Atlantic Dialogues 2021 – “The Wider Atlantic in a Challenging Recovery” conference set for December 1st
The Policy Center for the New South will host the 10th edition of its flagship Atlantic Dialogues International Conference on “The Wider Atlantic in a Challenging Recovery” in online format.
The high-level conference’s 20 plenary sessions are scheduled as webinars, planned between November 1 and December 20, 2021 and accessible online through the Policy Center’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Atlantic Dialogues pages.
The topic is dictated by Covid-19, as the handling of the crisis becomes the new normal, posing a number of challenges to the South Atlantic region. The crisis exacerbated pre-existent vulnerabilities and systemic dysfunctions, ranging from economic shocks to State-citizen friction and social unrest. Despite resumption of international mobility enabled by vaccination campaigns, there is a considerable gap in recovery between societies North and South of the Atlantic.
+ Challenges of Governance in the face a Pandemic +
The opening discussion on November 1 will focus on “The Challenge of Governance in face of a Pandemic” with Ana Palacio, Paulo Portas and Hubert Védrine, former foreign ministers of Spain, Portugal and France, respectively, as well as Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Minister of Education of Nigeria, co-founder of Transparency International and senior economic advisor to the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI).
Speakers will address two crucial questions: How can government pandemic responses be assessed in terms of governance and Why is governance crucial to overcoming the long-term effects of the pandemic? Subsequent 19 Atlantic Dialogues sessions, to be held throughout November and December, will address post-Covid recovery complications from a variety of perspectives, including “Balancing the Technology-Human Rights Nexus”, “Covid-19 and Debt for All” and “Are Classrooms Obsolete?” Discussions will range from geopolitics to economics, looking at “ending the trade war between China and the United States”, climate change and “public health imperatives in the global South.” Other topics include “rebuilding an inclusive post-Covid social contract”, “global power competition: the new race to Africa” and “Europe’s future in the geopolitical arena”.
