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UN Secretary-General António Guterres briefs journalists in Doha, Qatar, on the situation in Afghanistan. 3 May 2023. Credit: UNESCO/Khava Mukhieva
 
A letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Special Representatives and Envoys for Afghanistan, and UN leadership in-and-out of Afghanistan.

By Ahmad Wali Ahmadi
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 4 2023 (IPS)

We are a group of Afghans living in the country and working across sectors including peace, civil society, humanitarian aid, human rights, media, and the private sector, and are working to promote dialogue and seek long-term solutions for our country.

This ad hoc group encompasses and reflects the work of individual Afghan men and women and organizations led by and employing women working across the aforementioned sectors at grassroots, sub-national, and national levels.

As you gathered in Doha, Qatar on May 1st and 2nd 2023 to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, we welcome your initiative to explore avenues of engagement and dialogue to resolve the impasse that the Taliban Authorities and the international community have been in over the course of the last 19 months.

Afghans are suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet worsened by a weakened economy and a lack of a framework for political dialogue. Whilst humanitarian engagement has been a necessity, we need the global community to recognize that this is neither sustainable nor optimal for alleviating the human suffering in Afghanistan.

A principled, pragmatic, and phased approach to engagement with the Taliban Authorities is needed to ensure the well-being of the Afghan people and to remove the roadblocks holding us back from pursuing the social and economic development of our country.

As such, we urge that you take into consideration the following:

Political track

– With the recent renewal of the UNAMA mandate, the organization needs to be supported, strengthened, and empowered as the major political entity representative of the international community present inside Afghanistan.

– The international community should work with people inside Afghanistan to develop Afghan solutions to Afghan problems. We encourage the creation of spaces to promote local peace building initiatives and dialogues that already exist and support to expand on our work.

– Wide-range consultation with Afghans living inside Afghanistan including participation in international engagements taking place on Afghanistan.

Aid track

– Ensure the effective and principled implementation of humanitarian assistance through I/NGOs and UN Agencies with routine monitoring and re-evaluation of approach, commitment of timely and effective delivery of aid, and meaningful participation of women both as humanitarians and clients.

– Expansion and flexibility in funding – local organisations have shown better capacity to negotiate humanitarian access and the ability to expand into essential non-humanitarian work. Therefore, donor agencies should consider expansion of funds to national entities as well as showing flexibility around areas of operation and expansion of programming in areas where women can work.

* Focus on funding women-led and owned organizations and explore opportunities of funding private sector to develop and expand their initiatives.

* Repurpose and replenish ARTF funding to be fit-for-purpose in the current operational context through supporting locally-led mechanisms for delivery of aid and implementation of development programming.

* Women and girls can continue to access and be active through a range of institutions such as local media, certain types of vocational institutes, cultural heritage preservation and arts programming. These spaces would benefit from investment from the international community.

* Fund initiatives tackling climate change in Afghanistan before it is too late – the effects of climate change are increasingly evident, putting millions of lives and economic livelihoods at risk.

Economic track

* While the economy is no longer in freefall and there is evidence of a low-level stabilization, external obstacles continue to have significant detrimental effects on the Afghan economy. We urge for the lifting of sanctions on financial transactions that are crippling an already struggling private sector and leads to overcompliance of the international banking system.

* Unfreezing of the Afghanistan Central Bank’s assets to improve the banking and liquidity crisis plaguing the country and restore the SWIFT system.

*Technical support to the Afghanistan Central Bank in the areas of Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Terrorist Financing, and relevant fiscal policy departments to build confidence in the banking sector and support economic activity.

Diplomatic track

* Increase the in-country diplomatic presence to ensure direct engagement and dialogue without the reliance on intermediaries.

* Establish a clear roadmap for international dialogue with the Taliban Authorities including launch of informal working groups with the Taliban Authorities on issues of common interests such as countering terrorism, illicit drugs, irregular migration, preservation of cultural heritage as trust building measures, and enhancement of access to information as a public good.

As Afghans living and working in Afghanistan, we are advocating on behalf of millions that have remained here and are suffering from a multitude of man-made crises. We urge you all to consider them when you meet this week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

The current approach to Afghanistan has only increased the suffering in this country. Our people are innovative, determined, pioneering and resilient – let’s work towards lifting the barriers to our progress.

Signatories

Ahmad Wali Ahmadi – Mediothek Afghanistan

Ahmad Shekib Ahmadi – Way of Hope to life Organization (WHLO)

Ehsanullah Attal – SHIFA Foundation Organization (SFO)

Zuhra Bahman – Search for Common Ground

Sulaiman Bin Shah – Catalysts Afghanistan

Fazel Rabi Haqbeen – Tashbos Educational Centre & ACBAR

Habibbullah Qazizada

Kochay Hassan – Afghan Women Educational Centre

Massoud Karokheil – Tribal Liaison Office

Laila Haidari – Mother Trust Organisation

Abdul Wahab Nassimi – Organization for Management and Development (OMID)

Jawed Omari – Afghan Women Organization for Rehabilitation (AWOR)

Maiwand Niazi – Wama Relief and Skills Development Organization (WARSDO)

Ziaurrehman Rahimi – Afghan Development Association (ADA)

Samira Sayed-Rahman

Mahbouba Seraj – Afghan Women Skills Development Center (AWSDC)

Ghayour Waziri – The Killid Group

Negina Yaari – Afghans 4 Tomorrow Organization (A4T)

Mohammad Daud Yousufzai – Emmanuel Development Association (EDA)

Zakera Zurmati – Afghan Mehwar Support Organization (AMSO)

Shahir Zahine – Development and Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan (DHSA)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Young girls attend class at a UNICEF-supported school in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. April 2023. Credit: UNICEF/Mark Naftalin

By Jean-François Cautain
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 4 2023 (IPS)

I am writing from Kabul where I have been living for this past 11 months. I consider myself a friend of Afghanistan, a country full of contrasts that I know since 1986; I have lived here for a little over 12 years.

My return to Afghanistan was motivated by the desire, which I share with my wife who runs a medical NGO in Kabul, to help the Afghan population that is once again hostage to a modern “Great Game”, bringing violence and misery.

I was in Afghanistan when the Taliban first took Kabul in September 1996 after four years of armed conflict between various Afghan warlords that vied for supremacy after the departure of the Soviets in 1989. Heading a rural rehabilitation programme, I worked for 3 years under the first Taliban regime.

I was again present during the early years of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan between 2001 and 2005, working for the European Union. I remember the enthusiasm of the Afghan people. But I also remember the doubts that very quickly emerged about the viability of the project to “build a new Afghanistan”.

Today, I am extremely concerned about the isolation of Afghanistan on the international scene. It will lead to more suffering for the Afghan people and pose an increased risk to regional and international security.

In isolating Afghanistan, we are repeating mistakes made during the first Islamic Emirate, between 1996 – 2001, with the same well known dire consequences. Today, we must collectively, the international community and the Afghans, learn from past mistakes.

I do not consider myself an “expert” on Afghanistan, but the historical perspective I have on the country and the fact that I am currently living in Kabul mean that I probably have a different point of view to many of those currently being expressed from Europe and the United States.

The confrontation with Afghan poverty that I experience daily is no stranger to this discrepancy that I perceive between my vision of the situation and most of the analyses and positions expressed outside Afghanistan’s borders.

We all have to draw lessons

On 15 August 2021, 20 years of foreign military presence in Afghanistan came to an end. The US-led intervention raised great hopes in the early years. Unfortunately, this turned into a fiasco.

The international community and Afghanistan must analyse the many causes such as: the original sin of denying the defeated Taliban a seat in the first meeting aimed at the stability and reconstruction of the country (Bonn Conference 2001); too much aid leading to massive corruption, especially of certain political elites; a confusion of objectives between military operations aimed at eradicating terrorism and the (re)construction of a state.

We are just at the beginning of this necessary self-criticism from which we will have to draw lessons, but it is currently put on the backburner, or even forgotten, because of the recent developments in the country.

Since the Taliban took power, we have witnessed a widening chasm between the West and the new masters of Afghanistan. Both sides are clearly responsible for the current situation. At first, the Taliban displayed moderation when reaching out to the international community. They spoke of general amnesty, freedom of work for women, education for all, and the fight against terrorism.

The West refused to seize this extended hand. On the contrary, thanks to its dominant position on the international scene and taking advantage of the disarray caused by the return of the Taliban and the chaotic evacuation scenes at Kabul airport, the West responded by imposing conditions on the recognition of the Taliban government, the halt of development aid (40% of GNP), the freezing of the Central Bank of Afghanistan’s assets and the de facto extension of sanctions on financial transactions to the whole country.

These decisions brought the Afghan economy to its knees in a few weeks, precipitating this already poor country (48% of the population lived below the poverty line before the arrival of the Taliban – despite billions of dollars and euros poured into the country over 20 years) into an unprecedented economic crisis with unprecedented humanitarian consequences.

Today 28.3 million Afghans out of a population of around 40 million depend on humanitarian aid for their survival. And the poverty rate has reached 97%, according to the United Nations.

The Taliban also bear a great responsibility for this stalemate with decisions compromising the political and societal gains made over the past 20 years. The failure of their initial diplomatic approach with the West opened the door to the return of coercive policies that are unacceptable to the international community and to a large majority of Afghans.

Today, it is widely known that girls cannot study in secondary schools and universities, women cannot work in UN agencies and NGOs, and cannot go to parks and hammams. Political life is also minimal, with very few opportunities for dissenting voices to be heard and the media often having to censor themself.

There is a total lack of trust between the West and the Taliban. Western countries blame the Taliban for not respecting the Doha agreement by taking power by force and of having failed to keep their words by taking unacceptable decisions drastically reducing human rights, especially those of women and girls. This sad reality leads many educated Afghan families to leave the country for the sake of their daughters’ future.

For their part, many Taliban feel that the West is not sincere when it talks about peace in Afghanistan. They suspect the West, and especially the United States, of working to overthrow their government.

They point to the refusal to recognise their government, the sanctions, the freezing of the Central Bank’s assets and the military drones’ flying over the country, daily, for months. For them, the war with the West is not over, but has taken another form.

Confrontation cannot last

At a time when Western opinions are rightly outraged by the restrictions imposed on Afghan women and girls, one must also accept that the Taliban are proud to have liberated their country from an occupation led by the world’s greatest military power.

As a result, many do not understand why they have been ostracised for over 20 months. They feel that they should be “treated as equals” within the international community – which is more or less what some countries in the region are doing.

It is also important to realise, even if it is difficult to accept in some Western chancelleries, that this feeling of “liberation” is shared by a very significant percentage of the Afghan population, especially in rural areas, even if they are not all unconditional supporters of the Taliban regime.

Having driven the British out of Afghanistan in the 19th century, the Soviets in the 20th century, and now NATO in the 21st century, is part of the collective psyche of Afghans and makes many of them proud.

Yet, despite this incredibly complicated and terribly polarized context, it is imperative to continue and strengthen a direct dialogue between Western countries and the Taliban. The participants to the recent meeting convened by the UN Secretary General in Doha “agreed on the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.”

It is only through frequent face-to-face meetings – I do not believe in e-diplomacy – driven by a constructive spirit of understanding on both sides, that progress can be made for the Afghan people.

How could dialogue start?

Increasing interaction with the Taliban does not mean recognising their government, but rather creating spaces for discussion to dispel misunderstandings, pass on messages and build relationships that go beyond mere posturing.

It means putting the human element and pragmatism back into a relationship that is essentially conflictual today, opposing great international principles against “Afghan” values.

Dialogue must start by talking about subjects where there is a possible convergence of interests between the Western countries and the Taliban. Why not the fight against international terrorism and the fight against opium production, two scourges that affect both Afghanistan and Western countries?

The Taliban, who until now have never had any agenda other than a national one, are fighting the Islamic State, which remains a real threat in many countries. They also eliminated poppy cultivation in 2001 and have been tackling it again this year.

Keeping in mind the common goal of the wellbeing of the Afghan people, positive signals must also be sent from both sides. For example, on education on the one hand, on sanctions and/or asset freezes on the other.

This sustained dialogue needs to start even if it will surely be essentially transactional at first. This will probably not be satisfactory for both parties: the first steps will be modest, but it will have the merit of unblocking a stalemate situation whose victims are primarily Afghan women and girls and the Afghan population in general.

It is also urgent to give oxygen to the local economy to allow Afghans to have their minds free of the daily, haunting, and exclusive constraint of feeding their families. Humanitarian aid is essential and must continue to be delivered whatever the obstacles.

But even more humanitarian aid will never be a substitute for a revitalised economy. The obstacles on the Afghan economy are largely in the hands of Western countries. The latter could use the lifting of sanctions on financial transactions and the gradual restitution of the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan as positive vectors in a dialogue with the Taliban. Only then can the Afghan people regain their voice and influence the future of their country.

The road to an Afghanistan at peace with itself, and in tune with the international community, will be long and complicated. It can only be achieved through a sincere and sustained dialogue. It is the responsibility of the Taliban, other members of Afghan society and Western countries to take the first step in this direction, for the greater benefit of Afghans.

Jean-François Cautain is a former Ambassador of the European Union.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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In 2021, an estimated 1.13 million people unlawfully migrated to America and during fiscal year 2022 more than 1.6 million migrants were apprehended illegally crossing the border. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, May 3 2023 (IPS)

Approximately 225 million people from around the world would like to migrate permanently to the United States. But given America’s current policies, relatively few of them will be able to do so legally.

In 2021 the number of persons who obtained lawful resident status in the United States was 740 thousand. Also, based on past trends, population projections of the U.S. Census Bureau for the coming four decades estimate an annual addition of approximately 1.1 million legal immigrants to America’s population.

Consequently, millions of men, women and children wanting to emigrate to America but unable to do so legally are resorting to illegal immigration. In 2021, an estimated 1.13 million people unlawfully migrated to America and during fiscal year 2022 more than 1.6 million migrants were apprehended illegally crossing the border.

In addition, many illegal migrants are willing to risk their personal safety and lives to reach America. During the past twelve months, no less than 853 migrants died trying to reach America from Mexico, making fiscal year 2022 the deadliest year for unauthorized migrants recorded by the U.S. government.

Furthermore, over the past fifteen years the number of children encountered by Border Patrol officers at the southern border has grown enormously. Since fiscal year 2008, the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied children has increased seventeen-fold, reaching a total of nearly 622 thousand.

Approximately 97 percent of the unaccompanied children come from four countries: Guatemala (32 percent), Honduras (28 percent), Mexico (21 percent) and El Salvador (16 percent). Also, between 2008 and 2019, the number of both unaccompanied and accompanied children apprehended at the southern border, reaching an overall total of 1.35 million, has risen five-fold (Figure 1).

 

Source: TRAC Syracuse University.

 

On May 11, the administration is expected to end the Title 42 COVID-19 pandemic policy. That policy, which was relied on extensively by the previous administration, allowed officials to turn away hundreds of thousands of people without offering them an opportunity to claim asylum.

Also, earlier in March, another administration policy, referred to as Parole plus Alternative to Detention, was stopped by a Florida court. That policy aimed at reducing unauthorized migration pressures through the use of ankle monitors or a phone app.

The root cause for illegal immigration to the U.S. is not complicated. Most unauthorized migrants coming to America are doing so to escape difficult living conditions. The administration’s foreign aid initiative to improve living conditions in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has done relatively little to stem the historic levels of illegal immigration at the southern border

Despite the announcements and assurances by senior officials in the Biden administration, including Secretary State Antony J. Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, to limit the flow of unauthorized migrants across the U.S. southern border, the combination of the court’s March decision and the ending of Title 42 is expected to lead to a massive surge of tens of thousands more unauthorized migrants arriving at the southern border. The estimated illegal crossings could reach as high as 18,000 a day.

As has been the case in the recent past, such large numbers of unauthorized migrants are already overwhelming border resources and overcrowd government facilities. By the end of April more than 20,000 migrants were in Border Patrol custody, which is more than twice the rated capacity of the agency’s detention facilities along the U.S. southern border.

Those developments are expected to be followed by the release of many unauthorized migrants into the country without a court date, which is widely viewed as an incentive to additional illegal entries. That decision in turn will continue to incur costs and create pressures on border communities as well as cities in the country’s interior.

Bracing itself for the expected surge of unauthorized migrants at the country’s southern border, the Biden administration is implementing various immigration measures to address the illegal immigration crisis.

Among those measures are to open regional processing centers, increase refugee numbers from the Western hemisphere, have migrants enroll in the parole programs, schedule an appointment at the border via an app, seek asylum protection in a country they traveled through and increase pathways for legal immigration, including for El Salvadorans Hondurans and Guatemalans to reunite with family in the U.S.

Although two Republican sponsored immigration bills are proceeding through the U.S. House of Representatives, Congress has yet to pass immigration legislation and is unlikely to do so with the run up to the 2024 elections. As a result, President Biden has used his executive authority for measures to open the doors for hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter America legally.

In addition to the use of humanitarian parole programs for people fleeing war and political upheaval, the Biden administration’s measures offer migrants opportunities to enter the U.S. and secure work authorization if they have a private sponsor. By mid-April, about 300 thousand Ukrainians had arrived in America and by the close of 2023, approximately 360 thousand migrants from Latin America are expected to be admitted legally via private sponsorship.

Also with some exceptions, the administration plans to bar from asylum all non-Mexican migrants who arrive at the southern U.S. border without having first sought and been denied asylum in at least one of the countries they passed through on their trip. However, rights groups and their supporters oppose that plan as they believe it violates U.S. law and have threatened to sue the administration.

The root cause for illegal immigration to the U.S. is not complicated. Most unauthorized migrants coming to America are doing so to escape difficult living conditions. The administration’s foreign aid initiative to improve living conditions in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has done relatively little to stem the historic levels of illegal immigration at the southern border.

It is certainly understandable that many of those living under harsh conditions, including poverty, unemployment, lack of basic services, violence and political instability, want to emigrate. However, such living conditions are generally not grounds to permit legal entry into America.

Consequently, many of the unauthorized migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border are claiming asylum. To date, nearly 1.6 million asylum applications are pending in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services and immigration courts, which is the largest number of pending cases on record.

According to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. Asylum is granted to persons who can demonstrate that they are unable or unwilling to return to their country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular group.

Most of the migrants who have claimed asylum in the U.S. are not detained. In 2022, approximately 80 percent of the unauthorized migrants in the immigration court asylum backlog were never detained.

Those migrants were permitted to remain in the country while their cases are processed, which take on average more than four years. During that period of time, migrants take steps to integrate themselves into local communities, especially places offering sanctuary to illegal migrants.

The number of pending cases in the U.S. immigration court asylum backlog has grown rapidly over the recent past. Between 2012 and 2022 the number of pending cases in the asylum backlog increased seven-fold, i.e., from about 106 thousand to 757 thousand (Figure 2).

 

Source: TRAC Syracuse University.

 

Most claims for asylum in the U.S. fail to meet the criteria needed to be granted asylum. Over the past several years, approximately 70 percent of the asylum claims have been denied.

Nevertheless, relatively few of the migrants whose claims have been denied are repatriated. The number of non-citizen removals conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in fiscal year 2022 is 72,117.

With a growing world population of 8 billion, the supply of people who want to migrate to the U.S., estimated at approximately 225 million people, greatly exceeds America’s demand for migrants, which is a small fraction of the worldwide supply.

Consequently, as a result of the substantial demographic and economic imbalances, millions of men, women and children are resorting to illegal migration to secure a better life in America. As of yet, neither Congress nor the White House have come up with an effective blueprint to address America’s illegal immigration predicament.

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends and Differentials: More Important Population Matters”.

 

Her estranged husband says she has assets including 25 residential properties worth $80m and 21 farms.

By External Source
May 3 2023 (IPS-Partners)

Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi have been named as the laureates of the 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, following the recommendation of an International Jury of media professionals. The awards ceremony took place on the evening of May 2 in New York, in the presence of Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO.

Now more than ever, it is important to pay tribute to all women journalists who are prevented from doing their jobs and who face threats and attacks on their personal safety. Today we are honouring their commitment to truth and accountability.
Audrey Azoulay UNESCO’s Director-General

We are committed to honoring the brave work of Iranian female journalists whose reporting led to a historical women-led revolution. They paid a hefty price for their commitment to report on and convey the truth. And for that, we are committed to honoring them and ensuring their voices will continue to echo worldwide until they are safe and free.
Zainab Salbi Chair of the International Jury of media professionals

The three laureates

Niloofar Hamedi writes for the leading reformist daily newspaper Shargh. She broke the news of the death of Masha Amini following her detention in police custody on 16 September 2022. She has been detained in solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin Prison since September 2022.

Elaheh Mohammadi writes for the reformist newspaper, Ham-Mihan, covering social issues and gender equality. She reported on Masha Amini’s funeral, and has also been detained in Evin Prison since September 2022. She had previously been barred from reporting for a year in 2020 due to her work.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are joint winners of both the 2023 International Press Freedom Award by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), and Harvard’s 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. They were named as two of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023.

Narges Mohammadi has worked for many years as a journalist for a range of newspapers and is also an author and Vice-Director of the Tehran-based civil society organization Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC). She is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She has continued to report in print from prison, and has also interviewed other women prisoners. These interviews were included in her book “White Torture”. In 2022, she won the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Courage Prize.

Women journalists under threat

Globally, women journalists and media workers face increasing offline and online attacks and are subject to disproportionate and specific threats. The gender-based violence they are exposed to includes stigmatization, sexist hate speech, trolling, physical assault, rape and even murder. UNESCO advocates for the safety of women journalists and collaborates with partners to identify and implement good practices and share recommendations with all parties involved in countering attacks against women journalists, as recognized by numerous UN resolutions.

In 2021, UNESCO published The Chilling, a study on global trends in online violence against women journalists, which demonstrated the extent of attacks against women journalists and the impact on their well-being, their work and press freedom at large. UNESCO works with partners to develop practical tools for journalists, media managers and newsrooms to respond to online and offline abuse. UNESCO also partners with specialized organizations to train women media workers on the ground and through online training courses, and works with security forces to sensitize them on freedom of expression with a gender focus.

About the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize

Created in 1997, the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize honours a person, organization or institution which has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. It is the only such prize awarded to journalists within the UN System.

It is named for Guillermo Cano Isaza, the Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia, on 17 December 1986, and funded by the Guillermo Cano Isaza Foundation (Colombia), the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland), the Namibia Media Trust, Democracy & Media Foundation Stichting Democratie & Media (The Netherlands), and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

About UNESCO’s action to protect journalists

UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to ensure freedom of expression and the safety of journalists around the world. It coordinates the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which marked its 10th anniversary with a global conference in Vienna, Austria this year.

The Organization condemns and monitors judicial follow up to every journalist killing. It also trains journalists and judicial actors, works with governments to develop supportive policies and laws, and raises global awareness through events such as World Press Freedom Day (3 May) and the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (2 November) held annually.

 

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The floodwaters led many homes to collapse, killing those inside, authorities say.

Fish farmers harvest genetically improved farmed tilapia. Credit: Shandy Santos

By Jharendu Pant
PENANG, Malaysia, May 3 2023 (IPS)

For Timor-Leste, as with most other islands in the Pacific, fortunes are to be found in fish – an equity food available to all regardless of status.

Nevertheless, the island is highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, hampering domestic food production and contributing to Timor-Leste’s ranking of 110th out of 121 countries for malnutrition. Meanwhile, the country is highly dependent on imported foods – including aquatic foods.

But a national strategy to prioritise the sustainable growth of fish production, particularly through farming of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT), is helping not only to reverse these trends, but also to provide new economic and livelihood opportunities throughout the entire aquaculture value chain.

And its successes offer economies of scale for development agencies and donors looking to maximise impact by replicating the strategy across other Pacific states with similar environments and challenges.

Jharendu Pant

Timor-Leste’s National Aquaculture Development Strategy (NADS) began in 2012 and has taken some years to start yielding results because a lack of infrastructure, resources and know-how meant the model had to be developed from scratch. Now, though, the country is steadily progressing towards building a more sustainable and resilient aquatic food production system.

Timor-Leste is on track to double fish consumption between 2010 and 2030, with all the benefits for improving nutrition this holds, having already generated returns by tripling productivity while reducing culture period by half. Timor-Leste’s farmers are now able to produce more nutritious aquatic food in less time.

The ripple effects of these successes are already spreading in the region: representatives from the Solomon Islands travelled to Timor-Leste for training in 2018 and 2019 to learn from the model, which offers a blueprint for addressing similar challenges faced by other island nations.

Small island developing states (SIDS) are collectively among the countries most affected by malnutrition, with 75 per cent of adult deaths in the Pacific caused by non-communicable disease – many of them diet-related. At the same time, small island states are among the most exposed to climate risk, which impacts the production of nutritious, indigenous foods.

But based on Timor-Leste’s learnings, other small island nations can also boost nutrition security and livelihoods through a similar dedicated strategy for aquaculture.

The approach starts with prioritising and deploying locally adapted solutions and technologies. WorldFish, working together with the Government of Timor-Leste, helped to introduce a public-private partnership (PPP) model for Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) hatcheries across the country, ensuring that farmers have access to high quality fish fingerlings in their local area.

Senor Robiay, cluster coordinator of Laubonu. Credit: Silvino Gomes

This improved breed of tilapia is ideal for addressing nutrition gaps for protein, essential fatty acids and micronutrients, while also minimising the burden on the environment, due to its relatively lower carbon footprint. The hatcheries were also established following rigorous environmental standards, which limits the release of effluence and observes biosecurity measures.

However, one of the challenges remaining for Timor-Leste and other resource-poor countries is the development of effective regulations and compliance monitoring. Alongside greater capacity for upholding environmental standards, subsequent phases of the strategy would also look to ensuring the benefits of increased production are shared equitably. This includes addressing issues of gender equality as well as youth employment opportunities.

Secondly, other countries with similar contexts can learn from Timor-Leste’s example of prioritising growth in production to drive increased consumption. Timor-Leste’s new fish hatcheries have helped increase production threefold between its first and second phase, paving the way for the successful scaling of aquaculture across the country.

And by prioritizing the production of monosex (all male) tilapia – which grow faster than female tilapia – Timor-Leste’s approach allowed the country’s farmers to maximize growth and the rate at which domestic production could meet the nutrition needs of the population. This resulted in increased availability and accessibility of nutritious fish to support higher levels of consumption.

Finally, Timor-Leste’s commitment to an ongoing aquaculture strategy over a decade and counting has also allowed the initiative to evolve over time. Such a long-term approach has also enabled the testing and validation of technologies and practices, making the scaling and replication elsewhere comparatively straightforward.

But ongoing funding is critical, both to develop the long-term capacity needed to maintain economic and nutritional gains in Timor-Leste, and to jumpstart similar initiatives elsewhere. The Partnership for Aquaculture Development in Timor-Leste (PADTL2) has been funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) New Zealand since 2014, with complementary financing from USAID in recent years, offering more solid and lasting gains than ad hoc interventions that last just a couple of years.

The sustainable growth of aquaculture production offers many benefits for small island nations. Over the last decade, Timor-Leste’s aquaculture strategy has become a model for developing more inclusive and secure food systems for all, helping to combat the challenges of malnutrition and exposure to climate change that impact Pacific Islands.

Partners including WorldFish are standing by to replicate this success and support other island governments to sustainably increase fish production and consumption to unlock blue fortunes for all.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Dr. Jharendu Pant is Senior Scientist – Sustainable Aquaculture Program, WorldFish

Seoin Yang (left) and Rosanna Claudia Luzarraga. Credit: Paul Virgo/IPS

By Paul Virgo
ROME, May 3 2023 (IPS)

When pupils from the Chadwick International School went on an exchange trip to their math teacher’s homeland the Philippines they were faced with a mystery. The kids from their twin school were warm, friendly and fun hosts.

But when lunch time came around, instead of sitting down with their South Korean guests and joining them to eat, they would stay away and watch from a distance.

It seemed uncharacteristic – almost rude.

The programme is a model for solidarity that can easily be replicated by other institutions. The first step is always the hardest. In the beginning it all seems so intimidating, People say solutions have to be innovative. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don’t - Even the simplest solutions can work the best

Coming from prosperous families, it did not immediately dawn on the visitors that their hosts were foregoing lunch not out of impoliteness, but because of poverty.

“That was an utter shock to us. They couldn’t afford food,” Seoin Yang, a high-school student at the Chadwick International School in the Korean city of Songdo, near Seoul, told IPS.

“As sixth graders and as people who had never witnessed such situations in real life, we couldn’t really say anything or do anything.

“Our temporary solution was to not eat and give our food to them. But that wasn’t really a solution”.

It would have been easy for the group to put this ‘shock’ behind them once they returned home and concentrate on their busy lives of study, hobbies, sports and social activities, like most teens.

Instead, they decided to try to do something that would make a difference, launching a programme to provide their new Filipino friends with breakfast and lunch at their school in Labo, in the province of Camarines Norte.

It is not easy to set up a programme in the Philippines from South Korea and they ran into a host of difficulties.

But they managed to get the project off the ground, raising money and working with the school in the Philippines, with volunteer teachers and parents doing the cooking.

“We started off by serving 50 students and the response was really positive because a lot of the students had had to drop out of school because they couldn’t afford food,” said Yang.

“But then they could continue with school. We also used a local market for the food so that we helped the local economy and the local farmers there”.

They raised the money by doing things like selling snacks during school events, applying for grants and getting private-sector partners on board.

In the second year they helped build a school kitchen and subsequently expanded the programme to more schools.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic made adjustments necessary.

“When COVID hit and the students stopped going to school, we decided to modify our programme and provide a food packet for them, still incorporating the local economy, still putting in all the nutritious food, but in a packet,” said Yang.

“The parents could come to school every week on a Monday to pick up these packets,

“They shared the food with their families and so we not only fed the students but the families too”.

The cost-of-living crisis had an impact too. Indeed, after five years the programme had to be suspended for a period due to soaring prices.

 

Image provided by Chadwick School

 

But the group recently managed to get it going again, raising money to provide meals for 155 students in three different schools. A Chadwick party is going back to the Philippines this month.

The programme might be relatively small-scale but it has made a big difference to the young people who have benefitted from it.

Last year 32 students who had been having school meals thanks to the programme since grade seven graduated from high school.

Five of them got scholarships and are now studying engineering at university.

“We believe that we are not just solving hunger (for the pupils we help), we are also trying to solve education, health and wellbeing issues,” said Yang.

“Often children have to work with their family to earn money if they are poor, rather than staying at school. As children don’t have a lot of skills, the only job they can do is labouring, which doesn’t pay them a lot.

“It’s just like a cycle. They can’t go to school if they don’t have food, so they have to give up on their education, which means the poverty continues”.

Rosanna Claudia Luzarraga, the math teacher who first took the students to the Philippines, said she is “honoured” to have the kids who launched the programme.

But she also stresses that the South Korean kids have been enriched by it too, building skills, making friendships and learning to appreciate what they have.

“We go to the Philippines every year and, during that time, there is a consultation, we call it a student congress, so the student leaders there meet the South Korean students and they discuss what is good about the programme and what we can improve,” Luzarraga told IPS.

“Part of it is shadowing. So they follow one of the recipients at home, they see their house, and walk with them.

“In one case we walked 14 km because the kids went home and it was seven kilometres going home and seven kilometres going back.

“You develop empathy for someone. They are learning from the other students. It’s not just a case of us doling out aid.

“It’s not simply giving. It’s always two way.

“From what I have seen from my students and from the students in the Philippines, there’s a connection.

“You take care of each other. They are building relationships and this is the most important thing”.

Both Yang and Luzarraga think the programme is a model for solidarity that can easily be replicated by other institutions.

“The first step is always the hardest. In the beginning it all seems so intimidating,” Yang said.

“People say solutions have to be innovative. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don’t.

“Even the simplest solutions can work the best.

“For us it was that the students couldn’t afford food and we provided them with food.

“That was our solution. It wasn’t innovative at all but it had a huge impact on the students.

“So just think simple and go for it”.

Experts say drone journalism, or the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, holds great potential for news-gathering purposes during a volatile environment such as political protests. Photo: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, May 3 2023 (IPS)

In a departure from the past, where journalists in Kenya have freely covered anti-government protests unharmed, a series of events that unfolded in March 2023 have heightened fears of the re-emergence of brutal physical attacks on journalists.

According to the Media Council of Kenya, in a span of two weeks, more than 25 journalists were harassed, arrested and held in police cells, physically attacked, expensive equipment destroyed and footage deleted during the opposition-led demonstrations.

Calvin Tyrus Omondi, who participated in the recent March protests and many others before, tells IPS that “journalists usually cover demonstrations while standing on the side of the police officers because they are safe there. This time round, tear gas canisters were being fired at journalists. Tear gas canisters are used by police officers, so many journalists were very frightened because the canister can hit and kill somebody.”

“There were also a few hired goons who did not want the demonstrations to continue and were throwing stones at journalists. The journalists were not safe with the police officers or with the crowds. Some were even robbed.”

One of the most brutal incidences was the attack on Cameraman Eric Isinta, who was hit by three tear gas canisters in quick succession on the face and abdomen; he fell from the press vehicle and was seriously injured.

“Access to reliable official information is of critical importance during times of crisis. Trustworthy news and images may help protect civilians and contribute to diffusing tensions. Journalists are often the source of this information,” Harrison Manga, Country Director of Media Focus on Africa, tells IPS.

“But journalists are also often the target of the parties in a crisis, as seen in the recent attacks on journalists covering the opposition called demonstrations in Nairobi in March 2023. Press freedom demands that journalists’ safety be guaranteed by state and non-state actors alike at all times and especially during times of crisis.”

It was, therefore of great concern when notable and influential figures within the government rank openly and publicly intensified verbal attacks against the media fraternity in remarks that erased all doubt about the vulnerabilities of journalists covering volatile political situations.

Dr Jane Thuo, a lecturer in Journalism and Mass Communication tells IPS that against this backdrop, equipment to protect journalists in such volatile situations, where tear gas cannisters are used as weapons and live bullets are fired, are simply not adequate.

Take for instance injured Cameraman Isinta who was wearing protective head gear but still came close to losing an eye and having his face permanently deformed. A number of journalists suffered head injuries despite wearing helmets as tear gas cannisters were purposely and with precision shot at their heads and face area, or abdomen.

“We need to explore technology to keep our journalists safe. Drone journalism or the use of unmanned aerial vehicles holds great potential for news gathering purposes during a volatile environment such as political protests, violent conflict and natural disaster without placing the lives and health of our journalists at risk,” Thuo expounds.

She says that drones, which are small unmanned aircrafts operated remotely by a person on the ground, can facilitate journalists to remain true to their calling by providing the public with accurate and timely information without becoming collateral damage or even losing expensive equipment.

Footage of volcanic eruptions, war-torn villages, and nuclear disasters have all been made possible by drone technology, and experts such as Thuo are stressing that the time has come for journalists in Africa, particularly those covering active armed conflict, to turn to drone technology.

There are at least 15 armed conflicts in Africa today in countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Ethiopia, where at great risk to their lives, journalists continue to expose ongoing atrocious crimes against humanity.

As such, drone photos, videos and live streaming capacities can enable journalists to make, their news reports more insightful and innovative, especially in the coverage of fast-moving and in areas that are too dangerous for journalists.

Thuo speaks of companies, NGOs and universities that are testing drones in this context, including the Drone Journalism Lab at Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Closer home, the africanDRONE,  a pan-African community of drone operators and journalists, is committed to using drones.

A picture may well be worth a thousand words, but as camerapersons and photographers find themselves on the receiving end and at risk of serious and life-threatening bodily harm, Thuo says media stakeholders must, as a matter of urgency, begin to explore legislation to facilitate drone journalism in times of crisis.

“We have to factor in the issues of protecting people’s privacy, public safety and journalism ethics. It is possible to craft legislation that takes these critical issues into account because they are at the heart of human rights. There is room to weigh the benefits and concerns of gathering news using drones in dangerous situations and establish a progressive legal framework,” Thuo observes.

She confirms that drones can indeed be misused, but with wide-ranging consultations with media stakeholders, human rights experts and technical experts in fields such as the aviation industry, “it is possible to establish parameters that enable journalists to revolutionize news coverage using technology such as drones.”

Drone Laws in Kenya permit drone ownership by citizens over the age of 18 years, residents, businesses and governments. All drones must be registered by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.

Thuo says there is a need to analyze Kenya’s drone laws to find out if they restrict or facilitate drone journalism and to what extent and determine steps that relevant stakeholders could take to help improve the safety and security of journalists through innovative technology.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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After two decades of turmoil people in Darfur, west Sudan, are scared of being targets once again.

Aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti. Often, women and girls face greater health and safety risks as water and sanitation systems become compromised; and take on increased domestic and care work as resources disappear. Credit: UN MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi

By Ayesha Khan, Éliane Ubalijoro and Yuriko Backes
KARACHI, Pakistan / NAIROBI, Kenya / LUXEMBOURG CITY, Luxembourg, May 3 2023 (IPS)

The finance sector’s role in the current global crises – notably climate, biodiversity, and food security – is significant.

Polluting activities and environmentally-destructive practices for short-term economic gains have catapulted us to our current untenable situation. We’re ‘sawing off the branch we’re sitting on’ by sacrificing life-giving ecosystem services for profit, and that branch is sagging and splitting under our weight.

As we lurch from one climate crisis to another, leaving millions of the most vulnerable – particularly women and other marginalised identities – scrambling to survive large-scale flooding, extreme temperatures, and scorching heatwaves that decimate lives and livelihoods, we must radically reframe how we define success.

Finance can powerfully drive the change we seek. Significant commitments have been made, such as the pledges to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 made by tens of thousands of businesses and institutions through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Race to Zero campaign; the food industry’s zero deforestation pledge at this year’s UNFCCC Climate Change Conference (COP27); new finance-related targets in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to increase financing for nature and biodiversity; advances in the EU sustainable finance taxonomy; and emerging initiatives like Business for Nature.

The sustainable financing gap remains formidable: finance flows to Nature-based solutions (NbS) are currently less than half of what is needed by 2025 – and only a third of what is needed by 2030 – to limit climate change to below 1.5 degrees centigrade, halt biodiversity loss and achieve land degradation neutrality.

There is a particularly critical need to build up financing – and action – for biodiversity, as one of our most valuable natural capital assets which is crucial in addressing the challenges we face.

Meanwhile, nature-negative flows are estimated to exceed nature-based solutions by three to seven times. In the past six years, investments in the fossil fuel industry have continued at a steady pace, as has funding of projects leading to deforestation – such as livestock farming in the Brazilian Amazon in a largely unrestricted way.

Moreover, despite wealthy nations pledging USD 100 billion annually for climate mitigation and adaptation, less than 3% of adaptation funding has reached the countries in the Global South that need it the most.

This leaves the world out of balance. As 600 million smallholder farmers, who feed much of the developing world, struggle to respond to the most recent drought, flooding, or extreme weather event, huge numbers of the already-vulnerable become increasingly food-insecure, and can fall into irreversible poverty traps. We need to do better.

To turn this around, governments and multilateral institutions play an important role. But while governments currently provide about 83% of Nature-based solutions financing, a significant boost from this sector is unlikely given the confluence of crises taking its attention.

So, the pressure is also on the private sector to step up efforts –requiring increased investment in sustainable supply chains, paying properly for ecosystem services, and reducing or dropping nature-negative activities. Over 400 private sector companies asked to be regulated at COP15, and this goodwill must be harnessed.

We must also consider how to deploy the hoped-for influx of financing. We know Indigenous Peoples and local communities play key roles as ‘stewards’ of many of Earth’s landscapes. But between 2010 and 2020, they received less than 5% of development aid for environmental protection, and under 1% for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Channelling sustainable finance to these communities – especially women – can simultaneously spur community development, empower women, and nourish ecosystems. We must design instruments that are better-positioned to attract private capital towards efficient financing, including by using blended finance models to layer risk-taking development capital and grant instruments with more commercially-oriented funds.

There are so many sustainable, scalable solutions that already exist across Africa, Latin America and Asia and there comes a time to harness them. Let’s bridge the gaps between investors and community-led projects and build the resources of our landscapes’ stewards – in all their guises – to tend to our planet’s precious remaining species, ecosystems, and carbon sinks.

The time is now. Let’s meet the moment together.

Ayesha Khan is Regional Managing Director at Acumen, Pakistan. Éliane Ubalijoro is incoming CEO of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF). Yuriko Backes is Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance. They are three of the 16 Women Restoring the Earth 2023 and spoke at the Global Landscapes Forum’s 6th Investment Case Symposium to drive sustainable land-use investments in the Global South.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Sudan-born businessman Sir Mohammed Ibrahim has spoken to the BBC about the war in the country.

Kenyans are trying to fathom why more than 100 people may have starved to death in an isolated camp.

A doctor talks to a TB survivor at a clinic in Manilla, Philippines. Credit: Getty Images for TB Alliance

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 2 2023 (IPS)

While there is no established causal relationship between climate change and tuberculosis (TB), studies have begun to highlight the potential impact its effects could have on the spread of the disease.

Undernutrition, HIV/AIDS, overcrowding, poverty, and diabetes have all been identified as TB risk factors that are worsened by climate change. Worryingly, many countries with high burdens of TB, including, for instance, drought-hit Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, and Peru, have suffered from the kind of extreme weather associated with a heating planet.

But despite vying with COVID-19 for the grim distinction of the world’s deadliest infectious disease, claiming 1.6 million lives in 2021, TB is not often talked about in connection with climate change, with the link often overlooked by policymakers.

TB experts say this must change as the climate crisis accelerates.

“The effects of climate change, such as its impact on migration, for instance, are getting attention. What we want to see is for that attention to also get drawn to its effects on TB,” Maria Beumont, Chief Medical Officer at TB Alliance, a global nonprofit organisation developing TB drugs, told IPS.

In recent years, disease experts and climatologists have sounded increasingly dire warnings about the potential impact of the climate crisis on the spread of lethal diseases.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of the health impacts of global heating, including an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases. Meanwhile, other research has shown how changes in climate have aggravated the risks of hundreds of infectious diseases worldwide.

But much of the discussion around that has focused on how higher temperatures and increased incidence of flooding and drought could drive more vector, food and water-borne diseases with diseases.

What has often been overlooked in these conversations, say Beumont and others, is how the effects of the climate crisis could worsen what is de facto a global TB pandemic.

Part of this is because of the nature of those effects in relation to TB.

“The potential impact of climate change [on TB] is more indirect than with some other infectious diseases,” Dr Mohammed Yassin, Senior Disease Advisor, TB, at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told IPS.

TB experts point to how more frequent and more devastating natural disasters linked to climate change, or simply places on the planet becoming too hot to be habitable, are leading to mass displacement, which can create ideal conditions for TB to spread.

“Mass displacement can lead to overcrowding and poor living conditions of those displaced. If some of those people already have symptoms of TB, there is a higher chance of it spreading. There would also be people living under stress, and facing malnutrition, which are factors adding to the potential for TB to spread,” said Yassin.

Displacement also raises issues with access to healthcare for the displaced, which can negatively affect the management of treatment for those with TB because patients need to take treatment daily. Interruption of treatment can leave them infectious for longer and at risk of developing drug-resistant TB, which in turn is much more difficult and expensive to treat.

But displacement would also impact the treatment of those with other conditions, such as HIV and AIDS and diabetes, which weaken immune systems and leave people more susceptible to TB.

Meanwhile, displaced people are likely to find themselves living in crowded areas where, in the absence of adequate screening and diagnostic procedures, TB could spread.

But displacement is far from the only problem. Both extreme droughts and flooding can impact food security, devastating crops and killing livestock and leading to malnutrition and undernutrition—known risk factors for TB.

The impact of extreme weather on health, particularly TB, is already being seen in some parts of the world.

Somalia is in the grip of severe drought following five consecutive failed rainy seasons—something which the UN has said has not been seen for four decades—with five million people facing acute food shortages and nearly two million children at risk of malnutrition, according to the UN.

TB is a major cause of death in Somalia, and late last year, with TB services largely non-existent in settlements for displaced persons, the Global Fund committed USD 1.9 million for food support for thousands of TB patients and outreach activities in settlements. Officials at the time emphasised the importance of such action to help reach the most vulnerable and stop TB from spreading.

Meanwhile, the devastating floods in Pakistan last year, which affected an estimated 33 million people, not only brought an immediate threat of diseases such as malaria and dengue but interrupted vital vaccination programmes, including TB.

“The impact of flooding on TB is usually seen sometime later, but it, of course, has an immediate impact in disrupting treatment which can lead to problems such as drug-resistant TB,” said Yassin.

TB experts are calling for governments and leaders within the TB community itself to begin paying more attention to the issue and start thinking about current TB programs and where changes need to be made to deal with these potential impacts.

Some groups, like TB Alliance, are looking to mitigate some of these impacts through treatment developments. The group recently developed a new TB treatment regimen, BPaL, with a much shorter treatment length and fewer of the sometimes very toxic side effects of previous regimens.

An oral-only regimen involving only a few pills a day, it has been widely praised by patients and experts for the relative ease with which it can be taken, notably in Ukraine, where it has recently been rolled out programmatically and used among the many millions displaced there because of the Russian invasion.

“What we are focusing on is trying to find solutions to make treatment safer and shorter, which would overcome some of the negative effects of climate change related to TB, for instance, displacement, as there would be less chance of treatment interruption with shorter treatment,” said Beumont.

A doctor studies x-rays of a TB survivor at a clinic in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit: Getty Images for TB Alliance

Yassin said that investment in health systems, especially in low-income countries which have some of the world’s highest TB burdens and where healthcare is already under-resourced, is also crucial.

“We learnt from Covid that health systems can’t cope with a pandemic, and TB is actually a pandemic. It is very important for countries to think about strengthening their health systems and making them more resilient. There needs to be investment now to prepare the systems for a pandemic, including climate change-driven TB,” said Yassin.

“There was a collapse of some healthcare systems during Covid, and because of that, all resources in some countries went to dealing with that, and TB was forgotten, and the TB burden of those countries rose. We need to invest now, not wait for another pandemic. We need more resources,” he added.

Meanwhile, others say that alongside these measures, individual, non-climate-specific interventions could help.

Dr Krishnan Rajendran of the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in India, which has the highest burden of TB in the world according to the World Health Organisation, told IPS that lessons learnt from the Covid pandemic could be used to reduce TB spread.

“National and local authorities could take preventive measures, such as at least encouraging people to wear masks in seasons where TB incidence is high,” he said.

Whatever efforts are made to deal with the impact of climate change on the disease, they need to be made soon, said Yassin.

“We shouldn’t wait for climate change impacts [to fuel the spread of TB] before we act—we should do something now and deal with TB to prevent more deaths and disabilities,” he said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By External Source
May 2 2023 (IPS-Partners)

 

World Press Freedom Day was inaugurated by the United Nations in 1993.

The 3rd of May will mark its 30th anniversary with the theme of:

“Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights”.

The impetus to establish such a day came out of Africa with the Windhoek Declaration of 1991.

Political optimism gripped much of the continent as apartheid unraveled in South Africa.

Namibia shook off colonial rule and Ethiopia’s murderous dictator resigned.

In the decade that followed, independent journalism blossomed globally.

But after the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s, regression began anew.

The Swedish-based V-Dem Institute, which monitors political freedoms globally, says the gains of the past 35 years have been wiped out.

It estimates that 72% of the world’s population – 5.7 billion people – now live in autocracies.

“The decline is most dramatic in the Asia-Pacific region, which is back to levels last recorded in 1978,” it says in its 2023 Democracy Report.

U.S. watchdog Freedom House suggests Global freedom declined for the 17th consecutive year.

85% of the world’s population experienced a decline in press freedom in just the last 5 years.

Mis- and disinformation has contributed to years of declining trust in media worldwide.

News services have been blocked online, journalists illegally spied on, and media sites hacked.

The limits of the U.N. mechanisms to keep journalists safe were clearly on display after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

But there is still a lot the U.N. can do with its existing authority and structure.

Supportive member states need to invest in strengthening UNESCO’s plan on journalist safety.

They also need to do and say more against those states that ignore or violate human rights.

The key to opening freedom of expression is to move beyond the day itself, and to demand it day after day after day.

 

 

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Credit: UNESCO
 
2023 year marks the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. The UN says three decades have passed since it was proclaimed in 1993, in which “we have seen substantial progress towards achieving a free press and freedom of expression around the world.”
 
The proliferation of independent media in many countries and the rise of digital technologies have enabled the free flow of information. However, media freedom, safety of journalists and freedom of expression are increasingly under attack, which impacts the fulfillment of other human rights, according to the UN.

By Khadija Patel
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, May 2 2023 (IPS)

There’s a now familiar groan every time the lights go out in South Africa. Due to a critical shortage of electricity, the national power utility institutes a daily regimen of scheduled power cuts.

Some areas in large cities experience up to ten hours of blackouts per day. The damage to businesses and a general sense of safety and security is yet to be properly calculated.

But it has also had profound implications for how community radio stations can continue broadcasting through the darkness. Most community radio stations have simply gone silent. Bush Radio, the country’s oldest community radio station, found itself off air for several hours per day.

In the townships of Cape Town’s sprawling Cape Flats district, Bush Radio has a special relationship of solidarity and belonging with the communities it serves.

Through its talk shows, training programmes and social engagement campaigns, it acts as a sounding board for communities who often struggle to find representation and recognition beyond daily reports of gang violence.

Khadija Patel. Credit:: Syracuse University

Amidst all the other challenges facing the radio station, like ageing equipment and dwindling sources of funding, broadcasting through the dark is the latest setback. It is a typical story. The challenges news media face may be different from place to place, but they are rapidly compounding everywhere.

And they have an impact on more than whether Bush Radio can remain on air. What is at stake is the avenues available for their audience to communicate with each other, to take part in decisions that affect their lives, and to celebrate their own cultures.

This week, as the United Nations celebrates World Press Freedom Day – also 30 years old – it’s time to get serious about stopping what’s been labelled a media extinction event.

Until June 2020, I was the editor of the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa. I’d hoped to restore the start-up rigour of one of Africa’s most cherished independent news institutions.

However, my experience of trying to run a newsroom, to keep public interest journalism alive in the face of broken business model, revealed the grave structural crisis facing news media today.

Advertising revenue was already in free fall as so much of it had migrated to the social media platforms, but it was the pandemic that sent us over the edge.

We were forced to issue an urgent appeal to our readers to keep the paper afloat and while this allowed us to meet our most pressing commitments at the time, it did not resolve the deeper problem of quickly finding a consistent revenue stream that would allow the institution to be relevant in new ways.

My experience is replicated across Africa – and beyond. Media outlets are trying to innovate but cannot do so quickly enough to defy the harsh economic headwinds.

Independent journalism faces an existential economic crisis: traditional business models have broken down; new ones will take time to emerge. Economic levers are being used to silence critical voices, and private and political interests are capturing economically weak media.

So, what do we do?

In this moment of profound crisis, we must assert the value of news media. This is a moment for the world to come together to recognise that something drastic must be done to ensure independent journalism is supported as a public good.

So, when so much of the discourse around news media is steeped in despair – for good reason – working on the founding team of International Fund for Public Interest Media, as Journalist-in-Residence, has been energising.

Launching today [May 2] at the UN’s World Press Freedom Day conference, the International Fund is the first multilateral body dedicated to helping independent media in low and middle-income countries to weather the storm.

Bush Radio is one of its pilot grantees. It will use its small grant to supplement salaries and update its computer systems. It has also used its grant to purchase a generator to power the studio during blackouts.

So far, the International Fund has received support from world leaders such as Presidents Biden and Macron, with pledges from over a dozen governments and corporate entities, raising US$50m.

But its ambition is to emulate the success of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria or the GAVI Alliance, bodies which transformed the level of treatments and vaccines available to fight deadly disease. In the coming years we want to raise $500m, a sum more commensurate with the scale of the problem facing media today.

A free, independent media is what underpins freedom of expression, human rights and all our development goals. Its decline will have a profound impact on democracy – for the fewer stories journalists are able to get to, the less we understand what is happening around us, the more we lose of our understanding of each other.

Khadija Patel is Journalist-in-Residence, International Fund for Public Interest Media, and Chairperson of the International Press Institute.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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