Africa

The BBC investigates allegations of exploitation in Spain's fruit and vegetable growing region Almeria.

Kenyans worry about being put into coronavirus quarantine where conditions are said to be like prison.

The 44 men were taken into custody around Lake Chad during an offensive against Islamist militants.

Somali musician Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi died in London from coronavirus at the age of 91.

The Holy Fire ceremony goes ahead in Jerusalem as most worshippers worldwide are told to stay at home.

Thomas Thabane, accused of killing his wife in 2017, says he is deploying soldiers to restore order.

The recent peace between once bitter enemies Ethiopia and Eritrea has transformed lives there.

The death of local footballer Edmond Bangura, who was just 24, in Sierra Leone has sparked concerns he may have died of coronavirus given his tender age.

Large crowds gathering at food markets have made social distancing impossible for many.

Elsie Kubie is alive and well, but a post using her photo wrongly claimed she had died of Covid-19.

This playground just outside the Slovak capital, Bratislava, was sealed off to stop people spreading the virus. Similar measures were in place in cities and towns across Europe. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world’s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic. 

While children are at a significantly lower health risk than adults from the coronavirus, the social and economic impacts as a result of both the disease as well as the lockdown can be extremely harmful on children, a new report has revealed.  

Guterres made his remarks at the launch of the policy brief “The Impact of COVID-19 on children” that examines the different areas in which children are affected: health, family life, education, lack of access to healthcare, and increased risks as a result of heightened presence online. 

The report claims that about 60 percent of all children around the world are currently in a country that is maintaining some level of a lockdown, which is limiting their mobility and/or access to society. Nearly all the grave impacts arise out of children not being able to go to school anymore. 

The report states that with 188 countries enforcing a lockdown, more than 1.5 billion children and youth are being impacted in terms of:

• access to food and nutrition,
• access to digital teaching tools,
• increased exposure to violence and/or conflict in the household,
• increased risk of falling prey to cyberbullying and sexual exploitation on the internet.

Furthermore, children with underlying medical conditions, including those living with HIV, are facing a higher risk of not being able to access their appropriate medicines and care. 

Food insecurity

Many children around the world who previously had their only meals provided through educational institutions, have now been left  without. The report estimates that more than 368 million children in about 143 countries are being affected by this, and are having to seek their food and nutrition through alternative means. 

Increased threat to family violence

With heightened stress levels among quarantined families, children could face the brunt and fall victim to family violence, the report warned. They’re also at a risk of witnessing domestic violence, which has been on the rise given many adults are stuck at home with their abusers.

Other advocates working in the field of children’s rights have also raised alarm bells about the issue. 
In response to the policy brief released on Thursday, international NGO Save the Children agreed with the Secretary General’s concerns and highlighted different ways in which this abuse is carried out.

“Social disruption and high stress at home can have a deep impact on children, and millions of them now face an increased risk of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation,” Janti Soeripto, president and CEO of Save the Children, said in a statement on Thursday.

“Families stricken by poverty often see no alternative to marrying off their daughters or putting their children to work just to survive,” she added.

Digital access

With children unable to physically attend schools, many are have had to go online for learning, which requires various digital tools. However, disparity in this access means that not everybody can receive the same level of training.

• Only 30 percent of low-income countries have been able to ensure digital training for their students.

There is also gender disparity as more boys have access to digital technology than girls, which makes it fundamentally more difficult for girls to attain their education this way. The report expressed concern that this might, in the long run, lead to girls dropping out of school, and also would increase the risk of teen pregnancy.

Risks online

While many children are accessing their lessons and staying connected with friends online, this too can expose them to a different set of risks altogether.

“School closures and strict containment measures mean more and more families are relying on technology and digital solutions to keep children learning, entertained and connected to the outside world,” Dr. Howard Taylor, executive director of the Global Partnership to End Violence, said in a statement on Wednesday, “but not all children have the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to keep themselves safe online.”

The Partnership, in collaboration with the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other rights organisations, released a report detailing the layers of this issue and pointing out ways in which different stakeholders can do their part in ensuring safety of children now that they have an increased presence online.

The report points out that children are more likely to exhibit riskier behaviour online or “outreach to new contacts” at a time when they have limited access for socialising. This means they’re more prone to be at a risk of grooming by online predators, being cyber-bullied, being manipulated into sharing content such as sexually explicit photos which would later be used for extortion methods.

While these are all matters of concern, it’s governments and family members that can play a crucial role in protecting children from these issues.

The UNICEF report recommended that governments must make sure that child protective services be open and accessible; technology companies should make sure their services are built in secure manners that don’t compromise the child users’ data; and parents should be vigilant about keeping antivirus and software updates on their kids’ phones.

The Secretary General further called on social media companies to execute their “special responsibility to protect the vulnerable.”

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Security Council Members Hold Open videoconference meeting in a locked down UN building. Credit: United Nations

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The current financial crisis, triggered as a result of withholding or delaying payment of assessed contributions by Member States, is nothing new to the United Nations.

We have travelled that road quite a few times in recent decades. No reason to panic. The past crises have been somehow resolved in a manner that UN soon went back to business as usual mode.

The discussions and suggestions for avoiding such situations in the future were forgotten very quickly. This is true for the Member States as well as the UN Secretariat leadership. Such forgetfulness and lack of serious attention to lessons learned actually serve narrow parochial interests of both sides.

Tough decisions needed for avoiding future financial and liquidity crises needed genuine engagement of all sides, yes, ALL sides, in particular the major “assessed” contributors.

Today’s financial and liquidity crisis is not caused by recent withholding of payments by a few major contributors for political reasons. Outstanding contributions for UN’s regular budget have reached $2.27 billion this month.

Peacekeeping operations also face increasing liquidity pressure as the outstanding contributions for that area are approximately $3.16 billion. These accumulations have been building up for some years.

Why no extra effort was made by all sides well ahead of time to avoid the current panic? The situation has now got complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Inherent parochial approaches prevalent in any reform exercise for financial, budgetary and administrative areas ensured that no meaningful efforts were possible.

For a forward movement in this regard we need to duly and urgently address much-needed reforms necessary in both intergovernmental decision-making processes as well as mandatory streamlining measures for the UN Secretariat.

The intergovernmental process of UN always reflects the positions and attitude of the governments in power towards the UN system as a whole in general and how they undertake their respective UN Charter obligations in particular.

One of those includes payment of all assessed UN contributions “on time, in full and without any condition”.

Since 1980s, another emerging political dimension of the liquidity crisis has been manifested in paying a big price by UN agreeing to the undue and unrelated conditions whenever the part(s) of withheld contributions were released by the Member State(s) concerned.

This has the debilitating effect of undermining the independent and universal mandate of UN. As in the past, this time the UN management is warning about possible cutting of programmes of work only.

That is supposed to be an area of concern for the Member States because those programmes were decided by them in the UN General Assembly by consensus – with the support of all 193 Members States.

Such cutback of programmes of work would particularly setback the UN activities in the most vulnerable countries, like the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, which are appropriately the main focus of UN’s support to these target nations.

In his letter to Member States on 28 January 2020, UN Secretary-General “drew attention to the risk of insufficient cash to implement the programme of work for 2020”.

He reiterated the same point in his recent-most letter of 1 April 2020 “to Member States to raise the alarm about the deteriorating liquidity situation and inform them that he is once again compelled to implement additional measures that may hinder mandate delivery”.

Also, it needs to be remembered that in facing the past financial crises as the one is being faced now, the regular staff salary has never been affected negatively.

In view of its mission and mandate, unlike the private sector, UN staff has not lost any part of their salary and other benefits, like medical insurance and pension contributions.

That means whether the programme of work and mandate delivery is negatively affected by the financial crisis, the staff salary and other entitlements would continue unaffected.

That point is underlined by the UN management in its internal advisory of 1 April conveying a series of measures to manage expenditures and liquidity “to ensure that all Secretariat operations in headquarters and the field can continue, that salaries and entitlements can be paid on time, and other financial obligations met without delays”.

If the liquidity crisis keeps on affecting the work of the UN and its mandate delivery, the UN staff as a privileged part of the humanity should join in making creative efforts placing interest of the world body ahead of their sacrifice.

One such measure could be for UN staff to allow UN to withhold 20% of their monthly salary to offset the impact of the current liquidity crisis in the coming months.

When the liquidity situation gets better, say in six months time, the 20% would be paid back. UN Secretary-General and his Senior Management Team should lead by example by announcing that they would so voluntarily.

It was so energizing to learn that on 14 April, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, ministers in her government and public service chief executives agreed to take a 20% pay cut for the next six months amid the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global pandemic, in addition to the health aspects of the virus, has financial, socio-economic and developmental consequences.

UN management mentioned on 1 April in its advisory that “although the immediate impact of the move to alternate working conditions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to reductions in travel, contractual services and general operating expenses across all budgets, we also anticipate new demands upon our operations and services as we respond to the global health crisis.”

UN Secretariat should brace itself to perform its global responsibilities in a high-spirited way and in an effective and efficient manner. No more business as usual.

The humanity is trying to cope with the threat and its multidimensional impact as best it can.

Why not a new UN should emerge out of the crisis inspired by the full and true internalization of its mission to transform our planet and its people to create a better world for all in a positive and meaningful way?

The post UN Faces Financial & Liquidity Crisis as Global Pandemic Rages appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN (2002-2007), Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN (1996-2001) and Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee (1997-1998)

The post UN Faces Financial & Liquidity Crisis as Global Pandemic Rages appeared first on Inter Press Service.

There have been almost 1,000 deaths and more than 18,000 infections across Africa so far.

Kenyan nurses wear protective gear during a demonstration of preparations for any potential coronavirus cases at the Mbagathi Hospital, isolation centre for the disease, in Nairobi. Credit: Quartz Africa March 2020

By Paul Polman, Myriam Sidibe and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is “a defining moment for modern society. History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family.”

Governments, the private sector, and development institutions need to come together in innovative ways not just to flatten the curve of infection and mitigate the economic disruption, but also to prepare for the new normal of the post-Covid world in Africa and the rest of the world.Greater partnership between the public and private sectors is going to be critical. The fight to flatten the coronavirus curve is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism and especially for multilateralism.

As Covid-19 continues to spread sickness and death, Africa has so far escaped the worst effects. The continent’s lagging health care infrastructure, however, makes it highly vulnerable if the virus reachesthe high-velocity community transmission we have seen in Italy, Spainand New York.Not only are health systems delicate,but crucial medical supplies are far from sufficient, and social protections as a whole are weak.

With the health crisis also becoming an economic and soon a social crisis, the continent is under siege.Many companies are struggling through the economic slowdown, with tourism and smaller enterprises the most challenged. With bankruptcy and job losses looming, many families are already reducing spending and consumption. In the absence of significant fiscal stimulus – which few African countries can afford anyway – some projections are cutting the continent’s GDP growth in 2020 by as much as eight percentage points.

L to R: The co-authors Myriam Sidibe, Siddharth Chatterjee, Paul Polman join the First Lady of Kenya, Ms Margaret Kenyatta, in Nairobi, Kenya at an event. Credit: UNFPA Kenya, 24 Jun 2016

No one knows for sure what is ahead, with scenarios changing daily as new information comes through. Many firms are focused on business continuity, employee safety and simply survival and lack the luxury of assisting external stakeholders. But it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck response, both to flatten the curve of infections and keep businesses resilient, and to be ready to restart as physical distancing ends. More than ever before, the private sector needs to deploy its full capabilities to innovate and bring positive, sustainable change – to help secure strong markets in the future.

There are several areas where private sector support is essential. Current priorities include unified communication platforms to enable populations to practice the needed preventative behaviours (washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing physical distancing), as well as managing stocks of essential materials, test kits, ventilators and oxygen and PPE. Support would also include protecting the most vulnerable people from the economic effects of the pandemic, especially where curfews are enforced.

This is also a unique opportunity to challenge sceptics, in both the not-for-profits and for-profit sectors, with a new blueprint of collaboration. The World Health Organisation has issued guidelines on engaging the private sector as part of a whole-of-society response to the pandemic and has signed an iconic partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce. The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have also launched a public-private partnership known as the Africa Covid-19 Response Fund, which raises resources to prevent transmission and support sustainable medical responses.

In Kenya the national government has led the charge in fighting Covid-19 by rapidly scaling up a large array of public health interventions and putting into force social interaction rules. To complement the government’s preparedness and response efforts for the next six months, the United Nations, together with humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisationslaunched a flash appeal seeking over US$267 million to respond to the critical needs of 10 million of the country’s most vulnerable people.

So far the pandemic has not been the finest hour for international cooperation. But the role of the UN and the private sector has never been more critical as an enabler of multisectoral partnerships for deliveries, and also to keep the focus on the most vulnerable that these partnerships need to reach.

In Kenya, and under the leadership of the Government, the UN has built a model to catalyse public private action: the SDG Partnership Platform. It is a tested instrument for engagement that has brought together a variety of private players in previous initiatives to co-create and rapidly deploy with government large-scale shared-value solutions to address the challenges our societies and planet are facing. It is through such a mechanism,for example,that the UN mobilized the private sector to carry out a maternal mortality reduction campaign in Kenya’s north-eastern counties, one that was recognised as a global best practice.

Kenya’s National Business Compact on Coronavirus, a gathering of companies aimedat accelerating local action and supporting governmental efforts against the pandemic, got successfully off the ground with the help of the UN SDG Partnership Platform, and champions from private sector and civil society.

The Kenyan model of cooperation could take shape all over Africa. Such models allow governments to foster an ecosystem of purposeful partnerships; to amplify private-sector philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and policy advocacy for national mitigation; and to accelerateshared-value partnerships. It also allows the UN to play its role as a neutral broker, and steer a much-needed balance between lethargic action on one hand and misdirected reactions on the other.

This may well be the blueprint needed to fight the next global pandemic,whose speed and fury could surpass what we are witnessing now.

Paul Polman is co-founder of IMAGINE, Chair of the International Chambers of Commerce and former CEO of Unilever

Myriam Sidibe is a Senior Fellow at Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School

Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator of Kenya

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.

Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. I think, some experts have said, it’s the virus that will decide.”

Still, there are several other lingering questions which remain unanswered– specifically against the backdrop of a severe new cash crisis threatening the survival of the UN and aggravated by a global economic meltdown.

If the crisis continues, will there be staff layoffs in a country where more than 22 million people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.?

In New York city alone – host to the United Nations – it is estimated that 475,000 jobs will be lost by March 2021, and nearly 60,000 workers in the New York’s five boroughs will be out of work before July this year, according to a report last week from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Among some of the questions raised by staffers: how long can the UN keep its staff on its payroll while the Organization is fast running out of cash– and is on an austerity drive freezing new recruitment?

If there are salary cuts, will they start at the top with senior management (as is done in several private sector firms in the US). Or will it start at the bottom?

And, equally important question by staffers: will medical coverage be affected?

As things stand, if UN staffers are laid off, they are unlikely to qualify for unemployment benefits from New York State because the UN is an international organization with its own independent status.

Meanwhile, will the global economic recession have a direct or an indirect impact on the estimated $53 billion UN Pension Fund on which UN retirees survive? What was the reason, for the sudden resignation of a senior official, which is being kept under wraps?

And what is the future of educational grants staffers are entitled to?

Credit: United Nations

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS the UN was in bad shape financially long before this pandemic hit the Organization.

“We know member states are now under tremendous pressure but they still must step up and fulfill their obligations.”

If there are to be furloughs of staff, it should be the very last step taken by the organization, and done across all levels of staff and management, he argued.

“In any case, the Organization must continue to pay their medical insurance. It should not be cut as it is more necessary now than ever.”

Candusso also pointed out that UN staff in New York were never eligible for unemployment insurance.

“I don’t know if the current law passed by the US Congress makes UN staff eligible for any benefits,” he said.

In a letter to 92 heads of departments, regional commissions, special political missions and peacekeeping operations, Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, says contributions for regular budget assessments have “sharply declined” in the first quarter of 2020 relative to earlier years, and the payment of assessments by the 193 member states currently stands at 42 percent compared to 50 percent by this time in earlier years.

This has resulted in a collection gap of more than $220 million while outstanding contributions for regular budget have reached $2.27 billion, said Pollard.

As a result, the UN has decided to temporarily suspend all hiring for regular budget vacancies and limit all non-post expenses while postponing all discretionary spending unless it is directly and immediately linked to ongoing mandated activities—activities approved by the General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy making body.

Pollard also said that even peacekeeping operations face increasing liquidity pressure with outstanding contributions amounting to $3.16 billion.

Ian Richards, a UN Staff representative and former President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS there are a number of factors at play, and for this reason, it is too early to draw hard conclusions.

“Yes, governments have had to devote a lot of resources to trying to mitigate the impact of the crisis within their borders, and for some countries, money is limited.”

“But many also realise that efforts to fight this global pandemic at home and abroad are only as strong as the world’s weakest health systems and economies –and the world’s most vulnerable populations”.

“So. we are seeing aid budgets being redirected to this area,” he noted.

The UN’s ability to position itself in this area and demonstrate the importance of international coordination, is key to securing funding stability.

“Staff are certainly worried, but we all have a role to play here”, said Richards .

“At the same time, we need to be vigilant about vulnerable staff, such as those on temporary or uber-style contracts, falling through the gaps”.

“The Secretary-General has made assurances to protect a great many of them, but they are also the most impacted by the postponement of conferences and other activities,” he said.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Department of Public Information (now re-christened Department of Global Communications) told IPS “unprecedented times require unprecedented creative handling”.

Focus on essential staff is crucial for the U.N. to survive when member states, particularly those unabashedly failing to pay their assessed dues, avert minimum required action.

He pointed out that many U.N. programmes and Funds, like UNDP, UNICEF,UNHCR and UNRWA depend on voluntary contributions.

Certain governments which are not even paying their mandatory dues may use the global virus as a pretext to avoid or delay payments.

The Secretary General who is trying his best called for ceasefire in conflicts but with limited results. And peacekeeping operations are increasingly vulnerable, said Sanbar.

Staff face risk of catching the virus working in close proximity while not getting adequate payment– let alone required per diem, he said.

Sanbar said countries contributing troops are more likely to focus on their internal needs while staff representatives who would normally meet to co-ordinate and propose action are limited by home confinement.

“Let us hope the obvious threat in varied forms inspires unity of thought and action among leadership and staff of all the U.N. system,” he declared.

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS the liquidity crisis has been lingering for more than a year and major contributors should not be allowed to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to continue withholding their dues.

A strong and functional UN is in the best interest of all member states and the world community, he said.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post As US Unemployment Hits a Staggering 22 Million, Will UN Layoffs Be Far Behind? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

By David Lewis
LONDON, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

Contagion is a 2011 film by US director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Che) that has proved very popular viewing during the first few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis. Set in a fictional global pandemic – modelled on the outbreak of a bat-borne Nipah virus identified in 1999 that killed around 100 people in Malaysia – the film is a tightly-written topical drama with a great castthat includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle.

David Lewis

In the film, the Paltrow character returns to the US from a business trip from Hong Kong, and begins the spread of a deadly infection. The authorities are slow to understand the implications of the virus. As it spreads across the world scientists try to find a vaccine and societies struggle to contain the social and economic consequences.

When it was originally released, Contagion drew praise for the unusual efforts made by its writers and director to ‘get the science right’. More recently, with the filmmade available on Netflix and shown on ITV, it has attracted further attention for its uncanny parallels with the current crisis.

We argued in our book Popular Representations of Development: Insights from Novels, Films,Television and Social Media, co-edited with Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock, that popular culture provides useful insights into social change and may offer social scientists representations of social reality that can be productive.

I enjoyed the film. It’s well-made and prescient, but perhaps not engaging enough that I’d watch it again. I learned things from it – that ‘social distancing’ has a history, and appreciated the ‘explainer’ that told me what is meant by the ‘R-nought’ of a virus. But what mostly struck me after watching Contagion was how old-fashioned the world it portrayed felt today, and how different the world seemsnow, despite the film being released less than a decade ago.

The movie depicts a post-Cold War international order that is still largely intact. The Global North is in charge, working with the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Geneva, to fight the virus and solve the crisis. US authorities and scientistsare at the forefront of international efforts,in the form of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.If they can’t solve the problem, it seems no one can. Villagers in Hong Kong have to kidnap and hold a WHO scientist hostage to ensure they get access to the vaccine.

Today’s world looks different. Countries like China, Singapore and South Korea have deployed their own scientific expertise, mobilised their publics and adapted governance arrangementsin the face of the pandemic – in apparently effective ways. By comparison, the responses ofBritain, US, Italy and Spain have appeared disorganised and fragile. President Trump has suspended WHO funding.

UNDP’s 2013 report The Rise of the South: Human Progress In a Diverse World drew attention to the changing balance of global power, where it was no longer useful to understand ‘development’ throughits traditional framing as the Global North trying to influence the Global South. ‘Increasingly the North needs the South’, the report pointed out.The coronavirus crisis has made this decentred, multipolar world of even more apparent and highlights the urgency with which all countries need to cooperate, share ideas, and learn from each other in ways that transcend the old binaries.

The Covid-19 crisis has dramatically highlighted the extent of inequality and poverty within and between countries that has been allowed to increase under neoliberalism. It also shows us the catastrophic consequences of the extreme pressures that we have placed on the natural environment through our unsustainable food systems and consumption practices.

The world is more interconnected, and many commentators on the current crisis emphasise the need for multilateral action. Recent trends towards populist isolation and protectionism have not only made international cooperation to deal effectively with borderless pandemics more difficult, but have also led to an increased questioning of the value of science, the austerity driven decline of public research capacity, and the rise of a populist distrust in experts.‘One thrill of the movie is its belief in solution-driven competence’, wrote Wesley Morris in the The New York Times, highlighting another way in which the movie highlights how far things have changed.

The crisis may, as some have claimed, reinforce the trend towards isolationism and a retreat from globalization. Yet the coronavirusresponse has also promoted a resurgence of community solidarity, volunteering and mutual support. The challenge now is to press national governments into forms of international cooperation that can support this new localism and build a better future.

There are some who see the chance for the sort of reconfiguration of priorities and institutions that came in Britain after World War 2, with a new progressive domestic role for state intervention and an appetite for rebuilding global institutions. As UN Secretary General António Guterres has said: ‘we must act together to slow the spread of the virus and look after each other.This is a time for prudence, not panic. Science, not stigma. Facts, not fear.’

Contagion is a film that entertains, informs and helps to bring these urgent new priorities into even sharper focus.

This story was first published on the London School of Economics (LSE) blog.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The Guangzhou authorities deny their actions have been racist, but admit that all African nationals have been tested.

A selection of the best photos from across the continent this week.

The photo, taken by Yasuyoshi Chiba, shows a protester reciting poetry.

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. Experts are concerned about the spread of coronavirus if these refugees are housed in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. 

Bangladesh coast guards reported rescuing 382 Rohingyas, including many women and children, who were starving and stuck on a boat as they were trying to reach Malaysia, the BBC reported on Thursday. 

Coast guard spokesman Lt Shah Zia Rahman told AFP news agency that they were on “a big overcrowded fishing trawler” and were brought to a beach near Teknaf. 

In the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic — on Mar. 26 Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus — this rescue effort poses particular concerns about potential coronavirus cases and/or it being spread in the camps, where people remain at extremely high risk of contracting and spreading the disease. 

The Bangladesh government also closed the 34 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district on Apr. 8, allowing only medical aid and essential food into the camps.

Latest figures show that the country has just over 1,500 reported cases of the coronavirus and 60 deaths.

“They have not been moved to any refugee camps, they’re getting the medical attention that they need,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, told IPS on Thursday.

“The survivors, who include a large number of women and children are all in weak physical condition, many dehydrated and malnourished and in need of immediate medical attention,” Dujarric said at a press briefing on Thursday. 

A photo shared on social media by the Rohingya Women’s Education Initiative showed a large group of people, all sitting extremely closely. IPS was not able to independently verify if this photo was of the rescued refugees. 

Dujarric also added that according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), those on board said about 30 more refugees may have died while on the ship because of lack of food, water, and fuel. 

Citing reports and rumours where people have reportedly said the refugees have tested positive for coronavirus, he said there is currently no evidence to substantiate these claims. 

Even though there are currently no positive cases of coronavirus among the rescued refugees, he said they’re “being watched medically”. 

Other advocates have also raised concerns about the refugees being rescued especially under current circumstances. 

Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, lauded the Bangladeshi government for taking the refugees into the country, but called for authorities to ensure proper care for those rescued. 

“Given the ordeal they have passed through, adrift on the sea for two months, they need to be provided with immediate medical attention and adequate food and shelter,” he said in a statement.

“At a time when there are fears that COVID-19 could strike the densely populated and poorly resourced Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar,” he added, “there’s also a need for the authorities to ensure that the rescued refugees are protected from the spread of the virus and will receive medical attention if they need it.”

Advocates have been sounding the alarm for how the coronavirus crisis will affect South Asian countries, given living situations where many often live together in close quarters. 

Currently, about more than one million refugees are living in the camps in Bangladesh, a large number of whom arrived during the latest exodus in 2017, fleeing the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown on the community. 

On Thursday, in response to the Associated Press’ query about whether the U.N. will call on the Myanmar government to respond, Dujarric further reiterated Guterres’ recent plea for a ceasefire on all areas of conflict under the current coronavirus threat, given that can further exacerbate the current situation especially for vulnerable communities, putting them further at risk of contracting the disease.  

 

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