Africa

By External Source
NEW YORK, Feb 14 2022 (IPS-Partners)

Conflict, forced displacement, climate change and COVID-19 are disrupting the education of millions of crisis-affected children and adolescents around the world.

Yasmine Sherif is the Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nation’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. When she and ECW partners from around the world operationalized the Fund in 2017, an estimated 75 million conflict-affected children were out of school. Today, that number has risen to 128 million – more than the total population of Japan.

Just a few short years later, under Sherif’s leadership, ECW is already a billion-dollar global fund, with US$1.1 billion raised in its Trust Fund and another US$1 billion leveraged through in-county multi-year resilience programmes to support these crisis-affected children and youth with the quality education that they desperately need.

To address this vast, unprecedented humanitarian and developmental crisis of disrupted education, visionary leadership, drive and direction is required. Not only is education an inherent human right for every child, but it is the foundation that supports achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over the past few years, ground-breaking efforts have been made to re-position education as a top priority in humanitarian crisis contexts. The upcoming Summit on Transforming Education, as well as staunch support from the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, are testament to the central role education plays today in the multilateral UN system and beyond.

The clock is ticking. We now have just eight years to achieve the SDGs, or to at least close the gap, while simultaneously addressing the growing number of forcibly displaced people, the escalating climate crisis and building back better from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To achieve these Global Goals – and build a more peaceful, more just and more prosperous world – a global movement grounded in the multilateral system, civil society and private sector is required. That global movement is Education Cannot Wait.

“I can’t see us combating extreme poverty, managing climate change, ending world hunger or creating gender equality, if we are going to leave millions of crisis-affected children and young people, not the least the girls, illiterate and disempowered without an education. If you want to invest in all the Sustainable Development Goals and universal human rights, you’ve got to start with the foundation and the glue. That foundation and glue is education,” Sherif said.

ECW’s pioneering approach as a global fund within the UN system, which reduces bureaucracy and improves accountability by closely aligning with civil society and the private sector, is a model that reforms the way the UN works. The Fund – connecting with partners across the globe through results, innovation, passion and accountability – showcases how humanitarian relief and longer-term development interventions work together through multi-year programming to respond to emergencies rapidly and sustainably.

Since ECW’s inception, this breakthrough Fund has invested in over 5 million crisis-affected children and adolescents in 42 countries and crisis contexts with safe, inclusive, child-centred, holistic education and emergency support.

ECW was formed in 2016 at the World Humanitarian Summit under the lead of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, with the support of a wide coalition of UN, government, civil society and private foundation partners. It is through them, the world class team that Sherif has built and its strong governance boards, that ECW has been able to break through barriers and deliver quality education in the world’s most complex crises.

As head of the thriving global fund and movement, Sherif’s diverse background in human rights and her focus and determination to deliver results is making her a key champion and thought leader on the international stage for the rights of those left furthest behind. Whether she is driving the creation of the first education response plan for refugees in Uganda, calling for an end to attacks on schools in Cameroon or leading the first all-women UN delegation to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, Sherif delivers her work based on the principles of human rights, human dignity and human empowerment.

“From a young age, I wanted to serve those who were in the most difficult circumstances of injustice, conflict and marginalisation in the world. I felt very responsible for humanity. I’ve always felt a responsibility for the world and believed that I could make a difference,” she said.

 
Early Years

Sherif was born in Stockholm and grew up in Sweden. From a young age, she was exposed to different cultures. Her Swedish mother and her Egyptian father encouraged her to be a world citizen, to read, learn and appreciate different customs and religions, and to adopt an inner moral compass in life and serve others. This ingrained in her values that she still holds today: to be respectful of all religions, beliefs and faiths, and to embrace diversity in all its forms. For her, it was only natural to pursue a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law from Stockholm University in 1987.

Shortly after graduating, Sherif joined the International Committee of the Red Cross as an intern for their legal department, starting her long career in humanitarian and international development. Following this internship, Sherif spent a few years working for Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan who led the UN coordination of economic assistance to Afghanistan in 1989. In this position she was first posted in Geneva, Switzerland and then in Kabul, Afghanistan. After this, she joined her first UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia in 1992 as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) mission.

“For me, the United Nations seemed like the natural trajectory in my life,” she said. “It represented the diversity of my own upbringing, and its Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights represented the values that ran like a blue thread through my childhood and adolescence.”

In 1994, she joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and led the first repatriation of refugees back to Bosnia. In 2000, she joined the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and was responsible for the new political and practical portfolio on the Protection of Civilians. She then spent over a decade with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) where she led the establishment and growth of the UN’s largest rule of law programming for crisis contexts.

“With my human rights background and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s UN reform, everyone needed human rights expertise. While having a family and two children to bring up, I was still able to move around between different UN agencies in need of human rights, protection and rule of law expertise. This allowed me to understand their different mandates and roles and deeply enriched my experience,” she said. “This has been invaluable for Education Cannot Wait. My team and I have to be catalytic and ensure that all UN agencies and all civil society organisations are given the same attention and financial investment opportunities. Without favouritism, we collaborate to achieve greater results.”

 
Captives in Cambodia

Sherif’s time at the UN is marked by great accomplishments and has taken her to over 40 countries. During her work in Cambodia in the early 1990s, she was responsible for human rights in the Battambang province, the country’s second largest province, leading a team of UN Civil Police officers. One day, a French police officer with the UN Police reported to her that there were undisclosed detention centres in the province, detaining political opponents. In the midst of a UN election, this required investigation. Sherif requested the officer to produce further evidence and he obliged. Pictures and concrete information were brought forward and Sherif launched an investigation together with the UN Civil Police.

“It was so sensitive and dangerous. We would interview witnesses at night in our UN Land Cruisers, so as not to be bugged in our guest house,” she said. “I would sleep with cassettes of the interviews under my pillow.”

Sherif worked with her human rights superiors in the capital, Phnom Penh, and police commanders in Battambang to plan a date to enter the undisclosed detention centres. In the meantime, local authorities had become suspicious and she received death threats.

“I remember the day we entered the detention centres. In the police station, I was on my walkie talkie, awaiting news from the UN Civil Police carrying out the operation. I was walking back and forth, and I said to myself: ‘Oh my gosh, what if you’re wrong? What if they enter these locations and there are no prisoners?’”

These doubts were erased when she received the call over the walkie talkie from the mission commander. They had entered the detention centre and found 20 political detainees.

“At that moment, the sky just opened. Our instincts had been right, our efforts were paying off and, most importantly, we did what we were there to do: ensure free and fair elections.”

This investigation led to a shift in the human rights approach of the UNTAC mission, with colleagues across Cambodia uncovering more undisclosed detention centres and saving more political prisoners. At that point, Sherif was only 26 years old and she had already contributed to the direction of a UN peacekeeping operation.

 
Rule of law

Another one of Sherif’s proudest achievements is her role in building UNDP’s rule of law programming across crisis-affected countries. This work drew on her legal expertise and experience in establishing legal aid and improving the capacity of justice systems in crisis-countries. Here, she strengthened her knowledge to better operate in the UN system through global programming investments, work across the humanitarian-development nexus and bring together partners through joint programming – all of which she has brought with her to Education Cannot Wait.

In the Darfur region of Sudan, atrocities such as rape and sexual violence were commonplace, and justice was not being delivered. To combat this, Sherif helped establish legal aid centres to support victims and their families through joint programming with UN agencies, civil society, and government institutions.

“I remember there was a little 10 year-old girl and a lower-level policeman had raped her. Her mother came to one of our legal aid centres and received legal help. We took the case to the court, and through the trust we had built and the capacity we had developed, the court worked and delivered justice. The policeman was sentenced to 10 years. We had many of these cases,” Sherif said.

After her mission to Sudan, Sherif was called to UNDP headquarters and asked to build UNDP rule of law programmes in all the crisis-affected countries they supported. It grew so fast that the then UN Secretary-General decided to establish a joint office for rule of law, co-hosted by UNDP and the Peacekeeping Department. This led to the UN jointly delivering rule of law in over 60 fragile or crisis-affected countries.

Building a global movement

In her current role, Sherif continues on her human rights mission. By spearheading the global movement that follows children and youth in crisis-contexts and using concrete results to measure success, she is a key advocate for their fundamental right to quality education.

Through ECW’s investment modalities that deliver rapidly at scale while ensuring depth in quality and sustainability, millions of girls and boys in crisis situations around the world are able to resume or continue learning. In these contexts, education is invaluable and their only hope for a better future. It provides a pathway to their future and to that of their nations, while also offering protection, psycho-social services, school meals and a sense of normalcy.

To maximise ECW’s reach, Sherif works closely with public and private donors, strategic donor partners, host governments, UN agencies, and international and national civil society organisations to provide children with the quality learning opportunities they are entitled to. This includes providing whole-of-child services to address specific challenges.

Sherif credits The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, who spearheaded the establishment of Education Cannot Wait and now serves as Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group, for providing an effective and efficient platform that enables ECW to be the positively disruptive force that it is.

“Without Gordon Brown, there would be no 5 million children given a holistic, quality education in the contexts of armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters and protracted crises. He is the key person who inspired others to join him. I have great respect for him,” she said.

Although there is much work ahead, Sherif is very thankful for the small but dedicated ECW team of experts with whom she works, crediting their hard work for the Fund’s success. She is also very thankful for ECW’s many strategic and trusted donors and partners who continuously show their commitment to the Fund’s mission and share its overarching philosophy.

Sherif’s heart is committed to ECW’s mission. In spite of increasing threats to the education of millions of crisis-affected children around the world, she is confident that ECW will rise to the challenge and continue to grow and meet the needs of those left furthest behind. “We have to be optimistic and work as if success is inevitable,” she said.

Quoting Joan of Arc, she expresses her sentiments: “I am not afraid, I was born to do this.”

 

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Excerpt:

A deeper dive into the life of ECW Director Yasmine Sherif, the UN’s billion-dollar woman.

By Manuel Barange
ROME, Feb 14 2022 (IPS)

The ocean covers more than 70 percent of our planet. There is no question it is critical for our health and well-being. It provides half the earth’s oxygen supply and every organism in existence depends on it to survive.

Manuel Barange

The ocean is also vital for our nutrition and food security, cultural heritage and economic sustenance. Hundreds of millions of people rely directly or indirectly on the ocean for their lives and livelihoods. It’s not just about jobs or feeding our families. The ebb and flow of the tides is embedded in the history and traditions of thousands of coastal communities around the world.

Now this precious resource is under threat on several fronts, from unsustainable fishing and pollution to climate change and competing uses. The ecological sustainability of our ocean resources, and the future of our marine life and those who depend on it, have never been more tenuous.

This year’s One Ocean Summit celebrates the role of the ocean in our everyday lives and is an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to secure its conservation and sustainable use.

The clock is ticking.

Global marine capture fisheries production reached 80.4 million tonnes in 2019. The risk of overfishing to meet escalating demand is real. According to FAO’s assessment in its 2020 report, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, the proportion of fish stocks produced within biologically sustainable levels has fallen from 90 percent in 1974 to 65.8 percent in 2017.

Urgent action is needed to ensure all marine and ocean spaces are placed under effective management and fish stocks are restored to sustainable levels in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Mariculture, or marine aquaculture, grew to an eye-watering 32 million tonnes in 2019, but this is far below its scientifically estimated ecological limits. Policy reform, technological advancement and value chain development would enable significant expansion to help feed the world’s growing population and reduce pressure on land-based food systems.

Despite the many challenges, change is possible. Together we can create the environment for ‘blue transformation’, a new approach to the sustainable growth and management of aquatic resources that will not only feed the world’s growing population, but also ensure a sustainable future for the ocean and those who depend on it.

Aquatic foods from ocean and freshwater sources have a much lower environmental footprint than land-based animal protein and their diversity – over 2,500 species are captured and over 600 cultured – makes the sector more adaptable to climate change.

Three billion people already obtain vital nutrients and 20 percent of their animal protein from aquatic foods. With the right kind of sustainable development our marine resources can help to feed the world’s growing population which is expected to rise to 10 billion by 2050.

Blue transformation focuses on three objectives. First, it aims to promote the sustainable expansion of aquaculture to achieve a 40 percent increase in production by 2030, especially in food deficit regions, backed by appropriate policy frameworks, species and strain diversification, effective biosecurity and disease controls, training and support.

Second, fisheries management must be transformed where sustainability is failing or is unknown. While one in three fisheries is overexploited, effective fisheries management has rebuilt target species . In the US, for example, the sustainability index has increased from 38.2 percent at the turn of the century to 79.1 percent in 2021. Elsewhere populations of whales and other marine mammals are recovering from decades of exploitation, and the accidental catch of turtles and birds has been greatly reduced by changes in fishing practices.

Third, fish value chains need to be upgraded and developed so we reduce food loss and waste, add value through product development, and employ digital solutions to facilitate market access, especially for small producers. We also need to educate consumers about the importance of fish products for a healthy diet.

We cannot do it alone. Conservation and sustainable development of the ocean requires complex and negotiated action backed by scientific evidence and international collaboration. FAO is already at the forefront of change as the partner of choice to broker solutions across regions, sectors and partners.

Thankfully we are not too late. With an innovative approach, greater political will and strong partnerships and investment, we can work effectively to confront the impacts of climate change, overfishing and unsustainable practices and ensure the sustainable management of our ocean resources.

The future sustainability of our ocean depends on what we do today. We owe it to our children and to ourselves.

The One Ocean Summit took place in Brest in Brittany in the northwest of France on 9-11 February 2022.

Manuel Barange, is Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

 

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Climate uncertainty could mean an increase in conflicts as tensions arise over scarce resources, like water. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Feb 14 2022 (IPS)

When years ago warnings were sounded that future wars would be fought not over oil but water, the predictions were dismissed as alarmist.

Yet, as climate uncertainty upends water availability in Africa, researchers say conflicts arise among local communities and across borders over access to scarce water resources.

In a commentary released in January last month, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) called for immediate action from world leaders to provide resources and funds to tackle what the researchers say is the “worst drought in a generation in East Africa.”

The climate crisis has led to widespread lack of pastures, decimating livestock, and creating a humanitarian crisis.

East Africa has seen a cyclical climate crisis where a mix of floods and droughts has resulted in increasing calls for action from more affluent countries.

“In 2011, the last severe drought to affect this region killed hundreds of thousands, but since then and despite promises by the international community, little has changed,” GWP says.

“There is a need to narrow the investment gap among rich countries, advocacy among African countries, and civic groups. African countries are already providing more funding to their water sectors than donor countries,” Alex Simalabwi, Global Water Partnership’s Africa Coordinator, told IPS.

And the statistics are pretty grim: one in every three people across Africa face water scarcity daily, and nearly 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to find access to drinking water, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

As UN Water starkly put it, “on a global scale, half of the people who drink water from unsafe sources live in Africa.”

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that US$100 billion needs to be invested annually towards climate adaptation in Africa by 2050, but that figure is far from being reached.

In a February 2 media brief, UNICEF said in Ethiopia alone, 6.8 million people would need urgent by mid-March, while another 4.4 million face acute water shortages, citing three consecutive droughts.

“The impact of the drought is devastating,” said Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF Ethiopia Representative, adding that this has led to “major displacement out of affected areas.”

Researchers say these displacements have led to conflicts among communities over water.

“The lack of clean water is further exacerbating the situation for children and women. If children are forced to drink contaminated water, it puts them at risk to various diseases, including diarrhoea which is a major cause of deaths among children under five,” Rotigliano said.

Experts say increased collective action by African countries is required if richer countries act with the urgency demanded by the continent’s climate crisis.

“Africa countries should organise themselves to speak in one voice as a block. For Eastern Africa, a good example is the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) which has set up a common approach to addressing issues especially related to climate change,” said Levis Kavagi, the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Africa Regional Coordinator for Ecosystems and Biodiversity.

“Issues presented together as a group attract greater traction,” Kavagi told IPS by email.

Last year, research commissioned by the humanitarian agency CARE International exposed the broken promises of what it said was a “decade-old pledge” of climate financing for developing countries.

“Water is often seen from the end-user point of view and its challenges, but the issues related to where the water comes from are often not given the limelight,” Kavagi said.

Amid those concerns, lobbyists are pushing for more action.

“There is no framework to hold rich countries accountable,” Simalabwi told IPS.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in February 2020, “between now and 2050, Africa’s population is set to double. This alone brings with it great opportunities but also new realities. If we are not able to find ways to support these countries to grow sustainably, all of our work for decades in the UK and globally will be in vain.”

Other experts, however, note that the delays by rich countries to act, go deeper.

“Rich countries may be reluctant to recognise, in financial terms, that Africa is disproportionately affected by anthropogenic climate change, including through water-related impacts because they could expose themselves to liabilities for billions of dollars in loss and damage payments,” said Nathan Mason, a research associate at the UK’s Overseas Development Institute.

“International NGOs, research and advocacy groups, and enlightened donors need to listen carefully to African counterparts, support their efforts and put them in the driving seat of funded programmes,” Mason told IPS by email.

For now, researchers remain concerned that not just East Africa but countries across the continent facing hunger and drought will have to wait a little bit longer for largess from rich countries as the climate-induced humanitarian crisis continues unchecked.

 

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A household participating in BRAC’s Graduation approach in Rangpur, Bangladesh. Credit: BRAC (2021)

By Imran Matin and Stephanie Levy
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 14 2022 (IPS)

With consistent, robust economic growth, countries across Asia have made monumental strides in eradicating extreme poverty over the past 30 years. In Bangladesh, for example, the population living in extreme poverty dropped from 43% in 1991 to 10.5% in 2019. Similarly in Cambodia, poverty incidence fell from 53% in 2004 to below 10% by 2016.

In these countries, economic growth has enabled governments to develop new social protection programs, expand existing ones, and make substantial investments in human capital, leading to a more equitable distribution of wealth and enabling inclusive economic growth.

However, extreme poverty persists, and progress on poverty eradication has been fragile. Many people remain highly vulnerable to income shocks and threats to their livelihood, facing the risk of falling back into poverty. Social protection systems might not efficiently address the needs of the people who are poorest because of policy designs that lead to insufficient provision of safety nets, or because they fail to identify or reach the populations they aim to serve.

New threats to livelihoods from climate change and global pandemics are adding to these policy challenges. Asian policymakers must actively address the need for effective social safety nets not only to protect their economically vulnerable populations, but also to safeguard their countries’ future economic prospects and growth.

To achieve durable gains in poverty eradication, policies need to be ambitious and creative, and efforts need to be sustained, supported by strong political will. Policymakers must adopt a long-term perspective to resilience building, and embed flexibility to respond to emergencies and new threats to livelihoods. And policies must be informed by empirical evidence on what works in the local context.

We need an in-depth understanding of what works for sustained eradication of extreme poverty in Asia, focusing on interventions that governments can implement at scale. We can gain useful insights on such interventions by bringing two streams of knowledge together: evidence from formal research and lessons from practical experiences. Social and economic inclusion interventions like BRAC’s Graduation approach, founded 20 years ago, have developed and evolved by bringing together both forms of knowledge on extreme poverty alleviation, reaching more than 2.1 million households in Bangladesh alone. This approach has combined findings from academic research with reasoned intuition and practice-based knowledge to evolve, adapt, and deliver sustained impact.

Adapted to the local context, Graduation is a multifaceted set of interventions designed to address the complex nature of extreme poverty. The approach generally includes meeting participants’ basic needs, providing training and assets for income generation, financial literacy training and savings support, and social empowerment through community engagement and life skills training—all facilitated through in-person coaching.

Since 2002, BRAC has expanded the Graduation approach globally to reach participants in 16 countries. Source: BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

Over the past two decades, researchers have gained four key insights from this approach’s success, which policymakers can apply to strengthen efforts to alleviate extreme poverty:

First, some people in extreme poverty need a “big push” to break out of the poverty trap and stay out of this trap long after the program stops. Often, a combination of factors and constraints prevents people from escaping extreme poverty and durably improving their livelihood, a growing body of research suggests. A “big push”, or transfer of both assets and skills large enough for people to cross such thresholds, is needed to unlock the trap and stay out of poverty, finds a 2020 LSE-BIGD study. The Graduation approach provides such a push. And 93% of program participants in Bangladesh see a continued increase in income, savings, and consumption and an improvement in self-esteem five years after completing the program. A 10-year study of Bandhan’s Graduation program participants in West Bengal also found sustained improvements in consumption, food security, income, and health outcomes.

Asian countries seeking durable program impact on extreme poverty should integrate these findings into their social protection strategies, ensuring that asset transfers are large enough and complemented with enough additional training and services to break the poverty trap and enable people to stay out of it for the long term.

A participant in BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Rangpur, Bangladesh. Credit: (BRAC 2021)

Second, “multifaceted” interventions like the Graduation approach can address the multidimensional nature of extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is not only characterized by a lack of income but also often associated with poor health, social isolation and exclusion, a lack of education and professional skills, and low subjective wellbeing. Using learnings from the Graduation approach, governments and their partners can simultaneously tackle these other dimensions of poverty and lead to behavioral changes such as improved health, sanitation, and nutritional habits. Doing so will generate synergy across different program components and amplify their impacts on livelihood.

While cash transfers can play a crucial role in meeting basic needs, as we have seen during COVID-19, evidence suggests that a more holistic approach—combining cash and other services, as the Graduation approach does—can also produce longer-lasting impacts on economic and social inclusion. A meta-analysis by CGAP and IPA, comparing 48 cash, livelihoods, and Graduation programs, found that programs that provided only cash or only livelihoods training combined with assets showed declining effects two years after the intervention. Meanwhile, Graduation interventions which combined coaching, financial and skills training, productive assets, and support for basic needs showed continued improvements in productivity and assets two years after completion.

Third, anti-poverty programs and policies need adaptive resilience-building components based on practical knowledge to prevent people from falling back into poverty. By incorporating a resilience component into programs aimed at reducing extreme poverty, Asian countries can prevent possible undoing of progress that can result from sudden economic, climate, or health shocks.

At the outbreak of the pandemic, BRAC rapidly adapted the Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) program, connecting program participants to emergency cash transfers, health information, and government services while adjusting to social distancing and health procedures, ultimately enabling 98% of them to avoid falling back into poverty. Insights from local staff on the livelihood, nutrition, and health challenges participants faced due to the pandemic enabled the program to respond appropriately to their constantly changing circumstances.

BRAC adapted the coaching component of its Graduation approach in response to COVID-19 to promote masking, social distancing, and other health procedures. Credit: (BRAC 2021)

The Graduation approach also builds resilience by enabling people to move away from casual labor to diversified sources of income, in many cases from self-employment or salaried work. As a result, even after 13 years, participants who escaped the poverty trap through Graduation had more productive jobs and were less likely to lose them during the pandemic, according to a 2021 study by BIGD and LSE.

Fourth, Graduation interventions have the potential to stimulate the participant’s local economy, and if, scaled up, result in wider economic growth impacts. In Cambodia, LSE and UNDP conducted two studies on the potential impacts of the Graduation approach when integrated into the National Social Protection Strategy. A general equilibrium approach was developed to identify and trace the direct and indirect impacts on the local economy, on non-participants, and on wider economic growth. The study indicates that, through their effects on productivity, markets, and trade, Graduation interventions can simultaneously stimulate supply and demand, creating local synergies and multiplier effects that foster inclusive growth processes.

At the same level of public spending, the LSE-UNDP studies identify multiple benefits of Graduation packages relative to conventional safety net programs. Through human and physical capital accumulation, they allow participants to cover their basic needs and simultaneously engage in productive activities, generate income from self-employment, and participate in their local economy. Findings also show that both poverty and economic growth impacts are likely to last beyond the program implementation period, as the catalytic effects of productive assets and professional skills persist after programs have ended; these effects are over and above the impact of a cash-only transfer.

When developing poverty eradication interventions, governments in Asia can achieve greater long-term program impacts if they build on lessons learned from intensive practice and rigorous research. As Asian countries seek to recover from COVID-19 and build long-term resilience to future shocks, they should consider holistic interventions like the Graduation approach as investments with significant and durable returns for people who are economically vulnerable, enabling them to engage in productive activities.

Conventional safety nets will be always necessary. But, simultaneously, approaches like Graduation should be considered valuable tools to complement them and deliver sustainable impact at scale for people in extreme poverty.

Dr. Imran Matin is the Executive Director of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), a research and post graduate education institute at BRAC University focusing on generating high quality evidence and insights based on field research on governance and development challenges and interventions.

Stephanie Levy is a Guest Lecturer at the London School of Economics with over 15 years of experience in development and poverty reduction policies in Africa and South-East Asia and a specific focus on the local economic impact of social protection, including cash transfers and graduation packages.

 

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Women ragpickers in Delhi scavenging through a pile of refuse for recyclable material. Credit: Dharmendra Yadav/IPS

By Baher Kamal
Feb 14 2022 (IPS)

Inequality is deadly… It contributes to the deaths of at least 21,300 people each day—or one person every four seconds. This is a “highly conservative estimate” for deaths resulting from hunger, lack of access to healthcare and climate breakdown in poor countries…

This is what a confederation of 21 member organisations and affiliates, representing a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice has reported.

This confederation, Oxfam International, also cites inequality resulting from gender-based violence faced by women and rooted in “patriarchy and sexist economic systems.”

 

Climate crisis fuels inequality

“The climate crisis affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us equally. The richest 1% of people in the world, about 63 million people, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity”

In its report, Oxfam International outlines the fact that the climate crisis is one of the most harmful drivers of inequality.

“The climate crisis affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us equally. The richest 1% of people in the world, about 63 million people, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity.”

Yet, the impact of droughts, floods, wildfires and storms hits poor and marginalised communities first and worst, causing unpredictable growing seasons, crop failures, and sharp increases in food prices.

“People in low-and lower-middle-income countries are around five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden extreme weather disasters.”

Destructive weather, rising seas, unprecedented fires and historic famines. “Climate change is happening now. It is one of the most harmful drivers of worsening hunger, migration, poverty and inequality all over the world.”

“In recent years, already with 1°C of global heating, there have been deadly cyclones in Asia and Central America, huge locust swarms across Africa.”

Also here, it adds that across societies, the impacts of climate change affect women and men differently. Women and girls must walk further to collect water and fuel and are often the last to eat. During and after extreme weather events, they are at increased risk of violence and exploitation.

 

Millions fleeing

Over the past 10 years, more people around the world have been forced from their homes by extreme weather-related disasters than for any other single reason.

The number of climate-related disasters has tripled in 30 years, with currently one extreme weather event recorded per week.

Since 2000, the UN estimates that 1.23 million people have died and 4.2 billion have been affected by droughts, floods and wildfires, the report reminds.

Last year, Oxfam reports, the world saw a record 50 billion US dollars worth of damages from extreme weather disasters exacerbated by climate change, pushing nearly 16 million people in 15 countries to crisis levels of hunger.

“Despite this, governments have delayed action to tackle the climate crisis to focus, instead, on the Covid-19 pandemic.”

 

Inequality is devastating

Inequality is not an abstract issue, affirms Oxfam International. “It has devastating, real-world consequences. It has made the Covid-19 pandemic deadlier, more prolonged and more damaging. It is rigged into our economic systems and is tearing our societies apart.”

 

The biggest surge in billionaire wealth ever

The world’s small elite of 2,755 billionaires has seen its fortunes grow more during Covid-19 than they have in the whole of the last fourteen years combined, says Oxfam in its report about inequality.

“This is the biggest annual increase since records began. It is taking place on every continent.”

It is enabled by skyrocketing stock market prices, a boom in unregulated entities, a surge in monopoly power and privatisation, alongside the erosion of individual corporate tax rates and workers’ rights and wages.

“Since the pandemic began, a new billionaire has been created every 26 hours.”

 

Then COVID

Here’s a hard truth that the Covid-19 pandemic brought home to us, the international confederation goes on.

“Over the past two years, people have died when they contracted an infectious disease because they did not get vaccines in time. They have died of other illnesses because they could not afford private care. They have died of hunger because they could not afford to buy food…”

… “And while they died, the richest people in the world got richer than ever and some of the largest companies made unprecedented profits.”

“Inequality disproportionately affects the vast majority of people living in poverty, women and girls, and racialized and marginalised groups. It is now prolonging the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a sharp increase in poverty around the world.”

 

Vaccine apartheid

According to the report, more than 80% of the vaccines have gone to G20 countries, while less than 1% have reached low-income countries.

This ”vaccine apartheid” is taking lives, and it is supercharging inequalities worldwide. In some countries, the poorest people are nearly four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than the richest, according to the report.

 

Direct harm to all

“Inequality is deadly for the future of our world. The extreme concentration of money, power, and influence of a few at the very top has pernicious effects on the rest of us. We all suffer from a heating planet when rich countries fail to address the effects of their responsibility for an estimated 92% of all excess historic emissions.”

“We all lose out when the world’s wealthiest 1% use double the carbon emissions of the bottom 50%, or when a few powerful corporations are able to monopolise production over life-saving vaccines and treatments in a global pandemic.”

 

80% of the poorest, in rural areas

According to a World Bank’s report, four out of five people below the international poverty line still live in rural areas, and half of the poor are children. Women also represent a majority of the poor in most regions and among some age groups.

Of the global poor aged 15 and older, about 70% have no schooling or only some basic education.

And more than 40% of the global poor live in economies affected by conflict and violence, and, in some economies, most of the poor are concentrated in specific subnational areas. About 132 million of the global poor live in areas with high flood risk.

Moreover, says the World Bank, many of the poor face exposure to multiple risks. In a number of countries, a large share of the poor live in areas that are affected by conflict and that face high exposure to floods.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, it adds, many of the new poor are likely to live in congested urban settings and to work in the sectors most affected by lockdowns and mobility restrictions; many are engaged in informal services and not reached by existing social safety nets.

Conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 are having a clear impact on the global poor, in many cases having joint incidence upon those living in poverty, the World Bank’s report concludes.

 

A health worker administers a COVID-19 vaccine to a woman, in Malawi. The COVID-19 vaccination rate in Africa needs to increase six-fold for the continent to meet the 70 per cent target set for the middle of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on 3 February 2022. Credit: UNICEF/Thoko Chikondi

By Gordon Brown
LONDON, Feb 14 2022 (IPS)

I am not sure the world will ever forgive us for worsening vaccine inequality and treatment of Africa as bad as under colonial rule.

People have become complacent about COVID-19. Our global (health) funds are fast running out of money. Vaccine inequity is getting worse.

We must alert the conscience of the world to act given the high possibility of more lethal variants coming back to haunt even those who are fully vaccinated. We may feel safe, but we are not safe, as long as the disease can spread and mutate.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) ―the WHO’s initiative to coordinate the fastest health response out of the crisis― currently has a $16 billion funding hole, with only “weeks” left to resolve this.

Unless the money comes in urgently, we will not be able to fund the next stages of vaccines, treatments, testing, and even the medical oxygen and PPE needed by nurses and doctors (around the world).

Governments should take extraordinary measures, as it did for the 2008 global financial crash, and share the burden of funding according to their ability to pay, as they do now in funding UN peacekeeping or the World Bank or the IMF, rather than “unfair” and failing voluntary contributions. How the world had eradicated smallpox was a successful example.

It was short-sighted to take such a narrow view of national self-interest for rich countries to vaccinate only their own citizens in prolonging a mutating crisis that could cost them $5 trillion in loss of trade, economic activities, companies going bust, and jobs lost.

This will bite back even those countries that have a big vaccination program. Vaccination rates in rich countries currently stand at 75 percent against 11 percent across Africa.

We need a vaccine patent waiver and technology transfer. What’s happened in Africa is as bad as what happened under colonial rule. Africa has been deprived of vaccines but also of the ability to manufacture its own vaccines because it does not have the patents to do so.

The EU is unconscionable for taking vaccines made in South Africa late last year, at a time that Europe was 60 percent vaccinated while Africa stood at less than 3 percent. The World Trade Organization should have agreed a long time ago for the patent waiver.

The most urgent and immediate priority in tackling COVID-19 and getting more vaccines to people, especially in developing countries, was money. People are dying now ―right now― because we can’t get enough vaccines and equipment and therapeutics to them quickly enough. We have to solve the problem now, and that requires proper funding now.

Even now more than 70 percent of vaccines are still coming to the G20 countries which means that the other 175 countries are simply losing out. We’re in this terrible position where 60 million vaccines have already had to be destroyed in the US, Canada, the UK and the European Union. And 250 million more may have to be destroyed by Easter as being past their used-by date.

The COVID-19 response was lacking funding, coordination and leadership. An enlightened view of self-interest would tell rich country leaders that all people must have the chance to be vaccinated to eradicate a disease that is likely to mutate and come back to hit you, he said.

Social grassroots movements should come together around this big picture of saving lives. We have to expose the anti-vaxx lies. We have to realize that social media matters. Most of all we have to give people a bridgehead of hope and a sense of that we can change things.

If you can work for change and hope that the world can be a better place, you can persuade people to join you. I would stress organization and education and agitation, but I would stress the importance of persuading people that the world can be a better place through engendering hope in a better future.

Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister of UK, was appointed in 2021 as World Health Organization (WHO) Ambassador for Global Health Financing and is a member of the Club de Madrid forum of democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers. Last week he was guesting on Oxfam’s EQUALS podcast.

 

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It makes good economic sense for countries to invest in and fully utilise their total populations. Credit: Bigstock

By External Source
Feb 11 2022 (IPS)

Women remain under-represented in science careers and research all over the world. There are several reasons for this, including stereotypes about what kind of work women “can” or “should” do; patriarchal attitudes; and a lack of support for women pursuing science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers.

This isn’t just an abstract concern. Gender equality matters for many sound reasons. For one, it’s enshrined in international human rights law and it is one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It also makes good economic sense for countries to invest in and fully utilise their total populations. Inclusive scientific leadership in which women are equally represented is best suited to the needs of modern society. Plus, valuing diversity and multiple perspectives sparks creativity and innovation. Both are important hallmarks of scientific endeavour.

We found a big divide between actions and words. For instance, 68% of international disciplinary organisations said they were committed to diversity and inclusivity. But only 32% said they were taking action by, for instance, developing policies that would drive diversity and inclusion. Only 16% of these organisations reported that they had a budget for activities related to gender equality

So, how are the world’s science academies and international disciplinary associations doing when it comes to getting – and keeping – women on board as members and leaders. That’s what we set out to examine in our new study. We focused on science academies and disciplinary unions because together, these organisations represent a large proportion of global scientific endeavour. They have the potential to be powerful change-makers and leaders.

The study followed a 2015 survey on gender inclusion in academies. This allowed us to pinpoint whether and how academies had made any progress in certain areas. There were some encouraging findings: for example, women’s membership of academies increased from 13% to 17% and women’s leadership on governing bodies from 21% to 29%. Young academies, which generally represent early career scientists, fared far better than their senior counterparts, which is a promising sign for the future.

But there’s still plenty for young academies to do. Most still have less than a quarter women’s representation, though there was one bright spot: South Africa’s Young Academy of Science is ranked highest in the world when it comes to female membership; 57% of its members are women.

The report sets out several recommendations for furthering gender representation and equality globally. These include developing and maintaining a central repository of gender-related policies and actions as well as working intensively with disciplinary associations where improvement is needed in women’s representation.

 

Key findings

The study was coordinated by GenderInSITE (Gender in Science, Innovation, Technology and Engineering), an initiative aimed at promoting the role of women in these disciplines and demonstrating how the application of a “gender lens” leads to more effective, equitable and sustainable development. It was a collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership and the International Science Council.

The academies and disciplinary organisations surveyed are all members of the InterAcademy Partnership or the International Science Council. In total, they represent more than 250 unique organisations. That means the results we collected provide important baseline information for taking transformative action at a global level.

Here are some of the key findings:

• Young academies are setting the pace when it comes to gender equality. On average, women’s share of their membership is 42%; ten young academies are ranked ahead of the highest ranked senior academy in terms of percentage of women members.
• The highest ranked senior academy is the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. It increased its share from 27% in 2015 to 33% in 2020.
• There are big disciplinary differences in women’s representation. This perpetuates familiar patterns evident also in women’s representation in research fields. For instance, representation was relatively higher in biological sciences (28%) and social sciences, humanities and arts (27%). It was lowest in the mathematical sciences (8%).
• The Tanzania Academy of Sciences was among those academies that grew their representation of female scientists the most, increasing from 4% in 2015 to 12% in 2020. The Ethiopian Academy of Sciences now has the lowest representation of women members on the continent, at 9%.

We also found a big divide between actions and words. For instance, 68% of international disciplinary organisations said they were committed to diversity and inclusivity. But only 32% said they were taking action by, for instance, developing policies that would drive diversity and inclusion. Only 16% of these organisations reported that they had a budget for activities related to gender equality.

One of our most disappointing findings was that only six science academies of the 72 that participated last time discussed the 2015 survey report and its recommendations at a strategic planning session. This has prompted us to recommend that the IAP and ISC establish centralised monitoring and evaluation frameworks that require regular reporting of gender statistics by their member organisations.

 

Recommendations

The new survey contains a number of recommendations, which GenderInSITE, the InterAcademy Partnership and the International Science Council are committed to taking forward.

One of our next steps is to extend the survey to other global science organisations. This will contribute to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of gender equality in global science. The report also recommends developing and maintaining a central repository of gender-related policies and actions as a way of encouraging those organisations committed to gender transformation to learn from best practice examples.

GenderInSITE, the InterAcademy Partnership and the International Science Council have all committed to using their regional presences to gain insights and advance the gender equality agenda. This is especially so in countries or regions that are lagging. The same sort of work will be undertaken in disciplines that have been found wanting in terms of women’s representation.

Our three organisations will also establish centralised monitoring and evaluation frameworks that require regular reporting of relevant gender statistics by our member organisations. This reporting will happen at a high strategic level. In this way, we hope that gender transformation is prioritised.

It’s also important to note that we’re not merely focusing on numbers, since these are only part of the picture. Science academies and disciplinary organisations are also being encouraged to focus on making diversity and inclusion central to their institutional cultures.

Roseanne Denise Diab, Director: GenderInSITE, Unesco and Peter McGrath, Researcher, Biosciences, The InterAcademy Partnership

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

A woman is vaccinated against COVID-19 in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. February 2022. Credit: UNICEF/Jospin Benekire

By Svenja Blanke, Felix Kolbitz and Oliver Dickson
BUENOS AIRES/ DHAKA/JOHANNESBURG, Feb 11 2022 (IPS)

In 2021, Global South countries came out on the short end of vaccine supply deals. In 2022, they are building capacity to produce vaccines themselves.

Latin America’s vaccination rate is among the highest in the world. Chile leads the way with 86 per cent of the population completely vaccinated, followed by Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador. Some countries even achieve rates of over 90 per cent for those having received the first jab.

The region, which had been struggling with very high infection and death rates, put on a remarkable vaccination marathon in 2021. All existing vaccines from the West, China, and Russia were being used to meet the huge demand.

Since the turn of the year, however, Omicron has caused incidences to spike again – in Argentina alone from a 7-day incidence of 57 in mid-December to an incidence of 1720 exactly one month later. Luckily, the relatively high vaccination rates can prevent the worst.

The geopolitically most relevant issue in this third pandemic year, however, is vaccine production in countries of the Global South itself. Some countries are setting out to produce their own vaccines. The Caribbean island nation of Cuba – as has often been the case – is taking a special path. It has already developed various vaccines, rolled them out, and – with over 90 per cent – now has the highest vaccination rate in all of Latin America. But what is happening in the region beyond Cuba’s special path?

In 2021, the three largest countries in Latin America – Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina – started to produce components of the production process of existing vaccines. Argentina launched its vaccination campaign on 29 December 2020 with Sputnik, making it the first Latin American country to approve the Russian vaccine.

Meanwhile, 20 million doses have been used in the country. And parts of the European or Russian vaccine production have been relocated to Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil – or rather, it was the countries’ proactive approach which brought production to the region through agreements with the market-leading laboratories.

For example, the Richmond laboratory near Buenos Aires – a traditional Argentine pharmaceutical laboratory and company – handles the filtration of the active ingredient from Russia and subsequently the filling, finishing, and packaging of the Sputnik vaccines through a transfer technology agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

By January 2022, 6.5 million doses had already been produced. This strategy made it possible to cover local demand more quickly.

At the same time, a new production plant of the company is being built in Greater Buenos Aires, with the aim of covering the whole manufacturing process from active ingredient to packaging, with up to 400 million vaccine doses per year – also for export.

AstraZeneca’s production by the mAbxience laboratories from Argentina and Liomont from Mexico was only able to start with a delay in 2021, as US national security interests had initially prevented the export of the raw active ingredient from the US. In the meantime, 70 million doses have been jointly produced and distributed in the region. Many more are to follow. But this is only part of Argentina’s global health strategy.

Argentine laboratories and academic research institutes, supported by the state, are already developing their own Covid-19 vaccines. The four most promising projects are called ARGENVAC, ARVAC, COROVAXG.3 and ‘Spinetta’. They come from different Argentinean public-private partnerships and are either in the preclinical or clinical phase with the aim of bringing these vaccines to market in 2023.

The Argentine government under President Alberto Fernández emphasizes the importance of ‘sovereignty’ and independence from existing market leaders. And of course, local production and regional distribution is necessary to reduce global inequality in distribution and access.

Moreover, Argentina has so far donated 1.7 million vaccines within the region. While a patent waiver or the lacklustre COVAX initiative are being debated, local vaccine development in the countries of the Global South, which have or are building a corresponding infrastructure, provides for a much more promising geopolitics of health.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s vaccination campaign has been marked by ups and downs. Following an agreement with India and the Serum Institute, the vaccination campaign began as early as the end of January 2021, with mass vaccinations nationwide starting in February. A digital registration system that worked well from the beginning contributed significantly to the success, but made it difficult to register for those without an internet connection.

With India’s export ban in April 2021, the vaccination campaign in Bangladesh had suddenly collapsed. With emergency approvals in the same month, vaccination only resumed with Sputnik V from Russia and Sinopharm from China.

After the approval, the possibility of producing both vaccines under licence in Bangladesh was also discussed for the first time. Sinopharm then signed an agreement with the Bangladeshi company Incepta in August 2021 to fill and distribute 5 million doses per month in Bangladesh.

However, the vaccine will not be produced in Bangladesh itself. According to its own estimations, Incepta could fill up to 800 million doses per year.

In parallel, Bangladesh is currently developing its own vaccine: Bangavax. The Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) approved Globe Biotech Limited’s Covid-19 single vaccine Bangavax for human trials in November 2021.

These human trials are currently underway and are expected to continue for at least six months.

However, because of bureaucracy and scientific complications, the approval process has been delayed for several months. As these procedures are too lengthy, further mutations in the virus could mean that Bangavax is already obsolete by the time approval is granted.

A successful result, however, could help reduce vaccine shortages in Bangladesh and the Global South. The Bangladeshi vaccination campaign, which has so far been quite successful but dependent on vaccine supplies, would then run more smoothly.

So far, vaccination scepticism has only been observed towards Chinese vaccines, as they have the reputation of being less effective or losing their effectiveness more quickly. Overall, the willingness to get vaccinated is very high. The government has set ambitious targets and plans to have the majority of the population vaccinated by March.

Since the end of January 2022, the number of infections has been rising rapidly because of the Omicron variant, hitting a country where, according to the World Health Organisation, only about 35 per cent of the nearly 170 million inhabitants are vaccinated. At the same time, the will to wear masks, keep distance, and reduce contacts has decreased considerably.

Reports from Europe that Omicron only leads to mild symptoms mean that a not insignificant part of the population no longer takes the danger seriously. In response, the government has started a booster campaign. By the end of January 2022, just under one million people had been boosted.

Bangladesh has a large generic pharmaceutical industry and the technical know-how to produce vaccines on its own, including mRNA vaccines, through Beximco Pharma. So far, however, the government has had to rely on agreements with the pharmaceutical giants of the Global North to enter into patent-legal production. But even if the patents are waived, Bangladesh would have to streamline and speed up its own bureaucratic approval systems to enable timely production.

South Africa

South Africa, much like most of the developing world, realised very early on that it lacks critical infrastructure for Covid-19 vaccine production, storage, and transportation. This put the country at an early disadvantage during global vaccine production and supply negotiations through various international fora and direct bilateral engagements between the South African government and global manufacturers.

When the vaccine rollout finally began, the Cyril Ramaphosa administration was heavily criticised early on for being slow off the mark. While many African countries had already started vaccination programmes, the South African government reported being stuck in complicated negotiations with manufacturers Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

One of those negotiations paid off really well as the government was able to announce the local manufacturing and packaging of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa through the local privately owned pharmaceutical company, Aspen Pharmaceutical.

The announcement of local production stirred hope in the country and across the continent that Africa will finally get the equitable and timely supply of the Covid-19 vaccine. But that hope was quickly dampened when it was discovered that the Aspen-produced vaccines were exported to Europe first, while African states had to wait.

While Aspen Pharmaceutical is a manufacturing partner to Johnson & Johnson, the company still ultimately decides and instructs where those shots end up.

On the bright side, the partially state-owned vaccine developer and manufacturer, BioVac, having been a long-standing local manufacturing partner to Pfizer will finally be able to manufacture the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in 2022. This is a result of ongoing negotiations between South Africa and Pfizer.

While this is a major win for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), as BioVac is a key vaccine supplier in the bloc, it still does not settle concerns about exclusionary patent protections.

While the Ramaphosa administration faced criticism at first for securing vaccine supply too slowly, its redemption came when the government of South Africa along with the government of India lobbied for developing nations to be granted TRIPS waivers and was able to win over the White House after President Biden announced that the US government that they support the waiving of Covid-19 vaccine patents. This proposal, however, was strongly opposed by the United Kingdom, Germany, and several other EU member states.

While securing reliable vaccine supply through local manufacturing, the South African government is now concerned by the impact of vaccine scepticism and hesitancy, a problem that plagues the continent at large. With only about half of the adult population in South Africa having received at least one jab of a vaccine and uptake continuously slowing down, the African vaccination crisis still looms large.

Dr Svenja Blanke is the editor of the social science journal Nueva Sociedad based in Buenos Aires; Felix Kolbitz heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Bangladesh; Oliver Dickson is a broadcaster, political analyst, and former Director in the Ministry of Home Affairs in South Africa.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS), published by the Global and European Policy Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin.

 

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Feb 11 2022 (IPS)

While living and working in Paris I joined the Cercle Suédois, a social club founded in 1891, at a time when Sweden and Norway were unified in one kingdom. By that time, Alfred Nobel was a frequent guest and in one corner I sometimes ended up standing in front of the writing desk where he in November 1895 had written his famous testament, stipulating that 94 percent of his total assets (equivalent to 120 million USD in today’s money value) was to be allocated to the establishment of five prizes. These prizes would every year be awarded to deserving individuals, who ”irrespective of their nationality” had contributed to ”the progress of humanity and preservation of peace in the world.”

Nobel desk

Placed on the desk is a facsimile of the will that actually is quite difficult to understand. Alfred Nobel had spent most of his time outside of Sweden and even if he was a polyglot, with proficiency in French, Russian, English, German, and Italian, his Swedish had after many years abroad become somewhat rusty and the formulations he used in his will are occasionally slightly peculiar.

The first three prizes would be awarded for ”eminence” in physical -, medical – and chemical sciences, while a fourth prize would be bestowed upon authors of ”literary work in an ideal direction.” During the entire century which followed upon the establishment of the literary prize, the meaning of the word ”ideal” has been disputed. Could it mean that the “literary work” had to be ”idealistic” in the sense of promoting peace and general well-being? Or did Alfred Nobel by ”ideal” mean ”excellent”? The members of the Swedish Royal Academy, who were given the task of awarding the prize, have mainly leaned towards the latter meaning.

The fifth prize stipulated by Nobel’s testament has been considered as even more controversial and has over the years been agitatedly debated. Alfred Nobel stipulated that it was to be awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, constituted by five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, and bestowed upon persons or institutions that have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Criticism of Alfred Nobel has focused on his leading role in the global sale and manufacture of weapons. Accordingly, it has been suggested that his main motive for creating the Nobel Prizes was to improve a tarnished reputation. In 1888, had the death of his older millionaire brother, Ludvig, caused several French newspapers to publish lengthy obituaries of Alfred Nobel. One newspaper wrote: “The merchant of death is dead, Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.” Alfred became upset by this confusion with his brother and he was in particular disturbed by the accusations that he had benefited from and become wealthy due to misery inflicted on others.

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was born in Sweden, but after several business failures his father had moved to Saint Petersburg, where he became wealthy as manufacturer of machine tools, explosives and sophisticated weaponry. In 1842, the family joined him in the Russian city. Since his factory produced armaments for the Crimean War (1853–1856) Immanuel Nobel’s wealth increased even more, but when the fighting ended his firm had difficulties in switching back to regular production and after some years he was forced to file for bankruptcy, leaving his Russian factory in the care of his eldest son, Ludvig. Immanuel Nobel moved back to Sweden with his wife and other children. By investing in innovative and highly effective arms manufacture and the developing oil extraction around Baku, Ludvig recuperated the finances and assured a rapidly increasing wealth for the entire family. His very gifted, younger brother Alfred could thus dedicate himself to science and profitable innovations. He invented dynamite, a safer and easier means of harnessing the explosive power of nitroglycerin and it was soon used all over the world for mining and infrastructure development.

During his life, Nobel issued 355 international patents, among them ballistite, precursor of several modern smokeless powder explosives, which among other uses currently are employed as rocket propellants. Besides his activities as researcher and innovator, Nobel wrote poems and tragedies in English and French and like his older brothers he was a skilled businessman, establishing more than 90 armaments factories around the world – most notably the still existing Swedish firm Bofors, which he developed from being an iron and steel producer into a major manufacturer of cannons and other armaments.

Alfred Nobel traveled around the world, maintained sumptuous houses in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden. He enjoyed opera and theatre, had several love affairs and became friendly with literary giants like Victor Hugo. However, he remained a solitary character, given to bouts of depression, did not marry and had no children.

In 1876, Alfred Nobel put an advertisement in a Viennese newspaper, probably because he assumed Germans in general were diligent and well educated, though he considered that German-speaking Austrians were more agreeable than German nationals: “Request: Wealthy, well-educated elderly gentleman, living in Paris, seeks contact with a language-proficient lady of mature age for employment as a secretary-head of household.” The young Austro-Bohemian Countess Bertha Kinsky responded to the ad and was eventually hired as Alfred Nobel’s secretary. She soon left his employment to marry a previous lover, Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner, though this did not hinder Bertha from maintaining an intensive correspondence with her former employer.

Bertha von Suttner had become a fervent pacifist after experiencing the French aggressive thirst for revenge after a devastating loss to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. As part of her efforts to spread her message of peace and fraternity Bertha von Suttner wrote the novel Die Waffen Nieder – translated into English as “Lay Down Your Arms!: The Autobiography of Martha von Tilling”. It became a bestseller and was promptly translated into several other languages. Bertha von Suttner lectured around Europe, appealing to younger audiences and supporting efforts to educate them about the horrific costs of war. It has been argued that Bertha von Suttner aroused a sense of shame and guilt in Alfred Nobel, particularly through her insistence that “great accumulations of property should go back to the community and common purposes and support a renewed enrichment of the world.”

While I watched Nobel’s writing desk at Cercle Suédois, remembering that he at the insistence of Bertha von Suttner had bequeathed 94 percent of his assets for what he believed to be for ”the progress of humanity and preservation of peace in the world”, I could not avoid thinking about a statement Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made in 2010, asking for “a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to giving back.” The Giving Pledge website states that up until now, 210 mega-millionaires have agreed to accept Gates’ and Buffett’s appeals.

I doubt if this is really happening, assuming that many billionaires are giving to fake, or rather ineffective, charities while continuing to accumulate wealth faster than they can possible give it away. This does not mean that I doubt that Bill and Melinda Gates are doing a lot of good, though in 2010 Bill Gates net worth was 53 billion USD and it has now become more than 134 billion, while Warren Buffett’s net worth increased by 43 billion USD. I cannot help wondering what half of these enormous fortunes would have accomplished if dedicated to improving the well-being of the world’s population. Of course, some of Gates’ and Buffett’s humongous wealth must have been dedicated to their much advertised ”pledge”, but what about the other ”mega-millionaires”? I wonder – in particular while considering Trump’s fake charities and blatant tax-dodging and the offshore accounts that billionaires are opening in their efforts to pay next to nothing in taxes.

It is far from any negligible sum. The World’s Billionaires is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires and is in March every year compiled by the US business magazine Forbes. In 2021, the list included 2,755 billionaires with a total net wealth of 13.1 trillion USD, 86 percent of these billionaires had more wealth than they possessed the year before. To me these figures are as incomprehensible as the vastness of the Universe.

Topping Forbes’ preliminary list in 2022 is Elon Musk with 256.1 billion USD, followed by Bernard Anault (with family) with 195 billion, Jeff Bezos with 187.1 billion, Bill Gates with 134 billion, Larry Page with 119.7 billion, and Warren Buffett with 116.5 billion USD.

Currently, individuals with a fortune of more than 1 million USD constitute approximately one percent of the world’s population, while they control 46 percent of the global wealth. This is quite incomprehensible and considering the minuscule impact of these billionaires’ philanthropy, I cannot avoid thinking there must be some truth to the French anarchist Pierre Joseph Prudhon’s famous dictum that La propriété, c’est le vol! Property is robbery! The good intentions of a guilt-ridden Alfred Nobel and the emerging benefits from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation might contribute to ”the progress of humanity and preservation of peace in the world.” Nevertheless, it must be something fundamentally wrong with a world order enabling such a staggering accumulation of private wealth. Hopefully, some of these fabulously rich people might like Alfred Nobel one day realise that their fortunes originate from the labour of others and donate their wealth for the benefit of community.

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2022 (IPS)

The Joint Inspection Unit (JIU)– the UN’s only independent external oversight body mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations– is conducting a survey probing the widespread racism and discrimination in the world body.

In a circular to staffers worldwide, the JIU says it is conducting “a system-wide review of measures and mechanisms for preventing and addressing racism and racial discrimination (RRD) in the institutions of the United Nations system.”

The survey will examine the various forms of RRD at the individual, institutional, and structural levels and the measures and mechanisms in place, including cultural and contextual factors that facilitate or constrain efforts by organizations.

According to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest annual report submitted to the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last month, the United Nations currently has more than 36,000 staffers in 463 duty stations world-wide and spread across 56 UN agencies and entities.

The survey is expected to gather both staff and non-staff perceptions of the entire UN system, in the context of an ongoing JIU review on measures and mechanisms for preventing and addressing RRD in the institutions of the United Nations system.

The survey is web-based and can be accessed through this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JIU_CSWS_RRD.

As widespread discrimination – based either on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality—continues throughout the UN system, there are several interest groups who have bonded together to fight for their legitimate rights.

These groups include the United Nations People of African Descent (UNPAD), UN Globe for LGBTQ community, the UN Feminist Network, and most recently, the Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI).

Shihana Mohamed, a founding member, and one of the coordinators of UN-ANDI, told IPS: “We, welcome the proposed reforms initiated by the Secretary-General and by other UN bodies, including the on-going JIU review, towards addressing racism and racial discrimination in UN system.

She pointed out that the issue of racism in the UN system is deep-rooted with many forms and dimensions.

“While addressing and preventing racism in the UN system will not be an easy task, I believe that these initiatives will assist us in identifying the root causes and other associated factors’” said Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national.

“I strongly encourage the UN-ANDI members to participate in the current JIU survey and provide the pertinent information to identify forms, patterns and root causes of racism in the organizations of the UN system,” she declared.

Credit: Joint Inspection Unit, United Nations

In its circular, the JIU says anonymity and confidentiality are assured in all phases. All analyses will be treated with strict confidentiality. There will be no direct attribution to the original source of the data collected.

“In developing the survey, we have analyzed the similarities and differences of 7 separate UN system organization survey instruments on racism, racial discrimination and staff engagement”.

“For a system-wide review, they provide potentially useful questions, many of which we have used in this survey based on their overlap with the criteria of interest and alignment with established items that are commonly employed in empirical research and that have proven to have strong psychometric properties, and also based on value from a system-wide perspective.”

The development of the survey, JIU points out, was guided by an expert on diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) and on racism and racial discrimination. It was supported by an ad hoc advisory group of experts on racism and racial discrimination from the private and public sectors, and from within the UN system. It also benefitted from several United Nations personnel, including senior staff.

Last year, the UN Secretariat in New York, faltered ingloriously, as it abruptly withdrew its own online survey on racism, in which it asked staffers to identify themselves either as “black, brown, white., mixed/multi-racial, and any other”.

But the most offensive of the categories listed in the UN survey was “yellow” – a widely condemned Western racist description of some Asians, including Japanese, Chinese and Koreans.

The online survey came to an inglorious end— even before it began—without an apology towards those who were offended.

According to the 2021 annual report of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC A/76/30), the largest number of unrepresented (17) and underrepresented (8) countries in the UN system were in the Asia and the Pacific region (para. 148)—perhaps victims of discrimination.

In 10 or more organizations with no formal guidelines for geographical distribution, staff were not represented from 64 countries and among them, 25 countries were from the Asia. Twelve countries did not have staff in 15 of the organizations, with seven of these countries from Asia and the Pacific (para. 155).

In an interview back in 2020, and citing his personal experiences in overseas peacekeeping operations, Roderic Grigson, a former Peace Keeping Officer and a twelve-year veteran of the UN, told IPS: “When I arrived in Ismailia, which was where the UN Emergency Force (UNEF II HQ) was located, the UN compound was a mixture of both civilian and military staff. The international civilians, like me who came from overseas, were treated very differently to the local Egyptian staff in many ways”.

For example, he said, the locals who were disparagingly called ‘gyppos’ were not allowed into the international mess (club) in the compound unless they were cooks, waiters or barmen.

“If I wanted to bring a local into the bar for a meal– even if it was someone who worked right next to me during the day– I would be refused entry”, said Grigson, author of the ‘Sacred Tears’ trilogy: a historical fiction set during the civil war in Sri Lanka.

This attitude towards the locals, he noted, “extended across all the UN peacekeeping operations I visited during my time in the Middle East– whether in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, or Cyprus, it did not matter.”

“The International UN staff in all the UN missions treated the locals like lackeys. And they hated us for it. And I felt very uncomfortable working in this environment,” he said.

“Even though I was considered an ‘international’ having been recruited in New York, I was from Sri Lanka and felt I was a ‘second class’ international given the European clique that was predominant at the time”.

Having grown up in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was once a British colony, “I had experienced first-hand what it felt like to be treated as one of the colonial masters on the island”.

“My grandfather who was Scottish, lived with us. He worked in a senior management position in the British colonial administration of the island. He had a position of privilege given his race and colour which extended down to his family. Working for the UN felt exactly like that,” Grigson declared.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month announced plans to appoint a Special Adviser to investigate the growing discrimination based on racial, national or ethnic origins in the world body.

“Racism and discrimination have no place in our world — least of all at the United Nations”, he warned, pointing out that the “diversity of our personnel is a source of profound richness. Yet I am fully aware and deeply concerned that colleagues have experienced the indignity, pain and consequences of workplace racism and racial discrimination.”

“This is unacceptable”, said Guterres in a message to UN staffers January 25.

He has also pledged to establish a Steering Group to oversee implementation of the Strategic Action Plan on racial discrimination —and report progress to the Executive and Management Committees.

 

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