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Effective digital intervention for unorganised workers needs to be supported by a strengthened non-digital infrastructure. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS.

By External Source
Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

The Government of India launched the e-Shram portal with the mandate of registering 380,000,000 unorganised workers in the country. The portal aims to bridge the gap in unorganised workers’ ability to access social welfare and employment benefits by issuing an e-Shram card (or Shramik card) upon registration.

This card assigns each worker a unique 12-digit number, which enables access to social security and employment benefits. The government also plans to use the data collected via the portal to create India’s first Aadhaar-seeded National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW).

At its core, this one-of-a-kind initiative is a welcome change as it will systematically bring unorganised workers under one umbrella. By expanding the scope of defining the term ‘worker’, it enables the inclusion of erstwhile excluded categories of domestic and migrant workers.

Failed attempts by workers to access the digital portal draws attention to the importance of strengthening non-digital infrastructure. This will improve access and effectiveness of digital interventions for the poor and marginalised unorganised workforce, whose reality is marred by a stark digital divide

The portal offers both online and offline registration routes. However, as described below, failed attempts by workers to access the digital portal draws attention to the importance of strengthening non-digital infrastructure. This will improve access and effectiveness of digital interventions for the poor and marginalised unorganised workforce, whose reality is marred by a stark digital divide.

Moreover, insights from workers attempting to access and register on the portal highlight the need for proactive and effective collaboration between employers, workers collectives, and civil society organisations (CSOs). This will help the portal deliver to its target beneficiaries.

 

Barriers in access to devices and the internet

Attempts to register three migrant domestic workers working in New Delhi—two from West Bengal (Amira and Nur) and one from Madhya Pradesh (Rita Devi)—shed light on the barriers in access, awareness, and ability to claim to benefits that many erstwhile excluded groups face.

The first attempt to digitally register Amira failed as she could not access the e-Shram portal using her keypad handset that had no internet. Nur was next—she was unable to access the website as the page was incompatible with her 2G internet connection and handset. And Rita, who did not have a mobile phone, relied on her employer to return her family’s calls.

 

Barriers in access to mobile number–seeded Aadhaar

We then tried using a desktop interface for registration. Amira was unable to register as her phone number did not match the mobile number linked to her Aadhaar. “In the migration to Delhi by train, I lost the registered number that my husband and I used… as a domestic worker, I had never used that number or Aadhaar to get any employment benefits… I didn’t know such benefits existed.”

Since Amira had not previously accessed employment welfare benefits which required mobile–Aadhaar authentication, she was unaware of the need to update her mobile number over the years. Through the process of trying to register her using Aadhaar, what Amira was most sceptical about was the misuse of her Aadhaar on an online portal that she did not have information about. She said, “This won’t take away my family’s PDS entitlements back in Bengal, right?”

For Nur and Rita, online registration on the portal failed because their Aadhaar was not attached to a mobile number. As the online e-Shram portal requires a mobile number-Aadhaar authentication, the workers were unable to use the digital intervention to their advantage.

In all three cases, failure to register online highlighted the need for workers to rely on common service centres (CSCs) and kiosks for assistance to register online and get their Aadhaar linked, thus depending on non-digital infrastructure to claim digital welfare benefits.

This is in tandem with findings from previous reports, which showcase that migrant workers’ precarity is reinforced due to the challenges they face during the process of updating their Aadhaar. Discussions with the team from Chalo Network, a financial inclusion initiative tell us that migrant workers face barriers firstly due to the limited awareness about the process, and secondly due to the time and financial cost involved.

This was especially noted during the pandemic when workers faced limited access to welfare due to issues in updating Aadhaar, which made them rely on non-digital infrastructure and intermediaries for support.

 

Creating an inclusive and conducive ecosystem for e-Shram beneficiaries

As the government takes steps towards building India’s Aadhaar-seeded NDUW and ease unorganised workers’ access to welfare benefits, few gaps remain to be filled. Filling these gaps is essential to effectively incorporating India’s 90 percent informal workforce that has so far remained on the margin of employment-related welfare benefits.

The government and welfare ecosystem need to address the bottlenecks which impinge on workers’ ability to effectively use the infrastructure to claim these benefits. Some key areas to be considered are:

1. Bridging the digital divide
Unorganised workers account for 92 percent of India’s workforce. In India, only 4.4 percent rural and 42 percent urban households have access to the internet, which is further skewed due to gender and regional disparity.

• Poorer states like Odisha averaged at 5.8 percent internet access in rural areas while accounting for 81.5 percent unorganised workforce.
• Only 21 percent women have access to mobile internet services.

In this digitally unequal landscape, the hope for an organic digital uptake of e-Shram seems a distant dream. However, the use of existing non-digital welfare infrastructure—welfare boards, fair price shops (FPS), CSC agents, and CSOs—which are present at the grassroots and have been working with unorganised workers might propel a speedy and effective uptake.

2. Reinforcing trust and reach
Historically, many unorganised workers have remained outside the scope of employment-related benefits by the state. Noting their first-time inclusion, there is a need to create awareness and trust among the beneficiaries and the employment ecosystem about the advantages of registering on the portal.

As informality remains a feature of not merely state-worker relations but also worker-employer relations, it is important to reinforce trust among workers and their employers about the merits that the initiative holds. Here, grounded awareness campaigns with the use of multilingual posters and voice-based awareness initiatives will encourage registration uptake, especially among migrants, women, and adolescents workers, who presently remain marginalised due to literacy and language constraints.

3. Strengthening non-digital infrastructure
Effective digital intervention for unorganised workers needs to be supported by a strengthened non-digital infrastructure. To create impact at scale, the government should invest in the training and capacity building of non-digital infrastructure, including CSC and kiosks, which will be the first step for workers to use the portal effectively.

Additionally, the existing network of last-mile delivery agents from other government interventions such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and Public Distribution System (PDS), among others, can be capitalised to create awareness and reach beneficiaries.

4. Avoiding workers’ self-selection out of the benefits
The e-Shram portal extends social welfare benefits to categories such as domestic and migrant workers, who so far have been excluded from the welfare infrastructure. It calls for special attention to be given to promote awareness about entitlements among workers whose labour has been excluded both in the policy and societal realm.

Accounting for the historical gendered exclusion of women’s domestic work in the realm of policy, a majority of domestic workers remain unaware of their rights and the entitlements they are eligible for. This is worse when workers are migrants in destination states where they have limited bargaining power vis-a-vis their employers. In this context, a proactive awareness campaign will help avoid workers’ self-exclusion and promote equitable inclusion as beneficiaries.

5. Integrating employers and CSOs as stakeholders
Lastly, noting the informal relation between employers and employees in the unorganised sector, it is critical to work with CSOs, employers, and intermediaries such as thekedars and contractors to enable an ecosystem that focuses on benefits to workers.

Nudging employers to encourage registration may potentially benefit the uptake, along with creating more awareness about the entitlements that unorganised workers can benefit from, without any penalty to employers. In particular, CSO integration with e-Shram can be seen in two ways.

First, by enabling workers access through non-governmental volunteer-based registration in their existing programmes. Second, by partnering with CSOs for effective delivery of benefits, similar to previous attempts in the health and education domains. Effective grassroots integration can provide a pathbreaking space for collaboration and strengthening of the welfare ecosystem for unorganised workers.

 

Harshita Sinha is a PhD Candidate at the London School of Economics working on migrant workers and the Indian informal labour market. She is also a migration fellow with India Migration Now and Bandhu Urban Tech. Her work looks at the intersection of citizenship and informal labour regimes in urban destination states. She has recently curated Voices of Informality, a knowledge platform which aims to bring forth grassroots stories on informality for practice-based action.

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

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“People say that boys work in technology, but I think girls can also do it because when I started working on it, I really enjoyed it and it inspired me for the future, " says one of the Junior Regional Winners of the 2021 Technovation challenge, a UNDP supported programme that invites girls and young women to work in teams to code mobile applications and help solve real-world problems through technology. Day of the Girl Child October 11 Credit: UN Technovation

By Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
NEW YORK, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

The theme of this year’s annual International Day of the Girl Child, on October 11, “Digital generation. Our generation.”, recognizes the digital transformation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the pandemic accelerated the transition to online learning, working and networking, it also accelerated women and girl’s risk of being left behind.

In 2020, more than 60 million women in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) had no access to the mobile internet and so, were more likely than men to miss out on learning and working opportunities.

Access, ownership and use of digital tools are not gender-neutral: For instance, parents may be stricter with girls than boys in the use of mobile phones and activities that require the use of the internet, while households with limited computing resources might redirect these to boys and men over girls and women, often tasked with domestic chores and unpaid work. Factors such as affordability and cost also affect women and girls disproportionally.

Moreover, social norms, gender bias and a lack of support from the family and teachers often dissuade girls and women from choosing education programmes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and from pursuing careers in these fields.

19-year-old South African girl Sebabatso Ncephe (left) developed an app – Afya Yangu, or “My Health” in Swahili. By allowing hospitals to directly communicate with patients, the app helps patients maintain privacy and dignity. Credit: UNICEF/Mosibudi Ratlebjane

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, one in three girls report being discouraged by their families from choosing STEM subjects more broadly at university, while in Ukraine 23 percent of women aged 15-24 report a lack of self-confidence as the main reason for not pursuing a career in technology. With fewer women pursuing STEM fields, the scarcity of women role models for the younger generation persists, reinforcing the problem.

Gender equality in STEM

We must all join forces to advance gender equality in STEM. Measures include removing gender stereotypes in education, raising awareness and promoting STEM subjects to girls and women, and offering career guidance to encourage girls to consider studying in fields dominated by men.

Our regional advocacy platform, STEM4All, is engaging with multiple partners – from policymakers and academic institutions to women and girls themselves– in sharing knowledge, building coalitions and making connections to advance gender equality in STEM.

Earlier this year, the platform facilitated a ‘Girls in Tech: Central Asia’ event, which brought together leaders from the tech industry and ICT role models to share experiences and offer advice to more than 120 girls and women in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

One of our goals in the platform is to profile high-impact initiatives by our partners, government, and the private sector. For instance, the Engineer Girls of Turkey project is a wonderful model of how we can increase the employability of qualified women in engineering with scholarships, internships and mentoring, and coaching support.

In Azerbaijan, UNDP has partnered with USAID in piloting a nine-month mentorship programme to equip young women and girls with tools and advice to progress in STEM fields. The platform is powered by the Accelerator Labs, a UNDP learning network created to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Future of work

While the demand for workers in STEM occupations is only expected to grow in the future, in Europe and Central Asia, the share of women researchers in engineering and technology crosses 40 percent only in a few countries. The number of women in computer science is also particularly low compared to men: women are only 18 percent of ICT specialists in the EU, while just 16 percent of founders in the ICT and tech fields in Southern Caucasus and Western CIS are women.

Cultural and social norms, a lack of childcare support, and inadequate parental leave policies are major barriers to women entering and progressing in careers of their choice. These obstacles are amplified manifold in STEM fields, whose men-dominated workplaces and entrenched gender stereotypes present formidable impediments for many talented women.

Gender equality in STEM and in the future of work is a goal unto itself. We cannot deny half of humanity the opportunity to enter and succeed in this high-growth sector which powers the green and digital transition.

But there are also compelling economic and social reasons for us to strive towards this goal.

In the EU, for example, closing the gender gap in STEM could lead to an additional 1.2 million jobs. More women graduating in STEM subjects and choosing careers in higher-wage sectors can gradually increase their average earnings, helping to close the gender wage gap.

The world and the future of work need women’s skills and perspectives, talent and leadership, as much as those of men. This requires all our concerted actions to close the gender digital gap and leverage the power of technology to advance girls’ and women’s education, leadership and equal future.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger is Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator of UNDP, and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS. She was appointed to this position by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in August 2018 and assumed her duties in October 2018.

 

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Delegation of the People’s Republic of China making its debut at the UN Assembly Hall. Credit: Xinhua

By Siddharth Chatterjee
BEIJING, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

China was one of the architects of the United Nations and was the first signatory of the UN Charter in San Francisco in 1945.

But it was only in October 1971, with the Chinese delegation led by Mr. Qiao Guanhua, that China’s representation at the UN resumed. Since that time, the UN has had the great privilege of witnessing and supporting China in achieving one of the greatest periods of socio-economic progress in world history.

Now, on the 50th anniversary of China in the UN, I am honoured to serve as the UN Resident Coordinator, a post I took earlier this year.

While I took up my post in Beijing on 08 February 2021, I am only just beginning to understand its rich tapestry of over 5,000 years of civilization. The UN in China has had the privilege to shape and witness the profound economic and social transformations that have occurred since reform and opening-up.

As we commemorate a half-century of cooperation, a question naturally emerges: Which way now for the UN and China?

This is a weighty question, as China and the world are at a critical juncture. Tentatively emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with many countries still struggling terribly. Staring down the threats of climate change, with record-setting heat, fires, storms, and other disasters. Counting down the years in this “Decade of Action” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

China’s standard-setting leadership in past decades gives me confidence that we can achieve even greater things in the years to come.

CHINA’S RECORD-BREAKING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening-up Policy began to transform the nation, as evidenced, for example, in Shenzhen, which changed from a fishing village on the Pearl River Delta into an international hub for research and innovation in a single generation.

And in 1979, China chose to accept development assistance from the UN, learning from its long experience in poverty alleviation and industrial and agricultural growth.

China’s success in the more than 40 years since then has been nothing short of miraculous. During this time, China:

• Lifted over 750 million people out of absolute poverty.
• Invested in public health and education, investing in human capital thus making possible a happier and healthier workforce that contributed to economic productivity.
• Became the world’s manufacturing centre, based on a growth model of foreign investments, resource-intensive manufacturing, cheap labour, and exports.
• Multiplied its per capita GDP from US $180 in 1979 to an incredible $12,000 today.

The signs of this progress are evident not just in statistics, but in daily quality-of-life matters. Throughout China now lie the classic hallmarks of a market economy, with opulent shops from luxury brands, foreign and domestic. A far cry from what I saw as a young boy growing up near Chinatown in my native Kolkata, India, though fondly remembered as a warren of alleys, narrow aisles of food markets, elderly men playing board games in parks, with Chinese characters on the signs overhead.

For example, in Beijing during the early 1980s, cabbage was often the only vegetable on menus. With help from the UN’s development agency in China, availability at markets expanded — supporting the diversification of domestic vegetables and introducing new ones from abroad, such as broccoli.

This startling success is on track to continue. China’s per capita GDP is projected to more than double by 2025, reaching over $25,000, adjusted for purchasing power. The country’s surging economy is set to overtake 56 countries in the world’s per-capita income rankings during the quarter-century through 2025, the International Monetary Fund projects.

No less an authority than Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a United Nations SDG Advocate and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, has called China an “inspiration” in stopping the pandemic and ending poverty.

This progress is all the more remarkable considering the hit that the pandemic has delivered to the global economy. China’s generosity and leadership on this front are commendable.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the 9th World Peace Forum in Beijing “to build a “Great Wall of Immunity” to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, challenges remain. As with any economy at this stage of development, the relentless pursuit of high growth is reaching its natural limits, and China faces new economic, social, and environmental challenges.

NEW PRIORITIES FOR AGENDA 2030 AND BEYOND

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are meant to be achieved by the year 2030, and we are now in what is called the “Decade of Action.” I see three areas for close cooperation at this critical juncture.

First, a new sustainable development model. The Government recognizes slower economic growth as the “new normal.” Changing demographic, labour, and investment realities present China with new obstacles in addressing food security, pervasive inequalities, and cost-effectiveness in universal healthcare.

In a post-Xiaokang society, China needs to embrace innovations and services that drive equitable and inclusive progress, dealing with the legacies of rapid expansion to achieve the SDGs and leave no one behind.

Second, climate change. As a consequence of its large population and economy, China is the world’s single largest emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for a quarter of global emissions. Having recognized the environmental costs of this development model, President Xi Jinping has set a bold ambition for China to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

This enormous feat will require a massive transition in how China’s economy works and its population lives every day. Seismic shifts in investments and technologies will be needed. Here, China’s recent pledge to end all financing of coal plants abroad and redirect its support for developing countries towards green and low carbon energy is most welcome.

We will need to sustain this momentum ahead of and following the COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, the second UN Sustainable Transport Conference in Beijing, and the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Third, multilateralism. China is a champion for multilateral efforts to address global challenges. China has the will, knowledge, and resources to contribute enormously to the SDGs and position itself as an exceptional member of the community of nations.

As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described, “In its successful efforts in the fight against extreme poverty, China’s accomplishments in the past decades set a powerful example that can be shared with other countries, through South-South Cooperation”.

Today, China is the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget and has sent more peacekeepers to UN missions than any other permanent member of the Security Council. China also played a vital role in shaping the consensus needed for the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

Future efforts should emphasize initiatives that expand vaccine access, grant debt relief to lower-income countries, and provide sustainable financing for infrastructure and climate efforts.

On this front, we hope the Global Development Initiative announced by President Xi Jinping recently will accelerate needed international cooperation efforts and we extend our support to contribute our expertise, in line with international norms and standards.

CHINA AND THE UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations family in China is in lockstep with China’s vision. The 2030 Agenda and the recently agreed-upon Country Framework are the blueprints for building on the gains of the past.

In this Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs, the UN can support this ambition and convene, connect and catalyze stakeholders in leveraging China’s development experience to benefit other countries, especially those in Africa, in the spirit of South-South Cooperation.

As the world deals with the pandemic, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres put forward a “Common Agenda” at the 76th Session of the General Assembly, where he said, “We face a moment of truth. Now is the time to deliver…restore trust…[and] inspire hope. Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together. That is the raison d’être of our United Nations”.

October 2021 will also be time for the UN and China to celebrate our 50-year relationship. China and the UN will reimagine, innovate, reinvigorate and continue the hard and daily work and dedicate ourselves anew to creating lasting prosperity for the people of China and all the world.

The author is Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in China

 

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2.2 billion young people below the age of 25 don't have internet connections at home, and girls are more likely to lack access. Young girls in Guinea. Credit: Karl Grobl/EDC

By Margaret Butler, Julia Fan, and Amy West
NEW YORK, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

This year’s International Day of the Girl theme, Digital Generation, Our Generation, celebrates the potential of digital technologies while calling for the inclusion of all girls in accessing technology. The digital revolution will not be realized if girls without access to digital solutions are left behind. For years, advocates of technology for development have been repeating the mantra that technology is not a panacea. Yet in racing to connect, catch up, and create greater access, we ignore at our own peril the inconsistent or non-existent household- and community-level access girls have to technologies. While digital solutions are available and evolving all the time, they should be accompanied by hybrid methods which include new ways to use analog technologies, so that existing local resources are reimagined and redistributed in ways that support more girls learning.

If we want to ensure equal access to technology to close the gender digital divide, these on-the-ground realities are critical to decision-making and planning. To be clear, the global COVID-19 pandemic amplified digital platforms for learning, training, and connecting, but at the same time some 2.2 billion young people below the age of 25 still do not have internet access at home. Girls do not have equal access to or equal ownership of phones or tablets in the home, and they lack opportunities to gain the digital literacy, which would enable them to grow their own learning, expand their information sources, or communicate with others. The gender digital divide has increased in recent years, with only 15% of women in lower- and middle- income countries using the internet. Globally, girls have significantly less access to the internet, tablets, mobile phones, radio, and television than boys, further exacerbated by household poverty levels, geography, disability, and competing social cultural norms. An estimated 52% of girls have to borrow a mobile phone if they want access compared to 28% of boys. These technological gender gaps are most often due to girls and women lacking access, skills, familiarity with tools, representation and participation in STEM, and leadership and resource support to become champions within the technology sector.

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), which is made up of 76 organizations around the world that work with and for girls, has seen the effectiveness of hybrid approaches to technology solutions firsthand. Several of its members focus on strengthening the enabling environments that will reach and retain girls as participants in digital education, health and wellbeing interventions, and youth development opportunities that leverage existing local resources that are fit-for-purpose.

At AMPLIFY Girls, a CAG member based in Kenya, recent research in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda demonstrates that for girls, lack of access to remote virtual learning tools and resources is a clear barrier to staying in or returning to school. Girls do not have regular use of remote learning devices, such as radios, television, smart phones, or computers to participate in virtual classrooms. When directly asked about government-sponsored radio or television lessons, girls said that they did not participate because there was no radio or TV at home. For those that did have a radio or TV at home, a male family member had priority access and they were burdened regularly with household chores.

African organizations are often overlooked as innovators in the technology space, yet are providing contextually relevant services to close the gender digital divide. AkiraChix in Kenya recruits young women from the most remote communities in eastern Africa and invests in year-long training to help them successfully launch their careers in technology. Jifundishe runs an independent study program that young mothers, historically banned from returning to school in Tanzania, can access to complete both secondary and tertiary education through self-paced learning.

In the Philippines, another CAG member, Education Development Center (EDC), conducted early assessments on gendered use and access of technologies only to learn that few girls own computers or tablets in rural areas in particular, making it difficult to access virtual education and training offerings. Skills development training and materials in those contexts, therefore, have been disseminated through a blended learning approach comprising paper-based, self-directed curriculum for home-based learning, reinforced by interactive audio instruction and home visits by peer leaders and mentors (among these, women).

EDC also utilizes interactive audio instruction and blended learning at-scale to strengthen access and learning of soft skills, literacy and work readiness—this has been particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic, where in-person learning has come to a standstill. In Uganda, EDC has delivered a combination of interactive audio instruction and small group-based home learning activities, including HIV/GBV prevention and life skills curriculum to reinforce household protection messages and mitigate the high risks faced by girls during the pandemic. Radio remains an accessible and low-cost analog method for achieving learning and health messaging at scale.

Research by CAG members Women Deliver and Girl Effect in India, Malawi, and Rwanda show that digital technologies also hold promise for increasing access to sexual and reproductive health information for girls, but this increased information alone is not enough to produce improved health outcomes. While girls may access health information online, girls are wary of acting on that information because they are unsure of its validity and accuracy, as well as fear social stigma. Linking online information to appropriate youth-friendly medical and community services allows girls to verify that information and seek care.

As these examples and research demonstrate, hybrid digital and analog solutions are not only the most inclusive, but also lead to improved learning and development outcomes, especially for girls. Indeed, digital access is critical to development and innovation. But we should not throw any technology – old or new – at a challenge without ensuring that girls and boys return to school, and have equal access to the content, the tools, and the skilled and knowledgeable teachers and mentors who are vital to sustained uptake and learning outcomes.

On this International Day of the Girl, we call for the broadest access possible to critical health information and education, and we emphasize the importance of contextual relevance in choosing what tools – whether analog or digital – are most effective in achieving impact. If we do this, we create greater opportunities for girls to engage with learning first and then technologies, which ultimately will strengthen multiple development outcomes.

The authors are Margaret Butler of AMPLIFY Girls, Julia Fan of Women Deliver, and Amy West of Education Development Center. Amplify Girls, Education Development Center, and Women Deliver are active members in the Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), a member-led and driven organization dedicated to supporting, investing in, and improving the lives of adolescent girls.

 

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Food is distributed to people in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

The first round of food distributions to people in Afar and Amhara regions impacted by the spread of the conflict in northern Ethiopia has been completed, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on October 5. However, distributions of supplies into Tigray are lagging behind due to various impediments to the movement of humanitarian aid, the UN agency warned. Credit: WFP/Claire Nevill

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

A growing diplomatic battle is being played out at the United Nations between Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and one of the world body’s member states: the politically-troubled Ethiopia which is desperately in need of international humanitarian assistance.

But the war of words – in an institution where the Secretary-General is traditionally considered subservient to all 193 member states – is rare by UN standards forcing Guterres to exercise his “right of reply” in the Security Council, the most powerful body at the UN.

When the Secretary-General was confronted with a question at a news briefing last week specifically about his right of reply “which we had never –ever— seen in the Security Council”, it triggered the question: “is this an expression of the level of your displeasure, at the moment, with the Ethiopian Ambassador?”

“It is my duty to defend the honor of the United Nations,” Guterres shot back.

The brouhaha followed the Ethiopian government’s decision last week to declare seven UN officials, mostly doling out humanitarian assistance, ”persona non grata” (PNG).

In international diplomacy, PNG is based on the principle of reciprocity: “you expel our diplomats and we expel yours” as evidenced during the Cold War era between the UN and the then Soviet Union.

In a May 2018 piece, a former Diplomatic Editor of The Times Michael Binyon pointed out that expelling diplomats en masse became a characteristic of the Cold War, when diplomats from the Soviet Union and its allies were often suspected of being intelligence agents and were ordered to leave – usually after a spy scandal.

Inevitably, the Russians and their allies retaliated, kicking out western diplomats. The largest single expulsion was in 1971, when Britain’s Conservative government expelled 90 of the Soviet Union’s 550-stong embassy in London and stopped a further 15 diplomats from returning.

But the UN does not have diplomatic reciprocity, nor does Guterres have the power or the authority to expel Ethiopian diplomats either from the UN or from New York city.

The Ethiopians say the seven UN officials were booted out of the country because they “interfered in the domestic affairs of Ethiopia”.

But as of Friday, there was no response from Ethiopia to the Secretary-General’s request for concrete evidence for the expulsion.

Guterres also argues that the concept of persona non grata applies to relations between sovereign nations, not relations between the UN and its member states.

Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie Amde of Ethiopia said his country was not under any legal obligation to justify or explain its decisions, and listed allegations of “misconduct” by UN officials.

The dispute was apparently triggered by the fact that the UN was also providing humanitarian assistance to rebel forces in a country where nearly seven million people require such aid.

When it provides urgently-needed food and medicine, the UN says, its distribution is not guided by politics, but by human factors.

Kul Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, a UN agency which has provided humanitarian assistance to millions of people world-wide, told IPS: “Yes, I am aware of several UNICEF and UN Reps being PNG’ed, but never did the UN take as strong and categoric public position as in this case”.

In the past, he said, the UN Secretaries-General and heads of agencies have protested and condemned such expulsions, “but I do not recall the UN ever questioning the offending government’s right to declare UN international staff persona non grata.”

Thus, it came as a (pleasant) surprise that in the case, involving UN staff PNGed by the Ethiopian government, the Secretary-General made a bold public statement questioning the actions and statements of the Ethiopian government both to the media and at the UN Security Council.

“I hope and trust that the S-G’s new-found position has been carefully reviewed and corroborated by the UN Legal Office and that it will be sustained –if the case were challenged at the International Court of Justice.”

In the past, Gautam pointed out, UN staff being PNGed by authoritarian governments for taking a principled stand in the best interest of the UN or the causes they serve (e.g. the best interest of children, in the case of UNICEF), was often seen as a badge of honour for the staff member concerned.

After all, UN staff pledge their allegiance to the UN Charter that speaks of “We the peoples of the United Nations”, and not “We the governments of the United Nations”.

And UN staff are specifically barred from taking instructions by their national governments or host country governments, he argued.

Humanitarian aid being delivered to the Tigray region of Ethiopia by a convoy of 50 trucks last month. UN appeals for faster passage for aid convoys to Ethiopia’s Tigray. Credit: WFP

“Some governments would prefer that the UN and its agencies simply send them a cheque as part of their cooperation. But the UN General Assembly as well as the governing boards of UN agencies, Funds and Programs expect the UN staff on the ground to carefully monitor the utilization and effectiveness of the support they provide,“ he said.

“Let us hope that the UN S-G’s well-considered response to the unilateral action by the Ethiopian government will lead to empowering UN international civil servants to carry out their humanitarian and development activities without any fear or favour in the best interest of the people to whom such support is intended.”

Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director Emeritus, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, told IPS “Lots of UN officials have been declared PNG by a country in which they were posted. SGs sometimes complain and sometimes keep quiet”.

Stephen Zunes, a Foreign Policy in Focus columnist and senior analyst, who has written extensively on the politics of the Security Council, told IPS: “I cannot recall any previous time a Secretary General has exercised his right to reply.”

But this is not the first time UN officials have been expelled or declared persona non grata, he pointed out.

Most recently, Morocco expelled most of the MINURSO peacekeepers from occupied Western Sahara and invoked PNG status on the Secretary General’s Personal Envoy Christopher Ross.

The difference is that with Morocco and with the other previous cases, the government in question had at least one permanent member of the UN Security Council as a staunch ally, thereby limiting the Secretary General’s ability to confront them so decisively, said Zunes.

“This unprecedented action regarding Ethiopia may be as much a reflection of Ethiopia’s relative diplomatic isolation as it is the seriousness of their anti-UN action,” said Zunes, a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.

Gautam said, Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Abiy Ahmed, like Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, has deeply disappointed the international community by committing or condoning serious human rights violations against the people of an ethnic minority community in his own country.

The fact that some militants within the ethnic community may also have committed atrocities, does not justify the harsh and disproportionate actions against innocent civilians by the ruling government of a democratic state which must be held to a higher standard, he argued.

“While there have been several cases of UN officials expelled from various countries by authoritarian governments, Ethiopia declaring as many as seven UN officials providing humanitarian assistance as persona non grata (PNG) on seemingly trumped-up charges, is unprecedented.”

Also unprecedented is the position taken by the UN Secretary-General, whose spokesperson stated that “…it is the long standing legal position of the Organization not to accept the application of the doctrine of persona non grata with respect to United Nations officials”.

He went on to say that “This is a doctrine that applies to diplomatic agents accredited by one state to another state. The application of this doctrine to United Nations officials is contrary to obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and the privileges and immunities to be accorded to the United Nations and its officials”.

 

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