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Cricket South Africa lodges an official complaint with the sport's world governing body over Australia's late withdrawal from planned tour.

A recent UN report lays out the gravity of Earth’s triple environmental emergencies of climate, biodiversity loss and pollution. Fishers on Kochi, Kerala operates the traditional lift-net method where catches have fallen drastically as a result of mechanised over-fishing. High fuel subsidies make it profitable for deep-sea fishing trawlers even when travelling large distances into sea. Safeguarding small fisher communities’ rights, expanding marine conservation area can allow biodiversity and fish growth to stabilise. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

“Our war on nature has left the planet broken. This is senseless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth,” António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations said.

“By transforming how we view nature, we can recognise its true value. By reflecting this value in policies, plans and economic systems, we can channel investments into activities that restore nature and are rewarded for it,” the UN Chief told the media while releasing a UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) major new report.

‘Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies’ lays out the gravity of Earth’s triple environmental emergencies of climate, biodiversity loss and pollution but provides detailed solutions too by drawing on global assessments, including those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as well as UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook report, the UNEP International Resource Panel, and new findings on the emergence of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19.

Without nature’s help we will not thrive, not even survive

“Without nature’s help we will not thrive, not even survive,” Guterres cautioned.

The UN chief was, however, particularly hopeful climate and biodiversity commitment will see progress as he is set to welcome United States back to the Paris Agreement today, Feb. 19.

The “net-zero club” is growing, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP said.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was emerging as a moment of truth for our commitment to steer Earth and for our commitment to steer Earth and its people toward sustainability. (But) loss of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, together with climate change and pollution will undermine our efforts on 80 percent of assessed SDG targets particularly in poverty reduction, hunger, health, water, cities and climate,” Anderson said.

“Women represent 80 percent of those displaced by climate disruption; polluted water kills a further 1.8 million, predominantly children; and 1.3 billion people remain poor and some 700 million hungry,” Guterres said.

Christian Walzer, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Executive Director for Health Programs and one of the co-authors of the Making Peace with Nature report, told IPS via email: “Intact and functioning nature is the foundation on which we must build back better. Trying to separate economic recovery from healthy environments and climate change neglects the essential fact that the solutions to these crises are tightly interconnected and reinforce each other.” 

He underlined how ecosystem degradation heightens the risk of pathogens making the jump from animals to humans, and the importance of a ‘One Health’ approach that considers human, animal and planetary health together. Walzer is a veterinarian who leads on One Health issues across the world.

Economic growth has brought uneven gains in prosperity to a fast-growing global population, leaving 1.3 billion people poor, while tripling the extraction of natural resources to damaging levels and creating a planetary emergency. Subsidies on fossil fuels, for instance, and prices that leave out environmental costs, are driving the wasteful production and consumption of energy and natural resources that are behind all three problems.

Guterres pointed out how governments are still paying more to exploit nature than to protect it, spending 4 to 6 trillion dollars on subsidies that damage environment. He said over-fishing and deforestation is still encouraged by countries globally because it helped GDP growth, despite drastically undermining livelihoods of local fishers and forest dwellers.

In the current growth trajectory despite a temporary decline in emissions due to the pandemic, the earth is heading for at least 3°C of global warming this century; more than 1 million of the estimated 8 million plant and animal species are at substantially increased risk of extinction; and diseases caused by pollution are currently killing some 9 million people prematurely every year.

A farmer in Kerala’s hinterlands applies chemical fertilisers to his rice paddies. Large areas under unsustainable agricultural methods world-over in a drive for higher food production has damaged the environment. Scientific climate friendly methods are available and are equally productive.
Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

The blueprint for solutions

The authors of Making Peace with Nature report assess the links between multiple environmental and development challenges, and explain how advances in science and bold policymaking can open a pathway towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and a carbon neutral world by 2050 while bending the curve on biodiversity loss and curbing pollution and waste.

Taking that path means innovation and investment only in activities that protect both people and nature. Success will include restored ecosystems and healthier lives as well as a stable climate.

Amid a wave of investment to re-energise economies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the blueprint communicates the opportunity and urgency for ambitious and immediate action. It also lays out the roles that everyone – from governments and businesses to communities and individuals – can and must play.

“2021 is a make-it or break-it year, a mind-shift year,” said Guterres. 2021, with its upcoming climate and biodiversity convention meetings, is the year where governments must come up with synergistic and ambitious targets to safeguard the planet.

To turn the tide of current unsustainability, the UNEP blueprint has several recommendations some of which include that governments include natural capital while measuring economic performance of both countries and businesses, and putting a price on carbon and shift trillions of dollars in subsidies from fossil fuels, non-sustainable agriculture and transportation towards low-carbon and nature-friendly solutions.

It is high time, the report advises, to expand and improve protected area networks for ambitious international biodiversity targets. Further, non-government organisations can build networks of stakeholders to ensure their full participation in decisions about sustainable use of land and marine resources, the report recommends.

Financial organisations need to stop lending for fossil fuels, and boost renewable energy expansion.  Developing innovative finance for biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture is of utmost importance now.

Businesses can adopt the principles of the circular economy to minimise resource use and waste and commit to maintaining transparent and deforestation-free supply chains.     

Scientific organisations can pioneer technologies and policies to reduce carbon emissions, increase resource efficiency and lift the resilience of cities, industries, communities and ecosystems

Individuals can reconsider their relationship with nature, learn about sustainability and change their habits to reduce their use of resources, cut waste of food, water and energy, and adopt healthier diets. two-thirds of global CO2 emissions are linked to households. “People’s choices matter,” the Guterres said.

 

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By Raghav Gaiha, Vani S. Kulkarni and Veena S. Kulkarni
NEW DELHI, India, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

The question whether the rich are more satisfied with their lives is often taken for granted, even though surveys, like the Gallup World Poll, show that the relationship between subjective well-being and income is often weak, except in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia. Researcher Daniel Kahneman and his collaborators, for example, report that the correlation between household income and reported life satisfaction or happiness with life typically ranges from 0.15 to 0.30. There are a few plausible reasons. First, growth in income mostly has a transitory effect on individuals’ reported life satisfaction, as they adapt to material goods. Second, relative income, rather than the level of income, affects well-being — earning more or less than others looms larger than how much one earns. Third, though average life satisfaction in countries tends to rise with GDP per capita at low levels of income, there is little increase in life satisfaction once GDP per capita exceeds $10,000 (in purchasing power parity). This article studies the relationships between subjective well-being, which is narrowly defined to focus on economic well-being in India, and variants of income, based on the only panel survey in India Human Development Survey (IHDS).

Why do we need a new measure of well-being when there is already a widely used, objective welfare measure based on per capita income? There are several reasons. The first stems from the distinction between decision utility and experienced utility. In the standard approach to measure well-being, ordinal preferences are inferred from the observations of decisions made supposedly by rational (utility maximising) agents. The object derived is decision utility. In contrast, recent advances in psychology, sociology, behavioural economics and happiness economics suggest that decision utility is unlikely to illuminate the utility associated with different experiences — hence the emphasis on measures that focus more directly on experienced utility, notably using subjective well-being (SWB) responses.

We draw upon the two rounds of the IHDS for 2005 and 2012. An important feature of IHDS is that it collected data on SWB. The question asked was: compared to seven years ago, would you say your household is economically doing the same, better or worse today? So, the focus of this SWB is narrow. But as it is based on self-reports, it connotes a broader view that is influenced by several factors other than income, assets, and employment, like age, health, caste, etc.

There is a positive relationship between SWB and per capita expenditure (a proxy for per capita income, which is frequently underestimated and underreported): the higher the expenditure in 2005, the greater was the SWB in 2012. The priority of expenditure, in time, rules out reverse causation from high SWB to high expenditure, i.e., higher well-being could also be associated with better performance resulting in higher expenditure. High expenditure is associated with a decent standard of living, good schooling of children, and financial security. As India’s comparable GDP per capita in 2003 (PPP) was $2,270, well below the threshold of $10,000, it is consistent with extant evidence.

Aspirations and achievements

In order to capture the gap between aspirations and achievements, we have analysed the relationship between SWB and ratio of per capita expenditure of a household to the highest per capita expenditure in the primary sampling unit. Although this is a crude approximation to relative deprivation, we get a negative relationship between SWB and this ratio. In other words, the larger the gap, the greater is the sense of resentment and frustration, and the lower is the SWB.

The larger the proportionate increase in per capita expenditure between 2005 and 2012, the greater is the SWB. To illustrate this, we construct three terciles of expenditure in 2005: the first representing extremely poor, the second the middle class, and the third the rich. If the proportionate increase in per capita expenditure is highest among the extremely poor and lowest among the rich, the higher will be the SWB of the extremely poor. This is indeed the case.

This provides important policy insights. One is that in a lower-middle-income country like India, growth of expenditure or income is significant. However, the widening of the gap between aspirations and achievements or between the highest expenditure/income of a reference group and actual expenditure/income of a household reflects resentment, frustration and loss of subjective well-being. So, taxing the rich and enabling the extremely poor to benefit more from economic opportunities can enhance well-being. In conclusion, objective welfare and subjective well-being measures together are far more useful than either on its own.

Veena S. Kulkarni teaches Sociology at Arkansas State University and is a co-author for this article. Raghav Gaiha is Research Affiliate, Population Studies Centre, University of Pennsylvania; Vani S. Kulkarni teaches Sociology at University of Pennsylvania

 

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Excerpt:

Subjective wellbeing and income are intricately linked

The post Money vs. Happiness appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Volunteers teach people living in settlements about COVID-19. This photo was taken in Sana’a, Yemen. At a Security Council briefing yesterday UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said people in Yemen are more worried about hunger than the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Dhia Al-Adimi/UNICEF

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

Yemen is heading towards the worst famine the world has seen in decades, the United Nations Security Council was warned in a briefing yesterday.

“Across Yemen, more than 16 million people are going hungry – including 5 million who are just one step away from famine,” Mark Lowcock, the UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said during the briefing. The country has a population of just over 29 million.

Lowcock briefed the council about the worsening food insecurity and malnourishment of children in the country, among other issues. He pointed out four areas that need to be addressed immediately: protection of civilians, humanitarian access, funding for aid services, and establishing peace.

At the briefing, Lowcock highlighted the issue of hunger and child malnutrition in a country where people are more worried about hunger than the COVID-19 pandemic.

He pointed out that currently, severe malnourishment affects 400,00 children under the age of five in the country — most of whom have just a few weeks or months to live.

“These are the children with distended bellies, emaciated limbs and blank stares – they are starving to death,” Lowcock said.

Hunger and conflict are inextricably linked as they both breed off of each other: hunger leads to conflict, and conflict leads to hunger, Annabel Symington, spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Yemen, told IPS.

“The alarming hunger levels in Yemen have been caused by six years of conflict and the almost near total economic collapse that has resulted in over half the population – 16 million people facing crisis level of food insecurity, and 50,000 people living in famine-like conditions,” Symington said, adding that the pandemic has been an exacerbating factor in an already deep conflict.

Lowcock also raised the issue of the recent attack on Marib city, the stronghold of the government, calling it an “extremely dangerous” escalation. “It threatens to send hundreds of thousands of people again running for their lives at a time when everyone should be doing everything possible to stop famine,” he said.

“Front lines are reportedly moving closer to civilian areas. At least four missiles landed in Marib city in the last ten days – seemingly fired indiscriminately. Those attacks killed at least three civilians. Missiles have also landed around camps for displaced people. Thousands are already fleeing,” he said.

But Ibrahim Jalal from the Middle East Institute (MEI) says the UN should have delivered a stronger message and specifically named Yemen’s Houthi group who were responsible for offensive in Marib city.

“I think the first thing I expected is more clarity in language,” Jalal, a non-resident scholar at the MEI’s Gulf Affairs and Yemen Programme, told IPS after the briefing. “You see so many issues when they talk about protection of civilians, or humanitarian issues at stake or even the military escalation by Houthis in Marib — they were not named in any form of clarity.”

He criticised Lowcock’s discussion of the Marib attack as well as the SAFER tanker issue as ones without much nuance or critical questions. He said even though Lowcock brought up these issues, it remained “clearly unanswered” for many as to why these incidents took place and who needs to be held accountable in response.

Jalal believes Lowcock should have also specifically addressed the issue of  internally displaced peoples (IDP) camps, which have been hit particularly hard by the most recent attacks.

“The [IDPs] situation in Marib is quite alarming, so things should’ve been spelled just very clearly — language matters,” Jalal said. “I don’t see that there.”

Meanwhile Lowcock also pointed out the challenges in different parts of the country that are hampering aid.

In the south, there are administration challenges such as delays in signing project agreements or releasing equipment.

In the north, he said, Ansar Allah authorities are the ones causing delays in aid services reaching the people.

“[Ansar Allah] regularly attempts to interfere with aid delivery and they regularly harass aid agencies and staff,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Ansar Allah is also an obstacle for the UN’s ability to address the SAFER tanker issue, he said.

“Ansar Allah authorities recently announced plans to review their approval for the long-planned mission and advised the UN to pause some preparations,” he said. “They have now dropped this review. Unfortunately, we only heard that they dropped the review after a key deadline had passed to deploy the team in March.”

“I want to emphasise that the UN remains eager to help solve this problem,” Lowcock added. “We think it poses a clear and present danger to everybody across the country.”

But Jalal still felt that these were mere words that wouldn’t translate into actions.

“I don’t think it was bold,” he said regarding Lowcock’s statement. “It was just another UN statement that might not meet the urgency and the alarming threats over the two million IDPs in Marib, or even the catastrophic looming environmental disaster [brought] on by the SAFER tanker issue.”

Jalal said he is concerned that the SAFER tanker issue keeps being pushed behind in priority year after year.

“When you have a looming multi-faceted crisis, the first thing is you address it,” he said. “But without addressing it, you’re deliberately or inadvertently contributing to the escalation of the crisis and now it’s more alarming than ever.”

Meanwhile Symington at WFP expressed hope about the United States’ administration’s recent declaration about ending the war in Yemen.

“Conflict is the core driver of the hunger crisis in Yemen, so any positive steps towards ending the conflict are strongly welcomed,” Symington told IPS. “We are hopeful that any steps towards peace will ultimately alleviate the hunger crisis in Yemen.”

 

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By External Source
Feb 19 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Education Cannot Wait’s (ECW) COVID-19 emergency response has reached over 9 million children and youth (47% girls) to date. ECW’s COVID-19 emergency grants span across 33 crisis-affected countries/emergency contexts.

Funds were allocated in two phases to 25 United Nations agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations, with the second phase focusing on refugee, internally displaced and host community girls and boys.

ECW’s 6-12 month First Emergency Response (FER) grants support continuous access to education including: distance, online and, radio learning; information campaigns on health and hygiene; risk communication and community engagement in local languages; psychosocial and mental health support; and, water and sanitation facility upgrades in schools and learning centers

Download the full fact sheet to learn more about ECW’s education in emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The post Education Cannot Wait: COVID-19 Emergency Response Fact Sheet appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The rugged landscape of Tigray, Ethiopia’s most northern region, stretches away to the north and into Eritrea. The Tigray Region has been rocked by conflict since November 2020, and the International Crisis Group believes the conflict is far from over despite the federal government gaining administrative control of the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, and other main cities in the region. (File photo) Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By Nalisha Adams
BONN, Germany, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

While Ethiopia’s federal government may have administrative control of the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, and other main cities in the region, including Shire, Adwa, and Aksum, after removing the regional government from power in late November — armed resistance in Tigray is not over and could continue for months.

According to William Davison, the International Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for Ethiopia, “there is still considerable conflict ongoing in Tigray, which runs against the narrative being propagated by Ethiopia’s federal government that the fighting ended when they took control of Mekelle”.

“It seems that in large chunks of rural Tigray, away from the main roads, away from the main cities and the bigger towns — normally about 15 to 20 km into the countryside — especially in central Tigray, the federal government and allied entities are not in control.

“We presume in those areas there is a significant presence of forces directed by the ousted Tigray leadership, now known as the Tigray Defence Forces, although it is hard to be sure due to the continued telecoms and access restrictions,” Davison told IPS.

The Tigray region has been rocked by conflict since Nov. 3, 2020, when the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)-run regional government clashed with federal authorities following a dispute over the autonomy of the region that was related to the TPLF’s loss of power at the federal level.

A briefing published last week by ICG noted that the presence of the Eritrean military in Tigray — repeatedly denied by the Ethiopian government and not admitted by Eritrea’s leadership — is exacerbating tensions as there were credible reports of widespread Eritrean looting and atrocities.

Davison said Eritrea’s military has largely been active in northern and central Tigray, including some cities, such as Adigrat, and has used the conflict to reclaim disputed territory that was the focal point of Ethiopia and Eritrea’s 1998-2000 war. 

In addition, Amhara region security forces and administrators who are in control of large portions of western Tigray (West Tigray Zone) and also districts of South Tigray Zone “claim these parts of Tigray as rightly belonging to their region, and say they intend to stay”, according to the ICG briefing. “The Amhara takeover of territory within Tigray, along with Tigrayan anger at Eritrea’s role, are inflaming the situation,” the briefing said.

However, the unfolding humanitarian situation in the region is also a pressing concern.

A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that before the conflict just under a million people in the region needed emergency food aid. However, in January that figure was thought to have grown to 4.5 million people, including 2.2 million internally displaced persons – out of a regional population of around 6 million.

While the Ethiopian government has said it can handle aid distribution itself, last Monday it granted some approvals for United Nations agencies to provide more assistance to people in Tigray, although it is not yet clear what impact that has had on the ground.

This was preceded by a visit from UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi earlier this month, who met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as well as Eritrean refugees who had been housed in Tigray. UNHCR said that refugees had resorted to eating leaves because there was no other food available.

Meanwhile Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has moved around the region since the conflict began, raised concern about the humanitarian situation in rural areas as they had been unable to travel to them because of either insecurity or lack of authorisation.

“We are very concerned about what may be happening in rural areas…But we know, because community elders and traditional authorities have told us, that the situation in these places is very bad,” said Albert Viñas, who has been involved in almost 50 emergency responses with MSF and prepared medical teams to access areas of eastern and central Tigray and assist people affected by the current crisis. 

He added the MSF  did not know “the real impact of this crisis”.

Crisis Group says that the federal government needs to insist on the withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara forces in order to reduce Tigrayan opposition to the federal intervention and so open up the space for some kind of dialogue at the national level over Tigray’s autonomy and the related constitutional-electoral debate that escalated the tensions that led to war.

“Steps need to be taken to reduce the huge political challenges in Tigray. Because that Amhara and Eritrean presence and the atrocities means that much of the Tigrayan population seems, at the moment, more inclined to support the Tigrayan armed resistance than the federal interim administration for the region.”

Excerpts of the interview follow. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Inter Press Service (IPS): Tigrayan leaders and the UN say fighting is still widespread?

William Davison (WD): In January and February there have been regular reports still of large-scale confrontations between the Tigray Defence Forces and opposing allied contingents, primarily the Ethiopian National Defence Force and the Eritrean Defence Force. Although it is hard to be sure about the details, there is little doubt that significant clashes are occurring, and at times they are corroborated by humanitarian actors.

What is always hard to verify is whether the claims of battlefield victories are accurate, including the claims of the capture of enemy equipment, which often come from the Tigrayan side. Or the claims of the huge fatalities that the opponent has suffered, again that often come from the Tigrayan side.

The bigger picture here is that when the federal government and allied forces took control of the regional capital Mekelle, on Nov. 28, and ousted the Tigrayan regional leadership, that was indeed a very significant moment. But, it did not mean the elimination of Tigrayan armed resistance.

Moreover, there are still a lot of the fugitive political and military leaders are at large, with only perhaps a third of those sought have been captured. Therefore, there is still a significant armed confrontation in Tigray, which runs against the narrative being propagated by Ethiopia’s federal government that “normalcy” is returning to the region and no substantive resistance remains.

IPS: A briefing by ICG last week said there is the possibility of the conflict continuing for some time to come. Can you explain?

WD: I think that is definitely a possibility and indeed a fairly likely possibility. But at the same time, we, and others, did not expect the TPLF government to be ousted from regional power within a month of this conflict beginning – so possibly the current resistance will also prove less sustainable than expected. Still, as of now, it does seem that since losing control of the regional government, the armed resistance of the ousted Tigray leadership has been relatively resilient.

As discussed, by no means are all the leaders captured, significant fighting is ongoing, and the federal government and allied forces do not control anything like all of Tigray’s territory. In conjunction with that there is also reason to believe that the presence of those allied forces — the Eritrean military and the Amhara factions — is opposed by a large proportion of Tigray’s population. And so that portion of Tigrayans appear more inclined to support the ousted leadership than the federal interim administration, and many even seem to now back Tigray’s secession from Ethiopia.

It is these factors that lead us to think that this conflict could be entrenched, and that fighting will continue for weeks, possibly months, and maybe even for longer than that. And, of course, that outlook has hugely worrying ramifications for an already critical humanitarian situation.

IPS: With regards to the humanitarian situation, until recently not all aid agencies were allowed access to the region. What are some of the concerns around the current situation?

WD: Tigray, like other places in Ethiopia, suffers from chronic food insecurity, meaning that large numbers of people every year need support. Last year this was exacerbated by the desert locust invasion – and then the outbreak of war occurred around harvest time. This created a major humanitarian crisis in Tigray.

During the conflict, the federal government has been very keen not just to control territory and try and win the war, but also to control the flow of information from Tigray and so set the narrative about the intervention.

This has contributed to a continued federal unwillingness to allow media access, bureaucratic restrictions on aid agencies, and also the failure to restore telephone and, particularly, internet services across large swathes of Tigray. 

All this exacerbates the humanitarian situation, as little is known about the fate of millions of people, including possibly up to one million who were displaced from western to central Tigray when Amhara elements reclaimed land there in the first weeks of the war.

The overarching desire to maintain control has meant that the federal government – which is party to this conflict – has largely kept itself in charge of aid distribution. This goes against core humanitarian principles. And furthermore, there are widespread concerns that, firstly, the government does not have the capacity to deliver aid at the scale needed in the time needed.

Secondly, there is a major doubt regarding political will because the government is still very keen to control the information that is emerging about the conflict. For example, the presence of Eritrean troops and the atrocities that have been committed by them, that is not something which has been acknowledged by the federal government. Therefore, maintaining that narrative is contributing to the decision to restrict information and restrict access to conflict areas, leading to increased civilian suffering.

Additionally, with the federal government denying that an organised opponent still exists, as part of efforts to manage the story, that means there is very little aid reaching large parts of rural central Tigray where allied forces are not in control of territory and large numbers of civilians are thought to have fled to.

IPS: Is there anything else that you would like to add that is particularly important?

WD: When Tigray’s ousted leaders recently made statements, there was no focus on a cessation of hostilities, a humanitarian corridor, or even really the humanitarian situation overall. Instead, like the federal government, they are fixated on trying to win the war.

Given these dynamics, it is likely that this is going to get worse; the fighting will continue and that will exacerbate the civilian suffering, both in terms of direct attacks and also the humanitarian impact. Therefore, there is a desperate need for a rethink.

First, what is needed is for the federal government to acknowledge the heavy cost of the war so far and that it is likely to get more damaging. This reality means that there is an incentive for Addis Ababa to roll back the involvement of the Eritrean and Amhara forces, as this would hopefully reduce the intensity of the fighting, ease Tigrayan anger, and allow greater space for urgently required humanitarian relief.

However, by no means will this resolve the political disputes. Instead, as Crisis Group and many other have repeatedly argued, what is needed is a fundamental country-level political negotiation, addressing all of Ethiopia’s deep fault lines, such as over the legacy of the imperial era and the merits and demerits of current federal system, probably through the vehicle of an all-inclusive national dialogue.

One of the concerns that Crisis Group had at the outset of the war is the cocktail of problems— such as mounting killings in Benishangul-Gumuz region, growing tensions with Sudan, simmering discontent in Oromia—and violent political rifts that threaten to widen. In short, the country was already fragile and volatile. Falling into this war, which split the Ethiopian military and was a huge shock to the federation, came at a moment when it was not clear Ethiopia could absorb such at destabilising blow.

While Ethiopia and Ethiopians are incredibly resilient, there is a risk that this predicament could lead to some sort of spiralling nationwide unrest, which would of course threaten Ethiopia’s overall stability and so therefore the wider region’s. That is why is it is so important that de-escalatory steps are immediately taken to move Ethiopia off this trajectory.

 

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By Carole Küng
GENEVA, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

According to the Sustainable Development Report 2020, Switzerland ranks at a shameful 163 of 165 in terms of so-called spillover effects. This means that Switzerland buys better sustainability scores in a number of areas, placing considerable burdens on other countries and the global environment.

By importing goods and services, we cause air pollution and biodiversity loss in the countries where the goods and services come from, for example by importing feedstuffs and synthetic fertilizers that we need for our intensive agriculture – especially our meat production.

In this way, we are not only concealing our own sustainability shortcomings; we are also limiting the ability of other countries to achieve their global sustainability goals.

What is Switzerland’s role in achieving the sustainability goals?

It is often said that Switzerland is too small to make a difference in the fight for sustainable development. Precisely because of the spillover effects, however, our enormous ecological footprint – and our considerable involvement in global financial flows that are detrimental to sustainability – demand that we increase our global responsibility.

Solutions need strong Swiss leadership. Sustainable Development Solutions Network Switzerland (SDSN), a UN initiative for implementing Agenda 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement, wants to actively work towards achieving the sustainability goals and advocate for goal-oriented policies.

That is why we are participating in consultations and formulating proposals to improve the current strategy.

What is the general assessment of the strategy plan draft?

A positive aspect is that the strategy reflects a holistic understanding of sustainable development and provides valuable guidelines. However, the major shortcoming is that innovative ideas and goal-oriented solutions are lacking.

The strategy is mainly based on already existent practices and strategy areas, and beyond those it remains vague.

What does this mean concretely? What improvements does SDSN think the strategy needs?

We see this aspect as paramount at this time: Switzerland urgently needs to recognize and assume its global responsibility. This is the greatest leverage for achieving the sustainability goals.

On the one hand, it entails that Switzerland must reduce its global footprint, for example by rethinking consumption. Solutions for how to make life in Switzerland possible while considering the planet’s carrying capacity must be identified.

On the other hand, the strategy presented should address how illegitimate financial flows can be stopped.

Too much is based on voluntary action, which is inadequate – for example, the desire for a more sustainable banking and financial centre: despite progress, reality shows that regulations are necessary so that short-term economic interests do not detrimentally dominate people and the environment.

Moreover, the strategy has no financial plan. We therefore propose, among other things, that the federal coordination offices receive a budget.

Where is further action needed?

It must be ensured that sufficient resources flow into sustainability research and cross-cutting implementation projects. This is because research can identify effective paths to transformation and develop concrete proposals for more sustainable measures.

We also think that strategy should set more ambitious goals. In some cases, they are formulated more weakly than in the 17 global goals or are completely ignored. Here we call for more concrete definitions and recommendations for action for each sustainability goal.

What is the message to the federal government?

We need a strategy that is backed by the economy but also by the community, with goals that are not watered down – certainly not lower than the goals of Agenda 2030. We need a strategy that presents workable, sustainable solutions with a financial plan and effective controlling – not one that only ends up as an administrative report in a federal folder.

 

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The post Switzerland Buys itself Good Sustainability Scores at the Expense of Other Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Carole Küng is Co-Director of the Biovision-affiliated network Sustainable Development Solution Network Switzerland (SDSN). The network mobilises research institutes, civil society organisations, political decision makers and industries to develop solutions for implementing Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement in Switzerland.

The post Switzerland Buys itself Good Sustainability Scores at the Expense of Other Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Remote teaching in Bangladesh. Credit: BRAC

By Safiqul Islam
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 19 2021 (IPS)

School closings and the varied impacts of remote learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic are a global challenge. Educators worldwide have been struggling to meet contemporary educational standards in this environment. But this challenge is followed by yet another: how to assess the readiness of students to resume in-school education when schools open. At BRAC, the international nongovernmental organization that operates 25,000 schools in Bangladesh, serving 750,000 students, we have developed an approach that could be helpful.

Schools in Bangladesh have been closed since March 2020, with remote education taking their place. That poses a very practical problem. When students return, likely in the first quarter of 2021, they will have had greatly varied educational experiences.

That variety of experiences will be evident globally, not only because approaches to remote teaching are so varied, but because student access to it is. In many parts of the world, Internet access is limited; that is as true in the United States as it is in Bangladesh. Rural areas have less access than urban areas. Wealthier areas, and wealthy families, have more access than poorer ones. Smaller families have fewer family members to share the home computer than larger ones.

There are also differences specific to the student and family; some students respond well to remote learning; others do not. Some have parents who are better able to help them than others. Some are in settings that are more conducive to study than others. Some deal with stress and uncertainty better than others. This is universal.

In Bangladesh, BRAC has addressed these varied circumstances by drawing on television, radio, and telephones to create new educational platforms and curricula for use depending on local conditions. Those formats enhance both the potential and the reality of remote learning, but of course cannot completely erase the differences in student experience.

A feature phone brings remote learning home. Credit: BRAC

The challenge of student readiness in Bangladesh can be understood simply through considering the case of a new third-grader. If that student had been struggling academically two years ago – in first grade – and had received just two months of in-school education in second grade (before schools closed in March), he or she could be quite unprepared for third grade in 2021. Even though that student would basically still be at second grade level, he or she will resume in-school education in third grade, because the Government of Bangladesh has instituted automatic promotions for all students when schools reopen.

Contrastingly, a student who thrived in first grade and was well served by remote learning in second grade could be fully ready for third grade.

The challenge for schools and teachers is, therefore, to assess each student and create remedial opportunities, so students are properly prepared to succeed. But that requires a new approach. Never before have schools welcomed students while having so little understanding of what the students learned the year before.

When BRAC schools resume, we will not start with normal classes. We will instead assess the diverse competencies of the students and provide remedial support as needed, so that within six months, we will have everyone back at grade level.

In the assessment phase, we will have three groups and six sub-groups, in order to address sufficiently the range of needs. The three groups – green, yellow, and red – will designate those students who are ready for the new grade, those who had not achieved enough in the previous grade, and those who are a year behind that. The sub-groups allow for further variation.

Those who are ready for the new grade will proceed at grade level, while those who are not will receive remedial support in accordance with their group and sub-group. Those in the green group will also serve as mentors, providing peer support to those who are not yet as advanced.

In order to have fewer students in classrooms until the pandemic ends, students in first grade will have their classwork indoors, while students in second and third grades will have a mix of indoor and outdoor classes. Students in fourth and fifth grades will have assignments that require them to pursue projects outside. A project to encourage creativity, inquisitiveness, and analysis might, for instance, have them studying trees and preparing presentations on them.

This approach will best serve all students by ensuring that they start at a level appropriate to their readiness and by enabling those who need to catch up to do so as quickly as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged schools as never before, and the prolonged combination of uncertainty, fear and loss has challenged students as never before. Globally, we must ensure that it does not rob students of the educational attainment that they so greatly deserve.

The author is Director of Education for BRAC, based in Bangladesh.

 

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A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent.

The jihadist abduction and killing of mountaineer Hervé Gourdel in Algeria in 2014 prompted outrage.

Summary of the 14 February 2021 Parliament of Catalonia election results. Credit: Generalitat de Catalunya

By Joaquín Roy
MIAMI, Feb 18 2021 (IPS)

The recent result of the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia has presented a mixture of repetition of certain previous aspects and some spectacular novelties. But the everlasting dimension of any parliamentary confrontation of the proportional variant remains unscathed.

Despite the development of the modern polling systems, plus the interpretation of the data facilitated in recent years, a difficult prediction remains. That involves the decisions that the parties have to make in the cases that they must craft alliances to form a government when virtual ties appear.

“And now, what?”. The central question remains unscathed. But it is not only the one presented by anonymous voters, nor by the experts and the leaders themselves who must make precise decisions. It is the general question presented by Gerard Piqué, the star footballer of FC Barcelona who has only been surpassed in popularity by Messi.

Naturally, Piqué does not dare to offer solutions. Therefore it is convenient to face the possible alternatives to solve the complicated panorama of the results.

Although it is not the exclusive result of these elections, a historical aspect of the parliamentary evolution of Catalonia since the recovery of democracy in 1978 is fully established. The Catalan elections are no longer a kind of democratic exercise peculiar to Catalans, with little connection to the rest of Spain, and Europe as whole.

Catalan parliamentarianism has suffered from a European quality. The elections to form the European Parliament have been seen historically as a kind of “national primaries”. European voters glanced inward and voted sometimes as rendering a punishment, and other times as a reward for the domestic behavior of national parties.

It is true, however, that this behavior has recently improved thanks to the tenacious reform of the European legislation that allows, for example, EU national residents in another states to vote in another country. Another remedy is the inclination to propose Europe-wide candidacies. But the burden of the national weight continues to be felt.

In the theater of the Catalan elections, that European has been noticeable. The elections in Catalonia have been seen for years as the preserve of Catalanism, since the “Castilians” considered the Catalan contests a peculiarity of Catalans.

The result was that the Spanish speakers stayed at home. That is why the Catalan socialist candidates usually won in the elections in Spain, while in Catalonia the party developed by then moderate nationalist Jordi Pujol did. This scheme has practically disappeared.

There are sectors, on the right more than on the left, that have tried to insert arguments that insist on the existence of “ethnic” elements (if not “racist”) in the configuration of the voting ideals of pro-independence alternatives,

Joaquín Roy

But this danger has been generally neutralized. Significantly, the bulk of the different arguments prioritize a “civic” nationalism, of choice.

In the current panorama, it is convenient to highlight, first, the news that stands out. In other words, has a man bit a dog? Obviously some facts are worth taking into account because of their obvious novelty and therefore because of their impact on the consequences of the election.

In this dimension, the details that concern the right-wing parties, both extreme and moderate, stand out. Significantly, the changes in this ideological sector have been suffered both by the parties considered as “constitutionalist” and by those that in some way consider themselves as “disruptive” due to their varying degree of loyalty to the independence creed.

In the first dimension, it is advisable to weigh the spectacular setback suffered by Ciudadanos. This formation was created by the centrist leader Albert Rivera in Catalonia as a dam against the tenacious monopoly of Convergence nationalism, later transformed into independence seeking.

It consisted of expanding its theater of operations to the rest of the Spanish territory, leaving the Catalan stage under the direction of Inés Arrimadas, a young woman born in Andalusia, who impressed with her command of Catalan.

In the elections held under the control of the Spanish government due to the application of article 155 of the Constitution, after the suspension of Catalan autonomy as a sanction for holding the independence referendum on October 1, 2017, Arrimadas managed to capture the largest number of seats in the Catalan Parliament. But she could not sublimate the next step, since the pro-independence parties jointly outperformed Ciudadanos in whatever alliance they presented.

Then, temporarily being a kind of referee on the state stage, Rivera found himself rejected in his attempt to neutralize the leading rightist Popular Party. The failure has now been reflected in the disaster received in the Catalan Parliament. Collateral damage could be its annihilation on the Spanish global scene.

This possible scenario has now been dramatized by the appearance of the far-right VOX in the Spanish theater, breaking through the previously reserved area of ​​the Popular Party, and now by its spectacular entry into the Parliament of Catalonia, becoming its fourth most important formation.

For a long time, the Spanish political fabric prided itself on not suffering from the presence of an extreme right. Now, the myth has collapsed. It is pointless to argue that VOX is not the same as the cases of Germany (Alternative), France (Le Pen), Hungary (Orbán) or Poland (Justice and Peace). It was a novelty, feared and latent, without ever being sublimated. Now it is a stark electoral reality.

The weakening of the remnants of moderate nationalism in Catalonia, represented now by the PDCat, testifies that the impact of the official response (trial, conviction, prison) to the independence attempt of the referendum has only reinforced the influence of the parties that prioritize independence through plebiscite insistence.

Naturally, there remains the solid argument of the constitutionalist left presented by the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC), which almost doubled the number of seats by presenting Salvador Illa as a candidate, boosted by the solid publicity of his effective role as Minister of Health of the government of Pedro Sánchez. As mentioned in this context, the centrist parties have not only disappeared in Spain, but in Catalonia they have little to do, unless paradoxically that role is reserved precisely for the PSC itself.

Listed to the left are formations that, without identifying with independence, insist on the support of the urgencies of the most needy sectors. As disparate as Comuns-Podem (the Catalan branch of the populist party of Pablo Iglesias, partner of the PSOE in Madrid) and the anti-capitalist CUP can grant the necessary votes to the pro-independence parties for the formation of a government and the appointment of the President of the Generalitat.

All the formations are aware of the economic problems, derived both from the atrocious impact of the pandemic, and from the structural unemployment dramatized by the confinement decreed as a remedy for the virus.

The interrelation between politics and the economy is also detected at the moment of weighing the evident rise of the economic power of Madrid in the last decade, and its banking concentration, apart from the exodus of the social offices of Catalan companies towards Valencia and other capitals, as a refuge from the independence movement.

The electoral results leave other details, confirmation of the past, or corrections of certain dimensions. For example, the dilemma between independence and constitutionalism is reflected in the continuation of the concentration of the former in the interior areas of the Catalan territory, while constitutionalism (from the right or from the left) populates urban areas, especially Barcelona.

If the elections have not revealed the emergence of an undisputed leader, trying to answer Piqué’s question, it is convenient to weigh the result of a solution that emerges as a favorite: the resignation of Illa and the PSC to opt for the vote of Parliament.

That “gift” would later be rewarded by taking a leap towards Madrid: Esquerra would continue supporting the PSOE in the governorship of the Spanish Congress and the approval of the national budgets.

Returning to Barcelona, ​​would the success of ERC produce the reborn leadership of Oriol Junqueras, for whom Aragonés would be holding the position? This detail would lead us to face the urgent outcome of the issue (problem?) of the imprisonment of the leaders of the “procés” and the referendum.

The present status of partial freedom that the condemned have unusually enjoyed during the elections, therefore, takes on an unusual role. The pressure to approve an amnesty becomes the irreplaceable focus for any consideration of the consequences of the elections. In other words, the simple counting of the votes to configure the executive leadership in Parliament is not the end.

 

Joaquín Roy is Jean Monnet Professor and Director of the European Union Center at the University of Miami

The post Elections in Catalonia: What Now? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

People set fire to a big shiny pillar that appeared in Kinshasa sparking fears over its origins.

Frontline workers and President Ramaphosa have been among the first in South Africa to take the vaccine,

A tourist handicraft market in Port Vila, capital of Vanuatu, prior to the pandemic. The price for Pacific countries maintaining strict border closures to protect their small highly vulnerable populations is the decimation of the tourism industry. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Feb 18 2021 (IPS)

While Pacific Island countries have, so far, been spared a catastrophic spread of COVID-19, their economies have been devastated by the effects of border closures, internal lockdowns and the demise of international tourism and trade. With the global pandemic far from over, Pacific Islanders are looking to their local and regional economies to drive resilience and recovery.

In Fiji, the pandemic has led to one in three people losing their jobs. In Vanuatu, in the southwest Pacific, the combined economic losses of COVID-19 and Tropical Cyclone Harold, which descended on the Melanesian nation in April last year, are predicted to reach 68.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Meanwhile, extreme poverty across the region could rise to 40 percent, forecasts the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University.

“The development and support of existing and new domestic industries and the private sector is critical to help affected families get through the economic downturn and to maintain income,” Mia Rimon, Regional Manager for Melanesia at the regional development organisation, Pacific Community, in Vanuatu told IPS.

The Pacific Islands region, with a total of 27,215 reported cases of coronavirus, as of Feb. 18, represents a fraction of the more than 100 million cases worldwide. However, the price for countries in the region of maintaining strict border closures to protect their small highly vulnerable populations is the decimation of the tourism industry.  The sector is of huge importance to island countries, such as Vanuatu, where it accounts for 46 percent of GDP, and in Fiji 39 percent of GDP. Between April and September last year, the pandemic caused monthly tourist arrivals in the Pacific Islands to plummet by 99-100 percent.

Trade in the region has also been hit. During the first half of 2020, exports from Tonga dropped by 28.3 percent and from Tuvalu by 71 percent.

Pacific Island governments have, accordingly, seen a decline in revenues. Most governments introduced stimulus packages to support households and businesses during the worst of the crisis, but, in the current economic climate, these costs will be unsustainable over a long or indefinite period.

With the prospect of a ‘travel bubble’ between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island countries unlikely to occur soon, the region will struggle to grow by 1.3 percent this year, forecasts the Asian Development Bank. But output levels in highly exposed Pacific Island countries are unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2022 or beyond, reports the World Bank.

Pacific leaders are now looking to the economic potential within the region. At a virtual meeting in August last year, Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers concluded that the crisis offered ‘the opportunity to assert a regional economy that supports Pacific priorities and to consider investments, policies and partnerships required to secure the region’s economic resilience and the wellbeing of its people now and into the future.’

Dr Neelesh Gounder of the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told IPS that the private sector will be important to recovery, but added that “governments will need to support the private sector with policies and incentives that will reduce the cost of doing business and provide incentives for expansion and growth.”

Some local entrepreneurs are already manoeuvring to gain new skills and adapt their enterprises for a local, rather than international market.

Workers at South Pacific Mozuku cleaning seaweed in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. Photo credit: South Pacific Mozuku

In the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga, a local business, South Pacific Mozuku (SPM), specialised in a luxury range of cosmetics and skincare products incorporating a seaweed, known as ‘Mozuku’, which grows in the waters around Tonga. It was a perfect fit for the international tourist market. Before the pandemic, Tonga received up to 5,000 cruise ship visitors per day. The business also exported raw seaweed to international buyers, mostly in Japan. But then the pandemic hit, tourist visitors evaporated and the export market declined.

“We lost 60 percent of our orders during lockdown in March and April 2020,” Managing Director, Masa Kawaguchi, told IPS. After a strategic rethink, he is now pivoting the business to make fresh food products, still using ‘Mozuku’ seaweed, which possesses nutritious and anti-oxidising properties, as an ingredient. They are now sold through local supermarkets and distributors.

It is a sector of natural strength and expertise in the region. “Almost all Pacific people are coastal people and have their lives entwined with the sea. Significant livelihood opportunities are marine-based. Hence, it is important to continue upskilling to meet changing demands and resources,” Avinash Singh, the Pacific Community’s Aquaculture Officer, told IPS.

SPM, which employs 25 local Tongans, is delivering further benefits to local communities. Its partnership with the Tonga Youth Employment Entrepreneurship (TYEE) scheme has led to local youths being involved in promoting public awareness of ‘Mozuku’ seaweed as a health food and organising tasting events in shops and restaurants in the capital, Nuku’alofa. And ‘Mozuku’ is now on the menu for patients, doctors and nurses at the Vaiola Hospital, also situated in the capital.

Further west in Vanuatu, youths, women and islanders with disabilities are being mobilized in a new income generating initiative, called the 300 Coconut Bag Project, in the main city of Port Vila.

“The impacts of COVID-19 on the lives of Ni-Vanuatu is really sad as people get laid off from their jobs, young people who are recruited in tourism sectors and other trades have to go back home due to limited hours of operation as there are no more tourists,” Project Manager, Sethy Melenamu, told IPS.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that ‘the pandemic is inflicting a triple shock on young people: destroying their employment, disrupting education and training and placing major obstacles in the way of those seeking to enter the labour market.’ These issues are of importance in the Pacific Islands, which is experiencing a youth bulge. Currently half the region’s population of about 11.9 million are aged under 23 years.

The making of recycled and reusable coconut bags is generating employment and incomes for youths, women and disabled people affected by the pandemic in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Photo credit: 300 Coconut Bag Project

In Port Vila, about 30 young people are being employed to collect discarded waste plastic, which is then crafted and sewn by local women and disabled people into large reusable carry bags. Each bag, which is designed to hold six heavy coconuts, features an inner lining of recycled plastic and an outer layer of aesthetically woven pandanus leaves.

It is envisaged that, following production, the bags, which are being promoted as waterproof, reversible and fashionable, will be on sale in March in local fresh produce markets, retail shops and online.

The project, which is supported by the Pacific Community in partnership with the Vanuatu Office for Ocean and Maritime Affairs, intends to outlive the pandemic.

“The project is long-term; there will be more prototypes of products to be tested and modified. Also, the beneficiaries will see it as an alternative source of income for the vulnerable. I would like to make it a sustainable social enterprise in the future,” Melenamu said.

The distinctive fashionable and sustainable coconut carry bags will be sold at public venues in Port Vila, such as fresh produce markets, Vanuatu. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

 

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The post Pacific Islanders Turn to Local Economies to Drive Post-pandemic Recovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Roderic Grigson was Asia Pacific Vice President for Novell, a global networking company, working in Melbourne Australia until he retired from corporate life to become a full-time writer. He worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a technology innovations officer, serving in UN peacekeeping forces in the Middle East. He is the author of Sacred Tears, The Sullen Hills and After the Flames, a trilogy of thrillers set in war-torn Sri Lanka, and is currently working on his fourth book.

By Roderic Grigson
MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb 18 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations is an institution mired in politics focusing primarily on military conflicts, civil wars, economic sanctions, peacekeeping, plus sustainable economic development.

But there is also a lighter side to it, which is brilliantly laid out in a new book released last week on Amazon titled “No Comment and Don’t Quote Me on That.”

It takes years to write a good book, and in this insightful memoir, Thalif Deen, a former UN Bureau Chief and Regional Director at Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, gives us a riveting memoir filled with observations that come from 40-years of stalking the halls and corridors of the ‘glasshouse by the East River’.

Told through a series of news stories, interviews, anecdotes, and personal recollections, No Comment is held together by flashes of surprising humour and an overarching third world focus and point of view. It comes as no surprise that some of his stories were picked up at the Delegates Lounge, a well-known watering hole for UN delegates.

He also describes an incident that took place when he was doing a wrap-up of the 1992, two-week-long international conference in Rio de Janeiro. Deen approached Dr Gamani Corea, a former Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and a member of the Sri Lanka delegation, for a final comment.

“We negotiated”, Dr Corea said with a tinge of sarcasm, “the size of the zero”, as he held out his fingers to indicate the zero, describing the response of Western nations who refused to make any concrete commitments to fund a plan for the protection of the global environment.

In his first year as a student at Columbia University, Deen was terrified of the hazards of crime-ridden subway travel in New York and scared of the impending winter. When he complained about his first-ever brutal winter in New York, a wise-cracking American classmate advised him: “The best remedy is to curl up in bed with a good book — or with someone who has read one”.

Though its scenes are scattered, they are individually memorable, evoking amazement and laughter in the same breath. Deen has always been a raconteur, often entertaining guests at various functions and parties with stories from his vast array of yarns, and this comes through his narrative in abundance.

Deen surprises the reader with an unaffected insider view of international reporting, recounting his stories with freshness and colour. A longstanding columnist for the Sunday Times, UN correspondent for Asiaweek, Hong Kong and Jane’s Defence Weekly, London, his firsthand experiences add importance to his common-sense take on global diplomacy.

The book’s title is taken from an encounter Deen had with a diplomat at the UN building. As a general rule, most ambassadors and diplomats do not tell UN correspondents either to go to hell or heaven – but avoid all comments on politically sensitive issues with the standard non-excuse: “Sorry, we have to get clearance from our capital”.

But often that “clearance” from their respective foreign ministries never came. Still, it was hard to beat a response from a tight-lipped Asian diplomat who told him: “No comment” – and as an after-thought, added: “And Don’t Quote Me on That”.

It is a gift that he has now written his long overdue memoir. Blessed with a robust sense of humour, Deen gives us the real scoop on headline stories with both wit and intelligence, a perspective that comes from mining his dog-eared reporter’s notebooks, of which he assures me, there are over a hundred.

It is also the story of how Deen did it. A former information officer at the UN Secretariat in New York in the mid-1970s, Deen has covered virtually every major UN conference on population, human rights, the environment, sustainable development, food security, humanitarian aid, arms control and nuclear disarmament in the past 40-years.

Working at the UN during the most dramatic events of our time — from the pursuit of war and peace in the Middle East to the humanitarian disasters in Africa and Asia, this book provides an insider’s view on what went on behind the ‘glass curtain’ during a period of extraordinary turbulence.

A Fulbright scholar with a master’s degree (MSc) in Journalism from Columbia University in New York, Deen was born and educated in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). A student of Zahira College, Colombo, he graduated with an Economics degree from the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya. He became the first student from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to gain admission to the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia.

At Peradeniya in the 1960s, it was the prevalent trend among most undergrads to fancy themselves either as Trotskyites, Communists or Socialists. When asked about his own political leanings, Deen told one of his professors he was a die-hard Marxist. ”But I followed Groucho, not Karl,” he declared.

Speaking at a corporate dinner, sponsored by the International Institute for Education (IIE), during his student days, he said he had arrived in New York with a degree of trepidation because his colleagues at Lake House, the newspaper office where he worked, cautioned him that Fulbright grants were given only to “half-bright students”. Mercifully, it wasn’t so.

Studying for his master’s in the early seventies in New York City, known then as the ‘murder capital’, was not easy. But having been brought up in the unforgiving northern suburbs of Colombo, he successfully navigated the asphalt jungle that was the Big Apple and has lived to tell the tale.

When he was in Iraq’s battle zone in Baghdad during the 1990 Gulf War, he was armed with a military flak jacket with a cautious warning inscribed on the back: “United Nations. Press. Don’t Shoot.” Perhaps it helped. Now, he says, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, he occasionally wears it in the mean streets of New York, a city where he has lived for over 45 years, and where a bank robber can get mugged as he flees to a get-a-way car.

He completed his studies before embarking on his remarkable career ‘reporting from the United Nations’, first as a UN Information officer, a UN correspondent for Janes Defence Weekly and finally as a UN correspondent and bureau chief at IPS.

Possessed with the curiosity, nimbleness of mind and openness to change, Deen stands out among veteran correspondents for the range of his experience and his gift as a storyteller. An eyewitness to history being made at the highest levels, with this unique perspective, Deen brings to life scenes from the past and present.

A story he recounts often is after a band of mercenaries tried to oust the Maldives’ government, he asked a Maldivian diplomat about the strength of his country’s standing army. “Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, “We don’t even have a sitting army.”

Ambassador H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, a sharply-witty, former Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary and a one-time Permanent Representative to the UN, once paid him an ultimate compliment, when he said in an email message: “Permanent representatives are never permanent. Sri Lanka’s only Permanent Representative at the UN is the IPS UN Bureau Chief Thalif Deen.”

He said Deen had survived about 20 Sri Lankan Permanent Representatives (PRUNs) – some of them transiting through New York.

He is a splendid companion as I can personally attest to after working with him in New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s. One thing I most admire about him is that he has always remained true to himself, his principles, career, and origins. He is someone with genuine bona fides as a journalist and an unassailable commitment to the profession’s enduring values.

“No Comment” is a dizzying text, part memoir, part discourse on international reporting reality from a third-world perspective.

The book is available on Amazon. The link follows:
https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

 

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The post The UN: From the Sublime to the Hilarious appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Roderic Grigson was Asia Pacific Vice President for Novell, a global networking company, working in Melbourne Australia until he retired from corporate life to become a full-time writer. He worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a technology innovations officer, serving in UN peacekeeping forces in the Middle East. He is the author of Sacred Tears, The Sullen Hills and After the Flames, a trilogy of thrillers set in war-torn Sri Lanka, and is currently working on his fourth book.

The post The UN: From the Sublime to the Hilarious appeared first on Inter Press Service.

‘Conflict trap’ a growing obstacle to sustainable development - UN chief 6 January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Tobin Jones

By Camila Corradi Bracco
AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, Feb 18 2021 (IPS)

Since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016, the role of the private sector in fulfilling the 2030 Agenda has been widely acknowledged, as set out under SDG 12. Yet to assess how companies are actually contributing towards these Global Goals, we need greater transparency on their impacts.

Over the past four years, GRI has championed the participation of companies in measuring their performance on the SDGs. As we look ahead to the Decade of Action needed to achieve the SDGs, it is clear that further progress will be needed, including doing more to increase private sector contributions.

Progress so far

At the end of 2020, a four-year Action Platform for Reporting on the SDGs, from GRI and UN Global Compact, concluded. This included a Corporate Action Group (CAG) that connected business representatives in a peer learning platform, which successfully helped companies define and improve their SDGs reporting.

Research on CAG participants revealed:

1. Increased clarity on how to engage with the SDGs from a business perspective
2. Improvements in how they measured SDGs performance
3. Better prioritization of the most relevant SDGs
4. More integration of the SDGs into business decision-making processes

However, the findings also indicate that many companies continue to face challenges with understanding and disclosing their SDGs contributions, with opportunities to make corporate reporting more relevant and effective.

Improving data quality and addressing gaps

Reporting on priorities at the SDG target level, within each of the overarching Goals, and linking them to the business strategy, is often missing. Overall, deeper connections between material topics with SDG targets and corporate priorities are needed.

We also see there are opportunities to further explore the links between SDG priorities and the contributions of companies in the countries and jurisdictions where they operate.

Most importantly, corporate reporting on the SDGs often focuses on positive contributions that companies make to the SDGs, with a lack of transparency and accountability for negative impacts. This issue was also highlighted by KPMG research in December.

Reporting that has impact

Identifying SDG priorities throughout the value chain is a complex undertaking, as is demonstrating the cause-and-effect relationship between SDG contributions and business performance.

Moreover, because of the interconnected and interdependent nature of the SDGs, companies need to identify and take account of synergies and trade-offs between positive and negative impacts.

Efforts to quantify impacts on the SDGs and contextualize them (for example, considering the social thresholds and planetary boundaries) needs strengthened. That is why it is necessary to move beyond assessing activities and outputs and focus on how to disclose outcomes and impacts.

This is crucial as it enables businesses to manage their performance and demonstrate accountability for their impacts.

Making SDG reporting relevant to stakeholders

There is increasing interest from a wide range of stakeholders in business contribution to the SDGs, including how companies are aligning products, services and business strategy with the SDGs.

Policy makers, investors, consumers, labor organizations and civil society all increasingly demand that companies show transparency through providing quality data and balanced reporting.

However, different stakeholders have different expectations and data requests. Steps business can take to provide more strategic and relevant information include:

• Providing aggregated or disaggregated information that allows stakeholders to assess their performance and contribution to the SDGs
• Setting long-term SDG-related performance targets, and regularly reporting on progress
• Clearly demonstrating how the business strategy aligns with the SDGs

Proactive communications on the issues that matter most – to both the company and stakeholders – is crucial. Not only does it provide the necessary information to assess corporate sustainability performance and impact, it also allows stakeholders to make decisions that contribute to the SDGs.

Driving business action through reporting

Inspired by the progress to date and the opportunities still to come, GRI is launching a Business Leadership Forum on corporate reporting as a driver for achieving the SDGs. This forum, to commence in March, will offer participating companies with practical insights on sustainability reporting, focusing on how to raise the quality and strategic relevance of their reporting.

The forum is built around a series of online sessions that will bring together corporate reporters and representatives from key stakeholder groups – including the investment community, governments, regulators, members of the supply chain, civil society and academia.

The experiences of the past four years have shown that both businesses and stakeholders benefit from strategic and relevant SDG-related information. Sustainability reporting is an essential driver of the transformational change that is required to achieve the SDGs.

As we look ahead to the Decade of Action and the pandemic recovery phase, the case for meaningful corporate reporting on the SDGs is more compelling than ever before.

*The Global Reporting Initiative is an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights and corruption. With more than 10,000 reporters in over 100 countries, GRI is advancing the practice of sustainability reporting and enabling businesses, investors, policymakers, and civil society to use this information to engage in dialogue and make decisions that support sustainable development.

 

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The post Corporate Reporting on SDGs: Challenges and Opportunities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Camila Corradi Bracco handles Content Development & Program Delivery at Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)*

The post Corporate Reporting on SDGs: Challenges and Opportunities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Protesters demand the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The protestors remain defiant in the face of the security forces tightening the screw. They are facing daily intimidation, threats and harassment at the hands of the police and soldiers strategically station to discourage and disperse the protests. CC BY-SA 4.0

By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK, Feb 17 2021 (IPS)

Myanmar’s top generals have begun the process to prevent Aung San Suu Kyi – the country’s popular civilian leader – from ever holding political power. Both she and president Win Myint were arraigned in a closed-door court session via video link Tuesday, Feb. 16. This is the beginning of a trial that is expected to take about six months to conclude. If convicted, it will prevent Suu Kyi from standing in future elections.

Suu Kyi is charged with violating import restrictions after walkie-talkies and other foreign equipment that were found in her villa compound. They were discovered during a search of her premises on Feb. 1, the day the military launched a coup, seizing all judicial, executive and legislative power, placing it in the hands of the commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The Nobel laureate has also been charged with contravening a natural disaster management law by interacting with a crowd at an election rally during the coronavirus pandemic. A charge that was added after her original arrest and only publicly disclosed at her hearing. Win Myint is  charged with breaking COVID-19 restrictions. They reportedly appeared without legal representation.

The coup leaders have promised elections sometime next year after the state of emergency they have imposed is lifted. The authorities are still investigation more serious accusations related to receiving foreign funds – which could amount to charges of treason.

The military commanders also seem intent on preparing a case against her party – the National League for Democracy (NLD) — in order to ban it from politics and declare it an illegal organisation. The NLD, which overwhelmingly won last November’s poll, remains a thorn in the military’s side as for the past three weeks protestors have hit the street in their hundreds of thousands, to defend democracy and reject the coup.

“The civil disobedience movement is a non-violent campaign which was started by young doctors across the country: it was a spontaneous grassroots response to the coup,” Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a prominent activist involved with the protest in Yangon, told IPS. “It has grown daily as the civil servants have inspired others to defend our democracy,” she added.   

The protestors remain defiant in the face of the security forces tightening the screw. They are facing daily intimidation, threats and harassment at the hands of the police and soldiers strategically station to discourage and disperse the protests. But troops, tanks and water cannons have not deterred the protests, which are growing daily. But the strength of the movement is that it encompasses all generations, all walks of life, civil servant and workers. All of whom support democracy, though a large proportion also support the NLD.

“This is very different from the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations when the student movement aspired to democracy but didn’t really know what it meant,” Nyein Chan Aung an 88-year-old veteran told IPS. “This time they know what they want, they know what they are losing, and they are very, very angry.”   

Meanwhile, the military are clearly on a mission to overhaul and restructure the country’s fledgling democracy, turning the clock back to the dark days of direct military rule.

For the past three weeks the new junta has rolled out a new administration: from national, provisional to district and wards. Removing the previous elected incumbents and putting in people close to the military.

The Supreme Court has been transformed, with the previous NLD appointments routed out and replaced with judges loyal to their military masters. The Union Election Commission has also been dismissed and swapped with military loyalists. Key ministries have also been targeted and military officers and personnel infiltrated, often at the highest level. This was the common practice during the previous military regime. But the public service has been largely transformed in the last ten years with comprehensive public reform.

“The militarisation of the bureaucracy is under way again I fear,” a former diplomat told IPS on condition of anonymity. “In the past it destroyed civil servant moral, civil service efficiency and expertise, and made the bureaucracy another arm of the military — stripped of initiative and think independently – making it powerless to do anything else but follow orders and recreating a truly authoritarian state.”

But the military junta has also dealt a death blow to developing democratic ideals and practices, with the worst being the wholesale changes in the laws and new edicts. Activists and human rights groups in Myanmar have condemned these measures as unacceptable and a gross erosion of basic civil and human rights, especially the changes to citizens protection and security laws.

These include prisoner’s right to a lawyer – Suu Kyi has been denied access to her lawyer since she was detained at the beginning of February.

It also includes the right to detain prisoners for an unlimited the right to arrest people without a warrant and search homes unimpeded by local administrators, carry out surveillance unconstrained, intercept any form of communications, and ask for users’ information from operators.

The government has also enacted a draconian Cyber Law which essentially allows them full access to digital information and all social media – with the right to prosecute anyone they deem has crossed the line.

“The changes in the laws amount to the removal of all rights of freedom of speech, association and liberty as well as the rights associated the rule of law and fair trial,” Stephen McNamara, a UK lawyer who has worked with lawyers in Myanmar since 2007, told IPS.

“These changes in the basic laws of Myanmar are wider than any amendments since the nineteenth century. It reflects a military that intends to stay in power for a very long time,” he told IPS.

The fact that the military launched the coup when it could not get its own way clearly reflects the army’s mentality and priorities. They could not accept the NLD’s crushing victory in the elections – and the second time in five years.

They were shocked by the extent of their electoral triumph victory and had been counting on being able to form some sort of coalition government with various parties, including their pro-military partners, ethnic political parties and even the NLD if they did not have an overwhelming victory. 

The military foresee a political future where the army is an integral part of the political setup — integrated into the power structure and administration much like the way they see Thailand.  In fact the Commander in Chief is very fond of what he sees as the model – an important role for the army, where their economic interests are protected, a self sufficient economy and ‘democratic’ outlook – which resists leftist, socialist or communist leanings. It is a concept of pluralist democracy with no interest group having the dominant role or power.

Of course the coup leaders also see former Senior General Than Shwe’s ‘roadmap to democracy’ — developed in 2003 by the then intelligence chief and prime minister — as the model to be followed. This projected the final stage before a more liberal form of democracy as a coalition government of national unity. But always the emphasis was on a ‘guided democracy’. So while they are trying to turn back the clock to when the first elections were held – they have in fact wound it back into the dark ages.

“The soldiers, police and their hired thugs come out at night and wage a war of terror against the people – targeting prominent leaders of the protest movement – and conducting their campaign of intimidation, harassment and arrests,” Nyein Chan Aung told IPS.

“But this is different from 1988, and the new generational tactics have armed the protestors with weapons that will help defeat the military in the long run. With mobile phones, the internet and social media the civil disobedience movement has a voice that’s being heard across the world. The military’s tactics are doomed to fail this time round.”

Suu Kyi’s trial is expected to proceed on Mar. 1.

 

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