A Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) Perspective on the Global Response to the Onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In December 2019, the world woke up to a new virus in China, which later spread internationally, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) infection a global pandemic. This pandemic prompted various individuals, organisations, governments and local and international agencies to proffer solutions. Unfortunately, these efforts were focused on traditional western methods of tackling diseases and crises of this nature. Other alternative methods of problem-solving were rebuffed or outrightly repudiated. There seems to be no wide-ranging recourse to creative and innovative approaches for solution-finding. The resultant effects were the loss of millions of lives, unprecedented global lockdowns, economic hardship, health challenges, insecurity and other allied issues occasioning a disruption in the world order. While vaccines have been found with conflicting debates, the world is still reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper argues that a creative approach to resolving the pandemic at its onset would have forestalled the loss of lives, the global economic meltdown and the disruption of lifestyles. Consequently, it calls for more inclusive problem-solving approaches to national, regional and global crises.