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As the Taliban reassert complete control over the country, the achievements of the past 20 years, especially those made to protect women’s rights and equality, are at risk if the international community once again abandons Afghanistan. Credit: Shelly Kittleson/IPS

By External Source
Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

As the Taliban takes control of the country, Afghanistan has again become an extremely dangerous place to be a woman.

Even before the fall of Kabul on Sunday, the situation was rapidly deteriorating, exacerbated by the planned withdrawal of all foreign military personnel and declining international aid.

In the past few weeks alone, there have been many reports of casualties and violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The United Nations Refugee Agency says about 80% of those who have fled since the end of May are women and children.

What does the return of the Taliban mean for women and girls?

 

The history of the Taliban

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, enforcing harsh conditions and rules following their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The United Nations Refugee Agency says about 80% of those who have fled since the end of May are women and children.

What does the return of the Taliban mean for women and girls?

Under their rule, women had to cover themselves and only leave the house in the company of a male relative. The Taliban also banned girls from attending school, and women from working outside the home. They were also banned from voting.

Women were subject to cruel punishments for disobeying these rules, including being beaten and flogged, and stoned to death if found guilty of adultery. Afghanistan had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

 

The past 20 years

With the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the situation for women and girls vastly improved, although these gains were partial and fragile.

Women now hold positions as ambassadors, ministers, governors, and police and security force members. In 2003, the new government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires states to incorporate gender equality into their domestic law.

The 2004 Afghan Constitution holds that “citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law”. Meanwhile, a 2009 law was introduced to protect women from forced and under-age marriage, and violence.

According to Human Rights Watch, the law saw a rise in the reporting, investigation and, to a lesser extent, conviction, of violent crimes against women and girls.

While the country has gone from having almost no girls at school to tens of thousands at university, the progress has been slow and unstable. UNICEF reports of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school some 60% are girls.

 

A return to dark days

Officially, Taliban leaders have said they want to grant women’s rights “according to Islam”. But this has been met with great scepticism, including by women leaders in Afghanistan. Indeed, the Taliban has given every indication they will reimpose their repressive regime.

In July, the United Nations reported the number of women and girls killed and injured in the first six months of the year nearly doubled compared to the same period the year before.

In the areas again under Taliban control, girls have been banned from school and their freedom of movement restricted. There have also been reports of forced marriages.

Women are putting burqas back on and speak of destroying evidence of their education and life outside the home to protect themselves from the Taliban.

As one anonymous Afghan woman writes in The Guardian:

I did not expect that we would be deprived of all our basic rights again and travel back to 20 years ago. That after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity.

Many Afghans are angered by the return of the Taliban and what they see as their abandonment by the international community. There have been protests in the streets. Women have even taken up guns in a rare show of defiance.

But this alone will not be enough to protect women and girls.

 

The world looks the other way

Currently, the US and its allies are engaged in frantic rescue operations to get their citizens and staff out of Afghanistan. But what of Afghan citizens and their future?

US President Joe Biden remains largely unmoved by the Taliban’s advance and the worsening humanitarian crisis. In an August 14 statement, he said:

an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.

And yet, the US and its allies — including Australia — went to Afghanistan 20 years ago on the premise of removing the Taliban and protecting women’s rights. However, most Afghans do not believe they have experienced peace in their lifetimes.

As the Taliban reassert complete control over the country, the achievements of the past 20 years, especially those made to protect women’s rights and equality, are at risk if the international community once again abandons Afghanistan.

Women and girls are pleading for help as the Taliban advance. We hope the world will listen.

Azadah Raz Mohammad, PhD student, The University of Melbourne and Jenna Sapiano, Australia Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer, Monash Gender Peace & Security Centre, Monash University

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

Two-thousand Afghans will be taken in following a request from the US, the refugee minister says.

Football for reconciliation, an event held between people involved the Colombian peace process. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged everyone involved in the sport sector to help advance climate action, combat discrimination and prejudice, and ensure that global sporting events leave a positive legacy. April 2021. Credit: UNVMC/Jennifer Moreno

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

Does sport need to change to better serve society? What can sport and development actors do better in the future? How can sport play a greater role in contributing to development and peace? Can we reimagine the role of sport? Can we resolve the conflict and contradictions inherent within sport?

These are some of guiding questions for a call for articles launched last April by the International Platform on Sport and Development, the most authoritative forum to promote and discuss the transformative role sports can have in the society.

The timing of the call could not have been more appropriate as by that time it was day by day becoming evident that the consequences of the pandemic would have been as lasting and devastating as few could have imagined just few weeks earlier.

With the Olympics Games just concluded and with the upcoming Paralympics Games starting soon, there is no better time to reignite the debate on the future of sport.

The questions at the basis of that call for articles kicked off an interesting discussion on possible shapes that sport could take in the years ahead.

Unfortunately, with multiple waves of Covid-19 coming and going, we got somehow used to what has been described as a new-normal and the debate on the future of sports is at risk of losing vibrancy and momentum.

Yet in certain regions, the pandemic brought in what could have been, earlier on, described as unimaginable decisions at levels of policy making.

Think about bold actions in the areas of climate change or a new emphasis on inequalities. Unfortunately, such groundbreaking actions, long due, are only going to benefit the citizens of certain nations, mostly those who have more robust finances and effective governance.

While there is certainly an emerging understanding that a better and fairer world would be able to achieve the Agenda 2030, still it must be a global undertaking in which least developed countries (LDCs) and lower middle income nations are also properly supported. We also need to find new champions to rethink the role that the entire sport sector can have in society all over the world, not just in the North.

Can sports play a big role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Should sport for development remain a self-standing sector well-distinguished and separated from the sports industry or should it be part of a broader continuum?

Certainly, the Black Lives Matter movement proved that professional sports league in North America, while hardly can be turned into social businesses, can take a strong position in advocating for ending racism and create more equity.

Most of them with, the NBA in the frontrunner thanks to its players demanding a change from “business as usual” approach, are showing long term commitment to social justice with strong messaging and also with new initiatives at community levels.

Yet many other professional leagues have not shown the same level of sensitivity, perhaps reflecting the overall feelings within their supporters. In a country like Italy seeing football fans using far right, fascism inspired salutes and gestures, after all, has been almost normalized.

The conundrum is how we can ensure, on the one hand, that all professional, elites sports leagues are brought into a debate over their own responsibilities, drawing clear red lines on what it is expected as well as what is not going to be tolerated from them and on the other hand, how we can facilitate a stronger, much stronger connection between these professional sports and community level sports for development initiatives.

Surely finding answers to such questions will require a lot of education and openness to introspect and rethink old assumptions.

With the area of development being led by small organizations been badly affected by the pandemic, how can we truly ensure that more social consciousness at elite’ and professional levels also turn into consistent support to help scale up such initiatives globally?

One issue concerning them is certainly about investing in metrics and capacity building.

Here it is where the Commonwealth is doing a great work, measuring the impact of sports for development even though we should also engage elite sports to rethink their contributions in the society and not only in terms of CSR.

On the capacity sides, more evidence is being created about what works the most and with the highest levels of impact but a lot will depend on the fact that more resources are needed and this can only happen if we think long term and we determine the inextricable links between sports for development and other dimensions of sport in general.

So a central issue is not just about how the niche sport for development can be better administered and promoted but the challenge is about creating anew a global governance for a better sport.

That’s why there is a strong case to re-imagine the sport sector as whole, making sports for development truly an integral part of it, not just a nice add on.

For this to happen elite and professional sports must reform and truly ensure that their profit-making machines sustain, at much bigger levels, grassroots levels amateur games and a pledge to substantially back initiatives till now considered as part of this standing alone “sport for development” sector.

We need a bold rethinking of the role sports can have at the UN and we need forward looking policy making to advocate for such drastic change.

Putting sport at the center of the global agenda implies doing away with silos approaches. It will require creativity, ingenuity and commitment and truly new innovative policy making.

New partnerships will be essential and that’s why the UN Secretary General should call for a global summit on sport where niche experts from sport for development can work with top athletes and industry leaders of elite sports’ leagues and federations to truly re-imagine the role of sports to achieve a better society.

Such forum can lead to a new “Global Agenda on Sport for 2030” and a way to create consensus on such new global sport agenda, could start with the High-Level Political Forum, HLPF the main discussion platform on the SDGs that can be used to highlight the societal potential of sport.

In 2022 the HLPF, the 10th, will focus on some crucial SDGs including SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender quality) among others and therefore we have a unique opportunity to leverage the power of sports to achieve concrete results in the areas of social development, reinvigorating the Agenda 2030 from a youth’s perspective.

The HLPF next year could become the launch-pad to mainstream sports, especially those explicitly with a societal focus (that must be considered as part of a larger continuum), at the core of the development agenda.

While issues related to the overall governance of sports and those specifically related to sport for development must also be tackled, we can start building a roadmap to re-imagine sport and let’s involve the heads of state and global leaders, many of which are passionate about it.

They must be part of the equation, and they must endorse and support such reform.

Without their engagement and without the involvement of some global sports stars, the status quo will prevail and a big opportunity to reboot and reset sport as a whole will be wasted.

Let’s not forget, sport, can truly become the core of “build forward better” movement.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer, co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO in Nepal, writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives.

Namibian elephants in Etosha. Poor sales at Namibian elephant auction, but future auctions could go ahead. Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

A heavily criticised Namibian government sale of elephants has attracted only a third of its expected sales as government officials admit that an international outcry when the plans were announced may have put buyers off.

The plan, announced last year, to sell 170 elephants to local and overseas buyers via auction met with widespread condemnation from conservationists and more than 100,000 people signed an online petition against it.

The Namibian government had said the sales would strike a balance between the conservation of elephants and management of the risks of human-elephant conflict – a claim conservationists have questioned.

But despite the relative lack of success – only 57 were bought – the government has not ruled out another auction in future and conservationists are worried about the fate of the elephants sold, but also the future of the endangered species in Namibia and the rest of Africa.

Mark Hiley of National Park Rescue, a non-governmental organisation that saves African Parks from closure, told IPS: “With only a third of Namibia’s wild elephant sale finding buyers, it’s clear that the international outcry and worldwide media has scared off some of the usual suspects, limiting the damage to Namibians’ fast-disappearing natural heritage.

“Under the guise of benefitting communities, African politicians are exaggerating their remaining stocks and taking the cash from immoral foreign powers for selling off their natural heritage. But until the millions of angry tweets turn into meaningful compensation for protecting these shared world assets, their destruction is inevitable.”

According to the Namibian government, the country’s elephant population has grown in recent decades, rising from around 7,500 in 1995 to 24,000 in 2019.

It had touted the auction as a way to reduce overpopulation and problems caused by it.

In an official statement passed to IPS, the Environment Ministry said the purpose of the auction had been to “reduce elephant numbers in specific areas to minimize human-elephant conflict which has become persistent” and had led to loss of life and disruption to people’s livelihoods.

It added that the money from the exports – the auction raised 5.9 million Namibian dollars (around USD 537 000) – would be reinvested in wildlife conservation in the country, “particularly… for human wildlife conflict management…”

However, some conservation groups have suggested the actual population size is much smaller than the government claims, at around 6 000. They say as much as 80% of the government’s quoted figure is ‘trans-boundary’ elephants moving between Namibia, Angola, Zambia, and Botswana.

This has raised doubts over the stated purpose of the sales.

“Having only a third of the elephants sold is better than all of them being sold, but there’s still no justification for selling them at all,” Dr Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist and project manager with the Environment & Development Group (EDG) in Oxford, told IPS.

“If there are problems with human-elephant conflict, auctioning off elephants are not the only solution. Elephants can be captured and moved somewhere else in their range, for example, and there are very good examples of human-elephant cohabitation in other countries,” he said.

Rachel Mackenna of the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) told IPS: “There is absolutely no evidence to support the notion that exporting a number of elephants will help with human-elephant conflict.

“Mitigation for human-elephant conflict requires a strategic and sustained approach and there are good examples of where this has been successful which requires political will and funding. Selling a couple of elephants to generate revenue – for what? human-elephant conflict mitigation initiatives? – is not a fix.”

Lack of transparency was cited as a serious concern by conservationists when the auction was first announced, coming soon after a scandal over bribes paid for Namibian fishing rights that led to the arrest of the Ministers of Justice and Fisheries. Both are in jail awaiting trial.

And there remains a worrying paucity of details about the sale even now, said Lindsay, pointing out that the government has not revealed who has bought the animals, nor where exactly they will be taken from.

Officials have said that the elephants which have been sold will be captured and removed from their current habitats. It has said that 42 of the pachyderms will be exported to international destinations – but has not said where – and that the other 15 will remain in Namibia under private ownership, but not given further details.

Before the auction, the government had identified four areas in the country from where any sold elephants would be taken. But it has not said which of these areas the 57 sold animals will come from.

“Where are these animals going to?” said Lindsay. “We don’t know. There is no detail. There has been no transparency at all in this. Also, where will these elephants be taken from? If you take them from certain areas the impact on the elephant population could be devastating.

“And if these animals end up in a captive situation that will be a life of misery for them. Of course, this is all speculation, we’re just guessing because we don’t know any of the details.”

Meanwhile, the government has suggested it will push on with another auction of the remaining elephants.

Environment Ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda told international media that in future the government “may run another auction if the situation dictates”.

Regardless of whether one is held or not, groups working on elephant conservation say they are resigned to an increasingly bleak future for the animals in Namibia and other countries too.

“The Namibian government, along with the governments of Botswana and Zimbabwe, want to commodify elephants. They appear to see the animals’ commercialisation as a means of conservation,” said Lindsay.

He added: “If Namibia exports live elephants, it could embolden other countries to do the same.”

Mackenna, agreed adding: “For years, the other Southern African countries with CITES Appendix II-listed elephants (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe) have been attempting to revive the international ivory trade, which has been prohibited since 1989, claiming they have too many elephants and ivory trade is a means to keep populations in check and generate revenue for conservation.

“CITES parties have roundly and repeatedly rejected these bids, showing how there is very little international appetite for ivory trade. Indeed, the vast majority of countries recognise the links between poaching, trafficking, and trade but Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe have become increasingly vocal in their intentions to circumvent CITES and their international commitments to elephant conservation so if they do not get permission to trade their ivory stockpiles, they may well start exploring live elephant trade.”

Others say the international community must do more to help secure pachyderms’ future, even offering financial incentives to African nations to preserve them.

Hiley said: “Compared to their population 100 years ago, just 5% of elephants survive today and they were finally declared officially endangered in March 2021. Their contribution to ecosystems, tourism, carbon capture, and more, likely values each elephant at seven-figures. But instead of harnessing this value and acting as the custodians of wildlife for future generations, governments are focussed on the short-term, flogging them off to the horrific zoo industry for peanuts.”

“The plight of Africa’s last elephants is no different to that of Brazil’s last rainforests; poor nations will always exploit the shared world assets which fall within their borders, until the world provides compensation for protecting them. Where are the short-term donors to help us halt these crimes against nature, until a global environment fund can finally safeguard our planet?”

 

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The draw for the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Cameroon on Tuesday with holders Algeria among the teams to avoid.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 2021 (IPS)

Decades of public health cuts have quietly taken a huge human toll, now even more pronounced with the pandemic. Austerity programmes, by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, have forced countries to cut public spending, including health provisioning.

‘Government is the problem’
“India’s COVID crisis: A deadly example of government failure”, “Government failures still hamper [UK] Covid-19 response”. Such headlines have become commonplace as the pandemic rages on, with no sign of ending soon. Their godparents deserve due recognition.

Anis Chowdhury

UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher claimed, “no government can do anything [good]… people look to themselves first… There is no such thing as society … quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate”.

US President Ronald Reagan declared, “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”. Inspired by them, government capacities and public sectors have been decimated in recent decades, ostensibly to liberate entrepreneurship and progress.

Four decades of defunding, delegitimization and demoralisation of governments and their personnel since Thatcher and Reagan have taken their toll. Unsurprisingly, most governments have failed to respond more adequately to the pandemic.

To justify social spending cuts, politicians of various hues the world over have been parroting mantras that government is too big and bad. ‘New Democrat’ US President Bill Clinton proudly declared the “era of big government is over”.

Neoliberal reforms worse
This ‘politics of small government’ legitimised privatisation of public assets and services. Authorities have tripped over one another to privatise potentially lucrative public sector duties and activities, while reducing taxes and expenditure.

COVID-19 has revealed the nature and purpose of neoliberal health spending reforms. New policies have included privatisation and contracting out public services. Social spending has not only been cut, but also used to pay private suppliers.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Health system failures highlighted by the pandemic have been long in the making. Four decades of neoliberal policies — including marketisation, or commodification of healthcare — have greatly increased private provisioning.

Private healthcare provisioning in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) took off in the 1990s. It gathered pace after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis with more hedge fund and other investments in hospitals and allied health services.

Such provisioning now accounts for most health services in many LMICs, catering mainly to medical tourists and patients with means. Thus, profit considerations and financial markets have remade LMICs’ national health systems.

Unhealthy reforms
Increasingly privatised and outsourced, public health systems in developing countries have been underfunded, undermined and understaffed. Fractured health systems, with poor governance and regulation, have become even less able to respond well to new challenges.

Such changes have been promoted by new aid-sponsored financial arrangements, such as public-private partnerships, as urged by the World Bank. The pandemic has exposed the results as grossly inadequate, ill-suited and vulnerable.

Profitable private services remain parallel to and separate from the public system. The reforms have not only undermined public health systems, but also weakened governments’ ability to cope. Even in rich countries, about 40% of health spending is now for private services.

Neither privatisation nor commodification have improved the quality of care, equity and efficiency of public services. Thus, deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation have squeezed health access, raising morbidity and mortality.

Meanwhile, donors have been diverting aid from governments to non-government organisations (NGOs), especially ‘international’ ones. But patchworks of foreign-run NGOs are no substitute for integrated national public healthcare systems.

Austerity kills
Analyses of economic shocks around the world, from the 1930s’ Great Depression to the 2008-2009 Great Recession, show fiscal austerity kills. In England since 2010, austerity has been linked to 120,000 more deaths and over 30,000 suicide attempts.

Despite declining alcohol abuse and smoking, and without counting flu and other epidemic fatalities, 100 ‘early deaths’ daily were expected in the UK, even before the pandemic. Social security cuts have also been devastating.

Despite growing patient demand and rising healthcare costs, during 2010-2020, the UK National Health Service suffered the “largest sustained fall in … spending as a share of GDP in any period” since its creation after the Second World War.

Earlier, Greece’s 2010 austerity package required cutting its national health budget by 40%. Infant mortality rose 40% after some 35,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers lost their jobs.

As Greeks avoided routine primary healthcare due to long waits and rising drug costs, hospital admissions soared. Meanwhile, mosquito eradication programme cuts led to a resurgence of malaria.

Austerity also worsened Ebola in West Africa. Cutting public health spending from 1990, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone further weakened their already poor health systems, undermining their ability to cope with emergencies. Thus, in the year before the Ebola outbreak, Guinea spent more on debt repayment than public health.

Meanwhile, austerity-driven funding cuts to the World Health Organisation (WHO) by the US, UK and European governments critically delayed responses to the Ebola outbreak, worsening it. Funding shortages also set back needed WHO efforts to respond to future global health crises.

Government not main problem
Health threats posed by the pandemic have not been well addressed by the reforms of recent decades. Some have been made worse, with LMICs particularly hard hit by COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, confidence and trust in governments everywhere have dipped.

In fact, public health investments before the pandemic were projected to yield three times as much in economic growth. Thus, such spending would have not only saved lives, but also accelerated economic expansion.

With COVID-19 endemic, and most government pandemic containment and fiscal capacities in the global South limited, the pandemic will drag on, further setting back progress and worsening inequalities.

Meanwhile, Thatcher and Reagan still haunt us all until the world exorcises their ghosts forever.

 

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By External Source
MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Aug 16 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Forty schoolteachers and principals in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) completed a five-day workshop last month equipping schools to play a key role in strengthening the food security efforts in the country.

The participants of this workshop, who are part of the Public-School System (PSS) in RMI, covered key topics on agriculture science, nutrition and integrating social and governance dimension to agriculture in schools.

The workshop was supported by the Pacific Community (SPC) through funding partnership from USAID and the generous support of the American people under the North Pacific Food Security Governance project. It was facilitated in partnership with the Center for Getting Things Started (C4GTS) and the RMI PSS.

During the official opening, Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Schools, Junior Paul stressed the importance of the School Learning Garden and the support rendered to advance the work in this area.

A major focus of the workshop was on agriculture and food security in the context of rights and responsibilities to ensure the active participation of students in decision-making.

This approach builds a strong relationship between adults and young people when it comes to decision-making about the school garden and promotes social citizenry – an important life skill.

Lead trainer, Koh Ming Wei, who facilitated the training from Hawaii said, “it was very meaningful to be able to incorporate rights and responsibilities when addressing decision-making in the Agriculture Curriculum. One of the standards connected to the right to food and the right to grow food, ensures that food is accessible to all, including vulnerable groups in the communities,” Ming Wei added.

The RMI PSS is committed to food security by having school gardens and farms in all the high school campuses and at least 25 of the elementary schools, where students got the opportunity to grow food for the cafeteria. PSS also focuses on the curricular to enable students to learn about agriculture – what they grow and nutritional facts – what they eat.

One of the results of the workshop was the identification of benchmarks and learning outcomes for agriculture science units.

Marshall Island High School Teacher Nancy Soriano stated that “linking human rights to our cultural values should be taught in schools and integrating it in the Agriculture Curriculum will help raise awareness in protecting our land and traditional agricultural practices.”

Ministry of Natural Resources and Conservation, Assistant Chief, Randon Jack and Agroforestry Director, Lakjit Rufus also shared similar sentiments and highlighted that linking human rights to cultural values and using it in traditional agricultural practices added tremendous value to the workshop outcomes. It also enables the school curriculum to align with national frameworks.

Rose Martin, North Pacific Food Security Governance Project Manager further noted that “building such life skills with young people and enhancing the role of the school in food security is a right step towards having a resilient and food secure country.”

About the North Pacific Food Security Governance Project
The North Pacific Food Security Governance Project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the USAID. The goal of Project is to support FSM, Palau and RMI, to address food security in the context of COVID-19. In this regard, the North Pacific Food Security Governance Project focuses on mainstreaming a people-centred approach to addressing food security in the context of COVID-19 in FSM, Palau and RMI; and implementing selected activities to support governance at various local levels, to ensure food security management and COVID-19 response mechanisms are people-centred, i.e. they are gender responsive, socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and respect and protect human rights.

Media contacts:
Kalpana Nizarat, Communications Officer, Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) division, SPC | kalpanan@spc.int

Legislation branded the "anti-miniskirt" law is annulled by Uganda's Constitutional Court.

After six attempts, Hakainde Hichilema has finally become president of Zambia.

People take to the streets following Hakainde Hichilema's landslide victory in Zambia's presidential elections.

In the small Aymara community of Visviri, in the extreme north of Chile, solar panels have bolstered camelid wool production in a project involving 120 inhabitants. With their traditional knowledge and the improved processes made possible by solar energy, they boosted their livestock activity and managed to increase the value of their fibers fivefold. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

By Orlando Milesi
SANTIAGO, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

Communities in Arica y Parinacota, the region in the extreme north of Chile, are using solar energy and are being empowered by projects for shrimp and trout farming, the production of yarn from camelid wool, the production of tomatoes and cheese, and even the sale of surplus solar power to the national electric grid.

Small rural and indigenous settlements in the Andes highlands and foothills and in coastal areas of northern Chile organised and boosted or modified their production and lowered costs by using energy from solar panels, thanks to a project that began in 2015 with an investment of 13.9 million dollars in human capital and implementation.

More than 320 panels with 100 kW of power were installed with the technical and financial support of the non-governmental organisation Ayllu Solar, bolstering productive capacity in Aymara and Quechua villages, in addition to lighting up the families’ homes.

The project aimed to create advanced human capital to promote sustainable development in one of the regions with the highest solar radiation potential in the world, which seeks to become Chile’s solar energy hub.

“Chile’s installed energy totals 28 GW and in Arica the estimated solar potential is 42 GW. There is enough energy there to supply all of Chile,” Rodrigo Palma, director of the University of Chile’s Energy Centre, told IPS.

The beneficiary communities in the Arica y Parinacota region are home to a total of 1,300 people and the project held 150 workshops to train them. The mainly arid altiplano and coastal region, which also has pampas grasslands, has a population of 220,000 people.

In the municipality of Camarones, 120 km south of Arica, the regional capital 2,000 km from Santiago, a facility was built to grow river shrimp and fatten trout, treating the water with solar radiation to remove arsenic using photochemistry.

“We started with a shrimp farming plant and added permanent trout production. Today we have 12, 000 trout raised from fry brought from the Andes,” Javier Díaz, president of the 24-member Solar Aquaculture Cooperative (Acuisol), told IPS by telephone.

“We took the shrimp fry from the river and are putting them in 20 pools, 1,000 in each. Ever since I was a boy I wanted to breed the local shrimp, endemic to the valley and prized for their quality,” he proudly explained from the half-hectare farm where Acuisol built breeding ponds and tanks.

“Restaurants are very interested and we already have contacts in Japan to export trout and shrimp,” he continued enthusiastically.

The community members involved in the Camarones project, who are part of the Solar Aquaculture Cooperative in the northern Chilean region of Arica y Parinacota, now hold a trout festival and a shrimp festival to celebrate the seafood that they raise in their pools and ponds, thanks to the solar energy installed on their fish farm. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Now they are seeking funds for a cold-storage plant. “We have made contributions and many are not in a position to contribute any more,” Diaz said.

“We use 99.9 percent of the water here. We treat it in a plant, take it through a coil that takes advantage of solar radiation and return it to the system thanks to solar energy,” he said.

He also announced new projects. “With the fecal waste we will make nutrients to grow hydroponic vegetables. And we want to make pellets, grow alfalfa and produce honey,” he explained.

Segundo Rafael Centella Sajama, president of the La Estrella de Ticnamar Aymara Indigenous Community, in the Andes foothills, said solar energy has been “fundamental”.

“We have a wonderful sun provided by our Tata Inti (father sun) practically all day long,” he told IPS on his 69th birthday.

“We started with 50 goats. Today we have 220, most of them young because we have dedicated ourselves more to breeding than to producing milk for cheese,” Centella Sajama said.

“We irrigate with sprinklers and electric motors at zero cost. We have an electric milking machine. It used to take my parents an hour and a half to milk five goats; today we milk 35 goats in 40 minutes,” he said from La Estrella, located 95 km from Arica.

“They suggested to me that we should plant three hectares of prickly pears, a fruit that does not need much water, and we did so. We also planted eight hectares of alfalfa and now we’re adding five more hectares,” Centella Sajama said.

Excited, he explained that in his community “the elderly and their children started to return and the community began to be repopulated. Today we are building houses, we have drinking water, electricity, modern irrigation, ponds and the best shed and the best dairy in the foothills.”

The ochre-coloured desert landscape is interruted by two rows of gray solar panels in a coastal area in the extreme north of Chile, just six km from Peru. Thanks to photovoltaic energy, the 80 small farmers of the Pampa Concordia Association were able to improve their horticultural production and bring it to the supermarkets of Arica, the regional capital. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Juan Carlos Cárdenas, president of the Pampa Concordia Association, which brings together 80 small farmers on the coast, said “solar packing” has improved their production of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cherry tomatoes and basil in ways they did not expect.

The community “solar packing” project established by Ayllu Solar included the technical planning, the sizing of the photovoltaic plant and the space required, together with the integral process of production and selection of tomatoes for collective commercialisation, supported by the new energy.

“We decided to form a cooperative and we picked up the projections of drought. One problem was to manage our marketing. Packing is a tool and it comes with a certificate and health regulations. We used to each be on our own,” he said.

“As a cooperative we were able to even become suppliers for supermarkets,” Cárdenas said, describing AgroConcordia‘s achievements.

The 80 participating families have 350 hectares, but “based on the availability of water, 120 hectares are in full production,” he said, explaining one of the chronic problems facing farmers in the area: access to water, which has worsened due to the drought.

In Visviri, 130 km from Arica, solar energy is used in a camelid – alpaca, llama and guanaco – wool collection and processing centre. The project aims to generate an opportunity for sustainable development and involves 120 inhabitants of one of the poorest rural municipalities in Chile: General Lagos, of which Visviri is the municipal seat.

Based on traditional Aymara knowledge, using solar energy and improving production processes, they have boosted livestock farming. Their success is reflected in the fact that they have managed to increase the value of their products fivefold.

In Altos de Azapa there are 41 beneficiaries of an on-grid solar panel system and an energy management programme. They recovered an abandoned 50 kWp photovoltaic plant, installed electrical conduits and obtained permits to connect it to the grid using the Distributed Generation Law (net billing), which allows the sale of surplus solar energy.

In Caleta Vitor, solar energy is used to process fruit and vegetable products from the Vitor and Chaca valleys, to which they add value through dehydration processing.

Ayllu means community

Ayllu Solar was an innovation initiative of the non-governmental SERC Chile (Chilean Solar Energy Research Centre), executed by the universities of Tarapacá, Chile and Antofagasta, with the support of the BHP Billiton Foundation, a Dutch mining company that is one of the largest in the world in the industry.

Education and sustainability were also priority areas in the initiative.

“Ayllu, which means community in Quechua and Aymara, aimed to create human capital to promote the sustainable development of rural and urban communities in Arica y Parinacota, through solar energy, in order to use science to improve the quality of life of local residents,” regional director Lorena Cornejo told IPS.

“For six years, six community production projects with replicable and scalable characteristics were developed and implemented in the region’s four communes (municipalities),” she said. “Sustainable energy solutions were created, using solar energy, which boosts their development and adds value to their products.”

“The communities played a key role in all phases of implementation,” noted Cornejo, who is also in charge of community-scale projects at the University of Tarapacá.

Ayllu’s regional director admitted to IPS that “the lack of resources to continue the initiatives could jeopardise the sustainability of the installations and the development of the communities.”

“There was not enough support due to the COVID pandemic; the villagers need periodic technical support,” she said.

To give them continuity, the Ayllu Solar Associative Network (RAAS) was created, which Cornejo represents and which is led by the University of Tarapacá in Arica.

“Base funding is required to continue supporting the projects implemented as well as initiatives proposed by new communities,” she said.

At the University of Tarapacá, in Arica, 27 students are earning a degree in Water and Solar Energy for Arid Zones, which draws on the experience of indigenous and peasant community members trained in the use of this energy source. In Chile, only two percent of photovoltaic energy is used in agriculture, but the sector’s costs could be reduced with the use of solar power, whose potential is enormous in the northern desert area of the country. CREDIT: Ayllu Solar

Cornejo said there are infinite alternatives to replicate the projects and “there is currently a portfolio of other productive development projects that could be implemented with solar energy support.”

“It will depend on the financing and the involvement of the state,” she said.

Rodrigo Palma believes that the Ayllu Solar projects can become widespread because they combine renewable energy with support for local productive activities in small communities.

“In the future, I see a virtuous combination of decentralised energy solutions in conjunction with large-scale solutions. These make it possible to reduce equipment, installation and maintenance costs. This virtuous combination is the one that should be growing,” he said.

Palma believes that what has been achieved with camelid wool can be applied to sheep, or in aquaculture, greenhouses, agricultural water pumping, water desalination, green hydrogen and other areas.

Meanwhile, Chile is banking on non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE), the use of which is expanding quickly in this long, narrow country nestled between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with a population of 19.3 million.

In June, the installed capacity of the national electricity system was 28,000 MW, of which 9,869 MW (33.6 percent) came from NCRE. Of that portion, solar energy represented 4,905 MW (49 percent) and wind energy 3,699 MW (37 percent).

The enormous expansion of NCRE is clearly illustrated by the fact that they accounted for 442 MW in 2009 compared to 9,387 MW in 2021.

The Chilean Association of Renewable Energies and Storage (Acera) reported that in June, NCRE produced 23 percent of the power in the national grid, equivalent to 1,200 GW hour. That month, it commented that “Chile surpassed 10,000 MW of installed renewable energies.”

A small but valuable portion of these unconventional energies is changing the production and lives of hundreds of indigenous people and farmers in small communities in the extreme north of Chile.

There is growing understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity. Credit: UNDP Peru/Mónica Suárez Galindo

By Martin Sommerschuh
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has invited the world to reflect on relationships – between people within and across countries and communities, and between people and nature around the planet.

The virus has also reminded us of the intricate interrelationships that comprise our world and of our responsibilities to others, especially society’s most vulnerable members.

The theme of this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which was commemorated on August 9, was “Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract.” The idea of a ‘social contract’ – an agreement among members of a society to cooperate for the benefit of all – dates back centuries. What is new, however, is an emerging mainstream understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity.

First, Indigenous peoples have constructed sustainable food systems and social safety nets that help us reimagine a pathway for all of society. Three Equator Prize winners from 2020 and 2021 showcase how their robust social systems enabled them to remain resilient and resourceful, even during a pandemic.

When the pandemic hit first in March 2020, the women of the Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas del Territorio Cabécar Kábata Könana in Costa Rica’s Talamanca region quickly organized a barter system to ensure isolated families and communities would have enough food. The association’s work is based on rotational and regenerative agriculture, rooted in traditional knowledge.

In Amazonian Ecuador, the first lockdown due to the coronavirus coincided with torrential rain and flooding. Thanks to the quick actions of Kichwa leaders, food and hygiene products reached even the most remote families of the Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku.

The group is now working with the GEF Small Grants Programme to revitalize ancestral knowledge of traditional medicines.

In Kenya, the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy brings together cutting-edge science with traditional Maasai land management and agricultural practices. Profits from entrepreneurship initiatives helped support food delivery and hygiene programmes to thousands of people during the pandemic.

Martin Sommerschuh

Second, Indigenous peoples are stewards of a large portion of the lands, water and biodiversity that provide a planetary safety net for humanity. According to two recent reports, Territories of Life and The State of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, Indigenous peoples are custodians of a third of the planet’s terrestrial surface.

These territories are proven to be more ecologically intact than other areas and are critically important for global water security, for our climate goals and for the conservation of biodiversity, to name only a few.

Simply stated, we cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda without the support and collaboration of the world’s Indigenous peoples. Three examples from Equator Prize winners illustrate how important (and vast) these lands and waters are.

Forum Musyawarah Masyarakat Adat Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang brings together 11 Indigenous groups on Kalimantan (Borneo) to protect 20,000 square kilometres in a co-management arrangement with the government.

In Canada’s Northwest Territories, the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation manages 26,000 square kilometres between the Canadian boreal forest and the arctic tundra – a globally significant carbon sink and freshwater source.

In southern India, the 1,700-member, Indigenous-run Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited protects species in the 5,500 square kilometre Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve through organic production and sustainable harvest of local crops.

Despite this critical importance of Indigenous territories to global goals, encroachment through illegal mining and logging continues to expand. Indigenous peoples have legal rights to only about 10% of the world’s land despite their stewardship over a third. Intimidation, violence and murder of environmental defenders continues to accelerate.

Indigenous peoples provide us with invaluable models of knowledge and practice, based on reciprocity and sharing. Their lands and waters are of incalculable benefit to all of humanity. Yet our current social contract has failed to recognize these contributions.

It is time for a new social contract.

A good start to such a contract could include: recognizing the unique knowledge and practices that can help us chart a new pathway toward a more sustainable society; strengthening legal recognition of Indigenous territories and protection against illegal mining and logging; ensuring safety for environmental defenders; and guaranteeing a much stronger seat at the table of local, regional, national and global dialogues that affect their futures.

The new social contract, then, is one that supports Indigenous peoples locally, and helps achieve goals globally.

Source: UNDP

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Programme Specialist and Coordinator, Equator Initiative, UN Development Programme (UNDP)

Oskar Olin with his sheep.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

I am in the Swedish countryside, lush and beautiful in its late summer attire, having a conversation with the son of a friend of mine. Oskar Olin runs a sheep farm, Stabbehyltan Lamm AB, where he practises holistic management. His three-hundred sheep graze within an area of 30 ha where Oskar every day moves his flock from one pasture to another. It takes between 45 to 90 days before the sheep are back on the same pasture where the rotation began. The animals are thus not overgrazing the area, while they at the same time trample down a protective layer of vegetation, which fertilizes the soil. Carbon is bound in the earth, soil organic matter increases, retaining humidity and accordingly deepen the root systems of wholesome plants.

Oskar is thirty-one years old and has for four years been back in his native place. During his younger years he was quite adventurous and did for example during a year work with horses on ranches in Spain. After that he ended up at a rancho in Mexico where he came in contact with holistic land management, finding that the land on the other side of the fence was constituted by sand and gravel, while his employer’s pastures were lush and green. Oskar told me that it was on Rancho La Inmaculada de los Aguirre he learned “that it’s all about making everything work and interact in a beneficial manner. Make your family happy and prosperous, make animals and crops to grow in harmony with their natural environment and feel good. Keeping soil and land healthy and moist, while your economy becomes robust and sustainable.”

His Mexican employer made Oskar interested in theories and practices of the Zimbabwean Allan Savory, who claims that properly managed livestock can heal a wounded, natural environment. Savory declares that livestock breeding (wild grazers are hard to manage) might mitigate desertification, provided that the domesticated animals are allowed to preserve grasslands in such a manner that these are enabled to sequester enough atmospheric carbon dioxide to reverse climate change. Overgrazing is a result of keeping livestock in the same place for too long, i.e. feeding on individual plants over and over again, while these are trying to grow back again. A means to reverse desertification would be to properly manage grazing livestock and protect large natural herds of grazers such as bison, zebra, and wildebeest, which guarantee a healthy regrowth and maintenance of grass land and counteract the still common, global practice of slash-and-burn, artificial over-fertilization, and expansion of unnecessary, and even environmentally damaging, crops. Savory states: “How can natural resources possibly be to blame? Only our management of those things can be causing problems. It is our management that places millions of animals in barbaric, inhumane, force-fed factories at great cost to our health, economy and environment and it is our management that calls fossil resources fossil fuels and burns them at a destructive rate.”

Sitting in the crisp grass and talking about all this with Oskar, while being surrounded by his bleating sheep, made me remember when I in 2008 and 2009 spent some time in the Markala district of Mali. There I sat, together with my friends and interpreters Seydou and Mamadou, in the shade of baobab trees talking with village elders, who in their long boubous, measured gestures, as well as their patient and clear-minded manner of debating, made me imagine ancient, Greek philosophers. They told me that with every year the desert advances causing poverty and misery, forcing “our desperate youngsters to lose their lives in pursuit of wealth and happiness within your wealthy countries, up there in the far north.”

I had been hired to make a study of how livelihoods would be affected by land expropriation and sugar production. The Government had signed a contract allocating Sosumar (Société Sucrière de Markala), a conglomerate of various private investors and the South African sugar giant Illovo, a lease comprising 39,500 ha. The intention was to develop sugar-cane plantations, annually producing 190,000 tonnes of sugar and 15 million litres of ethanol.

At least 2,000 peasants had to be resettled to villages erected within the affected areas. The project was acclaimed as being able to “benefit close to 156,000 inhabitants through the creation of 8,000 direct and 32,000 indirect jobs, capacity building and improved living conditions. Implementation of the project will require optimal management of water resources, especially during the dry season.”

Associated British Foods owns 51 percent of Illovo, which controlled 70 percent of Sosumar. Illovo is Africa’s biggest sugar producer and had, at the time I was hired, operations in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. Sugar and ethanol were mainly directed towards the European market, which allowed for duty and quota-free exports for producers in developing countries. Illovo’s sugar exports into Europe were then 400,000 tonnes per year.

My task was to carry out interviews with the local population and with their cooperation develop plans for the construction and facilities of future “resettlements”. For me it was a rewarding experience to listen to and interact with persons who defined themselves as Mandé (Bambara), mainly subsisting on farming and Peul (Fula/Fulani), most of whom were pastoralists. For centuries Mandé and Peul have shared the territory. The Mandé, who produced millet, sorghum and vegetables, had obtained most of their meat from the Peul, whose cattle were allowed to graze the Mandéfields after harvest.

I was generously received and told that sugar-cane fields would completely change traditional ways of living. Centre-pivot irrigation, a system where elongated sprinkler tubes rotate around “pivots”, i.e. centre points pumping up water from the ground, would mean that all trees in the area had to be cut down. Among them the mighty baobab trees, which many Mandé and Peul consider to be sacred. There were no plans to compensate the locals for their loss of fuel, shadow and sacred meeting points.

Graveyards had to be dug up and their contents removed. The s´í-trees would also be lost. Women use their seeds to manufacture and sell sìtulu, shea butter, widely used in cosmetics as moisturisers and lotions. Furthermore, villagers would be forced to live surrounded by a forest of more than two metres high sugar-cane stems, among which crop-devouring birds, insects and vermin would thrive. Age-old, traditional agriculture would be substituted by back-breaking cane-cutting under a scorching sun. Paths and pastures of cattle herding Peul would disappear. Warm water from sugar refineries would affect and even kill the fish in rivers and canals. Pious Muslims told me they knew of gambling, drinking and prostitution developing in shanty towns growing up around the two huge sugar mills already established in Mali.

Villagers told me they preferred that the Government provided them with loans to establish rice paddies: “We cannot afford to do it ourselves since it takes at least two years before the paddies will yield any harvests. We live by our millet and vegetables and cannot afford to be without them while paddies are constructed. The sugar will not feed us, but it grows rapidly and the two harvests it yields per year will provide us with the cash we need to survive.”

As a matter of fact, Office du Niger, the governmental management and irrigation authority for rice growing zones had already in 2003 contributed a 74 hectare plot of land to the US company Schaffer and Associates, which had been contracted by USAID to undertake a feasibility study for a sugar refinery. The trials of cane varieties amounted to a cost of USD 1,5 million, indicating that neither “development organisations”, nor the Malian Government, were particularly interested in stimulating any subsistence farming of local agriculturists.

USAID’s interest in Sosumar was among other things also part of a political agenda to limit Chinese interests in Malian sugar production. China Light Industrial Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation (CLETC) owns the two sugar enterprises of Mali and intends to expand its landholdings and sugar production.

Unaware, I had become part of a convoluted political game involving profiteering private and governmental agencies that apparently did not have neither the well-being of poor agriculturists, nor a mitigation of threats from climate change and desertification, as their main goal. Only one third of Mali is not desert land and the people of Markala told me that “every year badlands devour huge tracts of fertile land. Please do not talk about culture and environment with your bosses. We don’t want the sugar, but must have it. There is no other solution. No one helps us to stop the advancing desert. If we don’t get cash from the sugar we will die. If our culture, our way of being is eradicated, so be it. Our children have to live.”

Political turmoil and machinations eventually killed off the Sosumar sugar initiative. The ecological crisis is constantly getting worse. While sitting together with Oskar Olin and his healthy sheep within a fertile Swedish meadow, I could not help wondering if all the effort and money that went into the non-realisation of such an unhealthy export crop as sugar was just another example of the unimaginative greed of a wealthy few.

It is high time to learn to listen to the needs and experience of poor agriculturists around the world. To advertise and implement viable, environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, like those of the young, practically inclined and idealistic Oskar Olin in Stabbehyltan, who on a small scale reproduces the land preservation instincts of wild grazers.

Sources: Bafana, Busani (2019) “Q&A: Holistic Land Management – Only a Movement can Prevent Desertification,” IPS, Oct. 4. Wikileaks (2009): A spoonful of Chinese sugar sours US investors in Mali.

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

 

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

As New York city struggles to cope with the widespread outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus Delta variant -– which has claimed more than 100,000 cases per day in the US— the United Nations is laying down strict guidelines at its headquarters (UNHQ) for staffers, diplomats and visiting delegates.

In a letter released August 13, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Delta variant “is posing some challenges to our planning, and we will be taking additional precautionary measures to ensure a safe work environment for our personnel and delegates. “

The UN will continue to follow all restrictions imposed by New York, the host city for the world body. Under new restrictions announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, proof of vaccination is mandatory to go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, theatres and gyms—with more restrictions to follow. Those unvaccinated will be barred from these premises.

Conforming to city guidelines, the UN is expected to insist on proof of vaccination to use several of the dining facilities in the Secretariat building and also mandatory in-house mask-wearing.

“In order to align UNHQ’s approach to indoor dining with that of NYC’s guidance, we will soon require proof of vaccination for seated meals at cafeterias and other dining facilities on premises.,” says Guterres.

Further guidance on full return to work is being developed and will be issued in September.

To ensure adequate protection for all colleagues, effective August 13, all UN personnel must wear masks when indoors on premises. “We will reassess this requirement as conditions warrant.”

The letter says the most significant driver of COVID19-related risk is vaccination status. Accurate information on the vaccination status of staff is therefore essential to determine risk and appropriate mitigation strategies.

Aitor Arauz, President of the UN Staff Union in New York and Vice-President, UN International Civil Servants’ Federation (UNISERV), told IPS: “We are dealing with simultaneous crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, where the UN has a lot of staff currently in danger.”

“What I can say on the issue of dining facilities at UNHQ is that, as a general principle, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Staff Union has supported close alignment with host city and NY State guidelines; an approach that provides staff a sense of coherence and consistency”.

However, he cautioned, enforcement of these particular measures may prove a challenge given the particularities of our working environment.

Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS requiring proof of vaccination in duty stations where all have had a chance to get jabbed is a sensible way to get things up-and-running again while keeping staff and diplomats safe.

“We’re looking forward to similar measures in Europe and in due course elsewhere,” said Richards, who is based in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN has placed several TV monitors outside committee rooms, primarily aimed at diplomats and visiting delegates, with warnings that read: “No face to-face meetings unless individually risk-assessed; 2 people per elevator; Lower your mask and present your valid UN ID when requested by Security: By swiping your valid UN ID you confirm that in the past 14 days you have no Covid-19 symptoms, no positive Covid-19 rest result; and no close contact with a confirmed or suspected Covid-19 case.”

In several US cities and businesses, the ultimatum is more severe than the UN: “Get Vaccinated or Get Fired.”

At the Winchester Medical Center, nurses were told: “Get the shot or face termination”. In Sacramento, California, the Mayor has insisted that all new hires and current city employees should get vaccinated, or face being terminated. Both proposals are getting major pushback from unions, who say workers have the right to choose.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced that some 60,000 employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.

The governor’s proclamation has given state workers until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. And employees who do not provide proof of vaccination will be dismissed from employment, unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

Since December last year, more than 353 million doses have been administered, fully vaccinating over 167 million people or 50.4% of the total U.S. population.

The rest remain unvaccinated– either for personal, political or medical reasons. But the UN does not have a head count as to how many of its more than 3,000 staffers in New York have been vaccinated.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS that as a vital member of the New York community, the UN also has a responsibility to contribute to the city’s efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded Covid19.

“The UN enjoys wide immunities under international law but the virus does not recognize rights and immunities invented by man,” he pointed out.

Many of the staff members, he said, live in communities scattered in places far from the Head Office and travel to work. They could be exposed to the virus.

“The restrictions imposed by the Organization are for the protection of all. Most importantly, the Organization must further refine options for working from home”.

“With modern technology, this should not pose too many difficulties”, said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the letter from Guterres also says all staff at UNHQ, in consideration of the need to protect one another, will be required to report their vaccination status including through EarthMed with immediate effect.

In addition, any personnel who has been on site and has a positive COVID-19 or Antigen test result must report the results immediately to the Division of Healthcare Management and Occupational Safety and Health through the confidential self-reporting portal (medical.un.org) in order to ensure effective risk mitigation at the workplace.

“I continue to be very grateful to those staff who have been working on premises throughout the pandemic, either because their functions could not be performed remotely or when remote work would have impacted their effectiveness and efficiency,” says Guterres.

“I particularly commend those who did so when we did not have the protection of vaccination. As the presence of unvaccinated staff potentially increases the risk for other staff members, whether vaccinated or not, vaccinations will be mandated for staff performing certain tasks and/or certain occupational groups at UNHQ whose functions do not allow sufficient management of exposure.”

This mandate may be waived where a recognized medical condition prevents vaccination.

Those staff members who will be required to be vaccinated must receive the final dose of a vaccine no later than 19 September 2021.

Any COVID-19 vaccine that is recognized by the WHO, or under routine approved-use by a Member State’s national health authority, is accepted. Affected staff will be notified by their respective offices during the week of 16 August.

“As personnel serving in New York, we are privileged to have access to effective vaccines through local vaccination programmes. In addition to requiring certain staff to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage all personnel who have not already done so to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated to promote your safety and health and all those around you.”

“The situation continues to be monitored and the possibility of additional measures announced will remain under consideration and will be reviewed and adapted as needed,” says Guterres.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that United Airlines, Amtrak, Capital One, McDonald’s, Facebook, Disney, Netflix and Google, among others, have joined a growing list of companies to mandate vaccines for all or some workers.

 

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