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Afghan women's resistance and resilience to the Taliban takeover are featured in the new After August website – a collaboration between UN Women Afghanistan, Zan Times, Limbo and independent storytellers. Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

By IPS Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 2023 (IPS)

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on 15 August 2021 has devastated millions of Afghanis. But women and girls have been particularly affected by progressively restrictive decrees that have created a virtual system of gender apartheid.

The stories of more than 50 women living in Afghanistan are featured on the new After August website – a collaboration between UN Women Afghanistan, Zan Times, Limbo, and independent storytellers. These unvarnished stories capture the fear, hardship, and sense of loss that shapes their lives, but also their strength, resistance, and resilience.

A few excerpts:

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“I sold my daughter out of poverty and desperation. I sold her so that the rest of the family wouldn’t starve to death… If I do not receive any aid, I will have to sell another daughter. I have a one-year-old daughter. I will take her to the city and auction her off in front of the Central Mosque. The older girls are sold off for 100,000 Afghani. I will sell my baby daughter for 50,000.” —Belquis, a mother from Ghor

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“Every day, I hugged my two children. I was afraid that the Taliban would take them from me. But consciously, responsibly, and honestly, I went to the streets every day to fight even harder than the day before … The Taliban surrounded us many times and tried to stop us with electric shocks and pepper spray, but we picked up their rifles with our bare hands and continued marching.” —Adela, a teacher and protester from Kabul

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“In the past, I used to share my feelings on social media with my friends, but today the atmosphere of fear and mistrust has deepened so much that I cannot share my pain with my friends. I have never felt so alone. Many times, I have decided to end my life, but I think about the fate of my son.” —Hira, a former public servant from Kunar

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“It is natural that fighting in the current situation also brings risks, but my life is sweeter as a woman who takes risks and has made sacrifices, even if this leads to my isolation and loss of neutrality. Changing society can only happen with our own awareness and efforts. I want a free life, the right to choose clothing, the right to choose a profession, the right to choose a field of study, the right to work.” —Amina, an engineer and activist from Langman

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“Afghanistan has become the graveyard of buried hopes. This past year was one of the most challenging years of all for people living here, particularly for women and girls. They have turned thousands of young people’s hopes and dreams into ashes, especially women and girls, and I am one of them.” —Ghotai, a computer science student from Baghlan

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“When we were children, children would hit animals and dogs with stones and harass them. Now this is the situation for women in my country. Being insulted and humiliated is the biggest change that we women see in our lives.” —Amina, a psychotherapist from Zabul

Credit: UN Women/Sayed Habib Bidell

“I am standing up for my sisters who have no support and whose men cannot raise their voices because they fear the Taliban. I want to raise the voices of these innocent women to the international community so that it no will longer just monitor and react, but instead act. Act for the benefit of the brave women of my country, because we do not get anything from reaction!” —Fatana, a protester from Nuristan

Echoing the words of Fatana, this collection aims to raise awareness and incite an international audience to reflect and, hopefully, to act.

Note: These first-person accounts have been anonymized, with names and locations changed to protect their identity. The photographs of women have also been randomly matched to stories.

**The views expressed in these stories belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women and/or any affiliated agencies.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The voices of young people played an important role in shaping the country’s long-term development trajectory. Credit: UNICEF Timor-Leste

By Riccardo Mesiano
DILI, Timor-Leste, Oct 6 2023 (IPS)

In 2002, a group of young people in Timor-Leste were asked to look ahead into the future and write down on a postcard what they hoped their country could achieve by the year 2020.

Twenty years later some of these postcards were retrieved from the time capsule, revealing the hopes and ambitions of a previous generation of young voices across Timor-Leste.

From visions of a peaceful and just country, to demands for strong democratic institutions, improvements to homes and living standards and an expansion of job opportunities, these young people had firm beliefs on where their country could and should be by the year 2020.

17-year-old Jose Marcal, for example, wrote that by 2020 he hoped “to erase corruption, collusion and nepotism and domestic violence, create job opportunities for young people and construct new schools for students so that we can focus on our study, because we are the future to build this country’”

Today, Timor-Leste has made significant progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is working to realize the aspirations set out by young people two decades ago, on the restoration of the country’s independence. Yet their voices continue to play an important role in shaping the country’s development trajectory.

Credit: UN Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR 2023)– an annual report which takes stock of and assesses national progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, incorporates the voices of young people as an important accountability tool in the implementation of the SDGs and the 2030 agenda.

The report, which was presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum in New York in July, was not only guided the aspirations young people made 20 years ago but also by the perspectives and recommendations from todays’ young generation.

To gather these critical contributions and support the Government prepare for the VNR process our Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) in Timor-Leste played an indispensable coordination role; mobilizing both financial resources and expertise from the UN resident and non-resident agencies to help gather data and facilitate stakeholder engagement.

As well as coordinating the first general consultation with government representatives and other stakeholders, our office also supported the government hold intergenerational dialogues and conversations to capture the essence of young peoples’ aspirations and ensure they feed into more targeted and inclusive policy making going forward.

As the Head of this Office, my role in leveraging our team’s leadership and coordination capacities was key to ensuring the UN’s support to Timor-Leste’ VNR was as coherent as possible, and vital to ensuring the voices of young people could shine through during that process.

Youth supporting peace and partnerships for the Goals

Drawing on youth insights from the country’s first ever VNR last year was another important step. The 2022 presentation showed that SDG 16 and SDG 17, which focus on peace, justice, strong institutions, and partnerships for the goals, were viewed by young people as crucial underpinnings for development in Timor-Leste.

Aside from this emphasis on strengthening justice systems and institutions, young people pointed to SDGs 4, 5, 8, 9, and 10, encompassing quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation, and infrastructure, and reduced inequalities, as key catalysts to meeting the targets of the 2030 agenda.

From a youth perspective, Timor-Leste’s most significant successes from national development efforts over the past few years, lay in the areas of poverty reduction (SDG1), eradicating hunger (SDG2), improving access to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and building safe, inclusive and sustainable cities (SDG 11).

Speaking ahead of the 2023 presentation of the VNR, a representative from the Government of Timor-Leste explained that they spotlighted young people’s voices in the SDG review process because it offers an important, ground-up perspective on key development issues and shows their expectations for the future.

As the postcards from the time-capsule clearly show, Timor-Leste’s journey towards a sustainable future is a shared one. Two decades later, and the Government of Timor Leste, together with the UN, and civil society partners remain committed to ensuring young people, their needs and desires are accounted for in the country’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

Riccardo Mesiano is Head of the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Timor-Leste.

Source: UN Development Cooperation Office.

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With decisive leadership and the support of civil society Kerala was able to the spread of COVID-19 down. Picture Supplied

By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI , Oct 6 2023 (IPS)

When COVID-19 claimed millions of lives across India, Kerala state at the southern tip of the subcontinent stood apart for low mortality rates that experts attribute to good governance, a robust public health delivery system and strong civil society support.

Kerala, a state of 35 million people, has consistently ranked above the rest of India on the Human Development Index (0.84), with literacy, life expectancy, and human rights records comparable to that of developed countries. It enjoys an infant mortality rate of 12 per thousand live births and a female literacy rate of 92.07 percent.

One reason for Kerala’s high development indices is its remittance economy, with large numbers of its people finding work abroad — an estimated four million are known to be working in the oil-rich Middle Eastern countries alone. Remittances to Kerala averaged 715,789,912 million US dollars annually during the 2004—2023 period.

However, the same expatriate workers became a liability during the pandemic. As they streamed back home, the state government mounted tight monitoring at its four international airports at Kannur, Calicut, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram while following up with quarantine, source tracing and tracking to prevent the virus from spreading in the densely populated state (860 people per square kilometre).

“There are many layers to the measures ordered by the state government, extending to individuals, community, public health systems and private hospitals,” said Jaideep C Menon, professor of adult cardiology and public health at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.

Voluntary Agencies

“Everybody pulled together. Community kitchens run by panchayats ensured essential supplies of grains, vegetables, fruits, petroleum products or drugs,” said Jaideep Menon. Additionally, he said, there were awareness creation programmes run by government-backed self-help groups like ASHA and the women’s voluntary agency Kudumbasree.

“There were instances of essential drugs like Factor VIII for haemophilia, cancer care medicines, etc., being sent through the police networks to remote public health centres (PHCs) during lockdowns. Radioisotopes — supplied to hospitals solely by the Babha Atomic Research Centre — were flown in on specially chartered flights and moved to recipients with police help,” Jaideep C said.

According to Jaideep Menon, the police force proved to be an effective arm of the government’s COVID-19 response, not only for facilitating the movement of essentials but also for providing effective policing that was needed to implement contact tracing and quarantine during the first wave of the pandemic that ran from March to November 2020.

Groups such as the Distress Management Collective India networked influential Malayalis (as Kerala natives are called) living around the world to source medicines, vaccines, and equipment such as oxygen concentrators for COVID-19 patients in dire need.

“On receiving the oxygen concentrators, we delivered them to people with breathing difficulties in remote places of Kerala,” says Anil Jabbar, a local coordinator in the state for the DMCI. “The instructions on how to calibrate and use the equipment were then provided over smartphone videos to protect ourselves from getting infected.”

Coordination expertise came from Vinod Chandra Menon, a founder member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and former Asia regional director of the International Emergency Management Society, Oslo.

“The odds in Kerala were tremendous because of a moving population – in fact, the first recorded Covid case in India was that of a female medical student in Wuhan who flew back home to Kerala on 23 January 2020,” said Vinod Menon.

“What was instructive was the professional way in which the authorities handled the case,” said Vinod Menon. “She had no symptoms but based on her travel history in China, she was placed in an isolation room, and her throat swab and blood samples were flown to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, where the samples tested positive for COVID-19.”

“It was clear from the start that early detection and early response was the way to go, and Kerala averted a major disaster by simply following the standard operating procedure that was laid down from the start,” said Vinod Menon.

“Unlike in most of India, Kerala’s interdepartmental coordination was excellent and meshed together with voluntary agencies and women’s help groups thanks to backing from the highest levels of government right down to the villages.”

While the number of COVID-19 fatalities in India remains contentious, with some estimates placing it above 5 million, calculations based on National Survey Data indicate that between 1 June 2020 and 1 July 2021 alone, there were 3.2 million deaths from the virus.

In contrast, Kerala’s data, even after the second wave between April and March 2021, suggested “relatively limited spread, fairly effective mitigation and better surveillance of both infections and deaths than in most parts of the country,” according to Murad Banaji a lecturer in applied mathematics at the University Oxford with an interest in analysing the pandemic in India.

It helped that Kerala had been primed up for community participation, interdepartmental coordination, participation of local self-governments and social mobilisation by voluntary agencies through the experience of responding to a massive flood that devastated the state in 2018 and a Nipah virus epidemic in 2018—2019.

Said Sandhya Raveendran, who is both a surveillance officer for Kollam as well as the deputy medical officer for the district: “We hit the ground running. Even before the first case was identified, we were ready with mock drills and rapid response teams, thanks to the legacy of handling a Nipah virus outbreak.”

Sample collection teams, consisting of a medical officer, a nurse or laboratory technician and a driver, all equipped with PPE kits, fanned out daily along predetermined routes after prior intimation to sites that were due to be visited, said Sandhya Raveendran.

“Key to containment was the early setting up of sentinel surveillance using RT PCR tests followed by the setting up of laboratories capable of performing accurate tests,” said Raveendran. “What became clear after four rounds of tests was that most of the cases were imported and that there was no community transmission.”

The laboratories were linked to an ‘integrated health information platform’ for real-time reporting of detailed results so that action could be rapidly taken at the field level and epidemiological investigations could be carried out by special rapid response teams.

By early March 2020, the state had the highest number of active cases in India, but using the trace, quarantine, test, isolate and treat strategy, by June 2020, Kerala managed to keep the basic reproduction number (transmission per primary infected person to the secondarily infected persons) at 0.454 against the India average of 1.225.

Decisive leadership

“What worked was decisive leadership from the top in setting up command centres in various districts under the district collector (chief administrator), following directives from the chief minister and the state health department,” said Jaideep Menon. “This led to health taking centre-stage for a prolonged period in both print and audio-visual media.”

“In sum, Kerala’s proactive approach to quarantine, infection prevention and control, the state’s strong public health system that could reach every household, and an empowered and literate community pulled together to combat the pandemic.”

He says the key lesson for the rest of India is that a robust disaster management plan must be instituted with clarity on who does what, adding that while all the states had voluntary agencies and local self-governments, they were not harnessed towards quick and effective intervention in the way Kerala did.

“Pandemics like COVID-19 are a distinct possibility in the future, and that’s why it is important to clearly define the role and mandate of each implementing agency by governments.”

Note: This article was supported by the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Internews.

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct 6 2023 (IPS)

Some time ago I watched the Indian blockbuster RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt). It received universal praise for direction, screenwriting, cast performances, soundtrack (which won an Oscar) and thrilling action sequences. RRR is filled with gore; bodies beaten, pierced and torn apart. An overblown combination of Quentin Tarantino and Bollywood, far away from Satyajit Ray’s emotionally moving films, as well as Bollywood’s romantic comedies and mythological dramas. RRR never pauses for breath. The two male protagonists are supermen, not exposing many recognizable human traits, even if they might occasionally sing and talk about love. Hard to understand, since the few women of the story are cut-out clichés.

This to date most expensive Indian movie is actually a jingoistic show of patriotic pomp. A quasi-historical tale hiding the fact that the Republic of India (Bhārat Ganarājya) is a multi-faceted conglomerate, including concepts like Bhakti, love and devotion and Ahimsa, non-violence applied towards all living beings. Instead it appears to be a tribute to “Modi-land”, a politically constructed ideal chimera, based on the concept of Hindutva (Hinduness),where Hindu identity is considered as the essence of Bharat (India).

India was on 20th April declared as being the world’s most populous nation with 1,428 million inhabitants, of which more than 80 percent define themselves as Hindus, making religion a useful tool for political campaigning. However, the Hindu faith has countless variants and the nation is a subcontinent with 20 official languages and a plethora of customs and cultures.

The RRR movie fits well into the current Prime Minster Narandra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP’s embrace of its interpretation of Hindu Pride, Hindutva, was strengthened and supported by a growing economy. Nevertheless, there are cracks in the political fresco depicting a harmonious India, not the least widespread anti-Muslim prejudice. From fear of Muslims and neighbouring Pakistan many people take their refuge in BJP. Almost 15 percent of the Indian population are Muslims, meaning that The Republic of India has the third largest Muslim population in the world.

Playing the religious card and claiming an unprecedented economic growth Narandra Modi is now probably the most popular leader in the world. In the 2014 general elections BJP became the first Indian political party since 1984 to win a majority and becoming able to govern without the support of other parties. The G20 summit coincided with Modi’s aims to raise New Delhi’s global clout following nearly a decade-long tenure in power in which he has positioned himself as a leader intent on shedding the country’s colonial past – emphasizing the need to “liberate ourselves from the slavery mind-set.”

A view apparent in RRR, which is rooted in a vision of a genocidal racism of British colonialists. The British Governor of the Princely State of Hyderabad (today’s Telangana) might be equalled to any murderous Nazi-SS officer and is together with his sadistic wife flaunting dehumanizing prejudices against indigenous people. Muslims act as treacherous collaborators with the British and their subjugated Deccan Mughal Prince is an enthusiastic supporter of the Britsh Raj. To liberate a girl kidnapped by the villainous Governor-wife, the Hindu hero Raju disguises himself as a loyal Muslim officer serving the British Raj and as such he does not hesitate to kill and torture fellow Hindus, while planning a Hindu revolt and liberating the confined girl.

All this fits well into BJP’s efforts to depict the Indian subcontinent’s 4 500 year long history as being developed within a Hindutva frame. This in spite of the historical presence of thousands of kingdoms, diverse peoples, different religions, being the birth place of at least three world religions, and with the powerful presence of Christianity, Parsism, and not the least Islam – blending into the creation of a unique and rich Indian culture.

A common trait among leading BJP politicians seems to be that their chauvinistic Hindutva vision has convinced them that everything that do not conform with their simplistic view of “Bhārat culture” might be considered as intrusion/pollution of Hindu past and present. The splendours of the Mughal culture is exorcised from school books and Muslim rulers like Akbar are referenced as cruel invaders. The names of Muslim sounding towns are changed; Allahbad has become Praygray, Aurangabad is Chhatrapatri Sambhaji Nagar, and Osmanabad has become Dharashiv, while the official name of the Indian Republic now has been established as Bhārat Ganarājya.

Anything awkward in the history of this utopian Hindu Bhārat is swept under the carpet, or whitewashed, like the legacy of untouchability and exclusion, misogyny and intolerance. There is also an apparent discomfort with BJP’s rather tarnished history. For example, Nathuram Godse who murdered Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 was an esteemed member of the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation, which still is the ideological fountainhead of the BJP. He killed Gandhi because the Mahatma’s insistence on a secular India, integrating members of all religions and castes (the entire caste system was declared to be illegal).

In spite of Modi’s popularity it is generally agreed that BJP is considered as a North Indian, Hindi-speaking and upper-caste party, even if BJP has declared that “the caste system is responsible for the lack of adherence to Hindu values and the only remedy is to reach out to the lower castes.” The major themes on the party’s agenda has been banning cow slaughter and abolishing the special status given to the Muslim majority state of Kashmir, as well as legislating a Uniform Civil Code in conformity with “Hindu values”. Most of the people living in Kashmir do not vote for BJP and neither do those of the Sikh dominated Punjab, while non-Hindi speaking people in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala are reluctant to share BJP’s ideology and prone to consider the party as adhering to Ethnic democracy, meaning that it is supported by a prejudiced majority.

The RSS organisation was in 1925, founded on the claim that India was a Hindu nation and Hindus were thus entitled to reign over the Nation’s minorities. The RSS’s original base was higher-caste men, but in order to grow it had to widen its membership and lower-caste recruits were accepted, among them a young Narendra Modi, who soon became a pracharak—the group’s term for its young, chaste foot soldiers. He rose quickly in the ranks. RSS is by BJP often described as the party’s “scout branch”, but it is more than that – it is a uniformed paramilitary organisation in which young men obtain physical fitness through yoga, weapon- and martial arts exercises, taught Hindutva ideology, as well as partaking in activities encouraging civic awareness, social service, community living, and patriotism. Pracharaks are full-time functionaries, renouncing professional – and family lives while dedicating their lives to the cause of the RSS.

Modi rose in the RSS ranks and in 1987 he entered its political branch – BJP. When Modi joined the party it had only two seats in Parliament. It needed an issue to attract sympathizers and found one in an obscure religious dispute. In the city Ayodhya it was among local Hindus rumoured that a mosque had been built above an ancient temple dedicated to the god Ram, a Vishnu avatar. In 1990 a senior member of BJP called for the demolition of the mosque. Two years after, a crowd led by RSS partisans completely razed the mosque.

This happened when economic liberalization under the BJP’s regime was resulting in increased economic growth, urbanization, and consumerism. A new, affluent middle class developed, becoming the core electorate of the BJP. In a rapidly changing world persons were searching for an identity, several found one in Hindu nationalism, turning to gurus, and sectarian movements, participating in yoga classes and watching saffron-clad ideologists on TV. The Ayodhya incident and the following bloody clashes between militant RSS members and Muslims, triggered by press campaigns, and Pakistan supported terrorist attacks, enabled the BJP to capitalize on a growing Hindu nationalism. BJP membership soared, and already by 1996, it had become the largest party in Parliament.

Like his good friend Donald Trump, Narandra Modi has by his enemies been provided with several characteristics they consider to be dangerous. He is reluctant to give press conferences and in-depth personal interviews, but based on those and some knowledgeable acquaintances he has been described as a person having all traits of an authoritarian, narcissistic personality, and in addition he practices a puritanical rigidity, having a constricted emotional life, and an enormous ego, which apparently covers up an inner insecurity. Like Trump, Modi is also prone to reveal harmful conspiracy theories, like India being targeted by a global conspiracy, in which every local Muslim is likely to be complicit.

When Modi served as chief minister in the Gujarat state a train with pilgrims and RSS militants was returning from Ayodha. When it stopped at the station of Godhara quarrels erupted between the pilgrims and Muslim food vendors, resulting in a fire that burned 58 Hindus to death. Independent investigators deemed the tragedy to be a tragic accident, though RSS consider it to be a Muslim terrorist attack. Horrific lynchings of Muslim men and women followed, Narendra Modi was accused of condoning the violence that allegedly was supported by police and government officials accused of providing rioters with lists of Muslim property owners. Officially 1,044 persons were killed, while The Concerned Citizens Tribunal estimated that 1,926 persons had been lynched. Parallel to accusations of having been knowledgeable about politicians and administrators’ crucial role in the lynchings, Modi-collaborators were accused of corruption and even extra-judicial killings.

Apart from these unresolved incidents Modi’s reforms during his time as Gujarat minister have benefitted his political career. His regime supported the establishment of new industries, reformed the bureaucracy, and made huge investments in electricity and infrastructure. The state’s growth rate boomed as subsidies were provided to politically connected conglomerates and state-owned players.

The “Gujarat model” has been a prerequisite for Modi’s fame as India’s great modernizers. However, even if Modi after his election victory in 2014 pledged to add 100 million manufacturing jobs, India actually lost 24 million of those jobs between 2017 and 2021. COVID-19 was blamed for the failure, but 11 million jobs had already been lost before the pandemic hit. This might be compared with similar, but much smaller economies, like those of Bangladesh and Vietnam, which manufacture employment doubled between 2019 and 2020, while India’s share barely rose by two percent. Currently, Vietnam exports approximately the same value in manufactured goods with its 100 million people, as does India with its 1.4 billion. Modi’s huge investments in logistics and transport has so far not provided the expected results. Indian investors tend to offshore their profits and demonstrate a preference for financial assets. Private investment was in 2019-20 only 22 percent of GDP, down from 31 percent in 2010-11. One obstacle to investment is India’s profoundly unequal society. Modi’s economic strategy puts wealth before health. The Modi government is reluctant to prioritize investments in primary health care and education.

In 2019, the Modi government declared “war on pollution” but allocated a scanty USD 42 million. Female employment have been dropping for over three decades, with only 7 out of 100 urban women now employed. Modi’s tactics to blame minorities for economic shortcomings, social ills and other problems that could be amended by more effective policies may prove to be disastrous and lead to unmitigated violence. One example is his government’s crackdown on Sikh separatist movements and alleged extra-judicial killings of Sikh militants in Britain and Canada, which has reawaken and militarized Sikh opposition and soured diplomatic contacts with Canada. Likewise is the Government’s move to revoke the Constitution’s Article 370, which granted some autonomy for Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, likely to fuel Muslim anger and desperation and so is the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, making religion a criterion for obtaining Indian nationality. Only non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are eligible for citizenship. Added to this are new laws passed to make interreligious marriages more difficult.

The extreme Hindu pride violence depicted in RRR might be more of a source for worries than admiration for its stunning visual effects and joyous patriotism. It is doubtful if Indian unity can be realised through State homage to an idealized Hindu past, combined with an obvious marginalization of minorities. Instead of being impressed by Indian moon landings, prosperity for the wealthy and adoration of “great” leaders, it might probably be more constructive to look into and address pollution, waste, inequality, poverty, poor health, and education. History proves that harassing minorities cause general human misery. It might be much more beneficial to study history through a scientific/objective lens than as BJP and RRR adhere to invented traditions, i.e. cultural practices and ideas perceived as arising from people in a distant past, though they actually are quite recent and consciously invented by identifiable political actors.

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The country's economic crisis has sparked protests and led to calls for the bank's boss to resign.

A selection of the best photos from the African continent and beyond.

Credit: UNICEF Bangladesh/2018/Sokol

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Oct 5 2023 (IPS)

We are in a race to deliver on our global promise of education for all by 2030 – especially for the 224 million girls and boys impacted by armed conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises who so urgently need our support. At the frontlines of this movement are the inspiring, caring, brilliant teachers who work tirelessly to educate future generations.

As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day – along with key partners such as the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, UNESCO and Education International – Education Cannot Wait honours the sacrifice, compassion and dedication of the world’s teachers. We know you work long hours, with low pay. We know that after COVID-19, we face a massive learning and achievement gap. We know that world leaders have done far too little to support education or people like you on the frontlines, making learning happen day-in, day-out in classrooms around the world.

In the best of circumstances, being a teacher is a challenge. Now imagine what it is like for teachers in a crisis or conflict-hit area in Afghanistan, Colombia, Syria or Uganda. Imagine what it’s like teaching while being one of the millions fleeing wars, conflicts and disasters without any support. Teachers walk to school in fear of attack, bombings, abductions, and other forms of violence and threats. They see their schools swept away in floods and sometimes their family wakes up hungry because of climate change-related droughts. This is the reality facing millions of teachers in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

We must do better. Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, puts teachers at the forefront of everything we do. The teachers are themselves affected by conflicts and climate-induced disasters, and yet they have to serve as mentors and caretakers – inspiring their students to develop and reach their full potential. We cannot underestimate the heroic work carried out by teachers in the most difficult circumstances.

Through ECW’s joint programming, or Multi-Year Resilience Programmes, 100% of the teachers we support receive skills building and training to succeed in the work they do. Since inception, we have trained over 140,000 teachers. In 2022 alone, we recruited and provided financial support to over 22,000 teachers and school administrators. We place a special emphasis on recruiting female teachers, with about half of all recruited teachers being women.

Now we must also focus on the quality of the training we provide in order to elevate and deepen the quality of education provided. That means expanded skills training and continued education for students, it means smaller classroom sizes, it means enabling policies at the local and national level, it means climate resilience in the classroom, so when the next disaster strikes, we are ready.

Together, we can make a better world. Teachers everywhere deserve our respect and admiration. Teachers cannot and should not wait! Join ECW and our strategic partners in supporting teachers in the toughest humanitarian crises on the globe. Let us all bow to them. Let us contribute with funding and a donation today.

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Indigenous leader and activist Vanda Witoto poses at her home in Manaus, Brazil, in October 2022. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

By Farai Shawn Matiashe
BRASÍLIA, Oct 5 2023 (IPS)

Raffaello Nava, a youth and student activist, has fled his home at the peak of the global Coronavirus pandemic after receiving death threats from multinational companies that invaded his ancestral lands in the Amazon rainforest.

The 22-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is seeking refuge in Manaus, a gateway city to the Amazon tropical rainforest.

“They killed two of my friends. I had to run away,” he says while speaking in Portuguese through a translator.

The powerful companies are linked to former President Jair Bolsonaro. He was succeeded by 67-year-old Lula da Silva, a Latin American leftist and a veteran in Brazil’s politics who won in the October 2022 elections.

Nava’s tribe is resisting the invasions from these companies who are cutting down trees for timber and clearing land for agriculture.

“Our territory is wanted by these people. Cattle ranchers have already taken thousands of hectares. My people are receiving threats,” he says. “I am here on the frontline. Fighting to protect our land and that of Brazil, I do not even know if I will go back home or not. I fear for my life.”

Over the years, the lives of indigenous community activists and leaders have been at stake throughout the Amazon.

In 2020 alone, more than 260 human rights defenders were murdered in Latin America, 202 of which occurred in countries of the Amazon Basin, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia, representing 77 percent of the cases, according to a report by the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (Coica).

About 69 percent of these murders in 2020 were against leaders working to defend territory, the environment, and the rights of indigenous peoples.

A boat on the shores of Rio Negro in Brazil. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

Brazil holds 60 percent of the Amazon, the biggest tropical rainforest in the world, with the other portion shared by nine South American nations, including Peru and Colombia.

Brazil and Bolivia have about 90 percent of deforestation and degradation in the Amazon, shows data from research titled Amazonia Against the Clock, which covers nine countries sharing the tropical rainforest released in September last year by scientists from the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-environmental Information (RAISG) in collaboration with Coica.

Indigenous organisations from the Amazonas are calling for a global pact for the permanent protection of 80 percent of the Amazon forest by 2025.

In the Amazon, land grabbers have been invading the land of indigenous communities to pave the way for mining and agriculture.

Agriculture is responsible for 84 percent of deforestation in the Amazon forest, and the amount of land given over to farming has tripled since 1985, according to the report.

The Amazon forest plays a significant role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus reducing the effects of climate change caused by gas emissions worldwide.

There are over 390 billion trees in the Amazon, helping it to retain some 123 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

But over the years, increasing deforestation and land degradation have been reducing the ability of the Amazon forest to absorb carbon dioxide and instead contributing to global warming through both human-caused and natural fires.

The tropical rainforest has also been experiencing droughts and floods, signs human activities are causing climate change.

During his campaign days, Lula promised to combat deforestation in the Amazon forest, which had worsened under Bolsonaro, who was President since 2019.

Bolsonaro backed farm and ranching expansion in the region due to his links to some of Brazil’s powerful agricultural industry leaders.

Another activist based in Manaus, whose life is in danger from powerful people, says deforestation in the Amazon worsened under Bolsonaro.

An aerial view of a scientific research station, Camp 41, in the Amazon in Brazil. Credit: Michael Dantas/United Nations Foundation

“His policies are of less protection. He also reduced the number of protected areas in the Amazon. He made laws that should protect the forest weaker,” he says in an interview in Manaus in October 2022 during Brazil’s elections.

He says during Bolsonaro’s era, there was an increase in the loss of vegetation due to deforestation, reduced biodiversity and a rise in cases of invasions of indigenous communities in the Amazon.

The activist says agro-businesses and those in the extractive industries use pesticides and chemicals that pollute and contaminate water bodies in the Amazon forest, putting many people and animals in danger.

Vanda Witoto, a Brazilian indigenous leader, says multinational companies and agro-businesses were funding illegal operations such as logging in the Amazon during the Bolsonaro era.

“I visited some communities in the Amazon. There was illegal gold mining. Sadly, there is less reporting because the locals are being threatened. Big companies are investing a lot in illegal mining and deforestation in the southern part of the Amazon,” Witoto says, toning down her voice and holding back her tears during an interview at her home in the neighbourhood of Parque das Tribos just outside of Manaus in October last year.

“I saw this with my own eyes. Some indigenous people work for these companies, pushed by poverty and unemployment. We are against this. We have always been fighting to stop it.”

Adriano Karipuna, an indigenous leader, during an interview in October last year, said law enforcement agents in the Bolsonaro government were ineffective in arresting people committing crimes against his people.

“Our people have been struggling with deforestation. We have been reporting for the past years. But it worsened under Bolsonaro,” says Karipuna, who represents the Karipuna people, an indigenous group who have inhabited the Amazon rainforest for centuries.

“We have been receiving threats. Bolsonaro’s government has been taking our land and donating it to the invaders. Environmental criminals are going unpunished.”

Lula has just hit the ground running with his appointment of a veteran environmentalist, Marina Silva, as the Environment and Climate Change minister.

The 64-year-old Silva’s task is to rebuild Brazil’s environmental protection agencies and stanch the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Under Lula’s Presidency, Joenia Wapichana, the first-ever Indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s Congress, has been appointed leader of the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, popularly known as Funai.

This is a huge achievement for the Brazilian indigenous communities whose role was suppressed under Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro had to cut some of Funai’s budget, authority and number of staff, a move that crippled the agency when he assumed Presidency in 2019.

Witoto says she is hopeful that the predicament of indigenous people will change under Lula’s regime.

“We have to elect a person who respects the rights of indigenous people,” she says, speaking to IPS before Lula’s successful election. She added her people lived in fear from the violence perpetrated by Bolsonaro supporters for merely wearing Lula regalia during the election period in October.

A recent joint analysis by researchers at the University of Oxford, the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows deforestation could fall by 89 percent by 2030 under Lula if he reinstates the policies introduced during his first term in office, saving 28,957 square miles of the Amazon rainforest.

Note: Reporting for this story was supported by the United Nations Foundation.

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Communities across Cuba have participated in the UN “ACTNOW” campaign designed to inspire action for the Sustainable Development Goals. Credit: ONU Cuba

By Francisco Pichon
HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 5 2023 (IPS)

In 2015, 193 countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as “a shared plan for peace and prosperity for people and the planet.”

We are now halfway towards the target date for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and while the world has made some progress over the past seven years, many challenges remain.

The UN’s annual SDG Progress Report, which was published in July, triggered serious alarm bells. Of the 140 targets for Agenda 2030 for which data is readily available, 30% have remained static or even seen some backsliding.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC estimates that two-thirds of the SDG targets require urgent policy action.

Boosting partnerships for the goals

In Cuba, where I have served as the UN Resident Coordinator over the last nine months, our team has been working closely with the Government and other development partners to close the remaining gaps in the country’s SDG targets.

Underpinning these efforts was the recent launch of Cuba’s first Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF); a system which brings together and aligns different sources of financing to boost sustainable development in the country.

Credit: ONU Cuba

The INFF, which was jointly prepared by five Cuban economic and financial institutions, together with the UN country team, offers a roadmap for development financing in Cuba through public policy recommendations, analytical tools, opportunities for new partnerships and strengthened capacities among key development partners.

Despite the challenging circumstances – including Cuba’s exclusion from international financial mechanisms and the severe external restrictions imposed on its economy– the INFF is bringing innovative ideas and creating space for meaningful engagement between government actors, academics and other national and international experts to make informed policy decisions.

In fact, our joint efforts to support Cuba’s INFF process recently received the ‘UN SIDS Partnerships Award’, which recognizes initiatives that boost partnerships for sustainable development in Small Island Developing States.

Next, we need to address complex development challenges in the most open and participative way possible. This also means developing innovative thinking and cultivating political will in the decision-making sphere.

This vision for the future of global cooperation was firmly set out by the UN Secretary-General in the ‘Our Common Agenda’ report launched last year. The report highlights the role of science, technology and innovation in overcoming development challenges, and delivering transformative change in the fields of renewable energy, green economies and inclusive education systems.

As head of the Group of 77+China over the past year, Cuba has actively contributed to giving voice to this kind of transformative vision. The countries in the Group represent two-thirds of the United Nations membership and 80% of the world’s population.

As such, they have found an epicenter in Havana for consensus-building in key areas such as education, culture and the environment. Last month, Cuba hosted the G-77+China summit– a milestone moment to address the central issue of bridging the North-South development gap, including through technology and innovation.

Soon after this meeting, all eyes turned to the SDG Summit at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, which offered a rallying point for Cuba, and the rest of the world to accelerate joint action to reach the targets of the 2030 Agenda.

Our UN team in Cuba is part of this movement; standing side by side with the national authorities and partners to advance the SDGs across the country. It is in this context that the process to start formulating Cuba’s new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework– the roadmap which guides the UN’s joint development planning in the country over a five-year period- is about to begin.

The second half of the journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda represents a decisive hour for sustainable development in Cuba and around the world. Our UN team is committed to supporting Cuba over this finish line.

Francisco Pichon is the UN Resident Coordinator in Cuba. This article was adapted from a version originally published in Prensa Latina.

Source: UN Development Coordination Office

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