Africa

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2 2021 (IPS)

The widespread 21-month-old lockdown, triggered by the corona virus pandemic, had a destructive impact on the global economy, claimed over 5.2 million lives, destabilized governments and radically changed lifestyles worldwide.

But the pandemic has also undermined the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including its highly ambitious goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2030.

The world “is challenged like never before”, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres, but the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still offer a roadmap to get back on track.

Guterres stressed the importance of an equitable global recovery, asking people everywhere, including Asia, Africa and Latin America, “to work with their governments to put people first in their budgets and recovery plans”.

Africa’s rich, diverse cultural and natural heritage, he pointed out, is important for sustainable development, poverty reduction, and “building and maintaining peace”.

Speaking at the fifth annual UN-African Union (AU) conference on December 1, he said ending the COVID-19 pandemic would be one key to recovery. But despite the AU’s continued work and joint efforts for increased vaccine access and medical supplies, only six per cent of Africa’s population – totaling over 1.2 billion people in 54 countries — has been fully vaccinated.

In an interview with IPS, Dr Djibril Diallo, President & CEO African Renaissance and Diaspora Network Inc (ARDN), said since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastation to people’s lives and livelihoods across the globe.

Although the rates of COVID-19 infection in Africa are not as high as in other regions, the economic downturn and social disruption caused by the pandemic are damaging decades of development gains made in the continent, he pointed out.

“Statistics have shown its impact on poverty and hunger, especially in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and increase in domestic violence, child marriage, and a decrease in female education”.

“However, I believe that the effects of covid-19 in Africa are still under study, and it will be premature to outline setbacks”, said Dr Diallo. The work to achieve the SDGs by 2030 is still underway, and there is no time to rest on our laurels, he declared.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: How would you rate the successes of your efforts to usher in an African Renaissance fostering unity between African nations and peoples of African descent in the diaspora?
And what are your plans for the future.?

A: The ARDN, an international organization headquartered in New York has been in operation since the 1990s. It serves as a coordinating body to unite the efforts of individuals and organizations towards a single purpose: supporting the advent of the African renaissance by fostering unity between African Nations and all peoples of African descent in the diaspora.

With support from the United Nations, ARDN launched an initiative to popularize the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa and the Diaspora. We have over the years created programs and embarked on projects that embody the virtues enshrined in the United Nations Charter: peace, justice, freedom, respect, social progress, equal rights, and human dignity, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity.

Beginning with Africa and the African diaspora, our initiative has facilitated and encouraged collaboration between relevant stakeholders to create understanding and awareness about the United Nations and its work and, as well as, create an enabling environment for the successful implementation and ownership of the Sustainable Development Goals framework.

Dr Djibril Diallo

Therefore, we rate our success based on the impact of our network in consolidating partnerships, collaboration, and communication between people of African descent and the world at large.

To this end, we have successfully developed community partnerships between Municipalities in the United States whose mayors are members of the World Conference of Mayors and their counterparts in Africa which has strengthened the economic and community development of the said Municipalities.

We have also brought University leaders from the United States to a number of countries in Africa thereby strengthening and facilitating knowledge exchange, the improvement of the quality of higher education.

We are in partnership with UN agencies on programs such as the ARDN Red Card Campaign – aiming to end all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls. In all of these, we pay close attention to the revival of and renewed interest in culture, arts, and overall growth of the African youth.

For 2022 and beyond, ARDN has identified the commission on the status of Women, the African Union Summit, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Day for the People of African Descent, and the FIFA world cup as strategic occasions around which activities may be built to increase public awareness of the Red Card Campaign.

We will also continue to roll out national and regional Red Card campaigns prior to Qatar 2022, and ARDN and partners will continue to twin universities in Africa with those in Europe, United States and Latin America.

Q: How widespread is your RED CARD campaign–launched on the occasion of the Women’s World Cup for soccer—aimed at eliminating discrimination and violence against women and girls, particularly in Africa. What related progress have you made in helping achieve the UNs SDGs 5, 8, and 10?

A: The ARDN Red Card Campaign was globally launched on 6 March 2020 at the UN headquarters in New York, and since then, we have made steady progress towards getting partners on board and the message to the general public.

It is a partnership with the United Nations system (UNFPA, UNWOMEN, UNDP, UNHABITAT), FIFA, the Government of Costa Rica and the Conseil Presidentiel pour l’Afrique of the French Government.

An integral goal of the Campaign is to obtain a minimum of one million commitments throughout the Globe by the FIFA World Cup of November 2022 in Qatar. Accordingly, this Campaign is ARDN’s principal priority area for 2022.

In this context, we have conducted a number of national and regional rollouts of the ARDN Red Card Campaign in strategically identified countries and regions with a view to accelerating for stakeholder commitments to the Campaign.

The Red card campaign goes beyond gathering a million signatures. It is also about highlighting the intrinsic nature of violence and discrimination against women and an avenue to showcase and honor individuals, programs, or policies that have effectively reduced or eliminated violence and discrimination against women and girls.

We hope to impact global policies and promote the role of women and girls in the socio-economic development of Africa and Africans in the diaspora.

Q: What are the major impediments against the economic advancement of Africa? Shortage of development funding? Rising external debts? Lack of foreign investments? Or Absence of political will?

A: I would say that the answer lies in part of each of your sub-questions with the understanding that today there is a new generation of African leaders who have rolled up their sleeves and fighting to bring about recovery and development for their People’s.

The problem is that those stories of Africa’s efforts are not making it to the media that matters.
So, we need to address two important points in this connection: The challenges that Africa faces in efforts for economic advancement on the one hand and the overall negative projections of Africa in the international media.

There needs to be more media coverage of the efforts of those African countries which are investing in their young people in order to harness the projected demographic dividend. Youth unemployment is another major challenge.

It has led to high numbers of unemployed and disempowered youth migrating through illegal and treacherous routes to Europe or contributing to political conflicts and civil unrest on the continent.

Climate-related hazards further threaten livelihoods and undermine already fragile systems for human capital development.

Q: A new report released October 19 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns that changing precipitation patterns, rising temperatures and more extreme weather contributed to mounting food insecurity, poverty and displacement in Africa last year. The report says the rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in eastern Africa, which are expected to melt entirely in the near future, signals the threat of imminent and irreversible change to the Earth’s system. Are African leaders conscious of the impending natural disasters caused largely by climate change?

A: Africa’s substantial participation at the recently ended COP-26 is yet another indication of the continent takes the issues of climate change. Many African leaders are acutely aware of the impending natural disasters primarily caused by climate change.

Because of the continent’s vulnerabilities, we are witnessing more support from within Africa for international efforts to combat global warming and climate change. African governments were the key advocates behind the 1994 UN convention to combat desertification.

Several African countries are signatories to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first and only international treaty setting binding limits on pollution emissions.

In the follow up to COP 26 (in Scotland last month), I believe we will see fundamental changes in the global approach to climate change, including Africa’s own challenges.

Addressing climate change has been an important program for ARDN, most notably by organizing a side event for the July 2019 meeting of the African Union in Niamey, Niger. For this event we worked with the UNDP to bring young people from 26 African nations to discuss the impact of the desertification of the SAHEL in a series of debates and forums called “Reversing the Sahel”.

A Niamey proclamation listing necessary action steps was issued from this meeting and, in keeping with ARDN’s mission, helped establish a network of contacts among the young participants.

Finally, the youth and women have been the key constituencies around which ARDN has articulated its strategies on fighting climate change.

Footnote: Meanwhile, speaking at the conclusion of the fifth Annual Conference between the United Nations and the African Union on December 1, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available to them.

Nor should they be collectively punished for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world. With a virus that is truly borderless, travel restrictions that isolate any one country or region are not only deeply unfair and punitive — they are ineffective.

Dr. Djibril Diallo, with over 35 years of experience in international relations, has served in several UN agencies: as Regional Director for West and Central Africa and Senior Advisor to the Executive Director in the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); as Director for the UN New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace from 2004 to 2008; as Spokesperson for the President of the UN General Assembly 2004-2005; and as Special Advisor to the Executive Director and as Deputy Director of Public Affairs at UNICEF in 1986.

 

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Supermarkets stock both millet and sorghum products, but these are often ignored. Now research has shown the crops have health benefits and are climate resilient. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Dec 1 2021 (IPS)

Millet could be Africa’s silver bullet for combating anaemia – and apart from health benefits, it is climate-resilient.

Research led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) says millet, long resisted by some of Africa’s smallholders, effectively combating anaemia.

Iron deficiency affects more than 1.7 billion people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Undernutrition among children has led to stunted growth and anaemia, says the WHO. The ICRISAT study authored in collaboration with other research organisations notes that governments need to bring “millets into the mainstream” if iron deficiency is adequately addressed globally.

“Although the amount of iron provided depends on the millet variety and its form of processing, the research clearly shows that millets can play a promising role in preventing and reducing high levels of iron deficiency anaemia,” said Anitha Seetha, the study’s lead author and ICRISAT senior nutritionist.

The grain has another significant benefit – and could assist developing countries bearing the brunt of climate uncertainty and devastating drought cycles. The grain is climate-resilient and could help communities saddled with health emergencies as a result of drought. The study’s findings suggest interventions that could ease pressure on already burdened public health services.

“Now that there is strong evidence of the value of millets in reducing or preventing iron deficiency anaemia, it is recommended that one major research study be undertaken on anaemia covering all the different types of millet, common varieties and all major forms of processing and cooking,” says Professor Ian Givens, a co-author of the study and Director at University of Reading’s Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health (IFNH) in the UK.

“This will provide the detail required for designing interventions needed to have a major impact on reducing anaemia globally,” he said.

For countries like Zimbabwe, where small grains have long been touted as the answer to food insecurity and nutrition concerns, the ICRISAT study’s findings could influence smallholders, such as Samukele Jamela. She farms in the arid region of Filabusi, about 120km southeast of Bulawayo.

Jamela is one of many farmers who have routinely faced empty silos because of poor rains but still insists on planting rain-fed maize (corn).

“We plant maize here. That’s what we have always done. Very few people want to eat millet or sorghum. Even the children don’t like it,” she said, explaining why her community shuns growing small grains.

The country’s agriculture ministry is aware of this sentiment.

In 2010, Zimbabwe partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organisation to promote the production, processing and marketing of small grains such as millet and sorghum, and a decade later, agriculture officials are still trying to convince smallholders to grow climate-resilient small grains.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted in a 2018 report titled “Barrier analysis of small grains value chain in Zimbabwe” that the country has experienced a decline in the production of small grains since the 1990s, with maize remaining the favoured crop despite successive crop failure due to poor rains.

As part of efforts to assist the country in turning the food insecurity curve, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced a USD67 million investment programme aimed at Zimbabwe’s smallholder farmers this November.

“Depending on the geographical area, crops such as millet in drier areas will be supported,” Jaan Keitaanranta, IFAD Eswatini and Zimbabwe country director, told IPS.

The support came just as the UN agency warned last month that African countries would see a drop in the yields of staple crops such as maize owing to rising temperatures brought by climate change.

Titled What Can Smallholder Farmers Grow in a Warmer World? the report appeals to African countries to reduce their reliance on maize in favour of small grains, noting that by 2050, maize production could drop by 77 percent in some countries bearing the brunt of climate change.

“Millets are not only healthy but target some of our biggest needs, making them a powerful solution for our diets,” said Joanna Kane-Potaka, a former ICRISAT Assistant Director-General. She is a co-author of the study and now serves as Executive Director of the Smart Food initiative.

However, local researchers say the labour-intensive nature of small grains is one of many reasons why smallholders continue shunning sorghum and millet.

“Small grains face a major challenge of low yield per hectare compared to maize; hence most farmers prefer to grow maize regardless of climate concerns,” said Keith Phiri, a senior lecturer at Lupane State University’s Department of Development Studies.

Phiri, who has led research on why smallholders in Zimbabwe’s arid regions shun small grains, said reasons included lack of knowledge of millet which “during weeding time, weeds tend to look exactly like the plant,” while consumer preferences have always favoured maize.

Among other recommendations, Phiri says the government has to shift its policy that has for years promoted maize as a cash crop, sidelining small grains.

“The need for a solution is critical, and therefore bringing millets into mainstream and government programs is highly recommended,” said Jacqueline Hughes, ICRISAT Director-General.

 

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By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Dec 1 2021 (IPS)

No matter what it is called — it is the abhorrent daily life of a billion enslaved humans.  The real number of “modern” slaves is understandably unknown. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery.

Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking, it says.

But this figure of 40 million sounds very far away from being accurate. Why? For instance, ILO cites forced marriage as one of the key components of modern slavery. However, there are 800 million child-girls forced to be married.

ILO also includes child forced labour as another key component of slavery. But the UN estimates that there are 160 million children victims of child forced labour.

In fact, the very same world organisation states that more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.

Let alone the number of victims of smuggling and trafficking in human beings who are exploited and recruited as child-soldiers in armed conflicts hitting several developing countries.

 

One billion slaves

Consequently, only these two figures combined raise the number of ‘modern slaves’ to nearly one billion.

According to the UN, slavery essentially refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.

Marking the 2021 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on 2 December, the world body says that slavery is not merely a historical relic.

Coincidently, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery marks the date of the adoption, by the UN General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others on 2 December 1949.

The focus of this Day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, the UN remarks.

 

Main Forms of Modern Slavery

Slavery has evolved and manifested itself in different ways throughout history. Today some traditional forms of slavery still persist in their earlier forms, while others have been transformed into new ones, according to the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

“The UN human rights bodies have documented the persistence of old forms of slavery that are embedded in traditional beliefs and customs. These forms of slavery are the result of long-standing discrimination against the most vulnerable groups in societies, such as those regarded as being of low caste, tribal minorities and indigenous peoples.”

Forced labour

Alongside traditional forms of forced labour, such as bonded labour and debt bondage there now exist more contemporary forms of forced labour, such as migrant workers, who have been trafficked for economic exploitation of every kind in the world economy: work in domestic servitude, the construction industry, the food and garment industry, the agricultural sector and in forced prostitution.

Child labour

Globally, one in ten children works. The majority of the child labour that occurs today is for economic exploitation. That goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognises “the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”

All this in addition to children pushed into begging by criminal groups, just as an example.

Trafficking

According to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation.

Prostitution, servitude, removal of organs…

“Exploitation includes prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. The consent of the person trafficked for exploitation is irrelevant and if the trafficked person is a child, it is a crime even without the use of force.”

And there is an unquantified number of victims of debt-slavery, which is more widely spread in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In view of the above, there would be many more slavery victims than the official estimates.

In the face of COVID-19 pandemic it was necessary to find global solutions to achieving sustainable development. Credit: APDA

By Cecilia Russell
Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec 1 2021 (IPS)

COVID-19 highlighted significant gaps in the world’s ability to deal with pandemics, and it’s crucial these are addressed to mitigate the impacts of future global health problems, Masato Kanda, Japan’s Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, told a recent online meeting of parliamentarians.

The meeting with the theme ‘Nairobi Commitments Follow-up under COVID-19’ heard that the gaps were serious and significantly affected and in the future, would impact the world’s ability to respond to pandemics.

“These gaps include insufficient coordination, information sharing amongst multilateral and bilateral agencies, limited the collaboration between financial and health policymakers, inadequate finance to both effectively prevent or prepare for future pandemics,” Kanda said. He elaborated that governance, financing of the current global health system, including development, manufacturing, procurement and delivery of vaccines and medical equipment needed urgent attention.

Japan had energetically participated in recent discussions at the G20 meeting in Italy. Kanda noted that without proper and integrated governance reform, the world would again “end up with fragmented, inappropriate and uncoordinated responses.”

Professor Keizo Takemi, MP and Chair of Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), opened the session with a reminder that discussions at the forum and beyond would need to look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had caused “prolonged and devastating changes to our daily lives”.

He said a face-to-face meeting in Tokyo was planned for February 2022 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the AFPPD and APDA.

Counting the cost of the pandemic, he noted it had an “unprecedented impact on many areas, such as education, global workforce, food systems, public health and individual decision making on childbearing.”

In terms of health, it has impacted the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services, and these needed to form the agenda for discussions in the future.

Yoko Kamikawa, MP and Former Minister of Justice, Chair of Japan Parliamentarians Forum for Population (JPFP), said at the 40th anniversary next year she hoped parliamentarians could look at the “steps the Asian parliamentarians had taken in the past and discuss how to build a society where all people can live their lives with dignity.”

Parliamentarians play a crucial role in the delivery of the SDGs, she said.

“To achieve sustainable development, we need to go beyond the nation-state and establish a new set of standards and rules that will allow us to live humanely on this planet and that will benefit human society as a whole. And this is precisely why it is critically important for parliamentarians who legislate on behalf of its citizens to further efforts in cooperation,” Kamikawa said.

As AFPPD and APDA prepare for their 40th anniversary Parliamentarians heard about challenges the world faces to meet the ICPD25 commitments. Credit: APDA

Björn Andersson, Regional Director of UNFPA APRO stated that the ICPD25 Nairobi summit brought together 8000 delegates from 170 countries and territories. It emphasized the importance of universal access to health care. Nobody at the Nairobi summit could have anticipated the impact of COVID-19.

“Over the last 18 months, health systems have been stretched to the brink. And we have noted a decrease in investments in routine health services in favour of procurement and delivery of COVID-19 supplies,” he said.

This has had a significant impact on communities. For example, over the past 18 months, there have been changes in patterns of health-seeking behaviour of many people, including pregnant women, who were fearful of leaving their houses and coming into contact with COVID-19 in health facilities.

“This has had a negative impact on maternal mortality. It is clear that more public funding for health is needed alongside innovative strategies that leverage resources to work more effectively without further increasing out-of-pocket costs for individuals and households,” Andersson said.

Parliamentarians had a critical role in achieving universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights as part of universal health coverage (UHC).

“In light of the COVID 19 pandemic and its impacts. It is more important than ever to increase public funding for health be strategic and targeted investments to achieve and sustain the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Well-functioning delivery of quality health care and essential services cannot be compromised even in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic.”

Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for Western Pacific, agreed that a global solution was critical to counter public health emergencies.

“COVID-19 made it clear that the health, the economy, the broader social well-being are inextricably linked,” he said. “The second lesson was the global health (issues) needed a global solution, and for that, effective multilateral mechanisms and institutions are needed.”

While nobody expected effective vaccines to be developed as quickly as they were, the challenges with COVAX meeting its mandate of ensuring equitable access to vaccines was concerning.

“Unless every country is protected, no country is safe,” he said.

It was critically important for the world to prepare as it moved toward a 4th wave of the pandemic, and the key to this was effective multilateral mechanisms.

• The online meeting was organised by: Asian Forum for Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD); Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP) and Asian Population and Development Association (APDA). The event was supported by The Japan Trust Fund (JTF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

 

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The UN commemorated World Aids Day on 30 November. Credit: UNAIDS

By Winnie Byanyima
GENEVA, Dec 1 2021 (IPS)

This week I called out to the world to warn them that inequalities are making us all unsafe. I noted starkly our new analysis that we face millions of additional AIDS deaths – 7.7 million in the next decade alone – as well continued devastation from pandemics, unless leaders address the inequalities which drive them. We have to treat this threat as an emergency, as a red alert.

To end AIDS, we need to act with far more urgency to tackle these inequalities. And it’s not just AIDS. All pandemics take root in, and widen, the fissures of society. The world’s failure to address marginalization and unequal power is also driving the COVID crisis and leaving us unprepared for the pandemics of tomorrow. We need all leaders to work boldly and together to tackle the inequalities which endanger us all.

To tackle inequalities requires leaders to take these courageous steps:

● Support community-led and people-centred infrastructure
● Ensure equitable access to medicines, vaccines and health technologies
● Strengthen human rights, to build trust and tackle pandemics
● Elevate essential workers and provide them with the resources and tools they need
● Ensure people-centred data systems that highlight inequalities.

At the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June this year, member states adopted a bold new plan to end the AIDS epidemic, including new targets for 2025.

We are seeing around the world examples of the transformative impact of tackling inequalities – with some people and some countries making progress against AIDS that many had believed impossible. These prove that it can be done, and guide us in what we need to take to scale worldwide to end AIDS.

On my recent visit to Senegal, I saw the power of leadership in driving down new HIV infections. In Dakar I met with the inspirational Mariama Ba Thiam, a peer educator at a harm reduction programme for people who inject drugs.

The programme helps them protect their health and to secure economic independence. Mariama’s approach works because it starts by considering the whole person, connecting the medical with the social. It rejects the failed punitive and stigmatizing approaches taken by so many, and it instead respects the dignity of every person.

It succeeds because it involves frontline communities in service provision and in leadership, and because it recognizes that access to the treatments grounded in the best science is a human right and a public good. We know what success looks like, and it looks like Mariama. Thousands of Mariamas worldwide have shown the way by walking it.

But in too many cases we are not only not moving fast enough to end the inequalities which drive pandemics, and are moving in the wrong direction – tech monopolies instead of tech sharing, donor withdrawal instead of global solidarity, austerity instead of investment, clampdowns on marginalised communities instead of repeals of outdated laws.

Six in seven new HIV infections among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are occurring among girls. Gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, and people who use drugs face 25-35 greater risk of acquiring HIV worldwide.

Progress in AIDS, which was already off track, is now under even greater strain as the Covid crisis continues to rage, disrupting HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence-prevention programmes, and more. Harm reduction services for people who use drugs were disrupted in nearly two thirds (65%) of 130 countries surveyed in 2020.

We have reached a fork in the road. The choice for leaders to make on inequalities is between bold action and half-measures. The data is clear: it is being too gradual that is the unaffordable choice.

Leaders need to turn this moment of crisis into a moment of transformation. Ending these inequalities fast is what needs to be reflected in every leader’s policy programme and every country’s budget.

If we take on the inequalities which hold back progress, we can deliver on the promise to end AIDS by 2030. It is in our hands. But if we don’t act to end inequalities, we will all pay the price.

Inequalities kill. Every minute that passes, we are losing a precious life to AIDS, and widening inequality is putting us ever more in danger. We don’t have time.

Winnie Byanyima is Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

 

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Huge progress has been made in treatment, prevention and understanding of HIV - but falsehoods still hurt people living with it.

To fight economic inequality, female dependency on relationships and gender-based violence, female education is critical. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

By External Source
Nov 30 2021 (IPS)

Despite the advances that have been made against HIV, the world has 37 million people living with HIV. And 680,000 people died from AIDS-related causes in 2020. While the prevention of mother to child transmission, and provision of treatment as prevention, are great successes, there are still gaps. Over 1.5 million new HIV infections were recorded in 2020.

In 2020, adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 accounted for 25% of new infections, while making up only 10% of the population. Six in seven new HIV infections among adolescents (aged 15 to 19) were among girls, even though boys live in similar contexts. Young women aged 15–24 years old were twice as likely to be living with HIV compared with men.

In addition to the difference in risk between the sexes, other risk and protective factors may have an influence. So, within the population of adolescent girls and young women, differences in their unique risk profiles mean that some may be at a higher risk of HIV infection than others.

In 2020, adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 accounted for 25% of new infections, while making up only 10% of the population. Six in seven new HIV infections among adolescents (aged 15 to 19) were among girls, even though boys live in similar contexts

Understanding risk profiles helps us realise that HIV is more than just a virus. These profiles highlight how HIV risk and HIV prevention uptake are influenced by biological, socio-behavioural and structural factors. So while new HIV prevention options may become available, adolescent girls and young women will weigh up the benefits of using them.

They consider factors such as partner trust, the social value of relationships, their perceived risk and the economic and social consequences that occur as a result of using them. All this happens in the context of the structural inequalities that sustain risk – things that individuals can’t always control.

Risk profiles – the unique combination of factors that work to mediate HIV risk – should inform responses to the evolving pandemic. More nuanced and locally responsive approaches are required.

 

Risk factors

As the world aims for the 90-90-90 goals, it’s useful to see who is falling behind. Global data suggests that in 2020, 84% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 73% of those are accessing HIV treatment and 66% of those on treatment are virally suppressed.

Hidden in these successes are those who have still not been reached by HIV prevention and treatment efforts, who are put at risk by inequality, exclusion and social and economic vulnerability. What is the profile of those who have still not been reached? What factors within those profiles prevent us from reaching them? And how do we tailor interventions that respond to local contexts of risk? A large number of studies and programmes have already provided some of these answers.

Power in relationships: Adolescent girls and young women who are sexually active are at the highest risk of HIV infection. Delaying sexual debut is a key goal of HIV prevention. But sexual relationships often start in adolescence. The HIV transmission cycle highlights that adolescent girls and young women in age-disparate sexual relationships, (i.e “sugar daddies”) are at higher risk than those in peer relationships.

Age-disparate relationships often have social, emotional, economic and sexual value that may outweigh potential risks. But they are usually characterised by power dynamics that make discussions about sexual health difficult. In contexts of high female poverty and partner dependency, the power and gender inequalities of these relationships will increase the risk of HIV infection and may limit the ability of adolescent girls and young women to negotiate safe sex practices.

Gender-based violence: Adolescent girls and young women who are victims of gender-based violence will have risk profiles that make them more vulnerable to HIV infection. In contexts where female poverty is high and retaining relationships is critical for survival, agency to make sexual health decisions may be difficult.

In South Africa, home to the largest HIV pandemic, over 10,000 people were raped between April and June 2021. Many of these incidents took place at the home of the victim or the home of the rapist. In the same period, over 15,000 domestic violence assault cases were reported. These high rates of gender-based violence highlight that access to HIV prevention services are necessary but not sufficient to protect women from HIV infection.

To fight economic inequality, female dependency on relationships and gender-based violence, female education is critical. Additionally, changing gender norms in young boys and ensuring more equitable gender beliefs as men grow older will create an environment in which female agency is non-negotiable and respected.

 

Services and interventions

Use of HIV prevention services is influenced by inequalities in access and by social and gender norms. Access does not equate to uptake. A lack of knowledge about sexual health, inequitable gender norms around sex, and conservative social norms about adolescent sexual well-being contribute to poor uptake of sexual and reproductive health services among adolescent girls and young women.

Engaging their sexual partners, challenging social and gender norms, providing comprehensive sexual education, and creating sex-positive and egalitarian health services for adolescents are essential for fighting the HIV pandemic in young people.

Without understanding the social context in which adolescent girls and young women manage and negotiate sex, and tailoring interventions to break the transmission cycle, it will be a struggle to achieve epidemic control in adolescent girls and young women.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a more nuanced view of the risks faced by adolescent girls and young women will be essential for developing targeted and relevant interventions. These efforts will also help reduce inequalities and build societies more resilient to future pandemics.

Hilton Humphries, Behavioural Scientist, Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

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

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Siamese Rosewood trees on a farmland in Lao PDR - Credit_NAFRI, Laos

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , Nov 30 2021 (IPS)

The famed Rosewood forests of the Greater Mekong region in Southeast Asia produce dark, richly grained timbers zealously sought after worldwide by manufacturers of luxury furniture, flooring and musical instruments, among other products. But their high value has also made them a major commodity in transnational organized crime.

Now a strategic partnership of international and national government research organizations is leading an expert endeavour to ensure their survival.

“The Rosewood species are among the most valuable species in the world. They are worth tens of thousands of dollars per cubic metre, but because of illegal logging, they were almost wiped out in the Indochina landscapes,” Riina Jalonen, a scientist working with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, told IPS. The collaborative research-for-development initiative pursues research and innovative solutions to the major global challenges of land degradation, biodiversity loss and poverty around the world.

For the past three years, the Alliance has joined with national partners in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam as well as the University of Copenhagen and the Chinese Academy of Forestry to spearhead ways of conserving the genetic diversity of Rosewoods. The project, which is also working to support planting and restoration of Rosewood timbers and galvanize a strong reliable supply of seeds and seedlings, is led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Darwin Initiative in the United Kingdom.

Collecting seed of Burmese Rosewood (Dalbergia oliveri) in Cambodia – Credit_IRD, Cambodia

Chaloun Bountihiphonh at the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute in Vientiane, Lao PDR, has witnessed a turnaround in the fortune of the species since the project began in 2018. “The status of the Rosewood Dalbergia populations have improved and now cover more than 60 percent of their natural habitat, and a seed network has been established. And communities of the project have been strengthened in their awareness of the importance of Rosewoods and the additional income that they can get from seed collection,” Bountihiphonh told IPS.

The Greater Mekong subregion, comprising the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and China, boasts immense biodiversity, including 20,000 plant species and 1,200 species of birds. The region’s forests provide the natural habitats for wildlife, but also prevent soil erosion and landslides, create essential levels of atmospheric moisture and combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And local communities, including many indigenous peoples, depend on the forests for shelter, sustenance, livelihoods and income.

But deforestation, driven by rapid population growth, expansion of infrastructure, agriculture and mining, as well as forest fires and illicit logging operations, has taken a heavy toll. Forest cover in the Greater Mekong declined by 5 percent, while in Cambodia alone it declined by 27 percent, from 1990-2015, reports the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Rosewood conservation project has focussed on three specific species: Dalbergia cochinchinensis, also known as Siamese Rosewood, is in high demand by furniture makers. Dalbergia oliveri, or Burmese Rosewood with highly fragrant and with a pronounced grain, is popular for woodworking, and Dalbergia cultrata, also named Burma Blackwood, is a blackwood timber characterised by varied hues of burgundy.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 8.3 million kilograms of illegally trafficked Rosewood was seized worldwide between 2005-2015. The top ten source countries included India, Thailand and Cambodia, and the main destination countries included China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States. This is also what makes regional collaboration so crucial for safeguarding the species.

“Illegal logging of primary forests has directly destroyed the mature trees and good quality mother trees which produce seeds for natural regeneration and silviculture,” Bountihiphonh said.

The conservation project grew out of discussions with forestry experts in the Mekong countries, who highlighted the issues threatening the valuable timber forests. The Alliance first conducted conservation assessments of the species to analyse and identify the specific threats and conservation needs.

Then, in partnership with Cambodia’s Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development, Lao’s National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, two main conservation approaches were implemented. The ‘in situ’ approach preserves the Rosewood trees in their natural environment, for example, in the form of a national park or community-managed forest. The second ‘ex situ’ strategy promulgates the species in a different designated location, such as a plantation or in a seed production area.

However, restoring and expanding forests requires a vast supply of seeds. And so, seed and seedling production are some of the most important activities carried out in forest-dwelling communities.

“We have been helping farmers to establish seed orchards, where trees are planted specifically for seed production. It is the farmers who are interested in producing seeds and selling them. Especially in Cambodia, they have quite an active network of seed producers and seed collectors, and the Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development has really spearheaded this work to help more and more farmers to participate and benefit” Jalonen said.

Seed orchards make seed collection an easier, safer and less time-consuming process than in the natural environment, and have led to substantial economic benefits for communities.

Some of the largest remaining rosewood populations in Cambodia are found within Community Forests – Credit_Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

“People in rural areas are increasingly realizing the value of these species. The species provides two sellable products; timber and seed. Timber takes a very long time to produce, but seed is something that the farmers can collect after a few years and Rosewood seed is highly valuable, fetching around US$200-250 per kilogram. It is something that the farmers can harvest every year for annual income,” Jalonen explained.

The work being done by the Alliance and its national partners aims to benefit seven rural forest-based communities in the Greater Mekong region and reduce poverty in 175 households by boosting earnings from the marketing of seeds and seedlings by up to 20 percent.

“Big Rosewood trees are not widely available as before because of the illegal cutting and debarking of the Burmese Rosewood,” Ou Veng, farmer and village leader of O Srao in Cambodia, said. “In the past, people were not interested to protect the forest. But now they worry about losing it because it’s required for their livelihoods. So more and more people are involved in patrolling, tree planting and fire protection. The forest has regenerated significantly.”

In Pursat, Cambodia, the expansion of a local farmer’s nursery for the sale of Rosewood seed and seedlings increased local employment opportunities in the community threefold between 2018 and 2020.

In the village of Kampeng, also in Cambodia, Soeung Sitha, a farmer described how reafforestation efforts had also acquired a heritage purpose. “Many of our community forest members have planted Siamese Rosewood in their home gardens and farms. They don’t want the species to become extinct. They want the younger generation to use them as well,” he said.

Ahead of the initiative coming to an end in December, Jalonen reflected on what is likely to be some of its important legacies.

“A model for farmer-led seed production for Rosewoods now exists. What has been really successful is the establishment of seed orchards by farmers,” she said. “Seeds are providing incomes and job opportunities and, what is also important, is that it generates more opportunities for women because collecting the seeds of these trees from the forest is difficult. You actually have to climb the trees. So when the seed production is done on farms with smaller plants, it is much easier to collect.”

And the new forest growth will be more robust. “By helping to improve the quality of seeds and seedlings in restoration areas and making sure they are genetically diverse, the planted forest will grow to be productive and also resilient. Under the rapidly changing environment, this capacity of the trees to adapt is more important than ever – and not only for the species themselves but also for the global efforts to mitigate climate change through forest conservation and restoration,” Jalonen emphasised.

 

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After suffering in a violent and abusive relationship, Layla went to the police, accompanied by a friend. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has exacerbated gender-based violence. Fighting patriarchal power structures and gender inequalities is essential in putting an end to it. Credit: UN Women/Mohammed Bakir

By Jade Levell
BRISTOL, UK, Nov 30 2021 (IPS)

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase in domestic violence rates has led the United Nations to declare a ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence. In the most brutal cases, the violence has led to murder – or ‘femicide’, as the World Health Organisation calls the killing of women specifically because of their gender.

This is distinct from male homicide because of the power differentials that underline femicide; most cases are perpetrated by current or ex-partners and emerge from a context of abuse, control, violence, and intimidation.

‘Femicide’ as a label aims to draw specific attention to the gendered nature of the victimisation. Domestic violence is both a cause and consequence of gender inequality. The threat of violence, and the presence of abuse, serve to grant the perpetrator power and control over their victim.

A study by WHO and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine show that more than 35 per cent of all murders of women globally are reported to be committed by an intimate partner, as opposed to 5 per cent of male murders. 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day.

Domestic violence’s correlation with times of crisis

Although we do not yet have the data on the increases of femicides, many countries have evidence of a much higher demand for domestic violence support services since the pandemic broke out. In some countries, calls to helplines have increased five-fold as rates of reported intimate partner violence increased alongside the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jade Levell

In Mexico, refuge services saw a 77-fold increase in demand. There has been much research that shows prevalence of domestic and sexual violence increases during times of crisis.

There have also been specific aspects of the Covid-19 national lockdowns that have materially exacerbated isolation for victims. The closure of face-to-face health services, support services, and even local amenities has reduced opportunities for victims seeking help.

The closure of schools and youth services meant that children living with domestic violence and abuse also faced being cut off from support and respite of the school day. Dubravka Šimonović, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, also critiqued the ‘gender-blind’ lockdown measures which had resulted in an increased risk of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) for those confined at home with abusers.

The danger of a gender-neutral approach

Despite the framing of ‘femicide’ as a distinct outcome of gender-based violence, however, there is still a general lack of accountability for perpetrators. In 2018, the United Nations invested €50 million to focus particularly on femicide in Latin America, where 98 per cent of gender-related murders are unprosecuted.

Part of the problem lies in reticence to connect patriarchal power structures to the prevalence of femicide. Instead of seeing an increase in gendered framing of DVA, we are instead witnessing an increasing trend towards gender neutrality.

This is occurring in a wider context of rolling back of women’s rights more broadly, including increased abortion restrictions around the world, and increased reactionary responses to so-called ‘gender ideology’. There has also been an alarming roll back in international cooperation around gender-based violence through the push back against the Istanbul Convention.

In July this year, Turkey withdrew from the convention despite the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) noting this would ‘deepen the protection gap for women and girls during a time when gender-based violence against women is on the rise’.

Some countries like the United Kingdom have only signed, but not ratified, the Istanbul convention. In 2021, UK launched the Domestic Abuse Bill in parliament. This, however, frames DVA in gender-neutral terms. Indeed, domestic abuse murders in UK government procedures are still framed as ‘domestic homicides’. In contexts such as this, the term ‘homicide’ is framed as a gender-neutral term which refers to the killing of a human being by another person.

For advocates of remaining with one umbrella term, a key advantage is that it focuses on the act of killing and applies to victims of all genders. This approach also reflects the fact that not all murders of women are related to gender-based violence; 42 per cent of global murders of women in 2019 were by perpetrators who were not partners or family members.

However, gender remains an important aspect of understanding violence, as males commit 90 per cent of murders worldwide. This has led some campaigners to call for the naming of ‘male violence’ as the key issue, regardless of the gender of the victims. Gender-neutrality under the guise of inclusivity serves to obscure the role that patriarchal systems and gender-inequality play in violence worldwide.

In considering the response to femicide, countries also need to take into account the living victims of femicide, namely the children that are left when their mothers are killed. In 2018, Italy became the first country in Europe to pass a law for orfani speciali, or special orphans.

The fund financially supports a range of issues; scholarships, legal aid, and funding for medical and psychological care. All too often children are left with sparse and oversubscribed services with a postcode lottery of support provided by charities and NGOs.

The UK Domestic Abuse Bill has designated children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right, marking a distinct change from their previous peripheral recognition as witnesses and bystanders.

Femicide is preventable

Femicide as a term hones our attention to the gendered dynamics murder related to domestic violence against women. In reality, however, femicide is overlooked, undercounted, and under-prosecuted across the globe.

Although there has been some attention paid to the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence, the burden of this has fallen on the shoulders of already under-resourced NGO services.

It is essential to remember that femicide is actually a symptom of a much wider problem. It is patriarchal norms and gender inequality that are both the cause and consequence of gender-based violence in society.

To effect change, we need to address systematic gender-inequality, societal tolerance of violence against women, and properly fund resources and services to support victims to access help as well as perpetrators to be held accountable and have targeted interventions to effect change. Femicide is not an inevitable part of life. It is preventable

Jade Levell is a Lecturer in Social & Public Policy at the University of Bristol. She is a specialist in gender-based violence and serious youth violence, as well as gender theory including studies of masculinities

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

 

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What does the 'scramble', between major powers, for influence in Africa and its resources mean for its people?

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 2021 (IPS)

Carbon offset markets allow the rich to emit as financial intermediaries profit. By fostering the fiction that others can be paid to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead, it undermines efforts to do so.

Anis Chowdhury

Committing to achieve ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions has become a major climate change policy goal. But most climate scientists agree the target is dangerously misleading. Ostensibly promoting decarbonization, it actually allows carbon emissions to continue rising.

Breakthrough?
On 28 January 2021, two High-Level Climate Action Champions, the COP25 and COP26 Presidents, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary launched the Davos’ World Economic Forum’s ‘Race to Zero Breakthroughs’ initiative.

More than 130 countries pledged in Glasgow to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Despite well-known setbacks, the COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact has been hailed as a breakthrough on the “path to a safer future”.

Before COP26, many cities, regions, businesses, investors and higher education institutions joined the 120 countries already committed then. Achieving net-zero via offset trading has thus become the main climate action distraction.

Following difficult, protracted negotiations after the 2015 Paris Agreement (PA), Article 6 was the last of its 29 Articles agreed to. Article 6 unifies carbon offset trading standards in order to minimize ‘double counting’.

Offsetting allows countries and companies to continue emitting GHGs instead of cutting them. Buying offsets lets them claim their emissions have been ‘cancelled’. Thus, offset markets have slowed climate action in the rich North, responsible for two-thirds of cumulative emissions.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Cheap cheats
Clearly, Article 6 does not stop emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs. The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) also enables not cutting GHG production by paying others to do so. Thus, offset markets enable the wealthy to avoid cutting GHG discharges at little cost.

But why pay for emission cuts which would have happened anyway, even without being paid for via offset sales? At best, net-zero is a zero-sum game maintaining atmospheric GHG levels. But progress requires CO2 reduction, i.e., being net-negative, not just net-zero.

Many carbon credits sold as offsets do not additionally remove carbon as claimed. For example, J.P. Morgan, Disney and BlackRock have all paid millions to protect forests not even under threat. A CEO agreed its offset – buying into a Tanzania forestry programme – “is cheating”.

The Economist sees carbon offsets as “cheap cheats”. By ramping up the supply of offsets, prices were kept low. Much scope to game the system remains. Energy-intensive companies collude and lobby against high carbon prices, insisting they damage competitiveness.

Often buying in bulk, they pay too little for carbon credits to incentivize switching to renewable energy. Averaging only US$3 per tonne of CO2 in 2018 cannot accelerate desirable energy transitions.

Less than 5% of all offsets actually reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. A 2016 European Commission study of CDM offset projects found 85% provided no environmental benefits.

Making money instead
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – a US$130 trillion investor club of over 450 financial firms in 45 countries – was launched at COP26 in Glasgow. It is chaired by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, now UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.

The GFANZ claims to be leveraging the power of big finance to innovatively achieve the PA goal of keeping the temperature rise over pre-industrial levels under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Advocates claim this will unlock trillions of dollars to protect forests, increase renewable energy generation and otherwise mitigate global warming. But GFANZ does not even seek to cut finance for GHG-intensive industries.

GFANZ members pay ‘experts’, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments to achieve net-zero ‘pathways’. Offset markets have enabled environmental NGOs to make money from supposed climate mitigating projects or by certifying other schemes.

Meanwhile, big businesses burnish their green credentials with offset purchases. After all, there are no agreed metrics to ensure portfolio alignment with the PA. Unsurprisingly, the Marshall Islands’ climate envoy urges remaining “vigilant against greenwashing”.

Touting market solutions, the World Bank has noted a recent surge in demand from major financial investors, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lansdowne Partners. But much goes to profits from arbitrage, speculation or trading for third parties – not decarbonization or net-zero.

Even Larry Fink – CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager – is sceptical, “We are lying to ourselves if we think we can do it just by conveniently asking banks and financial service companies, public companies, to conform to TCFD reporting. We are creating the biggest capital arbitrage of our lifetimes.”

Selling the sky
Offset markets have meant new opportunities to create new tradable assets. By aggregating all GHG emissions – from fossil fuels, deforestation, landfills, agriculture, etc. – profitable new financial products have been engineered for emissions trading and carbon credits.

The implicit premise is that market-based approaches always work best to address problems, in this case, to reduce GHG emissions. They do not distinguish between ‘luxury emissions’ and those due to the poor’s livelihoods.

Meanwhile, the world’s wealthiest 1% produces twice the total carbon emissions of the poorest 50%! Worse, emissions from private jets, mega-yachts and space travel of the super-rich greatly exacerbate global warming.

As with CDM and voluntary offset markets, the burden of emissions reduction has been shifted from North to South. While rich countries continue emitting GHGs, developing countries are now expected to ‘come clean’!

But no money for poor
At the GFANZ launch, Mark Carney claimed, “Make no mistake, the money is here, if the world wants to use it”. But developing countries are still waiting to see the promised US$100bn yearly to help finance their mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Following strong US opposition at the Article 6 negotiations, developing countries failed to secure ‘international transfers of mitigation outcomes’, i.e., mandatory contributions to the Adaptation Fund from the proceeds of international emissions trading among parties to the PA.

The US and European Union also successfully blocked a ‘loss and damage’ fund to finance recovery and reconstruction after climate disasters. Thus, Glasgow failed to deliver any significant additional climate finance for poor countries – for climate change adaptation as well as losses and damages.

 

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