Africa

Activist-Nodeep-Kaur-Speaking-at-Farmers-Rally-at-the-Kundli-Manesar-Palwal-Expressway-in-Haryana. Credit: Sania Farooqui

By Ines M Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Mar 16 2022 (IPS)

The 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was just launched. Due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main annual global forum on gender equality is once again taking place in a hybrid format – both at the UN’s New York headquarters, where government delegations will be meeting, and online, where most civil society activity will take place.

This has disappointed women’s rights movements from all over the world – for the third time in a row. Back in 2020, CSW’s 64th session was due to begin on 9 March, and the spreading pandemic resulted in a dramatic restructure: from a two-week event with around 12,000 confirmed participants to a one-day procedural meeting. The following year, CSW 65 was held in a hybrid format, but mostly virtually.

For more than two years non-stop, the pandemic impacted disproportionately on the rights of women and girls. Gender-based violence raged and femicides increased. The burden of unpaid work on women’s shoulders multiplied, economic hardship differentially affected women, who are heavily employed in the informal sector, and the virus itself disproportionately affected women who are over-represented in frontline jobs.

When women most needed a space where they could advocate for their rights and demand that the pandemic and post-pandemic recovery were tackled through a gendered lens, the main such global space almost completely collapsed.

While much was initially made of the inclusive potential of virtual events, it soon became clear that access challenges faced by women in real life were replicated in the online sphere. This year, many women’s voices may again go unheard, since they lack the same status as the government representatives allowed into the room.

Fortunately, mobilised women’s rights groups have worked extra hard to prevent that from happening. On 8 March, International Women’s Day (IWD), feminists from all over the world took to the streets again, showing that they had not been defeated by the pandemic – if anything, they were emerging stronger. They articulated a clear and coherent agenda for equality.

The right to life free of violence

IWD mobilisations demanded action on gender-based violence (GBV) everywhere around the world, but nowhere were these demands louder than in Latin America, where streets in city after city were taken over by green – the colour of the rising tide for abortion rights that originated in Argentina – and violet – the traditional colour of the feminist movement.

Mass marches, along with feminist strikes against all forms of violence – domestic and sexual violence but also institutional and economic violence – were held in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador and Uruguay, among others.

In Mexico City, the day started with a giant airship streaking across the skies with a sign reading ‘10 feminicides a day, none of them forgotten’, followed by a mass march in the capital and in states across the country.

In Bolivia, ahead of IWD hundreds of women marched for justice and an end to impunity. Convened by the Mujeres Creando collective, they carried photographs of men accused or sentenced for rape, and of judges and prosecutors who freed perpetrators of GBV and femicides.

In Honduras, protesters condemned femicides and urged the approval of the Shelter House Law for victims of GBV. In Panama, women called for greater protection for girls and adolescents from sexual violence, as well as better guarantees of labour rights.

Most IWD protests were held in a celebratory atmosphere: even while they were sharing grievances and expressing anger, women were out there experiencing sisterhood and togetherness, either celebrating victories or giving each other strength to overcome defeat.

This was no invitation to violence, but still there were instances in which repression – unprovoked and unjustified – came. Such was the case in Ecuador, where protesting women were met by police with pepper spray, baton beatings, horses and dogs.

Halfway around the world in South Asia, dozens of IWD events, known as the Aurat March, were held across Pakistan for the fifth year in a row. Recent high-profile femicide cases had intensified calls for stronger legal protections against so-called ‘honour killings’.

As in previous years, protesters experienced intense backlash, including attempts to stop them protesting. The minister of religious affairs called for IWD events to be cancelled, for the Aurat March to be banned and for 8 March to be rebranded as ‘Hijab Day’.

At least one right-wing organisation accused marchers of ‘obscenity’ and threatened to beat them. In Lahore and other cities, counterprotests known as ‘hijab marches’ also mobilised, with women from conservative religious groups calling for the preservation of ‘Islamic values’.

Where Asia meets Europe, the Azerbaijani Feminist Movement gathered in Baku to urge the adoption of the Istanbul Convention – the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – and demand proper investigations of GBV cases. Instead of investigating reports, the police typically advise victims to return home and reconcile with their husbands.

Women also rallied against GBV in nearby Turkey. Campaigners warned that skyrocketing femicide numbers may be gross underestimates, as femicides are often recorded as suicides or accidents. In the evening, women held their annual feminist night walk in Ankara and Istanbul. Here, as in Quito, riot police used pepper spray against protesters to try to disperse a crowd of several thousand gathered in the city centre.

GBV and femicides were under the spotlight in Africa and Europe as well. In Albania, the Feminist Collective protested outside the Prime Minister’s office in Tirana to demand freedom from violence in all its forms. Simultaneously, a performance was staged in a central square, where dozens of pairs of red shoes were laid down to symbolise the victims of femicide.

In Belgium, close to 5,000 women took to the streets of Brussels to call for equality and an end to GBV and sexual harassment. Rallying cries included ‘Victime, on te croit. Agresseur, on te voit’ (‘Victim, we believe you. Perpetrator, we see you’), a reference to testimonies shared by women who have experienced sexual harassment.

In the UK, campaigners laid flowers outside an immigration detention centre for women, stating that most women held there are survivors of rape and other forms of GBV and victims of trafficking and modern slavery. They vowed to continue protesting until the site is closed down.

In Nairobi, Kenya, hundreds of women marched to the national police headquarters to demand justice for sexual assault in public spaces and call for the regulation of the commuter motorbike sector, after a video showing a woman being sexually assaulted by motorbike riders on a busy road went viral. Protesters held placards with messages such as ‘usinishike’ – ‘don’t touch me’ in Swahili.

Global sorority and abortion rights

Many protests that focused on GBV also demanded sexual and reproductive rights. This was no coincidence, as GBV and the denial of sexual and reproductive rights have a common root: women’s deprivation of the personhood and autonomy to decide over their bodies and lives.

This focus could be seen in El Salvador, which has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. On IWD, around 2,000 women from feminist organisations and university groups marched against femicides and to demand the immediate legalisation of abortion on three grounds: to save the pregnant person’s life, in cases of life-threatening foetal malformation and when pregnancy is the result of sexual violence.

Something similar would have happened in Poland, where in 2020 a near-total ban on abortion was introduced under cover of the pandemic, if it hadn’t been for the emergency caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In less than two weeks, over 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, had crossed the border into Poland, and Polish civil society set to work to help in whatever way they could. Everything else took a temporary back seat.

This happened throughout Europe, and beyond: demands for women’s rights shared the stage with calls for solidarity with Ukraine. Blue-and-yellow rallies were held in several European capitals, including Brussels, where a ‘Women stand with Ukraine’ demonstration took place, and Berlin, where hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered outside the Russian Embassy to protest against the invasion. In Turkey, the Ankara Women’s Platform publicly sided with Ukrainian women and children as ‘the first victims of the war’. Further away in Central Asia, an IWD rally in Kyrgyzstan also denounced the invasion.

In Spain, where hundreds of thousands mobilised, protesters advanced demands for equality while also protesting against the war; in wars, they pointed out, women are always treated as bargaining chips. In Barcelona, the mic was passed to two Ukrainian women who acknowledged the courage of the women putting their bodies on the line to stop Russian tanks.

Political representation a key demand

Women’s organisations that have spent years calling for legislative bodies comprising mostly of men to pass laws that benefit women know only too well that fairer political representation is a key that opens many doors.

Political representation was at the centre of IWD mobilisations in Cameroon, where more than 20,000 women came out in Yaoundé to insist on a proper role in decision-making. Protesters demanded gender quotas, saying they would no longer accept being treated as inferior to men. The call was echoed in protests that took place in towns and villages across Cameroon.

Something similar was seen in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where feminist groups organised a rally for equal rights attended by more than 1,000 people. Protesters carried posters reading ‘Women’s opinions matter’, ‘More women in politics’ and ‘Feminism will save Kazakhstan’. They demanded more modern gender policies, measures against GBV and the hiring of more women by government institutions.

In Nigeria, hundreds of women marched to the National Assembly in Abuja to urge lawmakers to take another look at a series of bills aimed at closing the gender gap, which failed to get the required number of votes to be included in a constitutional amendment.

Women’s protests started the day after lawmakers voted on 1 March to reject all women’s rights-related bills. These bills would have established legislative representation quotas for women, provided for affirmative action in political party administration and granted citizenship to foreign-born husbands of Nigerian women.

In Sudan, thousands marched on IWD in Khartoum and elsewhere to denounce the 25 October military takeover. The day was dedicated to ensuring that women’s concerns are not left out of the struggle for freedom, peace and justice: resistance committees must include women in decision-making processes and respect the women’s rights agenda so that democracy, when it is restored, does not leave women behind once more. Predictably, as they approached the presidential palace protesters were met with teargas to force them to disperse.

Social, economic and environmental justice

Social, economic and environmental demands were at the forefront of major mobilisations, including in countries such as Peru and Venezuela, where protesters focused on poverty and food security.

In Brazil, women from an array of popular movements, grassroots organisations, trade unions, feminist collectives and political parties held massive protests against the exclusionary policies of President Jair Bolsonaro. Under the slogan ‘Bolsonaro Never Again’, protesters also blamed Bolsonaro’s negligence for more than 600,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Throughout the world, the effects of the pandemic shone the spotlight on the uneven distribution of care work within families. Among women’s movements in Latin America, this triggered a profound process of reflection on the structural conditions that determine the unequal distribution of care tasks, the way in which the entire social edifice rests on such inequality and the life-defining consequences this has for women.

As a result, feminist CSOs began to insist ever more strongly on the inclusion of state-managed care systems in any pandemic recovery plan. On the streets, this was reflected in a slogan that is now part of the regular repertoire of feminist protests: ‘it’s not love, it’s unpaid work’.

Other protests highlighted gender-specific health issues. In Chad, for instance, the CSO Rehabilitation and Technical Training used IWD to raise awareness of the problem of obstetric fistulas, a serious but all too common ailment that is the result of obstructed labour without timely medical intervention.

Other organisations, such as Zambia’s WingEd Girls, focused on menstrual health and stigma and demanded that more resources be committed to public healthcare systems.

Across Africa and worldwide, activists and organisations seized the opportunity to put forward longstanding demands for social and economic rights, including land rights. Such was the case of the Stand for Her Land campaign, which called for women’s land rights and an end to gender bias in land distribution.

Almost 100 groups in Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda, among others, participated in the campaign. Similarly in Tunisia, CSOs used the day to denounce the deprivation of rural women’s right to inheritance and demanded the review of the law on GBV to include economic violence, since inheritance should be recognised as an economic right.

The clearly gendered impacts of climate change, along with the underrepresentation of women in climate negotiating bodies, also motivated many organisations, including the Extinction Rebellion network, to make climate demands on IWD. A 24-hour vigil and rally for climate justice was held in Edinburgh, UK.

A clear agenda for CSW

The feminist demands made on IWD were remarkably coherent responses, locally, nationally and globally, to the problem diagnoses made by civil society active in the field and deeply connected with the daily realities of women.

Those demands are not dying down once IWD has passed. Feminist movements know they can’t let their guard down even if they are winning, because every victory is followed by a predictable anti-rights backlash.

They will continue to push their agenda forward on the streets, in the courts, in parliaments, in the twists and turns of national, regional and local public administrations – and, of course, whenever possible in global forums.

These are the voices the CSW should heed.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS

By Genevieve Donnellon-May
MELBOURNE, Australia, Mar 16 2022 (IPS)

The recently published “No 1 central policy document” (“No 1 document”), China’s national blueprint for rural policy, further demonstrates Beijing’s commitment to safeguarding food security and advancing rural revitalisation. The document’s release comes against an increasingly complicated geopolitical environment which, along with factors, such as disruptions to the global food chain supplies and worsening climate change impacts, have forced Beijing to rethink how its national goals can be achieved.

Genevieve Donnellon-May

For the past few decades, safeguarding food security has been a critical goal for the Chinese central government. Over the past decades, Beijing has aimed to strengthen its focus on food security by diversifying imports (e.g. Food Silk Road), decreasing domestic consumption, and increasing its agricultural production. More recently, speculation has grown over the likelihood of the Chinese central government approving the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops and “future foods” (e.g. lab-grown meat and plant-based eggs) to help ensure China’s food security by increasing self-sufficiency.

The recently published “No 1 document” by the State Council, China’s cabinet, further demonstrates Beijing’s commitment to safeguarding food security and promoting rural revitalisation. The “No 1 document” is usually the first policy document to be released by the Chinese central government at the beginning of each year. As China’s annual rural policy blueprint, it sets out agricultural and rural development plans and tasks related to “the three rurals” (“三农”) (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers) for the coming year.

The areas of focus in this year’s “No 1 document” can be divided up into two major categories: safeguarding food security and supporting rural revitalisation:

1. Safeguarding food security

Increasing agricultural production

Aside from encouraging the continued diversification of food imports to enhance China’s food security, boosting agricultural production at home remains a top priority. With grain self-sufficiency as the main overarching goal of China’s food security strategy, China has undertaken enormous political and fiscal efforts alongside spatio-temporal changes in China’s grain production patterns to strengthen its grain production.

Under this year’s “No 1 document”, China will continue to stabilise the full-year grain sown area and keep annual grain output above 650 billion kilograms. These goals follow the Chinese central authorities’ announcements of various plans and policies to encourage domestic agricultural production, including a new grain security law, annual grain production targets, and planting acreage targets. As Chinese president Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials have publicly noted, such policies will ensure that “Chinese bowls are mainly filled with Chinese food”.

Vitalising the seed sector

In recent years, the importance of the seed sector has grown, with top policymakers noting its significance to safeguarding food security and national security. Last year, for instance, China’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tang Renjian, highlighted seeds as a critical component of food security. Minister Tang noted the importance of seeds, calling them “the ‘computer chips’ of agriculture,” and cultivated land, the “‘lifeblood’ of food production.”

As part of the efforts to safeguard China’s food security, the Chinese government will introduce measures to vitalise the seed sector according to the “No 1 document”. This includes but is not limited to undertaking efforts to strengthen intellectual property (IP) rights protection in the seed sector and advancing progress on agricultural seed sources.

2. Rural revitalisation

The Chinese government will continue promoting rural revitalisation as part of efforts to avoid the re-emergence of widespread poverty in the countryside. First put forward by President Xi in 2017 as a vital national initiative, rural revitalisation is a critical component of the Chinese government’s 2020-2025 work plan. The strategy aims to turn China into “a modern, socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious” by 2049. As highlighted in the “No 1 central policy document, ” a primary aim of the rural revitalisation strategy is the push for digital rural transformation. Notably, the document proposed establishing measures to help rural households at risk of falling back into poverty.

In addition, this year’s “No 1 document” has set out policies to support the rural economy and the sustainable development of the countryside. The overarching aim of this is to solve China’s imbalanced and inadequate development issues in agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents. Aside from boosting domestic agricultural production, this also includes, for instance, encouraging the development of the solar power industry in various regions for a sustained source of additional income for residents. Further supporting other income streams for residents and the digital rural transformation, the policy document encourages promoting e-commerce and live streaming in the countryside. This may boost the sales of domestic agricultural products, which would further intersect with other policies such as dual circulation.

By undertaking such initiatives, the gap in living standards between urban and rural residents and between richer and poorer provinces may be reduced. This could thus mitigate the consequences of China’s rising socio-economic inequalities such as social, economic, and political instability.

The “No 1 document” for 2022 further emphasises China’s inter-connected ambitions of encouraging rural revitalisation and safeguarding food security. Although the blueprint sets out policy goals to transform China and the lives of its rural residents while also protecting food security, realising these goals will not be without challenges. For instance, the push to increase domestic agricultural production to safeguard food security may encounter difficulties from factors including higher fertiliser costs, severe land and water contamination, water insecurity, and more frequent and extreme climate change-related events. This could also influence the success of the rural revitalisation strategy with, for instance, poor harvests and increased production costs alongside outbreaks of zoonotic diseases impacting the ability of farmers and other rural residents to earn money.

Furthermore, questions may be asked about the long-term sustainability of both significant aims. Noting the output target in the “No 1 document”, how much water and energy are needed for Chinese farmers to meet these targets? How much energy and water will be required to carry out rural revitalisation? Will competing domestic demands between urban, industry, and agriculture affect its success? How may this impact the food-water-energy nexus? To what extent could the expected energy consumption of rural revitalisation and increased agricultural production hinder Xi’s declarations that China will reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060? To what extent can increased agricultural production in China safeguard the country’s food security and support rural revitalisation?

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Ukraine's embassies in some African countries have been told to stop recruiting combat volunteers.

Rizwana Hasan

By Sania Farooqui
DHAKA and NEW DELHI, Mar 15 2022 (IPS)

In an exclusive interview given to IPS UN Bureau, journalist Sania Farooqui is in conversation with Bangladeshi lawyer, Rizwana Hasan who was recently awarded the 16th Annual International Women of Courage Awards by the U.S Department of State. Hasan works primarily to protect the environment and defend the dignity and rights of marginalized Bangladeshis. Through landmark legal cases over the past 20 years, Hasan has changed the dynamics of development in Bangladesh to include a people-centered focus on environmental justice.

In her capacity as Chief Executive of the public interest law firm Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, she has argued and won monumental cases against deforestation, pollution, unregulated ship breaking, and illegal land development. In 2009, Hasan was named as one of 40 Environmental Heroes of the World by TIME magazine and was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her activism. In the years since, she has continued her crucial work in the courtroom to combat environmental degradation and the local effects of climate change, despite significant resistance from powerful interests and threats of violence to herself and her family.

In this interview, Rizwana Hasan and Sania Farooqui touch upon various topics, including winning the International Women of Courage Awards, growing up in a patriarchal society to changes in the attitude towards women professionals, Hasan’s personal journey and challenges, what it took to become a lawyer and an environmentalist, and lastly impact of climate change, especially on marginalized communities.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Survey of more than 2,300 respondents across 90 countries reveals global sentiment around Russian military operations in Ukraine

By External Source
NEW YORK, Mar 15 2022 (IPS-Partners)

LexisNexis Legal & Professional®, a leading global provider of information and analytics, today released global data and public sentiments regarding the Ukrainian invasion. The ongoing feedback is being collected via the LexisNexis Rule of Law Monitor, which continuously surveys the world’s population on issues related to the Rule of Law.

The results demonstrate that 67% of the people polled disapprove of Russian military operations in the Ukraine – a number that increases to 76% outside of Asia.

Key Takeaways

• Within Russia, less than half (47%) of the people polled approve of the invasion (27% disapprove)
• Within the Ukraine, 88% of those polled disapprove, with 6% approving
• Australia has the highest disapproval rating (96%) and the lowest approval rating (0%); Argentina also showed 0% approval towards the conflict
• India had the highest approval rating (50%) – more than Russia itself
• China and India had the lowest disapproval ratings after Russia (33% and 34%, respectively)
• Across the globe, strong gender differences with female respondents (72%) significantly more likely to disapprove than males (62%)

“The LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation strongly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said Ian McDougall, President of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation. “This is a clear violation of international law and the Rule of Law. We hope that by continuing to shed light on the global public condemnation of this war that it will help end the conflict sooner and restore peace and justice in Ukraine.”

“We believe that the Rule of Law is defined by equality under the law, transparency of law, an independent judiciary, and accessible legal remedy – and the stronger each of these components, the stronger the Rule of Law. We’re working to provide free and open data that enables citizens and nations to better understand each element of the Rule of Law and, in this case, world opinion on Russia’s breach of Rule of Law.” said Steve Carroll, VP Customer Insights at LexisNexis Legal & Professional.

Key Charts

Results by Continent

Results by Country

Results by Gender

Methodology:

• 2,346 respondents were surveyed across 90 countries from March 1 to March 3,2022
• Respondents were asked: “What do you think about the Russian military operation in Ukraine?” (strongly approve, approve, no opinion, disapprove, strongly disapprove) and “Why?”
• Surveys were conducted in English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian & Ukrainian
• Respondents were prompted for feedback via apps on their phones (via a network of 150,000 apps)

Table 1: Respondent Distribution

*Russia & Ukraine purposely oversampled to enable deep dives into reaction within both countries. These countries are excluded from global statistics.

For more information about the LexisNexis Rule of Law Monitor, visit www.rolmonitor.org.

About the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation
The LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation is the not-for-profit entity established by LexisNexis Legal & Professional to further achieve its mission to advance the rule of law around the world. The foundation plans and executes projects which enhance one or more of the key elements of the rule of law: equal treatment under the law, transparency of the law, access to legal remedy, and independent judiciaries. These projects focus on a range of local, national, regional and multiregional jurisdictions around the world.

Excerpt:

Survey of more than 2,300 respondents across 90 countries reveals global sentiment around Russian military operations in Ukraine

Women sell fruit and vegetables on a sidewalk in the Philippines. Credit: ILO/Minette Rimando

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Mar 15 2022 (IPS)

More than 60 percent of the world’s adult labour force –or about 2 billion workers– work in the informal economy. “They are not recognised, registered, regulated or protected under labour legislation and social protection. The consequences can be severe, for individuals, families as well as economies.”

The International Labour Organization (ILO) on 18 February 2022 on this issue reported that despite major efforts over the years, there are few signs of the informal economy shrinking in size.

“In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more workers into informal work to survive while highlighting the vital role access to social protection plays to support workers, especially when they are unable to work.”

Just what is life like for workers in the informal economy, what are the global solutions to intransigent informality and will the growth of the ‘gig’ economy help informal economy workers gain the security and social protection they so badly need?

The informal economy comprises more than half of the global labour force and more than 90% of Micro and Small Enterprises worldwide, the ILO informs in another report.

“Informality is an important characteristic of labour markets in the world with millions of economic units operating and hundreds of millions of workers pursuing their livelihoods in conditions of informality.”

The expression “informal economy” encompasses a huge diversity of situations and phenomena, the world body explained.

 

Fast facts

• 60 percent of the world’s adult labour force – approx. 2 billion workers – work in the informal economy.
• The informal economy accounts for some 90 per cent of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) worldwide.
• 4.1 billion people worldwide (53 per cent) obtain no income security at all from their national social protection system.
• 1.6 billion across Asia and the Pacific lack access to social health protection.

 

What is the informal economy?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July 2021 explained five facts needed to be known about the informal economy.

The informal economy, it says, is a global and pervasive phenomenon. Some 60 percent of the world’s population participates in the informal sector. Although mostly prevalent in emerging and developing economies, it is also an important part of advanced economies.

 

In what activities. And where?

The informal economy consists of activities that have market value but are not formally registered, adds IMF.

“It embraces professions as diverse as minibus drivers in Africa, the market stands in Latin America, and the hawkers found at traffic lights all over the world.”

In advanced economies, examples can range from gig and construction workers, through domestic workers, to registered firms that engage in informal activities.

The International Labour Organization estimates that about 2 billion workers, or over 60 percent of the world’s adult labour force, operate in the informal sector–at least part time.

“While the informal economy is a global phenomenon, there is great variation within and across countries. On average, it represents 35 percent of GDP in low- and middle- income countries versus 15 percent in advanced economies.”

Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have the highest levels of informality, and Europe and East Asia are the regions with the lowest levels of informality.

 

Difficult to measure

The informal economy, adds the International Monetary Fund, is difficult to measure.

This is because activities within it cannot be directly observed, and for the most part, participants in the informal economy do not want to be accounted for.

Anyway, informality can be measured in two different ways.

The direct approach is based on surveys, voluntary replies, and other compliance methods to directly measure the number of informal workers and firms.

Indirect methods focus on certain characteristics, or proxies, that can be observed and are related to informal economic activity.

“Examples of proxies include electricity consumption, night-light satellite data, and cash in circulation. Using these methods, the share of the informal economy in total output can be measured.”

 

COVID-19 pandemic hits informal workers particularly hard

According to the IMF, this uneven impact of the pandemic is because the majority of informal workers are employed in contact-intensive sectors (such as domestic workers, market vendors, taxi drivers…) and in insecure jobs that do not offer paid leave or the ability to work from home.

“Close to 95 million more people —many of them informal workers– are estimated to have fallen below the threshold of extreme poverty in 2020 compared with pre-pandemic projections.”

 

Women, hit the hardest

Gender inequality is also increasing as millions of women who are informal workers, have been forced to stop working since the start of the pandemic.

For example, says the IMF, women make up 80 percent of domestic workers globally, and 72 percent of them have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 41 percent of women-owned businesses closed, compared with 34 percent of those owned by men.

The UN Women reports on the percentage of women in informal employment is:

– 95 percent in South Asia,

– 89 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa,

– 59 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean

From street vendors and domestic workers to subsistence farmers and seasonal agricultural workers, women make up a disproportionate percentage of workers in the informal sector, adds the UN Women.

“Working in this informal, or grey economy, as it’s sometimes called, leaves women often without any protection of labour laws, social benefits such as pension, health insurance or paid sick leave.”

“They routinely work for lower wages and in unsafe conditions, including risk of sexual harassment. The lack of social protections has a long-term impact on women.”

For example, fewer women receive pensions globally, and as a result, more elderly women are now living in poverty. Even in developed economies, such as in France, Germany, Greece and Italy, women’s average pension is more than 30 per cent lower than men’s.

 

In what sectors do women work informally?

According to the UN Women, they are involved mostly in the services sector, with up to 61 percent, followed by agriculture (25 percent), and industry (13,5).

“Women are concentrated in lower-paid, lower-skill work with greater job insecurity and under-represented in decision-making roles and fields such as science and technology.”

 

UN Women also informs that:

– Today, half the global working population works in services, a sector where women dominate.

– The share of women in services reaches as high as 77 per cent and 91.4 percent respectively in East Asia and Northern America.

– Where women work varies greatly by region and income-level though: In high-income countries, women are concentrated in health, education, wholesale and retail trade sectors, whereas in low-income and lower-middle-income countries women are concentrated in agricultural labour.

– Sectoral and occupational segregation is a consequence of structural barriers and gender-based discrimination, such as poverty, inflexible working hours, limited or no access to affordable quality childcare, poor parental leave policies and social attitudes, among many other factors.

A Liberian participant in BRAC’s Graduation pilot in her store. Credit: Alison Wright

By Adolphus B. W. Doe
MONROVIA, Liberia, Mar 15 2022 (IPS)

For the past three years, BRAC International has been piloting in Liberia an adaptation of its acclaimed Graduation approach, whose impact on reducing extreme poverty was first proven in Bangladesh. The success of the Liberia pilot, which I managed, provides not only further proof of impact but vital lessons that can enhance and accelerate scaling of the approach globally.

BRAC’s Graduation approach is a multifaceted, proven, researched set of interventions based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by those living in extreme poverty. BRAC – one of the largest nongovernmental organizations in the world – pioneered the Graduation approach 20 years ago and is the largest-scale implementer, having reached more than 2.1 million households (approximately 9 million people) in Bangladesh alone.

The key pillars of the Graduation approach include a stipend to support participants’ basic needs; a productive asset such as livestock, equipment, or seed capital; training in life skills, finance, and business skills; and regular coaching and mentoring. A rigorous evaluation by the London School of Economics showed that 93% of participants experienced sustained benefits seven years after starting the program. This included a 37% increase in earnings, a 9% increase in consumption, a ninefold increase in savings rate, and a twofold increase in household assets and access to land for livelihoods.

The pilot in Liberia ran from April 2018 to September 2021 and was made possible by generous support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Through it, 751 women-headed households in two counties participated, and 85% graduated, climbing the ladder of economic self-reliance into a sustainable future.

According to the baseline assessment, these women earned barely $1 (US) per day before they joined the Graduation program, working as seasonal wage laborers, cassava pickers, and charcoal makers. Their low income – or no income – left them vulnerable, with little hope or confidence. Many had faced domestic violence and abandonment by their husbands and were the sole source of income for their children.

Now, they are micro-entrepreneurs earning their livelihoods through livestock rearing, vegetable farming, and running businesses like grocery shops. Of the pilot participants, 88% doubled their income sources, 96% had access to safe drinking water, 98% were regularly eating nutritional meals, 98% were practicing safe hygiene and sanitation, and 100% saved regularly (biweekly) by the end of the program. Households’ housing conditions also greatly improved, including 88% of beneficiary children attending school.

In making this transition, participants in the Graduation program demonstrated their ability to create pathways toward self-reliance, once they have access to the right resources and tools.

The lessons from the pilot in Liberia are considerable and can facilitate replication far more broadly. They are especially powerful, as Liberia is among the world’s 10 poorest countries.

First, the Graduation approach works in Liberia. Poverty likelihood declined sharply from 50% to 31% after program intervention. The food consumption score improved from 28 to 44.

This is consistent with a study of Graduation pilots in six other countries on three continents conducted by Nobel Prize-winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, among others.

Communities in Liberia are receptive to the approach and enthusiastic about participating. But implementers must be focused on ensuring that it serves those in greatest need. While more than half the population of Liberia lives in poverty, it’s the 16% living in extreme poverty that must be the focus.

Second, reaching those living in extreme poverty must be strategic. How do you find them? We first asked county-level leaders to identify locations of extreme poverty. We then used a “participatory rural appraisal” to map the size of those communities, the number of households, and specific clusters within them. From there we could create a list of households.

With households identified, we could rank them based on economic indicators and administer a questionnaire to those in greatest poverty to assess their assets, savings, and food security. Based on the results, a visit to individual homes confirmed their living conditions.

Third, the program design and research tools must be adapted for local circumstances. The assets that are transferred to program participants, for instance, must be suited to the local context. In Bangladesh, participants are typically given cows; in Liberia, that is not appropriate. A market study was, therefore, conducted to ensure that the assets to be transferred would be rightly marketable. Such adaptation is consistent with the Graduation program’s experience elsewhere.

Fourth, understanding and challenging traditional gender norms can be essential to breaking patterns of extreme poverty. In Liberia, the issue of women’s access to land – to raise livestock and produce crops – had to be addressed.

In rural areas of Liberia, land is typically owned by a few families, who are often initially willing to provide free access to facilitate poverty reduction. But once they see a woman increasing her income, they may demand rent. We learned, therefore, to confirm at the outset in writing that access to land would be free for at least five years.

Fifth, we fully expect that the cost of the Graduation approach in Liberia can be reduced over time. For this pilot, the cost per participating household was $2,000 (US). That is consistent with overall implementation costs per household of Graduation in other countries of between $300 and $2,000 (US). We estimate in Liberia that the future cost will be between $1,000 and $1,200 per household.

Cost reductions in Liberia are possible because initial research results can be applied more broadly, as can localized tools. Once an initial phase of the approach is complete, extending it is also less labor-intensive.

Academics outside Liberia estimate that for every dollar spent on a Graduation program there is a return of $2 – $5 (US) worth of benefits, depending on program design. The return is highly affected by the context, the specific program, and the particular time.

These lessons are affirming and instructive. They underscore the enormous potential for replicating the Graduation approach, and the opportunity to do so with increasing efficiency. They provide reason for optimism that this proven solution can soon be applied globally.

The author is Program Leader of Ultra-Poor Graduation and Interim Country Director for BRAC International in Liberia.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: United Nations
 
Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Addressing the Press on the war in Ukraine

By António Guterres
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 2022 (IPS)

Ukraine is on fire. The country is being decimated before the eyes of the world. The impact on civilians is reaching terrifying proportions.

Countless innocent people – including women and children – have been killed. After being hit by Russian forces, roads, airports and schools lie in ruins.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 24 health facilities have suffered attacks. Hundreds of thousands of people are without water or electricity. With each passing hour, two things are increasingly clear:

First — it keeps getting worse. Second — whatever the outcome, this war will have no winners, only losers.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners are working to ensure safe passage from besieged areas and to provide aid where security permits. More than 600,000 people have received some form of aid.

As millions of people in Ukraine face hunger and dwindling supplies of water and medicine, I am announcing today that the United Nations will allocate a further $40 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to ramp up vital assistance to reach the most vulnerable, as we wait for the nations to come.

This funding will help get critical supplies of food, water, medicines, and other lifesaving aid into the country, as well as provide cash assistance to the needy.

But the avenues in and out of encircled cities are more precarious by the day. I underscore the crucial importance of respecting international humanitarian law. At least 1.9 million people are displaced inside the country, and growing numbers are escaping across borders.

I am deeply grateful for the solidarity of Ukraine’s neighbours and other host countries, who have taken in more than 2.8 million refugees in the past two weeks. The vast majority of those making the treacherous journey are women and children who are increasingly vulnerable.

For predators and human traffickers, war is not a tragedy. It is an opportunity. And women and children are the targets. They need safety and support every step of the way.

I will continue to highlight the desperate plight of the people of Ukraine as I am doing again today.

Yet there is another dimension of this conflict that gets obscured. This war goes far beyond Ukraine.
It is also an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.

While war rains over Ukraine, a sword of Damocles hangs over the global economy – especially in the developing world. Even before the conflict, developing countries were struggling to recover from the pandemic – with record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens.

Their ability to respond has been erased by exponential increases in the cost of financing. Now their breadbasket is being bombed.

Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil and about 30 percent of the world’s wheat. Ukraine alone provides more than half of the World Food Programme’s wheat supply.

Food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing. Supply chains are being disrupted. And the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods – when available – are at record levels. All of this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe.

Grain prices have already exceeded those at the start of the Arab Spring and the food riots of 2007-2008. The FAO’s global food prices index is at its highest level ever.

Forty-five African and least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine [or] Russia – 18 of those countries import at least 50 percent. This includes countries like Burkina Faso, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

We must do everything possible to avert a hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system. In addition, we are seeing clear evidence of this war draining resources and attention from other trouble-spots in desperate need.

I renew my appeal for countries to find creative ways to finance increased humanitarian and development recovery needs worldwide, and to give generously and to immediately release pledged funds. My plea to leaders is to resist the temptation of increasing military budgets at the expense of Official Development Assistance and climate action.

In a word, developing countries are getting pummeled. They face a cascade of crises – beyond the Ukraine war, we cannot forget COVID and the impacts of climate change – in particular, drought.

Against the backdrop of these immense inter-connected challenges, I am announcing today the establishment of a Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance in the UN Secretariat.

I have also asked the Deputy Secretary-General to lead an inter-agency steering committee with partners to oversee this effort. In the coming days, we will be consulting with Member States willing to champion the actions needed to carry forward the global emergency response that will be required for these looming crises.

Make no mistake: everyday people, especially women and children, will bear the brunt of this unfolding tragedy. The war also shows how the global addiction to fossil fuels is placing energy security, climate action and the entire global economy at the mercy of geopolitics.

Finally, further escalation of the war, whether by accident or design, threatens all of humanity. Raising the alert of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development.

The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility. The security and safety of nuclear facilities must also be preserved.

It’s time to stop the horror unleashed on the people of Ukraine and get on the path of diplomacy and peace. I have been in close contact with a number of countries – including China, France, Germany, India, Israel and Turkey – on mediation efforts to bring an end to this war.

The appeals for peace must be heard. This tragedy must stop. It is never too late for diplomacy and dialogue.

We need an immediate cessation of hostilities and serious negotiations based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law.

We need peace. Peace for the people of Ukraine. Peace for the world.

We need peace now.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Ukrainian refugee, Valia, recalls the ‘terrible conditions’ during her 1000 km journey to safety with her 13-year-old son. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 15 2022 (IPS)

“I never, ever, believed that anything like this could happen,” says Valia*. “Not for a second.”

Just two weeks ago, the English teacher says, she had been living a normal life in Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine with her 13-year-old son. But on February 24, she woke up to the news that Russia had invaded her country.

After spending one night in a school basement with scores of other people afraid that her town could come under Russian fire, she decided she had to try and get herself and her son to safety and began a 1,000-kilometre journey out of the country.

She spent days travelling in what she describes as “terrible conditions” on dangerously overcrowded trains where people became sick. It was sometimes hard to breathe properly because many people were packed into carriages. She then took buses to the border with Slovakia.

There, she waited four hours in the cold before she and her son made it over the border and then on to friends in the Slovak capital, Bratislava

“My journey may sound bad, but when I think about it, I see myself as lucky. I know some people who came from Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, and they had a terrible journey. It took some of them six days,” she tells IPS.

Valia is just one of the estimated more than 2,8 million people, overwhelmingly women and children, who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.

The UN has described the exodus as the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since WWII. International humanitarian organisations warn there are likely to be many millions more trying to leave the country in the coming weeks as what they have repeatedly described as a humanitarian catastrophe is set to only get worse.

“The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is increasingly dire and desperate. Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water, heat, electricity, or medical care. Two million people are reported to have left their homes for neighbouring countries, while hundreds of thousands more are trapped in cities desperate for a safe escape,” Christoph Hanger, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IPS.

Humanitarian organisations have described the scenes in some parts of the country as “apocalyptic”.

The conflict – which has so far claimed the lives of at least 549 civilians as of March 11, according to the UN, although the real figure is thought to be much higher – has left some towns and large parts of cities destroyed.

Infrastructure damage, Russian troops blocking roads, and constant shelling, means that in some places, there is no way to get in even basic humanitarian supplies to residents.

In the city of Mariupol, which has been surrounded by Russian troops and whose authorities have said it is essentially under siege, the situation is said to be desperate.

There have been reports of people fighting each other for scraps of food on the streets as residents begin to starve. Others are simply unable to leave their homes because of constant shelling.

Svitlana, a 52-year-old hairdresser, said her life now in the city was spent largely in bomb shelters.

“Life in a shelter is not a life. We are surviving as long as we can. People bring their food and share it in the shelter while the bombing goes on above us. We try to pretend all will be ok, but we all know many of us will die,” she told IPS.

But even in places where there has not been fierce fighting, the toll of war is being felt.

Oksana, 35, who lives in Kyiv, told IPS: “Even though the bombs are not falling here yet, the atmosphere of war is so stressful. The worst thing is that after a day or two, you realise it is not a movie but a fight for life and death. It is hard to explain how terrified I feel. A friend of mine filmed on his phone a Russian warplane crashing in his neighbour’s garden. My mind is simply unable to understand that this is really going on. This has to stop. Otherwise, I don’t know how people will survive and what will happen to food and medicine supplies for people.”

All across the country, medical supplies, in particular, are dwindling while hospitals and healthcare facilities have been targeted by Russian forces putting pressure on healthcare provision.

People who spoke to IPS said in some places, services are increasingly being focused solely on emergency healthcare and treating war wounded, limiting the capacity for treatment of people with chronic or potentially fatal diseases.

There have also been unconfirmed reports of medics and ambulances being targeted by Russian troops

Evgenia, who works in the healthcare sector, managed to escape her hometown Irpin, outside Kyiv, just days before it came under heavy fire by the Russian army and was eventually largely destroyed.

She is now in Kyiv, where, she says, many healthcare services are continuing to run relatively normally. But, she says, “in some parts of the country, the only healthcare now is emergency healthcare, nothing else”.

She said any healthcare that involves outreach work has stopped in some towns and cities “because it is now very dangerous, you can get shot just being out on the street” while drug supplies are dwindling because “the roads are occupied by Russian military, and so it is impossible to move medicines from one area to another even if anyone tried to”.

And there are growing problems in the Ukrainian capital, too.

“The queues outside drug stores are long, and they’re often out of medicines now anyway,” she told IPS, adding that NGOs and other groups involved in the response to chronic diseases like TB, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, social outreach groups for vulnerable populations, including in the LGBT community, had been forced to turn to delivering humanitarian aid on the streets of the capital rather than their usual work.

The deteriorating security and humanitarian situation is driving more and more people to flee their homes. The UNHCR reports that there are as many as 1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country due to the conflict, and as fighting continues, that number is expected to rise, putting more and more strain on resources.

“If the fighting gets closer and closer to more towns and cities, especially in the west, the numbers of refugees will increase, and then there will, because of the numbers, be an even greater strain on services, within Ukraine itself as people move to escape fighting elsewhere, but also in neighbouring countries receiving refugees,” Toby Fricker, Chief of Communications and Partnerships at UNICEF, told IPS.

This is already being seen in some parts of the west of the country, which, so far, has seen relatively little fighting and is perceived to be safer, notably in Lviv, a major city in the west of Ukraine.

The UNHCR has forecast as many as 4 million people will be forced to leave Ukraine because of the war.

But while leaving Ukraine provides some hope of safety, for many, the journey itself is fraught with danger, and once across the border, the effects of the conflict remain.

Many refugee journeys can be days long, are made in freezing weather, sometimes involve treks for dozens of miles on foot, and sometimes with limited food and water supplies.

Meanwhile, because Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 have been ordered not to leave the country to help defend it if needed, the overwhelming majority of refugees are women and children.

Humanitarian organisations have warned women refugees face an increased risk of exploitation and gender-based violence, while the abrupt separation from partners and fathers can also be traumatic for women and, especially, children, others say.

“Kids are going through having to cope with seeing, for instance, their parents have a last embrace as they go separate ways, and trying to understand why daddy isn’t going with them,” James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, told IPS.

Organisations helping with reception of refugees in receiving countries told IPS that many people who arrive are often exhausted and deeply traumatised.

“What we are seeing very much is that people are turning up in a very deep sense of shock and trauma. Because of the speed at which everything happened, a lot of them are still in a state of confusion. The adults, most of whom are women with children, are still in a state of denial about what has happened to them, about having to leave their countries, businesses, homes, and husbands and partners suddenly,” said Fricker.

Valia, who is now working as a volunteer at Bratislava’s main train station helping the thousands of Ukrainians coming in every day from further east in the country, agrees.

“People are traumatised, but it happened so quickly that a lot of them are just in a state of massive shock. They still can’t quite believe what’s happened,” she said.

Uncertainty is also a worry for many refugees, she says. Some have lost everything, and many have been left with little money as the Ukrainian currency they brought with them cannot be changed now in many countries, and because many people cleared out their bank accounts before they left, any bank cards they have with them are largely useless.

Valia herself says she does not know how long she will stay in Slovakia, and her son wants to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. But she admits she has “no clear idea” what the future holds for her, and others.

“It’s troubling for a lot of people I speak to,” she says.

However, Valia believes she will one day go back to her homeland when peace returns to it.

“I believe I will go back to Ukraine. I speak to other Ukrainians who say they will never forgive Russia for what it has done. But I don’t hold it against the Russian people. Everyone has to come together to stop things like this happening. The world has so many other problems with climate change, poverty, diseases, etc – people should be putting energy into that and not fighting wars like this.”

*Valia is identified by her first name for her safety.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A misleading photo has been used by some to suggest the continent should support Russia in Ukraine.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

Finger pointing in the blame game over Russia’s Ukraine incursion obscures the damage it is doing on many fronts. Meanwhile, billions struggle to cope with worsening living standards, exacerbated by the pandemic and more.

Losing sight in the fog of war
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken insists, “the Russian people will suffer the consequences of their leaders’ choices”. Western leaders and media seem to believe their unprecedented “crushing sanctions” will have a “chilling effect” on Russia.

Anis Chowdhury

With sanctions intended to strangle Russia’s economy, the US and its allies somehow hope to increase domestic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to retreat from Ukraine. The West wants to choke Russia by cutting its revenue streams, e.g., from oil and gas sales to Europe.

Already, the rouble has been hammered by preventing Russia’s central bank from accessing its US$643bn in foreign currency reserves, and barring Russian banks from using the US-run global payments transfer system, SWIFT.

Withdrawal of major Western transnational companies – such as Shell, McDonald’s and Apple – will undoubtedly hurt many Russians – not only oligarchs, their ostensible target.

Thus, Blinken’s claim that “The economic costs that we’ve been forced to impose on Russia are not aimed at you [ordinary Russians]” may well ring hollow to them. They will get little comfort from knowing, “They are aimed at compelling your government to stop its actions, to stop its aggression”.

As The New York Times notes, “sanctions have a poor record of persuading governments to change their behavior”. US sanctions against Cuba over six decades have undoubtedly hurt its economy and people.

But – as in Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela – it has failed to achieve its supposed objectives. Clearly, “If the goal of sanctions is to compel Mr. Putin to halt his war, then the end point seems far-off.”

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Russia, major commodity exporter
Undoubtedly, Russia no longer has the industrial and technological edges it once had. Following Yeltsin era reforms in the early 1990s, its economy shrank by half – lowering Russian life expectancy more than anywhere else in the last six millennia!

Russia has become a major primary commodity producer – not unlike many developing countries and the former settler colonies of North America and Australasia. It is now a major exporter of crude oil and natural gas.

It is also the largest exporter of palladium and wheat, and among the world’s biggest suppliers of fertilizers using potash and nitrogen. On 4 March, Moscow suspended fertilizer exports, citing “sabotage” by “foreign logistics companies”.

Farmers and consumers will suffer as yields drop by up to half. Sudden massive supply disruptions will thus have serious ramifications for the world economy – now more interdependent than ever, due to earlier globalization.

Sanctions’ inflation boomerang
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has ominously warned of the Ukraine crisis’ economic fallouts. She cautions wide-ranging sanctions on Russia will worsen inflation and further slow growth.

No country is immune, including those imposing sanctions. But the worst hit are poor countries, particularly in Africa, already struggling with rising fuel and food prices.

For Georgieva, more inflation – due to Russian sanctions – is the greatest threat to the world economy. “The surging prices for energy and other commodities – corn, metals, inputs for fertilizers, semiconductors – coming on top of already high inflation” are of grave concern to the world.

Russia and Ukraine export more than a quarter of the world’s wheat while Ukraine is also a major corn exporter. Supply chain shocks and disruptions could add between 0.2% to 0.4% to ‘headline inflation’ – which includes both food and fuel prices – in developed economies over the coming months.

US petrol prices jumped to a 17-year high in the first week of March. The costs of other necessities, especially food, are rising as well. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has acknowledged that the sanctions are worsening US inflation.

The European Union (EU) gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia. Finding alternative supplies will be neither easy nor cheap. The EU is Russia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 37% of global trade in 2020. Thus, sanctions may well hurt Europe more than Russia – like cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face.

The European Central Bank now expects stagflation – economic stagnation with inflation, and presumably, rising unemployment. It has already slashed its growth forecast for 2022 from 4.2% to 3.7%. Inflation is expected to hit a record 5.1% – way above its previous 3.2% forecast!

Developing countries worse victims
Global food prices are already at record highs, with the Food Price Index (FPI) of the Food and Agricultural Organization up more than 40% over the past two years.

The FPI hit an all-time high in February – largely due to bad weather and rising energy and fertilizer costs. By February 2022, the Agricultural Commodity Price Index was 35% higher, while maize and wheat prices were 26% and 23% more than in January 2021.

Besides shortages and rising production costs – due to surging fuel and fertilizer prices – speculation may also push food prices up – as in 2007-2008.

Signs of such speculation are already visible. Chicago Board of Trade wheat future prices rose 40% in early March – its largest weekly increase since 1959!

Rising food prices impact people in low- and middle-income countries more as they spend much larger shares of their incomes on food than in high-income countries. The main food insecurity measure has doubled in the past two years, with 45 million people close to starvation, even before the Ukraine crisis.

Countries in Africa and Asia rely much more on Russian and Ukrainian grain. The World Bank has warned, “There will be important ramifications for the Middle East, for Africa, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, in particular”, where many were already food insecure before the incursion.

The Ukraine crisis will be devastating for countries struggling to cope with the pandemic. Unable to access enough vaccines or mount adequate responses, they already lag behind rich countries. The latest food and fuel price hikes will also worsen balance-of-payments problems and domestic inflationary pressures.

No to war!
The African proverb, “When two elephants fight, all grass gets trampled”, sums up the world situation well. The US and its allies seem intent to ‘strangle Russia’ at all costs, regardless of the massive collateral damage to others.

This international crisis comes after multilateralism has been undermined for decades. Hopes for reduced international hostilities, after President Biden’s election, have evaporated as US foreign policy double standards become more apparent.

Russia has little support for its aggressive violation of international law and norms. Despite decades of deliberate NATO provocations, even after the Soviet Union ended, Putin has lost international sympathy with his aggression in Ukraine.

But there is no widespread support for NATO or the West. Following the vaccine apartheid and climate finance fiascos, the poorer, ‘darker nations’ have become more cynical of Western hypocrisy as its racism becomes more brazen.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Chelsea winger Hakim Ziyech rejects the chance to play for Morocco in their 2022 World Cup play-off against DR Congo.

A woman holding a child begs at an intersection in New Delhi. Credit: Ranjit Devraj/IPS.

By Amitabh Behar
NEW DELHI, Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

It is no secret that economic inequality has risen exponentially in the last few decades, both in India and globally. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, India is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of both income and wealth inequality. It is estimated that in 2021, the top 10 percent of Indians held 57 percent of the total national income while the bottom 50 percent’s share was just 13 percent.

The pandemic has sharply exposed and amplified these inequalities. Another recent report on inequality from Oxfam India found that in 2021, the combined wealth of billionaires in India doubled—the same year when 84 percent of Indian households saw a decline in their incomes and 46 million people slid into poverty due to the pandemic.

These numbers tell a clear story about the obscene levels of inequality we’re witnessing. And it’s important that we start talking about and addressing this right now because it’s morally unacceptable to have an unequal society of this kind. We cannot have a few families and individuals accumulating record wealth while most people on the planet suffer from climate change, lack of healthcare, and hunger. It’s not viable economically, and it is socially and politically dangerous.

 

What needs to change?

India ranks the lowest in the number of hospital beds per thousand population among the BRICS nations—Russia scores the highest (7.12), followed by China (4.3), South Africa (2.3), Brazil (2.1), and India (0.5). India also ranks lower than Bangladesh (0.87), Chile (2.11), and Mexico (0.98)

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how inequality is not just an issue for economists but something that affects each one of us. Take for example the case of India’s health budget. For the last two to three decades, we’ve known that the health system and the healthcare infrastructure are severely underfunded—we have invested just about 1.25 percent of our GDP towards health.

India ranks the lowest in the number of hospital beds per thousand population among the BRICS nations—Russia scores the highest (7.12), followed by China (4.3), South Africa (2.3), Brazil (2.1), and India (0.5).

India also ranks lower than Bangladesh (0.87), Chile (2.11), and Mexico (0.98). Data shows that India currently has about 1.7 trained nurses per 1,000 people, against the WHO norm of four nurses per 1,000 people—a clear indicator of an under-resourced healthcare system. And we saw what an underfunded health system does to its people, particularly during the second wave of COVID-19, where everything from hospital beds, oxygen, and essential medicines to vaccines was in short supply.

To change this, the government must have resources to invest in social infrastructure, such as education, healthcare, and housing, because they are the best drivers of equality. But how do we generate new resources to fund social welfare? The answer is twofold.

1. Higher taxes on the super-rich

There is clear evidence to show that a direct tax on the super-rich—be it in the form of a wealth tax, wealth surcharge, or inheritance tax—can be used to fund measures that combat inequality. For instance, a 1 percent wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families could finance India’s flagship public health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, for more than seven years.

Even with a 1 percent wealth surcharge, the super-rich will continue to be richer than they were pre-pandemic. So from an economic perspective, the decision makes sense. And India isn’t the first country to be talking about this. Recently Argentina successfully imposed a new wealth tax on the super-rich to help pay for its COVID-19 response.

2. Ensuring that people pay their fair share of taxes

If we want to build a more equal society, we also need to ensure people pay their fair share of taxes. Last year, the Tax Justice Network did a study that showed that globally USD 427 billion is lost to tax evasion every year. And this is true for India as well. In 2012, Professor Arun Kumar estimated that the size of India’s black economy was 62 percent of the GDP and that it was growing at the staggering rate of 20 percent.

While taxation is an important piece when it comes to solving the inequality puzzle, it is one of many available solutions. What we need is an integrated approach where different sectors and stakeholders each play a part. For example, Oxfam can publish an inequality report advocating for higher wealth taxes and investments in social welfare.

But at the same time, we need somebody—say, for instance, the National Coalition for Education—to seek accountability from the government in terms of the investments it’s making in education. And simultaneously, we need a civil society collective such as Jan Swastha Abhiyan talking about how we can invest in and ensure that we have a more robust public health system. All these are interlinked, and as a sector, it’s important for us to understand that we cannot work in silos and our solutions cannot be microscopic. Because the issue of inequality is systemic—we live in an economic system that favours the super-rich.

Often the common argument against raising taxes to fund government systems is that they are inefficient. There’s this concern that if you put in more resources, it will not go to the right places. However, there’s enough evidence to tell us that this is not the full story. Data shows that the government investments in public services actually improve outcomes and reduce inequality.

The real story is that there are vested interests in favour of maintaining the status quo. There exists an unfortunate nexus between policy makers in the government and the super-rich. And therefore, as a society, we are not able to make decisions that may be detrimental to the interests of the super-rich. And that is the problem we need to overcome.

Take, for instance, the fact that till 2015, India had a wealth tax. Similarly, last year India also lowered the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 22 percent to attract investment, which resulted in a loss of INR 1.5 trillion and contributed to the increase in the country’s fiscal deficit.

This concentrates wealth in the hands of the rich, making them even richer. It’s critical, therefore, that we talk about reintroducing these taxes because the government needs these resources to fulfil its objectives of promoting social welfare.

The other argument against taxation is that many of the super-rich engage in charity, and that is one way in which they help reduce inequality and promote social justice. While this is true to some extent, it is the responsibility of the state—rather than philanthropy—to guarantee an individual’s basic fundamental rights. Why should anyone depend on the whims and fancies or even the charity of another individual?

The fundamental idea of any modern state is to ensure some basic fundamental rights to its citizens, such as health, education, and social security. So why should society depend on the super-rich and their decisions about when, how, and to whom to give money? The Indian Constitution guarantees the right to education, the Directive Principles of State Policy talk about the right to health, and the onus lies on the state to deliver these. Any philanthropic work that happens needs to be done over and above millionaires paying their fair share of taxes.

 

What role can each stakeholder play?

As a society, there are multiple tangible steps that we can take to reduce inequality and build a more just and equitable society. One of the first things we must do is start acknowledging how a growing number of billionaires is not a sign of success; it is a sign of the failure of the economic system we have created—particularly when we look at these numbers in the context of millions of people sliding into poverty. There needs to be a shift in the public narrative to talk about how the business-first policies that we have are leading to greater inequality.

Fighting inequality is not about targeting individual billionaires but the economic system that allows the concentration of wealth at the top while the majority continue to live in misery without their rights. Here’s what different stakeholders can do:

1. The super-rich

To begin with, the billionaires and the millionaires need to pay their fair share of taxes. Globally, we are already seeing the emergence of groups such as Patriotic Millionaires and Millionaires for Humanity, who are asking governments to tax them more so that they can contribute towards national development and building a more equitable society.

2. Businesses

In addition to paying their share of corporate taxes, businesses need to start thinking about how they can ensure living wages for everyone so that people can live a life of dignity.

Businesses also need to start looking at their supply chains, where many inequalities are amplified and reproduced. What we are increasingly seeing now is that the main business is fairly compliant on labour laws. But most also have a very limited part of their process happening in their own factories—a large part of it is outsourced to other organisations in the supply chain. So holding the supply chain accountable is critical.

3. The government

The government needs to tax more—implement more direct taxes, a wealth tax, an inheritance tax, and higher corporate tax. We also need to ensure that once there are greater revenues with the government, they’re invested in the right places, like education, health insurance, and social security.

4. Civil society

The role that civil society can play here is one of catalysing change. Civil society needs to consistently talk about the growing inequality and not buy into this idea that wealth will be created at the top and then eventually get distributed.

Beyond that, it needs to continue the work it does on education, health, gender justice, Dalit empowerment, and climate justice, all of which address inequality. Because taken together, these end up becoming double or triple discrimination for people.

The last and arguably biggest piece is holding the government and businesses accountable—accountable to the standards the Constitution sets for the state and that governments and businesses are setting for themselves.

As we grapple with the growing challenge of inequality, it is apparent that we cannot morally accept a society where some of us slept comfortably during the lockdown while thousands of others walked in extreme heat without food, pushed out of the very cities they built. And while the challenge in front of us is growing, there is also hope that will push us to come together and work harder to build a more equal society.

Amitabh Behar is the CEO of Oxfam India, and former executive director of the National Foundation for India. His areas of interest include governance and civil society, social action, and government accountability. He is vice-chair of CIVICUS, convener of the National Social Watch Coalition, and board member of the Global Fund for Community Foundations. Previously, he worked as the executive director of the National Centre for Advocacy Studies and co-chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

A case of advanced liver pathology (hepatomegaly) due to schistosomiasis in a 5-year-old. Prof Takafira Mduluza

By External Source
Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

Neglected tropical diseases is an umbrella term used to describe a group of 20 infectious diseases. These diseases affect over 1.7 billion people. They can disable, debilitate and even kill. The world’s most vulnerable and poorest are most affected.

In the past, the diseases in this group have been overlooked internationally and poorly funded domestically: hence the “neglected” in the name. Some common neglected tropical diseases are Buruli Ulcer, Dengue Fever and Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy).

There are already tools to prevent and treat these diseases. They include drugs, vector control, veterinary public health interventions and provision of safe water and toilets.

In the past 10 years there have been significant global efforts to control neglected tropical diseases. In 2012, pharmaceutical companies, donors, endemic countries and non government organisations came together to sign the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. Together, they committed to control, eliminate or eradicate ten of these diseases by 2020 and improve the lives of over a billion people.

Support from the signatories ranged from donation of the essential medicines to financing the delivery and distribution of the drugs, research, and funding for sanitation and safe water. These concerted global efforts have yielded successes and are grounds for optimism.

To date, 600 million people no longer require treatment for neglected tropical diseases. Cases of some of these diseases, such as leprosy, sleeping sickness and Guinea worm disease, are at an all-time low. Forty-four countries have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease as a public health concern. Most recently the Gambia and Saudi Arabia eliminated trachoma, a bacterial infection which causes blindness.

However, this progress is now at real risk of reversal as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drug programmes have been interrupted, health budgets re-prioritised and aid cut.

As I have previously highlighted, interrupting control programmes could lead to rebound infections and disease. These could be worse than the original levels. This is now an imminent reality for neglected tropical diseases if control programmes do not resume quickly enough.

 

Interrupted disease control

One of the most important tools to use against neglected tropical diseases is national mass drug administration. This involves treating every member of a population, regardless of their infection status, because treatment is cheaper than diagnosis and the drugs are safe.

Typically the national treatment programmes are annual events conducted in schools or health centres. It takes time, effort and money to plan and implement these programmes. And it’s critical to maintain momentum. Every dollar spent on these programmes yields a significant return on investment. This is why neglected tropical disease control has been termed a “best buy” in development.

The pandemic has affected neglected tropical disease control in three ways.

First, mass drug administration was stopped or interrupted by the lockdown and social distancing policies. And disruptions in global trade and transportation affected supply chains. A recent World Health Organisation survey indicated that, as of early 2021, disruptions in neglected tropical disease control programmes occurred in 44% of countries.

Second, national governments in neglected tropical disease endemic countries have low health budgets. Changing priorities during and after COVID-19 has meant that the resources allocated to neglected tropical diseases may be shifted to other diseases and health services.

Third, a significant amount of funding for neglected tropical disease control programmes comes from international development partners and foreign governments.

Post-COVID-19 economic contraction in their economies and shifts in funding priorities are threatening the gains made in controlling neglected tropical diseases. For example, the UK recently withdrew over £150 million of funding to neglected tropical disease programmes as part of cuts to the country’s aid budget.

This wiped out a third of donor funding for tackling neglected tropical diseases, with an impact on treatments to 250 million people and as many as 180,000 surgeries to prevent disabilities.

 

Long term consequences

Continued neglect of these diseases has dire consequences. Those affected continue to suffer the devastating diseases, associated health inequities and cycles of poverty. The effects of these diseases are pervasive and wide-ranging.

As long as neglected tropical diseases are a huge burden on health systems in endemic countries, these countries will continue to haemorrhage resources, finances and lives to these diseases. This will further weaken their health systems, compromising their ability for timely surveillance, detection and containment of the next epidemic.

From the Global Health Security Agenda, we know that weakened health systems anywhere in the world compromise health security globally. Local health security is the foundation for global health security, as COVID-19 has amply demonstrated.

The opportunity to put global attention back on neglected tropical diseases will come later this year when the London Declaration is superseded by the Kigali Declaration. This high-level political declaration, led by Rwanda and Nigeria, aims to mobilise political will and secure commitments to achieve Sustainable Development Goals targets for these diseases.

It is important to remember that controlling neglected tropical diseases is in the best interest of all countries – those where the diseases are endemic and those where they are not.

Francisca Mutapi, Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity. and co-Director of the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sonia Mugabo left her job in New York to come back to home to Rwanda and start her own fashion brand.

Dandora landfill in Nairobi, Kenya, where much of the waste in the landfill is plastic. Credit: UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi

By Tal Harris
DAKAR, Senegal, Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

As Russia’s attack began rattling Kyiv with multiple missile and air raids about 5am on 24 February, it suffused the dawn with stains of darkness. It was accompanied with military menaces in countries like Finland and Sweden and raising a warning to anyone who may assist the Ukrainian people – ordinary citizens bereaved, over 2.5 million displaced and boldly defending themselves – from nuclear war.

It turned the global energy market and trade in goods such as wheat, maize and minerals into weapons of war, which bluntly violates the prohibition against use of force under article 2(4) of the UN Charter and customary law.

Governments, companies, and ordinary citizens across the world are observing this catastrophe with a mix of anger, fear, and sadness.

There is also widespread dismay, since the invasion of Ukraine is really an exercise in human folly and futility, which will not move us one inch closer to dealing with the truly burning issues of our age.

This confrontation is spinning the global market of goods such as wheat, other grains and minerals into turbulence. This is happening with food prices already soaring, with supply chains disrupted following more than two years of dealing with COVID-19, as well as droughts raging worldwide, including across 49.6% of the U.S.

The climate and biodiversity breakdowns make future pandemics, wildfires, floods, pollution, and other deadly disasters more likely. We’re failing to provide answers to these crises to billions of people, including millions of Russians and Ukrainians. This senseless war risks obfuscating our common challenges and making things worse.

At the same time in Nairobi, some 8,000 kilometers away from the attacks in Kyiv, the broadest government and civil society coalition ever thought possible – including representatives from Russia and Ukraine – was preparing to do the exact opposite.

It was an effort to arrive at a decision by all the world’s environment ministers to save lives. It culminated on Wednesday, 2 March, at the end of the UN Environment Assembly, in the historic adoption of a resolution to End Plastic Pollution.

Not reduce plastic pollution, but to end it. It is an ambition so grand that it can only be achieved through scientific ingenuity, political determination, and – most importantly – multilateral cooperation.

Plastic pollution has become a primary concern that extends well beyond the circles of environmental activists. In almost seven decades, plastic production soared from 2 million tonnes to 348 million tonnes.

Exposure to plastics can harm human health, potentially affecting fertility, hormonal, metabolic and neurological activity, and open burning of plastics contributes to air pollution. Plastic waste is literally running in our blood, lab tests confirm.

Plastic pollution also makes climate change worse – by 2050 greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production, use and disposal will account for 15 per cent of allowed emissions, under the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (34.7°F).

For resource-based economies, like much of Africa’s countries, plastic pollution puts a strain on land and marine ecosystems. More than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by it. Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow annually into the oceans. Without comprehensive action, this is set to triple by 2040 and by 2050 there might be more plastic than fish in our oceans.

This plastic resolution puts us on track to an international and legally binding plastic treaty by the end of 2024. It’s important to note that, not unlike a declaration of war against industry, this puts the plastic industry on notice that their days of polluting our planet are numbered and signals to big consumer brands that their reliance on single use plastics must change.

Yet businesses can and must adapt. Just like when the use of mercury was restricted through international consensus, dental clinics (where the poisonous metal was in wide use) did not go out of business. This is an opportunity for businesses to shift, altogether with support of government initiatives to reuse and circular economy system.

In fact, a shift to circular economy, which can reduce the volume of plastics entering oceans by over 80 per cent and reduce virgin plastic production by 55 per cent, will also save governments US$70 billion and create 700,000 additional jobs, mainly in the global south.

While the headlines are overtaken by the military offensive in Ukraine, we urge news readers to scroll down, read more about the diplomatic breakthrough last week in Nairobi and be inspired – as we are. Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the resolution to End Plastic Pollution shows multilateral cooperation at its best.

Indeed, plastic waste has grown into an epidemic. With the resolution by the world’s ministers of environment we are officially on track for a cure.

A green and a peaceful future is within reach – so long as people demand their governments act. May this serve as a vital reminder that while conventional war offers no victory to any side, the campaign we wage jointly against a triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution offers benefits for both people and the planet.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is an international communications coordinator at Greenpeace Africa

Edible varieties of jellyfish have been consumed for generations in some parts of Asia. They are low in carbohydrates and high in protein content. Image by hagapp from Pixabay.

By IPS Correspondents
ROME, Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

Between the devastating effects of climate change and the fast advancing new technologies, it seems now evident that the future of food will change. Whether it’s new foods like jellyfish, edible insects and cell-based meat, or new technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, the future promises exciting opportunities for feeding the world, says a new report.

“However, the time to start preparing for any potential safety concerns is now.”

A report out on 7 March 2022 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) looks at how major global drivers like economic growth, changing consumer behaviour and consumption patterns, a growing global population and the climate crisis will shape food safety in tomorrow’s world.

“We are in an era where technological and scientific innovations are revolutionising the agrifood sector, including the food safety arena. It is important for countries to keep pace with these advances, particularly in a critical area like food safety, and for FAO to provide proactive advice on the application of science and innovation,” said FAO Chief Scientist Ismahane Elouafi.

The Thinking about the future of food safety – A foresight report — maps out some of the most important emerging issues in food and agriculture with a focus on food safety implications, which are increasingly on the minds of consumers around the world.

It adopts a foresight approach based on the idea that the roots of how the future may play out are already present today in the form of early signs. Monitoring these signs through the systematic gathering of intelligence increases the likelihood that policy makers will be better prepared to tackle emerging opportunities and challenges.

 

Key drivers and trends

The report covers eight broad categories of drivers and trends: climate change, new food sources and production systems, the growing number of farms and vegetable gardens in our cities, changing consumer behaviour, the circular economy, microbiome science (which studies the bacteria, viruses and fungi inside our guts and around us), technological and scientific innovation, and food fraud.

 

Here are some of the report’s most interesting findings:

• Increased exposure to contaminants – The impact of changing weather patterns and temperatures has been receiving much attention, and FAO recently issued a report on the implications of climate change on food safety in 2020.

Recent evidence points to a severe impact of climate change on various biological and chemical contaminants in food by altering their virulence, occurrence and distribution.

Traditionally cooler zones are becoming warmer and more conducive to agriculture, opening up new habitats for agricultural pests and toxic fungal species. For instance, aflatoxins, which were traditionally considered a problem mainly in some parts of Africa, are now established in the Mediterranean.

• Jellyfish, algae, and insects – Edible varieties of jellyfish have been consumed for generations in some parts of Asia. They are low in carbohydrates and high in protein content but tend to spoil easily at ambient temperatures and can serve as vectors of pathogenic bacteria that can adversely affect human health.

Seaweed consumption is also spreading beyond Asia and is expected to continue growing, in part because of its nutritional value and sustainability (seaweeds do not need fertilisers to grow and help combat ocean acidification).

One potential source of concern is their ability to accumulate high levels of heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury. Interest in edible insects is also rising in response to growing awareness of the environmental impacts of food production.

While they can be a good source of protein, fibre, fatty acids, and micronutrients like iron, zinc, manganese and magnesium, they can harbour foodborne contaminants and can provoke allergic reactions in some people.

• Farming Insects: in another report, FAO says that while insect consumption by humans or entomophagy has been traditionally practiced in various countries over generations and represents a common dietary component of various animal species (birds, fish, mammals), farming of insects for human food and animal feed is relatively recent.

“Production of this ‘mini-livestock’ brings with it several potential benefits and challenges.”

• Plant-based alternatives – More and more people are becoming vegan or vegetarian, often citing concerns for animal welfare and livestock’s impact on the environment. This has led to the development of various plant-based alternatives to meat, with global sales for such products expected to surge.

As plant-based diets expand, more awareness about introducing food safety concerns, such as allergens from foods not commonly consumed before, is needed.

• Cell-based meat – Winston Churchill’s prophecy – that one day “we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium” – is becoming a reality, with dozens of companies globally known to be developing cell-based steaks, beef burgers or chicken nuggets.

“Examples of potential concerns include the use of animal-based serum in the culture media, which may introduce both microbiological and chemical contamination.”

• New technologies – A veritable technological revolution is transforming our agrifood systems, helping us produce more with less. Examples include smart packaging that extends the shelf-life of food products, blockchain technology that ensures food can be traced along supply chains, and 3D printers that produce sweets and even “meat-like” textures using plant-based ingredients.

As with all emerging technologies, there are opportunities and challenges, adds the new FAO report.

 

Food safety

Coinciding with the launch of the report, FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that this year’s edition of World Food Safety Day, to be held on 7 June, will focus on the theme of “Safer food, better health.”

The World Day will focus, among other aspects, on the fact that food safety saves lives. It is not only a crucial component to food security, but it also plays a vital role in reducing foodborne disease.

“Every year, 600 million people fall sick as a result of around 200 different types of foodborne illness. The burden of such illness falls most heavily on the poor and on the young. In addition, foodborne illness is responsible for 420 000 preventable deaths every year.”

 

The UN’s empty corridors will soon be back to normal. Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 14 2022 (IPS)

After several on-again and off-again pandemic lockdowns, the United Nations is planning to return to normal beginning this week.

A circular from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 11 says “based on the new guidelines, we are now able to institute associated changes in our workplace, returning to full operational capability while still prioritizing the health and safety of personnel, and balancing the operational needs of the Organization”.

Guided by the Senior Emergency Policy Team and the Occupational Safety and Health Committee in New York, Guterres has decided to make the following changes:

As of Monday, 14 March: mask use will be voluntary throughout the UN building and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), mostly denied entry since March 2020, will now be given access to the UN premises.

While diplomats were never barred from the UN during the lockdown– since they “own“ the building — all CSOs were banned from the premises. The UN also refused to renew their passes to enter the headquarters building.

The mounting protests last year came from several NGOs, most of whom have been partnering with the UN and providing humanitarian assistance in conflict-ridden countries, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Ethiopia.

“Civil society organizations are elated about the resumption of their access to the UN building,” said a former senior UN official who interacts regularly with CSOs.

The empty racks on the UN’s third floor, home to several news organizations. Credit: IPS

Until now, most meetings and briefings were described as “hybrid”, partly in-person, but mostly via video conferencing.

As of Monday 28 March, Intergovernmental meetings will also resume as “normal”, and by Monday, 4 April, UN headquarters will enter the “Next Normal” phase.

Decisions regarding the opening of the buildings to visitors, the general public, including for United Nations Guided Tours, to non-resident correspondents, and the holding of side events/receptions will be taken in April, said the circular addressed to over 3,000 UN staffers in New York.

The UN’s decision to go into “full operation” comes following criticisms from member states over the lack of UN staffers to service some of the meetings.

Ambassador Boubacar Diallo of Guinea, the outgoing chairman of the Group of 77 plus China, the largest single coalition of developing countries at the UN, warned late last year that the Group continues to be disappointed that due to security concerns, the Administrative and Budgetary Committee was being deprived of interpretation services (in the UN’s six official languages) during informal consultations.

“We look forward to the day that multilingualism is fully restored, and we can enjoy interpretation services as we are doing here today. We are committed to a thorough consideration of the agenda items allocated to the Committee, and in this regard, note with disappointment that several reports are still outstanding,” he added.

This endemic situation, he pointed out, significantly compromises the Committee’s work. With a resolution being adopted by consensus, including the 134 members of the G77, he said, “It is not possible to turn a blind eye to a General Assembly resolution and a deaf ear to the two-thirds majority of the General Membership.”

The UN has still barred scores of UN retirees living in the tri-state area—New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. One of them who retired after nearly 22 years working in the Secretariat, told IPS, UN security officers barred him from entering the building last month and said his retiree UN pass was invalid.

“I was treated as if I was a security risk—after all these years of service to the UN”, he complained.

Asked about the status of UN staffers in Geneva, which hosts one of the largest conglomerations of UN agencies, Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS masks are still required for now in public spaces.

“Many meetings are back to normal. The car park is filling up. We are starting to see a more settled pattern now of colleagues alternating between office and home,” he added.

In Geneva, he said, retirees have been able to enter since last year. “No reason to keep them away,” said Richards, an economist at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

In his circular, Guterres said “after a long two-year struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, we have encouraging news to report. COVID-19 case numbers, hospitalizations and transmission rates have significantly improved in New York City and the Tri-State area”.

Cases amongst UNHQ personnel have also sharply declined and have been at very low levels for some time. As you know, State and City authorities in New York have now lifted or revised their pandemic mitigation measures, he said.

“From the beginning, our approach on health and safety measures, as well as our transition from Phase Zero to the “Next Normal” phase has been closely guided by advice and the guidance of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and that of the local health authorities in New York City and State,” said Guterres.

The CDC has introduced a new “community level” tool to help formulate prevention steps based on the latest data. Levels – which are determined by hospitalization and test positivity rates – are characterized as low, medium or high. New York is currently at the low community level, for which the CDC recommends the following:

On the question of masks, the circular says people may choose to mask at any time. People with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask.

On COVID-19 vaccine: “Stay up to date (meaning a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster dose(s) when eligible)”.

Meanwhile, the authorities in New York City have decided to end COVID-19 vaccination requirements at restaurants, gyms, fitness studios, entertainment and cultural venues.

But the City will continue to mandate masks in public transit, as well as in healthcare facilities, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, schools/day care for children aged 2 to 5, and Broadway theatres. Individual businesses can choose to mandate masks while indoor school mask mandates have been discontinued in the Tri-State area.

“Based on the new guidelines, we are now able to institute associated changes in our workplace, returning to full operational capability while still prioritizing the health and safety of personnel, and balancing the operational needs of the Organization,” the circular added.

Guterres thanked staffers for their resilience, dedication and extraordinary efforts over this long and difficult period.

“We have learned many lessons together – including how to work effectively in innovative ways. Let us build on those lessons as we carry out our essential mission to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights for all,” he added.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Support seems to be growing for two groups who are campaigning against undocumented foreign nationals.

African rugby's governing body is accused of ignoring the interests of game on the continent after deciding to host 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers in France.