Africa

Apple farmers in Kashmir package their crops to send to a mandi or market yard. According to policy, wholesale transactions between farmers and traders must take place in a mandi, yet the market yards have become hubs of widespread corruption where a small group of sale agents have taken control. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Sanjay Kapoor
NEW DELHI, India, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not really like attending parliament – except on special occasions. Budget session was one such occasion. Unsurprisingly, he tried to reach out to farmers still protesting at the border of the capital Delhi, against his government’s new farm laws.

Modi suggested that the farmers were ‘pure’ and innocent, but misinformed and provoked by ‘professional agitators’. These ‘professional agitators’ include pop star Rihanna, niece of US Vice President Meena Harris and even porn star Mia Khalifa.

The celebrities’ use of Twitter to support the protests spread panic in the image-conscious Modi government. Their ferocious Twitter trolls hit back against Rihanna and Greta.

Modi’s speech in parliament provided a clear indication of how the Indian state attempted to counter the farm protests and the support it had received from international celebrities like Rihanna and climate activists like Greta Thunberg: as a grand global conspiracy.

As the internationalisation of this movement is creating a foreign policy challenge for the government with its diplomatic missions aggressively hitting back at those who question India’s democracy and the way the agitation has been handled.

Rather astutely, the Modi government has used its influence on TV channels and social networks like WhatsApp and Twitter to build a narrative where any dissent is against national interest.

The most recent example was a toolkit shared by Greta Thunberg for the tractor march on India’s Republic Day, 26 January, for which the Delhi Police had given permission. This was branded as a seditious act by the Modi government.

The toolkit had Indian collaborators like Disha Ravi, a member of Thunberg’s ‘Fridays For Future’ movement against climate change. Her crime was tweaking the toolkit that detailed how to help the farmer’s Tractor march on 26 January – and daring to be in touch with Greta and other farm groups.

At the face of it, Disha committed no crime, but the manner in which the charges have been framed has made even innocuous actions like making a Zoom call a crime against the Indian state. However, the courts found no evidence of any links with secessionists or the violence of January 26, and granted her bail.

Why the farmers came to Delhi

Initially, the farmers’ protests erupted after the farm bills were hastily passed in parliament last year. Angry farmers from Punjab stepped out and first blocked trains. They got no response from the national government and then lay siege around Delhi.

Sanjay Kapoor

The government’s reforms propose to do away with the Minimum Support Price (MSP) that government gives for food grains, and also intends to scrap agriculture markets, the so-called mandis.

At the beginning, the farmers were greeted with water cannons and cane charges, leaving scores injured. Later, the government allowed them to sit around the capital.

The Supreme Court was brought in to find a solution to the stand-off but the farmers rejected intermediation, claiming that laws can be annulled by parliament and the government – not by the courts.

Modi, too, assured the enraged farming community that MSPs for the agriculture produce will not go away. But the farm leaders led by Rakesh Tikait of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) have been adamant that they will not end their agitation until the government puts it down in writing. Quite visibly, the trust has broken down between farmers and the government.

The biggest fear of the cultivators was that these ‘reforms’ could make farming unviable and that they could lose control over their land, as it would be bought over for contract farming by corporate houses like the Ambanis and Adanis.

So angry have been the farmers with these corporate houses, which have businesses from textile to telecommunications, that they have burned hundreds of telecom towers in the state of Punjab.

The Indian government’s censorship and intimidation

Wary of its international reputation, the Modi government has now unleashed enforcement authorities to control the narrative. It blocked the internet at the protest sites and filtered the visual content that found its way onto social media.

Photos of the large congregation of men and women who continued to assemble in extreme cold, rain and in extremely unhygienic conditions were photoshopped.

Expectedly, the life of protestors was made more difficult after the 26 January Tractor March that saw violence and a bizarre attempt to hoist a sectarian flag of the Sikh faith from the flag mast, where the national tricolor flies from Delhi’s iconic Red Fort.

Since then, the Police has made attempts to block the protestors from the capital. Now there are cement walls, concertina wires and nails embedded on the roads.

Moreover, the farmers have been boxed in – making it difficult for media to meet them. Now journalists have to walk 12 kilometers to reach some of these protest sites – ducking concertina wires, dug up roads and police scrutiny.

Some intrepid journalists who tried to report on the resistance of the farmers have at times come to grief from a heavy-handed police force. Mandeep Punia was one such reporter, who was arrested for preventing a public official from doing his duty. Strong pressure from the civil society and the Editors Guild of India facilitated his quick release through bail.

But it doesn’t stop there. Immediately after the 26 January Tractor March, there were a string of sedition cases against seven editors for tweeting on an evolving news story about a person who died in a clash with the police.

Their tweets were based on the testimony of the victim’s grandfather who claimed that his grandson had been shot. The Police denied this version and released some videos to show that he died from an accident. A few of the editors quickly withdrew their tweets, but they were not spared from the sedition cases.

In at least five states of the country identical First Information Reports (FIR) had been filed charging them for sedition. If the Supreme Court had not stayed the execution of the sedition case for two weeks, these editors could have been arrested on a non-bailable warrant.

Similarly, social media, the only way that allows some news and expression for the agitating farmers, is censored by the government. When Twitter tried to resist pressure, its employees were threatened with the consequences of being jailed by India’s law minister if they did not abide by the country’s law.

Since then, they have fallen in line. Google, which had sworn to preserve the privacy of its users, promptly handed over information on the toolkit put together by the climate change activists.

But despite the strident opposition to the farm bills in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the government has not relented. Every day, there are reports of large congregation of farmers taking place in small towns and villages of north India seeking a turnaround from the government.

The Chief Minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh, has pleaded with the Central government to find a face-saver for the farmers so that they can return home – otherwise they will keep sitting there. If obstinacy on both sides is anything to go by, then the agitation will continue and make India’s struggling democracy more illiberal.

 

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Excerpt:

Sanjay Kapoor is editor of Delhi's Hardnews magazine and General Secretary of the Editors Guild of India.

The post Protests by Indian Farmers Spread Panic in Image-Conscious Modi Government appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Social development helps narrowing down the disparities between urban and rural areas; and gaps amongst different regions. Credit: UNESCO

By Siddharth Chatterjee and Amakobe Sande
BEIJING, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

Back in the 1990s, the discovery of antiretrovirals offered a ray of hope to save people’s lives from the HIV epidemic. Over this decade, people living with HIV benefited from the scientific advances and began to have longer, healthier and more productive lives. However, almost all the beneficiaries were from rich countries in the global north. As a result, about nine million people died by the year 2000 due to the inequality in accessing these life-saving medicines.

It is a hard lesson from the HIV response, but unfortunately, it seems the lesson is not yet learned in dealing with today’s health crisis.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world last year and claimed millions of lives, scientists, doctors and nurses, pharmaceutical industries, and experts acted quickly to develop vaccines to prevent further infections. However, when the vaccines were developed, the same kind of inequalities happened. Research shows the world’s wealthiest countries have monopolised more than half of the production doses of vaccines, leaving low-and-medium-income countries struggling to secure vaccines. 10 rich countries have administered 75 per cent of all COVID-19 vaccines – while some 130 countries have not yet received a single dose.

Siddharth Chatterjee. Credit: Newton Kanhema

In a poignant message to WHO’s Executive Board in January 2021, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots”.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and underlined the widespread inequalities in the world. That’s why the theme of this year’s Zero Discrimination Day, “End Inequality”, is so pertinent in today’s world. In today’s world, we are all interconnected. Global inequality affects us all, no matter who we are or where we are from. We cannot achieve sustainable development and make the planet better for all if people are excluded from the chance of a better life.

Inequality happens everywhere: income, health status, occupation, disability, gender identity, race, class, ethnicity and religion. As estimated, inequality is growing for more than 70% of the global population, exacerbating the risk of division and hampering economic and social development. And almost two in ten people reported having personally experienced discrimination on at least one of the grounds established by international human rights law.

Discrimination and inequalities are intertwined. Discrimination against individuals and groups can lead to a wide range of inequalities—for example, in income, educational outcomes, health and employment. Inequalities can also lead to stigma and discrimination. Research shows that this social and structural discrimination results in significant inequalities in access to justice and in health outcomes.

Tackling inequality is not a new commitment—in 2015, all UN member states pledged to reduce inequality within and among countries as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. UNAIDS officially launched the first Zero Discrimination Day on 1 March 2014 in Beijing, calling on countries to examine discriminatory provisions in their laws and policies and make positive changes to ensure equality, inclusion and protection, particularly among key populations such as sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men, transgender people and people who inject drugs.

As well as being core to ending AIDS, tackling inequality and discrimination is universal in nature and will advance the human rights of people living with HIV, make societies better prepared to beat COVID-19 and other pandemics and support economic recovery and stability. Fulfilling the promise to tackle inequality will save millions of lives and benefit society as a whole.

Amakobe Sande

Ending inequality requires transformative change. Greater efforts are needed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and there is a need to invest more in health, education, social protection and decent jobs.

We take this opportunity to congratulate China for not only lifting nearly 800 million people out of extreme poverty over the last four decades, but in the years since 2013, lifting nearly 100 million people out of poverty in the rural areas, setting China on course to achieve SDG 1 or ending poverty ten years before 2030. A significant milestone towards ending inequality.

Governments must promote inclusive social and economic growth and eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and practices to ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities. A people-centred approach is needed to ensure we leave no one behind.

This approach was explained well by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who made remarks at the High-level Segment of the 46th Session of The United Nations Human Rights Council recently. He said, “Increasing people’s sense of gains, happiness and security is the fundamental pursuit of human rights as well as the ultimate goal of national governance.”

We all have a role to play in ending discrimination and so reducing inequalities. We can all play our part by calling out discrimination where we see it, by setting an example or by advocating to change the law.

We believe equality can and should be achieved. Let’s make it happen.

UN Resident Coordinator to China, Siddharth Chatterjee and UNAIDS Country Director to China, Amakobe Sande

 

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Ivory Coast and Ghana start using Covid vaccines provided by a scheme to help poorer nations.

The Parasol Cooperative

By Kim She Joon
NEW YORK, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

During the COVID19 lockdown, there has been an approximate 25% increase in domestic abuse, dubbed by the United Nations as the ‘pandemic within a pandemic’. While the home is perceived as a secure place, for domestic abuse victims battling the pandemic is equally and increasingly unsafe. A parasol of protection is needed to rehabilitate victims of abuse starting from detection, reaching out, providing help and support.

On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States and globally even before COVID-19, domestic violence was already one of the greatest human rights violations. In 2018 within a span of 12 months, 243 million women and girls (aged 15-49) across the world have been subjected to sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner, reported by UN Women. As a result of the lockdown and economic instability now, the number of cases has pushed the already-stretched resources of many organizations supporting the victims to a breaking point.

Megs Shah (CEO/Founder)

To identify a solution to the critical challenges that this pandemic brought along, an event was arranged by Techstars in early 2020, where 60 teams from the United States participated to come up with time-appropriate solutions. Among the finalists was a team led by Megs Shah who comes with an electrical and computer engineering background. Until recently she was working as Head of Digital Investment Governance, managing technology initiative decisions at Bristol Myers Squibb. From the initial team, Megs Shah and her colleague Fairuz Ahmed decided to take it further and CoFounded The Parasol Cooperative.

This tech-based start-up, incorporated in July 2020 has gained traction nationality and internationally. Recently the duo has also been mentioned by the UNWomen and UNWomen in UAE for taking part in #Womenintech and in #Womeninscience as innovative entrepreneurs and have been featured in the Forbes Magazine.

“Being home with the abuser during the pandemic has opened up an opportunity to use technology in a new way. We must solve the problem from the requesters’ point of view, in this case, that is the victim. We identified the need, pinpointed the gaps, and came up with a technology-based solution to support organizations to better serve the vulnerable population of victims and survivors of domestic violence.” commented Megs Shah, CEO of The Parasol Cooperative to IPS.

New Jersey-based Shah and New York-based Ahmed are both single mothers, immigrants from India and Bangladesh respectively and have faced ordeals dealing with divorce and the stigma that comes along with it.

Fairuz Ahmed (Co-Founder)

Shah adds “Our team is made up of advocates, tech experts and survivors who have personally dealt with trauma, worked towards rehabilitation and surfaced as stronger individuals. From our experiences and research, we understand the many reasons why survivors relapse into abusive relationships mainly due to lack of a support network and financial instability. To address these fundamental challenges we plan to develop an online support community for day-to-day peer support and an online curriculum to develop job skills, provide training and in long term, partner with large organizations to provide hands-on ‘intern’ positions to help survivors stand on their own two feet.”

Working with grassroots organizations in New York, Ahmed has taken a different angle in supporting victims. She volunteers for the “Meal on a Dime” project which is part of the Bidyanondo Foundation Inc. Through her efforts, abuse victims who lead single mother households and belong to religious minorities living in shelters, are helped with appropriate and essential food baskets, ethnic food items, baby food, sanitary supplies and more. Speaking multiple South Asian languages she also does community outreach, minimizing the language gap and taboo around reaching out for help in the South Asian immigrant and local communities.

“Coming from a broken home a mother’s first worry is to source food for her children and second is to have a rehabilitation process in place. This also goes for single females who want to build a base for themselves coming out of domestic abuse. With the help of two non-profits, I launched a localized support system, where a survivor will be supported with sustenance and service.” comments Ahmed to IPS.

“If this model picks up, I believe we can launch similar efforts in other states in near future. The Parasol Cooperative has exceptional features where we minimize the language barrier and victims can reach out in their preferred ways. Working locally I also aim to form a network where survivors can get hired by their own communities,” adds Ahmed.

There is a lot of technology available for organizations to use, but many organizations are not familiar with these, unsure of how to best use them, or simply cannot afford them. This is especially true for small and mid-sized organizations. The Parasol Cooperative aims to build a tech-based skillset for the advocates, help improve overall operational efficiency and reduce costs of organizations that support victims nationally and globally. Recently a generous donation was made by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation to help fund technology development.

There are three ways to enable and empower organizations to expand their services to survivors and victims of abuse: Technology, Survivor ‘Net’, and skills development. With safe communications with victims of abuse, increase knowledge sharing amongst member organizations and the survivors they support and reduce operational costs by using technology efficiently the founders aim to build a “Global Parasol or Protection”.

When women take charge of their lives and come up with a modern solution it also narrows the gender gaps and empowers the communities further. In the future, expansion plans are in place to offer services to a wider audience and offer consolidated solutions and sponsored membership to organizations that work for the lower-income regions, globally.

 

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Nishat Hussain coordinating with local authorities in Rajasthan to ensure relief reaches those most affected by the lockdown.

By Mariya Salim
NEW DELHI, India, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

Women living in rural India and those belonging to marginalised communities faced an enormous burden during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, including domestic violence, loss of financial assistance and income, says Rehana Adeeb, a grassroots Muslim woman leader and activist.

Adeeb leads Astitva, an NGO in western Uttar Pradesh working with women from Dalit and Muslim communities.

In an interview with IPS, she talked about the various kinds of violence that women, especially Dalit and Muslim women in rural India, had to face when the Government, without warning, announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the pandemic.

“With most menfolk migrating back to their villages from the cities where they had moved to earn a living, the women did not have access to any financial assistance from them which they would earlier use to pay for their children’s education and household expenses,” says Adeeb.

“Women who did home-based work, such as sewing, to make ends meet were also left with no additional source of income, with markets shut.”

“Forced marriages, child marriage and domestic violence were on the rise, and these were cases where we had to intervene immediately,” she said.

Rehana Adeeb, Activist and community organiser who leads the NGO Astitva in Western Uttar Pradesh.

Adeeb and her team were in constant touch with women who shared their concerns about how unwanted pregnancies, lack of doctors and health care added to the crisis.

The experiences of these women reflected and continues to reflect the situation elsewhere in the world, and while society was grappling a global pandemic, an unprecedented increase in various forms of violence against women and girls, was being witnessed worldwide.

The United Nations described the increased violence against women in India during the pandemic as a “shadow pandemic“.

The number of domestic violence complaints that the National Commission for Women in India received doubled from 123 distress calls to 239 domestic violence complaints, from March 23, 2020, to April 16, 2020, it was reported.

While women’s helplines across the country were inundated with domestic violence complaints, the violence faced by women belonging to the most marginalised sections of society needed and still needs urgent attention.

“Reports have shown that incidents of discrimination against women and girls have increased during the pandemic, in particular against women belonging to minority groups, especially those at the bottom of the economic ladder,” says UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Dubravka Simonovic, in an exclusive interview with IPS.

She stressed that with many countries reporting dramatic increases in domestic violence, including intimate partner violence and sexual abuse, as a result of complying with social confinement measures, the home had become a place of fear for many women and children. With restricted movement, financial constraints and uncertainty, perpetrators were emboldened, and the situation provided them with additional power and control.

In India, another factor that added to Muslim women’s plight was the rise in Islamophobia, which manifested itself in the online campaign known as the “Corona Jihad”. Muslims were falsely targeted and said to be spreading the virus with the malicious intention of infecting non-Muslims.

The courts dismissed this as being false but not before this dangerous narrative had led to an increase in the already prevalent discrimination against the community.

Media reports showed how women belonging to Muslim communities were denied services at hospitals. The reports gave details of campaigns and calls, at times from those in power, demanding an economic boycott of Muslim communities, which had ramifications for the women.

Nishat Hussain coordinating with local authorities in Rajasthan to ensure relief reaches those most affected by the lockdown.

Nishat Hussain, Rajasthan state convenor of the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (Indian Muslim Women’s Movement) and the non-profit National Muslim Women Welfare Society led COVID relief activities throughout the state during the lockdown.

“One of the biggest problems that the women I work with faced was because of their identity as Muslim women,” Hussain said.

With the stereotypes and hate speech against the community, women had to fight their way, battling even the administration at times, to reach out for support.

Most of Hussain’s staff are Muslim women, who volunteered during this time to reach women in areas where basic necessities such as food were not reaching families.

“Access to health, medicines were very difficult, we tried to intervene and provided women and young girls with menstrual hygiene kits. Truckloads of food with the help of well-wishers and friends were distributed to all those in need, irrespective of their religion or identity,” she says.

Addressing violence within families during the pandemic has become vital, and there are many interventions by local and national organisations that are leading this effort.

Breakthrough India, for instance, designed a campaign along with the older adolescents in the field areas by the name of “dakhalandazi zaroori hai” (Intervention is a necessity), which later led to a larger campaign called “Dakhal Do” or “Intervene”.

“Adolescents developed posters against Domestic Violence and displayed them along with relevant phone numbers in prominent places in their villages.

Breakthrough also organised online training of District Legal Services Authorities as well as the Aanganwadi workers for effective response to victims,” said Nayana Chowdhury, who is the director of programs at Breakthrough India.

“Breakthrough also strengthened the skills of the Panchayati Raj Institution leaders to address the needs of the community in the time of the pandemic.

Simonovic stressed that the crisis highlighted and reinforced the gaps and shortcomings at the national, regional, and global levels in preventing and combating the pandemic of gender-based violence against women.

She wants to look at COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to bring about the much needed change to overcome the pandemic of violence against women, including women from marginalised and minority groups, by, “amending legislation and practice that reinforces gender stereotypes and prevents victims from accessing justice; changing policies that fail to offer victims adequate and timely services such as shelters, protection orders and help lines; addressing social and cultural beliefs that perpetuate myths that blame women for the violence they suffer”.

Mariya Salim is a fellow at IPS UN Bureau

 

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A reward system for kidnappers is fuelling mass abductions of students in northern Nigeria.

By External Source
Mar 1 2021 (IPS-Partners)

In the lead up to International Women’s Day, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), are launching a new core resource package for gender in education in emergencies: the ‘EiE-GenKit’!

Register here to join us for a launch event, on Wednesday 3 March 07:00 EST | 13:00 CET | 15:00 EAT.

The event will start with a short film providing an overview of the rationale behind developing the EiE-GenKit, its contents and usage, and its relevance in the current COVID-19 climate. An intergenerational panel discussion will follow, featuring the leadership of INEE, ECW and UNGEI, and representatives from UNICEF, Plan Canada, Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action, and the Generation Equality Youth Task Force. Register: bit.ly/EiE-GenKit-2021

In a time where the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing gender and education inequalities, particularly affecting adolescent girls, the EiE-GenKit is a global good to improve gender-responsiveness and inclusivity in EiE interventions.

Help us promote the launch

We have prepared a social media pack in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic which can be accessed here. Below is a suggested post for your channels with a social media card attached.

Launching next week: the EiE-GenKit – a new core resource package on gender in EiE!

Join @ungei @INEEtweets @Educannotwait for the launch event with #gender and #EiE experts, practitioners & young leaders http://bit.ly/EiE-GenKit-2021 #IWD2021

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18 Sep, 2019 Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan at the People's Summit on Climate, Rights and Human Survival in New York, USA. Credit: Tracie Williams / Greenpeace

By Jennifer Morgan
NEW YORK, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

The climate crisis doesn’t stop for anyone or anything, not even the pandemic that has forced billions of us to radically overhaul our lives. And like the pandemic, climate change has no nationality, agenda or political affiliation.

Both exist to spread where, when and how they can. Another stark similarity is that the impacts of COVID-19, just like the climate emergency, do not treat us equally, as those who self-identify as female are hit the hardest.

The pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on all who regard themselves as girls, women and womxn, as well as minorities, those with disabilities, older members of our communities, refugees, migrants and Indigenous Peoples.

So much so, the UN Secretary General António Guterres last month said progress on gender equality has been set back years, and within his 2021 priorities described achieving gender equality as “the greatest human rights challenge.”

Deep rooted social injustices, from worker rights to gender inequality, go hand in hand with the climate emergency. Climate denial, like prejudice, is certainly not a victimless crime.

Even though the climate crisis is global, it is impacting low and middle income countries the worst, with self-identifying females the most affected. When climate-fueled extreme weather events strike, it’s those who deny science and block climate action who must answer to the victims on the frontlines.

Though we are in the throes of these interconnected health, environmental, economic and equality crises, creating a better world for all is still within reach. Together, we can move forward on an inclusive green path to recovery, where social justice is our guiding principle.

This means profound systems change with new rules and investments, and not the failed racist patriarchal polluting status quo being merely tweaked. A fairer, healthier, wealthier and safer world for all people is exactly what a transformation in line with 1.5°C – the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal – means.

And it’s what publics across the planet want. In Japan, 60% of people want transformational economic change. While in India, Mexico, China, Brazil, South Africa and beyond, support for a green economic recovery is at 80% or higher.

Over 1.2 million people from across the world have joined campaigns at Greenpeace, Avaaz and others, supporting the call for a bold, green and just recovery in Europe.

A green and just recovery to COVID-19 is the opportunity for governments to kickstart a new economy that helps solve the climate and biodiversity crisis, while ensuring fair wages, employment protections and social safety nets for everyone, specifically for women, womxn and girls.

And as I wrote last year for the Inter Press Service, equity across the world and spectrum would lead to more life satisfaction, better security and economies, and more sustainable solutions to climate change, and now the pandemic.

Millions of people who identify as female have managed to pull together time and again in the name of justice and for saving our beautiful planet. Since the beginning of Greenpeace 50 years ago this year, women have been central, with the organisation co-founded by the extraordinary Dorothy Stowe.

1 Jan, 1996 Greenpeace co-founder, Dorothy Stowe, at a Commemorative Greenpeace Plaque Unveiling in Vancouver, Canada. Credit: Greenpeace

While they have not always been recognised or nurtured as much as they deserved, self-identifying females are very much a leading force within the organisation now and will be going forward.

They are the captains and crew of our ships, executive directors, scientists, cleaners, photographers. They are our campaigners and activists who put their bodies on the line to demand a green, just and peaceful world. Inclusivity is one of our values because there can be no green peace without gender equality.

As Greenpeace nears the 50th anniversary, it is vital we don’t spend too much time looking back instead of forwards. Where we’re going, what we need to do, and the organisation we must continue becoming.

Amplifying the voices of the most marginalised and vulnerable, while boosting their access to opportunities and platforms, is central to the mission of Greenpeace.

29 Feb, 2020 Stolen Fish in West Africa – Stand 4 Women campaign. Joal and Bargny, Senegal.
Fishmeal and fish oil factories in West Africa are putting at risk food security and livelihood of up to 40 million people. These factories swallow enormous amounts of fresh fish, that the local population need, to feed fish in aquaculture industries, pigs and chickens and even pets in Europe and Asia. Now people are rising up on International Women’s day against the factories. Credit: Julien Flosse / Greenpeace

Like in West Africa, where female fish processors have been standing strong for years against fishmeal and fish oil factories taking away the fish on which their local communities depend.

While they are struggling to make ends meet with few employment rights, the fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) industry, owned by investors outside Africa, booms. This, as well as overfishing by destructive foreign fishing vessels, is threatening food security, jobs and social stability in the region with women most impacted.

These female fish processors want their West African governments to legally and formally recognise them in the same way as other people doing in any job.

Globally, our oceans are suffering from the plunder of overfishing and illegal industrial fishing as well as serious pollution. We need to stop wrecking our oceans now to safeguard food security and jobs for millions of people, like the West African female fish processors and their communities, and to save our marine environment.

One billion people rely on fish as their main source of animal protein, according to the World Health Organization, while it is estimated that 43 million people are facing food insecurity in West Africa – 20 million of them due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19.

What we are seeing today with the pandemic and the climate emergency, like with previous crises, is the worsening of the already disadvantaged position of women and womxn in the labour market, alongside the burden of unpaid domestic and care work, and gender-based violence.

Despite the many and intersectional challenges females – as well as non-binary people – face, there are also many remarkable change-makers. From the Nigerian eco-feminist Oladosu Adenike advocating for the restoration of Lake Chad, to Tanya Fields of the BLK ProjeK, who focuses on food justice and economic development for women and youth of colour in the US, to the matriarchs of Wet’suwet’en resiliently opposing the Coastal Gas Link pipeline while protecting their elders from the virus.

As much as it must be in everyone’s interest to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to all people, it must be in everyone’s interest to find real solutions to the climate and gender inequality crises.

No person is safe until all people are safe, just as no country is safe from the virus and the climate emergency until all countries are safe from COVID-19 and the climate crisis. Tackling the pandemic, climate change and gender inequality are urgent priorities, not competing ones.

Global cooperation at unprecedented levels is required to overcome these challenges, as is the brave active citizenship we have seen – and continue to see – by all who self-identify as female; they must be central to solving the climate emergency and overcoming the pandemic.

This year, we have an opening to not just move beyond the ravaging storm of the pandemic, but to do it in a way where we steadily set sail to a fairer, greener and healthier future with the wind at our backs, making some waves on our voyage of victory.

*Greenpeace is 50 years old this year and one of the founders was Dorothy Stowe so the piece would link back to how women have always had a big role at the organisation, and this must continue in GP and the movement.

 

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The post – International Women’s Day, 2021 –
Gender Equality is our Captain for Sailing to a Green & Just Recovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day March 8.

 
Jennifer Morgan is Executive Director, Greenpeace International*

The post – International Women’s Day, 2021 –
Gender Equality is our Captain for Sailing to a Green & Just Recovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

There were mixed fortunes for South African clubs in two delayed African Champions League ties.

By Leituala Kuiniselani Toelupe Tago-Elisara
SUVA, Fiji, Mar 1 2021 (IPS)

An often quoted indigenous reference in the Samoan language is, O le ala i le pule o le tautua, literally translated, “the pathway to leadership is through service” because to be able to lead is to be willing to serve.

Since world leaders endorsed the blueprint for gender equality in Beijing 1995, women in leadership has dominated in numerous conversations and forums in terms of the need to increase women in leadership as a critical factor to achieve gender equality. Many of the perspectives shared, are about facilitating opportunities for women, advancing women in fields dominated by men, particularly in the sciences, and achieving equality in decision-making. Women in leadership has become a popular discourse from development, to academia, to politics, to science and innovation; and organisations across all sectors are recognizing the importance of inclusivity and equity for achieving sustainable development.

The 2020 Pacific review of the Beijing Platform for Action, 25 years after Beijing, highlighted that Pacific states still have a long way to go in achieving balanced representation of women in national parliaments. With the exception of the French Territories where equitable representation of women in their legislative assemblies is ensured by the French ‘parity law’, women’s representation in national parliaments across the region is shockingly low and temporary special measures (TSMs) are only used in a few states. At all levels, and across all nations, gender power dynamics disadvantage women as decision makers; and socio-cultural norms in the Pacific see men as the ‘natural’ spokespeople for families, communities and governments. That said, the report also noted an increase in women’s participation in all levels of decision-making at community levels, in public service and in civil society organisations. This raises a number of challenging questions.

Leituala Kuiniselani Toelupe Tago-Elisara

Where does this lead us in a pandemic environment? COVID-19 has exacerbated existing and ongoing inequalities in the Pacific, hindering what is already very slow progress for achieving gender equality. The evidence is quite clear as to where these inequalities are found and policy dialogues and talanoa sessions held within the region over the last two and a half decades, have generated a multitude of recommendations on what can be done by governments and as a region. What then is the problem, we ask ourselves? It’s the resourcing, the response, the lack of political will and commitment, and the list goes on, that women leaders and women engaging in the gender space, know all too well.

So, what can we do and what does this mean for Women in Leadership? The answer lies in our ongoing concerted efforts to have women at the table with an equal voice to speak for the 50% of our population. We will keep pushing to have women leaders at the table who understand women’s lived experiences and needs, and that these are translated into decision-making on resource allocation and prioritisation. We need women who lead, knowing that they have families and communities to attend to after work, and appreciate the value of unpaid care work. More importantly, we need the same women leaders at the table to share those perspectives with their men counterparts, to affect change that will transform societies and enable positive and inclusive change for gender equality at all levels in society and across all locations – urban, rural and remote.

Our unprecedented experience with COVID-19 has changed the way we live, the way we work and certainly the way we exercise leadership and deliver service. It has reminded us that with border closures and travel restrictions, we need to be searching within our own borders and within our own societies for solutions. One of these solutions is for us to utilize and capitalize on the often-untapped skills, knowledge and expertise of women, to generate solutions for our development challenges. The role of women, as we are seeing in recovery efforts across the Pacific, is a testament to the service they continue to provide for our families and our communities. It is evidenced in women’s resilience and their significant capabilities in managing our communities and societies through multiple disasters and climatic events over the years, and through the multitude of cultural and customary obligations that we have all lived through, and will continue to live through. It is a reflection of women’s knowledge of our Pacific ways of knowing and ways of being, gathered and passed down from generation to generation.

The impacts of COVID-19 are huge and as a region and as a people, it will take some time to navigate our way through these impacts towards full recovery. However, if there is one learning that I take away from this crisis, it is our ability to remain resilient and to continue to serve each other and our people, with our women holding the fort in all our societies and communities across the Pacific Ocean, through their ongoing service. It is a manifestation and a living example of leadership through service, because to be able to lead is to be willing to serve, and being able to serve is being able to lead, and such is the spirit of Pacific women in leadership.

Leituala Kuiniselani Toelupe Tago-Elisara is Acting Regional Director, Polynesia Regional Office Pacific Community (SPC)

 

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The post – International Women’s Day, 2021 –
To Lead is to Serve — A Pacific Woman’s Perspective appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark International Women’s Day March 8.

The post – International Women’s Day, 2021 –
To Lead is to Serve — A Pacific Woman’s Perspective appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A team of Islamic scholars in South Africa is on a mission to some dangerous and drug-infested areas.

Seven immigrants re-live the terrifying moment when they saved two boys from a burning flat in Grenoble.

Human rights violations have taken place in Tigray region, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.

Lucy's dream of working in the Middle East turned into a nightmare of abuse. She's not the only one.

A devaluing currency and hard economic conditions make cryptocurrencies attractive despite the risks.

Some 317 girls remain missing in Zamfara state, but 42 people abducted in Niger state are freed.

South Sudan captain Amy Lasu says women's football in the country is "on the right track" following the start of its first women's league.

Three gay Ugandans in fear of being deported from the UK tell their stories of torture and terror.

A photo archive reveals John F Kennedy's efforts to court African leaders in the post-colonial era.

By External Source
Feb 26 2021 (IPS-Partners)

 

International Women’s Day 2021

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021, IPS Inter Press Service is pleased to bring to it’s readers, opinions, views and perspectives of women leaders on the Covid19 crisis, the centrality of women’s contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.

The post appeared first on Inter Press Service.