Africa

Victim blaming continues to trap survivors of sexual and gender based violence in a cycle of trauma.

Fifa bans Chad from global football until further notice over government interference in the running of its football federation.

In a bid to represent African culture, Chioma Inyang set out to wear an Ankara-styled gown on her wedding day.

Michael, 34, a nurse at Wurm CHPS, Ghana, washes his hands. Every healthcare centre in the world’s poorest countries could have taps and toilets for just half-an-hour’s worth of COVID-19 spending. Credit: WaterAid / Apagnawen Annankra

By Helen Hamilton
LONDON, Apr 7 2021 (IPS)

This World Health Day, G20 finance ministers will meet in Rome, Italy, to discuss how they will build back from the pandemic. The global economy is and concerted effort, coordination and imagination is needed to enable not only a worldwide recovery but also to ensure that the world’s poorest people are not left behind.

The World Health Organization has today urged countries to build a fairer, healthier world post-COVID-19. But this simply will not be possible if water, sanitation and hygiene are not high on the agenda.

Globally one in four healthcare facilities has no clean water on site. Indeed,1.8 billion people are at higher risk of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases because they use or work in a healthcare facility which lacks basic water services.

Trying to create a robust pandemic preparedness and response plan without ensuring that every healthcare facility has clean water and the ability to keep its patients, frontline health workers and premises clean is like building a fortress with a gaping hole where the door should be.

But in the world’s poorest countries – half of all hospitals and clinics have no clean water. This reality leaves healthcare workers and their patients, including mothers and newborns, at risk daily from deadly diseases and infections.

It also eases the way for new strains of disease to emerge and spread without the barriers of hygiene to overcome, creating risks not only for that community but frighteningly quickly, as we have seen with COVID-19, the rest of the world.

An investment of $1.2 billion from the G20 leaders would transform this situation. This amount would be enough to ensure every healthcare facility in the world’s poorest countries had the taps, toilets and handwashing facilities they so desperately need.

This might sound like a lot of money. But since the onset of Covid-19, rich countries have mobilised such huge sums, an average of nearly 10% of their GDP1, and a total of $20.6 trillion. The $1.2 billion investment WaterAid is calling for equates to just thirty minutes-worth of the past year’s spending.

Not only has research shown that washing hands with soap helps reduces the spread of coronaviruses by one third3 , it also helps limit the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Antibiotics are too often used in unclean health facilities in place of proper hygiene practices, and are losing their power to fight infections worldwide. This essential injection of finance by the G20 would prevent millions of avoidable deaths through infections and diseases.

Ernesta, Maternity Nurse, 25, treats eight-month-old Chirha at Matibane Health Centre in Mozambique. Credit: WaterAid / Eliza Powell

According to the World Health Organization, an investment of this nature would take just one year to pay for itself and produce savings for every dollar invested thereafter.4 But an ever-growing debt crisis is preventing poorer countries from being able to invest in basic water services, with some countries paying billions of dollars in international debt service each year.

Zambia, for example, paid over $2 billion in 2019, a staggering 11% of its Gross National Income and has since defaulted on its payments. Pakistan paid a huge $11 billion to service their debt in the same year – an amount which could pay for access to taps, toilets and handwashing facilities in hospitals across all of the least developed countries three times over.

A global poll of over 18,000 adults across 15 countries including the UK, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Australia and the USA,5 commissioned by WaterAid and conducted by YouGov, reveals that 75% of those surveyed believe that debt payments by the poorest countries (including to private sector creditors) should be suspended so that countries can invest more of their scarce resources into essentials like water and soap.

The poll showed that, for example, in Nigeria 87% of those polled agreed that their annual $5 billion debt servicing payments should be suspended. 80% of those polled in India agreed with the proposition.

True debt relief and restructuring, which the G20 could agree6, would radically change the economic prospects of poorer nations. With the means to invest, those countries could then make strategic economic decisions to tackle the immediate crisis whilst also protecting against future pandemics.

Debt service payments to governments are currently suspended but this suspension is due to end in June even as the global pandemic continues.

Investing in water, sanitation and hygiene is an obvious investment for governments and presents the opportunity both to save lives now and protect against future pandemics along with the devastation they cause.

It is vital that we make sure that getting universal access to soap and water to is given the same levels of drive and ambition that are accompanying the creation of vaccines, as well the finance that is being offered for stimulus packages and economic response.

The G20 leaders have an opportunity to make a difference this week. By committing to comprehensive debt relief along with new funding of at least $1.2 billion they can make sure all healthcare facilities in the poorest countries have clean water and soap before another pandemic hits.

1 9.7% according to study https://unctad.org/fr/node/31523 and Statista has Japan as largest at 20.9% of its GDP: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107572/covid-19-value-g20-stimulus-packages-share-gdp/
3 Beale S, Johnson A, Zambon M, null n, Hayward A, Fragaszy E. Hand Hygiene Practices and the Risk of Human Coronavirus Infections: https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-98
4 p3 https://washmatters.wateraid.org/sites/g/files/jkxoof256/files/everyone-everywhere-achieving-universal-health-coverage-through-water-sanitation-and-hygiene-uhc-day-action-plan_0.pdf Taken from WHO 2020 Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance through water, sanitation and hygiene and infection prevention and control in health care
5 Based on polling conducted by YouGov for WaterAid: 18,635 adults surveyed across 15 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, South Africa, UK, USA.   based on polling conducted by YouGov for WaterAid: 18,635 adults surveyed across 15 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, den, South Africa, UK, USA.  www.washmatters.wateraid.org/publications/public-support-wash-resilience. 
6 https://www.imf.org/en/About/FAQ/sovereign-debt#g20q1

 

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The post A Post-COVID-19 Recovery will not be Possible if Water, Sanitation & Hygiene are not High on the Agenda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The writer is Senior Policy Analyst - Health & Hygiene, WaterAid

 

The UN is commemorating World Health Day April 7.

The post A Post-COVID-19 Recovery will not be Possible if Water, Sanitation & Hygiene are not High on the Agenda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Family planning counselor and nurse speaks to group at clinic in Nakuru, Kenya. Credit: Sala Lewis

By Joyce Banda and Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins*
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 7 2021 (IPS)

The past year has forced many of us to address difficult truths about how we treat and take care of each other — among them is a reckoning with racism and injustice.

In the global health and development sector, this reckoning is not new. Black, Brown and Indigenous women have been at the forefront of driving efforts to end inequity, racism and paternalism for decades, but the threats remain.

As women and leaders in global health and development from lower income countries, we intimately understand the consequences of the enduring legacies of colonialism, discrimination and disinvestment across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The dominant, top-down and inequitable approach to health and development — coupled with underinvestment in flexible, community-based programs — can no longer continue. Nowhere is the impact more apparent and overdue than with lifesaving and life-changing sexual and reproductive health information, services and care.

We have seen people turned away from clinics due to programmatic pivots by international donors that have impacted health supplies and service delivery. We know of increases in household-level abuse and illness when community health worker networks are eroded due to funding and policy changes.

We worry about the vulnerability of girls to sexual abuse and violence when sexual and reproductive health education is banned in schools and they are fed misinformation about their own development and rights. We are pained when individuals and families have no say or control over if, when and how they will have children.

These experiences reflect those of the 4.3 billion people of reproductive age who will lack at least one essential sexual or reproductive health service during their lifetimes.

When anyone is prevented from making decisions about their health, and the services and resources for their well-being are piecemealed due to paternalism and political convenience, progress for communities is elusive.

It is time to dismantle prescriptive international controls and expand the kind of aid and philanthropy that prioritizes flexibility, mutual accountability and trust in local leaders and their decision-making.

The listening and learning mindset that a new generation of donors has displayed — and the formation of partnerships and community-led programs rooted in principles of trust and expertise of domestic partners and local grantees — works.

In Malawi, the Presidential Initiative for Safe Motherhood during the Banda administration led to the reduction of maternal mortality by 32%. International funders and the private sector invested in the needs identified by national and local leaders, such as building clean and comfortable maternity waiting homes for pregnant women at hospitals and health centers.

In addition, community members and chiefs were fully supported to drive local advocacy and change local child delivery norms and bylaws to improve the ability of women to deliver at hospitals and health facilities. Funding was highly flexible so that women and grassroots leaders could make the right decisions for their own communities.

PAI and its grantees have also been turning the tide.

In Kenya, Women Promotion Centre has advocated for the creation of youth-friendly spaces where young people can access evidence-based information and services in a supportive manner so that they can be in charge of their reproductive health futures. In Mexico, Indigenous youth have been supported by Observatorio de Mortalidad Materna to claim their right to quality, culturally relevant health care and push back against discriminatory providers and norms.

In India, efforts are underway by Sahayog Society for Participatory Rural Development to ensure access to family planning as part of the country’s universal health coverage plan.

In the spirit of World Health Day, we challenge ourselves and others working for the greater good. We challenge all global health and development donors — including private foundations and bilateral and multilateral institutions — to prioritize equity in supporting and sharing financial decision-making with community partners.

We challenge policymakers to ground their decisions in evidence and prioritize comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care in health reforms, policies and funding. We challenge civil society to continue to speak truth to power and drive expansive, inclusive health actions for everyone — not merely the fortunate few.

It is past time to correct systems that are misaligned with the aspirations of women, youth and groups vulnerable to health disparities. If we hope to reconcile our work with systems of oppression and deliver on our promises of global progress, donors and decision-makers must recognize and value the perspectives and lived experiences of the very communities they desire to serve.

*Joyce Banda is the former president of the Republic of Malawi and founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation; Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins is the president and CEO of PAI. Population Action International.

*PAI works with policymakers in Washington, D.C. along with its network of global partners, to advocate for accessible, quality health care and advance the sexual and reproductive rights of women, girls and other vulnerable groups.

 

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The post On World Health Day, a Call for Equity, Justice & the End of Paternalism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The United Nations is commemorating World Health Day April 7.

The post On World Health Day, a Call for Equity, Justice & the End of Paternalism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Hugh Kinsella Cunningham documents the lives of children caught up in conflict in DR Congo.

By Timothy A. Wise
CAMBRIDGE MA, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

The battle for the future of food has grown contentious, and José Graziano da Silva has become a lightning rod for criticism. In 2014, as Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), he presided over the institution’s first International Agroecology Symposium, opening what he called “a new window in the Cathedral of the Green Revolution.” The FAO has since then formalized support for “Scaling Up Agroecology” while continuing to promote the kinds of chemical-intensive agriculture associated with the Green Revolution.

José Graziano da Silva

The controversies are on full display in advance of the UN Food Systems Summit, scheduled for October. The conference was called by UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres to address the alarming failures to meet targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals, including the goal to end severe hunger by 2030. Climate change has contributed to five consecutive years of rising levels of “undernourishment,” according to FAO estimates.

I interviewed José Graziano da Silva by email about agroecology, the Food Systems Summit, and backlash against his initiatives. Since leaving the FAO, which he directed from 2012 to 2019, he founded and directs the Zero Hunger Institute in Brazil.

You presided over some significant shifts in your tenure at FAO, including the “Scaling Up Agroecology” program. Why did you think that was important?

FAO delegates voted to promote and facilitate agroecology “to transform their food and agricultural systems, to mainstream sustainable agriculture on a large scale, and to achieve Zero Hunger and multiple other Sustainable Development Goals.” We launched the “Scaling Up Agroecology Initiative” to provide technical and policy support to countries that request it. FAO initially supported agroecology transition processes in three countries: India, México and Senegal. Nowadays many other countries are testing the approach.

Agroecology is growing but not as rapidly as it should be if we are to avoid the climate disasters caused by the invasive practices of the Green Revolution.

Former U.S. representative to Rome Kip Tom accused you of allowing FAO to be transformed “from a science-based development organization into a champion of agrarian peasant movements.” How do you respond to such criticisms?

These are ideological accusations from a large-scale farmer who was given an international post during the Trump administration. This was part of the same game that took the United States out of the Paris Agreement and other multilateral organizations and mechanisms. Thanks to the American people, that game is over.

During my tenure, I reinforced FAO’s role as a technical organization with its feet on the ground. We increased FAO’s technical capacity and we mainstreamed FAO’s strategy into five concrete objectives: eradicate hunger, promote sustainable agriculture development, reduce rural poverty, ensure fair food systems, and build resilience in rural areas.

Critics portray agroecology as backward-looking and as rejecting innovation. Do you see agroecology as a rejection of innovation?

Agroecology should not be seen as a movement backwards that rejects new technologies. It is a different way of producing food that requires innovation, respecting local conditions and the participation of producers in the innovation process. There is a need for specific policies and resources on science and innovation to legitimate and improve producers’ knowledge so that agroecology can lead the transition of current agri-food systems towards sustainability. What agroecology rejects are the invasive practices of the Green Revolution, in particular the overuse of chemical inputs like pesticides.

The U.N. Secretary General called for the World Food Systems Summit, now scheduled for September 2021. Does the Summit have the potential to transform food systems in needed ways?

The UN Food Systems Summit was launched amid controversy over the appointment of Agnes Kalibata as Special Envoy to the UN Secretary-General. She leads the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Gradually, the Secretariat of the Summit began to open up the process, with a “Champions Group” and multi-stakeholder outreach to spread dialogues at national, regional and global levels, and to produce a series of reports. While I still don’t know how those conclusions will be absorbed by the real-decision-makers of the Summit, I hope that they can serve at least to express the diversity of opinions about how to move forward.

U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, has raised concerns about the framing of the summit, arguing that it fails to integrate a rights-based framework and that it marginalizes important work, such as agroecology.

The UNFSS needs to have at its foundation the right to adequate and healthy food. During his speech at the UN Human Right Council, Michael Fakhri said the Summit is focusing discussions around scientific and market-based solutions, and he called on everyone to make human rights central to their work. I concur with his vision.

I hope that his engagement and call can create the needed shift ahead of the Summit’s main talks. The Summit needs to be clear that zero hunger and sustainable food systems cannot be achieved without healthy soils, healthy seeds, healthy diets and sustainable agriculture practices.

If we are to meet the goal of zero hunger by 2030, what are the most important changes that need to come out of the UN Food Systems Summit?

The most important thing to do is empower the hungry. What makes hunger a very complex political problem is that the hungry are not represented. I never saw a union association that represents the malnourished.

Most of the people who face hunger nowadays are not in this situation due to a lack of food produced but because they don’t have money to buy it. So, give them money or the resources to gain access to food. It is a simple formula. The best would be to increase employment and the minimum wage paid to a level that could allow workers to have access to a healthy diet. And for those who can’t be employed for different reasons, provide them a minimum subsidy through cash transfer programs, as we did in Brazil’s Zero Hunger program. It is that simple: there is no miracle!

Timothy A. Wise is a senior advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food.

 

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Jose Graziano da Silva on the Path to Zero Hunger appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Shutterstock/World Bank photo

By Prasad Kariyawasam*
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

It is the oceans that engendered life. The lives of humans remain connected to the seas, making the good health of the seas and the efficient management of sea-based activity essential elements for the wellbeing of people and nations.

The Indian Ocean offers tremendous opportunities and some challenges for the island, coastal, and inland nations of South Asia and beyond.

Regional cooperation is an excellent platform for leveraging opportunities and transforming challenges to promote the health of, and harmony in, this ocean space of common heritage, for common good.

Take the problem of plastic waste. Up to 15 million tons of plastic makes its way into the Indian Ocean each year, contaminating it with a trillion pieces of plastic and making it the world’s second most polluted ocean after the North Pacific.

South Asian countries have developed isolated projects to manage the ocean’s plastic waste. Fishermen in India’s southern state of Kerala were paid to recycle the plastic bags, straws, flip-flops, and other plastic detritus caught in their nets.

Once shredded, the plastic was sold to construction companies that used it to strengthen asphalt roads. With regional cooperation, lessons learned by the Kerala fishermen could benefit other countries.

The formal basis for such cooperation is being laid. All eight nations of South Asia are now coming together through a new regional project, supported by the World Bank and its partners to fund innovative ways to prevent, collect, and upcycle plastic waste into global supply chains.

The project also supports research and innovation grants to find and support alternatives to plastic. The Plastic-free Rivers and Seas for South Asia project aims to help build a circular economy for plastic that will stop plastic waste from leaking into the environment.

The Indian Ocean Rim Association, whose two dozen member states stretch from Australia to South Africa and north to Iran and the United Arab Emirates, are watching the project and may expand it across the Indian Ocean.

Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam

Some of the busiest sea lanes in the world cross the Indian Ocean and its rich marine life. Under its surface lie state-of-the-art global communications technology.

As the world’s economic growth engine pivots toward the Indo-Pacific, activity in the Indian Ocean increases. This growth must be managed in harmony with nature and in tranquility, to ensure optimum and shared benefits, and prosperity for all.

For this purpose, it is essential for South Asian nations to work toward evolving a system where all communities that use the Indian Ocean pursue their aspirations and competing claims in accordance with international law, regional conventions, and age-old traditions.

A system with greater cooperation among states, and with differential treatment for resource and technical capacity asymmetries is needed for tackling natural disasters, promoting maritime security, and keeping sea lanes open and safe.

This system should also enhance economic connectivity within South Asia and facilitate access to markets in the region and beyond, delivering goods and services at faster speeds, greater volumes, and lower costs.

Without doubt, the Indian Ocean needs better overall management which, among other measures, requires:

• Protecting the marine environment and pollution control;
• Managing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing;
• Protecting fish and other resources in exclusive economic zones claimed by governments in coastal waters;
• Combating trafficking of humans, drugs, and arms;
• Combating piracy and marine terrorism;
• Safeguarding energy supply chains at maritime choke points;
• Managing port security and ensuring secure cargo loading;
• Promoting ocean-based tourism and leisure activities with a connected regulatory framework for safety in territorial waters and the high seas;
• Ensuring that Indian Ocean sea lanes, which carry much of the world’s cargo, including petroleum, are safe and secure; and
• Ensuring the safety of fiber optic cables on the ocean floor that transmit internet traffic, including financial transactions, e-mail, and phone calls.

Working in partnership with countries and sharing information, expertise, and best practices is essential as no single country can meet these maritime challenges on its own.

Disputes must be settled within a rules-based system that follows international norms and transparent practices.

South Asian nations can work together, with other major maritime nations beyond the region, and with multilateral institutions to promote health and harmony in the Indian Ocean. The results will benefit South Asia now and the generations to come.

*Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam has also served as his country’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and New York and was a member of UN panels on migrant workers and disarmament. He has been a relentless advocate of championing the cause of regional integration and cooperation in SouthAsia.

 

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The post A Healthy Indian Ocean Feeds, Protects, and Connects all South Asians appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam a former Foreign Secretary, Government of Sri Lanka, has held several key diplomatic assignments, including Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the US and High Commissioner to India, Bhutan, and Afghanistan

The post A Healthy Indian Ocean Feeds, Protects, and Connects all South Asians appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Zimbabwe's Martin Mapisa wants to be one of Africa's best goalkeepers and like others before him his journey is beginning in Spain.

UAE Minister of State for Advanced Sciences Sarah bint Yousif Al Amir speaks during an event to mark Hope Probe's entering the orbit of Mars, in Dubai. Photo-Arabian Business, July 2020

By Siddharth Chatterjee and Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri
BEIJING, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

Women hold up half the sky.

Some years ago, Sarah al-Amiri, a young Emirati engineer, had a fixed gaze beyond the sky and towards our galaxy. “Space was a sector that we never dared to dream growing up,” she noted.

Fast forward and al-Amiri is now the United Arab Emirates first Minister of State for Advanced Science, successfully leading an ambitious project which launched a spacecraft into orbit around Mars, the first-ever Arab interplanetary mission. This has only been achieved by four other nations, including China.

Al-Amiri contends that, “the mission is called Amal, which means ‘hope’ in Arabic, because we are contributing to global understanding of a planet. We are going above and beyond the turmoil that is now defining our region and becoming positive contributors to science”.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, women in the UAE, China and elsewhere have also led ground-breaking efforts against the virus in the fields of public health, vaccines and treatments. The Hope Mission and COVID-19 pandemic highlight the potential gains to be achieved by ensuring full and equal access for women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphatically stated, “women and girls belong in science and there is a dividend to be gained for countries that acknowledge this truth.”

Greater Participation Needed in STEM Fields

According to UNESCO, women account for only 28 percent of engineering graduates and 40 percent in computer science and informatics. This gender disparity is alarming, especially as STEM careers are often referred to as the jobs of the future, driving innovation, social wellbeing, inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Women account for only one-third scientific researchers globally, holding fewer senior positions than men at top universities. Furthermore, with the growth of artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning, there are risks for reinforcing inequalities, as the needs of women are more likely to be overlooked in the design of products and projects.

Increasing women’s participation in STEM accelerates sustainable development in low and middle-income countries, offering an opportunity to close gender pay gaps and boosting women’s earnings by USD 299 billion over the next decade. Studies indicate that girls perform as well as boys in science and mathematics, and in many parts countries outperforming them. Aptitude is not the issue.

Gender equality in STEM acts as a powerful accelerator for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Norms and stereotypes that limit girls’ expectations need to be eliminated, while educators must motivate girls to become changemakers, entrepreneurs and innovators.

Thankfully, there are already encouraging signs of change, in both the UAE and China.

Growing Equality and Empowerment in China

In China, the 14th Five-Year Plan provides new opportunities to prioritize gender equality. Central to the development agenda is a strengthening of science, technology and R&D sectors to address a transformation to a digital and innovative economy. In China, women launch more than half of all new internet companies and make up more than half of inventors filing patent applications. The recently enacted Civil Code establishes new mechanisms for addressing sexual harassment and abuse in workplaces.

Success stories of women specializing in STEM fields should be heralded in order to empower others to follow. As examples, Tu Youyou was China’s first Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, with her discovery of a malaria therapy; whilst Hu Qiheng was a leader promoting Internet access in China, being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013 as a global connector.

Pictured: Tu Youyou – Vox

In the private sector there are stellar mentors and roll-models such as billionaire Zhou Qunfei, who rose from a migrant worker to being the world’s richest self-made woman. As the CEO of Lens Technology, she built an empire manufacturing glass for tech giants such as Tesla, Apple and Samsung.

In Shenzhen, the private sector is now embracing its civic responsibilities, with companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei launching initiatives to recruit and promote women in STEM fields.

Rapid Progress by the UAE

The space industry is not the only sector in which Emirati women are exemplary.

According to the World Economic Forum 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, the UAE ranked first globally in four of the report’s indicators: women in parliament; sex ratio at birth; literacy rate; and enrolment in primary education. Meanwhile, in the 2019 UNDP Human Development Report, the UAE ranks 35 of the 189 countries in the world in terms of women’s empowerment.

In terms of education, 77% of UAE women will continue to receive higher education after high school graduation, and 70% are graduates of higher education in the UAE. Female students now account for 46% of STEM subjects in UAE higher education. Two thirds of the public sector positions are held by women, with 30 per cent of which are leadership positions.

On 30 March the UAE National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security was launched by H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation. This Plan is not only a step in the right direction but also spearheads the vital role of women in the UAE.

For many years, Sheikha Fatima and the UAE have championed and presided over a group of specialised conferences in the Arab, international and Islamic worlds to empower women and enhance their stature.

The co-authors Amb Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri (Right)and Siddharth Chatterjee(left). Photo-UAE Embassy China, 03 March 2021

As the UAE approaches its 50th Jubilee since foundation, it is a matter of pride that the country is making outstanding achievements and launching initiatives to empower women, surging ahead in promoting gender equality and ensuring that women play a key role in the nation’s growth. This has earned the UAE a reputation as being among the most progressive countries in the world.

Global Gender Equality Initiatives

In March 2021, International Women’s Day was celebrated with the UN China Country Team coming together in recognizing tremendous contributions and leadership demonstrated by women and girls around the world. Joint campaigns such as #HERstory saw the UNDP and UN Women shared inspiring stories on social media from women leaders in STEM around the world. A workshop was launched to combat stereotypes and encourage women and girls across China to learn and excel in science and technology.

As part of the Generation Equality global initiative led by UN Women, governments, civil society, private sectors and change-makers from around the world are coming together to fuel a powerful and lasting coalition for gender equality.

It is 25 years since the UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action committed nations to the advancement of the rights of women. Now is the time to recommit to ensuring gender equality, especially for STEM in order to harness women’s full potential. Then women of China, the UAE and the world can hold up half of the sky, in principle and reality.

This article was originally published in Forbes Africa.

 

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The post Women and Girls to the Front appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Gender Equality in STEM for a better tomorrow

The post Women and Girls to the Front appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Delegates at an online conference organised by APDA and AFPPD looked at ways to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls.

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

Girls in Asia don’t want to go back to normal – they want to go “back to better than normal”, says Zara Rapoport, a delegate during an online seminar on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender.

The seminar, held this week, was organised by the Asian Forum for Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) and the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA). It focused on the impact of COVID-19 on gender in the Asia Pacific and Central Asian regions.

Rapoport, the Regional Gender Equality and Inclusion Lead for Plan International Asia Hub, said her organisation had worked with a group of girls to design a youth-led, feminist report with a post-COVID-19 vision of the future.

Their ideas included what the girls termed a ‘revolutionary reset’. They felt that the world they came from before the pandemic was intrinsically unequal – and this needed to change.

She said her organisation took on board the adolescent girls’ suggestions to see a future world with “gender justice, education and training for everyone”. A world where women and girls have rights to protection, gender equality, and climate change is addressed.

While the message was clear, the impact of the pandemic on women was devastating. However, most of the speakers concentrated on programmes to address women’s issues across the Asia Pacific and Central Asian regions.

Professor Keizo Takemi, MP, Japan, and Chair of AFPPD reminded delegates that it was critical to address gender issues. Research showed women were at higher risk from the pandemic’s COVID-19 impacts, which included reduced access to reproductive health care.

Upala Devi, Gender Advisor UNFPA APRO, said it was “very, very disheartening to see all the gains made in the last 20 years erased, reversed, in just one year in the pandemic.”

She said a recent gender gap report had estimated that it would take another 75 years to regain some of the gains. This was not something we would see in our lifetime, she warned. The pandemic, she warned, was not over, and India and Bangladesh were experiencing the third wave with lockdowns and other social distancing restrictions coming into play.

Nevertheless, Devi said the pandemic forced organisations to focus on continuity and life-saving gender-based violence (GBV) and health response services.

She outlined several innovative delivery models which had gained traction in the region.

“We’ve looked at the development of the technical guidance on the remote provision of human response services … ensuring that those who are the most vulnerable and marginalised have access to services,” Devi said. This included, at a macro ‘South South-level’, facilitating, country-to-country sharing of knowledge, strategies, and promising practices.

It included developing a guidance note on the adaptation of dignity kids for a COVID-19 context at a regional level.

Then at a national level, there was evidence of really innovative programming.

Devi said the “Spotlight Initiative”, a multi-year global partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, had been rolled out in some countries in the Asia Pacific.

Under this initiative, countries like Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste worked with remote service delivery workers to strengthen responses in delivering GBV services.

“We have created creative shelters in many countries like Bangladesh and India, and Thailand. We have looked at innovative means to provide psychosocial support through free counselling and tele-counselling … and SMS-based psychosocial first aid,” she said, outlining some of the other innovations in the region.

Devi said they were looking at remote case management in, for example, countries like Pakistan.
APPs were now safety nets for women, with good examples from Delhi and Mumbai in India. The safety APPs ensure that women have access to the nearest police station if they feel that their safety had been compromised.

Other innovations included one stop COVID centres.

Ulukbek Batyrgaliev, member of IPPF’s Board of Trustees, Chair of National Youth Committee at the Reproductive Health, said women in the Central Asia region were largely excluded from decision making. About 83 percent of women suffer from domestic or sexual violence, forced and early marriages and were affected by some harmful and humiliating cultural and social practises, like virginity tests.

Nevertheless, through the organisation’s social media outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic, they could reach 50 000 girls and women. In addition, it created information videos on sexual and reproductive health, HIV and so on.

Björn Andersson, Regional Director, UNFPA APRO, reminded parliamentarians they played a critical role in shaping a “more equal future”. He joined other delegates, including Maher Afroze, who said she was COVID-positive, to applaud and celebrate women leaders in the front lines of the COVID-19 in pandemic response. The delegates clapped for the doctors, nurses, midwives and other health workers, social workers, psychosocial counsellors, hotline operators and community volunteers. They thanked them for finding new and innovative ways to reach women and girls in need and provide life-saving services.

 

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Credit World Bank

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

The 15,900-strong World Bank, which has funded over 12,000 development projects worldwide since 1947, is an international institution with a superlative reputation for its sustained efforts to end poverty in the developing world—with loans, interest-free credit and outright grants.

But it has come under heavy fire for its blatant violations of disability rights—an area where no US labour laws are applicable because the Washington-based institution enjoys diplomatic immunity.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a spokesperson for the Disability Support Group at the World Bank told IPS the Bank has been hiding behind its diplomatic immunity for decades to cover up abuse of staff ranging from sexual harassment to institutional discrimination against its most vulnerable disabled staff.

“There is absolutely no national or international accountability framework that the World Bank can be held accountable to – neither the UN Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities nor the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).”

“We have cases and irrefutable evidence of serious and consistent disability abuse and harassment of staff, conflict of interest, lack of transparency and accountability – the very values and conditionality for World Bank projects.”

Andre Hovaguimian, a former Director of the International Finance Corporation, Middle East & North Africa, a sister organization of the World Bank, told IPS: “The World Bank’s treatment of staff injured in the line of duty has been and continues to be deplorable.”

“Staff injured in the line of duty, taking risks to do the Bank’s business, should be treated with care and respect. The Bank’s diplomatic immunity should no longer be used to abuse the disabled,” said Hovaguimian.

Currently more than one billion people worldwide – including an estimated 800 million in developing countries – experience some form of disability, according to the World Report on Disability authored jointly by the World Bank (WB) and World Health Organization (WHO).

“Persons with disabilities face stigma, discrimination, and exclusion from accessing jobs and services, such as education and health care, and they consistently fare less well than their non-disabled peers in development gains,” said the study.

The charges of discrimination have come up at a time when the World Bank is holding its annual 2021 Spring Meetings in Washington DC. The meetings, which began April 5 will continue through April 11.

Two disabled former staff members told IPS they could speak only on condition of anonymity due to fears of retaliation and losing their medical coverage as disabled persons.

“When I was denied worker’s compensation against the findings from five reputable doctors, I was told that “As an international organization established under its Articles of Agreement, the World Bank Group has been granted certain privileges and immunities under U.S. laws.”

“I feel discouraged, bullied and abused. It is a case of David against Goliath, with the most vulnerable and handicapped having to fight a disability program that has no proper Governance, Accountability or Transparency. There is no justice for the disabled at the World Bank”, he complained.

“The World Bank is evading accountability and oversight of its disability program by saying it is not subject of either UN Conventions or US disability laws while keeping its own Executive Board in the dark”

The other former staff member who has previously been disabled confirmed: “I was harassed to the point of breakdown. The disability program is managed completely arbitrarily with secret procedures not shared with staff but used against them”.

“I am really sick of this hypocrisy where the World Bank lectures developing countries on disability inclusion while it discriminates shamelessly against its own disabled. While an independent grievance mechanism is mandatory for all projects, the WB refuses to allow its disabled staff the same opportunity,” he declared.

Credit: World Bank

Asked for an official reaction, a World Bank spokesperson told IPS: “The World Bank Group is committed to ensuring the health and safety of our staff and their families. Our benefits, policies and track record over the years demonstrate this commitment”.

“Our self-insured insurance programs include disability and worker’s compensation programs, which provide comprehensive benefits to staff injured in the line of duty, or those that are unable to work due to a disabling condition occurring outside of the work environment”.

“Given the global footprint of the organization, as well as its presence in a number of high-risk environments, the Bank Group made the decision many years ago to self-insure these benefits. This was necessary to ensure all staff are covered, regardless of duty station, as some carriers may not support or be present in many of the markets in which the Bank Group operates, which are amongst the poorest nations in the world.”

“We regularly review our benefits and processes to ensure we meet the needs of staff and their families, taking input from plan beneficiaries and stakeholders,” the spokesperson added.

“The World Bank integrates disability issues into its operations around the world across a wide range of sectors, including promoting access to infrastructure facilities and social services, rehabilitation, skills development, creating economic opportunities, and working with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities. This is at the core of the World Bank’s work to build sustainable, inclusive communities, aligned with the institution’s goals to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity,” the Bank’s spokesperson declared.

Providing more specifics, S. Gonzalez Flavell, a former Special Assistant (retired) to the Director General of Evaluation and Senior Counsel WBG Legal Department told IPS:

“I was a disabled staff member under the World Banks self-funded disability program for over eighteen months. The experience was significantly demeaning and disturbing, my status carried stigma and it was made clear to me by numerous Bank Senior Management staff that my career and professional reputation would be adversely affected.

The program lacks clarity in requirements and transparency in application, and I repeatedly had to require procedures to be correctly followed, actions were taken by the Disability Administrator that would have been unlawful had any of the US protective laws for disabled persons applied and a copy of the operating guidelines applying to the program was denied to me despite reasonable request.

The disability administrator did not act in accordance with known disclosed program requirements and instead made arbitrary decisions capriciously without respect for my health or concern for me, my treating physicians treatment plan or my recovery and return to work.

The Bank’s HR team, which should have overseen the Disability Administrator’s actions, acted throughout as if my health and disability could be ignored, intrusively asking me to attend work meetings, attempting to have me present for interviews (at a time I could not work) incorrectly applied its own benefits rules (erroneously denying me 30% benefits which I had to fight through the justice system before they corrected)and leave rules and even allowed my job to be affected and declared my position redundant while

I was on disability (again disallowed under US law). Despite my health issues I had to take on HR to prevent financial benefits and career and leave abuse significantly affecting my health wellness and recovery.

On return to work I, as I knew had happened to many other returning disabled staff, faced hostility and retaliation every effort was made to exclude me and deny any right to reintegration with the work force.

Having discussed and now researched several disability programs, including those of other international organisations , including with disabled persons, the World Bank’s disability program remains the most lacking in integrity, compassion or equitable treatment and that it continues to exist in its current form is a failure to care adequately for staff from whom it demands so much, a failure to understand sound management and the hard realities faced by disabled staff and , without recourse to an independent grievance redress system, is an abuse of human rights,” he declared.

Meanwhile, the World Bank Group has raised USD 82 billion for IDA19 (International Development Association, member of the WBG) to support the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries with a particular focus on disability

The Disability Support Group said IDA19 will do more to expand equitable opportunities for people with disabilities.” Disability is therefore a major focus of this IDA19 replenishment, with World Bank seeking funding from donor countries because “investing in people, and especially in people with disabilities who are often poor, is also critical to [sustainable development goals] progress” (https://ida.worldbank.org/replenishments/ida19)

“Yet what the World Bank fails to disclose to donors who are asked to dish out USD 82 billion, is that the World Bank itself has a very poor track record with its own disabled staff”’, says the Group.

In the past three years, there have been a record number of complaints and problems with the World Bank’s Disability and Workers Compensation programs, which the World Bank has conveniently ignored, it says.

“The number of complaints has risen exponentially, both to the World Bank’s Ombudsman and to the World Bank’s Staff Association, leading the later to retain additional outside counsel to address the flood of complaints.”

“The rights of World Bank’s disabled staff are being trampled, as they are bullied and harassed as the World Bank seeks to cut its own costs related to the disabilities of its employees,” the Group declared.

  

The post Disability Discrimination at the World Bank: Is it Immunity or Impunity? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 6 2021 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take an unprecedented human and economic toll, wiping away years of modest and uneven progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developing countries now need much more support as progress towards the SDGs was ‘not on track’ even before the pandemic.

Anis Chowdhury

By end-2022, average incomes are expected to be 18% below pre-crisis levels in low-income countries (LICs) and 22% less in emerging and developing countries excluding China – compared to 13% lower for developed economies.

These lower incomes will push hundreds of millions into extreme poverty and hunger, surviving on incomes under US$1.90/day. The World Bank estimates the poor increased by 119–124 million in 2020, and by 143–163 million more this year.

Fiscal gap growing fast
As the UN Secretary-General has noted, “richer countries have benefited from an unprecedented $16 trillion of emergency support measures,… the least developed countries have spent 580 times less in per capita terms on their COVID-19 response”!

Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and UNCTAD estimated that developing countries need about US$2.5 trillion for relief to affected families and businesses, and to expedite economic recovery.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva later acknowledged that developing countries need much more. The IMF’s April 2021 Fiscal Monitor estimates that only achieving access to basic services by 2030 in 121 developing countries would require US$3tn, up to half in LICs.

Most developing countries cannot do more due to financing constraints. As public spending needs shoot up, the pandemic has significantly cut their revenue. Recent IMF research found “larger output losses are experienced by countries with lower GDP per capita”, partly due to “lower fiscal stimulus”.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

With limited tax and other revenue, developing countries will need to borrow more, increasing their already high public debt. As the IMF notes, “the international community [needs] to provide additional support through grants, concessional financing, and, in some cases, debt relief”.

Too little, too late?
The Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs) – the IMF and the World Bank – must mitigate the new setbacks, by enabling relief, recovery and reform. The Fund and also the Bank have responded, sometimes innovatively, but far too slowly. Most importantly, actual support from both BWIs so far is far short of needs.

The Fund used its Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust fund to provide relief for six months of IMF debt payments owed by 29 LICs. But last October, the IMF board rejected a new Pandemic Support Facility with easier conditions than usual.

Although the Fund has committed about US$250 billion, a quarter of its US$1 trillion lending capacity, it has only deployed a tenth of its capacity so far, according to former senior official, Ousmène Mandeng. He argues the Fund should instead offer much more support that countries need and want.

According to The Economist, since March 2020, the IMF has only disbursed US$32bn in emergency financing while offering US$74bn via other facilities, both “with more strings attached”.

The 85 countries now receiving funds from the IMF account for only around 5% of global GDP. None of them could access the Fund’s new “short-term liquidity line” due to its stringent conditions.

BWIs must rise to the challenge
In April 2020, the Bank announced a new multi-donor trust fund, the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Multi-Donor Fund. This is supposed to complement the US$160bn the World Bank Group had pledged to deploy by mid-2021.

Bank disbursements have been slow despite the urgency, with actual disbursements to needy countries totalling only US$79bn by June 2021, under half what was pledged. The Bank also dropped its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility, criticised for being too small and too slow.

However, fast-disbursing budget support during the much deeper and more extensive pandemic crisis is actually less than during the GFC. The Bank is no longer offering more emergency budget support.

Just as the Fund lent more in 2009 during the global financial crisis (GFC) than since the pandemic began, new Bank loan disbursements rose less in the first half-year of the pandemic than during the GFC.

The Bank committed US$19.5bn to finance the G-20’s grossly inadequate April-December 2020 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Meanwhile, it has refused any debt standstill for loans owed to it, arguing this would jeopardise its credit rating and consequent ability to borrow cheap.

BWIs must become part of solution
Blocked by the Trump administration, the likely issue of US$650bn IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) is still only half the SDR1tn (US$1.37tn) The Financial Times deemed necessary.

SDRs do not need to be repaid, and incur a very low interest rate (currently 0.05%), costing less than loans. They are often more attractive than grants, typically tied to conditions.

While the 75 LICs should get about US$62bn in SDRs, poor countries could benefit much more if rich countries transferred their unused SDRs to the BWIs. Besides providing debt relief, the Bank could then intermediate more long-term development finance at the lowest possible cost to borrowing countries.

As UNCTAD has also argued, the multilateral system needs to lend much more to developing countries at lower cost. In 2019, the average interest rate on multilateral debt to LICs was 1.7%, compared to 2.5% for bilateral loans.

Private creditor rates are much higher. With ‘preferred creditor’ status (i.e., getting repaid before others), the Bank can borrow – and lend – at the lowest rates. This is most easily done by expanding Bank lending and guarantees.

Bank for recovery and development?
Loans worth US$500bn, mostly for poorer countries, are likely to be announced this week at the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings. As the BWIs can offer much better terms, this will certainly help, but much more is urgently needed.

Borrowing at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s current 1.75% rate on a 20-year loan, total debt service in 2021 and 2022 would fall from US$90bn to US$65bn, e.g., saving US$25bn for the G20-DSSI eligible LICs.

If all developing countries benefit, savings would be much higher, around US$285bn. But to do so, both the Fund and the Bank would need to expand their lending capacities with additional resources.

Currently, all too many developing countries are being forced to adjust by cutting social and environmental programmes. By lowering lending costs and other demands, the BWIs can become part of the solution, rather than the problem.

 

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Gabino Martínez cleans the "Tláloc", the tank that filters dust from the rainwater collection system in his home in the Tehuixtitla neighborhood in the Xochimilco district in southern Mexico City. During the May to November rainy season local residents collect the water they use for washing, bathing and cooking, due to the lack of access to piped water. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Apr 5 2021 (IPS)

In neighbourhoods like Tehuixtitla in southern Mexico City, rain brings joy, because it provides water for showering, washing dishes and clothes, and cooking, by means of rainwater harvesting systems (RHS).

“When it starts to rain, we feel so happy. We clean and sweep so that there is no dust on the roof and gutters, and so the water doesn’t get dirty or clogged,” said Gabino Martínez, a resident of Tehuixtitla, part of the touristy municipality of Xochimilco, one of the 16 districts that make up Mexico City.

This is what the 63-year-old man told IPS, pointing to the roof of his house to show the infrastructure that makes it possible to collect rainwater to meet the family’s basic needs for part of the year.

Martínez, a married father of three who works as a handyman, still has a little water left from last November’s rains, and is counting the weeks until May brings the first drops, provided the climate crisis doesn’t modify the normal seasonal rainfall."A market and promotion policies have been developed. Rainwater harvesting relieves some of the demand in an autonomous fashion, reducing pressure on the government to provide the service. "Sometimes water is abundant in this country, but it is seasonal. That is why it is becoming increasingly important to harvest rain, because we cannot afford to waste what falls from the sky.” -- Enrique Lomnitz

“We don’t waste water here. Everything we store, we use,” said Martínez, who installed his system in 2008 at a cost of about 270 dollars and whose neighbourhood was the first in Xochimilco to have RHS, since the public water supply system does not reach this area nestled between hills.

Before rainwater began to be harvested, the people of Tehuixtitla, who today number some 2,500 spread over 11 streets, collected rainwater with makeshift systems and filtered it through cotton cloths. They also bought water from tanker trucks, known locally as pipas, which they then carried in jerry cans to their homes.

“Utilities” was just an abstract term in the dictionary. But through community organising, they have obtained electricity, telephone and internet services, essential for working and studying during the COVID pandemic.

The RHS consists of a receptacle, called “Tlaloc” because of its physical resemblance to the Aztec rain god, which filters dust out of the water before it runs into a 5,000 litre tank, to be distributed to the local supply network. The collectors allow two or three downpours to pass through first so the harvested water is cleaner.

Rain is the salvation

Rainwater can help this Latin American country of 126 million people face the water crisis which experts project will start in 2030, while it currently causes floods and landslides and generally ends up in the drainage system.

Rainwater harvesting reduces the need to obtain or import water from conventional sources, allows the creation of supply at specific points and does not depend on the traditional system.

At the same time, it can help Mexico achieve the goal of clean water and sanitation for the entire population, the sixth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set for 2030.

The situation in greater Mexico City, home to more than 21 million people, is particularly delicate, as the metropolis is heading towards the so-called “Day Zero”, when it will no longer have enough water to meet its needs.

The city is the third most water-stressed of Mexico’s 33 administrative divisions, after the states of Baja California Sur, an arid territory in the extreme northwest of the country, and Guanajuato, located in the center-north and strained by agricultural activities.

Purchasing jerry cans of water transported by donkey is the alternative left to the inhabitants of Tehuixtitla and other neighbourhoods in the hills of the Xoxhimilco district, in the south of Mexico City, when the rainwater collected during the rainy season runs out and the supply of water from tanker trucks, locally known as “pipas”, is delayed. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

Drought is raging this year in Mexico, especially in the capital, whose main source of water – the Lerma-Cutzamala dam and reservoir system in the neighbouring state of Mexico – is below half its capacity.

As a result, the local government has had to ration water in a city already under pressure from shortages.

In Mexico City, the largest metropolis in Latin America, some 15,000 people suffer from poor access to water and marginalisation, in eight municipalities in the south and southeast of the city, according to the 2019 study “Captación de lluvia en la CDMX: Un análisis de las desigualdades espaciales” (Rain catchment in Mexico City: An analysis of spatial inequalities), the latest edition published.

In addition, approximately 70 percent of the city’s residents have water available for less than 12 hours a day.

Government programmes have been operating in Mexico City since 2016 to provide RHS to neighbourhoods affected by a lack of water.

The “Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Mexico City Homes” programme, which in 2020 gave families about 900 dollars in subsidies, has installed more than 20,000 devices since 2018 in five municipalities on the outskirts of the city to the south and southeast.

By 2021, it will reach 529 neighbourhoods in eight municipalities in the capital. However, the programme only includes homes in urban areas. Households in shantytowns outside the city are considered to be located on land earmarked for conservation, and the classification of these neighbourhoods as occupying public land means they are denied services.

Mexico City’s constitution, in force since 2017, stipulates that the city will “guarantee universal water coverage and daily, continuous, equitable and sustainable access” and that it will incentivise rainwater harvesting.

But on the hills of the southern municipality of Tlalpan, for example, that constitutional article has not been enforced. That is why, for residents like Silvia Ávila, RHS systems have been the salvation.

“The situation was very difficult, we had no water. It was a big problem. The authorities at the time sent a tanker truck once a month, but we had to walk about a kilometre and pipe the water to our homes using hoses,” she told IPS during a visit to her house.

“It wasn’t enough water even for our basic needs. There were people who didn’t even have a water tank to store water. This was a desert because of the lack of water and services,” she said, explaining the transformation that RHS has meant for families in the neighbourhood.

With the installation of a 10,000-litre system in 2011, for which she paid about 230 dollars, much more than her access to water changed.

“When it rains, we can meet our basic needs,” said Ávila, a widowed homemaker and mother of four. “Every house has a system. It has allowed many to live off their own crops. We have become sustainable, little by little. After arriving here, the programme was expanded to several nearby towns.”

Water storage containers are part of the landscape in the streets of Tehuixtitla. Residents of this neighbourhood in southern Mexico City keep them next to their homes to supplement their water supply by buying water from tanker trucks, which they store in jerry cans, some faded by the sun and others new, and then pump it into their homes. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

Paraje Quiltepec resembles an ecovillage. Its 30 families use biodigesters, make vermicompost, recycle water, raise chickens and grow fruits and vegetables.

In the dry season, neighbourhoods like Tehuixtitla and Paraje Quiltepec buy tanker truckloads of between 6,000 and 10,000 litres for 50 dollars per household. In the former, the local government also helps, distributing 800 litres a week.

Not only Mexico City suffers from water shortages

The Mexican capital reflects the water problems in this vast country with an area of 1.96 million square kilometres, 67 percent of which is arid and semi-arid and 33 percent of which is humid.

In 2020, Mexico received more than 722 millimetres of rainfall per day, below the average of 779 in recent years.

Although Mexico had a low degree of pressure in 2017 – 19.5 percent – its risk of water stress is high, according to the Aqueduct platform, developed by the Aqueduct Alliance, made up of governments, companies and foundations.

In fact, it is the second most water-stressed country in the Americas, behind Chile. It may suffer from water stress in 2040 all the way from the center to the north.

Enrique Lomnitz, founder of the civil association Isla Urbana, a pioneer in rainwater harvesting that installed the systems in Tehuixtitla and Paraje Quiltepec, pointed to the progress made in the last decade with regard to the adoption of rainwater harvesting.

“A market and promotion policies have been developed. Rainwater harvesting relieves some of the demand in an autonomous fashion, reducing pressure on the government to provide the service,” the promoter of the initiative explained to IPS.

“Sometimes water is abundant in this country, but it is seasonal. That is why it is becoming increasingly important to harvest rain, because we cannot afford to waste what falls from the sky,” he said.

Lomnitz noted that downpours increase the availability of water and are the only source of water in several areas of the capital.

Since 2009, Isla Urbana, the winner of several international awards, has installed some 21,000 RHS throughout the country.

The National Programme for Rainwater Harvesting and Ecotechnics in Rural Areas (Procaptar) was launched in 2016, benefiting 4,500 people in 114 municipalities between 2018 and 2020. In 2021, it will help 11,500 inhabitants in 63 municipalities.

The 2019 report estimated that the installation of 105,000 RHS would improve conditions for about 41,500 people.

The 2019 “Internal Evaluation of the Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Mexico City Homes Programme” concluded that the programme met its physical goals in the installation of systems, and reported good acceptance and satisfaction among beneficiaries.

In addition, it recommended improving adoption of the system, especially in maintenance, performance indicators and gender perspective. The 2020 review has not yet been published.

In Tehuixtitla people are not waiting. Local residents are designing a pumping system with the state-owned National Water Commission to provide them with drinking water, at a cost of about 1,750 dollars per household.

“It’ll improve living conditions here,” Martinez said enthusiastically.

Lomnitz suggested creating incentives for rainwater harvesting, reviewing service subsidies and encouraging wastewater treatment and reuse.

“In the city the situation is very serious, so measures are needed to take care of water,” he said. “There is a range of possible solutions, such as recycling water or using water-saving devices. Rainwater harvesting is one of several elements that need to be worked on to address the crisis. But it alone will not solve the problem.”

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The post Mexico Looks to the Heavens for a Solution to Its Water Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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