Africa

By Shuprova Tasneem
Jun 21 2021 (IPS-Partners)

I first met six-year-old Amina in the Kutupalong refugee camp in 2019. I couldn’t help noticing the forlorn image of life in the camps she depicted—a child alone in a corner, playing with a pair of matchboxes instead of a toy. Later, Amina’s mother told me that she was hiding under the bed when the Myanmar military surrounded their household in Rakhine. She watched them kill her father and grandfather, and lay hidden while they gang-raped her mother. She hadn’t said a word to anyone outside of her family since then.

Amina’s mother also spoke of how lost she felt now that her parents and husband were dead. She lamented, “What will happen to my child?” During visits to the refugee camps, I have heard this refrain over and over again from Rohingya parents—”what will happen to my child?”

I started with this story because right after the 2017 refugee exodus from Myanmar—the result of military operations termed as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the then UN human rights chief—there was a lot more interest in Bangladesh regarding the human faces of the Rohingya who fled here. The stories of brutal murders, rapes and villages being burned en masse stirred something in the hearts of a nation prone to feel empathy towards persecuted populations. However, after four years of hosting close to a million refugees and feeling the strain on our local resources, that empathy has fast changed into refugee fatigue, and often downright aggression.

If mainstream and social media is anything to go by, we are no longer interested in hearing the stories of religious and racial persecution of this minority. Instead, we have fallen into the habit of speaking in sweeping generalisations only. In such a huge and diverse population, the stories of courage and agency—the Rohingya social workers teaching women about birth control, the elders passing on their language to the young, the youth volunteers engaging in community service—these stories are of no interest either. The words of the day, when it comes to refugees, are “crime”, “drugs” and, of course, “repatriation”.

The final buzzword is one thing that we can all agree on at least—despite what many may think, most Rohingya refugees have no desire to spend their whole lives confined in camps, however improved their conditions may be. A common accusation that you often hear against refugees in Bangladesh is that they are living a life of “comfort” and they would much rather live here for “free” than go back home. These voices have become even louder in the wake of Bhashan Char, where the resettled refugees have better accommodation and facilities (although the recent deaths of three Rohingya children amidst an outbreak of diarrhoea on the island shows that all is not as well as it seems).

While there are definitely marginalised pockets of our own citizens who would consider a daily ration of rice and lentils and a plastic tarpaulin over their heads a luxury, I can guarantee that the people who are repeating these xenophobic tropes are not one of them. And this perception of refugees as free-loaders completely erases their identities and personal histories. Do we really believe the Rohingya people would choose to live out the rest of their lives fenced in with barbed wire, without livelihoods, education and freedom of movement, a stone’s throw from their homeland, simply for the sake of “free” shelter and rations?

There is no question that Bangladesh has acted magnanimously when it comes to hosting refugees. And at almost every event hosted in the refugee camps, such as the ones organised on Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day every year, this gratitude towards the Bangladeshi authorities has been expressed by the Rohingya. Which makes it all the more depressing that when legitimate questions are asked about their current status—such as the right to education of over 450,000 Rohingya children in the camps who are being denied access to basic accredited education—our general reaction has been to shrug our shoulders and say “not our problem”.

Time and again, Bangladesh has said that it cannot solely take responsibility for the Rohingya refugees, and the authorities are justified in saying so. But by failing to uphold their cause and create legitimate platforms where refugee voices can be amplified, we have made an error of judgment—because from the looks of it, the rest of the world, instead of stepping up in our place, have also washed their hands of the “refugee problem”.

At the latest G7 meeting, global leaders met to discuss the pandemic, climate change and security issues—there was hardly a mention of the world’s 26.4 million refugees (UNHCR estimate from mid-2020). Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that British foreign aid cuts of 42 percent will leave around 70,000 people without health services and 100,000 without water in Cox’s Bazar, affecting not only refugees but host communities as well. Aid for Rohingya refugees has been dwindling by the year, with the latest Joint Response Plan receiving only 35 percent of the USD 943 million needed for 2021. Again, these funds are allocated not just to meet the needs of nearly a million refugees, but for almost half a million vulnerable Bangladeshis in Cox’s Bazar as well.

Would things have been different if we had pushed a different narrative—if, say, instead of saying the Rohingya must return and the rest is not our concern, we had spoken up for a comprehensive solution that involved humane camp conditions, and donor investment in refugee training and education for third-country settlement, alongside dignified and safe repatriation to Myanmar? Could we have used our moral authority as the country with the largest Rohingya refugee population to remind other countries of their responsibilities, such as Japan and Saudi Arabia—who, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, are guilty of taking in the least refugees despite having the best means? Bangladesh’s presence in the region is no longer a minor one, as can be seen from the financial assistance we recently sent to Sri Lanka and the medical aid gifted to Nepal and India. So could we not have demonstrated that same leadership and diplomatic authority in denouncing the military coup in Myanmar and pushing other countries to do the same?

Earlier this month, ASEAN representatives met with the junta chief but failed to come up with a solution to the crisis in Myanmar or even condemn the military’s illegal takeover. At around the same time, Myanmar’s shadow civilian government made a landmark announcement, pledging to amend the country’s constitution and grant citizenship to the Rohingya if it regains power from the military. Which of these parties do our long-run interests coincide with? We need to carefully consider this while mulling our future diplomatic strategy concerning refugees.

The solution to the refugee crisis is not an easy one, but it will become even more difficult if Bangladesh and other refugee-hosting countries fail to play a leading role in engaging the international community and ensuring that donor support for the Rohingya does not continue to dwindle. And in order to play this role, we need to end the demonisation of refugees and see them for who they are—not free-loaders, not criminals, but a vast and diverse population struggling to survive and build a better life for future generations after being driven out of their native land.

To mark this year’s World Refugee Day, Save the Children has released a report revealing that more than 700,000 Rohingya children across Asia are being denied their most basic rights. On this day, let us remember that we as a nation are well-aware of the fact that people can live through the most desperate situations, but what they cannot live without is hope. The Rohingya refugees are not here to snatch the bread out of the mouths of ordinary Bangladeshis, but for the most humane of reasons, as the question that is oft-repeated in the camps show—”what will happen to my child?”

Shuprova Tasneem is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is @shuprovatasneem.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Police in Peru used “unnecessary and excessive force” during protests in the capital last November challenging the legitimacy of the interim President, the UN Human Rights Office found, in a January 2021 report.

Meanwhile, supporters of socialist Pedro Castillo and conservative Keiko Fujimori took to the streets on Saturday June 19, as tensions rose over the result of the Jun 6 presidential election. Castillo was leading the official count while Fujimori sought to get votes annulled. Credit: Patricio Lagos Bustamante / LaMula.pe via UN News

By Sara Brombart
LIMA, Peru, Jun 21 2021 (IPS)

Peru’s first round of elections on 11 April saw voters choosing between 18 presidential candidates with no one candidate leading by an impressive margin.

Pedro Castillo, a rural teacher and union leader of the left-wing, socially conservative political party Peru Libre (Free Peru), emerged with a surprise lead of 18.9 per cent. His opponent, Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the imprisoned dictator Alberto Fujimori and third time presidential candidate of the right-wing Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) trailed with 13,4 per cent.

Similarly, the 130 seats in the new congress will be shared amongst 10 political parties, with no one party holding a majority.

Some 30 per cent of the electorate did not vote at all – and this in a country where voting is mandatory. The low participation reflects the general aversion towards the rampant political corruption, scandal and instability of the past decades.

The mood is of a people fed-up with a self-serving political class in which personal economic interests have scarcely become distinguishable from political goals.

Add to this that many stayed away from the polling stations for fear of contracting Covid-19 in highly-infected Peru, with others having more pressing matters to tend to, like queuing for days to fill oxygen tanks for their loved ones.

Sara Brombart

The results of the first round left Peruvians with the disturbing choice between two extremes. Since then, both candidates have had no choice but to moderate their rhetoric. Nevertheless the divisions remain deep-seated.

On the one hand, white, wealthy urban voters are eager to maintain their supposed economic stability and opted for the status quo candidate Fujimori. On the other, the mixed-race and indigenous, rural voters are eager to escape their impoverished reality and to finally be seen and heard by ‘one of their own’, Castillo.

These opposing realities are reflected in the narrow results of the second election round on 6 June in which Castillo leads by a mere 0,25 per cent or 44,058 votes at a slightly higher turnout of 75 per cent.

Even though Castillo declared himself the winner on 15 June, as of 17 June, the National Election Board (JNE) has yet to make an official declaration; it will do so only after the requests to annul specific voting records, submitted by both parties, are resolved in the next weeks.

A stress test for Peru’s democracy

In the 11 days since the run-off elections, tensions have been boiling high, solidifying divisions and putting Peru’s democratic system under a stress test that raises concerns about the country’s future stability.

In the frenzy to stoke distrust, undermine the democratic process, and win the elections, Fujimori’s team of lawyers attempted to tip the election balance in her favour by requesting the nullification of some 200,000 votes in Castillo-strong rural areas.

The request was based on unsubstantiated claims of fraud. International election observers have judged the election free and fair.

Regardless of which candidate will preside in the end, they will be faced with a range of complex challenges.

The country remained in limbo until 12 June when the National Election Jury (JNT) finally rejected these requests and, most importantly, did not cave to pressures to extend the 9 June deadline for presenting nullification cases.

Since then, Fujimori supporters have been bashing the JNT for this decision, calling for new elections, with some high-ranking retired military officials even suggesting a coup d’état.

The armed forces were thankfully quick to release a communiqué stating their intention to respect constitutional and democratic order. The reactions of both the JNT and the armed forces are examples signalling that the democratic system is still working and being respected.

Peru’s overlapping crises

Regardless of which candidate will win in the end, they will be faced with a range of complex challenges: Peru is experiencing a loss of trust in its democratic system, its institutions and its politicians.

The mistrust in politicians of whichever political tendency is widespread and, frankly, justified. Excluding the latest two interim presidents, not one of the last six presidents has been spared from corruption scandals, convictions or both.

Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated Peru’s pre-existing inequalities. It has left a populace traumatised by sickness with the highest per capita death rate in the world. Decades of underinvestment in the health system, the lowest in Latin America after Venezuela, has made matters worse.

At the same time, monetary poverty has increased from around 20 to 30 per cent during the pandemic, representing approximately 10 million people or nearly a third of the population.

Add another 11 million people believed to be only marginally above the poverty line and you have two-thirds of the population badly hurting and facing severe food insecurity. A life of precarity is the reality of approximately 90 per cent of the rural population and not surprisingly, the source of Castillo’s base.

Faced with these enormous challenges, how do the two presidential candidates intend to heal their nation’s problems?

Fujimori’s lack vision, Castillo’s big challenge

The main risk to a Fujimori presidency is her lack of a clear vision. She has yet to comprehend that the vast majority of the population has passed the tipping point. Her fundamental inability to grasp a deeper understanding of the structural and systemic inequalities permeating Peruvian society is a real problem.

Long-standing social shortcomings in health care, education, and housing cannot be placated by throwing money at the problems. Yet this is exactly what her superficial social policy portends.

She would respect labour rights, financially compensate every Peruvian family that lost someone to Covid-19, grant 2 million land titles, offer loans to small businesses, and deliver free water to communities not on the supply grid.

The challenges facing a Castillo presidency, on the other hand, are far greater than for Fujimori.

Fujimori plans to only tweak the neoliberal economic model installed by her father under his 10-year presidency (1990 to 2000) and pursued by the presidents that followed.

Further, she seeks to maintain a constitution elaborated under her father’s presidency, which leaves little room for the corrective forces of government intervention, but ample room for free-market forces.

The challenges facing a Castillo presidency, on the other hand, are far greater than for Fujimori. The strength and pressure of economic interest groups hold sway over sitting parliamentarians as well as the commercial mainstream media.

During the election campaigns, media conglomerates have had one objective in mind: to demolish Castillo and promote Fujimori. The scare-mongering tactics painting Castillo as a dangerous communist and terrorist threat have progressively reduced his almost 20 per cent lead in the immediate aftermath of the first elections.

Biased attacks will no doubt continue under a Castillo presidency.

Castillo’s economic discourse has moved from one of nationalising key industries, especially in the mining sector, to one of ‘renegotiating contracts’ with large companies, spending 20 per cent of GDP on education and healthcare, reforming the pension system, decentralising public universities, and redrafting the constitution to strengthen the role of the state.

Despite recruiting Pedro Francke, former economic advisor to centre-left Veronica Mendoza of the party Nuevo Perú (New Peru), financial markets are still nervous and wealthy Peruvians are already moving their money out of the country.

The traditional power struggles between the executive and legislative branches of government would also continue under his presidency. A fragmented, largely conservative Congress is unlikely to sign off on his economic plans, especially if they entail nationalising the big revenue mining industries, and costly social programmes.

The omnipresent threat of a parliamentary coup is real and relatively easy through the use of the procedure for ousting a president on the grounds of their ‘moral (in) capacity’.

Against this backdrop of acute national challenges, emotionally-charged societal divisions, and a self-interested political class, further political instability if not turmoil and massive social unrest cannot be ruled out.

The much-awaited official declaration of the next president will not end the current political crises; it is merely the beginning of the next chapter in Peru’s troubled political history.

Source: International Politics and Society, published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Lima, Peru.

Uganda is one of several African countries seeing a dramatic rise in the number of infections amid a vaccine shortage.

Last week the Supreme Court in Slovakia ordered the retail in the murders of Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. In this dated photo, a protester in the Slovak capital, Bratislava holds up a picture of murdered couple. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in protests across the country in the weeks after the killing, eventually forcing the resignation of the Prime Minister and Interior Minister. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jun 21 2021 (IPS)

A ruling last week ordering a retrial in the murders of a Slovak journalist and his fiancée has led to a “unique” opportunity to break a global cycle of impunity in journalist killings, press freedom groups have said.

On Jun. 15, Slovakia’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal against a previous acquittal of local businessman Marian Kocner of masterminding the 2018 murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova.

The original acquittal had left press freedom campaigners and politicians shocked.

But they now say the decision by the Supreme Court, which said key evidence had not been examined in the previous trial and ordered the case to be retried, has given them hope that the people behind the killings will be convicted, sending a powerful signal beyond Slovakia about getting justice for murdered journalists.

Scott Griffen, Deputy Director at global press freedom campaign group International Press Institute (IPI), told IPS: “We think there is a unique chance to break the cycle of impunity [for killing journalists] not just in Slovakia but in other countries.

“Hardly anyone, anywhere, is ever convicted of killing a journalist. There is often someone arrested, accused, brought to trial, and then they get off. It’s more to show that some action is being taken than actually something really being done. A conviction now could become a model for other countries.”

Kuciak and Kusnirova, both 27, were shot dead at Kuciak’s home in Velka Maca, 40 miles east of the capital Bratislava in February 2018. Self-confessed hired killer Miroslav Marcek, 37, last year pleaded guilty to murdering the couple and was sentenced to 23 years in jail.

The murders shocked Slovakia and led to the largest mass protests in the country since the fall of communism and forced then Prime Minister Robert Fico to resign.

The subsequent investigation uncovered alleged links between politicians, prosecutors, judges, and police officers and the people allegedly involved in the killings.

At the heart of these was Kocner, a controversial figure frequently linked to alleged serious criminals and who in a separate case was last year sentenced to 19 years in jail for forging promissory notes.

Prosecutors had argued in court that Kocner had ordered the murder of Kuciak in revenge for articles the reporter had written about the multimillionaire’s business dealings.

His acquittal in September last year had been greeted with dismay by many ordinary Slovaks who saw Kocner as a symbol of deep-rooted corruption at the highest levels of state, and by press freedom campaigners who said it would undermine efforts in other countries to bring the killers of journalists to justice.

But those same campaigners believe the Supreme Court ruling will have given hope to the colleagues and relatives of slain journalists in other countries.

There were 50 journalists killed in connection with their work around the world in 2020, according to data from Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Of these, 84 percent were knowingly targeted and deliberately murdered. 

In many regions, the risks for journalists are growing, according to the group. Europe especially is a concern with RSF recently warning that while it remains the safest place in the world to be a journalist, it is becoming more dangerous for reporters.

The murder of Greek journalist Giorgos Karaivaz earlier this year in Athens was just the latest in a string of high-profile journalist killings in Europe in recent years. In 2017, investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in Malta, and in April 2019, journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead while covering rioting in Derry, Northern Ireland.

In the latter, 53-year-old Paul McIntyre has denied killing her. Although seven men have admitted to or been charged with the murder of Caruana Galizia, it is still not known who was behind her killing. Greek police continue to investigate Karaivaz’s death.

Pavol Szalai, Head of European Union and Balkans Desk at RSF, told IPS: “Ninety percent of murders of journalists are not solved. There are Marian Kocners in lots of other places.

“You have politicians, and you have the mafia – in between those two there are Kocners who are linked to the mafia and to the politicians. Other countries can identify with what is happening [in this case] in Slovakia.

“People in other countries have been following this closely. This case is bigger than just Slovakia. If and when a conviction comes it will help in similar cases in other countries.”

Corinne Vella, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister, told IPS: “The Slovak Supreme Court’s ruling is good news for Slovakia, and for the families of the victims. It also has a very strong psychological effect outside Slovakia, for us and elsewhere.

“This ruling could mark a turning point in ending impunity for journalist killers – a turning point in getting to where criminals see they cannot get away with murdering journalists. And it shows that with persistence, things are possible.”

Meanwhile, in Slovakia, attention has turned to when the retrial will take place and a possible conviction may come. It is expected the whole process –  it is thought likely that if Kocner is found guilty, he would appeal – would not end until well into next year.

Griffen said he was hoping the process could be drawn to close, and justice served for Kuciak and Kusnirova, as quickly as possible.

“We need a relatively timely resolution to this,” he said. “If it drags on and on it would become a de facto cold case and that would be awful for the families, who need closure on this, and journalists, who also need closure. It would be like a festering wound.”

 

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Yasmine Sherif in Lebanon with Palestine refugee children. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

By Nayema Nusrat
NEW YORK, Jun 19 2021 (IPS)

With financing, the number of out-of-school refuges could be reduced to zero, Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) says, as the world commemorates World Refugee Day.

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with IPS in New York, Sherif shared her vision for a world where dignity and the right to believe in better prospects are returned child refugees – something, she says, can be delivered through education.

“When you sit down and listen to young refugees in Bangladesh, in Colombia, in Lebanon, or in Uganda, the large majority will tell you they dream of becoming somebody that lives a better life, that helps others, that serves their communities or their country,” says Sherif. “They know that the pathway there is an education. They understand the value of an education. This is their hope. This is their dream.”

Sherif chronicles the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the escalation of violence in Palestine, and ongoing conflicts on child refugees, especially in the past year.

A staggering 128 million children and youth are urgently in need of assistance, up 75 million from before the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted funding for millions of people already reeling from conflict, record levels of displacement, and climate change shocks,” she says. “For these children, COVID-19 is a crisis upon a crisis. Some 79.5 million are currently displaced, more people than at any time since World War II. Almost half – 34 million – of those displaced are children, and youth and 48 percent of all school-age refugee children are out of school.”

Many of the displacees have never set foot in a classroom, she says.

“Most have been out of education for so long that they now lack the most basic competencies in reading, writing, and mathematics.”

Sherif speaks about the recent escalation of violence in Palestine which was especially hard for the organization as ECW lost 66 children in Gaza.

“Nine entire families were wiped off the civil registry,” she says, including Obaida, a 17-year-old from Hebron, Aroub Refugee camp in the West Bank.

“We have a video of Obaida from our program speaking about his aspirations, dreams, and fears. Now he is dead. It is heart-breaking to see these fears get manifested,” she says. “Here we are all trying to support these already vulnerable, long-suffering, yet heroic children and youth, only to see them die before our eyes.”

Long-term conflicts continue to exacerbate the refugee crisis, and long-term ECW projects are working with some success to bring education to some vulnerable young displaces – but educating girls remains a challenge.

Cameroon, for example, hosts almost 447,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of them being from the Central African Republic (CAR) but also from Nigeria.

“While school attendance among CAR refugees in Cameroon has increased generally from 40 to 46 percent over the past seven years, girls attending school has not significantly increased due to the usual socio-cultural and protection barriers,” says Sherif.

Girls tend to be left behind, she confirms.

“Refugee girls often face layers of disadvantage and vulnerability. It is a reason that ECW has committed to raising the proportion of girls supported by its programming to 60% of the total children reached.”

However, Sherif warns, a funding gap could hamper ECW’s efforts.

“Our funding gap for 2021-2023 is US$400 million to maintain the same level of commitment to these children and youth left furthest behind in crisis,” she says. “The additional US$400 million will help ECW reach an additional 4.5 million children, and young people – including 2.7 million girls – affected by conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 receive an education over the next three years.”

As the world considers the plight of refugee children on World Refugee Day 2021, Sherif asks:
“Is it not a disgrace that we are unable as a human family to reduce the refugees’ out-of-school to zero and increase girls’ access to quality education to 100%? This is something that can be done. With financing, it is possible.”

IPS : As we commemorate World Refugee Day on 20 June – which this year has the theme Together we Heal, Learn and Shine – there is a particular emphasis on the education of the children of refugees. How important is education as an element of normalcy in crises where children, often on their own but also with their families, are forced to flee because of violent confrontations?

YS: When families with their children face such a level of danger that they have no choice but to run for their lives and even cross the border into another country for safety and protection, you can imagine how abnormal their life has become. That abnormality traumatizes children and youth. It paralyzes them with fear, impacts their sense of safety and personal security, makes it difficult for them to concentrate and think clearly. It makes them worried about what is next and how much more they may have to go through before it is all over.

All they have left is their will to survive, and that means hope and dreams. When you sit down and listen to young refugees in Bangladesh, in Colombia, in Lebanon, or in Uganda, the large majority will tell you they dream of becoming somebody that lives a better life, that helps others, that serves their communities, or their country. They know that the pathway there is an education. They understand the value of an education. This is their hope. This is their dream.

To these refugee children and youth, education is their only chance for some normalcy. It is critically important for their mental health, their physical protection, and for their development. What is the alternative? They sit and wait until the crisis is over 10-20 years later, and they can go home. Well, most conflicts last even longer than that. Look at Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are speaking decades and generations here. It is not acceptable that the world in the 21st century leaves them behind to wait.

Yasmine Sherif in Democratic Republic of the Congo with Central African Republic refugee children. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

Now, look at the figures of their reality: 48 percent of refugees remain out of school today. These figures become even more stark among girls and older students. Just 27 percent of secondary-age girls are enrolled in education, and just 3 percent of all refugees are enrolled in tertiary education.

One ought to ask the question: Isn’t it inconceivable that a world so rich in resources, so wealthy amongst those who have, and so modernized in so many ways, is so unable to deliver on the basic human right of an education? Is it not a disgrace that we are unable as a human family to reduce the refugees out-of-school to zero and increase girls’ access to a quality education to 100%? This is something that can be done. With financing, it is possible.

IPS : Many countries hosting refugee children and youth have benefitted from ECW’s programs – including Afghanistan, Uganda, Bangladesh and Chad. You also have programs in Colombia, for example, for Venezuelan refugees. These include several multi-year programs for refugees and displaced children. Has Covid-19 affected the fundraising for the projects? Is sufficient funding available, and if not, what needs to be done?

YS: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted funding for millions of people already reeling from conflict, record levels of displacement, and climate change shocks. According to the United Nations, 235 million people worldwide will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021 alone – an increase of 40 percent in one year. Among those urgently in need of assistance are 128 million children and youth whose education is disrupted by humanitarian crises, up from 75 million before the pandemic struck.

For these children, COVID-19 is a crisis upon a crisis. Some 79.5 million are currently displaced, more people than at any time since World War II. Almost half – 34 million – of those displaced are children and youth, and 48 percent of all school-age refugee children are out of school. Most have been out of education for so long that they now lack the most basic competencies in reading, writing, and mathematics. Many, forced to flee their homes at a young age, have never stepped foot in a classroom.

This brings us back to the solution: financing. Despite encouraging progress in recent years, education for displaced children and youth remains severely underfunded, with only one-third of current funding needs being met according to UNESCO. So, improving education financing for refugees and the internally displaced requires bringing together both humanitarian and development aid in line with commitments made at the World Humanitarian Summit, in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, and at the Refugee Global Compact.

The time is over when humanitarians did their part at one end of the spectrum and the development actors their part at the other end of the spectrum. The time is over when silos and competition over funding take over cooperation and coordination, and a more enlightened awareness of working together for others emerges to stay.

This is why Education Cannot Wait was established. To end the silos and competition, to bring together the humanitarian and development actors through the United Nations established coordination system, to work jointly, for collective outcomes, which, in the education sector, means learning outcomes. Education is a development sector, but financing cannot be confined to children and youth living in traditional development settings.

What ECW does is to bring a development sector into a crisis or humanitarian setting. Besides the need for a crisis-sensitive approach, this requires a much bigger understanding of the abnormal context and a much deeper commitment to cooperation, joint programming, coordination, and – above all – a significantly higher level of financing.

As such, ECW’s primary strategic objective is to inspire political will that translates into more financing through increased levels of funding as well as multi-year and predictable funding. Only then can we ensure that refugees are guaranteed to become part of the national education system, and only then can we reach all those in emergencies who are otherwise considered “unreachable” due to the abnormalities of a crisis context. So far, we have seen an upward trend in financing and, as a result, a significant number of children and youth reached with a whole-of-child quality education in a very short period of time. Still, it is far from sufficient or adequate. Millions more are still waiting for an inclusive quality education.

Combining the resources raised to the ECW Trust Fund and the resources leveraged in-country towards ECW’s multi-year resilience programs, ECW has mobilized 1.5 billion. Through close cooperation with our strategic donors and emergency actors on the ground and within the humanitarian coordination structure, we have also been able to increase humanitarian funding from 2.4% to 5.1%.

Still, the funding situation for ECW will require strong action from donors to step in and ensure the ECW is well funded for 2021 and beyond to meet its multi-year finance obligations. If all ECW’s multi-year resilience programs to date were fully funded, our investments would have reached 16 million children and youth rather than the 5 million reached thus far – although a significant number given the short time of operations.

It is all about financing. The system, the structure, the partnerships, the coordination mechanisms, the joint programs, the speed, the governance structure, and – above all – the readiness and expertise of all our partners in government, civil society, UN agencies, and local communities, are in place. The ECW model as a catalytic fund is now a proven model based on external evaluations and the actual results.

Our funding gap for 2021-2023 is US$400 million to maintain the same level of commitment to these children and youth left furthest behind in crisis. This is a modest calculation made to accommodate the economic recession as a result of COVID-19. We have tried to meet our strategic donor partners, current and new ones, halfway, as we all equally are committed. The additional US$400 million will help ECW reach an additional 4.5 million children, and young people – including 2.7 million girls – affected by conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 receive an education over the next three years.

IPS : As ECW Director, you recently went on a visit to DR Congo and made an urgent plea for the world to take note of dire circumstances in which 200 000 children and youth are impacted by the protracted crisis in the DRC. You estimated that US$45.3 million was needed. How does education help young girls who face early marriages, GBV, and many other traumas?

YS: One has to go to the refugees to fully fathom what they are going through. Go to them. Be with them. Listen to them. This is what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and I did when traveling to meet the refugees arriving from the Central African Republic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It also allowed us to see the enormous commitment by the government, UNHCR, UNICEF, and a number of civil society organizations working hand-in-hand with the -host-communities and refugees to make a difference: to build schools, train teachers, provide quality learning material, and so forth. Again, what they need more than anything is financing.

Yasmine Sherif with Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Credit: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

In other parts of DRC, which is a big country affected by multiple and protracted crises, like many places around the world, women and girls are significantly disadvantaged by pre-existing harmful gender norms, gender discrimination, and the low social status of women and girls, which contributes to high rates of GBV such as sexual, physical, emotional, or economic violence, as well as harmful traditional practices such as child marriage. Continued population displacement, insecurity, and conflict further exacerbate the cycle of violence against women and girls.

The consequences of GBV are serious and often life-threatening. We know that exposure to GBV can lead to serious negative health outcomes such as HIV/AIDS and STI infection, unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, maternal and infant mortality, and even suicide. After-effects of GBV can also lead to emotional and psychological distress such as post-traumatic stress and depression. Social stigma, rejection, and isolation are very common for GBV survivors, who are often blamed for what happened to them. As a result of this stigma, most survivors never report the incident. When it comes to education, the physical and psycho-social impacts of GBV have consequences for learning, attendance, retention, and achievement.

Education plays a key role in combatting and ending GBV. Schools provide a safe space for girls and boys where harmful norms that fuel gender inequality and GBV can be challenged to support gender equality and prevent GBV. Identifying and addressing the GBV risks and barriers related to access and retention in education services to ensure safe and protective learning environments for girls, boys, and female teachers decreases the risk of schools related GBV, increases access and retention in schools, and therefore limits the risk of exposure to GBV in the family and community or by other third parties (such as armed groups).

Additionally, through community mobilization, teachers’ training, sensitization of girls and boys on gender equality, and the development of gender-responsive curricula, education can address the root causes of gender-based inequalities and contribute to transform harmful gender roles, norms, and power relations into positive norms. Projections show that by 2030, only 1-in-3 girls in crisis-affected countries will have completed secondary school; 1-in-5 girls in crisis-affected countries will not be able to read a simple sentence, and girls in crisis-affected countries will receive on average just 8.5 years of education in their lifetime.

In the DRC, more than a third of girls are married before they turn 18, and around 10 percent are married before they turn 15. This figure is related to the lack of access to education, making marriage a more likely outcome, and a reason that girls are prevented from accessing or staying in education in the first place. Still, the impact of educating a girl does not stop with her. The knowledge, skills, and empowerment it provides are essential to the fate of any community or country. According to United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), for each additional year of secondary education that a girl receives, infant mortality decreases by 10%, and her country’s resilience to climate disasters improves by 3.2 points.

Before the recent 2021 influx of some 92,000 refugees in DRC, there were over 173,000 CAR refugees already there. UNHCR continues to register all CAR refugees, but preliminary figures indicate that some 70 percent of primary age children had no access to education before arriving in DRC, and only 5 percent of children aged 12-17 had been enrolled in secondary school. The First Emergency Response Grant, which ECW provided during the UNHCR/ECW mission for the CAR refugee emergency, supports primary and secondary education, especially equitable access for girls, school capacity for teachers, and building up the school infrastructure. With funding available at hand when it most matters, we can make a difference.

IPS: Apart from the programs mentioned above, refugee girls – in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere are very often left furthest behind. Many are often not only survivors of armed conflicts but also of Gender-based violence (GBV). How is their trauma addressed in ECW programs?

YS: Refugee girls often face layers of disadvantage and vulnerability. That is why ECW has committed to raising the proportion of girls supported by its programming to 60% of the total number of children reached. We further recognize that girls, as well as boys, who have experienced the trauma of conflict, are more vulnerable and maybe ill-prepared for the classroom. ECW, therefore, supports a whole-of-child approach that prioritizes physical safety and psycho-social support alongside learning outcomes.

The ECW whole-of-girl-child approach helps create referral pathways to professional help for those impacted by gender-based violence; it builds teacher’s capacities to teach in a gender-sensitive way; it creates physical space that is appropriate for and accommodating to the needs of girl children, and it helps prioritize the hiring of female teachers who themselves are some of the best advocates and role models for crisis-affected girls.

As highlighted in the ECW Gender Strategy (2018-2021) and ECW Gender Policy (2019-2021), we are committed to addressing GBV in all our investments to our partners. This translates into a number of actions, such as mandatory gender analysis in all ECW investments, assessing and identifying the differentiated needs of girls and boys, including an analysis of access to and physical safety of learning environments to identify risks of GBV, as well as the capacity of education personnel to address risks of GBV and safely refer survivors. Such analysis becomes an integral part of program design, implementation, and measuring results and actual outcomes.

In Afghanistan and South Sudan, just to mention a couple of examples, ECW’s investments are aligned with the National Girls’ Education Strategies, which aim to address the root causes of gender inequality and GBV through education. As Protection is another of ECW’s priorities, our investments add an additional dimension that is so important in crisis countries by making the environment in and around schools safe and free from GBV through risk mitigation measures and capacity development of educational personnel, school safety plans, Codes of Conduct and training, while also advocating for the respect of international law and the Safe Schools Declaration.

IPS: Refugee and forcibly displaced communities have also had to face the challenge of COVID-19 over the past 18 months, with many communities in lockdowns. How has COVID-19 impacted ECW programs, and what actions is ECW taking to address the pandemic?

YS: The COVID-19 pandemic created a double emergency. Already disadvantaged by crisis, COVID-19 complexified and increased the barriers between children and youth and their education. Facing what could lead to lost generations in countries affected by crises, ECW concentrated its resources in places where this double emergency was most likely to deepen the already abnormal conditions for school-aged children and youth with a focus on refugees, girls, and children with disabilities. Thanks to our First Emergency Response Window and strong collective backing by our Executive Committee, ECW was able to move quickly and easily reprogram existing multi-year plans to respond to the crisis. With unprecedented speed, ECW had dispatched US$ 23 million to support 9 million vulnerable girls and boys, who could quickly access distance learning, safety protocol in classrooms, water, sanitation, and hygiene, to prevent further spread of the disease and prevent a disruption of their education.

IPS: Do these countries and communities where refugee children find themselves have enough trained educators and caregivers who can provide the quality support they need? How does ECW help address these challenges?

YS: Besides the parents (bearing in mind that many children and youth have either lost one or both of their parents due to conflict, separation during flight, and so forth), teachers are the single biggest contributor to a child’s education and development. However, in many of the countries in which ECW works, there are simply too few qualified teachers trained to provide quality teaching. ECW’s investments support ministries of education to improve the capacity of existing teacher cohorts, to recruit and train new teachers, and to advance professional development for volunteers, facilitators, and teachers, often this also includes refugee teachers.

Bearing in mind that teachers are often victims of conflict and forced displacement themselves, ECW’s investments also focus on the well-being of teachers. They are mentors and pillars of hope for their students, and yet they too have often experienced the same impact of crises as the girls and boys in their classrooms. Teaching support groups and training on personal well-being not only help teachers handle challenging circumstances but also their own well-being.

IPS: ECW has programs in Palestine, which was subjected to airstrikes on Gaza in the past month. How has the conflict impacted your projects in the region? You and your team recently visited Lebanon, where Palestine refugees have been hosted for decades. How has the recent and the long-term conflict and insecurity in the region impacted the numbers of displaced, and how are your programs addressing this?

YS: The escalation of conflicts in the Middle East is most concerning and alarming. Everywhere you turn your head, you see innocent people struggling and suffering without adequate solutions and bold support in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, and Palestine.

ECW is working in all these countries in the region through multi-year funding, as is the case now in Syria and Palestine and currently under development for Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya. We have eight first emergency responses active in all these countries responding to both covid19 as well as specific escalation of crises in places like Gaza, North Syria, Coastal governorates of Yemen, the Beirut blast, as well as responses to the refugee crisis in Iraq, Lebanon and Libya.

In Palestine, the recent escalation was especially hard as we have lost 66 children in Gaza of whom many were part of the ECW program – 9 entire families were wiped off the civil registry – Obaida, a 17-year-old from Hebron, Aroub Refugee camp in the West Bank was also killed that week. We have a video of Obaida from our program speaking about his aspirations, dreams, and fears. Now he is dead. It is heart-breaking to see these fears get manifested. The Norwegian Refugee Council speaks of similar losses, as does UNRWA. Here we are all trying to support these already vulnerable, long-suffering, yet heroic children and youth, only to see them die before our eyes.

In response to the crisis in Gaza, ECW is now launching yet another emergency response with UNRWA and UNICEF to provide MHPSS and catch-up learning during the summer to 50,000 children who were most affected by the recent attacks, especially those who are among the 8000 families that lost their homes. The investment will also help repair and equip some 30 schools that were lightly damaged so that the new school year can resume on time in September.

Supporting UNRWA, UNICEF, and the many partners active on the ground is essential to ensure minimum support to the Palestinian refugees in the region. UNRWA currently supports around 526,000 Palestinian refugee children and employs more than 22,000 education staff from the refugee community – we cannot halt these efforts until a just and long-lasting resolution is reached.

IPS: ECW announced earlier this month US$1 million grant to ensure refugee children and youth arriving from the Central African Republic (CAR) receive access to quality learning in Cameroon. This is just one of the grants made available in crisis areas in Africa, how important is the support of the refugee community there? How will the grant be spent, and how many children could potentially benefit?

YS: The program in Cameroon aims to reach over 6,000 newly displaced Central African Republic girls and boys. The emphasis here is to ensure these children have immediate access to the highest quality learning and protective services possible. Returning to the classroom, being among friends, will help limit the trauma of displacement. It will also ensure that especially girls have the best possible chance to continue their learning as we know that for each day they are out of school, they are less likely to ever return.

We must ensure these children, who are victims of conflict at home and now forcible displacement abroad, are not forgotten. Supporting the whole refugee community is essential to giving these children the best chance to thrive. We cannot leave them behind.

Cameroon hosts almost 447,000 refugees and asylum seekers, most of them being from CAR but also from Nigeria. The latest violence following elections in CAR forced some 6,700 refugees – over half are children—from CAR into Cameroon. While school attendance among CAR refugees in Cameroon has increased generally from 40 to 46 percent over the past seven years, girls attending school has not significantly increased due to the usual socio-cultural and protection barriers. ECW funding to our partners working together on the ground will provide over 6,000 refugee children and youth (3,500 girls and 2,400 boys) with access to safe learning environments. Some 1,000 host community children and youth will also be helped. Classrooms are being built, and water and sanitation facilities are being upgraded while learning materials, hygiene kits, and other school materials are provided.

Girls are disadvantaged, and we need to constantly keep this fact on top of our minds as we prioritize. Data from UNHCR’s most recent education report indicate that more than 1.8 million children -or 48 percent of all refugee children of school age—are out of school, and girls are more significantly affected. Only 27% of refugee girls go on to secondary school, and only 50 percent of all refugee girls in school will likely not return when classrooms reopen post-COVID-19.

In a world that wants nothing more than peace and security, nothing more than stability and the protection of our planet, and presumably an evolution that shows we are indeed moving forward, it is sad to see that we have not come further than this in ensuring access to inclusive quality education for every child and adolescent. These are children and youth hoping for education in the midst of climate-induced conflict, armed conflicts, protracted military occupation, and forced displacement.

Time has come when words are not enough. Now we need to overcome our fears and take action. At the end of the day, leaders who care for our shared humanity are able to see things not only from afar, but also from deep within. This is how they recognize the relationship between themselves and their leadership, the world at large, not the least the young generation struggling for survival in crisis countries, and our shared universal values. Once that insight is reached, and the connection is made, I am convinced that financing will be unleashed to give every single child and youth access to their most basic human right: the right to an inclusive, continued and safe quality education.

 

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• World Refugee Day

PM Abiy Ahmed swept to power after mass protests, but his Oromo community still feel like outsiders.

By External Source
Jun 18 2021 (IPS-Partners)

“Education will prepare refugee children and youth for the world of today and of tomorrow. In turn, it will make the world more resilient, sustainable and peaceful.” ~ Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Each year on June 20th, the international community comes together to celebrate World Refugee Day. Designated by the United Nations in honor of refugees across the globe, this international day celebrates the courage, strength and perseverance of those who have been forced to flee their home countries to escape conflict or persecution.

The day serves as a reminder of the importance of respecting the human rights of refugees all around the world – especially the right to a quality education for children and youth fleeing conflict, climate change-induced disasters and other emergencies.

This year marks the 20th World Refugee Day with the theme “Together we heal, learn and shine.” As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait joins other UN agencies and champions across the globe to shine a light on the rights, needs and dreams of the world’s most vulnerable children and youth.

“Education cannot wait for a conflict or crisis to be over so that refugee children can go home. Families caught up in conflicts spend an average of 17 years as refugees. When education is denied to children, hopes for a better, fairer future are lost.” ~ Yasmine Sherif, Director of ECW

An expanding crisis

A person becomes displaced every two seconds – that’s six people, forced to flee their homes, by the end of this very sentence.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that there are 26.3 million refugees in the world. Amongst them, 7.3 million are refugees between the ages of 4 and 18. This staggering statistic represents children and youth full of skills, ideas, hopes and immense potential.

Despite the efforts of the international community over the past decades, a lot more must be done to ensure that every refugee girl and boy has access to an education and the tools and support they need to build a brighter future.

“You have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” ~ Poet and activist Warsan Shire

“Without resolute political commitment by global leaders, as well as additional resources for Education Cannot Wait and its UN and civil society partners, millions of girls and boys may never return to school. Investing in the education of these vulnerable children and youth is an investment in peace, prosperity and resilience for generations to com – and a priority for the United Nations.” ~ António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

ECW is committed to protecting the human rights of refugee girls and boys to a safe, quality education. To date, ~30 per cent of the children and youth reached through ECW’s investments are refugees. Another 10 per cent are internally displaced.

Bangladesh

On 25 August 2017, escalating violence triggered an exodus of Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh. Men, women and children brought with them accounts of the unspeakable atrocities. Since their arrival in Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees have grappled with new challenges – fires, floods, landslides, severe storms and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Theirs are stories of courage, determination and strength to rebuild lives from scratch in overcrowded refugee camps.

Working with the Government of Bangladesh, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR and other partners, ECW announced a new multi-year resilience programme in Bangladesh in 2018. With US$12 million in catalytic seed funding from the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, the programme is designed to reach half a million refugee children and youth.

Chad

Chad continues to see a large influx of refugees fleeing violence in the Central African Republic and Sudan, attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria and conflict surrounding the Lake Chad crisis. For many of the girls and boys in refugee camps throughout Chad, ECW-funded education initiatives have allowed them to attend school for the first time in their lives.

ECW continues to work with numerous partners – including UNICEF, Fondazione Acre, the Jesuit Refugee Service, Refugee Education Trust International – and in coordination with the Government of Chad to deliver reliable quality education for young refugees enduring the consequences of rampant violence in the region.

Read how an ECW-financing is providing budding young scientists with school kits and science materials in Chad and allowing young mothers to return to the classroom. Learn more through these stories of hope and redemption on the edge of one of the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues.

Colombia

Of the 5.4 million Venezuelans who have been forced to flee their country since 2015 due to violence and instability, over 2 million have resettled in Colombia. This protracted humanitarian crisis, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, puts already vulnerable children and youth at increased risk.

ECW has been investing in Colombia since 2019 through First Emergency Response grants focusing on out-of-school children and adolescents from Venezuela. ECW has also provided catalytic investment grants for Multi-Year Resilience Programmes both for Venezuelan refugees and host communities in Colombia, in addition to another regional grant to advance resource mobilization, policy support, data collection and advocacy to accelerate the impact of ECW investments in Colombia and other neighboring countries, such as Ecuador and Peru.

Read stories about ECW’s impact in Colombia, including the ECW-supported children’s book campaign “The Traveling Book” (‘El Libro Viajero’), which highlights the inspiring first-person accounts of girls and boys fleeing the Venezuela regional crisis.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Vulnerable girls and boys along the northern border region of the DRC and the Central African Republic (CAR) are trapped in a humanitarian crisis that is rapidly escalating. There are 4.7 million refugee, displaced and host community children and youth in the DRC currently in urgent need of education support.

In May 2021, ECW Director Yasmine Sherif and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi traveled to Ubangi-Nord Province to meet newly arrived refugees from CAR, 70% of whom have never attended school before arriving in the DRC. ECW’s support in the DRC in the form of a First Emergency Response grant, a Multi-Year Resilience Programme and a COVID-19 Education in Emergency Response is helping to alleviate some of their most urgent educational needs.

Through strong partnerships bridging the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, ECW is working alongside the Government of the DRC, partners such as UNHCR and local organization such as African Initiatives for Relief and Development (AIRD) and AVSI to ensure that refugee children and youth don’t miss out on the education and security they deserve.

Lebanon

Lebanon hosts the largest proportion of refugees per capita in the world. Since 1948, it has been home to a large Palestine refugee community and, since 2011, it has seen about 1.7 million Syrians – many of them children – cross into the country. This mass influx and other emergencies, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have added further barriers for young refugees in accessing education and building a brighter future for themselves and their families.

ECW is working with the Government of Lebanon and partners such as AVSI, UNWRA, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, SAWA for Development & Aid, UNESCO, the International Rescue Committee and Mouvement Social to ensure that vulnerable children receive the education and psychosocial support they need and deserve.

Learn how ECW support in Lebanon is allowing Syrian refugees to connect to learn amidst the pandemic and read about ECW’s recent mission to Lebanon, led by Director Yasmine Sherif.

Uganda

According to Save the Children, Uganda hosts the largest number of refugees on the African continent. Despite progress made in offering them a better future, Save the Children estimates that about 57% of refugee children in Uganda are out of school – in some cases, for several years.

The impact of COVID-19 has further exacerbated the challenges facing the education system. In March 2020, all education institutions closed and 15 million learners were sent back home, including 600,000 refugee children. Working with the Government of Uganda, UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Plan International, World Vision, HP, UNESCO and other partners, ECW is giving hope to the country’s most vulnerable learners – from supporting remote educational programmes to water and sanitation facility upgrades in schools and learning centers.

ECW’s multi-year investment in Uganda helped increase the gross enrollment ratio for refugee children from 53 per cent in 2017 to 75 per cent in 2019.

Read about ECW’s impact in Uganda, including how a school for refugees is serving as a global template, how a refugee teacher is inspiring students to become educators themselves, and how ECW and partners are addressing the digital divide and helping refugees in the country to build skills for the 21st century.

Together we heal, learn & shine

“ECW’s focus on refugees, internally displaced and crisis-affected communities has created a platform to support students and teachers most in need.” ~ Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Education protects refugee children and youth from child labor, forced recruitment into armed groups, sexual exploitation and child marriage. As a global multilateral fund that brings together a wide range of partners (donor and host-governments, UN agencies, national and international NGOs, civil society, private sector, academics and foundations), Education Cannot Wait is dedicated to reaching all young refugees with safe quality learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the inequalities faced by refugee learners and progress that has been made in recent years in increasing refugee enrollment in schools is at risk.

To mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, ECW has allocated $45.4 million in funding to support actors on the ground across 33 countries/emergency contexts, $22 million of which have been exclusively dedicated to supporting refugee and internally displaced children and youth.

Despite this progress, more needs to be done. Education Cannot Wait needs at least an additional $400 million to bridge its funding gap for the 2021-2023 period and ensure that an additional 4.5 million children and young people – many of them refugees affected by conflict, climate change and COVID-19 – receive an education over the next three years.

The time to act is now

This World Refugee Day, as the global community declares in one voice that “Together we heal, learn and shine”, let us not underestimate the power of education in this equation. Not merely as a critical element in international refugee response, but in its potential to protect, enlighten and empower the most vulnerable children and youth in the darkest crisis-affected contexts so that they may begin to rebuild their lives and “shine.”

Excerpt:

Education Cannot Wait and partners provide a pathway to the safety and hope of an education for refugee children - 'together we heal, learn and shine'

Inga I dam, with the feeding canal for Inga II in the foreground. Credit: alaindg/GNU license

By Philippe Benoit
PARIS, Jun 18 2021 (IPS)

Visions of Grand Inga, a proposed massive hydropower plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) powering much of Africa, have excited energy experts, investors, and governments for decades.  The announcements this week by the Australian company, Fortescue Metals Group, and its chairman, billionaire Andrew Forrest, of their plans to develop Inga for green hydrogen exports brings this vision a little closer to reality. 

But for the Grand Inga project to successfully attract the massive funding it requires, it will need to address issues of equity and ethics which mostly stem from DRC’s problematic governance context, but also flow from concerns about ensuring the ”just transition” of the energy sector.

Inga Falls, situated on the Congo River in DRC, is the world’s largest hydropower site with 40,000 MW of potential generating capacity.  By comparison, the installed power capacity in all Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) totals only 80,000 MW.

Inga Falls, situated on the Congo River in DRC, is the world’s largest hydropower site with 40,000 MW of potential generating capacity.  By comparison, the installed power capacity in all Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) totals only 80,000 MW

DRC itself has one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world and the third largest poor population.  Given these figures, many have dreamt of unlocking the hydropower potential at Inga to generate clean renewable electricity both for DRC and for Africa, broadly.

Unfortunately, progress on Inga has been stymied by the daunting market risks inherent in selling its massive electricity output across Africa (as well as DRC’s governance challenges). However, as I wrote in a recent article, adding green hydrogen production can help the project overcome this marketing obstacle because it involves sending the electricity to factories nearby, to produce hydrogen which can then be shipped to creditworthy markets in Europe and elsewhere.

There has been growing interest in green hydrogen as a low-carbon fuel for use in transport and industry.  Because it is produced through electrolysis of water using electricity generated by hydropower or other renewables, it has little greenhouse gas emissions. Strengthening climate pledges are expected to drive growth in the demand for green hydrogen, which could reach $300 billion annually in exports by 2050.

Fortescue appears to draw on this potential demand in proposing a hydrogen export configuration that should make the Inga project more attractive to investors. But for this new approach to mobilize the billions of dollars  required from investors, the project will need to also manage equity and ethics concerns that can otherwise trigger three different but interrelated risks.

The first constitutes a new emerging risk regarding sales. Equity, ethics and overall justice considerations are taking on increasing importance in the climate effort.  Concerns about these issues will likely coalesce over the next decade into demands that any fuel, proffered as green to serve climate goals, be produced in a manner that also satisfies equity and ethics considerations.

The rising international pressure facing DRC’s cobalt production because of child labor and other issues is indicative of this type of nascent but growing non-financial risk that can affect a commodity’s marketing. The implication for the Inga project is that its developers need to ensure their green hydrogen is not tainted by equity or ethics problems . . .  because “tainted green hydrogen” may have difficulty being sold into Europe’s energy markets of the future, notwithstanding its climate benefits.

Second, unfair treatment of local communities or of DRC’s broader society in connection with the project can generate demonstrations, civil unrest and other actions that can disrupt project construction and operations.  Although this risk of business interruption is concentrated in DRC, it also extends to demonstrations down the supply chain (e.g., in European cities importing the hydrogen).

Third, failing to deal with equity and ethics issues can raise reputational risks for investors, especially in light of the rising interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. This will be a particularly salient consideration for those investors attracted by the project’s green energy attributes, including many investment funds and commercial banks, as well as providers of climate finance.

Addressing these equity and ethics issues requires a multi-pronged approach.   Most importantly:

The project will need to manage its environmental and social impacts, including ensuring that local affected populations are treated adequately and fairly.  This treatment of local populations is an area of particular concern given both previous failings in this regard in connection with the construction of Inga’s two existing smaller dams and DRC’s ongoing governance issues.

One advantage of the hydrogen configuration is that it limits the need for transmission lines that are often the source of multiple biodiversity and other issues, but other significant potential environmental impacts would remain.

In general, meaningful consultations with and participation of local communities under the project will be key, as well as engagement by a broad cross-section of DRC’s civil society organizations and population.  Intimidation by government authorities of community leaders and other stakeholders must be avoided.

A meaningful portion of Inga’s power output should be dedicated to increasing DRC’s dismal electricity access rate and powering local businesses.  If, in contrast, virtually all the electricity from Inga were allocated to producing hydrogen exports, there would be criticism from a just transition perspective that the continent’s renewables were being used to fuel Europe and others rather than to electrify Africa.  Fortunately, Inga can produce enough electricity to power both hydrogen production and local-oriented productive uses.

Moreover, although the project could catalyze substantial employment in DRC (notably during construction), that will likely not be enough to satisfy concerns about fair distribution of benefits. Inga is a national treasure, and its development should similarly benefit all.

For that reason, a share of the project’s revenues should fund programs that benefit DRC’s population generally, not just a small elite.  To this end, the broader Grand Inga framework should include mechanisms to channel these revenues to poverty alleviation and broad-based development programs throughout the country. In addition, both the billions in initial capital expenditures and the subsequent project sales revenues need to be insulated from corruption.  The problems plaguing DRC’s cobalt and other industries must be avoided.

To implement these measures, the project developers and DRC government will need to involve a variety of partners. This group includes multilateral development banks (such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank), local and international civil society, and the international community generally (including DRC’s bilateral development partners from the European Union and the US).

The ability of the project’s developers to raise the required funding, and to construct and operate the facilities, will depend in part on their success in addressing issues of equity and ethics. The Fortescue announcement brings the dream of Grand Inga closer to reality, but it also makes designing elements to address these non-financial considerations more pressing.

 

Philippe Benoit has over 20 years of experience working in international finance, including previously as an investment banker and at the World Bank (where he worked on Inga).  He is currently managing director- Energy and Sustainability at Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050.

Rice fields in Northern Ghana. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Fadel Ndiame
NAIROBI, Jun 18 2021 (IPS)

Every year, people in Sub-Saharan Africa consume 34 million tons of milled rice, of which 43 percent is imported. But the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly hampered supply chains, making it difficult for imported rice to reach the continent. Indeed, if immediate action is not taken, the supply shortfall will further strain the region’s food systems which are already impacted by the pandemic.

Rice imports from Thailand, one of Africa’s largest suppliers, have declined 30 percent due to lockdowns, border closures and general limitations on supply chains in just over one year since the pandemic started.

Consequently, many poor urban dwellers, who traditionally struggle to afford staple foods, now have to contend with more expensive food as the price of the popular Indica White rice has increased by 22%.

These challenges can be viewed as a wake-up call for Africa to strengthen its domestic rice production and achieve self-sustainability. Undoubtedly, the continent has the resources for adequate rice production, and with increased investment, tremendous change can be achieved

On the flip side, however, these challenges can be viewed as a wake-up call for Africa to strengthen its domestic rice production and achieve self-sustainability. Undoubtedly, the continent has the resources for adequate rice production, and with increased investment, tremendous change can be achieved.

Ghana, for example, has increased its rice production by an average of 10 percent every year since 2008, with a sharp 25 percent rise being reported in 2019 following the rehabilitation and modernization of the country’s irrigation schemes. These investments led to a 17 percent rise in the country’s rice self-sufficiency between 2016 and 2019.

And while the West African nation has yet to produce enough rice to meet its local demand, the impressive increase in output makes it a model example of what can be achieved through supportive policies and investment. On this point, the country’s National Rice Development Strategy of 2009 and the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) campaign – launched in 2017 – not only prioritized rice but set ambitious expansion targets for domestic production.

Among the objectives of the two policies were the substitute on of rice imports and the production of higher-quality rice that is acceptable to Ghanaian consumers and can compete with imported products.

These policy frameworks played a pivotal role in de-risking market failures while speeding up the implementation of innovations in local rice production, including those that relate to genomics and e-commerce. At the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), we are first-hand witnesses to the transformation, and saw the positive impact of the government’s leadership in the development of favorable policies.

AGRA supported these developments; we helped the government in publicizing its ‘Eat Ghana Rice’ campaign, which sensitized local consumers on the economic and nutritional importance of consuming local products.

The clarion call inspired rice farmers, millers and other private sector players to increase domestic sourcing and marketing. The result, the country’s national production increased from just 138,000 metric tonnes in 2016 to 665,000 in 2019.

AGRA also played a major role in supporting the adoption of innovative technologies in rice production, particularly through the development and distribution of locally adaptable varieties. We remain a key player in availing suitable rice varieties and seed to farmers in the country, a goal we continually pursue by helping train scientists and researchers in the field.

Of the 680 crop breeders that we have trained at post graduate level in Africa since 2006, more than 50, or around 8 percent, have been rice breeders. These professionals have been instrumental in sustaining the production of varieties that are suited to local conditions and yield more per acreage than older types.

We are now delivering such technologies across Africa, and especially in countries with the potential for large scale rice production, most of which are spread across West and East Africa. In countries like Tanzania and Kenya, we soon hope to report a major rise in rice output attributable to our advocacy for the implementation of supportive policies related to the uptake of the best production and marketing practices.

But we cannot do it alone; we believe that investments of a genuinely great extent, like the ones we are pursuing, can only be achieved by the participation of all stakeholders. For this reason, we continue to appeal to all players in the rice value chain to support all efforts aimed at increasing the production of local rice, a crop that holds a leading role in the achievement of food security and economic stability for the continent.

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