By Dr Deepa Pullanikkatil, Co-Director, Sustainable Futures in Africa
Reconsidering Development Pathways: What is the “New Normal”?
“Sustainable Development”, that often overused term in development work, calls us to action to end poverty, protect the environment and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. However, our development pathways have been far from that ideal. With rising inequality, increasing carbon emissions, pollution, wildlife crime, and the exploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation, we have continued our immoral growth beyond the carrying capacity of our earth. COVID-19 may be a wake-up call to humanity to stop this self-destruction of our home planet, lest our actions eliminate us as a species.
Reflecting on the status of the world
With the majority of us under lockdown in our homes, this is a good time to pause and look at our lives, our countries’ priorities, global development and the meaning of sustainability. While we have advanced our knowledge about green economic models, good practices for reducing extreme poverty and the use of technologies to promote wellbeing, we still have 700 million people living on less than $1.90 a day. Our consumerism and continued emissions are compromising our chances of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and our global health care inequalities have come to haunt us.
Should we go back to “normal”?
Many of us can’t wait to get back to the same “normal” that got us into this predicament. COVID-19 has revealed that this pathway of unsustainable consumption, growth, ecological degradation and inequality simply cannot continue. In an increasingly interconnected world, the pandemic has taught us that none of us is safe unless all of us are safe. Business-as-usual may not be the “normal” we want to return to.
Economic slowdown may not be all that bad
This is also a good time to reflect on what life looks like when we slow down economic growth. With air travel grinding to a halt and a large number of people working from home, we are seeing the prevalence of digital conferences and meetings taking off, making us wonder why working remotely and meeting locally wasn’t already a norm? With the lockdown, the burning of fossil fuels has dropped, causing air quality to improve significantly, triggering social media posts of beautiful clear skies and views of mountains kilometres away. With humans locked in, animals and birds are courageously stepping out and enjoying their newfound freedom. The earth is healing.
We can work together
All sectors are working hand in hand to tackle this pandemic: funds are flowing from various sources; the private sector which hitherto cared mostly about profits is stepping in and helping the health sector. Governments are realising that spending on key sectors such as health and education is more important. Scientists and doctors are collaborating for the greater good, development partners are giving NGOs flexibility to divert their funding to COVID response, and each of us is checking in on our friends and family. It took this pandemic to ignite our sense of community, to get us to make sacrifices, recognise our priorities, work for a common purpose and cherish solidarity. We now realise that we’re all in this together and we can work together.

Three lessons learnt
Three things have become clear since the emergence of COVID-19. First, we are an interconnected world and only if all of us are safe, will each once of us become safe. In that regard, the virus is an equaliser because it does not discriminate. Second, although the virus has impacted every country, regardless of wealth or power, it has also made us realise how unequal our society is. There will be many who will not be able to recover at all or recover as fast as some others. Our global interconnectivity should wake us up to our responsibility for ensuring that each and every country recovers from this shock (not just our own country). We can no longer afford to be selfish, we have to broaden our minds and assume a global identity.
Finally, the unsustainable “normal” that has caused so many challenges to the world is a social construction; that means, we can change it. We, as a society, have been able to come together and make drastic changes to our lives and economy to respond to COVID-19. This proves that it is possible to take action to create a changed future for the better. After the pandemic ends, we must not slip back to the old normal, but consciously strive towards a “new normal” that is more sustainable, climate-proof, equitable, compassionate and humane.
What is your idea of the “new normal”?
How would you envision this “new normal”? Drop your answers/comments below.
“…we are seeing the prevalence of digital conferences and meetings taking off, making us wonder why working remotely and meeting locally wasn’t already a norm.”
Personally, I’m inspired by the ways artists like the Lebanese National Orchestra and the cast of ‘Hamilton’ (to name just a couple) have adopted Zoom almost overnight to find new ways of creating and sharing incredibly moving performances. It exemplifies the idea of “physical distancing, social unity” that I’ve seen shared on social media. We’ve all slowed down, but the speed with which we’re learning how to connect in new ways is astonishing and just shows how many opportunities have been right in front of us all along. As this article argues, we need to hold on to what we learn during this period, the aspects that will allow us to keep communicating and working together, but with less negative impact on the planet.
While COVID 19 knows no boarders, race nor economy, we note that the “normal” order takes the elderly as those who have lived their usefulness and can be “parked” somewhere (old people’s homes) to await what naturally institution follow.
COVID 19 makes us understand that they remain a solid part of humanity. Many of them have gone through COVID 19, and we have painfully counted their numbers.
Many got infection through them. Had we thougt they are part of humanity, we would have cared for them better.
Maybe we need to re-value them so that we can see the “us-ness” in them.
We can not afford to have a divided humanity. A “compartimented” humanity.
In trying to make a joke with it, social media has been flooded with the old image of migrants blocked before docking in Europe with the saying “go back with your poverty” Then the new image if a ship docking in North Africa with European and one saying “go back with your COVID 19”
Can we think a new humanity?
Love the statement… “Earth is healing”. Yes it is! Mother earth is claiming back the spaces and breathe she missed all this while.
The clear blue sky is back, mountain views are a wonder from far, birds chirp with joy and the squirrels and deers are out wondering where are these human creatures gone..:-) .Not only urbanisation and growing population has contributed this pandemic, but also the greed of human to explore more earthy resources with no limits, show off the status to the ones they don’t know and dislike, more consumption of non bio-degradable materials (whereas a earthy one actually serve the purpose), more of sitting and eating, and the concept of sun is dangerous has all contributed to this situation. None of high end technology can avoid these man made disasters, but only help few factors related to the situation. Earth has its own ways to tackle us. At some age we all grow with intelligence than our parents, but there is always a handful of wisdom with them than us, which we realise late at our stages of life.. This is so true in our relation with earth too.. The sooner we realise, similar to one’s mother, our mother earth is precious an noone can replace her for our survival, the better we slow down disasters which are yet to come. Locked downs in various countries is also a chance for reflection of oneself to know whether we possess and wish for is ‘what we need or it’s a want’. Let all of us ask ourself and bucket ‘the wants and needs’ of ours!! Stay Safe , Stay Healthy!
Well written article! I cannot agree more with what you have mentioned that all of us are safe if only each one of us is safe. A perfect way to deal with whatever is happening now.
Minimalism seems achievable. This is just what I felt after seeing the “new normal”. We sure can do without polluting the earth. We can still live a “ normal” life without going to malls!
What we felt is not possible now seems to be at a stage where we think “ why not give it a try?!” If this thought was put in to conserving our resources , I’m sure the earth would heal itself .
This virus has helped mankind to introspect and question and take notice of many things that were taken for granted. The new normal is the understanding that nature doesn’t differentiate between the rich and the poor and neither does a virus. No amount of money, class or status can help 🙂
There will be or rather should be a new norm from now on and hope we learn a valuable lesson from this pandemic.
1. Innovative thinking and ways of doing business has been a new normal and hope it continues to remain so.
2. No elaborate meals are required but one needs to cook just enough. There are more people who could eat the surplus we indulge in.
3. Utilisation of lesser utensils (cause you are cooking and washing them now) leading to saving of water. Water is becoming a scarce resource and hope we wouldn’t need another jolt like this to realise the importance of this precious resource.
4. Virtual review meetings could be the new norm which reduces the ‘Travel costs’ and helps in the conservation of fuel energy.
5. Work from home could be mandatory once a day – reducing pollution in the city and fuel consumption.
6. Online education and assessment will be a new norm.
7. Respecting the support staff and understanding their contribution will be a new normal.
There are many many more subtle learnings. But alas, we are blessed with a short term memory (whether it’s a blessing or a curse can be debated). One can only hope and pray that this learning remains with us for a long time to come and help us choose wisely.
Heal the world; Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire future race 🙂
Truly well put from a day to day impact of what we are living today.
Well my thoughts for the new normal is that social interaction especially face to face is going to be affected. The aftermath of covid19 is going to give a new sense of direction for disruptive technology especially IoT and AI. The lockdown doesn’t stop activities so much especially in the developed societies where infrastructure are more developed whereas global south countries with dilapidated development are struggling.
I also thought that new normal means leaders in the global south countries will have to rise above sentiments to develop humanity and other sectors of the society such as health, education and environment. Most leaders couldn’t run anywhere for medical tourism because the whole world is in total confusion and lockdown
As the world economy is going to be affected it will rise hope for diversification.
It will rise committment to addressing structural inequalities that are creating more poverty, hunger and related factors in many communities.
It will rise hope for the likeminds and sincere development experts and practitioners to work toward creation of more justice for the victims of poverty, displacement, disempowerment, hunger and disease especially through community engagement
I think it will make individuals and groups to learn, share and reflect on the best way to salvage humanity from the tensions and outcomes created by the new global economic order
Thank you for this deeply reflective piece, Deepa. The biggest challenge is to reimagine the world in a new way that seeks to serve the interest of all. The new normal must now be focused on valuing the limitless contribution of nature and the inherent possibilities of a united humanity. No one nation deserves to be left behind as we all join hands to remake a world that is truly sufficient, healthy and compassionate.
The write-up is informative as well as an eye opener to mankind. We really abused nature to the emaximum selfishly and carelessly. Countries are fighting for power, supermacy, technological development, space exploration etc.
It is high time we respect nature and take very good care of our mother earth….we were given so many signs but we ignored all of them and continued our exploitation recklessly. Earthquake, volcanoes, Tsunami, landslides,
Technology has conquered young generation and they have become addicted to it. We have forgotten our needs and wants long back and lead a mechanical life.
We need to instill nature love and show the value of environment to our future generations. Remember our old poets, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Robert Frost etc….who appreciated nature and celebrated it’s glory.
Are we not showcasing slums as a tourist spot and commercialize it. Let us recall our ancestors, not only worshipping nature but also paying so much respect . They were nature lovers and we have become nature abuseres. Hence we suffer, SARS, Swine flu…..never learnt any lessons…..
Let us come together and make a pledge with whole heartedly. From now onwards, we will change our thinking, acting and behaving towards our environment….
Let us change for good….Stop asking what will I get???? Think what I can give….let us be give an stake from now.
Humanity…..wake up, don’t pretend to be asleep….then it will be a final sleep….
Make our beautiful Africa be a role model to other countries in sustainability…..
The NEW NORMAL: Learning from near-future, co-design projects
By placing the human experience as the beating heart of change, we can learn from others and utilise the potential of genuine transdisciplinary insight, as we consider what normal might mean post covid-19.
Here is a project we were recently involved with which takes us to a place in the near future and the new normal for cancer care. These design-led approaches, opportunities and solutions are relevant to the current Covid-19 situation.
Graduating year Product Design students from the Innovation School at Glasgow School of Art were presented with a challenge-based project to consider what will happen in a cancer landscape ten years from now, where Cancer Precision Medicine has evolved to the extent that new forms of medical practice, cancer treatment and care transform how we interact with each other, with professionals and the world around us.
And to envision a future world context, develop it as an experiential exhibit, and produce the designed PRODUCTS, SERVICES & EXPERIENCES for the people who might live and work within it.
This was a co-creation, co-design approach and the students worked with a range of stakeholders from clinicians and the health service, to patients as well as industry and academia.
The innovative, thought provoking and creative examples shown below are a good place to start. They are the near-future, NEW NORMAL.
In the spirit of OPEN RESEARCH, they can be found here along with all the group and individual solutions on the project collection site at the University of Glasgow: http://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/843/
These are New Normal Opportunities: Research, Products, Services & Experiences
• THIS IS: Delivery of CANCER CARE 2028
• ranged from new approaches to multidisciplinary team meetings through (MDT) to LIFE STYLE related products
• THIS IS: The NEW NORMAL 2028
• included designing support for POST-CANCER PATIENTS in the near-future such as new JOB ROLES; approaches to combatting FEAR of CANCER RECURRENCE & collaborative SUPPORT MECHANISMS
• THIS IS: CONNECTING & COMMUNICATING through CANCER 2028
• included harnessing the power of social media, the creation of ADAPTABLE WEARABLES; tools and pathways for COMMUNICATING and NAVIGATING COMPLEX, EMOTIONAL and constantly evolving SITUATIONS
• THIS IS: Engaging in CANCER CLINICAL TRIALS 2028
• EMPOWERED PARTICIPANT. Included harnessing the power of artificial intelligence AI & BLOCK CHAIN technologies through to CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY and OWNERSHIP/SHARING of genetic DATA.
• THIS IS: Reframing the CANCER HEALTHCARE & PREVENTION ECOSYSTEM 2028
• included FUTURE PROOFING DATA and THERAPIES through to integrating LIFESTYLE and ENVIRONMENT DATA to develop PREVENTION strategies
The image attached shows just some of the NEW NORMAL opportunities……
New Normal GSA 1
The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has given humanity another chance to take a good look at our ourselves and the environment we have all helped to create. It has been such a wonderful eye-opener. The new normal was not expected but thrust upon us by Mother Nature and has paved ways for us to seek and find friendship/relationship, opportunities and remain resilient within our confinements. We are learning well and fast too. Now, are all looking inwards and asking what is and should work for us in our context.
In the new normal, there is going to be more demands for development of infrastructures in the health and education sectors, accountability of public funds, transparency in governance by the people from leaders from the global south. COVID-19 has helped establish leverage between the governor and the governed.
Very well put Deepa!
The Earth is healing!
Interestingly this is the statement that worries me most.
The Earth is healing…. when we do nothing…. during the Covid lockdown!
In any language that means : We have got it all wrong….
Our so called “progress” on this fragile planet has been far from Sustainable.
The time for drastic amends is NOW …… or never!
My picture of the New Normal…
– The world has to together to ensure we move forward in a sustainable manner. [In other words : World leaders actually understand the seriousness and do something.]
– Sacrifices in our life of excess, to ensure our kids have a beautiful planet to play in.
– Mandatory focus and stimulus for sustainable technologies.
– Good IT connectivity will have to be the norm.
– Help the Earth Heal!
Excellent article , written in the perfect perspective, the need of the hour. It reminds me of the eternal statement which says, Mother Earth has everything for everyone’s need, but don’t have for everyone’s greed..Here the greedy everyone gets concentrated to very few- the power lust ones and the rich ones, unfortunately one who influences , dominates the other minority ( not in numbers) . The society hitherto has been framed and formed with this principle of few dominating a large- thence the inequality in terms of wealth , health, education , and whole lot which is NEED for all..
The covid 19 pandemic paved a way for all of us to introspect the way we live, mostly living on not need, but on greed, it helped to have the priorities clear and the bare requirements clear. As article well said, the nature when wants to give a lesson, it teaches across, equally to all. Unfortunately, as history shown, hitherto, nature gave US , the entire human fauna umpteen lessons, the lessons remained lessons but never turned to be learning. Hope, and pray, this time , this global lesson imbibes in all as a learning and make each one of us introspect and extrapolate it to the immediate surrounding and to the society.
yes, yes, make the NEW NORMAL a possibility, right indications and bandwidths have been aligned , right time to pave the way forward with the concept and LET THE MOTHER EARTH HEAL PERMANENTLY, NOT TO BE SHAKEN AND DISTRESSED WITH IDIOTIC ACTION OF IGNORANT AND NAIVE FEW. Yes, let the wisdom prevails, and as saying goes- WISDOM THE GREATEST CLEANSER ON OUR PLANET
A thought provoking article. We have to take the initiative…first to stop this pandemic and second to change the thinking process of the world, one might try to outdo the other but in reality we all need to work together to change the environment, economy, future of the world. Thqnk you 😀💖💖
Deepa, Good article.
I am not very convinced that this Pandemic will drastically change anything. Going by history, the collective public memory is known to be very short-lived. However, there will be an awareness in this generation about things that are unbelievably disruptive. Most of us who are born after all the world wars have ended and have not seen such a widespread disruption before.
Secondly, the poorer people across the world who does not have much savings to dip into are more impacted when daily wages are not available. I certainly hope to see a dip in the migration to cities by in search of livelihood. But, again it may be shortlived and hard to sustain.
In the New Normal world,
Short term:
– Airports in some countries might screen your health too before boarding
– Visa denials if you have traveled to some countries
– Loss and closures for Airlines and hotels
Long term:
– Touchless and voice-enabled interfaces will become more popular
– Masks as an essential accessory for travel
– Insurance policies for Lockdown impact
– Remote working is more respectable
– Home office setups become popular
– Bio terrorisms incidents may increase
– Lockdowns like this become normal
– Large meetings and events may become less popular
– Home deliveries are not optional but part of every business
Dear Dr. Deepa,
This is an excellent piece, and I can see that this has elicited fairly wide response.
We have been discussing the ‘New Normal’ at home with my wife and son, and all of us agree that the ‘New Normal’ should include a mandatory pause (not really lock down), in all human outdoor activities two days a month, say the second and fourth Sunday.
Air travel for conferences, both national and international should be replaced by virtual methods as many organizations like ASQ has planned.
SDG 12 – Sustainable Consumption and Production must be taken much more seriously, as well as universally. It’s not a sacrifice, it’s a necessity today.
Development must not be measured only in terms of GDP, but in terms of the SDG Index – https://www.sdgindex.org/.
The SDG framework includes societal as well as environmental objectives. In an article DOI: https://doi.org/10.21844/pajmes.v11i2.14631, we have argued that ‘mainstreaming spirituality holds the key to win over the final challenges in sustainable development’.
This aspect has been pointed out by many indigenous societies, and been quoted in UN reports, but has gone mostly un-noticed. Yet, I believe, the most important dimension of the ‘New Normal’ would be a massive movement for adoption of the true spiritual principles of love, selflessness, compassion, care for others, truthfulness and above all simple lifestyles.
I would love to hear from others.
Till then, pray everybody stay safe at home as far as practicable.
178-Article Text-446-1-10-20200317
The term New Normal is a hegemony terminology coined under to brush away the reality of lives. Every challanges or catastrophe or invention that have shaken the world have given way for new experiences, however sociological studies have proved that it’s a conscious attempt to move on brushing under the carpet the very realistic of human pain caused by so called development jargons to move on when stay home stay safe when millions don’t have basic necessities, keep distance (social) an hegemony culture and classification of society between rich and poor
Work from home culture is another boon for cooperates for less infrastructure cost and more profitable but what about those who are jobless and ofcourse cashless culture with high end plastic card gave way to a so called society which is much above the term the new Abnormal.