Africa

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

It follows a high-profile case leading to charges of sexual assault against a wealthy male student.

Migrant workers in Dubai. Photo: AFP

By C R Abrar
Jul 9 2020 (IPS-Partners)

During the pandemic, forced return of migrants has become a major issue of concern for intergovernmental bodies and the global civil society engaged in migration issues. The United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM) has urged states “to suspend forced returns during the pandemic, in order to protect the health of migrants and communities, and uphold the human rights of all migrants, regardless of status”. UNNM has called for a halt to arbitrary expulsions and reiterated that their “protection needs must be individually assessed; and that the rule of law and due process must be observed”. It reminded the states that these obligations under international law “can never be put on hold and are vital to any successful approach to combatting Covid-19 for the benefit of all”.

In separate memos to the governments of six Gulf states, a coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged those states to “refrain from arbitrary deportations of migrant workers… as a means to contain Covid-19”. Closer to home, five leading civil society organisations including Migrant Forum in Asia have noted that “the repatriation procedures have been undertaken hastily by countries of both origin and destination, without any proper redress mechanism… This is a gross violation of labour rights on a large scale”.

Expressing concern that some destination countries are exerting pressure on the origin countries to take back the latter’s nationals, the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants in a memo implored the UN Secretary General “to appeal to those destination countries (of the Gulf region) to refrain from pursuing such a policy at this critical juncture”.

There are legal, moral and ethical issues with the way the forced returns are being pursued by the Gulf states. It has also been noted that forced returns can intensify public health risks for everyone. With overstretched public health systems, almost all these countries have little capacity to protect the returnees and their communities through testing, self-isolation and institutional quarantine.

In all likelihood, despite the pleas and supplications, most countries of origin (CoO) of migrant workers including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines will experience large scale return of their migrant workforce once the flights resume. Therefore, it has become imperative that concerned authorities of the CoO, including Bangladesh, develop strategies to competently negotiate return with the Countries of Destination (CoD). A collective initiative by the CoO, perhaps under the aegis of the Colombo Process, is likely to yield better outcomes than bilateral negotiations. The origin countries also need to frame the reintegration policies for forced migrants. Documenting the returnees is one of the first tasks in such a process.

The core element in any repatriation negotiation between the CoO and CoD should be upholding the rights and dignity of migrant workers. All those concerned with repatriation (labour, health, immigration authorities) must guarantee and verify that no worker is deported without receiving compensation, pending wages and other dues, testing and treatment for Covid-19, identity papers and other related documentation. If clearance of outstanding dues is not possible due to prevailing conditions, CoD should commit to ensuring that employers will settle all outstanding claims as soon as the situation permits. As the primary frontline stakeholder, missions of CoO have particular obligations to ensure compliance of labour and international standards of the concerned CoD.

While negotiating return, Bangladesh should insist that CoD declare amnesty to those who are in irregular status and allow applications for visa extensions for the workers who could not apply on time due to Covid-19 to facilitate their return to home countries. The cases of workers who were forced to be in undocumented status (by their Kafeels or other reasons) should be investigated and the concerned workers be provided due redress before they are repatriated.

Bangladesh should ensure that all migrant workers be tested for Covid-19 free of charge, regardless of visible symptoms prior to departure or embarkation (as has been negotiated by Sri Lanka). Only those workers should be permitted to return who test negative. The CoD should ensure that the migrant workers have access to quarantine facilities during the period in which test results are under process. Due care must be taken so that workers remain protected and are not exposed to possible infection or transmission in such holding areas.

The cases of detained migrants should be dealt on a case-by-case basis with due diligence by Bangladesh Missions and the Labour Department of the concerned CoD. Their irregular status should not be in the way of accessing testing and treatment of Covid-19 prior to their return.

The Bangladesh missions should establish a mechanism to register returning migrants. Among other things, it should record personal details of the worker, name and address of the employer, type of work, skill level and outstanding claims of wages and end of service or other benefits (if any). Ideally, if there are outstanding claims or unresolved labour disputes that the worker is involved in, the missions may secure a power of attorney from the worker so that those could be pursued by the missions in his/her absence in future.

While transporting the workers, Bangladesh should insist that either the concerned employer or the government should be made to bear the costs of air travel. In no instance should forced deportees be made liable to pay for their return flight. Both parties are to ensure strict compliance of the World Health Organisation’s guidelines pertaining to air travel including seating allocation, handling of cases suspected during flight, reduction of exposure and limiting transmission, availability and use of personal protective equipment and air recirculation system.

Upon arrival in Bangladesh, all returning migrant workers should be obliged to undergo Covid-19 tests, as tests conducted prior to their departures may provide false results (a practice that the Philippines has introduced). Appropriate messages targeting the returnees and members of their families should be developed so that they adhere to the mandatory 14 day home quarantine. Tracing and tracking mechanisms should be in place so that the government can monitor if the returnees adhere to home quarantine rules. Suitable institutional quarantine facilities should be established for those who show symptoms of infection when they arrive. Those placed in such facilities should be provided with food and water, appropriate accommodation including sleeping arrangements and clothing, protection for baggage and other possessions, and suitable medical treatment. They should be given the opportunity to contact their families and be treated with respect, maintaining their dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms and minimising any discomfort or distress.

Effective reintegration policy necessitates that the government develop a comprehensive policy that addresses stigmatisation of returnees as carriers of virus through disseminating appropriate social messages. It should also encompass developing a database of returnee workers with information on their personal profile, skills and language competence, so that those could be linked with potential employers both at home and abroad; creating opportunities for re-skilling of migrants commensurate with potential demands, both within the country and outside; encouraging banks and other financial institutions to extend loans to returnee migrants at low interest and providing them with financial literacy and basic book-keeping, and help establish mechanisms to market their products.

The reintegration policy should also have provisions for social protection of migrant workers and members of their families who are severely affected by the pandemic, drawing upon contributions of the government, insurance programmes and Wage Earners’ Welfare Fund. The special needs of women returnee migrants should also receive due consideration. Needless to say, the prime stakeholder, the migrants, and the civil society should be engaged from the very start of the process of charting out a reintegration policy.

Despite a lot of good intentions and a plethora of policies, laws and institutions, migrant workers of Bangladesh have largely remained unprotected and underserved. Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to rectify the situation. Planning a comprehensive return and reintegration strategy for migrant workers can be the beginning of such redemption.

C R Abrar is an academic. He is the Coordinator of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). He acknowledges the insights gained from “Between Peril and Pandemic: MFA Policy Document 3” and deliberations of the RMMRU eSymposium “Migrant Workers of South Asia: Experiences of Return, Repatriation and Deportation” on June 24.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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By PRESS RELEASE
VIENNA, Jul 9 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Two-day online expert meeting to discuss recent developments and policy gaps in combating trafficking in human beings for the removal of organs concluded yesterday evening. The event was co-organized by the Office of the OSCE Special Representative for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (OSR/CTHB), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Despite being mentioned explicitly in the internationally recognized definition of trafficking in human beings, trafficking in human beings for the removal of organs remains one of the least understood and addressed forms of human trafficking globally. The event aimed to share experiences addressing this challenge and examine possible ways to enhance the OSCE region’s response. The meeting, gathering legal, criminal justice, medical and victim-protection experts from over 20 OSCE participating States, Partners for Co-operation and international organizations, explored the scope of trafficking in human beings for the removal of organs in the OSCE region. They also discussed recent developments in international and national legal frameworks, and current needs for further awareness-raising, policy, and capacity building efforts.

“One of the things I am struck by is how incredibly challenging it is to respond to trafficking in human beings. And yet I am also optimistic because we have been jointly developing some of the tools we need like on technology and financial investigations,” OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings Valiant Richey said.

Exploitation without borders

While the number of identified victims of this form of trafficking remains limited, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicates that this highly lucrative form of human trafficking is perpetrated by organized criminal networks able to operate over prolonged periods with high numbers of victims before being caught. Many participants pointed out the inadequacy of the legal instruments currently in use, and the crucial necessity to enhance cooperation between countries to make perpetrators accountable.

Participants stressed that attention needs to be devoted to situations with patients traveling abroad to get a transplant or coming from abroad with a donor. The crime often has a transboundary element, that makes it much harder for investigators and prosecutors to trace all the components of the crime and exercise jurisdiction over cases often encompassing numerous countries (victim from one country, the broker from another, recruiting in a third, for the surgery taking place in a fourth, possibly with a recipient for yet another country, for example). Without international judicial cooperation, these crimes -even when detected- will hardly be successfully prosecuted.

The illegal organ trade is a crime involving global financial transactions at the expense of the most vulnerable. The role of financial investigations in detecting and countering flows of money alimenting and paying for these illegal services is vital, noted by the participants.

Trafficking in human beings for the removal of organs is reportedly an age-specific and gendered crime, affecting adult males the most. The sale of cells and tissues, including ova, was discussed. During the meeting, a specific case of successful investigation and prosecution by Greeks authorities, in which perpetrators brought to justice, included doctors and lawyers, was presented as a case study.

Several other insightful elements emerged during the meeting. A crucial point in discussions was the critical role that can be played by the medical personnel, both in preventing these crimes from happening but also in reporting dubious situations, including when the origins/donor of the organ to be transplanted are not clear. Some participants suggested that assigning criminal liability to brokers and medical personnel involved could be an effective measure to deter some of these practices and put some pressure on traffickers, who now operate mostly undetected.

Participants raised difficulties in establishing contact with victims of this form of trafficking. They encouraged to think of ways to build CTHB practitioners’ capacity and medical personnel to improve the identification of such victims. Better identification could also lead to enhanced assistance to survivors, which today is mostly lacking. And especially for such an unknown and unaddressed form of trafficking, engaging with and listening to survivors is crucial to understand the mechanism governing it.

The OSCE Special Representative and Coordinator on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings closed the discussions by saying that “this two-day meeting served as an excellent basis upon which the OSCE will build future activities on the issue. We shed some light on a largely unaddressed issue, and we look forward to working with the wide range of our partners on a list of concrete recommendations“.

What is the OSCE?

With 57 participating States in North America, Europe, and Asia, the OSCE – the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – is the world’s largest regional security organization. The OSCE works for stability, peace, and democracy for more than a billion people, through political dialogue about shared values and practical work that aims to make a lasting difference.

The OSCE is a forum for political dialogue on a wide range of security issues and a platform for joint action to improve individual’s and communities’ lives. The organization uses a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses the politico-military, economic and environmental, and human dimensions. Through this approach, and with its inclusive membership, the OSCE helps bridge differences and build trust between states by co-operating on conflict prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict rehabilitation.

With its Institutions, expert units, and network of field operations, the OSCE addresses issues that impact our collective security, including arms control, terrorism, good governance, energy security, human trafficking, democratization, and media freedom and national minorities.

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By Mariya Brussevich, Era Dabla-Norris, and Salma Khalid
Jul 9 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic is devastating labor markets across the world. Tens of millions of workers lost their jobs, millions more out of the labor force altogether, and many occupations face an uncertain future. Social distancing measures threaten jobs requiring physical presence at the workplace or face-to-face interactions. Those unable to work remotely, unless deemed essential, face a significantly higher risk of reductions in hours or pay, temporary furloughs, or permanent layoffs. What types of jobs and workers are most at risk? Not surprisingly, the costs have fallen most heavily on those who are least able to bear them: the poor and the young in the lowest-paid jobs.

In a new paper, we investigate the feasibility to work from home in a large sample of advanced and emerging market economies. We estimate that nearly 100 million workers in 35 advanced and emerging countries (out of 189 IMF members) could be at high risk because they are unable to do their jobs remotely. This is equivalent to 15 percent of their workforce, on average. But there are important differences across countries and workers.

The nature of jobs in each country

Most studies measuring the feasibility of working from home follow job definitions used in the United States. But the same occupations in other countries may differ in the face-to-face interactions required, the technology intensity of the production process, or even access to digital infrastructure. To reflect that, the work-from-home feasibility index that we built uses the tasks actually performed within each country, according to surveys compiled by the OECD for 35 countries.

We found significant differences across countries even for the same occupations. It is much easier to telework in Norway and Singapore than in Turkey, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru, simply because more than half the households in most emerging and developing countries don’t even have a computer at home.

Who is most vulnerable?

Overall, workers in food and accommodation, and wholesale and retail trade, are the hardest hit for having the least “teleworkable” jobs at all. That means more than 20 million people in our sample who work in these sectors are at the highest risk of losing their jobs. Yet some are more vulnerable than others:

• Young workers and those without university education are significantly less likely to work remotely. This higher risk is consistent with the age profiles of workers in the sectors hardest hit by lockdowns and social distancing policies. Worryingly, this suggests that the crisis could amplify intergenerational inequality.
• Women could be particularly hit hard, threatening to undo some of the gains in gender equality made in recent decades. This is because women are disproportionately concentrated in the hardest-hit sectors like food service and accommodation. In addition, women carry a heavier burden of child care and domestic chores, while market provision of these services has been disrupted.
• Part-time workers and employees of small and medium-sized firms face greater risk of job loss. Workers in part-time work are often the first to be let go when economic conditions deteriorate, and the last to be hired when conditions improve. They are also less likely to have access to health care and the formal insurance channels that can help them weather the crisis. In developing economies, in particular, part-time workers and those in informal work face a dramatically higher risk of falling into poverty.

The impact on low-income and precariously-employed workers could be particularly severe, amplifying long-standing inequities in societies. Our finding—that workers at the bottom of the earnings distribution are least able to work remotely—is corroborated by recent unemployment data from the United States and other countries. The COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate income inequality.

To compound the effect, workers at the bottom of the income distribution are already disproportionately concentrated in the hardest-hit sectors like food and accommodation services, which are among those sectors least amenable to teleworking. Low-income workers are also more likely to live hand-to-mouth and have little financial buffers like savings and access to credit.

How to protect the most vulnerable?

The pandemic is likely to change how work is done in many sectors. Consumers may rely more on e-commerce, to the detriment of retail jobs; and may order more takeout, reducing the labor market for restaurant workers.

What can governments do? They can focus on assisting the affected workers and their families by broadening social insurance and safety nets to cushion against income and employment loss. Wage subsidies and public-works programs can help them regain their livelihoods during the recovery.

To reduce inequality and give people better prospects, governments need to strengthen education and training to better prepare workers for the jobs of the future. Lifelong learning also means bolstering access to schooling and skills training to help workers displaced by economic shocks like COVID-19.

This crisis has clearly shown that being able to get online was a crucial determinant to people’s ability to continue engaging in the workplace. Investing in digital infrastructure and closing the digital divide will allow disadvantaged groups to participate meaningfully in the future economy.

 

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A third of all the lemur species on Earth are "one step from extinction".

The sighting of young Cross River gorillas in Nigeria eases fears they will soon die out.

A dated photo of indigenous women in Chiquimula in Guatemala making rope out of maguey (Agave americana) fibre. Experts say there is concern about whether there will be the protection and respect of indigenous peoples’ right to land and national resources as there will be huge interest in those resources during the post-COVID-19 recovery. Credit: Danilo Valladares/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 9 2020 (IPS)

When governments and states begin their recovery journey from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there might be a heightened threat to indigenous peoples, their land and resources. 

“The fear is [that] the economic recovery is based on access to land and natural resources,” Lola García-Alix, senior advisor on Global Governance at the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), told IPS.

“Indigenous people also live in areas with the most biological diversity. So of course they are the last frontier where the many governments meet in a situation of economic recovery. It’s an economic asset for them to have access there,” she said.

García-Alix moderated a panel on Jul. 7 about the impact of COVID-19 on indigenous communities around the world and key factors that states must keep in mind during the recovery process. 

The panel, “Delivering Results For Not Leaving Indigenous Peoples Behind: COVID-19 Responses and Beyond” was organised as part of the United Nations’ High Level Political Forum (HLPF). 

“One of the main threats that indigenous people are facing today is land grabbing,” García-Alix added. “So, it’s not so much the issue of financial support but the issue of where will be the protection and respect of indigenous peoples’ right to land and national resources in a context where there will be huge interest in those resources.” 

She was responding to concerns posed by other indigenous leaders about different factors affecting the impact of COVID-19 on their communities. 

At the Jul. 7 talk, Antonia Urrejola, vice president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, warned of “external actors” coming into territories of indigenous peoples that are exacerbating the pandemic’s impacts. 

“External actors are coming into these territories now more than ever so there’s more contagion and this is why they’re putting at risk not only the individual people but as a collective group as well,” she said. 

These “actors” include members of security forces, drug traffickers as well as miners. García-Alix said that there’s been an increase in illegal logging, entering of different actors, as well as an increase in killing of indigenous community members under the pandemic. 

“It’s a hunger to access their resources in their lands. And this hunger is in the part of states’ as well as other actors – from cartels to illegal logging, or companies,” she told IPS. “Many of these illegal actors don’t stop because there’s quarantine. It’s even better because there’s no police.”

Urrejola added other concerns that are currently exacerbated because of the pandemic, such as lack of access to health services.

“Hospitals are very far away in general from indigenous areas, and sometimes [the people] have to travel even for a day, and they [still] cannot receive medical treatment,” she said. “We know that they don’t have basic needs, many times they can’t even get tested.” 

A dated photo of an ethnic matriarch in India’s biodiversity-rich Sikkim State in the Himalayan foothills. She is a repository of traditional knowledge on plants both for food and medicinal properties. Experts say that indigenous women are being denied their fundamental right to access information because the information is not being disseminated in indigenous languages. This is especially crucial as indigenous women hold a key role as caretakers in many of their communities. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

García-Alix pointed out how language and accessibility can play a role in this lack of services for the indigenous community. 

“In most cases, the problem is that indigenous people haven’t had the information in their own language and have not had the access to the medical services,” she said. 

Kamla Thapa, executive director of National Indigenous Women’s Federation in Nepal, also brought up this issue during a panel talk about indigenous women in COVID-19 responses and impacts on Jul. 8. 

“Indigenous women are not in decision-making positions, and they are ignored,” she said, adding that many of these women are being denied their fundamental right to access information because the information is not being disseminated in indigenous languages. This is especially crucial as indigenous women hold a key role as caretakers in many of their communities. 

Thapa expressed hope going forward, citing the example of a group of indigenous women in India who developed a herbal sanitiser, as well as the Santal community from India and Nepal who are making sure outsiders aren’t allowed into the community so as to protect members from contracting COVID-19.

“We indigenous women are the knowledge holders, we have hope; we are knowledgeable, and changemakers,” she said. “We have the power to transform the pandemic into an opportunity, to derive a new normal by applying our knowledge, our skills.”

Related Articles

• Could the Coronavirus Pandemic have been Avoided if the World Listened to Indigenous Leaders?
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Indian farmers are no longer able to get their produce easily to market since the coronavirus outbreak. Experts say that leveraging technology to match supply and demand of resources and food is key to overcoming the issues of starvation and food supply interruptions. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Jul 9 2020 (IPS)

Digital technologies in agriculture are helping address the twin problems of food security and supply chain disruptions triggered by COVID-19 in India, while augmenting the income of smallholder farmers.

Leveraging technology to match supply and demand of resources and food is key to overcoming the issues of starvation and food supply interruptions, Anshul Sushil, CEO and co-founder at Wizikey, an online platform linking over 500 agriculture-related business, tells IPS.

“Agritech is finally getting its fair share of attention and the innovation and research that is happening in India right now will change the way we all get food from farm to fork. The technology transformation in the industry will ensure direct supply and smoother distribution,” Sushil says.

According to the entrepreneur, the growth of homegrown agritech start-ups such as Ninjacart, India’s largest tech-driven supply chain platform, as well as Dehaat and Jumbotail, which aim to bolster the agritech ecosystem by maximising productivity, increasing supply chain efficiency and improving market linkages, are helping tackle the challenges of agriculture and food production successfully.

A number of urban agritech startups have leveraged the model of facilitating direct transactions between communities and farmers, enabling the latter to tap into demand in cities.

Digital Green, an organisation that trains Indian farmers in sustainable practices is developing a voice-enabled WhatsApp chatbot. The technology will provide seamless market connections, enabling smallholder farmers to improve their incomes amid economic disruptions caused by COVID-19.

Farmers can use the chatbot to share the type, quantity, and price of crops they wish to sell using a chatbot accessed via WhatsApp. Buyers, including small purchasers from the local community looking for nutritious foods, large industrial and retail buyers, use the same chatbot interface to discover available produce, using farmer-uploaded photos to assess quality. The buyers can directly contact farmers via WhatsApp to complete the transaction.

“In the best of times Indian farmers have limited selling options — typically to local traders or regional markets — which present low prices and high transaction costs (time and money) for relatively small volumes.

“The transportation restrictions and market closures due to COVID-19 further restricted their options, with major implications for livelihoods, India’s food supply and the rural economy,” explains Rikin Gandhi, CEO of Digital Green.  

Using technology to match supply and demand of agricultural resources and food will be critical to absorb the influx of people amid tenuous conditions in which farmers who already operate on thin margins are unable to sell their crops and face uncertainty about the upcoming season, adds the expert. 

Amidst the global pandemic’s devastating impact on lives and livelihoods, India’s farming community remains one of the most vulnerable. 

• As per the International Labor Organisation’s statistics, 43.9 percent of India’s total workforce worked in agriculture in 2018.
  
• Nearly 700 million Indians rely directly or indirectly on an agriculture-derived livelihood. Agriculture and allied sectors contribute 16.5 percent to the country’s $2.6 trillion GDP, according to the Indian government’s Economic Survey 2019-20.
  

The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that COVID-19 will lead to a surge in the number of people facing acute food insecurity, leading to an upswing in children’s malnutrition cases while pushing back the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. 

The 2020 Global Nutrition Report, the world’s leading independent assessment, stresses the need for more equitable, resilient and sustainable food and health systems to ensure food security for all. 

India’s 1.4 billion people present a daunting challenge for the country’s COVID-19 response. The country imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, confining its population at home from Mar. 25 to May 18.

Expectedly, the lockdown has had ramifications on people’s health. A survey of 12 Indian states by leading civil society organisations titled “COVID-19 induced Lockdown – How is the Hinterland Coping?” revealed that over 50 percent of respondents have reduced the number of times they are eating each day and 68 percent have whittled down the items in meals. 

A World Bank analysis predicts that 12 million Indians will plunge into extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90/day) in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

Worse, rampant hunger is jeopardising the health of millions. According to the Global Hunger Index, the pandemic will only exacerbate the situation with a greater likelihood of people dying from hunger than the coronavirus in the wake of the lockdown. This will only add to India’s burden of malnutrition. 

According to the National Family Health Survey 2015- 2016, 38.4 percent of children under five are stunted (low height for age), 21 percent are wasted (low weight for height) and 35.8 percent are underweight (low weight for age). 

Even more disconcerting is the prediction of a rise in poverty.

A World Bank analysis predicts that 12 million Indians will plunge into extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90/day) in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. This is in addition to about 415 million people who already exist below the poverty line in rural India. This demographic refers to people earning less than the country’s per-capita monthly income of approximately $100.

India maintains nearly 60 million tons of food grain in its granaries, according to the Food Corporation of India. The Food Sustainability Index created by the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition and the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks India among other middle income countries with an above-average score of 65.5 out of 100 in sustainable agriculture, but disruption of traditional supply chains has impacted  farmers badly. 

CSC Sekhar, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, writes in his column for The Economic Times that the incomes of farmers of perishable crops and poultry products are going to be much lower due to crop losses, storage problems and a halt of transportation networks. 

The expert advocates a judicious mix of policies, combining direct payments with free food provision, in addition to providing employment under the flagship MGNREGA job employment scheme [Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005, an Indian labour law and social security measure that guarantees the right to work], to ensure economic and physical access to food for vulnerable sections.

As per the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the U.N., the four pillars of food security are availability, access, stability and utilisation. These indicate the physical availability of food; economic access to food; stability of the availability and access; and absorptive capacity (health status).

But availability and access thus become critical in the present context, writes Sekhar.

“The public and the private sector buyers are looking for ways to reliably access products and struggling to find reliable, aggregated supply. These changes have highlighted the need for a new digital marketplace that enables lower transaction costs for buyers and sellers, and greater value capture for smallholder farmers,” says Gandhi.  

Apart from such innovations, necessitating public-private partnerships, the country’s food safety net also needs to be expanded, an officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, who didn’t want to be quoted, tells IPS.

India’s social safety net is extensive and an elaborate array of programmes exist to assist the poor, including the world’s largest food-based social programme; the Public Distribution System, which covers 800 million people. However, all these programmes face bottlenecks because of the lockdown. 

In an article “Food security for children amidst Covid19: A cause for concern”, Shoba Suri, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank, states the lockdown has led to children being deprived of nutrition support, adding to the burden of families not able to meet ends due to loss of wages and looming poverty.  

Particularly vulnerable are slum dwellers and migrants returning to their villages  who often miss out on food support from government schemes, says Asha Devi, a volunteer with a Delhi-based NGO. 

“Hundreds of thousands of factory workers and wage earners who have lost their jobs continue to face uncertainty about livelihood and food security for their families. Various marginal groups such as HIV/AIDS patients and sex workers complain to us of rising hunger due to loss of income. We need to reach out to them urgently,” Devi tells IPS. 

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Michael Lim Mah Hui
KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Jul 9 2020 (IPS)

The 1971 Bretton Woods (BW) system collapse opened the way for financial globalization and transnational financialization. Before the 1980s, most economies had similar shares of trade and financial openness, but cross-border financial transactions have been increasingly unrelated to trade since then.

Although Covid-19 recessions have rather different causes and manifestations from the financially driven crises of recent decades, financialization continues to constrain, shape and thus stunt government responses with deep short-, medium- and long-term consequences.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

It is thus necessary to revisit and contain the virus of financialization wreaking long-term havoc in developing, especially emerging market economies. No one is financing work on a vaccine, while all too many with influence seek to infect us all as the virus is touted as the miracle cure to contemporary society’s deep malaise, rather than exposed for the threats it actually poses.

Financialization
Global financialization has spread, deepened and morphed with a changing cast of banks, institutional investors, asset managers, investment funds and other shadow banks. Transborder financialization has thus been transforming national finance and economies.

The changing preferences of financial market investors have been reshaping the uneven spread of market finance across assets, borders, currencies and regulatory regimes. To preserve and enhance their value, new financial asset classes and relationships have been created.

Within borders, banks and shadow banks are lending to households, companies and one another, while national frontiers do not matter for securities and derivative markets, often financed via wholesale money markets.

Over the last four decades, the scope, size and concentration of finance have grown and changed as mainly national regulatory authorities try to keep up with recent financial innovations and their typically transnational consequences.

Managing discontents
Financialization has involved reorganizing finance, the economy, and even aspects of society, to enable investors to get more from financial market investments, effectively undermining sustainable growth, full employment and fairer wealth distribution. The following measures should help slow financialization and limit some of its adverse effects:

Michael Lim Mah Hui

Strengthen international financial regulation
While financialization has become transnational, financial regulation remains largely national, albeit with some transborder effects of the most powerful, e.g., US tax rules and Fed requirements. Transnational finance has often successfully taken advantage of loopholes and ‘arbitrage’ to great profit.

Multilateral cooperation to strengthen effective and equitable regulation will be difficult to secure as voting power in the only multilateral institution, the IMF, remains heavily biased against developing countries.

Strengthen national capital account management
Transnational financialization has made developing countries more vulnerable to transnational finance and its rent-gouging practices, while also causing greater instability, and limiting policy space for development.

Although the IMF’s Article 6 guarantees the national right to capital account management, all too many national authorities in developing countries, especially emerging markets, have been deterred from exercising their rights effectively.

Improve national regulation of finance
Improving effective, equitable and progressive national regulation of finance, particularly market-based finance, remains challenging, especially in emerging market economies where typically divergent, if not contradictory, banking and capital market interests seek to influence reforms differently in their own specific interests.

Strengthen bank regulation
There were few banking crises from the 1930s to the 1970s after banking was strictly regulated following the 1929 Crash. With financial deregulation from the 1980s, major financial and currency crises have become more frequent. More effective regulation and supervision are urgently needed, not only of banks, but also of ‘shadow banks’, that account for a large and growing share of transnational finance.

Make finance accountable
Instead of improving regulations to achieve these objectives, the growth and greater influence of finance have led to regulatory capture, with reforms enabling, not hindering financialization, including its adverse consequences. Political financing reforms are also urgently needed to limit the influence of finance in politics.

Promote collective, not asset-based welfare
Financialization has been enabled by the reduced role of government. Nationalizing or renationalizing pension funds and improved government ‘social provisioning’ of health, education and infrastructure would reduce the power and influence of institutional investors and asset managers.

Ensure finance serves the real economy
The original and primary role of finance – to provide credit to accelerate productive investments and to finance trade – has been increasingly eclipsed by financial institutions, including banks, engaging in securities and derivatives trading and other types of financial speculation.

Such trading and speculative activities must be subjected to much higher and more appropriate regulatory and capital requirements, with commercial or retail banking insulated from investment or merchant banking activities, e.g., insulating Main Street from Wall Street, or High Street from the City of London, instead of the recent trend towards ‘universal’ banking.

Promote patient banking, not short-termist profiteering
National financial authorities should introduce appropriate incentives and disincentives to encourage banks to finance productive investments and trading activities, and deter them from pursuing higher short-term profits, especially from daily changes in securities and derivatives prices.

This can be achieved with appropriate regulations and deterrent taxes on securities and derivatives financing transactions. An alternative framework for banking and finance should promote long-term investment over short-term speculation, e.g., by introducing an incremental capital gains tax where the rate is higher the shorter the holding period.

Ensure equitable financial inclusion
While financial exclusion has deprived many of the needy of affordable credit, new modes of financial inclusion which truly enhance their welfare must be enabled and promoted.

Ostensible financial inclusion could extend exploitative and abusive financial services to those previously excluded. In some emerging market economies, for example, levels of personal and household debt have risen rapidly, largely due to inclusive finance initiatives.

New financial technologies
Financial houses are profitably using new digital technologies to capture higher rents. While technological innovations can advance financial inclusion and other progressive development and welfare goals, thus far, they have largely served financial rent-gouging and other such exploitive and regressive purposes.

For example, while big data has been used to track, anticipate and stop the spread of infectious diseases, it has also been more commonly abused for commercial and political purposes.

National regulators must be vigilant that ostensibly philanthropic foundations and businesses are actively promoting ‘fintech’ in developing countries without sufficient transparency, let alone consideration of its mixed purposes, implications and potential.

Minimize tax avoidance
Besides curtailing and penalizing tax avoidance practices at the national level, tax accountants, lawyers and others who greatly enable and facilitate tax evasion and related abuses should be much more effectively deterred.

Strengthen multilateral cooperation to equitably enhance national fiscal capacities
Governments must cooperate better multilaterally to more effectively and equitably tax transnational corporations and high net worth individuals. Such cooperation should effectively check illicit financial flows with strict regulations to deter private banking, banking secrecy, tax havens and other international facilitation of tax evasion.

Existing initiatives need to be far more inclusive of, sensitive to and supportive of developing country governments. OECD led initiatives previously excluded developing countries, but their recent inclusion, while an advance, remains biased against them.

Related Articles

• Financialization Increases Inequality
• Developing Economies’ Subordinate Financialization
• Financialization Undermines Real Economy
• Financialization Promotes Dangerous Speculation
• Driving Financialization
• Transforming Society, Financialization Destroys Social Solidarity
• Finance’s New Avatar

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Soumik Dutta is a freelance investigative journalist based in Kolkata and Bangalore, India, covering energy transition, environmental or green corruption, human interest, land acquisition-related conflicts and human rights violation issues.

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Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Jul 8 2020 (IPS)

Recently, Barcelona’s Liceu opera opened its 2020-2021 season by serenading a full house of plants with classical music. The plants will then be given to over 2,200 health workers who serve at the frontlines to battle the pandemic. The performance was both an appreciation for the workers and it also celebrated the return to normalcy following the devastations caused by COVID-19.

It is commendable that health workers are being celebrated this way. However, from the beginning of this pandemic, health workers have been victims. For instance, Li Wenliang, who first raised an alarm about a serious infectious disease in Wuhan, China was hounded by Chinese authorities for inciting fear. This caused a delay in China accepting and reporting the occurrence of a new deadly disease.

In the heat of the pandemic, NHS workers wore bin bags as protection. Shockingly, personal protective equipment were fashioned out of clinical waste bags, plastic aprons and borrowed skiing goggles

Consequently, there are currently more than 9 million cases of COVID-19, above 5 million recoveries and almost 500,000 deaths globally. Unfortunately, Li Wenliang caught the virus and died from COVID-19.

All over the world, health workers continue to suffer a great deal during this pandemic. This is shocking because health workers save lives. In the U.S., more than 400 health workers have died from COVID-19, according to the Centres for Disease Control.

In the United Kingdom, more than 200 health workers have died from COVID-19. Sixty percent of the U.K. deaths are among Black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups. In Nigeria, over 800 health workers have been infected with COVID-19 and 10 doctors have died. This led to Nigerian doctors embarking on a national strike recently.  These deaths are attributed to lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers.

As cities begin to reopen globally, the world must reflect on this pandemic and how it has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including health workers.

 

These three lessons, which ensure safety of health workers should guide preparedness for the next infectious disease outbreak.

 

First, Infection, prevention and control protocols must be put in place in all health facilities and should be strictly adhered to. Infection, prevention and control measures include provision of clean running water, availability of soaps in health facilities and provision of personal protective equipment for health workers.

As common as these seem, they are not available in most health facilities in both low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries. A World Health Organization report on water, sanitation and hygiene from 54 low- and middle-income countries, shows that 38% lack access to even basic levels of water, 19% lack sanitation and 35% do not have water and soap for handwashing.

High-income countries have not done well with regards to infection, prevention and control during this pandemic. Reports from the United Kingdom revealed that in the heat of the pandemic, NHS workers wore bin bags as protection. Shockingly, personal protective equipment were fashioned out of clinical waste bags, plastic aprons and borrowed skiing goggles.

 

Second, improve salaries and conditions of service for health workers everywhere, especially in developing countries. These are ways to show health workers that they are appreciated. Poor salaries and poor conditions of service are major reasons for emigration of health workers from low to high income countries.

A 2017 study on emigration of Nigerian doctors conducted by Nigeria Health Watch and NOI Polls explored reasons for emigration. More than 700 medical doctors were interviewed. The result revealed that improved remuneration (18%), upgrade of all hospital facilities and equipment (16%), increased healthcare funding (13%), and improved working conditions for health workers as major reasons for reducing emigration of doctors.

Furthermore, it is mind-boggling that medical doctors in Nigeria are paid a monthly hazard allowance of less than $13. If this poor remuneration continues, emigration would persist and will adversely affect response to pandemics in poor countries.

 

Third, build regional coalitions for epidemic preparedness because epidemics will always happen. One lesson from COVID-19 is that epidemics do not respect borders and therefore, no country is safe as far as one country is at risk of epidemics. Going forward, countries should no longer operate in silos.

The African continent is leading in this regard through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform. This is an African Union initiative which enables African governments to join forces in bulk buying and transportation of COVID-19 commodities.

This would help countries procure and supply infection, prevention and control commodities needed by health workers, such as personal protective equipment and sanitizers. Furthermore, this should be taken to scale to cover other healthcare needs necessary to make health facilities safer for health workers in the post-COVID-19 period.

Pulling forces together is an important way to ensure sustainable funding for epidemic preparedness and protect health workers.

It is gratifying that all the plants serenaded with classical music by the Barcelona Opera will be donated to 2,292 health workers at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona.

When health workers are appreciated, properly salaried and protected, the world would be healthier and safer.

 

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, is a medical doctor, a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the CEO of EpiAFRIC and Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch. He is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2006 International Ford Fellow. 

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By Saima W. Hossain
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jul 8 2020 (IPS)

The issue of women’s rights, feminism and gender is complex and ongoing in most countries including Bangladesh. When I was asked to write about impact of COVID-19 on women and girls, I found myself drawn towards writing about women’s situation in general as that automatically impacts COVID-19 response as well. Since I am a woman who has been a part of many different cultures, yet a Bangali at heart, I am not only a survivor within its ranks but also responsible for being a part of the solution to the problems we face.

Saima W. Hossain

At the heart of it is the question: Are women in Bangladesh truly equal in all social, economic, cultural and legal practices in our country, as stated in our Constitution, as our Founding Father intended for us to be?

A decade and a half ago, findings from my graduate thesis (unpublished) exploring psychological well-being of women in Bangladesh showed that interestingly women reported valuing education above employment, and those who were employed did not exercise any control over their income. Also, they perceived the ‘purdah’ as a tool that enabled them to access greater social freedom, for which they were still required to garner permission.

In his chronicles as a young adult, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Founding Father of Bangladesh, wrote about the need for equal rights for men and women. He stayed true to his vision by giving them equal voice in the political process of the country as an equal citizen. As a President he went to tremendous lengths to rehabilitate and support the survivors of the genocide committed by the Pakistani military on Bengali civilians in 1971.

Since independence, much progress has been made to ensure that women from childhood have every opportunity to participate in educational and economic opportunities in the country. We not only have a woman as the Head of Government, but women holding positions in the justice system, as Speaker of the House of Parliament, as ministers, in academia, armed forces, and the corporate sector, among others. New laws addressing age of marriage, gender violence, domestic abuse and others have also been adopted.

Cornerstones of the transition of the role of women in Bangladesh are the growth in the RMG (ready-made garments) sector, and the opportunities created by small cottage industries. In the 1980’s, Bangladeshi society experienced a major shift due to the demand by the growing RMG sector for large number of cheap labor who would work under practically any circumstances.

Despite the many questionable labor practices and human rights issues, for the young women living in abject poverty and treated as a burden on their families, it was an opportunity for financial freedom, and to be valued within their families. Up until that time, the only other income opportunity for women with minimal education was domestic work. The same time that women began to be employed in the RMG sector, women were simultaneously also making incremental earnings through small cottage industries. Looking at these notable and impactful changes, it is undeniable that the most significant reason behind Bangladesh’s dramatic economic development is the role and function women have played, be it as a leader or as a daily wage earner.
Nevertheless, the question remains, has economic participation, opportunities for education, and employment truly impacted how women are treated in society on a daily basis?

Women have always struggled and continue to struggle to find balance between what is expected of them by their families and society, and what they wish to do for themselves. For many, the choice may appear easy to make and they happily do what is expected and needed, but for many it can lead to a lifetime of emotional turmoil. The choice women face between motherhood and a successful career cannot simply be addressed by changing laws without also addressing social expectations and attitudinal pressures to be the primary carer of children and dependents.

The societal imbalance that exists between men, women, and those we identify as third gender in Bangladesh, are in almost every country but manifests themselves differently. Thus, a one- size-fits-all solution does not work because of this very reason. The Covid 19 pandemic we are all trying to survive, demonstrates that no issue or solution is as simple as it appears.

Ensuring women are protected during this global crisis needs a solution which is based significantly on an understanding of the culture where the woman belongs; and importantly that the biased ocial and economic structure ensures they are impacted even more adversely. In order to effectively address the issue we need to be willing to take the ‘bull by the horn’ i.e. rather than reaching for the lowest hanging fruit, work at solutions that are mindful of its impact to all including women, and the diverse communities that make our country.

We need to acknowledge that we have not sufficiently delved into legal, social and economic protections that are necessary. Despite many female political leaders, the everyday woman still suffers in silence because she does not have the voice or the agency to speak her mind or pursue her dreams independently. Addressing these issues become even more important when we are faced with a global pandemic, making this gap starkly apparent. In the past few months, women across the globe have been victims of a rising number of domestic violence situations, which have escalated. In addition, women who hitherto worked in the informal sector, have been left particularly vulnerable; essentially unaccounted for and unsupported, significantly impacting their financial and emotional well-being.

Saima W. Hossain, a licensed School Psychologist, is currently Advisor to the Director General of WHO on Autism and Mental Health, Member of WHO’s Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health, Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and NDDs in Bangladesh, and Chairperson of Shuchona Foundation.

 

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A BBC investigation found vast quantities of protected rosewood were being trafficked from The Gambia.

By GGGI
KAMPALA, Uganda, Jul 8 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The European Union (EU) represented by the European Commission in Uganda and the Government of Uganda through the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) have signed a contract today to cooperate on advancing the Greening Uganda’s Urbanization and Industrialization agenda. This project is part of the European Union’s Inclusive Green Economy Uptake Programme (GreenUP) financed under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) and will be implemented for a 36 months period with a total cost estimated of just under EUR 5mln. The MoU was signed by European Union in Uganda and Ms. Dagmar Zwebe, Country Representative of the GGGI Uganda office.

The overall objective of the GreenUp action is to contribute to the Ugandan transition toward an inclusive, green and competitive low carbon economy with the creation of decent green jobs. Within the framework of this intervention this Project has been designed to support the Government of Uganda (GOU) with their National Development Plan III (NDPIII) commitments for 2020/21-2024/25, and the long term commitments as expressed in the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy (UGGDS) and Uganda’s Vision 2040. It will directly contribute to greener growth paths to becoming a middle-income country, through the acceleration of investments in green growth pathways.

The Projects impact objective is therefore “Uganda achieves strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth”. The Uganda Vision 2040 specifically highlights industrialization and urbanization as key focal are as it envisions that 60% of Ugandans will live in urban areas by 2040 and therefore, actions of designing, servicing and attracting investments into greening secondary cities will help Uganda to benefit from the economic and social dividends that come with urbanization.

Through a multistakeholder process guided by the National Planning Authority (NPA) as the project coordinator the industrial zones of Gulu, Entebbe, Pakwach and Soroti have been identified to receive support from the Project in the development of their Masterplans in a green manner and the identification of potential investment projects. The Project is committed to attract investment commitments for at least 6 projects for these industrial areas to accelerate and green the industrialization process in Uganda. This process will be guided by specific guidelines setting out what a green industrial could look like.

With a similar process the cities of Arua, Gulu, Jinja and Mbarara have been identified by the stakeholders, led by the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in close coordination with the NPA, to receive similar support as the industrial zones in the development of their Masterplans and the acceleration of financing in potential (public and private) projects. For the Arua-Pakwach corridor, and for Gulu there will be a joined focus combining both elements to ensure inclusive green growth is accomplished. Overall, the aim is to set the country on a low carbon development pathway, generating green jobs, to reduce the environmental burden and the use of natural resources and to contribute substantially to increasing green investment flows into Uganda.

Increased waste collection and sorting in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) is another element of the Project. Guided by the GKMA Waste Management Strategy 2021-2030, two waste sorting and diversion centers will be designed, and investment commitment will be sought for at least one of these sites to support the GKMA commitment of 30% recycling by 2030. Furthermore, business development support will be provided to multiple small and medium enterprises in the waste sector to strengthen their operations and be able to widen their scope and increase their waste recycling or treatment.

All stakeholders involved within this Project including -but not limited to- the Government of Uganda, the EU and GGGI and are strongly committed to support Uganda’s transition toward an inclusive, green and competitive low carbon economy, and especially the sectors as elaborated upon in the UGGDS. This includes making Uganda’s business environment more conducive to inclusive and green investments and improving the environment for investing in Uganda’s economic green transformation and the urbanization and industrialization agenda.

Learn more about GGGI’s work in Uganda by clicking here.

 

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Pro-government forces battling jihadists were behind the deaths, Human Rights Watch says.