Add your voice to the call for addressing the emergency needs of the world’s most vulnerable populations in this time of global crisis. Tell leaders why we need it now. Post a video message, photo, or stories to social media with the #riseorfalltogether and #onesharedworld hashtags.

OneShared.World’s “Rise or Fall Together” report calls to action outlines a series of bold measures, from individual and local empowerment to establishing new global institutions, that will mitigate the pandemic’s harm to vulnerable populations and chart a better way forward for everyone. 

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Join thousands of people from 106 countries around the planet in signing the OneShared.World Pledge of Interdependence. After you sign, we will update you frequently about the “Rise or Fall Together” campaign and other ways we are working to turn the Pledge into action.

A Conversation with Bill Gates: Population Growth

Bill Gates details population growth in poor locations — regions with the fastest growing populations are the least equipped to respond existential crises like COVID-19.

Countries Must Cooperate to Combat Virus

OneShared.World Founder Jamie Metzl explains the world’s biggest problem and how to fix it.

Overpopulation – The Human Explosion Explained

Discussion of the impact of 7.4 billion humans living on one earth, and how human population will impact our daily life and the future of the human race.

Caring for vulnerable populations: Coronavirus Pandemic

Rishi Desai, MD, discusses the homeless population in the United States and how they’re being impacted by COVID-19.

COVID-19: $2.50 a day will allow the world’s most vulnerable to move beyond the economic collapse

Medium, October 10, 2020

Meeting the Needs of the Most Vulnerable Amid COVID-19

LA Spectrum News 1, July 20, 2020
Rick Barton and Tom Clark explain how, for just $2.50 per day, the world’s 820 million most vulnerable people can survive into next year and have the community funds to catalyze a bolder recovery.

Nelson Mandela Day: Let’s stand together, or we fall apart amid the Covid-19 pandemic

Daily Maverick, July 18, 2020
In the first-ever virtual Nelson Mandela Annual lecture, the United Nations Secretary-General delivered his address from New York on Saturday, July 18, 2020. The 18th lecture by the Nelson Mandela Foundation was titled: Tackling the Inequality Pandemic: A new social contract for a new era…read

Iraqi Refugees ‘Extremely Vulnerable’to COVID-19, MSF Says

Voice of America, July 13, 2020
More than 1 million Iraqis who fled from Islamic State and are now living in overcrowded and filthy camps are “extremely vulnerable” to COVID-19, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said…read

COVID-19 exposes ‘distorted picture’ of global poverty gains, U.N. envoy says

Thomson Reuters Foundation News, July 7, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed complacency and “misplaced triumphalism” by international aid organizations that have taken credit for progress on eradicating extreme poverty, a top United Nations rights official said…read

COVID-19 Infection Rate In Rio’s Favelas Far Exceeds Official Count, A New Study Says

NPR, June 25, 2020
The number of people infected by the coronavirus in some of Brazil’s poorest and most vulnerable neighborhoods could be 30 times higher than the officially registered count, according to Brazilian researchers…read

As Covid-19 Hits Developing Countries, Its Victims Are Younger

Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2020
Demographics, underlying conditions and weaker health-care systems affect pandemic’s impact…read

Disaster looms for indigenous Amazon tribes as COVID-19 cases multiply

National Geographic, June 12, 2020
With the coronavirus spreading into remote territories across the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous leaders and rights officials are pleading with the government to adopt urgent measures to head off a catastrophe…read

Coronavirus Spreading Fast in Developing World

Voice of America, June 12, 2020
Analysts say we could see horrifying scenes like those witnessed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where the fragile health care system was quickly overwhelmed and bodies were abandoned in the streets. With the pandemic just beginning in many developing nations, the WHO and other international groups are sounding increasingly anxious about the human tragedy they fear will unfold…read

Why dealing with the social impact of COVID-19 on India is a major challenge

National Herald (India), June 8, 2020
The impact of the pandemic is visible across the sectors globally, but its effect on marginalized sections, women and children has been immense in India…read

The Coronavirus Is Democratizing Knowledge

Wired, May 27, 2020
Despite toxic misinformation, the pandemic has empowered us to become co-creators, co-producers, and co-distributors of what we know…read

COVID-19 Will Lead to “Catastrophic” Hunger

The New Yorker, May 12, 2020
The number of people who are classified as having acute food insecurity—a level of hunger at which a person’s inability to consume adequate food endangers their life or livelihood—could rise from more than a hundred and thirty million to nearly three hundred million, owing to the coronavirus pandemic…read

Meeting India’s Superwomen: The Solar Sahelis

Signify, April 29, 2019
Continuing his journey through India, Thomas Deflandre and his girlfriend Laura Ponchel meet three remarkable women who literally light up people’s lives…read

ILO: As job losses escalate, nearly half of global workforce at risk of losing livelihoods

International Labor Organization, April 29, 2020
he latest ILO data on the labour market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals the devastating effect on workers in the informal economy and on hundreds of millions of enterprises worldwide.

World Food Program warns of ‘devastating’ pandemic impact in low- and middle-income countries

Washington Post, April 29, 2020
The World Food Program (WFP) warned Monday that the socioeconomic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic will be “devastating” and could trigger food shortages for millions of residents of low- and middle-income nations…read

Here’s how Africa can fight the COVID-19 pandemic

World Economic Forum, April 18, 2020
Many African countries were ill-prepared to tackle the Ebola epidemic that erupted in 2014. And COVID-19 presents a much graver danger because it can spread exponentially, including via asymptomatic carriers, while African governments remain constrained by weak health-care systems, limited resources, and economic and spatial constraints on social-distancing measures…read

How Developing Countries Can Manage the COVID-19 Economic Impact

Urban Institute / Urban Wire, April 17, 2020
For the most vulnerable citizens in the most vulnerable countries, this crisis may be particularly destructive, undermining progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. We consider five factors that help explain a country’s baseline resilience and offer four recommendations to help policymakers mitigate the impact and accelerate their countries’ pathways to recovery…read

The socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review

The US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, April 17,2020
In response to this global outbreak, we summarize the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on individual aspects of the world economy…read

Handwashing helps stop COVID-19. But in India, water is scarce

National Geographic, April 7, 2020
Only a fifth of all households in this nation of 1.3 billion have piped running water. That makes frequent hand-washing a challenge…read

The Social Impact of COVID-19

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, April 6, 2020
We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations — one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people’s lives. But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human, economic and social crisis…read

Africa faces grave risks as COVID-19 emerges, says Berkeley economist

Berkley News, March 31, 2020
African health care systems have improved substantially in the 21st century, but they remain “severely deficient,” Miguel said, and many government systems are fundamentally weak. His conclusion: Without robust international support, the pandemic’s effect in Africa could be devastating…read

COVID-19: Looming crisis in developing countries threatens to devastate economies and ramp up inequality

United Nations Development Programmme (UNDP), March 30, 2020
The growing COVID-19 crisis threatens to disproportionately hit developing countries, not only as a health crisis in the short term but as a devastating social and economic crisis over the months and years to come…read

In the Face of a Pandemic, Climate Activists Reevaluate Their Tactics

Inside Climate News, March 20, 2020
Climate change is front and center in the 2020 election, but the advent of the coronavirus has advocacy groups treading carefully and moving campaigns online…read

The following organizations are dedicated to improving access to clean drinking water, basic hygiene and sanitation:

UNICEF (WASH)

This site provides statistics on how lack of access to water & hygiene resources directly puts communities at greater risk for coronavirus. Website / Additional stats at WashData

We Are Water Foundation

A non-profit organization, set up in 2010 with the aim of contributing to the resolution of problems derived from the lack of water and sanitation in the world. Website

WaterAid

Working in over 30 countries with culturally-relevant projects “to best educate communities about the threat of the coronavirus and install handwashing systems as fast as we can.” Website

RWSN

From the Mission Statement: “RWSN’s vision is of a world in which all rural people have access to sustainable and reliable water supplies which can be effectively managed to provide sufficient, affordable and safe water within a reasonable distance of the home.” Website

Millennium Water Alliance

“The Millennium Water Alliance Convenes and Influences Governments, the Private Sector, and Non-Governmental Organizations to Accelerate Global Progress in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.” Website