and Progress or AMP3, a collective of artists with a network of socially engaged musicians across Asia, organized a week-long songwriting...
Corporate-Controlled Global Food Supply Chains Must Go
The global food system has been very much front and center in the COVID-19 story. Everyone, of course, is aware that hunger is closely tracking the virus as its wreaks havoc in both the global North and global South. Indeed, one can say that, unlike in East Asia,...
Open Letter to the Biden Administration on the Need for a Pandemic Pivot
It’s urgent not to return to the previous status quo. It’s time for creative thinking and bold action. Congratulations on your victory in the U.S. presidential election in November. You will be taking office at a critical moment in U.S. and world history. You have an...
RCEP an unjust deal and added burden in the time of a pandemic
Trade Justice Pilipinas statement on the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement: In the midst of a global pandemic and despite strong peoples’ opposition, governments are set to sign today the Regional Comprehensive Economic...
Asian Network pushes stronger TNC regulations at the UN amidst pandemic
Amidst the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the negotiations towards a legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises and human rights commenced Monday, 26th of October in Geneva, with participation from States,...
Impacts of COVID-19 on Small-Scale and Traditional Fishers and Fishworkers in India
Case Study for CSM Covid Report, 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 ? The government of India imposed a 21 day lockdown on the midnight of 23 March...
Videos and Webinars
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VIDEO: Filipino Activist Walden Bello: Global Vaccine Disparity Shows “Irrationality of Global Capitalism”
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Janta Parliament confront’s Modi’s ‘delusional’ agrarian reforms
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The New Dictators – Featuring Walden Bello
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COVID And Impact on Women: The Kerala Response
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COVID and Kerala: Role of Local Governments and Women’s Collectives