COVID-19:Tackling the pandemic of inequality in Asia and the Pacific –

After two years of human devastation, the world is learning to live with COVID-19 while trying to balance the protection of public health and livelihoods. For countries in Asia and the Pacific, this is challenging not only because national coffers are heavily strained by record public spending to mitigate pandemic suffering, but also due to deeper structural economic issues. COVID-19 has exposed a pandemic of inequality in a region which has the world's most dynamic economies but also half of the global poor. A region where nearly half of the total income goes to just 10 per cent of people…