COVID-19 and the Economic Stories of our Time
To tackle today’s global crises such as COVID-19, we need to reclaim our economic story, Simon Mair from the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) writes: “People in power believe certain stories about the economy. They then act as though these stories were true. And so the stories become our reality. But only once we understand that the economy is inherently social and material can we begin to think about changing it. Recognising that the economy is made up of relationships between classes and systems we can begin to focus attention on shifting these relations.” Feminist and ecological economics, as well as proposals for universal basic income and universal basic services can lead the way. Read the post.

Why Has the Agadir Agreement Failed?
“The Agadir Agreement is a Free Trade Agreement between Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan with the aim of coordinating sectoral policies and approximating legislation to better foster intraregional trade. However, when re-evaluating the performance of the agreement, it becomes clear that it has neither succeeded in fostering regional integration, nor in overcoming the structural weaknesses of Arab-Mediterranean economies.  What are the reasons of this ineffectiveness? Why is the agreement still subject to support and funding from policymakers? And why do proponents of ‘New Regionalism’ hold a rather myopic view which neglects the structural weaknesses of Arab-Mediterranean economies?” Read the post.

Now Online:  Agrarian Challenges in India
Watch Madhura Swaminathan from the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, trace the trajectory of growth of Indian agriculture over the last 5 decades. In particular, the policies of the last two decades have neglected small farmers who still constitute the vast majority of rural cultivators. The lecture draws on official statistics as well as evidence from village-level. Watch the video.

New: COST Action on Decolonising Development
We are happy that several members of our Executive Committee are engaged in the management of the new four-year project Decolonising Development hosted by Kassel University, which will work on reconstructing the concept and practice of development after its deconstruction. It aims for a resetting and diversification of the actors, structures, institutions and spaces in which knowledge about and for development is produced, shared contested and put into practice. A first blog post describes what the project can, and what it cannot achieve. Read more.

Highlight: Land Policy for Agroecology in Europe
Roots of Resilience: Land Policy for an Agroecological Transition in Europe
This policy report by the Transnational Institute looks to support increased access to land for agroecology throughout Europe. This support is now more critical than ever in light of a number of alarming trends including increasing land concentration and land speculation, instances of land grabbing, the precipitous decline in the number of farmers and smallholdings, a generational challenge in terms of farm succession, massive biodiversity loss, a crisis in soil fertility, and the devastating impacts of intensive livestock breeding and industrial agriculture, to mention but a few. Read more.