Tackling inequality key for post-Covid recovery, academics say

Safeguarding people’s living standards, re-evaluating the role of key workers, and reducing racial and social inequality are crucial for the UK’s post-pandemic recovery, according to a leading group of academics.

The academics have contributed to a new series of thought pieces released by the University of Manchester, which identifies 13 key themes spread over five overarching subjects.

On the subject of economic recovery, Professor Bart van Ark, managing director of the newly-founded Productivity Institute at Alliance Manchester Business School, said: ‘ First, we need to limit the number of job losses as a direct result of the crisis and then we need to find a path to economic recovery that creates new jobs and raises their incomes.’

The lecture series sees world-renowned experts offer thought leadership and suggestions on how the global response to COVID-19 could also act as a catalyst to combat other major challenges.

Some of the ideas are a complete shift in the way society currently looks at a range of global situations and solutions.

Professor David Hulme, executive director of the Global Development Institute, said: ‘COVID-19 has brought many issues into a very sharp focus. It’s a health crisis, and at the same, time it’s an economic crisis. But it may also be an opportunity to start to rethink some of the ways in which the world is governed and think about the strategies that countries and organisations have been pursuing.’

To tackle the roots of inequality, especially for ethnic minority communities who have been disproportionately hit hardest by the pandemic, Professor James Nazroo, added: ‘The outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic points to the need to establish a wide independent inquiry into ethnic inequalities in health, and one that moves to focus on recommendations to address the fundamental causes of these long-standing and profound inequalities.’

Photo Credit – Geralt (Pixabay)