Africa

Over 600 people were injured in the huge explosion at a military base in the city of Bata.

FAO advocates for transparent, inclusive, socially beneficial and responsible artificial intelligence. Credit: FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
ROME, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

One year after the call for a group of international and religious organizations and important multinational companies to incorporate ethics into the design of artificial intelligence (AI), Pope Francis said in a tweet: “I hope that more and more people of good will cooperate in the promotion of the common good, the protection of those lagging behind and the development of a shared algor-ethics”.

The message of the Catholic pontiff, on 28 February, was related to the Call of Rome, which seeks to actively incorporate ethics in artificial intelligence based on a transparent, inclusive, socially advantageous and responsible process.

The document, “Rome Call for Artificial Intelligence Ethics”, was launched on 28 February 2020 by the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Microsoft and IBM, with the endorsement of the Italian government.

By 2050 the world will have to feed 10 billion people and this will be possible only with transformed agri-food systems that are inclusive, resilient and sustainable; therefore, artificial intelligence in food and agriculture plays a key role in this transformation and in achieving the food objectives for all

QU Dongyu
Director General, FAO
For Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, progress can create a better world “if it is linked to the common good.” “The depth and acceleration of the transformations of the digital age create new and constantly evolving problems” and “the complexity of the technological world demands an ethical and articulated collaboration to achieve better influence.”

According to Paglia, it is necessary to build a new alliance between research, science and ethics “to build a world in which technology is in favor of the people” because “without equitable and just development” there can be no justice or peace.

The Rome Call invites governments, institutions and the private sector to adopt a common responsibility in order to ensure that digital innovation and technological progress are at the service of human creativity.

The strong increase in digitization and the renewed efforts for greater innovation improved substantially in 2020. This acceleration was a result of COVID-19 and the consequent new digital and online forms of interaction on a global level.

The Director General of FAO, QU Dongyu, recalled that by 2050 the world will have to feed 10 billion people and that this will be possible “only with transformed agri-food systems that are inclusive, resilient and sustainable”; therefore, artificial intelligence in food and agriculture “plays a key role in this transformation and in achieving the food objectives for all.”

QU recalled that FAO seeks the promotion of ethics in artificial intelligence “for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life.”

The expanding support for the Rome Call is being sought through various means. These means include; opening channels of dialogue with the different monotheistic religions to identity a convergence in which technology can be used at the service of humanity; active action from parliamentarians and local administrators in different parts of the world; as well as by the growing support from private companies, especially technological ones.

For Microsoft’s President Brad Smith, this common effort aims to ensure that technology continues to serve humanity. He stated that “[a]s we recover from COVID-19, the Rome Call is an important instrument to reflect broadly and ethically on the future of technology” within the framework “of a balanced, respectful and inclusive dialogue on the interaction between the artificial intelligence technology and society”.

Similarly, the Vice President of IBM, Dario Gil, called for strengthening the capacity of artificial intelligence to “transform our lives and societies in many ways,” but for this, artificial intelligence must be developed, expanded and used “in a more responsible way to prevent negative results.”

Gil recalled that in his company this is applied through specific protocols, risk assessment, reliable methodologies for the development of artificial intelligence, training initiatives, innovation analysis, as well as through mechanisms designed to help other companies to strengthen their artificial intelligence.

To summarize the spirit that allowed the creation and promotion of this original global alliance on the issue of the development of digitization and innovation, Monsignor Paglia recalled that “we are not an island, we are not pulverized or divided, we are a single body, a unique family, in good and evil” and for that, common action is essential.

The post The Ethics of AI to Ensure Food Security and Development appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is Assistant Director General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The post The Ethics of AI to Ensure Food Security and Development appeared first on Inter Press Service.

More protests are planned as the opposition leader calls the charges politically motivated.

A woman in Aden, Yemen prepares food at a settlement for people who have fled their homes due to insecurity. Credit: UNOCHA/Giles Clarke

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations has rightly described the deaths and devastation in war-ravaged Yemen as the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster”— caused mostly by widespread air attacks on civilians by a coalition led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

But rarely, if ever, has the world denounced the primary arms merchants, including the US and UK, for the more than 100,000 killings since 2015– despite accusations of “war crimes” by human rights organizations.

The killings are due mostly to air strikes on weddings, funerals, private homes, villages and schools. Additionally, over 130,000 have died resulting largely from war-related shortages of food and medical care.

Saudi Arabia, which had the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest arms importer during 2015–19, increased its imports by 130 percent, compared with the previous five-year period, and accounting for 12 percent of all global arms imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

And despite concerns in the U.S. and U.K. about Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen, both weapons suppliers continued to export arms to Saudi Arabia—with 73 percent of Saudi Arabia’s arms imports originating in the U.S. and 13 percent from the U.K.

But the newly-inaugurated Biden administration has threatened to halt some of the US arms sales proposed by the former Trump administration which sustained a politically and militarily cozy relationship with the Saudis.

The sales on-hold include $478 million in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia and $23 billion in arms sales to UAE, including 50 F-35 fighter planes and 18 Reaper drones.

The Saudi military arsenal includes F-15 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, Stinger and Hellfire surface to air (SAM) missiles, and multiple rocket launch systems (from the US), Tornado fighter bombers, Bae Hawk advanced jet trainers and Westland combat helicopters (from UK) and Aerospatiale helicopters and air defense systems (from France).

The US weapons systems with the UAE forces include F-16 fighter planes, F-35 Stealth jet fighters, Blackhawk helicopters and Sidewinder and Maverick missiles while UK’s arms supplies include Typhoon and Tornado fighter bombers and cluster munitions. The UAE is also equipped with French-made Mirage-2000 jet fighters, perhaps upgraded to the Mirage 2000-9 version.

All of these weapons – and more –have been used to bomb civilians in Yemen in the six-year-old conflict there.

Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, and founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies, told IPS Biden’s decision to cut off direct support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen was long-overdue.

The US Congress, he said, had attempted to cut off such assistance last year by passing a ban by a big bipartisan majority. Trump, however, declared a state of emergency overruling the legislative branch.

“Unfortunately, Biden has pledged to (continue) providing arms in order to support what he refers to as Saudi Arabia’s defense needs against alleged Iranian aggression, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia’s military budget is five times that of Iran and is therefore perfectly capable of defending itself,” he pointed out.

Biden also has pledged aid to protect the kingdom from attacks by Houthi rebels, who have occasionally lobbed rockets into Saudi Arabia, but only in retaliation of the massive Saudi attacks on Yemen.

In addition, “Biden has called for continued support for Saudi counter-terrorism operations, which is concerning given the monarchy’s tendency to depict even nonviolent opponents as terrorists”, said Dr Zunes, who is recognized as one of the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and is a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Along with Biden’s refusal to place sanctions on Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (known as MBS) “despite acknowledging his key role in the murder of a prominent U.S.-backed journalist as well as his conciliatory phone conversation with King Salman last month, raises serious questions as to whether Biden is really interested in standing up to the Saudi regime,” he argued.

Credit: YPN, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch and 41 other organizations are calling on President Joe Biden to impose sanctions available under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act on officials at the highest levels of Saudi leadership, including MBS.

The coalition says laws-of war violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition amount to “war crimes”.

Dr Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, a human rights organization that works on preventing war crimes and other atrocities in the world, told IPS the massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen is not the result of an earthquake or some other natural disaster; it is entirely man-made.

“Starvation is the result of airstrikes and a merciless war that has completely destroyed people’s lives,” he added. The bottom line is that the United States should not be selling weapons to any state that has been responsible for atrocities in Yemen, he declared.
Time and again, he said, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been responsible for war crimes.

“The US is an accessory to these crimes if it continues to supply the bombs, drones and fighter planes used to bomb Yemeni civilians,” said Dr Adams whose Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect has conducted advocacy with the UN Security Council since the war in Yemen began, arguing that impunity for war crimes by all sides has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

In an oped piece last month, Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, wrote “Countless Yemeni children are dying from starvation and disease while the world shamelessly watches in silence, as if this was just a horror story from a different time and a distant place, where a country is ravaged by a senseless, unwinnable war while a whole generation perishes in front our eyes”.

Those at the top who are fighting the war are destroying the very people they want to govern; they are the evil that flourishes on apathy and cannot endure without it, he added.

“What’s there left for them to rule? Twenty million Yemenis are famished, one million children are infected with cholera, and hundreds of thousands of little boys and girls are ravenous—dying, leaving no trace and no mark behind to tell the world they were ever here. And the poorest country on this planet earth lies yet in ruin and utter despair, said Dr Ben-Meir.

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council* (NRC): 4 million people have been displaced by the war since 2015; 66% of Yemen’s population – over 20 million people – need some form of aid; Half the population – 16 million – will go hungry this year.

Over 5 million people are estimated to be one step away from famine; Only half of health facilities and two-thirds of schools are currently functioning; Water infrastructure is operating at less than 5 per cent efficiency.

The war has directly killed more than 100,000 people; Another 130,000 have died from “indirect causes” such as food shortages and health crises; An average of one child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes.

Funding cuts mean that 9 million people have had their food assistance halved, and 15 major cities are on reduced water supplies. And NRC alone has had to cut food rations to 360,000 people.

At a March 1 UN High-Level Pledging Event for Yemen, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his appeal: “We need $3.85 billion this year to support 16 million Yemenis on the brink of catastrophe”.

Pointing out that more than 20 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance and protection, with women and children among the hardest hit, he said over 16 million people were expected to go hungry this year and nearly 50,000 Yemenis are already starving to death in famine-like conditions.

But following the conference, Guterres described the outcome as “disappointing” because the pledges, which amounted to $1.7 billion, were less than what was received for the humanitarian response plan last year, and a billion [dollars] less than what was pledged in 2019.

*Figure sources include: UNOCHA, UNICEF, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), the World Food Program

Thalif Deen is former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group.

  

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South Africa's Patrice Motsepe will become Caf president on Friday after Ahmad's Fifa ban is reduced, but not overturned, by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Credit: GGGI

By Frank Rijsberman, Ingvild Solvang and Bertha Wakisa Chiudza
SEOUL, Republic of Korea, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

As the global effort to address climate change has strengthened over the last few years, so has the realization that rising temperatures and climactic disruptions disproportionately impact women, particularly in developing countries, as they tend to be more dependent upon natural resources and are thus overrepresented in resource-intensive economic sectors. Furthermore, inherent in gender inequality are disadvantages for and discrimination against women in all facets of society, including in the economy and politics. Thus, it is unfortunate, yet perhaps unsurprising, that these structural disparities are mirrored in the negative effects of climate change. Therefore, if gender differences are not incorporated into climate change plans, women will be unable to access the co-benefits that arise from concerted climate action.

Thankfully, a rethinking of how to best address the climate crisisto reflect the reality of the situation on the ground has recently taken root. Empowering, educating, and directly engagingwomen has a direct effect on the development and implementation of “environmentally friendly decision making at household and national levels.” Therefore, it is not only beneficial but also essential for any holistic strategy designed to combat climate change to contain a strong component that addresses gender equality.

Fortunately, many countries and major international organizations are taking this realization to heart. For instance, the United Nations has prioritized gender in its climate change framework, including incorporating gender equality and women’s empowerment into Sustainable Development Goal 13, and unlocking the potential of gender equality as “an accelerator of sustainable development across all 17 SDGs.” Likewise, a number of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have brought gender to the forefront of their climate responses, with Mozambique being the first to develop a Climate Change Gender Action Plan back in 2010, and many others who have since followed.

The need for holistic yet specific approaches

In pursuing low-carbon, socially inclusive sustainable economic growth, one size does not fit all, therefore nations and the groups supporting them are cognizant of the need to tailor-make strategies and responses specific to the needs of local communities. The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) launched its Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy 2021-2025 highlightingthe experiences of GGGI and its Members and Partners.

In its mission to support Members build “a low-carbon, resilient world of strong, inclusive, and sustainable growth,” GGGI has placed the ethos of “leaving no one behind” front and center to its green growth approach. As such, the new strategy is considered an essential part of the organization’s overall long-term strategy to achieve poverty eradication, social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and economic growth in its Member and Partner countries and in alignment with SDGs and human rights.

At its core, the strategy seeks to help bring about inclusive low carbon growth that creates better healthcare outcomes andempowers women and indigenous peoples by creating decent green jobs in both the formal and informal economic sectors, as well as by expanding access to services in communities that have been historically underserved or locked out of the formal economy. On the ground, this means ramping up green investment and increasing the societal and political participation of women and marginalized groups in areas that most affect them in developing countries, such as agriculture, forests, waste management, transport, green buildings, and renewable energy.

Innovative initiatives

More specifically on the issue of renewable energy –an essential component to any climate strategy –the sector contains great potential in terms of job creation and growth and is thus an area ripe for facilitating the participation of women. As the renewable energy sector emerges and expands in developing countries, governments are taking steps to decrease the heretofore male dominated nature of it and create entry points for women along the energy value chain.

In Rwanda, for example, the government has developed an energy policy that emphasizes STEM education and training for women. Furthermore, with support from GGGI, Rwanda has developed a comprehensive infrastructure gender mainstreaming strategy that aims to achieve “the equal participation of women and men in the sector by enhancing job opportunities and strengthening the capacities of infrastructure developers to address gender equality.” There are concrete targets involved as well. In the near term, Rwanda intends to increase female labor force participation in government utility groups to 30 percent. Perhaps more significantly, the country is working toward achieving universal access to electricity by 2024. This will have positive knock-on effects for the female population as the rural electrification rate in Rwanda is currently very low, and women are disproportionately represented in the rural economy. Bringing electricity to rural areas creates more opportunity for women in terms of education and jobs, including jobs in the renewable energy sector that will power that rural electrification effort. Another sector that is part and parcel to fighting climate change, as well as to providing overall environmental health and wellbeing, is waste management.

This is particularly true in developing countries where sometimes subpar sanitation systems and waste removal processes entail burning petroleum products as well as contribute to poor health outcomes. Yet, the sector also often provides important sources of income for lower-skilled and/or informal economy workers, which unfortunately includes a lot of women. These factors make sustainable interventions in this sector an important component in the intersection between climate justice and gender equality.

In Lao PDR, which has an informal economy of waste pickers who perform collection duties for recyclables, a concerted effort is underway to formalize the waste management sector and capitalize on opportunities to turn waste into resources. As part of its Green Cities Program, GGGI has identified waste management as a priority area in Lao PDR and is supporting the country’s work to “adopt a paradigm change from a waste management to a resource management approach.” GGGI is working with waste picker groups in the informal economy –workers who lack job security and health and safety protections –to integrate them into the mainstream collection service and waste recycling industry and, more broadly, to transform the sector to lead to improved workers’ benefits, health, and safety. This approach, then, helps set Laos on an inclusive green growth pathway by developing eco-friendly and renewable sources of nutrients for crops and the like, while also growing economic opportunities for women and other marginalized groups that have had to cope with the struggles of living in the informal labor force. Organizing the informal waste sector will have the benefit of helping to de-marginalize these workers and bring them some of the protections and rights afforded to those in the formal economy.

Inclusivity as a key to green growth

These two different examples in two different parts of the world, help illustrate that meaningful climate action must be taken by concurrently addressing gender disparities and inequalities. Green growth policies and approaches that do not address gender equality and inclusion can have the effect of being counter-productive or, at best, further entrenching the status quo of large segments of society prevented from access to the benefits of growth. Therefore, firm commitments and deliberate strategies are required to aggressively tackle gender disparities and inequalities in the context of climate action. This is what GGGI and its Members are doing with its Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy. Maximizing social co-benefits and inclusion via GGGI’s programmatic work to combat climate change and grow economies in developing countries helps ensure that gender equality is a “pre-requisite for the green growth transformation.”

The authors : Frank Rijsberman, Director-General ; Ingvild Solvang, Deputy Director and Head of Climate Action and Inclusive Development; Bertha Wakisa Chiudza, Senior Gender and Social Development Specialist, Global Green Growth Institute

 

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The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Why Green Growth and Climate Action Fall Short Without Addressing Gender Inequality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

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

The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Why Green Growth and Climate Action Fall Short Without Addressing Gender Inequality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

South African Zinhle Ndawonde combines playing one of the world's toughest sports with one of the world's toughest jobs.

By Saul Escobar Toledo
MEXICO CITY, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

The trend of the Mexican economy during the last two years has not been positive. INEGI, the official bureau of statistics, has just reported that GDP registered a fall of 8.5 percent compared to 2019 with seasonally adjusted figures. But in 2019 GDP also receded, although in far less measure, less than one percentage point. However, it must be considered that the Mexican economy has been falling for 6 quarters (compared to the previous year). Considering the population growth rate (1.2 percent per year), the fall in the GDP per capita is close to 11 percent. This figure matters because it gives a more accurate idea of the size of the downturn. It is also necessary to take into account the two years, since our interest should be now to try to figure out how long the recession will be the endure, that is, when will Mexico reach the pre-pandemic level of GDP.

Saul Escobar Toledo

The length of the cycle will depend on several factors: the prolongation of the pandemic; the behavior of the world economy; and internal factors. In the first case, uncertainty still prevails: vaccination campaigns are already underway, but they advance at very uneven rates in different countries (and regions of Mexico). This is because the patents, manufacture and provision of reliable vaccines are highly concentrated in a few companies. There are countries that do not yet have a single dose. And, as international health organizations have affirmed, if we are not all safe, no one really will be.

On the other hand, international trade has recovered. The drop was very severe in April 2020 (12 percent); however, considering the full year, there was a growth of 1.3% (according to the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, available at cpb.nl). China was the one who made the big push for world trade, while in North America seems to have occurred a slower recovery.

Regarding investments and the flow of capitals, things do not paint very well, especially for developing countries like Mexico; the most worrying problem lies in the possibility of a financial crisis. The World Bank said in January that during 2020, the rate of public debt in relation to GDP in the emerging and developing economies, increased from 52 to almost 61%. It would be necessary to add the increase in private debt that multiplied by five between 2014 and 2019. A good part of these debts is external, that is, they were contracted in foreign currency. All this indicates that, unless relief measures are taken at the global level, this situation could become a serious problem due to possible moratoriums on payments. If that happens, it does not mind so much the level of indebtedness of this or that country as flight capital, devaluations and shortage of new funding would affect severely those countries which, like Mexico, require currency (dollars) to cover its imports, financial operations, and monetary reserves.

As for the internal factors, we have several problems to overcome. To better understand the matter, it is worth reviewing the different sectors of the economy.

First, the primary sector, grew during 2019 and 2020, particularly in the second half of last year. This indicates that we are far from a food crisis, which is of course good news. It is likely that, in addition, some import substitution took place. The problem is that this sector contributes little to the economy, just 3.5 percent.

On the other hand, secondary activities fell 1.7 percent in 2019 and 10 percent in 2020. The construction industry has declined for 6 quarters in a row. Manufacturing has had a shorter but more intense decline. This can be explained by global disruption, especially in the US economy, as well as the decline in final consumption in Mexico of some non-food products such as clothing and automobiles. A fall in manufacturing affects the wage bill in a special way, since the best average wages in the entire economy are paid in this sector: 1.5 times more than in the service sector.

Finally, tertiary activities (service) had a negative growth rate of 7.7 percent. It must be underlined that service brings 73 percent of employment and more than two thirds of the total product. Some branches of this sector, such as the cultural and sports leisure sectors, fell by 54 percent; and those for temporary accommodation and food and beverage preparation, 44 percent.

As the economy improves, it can be expected that some small companies could find the way out. But some other will probably not, especially those linked to tourism since this branch will take several years to recover. Worse, this branch delivered a lot of foreign currency to Mexico.

The effect of the T-MEC or USMC trade agreement could boost some branches of manufacturing, but here also there is margin for uncertainty due to the new terms of the treaty. In any case, many studies have shown that towing capacity of the manufactured exports for the whole economy is restricted. In this way, even if the situation could improve, it is not going to get us out of the crisis as quickly as we would like.

In short, the duration of the depressive cycle of the Mexican economy cannot be calculated accurately at this time. What can be said is that it will depend on a set of political decisions. Governments, mainly those of the more developed countries can help by facilitating the manufacture of vaccines and providing funds (in Special Drawing Rights, SDRs) so that multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank provide resources to alleviate the burden of debts and for health and development programs. So far, little has been done in this regard.

On the other hand, an agreement is required between the three countries of the T-MEC so that the labor and environment clauses do not become an adverse factor for growth. A program for development should include Central American countries and allow Mexico to evolve from a maquiladora country into and economic export economy of goods with higher technology and inputs purchased within the country; the outcome would offer better wages for Mexican workers.

Finally, the boost to domestic production is essential. The construction branch, mainly for infrastructure works, is a field of action that requires public and private financing, but the latter will hardly increase if government spending does not direct it with new projects and financing (in addition to those that already exist.). In the case of services, the rescue of micro and small enterprises is essential. Similarly, it will be necessary to recycle the labor force that worked in sectors such as tourism to be placed in other economic branches with better prospects, through qualification and training programs, preferably in local green projects (reforestation, clean energy, recycling of polluting materials, cleaning of rivers and open dumps, etc.). Additional cash transfer for people (especially women) affected by unemployment or under employment in the formal and informal economy would help fight poverty and raise consumption levels.

The political decisions listed (and others not mentioned) are going to be made, one way or another. Nothing will happen because of the natural laws of the market. Citizens claim will play a fundamental role in putting pressure on their governments and shortening the economic cycle. If those responsible for running the institutions do not respond, the years of economic hardship will be longer, as well as the size of the political and social crisis.

saulescobar.blogspot.com

 

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The post The Mexican Economy: A Short or Long Recession Cycle? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

As many as 30 people may have died at the facility, which was holding migrants mostly from Ethiopia.

By Simona Marinescu
APIA, Samoa, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

In the February 12th editorial on the issue of illicit drug use, the Samoa Observer stated that “… there is no data currently available to show that drug abuse including meth consumption levels in Samoa have reached crisis levels, which would warrant the government considering decriminalizing drug use and consumption.” The United Nation’s position on this is clear, we must not sit by and wait for a problem to blight our communities before acting. The evidence shows that it is cheaper and more effective to prevent drug use than to deal with the consequences. To be clear, my concerns are for the drug users and their families and not for the criminal dealers.

Simona Marinescu

Addiction is a disease, not a crime. People can be addicted to many substances; alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, and sugar to name a few. Studies indicate that, due to the dopamine release that occurs when it is consumed, sugar can be as addictive as cocaine. Many people can eat and enjoy a sweet without becoming addicted, but those that do are in danger of serious health issues. Worse, they instill the addiction in their children. Sugar is a largely untreated addiction common in Pacific countries, including Samoa.

Alcohol addiction is also a well-known. As with sugar, most people can enjoy alcohol without it controlling their life or causing a problem for the community. If a person commits a crime while under the influence of alcohol, they should be prosecuted for that crime. But if a person is at home and harms no one while drunk, is that person a criminal? No. If a person needs to get drunk all the time, that person needs help. That is why we support more referrals and more programmes to help people overcome alcohol addiction.

The United States infamously learned a harsh lesson between 1920 and 1933 when it imposed a prohibition on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This did not however reduce demand for it. Instead, the 18th Amendment created a large-scale and violent criminal underground of people prepared to supply it. Unfortunately, that lesson was forgotten when it came to dealing with drug use. If the people in the US no longer craved illegal drugs there would be no billion dollar illegal drug industry. No matter how much contraband is seized and how many drug dealers are put in jail, more drugs are produced and more people fill the ranks of dealers.

According to the “Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition),” written by the US National Institute of Health “Substance abuse costs our Nation over $600 billion annually and treatment can help reduce these costs. Drug addiction treatment has been shown to reduce associated health and social costs by far more than the cost of the treatment itself.” The financial cost of incarcerating someone is enormous compared to the cost of running effective drug treatment programmes. But more importantly, we have a duty to not give up on people struggling with addiction. We should seek to rehabilitate addicts, in the hope that they can become valuable members of the community.

Methamphetamine and heroin are examples of destructive drugs that have serious side effects and should have no place in Samoa, or anywhere. People who succumb to these drugs need to be treated immediately. If threatened with a jail sentence, why would they step forward? Illegal gun owners get amnesty, but the unfortunate person who turned to drugs goes to jail. If a person who was prescribed opioids for post-surgical pain management becomes addicted, is that person a criminal? No, and treating them as criminals is unjust.

Yes, there is a difference: alcohol, cigarettes and sugar are legal and other drugs are not. The issue is that people know overuse of these legal drugs can be harmful, yet they still abuse them. If we can turn around one user and prevent others from trying drugs, it is worth the effort. Drug use, whether legal or illegal, is a pandemic that needs to be confronted with proper evidence-based prevention strategies – and prompt social responses that address the root causes.

The author is Resident Coordinator: UN Multi Country Office for Cook Islands Niue Samoa and Tokelau

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UN Women announced the theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2021 (IWD 2021) as, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: UN Women

By Maria Jose Moreno Ruiz
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 8 2021 (IPS)

To commemorate International Women’s Day, the United Nations has called for “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 World,” as the day coincides with the dark week when WHO declared the virus a global pandemic.

A year later, the virus has laid bare the stark gender inequality that continues to shape our world. Despite being at the forefront of COVID-19 response, women – particularly those in economic hardships and from marginalized racial and ethnic groups – have borne the brunt of this crisis.

On this day, we must reflect on why this happened and why it is absolutely critical for women and girls – in all their diversity – to have an equal voice and co-lead in rebuilding after COVID-19.

Recent Oxfam research revealed that, while COVID-19 lockdowns have generally increased women’s and men’s unpaid care workload, it was women who continued to do the bulk of this work.

The report also found that the crisis has forced women to make impossible choices – between abandoning paid employment and care, even when this meant risking facing further destitution.

Women living in poverty, single mothers, and essential and informal workers, many belonging to discriminated against racial and ethnic groups, have been pushed furthest to the margins.

As a result, it is not surprising that women reported feeling more anxious, depressed, overworked or ill because of the increased unpaid work, loss of income and other hardships during this period.

Violence against women also soared in many countries during lockdowns, with 243 millions of women and girls reporting sexual, physical and emotional violence during the pandemic.

Moreover, sexual and reproductive health and services were side-lined during the pandemic. Access to modern contraception, safe delivery or abortion has been reduced.

Over the coming 5 years, it is estimated that 2.5 million girls will also be forced into early marriage due to poverty, affecting their overall development and exposing them more to unwanted, and in many cases physically dangerous, pregnancies and further gender-based violence from intimate partners who are often older and hold more power in the relationships.

These realities were not born just last year but are the result of longstanding systemic practices, cultural values, patriarchal norms, and political decisions that perpetuated inequality and discrimination.

Maria Jose Moreno Ruiz

Why things must change

Diverse and equal representation of all genders in decision-making is paramount to any healthy functioning society and sustainable economy. Collective problem-solving is even more essential at this critical post-pandemic juncture. As we brace for the second year of the Coronavirus, we face common global challenges.

How are we going to deal with the unrest caused by the COVID-19 economic fallout that has exponentially deepened inequalities and pushed millions, particularly women and marginalized racial and ethnic groups to poverty and hunger?

How can we ensure everyone, not just rich nations and the privileged few, get the vaccine, so we can end this terrible disease? How can we rebuild a greener and more sustainable world and heal our beaten planet?

To address these challenges, we need the talent of all people. We need diverse perspectives, knowledge, experiences, and commitment to be valued equally, if we are to shape the way forward and rebuild a world that works for all and not just the privileged few.

For example, we want women who have been excluded from accessing land, to help propose new ways forward for land management. We would like women who migrate as domestic workers or nurses, to participate in re-imagining our national and global care systems. Without this diversity we will not be able to confront the complex global dilemmas ahead of us.

Our post-COVID-29 world will look very different if we turn this crisis into an opportunity to engage everyone, regardless of their class, race, religion, or sexual orientation – in our collective spaces at all levels: at presidencies, religious establishments, civil society organizations, boards, academic institutions or neighbour associations. Only together, we can brave COVID-19 and rebuild a more just world.

But sadly, the reality is far from this picture because many of our institutional machineries are broken and bankrupt. The protection of the common good is hitting new lows, with more citizens losing trust in their leaders to address their problems and concerns.

Many politicians appear regularly in our news feed mishandling facts or public resources, bending to suit big corporates interests, and promoting xenophobia and misogyny.

In many cases, politics has become morally and functionally compromised, since those most impacted by policies – the poorest, women and racial and ethnic minorities above all – are often excluded from decision making tables.

We have seen how in Yemen, as in other post-conflict contexts, how women have been largely excluded from formal peace talks despite their courageous participation in peace building at the local level.

We have observed how populist regimes around the world have blatantly disregarded women’s rights, and perpetuated a disrespectful rhetoric around migrants, LGBTQI+ communities, ethnic, racial and religious minorities. We have seen women farmers who lost everything to climate-fuelled events have no say in what rich nations decide at Climate Summits.

Today, we are at a critical crossroad. We have a moral choice to make. Are we going to protect the current broken global economic and social systems that favour the wealthy and privileged? Will we be able to centre our values and practices around equality and care for all people or only a few?

The issues we face together could not be more urgent, and only the collective intelligence, heart and experiences of our humanity can solve them. I strongly believe that we can and will brave COVID-19 and rebuild a better world if we focus our efforts towards ensuring everyone has a voice.

Only by fighting for universal human rights and guaranteeing equal and diverse representation of all genders is at the heart of any COVID-19 recovery, we can rebuild better and transform our societies. Only then, on International Women’s Day, we can truly celebrate all people living with dignity and freedom.

The author is Gender Justice Director at Oxfam International

 

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The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Why Gender Parity & Diversity are Paramount to a Just COVID-19 Recovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

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

The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Why Gender Parity & Diversity are Paramount to a Just COVID-19 Recovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Mar 7 2021 (IPS)

Access to an inclusive quality education is a universal human right. When the inherent right to a good education is ignored or denied, the consequences are severe. For a girl in country of conflict or forced displacement, the impact is brutally multiplied.

Yasmine Sherif

Besides their already marginalized role in war-torn countries or as refugees, adolescent girls and girls are being disproportionately affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic broke in early 2020, some 39 million girls had their education disrupted as a direct result of humanitarian crises. Of these, 13 million girls had been forced out of school completely.

Such is the level of discrimination that, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, refugee girls are only half as likely to be enrolled in secondary school as boys. There is a two in three chance girls in crisis settings won’t even start secondary school. At primary level girls in crisis settings are two and a half times more likely to be out of school.

In crisis settings, adolescent girls are more likely to be married by 18 than to finish school. Early pregnancies, gender-based violence and sexual and physical exploitation are realities faced by millions of girls daily. Take a moment and reflect on this brutal reality. Imagine if these figures were the reality of our own adolescent daughters.

The UNFPA projects that the diverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in 13 million additional child marriages between 2020 and 2030. These traumatic experiences lead to higher dropout rates, perpetuating cycles of exploitation and entrenching millions in poverty. Such is the excruciating consequences of girls already enduring conflicts and forced displacement and now surviving another threat: the pandemic.

Providing girls and adolescent girls in crisis with an education is absolutely essential today in order to empower them and bring hope. Their access to an inclusive quality education during already challenging circumstances is as transformative for them as human beings arising from the ashes of hopelessness, as it is for their societies in urgent need of empowered girls and women to build back better.

Studies show that increased access to education dramatically raises their lifetime earnings, national economic growth rates go up, child marriage rates decline, and child and maternal mortality fall. Girls’ education breaks down cycles of exploitation, protecting and empowering young girls and adolescents to reach their potentials and become change-makers. And, the world need change-makers more than ever, not the least in countries affected by conflicts and displacement.

The World Bank estimates that if every girl worldwide were to receive 12 years of quality schooling, whether or not in a crisis setting, they would double their lifetime earnings, with the aggregate value running into trillions of dollars.

Education provides girls with practical skills and tools; it supports them emotionally and empower them process their traumatic experiences; it prepares them to face their unique challenges, helping them to not only become productive members of society, but more and more, to become confident leaders of their societies.

It is a small crowd right at the top, however. Only about 20 countries have a female head of state or government, and fewer have at least 50 percent women in the national cabinet. But as COVID-19 has demonstrated, several have played decisive roles in protecting our humanity on the basis of universal human rights.

So, what does the pathway to leadership look like when you are young? How do we get young girls in crisis situations into education and then later to play important roles in the decision-making of their communities, their economies and nations?

Education Cannot Wait – the global fund launched at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit to deliver quality education for those left furthest behind, that is 75 million vulnerable children and youth in countries affected by armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters and protracted crises. At Education Cannot Wait we place girls and adolescent girls at the forefront of our work – because it is their inaliable human right and we believe in them as the change-makers. We take affirmative action: sixty percent of our total spending is geared at an inclusive quality education for girls.

Afghanistan, for example, is one of the most dangerous countries for children because of ongoing insecurity and conflict. UNICEF estimates that 60 percent of the 3.7 million children out of school are girls. Some 17 percent of Afghan girls will marry before the age of 15 and 46 percent will marry before they reach 18. Early marriages contribute significantly to school dropout rates.
The Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan, an ECW implementing partner, reaches out to community leaders to deliver real results for girls in the most remote areas of Afghanistan, who until recently were held back from going to school and from receiving a quality education.

ECW has given priority in Afghanistan to female teacher recruitment. This is being achieved in Herat, where 97 percent of teachers are women and 83 percent of students in accelerated learning classes are girls. The first year of ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme – with teaching starting in May 2019 – saw some 3,600 classes established in nine of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. This required newly recruited teachers, 46 percent of whom are women, to teach 122,000 children. Nearly 60 percent of the enrolled children are girls.

In Rodat district in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, for example, community stakeholders and religious elders agreed the lack of qualified female teachers was hindering girls’ access to education, and immediately set about to find one. It was no easy task but eventually a female graduate in chemistry and biology was hired and she has turned into a beacon of hope, helping some 40 girls return to classes.

This emphasis on girls’ education is crucial for our future as a human family and the priority must be with those girls and adolescent girls left furthest behind. As Deputy-Secretary of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed, recently stated: “Girls’ education is particularly under threat in emergencies and for children on the move and we need to continue to empower this next generation of women leaders through a quality education.”

On March 8 we celebrate International Women’s Day with this year’s theme of ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’. From the perspective of those living in developed countries, what that equal future might look like for girls in crises settings has been perversely highlighted by the grim consequences of the new coronavirus world. As each month of lockdowns in rich countries passes, reports mount up of the mental health issues and child abuse being suffered by those unable to get to their normal safe learning environment at school. Girls especially are at risk and the ones more likely to be pressed into domestic chores and subject to discrimination – deprived of a future.

Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group, reminds us that the world in 2030 risks being as far away from meeting the Sustainable Development Goals for education (SDG4) as we are now – unless we act decisively. No one should be left behind and that means addressing support needed by over 75 million children and youth in need of urgent education support in crisis-hit countries.

Education cannot wait for a conflict or crisis to be over so that crisis affected children and youth can resume normal life, or refugee children can go home. Protracted crisis often last for decades and families caught up in conflicts spend an average of 17 years as refugees. When education is denied to children, hopes for a better, the last glimmer of hope is extinguished.

Education Cannot Wait is about hope and action. We were established to accelerate the race for meeting Sustainable Development Goal 4 in crisis and disasters. By bringing together all actors in both the humanitarian and development community, we sprint forward to meet the deadline of 2030. Thanks to host-governments, UN agencies, civil society and communities, we move fast, effectively and efficiently. However, a quality education for girls and adolescent girls in crisis requires financial investments. Provided that the funding is available, we can together win this race for girls’ education. Of this, we have no doubt.

The author is Director, Education Cannot Wait

 

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The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Every Girl Has a Right to An Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

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

The post International Women’s Day, 2021
Every Girl Has a Right to An Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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