Africa

Some 40,000 people have fled fighting in Sudan to go to South Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries.

By External Source
May 8 2023 (IPS-Partners)

 

Folly Bah Thibault was appointed as Education Cannot Wait’s Global Champion on 25 April 2023. Through her work for Al Jazeera, France24, Radio France International and Voice of America, Thibault has become one of the most recognized and respected journalists in the world. Her coverage of some of the world’s most pressing events as a journalist for Al Jazeera is shedding light on forgotten crises across the globe.

Born in Conakry, Guinea, Thibault received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Howard University and American University in the United States. After graduating, Thibault hosted a show for Voice of America that sought to reunite families separated by conflict in Sierra Leone and Liberia. It wasn’t long before her passion for telling stories and reporting took her to Paris and Radio France Internationale, where she presented the morning show on the English Channel. She later joined France24 television as an Anchor, before joining Al Jazeera English as a Principal Presenter in 2010 and relocating to Qatar. When she’s not at Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Thibault is a sought-after moderator and public speaker. In 2019, she launched her foundation – Elle Ira à l’Ecole – which helps young girls in Guinea get an education.

ECW: Congratulations on your recent appointment as an ECW Global Champion! What do you hope to accomplish as we work together to push education in emergencies and protracted crises to the top of the international agenda?

Folly Bah Thibault: First, let me start by saying, I’m honoured to be joining Education Cannot Wait as a Global Champion. Through this role – and our collective efforts with ECW’s wide group of donors and strategic partners – I’m hoping to continue advocating for increased funding for education in emergencies and protracted crises, to leverage my networks to connect people, resources, know-how and talents, and to ensure our collective storytelling on education does not forget the 222 million crisis-impacted children and adolescents that so urgently need our support.

Education is a game changer. It lifts up lives, transforms economies and societies, and provides renewed hope for an entire generation of girls and boys whose futures have been disrupted by conflict, climate change, displacement and other crises. Taken together with other actions, education is our single best investment in building peace in our times.

I’m thrilled to be working with Education Cannot Wait. As I spoke with its donors and partners at February’s High-Level Financing Conference in Geneva, it became clear to me, ECW is a model for UN Reform and a New Way of Working.

As the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, Education Cannot Wait is delivering across the globe with humanitarian speed and development depth. This means girls and boys in places like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, South Sudan and beyond have a chance to go to school. And ensuring they can do it safely – to learn, to dream, to find new opportunities, and break cycles of poverty, displacement, hunger and conflict forever. ECW represents the UN at its best and I’m honoured and thrilled to be a part of this movement.

ECW: Following the example of ECW’s new donor, Qatar, which recently announced US$20 million in new funding to ECW, why should new government and private sector donors from around the world – including the Gulf States – invest in education for crisis-affected children living on the frontlines of armed conflict, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters?

Folly Bah Thibault: The new funding investment announced at ECW’s #HLFC2023 by the Qatar Development Fund in cooperation with the Education Above All Foundation provides a clear example of Qatar’s new leadership on the global stage. Qatar has stepped up, and we hope this will inspire others to do the same, as we work together to deliver on our promise of reaching 20 million children and adolescents in the next four years.

Investing in education for children affected by various crises is investing in a better future for the Middle East, the Sahel, and other regions. It’s about investing in the end to hunger and poverty worldwide, it’s investing in more resilient economies and, above all, it’s about investing in our most precious natural resource: our children.

The economic returns are impressive. For private sector donors, investing in education builds economic security, opens and expands markets, and future proofs investments to balance out risk and reward in our fast-changing global marketplace.

The social returns are equally impressive. When you teach girls to read, to write, to excel in science, technology, engineering and math, you are ensuring their equality, empowerment and hope.

For girls like Fatuma in Ethiopia, safe, holistic, quality learning environments mean access to school meals, mental health and psychosocial support, and safe and protective learning environments. For Syrian refugees like Jana and Yara, access to an education means access to new technologies, remote learning platforms and innovative learning methods that will transform the way we deliver education for the world’s crisis-impacted children and adolescents.

ECW: With COP28 on the horizon, the climate crisis is an education crisis for millions of children across the world. With climate change (drought, floods, etc.), increasingly impacting the education of children, notably in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, why is it crucial to address climate change now, including through education?

Folly Bah Thibault: Climate change has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. It affects every single person on our planet one way or another. At this year’s Climate Talks in Dubai, leaders will address how we can adapt our economy, our society and our people in the face of a changing climate. Given the power of education to transform lives and build a better world, we must connect the dots between climate action and our work to ensure education for all.

We must also consider the power of education in delivering on the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement. Not only will this activate an entire generation of responsible citizens for our troubled planet, but it will also support our efforts to deliver on our promises of a better world as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year’s climate talks provide us with a unique opportunity to propel education – especially for the world’s most vulnerable: crisis-affected girls and boys – to the top of the climate agenda and investments across the world.

Imagine what will happen if even more people are impacted by horrific climate-driven disasters like the drought in the Horn of Africa, floods in Pakistan or recurrent desertification and climate displacement events across the Sahel? Nearly half of the world’s children – approximately 1 billion girls and boys – are living in countries that are designated at “extremely high-risk” from the effects of climate change, and some estimates indicate that as many as 140 million more people could be displaced by climate change by 2050 across South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

The world’s most marginalized and vulnerable children have the most to lose. Without the safety and protection of quality education environments, they are at a higher risk of sexual exploitation, child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, child labour, recruitment by armed groups and other human rights abuses.

So how can education for all help us to address the climate crisis? Education means a pathway to peace, a pathway to reduced risks from natural disasters, a pathway to greater incomes and greater resilience in the face of future emergencies. It is a pathway to a more sustainable future.

ECW: You’ve been named as ‘One of the Most Influential Africans Working Today’. As a journalist, thought-leader and agenda-setter, how do you think education can help transform Africa and how should ECW and humanitarian partners align investments across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus?

Folly Bah Thibault: This is a unique opportunity for us to reimagine education in Africa. The continent is young, vibrant and is on the rise. By 2050, there will be about 1 billion children under the age of 18 across Africa. A dynamic population with limitless potential – but despite progress, millions of African children are still out of school. When they are in school, the quality of education they receive often lags behind.

Imagine what the world would be like if every child in Africa – and indeed every child everywhere – were able to access 12 years of quality, inclusive education. It would enhance the economy and security, and reduce displacement and migration across the continent. In other words, it’s the key to unlocking Africa’s full potential and achieving its development goals.

ECW’s investments work in partnerships with governments, donors, civil society, the private sector, UN agencies and other key partners to deliver humanitarian and development support. We do this by bringing partners together, empowering local organizations, embracing innovation, and working tirelessly to put human rights and human dignity first in everything ECW does, its investments provide the depth and impact we need to really transform education in Africa and support long-term development across the continent.

ECW: Your foundation Elle Ira à l’Ecole helps young girls in Guinea get an education. Why is girls’ education so important to you personally, and so crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?

Folly Bah Thibault: I come from a family of five girls – born into a culture and a society which for a long time didn’t believe in the value of having girls and did not see women as equal members of society. In my Fulani culture, there’s long been a preference for boys. It is a very patriarchal society which sees boys as future providers while girls are often considered a burden on their family. Well, my mother’s lifelong goal – after having had five daughters – has been to change that perception. She invested all her energy in our education, to prove to society, and even to her own family, that girls, if they are educated, if they’re given the opportunity to learn, can be as successful and accomplish even more than boys. So that’s why girls’ education is important to me personally. I’ve seen what having a good education has done for my sisters and me, it’s empowered us, allowed us to become independent, to make our decisions. And that is what I want to achieve through my foundation, ‘Elle ira a l’ecole’. I want to help little girls in Africa and beyond to have a quality education, so they can have courage and independence to make decisions that affect their lives. Informed decisions on important issues like their health, their reproductive rights and careers.

Girls’ education is not only important for women’s empowerment but it’s also essential to the economic and structural development of any society. It helps break intergenerational cycles of poverty and disadvantage. Education permeates all sectors of society and affects all socio-economic and political decisions of any country. The education of girls today is the best strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals because it reduces poverty in all its forms. It helps end hunger by achieving food security…Educated mothers ensure the education for their own children, thus breaking a vicious cycle of generational poverty. And as I’ve witnessed through the work of our foundation, school is not only a place of learning for many of our girls, it’s also a place of refuge, a safe haven. It provides protection against child marriage. In my home country of Guinea, the majority of girls are married before the age of 18, more than 20 percent before the age of 15. By enrolling and keeping the girls in school, we’re also ensuring that they’re not married off while they’re still underage. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children during her teenage years. So, educating girls is a crucial springboard for sustainable development in all its forms.

ECW: Our readers would like to know a little about you on a personal level and we know that ‘readers are leaders.’ What are some of the books that have most influenced you, personally and professionally, and why would you recommend them to others?

Folly Bah Thibault: Jacques Ellul’s ‘Propaganda – The Formation of Men’s Attitudes’ which I studied while in college, had a lot of influence on my career as a journalist. It changed the way I looked at the news media and politicians. Ellul argues that propaganda, whether its ends are good or bad is not only a threat to democracy, but the biggest threat to humanity. And authors like Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie have influenced me a great deal. They’re both masterful storytellers who balance the personal, the political, intimate and historical to paint a distinct picture of the African experience. Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ is no doubt the greatest work of literature to come out of Africa. It has had a profound impact on me. I had grown up studying French literature, Victor Hugo and Camus, but Achebe’s extraordinary work was a revelation for me. It is the most powerful depictions of colonization and its impact, told in an authentic African voice. It is a timeless reminder for me as a journalist that some stories are best told by the people who live them.

 

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, May 8 2023 (IPS)

A civilian student named Saber was caught in the crossfire in Khartoum. He had two choices: either flee and lose everything; or die. But within a moment his option to choose was violently denied: he died.

As a result of the brutal internal armed conflict in Sudan right now, UNHCR projects that 860,000 people will flee across the borders as refugees and returnees into the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Sudan. About 50% will be children and adolescents below 18.

Will they arrive alive? They can’t choose. They can only hope.

Making it worse, none of the neighboring countries has the financial and structural capacity to manage such influx, and yet they too, have no choice.

Indeed, an enormous international response will be required to support the Refugee Response Plan developed by 134 partners, including UN agencies, national and international NGOs and civil society groups, and launched on 4 May 2023.

Fleeing children and adolescents will need immediate psycho-social support and mental health care to cope with the stress and trauma of the conflict and perilous escape. They will need school meals. They will need water and sanitation. They will need protection. In the deep despair of their young lives, they will need a sense of normalcy and hope for their future. They need it now and a rapid response to establishing education can meet these needs.

Or to paraphrase ECW’s new Global Champion, the world-renowned journalist, Folly Bah Thibault – who reaffirms the need for speed and quality: the humanitarian-development nexus in action – in her high-level interview in this month’s ECW Newsletter, “We need to deliver with humanitarian speed and development depth.”

The choice is ours.

ECW is now traveling to the region to support host-governments, UN and civil society colleagues who jointly produced the Refugee Response Plan and who are on the ground working day and night in difficult circumstances. ECW will provide support both through an initial First Emergency Response investment and through our global advocacy.

We all have a choice to act now. Our choice is not between losing everything or die. Our choice is between action or inaction. Between humanity and indifference.

Prior to the breakout of the internal armed conflict in Sudan, Samiya*, a 17-year-old refugee student, wrote in her recent Postcard From the Edge: “Education is our future dream. Education is one of the most important factors to progress in life. Through education, people can thrive in their lives; they can also develop their skills and improve their life quality.”

We can help make Samya’s dream come true at the hardest, darkest moment of her life. Samiya does not have that choice. Only, we have that choice. Let us recognize it for what it is: as a privilege or blessing of choosing responsibility and humanity.

Yasmine Sherif is Director of Education Cannot Wait.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

By Daisaku Ikeda
TOKYO, Japan, May 8 2023 (IPS)

The Ukraine crisis, which in addition to bringing devastation to the people of that country has had severe impacts on a global scale—even giving rise to the specter of nuclear weapons use—has entered its second year. Against this backdrop and amid urgent calls for its resolution, the G7 Summit of leading industrial nations will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21.

In February of this year, an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly was held, where a resolution calling for the early realization of peace in Ukraine was adopted. Among the operative paragraphs of the resolution was one that urged the “immediate cessation of the attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine and any deliberate attacks on civilian objects, including those that are residences, schools and hospitals.”

With that as a first essential step, all concerned parties must come together to create a space for deliberations toward a complete cessation of hostilities. Here I would like to propose that, as negotiations advance through the cooperative efforts of the concerned countries, they be joined by representatives of civil society, such as the physicians and educators who work in schools and hospitals to protect and nurture people’s lives and futures, participating as observers.

In March, the leaders of Russia and China issued a joint statement following their summit meeting which reads in part: “The two sides call for stopping all moves that lead to tensions and the protraction of fighting to prevent the crisis from getting worse or even out of control.” This is aligned with the resolution adopted by the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly.

The G7 Hiroshima Summit should develop concrete plans for negotiations that will lead to a cessation of hostilities.

I also urge the G7 to commit at the Hiroshima Summit to taking the lead in discussions on pledges of No First Use of nuclear weapons. The current crisis is without parallel in the length of time that the threat of use and the fear of actual use of nuclear weapons have persisted without cease.

Since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the hibakusha of those cities, in coordination with the larger civil society movement, have stressed the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons; non-nuclear-weapon states have engaged in continuous diplomatic efforts; and the states possessing nuclear weapons have exercised self-restraint. As a result, the world has somehow managed to maintain a seventy-seven-year record of non-use of nuclear weapons.

If international public opinion and the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons were to fail to provide their braking function, nuclear deterrence policy will compel humankind to stand on a precipitous ledge, never knowing when it might give way.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, I have written two public statements. In both, I referenced the joint statement by the five nuclear-weapon states (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France and China) made in January 2022, which reiterated the principle that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” and called for it to serve as the basis for reducing the risk of nuclear weapons use.

Also of important note is the declaration issued by the G20 group in Indonesia last November, which stated: “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”

The G20 member countries include nuclear-weapon states as well as nuclear-dependent states. It is deeply significant that these countries have officially expressed their shared recognition that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is “inadmissible”—the animating spirit of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

It is vital that this message be communicated powerfully to the world from Hiroshima.

As the G7 leaders revisit the actual consequences of a nuclear weapon detonation and the bitter lessons of the nuclear era, I urge that they initiate earnest deliberations on making pledges of No First Use so that their shared recognition of the inadmissible nature of nuclear weapons can find expression in changed policies.

If agreement could be reached on the principle of No First Use, which was at one point included in drafts of the final statement for last year’s NPT Review Conference, this would establish the basis on which states could together transform the challenging security environments in which they find themselves. I believe it is vital to make the shift to a “common security” paradigm.

Commitment to policies of No First Use is indeed a “prescription for hope.” It can serve as the axle connecting the twin wheels of the NPT and TPNW, speeding realization of a world free from nuclear weapons.

For our part, the SGI has continued to work with the world’s hibakusha, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)—which arose from its parent body IPPNW—and other organizations first for the adoption and now the universalization of the TPNW. As members of civil society, we are committed to promoting the prompt adoption of policies of No First Use of nuclear weapons, generating momentum to transform our age.

The author is Peace builder and Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, who is President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). https://www.daisakuikeda.org/ Read full statement here full statement.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 8 2023 (IPS)

The World changes, though prejudices and misconceptions remain. In 1996, political scientist Samuel Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in which he predicted that people’s cultural and religious identities would become the primary source of conflict in a Post–Cold War World. Huntington’s allegations have been contradicted by a number of critics, among them American Palestinian professor Edward Said, who lamented their extreme cultural determinism, which omitted the dynamic interdependency and interaction of cultures. Said’s own Orientalism depicted a generalised “Western view” of Arab cultures as “static and undeveloped”, while European culture was considered to be “developed, rational, flexible, and superior.” Literature and movies have depicted Arabs as exotic men riding camels and horses through the desert, and their women as dangerously seductive objects of male desire. Eventually, the exotic men turned in to being terrorists, and/or depraved oil-rich magnates, while Muslim women were presented as veiled, enigmatic, and oppressed.

Are there no counter-images to such a one-sided view, for example an Arab film industry? Since the inception of a film industry in Europe and the US it has generally been assumed that local movie production arrived in the Middle East much later than in “the West”. As a matter of fact, already by the beginning of the 20th century both screening and production had been brought into most Arab countries. Eventually, Egyptian film production came to dominate Middle Eastern movie industry, while it established affiliated companies in Lebanon. Iraq, Jordan, Iran, Israel, and more recently the United Arab Emirates and Palestine, followed suit.

Films serve as visual entertainment for huge audiences and in a vivid manner reflect social attitudes. They thus constitute a great medium for inspiring societal change. Of course, films might serve as a means for propaganda and indoctrination, but this does not hinder them from proving helpful in making people inclined to change a status quo. There are now signs that a pervasive socio/economic change is taking place in Saudi Arabia, where a growing film industry has become part of what appears to be an overhaul of hitherto domineering ideologies

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the only nation in the world named after a dynasty. It was founded in 1932 by King Abdul-Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, though the strength of The House of Saud can be traced back to 1745, when a local leader established a politico-religious alliance with the Wahhabis, a religious affinity honouring a Salafiyya interpretation of Islam, i.e. what is believed to be the faith of the “pious predecessors of the first three generations.” The House of Saud offered obedience to the Wahhabis, while promising to propagate their faith during a fierce struggle against Turkish and foreign influences.

Initially, Saudi Arabia did not refute the idea of movie theatres and allowed improvised cinemas, but all films were heavily censored and supposed to be screened privately. In 1982, Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud became the fifth king of Saudi Arabia. Actively trying to base his authority on Wahhabism, he increased Government support to the conservative religious establishment; spending millions of dollars on religious education, strengthening separation of the sexes and the power of Muatawwa’ūn, a religious branch of the police.

Between 1983 and 2018 the only movie theatre to be found in the country was at a Science and Technology Centre, which only screened “educational” films. If Saudis wished to watch films it had to be via satellite, or DVD. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia grew into the largest economy in the Middle East. Its citizens benefit from free education and health care, along with subsidized food, electricity and housing. However, the economy relies overwhelmingly on oil. The country exports almost nothing else and imports almost everything. A welfare state has been built on the expectation that oil revenues would remain at historic levels, though prices are falling and oil will eventually run out. Furthermore, seventy per cent of the population is under thirty years of age and many demand increased personal freedom.

When King Fahd died in 2005 he was succeeded by King Abdullah Al Saud. Contrary to his predecessor, the new king realised that Saudi youth had to be better educated. As soon as he came to power, Abdullah implemented a scholarship program sending young Saudi men and women abroad for undergraduate and postgraduate studies. More than 70,000 Saudis began studying abroad in more than 25 countries, with the US, Great Britain, and Australia as main destinations. Educated and emancipated women also became considered as an asset for development. The King established a governmental department to promote women’s higher education and in 2011 women were allowed to vote in municipal council elections. The year after, women athletes competed in the Olympics and in 2013 domestic violence became a criminal offence.

However, still no movie production and screening were allowed in the country. The trend towards increased openness, innovation, efforts to limit religious bigotry and enlarged women’s rights continue under the current king, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. Its most visible propagator is Mohammed bin Salman, colloquially called MbS. He is Crown Prince, i.e. Salman bin Abdul-Aziz’s heir, though MbS is already the country’s Prime Minister and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Already during King Abdullah’s reign, semi-clandestine initiatives were made by a budding movie industry. Wadja became the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director. In 2012 it was entirely shot within the Kingdom. Written and directed by US-educated Saudi citizen Haifaa al-Mansour it told the story of a spirited 10-year old living in Riyadh. On her way to school she passed a shop window with a green bike. However, its price was high and girls riding bikes were frowned upon.

Wadja deals with feelings of school girls, though it mirrors a society where grown women are regimented as if they were still in school. Behind closed doors the beauty and wit of Wadjda’s mother were unmasked, though she seemed to be barely aware of it. Her main concern was that her husband intended to take a much younger woman as second wife. Wadjda set about to earn cash to buy the bicycle. Her target was a school prize, awarded to the student expressing most devotion in learning and reciting passages from the Quran. Wadjda feigned orthodox goodness and her efforts at memorization impressed her teacher. She won the competition, though staff and students became shocked when Wadjda announced her intention to use the prize to buy a bicycle. The headmistress was furious and against Wadjda’s will donated the prize money to charity.

Despite an apparent sentimental depiction of a little schoolgirl’s desires, Wadjda emphasized her longing for freedom and self-realization, as well as fear of emotional abandonment when her father took a second wife. It is not only a film about a young person’s awkward relationship with an authoritative society and distressed parents – her longing for a bicycle of her own actually became emblematic of an entire people’s striving for freedom.

Wadjda was shot in a country where zealous clergy forbade cinemas and with a totalitarian regime with zero-tolerance of female film directors. al-Mansour had most of the time to work from the back of a van, as she could not publicly mix with men of her crew. She generally had to communicate via walkie-talkie and watch the actors on a monitor.

Haifaa al-Mansour spent seven years on finding adequate funding. It was the Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud who finally agreed to contribute. Al Waleed is a grandson of Abdul-Aziz, the first king of Saudi Arabia, and among other altruistic initiatives he financed the training of the first Saudi female commercial airline pilot, declaring that he was disposed to give “full support of Saudi ladies working in all fields.”

In November 2017, Al Waleed and other prominent Saudis were arrested during an “anti-corruption drive”. Some 200 detainees were brought to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and subjected to coercion and abuse. Some, among them Al Waleed, were released after paying heavy fines. MbS not only attacked the old, extremely wealthy oligarchy, but also religious leaders who uphold Wahhabi doctrines. He openly declared that there are no static schools of thought, nor any infallible persons. In another statement MbS acknowledged that the Saudi state had not been “normal” for the past 30 years and that it was his intention to introduce social, religious, economic, political changes and a new educational policy, asserting a “Saudi national identity” within what he called a post-Wahhabi era.

Without interrupting or limiting his totalitarian powers MbS prohibited the Muatawwa’ūn to “stop, follow, arrest, punish, and ask people for their ID.” Muatawwa’ūn had until recently 4,000 officers, assisted by thousands of volunteers, and an additional 10,000 administrative personnel. It imposed strict segregation between the sexes, controlled that women wore the hijab, and forbade the sale of dogs and cats, as well as toys like Barbie dolls and Pokémon items.

Most of these restrictions are now abandoned. Women are allowed to drive cars and can chose not to wear the hijab. Women above 21 years can obtain passports and travel abroad without permission from their male guardians. It has become legally possible for women to independently open their own businesses and bank accounts, while mothers are authorised to retain immediate custody of their children after divorce. Women have now access to operas, concerts, cinemas and sports events.

This is part of the Government’s Saudi Vision 2030, aiming at diversifying the nation’s economy through heavy investments in non-oil sectors, including “green” technology, tourism, local expenditure and entertainment. In Riyadh, construction has begun of The Mukaab, a gigantic structure, which will include an armada of hotels, shopping malls, several cinemas and an “immersive” theatre. In the Northwest, Neom I is under construction – a high-technology megalopolis, with robotic services and even an artificial moon. The Line, a zero-carbon city stretching 170 kilometres across the desert. Qiddiya, a gigantic amusement park just outside of Riyadh. Trojena, a luxury ski resort in the Tabouk Mountains. The Red Sea Project, which is intended to be a string of luxurious hotels along the Red Sea shores.

Saudi Arabia has now 60 high-tech cinemas with approximately 500 screens in operation, as well as an increasing local production of TV entertainment. In accordance with Vision 2030 a General Entertainment Authority has been established. Its current chairman is bin Salman’s old friend Turki Al-Sheikh, known for his lyrics, sung by several Arab artists.

The film The Cello is expected to premiere in Riyadh this year. It is based on a novel by Turki Al-Sheikh that takes place in several locations, foremost in the 18th Century Italian town of Cremona, but also in present time. After being filmed in Prague, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Vienna, the movie stars world famous actor Jeremy Irons, as well as a great number of movie celebrities from Europe, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In The Cello a young man purchases a cursed cello, built by a Cremonese master luthier, builder of string instruments, who butchered and cut up his entire family, using parts of their blood and bones to make a cello.

The cutting up of people in Turki Al-Sheikh’s The Cello might remind viewers of the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly carried out by Saudi officials in Turkey. However The Cello may have an intended, or unintentional, so called Boris Bus effect. i.e. changing the subject of the gruesome murder of a journalist into the making of a wondrous instrument. Boris Johnson managed to redirect Google searches from past embarrassing and deceitful bus ads about Brexit into a description of his hobby of making toy buses with painted, happy passengers on board.

Bin Salman’s occasionally brutal and draconic measures might be interpreted as residues from hundreds of years of despotism. They will hopefully mellow, or even disappear, if Arabian society is allowed to continue on its already beaten path towards an open and democratic society, allowing for women’s emancipation, free speech and general wellbeing. A trend already evident within the Saudi Arabian film industry, which does not shy away from controversial subjects and where almost forty per cent of crew and directors currently are women.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Droughts are a growing threat to global food production, particularly in Africa. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Baher Kamal
ROME, May 8 2023 (IPS)

Less than a decade ago, Africa was home to 60-65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and 10% of renewable freshwater resources, as reported by the African Union in 2016, while concluding that African farmers could feed the world.

Is it still the case?

The above data had been provided in July 2016 by the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development), the technical body of the African Union (AU).

Now that seven long years have elapsed, the second largest continent on Earth –after Asia– has been facing too many extraneous pressures and hazards.

A major consequence is that that very percentage (60-65%) of the world’s uncultivated and arable land is now affected by degradation, with nearly three million hectares of forest lost… every single year.

 

Great walls

The steadily advancing degradation and desertification of major African regions have led the continent to build great green walls.

One of them – the Great Green Wall, is the largest living structure on the Planet, one that stretches over 8.000 kilometres across Africa, aiming at restoring the continent’s degraded landscapes and transforming millions of lives in the Sahel, and ushering in a new era of sustainability and economic growth.

Launched in 2007 by the African Union, this African-led Great Green Wall Initiative. The project is being implemented across 22 African countries and is expected to revitalise thousands of communities across the continent.

It is about “helping people and nature cope with the growing impact of the climate emergency and the degradation of vital ecosystems, and to keep the Sahara desert from spreading deeper into one of the world’s poorest regions,” according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Vast tracts of land along the Great Green Wall have already been restored by local communities. And so far, 80% of the 19 billion US dollars have been pledged, as reported by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

 

But not enough…

The extraneous factors that have been pushing Africa towards the abyss of extremely severe droughts, unprecedented floods, the advancing degradation of its land and water resources, have led this continent on Earth to rush to build more and longer and larger walls.

For instance, the Southern Africa region is currently busy preparing a similar programme, with all 16 countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) committed to accelerating multi-sectoral transformation through a regional initiative inspired by the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, or SADC Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI).

The SADC member countries are: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, DR Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

 

A wall for Southern Africa

Their Initiative aims to create productive landscapes in the Southern Africa region that contribute to regional socially inclusive economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.

Together with member countries and key partners the goal is to initiate multi sectoral partnerships and to acquire pledges of an indicative 27 billion US dollars by 2025.

 

10 Million square kilometres at risk of desertification

Covering a total land area of 10 million square kilometres, Southern Africa faces immediate effects of desertification, land degradation and drought, as well as challenges driven by climate change, biodiversity loss, and unsustainable development practices in agriculture, energy and infrastructure sectors, reports the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

“The Great Green Wall is part of a broader economic and development plan – if we restore land but are not able to reap the benefits of that healthy and restored land due to lack of access to renewable energy and infrastructure, hindering access to markets and livelihoods, then we are only halfway there with our vision,” on this said UNCCD’s Louise Baker.

 

And a great wall for the Middle East

In addition to the above two new natural wonders, there is another one: the Middle East Green Initiative, a regional effort led by Saudi Arabia to mitigate the impact of climate change on the region and to collaborate to meet global climate targets.

 

50 billion trees

It aims at planting 50 billion trees across the Middle East, equivalent to 5% of the global afforestation target, and to restore 200 million hectares of degraded land.

A fifth (10 billion) trees will be planted within Saudi Arabia’s borders, with the remaining 40 billion set to be planted across the region in the coming decades.

The trees will also provide numerous other benefits, including stabilising soils, protecting against floods and dust storms and helping reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2.5% of global levels.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, extreme weather events including droughts and heavy rains will become more common in the region if global temperatures continue to increase, according to the Saudi-led project.

 

A green corridor for East Africa… and elsewhere

In addition to developing an Eastern Africa corridor soon, other similar initiatives under the umbrella of the African Union’s NEPAD are ongoing, such as the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

In 2015, AFR100 was founded in Durban by a group of 10 African countries, each committing to restore a certain number of hectares of degraded landscapes within their borders.

Twenty-eight African countries have now committed to restoring 113 million hectares, which, if achieved, will exceed the initiative’s namesake goal of 100 million hectares across the continent under restoration by 2030.

 

Not only trees

Forest landscape restoration is more than just planting trees,” said Mamadou Diakhite, leader of the AFR100 Secretariat.

On a continent that is expected to account for half the global population growth by 2050, reducing and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions is a welcome byproduct of returning those natural landscapes to health and profitability; but it’s not the first focus, reported Gabrielle Lipton, Landscape News Editor-in-Chief.

“Restoring landscapes that have been degraded by the effects of climate change and human development through planting trees and encouraging sustainable farming and herding must first and foremost provide food, jobs and homes for people, as well as preserve their cultures that are based on the products of their lands.”

Moreover, as more than 1 in 5 people in Africa are undernourished, and forced migration across country borders increases due to climate change and conflict, African economies continue to struggle hard to create jobs for young people.

Any chance that Africa recovers soon from the impacts of so much extraneous damage, which this continent of nearly 1.4 billion humans continues to struggle to reverse?

Stagnant water in one of Nairobi’s residential areas. Credit: Wilson Odhiambo/IPS

By Wilson Odhiambo
NAIROBI, May 8 2023 (IPS)

‘Urban’ Kenya has been alerted because new mosquito species, Anopheles stephensi, threatens to derail decades of effort made in the fight against malaria.

According to a report by experts from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the species was first noted during routine mosquito surveillance in Saku and Laisamis villages in Marsabit County. The report states that, unlike the traditional mosquito vector, the Anopheles stephensi can adapt to man-made habitats that include plastic containers, discarded car tyres and open sewer lines—this makes urban centres a hot spot for their prevalence.

Anopheles stephensi is endemic to South Asia and Arabian Peninsula, where it is a known carrier for two malaria variants Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. It was first noted at the Horn of Africa ten years ago in Djibouti, after which it was later tracked down in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan in 2019.

The species is also known to survive through different climatic conditions, which can enable it to cause problems all year round if left uncontrolled.

‘’This mosquito most likely spreads through ships coming in from Asia since genetic analysis of many of the samples collected in Africa shows they are closely related to those found in Asia. Once they got to Africa, it is highly likely they have been transported southwards on the road,’’ said Dr Eric Ochomo, the project’s lead researcher and an entomologist at the KEMRI, Kisumu.

‘’It breeds in a wide range of habitats, mostly water storage containers that are not covered, manholes, overhead tanks, poorly dumped plastic containers etc.’’

Malaria has been a perennial problem in Kenya and Africa, given the vast tropical conditions that favour mosquitos and unreliable health facilities that make its control and treatment an almost impossible hurdle.

While being a nuisance in Africa, most malaria cases and mortalities have been recorded in rural areas, characterized by a lack of adequate medical amenities, unreliable infrastructure, and a lack of knowledge among residents.

Urban areas have usually been spared the malaria burden due to access to proper medical facilities and a good understanding of the disease and how to control and prevent it.

This notion may, however, change for the worse as this new mosquito species threatens the demographics and steps made in the fight against malaria in Africa.

‘’This species is different from the traditional mosquito for two main reasons; A) its diversity of breeding habitats means it can breed in rural and urban settings alike, which means that it is not restricted to rural habitats like the Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus which are the most common vectors in Kenya at the moment. B) It can transmit both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax parasites. We currently have very low levels of P. vivax transmission in Kenya, and this could be increased by this vector,’’ Ochomo explained to IPS.

Despite the 2020 world malaria report showing a significant decrease in malaria deaths over the past two decades (from 84 percent in 2000 to 67 percent in 2019), it remains one of Africa’s leading causes of death, especially among pregnant women and children under the age of five.

The report stated that 51 percent of the global malaria deaths were in Africa, with Burkina Faso (4%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (11 percent), Nigeria (23 percent), Mozambique (4 percent), Niger (4 percent) and Tanzania (5 percent).

In Kenya, most malaria cases are centred around the malaria endemic areas, including the coastal and lake regions, which form prime breeding spots for female anopheles mosquitos. For the cases reported in towns such as Nairobi, a follow-up on the patient’s movements often reveals that they recently visited or through one of these malaria-endemic places and got infected.

A researcher from KEMRI’s Entomology Department tests stagnant water for the new species of mosquito. Credit: KEMRI’s Entomology Department

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 3.5 million malaria cases are reported in Kenya annually, with about 10,700 mortalities. Out of this, western Kenya (lake region) usually records the highest number of cases at 45 percent.

The lake and coastal regions are categorized as malaria-endemic due to the favourable temperature and humid conditions they provide for mosquito breeding.

With most people in central Kenya and the highland areas having little exposure to malaria infections, this new vector could prove problematic given their immune system’s primitiveness to the disease.

The 2020 Kenya malaria indicator report says that low-risk malaria areas include Nairobi, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Kiambu, Machakos, Makueni, Laikipia, Nakuru, and Meru. Most of these areas are considered urbanized compared to most parts of Kenya.

Seasonally, areas that experience malaria outbreaks include Tana River, Marsabit, Isiolo, Meru, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Turkana, Samburu, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kajiado. This is mainly due to the arid and semi-arid conditions experienced throughout the year that do not favour mosquito breeding.

‘’What this means is that we are going to have more incidences of malaria because this vector can thrive in both rural and urban settings and many other geographical regions,’’ says Dr Alex Owino, Medical Superintendent, Katulani Sub-County Hospital, Kitui.

‘’Kitui county falls under the low-risk malaria areas, with the few cases recorded being mainly from patients who had recently travelled outside the county,’’ he told IPS.

Owino explained that controlling malaria was easy when there were specific places where the host mosquito was known to favour. However, with this new vector being able to spread widely, it becomes a threat to the efforts made in the fight against malaria.

Being a developing country, parts of urban Kenya are characterized by poorly planned housing facilities, inadequate drainage systems and poor waste disposal management. Nairobi, for instance, is also known for hosting the largest slum in the country, Kibera, coupled with the Nairobi dam, which has, for years, made the headlines for having all manner of pollution destroying it.

All these conditions have been a recipe for various diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, causing health problems, especially in the slum areas. Now, malaria may have just added to the burden that these town dwellers have to deal with.

Ochomo said that, unlike the traditional malaria-causing mosquitoes, Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funfests, the Anopheles stephensi is an invasive species that could bring malaria transmission to these areas where there is a large number of naive (have never had malaria) individuals.

‘’These individuals could get far more severe symptoms than people who have been exposed since birth,’’ he told IPS.

Wilson Opudo, a public health and infectious diseases specialist, also believes that the ongoing changes in climate conditions are likely to increase the malaria burden by creating mosquito breeding zones in areas where they were not a concern.

‘’Despite malaria being known to favour certain parts of Kenya, the recent changes in climate which have resulted in temperature increase and hydrological changes may help form new areas for the malaria vector breeding thus bringing malaria to places where it initially did not exist,’’ Opudo told IPS.

‘’This will put a lot of pressure on the malaria control commodities currently available for the endemic areas of Africa and could result in increased disease burden,’’ he added.

Ochomo concluded that its presence in urban settings means controlling this new vector will rely on properly managing waste disposal, covering water containers, and draining stagnant water.

‘’There is very little information available on the behaviour of the adult mosquitoes and an urgent need to invest in the research on this to inform what control methods would be applicable for the adult mosquitoes,’’ said Ochomo.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Toledo Bioenergy Center, in southern Brazil, is under construction, but its biodigesters are already operating with manure and the carcasses of disease-free dead animals from 16 pig farms. The goal is to generate one megawatt of power and for pig farmers to participate in the production of biogas without having to invest in their own plants, so their waste is biodigested and turned into fertilizer, instead of polluting rivers and the soil. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
TOLEDO, Brazil , May 8 2023 (IPS)

It is the “best energy,” according to its producers, but biogas from livestock waste still lacks an organized market that would allow it to take off and realize its potential in Brazil, the world’s largest meat exporter.

“There is a lack of steady consumers,” said Cícero Bley Junior, who has been a pioneer in the promotion of biogas in the west of the southern state of Paraná, since he served as superintendent of Renewable Energies at Itaipu Binacional (2004-2016).

Itaipu, a gigantic hydroelectric plant shared by Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River which forms part of the border between the two countries, encourages nearby pig farmers to take advantage of manure to produce biogas, avoiding its disposal in the rivers that flow into the reservoir, whose contamination affects electricity generation in the long run.“The animal protein chain must also see itself as a generator of energy, just as the sugarcane sector defines itself as a sugar and energy industry since it began producing ethanol (a biogas) almost 50 years ago.” -- Cícero Bley

The companies that form part of the animal protein chain, in general the meat industry that purchases animals ready for slaughter and offers breeding sows and technical assistance to livestock producers, should also buy biogas and its biomethane derivative from the breeders, Bley said.

“The animal protein chain must also see itself as a generator of energy, just as the sugarcane sector defines itself as a sugar and energy industry since it began producing ethanol (a biogas) almost 50 years ago,” he told IPS.

But the companies do not do so: none of them are affiliated with the Brazilian Biogas Association (Abiogás), he lamented. The dairy industry could greatly reduce the cost of picking up milk from farms if it replaced diesel with biomethane in its trucks, he said, to illustrate.

If no such decision is taken, there will be no large investments in gas-fired engines either, which can use natural gas or biomethane, also called renewable natural gas.

In addition to the environmental benefits, such as the reduction in water pollution and the decarbonization of energy, biogas offers economic advantages by making use of manure that was previously considered waste and converting it into biofertilizer.

It also drives a new equipment industry and local development by decentralizing energy and fertilizer production.

“It’s the best energy, for sure,” said Anelio Thomazzoni, a pig farmer from Vargeão, a small municipality of 3,500 inhabitants in the west of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. His farm has a 600-kilowatt biogas power plant and a 1-megawatt solar power plant.

“The correct use of crop waste, as fertilizer after biodigestion, made it possible for me to reduce by 100 percent the purchase of potassium chloride and phosphorus,” formerly essential fertilizers, he told IPS by phone from his town.

 

A visitor in Toledo examines the external controls of the mixer, an essential piece of equipment in the production of biogas and whose absence or mishandling can affect the operation. The complexity of biodigestion, compared to photovoltaic solar energy, is a factor that is slowing down the expected progress of biogas in Brazil, despite its multiple benefits in energy, environmental and economic terms. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Frustrated potential

Brazil today produces only 0.5 percent of the biogas that could result from agricultural, livestock and industrial waste, urban garbage and sewage, estimated Bley, who founded the International Center for Renewable Energies-Biogás (CIBiogás) in 2013.

Brazil would have the potential to replace 70 percent of the diesel it consumes if it allocated all the biogas to the production of biomethane, according to Abiogás. In terms of electricity, it could reach almost 40 percent, but today it is limited to 353 megawatts – around 0.0018 percent of the total – according to the government’s National Electric Power Agency.

In global terms, Brazil is only ninth in biogas electricity generation, accounting for 2.1 percent of the global total, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The sugarcane sector joined the effort five years ago in promoting biogas, with larger plants for power generation or biomethane refining in the southern state of São Paulo. New initiatives are attempting to accelerate the development of this energy market in the southern region of Brazil, which concentrates two-thirds of the national production of pork.

Residues from the production of sugar and ethanol from cane represent 48 percent of Brazil’s biogas potential, followed by the animal protein chain, which accounts for 32.2 percent, estimates Abiogás. The rest comes from agricultural waste and sewage.

This large pre-treatment tank uses pig carcasses, an abundant material that is still little employed in the production of biogas, which the Toledo Bioenergy Plant in southern Brazil will process to reach a generation capacity of one megawatt, playing a sanitary role at the same time. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Innovative initiatives

The Bioenergy Plant under construction by CIBiogás, a nonprofit technology and innovation institution in Toledo, a city of 156,000 people in western Paraná, seeks to “validate a possible business model,” explained Juliana Somer, a construction engineer who is operations manager at the Center.

Pig farmers provide the “substrate” and receive back a part of the “digestate”, as the manure converted into a better fertilizer is called, without the gases that make up the biogas, extracted in the biodigestion process. With that they fertilize their land.

To generate electricity, biogas must have at least 55 percent methane. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is another component, making up about 40 percent. Hydrogen sulfide must be removed to prevent corrosion of the equipment.

“The objectives are environmental, social, energy-related and the dissemination of technologies,” said Rafael Niclevicz, environmental engineer at CIBiogás. To that end, an area of ​​high pig farm density was chosen, with about 120,000 hogs in five square kilometers.

The manure is collected daily, 70 percent by trucks and the pig farmers themselves, and the rest by pipelines from the nearest farms. Currently, 16 pig farmers, whose herds total about 40,000 animals, supply the plant, which also collects carcasses of disease-free dead pigs.

“The model makes sense for pig farmers who do not want to invest in facilities to produce biogas on their own. It solves the problem of waste disposal and there are socio-environmental benefits for everyone,” said Somer.

 

This Enerdimbo truck is powered by biomethane and is used to collect manure from 40 pig producers that feeds the company’s large biodigesters in southern Brazil. Solar power is added to biogas to provide 2.5 megawatts of energy, enough to supply 5,000 medium-sized households. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

The plant is a joint project between the municipal government, which ceded the land, and Itaipu Binacional, which provided funding. The goal is an installed capacity of one megawatt.

In Ouro Verde, 22 kilometers from Toledo, a similar plant, Enerdinbo, receives the “substrate” from 40 farms within a radius of 15 kilometers, where more than 100,000 pigs are raised, for a total generation capacity of two megawatts, to which are added 500 kilowatts from a solar plant.

It is enough to provide electricity to 5,000 households, estimates EDB Energía do Brasil, the company that offers businesses and residential consumers the possibility of reducing their electricity bills by 10 percent by joining the cooperative that benefits from the electricity generated by Enerdinbo.

The business of EDB, created by businesspeople in Cascavel, 60 kilometers from Ouro Verde, is to implement small renewable energy plants to distribute the benefits of distributed generation among members of the cooperative, with the investment by the consumers themselves to save on energy costs.

Enerdinbo and the Toledo Bioenergy Plant seek to expand biogas by avoiding the difficulty for pig farmers and other small farmers or ranchers to invest in the energy business.

 

A view of one of the three large biodigesters of Enerdimbo, a plant of the EDB Energía do Brasil company that distributes the benefits of distributed electricity generation to numerous members of the cooperative, whose power bills are thus reduced by 10 percent. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

 

Demand from animal protein producers

“Small and medium-sized rural producers are true heroes who face various risks when deciding, in isolation, to implement a waste treatment project generated in the animal protein chain for the production of biogas on their properties,” said a manifesto from the producers and bioenergy specialists.

The document, released at the South Brazilian Biogas and Biomethane Forum on Apr. 18 in Foz do Iguaçu, in the far west of Paraná, calls for greater support from the public sector and from companies that link biogas production and the meat industry, for their “strategic value for Brazil’s energy transition.”

Only 333 animal waste biogas plants are suppliers to the national electricity grid, that is, 0.005 percent of Brazil’s 6.5 million livestock farms, the document stressed.

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In India, a doctor checks a patient’s x-ray for lung damage, which may indicate tuberculosis. Credit: ILO/Vijay Kuty
 
On May 8, there will be an interactive multistakeholder hearing at the UN as part of the preparatory process toward High-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis. The event will be broadcast live on UN Web TV.
 
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has unveiled plans to speed up the licensing and use of effective novel vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and the 13th leading cause of death worldwide. January 2023

By Morounfolu Olugbosi
PRETORIA, South Africa, May 8 2023 (IPS)

This week, the United Nations will host two days (May 8-9) of preliminary talks to plan a larger conference on tuberculosis (TB) in September. These preliminary talks will be held in New York City, the epicenter of the last significant surge of TB cases in the United States (U.S.) thirty years ago.

TB is a disease that strikes hardest in impoverished places, and the last U.S. outbreak was no different. Disadvantaged urban communities hit hard by the HIV/AIDS pandemic bore the brunt of the outbreak.

Yet, at the outbreak’s peak in 1992, less than 27,000 people in the U.S. were infected with TB. Today, an estimated 304,000 people are infected with TB in South Africa every year, while just under 3,000,000 people are infected with TB in India. The scope of the disease today far exceeds what the U.S. saw three decades ago, much less what it sees now.

TB deaths have risen across the world for two consecutive years; at this point it kills more people than COVID-19. Globally, an estimated 10.6 million people were infected with TB, but only 6.4 million people were diagnosed. The other 4.2 million people infected with this potentially lethal and debilitating disease slipped through the cracks.

In 2018, the UN held the first high-level meeting on TB. More than half of the UN member states sent delegations and 15 heads of state spoke at the event.

In a resolution endorsed by the entire UN General Assembly, every nation pledged to invest, by 2022, a total of US$2 billion annually for TB research and US$13 billion annually for TB diagnostics, treatment and care. Other commitments—to treat more people and prevent more active disease—were also made.

The world got off to a slow start on meeting these pledges and then the pandemic hit. Many of the goals were not reached. We were delighted, for example, that the annual research budget for TB research finally reached US$1 billion in 2021, because it was a critically important achievement—but the actual goal was twice that amount.

And less than half of what was pledged annually on diagnostics, treatment and prevention—US$5.4 billion—was actually provided in 2021.

There are bright spots in the fight against TB, of course. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that did not suffer a significant slump in TB detection during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with just under 40% of active TB infections unidentified, it still lags behind much of the world in diagnosing active cases.

Another recent highlight is the approval of new drug-resistant TB treatments that can reduce treatment time from as much as a year and a half (or sometimes even longer) to six months—including one developed by my organization, TB Alliance. African nations like Nigeria and South Africa are taking steps to rolling out this new regimen so that the spread of drug resistant infections can be curbed.

The goal pledged at the 2018 UN meeting was that, between 2018 and 2022, 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) would be treated—this is a critical slice of the TB caseload. Yet only 649,000 DR-TB patients were treated between 2018 and 2021.

There is optimism that the number of DR-TB patients who can be treated will escalate, given the new treatments, but funding and resources must increase.

The bottom line is this: TB was the most lethal infectious disease before the COVID-19 pandemic, and as COVID recedes, it is once again the worst. As leaders prepare to meet in New York City and start drafting a new set of promises in the form of the next Political Declaration on TB, we need the world to commit to ending this disease, which has killed too many people for far too long.

But this time around, we also need the world to follow through on its commitments.

Morounfolu (Folu) Olugbosi, M.D. is the Senior Director, Clinical Development at TB Alliance. He works with the clinical development of products in the TB Alliance portfolio and helps to oversee clinical trials in TB endemic countries and heads the South Africa office.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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