On 10 March, the Misereor relief association organised an online symposium on the topic of „Bolivia – Challenges for the socio-ecological transformation“. The event was part of the Misereor Lenten Campaign 2021. The subject matter focused on questions concerning the reorientation of the coexistence of humans, animals and the environment, also considering the current pandemic. Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge contributed to the conference with a keynote speech on the impact of global megatrends on German development policy and cooperation. She shed light on the following three megatrends in more detail: (1) “resource degradation & climate change” based on destructive competition between small-scale and industrial fisheries in West Africa; (2) “social inequalities” and “geopolitical power shifts” through current global inequalities in COVID-19-vaccine distribution between high-, middle- and low-income countries; (3) “increasing trends in vaccine diplomacy and the subversion of the Covax Initiative’s multilateral attempt at coordination” through bilaterally concluded contracts between vaccine producers from Russia as well as China and countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, as well as parts of Central and continental Southeast Asia.
