COVID-19 and “building back better”: Putting governance at the centre

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted not only the health and economic systems of countries, but has also highlighted the centrality of governance in addressing the crisis. COVID-19 is a test of global social and political systems, and how different countries react now will have long-term impacts on state-society relations and the quality of the social contract. Indeed, one of the most pressing concerns of our time are: How is the pandemic affecting state-society relations and what kinds of factors seem to be most effective in addressing the crisis?

In this article, ODI Principal Research Fellow Alina Rocha Menocal explores some of these issues and teases out some implications for “building back better” in the long term. The article was written in joint collaboration with ODI and CARE NL.