On 14 October, Ireland’s Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Michael Gaffey, launched a new book, COVID-19, the Global South and the Pandemic’s Development Impact, edited by Dr Gerard McCann, Dr Nita Mishra and Professor Pádraig Carmody in Dublin. Dr Gerard McCann is a Principal Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Liberal Arts degree programme at St Mary’s University College and International Co-ordinator of the student mobility programme.

Published by Bristol University Press, the book is the second open access publication produced by the Development Studies Association Ireland (DSAI) with Bristol University Press and their rapid response model supporting development dialogue as researchers, policy-makers and practitioners navigate the impacts of the global pandemic. Following the 2020 publication COVID-19 in the Global South: Impacts & Responses, two years on, this book examines the recurring implications of the pandemic on the most vulnerable regions around the world. The book includes twenty-four academic, governmental and international non-governmental organization contributors from sixteen institutions across five continents. The Foreword is by Colm Brophy, Ireland’s Minister for Overseas Development Aid. With contributors from a variety of disciplines including health, education and political science, the book investigates the pandemic’s effects on development, medicine, the global economy, gender (in)equality and human rights, among other issues. Its analysis surveys further subsequent crises - of interconnection, a pervasive health provision crisis and the rise in socioeconomic inequality - and offers an urgent discourse on the ways in which the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socioeconomic contexts.

Professor Pádraig Carmody (TCD), Dr Ellen Pieterse (UCD), Professor Edward Lahiff (UCC), Dr Gerard McCann (SMUCB), Mr Michael Gaffey (Foreign Affairs), Dr Nita Mishra (UL), Mr David Kenny (Irish Aid)