Africa

Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 4 2022 (IPS)

The world’s financial institutions, primarily in the US and Europe, have cut off links and economically ostracized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and violation of the UN charter.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lambasted the Russians declaring the military invasion “a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine– and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

The White House announced last week that the United States and allies will kick certain Russian banks out of a major international banking system, a significant step in a bid to cripple the Russian economy.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, has already announced plans to launch a war crime investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But despite the fact that Russia has been politically and economically isolated as an international pariah, the UN Secretariat is continuing its relationship with Russian companies— buying goods and services, primarily relating to air transportation, information and communication technologies (ICT) and food catering, mostly for the UN’s 12 peacekeeping missions.

The approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022 is a staggering $6.38 billion. (A/C.5/75/25)—and payments to Russian contractors will flow largely from this budget.

An equally valid question is: how will the UN pay for these purchases and services when Russians have been barred from most of the international banking system.

Last week, the U.S., Canada and Europe tightened financial restrictions on Russia with a new ban that blocks seven Russian banks from using SWIFT, the global messaging system that enables bank transactions. The move was aimed at disrupting Russia’s ability to do business across borders.

According to the latest available figures, the UN’s purchases from Russia amounted to about $132.3 million in 2020, with Moscow listed as the 5th largest supplier behind UAE, USA, Kenya and Switzerland.

The UN also has trade links with Russia’s largest helicopter operator, UTair – Helicopter Services, described as a leading provider of aviation services to companies in the fuel and energy industries, plus the United Nations.

There have also been rumors that some of the contracting firms have links to Russian oligarchs and high-ranking political officials who have been crippled by US and Western European sanctions.

But apparently not at the United Nations. An Asian diplomat characterized it as UN’s “sheer political hypocrisy”.

A breakdown of UN suppliers follows:

Credit: United Nations

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said February 25 the United States is inflicting unprecedented costs on President Putin and those around him for their brutal and unprovoked assault on the people of Ukraine.

“We are united with our allies and partners in our commitment to ensure the Russian government pays a severe economic and diplomatic price for its further invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign and democratic state”, he added.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s Department of Operational Support, did not respond to two messages—seeking comments on the continued UN trade and economic relationship with Russia.

But Farhan Haque, the UN’s deputy spokesperson, was more forthcoming, when he told IPS: “What we can say is that if specific UN sanctions were imposed on the Russian Federation, or sanctions against a particular company or their principals that would affect their ability to perform, then of course we would comply.”

The UN does, however, lay down strict rules and guidelines for ethical behaviour of suppliers and contractors. But the violation of a country’s sovereignty and the invasion of a member state are not part of those rules.

According to UN guidelines, suppliers and contractors must comply with the United Nations Supplier Code of Conduct and General Conditions of Contract, in particular, the provisions on sexual exploitation, child labour, discrimination, conditions of work and harassment.

The UN Procurement Division also reminds the UN supplier community, that as a UN registered supplier “you have accepted the United Nations Supplier Code of Conduct, which reflects the core values outlined in the Charter of the United Nations” But a blatant violation of that same charter is apparently not a reason for expulsion.

Meanwhile, the killing spree continues. As of March 3, more than 250 were killed and over 550 injured in continued attacks by Russian military forces inside Ukraine.

The UN has warned that while the scale and scope of displacement is not yet clear, it is expecting more than 10 million people to flee their homes if violence continues, including 4 million people who may cross borders to neighbouring countries triggering a major humanitarian crisis in Europe.

 

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The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Farhana Haque Rahman
TORONTO, Canada, Mar 4 2022 (IPS)

For decades women’s demands for political and economic inclusion have placed them centre-stage in mass struggles against dictatorships across the world. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its indiscriminate attacks on civilians now put women’s movements firmly on the front line of war, autocrats and fossil fuels.

Farhana Haque Rahman

War is an extreme example but authoritarian and patriarchal regimes – not just in Russia, but also China, Turkey, Egypt and most recently Afghanistan among others – are rolling back hard won progress on women’s rights and democracy.

As Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks powerfully illustrate in their essay, Revenge of the Patriarchs – Why Autocrats Fear Women, this patriarchal backlash is also playing out in “illiberal democracies headed by aspiring strongmen”, such as Brazil, Hungary, Poland, India, the Philippines and even the United States under former president Donald Trump and still in some Republican-controlled states.

“Aspiring autocrats and patriarchal authoritarians have good reason to fear women’s political participation: when women participate in mass movements, those movements are both more likely to succeed and more likely to lead to more egalitarian democracy.”

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has basked in a hyper-masculine strongman image perhaps only outdone by Trump’s casual misogyny, has raged against Russia’s falling population and seen the answer in eroding women’s reproductive rights. Dealing women’s rights a further blow, domestic violence was decriminalised in Russia in 2017. Russian propaganda in Ukraine for years has also sought to erode the position of women in society, relegating them to “traditional” roles.

Just as women are resisting this patriarchal backlash, and literally taking up arms in Ukraine, so too they are on the frontline of the climate crisis, as recognised by the theme this year for International Women’s Day on March 8: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

In the words of UN Women, a UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women which is also active in the Ukraine crisis: “Advancing gender equality in the context of the climate crisis and disaster risk reduction is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century…Those who are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalized experience the deepest impacts. Women are increasingly being recognized as more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men, as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most.”

But women and girls are also protagonists, active as effective and powerful leaders and change-makers for climate adaptation and mitigation. “Without gender equality today, a sustainable future, and an equal future, remains beyond our reach.”

Which brings us back to tyranny and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This is not a war for resources but it is about oil and gas, which Putin has weaponised to advance his expansionist goals. Europe is dependent on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas supplies. Global gas prices, already rising because of the post-pandemic economic rebound, were driven further by Russia tightening supplies to Europe ahead of the invasion. Russia can also soften the blow of western economic sanctions with sales of gas to China.

Put simply, the more demand there is for oil and gas, the more money there is for Putin, which explains why countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia – waging war in Yemen with western support – are far from enthusiastic about combatting climate change. Russia’s gas industry is also a major emitter of methane, a highly dangerous global warming gas.

“As current events make all too clear, our continued reliance on fossil fuels makes the global economy and energy security vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and crises,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared on February 28.

Guterres was responding to the release of the devastating climate crisis report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which he described as “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership”.

“This abdication of leadership is criminal. The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home,” he added. “Fossil fuels are a dead end – for our planet, for humanity, and yes, for economies.”

All these elements were illustrated in dramatic fashion last week in a virtual meeting of IPCC scientists and government representatives to approve the report.

Oleg Anisimov, a Russian scientist, was reported as apologising “on behalf of all Russians who were not able to prevent this conflict”. The attack on Ukraine had no justification, he said.

Ukrainian scientist Svitlana Krakovska, speaking from Kyiv, had to cut short her participation in discussions because of the invasion but was reported as telling her colleagues:

“Someone could question us that IPCC is not a political body, and should only assess science related to climate change. Let me assure you that this human-induced climate change and war against Ukraine have direct connections and the same roots. They are fossil fuels and humanity’s dependence on them.”

Krakovska, who later expressed her concern for the safety of her Russian colleague, said while greenhouse gas emissions were impacting the planet, the easy use of coal, oil and gas had changed the balance of power in the human world. “We cannot change laws of the physical world but it is our responsibility to change laws of human civilization towards a climate resilient future.”

Osprey Orielle Lake, leader of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), has echoed those words in her response to the IPCC report:

“From countries around the world, we must listen to frontline and Indigenous women leaders and their communities, who are not only experiencing the worst impacts of climate change right now, but who also carry knowledge and expertise necessary for real climate action, solutions and adaptation grounded in justice, human and Indigenous rights, and the protection of vital biodiverse regions.”

Indigenous, Black and Brown women and women from the Global South bear a heavier burden from the impacts of climate change. We stand in solidarity with all women who, like Krakovska in Ukraine, stand on these frontlines.

Farhana Haque Rahman is Senior Vice President of IPS Inter Press Service and Executive Director IPS Noram; she served as the elected Director General of IPS from 2015-2019. A journalist and communications expert, she is a former senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

Riky Rick was one of South Africa's top rappers but there was always a hidden side to his fame.

A selection of the best photos from across the Africa and beyond this week.

Ghana become the first African country to evacuate its citizens fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

The employment outlook for women in Latin America continues to face obstacles before it can reach pre-COVID-19 levels. But a sustainable and inclusive recovery will require measures to close the gender gaps that already affected employment of women in the region before the pandemic. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

By Mariela Jara
LIMA, Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic did not hit everyone equally and employment has shown a clear gender-differentiated impact. Two years after the start of the pandemic, it is more difficult for women than men to recover their jobs, and this is clearly reflected in Latin America.

The 2021 Labour Overview, Latin America and the Caribbean, published by the regional office of the International Labor Organization (ILO), highlights the differences in this regard.

While 25.5 million jobs lost by men between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the months following the onset of the pandemic have been recovered, women have yet to recuperate four million of the 23.6 million jobs they lost in the same period.

“This is so because we entered the pandemic without having resolved structural problems of the sexual division of labor; women and men are in different positions in the formal labor market as a result of the patriarchal order,” Peruvian feminist sociologist Karim Flores, a specialist in gender and employment, told IPS.

She explained that although in recent decades there has been an accelerated increase in the number of women in the formal labor market, gender gaps persist in terms of wages, access to decision-making positions, precarious conditions within the formal labor market and feminized positions.

“Not only that, other serious asymmetries such as the unemployment rate, which is higher among women than men, had not been overcome. In addition, the family-work relationship, which is a serious structural problem, had not been resolved,” she said.

The expert said that this set of factors led to women entering the pandemic at a disadvantage, which now makes the process of recovering their jobs more difficult and slower.

Activities such as manufacturing, commerce, tourism, catering and hospitality, characterized by a larger female labor force, were among the hardest hit by the crisis. They suffered a contraction and even came to a standstill at the onset of the pandemic.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported that 56.9 percent of the female population in Latin America and 54.3 percent in the Caribbean worked in the sectors that were most impacted by the crisis.

According to the ILO, as of the second quarter of 2020, the female economic participation rate in the region was 43.5 percent. This is partly due to the fact that women who lost their jobs did not remain inactive or idle but turned to a number of other activities.

Aracelli Alava’s life was turned upside down by the pandemic. She is a tour operator at Machu Picchu, the emblematic Inca ruins in southern Peru, where she is seen in the photo. The paralysis of the tourism industry forced her to become an online translator and only now is she beginning to resume her profession and her passion. CREDIT: Courtesy of Aracelli Alava

Survival instinct

Aracelli Alava is one illustration of this phenomenon. The 40-year-old Peruvian used to depend totally on tourism for a living. A qualified English translator, she helped moved tourists to different parts of the country with her company that provided services to travel agencies.

“I traveled four times a month on a routine basis, when suddenly the borders were closed and flights were brought to a halt. It was a terrible sensation; when they take away something that you are passionate about, that is your motor and motivation, it depresses you. That’s when my survival instinct kicked in,” she said.

She saw that her colleagues started selling different products, or tried to start businesses. She made her degree count and began doing various translations online to support herself, often overcoming the feeling of not wanting to get out of bed.

“Thank God I don’t have dependent family!” she told IPS in a telephone interview from the historic Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, in Cuzco, where she is once again accompanying a group of tourists.

She said that tourism activity has begun to recover, albeit very slowly. “My income has not rebounded yet, the gap is big, I am still doing translations but I am confident that by mid-year things will be a little better,” she remarked.

Despite a greater recovery of women’s jobs in 2021 due to the reactivation of sectors of the economy, driven by the mass vaccination drive, it has not been enough to reach 2019 levels.

The unemployment rate is 12.4 percent according to the ILO report, several points higher than the pre-pandemic 9.7 percent.

This situation is compounded by the impact on working conditions and income levels in those jobs that were not lost or were recovered.

Before the pandemic, Yolanda Castro, 45, worked eight hours a day at a private school in the Peruvian capital, and after work she devoted herself to her family.

The Mar. 16, 2020 declaration of a state of emergency in the country and the new restrictions completely changed her routine as head of tutoring at a primary level.

“Shifting the dynamic of work to home was an odyssey, although I learned the monster of on-line work,” she said. “The hardest thing has been that it affects my family, that I had to take over their space, tell them to keep quiet, and work more than eight hours a day under those conditions for half my salary.”

To cover part of her monthly budget deficit, she used her culinary skills and on weekends she cooked food to sell. She was thus left without a break because she worked seven days a week.

Yolanda Castro, the head of tutoring at a private school in the Peruvian capital, poses in the living room in her home, which has become her workplace since the start of the COVID pandemic, which also reduced her salary and forced her to supplement her income with other work and to work seven days a week. CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

Castro said that in the first few months of the pandemic, during the lockdown when the military patrolled the streets, she would go out on the street with a white flag to drop off orders of stuffed potatoes, chicken broth, ‘sopa seca’ or potato pie at neighboring houses.

But the extra income was not enough to allow her to continue her specialization studies, which she had to suspend due to a lack of time and budget.

She has not yet returned to her pre-pandemic salary and although the government has announced that this year schools will go back to on-site classes, Peruvian educational institutions are still evaluating whether they will do so fully or in part, and contracts and pay will depend on what happens in that regard.

Decent and equal employment

Flores the sociologist remarked that talk of pre-pandemic levels should not render invisible the gender inequality gaps in employment that need to be corrected in a post-pandemic scenario.

She raised the need to establish post-pandemic employment pacts to achieve a policy promoting decent work in Latin America and the Caribbean, the most unequal region in the world, also in terms of labor.

“According to the ILO, decent work respects rights, does not discriminate on the basis of gender or any other cause, respects unionization and collective bargaining, and guarantees a fair income and unemployment insurance,” she said.

She included in the proposal attention to mental health, affected by the high levels of anxiety and stress caused by uncertainty and shortages during the pandemic, and the gender digital divide.

“That gap already existed, it was linked to access and training; during the pandemic these two factors have excluded many women from teleworking,” she said.

Both the public and private sectors would be involved in the initiative of the pacts, which should include the central goal of advancing towards gender equality in employment.

At 24 years of age, university graduate Mariana Navarro is one of many young people in Peru struggling to find a job amidst the greater difficulties created by the pandemic. She shares a smile of confidence in a better future, at a shopping mall in the city of Lima. CREDIT: Mariela Salazar/IPS

The case of young women

Flores also referred to youth unemployment, which according to the ILO report stands at 21.4 percent for the region. Although that is lower than the 23 percent of 2020, it remains more than two points above the pre-pandemic rate of 18 percent.

She highlighted the barriers faced by female university graduates or young women who are trying to gain access to more highly qualified positions.

“Gender stereotypes persist in the management of human potential, from the processes of selection and evaluation to hiring, which end up marginalizing women,” she said.

In addition to all this, the idea prevails that because they are young, they should be willing to accept exploitative conditions.

That is what happened to Mariana Navarro, a 24-year-old with a university degree in administration, who for most of 2021 worked at a private medical center.

“It was an onsite job as an administrator, but I was the only non-health staff member so I also had to look after business issues, logistics, reception, and whatever came up. It was too many responsibilities for one person, they didn’t want to give me a raise, and I was very stressed out,” she said.

She never imagined that after she quit she would not be able to find another job. She has been applying for different jobs for the past four months.

“I have seen countless application forms and I have noticed that they have raised the requirements, they ask for experience in the public and private sector, program management, specializations…My resume is not strong enough for the recruiters, how could I meet those expectations if I am just starting out, what options do we have?” she complained.

Being economically dependent on her parents affects her self-esteem and budget, and also limits her options, but she is not willing to be employed under exploitative conditions or in any activity outside her profession.

“I am persevering, fighting for a possibility of a decent job,” Navarro said.

The thousands of foreign students who have fled the conflict are wondering what to do next.

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius , Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

When countries improve their Global ranking, there is rejoicing within the community that progress has been made at last.. but has it and why does it matter ?

Unfortunately, upon careful analysis of the World Economic Forum predictions, the world will not reach gender parity until the year 2156 – date pushed back by another 36 years as a result of the pandemic. We can take comfort in the fact that the WEF prediction is based on a straight-line extrapolation of the trend over the past fifteen years into the future. What is perhaps of greater value is the collection and aggregation of the range of indices on gender equality from around the world, from education to wages, health and politics. On the latter field, the news have been disappointing. While some countries like Iceland have been closing the gap, others like Japan lag way behind.

Yet, progress has come from unexpected quarters – unexpected because the ingrained stereotype would have it that the Arab world would not allow female presence in politics. In 2019, the UAE’s Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, issued Presidential Resolution No. (1) ordering equal representation of Emirati women in the Federal National Council. This decision saw female representation jumped from 23% in 2019 to 50% today.

How to handle this disparity? Is it time for quota? Also why do we need female representation at all? This is a question that the developing world no longer asks especially when it comes to issues like food security, climate change amongst other issues. At COP 26, the link has finally been made between gender equality and climate change.

It has been said time and time again that the effects of climate change put women at increased risk of hunger, food insecurity and violence. This threatens women’s income, health and way of life. Women feed their families and are the prime caregiver especially in developing countries. Entire households depend on them to provide food, fuel and water which is expected to become scarcer as temperature rise.

Women’s ability to financially provide for themselves and their families will also be affected and they make up 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty. In Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, over 60 per cent of women are employed in agriculture, often in labour-intensive activities, unpaid or poorly remunerated. In sub-Saharan Africa, women comprise 30 to 80 per cent of the agricultural labour force, and produce about 4-25% less in the value of agricultural produce per unit of cultivated land than their male counterparts. The gender gap in agricultural productivity exists because women often have unequal access to crucial agricultural inputs such land, labour, knowledge, fertilizer and improved seeds. This has implications for the income, health and nutrition of both women and children.

Also 70% of the women work in the agricultural sector which stands to be devastated from increasingly unreliable weather and increased intensity and regularity of extreme weather events and by way of example, the island of Madagascar has witnessed four large and intense cyclones since early 2022.

The chances of women escaping the situation is bleak. As the effects of climate change intensify, the opportunities for women to gain the resources, skills and education may fall out of reach. It was expected that in 2021 alone, climate-related events would prevent at least 4 million girls in lower-income countries from completing their education. If current trends continue, that number will reach 12.5 million by 2025.

However, tackling climate change to resolve these issues will not be impossible if women are not empowered to be included in the discussions and, more importantly, the decisions. As key contributors to communities, as carers and activists, as well as in local food systems and in the home, women are in a unique position to drive longer-term climate resilience.

Yet, women continue to be marginalised. Women make up only 19% of IMF and World Bank boards and less than 30% of national parliamentarians. The gender pay gap also continues to be an issue. Worldwide, women share 35% of the global income, an increase of only 5% since 1990. The responsibility and opportunity to tackle gender inequality and climate change lie in the hands of both governments and the private sector.

Funds pledged at COP26 will go towards local communities and grassroots women’s groups in Asia Pacific to challenge gender inequalities, and to help adapt to the impacts of climate change. Given the urgency and magnitude of the global challenges that face the world, we must do better at harnessing the leadership, ability and aptitude of women, recognizing their unpaid care and domestic work, and ensuring gender-responsive economic policies for job creation, poverty reduction and sustainable, inclusive growth.

All institutions have their role to play. Private companies can tackle issues both externally and internally. Internally, they can work on the changes of the gender split in board rooms, correcting the gender pay gap, working to end discrimination, and creating a work culture that empowers women.

Externally, companies can invest in projects that directly support the development of women as well as form partnerships with charities and communities to give girls and women the education, skills and opportunities they need to succeed.

The more we talk about these issues, the greater the awareness there will be.

Greater awareness means there is more we can do, together, to address these pertinent issues and no matter how small the actions, they can build momentum until they have a positive impact for women and girls around the world because empowering women is no longer just an ethical issue. It is now an economic one. Economic gender parity ensure gains not only for economies of both developed countries and developing countries.

 

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Excerpt:

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, the first woman president of Mauritius is a renowned biodiversity scientist
 
The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

The crisis in Ukraine has put Egypt’s wheat supply in jeopardy and could impact millions who rely on subsidised bread. Credit: Abdelfatah Farag/IPS

By Hisham Allam
CAIRO, Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

Egypt is scrambling to find alternate sources of wheat after the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put supply to the country in jeopardy. This is especially urgent because the price of bread in Egypt has in the past sparked protests in the country.

Russia and Ukraine are key players in the global grain market, with their wheat exports accounting for 23% of international trade in 2021-22, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Egypt, Lebanon, and Libya are among the MENA region’s top wheat importers from Ukraine.

In 2021, Egypt imported 6.1 million tonnes of wheat; 4.2 million came from Russia, worth $1.2 billion, representing 69.4% of total Egyptian wheat imports. Imports from Ukraine amounted to 651,400 tonnes, worth $649.4 million, accounting for 10.7% of total imports.

Over the last 50 years, the price of bread has been a politically controversial topic in Egypt, triggering various protests. A subsidised flat loaf costs 0.05 Egyptian pounds, less than one US cent.

Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian tycoon, appealed to Egypt’s Minister of Supply on February 22 to acquire and store large quantities of wheat.

“We must purchase and stockpile wheat as quickly as possible before the Ukraine-Russia war breaks out, “Sawiris Tweeted.

Mohamed Elhady, who runs a family-owned bakery at Menoufia Governorate, 80 km north Cairo, is deeply concerned about the business he has been running for 20 years.

“The government-subsidised bread diminishes the bakery’s profit margin since we are required to sell a loaf of bread at the government-set price. But we get the cost difference through banks after calculating the number of loaves produced by each bakery using a smart ration card system,” Elhady told IPS.

“Some bakeries gather cards from ordinary residents and report fictitious sales to gain the value of subsidised bread for themselves, increasing their earnings considerably while reselling raw wheat on the informal market,” he explains.

In August 2021, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said it was time to increase the country’s subsidised bread price, revisiting the issue for the first time since 1977, when then-president Anwar Sadat reversed a price rise in the face of riots.

“It is time for the five-piece loaf to increase in price,” Sisi said.

Elhady believes that the government will turn the president’s words into action soon, expecting that the new increase in subsidised bread will take place by April, the anticipated time for receiving wheat from the new suppliers. This will decrease daily production rates and, therefore, his profits.

“Once the wheat prices increase, the government will reduce the number of subsidised loaves from five a day to three or increase the price of the 5-piaster loaf,” Elhady says.

The president is also expected to exclude more citizens from the subsidy programme covering more than 60 million Egyptians.

“People will have to choose; to eat less or to pay more,” Elhady adds.

Egypt’s main state buying agency, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), has issued a second international wheat tender to import wheat from April 13 to 26. The tender was issued 48 hours after it was cancelled because it only received a single offer of French wheat. A least two offers are required before a purchase can go ahead.

The Egyptian GASC set the end of February as a deadline to receive offers for the new tender. In addition to Russia and Ukraine, the GASC sought bids from the United States, Canada, France, Bulgaria, Australia, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Paraguay, and Kazakhstan. The delivery needs to take place before April 1, 2022.

Despite the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian military escalation, an Egyptian ship carrying 60 tons of Ukrainian wheat has left the Ukrainian ports and is en route to Egypt, a grain consultant at the Ministry of Supply, Salah Hamza, told IPS.

“This shipment was contracted with Ukraine for $361 per ton in an international tender in December 2021. The consignment is part of a 300 000-ton wheat shipment that will arrive by March 2022.”

“Egypt produces 275 million loaves of bread per day, consumes 900,000 tonnes of wheat per month, and the strategic stock is enough for the next five months, in addition to 4 million tons expected from the domestic harvest by mid-April, “Hamza adds.

Egypt has a strategic reserve of wheat, enough to cover the local market’s needs for nine months, the Cabinet’s spokesman, Nader Saad said.

The strategic wheat stock is approximately five million tonnes, according to Saad, and will be augmented when the local wheat harvest season begins on April 15.

In February of this year, the price of an ardeb of wheat climbed by 65 percent compared with February of last year.

The US Foreign Agricultural Service expected Egypt’s wheat consumption in 2021-22 would exceed 21.3 million tonnes, up about 2.4 % from 2020-21.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

 

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By Jacqui Hunt
LONDON, Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

At Equality Now, we have been on a years-long journey to track and analyze sexual violence laws and their implementation around the world. This work was born after working with survivors of sexual violence for over two decades and observing that women and girls reported similar barriers to justice regardless of where they were from.

While local, national, and regional context impact a victim’s experience, it is also clear that many of the challenges they face are universal.

From Eurasia to the Caribbean, to South Asia and North Africa, we discovered laws which were supposedly meant to protect women and girls but in reality it perpetuated, and in some cases, even promoted gender-based violence and discrimination.

We found instances of so called “marry your rapist” laws which permit rapists to avoid legal accountability by marrying their victims, the decriminalization of marital rape, and laws that use terminology of chastity and honor rather than consent.

While there is a range of ways in how laws in themselves are failing victims of sexual violence, one common trend is that the implementation of laws around the world neglect to take into account the unique needs and vulnerabilities of marginalized communities.

Many countries do not apply an intersectional lens when implementing sexual violence laws, resulting in the further marginalization of already underserved populations. For example, in Guatemala, indigenous survivors face additional barriers to justice due to insufficient translation services and the lack of geographically accessible courts and law enforcement.

In Georgia, the ability of women living with disabilities, particularly those with psycho-social needs, to testify in their own cases might be wrongly discounted. In the United States, a legacy of structural racism has resulted in a distrust of law enforcement by communities of color, resulting in low reporting rates of sexual violence by Black women.

And around the world, we found that adolescent girls were routinely under-protected by sexual violence laws and frequently negatively stereotyped when seeking justice.

UN officials say that gender-based violence is a “shadow pandemic,” hidden beneath COVID-19. Credit: UNDP

Adolescent girls are uniquely vulnerable to experiencing sexual violence, and yet too often they are denied access to justice and support services. The emergence of girls’ sexuality during puberty is frequently used as a justification to disinvest in their schooling and personal development while simultaneously appropriating their labor, sexuality, and fertility.

No longer afforded the protections of childhood, nor recognized as adults, they find themselves in a precarious position, often victimized and labelled sexually promiscuous or a “temptress,” leaving them isolated and unsupported rather than protected from exploitation and abuse.

Additionally, a dearth of age-appropriate services and education means that adolescents are often not fully aware of their rights and lack the ability to self-advocate even when legal recourse is available to them.

Some discrimination is even embedded in the law itself. Estupro laws or provisions, which are found throughout Latin America and in substance in other laws further afield, allow for lesser penalties for the rape of an adolescent above the age of consent than for an adult woman or child below the age of consent.

Criminal justice officials utilize estupro provisions to portray adolescent girls as manipulative seductresses who tempt adult men into illicit sex. These laws perpetuate the misconception that victims are often, at least partially, responsible for their own abuse and that rape is simply an act of sexual deviance rather than one of violence, control, and entitlement.

By suggesting that sexual violence is the fault of the victim, estupro provisions contribute to a wider culture of victim blaming, in turn deterring survivors from reporting crimes and seeking help. This means that cases either aren’t prosecuted, thereby allowing impunity for the perpetrator, or that these lesser charges are brought, thereby reducing punishment for the perpetrator.

Stigma surrounds all forms of sexual violence, but cases of incest are especially taboo and thus survivors of this form of violence are even less likely to receive justice. According to UNICEF, 40-60 % of known sexual assaults within the family are committed against girls aged 15 and younger, thus adolescent girls are particularly impacted by the silence around this form of abuse.

In cases of incest, the perpetrator is most often a male family member and there is a strong tendency to keep the abuse private at all costs, at the expense of the rights and wellbeing of the victim– most often a young or adolescent girl. By keeping the matter under wraps, the victims of familial abuse will often suffer long lasting and devastating psychological, emotional and physical consequences.

Equality Now’s study, conducted with Pakistani partners, of incest in Pakistan found that child and adolescent victims of incest faced numerous barriers, including: stigma as a barrier to reporting, attitudes of law enforcement, prosecutorial misconduct, untrained medical professionals, drawn-out trials, and a lack of youth-specific services.

In the rare cases where girls and adolescents attempted to report a case of incest, they were met by a criminal justice system that shamed and stigmatized them. One fifteen-year-old girl who was raped by her father was told by the police that she was “doing something wrong” by reporting her abuse and that by speaking publicly she would “stain her family’s honor.”

Her experience was unfortunately not unique. Another young woman reported that the police refused to take her statement about being raped by her brother-in-law because they claimed that it was simply an instance of “enmity between two families.”

It is difficult for all survivors of sexual violence to receive justice and to stand up against laws and systems that seek to undermine their credibility, but for adolescent girls the challenge is even greater.

For them, and for their future as women, we need robust laws, survivor-informed and gender-sensitive implementation, and intentional collaboration between all actors to ensure that every survivor’s needs are considered, addressed, and supported.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Global Lead of Ending Sexual Violence at Equality Now
 
The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

By Matti Kohonen
LONDON, Mar 3 2022 (IPS)

The war in Ukraine has highlighted Russian kleptocrats funnelling billions of dollars out of the country and investing them in London and other major global financial centres, prompting political leaders in Europe and USA to crack down on this shady money. Russian oligarchs are believed to hold as much as $1 trillion in wealth abroad, often hidden in offshore companies whose true ownership is hard to determine.

Focusing only on Russian oligarchs however would be a terrible mistake.

In a bid to undermine Russian’s war effort, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, UK, Canada and the US announced the launch of a transatlantic task force against Russian oligarchs and officials close to the Kremlin and their lawyers, real estate agents and other ‘enablers’, aiming to identify and freeze their assets held in their jurisdictions. Yet this declaration does no say anything about kleptocrats everywhere, such as those in developing countries who use Global North tax havens to hide their assets.

Last year the Pandora Papers investigation, for instance, showed that hundreds of public officials in 90 countries such as Kenya and Jordan used shell company schemes to hide wealth offshore and avoid taxes with the assistance of global banks and law firms – revealing among others that South Dakota had become the tax haven of choice.

More recently, the Suisse Secrets investigation led by the Offshore Crime and Corruption Reporting Project showed that Credit Suisse bank handled $100 billion in hidden wealth of thousands of clients – the majority of them from developing countries including Venezuela, Egypt and Ukraine – linked to corruption, drug trafficking and other major crimes.

Tackling offshore secrecy and tax abuses, not just from Russian kleptocrats, has never been more urgent than today as the world also continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Every year $1.6 trillion is laundered by criminals, equivalent to 2.7 percent of global GDP, while $7 trillion in private wealth is hidden in haven countries. Meanwhile 100 million people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, while the gap between rich and poor continues to grow.

A year ago, the United Nations Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) panel proposed 14 recommendations to overhaul the financial system, fight tax evasion and crimes and generate a fair global tax system. The report was endorsed in a UN General Assembly resolution in November 2021 and would have helped tackle the growing power and influence Russian kleptocrats, but was largely ignored as rich countries do not want to share the proceeds from these shady deals.

Yet things seem to be changing. Prime minister Boris Johnson’s recent promise to rush forward a public register to reveal the ultimate owners of properties across the UK is welcome news. An estimated $230 billion-worth of UK property is held overseas, much of it anonymously to avoid publicity, and escape money laundering or tax laws, or worse.

Meanwhile Switzerland is now pledging to freeze assets of 367 sanctioned Russian individuals and companies, a historic step for this country in freezing assets of people linked to illicit funds. Swiss national bank data showed that Russian companies and individuals for example held assets worth more than $11 billion in Swiss banks in 2020, an underestimate given most assets are not held directly.

But this is not enough. For one, all illicit financial flows should be targeted, not just those from Russian oligarchs, while all assets should be placed in public beneficial ownership registries for everyone to see. Crucially, these registries should be connected to a multilateral system called a Global Asset Registry where all assets would be listed, as suggested by major economists like Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman.

Currently, organisations or individuals trying to hunt for hidden wealth are still often served with pre-action letters by top law firms and threatened with lawsuits after they are named. For instance, Tom Burgis, who wrote the book Kleptopia about dirty money in conquering the world is being sued now by a London company owned by oligarchs from the former Soviet Union. Similarly, Swiss journalists were not able to participate in reporting the Suisse Secrets due to the country’s draconian banking secrecy laws which make this a crime.

The Ukraine crisis should be seen as a historic opportunity to clamp down on kleptocrats everywhere, not just the Russians, putting an end to the secret world of finance that enables them to hide and launder their shady money. The last time a similar opportunity arose was following the attacks in the United States on 9/11 when the authorities wanted to uncover terrorist funding networks and assets, but no significant public wealth and asset registries were introduced, and reforms ignored real estate money laundering, ultimately being ineffective. We cannot afford to repeat the same mistake.

Matti Kohonen is director of the Financial Transparency Coalition, a major global coalition of organisations working on tax crimes, money laundering and illicit financial flows. He previously worked at Christian Aid as the Principal Advisor on the Private Sector, and is a founding member of the Tax Justice Network and author of an edited volume ‘Tax Justice: putting global inequality on the agenda’.

Excerpt:

The author is Director, Financial Transparency Coalition

Sub Saharan Africa has a population of 1.14 billion, yet just 24% of the population has access to safe drinking water. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Mar 2 2022 (IPS)

Paul Farmer, the legendary global health equity warrior, recently died in his sleep from heart-related complications at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Butaro, Rwanda, the university he co-founded.

So many tributes have been written to Paul Farmer, and he deserves all the accolades bestowed on him posthumously. My tribute to Farmer is to amplify his teachings on the social determinants of health. It is crucial for health workers and health planners to take these on board to create comprehensive strategies for planning and delivering healthcare.

One of Farmer’s famous quotes aptly describes this, “You have to look at what’s happening to the patient in front of you and think about ways to address social disparities. If there’s food insecurity, then you provide food when you provide care. Or if patients drop out of treatment, you provide transportation to the clinic, or you send community health workers to the patient”.

I wholeheartedly agree. In 2019, I was at UGHE as part of an executive education for my cohort of the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity at George Washington University. After our 10-day study at the university and the surrounding Butaro communities, I became even more convinced that healthcare without social determinants of health is inefficient.

In honor of Farmer, here are four examples of social determinants of health that health care workers and governments should consider.

 

Access to clean water

Sub Saharan Africa has a population of 1.14 billion, yet just 24% of the population has access to safe drinking water, according to the United Nations. This means that a whopping 912 million do not have access to drinking water (more than 120% the population of Europe). Therefore, it is unsurprising that infectious diseases are rife in the region.

Here’s a common possible scenario that illustrates the problem: A child is treated for diarrhea at a health facility and is about to be sent home. The parents are told to ensure the baby drinks clean water. They must use clean water to wash cooking utensils.

However, the family’s only source of water is a contaminated river. Although they want to adhere to the advice of health workers, they are constrained in how limited their choices are. Two weeks later, the child has diarrhea again and is also vomiting. The family is unlucky this time. The current episode is very severe. The child dies before they get back to the health facility. The solution to this is simple – sub Saharan Africa governments must provide clean water in every community.

 

Availability of uninterrupted electricity 

A survey of 13 health facilities in 11 sub-Saharan African countries showed that 26% had no access to electricity. Furthermore, 28% of health facilities had reliable electricity among the 8 countries reporting data. Let me make the impact of this clearer.

Imagine a woman who is in labor in one of these health facilities without access to electricity. She has labored for a long time and now is unable to push out her baby. She needs a suction machine to help pull out the baby.

The suction machine is available. However, there is no electricity to power the machine. The woman is weak, her family is in tears and the midwife is helpless. Referring her to another health facility is out of the question because of long distance, poor roads and lack of transportation. The woman dies. Her unborn baby dies. These tragedies could have been avoided with electricity. To mitigate such tragedies, governments must invest in clean renewable energy such as solar power.

 

Access to clean cooking stoves 

Across communities in sub-Saharan Africa, families use woods and even cow dung for cooking. Sometimes, cooking using both materials is done indoors, where there is poor ventilation. In the process of cooking for their families, women inhale smoke.

Being caregivers, their children are mostly with them. Sadly, mother and child are exposed to smoke particles which are injurious to their health. Having these materials as their only fuel for cooking means that they are always at risk of respiratory conditions such as asthma and other chronic obstructive lung diseases.

Although they may have access to treatment of their chest conditions, as long as the source of smoke inhalation is not removed, they will keep needing healthcare. This is why use of clean cooking stoves is a way to end this inequity.

In Kenya, the Clean Cooking Alliance is leading an initiative to develop clean efficient-burning cook stoves to improve health, the environment, and save families money in East Africa.

 

Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change 

Climate Change is a defining health inequity of our time. Its impacts on health vary. For example, Climate Change leads to flooding, droughts, population displacement, forced migration and lots more. When there is drought, families walk long distances in search of water.

Women, girls and children are the most vulnerable. Some sources of water are rivers. Fetching water from these rivers expose them to different neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) including river blindness, schistosomiasis and others.

Treating these infections through mass drug administration in their communities is a short-term measure as long as there are no plans to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Therefore, ending the scourge of NTDs affecting about 1.5 billion of the world’s poorest people is not achievable without addressing Climate Change.

Farmer’s death at only 62 is untimely. However, his death at UGHE is symbolic, for he watches over a world-class institution that is training the next generation of health equity warriors. Africans believe that death is not an end. It is a transition to a new world.

We are consoled that Farmer has joined our ancestors, watching over us. We must not despair. We must keep putting the social determinants of health at the center of healthcare delivery and planning. That is what he would do, and it is the most equitable thing to do.

Dr. Ifeanyi McWilliams Nsofor is a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University. Ifeanyi is the Director Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch.

By External Source
Mar 2 2022 (IPS-Partners)

 

ECW: Germany recently announced €200 million (US$228.3 million), in new, additional funding for Education Cannot Wait (ECW). What inspired Germany to make such a game-changing investment in ECW by prioritizing multi-year funding for education in emergencies?

Minister Svenja Schulze: First of all, I want to thank Yasmine Sherif for an inspiring meeting at ECW’s office in Geneva on the International Day of Education in January. I was impressed by her commitment and that of her team, she is truly a great advocate for education.

Our new government assumed office only recently, but we have ambitious plans to address today’s challenges. I want to make 2022 the year of real change in development politics, and further increase Germany’s efforts to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. What we need is new optimism, respect and international solidarity. We need to revive multilateralism and foster new forms of cooperation with which to address the challenges of our time. Access to quality education for everyone is more than just one of our goals for 2030, it is key for achieving so many of them – from fighting hunger and poverty to combating climate change and creating more peaceful and inclusive societies.

There are 128 million children and young people out of school in countries affected by crises and conflicts. Education is a human right and can offer stability and protection in times of crisis. And we have a shared responsibility to give the most vulnerable children a chance for a better future and a dignified life – we need to empower them to develop their full potential. Yet education is often one of the first services to be suspended in times of crisis, and among the last to be resumed. Most of the time, funding only comes at the peak of a crisis, for short-term emergency support, but sustainable financing is also crucial so that the predictability and effectiveness of education responses in emergencies can be increased. Germany has sent a strong message on the International Day of Education with its announcement regarding multi-year funding for ECW, signaling that we need reliable and sustainable commitments, and we hope other partners will join us.

Credit: Nathalie Berger

ECW: Germany is now ECW’s number one donor – congratulations! What is your message to other public donors, as well as the private sector, who are considering support for ECW? How do multi-year financial commitments increase predictability and effectiveness of education responses in protracted crisis settings and help bridge the humanitarian-development nexus?

Minister Svenja Schulze: Thank you. I really want to point to ECW’s innovative approach towards education in emergencies. By bringing together public and private actors in humanitarian aid and development cooperation, ECW creates a bridge between short-term humanitarian action and longer-term development. Not only multilateral organizations such as ECW, but also recipient countries need committed and reliable funding so they are able to better plan and enhance the effectiveness of their programs. It’s like learning: it starts at birth and continues throughout life. This is how we need to think about education funding as well. It needs to continue, and we cannot afford disruptions.

In recent years, only about 2-4% of international aid has been spent on education, which is insufficient to ensure all children have the chance to receive a quality education. I want to encourage other economically strong countries, such as our G7 partners, as well as private donors to follow our example and invest in global education. Investing in education, especially for girls and children in conflict regions, is an investment in our future. In order to achieve SDG4 by 2030, we all need to step up our efforts. Only by joining forces will we be able to achieve our common goals by 2030.

And we need to coordinate better amongst ourselves: Germany has contributed intensively to the UNESCO-led process to build a Global Cooperation Mechanism for Education (GCM) and will continue to support efficient coordination of education in the future.

Credit: Nathalie Berger

ECW: How can Germany’s G7 Presidency help inspire the political leadership needed to get all children caught in emergencies and protracted crises a quality education? Why should other G7 countries follow Germany’s example to prioritize and step-up funding for education for children and adolescents impacted by multiplying risks of armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change & COVID-19?

Minister Svenja Schulze: One of our top German G7 priorities is gender equality. Our new government is committed to a feminist foreign and development policy. The devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have undone many hard-won achievements in the field of gender equality. In Uganda, schools were closed for almost two years. Many girls will not return, and the risk of teenage pregnancies and early marriages has increased. UNICEF estimates that up to 10 million additional child marriages could be concluded before the end of the decade as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To address the importance of girls’ education and bring girls affected by crisis back to school, in May 2021, Germany launched the “Support Her Education” (SHE) Initiative jointly with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, and we will further strengthen our commitment to girls’ education. Gender equality in education is a cornerstone of our feminist development policy. We specifically want to use our G7 Presidency to make a call for action to strengthen our joint efforts for the education of girls and young women.

Credit: BPA/Steffen Kugler

ECW: Germany has prioritized climate action for its G7 Presidency. As the former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation & Nuclear Safety, how can climate action and education work together to reach the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals?

Minister Svenja Schulze:  Quality Education – SDG 4 – is a key enabler for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals, because learners are change-makers for sustainable development. Education is key for transformative change. If we invest in education, people will make use of their extraordinary capacities for innovation and find the solutions for our planet. We need young advocates for a sustainable future. The global health crisis, human-induced climate change, loss of biodiversity, rising temperatures and sea levels, poverty and unsustainable economic structures are just a few of the challenges that the world is facing today. 2020 was the hottest year on record, with hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, droughts and floods worldwide, disproportionately affecting the poorest and most vulnerable people. We use more resources than the planet can generate in a year and if we don’t change our ways of production and consumption, by 2050 we will need three planets in order to survive. All this calls for transformative change, in policies, in behaviors, in the way we live our lives and in the way we interact with others.

As former German Federal Minister for the Environment, I have already advocated for global solutions to reach the targets of the Paris Agreement, for instance at the COP26 summit last year. As German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, I will continue to focus attention on the global climate crisis and will use development cooperation for effective climate action worldwide.

ECW: The UN Secretary General is convening a global summit on Transforming Education in September 2022. How can we transform together the way we deliver education for the world’s most vulnerable children and adolescents?

Minister Svenja Schulze: Transforming education means that we need to put the “Leave No One Behind” principle into practice. For the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted learning around the world. Global school closures have exacerbated education inequalities worldwide, putting those already marginalized even further behind. If we simply carry on from where we stopped, learners will not be able to catch up. In order to narrow the educational gap, we urgently need a reset in education and a transformation in the way we deliver education for the world’s most vulnerable children and adolescents.

First, we need learner-centered approaches to education. This means that we must assess learning losses over the course of the pandemic so that we can pick learners up right where we lost them and respond adequately to their needs and abilities. Let us evaluate curricula, teacher training and schools so as to respond adequately to the diversity of learners’ needs and abilities.

Second, children need a healthy and safe social environment in order to learn. We need to link education to other aspects of life such as health, nutrition and security. Only healthy and well-nourished children can learn and succeed in school. In crisis contexts, parents will only allow their children to attend schools if they are safe. Often, schools are the only places where children have access to sanitation and meals.

Third, we must focus our attention on teachers. They are at the center of high-quality, inclusive education and they have the greatest impact on students’ learning. Progress in education very much depends on the training of the teaching staff. On the other hand, teachers can positively influence transformative change. They serve as role models, which is particularly important when we talk about gender equality. And we need qualified teachers to teach future skills such as digital literacy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

And finally, we must rethink the tools we use to deliver education. Embedding digital technologies in curricula, teaching and learning processes can improve access to education and its quality. However, we need to make sure these approaches are tailored to the local contexts and people’s needs. In 2020, more than a third of the world’s population had never accessed the internet. Also, there is still a digital gender divide that we need to address, especially in Africa. Plus, both teachers and students often lack basic digital skills, whilst internet access and IT equipment are not readily available or affordable for everyone. We need to take these and many other factors into account, so that the full potential of digital approaches for high-quality and inclusive education can be unleashed.

Credit: Nathalie Berger

ECW: Education is a fundamental human right and a great equalizer. Why should we invest in education for girls caught in the world’s worst humanitarian crises? Why is investing in universal, equitable education in the best interest of Germany, the European Union and the rest of the world?

Minister Svenja Schulze: Education is more than just a human right, it is key to self-empowerment and the cornerstone of sustainable development. Education can transform the lives of individuals and families, or whole societies – and our world. It is key to breaking the cycle of poverty, to better health, a cleaner environment, and to more tolerance.

Yet, access to and the quality of education vary greatly across – and even within – countries, leaving children from poorer households and those caught up in emergencies and protracted crises especially disadvantaged.

Girls in such contexts are particularly at risk of not being able to exercise their right to education. For instance, in Afghanistan, we have to ensure that schools remain places of peace and hope, and we need to make sure that girls are able to attend school. Let’s not risk all the progress that was made in 20 years of development cooperation. Twelve times more children than before were going to school, and girls especially were getting a chance to empower themselves through education

What is more, girls are more vulnerable to being obliged to drop out of school early, not only in crisis-affected regions. As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in poverty, 20 million more secondary-school-aged girls may never return to school. Moreover, there is the risk that one in two refugee girls in secondary school may drop out. Many of them will be forced into child marriages or will have to work to help provide for their families.

Educating girls has the power to unleash unseen potential. As The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, pointed out in last month’s ECW interview, every dollar we invest in girls’ education promises a financial return of US$2.80 in our partner countries. And the investment does not just pay off financially: studies show that girls’ and women’s involvement in negotiations and decision-making positively influences climate protection and leads to more sustainable peace.

Credit: Nathalie Berger

ECW: Do you have a book recommendation for our readers that influenced you personally and professionally?

Minister Svenja Schulze: At the Munich Security Conference in February I had an inspiring talk with Kristina Lunz, Co-founder and co-Executive Director of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy. She just published her book “Die Zukunft der Außenpolitik ist feministisch” (The future of foreign policy is feminist). And that also goes for development policy. I hope her book will soon be published in English as well because, in my view, it is a book all leaders should read. Lunz shows how we can achieve a safer and more just world. She explains how important it is that societies worldwide ensure equal rights for women and girls, better representation of women at all levels and in decision-making processes, and more resources to support gender equality, which will benefit society as a whole – this goes from education for girls, and supporting women entrepreneurs to involving women in peace-making processes. Supporting women and girls will help immensely with achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals – from fighting hunger to more peaceful societies.

Credit: BPA/Steffen Kugler

About Svenja Schulze

Svenja Schulze was appointed as the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development in December 2021. She was born on 29 September 1968 in Düsseldorf. From 2018 to 2021, she was the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Prior to that, from 2010 to 2017, she headed the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1997 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2018, the new Minister, who holds a degree in German and Political Sciences, was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Between her stints in the state parliament she worked as a business consultant with a focus on the public sector.

Excerpt:

'Quality Education – SDG 4 – is a key enabler for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals.' ~ German Minister for Economic Cooperation & Development Svenja Schulze

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya talks to BBC Sport about freedom of expression and turning his back on New Zealand.

Illegal wildlife trade continues to pose a real danger to biodiversity, ecosystems and human health, as a number of emerging diseases stem from animal products, both domestic and wild. Credit: AWF wildlife archive

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Mar 2 2022 (IPS)

These are not by any means just mere figures. It is about the risk of extinction of the whole life cycle. See what is at stake.

Right now, one million wild plant and animal species are facing extinction. And three-quarters of the land-based environment, eighty-five percent of wetlands, and two-thirds of oceans have been significantly and negatively altered by human activity.

The shocking warning comes from the United Nations, which revealed these facts on the occasion of the World Wildlife Day, marked 3 March.

Humanity depends on the essential products and services that nature provides, from food and fresh water to pollution control and carbon storage. By damaging the natural world, we threaten our own well-being

Moreover, the world body reports that over 8.400 species of wild fauna and flora are “critically endangered,” while close to 30.000 more are understood to be “endangered or vulnerable.”

 

Wildlife, in peril everywhere

“Today, all around the world, wildlife is in peril. A quarter of species face the threat of extinction, in large part because we have destroyed nearly half of the ecosystems in which they live,” said the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

“Why do we care about wildlife? Beyond a moral duty to sustain the Earth, humanity depends on the essential products and services that nature provides, from food and fresh water to pollution control and carbon storage. By damaging the natural world, we threaten our own well-being.”

 

Incalculable value

The animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contribute to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and to sustainable development, the UN underlines.

“The world is dealing with unprecedented threats to wildlife. Illegal wildlife trade continues to pose a real danger to biodiversity, ecosystems and human health, as a number of emerging diseases stem from animal products, both domestic and wild.”

 

Humanity as a whole, threatened

For its part, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that continued loss of species and degradation of habitats and ecosystems threatens humanity as a whole, as people everywhere rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet all their needs, from food, medicines and health to fuel, housing, and clothing.

And Ivonne Higuero, the secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) last November said that “Biodiversity loss is an existential threat to people and the planet. The continued loss of wildlife species threatens to undermine entire ecosystems and puts into peril the well-being of all who rely on them…”

Clearly, the growing intensive and extensive human activities are among the main causes of the loss of wildlife.

On this, says the UN that “climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can increase contact and the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) like COVID-19.”

Concurrently, Marie Bout, a Global Communications Strategist with the Greenpeace International Political Unit, on 3 March 2021 reported that just 15% of the world’s forests remain intact, and only 3% of the world’s oceans are free from human pressures.

“The Planet is losing species – its biodiversity – at an alarming rate, thought to be comparable only to the 5th mass extinction 65 million years ago.”

 

What is biodiversity and why is it important?

Biodiversity is built from three intertwining threads, Greenpeace International’s Marie Bout added: ecosystem diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity. “Put simply, the more diverse these interwoven natural systems are, the more resilient they are to disturbances.”

But whenever a species disappears it’s like a thread in the web that is cut, leaving holes in the planet’s safety net and shifting the finely balanced systems, she warns.

“That’s exactly what’s happening on Australia’s Great Barrier reef, one of the world’s most diverse reef ecosystems, which has lost more than half of its coral population since 1995 due to mass coral bleaching events and is dying before our eyes.”

 

5 ways biodiversity supports life on earth

According to Marie Bout’s report:

1. Nature gives us what we need. Food, clean air, and water are the foundations of life and Earth’s biodiversity has provided civilisations with the essentials we need to survive on this planet.
2. Nature protects us. Some of the most important roles of biodiversity are defensive. Our ecosystems help to regulate our climate and insure against disease outbreaks like Covid-19. You might already know that forests are important carbon sinks and essential for fighting the climate crisis, but oceans also play an important role.
3. Nature keeps things flowing. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the two primary biological nutrients required by all life on earth that circulate through Earth’s ecosystems. Human activity has so thoroughly disrupted Earth’s natural nutrient cycles that we have degraded soils and created aquatic dead zones.
4. Nature nourishes our spirit. As many Indigenous and forest peoples know well, we are part of nature, not apart from it. There are so many spiritual and recreational benefits in nature. Even in western science, the psychological benefits of nature are widely documented.
5. Nature could solve future problems. Scientific knowledge continues to grow and evolve. The more that we can keep alive and thriving, the greater that knowledge can be. For example, nature has helped, and continues to help in important medical advances.

 

What’s destroying biodiversity?

Greenpeace’s Marie Bout went further saying that as societies (and economies) have grown, so has their ecological footprint.

“Extractive capitalism has commodified nature, and caused some to forget its true value. The pursuit of limitless economic growth is a huge source of injustice, exploiting people and the planet alike, Bout adds.

“Destructive industries are piling more pressure on our planet’s web of life than at any other point in human history. Mega corporations are burning polluting fossil fuels, are setting forests on fire to clear land to grow agricultural commodities and for single use products, and are plundering ever deeper and more remote areas of the oceans, they’re also polluting politics and holding our governments hostage in the process.”

“Rather than working on a solution, governments are propping up the problem. Bailing out pesticide giants and destructive industrial farming with public money, or pumping billions into dirty energy.”

“Endless pursuit of limitless growth, on a planet with finite resources, has a predictable end that’s already in sight. So much of the wildlife on this planet, including humanity most likely, is heading for extinction.”

 

Nearly 200 countries agree to start negotiations on a global treaty to tackle the plastic "crisis".

Since the passing of the act around seven years ago, only a minor fraction of its extensive recommendations has been implemented. Picture courtesy: Adam Cohn.

By External Source
MUMBAI, India, Mar 2 2022 (IPS)

In the second week of January 2022, Purushottam—locally known as Prashant—a street vendor in central Delhi’s Connaught Place area, died by suicide. It was later discovered that the reason for his death was his inability to pay certain debts.

Ground reports show that, since November 8, 2021, approximately 150 street vendors in Connaught Place, including Purushottam, have lost their livelihoods due to forced eviction by municipal authorities.

Over the past few years, the vast population of vendors has reported facing repeated harassment or eviction at the hands of the police, local authorities, and society. Therefore, street vendors remain marginalised and their situation grows increasingly precarious, despite the fact that they are protected by the law

It is a complex combination of pressures from market traders’ associations, insensitive court orders, bureaucracy, and non-existent planning standards that have disallowed street vending—one of the largest economies for self-employed workers—in Connaught Place.

This removal of street vendors has further been replicated in other well-established markets of Delhi such as Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, and Chandni Chowk, and is now being extended to other cities across India.

 

What the Street Vendors Act 2014 guarantees

In 2014, the central government passed the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act based on Article 21 of the Constitution of India—the right to live with dignity. As the title suggests, the act is designed to ‘protect’ and ‘regulate’ street vending in urban areas.

Till 2014, street vending was an ungoverned territory where ‘regulation’ meant the removal of vendors, who were considered illegal and unfit to be in cities. The Street Vendors Act 2014 attempted to change this mindset in the following ways:

• It acknowledged vendors as an integral part of Indian cities and granted legal recognition to them by protecting them from evictions till they were surveyed.
• The act created a governance framework that is participatory and decentralised, and primarily led by the town vending committees (TVCs) located in urban local bodies. TVCs are in charge of enumerating, identifying, and allocating vending zones in a city. Each TVC requires at least 40 percent of its members to be street vendors, with the rest of the committee including representation from local authorities, planning authorities, police, residential welfare associations, nonprofits, and market associations.
• It allowed street vendors to be included in the city planning process by letting up to 2.5 percent of the city population engage in street vending.
• It specifically mandated prevention against eviction and harassment.
• The act laid out various inclusionary measures for the legal support and promotion of street vending through vendors’ welfare, training, and capacity building.

Overall, the act is a nuanced, well-designed legislation that is a result of numerous years of contributions from social movements led by street vendors’ associations and incremental progressive court directives.

 

Why are forced evictions taking place in Delhi?

Poor implementation of the act

The evictions taking place in Delhi have set a dangerous precedent by undermining the Street Vendors Act 2014—the only progressive legislation enacted for the upliftment of working-class groups such as street vendors. Since the passing of the act around seven years ago, only a minor fraction of its extensive recommendations has been implemented.

With much reluctance, it is only now that street vendors are being surveyed and issued licenses and certificates of vending in Delhi. However, with no demarcation of the vending and non-vending zones in the city, the vendors find themselves without ‘space’ on the city streets.

Over the past few years, the vast population of vendors has reported facing repeated harassment or eviction at the hands of the police, local authorities, and society. Therefore, street vendors remain marginalised and their situation grows increasingly precarious, despite the fact that they are protected by the law.

 

Judicial apathy

In 2021, various market traders’ associations put forth petitions challenging the act. While listening to their grievances, the Delhi High Court passed unfavourable comments on the legal rights of street vendors in Delhi.

The bench further questioned the basis of the act and said that “the country will go to [the] dogs if this act is implemented in its entirety. What will happen if street vendors start sitting on your doorsteps?”

The court also raised concerns over the rising number of vendors in the city and questioned how Delhi could become like London if the planning aspect wasn’t focused on. These comments were made alongside the passing of a legal order to remove street vendors from their spaces of work.

The same bench also stated that the act is heavily biased towards the street vendors and that there are no experts in the TVCs.

It should be noted that street vendors in Delhi make up only 40 percent of the TVC by having 12 seats out of 30, whereas 10 seats are taken by local authorities, planning authorities, the police and traffic police, the revenue department, the medical officer, and the CPWD/PWD/works department of the local authority.

The committee also offers eight seats to nonprofits, resident welfare associations, community-based organisations, and market traders’ associations—independent bodies that are nominated by the state government itself. With such a comprehensive list, encompassing the economic, spatial, health, social, and administration perspectives, the TVC is full of experts and, therefore, is not tilted towards the vendors.

 

Stagnant functioning of TVCs

As per the Street Vendors Act 2014, Delhi’s Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Rule 2017, and the Street Vendor (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Scheme 2019, Delhi has 27 TVCs across the three municipal corporations of Delhi, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, and Delhi Cantonment.

In spite of many deliberations in the TVCs where vendor representatives have pushed for a comprehensive survey to identify and register street vendors, there has been a bureaucratic lethargy and rigidness in execution. For example, the TVC meetings are not held regularly and survey and certificate issuance processes are slow.

Often the chairpersons—who are usually IAS officers—don’t listen to the TVC members, thus systematically undermining the democratic nature of TVCs.

From the minutes of the TVC meetings1 it is apparent that members representing government authorities such as the health, police, and planning departments do not attend them, thus missing the opportunity to make these meetings enriching and participatory. Together, the poor functioning of the TVCs inhibits the proper implementation of the act and allows forced evictions to continue.

 

Exclusionary urban planning

The recent eviction orders are unlawful also because they are based on the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021 and older vending zones—both of which were made prior to the passing of the Street Vendors Act 2014.

Moreover, as mentioned previously, the act mandates the right of TVCs to decide on vending and non-vending zones. Unfortunately, this right has been curtailed under the present MPD 2001–21 since the plan has not been amended in line with the Street Vendors Act 2014.

Now the latest draft of the MPD 2041 has also carried forward the same legacy by excluding the 2.5 percent norm on the number of street vendors in a city, TVCs, and participatory process on the vending zone demarcation. It is not a matter of coincidence that the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s smart city plans—like the smart city plans of many other cities—have demarcated the central park and surrounding areas as ‘hawker-free zones’.

Outside the bureaucratic and city planning hurdle, societal apathy and disdain towards the vendors comes from a colonial mindset where they are viewed as smugglers and encroachers occupying public spaces, posing a threat to pedestrians’ right of way.

 

How do we move forward and course-correct?

The Street Vendors Act 2014 is the only legal framework that protects street vendors, as it focuses on enhancing their livelihoods and safeguarding them from evictions and harassments.

It uplifts the values of democracy by setting up the TVCs as decision-making authorities that conduct surveys, issue certificates of vending, and provide vendors with spatial right to the city.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last couple of years have been extremely difficult for street vendors and the informal economy.

Our research has shown that their incomes have reduced by more than 40 percent in the case of Delhi, and many vendors have reported falling into debt traps. The proactive measures taken by the government through the PM SVANidhi scheme and the Delhi government reaching out with PDS and non-PDS relief were only of temporary help.

The bigger problem for street vendors is that they were not legally permitted to work in the city even prior to the pandemic. Addressing this problem requires concrete efforts from the government at the central, state, and local levels.

The first step is to explicitly integrate urban development schemes such as the MPD, Smart Cities Mission, and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan with the objectives and mandates of the Street Vendors Act 2014. Since these schemes are integral to a city’s strategic planning and welfare, they must recognise the needs and aspirations of street vendors.

There is also a need to focus on training and capacity building of urban local bodies, TVCs, and vendors so that they can play a decisive role in executing the act, for example, to identify and demarcate vending zones.

Further, the Delhi Development Authority needs to acknowledge the absence of street vending and other informal livelihoods from the MPD. Lastly, there is a need to include natural markets, weekly markets, women’s markets, and other heritage markets in the MPD 2041.

Unless we reform urban planning both in theory and in practice, our cities will continue to see exclusionary development. The implementation of the Street Vendors Act 2014 could be seen as an opportunity to prioritise the welfare of the urban poor and enhance their livelihoods.

 

Aravind Unni is an urban rights activist and researcher associated with the National Hawker Federation.

Shalaka Chauhan is a social designer by training. Her work focuses on urban planning vis-à-vis urban poverty and inequality. 

 

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

Part of the team of young entrepreneurs of the Maleza Cosmética Natural cooperative pose for photos at their laboratory in the Villa Lugano neighborhood in southern Buenos Aires, Argentina. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 2 2022 (IPS)

“We started making shampoos and soaps in the kitchen of a friend’s house in 2017. We were five or six girls without jobs, looking for a collective solution, and today we are here,” says Letsy Villca, standing between the white walls of the spacious laboratory of Maleza Cosmética Natural, a cooperative that brings together 44 women in their early twenties in the Argentine capital.

Maleza has come a long way in a short time and currently produces 400 bottles of shampoo and 600 bars of soap a week, as well as facial creams and makeup remover, among other products. They are sold across Argentina through the cooperative’s own digital platform and other marketing channels.

The cooperative is a powerful example of the so-called popular economy, through which millions of people unable to access a formal job or a bank loan fight against the lack of opportunities, in the midst of the overwhelming economic crisis in this South American country, where more than 40 percent of the population of nearly 46 million people lives in poverty.

The National Registry of Workers in the Popular Economy (Renatep) lists 2,830,520 people who earn their living from street vending, waste recycling, construction, cleaning, or working in soup kitchens.

A glance at Renatep provides a reflection of which social groups face the greatest disadvantages in the labor market, as there is a majority of women (57 percent) and young people between 18 and 35 years of age (62 percent).

The picture is completed when the numbers are compared with those of registered private sector wage-earners, where both women and young people are in the minority – 33 and 39 percent, respectively.

As part of its social assistance program focused on supporting the popular economy, the Ministry of Social Development granted Maleza a subsidy that enabled it to purchase the glass tubes, thermometers, oil extractors, steel tables and office equipment that today furnish what was once the dismantled warehouse of an old factory.

The young women rented the 213-square-meter premises in January 2021.

By moving out of the kitchen of a house and into a spacious, well-conditioned place of their own, they were able to increase production by 500 percent due to better working conditions and the possibility of stockpiling raw materials.

It took the young women themselves three months to renovate the property, which now has a meeting room, offices, bathrooms, dressing rooms and a large laboratory.

Letsy Villca (left) and Brisa Medina show some of the products made by Maleza. The members of the cooperative work four hours a day for an income equivalent to half the minimum monthly wage, paid by an employment incentive program of the Ministry of Social Development, whose amount will change as their business begins to make a profit. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

Changing the future

“’Maleza’ or weed is a plant that is pulled out of the ground and grows back again. A plant that is rejected, but resists, because it is strong and always grows back. That’s why we chose the name,” Brisa Medina, 22, explains to IPS.

The project goes beyond production: the cooperative’s laboratory is also a space for social and community meetings to fight for rights and generate collective awareness.

Maleza’s facility is located on the southside of the city of Buenos Aires, in Villa Lugano, a neighborhood of factories and low-income housing, far from the most sought-after areas of the Argentine capital.

The members of the cooperative – mainly women but also two men – live some 25 blocks (about 2.3 kilometers) from the plant, in Villa 20, one of the city’s largest shantytowns, home to more than 30,000 people.

Most of those who live in Villa 20 are Bolivian and Paraguayan immigrants who work as textile workers for clothing manufacturers in precarious workshops set up in their own homes.

The trade is passed down from generation to generation, as are the harsh working conditions, in exchange for remuneration that is fixed unilaterally by the buyers, without the right to negotiate.

“We wanted to do something else: to have a project that was our own, that we liked, with a decent place to work, that would allow us to study and where we could use our knowledge, because many of us were classmates at a chemical technical school, but it is almost impossible to find a job,” Letsy, 22, tells IPS.

To their technical know-how, acquired through different courses after high school, the young women at Maleza added the ancestral knowledge handed down by their families, to manufacture cosmetics that are free of polluting chemicals and are produced in an environmentally friendly way.

“Since I was a child, I used to watch my mother prepare and sell medicinal herbs and natural products. That’s when I started to learn,” says Ruth Ortiz, who is 23 years old and has a four-year-old daughter.

Ruth adds that the goal was to make a product with which they could dream big in terms of sales, as many in the Villa earn some extra income by baking bread or cooking meals, but sell their goods only to neighbors.

“As soon as we felt ready, we started selling at street fairs and gradually improved our products and packaging,” she says.

The image is from a year ago, when the young cooperative members renovated the warehouse of an old factory to turn it into a cosmetics laboratory. CREDIT: Courtesy of Maleza Cosmética Natural

For many of them the cooperative was more of a necessity than a choice, she acknowledges: “It is very difficult for anyone to get a job, but it is harder for people from the Villa. When you say where you live, they don’t want to hire you.”

Ruth is the only member of the cooperative who is a mother. She started working when her daughter was an eight-month-old baby. She often takes her to the laboratory and they all take turns caring for her, since one of the fundamental premises of Maleza is that women should be able to work outside the home, generate their own income and not be caught in the trap of unpaid housework.

Wages paid by social assistance

Brisa, who used to work as a cashier in a hairdresser’s shop, was left without a job in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and all non-essential businesses in Argentina were ordered to close. “Maleza was my salvation,” she says.

After the socioeconomic catastrophe of the first year of the pandemic, 2021 was a year of economic recovery in Argentina, although marked by an alarming level of precariousness in labor: official data show that almost three million jobs were created last year, but almost all of them are unregistered employees (1,329,000) and self-employed (1,463,000).

Informal or unregistered and self-employed workers are also the hardest hit by the loss of purchasing power in an economy with an inflation rate of over 50 percent a year.

Against this backdrop, Maleza is looking for a way forward. The factory’s current income is enough to pay the rent of the laboratory plus electricity, water and internet services and other expenses, but still not enough to pay the members wages.

Many of the young women in Maleza’s cooperative were classmates at a technical-chemical school and are using what they learned, as well as the knowledge about medicinal plants passed down to them by their families. CREDIT: Courtesy of Maleza Cosmética Natural

“We are looking for ways to lower costs and increase profitability. Although sales have not yet reached the levels we believe they could, we are making progress in advertising and opening new marketing channels, so we hope to turn a profit by the middle of this year,” Julia Argnani, another member of the cooperative, tells IPS.

Today, Maleza is divided into four work areas: administration, production, marketing and communication, which includes the design and administration of social networking. It also seeks to be a tool for empowering other social cooperatives, by delivering, for example, its products in reusable bags manufactured by another group of women.

All the members of Maleza have a fixed income thanks to the fact that they are beneficiaries of Potenciar Trabajo, a plan for socio-productive inclusion and local development administered by the Ministry of Social Development.

The program gives Renatep registrants half of Argentina’s minimum wage: 16,500 pesos (approximately 150 dollars) a month, in exchange for a four-hour workday.

In this Southern Cone country, 45 percent of the population receives some form of social assistance through a vast network that includes direct economic assistance, food aid, subsidized electric and gas rates and vocational training.

In the case of Potenciar Trabajo, it is currently paid to 1,200,000 informal sector workers, according to data supplied to IPS by the Ministry of Social Development. The 150 dollars a month they are given amounts to a quarter of the income needed to keep a family of four out of poverty, according to the official statistics institute.

“Our goal is also to be proud of where we started from and to show that a women’s cooperative like ours can make quality products,” Julia explains.

A relative of one of those killed in the Olembe Stadium crush says compensation his family have received can never make up for their loss.

Activists in Myanmar taking part in the 'Sarong Revolution'. Credit: Khin Su Kyi

By May Sabe Phyu
NEW YORK, Mar 2 2022 (IPS)

This will be the second International Women’s Day since the brutal coup erupted in Myanmar – and women remain fiercely in the lead in demanding justice and peace in the streets and behind closed doors.

Last February, the coup threw Myanmar into further chaos and violence. The military used excessive force, indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, limits on civic space, nightly raids, and more.

With this complete upheaval, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are in the midst of a set of complex emergencies. The world watched in horror, but as usual, the situation quickly faded from the headlines, the public conscious, and policy priorities.

Under these circumstances, the people of Myanmar have held steadfast. With the onset of the coup, people expressed their dissent and opposition against the seizure of political power. Everyday sheroes and heroes shunned the security of their secure jobs and pensions to join the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Myanmar has seen protracted civil war for 70 years, but what makes this time difference is the scope of the conflicts. There are new armed clashes across the country with local forces standing up to defend their lives and their communities.

Meanwhile, old conflicts have also re-emerged due to the military’s crackdown of the pro-democracy movement. There is widespread violence against the civilian population and on humanitarian workers. The junta has committed atrocities., prompting the UN General Assembly to declare the army’s actions as crimes against humanity.

This year, the women activists of Myanmar will be campaigning with the themes of “Break the Bias, End Discrimination” and “Break the Bias, End Dictatorship.” It takes a lot to keep the women of Myanmar off the streets, but escalating threats are forcing many to raise their voices and awareness through different means.

In addition to some public protests, social media and digital campaigns are sharing women’s stories of discrimination. Any act of resistance under the military rule brings risk, but we will not be silenced.

May Sabe Phyu. Credit: Aye Thada Hla

Women account for more than half of those participating in the protests and aid response, and they face heightened risks for violence and more. Women peacebuilders and girls in the community face gender-based violence without warning, and we must protect them from these risks before and after they develop.

Women often need to flee without notice, but the current system does not meet their specific needs. We would like to develop a special fund for women who are forced to leave their communities abruptly.

More than the very real threats of physical violence, NGOs and civil society organizations face other challenges that block the assistance they aim to provide – many organizations cannot access their funds and are unable to formally register their organizations because the Central Bank of Myanmar is controlling the foreign money coming into the country.

Despite these hurdles in all directions and threats to themselves and their families, first responders continue to jump into the fray, scrambling to find resources necessary for their work.

Even after many countries condemned the SAC’s egregious acts against their own people, we have seen little concrete action or improvement in the situation. It feels like many in the international community are overwhelmed and therefore paralyzed, but international solidarity and pressure makes a difference at all levels and is needed more than ever.

We appeal for leaders to listen to the people on the ground and to be willing to support for women’s human rights organizations with the creativity and flexibility that is necessary to meet our specific and changing needs.

The United States has tools at their disposal to support the people of Myanmar and bring accountability to those committing atrocities – and one in particular that could move the needle:

The Burma Act is an important piece of legislation that provides urgently-needed resources to civil society, pro-democracy organizations, and humanitarian agencies. It also calls for the United States to exert pressure on the UN to take decisive actions on Burma.

The Burma Act also outlines the unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Myanmar. The Burma Act is very much in line with what the people of Myanmar have been calling for. I and my fellow activists urge Congress to pass this legislation urgently.

The Burma Act would be a vital step, but it’s one of many we need to see real and lasting progress: The United Nations, the international community, and leaders must do all in their power to support the women-led movement for peace and democracy in Myanmar.

Activists – with women at the forefront – continue to bravely flash the three-finger salute, wave the sarong flags, and tell their stories. The international community must match their bold acts to make sure their insistent dream of democracy, human rights, and peace can be realized.

May Sabe Phyu is a Kachin social worker and activist from Burma. She is the director of the Gender Equality Network and founded the Kachin Women’s Peace Network and the Kachin Peace Network to promote the rights of Kachin women.

 

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Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.