Locating Cooperation in Response to COVID-19

Online

Exploring the past and present situations, Professor Sara Davies examines three cases of global cooperation during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: human rights, science and surveillance, and will also explore future opportunities and challenges.

Presenter(s):

• Professor Sara Davies, Griffith University

What does the COVID-19 pandemic tell us about the past, present and future of international and global health cooperation? The predominant narrative that international cooperation ‘failed’ in response to COVID-19 may be understood from two competing points of view. First, that there was indeed a ‘failure’ in international cooperation stemming from a long-standing tense relationship between public health and politics.  A rival view, however, might suggest that COVID-19 reveals incremental progress in global health cooperation and the emergence of thick networks of global health governance that includes both state and non-state actors. From this perspective, although COVID-19 presented an unexpected exogenous shock, global health cooperation continued – even multiplied – across various sectors and groups of actors. This suggests that for all the challenges it confronts, global health governance has been developing a complex agency that operates on multiple levels (state institutions, regional organizations, private for-profit actors, civil society, private-public partnerships) such that even when one political track (international) is blocked other tracks may continue to function.

This talk examines three cases of global cooperation during first year of the Covid-19 pandemic: human rights, science, and surveillance.

About the Speaker

Professor Sara Davies is an International Relations scholar with a specific focus on Global Health Governance and the Woman, Peace and Security agenda. Sara has been an Australian Research Council Discovery Australian Postgraduate Award Scholar (2008-12) and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2014-18). She has published three sole-authored books on global and regional health issues and one co-authored book on women, peace and security.

Held in partnership with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Tasmanian Division.