Ceará offers a model for rebuilding schools after the pandemic

COVID-19 changed the way people move around cities. In 2020, demand for travel dropped dramatically, and many urban areas enforced restrictions on movement through lockdowns in a bid to control the impact of the pandemic. These lockdown periods throughout most of 2020 provided a rare glimpse into a world with reduced motorized travel. Images of calmer streets, clear skies and wildlife venturing into urban areas emerged around the world. Lockdowns also encouraged greater demand for non-motorized travel.

COVID-19 and our nation’s reckoning on racial justice is calling on all of us—from state to local leaders, teachers, parents, students and advocates—to transform schools and districts as we know them. Our education system cannot “go back to normal” because the prepandemic normal was not working for all students. We can instead reimagine and rebuild an education system where equity is at the center of every single decision.

We know that what moves the needle on human rights, social justice, climate action and more is the collective power of thousands of nonprofits working on the ground. But when these nonprofits aren’t financially healthy, constantly struggling to keep the lights on, the movements they serve cannot succeed. This is especially true during a crisis like COVID-19; when need is great, resources dwindle and barriers rise.

One year ago, the world changed. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, it happened slowly, and then all at once.

Weeks of uncertainty became a season of suffering, and then the deadliest year in the history of the United States, as well as Brazil, India and now Mexico. Around the world, COVID-19 has taken more than 2.7 million lives and counting. It has upended the hopes and dreams of untold millions more.

The wealthiest nations have the vaccines to give their people a chance against Covid-19, while the poorest do not. Nations in the Global North have the means to stave off economic calamity and social disruption with massive stimulus packages, while hundreds of millions of people in the Global South have been driven into extreme poverty. This inequitable divide leaves humanity far more vulnerable to the next stage of the pandemic or another crisis altogether.

There’s more to taming urban noise than lowering the volume.

Os impactos da pandemia global de Covid-19 ainda estão sendo compreendidos, mas parece claro que esta crise vai deixar marcas físicas e sociais nas cidades que vão ecoar por gerações.

A epidemia da Covid-19 já alterou de forma significativa a vida urbana. O número de pessoas se deslocando caiu a níveis sem precedente. Trabalhar de casa é o novo normal – para quem pode pagar, e para quem esta é uma opção viável, para começo de conversa. O destino de milhões de pequenos negócios e de trabalhadores que fazem os centros urbanos funcionar está em aberto. Lei matéria na integra aqui.

This evidence into action brief summarises the state of research on the topic of urban children and COVID-19, and proposes ideas for action.

Across the world, public and political attention is firmly focused on recovery from COVID-19. But it is vital that we build back better. The pandemic has compounded problems caused by existing structural inequalities of poverty, inadequate housing and economic exclusion for those living in urban informal settlements in the global South – problems which have hit children particularly hard. With an end to the pandemic uncertain, this briefing aims to provide some insights into the current consequences and risks for urban children and youth in terms of impact on health, income and education and the importance of safe play and public space. It highlights local solutions and good practice and demonstrates how, in the context of limited government support for the urban poor, grassroots organisations and collective community action have attempted to fill the gaps and used existing networks to support families affected by the pandemic. These experiences provide important lessons for partnership approaches to tackling child poverty that go beyond the pandemic to inform how collaboration can help address complex urban poverty challenges.

Novo relatório de Harvard e especialistas internacionais mostram a importância de investimentos na natureza: a proteção das florestas e a mudança das práticas agrícolas são ações essenciais e econômicas para prevenir novos surtos.