The word “migration” conjures images of war, natural disaster, and severe economic distress. All are important reasons why people seek refuge far from home. But the single most powerful driver of migration may well be food – or, rather, the lack of it.As of 2017, some 821 million people worldwide – about one in every nine – faced chronic food deprivation.
The Philippine’s Eastern Visayas islands of Samar and Leyte bore the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan as it made landfall in November 2013, leaving in its wake a trail of destruction affecting 14 million people. The record-breaking typhoon that created a storm surge of up to 19 feet caused more than six thousand deaths, damaged over one million homes, and displaced over four million people. The economy and people’s livelihoods were also not spared.
In the last few years, for many people and their leaders, globalisation has become a scourge to be purged in favour of greater protectionism and unilateralism. This represents a sharp departure from the recent past, when globalisation was widely regarded as a positive force. What changed, and why?Key components of globalisation include greater cross-border mobility of goods, labour, and capital, each of which promises significant overall benefits for economies.
