Africa

Cameroon's Mankon people regard it as a taboo to speak of the death of their 97-year-old monarch.

Algeria extend their perfect start in qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations while Mozambique and Sudan record their first wins.

Ethiopian newcomer Mogos Tuemay wins the men's 10,000m final on the first day of the African Athletics Championships in Mauritius.

South African lightweight boxer Simiso Buthelezi dies after suffering bleeding on the brain following a bout in Durban that ended with him appearing to shadow box an 'invisible opponent'.

South African authorities line up ethics classes after four clubs receive life bans for fixing 59-1 and 33-1 scorelines.

Bola Tinubu, 70, will lead Nigeria's ruling APC into presidential elections next February.

It is the first of 84,000 colonial objects Belgian authorities have agreed to give back.

The next generation of NFL stars could be discovered in Ghana after the NFL announced that it is to host its first events in Africa later this month.

Through collaboration we can build on the foundations of our knowledge to bring forward innovative ways to address health challenges that benefit all of humanity. Credit: WHO

By Quarraisha Abdool Karim
DURBAN, South Africa, Jun 8 2022 (IPS)

Africa is plagued by many epidemics — from tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS to malaria and wild polio — but the continent has also worked for decades to fight these threats. The key to beating these deadly diseases is turning inward to existing expertise and finding locally driven solutions.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has placed public health back in the global spotlight and has also served as a reminder that science is not undertaken in an ivory tower. Science shapes humanity because it takes place among us. COVID-19 has also showcased that no epidemic takes place in isolation. Through collaboration we can build on the foundations of our knowledge to bring forward innovative ways to address health challenges that benefit all of humanity.

This is not a new idea. In fact, it is something that we became all too familiar with during the AIDS pandemic.

Africa has the scientific leadership and intellectual capital to develop new technologies and interventions. This is something we have shown time and time again. If there is a problem, then local research is surely the best path toward finding a solution

Despair, pain, and loss were rampant during the 1980s and early 1990s, at the beginning of South Africa’s HIV epidemic. Every weekend, white funeral tents in rural KwaZulu-Natal seemed to mushroom up and multiply, signifying the growing toll the virus was taking on the country.

Witnessing this helped catalyse me to undertake one of the earliest population-based studies that looked closely at this emerging health issue in South Africa. HIV prevalence was low at the time, with less than 1% of the population having been infected.

But lurking within the data was a shocking revelation: young women (15-24 years old) were six times more likely to be infected compared to their male counterparts.

We knew something had to be done. That meant understanding what had led to this striking disparity in risk. So, we began speaking to women from all parts of society to try and get a better sense of what they were experiencing.

Here’s what we learned: power dynamics of relationships and sex were disrupting disease prevention. Women didn’t have the ability to protect themselves because of the limited options available to them — options like condoms, that placed the responsibility of reducing risk in the hands of men.

Meanwhile, cases continued to surge in South Africa at an alarming rate, doubling annually in the general population.

Existing methods to prevent HIV infection weren’t going to cut it. Approaches designed in the global North were never going to be able to fully account for the needs of women in Africa. That’s why new solutions had to be brought forward instead.

One way that we sought to empower women was through a gel that contained Tenofovir, an antiretroviral (ARV) medication. This innovative approach, shown in the CAPRISA 004 trial, enabled HIV-negative women to protect themselves from the virus. CAPRISA’s research on PrEP was recently recognised by the VinFuture Prize as a lifesaving innovation from the global South.

Today, Tenofovir is taken daily as a pill for HIV prevention, a solution also known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). It has been adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a key prevention option for both women and men.

And it hasn’t stopped there — a range of new anti-retroviral drugs and long-acting formulations, delivered as injections and implants, are currently being evaluated to expand prevention choices.

AIDS is no longer a fatal condition, instead it is chronic yet manageable. But we still see too many deaths and new HIV infections, particularly in marginalized populations. Two-thirds of all people living with HIV/AIDS are in sub–Saharan Africa and the region accounts for 60% of all new infections.

As we turn our focus towards other pandemics, such as COVID-19, we cannot afford to lose the gains made in HIV. It is a trap we fell into before — when early HIV work overshadowed TB efforts — and it is not one we can afford to be caught in again.

Even now, COVID-19 continues to draw on lessons from the decades of work that have been poured into our HIV/AIDS response. This includes leveraging existing testing tools to detect COVID, utilising clinical trial infrastructure to expedite vaccine development, calling on community engagement processes to educate the public, and relying on scientific expertise to guide governments in their response.

The AIDS pandemic has taught us that scientists, policy-makers, and civil societies cannot work in a vacuum. There must be a unity of purpose that galvanises the steadfast support of global leaders in governments and funding agencies across the world.

Africa has the scientific leadership and intellectual capital to develop new technologies and interventions. This is something we have shown time and time again. If there is a problem, then local research is surely the best path toward finding a solution.

Pursuing this path of innovation requires funding that will support and promote the growth and expertise of Africa’s scientists. Our inter-dependency and shared vulnerability underscores the importance of collaboration and resource-sharing both globally and regionally that must be used for the benefit of humanity. There is no time for complacency. We must ensure that solutions are tailored by local research to best benefit those in need.

Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and Associate Scientific Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). She was a 2021 Laureate of the VinFuture Prize, in the ‘Innovators from developing countries’ category.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Jun 8 2022 (IPS)

It has been over 100 days since Russia first invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, turning the country into a slaughterhouse. The United Nations (UN) in this report says that, as of 1 June, 2022, more than 6.9 million refugees have left Ukraine and 2.1 million have returned, while eight million people are displaced inside Ukraine itself. War in Ukraine has caused the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the conflict which began in February has since then taken thousands of lives, caused untold destruction, displaced millions of people, resulted in unacceptable violation of human rights and is inflaming a three-dimensional global – food, energy and finance – that is pummeling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies.

Maria Dmytriyeva

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who are choosing to stay and fight back are demonstrating unity and resilience and say they are ready for the resistance. Maria Dmytriyeva, a long-time women’s rights activist and national gender expert with Democracy Development Center, an NGO based out of Ukraine is one amongst them who chose to stay back, has been working on the ground aiding civilians since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

In an interview given to IPS News Dmytriyeva says that areas that were affected directly by the hostilities that have been liberated by the Ukrainian army are now rapidly rebuilding. “Local people and visiting builders are cleaning up the street, debris, mines and restoring infrastructure, where there are no Russians, life goes on.”

“We do have major problems with fuel as Russians deliberately destroyed our petroleum hosting areas, so transportation is a problem. We don’t have food scarcity; the problem is how to deliver it into areas controlled by Russians or heavily bombarded by Russians,” Dmytriyeva said.

Human rights organizations have been watching the impact of the war in Ukraine on women and children. The Rapid Gender Analysis, put together by UN Women and CARE International says that 90% of those fleeing Ukraine and 60% of those displaced are women – both which comes with increased safety risks, gender-based violence, poor hygiene, lack of basic supplies and safety concerns in shelters or across borders.

“I have visited three border checkpoints, in Romania, Moldova and Slovakia, we don’t enough information about what to do once anyone crosses the borders – how to manage your passport, how to find the right people, which shelter to go to and how to stay safe,” says Ella Lamakh, a social policy expert and Head of Democracy Development Center in Ukraine who too stayed back in Ukraine to help women and children impacted by the war.

Ella Lamakh

“There are a lot of women and children crossing these borders, and when I asked them where they are going, their reply is – ‘oh we are just going across the border, we will ask some volunteer, or we will figure it out’. While I am thankful for all the help these women are getting, there are a lot of posters on the walls across the border or at these checkpoints, but nobody has the time or mind to stop and read any of them. What would be useful for these women is if they are given information, handed over to them in the form of posters or booklets,” Lamakh says.

As of 3 June, the Human Rights Monitoring Team of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had received reports of 124 alleged acts of conflict-related sexual violence across Ukraine.

“Allegations of sexual violence by Russian troops in Ukraine are mounting. A national hotline on domestic violence, human trafficking and gender-based discrimination has been set up, and has received multiple shocking reports ranging from gang rape, to coercion, where loved ones are forced to watch an act of sexual violence committed against a partner of a child” stated this report.

The United Nations has warned that the war in Ukraine has also helped stoke a global food crisis, and “what could follow would be malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years, urging Russia to release Ukrainian grain exports.”

Before the war began in February, Ukraine exported 4.5m tonnes of agricultural produce per month through its ports – 12% of the planet’s wheat, 15% of its corn and half of its sunflower oil. As Russian warships cut off the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and others, the supply has been gravely impacted.

More than a month into Russia’s invasion, the Ukrainian military fared better than expected, where Russia has numerical superiority with 900,000 active personnel in its armed forces, and 2 million in reserve, Ukraine has 196,000 and 900,000 reservists, stated this report. Ukraine managed to bring the asymmetric power of pervasive inexpensive commercial technology, especially citizen-empowering social networks and crowdsourcing. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy through his various appeals managed to tap into its western allies demanding weapons and sanctions to fight back.

Several countries have reached out to help Ukraine by sending military aid to Kyiv. The United States will be sending Ukraine advanced rocket systems and munitions as part of a new $700 million package of military equipment, “promised only after direct assurance by Ukraine’s leader that they would not use it against targets within Russian territory.”

Britain is to supply long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, UK will be sending a handful of tracked M270 multiple launch rocket systems. Spain is to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks in a step up of its military support.

In its latest attempt to punish Russia, the European Union, along with countries such as the UK and the US have introduced a series of measures to weaken key areas of the Russian economy, such as its energy and financial sectors. The EU has imposed a ban on all imports of oil from Russia that are brought in by sea. The US is banning all Russian oil and gas imports, and the UK will phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Germany has put on hold the final approval of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia. These western sanctions on Russia are like none the world has seen.

Only time will tell what Russia’s overestimation of its own capabilities and underestimation of the capacity of Ukraine to fight back will result in, but history is a proof that ‘wars of aggression’ have not always ended well for aggressor states, and as seen in Ukraine, it’s already united western allies, rallied Ukrainians against common enemy and united them with a sense of purpose and collective sacrifice, keeping them going stronger for the last 100 days. Ukraine is showing the world how to fight back.

Sania Farooqui is a New Delhi based journalist, filmmaker and host of The Sania Farooqui Show where she regularly speaks to women who have made significant contributions to bring about socio economic changes globally. She writes and reports regularly for IPS news wire.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Not only is Ferdinand Omanyala Africa’s fastest man, he is also the inspiration for a new wave sprinters in Kenya.

By Mark Lowcock
LONDON, Jun 8 2022 (IPS)

This is what happens when you starve. With no food, the body’s metabolism slows down to preserve energy for vital organs. Hungry and weak, people often become fatigued, irritable and confused.

The immune system loses strength. As they starve, people—especially children—are likelier to fall sick or die from diseases they may have otherwise resisted. Cholera, respiratory infections, malaria, dengue, and diphtheria kill more people in famines than starvation itself.

For the lucky (or unlucky?) ones who escape disease but still have nothing to eat, their organs will begin to wither and then fail. Eventually, the body starts to devour its own muscles, including the heart.

Many will experience hallucinations and convulsions before, finally, the heart stops. It is a terrible, agonizing, and humiliating death. It is nearly as terrible to watch – as I know from my own experience over nearly 40 years in Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere.

When I was young, many people—including researchers and scientists—thought famine was a permanent feature of the human experience. Famines are shocking, scarring events, the most extreme form of humanitarian disaster. They involve large-scale loss of life with a slow but visible prelude, a tipping point beyond which prevention is no longer possible, and then an explosion.

As an undergraduate, I went to Nobel-prize-winner Amartya Sen’s lectures on poverty and famine, and I wrote a masters’ dissertation on the use of food grain prices as an early warning of food crises.

For many of my friends and me, the Ethiopia famine of 1984 was a lightbulb moment. In previous eras, famine was a feature of the fragility of agriculture against the ever-increasing pressure of higher populations.

In 1968, Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, in which he predicted that by the 1980s, four billion people would have been killed by famines. His opening sentences set the scene: “The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines in which hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.”

Ehrlich predicted that England would cease to exist by 2000 because the country would be consumed by hunger. Historical experience gave these dark warnings a degree of credence. Researchers think that famines may have taken more lives than war over the course of human history.

More than 120 million people are believed to have died in famines in the hundred years after 1870, a larger number even than those killed in that period’s uniquely bloody wars.

The doom mongers, though, were wrong. In fact, in the past 50 years, famine has become much rarer and much less lethal. So far this century, there has just been one real famine. That was in Somalia in 2011, when a quarter of a million people died.

Ehrlich and his ilk were wrong because they failed to see how the world was changing. Three main factors have combined to produce unprecedented advances in reducing large-scale loss of life through starvation over the last 50 years.

First was an exponential increase in agricultural output and productivity. Improvements in plant breeding, protection, storage, irrigation, harvesting, transporting, and marketing have contributed to a 300 percent increase in food grain production, using only 12 percent more agricultural land around the world.

The global spread in the use of nitrogen-based artificial fertiliser and the development through the Green Revolution of improved seed varieties for major crops explain most of the improvements.

Second, a spectacular reduction in global poverty has increased people’s ability to afford food. In the 60 years after 1960, the extreme poverty rate globally dropped from more than 50 percent of the total human population to less than 10 percent. In particular, the 25 years from 1990 to 2015 saw a reduction from 35 percent to less than 10 percent, even while the global population continued to grow dramatically.

So not only was there a lot more food available, but most people now had enough income to be able to buy it. Food security has been enhanced by the entitlements created by social safety net schemes established in dozens of the poorest countries over the past 20 years, including ones I have seen myself in countries including Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia.

Third, when famine does threaten, the response is now much more effective than it was 30 years ago. My first job was on the famine in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s. Then, the overwhelming focus of the relief effort was on food, water, and shelter. Now we understand that in a famine, starvation is not the main cause of death.

The real killers are those diseases that a healthy person can generally fight off but a starving one cannot. As a result, today’s famine responses include comprehensive immunisation programmes, primary healthcare, and nutrition interventions as well as food and clean water.

The result of all this scientific, technological, and economic progress is that modern-day famines are manmade – the result either of deliberate attempts to stave a population, or of wilful negligence.

That was true to a degree in the past: Mao Zedong’s Great Famine in China in the 1960s, generally believed to be the worst famine in history in terms of the total number of lives lost, arose largely from the authorities’ policy choices.

And the famine that some people claim took three million lives in North Korea in the mid-1990s—a repetition of which remains a risk, as I saw during a visit to Pyongyang and the south of the country in 2018—could have been forestalled had the regime been willing to accept the international help on offer.

Despite all the progress famine is now back. But so far in the 21st century, ignorant policy choices have not been what generated famine threats. Deliberate, concerted attempts to prevent aid reaching the starving, as part of the military or political strategy of states or armed groups, are now the only explanation for the failure to have eradicated famine from the human experience. In every single case of famine or near famine in the last ten years – including those I dealt with at the UN from 2017-21 – the fine line between, on the one hand, acute suffering and chronic hunger and, on the other, mass death through starvation and related causes, was policed by the men with guns and bombs. Pressure on them has meant the worst has been avoided.

The world now faces its most serious food crisis for many decades. It arises from the cumulative effects of a decade of spreading conflict, the repeated undermining by climate change of livelihoods based on increasingly volatile rainfall, and the economic crunch on the most vulnerable countries from the COVID pandemic.

And then on top of all that has come Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, disrupting global grain markets and taking the food exports of Russia and Ukraine – enough food for 400 million people – largely off the table this year.

The new global food crisis affects us all. Everyone going to a supermarket for weekly shopping is aware of prices rising. For most of us, the impact is manageable. Buying food is not the biggest call on our incomes. We can tighten our belts and adjust.

But for about 10% of the world’s population, mostly in the poorer countries of the Middle East (like Syria and Yemen) and sub-Saharan Africa, it’s different. Tens of millions of them are falling back into extreme poverty, where they barely have enough calories and nutrients to nourish their bodies properly and their children suffer stunting and life-long cognitive impairments.

However, it is the roughly 1% of the world’s population who faced acute hunger even before the Ukraine crisis, those who cannot survive at all without help from aid agencies, who will be the victims if today’s food crisis is allowed to deteriorate into multiple simultaneous famines.

They are mostly concentrated in relatively few countries, including in particular Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen and parts of the Sahel. Millions may starve to death. That is what policy makers should be really focused on.

So, what can be done? Simultaneous actions are needed in four areas.

First, a real effort needs to be made to get more grain onto the market in the very short term. There is plenty of food to feed everyone this year. Diplomatic efforts, which have become increasingly visible over the last month, to find a way to access the grain silos in the Black Sea ports and export the 20 million tonnes of wheat they contain should be intensified.

They may not work; if they don’t, those holding large stocks of grain for strategic reserves should be prevailed upon to release a modest proportion of them. That would ease the market and take the edge off price increases.

Second, because it seems unlikely that the underlying causes of this year’s crisis will be solved quickly, reducing medium term reliance on Russia and Ukraine is now a practical necessity.

Farmers around the world need greater help and encouragement to plant more wheat, maize, sunflower and other food crops, as well as better access to inputs, above all seeds and fertiliser. Diversification in the fertiliser market, in which Russia and its allies are dominant, is a particular priority.

Third, many low-income countries which do not produce enough food for their populations but do have the administrative capacity and institutions to run effective safety net programmes are constrained from importing food by fiscal problems and indebtedness.

Macroeconomic management matters, but some accommodation from the shareholders of international financial institutions led by the World Bank and IMF is necessary in the current circumstances.

And fourth, and most important of all in the next weeks and months, a substantial increase in emergency humanitarian aid to populations in clear and present danger of mass starvation is essential.

The Biden administration and US Congress package agreed a package of $5 billion for this in May. That shows the way. Others, especially the UK and the EU, should follow suit. The G7 summit in Bavaria this month would be a good time to do that.

Footnote: This article is adapted in part from Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times, out now from the Center for Global Development.(CGD).

Mark Lowcock was appointed UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in May 2017 and served in that role until June 2021. He was previously Permanent Secretary of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. As one of the most distinguished international public servants, Lowcock has spent more than 35 years leading and managing responses to humanitarian crises across the globe.

He has authored opinion articles for The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, Le Monde, CNN, and others. He was twice awarded medals by Queen Elizabeth II for services to international development and public service, including Knighthood in 2017. He is a Visiting Professor of Practice in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics, and a Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development.

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Nutritionist Sophy Saronge knew she should breastfeed her baby for six months but says she had to work.

Sadio Mane scores deep into stoppage time as the African champions maintain their perfect start in 2023 Nations Cup qualifying.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, standing with Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, at the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2022. Sasakawa was honored at the Global Health Leaders Awards.

By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Jun 7 2022 (IPS)

When Yohei Sasakawa visited a remote village in South America, he found 23 people living there. It was no ordinary village because all the residents had been stigmatized and shunned by society because they were affected by leprosy.

Yet this is not a unique story, says Sasakawa, the WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination. This is the story of persons affected by leprosy, where there are more than 100 laws globally that discriminate based on the disease.

In his journey to at least 122 countries in Africa and South America, he found that the story of persons affected by leprosy is characterized by stigma, discrimination, and ostracization.

Against this backdrop, Sasakawa had a message of hope and encouragement during the sixth ‘Don’t Forget Leprosy’ campaign webinar series titled, Elimination of Leprosy: Initiatives in the Americas and Africa.

Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination during one of his many visits to communities where people affected by leprosy live. Credit: Joyce Chimbi

He said that eliminating leprosy was “in its last mile. A sustained push is much needed in spite of and because of ongoing challenges including COVID-19 pandemic as well as the myths and misconceptions around leprosy”.

“India has the highest number of leprosy cases, but they have also targeted to eliminate leprosy by 2030. This is an ambitious goal. I am encouraged by ongoing efforts, commitment, and passion to eliminate leprosy.”

With the universality of leprosy’s challenges in mind, under the Sasakawa Leprosy Initiative, the WHO Goodwill Ambassador, the Nippon Foundation, and Sasakawa Health Foundation work in a coordinated approach to achieve a leprosy free world.

Dr Carissa Etienne, Director, Pan American Health Organization, regional office for the Americas of WHO, stressed the need to sustain the fight to achieve zero leprosy cases by 2030. She called for a doubling of efforts. The Global Leprosy Strategy 2021 to 2030 is both a health and economic strategy because it aims at promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The webinar provided a platform for health officials, NGOs, and representatives of organizations of persons affected by leprosy. Participants heard how countries in the Americas and Africa are stepping up prevention initiatives in keeping with WHO guidelines to accelerate the annual decline in new leprosy cases.

Experts stressed that innovative approaches are much needed to sustain leprosy case detection, contact tracing, and treatment, especially against the backdrop of COVID-19, which continues to shift attention from the disease.

Speakers stressed that a WHO-recommended regimen of timely screening and treating eligible contacts with single-dose rifampicin was vital. When the single dose is given as post-exposure prophylaxis to contacts of newly diagnosed patients, it results in a 50 to 60 % reduction in the chances of developing leprosy over the next two years.

WHO recorded a total of 202,185 new leprosy cases globally in 2019. India, Indonesia, and Brazil register the highest number of new leprosy cases – more than 10,000 cases each.

Worldwide, 13 other countries reported 1,000 to 10,000 cases each. The Americas recorded 29,936 new cases, with Africa following closely with 20,205.

The webinar was held in line with the Global Leprosy Strategy for 2021-2030, on track with the new road map on neglected tropical diseases. To eliminate leprosy, new cases must reduce to about 63,000 globally.

Dr Carmelita Ribeiro Filha Coriolano from the Brazilian Ministry of Health spoke extensively about the spread of new cases in the Americas in 2020. department of chronic conditions and Sexually Transmitted Infections health surveillance secretariat

Coriolano provided a detailed sociodemographic profile of new leprosy disease cases and physical disability indicators picked up by the Department of Chronic Conditions and Sexually Transmitted Infections Health Surveillance Secretariat. She noted that Brazil recorded the highest new cases of leprosy in 2021.

In Africa, too, the cases remain a cause of concern.

“In 2015, leprosy was eliminated as a public health concern in Angola. But the disease is still very much a priority because the most recent data shows 797 new cases were detected,” says Dr Ernesto Afonso, National Leprosy Program Coordinator, Ministry of Health in Angola.

Dr Joseph Ngozi Chukwu, medical advisor, German Leprosy Relief Association in Nigeria, updated the epidemiological situation, leprosy case management, achievements, and lessons learned.

“Over 30,000 persons are estimated to be living with leprosy-related disabilities across Nigeria,” he said.

Lucrecia Vasquez Acevedo, President, Felehansen-National Federation of the Associations of the Persons Affected by Leprosy in Colombia, said the stigma continued.

“We cannot forget about leprosy because of the myths, misconceptions, and lies created around leprosy. It is important to teach other people the truth about leprosy. During the pandemic, we learned how to use technology to teach and overcome the challenges of access to information presented by the pandemic,” says Acevedo, suggesting that the same should apply to leprosy.

Professor Takahiro Nanri, Executive Director, Sasakawa Health Foundation, facilitated a question-and-answer session, providing an opportunity to respond to questions from the participants. During the session, issues of myths, misconceptions, and stigma arose as they remained an obstacle to eliminating leprosy.

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Mauritius hopes hosting the African Athletics Championships for the third time will shine a light on the country's ability to successfully organize major sports events.

The confluence of the waters with the distinct colors of the pollution of each one: darker waters reflect the urban sewage of the Arrudas River, while brown reflects erosion coming from the upper Velhas River, a natural effect or product of mining visible in the city of Belo Horizonte, in southern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 7 2022 (IPS)

Acaba Mundo has fallen into oblivion, despite its apocalyptic name – which roughly translates as World’s End – and historical importance as an urban waterway. It is a typical victim of Brazil’s metropolises, which were turned into cemeteries of streams, with their flooded neighborhoods and filthy rivers.

The Acaba Mundo stream disappeared under the asphalt and concrete of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil. It was the main source of water for the first inhabitants of the city founded in 1897 and the first watercourse in the city to be culverted and hidden underground.

Interventions on the riverbed began a century ago, with modifications to adjust it to the geometric layout of the streets and canalizations, and ended with it being completely covered over, except for its headwaters, in the 1970s, geographer Alessandro Borsagli, a professor and researcher who specializes in water issues, told IPS.

It became invisible, like practically all the streams that flow into the Arrudas River, the axis of the main watershed of the planned city of Belo Horizonte, whose limits were exceeded decades ago by urban sprawl and which now has 2.5 million inhabitants.

The water is still dirty when it is returned to the Onça River after passing through the Wastewater Treatment Plant in the city of Belo Horizonte, in southern Brazil. Much remains to be decontaminated, as well as the Velhas River that it flows into. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Forgotten

The existence of the Acaba Mundo stream has also been erased from people’s memories. But its waters still run in clogged culverts under streets and avenues, including the city’s main avenue, Afonso Pena.

The city government does not even mention it in the presentation of the America Rene Giannetti Municipal Park, a large popular space for tourism and nature conservation in the center of the city, which was originally crossed by the stream before it was diverted by canals to another sub-basin.

Only elderly residents such as Carmela Pezzuti, who lived in Belo Horizonte for a few months in 1939, when she was six years old, still remember – as she told IPS – that the park then took its name from Acaba Mundo, when the stream still existed aboveground.

Today, the so-called Dry Bridge is still there, under which the now hidden and forgotten stream used to flow.

“This reflects the history of Belo Horizonte, of increasing interventions in the watercourses and ‘hydrophobia’ in response to the stench from the streams, which were used as sewage outfalls and turned into sources of diseases,” in addition to the increasingly frequent floods, said Borsagli.

Apolo Heringer, a physician and environmentalist who has raised awareness and mobilized local residents in defense of the Velhas River and its watershed with the Manuelzão Project, a university project named after an important literary figure in the culture of the state of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Business vs streams

Covering up the streams and expanding the underground channels became a demand of society in general, in addition to responding to the interests of real estate businesses that have treated the watercourses as obstacles to the construction of new housing, he said.

The transportation sector, from the automotive industry to bus companies, also pushed for the conversion of riverbeds and their banks into avenues, as has been done since automobiles took over the cities.

“The urban mobility model adopted is incompatible with watercourses,” urban architect Elisa Marques, a researcher and activist on water issues, told IPS. “Avenues are built on the valley bottoms, the riverbeds are blocked and the soil becomes more impermeable. Improving public transport would reduce the space for cars and return it to the waters.”

A residential neighborhood in northern Belo Horizonte, with its distinctive dips and rises that accelerate torrents caused by rainfall, which flood the valleys. The steeper slopes of the Curral mountain range, in the south of this southern Brazilian city, aggravate water disasters. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Floods

The increasing impermeabilization of the soil, due to urban expansion and suppression of vegetation, makes the channels, no matter how much they are enlarged, unable to absorb the increased flow of torrents in the rainiest periods, usually in December and January, said Borsagli.

The topography of Belo Horizonte favors the existence of hundreds of fast-flowing streams and minor watercourses, due to the steep slopes.

The Curral mountain range, where the main tributaries of the Arrudas River rise, which cross the most urbanized part of the city, exceeds 1,400 meters above sea level, while the Arrudas is about 800 meters above sea level.

“It is not known for sure why the Acaba Mundo stream is so named, whether it is because its source is far from the center of the city like the end of the world or because of the destructive force of its torrent,” explained the geographer, author of the book “Invisible Rivers of the Mining Metropolis”.

Flooding worsened as the city grew, especially from the 1940s onwards, and interventions that replaced the streambeds with channels aggravated the problem, according to Borsagli. He explained that channelizing a stream almost always increases the flow that floods the watershed below.

Currently, the most severe flooding continues to be seen along some parts of the Arrudas River, but it has become more frequent in Belo Horizonte’s other basin, that of the Onça River (the Portuguese name for jaguar), in the northern part of the city, whose population has grown more recently and is poorer.

In general, Brazilian cities lack efficient drainage systems. The governmental National Sanitation Information System found that in 2020 only 45.3 percent of the 4107 municipalities that participated in its assessment – out of a national total of 5570 – have exclusive rainwater drainage systems. In the rest the rainwater is mixed with wastewater.

This shortfall exacerbates the recurrent water tragedies. São Paulo also suffers annual flooding in several neighborhoods. And on the outskirts of Recife, in the Northeast, torrential rains in the last days of May left at least 127 dead and 9,000 people affected.

The primacy of automobiles over public transport put pressure on the banks of urban rivers because of streets that invade the space of the water and make the soil impermeable with asphalt, aggravating the floods that recur every year in Brazil’s major cities, according to urban architect Elisa Marques. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Pollution

In addition to the failure of stormwater drainage, there is also the pollution of water resources. For decades Belo Horizonte used the streams as sewage channels, with little treatment of the drainage, spreading filth and disease.

The situation in Belo Horizonte improved with the construction of the Arrudas River Wastewater Treatment Plant (ETE) in 2001 and the Onça Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2006, but it is still insufficient, said Apolo Heringer, a physician, environmentalist and retired professor from the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

Heringer, who was a political exile during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, founded the Manuelzão Project at the university in 1997, with the aim of cleaning up and revitalizing the Velhas River, the source of half the water consumed in the areas on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte and the recipient of the rivers that cross the capital, the Arrudas and the Onça.

The ETEs respond in part to the strategy advocated by the environmentalist and his project of concentrating efforts where they are most productive.

“Along 30 to 40 kilometers of the Velhas River and the final stretches of the Arrudas and Onça rivers, 80 percent of the pollution produced by 80 percent of the population of the outlying neighborhoods is concentrated, both from sewage and garbage. It is the epicenter of pollution,” Heringer told IPS.

Focusing efforts in this area, which makes up only 20 percent of the city, would practically result in the decontamination of the Velhas River basin, which extends for 800 kilometers and flows into the São Francisco, one of the largest national rivers that crosses a large part of the semiarid Northeast region.

But the goal of being able to swim, fish and boat in the Velhas River requires 100 percent wastewater treatment, and the collection and proper management of all garbage so that the liquid runoff does not go into the rivers. This means it is still a distant dream, the expert acknowledged.

The treatment of sewage by the Minas Gerais Sanitation Company (Copasa) is still incomplete; the water that is returned to the rivers still contains impurities, the environmentalist lamented.

ETE Arrudas removes the main pollutants and complies with national legislation, as shown by laboratory tests. “It is possible to visually verify the difference in quality of the treated sewage in relation to the raw sewage,” Copasa replied to questions from IPS on the matter.

However, in the Onça River ETE, the water returned to the river does not appear to be clean.

Delegates at the 'Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement' discussed how meaningful dialogue amplify young people’s issues and lead to laws and policies which benefit them. Credit: APDA

By Cecilia Russell
Johannesburg, Jun 7 2022 (IPS)

Young people are often the first to rebuild their communities. However, youths’ diverse challenges cannot be addressed without meaningful dialogue, says Klaus Beck, Regional Director of UNFPA ASRO ai.

He was speaking during the hybrid conference ‘Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement’ on June 2 and 3, 2022.

Beck noted young people were severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic because many were forced out of jobs due to the economic recession. Many other young boys and girls had missed school – some dropping out altogether. There was an impact on anxiety and depression and increased suicide. With almost a billion young people aged 10 to 24 years living in the mid to low and middle-income countries in Asia and accounting for 60% of the world’s population – this is a very powerful group that needs to be taken seriously.

“We know that young people are among the first to step up to help their communities rebuild. During the COVID 19 pandemic, young people were mobilized to respond to the crisis by working as health workers, advocates, volunteers, scientists, social entrepreneurs, and innovators,” Beck said. “We cannot address the diverse challenges in needs and support their leadership without partnering with them. It is, for this reason, that the engagement of young people in policy and programs is crucial.”

Meaningful youth engagement should include the poorest and the most marginalized. Beck said policymakers must have a systematic method for conducting open and inclusive dialogue. Many youth participants at the conference elaborated on this theme.

Ayano Kunimitsu, an MP from Japan, said youth made impressive contributions on the frontlines and through initiatives during the pandemic, even though they often faced structural barriers due to cultural norms and the digital divide.

Parliamentarians should ensure “opportunities are given to young people to exercise their potential and that youth voices are reflected into national policies and strategies,” she said.

Young people were often the first to respond during a crisis, yet were often marginalized, an ‘Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement’ co-hosted APDA and Y-PEER heard. Credit: APDA

Dr Jetn Sirathranont, MP from Thailand, represented the host country. While there were negative impacts due to the pandemic, Thailand changed its Criminal Code in February 2021 and passed a law that allowed women to unconditionally terminate their 1st term pregnancies.
Abortion is allowed under certain circumstances up to 20 weeks, he said.

He said though intergenerational discussions, youth were involved in developing youth policy and legislation alongside Parliamentarians.

Virasak Kohsurat, MP for Thailand and the former Minister of Social Development and Human Security, said the country’s constitution required that one-third of all members in a committee looking at draft bills be drawn from NGOs working for and with that group of the population. Likewise, with Senate committees, he said.

He suggested a combination of “deep listening” and being patient, polite, and open was an essential strategy for success in meaningful youth engagement.

When the subject matter could get emotive and controversial, for example, global warming and education, this strategy would keep the conversation on track.

During a discussion of the best way for young people to engage with parliamentarians, one delegate suggested that UN agencies could contribute to ensuring all, including marginalized rural communities, was included. The dialogue was crucial and should not leave anybody behind.

Rebecca Tobena, a youth delegate from Papua New Guinea, agreed, especially in a country like hers with a clear hierarchy and where women and youth are on the bottom rung.

Irene Saulog, a member of the House of Representatives in the Philippines, said the UN estimated that 30 percent of the world’s students, both at schools and universities, amounting to 1.5 billion people in 188 countries, were excluded from face-to-face learning during the pandemic.

This closure of school affected the youths’ well-being.

“The young generation experienced significant psychological impacts of social distancing and quarantine measures,” Saulog said.

The young generation experienced significant psychological impacts of social distancing and quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet their contribution and creativity was praised during an ‘Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement’ held virtually and in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: APDA

The lack of face-to-face learning exacerbated inequality because students from marginalized sectors were less likely to have access to online education.

She quoted the International Labour Organization and the Asian Development Bank report, which estimated that an estimated 220 million employed young people ages 15 to 24 years old only have temporary jobs in the Asia Pacific.

“This results in them depending on taking informal jobs to earn a living, risking their health.”

Saulog noted that in the Philippines, 28 percent of the population of 30 million Filipino citizens were between 10 to 24 years old.

“With the right policies and investments, our country is poised to reap the benefits of a large number of youths … it was worth passing legislation that benefitted the youth.”

Youth made and are making major contributions, Saulog said. She wanted the audience to know that “we are delightfully surprised by your creativity”, especially in the digital age where the solutions created were “beyond our imaginations”.

Nepalese youth representative Safalta Maharjan noted that while youth were considered the country’s “future,” they were not prioritized.

Maharjan said youth should have the right to participate in the decision-making of a family, community, and public institutions on matters that concern them. The participation of youth in decision making was notably lacking in the rural areas

“Many youths in rural areas are uneducated, and this needs to be prioritized,” she said.

Thai Children and Youth Council members Dusadee Thirathanakul and Issara
Paanthong gave a joint presentation in which they said the National Child and Youth Development Promotion Act underpinned youth policy in Thailand, and during COVID-19 young people were involved in ensuring that students’ futures were not jeopardized. Youth also shared campaigns via social media and ran a civil rights campaign.

Rajasurang Wongkrasaemongkol shared details of a youth-led campaign, including AI, to improve the use of wearing masks and correctly. The project received high praise from participants – and reinforced the message of the effectiveness of youth-led projects.

 

The Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement, held in Bangkok, Thailand, and virtually, was co-hosted by APDA, and Y-PEER. UNFPA supported the dialogue.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Logos Hope is sailing around the world and has previously docked at the Tema seaport in Accra, Ghana.

On 24 February 2022 in Afghanistan, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell listens to a girl reading from a textbook at a UNICEF-supported community-based school in Kandahar’s Dand district. Credit: UNICEF/Omid Fazel

By External Source
Jun 7 2022 (IPS-Partners)

 

Catherine M. Russell became UNICEF’s eighth Executive Director on 1 February 2022.

Ms. Russell brings to the role decades of experience in developing innovative policy that empowers underserved communities around the world, including high-impact programmes that protect women and girls, including in humanitarian crises. She has extensive experience building, elevating and managing diverse workforces and mobilizing resources and political support for a broad range of initiatives.

From 2020 to 2022, Ms. Russell served in the US government as Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. She previously served from 2013 to 2017 as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. In that post, she integrated women’s issues across all elements of U.S. foreign policy, represented the United States in more than 45 countries, and worked with foreign governments, multilateral organizations and civil society. She was the principal architect of the ground-breaking “U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls.”

Previously, Ms. Russell served as Deputy Assistant to the President at the White House under President Barack Obama, Senior Advisor on International Women’s Issues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, and Staff Director of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Before re-entering government service in 2020, she taught at the Harvard Kennedy School as an Institute of Politics Fellow. She also served as the board co-chair of the Women’s Foreign Policy Group, as a board member of Women for Women International, as a member of the Sesame Street Advisory Board, as a member of the non-profit organization, KIVA Advisory Council, and as a member of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Trust Women initiative.

Ms. Russell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, magna cum laude, from Boston College and a Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University Law School.

On 24 February 2022 in Afghanistan, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell talks to students at a UNICEF-supported community-based school in Kandahar’s Dand district. Credit: UNICEF/Omid Fazel

ECW: You have joined UNICEF as Executive Director at a critical time for education. Since Education Cannot Wait’s inception in 2016, UNICEF has not only been a host organization but also a trusted and strategic partner in our work. UNICEF is key to ensuring that children caught in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change-related disasters and protracted crises can access safe, inclusive learning environments. How can we reinforce our efforts to reach more children and adolescents at this critical moment?

Catherine M. Russell: Thank you for this opportunity. Since becoming Executive Director in February, I have seen how critically important education and learning are to all children – but especially those living in places that are affected by conflicts and other emergencies. Every child has an equal right to education, but not all children are able to realize this right equally.

I saw this on my recent visit to Afghanistan, where girls are denied a secondary education. These girls are not only missing out on their right to learn. They’re missing out on the hope and opportunity that education brings to them, their families, and their communities.

To reach every child in Afghanistan, UNICEF continues to work with many partners – especially including ECW, which has been supporting education programmes in Afghanistan since 2017, with a focus on girls’ and community-based education.

The war in Ukraine is having a dramatic impact on 5.7 million children – millions of whom have been displaced both inside and outside the country. Hundreds of schools have been attacked, and millions of children are out of school. These children are not only missing out on learning, they are also missing out on the social and emotional support face-to-face learning provides in such dark times.

When I was in Romania in the early days of the war, I saw how traumatized some of these children are and some of the challenges they are facing. But I also saw how eager they are to learn – and the hope that education holds for them. I am proud that UNICEF is supporting education for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children – including by providing education-related supplies and early childhood development materials.

These are only a couple of examples to give a sense of the urgency. Globally, millions of children are still out of school – and millions more are not learning.

Before the pandemic, over half of 10-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries were unable to read and understand a simple story. School closures and inequitable access to learning opportunities have already increased that number dramatically – and if we don’t act, it will only get worse.

UNICEF, the World Bank, and UNESCO are calling on governments to take “RAPID” action to reach every child and retain them in the classroom, to assess their learning levels, to prioritize teaching the building blocks of lifelong learning, to increase catch-up learning and help children progress, and to develop psychosocial support to promote wellbeing so every child is ready to learn.

To get every child learning, we need collective action that prioritizes the most marginalized children – including crisis-affected children. Increased, sustained investment in national education systems, including the education workforce, is the only way to prevent the global learning crisis from becoming a global learning catastrophe. If we fail to act, these children will pay the highest price. But our societies and economies will also feel the impact for decades to come.

On 4 April 2022 in Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell (left) visits Nizi Primary School in Goma. Many schools were destroyed in the Nyiaragongo volcano eruption in May 2021. Credit: UNICEF/Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi

ECW: Education in emergencies generally accounts for just 2-4% of international humanitarian aid and the share for education declined during the pandemic in official development assistance, and countries allocated only 3 per cent of their COVID-19 stimulus packages to education. How can ECW, public donors, the private sector, and UNICEF help address this challenge as we race together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG4?

Catherine M. Russell: Education is one of the most critical investments any government can make. The economic returns on investment alone should put education high on the priority list for financing.

Unfortunately, there is an alarming lack of investment in addressing the growing learning crisis. Governments, donors, the private sector, and strategic partners must work together to secure sufficient, effective, and equitable financing of education at global and domestic level.

This means more financing, but it also means better and more equitable financing – ensuring that those most in need receive their fair share. UNICEF’s research has shown that in some countries, as little as 10 per cent or less of public education spending goes to children from the poorest households. This simply isn’t right.

UNICEF is urging governments to invest 20 per cent of their domestic budgets to education and to direct funds to the communities with the greatest need, including children and youth affected by conflict and crisis. We are also calling on civil society and the private sector to rally behind conflict and crisis-affected children – including by supporting Education Cannot Wait. These children have the same right as children everywhere to access a quality education. But we need sustainable, flexible financing to reach every child.

On 22 February 2022, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell (left) interacts with students at Islamabad Model School for Girls G9, where teachers use an innovative mix of digital and traditional learning to teach children. Credit: UNICEF/Asad Zaidi

ECW: Education is the great equalizer. How can SDG4 – ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ – help us reach the other SDG targets and why is education important to achieving global security and sustainable development?

Catherine M. Russell: In many ways, SDG4 on education is the bedrock of the SDGs. Education has a substantial impact on the health, wealth, safety, and equality of communities. For example, secondary education could lift 420 million people out of poverty.

Girls’ education offers additional benefits. When we invest in girls’ education, their future earnings increase, child marriage rates decline, and maternal mortality rates fall. It is essential to unlock a more gender-equitable, prosperous, and healthy future for all.

In emergencies, schools provide a crucial sense of normality and safety, as well as connecting children and their parents to essential health, mental health and psychosocial services. Education also provides children with life-saving information, including for those who live in areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance or in areas of high climate risk.

SDG4 isn’t just about getting kids into school. It also includes a clear target to achieve free, quality primary and secondary education – and better learning outcomes. Unfortunately, many education systems around the world are still not achieving this target.

Children and young people are counting on us to redouble our efforts. They are so eager to learn. They know how much depends on it. And they are raising their voices and taking action.

On my visit to Pakistan, where over 22 million children aged 5-16 are out of school, I heard directly from young people about the power of education. I met Shahnaz, who wanted to go to school so badly that when a boys-only center for accelerated learning opened in her village, she decided to dress as a boy to be allowed in the center.

I also met a young girl who uses a wheelchair – and who asked me to remind the world that children with disabilities are often the most excluded of all.

We need to reach these children – and we need to match their dreams and ambitions with concrete commitments and action.

We have less than eight years to achieve SDG4, and not a moment to lose. We urgently need governments to implement the RAPID framework to support remedial education and get every child learning, now.

On 26 April 2022, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell interacts with children at a child-friendly space supported by UNICEF at Higlo Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) site in Ethiopia. Credit: UNICEF/Zerihun Sewunet

ECW: The world will come together this September for the Transforming Education Summit, convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. How can we use this moment to reimagine more effective delivery of quality education for the more than 222 million crisis-affected children that need urgent educational support?

Catherine M. Russell: September’s Transforming Education Summit is a pivotal moment. With the eyes of the world on education, we need to use this opportunity to get everyone behind learning, for every child – including those living through crises.

UNICEF is supporting national consultations and opportunities for countries to discuss their roadmaps for education recovery – and beyond. We are using this opportunity to call for urgent, concrete action to address the learning crisis, prioritizing the most marginalized children. And UNICEF country and regional offices around the world are working with their governments to drive change at the national level.

The Pre-summit and the Summit will be critical moments for countries to share plans and actions coming out of these national consultations. We also need to share best practices, learn from each other, and establish roadmaps for recovery and transformation.

While the Summit is important, it should not be the end of our efforts. We need to look beyond September to 2023, 2030, and beyond.

UNICEF is committed to working with our partners to follow up and move forward – and we are working closely with young people themselves. We need their perspective and their ideas. It will be exciting to see these efforts bearing fruit in short and long term.