Fletcher’s Dean of Global Business Bhaskar Chakravorti recently participated in Lessons from a Pandemic, a video series featuring faculty from Tufts University and their perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the segment, Chakravorti discusses the pressure faced by governments to lift lockdown orders around the world. Considering the epidemiological and economic concerns that policymakers must balance, exit strategies must be carefully thought through. To help governments make choices in this difficult time, Digital Planet has developed a preparedness framework that benchmarks 42 countries on their ability to work remotely and respond to the challenges of COVID-19 quickly and effectively. The research not only shows how prepared countries are to support their economies during the pandemic but how smooth their return to normalcy may be once it’s over.

The benchmark is predicated on three major principals– a country’s ability to return to lockdown orders if necessary, its digital agility, and the trust citizens have in their governments, institutions, and each other. Chakravorti outlines these principals in the video segment and explains how Digital Planet’s research can help policymakers strike a balance between epidemiology, economics, and ethics during this unprecedented global crisis.