The TRADE research focus area at the North-West University (NWU) hosted an online world tour to take international collaboration to the next level in the time of Covid-19.

Prof Danie Meyer, a development economist and director of TRADE, says the event, which took place on 2 October, was organised with the aim to ensure that “we at the southern tip of Africa are not forgotten”.

The online world tour focused on the discussion of three key areas of concern. They are the current status of Covid-19, the impact on the economy and government response, and the impact on higher education.

“Distinguished academics from different universities, continents and 16 time zones across the globe were invited and asked to discuss the three areas of concern. International colleagues from the eastern extreme (Australia) to the western extreme (United States of America) were included.”

Prof Meyer says due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all international travel initiatives had to be cancelled by academics and researchers this year.

“The TRADE research focus area has large international networks and I decided that TRADE could not afford to not maintain and even strengthen the international networks during this period of lockdown.”

Prof Meyer says he was concerned that networks and collaboration could be negatively affected by the restriction on travel. He came up with the idea to arrange an “online world tour” and included several of his international connections.

Speakers from Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Ukraine, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States were invited and gave presentations on the situation in their respective countries.

Prof Meyer says in total, the event included participants from 21 countries – in addition to the above-listed countries, speakers from Spain, Pakistan, Saudi-Arabia, Tanzania, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda were also included.

 Some of the main findings from the discussions were:

• Central governments have established “central command councils” to try to manage the crisis outside the normal structures such as parliaments. They have allocated vast amounts of money to keep the economies afloat, with limited success. Many representatives reported a growing lack of trust in government responses and policies. People are feeling lost and the uncertainty of when the virus could be under control is causing stress to most participants.
• Second waves of the pandemic are experienced across the globe and many universities have had to close again after opening. Online teaching is still the order of the day at most universities.
• All economies were significantly negatively affected, with large-scale job losses and negative economic growth. For example, in India more than 300 million jobs have already been lost. Informal jobs in particular were lost in most countries. Tourism-focused countries such as Malaysia were severely affected.
• Universities have been negatively affected by the pandemic, especially those that depend on large numbers of international students from countries such as China. Universities have been disrupted and the possibility exists and evidence was presented that universities could incur job losses due to increased competition and less mobile international students. New ways of working will have to be designed and implemented.
• Participants agreed that the pandemic will last well into 2021 and economies, businesses and universities will have to “adapt or die”.

For more information, contact Prof Danie Meyer at daniel.meyer@nwu.ac.za.