Africa

Fans of reigning champions Cameroon are gearing up for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

The Ethiopian PM attends a memorial for his assassinated ally, chief of staff Gen Seare Mekonnen.

By Sivananthi Thanenthiran
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 2019 (IPS)

The increase in world population by 2 billion in the next 30 years will present a serious global challenge especially if we do not find new paradigms of development thought and renewed global political leadership.

Our region, the Asia and the Pacific region is already home to 60 per cent of the world’s population – some 4.3 billion people, with India and China being the most populous countries.

A further increase in population means it will be harder to achieve the 17 SDGs with the 169 different targets – aimed at fighting poverty, reducing inequality, addressing climate change, ensuring quality primary and secondary education for all children, gender equality, and reduced child mortality – to ensure nobody is left behind.

Marginalised populations already suffer deprivations: poor women, women in living in rural and hard-to-reach areas are those who are unable to access to contraceptive services even when they desire to have a smaller family size. This unmet need amongst those left behind needs to be addressed, if we are looking at ensuring that these groups do not get left behind.

We are currently facing heightened conflicts over resources, accelerated effects of climate change, political strife and economic collapse in a world marked by inequalities.

These trends cannot be contained within borders and will spill over and the global community must be aware – that this will raise poverty levels, and give rise to displaced persons, refugees and migrants.

Besides these already well documented impacts, the most affected will be women and girls. In most developing countries, women and girls are already marginalised, and will be further pushed into poverty.

In areas we have conducted research in, we can see that climate change has effects on food security – forcing women and girls into hunger and malnutrition; there is increased incidence of lesser education opportunities and increase child marriages.

This essentially impacts a whole gamut of women’s rights, particularly their sexual and reproductive health and rights. This is why we track and monitor governments’ implementation of the landmark International Conference on Population and Development’s Programme of Action (ICPD POA) that took place in Cairo in 1994.

Signed by 179 countries across the world in 1994, the PoA put human rights as the corner stone to address population and development issues, and called for a comprehensive approach to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, especially for women and girls.

Governments agreed that reproductive rights, gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment are essential for improving quality of life and achieving sustained social and economic growth and sustainable development.

At the juncture of the 25th anniversary of the ICPD, it is essential for us to look at holistic, rights-based global frameworks to help us get a grip on the challenges we are facing today.

The prediction that the world population will increase by 2 billion in the next 30 years is based on ground realities like high incidence of child marriage and fertility rates. When girls are married younger, they drop out of school and often also get pregnant earlier.

They have little or no access to comprehensive sexuality education which impacts their knowledge of contraception, access and knowledge of abortion services and leads to unwanted pregnancies. Those who are already marginalised, will suffer further deprivations.

Governments in the region should have the political courage to ensure eradication of child marriages, ensure provision of comprehensive sexuality education, and access to sexual and reproductive health services to young people regardless of marital status.

UN data shows that population in the group of 47 least developed countries (LDCs), which includes countries in Asia, is growing 2.5 times faster than the total population of the rest of the world, and is expected to jump from 1 billion inhabitants in 2019 to 1.9 billion in 2050.

It is also predicted that half of the world’s population growth will be concentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America, Uganda and Indonesia.

However, women’s rights are key in slowing down population. It is no coincidence that in many of the above countries in our region as well as others, the status of women and girls is low. It is a fact that sexual and reproductive rights are integral to individual autonomy, to freely decide on matters of sexuality and reproduction, to have the right to consent and bodily integrity. Women need to have control over their bodies and should be able to decide whether or not to have children, when to have children, how many children to have.

In 2016, a study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI) at Shanghai University showed that if the world could achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030, it could slow down global population growth to 8.2 to 8.7 billion by 2100.

The Goals 3 and 5 – of good health and well-being and gender equality – help build an enabling environment for the achievement of all other goals. Which is why it is so critical for us to ensure our governments implement the ICPD PoA.

Empowering women is the key to slowing down population. However, population growth cannot be achieved through coercive measures like sterilisation, family planning methods that limit women’s reproductive choices.

Instead, we need to ensure comprehensive sexuality education for in and out-of-school children and youth, eliminate child, early and forced marriage, tackle teenage pregnancies, invest in health care programmes and policies, ensure universal health coverage for all, including the most vulnerable and marginalised, a rights-based approach to family planning where women have access to contraceptive and family planning services of their choice.

Besides these, we need to simultaneously ensure access to safe abortion services to all women and girls and remove all barriers to access abortion so there are no unintended, unplanned or forced pregnancies.

There is also a pressing need to increase investments in girls’ education & address barriers that prevent girls from attending schools. Similarly, we need to increase women’s participation in the labour force, which means addressing gender inequalities inside homes and making work environments safer.

When we shift the focus to people’s development, and enable marginalised women and girls to have choices and exercise decision-making over their life choices, we create the necessary change for the world’s population.

*Sivananthi Thanenthiran is also a SheDecides Champion for Asia Pacific. ARROW has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) of the United Nations and works closely with many national partners in countries, regional and global networks around the world, and are able to reach stakeholders in 120 countries.

The post Women’s Rights are Key in Slowing Down Population appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sivananthi Thanenthiran* is the executive director of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional feminist NGO based in Malaysia championing sexual and reproductive health and rights in Asia Pacific.

The post Women’s Rights are Key in Slowing Down Population appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Aliou Sall was named in a BBC investigation over links to allegedly corrupt oil and gas deals.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Nazran Zhafri Ahmad Johari
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 25 2019 (IPS)

With growing economic conflicts triggered by US President Donald Trump’s novel neo-mercantilist approach to overcoming his nation’s economic malaises, many voices now argue that bad free trade agreements are better than nothing.

After US withdrawal following Trump’s inauguration in early 2017, there is considerable pressure on signatory governments to quickly ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the successor to the TPP.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

To ratify or not to ratify
Undoubtedly, freer trade is attractive, especially to consumers desiring lower import prices. Yet, it is now generally acknowledged that no country has ever developed without policy interventions, typically involving trade, to develop new economic capacities and capabilities.

Thus far, the CPTPP has been ratified by 7 of the original 11 signatory countries, with Brunei, Chile, Malaysia and Peru holding out so far. Ratification advocates claim that the CPTPP would boost economic growth by greatly increasing exports.

They cite disputed Peterson Institute of International Economics (PIIE) and World Bank studies, both by the same authors, using a dubious methodology even rejected by the US government’s International Trade Council in mid-2016, i.e., under Obama. The reports highlight increased export prospects, but are conveniently silent about the far greater increase in imports.

Dubious gains from trade
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) economist Rashmi Banga’s study of its likely economic impact on Malaysia suggests much need for caution. The original TPP promised Malaysia more exports, mainly to the USA, with such claims grossly exaggerated by the PIIE. Without the USA, export prospects have diminished greatly.

Nazran Zhafri Ahmad Johari

While exports to CPTPP countries will rise by 0.2%, imports will grow by 6.0%, setting Malaysia’s annual merchandise trade balance back by US$2.4 billion, worsening its balance of payments as its services trade balance has always been in deficit.

As Malaysia already has free trade agreements (FTAs) with other major trading partners in the CPTPP, participation has little to offer. Malaysian FTAs with Singapore, Japan and Australia affect 82% of its CPTPP exports and 84% of imports.

Hence, Malaysia will not lose much to trade diversion by not ratifying, i.e., about 0.09% of current exports to other CPTPP countries. On the other hand, it will retain revenue from its relatively higher import tariffs.

The two largest imported items are automobiles and plastic materials. Banga estimates that imports of vehicles, mainly from Japan, will rise by 36% if customs duties come down to zero. This is likely to wreak havoc on Malaysia’s already fragile automotive industry.

Over a quarter century ago, then World Bank vice-president Larry Summers infamously suggested that toxic waste might be dumped in poor countries in Africa owing to the lower opportunity costs involved.

On the cusp of becoming a high-income nation, the last Malaysian administration belatedly took his advice by licensing ostensible plastic waste recycling plants. The CPTPP will enable much more imports of plastic materials, including waste and scrap, by around 35%.

21st century gold standard?
Advocates also claim that the CPTPP represents a ‘cutting edge’, ‘state of the art’, ‘gold standard’, ‘21st century FTA’. In fact, it will mainly benefit transnational firms at the expense of consumers, workers and the public in participating economies.

With the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions, for example, foreign investors will be able to sue the government for loss of revenue and profits if government policies are changed, or if contracts are renegotiated, even if in the public interest, e.g., by banning toxic or carcinogenic chemicals.

ISDS involves binding ‘private’ arbitration bypassing national judicial systems, significantly strengthening foreign investors at the expense of governments with typically more modest means to litigate cases, thus exercising a ‘chilling effect’ on governments to comply with foreign corporate demands. Government ability to improve public policy will thus be restricted.

Ironically, the Trump administration is now opposed to ISDS. TransCanada sued the US government, under North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) ISDS provisions, for US$15 billion after the Obama administration cancelled its Keystone XL pipeline project. The case was dropped after Trump revived the project.

CPTPP proponents insist that strengthening intellectual property (IP) laws will benefit everyone as it will incentivize research and innovation, a claim for which there is no evidence. The TPP agreement would have lengthened monopolies on patented medicines, kept cheaper generics off the market and allowed natural biological materials and processes to be patented.

The Third World Network has long highlighted many such CPTPP dangers, for instance, citing the Malaysian government’s procurement of an Egyptian generic treatment of Hepatitis C for RM1300, instead of the patented US treatment costing almost RM300,000.

Encircling China
The TPP was originally a minor plurilateral regional trade agreement involving four countries. The Obama administration decided to use it to check China’s growing economic influence.

With the recent escalation of tensions between China and the USA, many in East Asia are understandably concerned about how the growing economic conflict will affect economic prospects. Ratifying the CPTPP is likely to be seen as taking sides, even without the USA in it.

To secure broad public support in the face of growing scepticism about the benefits of trade liberalization associated with globalization, the Obama administration involved over 700 advisers, mainly representing corporate interests, to be involved in drafting the 6350-page TPP.

Ironically, the USA is no longer party to an agreement largely drafted by US corporate interests. A few of the most onerous clauses of the TPP have been suspended in the CPTPP, but if Japan, Australia and Singapore succeed in bringing the USA back in, the White House will insist on their re-inclusion.

Withdrawing from the CPTPP would send a clear message that a government is determined to put the needs of its people over the interests of powerful transnational corporations or geopolitical considerations. In any case, there is no requirement, obligation or deadline for any signatory government to ratify.

Other governments will need to carefully consider their navigation options in the difficult times ahead as countries seek to recover and sustain economic progress. Bad FTAs are not better than no FTAs, and as the map of the world economy has changed, options are different.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram is Senior Adviser at Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) in Malaysia. Nazran Zhafri Ahmad Johari has a law degree and is currently with the KRI.

The post A Bad Free Trade Agreement Is Worse than Nothing appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Five zoo-born eastern black rhinos have been transported from Europe to Africa.

Cooking by candle light. Credit: Tomislav Georgiev / World Bank

By Pinelopi Goldberg
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 25 2019 (IPS)

After participating in two events on inequality at the Spring Meetings – Making Growth Work for the Poor and Income Inequality Matters: How to Ensure Economic Growth Benefits the Many and Not the Few, I received a surprising number of emails asking whether my remarks on the importance of addressing rising inequality meant I had abandoned growth as the main priority for developing countries.

One thing I certainly took away from this correspondence: Inequality is too complex a phenomenon to address in a brief session at the Spring Meetings.

This is why the Institute of Fiscal Studies in London (IFS) has put together an ambitious, multi-disciplinary project, headed by Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, the so-called Deaton Review, to understand the multiple aspects of inequality and propose appropriate policies. Pointedly, the project is called “Inequalities in the twenty-first century” – note the plural.

Pinelopi Goldberg

The multi-disciplinary project brings together experts from Economics, Political Science, Sociology, and Public Health aiming at a comprehensive yet nuanced, and most importantly balanced discussion of “inequality.”

Recognizing the complexity of the issues, the project has a four-year timeline. I hope by its completion, we will have a better grasp of why “inequality” (I am going back to the singular following convention) is such an important concern today, both among policy makers and the public, and what we can do to address it. But, for those of you who may not want to wait that long, here are my two cents.

Both theoretically and empirically, we expect growth and changes in the income distribution to go hand in hand. But this positive relationship neither means an increase in income inequality is inevitable nor implies that it is desirable.

Growth is simply the size of the pie increasing. In principle, a bigger pie makes it feasible to give everyone a piece of at least the same size as before, and possibly more.

This is the essence of the so-called Pareto criterion invoked by economists. But markets do not guarantee that as the pie grows, all its slices will increase – some can get smaller. Policy is needed to encourage inclusive growth.

Why should we care about equal distribution of the pie? I have three responses.

First, people care about “fairness”. Large inequalities in income or wealth are often viewed as unfair. To be clear, I am not advocating complete equality where everyone receives exactly the same piece of the pie independent of competence, effort and the demands of the market.

This would create the classic moral hazard problem economists worry about. But the vast inequalities observed today are hard to justify based on these factors alone.

Conversely, there is little evidence that a more equal distribution of income or wealth by itself reduces incentives to work and contribute to society.

Second, even if one does not care about inequality at all, in practice large inequalities create social unrest. We do not need to go as far as invoking the French or October revolutions.

In recent years, sound economic policies that produced large aggregate gains have also generated considerable backlash where they generated winners and uncompensated losers. And this backlash can impede further growth when those left behind block further change.

Trade reforms and the hyper-globalization of the past three decades are prime examples. The backlash against globalization we currently experience in many advanced economies shows not only that inequality matters to people, but also that the perception of being left behind interferes with policies that would promote growth.

Lastly, big inequalities in income and wealth often translate in inequalities in opportunity. There is evidence that rising income and wealth inequality in many advanced economies is driving disparities in health and education (which is why the Deaton Review is devoting particular attention to these aspects of inequality).

People who emailed have asked me why focus on inequality in a developing country where 70% of the population live on less than $1.90 per day? But a country will not grow rapidly unless it utilizes its productive potential.

Stunting, poor health, and inadequate education among the poorest segments of a society mean that people will be unable to realize their potential and contribute to the economy.

Countries where women have limited rights and cannot contribute to the economy on equal terms not only miss the opportunity to draw on the labor and talent of half of their population, but also tend to face demographic challenges due to high birth rates.

This points to the importance of a different dimension of inequality, gender inequality, and may serve a reminder that inequality goes beyond disparities in income and wealth.

So, “inclusive growth” is not an oxymoron. Rather, inclusiveness may be the only way to achieve growth today, in developed and developing economies alike.

The post Is Inclusive Growth an Oxymoron? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Pinelopi Goldberg is Chief Economist, World Bank Group

The post Is Inclusive Growth an Oxymoron? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Financial inclusion services can help boost the productivity of smallholder farmers in Africa. Pictured here is maize farmer Senamiso Ndlovu, from Nyamandlovu District, Zimbabwe. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 25 2019 (IPS)

A Jamaican start-up has an innovative solution to help smallholder farmers—many of whom do not have the collateral demanded by financial institutions to access loans—build a track record of their production that is proving better than collateral.

FarmCredibly creates a record for farmers based on their production and they do not even need to leave the work on their farms to create this, founder Varun Baker tells IPS.

Blockchain is a decentralised, digital ledger initially developed for the cryptocurrency bitcoin. It works through a series of digitally connected records where information can be shared openly and publicly verified through a cluster of computers.

The decentralised nature of blockchain means that information is not stored in one place but on many computers or databases. The information is also time stamped. As such, if information is changed it has to be done through the system and cannot be deleted or changed at one point without the other databases of the information also being updated.

Using the block chain technology, farmers can plan their production based on the actual market demand. Distributors in turn safely source produce from many farmers with a reliable track record, says Baker.

Banking the under banked

In 2017, Baker and his team won a blockchain Hackathon competition organised by international IT company IBM and NCB, a major commercial bank in Jamaica for their idea of developing a tool which enables under banked farmers access loans and micro-investments.

In 2018, FarmCredibly entered the AgriHack competition organised by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and they emerged winners.

“Our strength is in technology and one big part that excites me about now and the future is the adoption of blockchain technology which can be a complicated subject for people,” Baker admits. “In our pitch, we simplified the value in using blockchain which is in enforcing the integrity in information. This still sounds really complicated, but the same idea is put more eloquently by a Jamaican songwriter who said ‘you so can fool some people some time but you cannot fool all the people all the time,’ and this is the value we want to bring to agriculture.”

Working with farmers 10 years ago, Baker had encouraged them to use mobile applications for good record keeping and documenting their work on their farms. But in many cases farmers were reluctant to use any online or mobile device in the field.

Today Baker sees the potential of using blockchain technology to release farmers from the burden of using apps themselves.

The technology is designed in a way that farmers can build a profile on themselves based on the data that other people have so they do not have to change anything about what they are doing, Baker explains.

Through FarmCredibly, Baker forms partnerships with companies that farmers already do business with. Input suppliers, buyers, agro-processors, hotels and supermarkets have valuable information on farmers that helps support their production record.

“We use this information to build up a profile on behalf of the farmer, which means once a farmer is ready to get a loan at the bank, it is an easier process for them because suddenly they have a track record. This is something that can work for even unbanked people who have no credit history at all,” Baker says as he takes on the challenge of convincing lenders that this is valid information that reduces risk when it comes to providing loans in agriculture.

“In my experience lenders find agriculture a risky business and we are trying to convince people that we are lowering risk in this area which provides massive economic value across the world,” says Baker who is currently using funding from the CTA and Development Bank of Jamaica to run a pilot project in Jamaica to facilitate loans for farmers to be more productive.

For many years, smallholder farmer, Kevin Buchanan from Clarendon Parish, south of Jamaica, battled to obtain loans because he did not have the collateral demanded by banks. Thanks to a digital profiling of his production he recently received a 385-dollar micro loan through FarmCredibly to buy nursery supplies to start growing his own seedlings.

“I believe in the use of technology as it helps greatly in doing the same thing better and more efficiently,” Buchanan tells IPS. “That way with the same amount of resources more can be done. This is very good also as it increases my income and makes success more sure.”

Buchanan grows hot and sweet peppers, corn and sweet potatoes on part of his 10 hectare farm. With funding, he would be able to transition his produce and mostly grow hot peppers, which have a guaranteed market.

“My limiting factor is access to funding,” Buchanan laments. “I am not alone…this is the dilemma of so many farmers. Before the blockchain intervention I could only put a quarter of a hectare of sweet potatoes in production…now I have 1.11 hectare. Because of this too I am working on the capacity to supply other farmers with seedlings. The income from this will be used back in the farming operation to assist me with buying irrigation supplies to establish a block of hot peppers.”

While financial inclusion is on the rise thanks to mobile phones and the internet, nearly two billion people globally remain unbanked while two-thirds of them own a mobile phone that could help them access financial services. This is according to a World Bank 2018 report on the use of financial services. It also finds that men remain more likely than women to have a bank account.

Digital technology can take advantage of existing cash transactions to bring people into the financial system, the report finds. For example, paying government wages, pensions, and social benefits directly into accounts could bring formal financial services to up to 100 million more adults globally, including 95 million in developing economies. Currently, 86 percent of Jamaica’s population is under banked, meaning they do not have access to loans.

A technology for agriculture development

Researchers at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) in Spain argue that blockchain promises ubiquitous financial transactions among distributed untrusted parties, without the need of intermediaries such as banks.

In particular, blockchain is suitable for the developing world, where it can support small farmers by providing them with finance and insurance and facilitate transactions. Although small farmers supply 80 percent of food in developing countries, they rarely have access to insurance, banking or basic financial services.

In a 2018 report published by the CTA, researchers Andreas Kamilaris, Francesc Xavier Prenafeta-Boldú and Agusti Fonts say ongoing projects and initiatives now illustrate the impact blockchain technology on agriculture. The researchers suggest blockchain has great potential for the future. For example, in December 2016 AgriDigital, an Australian company founded a year previously, successfully executed the world’s first sale of 23.46 tons of grain on a blockchain. Since then, over 1,300 users have been involved in the sale of more than 1.6 million tons of grain over the cloud-based system, involving 360 million dollars in grower payments.

Blockchain best but

While blockchain technology offers many opportunities for farmers, there are various barriers and challenges for its wider adoption, researchers worry.

There is lack of expertise by smallholder farmers to invest in the blockchain by themselves, researcher say. Besides, there is a lack of awareness about the blockchain and training platforms are non-existent and there are regulation barriers too.

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The post Blockchain Releases Farmers From the Collateral Trap appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Teenagers hanging out in Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan the lack of sexuality education has led to 91 percent of young people aged between 15 and 19 not having accurate and full knowledge on HIV and AIDS. Courtesy: Gulbakyt Dyussenova/ World Bank

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 2019 (IPS)

Young people around the world are facing increasingly insurmountable, persistent barriers as they try to achieve their full potential and secure a prosperous future. However, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific have already begun working to ensure that no one is left behind.

In collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), parliamentarians across Asia gathered to address and act on the pressing issues that youth face today, including access to health and employment.

“The demographic dividend in countries in the region provides an opportune moment to continue to invest in youth for the benefit of all society,” UNFPA’s Representative in Kazakhstan Giulia Vallese told IPS.

Approximately 60 percent of the world’s youth live in Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Discussing sustainable development issues such as health care and employment access, parliamentarians met in a series of two meetings; the first being the “Leaving No One Behind” meeting in Kazakhstan in October 2018 and the “Act Today, Shape Tomorrow” gathering in Tajikistan in March 2019.

It is through such multi-stakeholder platforms and collaborations where success can be achieved, noted Vallese.

“It was important to bring together these different stakeholders to promote a shared understanding of closely interlinked root causes of issues and challenges faced by young people and increase appreciation of the urgent need for cross-sectoral, inter-ministerial, and multi-stakeholder approaches to help resolve the issues and challenges faced by young people in the region,” she said.

“Both conferences demonstrated the positive impact and the catalytic effect of multi-stakeholder partnerships for development. They allowed under the leadership of the respective host countries, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, for the exchange of ideas on the role of national multi-stakeholder partnerships, which actually is the essence of implementing such a complex agenda as the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) programme of action and contribute to delivering on Agenda 2030,” she added.

Adopted by 179 governments in 1994, the landmark ICPD agenda marked the first paradigm shift which put people’s rights at the heart of all sustainable development.

In Kazakhstan, among the major issues discussed by participants was access to health information and services.

For instance, the lack of sexuality education has led to 91 percent of young people aged between 15 and 19 not having accurate and full knowledge on HIV and AIDS.

UNFPA also found that among those who reported having had symptoms of sexually transmitted infections, only 37 percent sought medical help.

Adolescents younger than 18 require parental consent to receive medical services.

In Tajikistan, access to employment and education particularly for youth and women remain limited.

According to the World Bank, inactive youth who are neither employed nor in school make up approximately 40 percent of the total youth population. Almost one third of those who are employed are in unpaid, informal jobs compared to 15 percent of adults.

Women have not fared well either as the female labour force participation rate was just 27 percent compared to 63 percent among males in 2013. Almost a quarter of women are in unpaid employment compared to 13 percent of men.

While education can help determine job outcomes, completion rates of secondary education may be falling in the Central Asian nation. For instance, more young women are not completing secondary school or technical education, the World Bank found.

Speaking to IPS, Deputy Speaker of Tajikistan’s Parliament Honorary Khayrinisso Yusufi said that youth are the “main creative force of the future” and stressed the need for investments to develop their potential.

“Developing the potential of young people, shaping their public engagement, strengthening their quality of education and health care, their participation in labour markets, and engaging in development processes reflect the aspirations of peoples and the policies of our countries to achieve the SDGs and create a better world for everyone,” she said.

And Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan and Kazakhstan are already on their way to empower youth.

During the conference in Dushnabe, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Tajikistan Dr. Latofat Naziri told participants of the importance of actively engaging youth in order to help build their envisioned futures and involvement in society. With that in mind, study groups and clubs are being organised at the school level aimed at developing youth’s entrepreneurship skills.

Others, including Yusufi, pointed to the focus on strengthening the status of young people, especially girls. Among Tajikistan’s priorities are presidential quotas for girls’ higher education, and already the number of young parliamentarians and women in the country has increased, Yusufi told IPS.

After the meeting in Astana, participants adopted the Astana Declaration which promises to make primary health care, especially sexual and reproductive health services as well as sexuality education, more youth-friendly and accessible.

UNFPA has already begun working on this front, establishing Youth Peer Education which trains youth to help their peers and share accurate information about healthy life skills. Youth-friendly health centres have also been established in order to provide comprehensive and confidential services.

Vallese urged that such work should continue, and protective laws and policies are essential to support human rights of youth.

“Young people need to be part of the national dialogue for sustainable development…investing in young people is critically important to ensure future societies are economically dynamic and vibrant, as well as peaceful, inclusive and sustainable while providing opportunity for all,” she told IPS.

Yusufi also highlighted the role of parliamentarians, legislation, and collaborations to achieve such a vision.

“I am sure that the activity shown by the forum participants in discussing the problems and prospects of youth policies in our countries will be productive in the legislative field. We will be able to more effectively pursue a policy of modernisation, improve education, health, protect the environment, effectively apply technologies and support youth initiatives,” she said.

“We parliamentarians, reaffirmed the key role of parliaments and parliamentary networks in establishing a multi-state partnership with a view to sustainable development and a better future for humanity,” Yusifi concluded.

As this year marks the 25th anniversary of the ICPD, civil society and governments will gather in Kenya for the Nairobi Summit to advance the ICPD’s goals.  

Related Articles

• Parliamentarians Promote Youth Investment in Kazakhstan
• Investing in Arab and Asian Youth For a Sustainable Future
• Declining Birth Rates Not Exclusive to Wealthy Nations

The post Partnering for Youth in Central Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Inna de Yard, a documentary about reggae music, opened across Germany on Jun. 20. Courtesy: Inna de Yard

By A. D. McKenzie
KINGSTON/PARIS, Jun 24 2019 (IPS)

Dogs barking in the distance. Birds chirping nearby. A man walking through the mist, surrounded by lush vegetation. A distinctive vibrato singing “Speak Softly, Love” over it all.

So begins Inna de Yard, a documentary that can safely be called a love poem to reggae music, or the “soul of Jamaica”, as the film is sub-titled with an obvious play on words.

Directed by Peter Webber (whose first feature was the acclaimed Girl with a Pearl Earring), the documentary comes at a timely moment: reggae was inscribed last November on United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

Before opening across Germany on Jun. 20, the film was screened in Paris at the U.N. agency’s headquarters to a full house of spectators, many of whom seemed to know the artists and the songs. Several stood up to dance when the musicians performed after the projection.

Inna de Yard takes us into the lives of pioneer reggae musicians who have come together to record music in a hilltop studio. This is a weathered, old house that offers breath-taking views of the capital Kingston. It is filled with stacks of vinyl records spilling out of their decaying jackets, while an ancient piano sits on the porch.

The man walking through the mist at the beginning is a piano tuner, who tells viewers that the instrument is sometimes infested with insects, but he needs to get it ready for the musicians. We watch as he takes bits of wire and other objects to do just that.

Then the music begins in earnest. We are introduced to the artists – Ken Boothe, Kiddus I, Winston McAnuff, Cedric Myton, The Viceroys and Judy Mowatt – as Boothe’s vibrato accompanies spectacular aerial shots of the landscape.

Kiddus – who appeared in the 1978 cult film “Rockers”– explains in his deep, pleasant voice that the project is “an amalgamation of elders playing acoustic music”, and McAnuff adds that the aim is to capture the music “in its virgin state”.

Mowatt, looking like an urban goddess in her patterned robe, says that the house up in the hills “felt like heaven” when she first visited.

In a previous era, Mowatt performed with the I-Threes, the trio of backing vocalists for Bob Marley and the Wailers. But beyond her presence, the extended Marley clan is not in focus here. This documentary is about the other trailblazers and the source of the music.

“Some countries have diamonds. Some countries have pearls. Some countries have oil. We have reggae music,” says bass player Worm in the film.

With footage from the 1960s and 1970s, the documentary takes us to the beginning of ska and rocksteady, showing how the music developed, influenced by American rhythm and blues.

“We paid attention to what was happening outside our shores and we amalgamated that with what was happening here,” Mowatt tells viewers. “The 1960s was the romantic era, but the 1970s was the conscious era.”

She says that reggae “talked about the realities of life” and that “all of Jamaica was living the songs that were being sung”– songs about political violence, hardships, and police repression of Rastafarians, for instance. It was the “golden age” of the music.

The documentary gives each of the artists space to reminisce even as it describes their lives now. “We miss everything about those days,” says Cedric Myton, a playful, lively spirit in the film who said he’s “going up the ladder” at 70-plus years old.

During one of the film’s most memorable scenes, we see him heading out in a boat and joking around with fishermen as he sings “Row, Fisherman, Row”, in his iconic falsetto. The film cuts from the sea to the studio in the hills, to Myton enlightening viewers on the origins of the lyrics.

Like many of the others, Myton started out in the music business with what seemed a bright future, but troubles in the United States – related to “herb charges”– meant he couldn’t perform there. In addition, all the musicians have had experience with unscrupulous record producers, or “thieves” as Myton calls them.

“We’re not giving up because we know there are better days ahead,” Myton says. “But financially it’s been a struggle.”

Some of his peers have had more personal struggles. McAnuff lost his son Matthew, also a singer, in 2012, and his description of the “senseless” death is among the most moving sections of the film. So is the story of younger musician Derajah, who lost his sister to gun violence. We see them working through their grief via the music.

“It’s a message for healing,” Kiddus says.

The Inna de Yard project puts the pioneers in contact with younger musicians who perform with them in the studio and on tour, and the film profiles these artists as well. “We learn from the younger guys and they learn a lot from us,” Kiddus comments.

Mowatt also records with two younger singers, the fiery Jah 9 and her colleague Rovleta. Speaking passionately, Jah 9 gives an introduction to the history of the island and the role that the Maroons and their legendary leader Nanny played in fighting against slavery.  Then she joins Mowatt and Rovleta in the studio to sing Mowatt’s “first solo anthem”– an intense track called “Black Woman”.

“It’s a love splash,” Mowatt characterises the session, describing the affection and solidarity between the three.

Accompanying individual musicians, the film also takes us through unspoilt areas of Jamaica – waterfalls, natural diving pools, forested Maroon country – but it doesn’t shy away from showing poor sections of the capital Kingston where the music was born, or the environmental degradation of some beaches. We also get a glimpse into eroticised dancehall culture, during a segment in a bar.

Film director Webber was, however, not interested in showing scenes “that would cause eyes to pop in the West,” as he said in an interview following the screening in Paris. Webber added that the restraint in filming certain aspects of the culture was “deliberate” as he didn’t “feel the need to labour the point”.

Because of this approach, viewers get a sense of the love of and respect for the music, unlike some sensationalist portrayals of Jamaican arts.

Webber said he was first introduced to the island’s music as a teenager in London and became “a huge fan of reggae”. Years later, he was working with French producer Gaël Nouaille on a Netflix project when Nouaille told him about the Inna de Yard musicians and recordings.

“I had never been to Jamaica before, partly because I had a Jamaica in my head, and I knew that if I got on a plane, I would have a touristic experience and it wouldn’t live up to what I imagined,” he said. “I didn’t want to spend two weeks on a beach in Negril. But this was a different way to go.”

When he got to the island and met the musicians, he initially wasn’t sure there was a feature film to be made, and he questioned whether he could produce a documentary that would “appeal to a more general audience” than traditional fans of reggae or dub.

He said it was also important to meet younger musicians. I was wondering, “Are these guys like the last of the Mohicans?”

Asked why he was the one to make this film, Webber said: “I did it because of my love and enthusiasm and because I had an opportunity to do it. You may wonder if the world needs another middle-aged white man dropping into Jamaica, but I see myself as a medium. I’m a channel, and I basically put my technical skills and my creativity at their disposal to tell their story. It’s not a film of cultural appropriation.”

He said the documentary developed based on the “spine of the story” – the musicians recording an album “up in this house in the hills”.

The house is indeed at the centre of the documentary, but from there, Webber and the musicians take us on a journey: back to the past, around the island, to concerts in Paris, and into the soul of reggae and Jamaica. And Webber does so with an artist’s touch, reflecting his background as a student of art history.

This article is published in an arrangement with Southern World Arts News. Follow on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale

The post ‘Inna de Yard’ Delves into the ‘Soul’ of Jamaica appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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