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We can take some comfort nonetheless from the fact that humans have often banded together in the face
of all kinds of threats. Examples exist of countries sharing and providing medical equipment, test kits, and
other essential medical supplies. The example of the Chinese businessman Jack Ma donating 100,000 Covid-
19 test kits to Jordan in March 2020 is an encouraging case in point.

The fight against the devastating Covid-19 inevitably highlights that science has an institutional role in
addressing this dilemma. Thus, the various United Nations organizations, the InterAction Council and other
international organizations, and academies of sciences can play a fundamental role in providing expertise
and advice to decision-makers at the national and international levels. An interesting example here is the
commendable role of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), a global network of national sciences academies
that have issued important recommendations for addressing the Corona pandemic this year.

Covid-19 threatens to push human, social, political, and economic systems to the brink in all its
ramifications. Health crisis brings in recession, leading to mass unemployment and thus causes
uncertainties that may overpower individuals, societies, and states. The immediate future will bring
increasing challenges that can only be met by caring for the sick, minimizing the impact of lockdowns on the
lives of human beings, securing the delivery of adequate water, food and energy supplies, and, on the
research front, scrambling for a vaccine and a cure.

To manage the socio-political and socio-economic fallout in our post Covid-19 world, polity should focus on
respect and dialogue as a foundation of national and international security. Our post- Covid-19 world will
witness extraordinary turmoil with polities struggling to maintain social order, upholding security while
generally adopting good governance practices. Consequently, realizing long term security in most countries
can only be achieved by assuring sustainable and equitable socio-economic development. Regional
insecurity is heightened in the absence of dialogue, dialogue that must again become the norm in the face
of existential threats both regionally and globally.

The 2030 Agenda still represents a political manifesto for the post- Covid-19 world over the next decade.
Based on the principle of universality, it nevertheless allows every country to contribute to achieving the
larger vision of global sustainable development without compromising their own national development
agenda. It aims to transform our world by addressing the interconnected root causes of poverty, hunger,
pandemics, environmental degradation, climate change, and migration. It propagates a global partnership
that will work in a spirit of solidarity, with the poorest and with people in vulnerable situations.

The spirit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development must prevail again. Revisiting the Agenda is
necessary by including the new health and globalization parameters and elements that have come to
undermine the foundations of contemporary society. Such elements may have signified rampant inequality
and rising injustice, which threatens the survival of our species. Moreover, the revised Agenda does not only
outline the immediate response to the outbreak of Covid-19, but it must extend the ethic of human
solidarity.

Now, humanity’s real triumph lies in eradicating the Covid-19 or re-discovering the principles of R&D
(Research and Development for a sustainable future) and the importance of R&D (Respect and Dialogue) for
justice, solidarity, and partnership (as partly outlined in the IAC’s own Universal Declaration of Human
Responsibilities). Our world must institutionalize all these in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Dr Moneef R. Zou’bi

Science Advisor
Inter-Action Council Amman, Jordan.

STS Department, Universiti Malaya
Doctoral Alumni