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28 January 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath | Photo Sonia Small
Prof Phillippe Burger.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the entire world, claiming more than two million lives and sparing no region. The world is confronted with urgent unsolved challenges, with the poor and vulnerable populations, low-skilled workers, and refugees most affected. 

These challenges will be addressed by the Lancet COVID-19 Commission and its various task forces, one of which is the Fiscal Policy and Financial Markets task force. Prof Philippe Burger, Professor of Economics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Poverty, Inequality and Economic Development at the University of the Free State, serves as a member of the commission’s Fiscal Policy and Financial Markets task force. The eleven members of the task force include two Nobel prize laureates in economics, as well as academics and public-policy specialists from across the world, under the co-chairpersonship of Dr Vitor Gaspar (Director of the Department of Fiscal Affairs at the IMF) and Prof Felipe Larraín (Professor of Economics, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and former Minister of Finance of Chile).

The commission is an interdisciplinary initiative across the health sciences, business, finance, and public policy, and was created to help speed up global, equitable, and lasting solutions to the pandemic. The work of the commission is divided into 12 task forces, each composed of members from diverse disciplinary interests, geographies, and identities. These task forces provide support in areas ranging from vaccine development to humanitarian relief strategies, to safe workplaces, to global economic recovery. 

Key aims of the commission is to speed up awareness and the worldwide adoption of strategies to suppress transmission, as well as to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and key technologies are equitably accessible across the world.

The Fiscal Policy and Financial Markets task force will consider fiscal and financial issues related to the pandemic affecting advanced, emerging market, and developing economies. Based on evidence and best practices, the task force will provide recommendations on managing the effects of the pandemic and will also manage the transition to a resilient, smart, inclusive, and green growth path. Issues related to fiscal sustainability as well as debt relief in poor countries are on the task team’s agenda.

Many multilateral institutions such as the WHO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, the UN World Food Programme, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and others face profound challenges in undertaking their crucial missions to coordinate the global response to the pandemic. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission also aims to make recommendations to strengthen the efficacy of these critical institutions. Moreover, the commission reaches out to regional groupings, including the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), and others, to support the efforts of these bodies in fighting the pandemic. 

The Lancet COVID-19 Commission and its task teams include leaders in health science and healthcare delivery, business, politics, and finance from across the world. They volunteer to serve in their individual capacities – not as formal representatives of their home institutions – and will work together towards a shared and comprehensive outlook on how to stop the pandemic and how best to promote an equitable and sustainable recovery. 

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorate to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
2011-01-01

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

The University of the Free State (UFS) will reach a milestone in its history today when an honorary degree, the Doctor of Theology, will be conferred on Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

At the same event Archbishop Tutu will launch the university’s International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice.
 
The idea of the establishment of such an institute originated after the Reitz incident in 2008. In 2009, during his official inauguration, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, embodied this idea when he stated that the university would be an example of a place where reconciliation, forgiveness and social justice would not only be studied, but where it would also be applied in practice. “Students and scholars from across the world will come to the UFS to study the theory and practice about the building of societies across the boundaries of race, as well as religion, gender, disabilities and national origin,” Prof. Jansen said.
 
The institute is a critical intellectual space where engaged scholarship, public discussion, community engagement and contextually relevant teaching are innovatively harnessed towards exploring and finding solutions to the complex and challenging work of social transformation in South Africa,” says Mr John Samuel, Interim Director of the institute. Mr Samuel was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
 
According to Mr Samuel, the institute seeks to establish itself as a premier international site for research on race, reconciliation and social justice. “We want to link the manifestations of race in higher education, to the related matters of reconciliation and social justice in the South African context against the backdrop of racial and ethnic conflicts elsewhere in the world,” says Mr Samuel.
 
The institute will, amongst others, publish groundbreaking research, organise national and international conferences about reconciliation and social justice, as well as contribute to the establishment of national and international networks that are actively involved in matters relating to race, reconciliation and social justice. Through its research, the institute will endeavour to understand the challenges facing the UFS better, as well as how to address these challenges. For this reason, the concept of the UFS as a “live laboratory” and the use of evidence-based practice remain important for the university.
 
By honouring Dr Tutu, the UFS recognises the contribution that Dr Tutu has made in the field of Theology through his teachings and the books he has written. However, the UFS is not only honouring him as a moral and religious leader who has maintained his integrity as a Christian. “We honour a great son of South Africa who has made a huge contribution to peace, reconciliation and justice in South Africa and in the world,” says Prof. Jansen.
 
The unveiling of the new corporative brand of the UFS will render further lustre to the day.

Media Release
17 January 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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