A year after the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged, we have suddenly been forced to adapt to the ‘new normal’: work-from-home setting, parents home-schooling their children in a new blended learning setting, lockdown, and quarantine, and the mandatory wearing of face mask and face shields in public.

For many, 2020 has already been earmarked as ‘the worst year in the 21st century. Ripples from the current situation have spread into the personal, social, economic, and spiritual spheres. Is this new normal really new or is it a reiteration of the old?

Now, a year after COVID-19, we are starting to see a way to restore health, economies, work, and societies together despite the new coronavirus strain. In the face of a global crisis, we need to improvise, adapt and overcome.

The new normal is still emerging, so we think that our immediate focus should be to tackle the complex problems that have emerged from the pandemic by highlighting resilience, recovery, and restructuring the norm to achieve sustainable results.