Africa

Egypt's Al Ahly equal their best finish at the Fifa Club World Cup when defeating South American champions Palmeiras in the third-place play-off.

South Africa's most successful and best-supported club Kaizer Chiefs are now aiming to make an impact in continental competition.

By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK, Feb 11 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations, created in 1945 following the devastation caused by World War II, was mandated with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security.

But the 76-year-old Organization and its affiliated bodies – including the 193-member General Assembly and the 15-member Security Council— take decisions mostly by open voting, and few, by secret ballot.

But the seriousness of the UN’s far-reaching mandate has been tempered by occasional moments of levity which have rocked the Glass House by the East River— with laughter.

The UN is a rich source of anecdotes—both real and apocryphal– in which the General Assembly (UNGA), the UN’s highest policy-making body, takes center stage, along with the Security Council (UNSC) as a political sidekick.

When UN ambassadors and delegates congregate in the cavernous General Assembly hall at voting time, they have one of three options: either vote for, against, or abstain.

The most intriguing, however, is a fourth option: to be suddenly struck with an urge to rush to the toilet. The frantic attempt to leave your seat vacant — and consequently be counted as “absent”– takes place whenever the issue is politically-sensitive.

When delegates are unable to vote with their conscience– don’t want to incur the wrath of mostly Western aid donors or are taken unawares with no specific instructions from their capitals– they flee their seats.

At a lunch for reporters in his town house bordering Park Avenue in Manhattan, (“this was once owned by Gucci, now owned by Fulci”), Ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci, an Italian envoy with a sharp sense of humor, described the fourth option as the “toilet factor” in UN voting.

And he jokingly suggested that the only way to resolve the problem is to install portable toilets in the back of the General Assembly hall so that delegates can still cast their votes while contemplating on their toilet seats. But for obvious reasons, there were no takers.

The UN General Assembly in session. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Regrettably, the voting habits at the UN were not recorded when the world body commemorated the “International Year of Sanitation” in 2008, highlighting the fact that roughly 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to toilets or basic sanitation.

Not surprisingly, UN delegates were excluded from that collective head count because the Secretariat never ran out of toilets. But the joke lingered on.

In most instances, the various regional groups and coalitions—including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Group of 77, the Latin American and Caribbean States, the African Union (AU) and the Western European and Others (WEOG)— take decisions behind closed doors ahead of voting.

But even though the “herd mentality” continues in most UN voting, there are rare occasions of an unscheduled vote taking delegates by surprise.

In the 1970s and 80s, the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), founded in Belgrade in 1961, was one of the largest and most powerful political coalitions at the UN led by countries such as Yugoslavia, India, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Zambia, Cuba and Sri Lanka.

As a general rule, all 116 countries vote in unison on General Assembly resolutions rarely breaking ranks.

A Sri Lankan ambassador once recounted a message transmitted from his Foreign Ministry in Colombo – primarily directed at newly-arrived delegates which read— “If you are faced with an unscheduled surprise vote, and do not have any instructions from the Foreign Ministry, look to the right to see how Yugoslavia is voting and look to the left to see how India is voting. If both ambassadors are seen bolting from their seats, just follow them to the toilet”.

But NAM was a political power house in the 1970s and 80s. Still, when Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene (JRJ) inherited the chairmanship in February 1978, he was skeptical of NAM which was known to be politically independent, with no strong links to either of the world’s two superpowers at that time, namely the US and the Soviet Union, who were engaged in a longstanding and bitter Cold War.

In an interview with an American news reporter, JRJ downgraded the political myth about “non-alignment” when he infamously declared there were only two “non-aligned countries” in the world: the US and the Soviet Union. All other countries, he argued, were politically aligned either with the US or the Soviets.

The quote was apparently off- the-record and not-for attribution, but the reporter couldn’t resist the temptation of running with it.

In September 1979, when JRJ handed over the chairmanship of NAM to Cuba at a summit meeting in Havana, the Western world and the mainstream media never accepted the fact that a strong pro-Soviet ally like Havana could ever be a “non-aligned” country.

As a result, right throughout Cuba’s chairmanship of NAM (1979-1983), the New York Times, perhaps as part of its editorial policy, never wavered describing NAM as a “so called Non-Aligned Movement” in every news story published in the paper. The “so called” label was dropped only when India took over the chairmanship of NAM in 1983.

When “non-alignment” was a political buzz word and NAM was in full swing, a UN diplomat once recounted the economic progress in Yugoslavia which had produced the Yugo, a small hatchback that arrived in United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

According to a report in the New York Times, the Yugo was said to be the first car from a Communist country to reach the American market. Equipped with front-wheel drive and a 55-horsepower engine, it sold at a base price of about $3,990, one of the cheapest in the market.

But when scores of cars kept breaking down in the streets of New York, the Yugo was dubbed “an unaligned car from a non-aligned country.” A political twist perhaps planted by the American automobile industry.

The only thing missing was a bumper sticker which should have read: “The parts falling off this car were made of the finest Yugoslav steel” (a parody of a quote once attributed to a motorist with his broken-down British-made car).

The book is available on Amazon. The link follows:

https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

  

The post Where do UN Diplomats Hide During Politically-Sensitive Voting? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

(Excerpts from a just-published book “No Comment – and Don’t Quote me on That”, a collection of political anecdotes reflecting over 40 years of reporting from the United Nations*)

The post Where do UN Diplomats Hide During Politically-Sensitive Voting? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A health worker at a local health centre in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, prepares a vaccine injection. The dispatch of millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa started in February. Credit: UNICEF/Sibylle Desjardins

By Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
GENEVA, Feb 11 2021 (IPS)

WHO and UNICEF have a long, deep and very special relationship. Neither of us could do what we do without the other.

UNICEF’s success is WHO’s success, and we are proud to be your partner on so many issues: Ebola, polio, maternal health, nutrition, infection prevention and control, primary health care – the list is long.

Never has our partnership been more important than it is now. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world in ways we could never have imagined when it started just over a year ago.

It’s sobering to think that on this day 12 months ago, more than 3000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to WHO. Yesterday, 3000 cases were reported every 15 minutes. The pandemic has held a mirror up to our world. It has shown humanity at its best and worst.

It has exposed and exploited the fault lines, inequalities, injustices and contradictions of our world, within and between countries. The pandemic has also become a child emergency, with children bearing both its direct and indirect consequences.

Children may be at lower risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19, but they have suffered many of the most severe social and economic consequences, and will bear a large burden of the long-term fallout.

Many children have missed out on months of schooling, and have been exposed to a greater risk of violence. Girls are especially at risk in places where they may never go back to school, as they approach the age when they will go to work or be married.

Since the beginning, UNICEF has been, and will continue to be, an indispensable partner in ensuring that children are a primary consideration in the global response to COVID-19.

Together, we have engaged, empowered and communicated with communities about the risks of COVID-19 and how to stay safe; We have developed joint guidance for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in schools;

We’ve supported health workers with improved infection prevention and control, and we’ve supported them to deliver better care and psycho-social support for patients, their families and communities; We’ve procured and delivered essential supplies;

We’ve provided the joint analytics that are key to an effective pandemic response; We’ve supported countries to maintain essential health services, including in humanitarian settings;

And through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and COVAX, we are poised for the largest vaccination campaign in history. Vaccines are the shot in the arm we all need, literally and metaphorically.

But we must also remember that vaccines will complement, not replace, the proven public health measures that countries around the world have used successfully to prevent and contain widespread transmission.

As governments, institutions and individuals, we all have a role to play in stopping this pandemic with the tools we have. The pandemic will subside, but the inequalities that preceded it will still be there.

There’s no vaccine for climate change, poverty or malnutrition. None of these challenges can be met by a single agency. Let me outline three areas in which the partnership between WHO and UNICEF, bilaterally and through the Global Action Plan on Health and Well-Being for All, must become even deeper and stronger as we work together to support countries to respond, recover and rebuild.

First, as we support countries to respond to the pandemic, we must ensure that all people and communities enjoy equitable access to life-saving vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics – rich and poor, urban and rural, citizen and refugee.

A year ago, we were defenceless against this virus. Now we can detect it with rapid diagnostic tests, we can treat it with dexamethasone and oxygen, and we can prevent it with vaccines. The urgency, ambition and resources with which vaccines have been developed must be matched by the same urgency, ambition and resources to distribute them fairly.

UNICEF has played a vital role in procuring vaccines and preparing countries to deploy them rapidly once they receive them. Together, we have supported 124 countries to perform readiness assessments for vaccination.

But we face significant challenges. More than 130 million doses of vaccine have now been deployed globally, but 75% of them have been in only ten countries that account for 60% of global GDP.

Meanwhile, almost 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, have yet to administer a single dose. Many of these countries are also struggling to secure the resources for testing, personal protective equipment, oxygen, and medicines.

I have issued a call to action to ensure that by World Health Day on the 7th of April, vaccination of health workers is underway in all countries. UNICEF can play a key role in meeting that challenge. As a trusted advocate, you can use your voice and experience in communities to build acceptance of vaccines;

You can deploy your unparalleled logistics and supply capacities to deliver vaccines to the last mile; You can negotiate the best deals for the communities you serve; And you can mobilize your networks of National Committees to resource this historic effort to save lives and livelihoods.

Second, as we support countries to recover from the pandemic, we must support them to maintain essential health services, including routine immunization for children. The pandemic has shown that we can only meet the major crises of our time with a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach.

In the same way, the challenges of child development can only be met with a multi-sectoral approach that addresses their access to services, their mental health and well-being, their nutrition, their risk factors for developing NCDs later in life, their educational outcomes, their chances on employment, and their need to be protected from violence.

And third, as we support countries to rebuild from the pandemic, we must invest in primary health care. The pandemic has given us a brutal reminder of the importance of primary health care, as the eyes and ears of every health system, and the foundation of universal health coverage.

Ultimately, our fight is not against a single virus. Our fight is against the inequalities that leave children in some countries exposed to deadly diseases that are easily prevented in others; Our fight is against the inequalities that mean women and their babies die during childbirth in some countries because of complications that are easily prevented in others;

And our fight is to ensure that health is no longer a commodity or a luxury item, but a fundamental human right, and the foundation of the safer, fairer and more sustainable world we all want.

History will not judge us solely by how we ended the COVID-19 pandemic, but what we learned, what we changed, and the future we left our children.

*WHO Director-General in his opening remarks before the UNICEF Executive Board

 

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The post COVID-19 Pandemic has Shown Humanity at its Best– & at its Worst appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is Director-General of the World Health Organization*

The post COVID-19 Pandemic has Shown Humanity at its Best– & at its Worst 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, when forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front clashed with federal soldiers over the autonomy of the region and the composition of the federal government. (File photo) Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2021 (IPS)

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has called for unimpeded access to all parts of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, to locate an estimated 20,000 unaccounted for refugees and assess damage to its Hitsaats Camp which was looted and set alight in early January.

“3,000 of the refugees have been relocated or have been able to move themselves to camps in southern Tigray, but that leaves possibly as many as 20,000 completely unaccounted for and that’s the real problem. We don’t know where those people are,” Jeremy Taylor, NRC’s head of Advocacy, Media and Communications for East Africa and Yemen Region, told IPS. He added that according to satellite imagery, NRC believes that the camps were empty at the time of the looting and burning.

The NRC’s Shimelba and Hitsaats camps provided shelter and food for about 25,000 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers. The Tigray Region has been rocked by conflict since November 2020, when forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front clashed with federal soldiers over the autonomy of the region and the composition of the federal government. Recent satellite imagery received by the NRC shows the camp among buildings looted and burned between Jan. 5 and 8. A school and a health clinic were also damaged.

Operations at the NRC camps stopped in November, at the start of the conflict. The camps house education facilities including eight classrooms, child friendly spaces and Youth Education Pack Centre which provides instruction in literacy and life skills for children separated from their parents. The interruption in services to the displaced coincided with a blackout of the Tigray Region. Telecoms services were cut and roads were blocked.

The NRC has condemned the destruction of its buildings, stating that the “rampage of burning and looting by armed men deepens an already dire crisis for millions of people”. It has called on the government and donor nations to investigate the destruction and hold perpetrators to account.

Taylor said NRC employees fled to their villages and some later travelled to urban areas to send word about the dire situation in Tigray.

“For three months that region has been completely blocked off from the world. The reports that have trickled out speak to extensive violence, extensive conflict and extensive impact on civilians,” he said.

The NRC says three months since the start of the conflict, fighting and tough bureaucratic challenges are impending humanitarian access into Tigray and rendering independent verification of the fate of refugees and facilities impossible.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Feb. 6 that it had struck an access deal with the Abiy Ahmed government that would boost transportation capacity and ensure strengthened partnership with the authorities to deliver humanitarian assistance into Tigray.

“WFP has also agreed to provide emergency food relief assistance to up to 1 million people in Tigray and launch a blanket supplementary feeding intervention to assist up to 875,000 nutritionally vulnerable children and pregnant and lactating mothers,” the statement added.

In Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says that for three months Ethiopia’s Tigray Region has been completely blocked off from the world. The reports that have trickled out speak to extensive violence, extensive conflict and extensive impact on civilians, the humanitarian agency says. (File photo) Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Acknowledging that the food and nutrition security situation is “especially challenging,” the WFP called for “strong partnership between the government and the entire humanitarian community” to quickly heighten response to the humanitarian needs. The NRC says, a good start would be unfettered access to the area for aid agencies.

“Some aid has got in, but it is a trickle of it. It has been patchwork and it has only reached certain parts of the Region – mostly main towns and main roads controlled by the government. It is not being sustained,” said Taylor.

The NRC has welcomed the WFP’s statement, but says while it is indicative of progress, some major challenges remain.

“Until we are able to access all parts of Tigray, until we are able to access the areas where the camps were we just will not be able to know what happened to them and we will not know the full extent of the damage to our facilities because satellite imagery can only show so much,” said Taylor.

The NRC says for Tigray, a response that aligns with the scale and breadth of the crisis has not started. Taylor says humanitarian aid work would require an assessment to people’s location and their needs. For now, the NRC is not able to do that.

“What is needed is complete access to all parts of the region to bring in supplies and people. The real issue here is what happened to the people and that is our main concern.”

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Photographer Laura El-Tantawy looks back at her work documenting the 2011 revolution in Egypt.

Catherine Byaruhanga explains what’s going on in Central African Republic, as rebels surround the capital.

Healthier food options are relatively expensive and unaffordable in low- and middle-income countries. This influences people to steer away from healthier options. . Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By External Source
Feb 10 2021 (IPS)

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people with obesity and noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes. The pandemic has underlined the importance of the food environment and healthy food intake. It has shown the urgent need for effective policies to make sure that everyone can get enough nutritious food – and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Africa, nearly 70% of diabetes cases are undiagnosed. Of these, 90% are type 2 diabetes cases. Obesity is a key risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. Between 1975 and 2016, southern Africa saw the world’s highest proportional increase in child and adolescent obesity – an alarming 400% per decade.

Ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks contribute to rising rates of obesity and diet-related diseases. Unhealthy, processed foods are now frequently consumed in low- and middle-income countries. This is largely due to the low prices, food types, availability and marketing strategies employed by large corporations.

A shift in the food system is urgently required. Interventions to achieve this must include policies that promote healthier food choices. These include imposing taxes on food that is high in sugar, salt or saturated fat (unhealthy fat); regulating food labels; and restricting marketing of unhealthy products. Policies must also support people in making healthier food choices, for example through subsidies

Healthier food options are relatively expensive and unaffordable in low- and middle-income countries. This influences people to steer away from healthier options. Companies market these convenient, palatable, yet unhealthy foods aggressively, and aim their marketing at children. It’s not always possible to choose healthier products, especially in rural areas.

Supplying ultra-processed products is very profitable for the companies concerned. These products have low production input requirements, a high retail value and an extended shelf life. Often the responsibility for preventing noncommunicable disease is put on individuals. But the corporate food industry creates a food environment that gives rise to obesity.

COVID-19 has brought new urgency to the need to repair food systems that put profits before public health.

A recent report by the organisation Global Health Advocacy Incubator highlights how food and beverage corporations used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to promote their ultra-processed foods to vulnerable populations around the world.

The report includes over 280 examples from 18 countries of the food industry undermining healthy food policy efforts. This was done through lobbying to classify (unhealthy) ultra-processed foodstuffs as “essential products” during the pandemic.

They also improved their brand image through providing financial and other support to needy communities, frontline workers, food banks, and small businesses while still marketing unhealthy products and pushing against healthy food policies.

A shift in the food systems is urgently required. Interventions to achieve this must include policies that promote healthier food choices. These include imposing taxes on food that is high in sugar, salt or saturated fat (unhealthy fat); regulating food labels; and restricting marketing of unhealthy products. Policies must also support people in making healthier food choices, for example through subsidies.

 

Healthy food policies to consider

Globally, there has been a push for healthy food policies to curb the obesity pandemic. African countries have been slow to adopt policies like these.

But South Africa introduced a Health Promotion Levy in 2018. It aims to give manufacturers an incentive to reduce the sugar content of drinks. It also seeks to discourage excessive consumption by increasing the price of these products. Mexico imposed a tax on sugar sweetened drinks in 2014.

This has resulted in a 6% reduction in purchases of sugary drinks and replacement with untaxed beverages (predominantly plain water) – specifically among lower income households who likely have poorer health outcomes.

The implementation of the tax is an acknowledgement that corporates have manufactured conditions that cultivate malconsumption resulting in poor nutrition and noncommunicable disease.

Governments should also introduce labelling that helps consumers to identify food with high quantities of salt, saturated fat or sugar. Chile introduced a set of linked policies, including warning labels and marketing controls. The result was that companies reformulated products to improve their health profiles.

But taxes and labelling interventions won’t be enough to stem the tide of obesity and noncommunicable diseases. Food policies must also make healthy food more accessible.

Subsidies can lower the price of healthy foods. This will help put healthy food within reach of poorer people. Prices can be changed through a combination of taxes on unhealthy products and subsidies on healthier alternatives.

In Finland, a subsidy of milk protein rather than milk fat resulted in more consumption of low fat milk and a reduction of cardiovascular diseases over time. A fruit and vegetable subsidy in the US Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children led to increased – and sustained – fruit and vegetable intake.

 

The way forward

The best policies are those that create positive changes in the food, social and information environments. A policy cannot be adopted in isolation; for the biggest impact they need to be part of a set of mutually reinforcing and supporting actions. Chile is one country that has taken steps like this to create an enabling environment.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa should regulate the food industry better to protect against industry interference that harms the population. Policies that restrict marketing to children, provide clear labelling and tax unhealthy foodstuffs should be the start. The revenue raised from these taxes could be used to subsidise the cost of healthy foods.

Rina Swart, Professor, University of the Western Cape; Makoma Bopape, Lecturer in Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetic, University of Limpopo, and Tamryn Frank, Researcher, University of the Western Cape

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

The post Food Systems Need to Change to Promote Healthy Choices and Combat Obesity appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Tanzania's government says the country has the Covid-19 pandemic under control and is focusing on herbal remedies.

Its use in people over 65 as well as in countries where variants are circulating is recommended.

League football is once again being played in Libya after almost a two-year absence despite security concerns and Covid-19.

The health minister says some countries have already asked to buy vaccine doses from South Africa.

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Feb 10 2021 (IPS-Partners)

“As we enter 2021, education must be at the core of pandemic response and recovery efforts,” says António Gutteres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his interview with Education Cannot Wait (ECW) for this monthly issue, reminding us that “upholding our pledge to leave no one behind starts with education.”

Yasmine Sherif

Indeed, without making inclusive, quality education a priority in the COVID-19 response and recovery for those left furthest behind in armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters, we will see a continued exacerbation of inequalities and a deepened global learning crisis, all while ongoing forced displacement and migration lead to an unprecedented number of children and youth losing access to their inherent human right of an education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further impacted the marginalization of girls and boys in contexts already affected by crisis, while wealthier children in stable countries have more easily been able to sustain their learning using remote technologies. However, today, a staggering 2.2 billion children globally, or 2/3 of children and youth under the age of 25, do not have access to internet at home, preventing them from accessing online learning during school closures. Today, only 6% of children in low-income countries have access to internet at home compared to 87% in high income countries, while only 5% of children and young people in West and Central Africa have access to internet compared to 33% globally. These figures reveal the stark reality of the huge digital divide in a long-standing learning crisis.

As a result of COVID-19, the learning crisis is now plunging to new depths. During our ECW mission to Burkina Faso in January 2021, we stood face to face with the naked reality of this learning crisis: teachers without the technology and internet access needed, alongside internally displaced and refugee children and youth with no possibility to access remote learning. Their eyes hollow, their hope fading away.

“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else,” Leonardo da Vinci once said. Education sits at the very heart of all Sustainable Development Goals. Without an inclusive quality education, the world will also drift further away from achieving gender equality, ending poverty, ensuring decent work and economic growth, and from achieving peace, justice and strong institutions – in both conflict- and crisis-affected countries that need it the most to build back better.

In 2016, well before COVID-19, over 600 million girls and boys, including adolescents, were estimated to not be reaching minimum proficiency levels in reading and math. Pre-COVID-19, an estimated 53% of girls and boys in low- and middle-income countries could not read proficiently by age 10. Today, these figures are growing as countries in crisis are falling into the dark abyss of abandonment by the international community – unless it makes bold and morally courageous moves to show unprecedented solidarity and humanity.

The intensification of armed conflicts and climate-induced disasters, forced displacement and migration will deprive millions of children and youth from accessing their right to a quality education. There were 18.8 million climate-related displacements in 2017. The combined and related effects of climate change and conflict are now causing unprecedented rates of displacement. Before COVID-19, refugee children were already twice as likely to be out of school than non-refugee children. Only 31% of refugee children were enrolled at the secondary level, and just 27% of girls.

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

Education Cannot Wait, and its UN and civil society partners are investing in their education and we do so together with host governments, local communities, strategic donors, UN and civil society partners and the private sector. In just four years since ECW’s creation, nearly 4 million children have received quality education in some of the most violent wars and most challenging refugee and forced displacement contexts, while another 10 million children benefited from our rapid response to provide remote learning as a result of COVID-19 in 2020.

However, with more funding many more crisis-affected children and youth can be reached. Our biggest challenge is the availability of funds to deliver on the ground through the well-established coordination structure of the United Nations that enables host-governments, local communities, UN agencies and civil society to efficiently mobilize and expand their operations.

It is precisely this coordination structure and collaborative togetherness that have enabled Education Cannot Wait to operate with humanitarian speed in delivering quality, inclusive education across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus through the ‘whole of child-approach’, while giving due consideration to crucial crisis-related factors, such as mental-health and psycho-social services, protection, reaching 60% girls in ECW joint programming and paying special attention to children with disabilities and other marginalized children and youth in emergencies and protracted crisis.

By working through the United Nations’ established coordination structure on both the humanitarian and development sides and bringing these together with our strategic donors, Education Cannot Wait’s investments are implemented through coordination, collaboration and joint programming, wherein each actor contributes with their added value to collective outcomes. In doing so, the New Way of Working is put in action and contributes to real learning outcomes, while reinforcing the Grand Bargain, as local communities are empowered along with national government ministries.

A catalyst and facilitator, the Education Cannot Wait Global Fund offers an example of a rapidly growing and results-driven UN entity (hosted by UNICEF), that has reduced bureaucracy to strengthen accountability in support of multilateral and national efforts under the UN umbrella, where all dots are connected – coming together in a powerful commitment for those left furthest behind.

When realizing that we are ‘stronger together,’ we also become worthy of bringing hope and delivering immediate and sustainable results – or, as the UN Secretary-General António Gutteres concludes his interview with Education Cannot Wait: “We can move from an ‘annus horribilis’ to make 2021 an ‘annus possibilitatis’ – a year of possibility and hope. We must make it happen – together.”

 

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The post We Must Make It Happen – Together! appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

The post We Must Make It Happen – Together! appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kamaru Usman, also known as the Nigerian Nightmare, puts his belt on the line against Gilbert Burns.

For a long time – and too long for the North Korean government – the issue of North Korea and its nuclear programme has been pushed into the background on the international stage. With the swearing-in of Joe Biden as president, however, it will be on the agenda sooner or later. Credit: UN photo

By Herbert Wulf
DUISBURG, Germany, Feb 10 2021 (IPS)

How long can Kim Jong-un wait patiently? After a euphoric start, the Trump administration ultimately proved to be a bitter disappointment for the North Korean regime.

During the meetings between Trump and Kim Jong-un, there was grandiose talk of an imminent deal to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula. In the negotiations that followed, it quickly became apparent that the two heads of state had simply brushed over the practical problems and fundamental differences of the American-North Korean rapprochement.

For at least two years since then, there has been radio silence. After four years of erratic policy, Pyongyang is waiting to see what the Biden government’s position will be on North Korea. But it cannot expect to receive a quick answer from Washington.

While Biden has years of foreign policy experience, his administration’s first priorities are domestic: dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the devastating economic slump, deep social divisions, the fight against racism and the consequences of the Capitol riot on 6 January.

It is therefore not unlikely that North Korea – in a manner we’ve seen in the past – will provocatively launch missiles and test nuclear warheads, continue to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, spark conflict at the inner-Korean border and insult politicians in Seoul and Washington.

With such actions teetering at the brink, the North Korean government has often tried to attract international attention – with the aim of overcoming the economically damaging isolation of the country and easing the sanctions that have been imposed.

Three approaches to North Korea

For a long time – and too long for the North Korean government – the issue of North Korea and its nuclear programme has been pushed into the background on the international stage. With the swearing-in of Joe Biden as president, however, it will be on the agenda sooner or later.

Herbert Wulf

It is not yet clear how the new US administration will act. Observers are speculating about three different, in some cases mutually exclusive, approaches that the Biden administration could use to address the instability and danger posed by North Korea.

First, the denuclearization paradigm: its advocates argue that North Korea must make preliminary efforts – that is, scale back or at least freeze parts of its nuclear and missile programme – before negotiations can be conducted and sanctions can be eased or lifted.

In the long term, the goal is complete nuclear disarmament. Maintaining pressure and coercive measures, then, is absolutely necessary to persuade the North Korean government to adopt such a policy.

At the same time, this thinking also emphasises military cooperation with American allies South Korea and Japan. In the past, however, maximalist positions have not been able to divert North Korea from its course – not least because China and Russia in particular have only half-heartedly supported the isolation of North Korea.

In North Korea, unrest and impatience are on the rise. The Kim regime no longer wants to be treated as an international pariah.

The second approach provides for gradual nuclear disarmament with a simultaneous easing of economic sanctions. This paradigm reflects that the North Korean regime views its nuclear programme as life insurance and is unwilling to take preliminary steps in arms control or disarmament.

It acknowledges, but does not accept, that North Korea makes policy by means of nuclear weapons. At the heart of this second strategy are reciprocity and simultaneity. Measures would need to be taken to freeze certain nuclear facilities in North Korea while providing humanitarian or economic assistance from the US and other countries, as envisioned in the June 2018 meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore and the February 2019 meeting in Hanoi.

As we know, the second summit in Hanoi was broken off prematurely because of irreconcilable differences. But that does not mean that such a strategy is doomed to fail from the outset.

According to its proponents, a process that is gradually set in motion would be mutually beneficial and would initiate a process of détente step by step. If appropriate confidence-building measures take effect, the tricky situation in Korea could be resolved, as was the case between the East and West in Europe in the 1980s.

The third possible variant is based on maintaining strategic stability – being patient in the name of stability and not to tamper with existing conditions. To put it in a less positive way: ‘Wait and see while doing nothing.’

This was the policy followed by the Obama administration. At the same time, the US attempted to build up international pressure. However, during the eight years of Obama, North Korea succeeded in expanding and modernizing its missile and nuclear programme.

The risks of Biden’s ‘wait and see’ approach

It is not unlikely that the Biden government will again adopt this paradigm. As Vice President, Biden supported this North Korea policy. For the new administration, this would have the advantage of not having to decide on a new policy model – at least initially, as the policy of waiting and doing nothing has implicitly continued for the past two years.

No serious negotiations have since taken place. An additional advantage for Biden would be that he would not have to immediately act in all of the crucial political areas at the same time, and this would allow him to pursue his domestic political priorities.

The big disadvantage, however – as past experience shows – is that the North Korean government will presumably not stand by idly. In all likelihood, it will push forward its missile and nuclear programme with all available means. Relying on its own military means –nuclear weapons first and foremost – is a high priority for the regime.

In North Korea, unrest and impatience are on the rise. The Kim regime no longer wants to be treated as an international pariah. It has only now publicly acknowledged the need for economic reform.

Effective reforms will require an end to isolation and at least an easing of sanctions. Negotiating on an equal footing with Donald Trump was an important symbolic act for Kim Jong-un at the time. It was celebrated accordingly in Pyongyang, even if it ultimately did not lead to the desired change in foreign policy relations.

There is reason to fear that for now, North Korea will not be a top priority in Washington’s foreign policy, nor will negotiations that pursue a strategy of gradual disarmament and rapprochement. Meanwhile, Pyongyang may begin to lose patience. But further missile launches and nuclear tests would spoil the chances for a long-term North Korean policy for the US.

 

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Excerpt:

Herbert Wulf was Director of the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), from its beginning in 1994 until 2001. He is currently a Senior Fellow at BICC and an Adjunct Senior Researcher at the Institute for Development and Peace, University of Duisburg/Essen where he was previously a Deputy Director.

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This year marks South Sudan's tenth independence anniversary (file photo). A new report by the International Crisis Group says that in order to ensure lasting peace the country needs wider power-sharing and decentralisation of government. Credit: Charlton Doki/IPS

By Nalisha Adams
BONN, Germany, Feb 10 2021 (IPS)

The threat of a full-blown civil war in South Sudan remains unless the country’s leaders can broaden power sharing, warns a new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) released almost year into the country’s formation of a government of national unity.

The report titled “Toward a Viable Future for South Sudan” formulates a stark conclusion. Almost a decade after its 2011 independence from Sudan, “South Sudan – the world’s newest country – needs a reset, if not a redo.”

“Our argument is that South Sudan is so fragile and faces so many challenges and is so diverse that we think the only way to govern South Sudan peacefully is through radical consensus as a form of power sharing and government,” Alan Boswell, ICG’s Senior Analyst for South Sudan and one of the authors of the report, told IPS.

The report urged South Sudanese elite, religious leaders and civil society to rethink the country’s system of governance and create a political system that would work for one of Africa’s most diverse nations with more than 60 different ethnic groups.

Upcoming elections, which could possibly be set for 2022, as well as the country’s “winner-take-all” political system which “ill suits a country that requires consensus among major blocs to avert cyclical power struggles,” could inflame tensions, said the report released today, Feb. 10.

“Incentives for post-election violence will be acute. South Sudan’s highly centralised power structure and political economy raises the election’s stakes, since there are limited consolation prizes especially if [President Salva] Kiir continues to flout the constitution by refusing to devolve oil revenues and removing powerful governors by decree,” the report said. South Sudan has the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa, which generates the majority of the government’s wealth.

South Sudan gained independent after Africa’s longest civil war, which lasted from 1956 to 1972 and then again from 1983 to independence. But two years later, in 2013, the nation descended into civil war after  Kiir fired his cabinet and accused his vice president, Riek Machar, of being behind a plot to oust him.

Majoritarian democracy proved itself to not be a successful model for South Sudan.

“We make the argument that although South Sudan has structured itself along with many other states around the world as a majoritarian democracy, where in theory they go to polls and whoever the majority picks rules. That in practice in South Sudan’s context is likely a recipe for many groups feeling shut out of power, and a recipe for the ongoing power struggles that have already killed 100,000s of South Sudanese,” Boswell said.

In September 2018, all sides signed the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), which included a power sharing agreement. The government of national unity was formed almost a year ago, at the end of February 2020, as part of the conditions of the agreement.

Boswell urged South Sudanese elites and the country’s external partners to support the country and “go back to the drawing board” and think “how they create the political system that works for them rather than copying political systems from other places that might not be as appropriate.”

Boswell said in order to prevent more conflict, the ICG called for pre- and post-election power sharing. “In order to prevent more conflict South Sudan really needs a very broad, inclusive power sharing before, during and after the vote. What you don’t want is a situation where the election is seen as a path by the one party to defeat another party,” Boswell said.

The report cited examples of rotational power sharing that could “encourage multi-ethnic alliances or mean losers of elections feel they have a shot at the presidency next time around,” the report stated.

For example, Nigeria — where through informal agreement the country rotates its presidency between the Muslim north and the Christian south; and Tanzania — where the presidency is rotated between a Muslim and Christian every decade.

Additional recommendations included, among others:

• Setting aside prominent positions in the national government for electoral runners-up as a way of guaranteeing them positions of influence to prevent them from taking up arms.
• Having regional leaders broker pre-election dialogue, to extract assurances from losing parties in order to lower the stakes as well as guaranteeing in advance another broad-based unity government.
• A system where power can be shared more equitably at the centre.
• Agree to designate the first vice president position, for the presidential runner-up, while allocating at least one other vice presidential position to the next most successful contestant.

More than four million South Sudanese have been displaced across the region and within their own country in one of Africa’s largest displacement crises (file photo). Credit: Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin/IPS

Life for South Sudanese remains a harsh reality of food insecurity and continued conflict.

Last September, Yasmin Sooka Chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said in a statement that the implementation of key areas of the revitalised agreement had stalled. “While the COVID-19 pandemic can take some of the blame, the lack of progress poses a threat to the peace process,” she said, noting the the escalation in violence in Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Lakes, Unity, Western Bahr el-Ghazal, and Warrap States, and the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

“A breakdown in the ceasefire with armed groups in the Equatorias has fuelled the violence and already displaced thousands of South Sudanese civilians,” she said in a statement to the Human Rights Commission.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “more than four million South Sudanese have been displaced across the region and within their own country in one of Africa’s largest displacement crises”. Of the four million displaced, UNHCR notes that there are almost 2,3 million refugees and asylum seekers, with the largest number in Uganda (over 890,000), followed closely by Sudan (736,700), followed by Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Last December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that almost half — 5.8 million — of the country’s 11 million people were acutely food insecure. “In 2020, communities were hit hard by the triple shock of intensified conflict and sub-national violence, a second consecutive year of major flooding, and the impacts of COVID-19. Some 1.6 million people remained internally displaced and another 2.2 million as refugees in the region,” OCHA said in its 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview for South Sudan.

Meanwhile, the ICG report also noted that development partners, fatigued by years of conflict resolution had “no clear plan for finding peace, despite the substantial sums still devoted to humanitarian aid.”

There was also widespread cynicism among donors, Boswell said. “They have lost any vision of what a peaceful South Sudan could look like and how to help get it there,” he said.

He cautioned this was not very sustainable.

“If there is not a vision or a plan that both South Sudanese and both donors can look upon and push towards where the country is heading and what a peaceful situation looks like then we fear that donors would gradually, as they have been, pull more and more out of South Sudan and start doing the bare minimum of just keeping people alive,” Boswell said.

South Sudanese have lost a lot of hope in their country, because they have lost faith in their leaders after seeing them act in ways that are clearly selfish, Boswell said.

One example of this is the large-scale corruption within the country.

According to Transparency International, in 2012 Kiir accused at least 75 government and ex-government officials of embezzling $4 billion of public funds and in a public statement urged for the money to be returned. Only $60 million was reportedly returned to a bank account in Kenya.

Last September, during her statement to the Human Rights Commission, Sooka cautioned that “lives are being destroyed by financial corruption on an epic scale” in South Sudan.

She referred to a recent report to parliament by South Sudan’s National Revenue Authority that had shown “that approximately $300 million have been “lost” in the last three months alone”.

“At one end of the spectrum, South Sudan’s political elites are fighting for control of the country’s oil and mineral resources, in the process stealing their people’s future. At the other, the soldiers in this conflict over resources are offered the chance to abduct and rape women in lieu of salaries,” Sooka had said.

Despite the challenges faced by South Sudan, the country’s diversity remains a strength.

“Europe is not necessarily weaker, in fact a lot of people argue that they are in fact stronger, because of their diversity … So our point is that South Sudanese need to look at what they are constituent-wise and the elites — if they are serious about building their country and not just looting its resources — should think about how to forge a settlement that works for its parts,” Boswell told IPS.

 

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Caf president Ahmad praises Cameroon for its organisation of the African Nations Championship despite the impact of Covid.

The work crunch due to COVID-19 has put pressure on labour rights, with workers having to do as their companies demand, or lose their jobs. Picture courtesy: Flickr.

By Aaditeshwar Seth
NEW DELHI, Feb 9 2021 (IPS)

As the Indian economy officially heads into a recession and news of layoffs and unemployment reaches us with increasing frequency, we at Gram Vaani turned to workers to hear their side of the story. Industrial sector workers, largely engaged in the automotive and garments factories in the Gurgaon-Manesar belt, spoke to us about the turn that their lives have taken due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Most of them—being migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh—were forced to return to their homes during the lockdown under distressing circumstances. Having remained out of work for several months, they ultimately had no choice but to come back.

The media reported companies sending chartered buses and paying for flight tickets to bring their workers back when the lockdown was eased. It briefly seemed that workers would finally be in a valued position, now that companies were honouring their worth.

However, increasingly, workers have reported that the opposite is happening, with exploitation and inequality getting institutionalised.

 

Post-lockdown working conditions look bleak

Of the 372 migrant workers we surveyed during October-November 2020, through our voice-based community media platform Saajha Manch, 60 percent reported that they were out of work. Of the remaining, 65 percent reported that they were getting only erratic work, for hardly three to four days in a week. Companies have no new orders, our volunteers told us, and are shutting down one branch after the next.

Due to this work crunch in both the automotive and the garments sectors, there is pressure on workers to do as the company says, else forsake their jobs. More than 50 percent workers reported that their workload has increased tremendously

Up until August 2020, it seemed that companies needed workers desperately to complete their pending orders. Not enough work is available now, and companies ask the workers to go on leave for a few days, then give another day of work. Anil, a worker who returned to Gurgaon from his village around this time says he has been walking from company to company, looking for work. “Just another few days,” he says, “If I don’t find anything then I will go back.”

Due to this work crunch in both the automotive and the garments sectors, there is pressure on workers to do as the company says, else forsake their jobs. More than 50 percent workers reported that their workload has increased tremendously.

Working hours have increased as well, but most workers in the automotive sector are only paid for overtime at the regular wage rate. Conditions in the garments sector are worse, where 37 percent of workers reported that they worked longer hours, but were only paid for their regular eight hours. “If you don’t like it then you can leave, is what the employers tell us,” they reported.

Employers are said to also use other means to hold workers back, such as withholding their pending wages, or threatening to block their Provident Fund (PF) withdrawals. Whether this is happening because companies are struggling to meet their bottom lines, or because they are using this opportunity to increase their margins, it is the workers who are suffering.

There has also been a strong shift to piece-rate work and of outsourcing to local fabricators. A seasoned worker, Harsh explained that companies prefer to outsource now (without bothering to do quality checks), as it helps them save on overheads, forsake giving Diwali bonuses to workers, and meet social security compliances.

Fabricators engage workers on a piece-rate basis and pay in cash. Workers prefer this these days, so that they can get immediate cash in hand and do not have to contribute part of their wages to mandatory social security systems such as the PF.

Piece-rates have also reduced. Earlier, workers were paid INR 10 per piece but now they are only paid INR 8. A worker from Bihar, currently in Ahmedabad, explained that they are not able to protest because they have no bargaining power—once they arrive in the cities they have to agree to whatever work they get because they have rent to pay.

 

Social security is elusive

Without enough income opportunities available back home either, many workers have wanted to withdraw funds from their PF. The government announced during the lockdown that workers could withdraw up to 75 percent of their PF, or three months of wages, whichever is lower, from their accounts.

By the end of August, a massive amount of INR 39,400 crores had been withdrawn, with 79 percent of the PF contributors having incomes below INR 15,000 per month. However, we found that this is really an underestimate. Of the workers we surveyed who were out of work, 53 percent wanted to withdraw their PF but failed, and another 30 percent either did not have PF or were not aware that they had an account.

Even among those who had managed to find some kind of work, 35 percent were unable to withdraw funds. The reasons in almost every case were to do with broken systems and procedures.

Mehtab told our community manager, Varun, that he had not been able to withdraw anything because the spelling of his name on the PF account did not match his name on his Aadhaar card. With Akbar, there was a mismatch in his date of joining.

Workers also told us that at times, the HR in many companies are also complicit, deliberately making mistakes and then charging a commission to fix them. Staff at the PF office are not cooperative either, people said. They are made to visit again and again while foregoing their wages, or are asked to fill forms online even though many workers are not tech savvy or literate enough.

Consequently, PF shops run by agents have proliferated to help workers navigate the system, but complaints of fraud are also regularly heard about them. Currently, PF has an unclaimed balance of INR 42,000 crores and an social audit is needed to explain this, given the difficulties that workers face in being able to claim their PF.

Saddled with these issues in not being able to access money which is theirs, most workers naturally perceive PF to be a burden, as reported in a 2016 study by Nagaparaju and Sharma from IIM Indore. Seventy percent of workers prefer receiving cash instead of contributing part of their salary to PF, it found.

They do not foresee themselves utilising these funds in their old-age, especially in the current circumstances. Many prefer to work on piece-rate where they can decline having to make PF contributions. This is not ideal, as acknowledged by Shanti, working in Tiruppur, since regular salaried employment, where wages come directly to their bank accounts, helps them build a good credit score to avail loans.

According to labour rights expert Professor KR Shyam Sundar, other than issues with providing reliable social security, India has not been strong on giving unemployment benefits to workers either. This continued with the announcement of an unemployment allowance for Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) holders. Like PF, ESI is a mandatory social security scheme that both employers and employees contribute to—primarily for health insurance benefits.

The allowance announced as part of the scheme is however riddled with unrealistic conditions that makes it almost non-applicable: The workers should have been in insurable employment since at least two years, and should have contributed for 78 days in the period preceding unemployment. The first condition immediately brings down the eligible poor.

The second condition of 78 days is meant to restrict the eligibility to workers who had been working since at least three months before they lost their jobs, but companies are known to avoid regularisation of workers as a workaround to the law by laying them off at a steady frequency.

 

No chances of redress

With so much stacked against them, are any redressal avenues available to workers? Justice delivery for labour has only worsened over the years, with a growing number of pending cases. Additionally, many workers told us that they do not consider the laws to be of any use to them, neither the old ones, nor the new labour code that was recently passed.

A worker from Uttar Pradesh, Rajesh, says, “Laws were around even earlier but didn’t work, we had to walk back home and we will have to walk back again.” Another worker Prashant adds, “It is difficult for us to put documents together and take leave to go to the labour court, we can’t use the laws.”

Even if workers do go to the labour court, Manish reports that due to under-staffing at the office, workers have to stand in long lines with severe overcrowding to get their work done. To bring law closer to the workers, better functioning workplace committees, worker participation in management, and helplines and violation reporting through simple technological systems like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is needed.

This is so that irrespective of whether anybody has a smartphone or internet access, they are able to get guidance on how to proceed without having to forego their wages in their search for justice.

 

So, is there any hope for labourers? 

Instead of trying to secure rights for workers, states such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh tried to suspend labour laws to spur recovery during the slowdown. Thankfully, more sense prevailed at the Supreme Court. But the new labour code, passed without any due deliberation, continues to be employer-sided and makes it harder for workers to seek redress and protest against injustice and exploitation.

The reason behind these changes in the labour code is not hard to understand. A neoliberal state strives to maintain a balance between keeping wages, working conditions, and social security at a bare minimum to avoid protest, but never high enough that it can give a strong bargaining power to workers and reduce the competitiveness for Indian companies in today’s globalised markets.

This has been apparent throughout the lockdown, where few benefits really reached workers. Social welfare such as the Public Distribution System (PDS) and cash transfers under schemes like PM-KISAN and Jan Dhan fell short as well. Fallback options, such as MGNREGA, that have the potential to retain migrant workers at their home locations and thereby strengthen the collective power of workers in the labour market, have been plagued with operational issues.

Serving as a basic floor wage, MGNREGA is known to have pushed higher wages for agricultural work in rural areas. Similarly, PDS is known to have led to a lowering of labour supply and consequently higher wages. In the current pandemic, a better functioning MGNREGA that paid higher wages could have led to a similar effect of securing higher wages in the cities by reducing the labour supply of migrant workers, but this has not come to pass. As a result, the workers had no option but to come back to work under even more exploitative conditions.

Consequently, the already frayed bonds between employers and workers are getting even weaker. The recent violence by workers at Wistron’s iPhone factory to protest against labour violations don’t come as a surprise. Workers are increasingly beginning to view their employers and contractors with suspicion, warning one another to take everything in writing, to first get their pending wages before agreeing to anything else, and share malpractice information with each other.

The need for workers to unite has been recognised by the workers too, with emerging solidarity between contract and permanent workers. But with the new laws being created to weaken the power of unions and collective action, it seems likely that we will see more spontaneous action by the workers to make themselves heard.

 

Aaditeshwar Seth is the co-founder of Gram Vaani

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

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