Africa

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Manu Dibango, whose Soul Makossa filled New York dance floors, died this week at the age of 86.

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Rebels in Cameroon join other armed groups around the world calling for ceasefires to tackle Covid-19.

Zimbabwe's Mashonaland East province. Perennial dry conditions have also seen Zimbabwe struggle with annual wild fires that have destroyed large tracts of land and damaged the soil, effectively providing the right conditions for turning parts of the country into mini deserts.Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Mar 27 2020 (IPS)

“I have never planted a tree in my life,” laughs Jairos Saunyama, a tobacco farmer, revelling at the absurdity of the question of whether he is involved in the country’s afforestation efforts. Sawunyama is one of thousands of farmers who are blamed by local conservationists for turning the country’s forests into deserts and dust bowls.

Tobacco farmers use firewood to cure their product but this has come at a price for the country’s commitments to such international agreements as the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

• This southern African nation is signatory to the UNCCD. Last September, it sent a delegation to the 14th Conference of Parties to the UNCCD in New Delhi, India, which focused on drought, land tenure, ecosystem restoration, and climate change, among other things.

The country’s challenges with land degradation and desertification are not solely limited to small scale farmers. Wood fuel provides 61 percent of total energy supply, with 96 percent of the country’s rural households dependent on wood for fuel, according to a 2018 country report.

• The report also noted, “land degradation and drought are key drivers of forests and biodiversity loss while climate change leads to increased rainfall variability and in the case of Zimbabwe this often results in severe droughts.”

Perennial dry conditions have also seen Zimbabwe struggle with annual wild fires that have destroyed large tracts of land and damaged the soil, effectively providing the right conditions for turning parts of the country into mini deserts.

• Last year alone, the country recorded more than 1,000 wild fires spreading over 1 million hectares of both arable land and forest cover, according to Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency (EMA).

The UNCCD describes desertification as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors including climatic variation and human activity. It affects the livelihoods of rural people in drylands, particularly the poor, who depend on livestock, crops, limited water resources and fuel wood.”

The description summarises the dilemma Zimbabwe finds itself in as in recent years the country has experienced an escalation of problems that has given rise to the degradation of the environment.

In addition to the wild fires, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has also identified intensive cultivation and overgrazing as major causes of land degradation and desertification in Zimbabwe.

However, while it has appeared difficult to address these issues because of what FAO says is a “high proportion of the local communities depending on the land for their sustenance,” an ambitious afforestation programme could just be what will help Zimbabwe meet its multilateral obligations to address desertification and deforestation.

As part of the country’s broader efforts to address these challenges, the Sustainable Afforestation Association (SAA), formed by the country’s tobacco merchants in 2013, last year made commitments to plant at least 9 million eucalyptus trees annually after what was seen as the wanton destruction of woodlands by tobacco farmers and wild fires.

• Zimbabwe loses more than 330,000 hectares of forests through forest fires and deforestation annually, according to the Forestry Commission, a government body in charge of policing and protecting the country’s forest resources.

“Zimbabwe’s forest and woodland resources cover 45 percent down from 53 as at 2014 of the country’s total land area. Of the 45 percent, communal areas take 43 percent, resettlement and private land 24 percent and gazetted land including national parks 33 percent. Already this points to major deforestation,” Violet Makoto, the Forestry Commission spokesperson, tells IPS.

SAA says the initiative to plant 9 million eucalyptus trees and other drought-tolerant tree species is an attempt at conservation and “rejuvenating indigenous and commercial forests”.

“We have has selected varieties of eucalyptus which we believe are suitable for a particular area. Factors taken into account include climatic suitability, soils, disease resistance and growth rate,” Andrew Mills, SAA director tells IPS.

While Zimbabwe’s UNCCD focal point could not provide IPS with comment, Zimbabwe has made commitments to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030 and also restore 10 percent or up to 4 million hectares of forests.

• According to the UNCCD, LDN is a “state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.”

However, government officials in Zimbabwe concede that achieving this remains a tall order.

“The issue [of land degradation] is beyond the country’s desire to meet obligations under the various multilateral environment agreements but is now a serious national concern. Enforcement of the law needs to be up-scaled if we are to get anywhere,” says Washington Zhakata, a director in the lands, agriculture, water, climate and rural resettlement ministry’s climate change department, tells IPS.

Mills agrees.

“Part of the problem with deforestation is that there has been no serious attempt to combat it. The laws are there, but there has been no real effort to enforce the law,” Mills says.

SAA’s efforts complement the government’s own programmes, which include a national tree planting day each first Saturday of December — a day Saunyama says he has never heard of — as well as conducting “education and awareness raising for LDN for policy makers, legislators, land users and general public” and “linking land degradation neutrality to the country’s developmental, employment creation and poverty reduction strategies”.

But as World Desertification and Drought Day approaches this June, these commitments seem a tough ask as challenges mount against  Zimbabwe’s undertaking to protect the environment.

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The post Zimbabwe’s Afforestation Challenge appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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Normally bustling streets in cities across India were mostly deserted as the country observed the shutdown. Credit: UN India

By N Chandra Mohan
NEW DELHI, Mar 27 2020 (IPS)

The exigencies of combatting the coronavirus pandemic on a war-footing — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a nationwide stay-at-home lockdown for 21 days to break the chain of transmission — has certainly deflected attention from equally pressing challenges confronting India. The nation’s capital witnessed horrific communal violence when the US President was visiting India, triggering international outrage, including from the South. The economy also deserves attention as growth has been decelerating since 2016-17. With the virus shock, the pace of expansion will contract as the economy shuts down and slides into recession.

This trinity of a public health problem, social disharmony and economic slowdown “may not only rupture the soul of India but also diminish our global standing as an economic and democratic power”, wrote former PM Dr Manmohan Singh in The Hindu. Many countries in the South looked up to India as a vibrant democracy with its unique diversity of peoples and cultures. Not any more as many voiced criticism over the riots, which left over 53 dead, mostly Muslims, hundreds of shops, businesses and livelihoods destroyed. Around 1,300 displaced Muslims sought refuge in a prayer ground located in north-east Delhi.

After winning a historic second term in May 2019, the NDA regime has prioritised policies that appeal to its majoritarian support base. The special status of Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped last August, followed by the detention of political leaders and a communications blockade. Farooq and Omar Abdullah were recently released. There are hopes that others will be let out soon. The Delhi violence was a culmination of nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act passed in Parliament in December. This legislation seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted religious minorities, barring Muslims, from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The CAA sparked off misgivings among the 200 million Muslims who comprise 14% of the population together with the combination of the intended National Population Register and National Citizens Register, where documents are needed to prove citizenship. This made them uneasy that they would be disenfranchised. Faced with a backlash — that includes resolutions by many states that they will not implement NPR and NCR — the government has shown signs of relenting, even stating that NCR hasn’t been brought up in the union cabinet! Even as it tackles the virus pandemic, it is however unyielding on CAA.

The reemerging religious and sectarian fault lines in India’s polity not surprisingly occasioned scathing reactions from its allies in the South. For instance, Iran has been a steadfast partner, especially since the presidency of the reformist Mohammad Khatami in the 1990s. But after the Delhi riots, Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif condemned the
“wave of organized violence against Indian Muslims”. Shortly thereafter, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei strongly stated that “The government of India should confront extremist Hindus and stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam.”

Elsewhere in the South, there were protests in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, especially in Medan and Jakarta. The CAA has also left Bangladesh and Afghanistan somewhat concerned over its implication that they persecute minorities in their countries! Matters have also not improved with one of the top NDA leaders referring to the immigrant influx from Bangladesh as “termites”! India sought to allay such concerns stating that CAA is only an internal matter. PM Modi was to visit Dhaka on March 17 but that trip was just as well cancelled due to the virus problem. If it had taken place, there would have been demonstrations.

But every crisis is also an opportunity. India’s heft in the South may have diminished, but dealing with the viral contagion provided PM Modi an opening to reach out to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation after a gap of several years. Due to problems with Pakistan, this grouping receded from his priorities in favour of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. PM Modi’s video conference with SAARC leaders “is a courageous step as it brings this regional institution back into reckoning at a time of calamity” stated Professor Amita Batra of the Jawaharlal Nehru University to IPS.

Dealing with the virus outbreak is also a chance to tackle social disharmony to salvage the growth story. PM Modi must address the sense of alienation among Muslims, assuring them that NPR and NCR will be junked. As Dr Singh noted, every act of sectarian violence is a blemish on Mahatma Gandhi’s India; that social unrest only exacerbates the economic slowdown and complicates efforts to revive growth. So while the country is locked down for 21 days, the rediscovery of a sense of national resolve in fighting the virus must include all sections of the population to address the trinity of challenges. At stake is the idea of India.

(The writer is an economics and business commentator based in New Delhi)

The post India’s Trinity of Challenges appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

By Helge Berger, Kenneth Kang, & Changyong Rhee, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
WASHINGTON DC, Mar 27 2020 (IPS)

The impact of the coronavirus is having a profound and serious impact on the global economy and has sent policymakers looking for ways to respond. China’s experience so far shows that the right policies make a difference in fighting the disease and mitigating its impact—but some of these policies come with difficult economic tradeoffs.

Success in containing the virus comes at the price of slowing economic activity, no matter whether social distancing and reduced mobility are voluntary or enforced.

In China’s case, policymakers implemented strict mobility constraints, both at the national and local level—for example, at the height of the outbreak, many cities enforced strict curfews on their citizens.

But the tradeoff was nowhere as devastating as in Hubei province, which, despite much help from the rest of China, suffered heavily while helping to slow down the spread of the disease across the nation.

This makes it clear that, as the pandemic takes hold across the world, those hit the hardest—within countries but also across countries—will need support to help contain the virus and delay its spread to others.

High costs

The outbreak brought terrible human suffering in China, as it is continuing to do elsewhere, along with significant economic costs. By all indications, China’s slowdown in the first quarter of 2020 will be significant and will leave a deep mark for the year.

What started as a series of sudden stops in economic activity, quickly cascaded through the economy and morphed into a full-blown shock simultaneously impeding supply and demand—as visible in the very weak January-February readings of industrial production and retail sales.

The coronavirus shock is severe even compared to the Great Financial Crisis in 2007–08, as it hit households, businesses, financial institutions, and markets all at the same time—first in China and now globally.

Quick action

Mitigating the impact of this severe shock requires providing support to the most vulnerable. Chinese policymakers have targeted vulnerable households and looked for new ways to reach smaller firms—for example, by waiving social security fees, utility bills, and channeling credit through fintech firms. Other policies can also help.

The authorities quickly arranged subsidized credit to support scaling up the production of health equipment and other critical activities involved in the outbreak response.

Safeguarding financial stability requires assertive and well-communicated action. The past weeks have shown how a health crisis, however temporary, can turn into an economic shock where liquidity shortages and market disruptions can amplify and perpetuate.

In China, the authorities stepped in early to backstop interbank markets and provide financial support to firms under pressure, while letting the renminbi adjust to external pressures.

Among other measures, this included guiding banks to work with borrowers affected by the outbreak; incentivizing banks to lend to smaller firms via special funding from China’s central bank; and providing targeted cuts to reserve requirements for banks.

Larger firms, including state-owned enterprises, enjoyed relatively stable credit access throughout—in large part because China’s large state banks continued to lend generously to them.

Of course, some of the relief tools come with their own problems. For example, allowing a broad range of debtors more time to meet their financial obligations can undermine financial soundness later on if it is not aimed at the problem at hand and time-limited; subsidized credit can be misallocated; and keeping already non-viable firms alive could hold back productivity growth later.

Clearly, wherever possible, using well-targeted instruments is the way to go.

Not over

While there are reassuring signs of economic normalization in China—most larger firms have reported reopening their doors and many local employees are back at their jobs—stark risks remain. This includes new infections rising again as national and international travel resumes.

Even in the absence of another outbreak in China, the ongoing pandemic is creating economic risks. For example, as more countries face outbreaks and global financial markets gyrate, consumers and firms may remain wary, depressing global demand for Chinese goods just as the economy is getting back to work.

Therefore, Chinese policymakers will have to be ready to support growth and financial stability if needed. Given the global nature of the outbreak, many of these efforts will be most effective if coordinated internationally.

IMF Blog is a forum for the views of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and officials on pressing economic and policy issues of the day. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF and its Executive Board.

The post Coronavirus & Early Lessons from China appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Helge Berger is the IMF's China mission chief, Kenneth Kang is a deputy director in the IMF's Asia & Pacific Department, and Changyong Rhee is director of IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department.

The post Coronavirus & Early Lessons from China appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Police and the army patrol the streets as all but essential movement is banned across the country.

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Emergency room nurses wear face masks at Second People's Hospital of Shenzhen in China. Credit: Man Yi/ UN News

By Martin Jacques
LONDON, Mar 26 2020 (IPS)

During January the onslaught in the Western media, notably the US and the UK, against the Chinese government’s handling of the Covid-19 epidemic, was merciless. The Chinese government stood accused of an inhumane attitude towards its people, secrecy, a cover-up, and an overwhelming concern for its own survival above all other considerations.

The actual evidence was thin bordering at times on the threadbare but this made little difference to the venom and bile of the assault.

Certainly, it seems clear, there was a deliberate attempt to forestall and hinder the necessary timely action in Wuhan, and more widely in Hubei, but with the benefit of hindsight the time lost as a result proved relatively marginal compared with that lost in the West in their belief that it could not possibly happen to them, that China was to blame, and in their failure to learn from China’s experience.

To have used the tragedy of the coronavirus epidemic, with all the deaths, illness and suffering that ensued, as a stick with which to beat the Chinese government – and the Chinese people – was nothing short of a disgrace.

Martin Jacques

When the Chinese needed compassion, support and solidarity, they received ridicule, calumny and barely-concealed racism. One might ask why this was. Western prejudice against China is historically deeply-rooted and continues to influence contemporary Western attitudes.

Over the last few years, however, especially since around 2016, the incidence of China-bashing has become much more common. There has been a growing sense of resentment towards China’s rise, especially and predictably in the US, but elsewhere too, combined with a desire to reassert and restore the old global pecking order and the established economic, political and ethnic hierarchies.

The main subject of China-bashing has been its governing system. The coronavirus epidemic offered, on the surface at least, ideal ground on which to attack China’s governance: it was covering up, it didn’t care, its own survival came first.

How wrong and misconceived these West prejudices proved to be. After initial dithering, hesitation, and wrong-turns, once China grasped the nature and profound dangers that the virus posed for the Chinese people, its approach was nothing short of brilliant, an example and inspiration for all.

For China, we must never forget that it was an entirely new and mysterious challenge. All subsequent countries could learn from China’s experience. China did not even know what the virus was. It had to establish that it was entirely new and work out its genome and its characteristics, which it immediately shared with the world.

And it grasped with remarkable alacrity that the epidemic required the most dramatic measures, including the lockdown not just of Wuhan but all major cities and most of the country, and quarantining the population.

The government understood that life came before the economy. Its extraordinary and decisive leadership met with an equally extraordinary and proactive response from the people: it was a classic case of the government and the people as one.

The results are there for all to see. New cases have been reduced to a trickle. Slowly, step by step, the economy is being rekindled. Bit by bit China is returning to normal. For those wanting to avoid coronavirus, China is fast becoming the safest place on earth.

Indeed, China’s problem is fast becoming visiting foreign tourists suffering from the virus and reintroducing it into their country.

Meanwhile Europe and North America are facing a coronavirus tsunami: Italy is the worst case but others such as Spain, France, Germany and the UK are rapidly following in its slipstream.

Soon the whole of Europe will be engulfed in the epidemic. And America, far from being immune, as President Trump believed, has itself declared a state of emergency to deal with a virus which it dismissed and ignored as a ‘foreign virus’.

The West – and, above all, its people – are destined to pay a huge price for its hubris, its belief that coronavirus was a Chinese problem that could never become a Western problem. Too late, alas, having wasted all the time that China gave them, all the knowledge that China had acquired on how to tackle the virus, Western governments are now faced with a fearful challenge.

Back in January they accused the Chinese government of wasting a fortnight; now it is revealed to the world that Western governments wasted a minimum of two and a half months.

The tide has turned. In the greatest health crisis for one hundred years, China’s governance has risen to the challenge and delivered a mortal blow to coronavirus.

In contrast, Western governance has proven to be blinded by its own hubris, unable to learn from China until far too late, ill-equipped to grasp the kind of radical action that is required of it. Trump is still largely in denial, while the UK government is acting far too late.

I cannot think of any other example which so patently reveals the sheer competence and capacity of Chinese governance and the inferiority and infirmity of Western governance. In their hour of need, the latter has let their peoples down.

Meanwhile the Western criticism of China has fallen almost, but not quite entirely, silent. They have no alternative, as Italy shows, but to learn from China’s draconian measures.

What else can they do? China has succeeded. They have, in truth, nowhere else to turn. Learn from China they must. But for many it is a bitter pill to swallow.

The wheels of history are turning, irresistibly, towards China. And China must respond in humility by offering all the assistance and experience it can offer the West.

 

This story was originally published here

 

Martin Jacques  is a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and Fudan University, Shanghai. Until recently, he was a Senior Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University, and was previously a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at IDEAS, a centre for diplomacy and grand strategy at the London School of Economics. He was also a Fellow of the Transatlantic Academy, Washington DC.

Martin Jacques is the author of the global best-seller When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order.

 

The post Chinese vs. Western Governance: The case of COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Doctor Khalishwayo, a traditional healer in the Shiselweni Region, in southern Eswatini, distributes HIV Self-Test Kits to his clients to get more people to know their status. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Mar 26 2020 (IPS)

Doctor Khalishwayo is a traditional healer based in Nhlangano, a town in the Shiselweni Region, in southern Eswatini. His clients are people who consult him when they are suffering from different ailments. And he in turn diagnoses them using divine methods.

“But as a traditional healer, there are certain things that I can’t see,” Khalishwayo told IPS, adding, “I can’t tell whether a client is infected with HIV or TB.”

He is one of the eight traditional healers in the region who are distributing HIV Self-Test Kits to their clients to get more people to know their status.

This is an initiative by the NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Traditional healers were trained on the role they can play in curbing the spread of HIV and TB by encouraging their clients to get an HIV test.

• Eswatini continues to have the highest HIV prevalence in the world.
• TB remains the main AIDS opportunistic disease in the country with the HIV/TB coinfection at 84 percent, according to the 2009 National TB Programme report.

Before the training,Khalishwayo did not encourage his clients to test for HIV because, he said, he felt that it was not his place.

“Besides, traditional healers were not involved in the response against HIV/AIDS,” said Khalishwayo. Each traditional healer received 50 kits to distribute within a period of six months.

Singaphi Mngomezulu, another traditional healer, said they learnt from the training that some people with AIDS-related illnesses and TB may present with symptoms of people who have been “bewitched”.

“Some people come to us with mental illnesses in such that makes one believe that they’re possessed with demons,” said Mngomezulu. “I learnt that AIDS and TB symptoms can affect the brain.”

In the past, he said, he did not have the knowledge and could not advise clients to also seek medical attention.

The involvement of traditional healers is one of the country’s efforts to accelerate the response against HIV/AIDS. 

A few years ago, HIV incidence decreased by almost half – at 44 percent – among the age group of 18 to 49 years. These are results of the 2016/17 2nd Swaziland HIV Incidence Measurement Survey (SHIMS2).

• SHIMS2 also states that the country made significant progress towards achieving the United Nations 90-90-90 target. This is an ambitious call for countries to ensure that, by 2020, 90 percent of people who live with HIV know their status, 90 percent of diagnosed cases receive Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) and 90 percent of those on ART have viral suppression.
• So far, Eswatini has achieved 85-87-92.

Despite this progress, SHIMS2 found that HIV testing is generally low among men compared to women. Moreover, younger women are having sex with older men who infect them and, in turn, they pass on the virus to their peers.

“It is for that reason that we had to target the men because unfortunately don’t like to go to health facilities,” said Muhle Dlamini, the programme manager at Eswatini HIV Programme (SNAP).

Dlamini also said the government had introduced the kits to target hard-to-reach populations including those who are far from testing centres.   

“Men fall under the hard-to-reach category because they don’t visit health facilities,” said Dlamini. 

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of mission to Eswatini, Dr Bernhard Kerschberger, says it is a good strategy to raise awareness of HIV testing by involving traditional healers. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MSF saw this as a good strategy to also raise awareness among traditional healers, said the head of mission to Eswatini, Dr. Bernhard Kerschberger. The kits though are not exclusively for men, and women were also given them if they want to be tested.

“As MSF we asked the Ministry of Health if we could include traditional healers in distributing the kits to clients who might benefit and they agreed,” said Kerschberger.

Each kit has easy-to-follow instructions and, if a person tests positive, a client is encouraged to visit a health facility for confirmation after which treatment can be initiated.

“There is no official link between the traditional healer and health facility but the kit is used to help in identifying clients who might need to go to the facility for HIV/TB services,” he said.

He said this is a research project that would establish if using traditional healers to reach people who are not accessible through the routine healthcare system is a viable option.

Within a period of six months, he said, a total of 80 kits were distributed and, of these, 14 percent were screened to be HIV-positive cases.

“The most important thing was that traditional healers appreciated that HIV cannot be cured by them and that they have to refer their clients to health facilities,” said Kerschberger.

He said one of the groups that the government utilised to distribute the kits were rural health motivators but men were not receptive because of the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in the communities.

“That’s why we decided to involve the traditional healers because they are trusted by their clients and they approach them from a safe space. However, we discovered that women are almost half the people who see traditional healers,” he said. 

This research could lead to a better working relationship between the Ministry of Health and traditional healers in the response against HIV/AIDS.

 

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It is hoped more militias will follow suit to allow people to get medical treatment amid the pandemic.

South Africa will go into a 21-day lockdown against the coronavirus at midnight on 26 March.

About 2,000 Nepalis are among foreign workers quarantined in a camp between streets 1-32 of the Industrial Area near Doha that has been closed off for two weeks.

By Upasana Khadka
KATHMANDU, Mar 26 2020 (IPS)

Nepali workers in Qatar who have been quarantined in a camp that has been closed off for two weeks say that aside from concerns about jobs and health, they are now also worried about their families back home.

That anxiety increased after the government announced a weeklong nationwide lockdown starting Tuesday after a second Nepali had tested positive for COVID-19.

“The life of a pardeshi family is that they worry about us and we worry about them,” says a migrant worker in Qatar in a camp between streets 1-32 of the Industrial Area near Doha that has been closed off for two weeks.

Nepali workers in Qatar are critical of the government back home not allowing Nepali workers into the country, and say an alternative would be to let them in with strict testing and monitoring

“The Qatar government has gone out of its way to ensure that we receive timely updates including in languages we understand,” the worker said over the phone. There is a hotline to call if any worker shows any symptoms. A few workers had been taken away in an ambulance for tests after they showed symptoms like fever.

“Luckily, it was seasonal flu and they were sent back after being tested negative. Authorities are on high alert,” the worker said.

None of the Nepali workers in the phone interviews wanted their names revealed. A worker who lives outside the lockdown area complains about not being asked to practice social distancing.

He says: “I have been in duty since 5 am this morning. They take our temperature before and after work, but is this the best that can be done? I have been lucky with my job, but I travel on the company bus and have to interact with other foreign workers at work.”

He finds it absurd that they have to commute in buses when the official announcements require people to only travel with one person per private vehicle.

“Unless it comes from the government to stop, employers will continue to make us work. We don’t have a choice, but I would be much more comfortable if we were allowed to stay home like the rest,” says the worker, who adds that the nature of his work does not always allow him to practice social distancing.

The number of cases in Qatar on Tuesday reached 501, with 33 patients having recovered. Among the recent seven most recent new infections, two are expatriates.

With social media, active public service announcements from the Qatar government, Nepal Embassy and migrant community leaders, efforts are being made to keep workers updated.

As per a recent survey conducted by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute at the Qatar University, a higher share of Qatari nationals (84%) and white collar expat workers (79%) reported hearing or reading a lot about COVID-19  compared to blue-collar foreign workers (56%).

The major source of information about the pandemic for foreign workers was through Facebook (31%) and word of mouth (23%). For Qataris, television (31%) and Twitter (18%) while for white-collar expats, television (23%) and Facebook (20%) were the major sources of information on COVID-19.

Regarding the economic effect of COVID-19  nearly half of blue-collar workers were very concerned, compared to 36% of white collar expats and 28% of Qataris. The study team suggests the need to provide more accurate information to blue-collar foreign workers to address their high levels of concern.

In terms of precautionary measures, 84% of blue collar workers report regularly washing their hands  66% reported using protective masks while the share using hand sanitisers was lower at 46%.  The survey team emphasised focusing on information dissemination and providing access to precautionary items like hand sanitisers to blue collar workers.

While there has been criticism of governments of destination countries and their crowded living situations that limits social distancing, many Nepalis including those in the quarantined areas of Qatar also give credit to the efforts made by the government there to ensure safety.

Qatar charity recently called for volunteers to help with COVID-19 work, and many Nepalis signed up. “In time like these it is not just up to the government, we have to step up as well, it is our responsibility also,” says another Nepali worker, who is among 17,000 volunteers who have signed up.

Many, however, long to go back to Nepal. “Look, I fully understand that I may be safer here in Qatar than in Nepal,” says one worker in the lockdown area. “But were something to happen to my family back home, would I be happy to be alive? Life would lose its meaning. The longing for family beats any other emotion for me especially during such times.”

Nepali workers in Qatar are critical of the government back home not allowing Nepali workers into the country, and say an alternative would be to let them in with strict testing and monitoring.  Says one: “Our government is supposed to be our guardian, especially during times like this. Qatar has also banned entry of passengers, but nationals are exempted from this restriction.”

Another migrant worker from Argakhanchi says he and his colleagues have been promised their basic salary during the quarantine period, but worries about what to do if the lockdown is prolonged both in Qatar and Nepal.

“The future is so uncertain that I have to plan so many different scenarios,” says the worker. “If I have to go back, will it be to a Nepal that is locked down  or to a Nepal where the disease has spread? I might have to go back to my village, but we Nepalis are strong, it may be difficult for a month or two, but ultimately we will get used to it.”

 

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

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Credit: United Nations

By Abdul Mohammed
SANA’A, Yemen, Mar 26 2020 (IPS)

In every room in Yemen’s Al-Saba’een hospital, patients in critical condition waited on chairs, and still others laid on the bare ground. I saw women and girls sharing beds in pairs, and children laying close together being treated.

This is Sana’a, Yemen’s best-supplied and capital city, on what has become an ordinary day. Coronavirus hasn’t arrived in Yemen yet.

As I watch the destruction that the novel coronavirus is wreaking on wealthy and peaceful countries with developed health systems, I fear for Yemen. If cholera, diphtheria, and malnutrition can overwhelm our war-stricken health system, I can only imagine the devastation that this fast-spreading, uncurable virus could unleash.

The impact of COVID-19 would mirror the impact of the war to date: no one would be safe, but the most vulnerable would bear a disproportionate share of the burden.

Credit: UNOCHA

The world is now getting a glimpse of the reality we have faced in Yemen for the past five years since war here escalated: life-threatening illness, deepening economic pressure, fewer and worse options for parents and caregivers, and a dizzyingly constant change in routine.

Millions now live in overcrowded shelters, without safe water, proper nutrition or proper health care. The basic steps others are taking to curtail the spread of COVID-19 are virtually impossible here. Should it take hold, the results would be unthinkable.

Public health crises don’t just threaten the well-being of the afflicted; their impacts ripple widely across families and societies. I think about Ahmed, a young man from Ibb, who lost his father to cholera, and then was suddenly thrust into the role of sole provider and caregiver for his entire family.

“I am not ready for this,” he shared in desperation. Feeling ill-equipped but required to take on extraordinary responsibilities – and with little time for grief or sentiment – is one that most Yemenis can identify with.

As we mark five years since a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition intervened and escalated the war in our country, we find ourselves defenseless against even basic maladies like diphtheria and cholera. These stone-age pathogens are held at bay in most societies by taking basic public health measures, drinking safe water, and eating nutritious food.

But parties to this on-going fighting since 2015 – have damaged or destroyed more than half of Yemen’s hospitals and other health facilities through bombing and shelling. The fighting has destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure in an already water-poor country, leaving more than two-thirds of the country with only unsafe water to drink.

As a result, Yemen now has the unenviable distinction of having experienced the world’s worst diphtheria outbreak in 30 years and the largest cholera outbreak ever recorded.

Even when it comes to critical patients who can be saved, this protracting war shown no mercy. Tens of thousands of Yemenis with life-threatening but manageable conditions have sought medical treatment abroad.

But the Saudi-led coalition, which has controlled Yemeni airspace on behalf of Yemen’s recognized government, has shut down commercial air traffic in and out of Sana’a. Only this year did the government and coalition consent to allow a long-promised medical air bridge to Cairo. 24 patients have been transported thus far. Tens of thousands have died waiting.

Credit: United Nations

Millions of Yemenis have already been forced from their homes, some of them multiple times to escape violence or pursue scarce opportunities for work. But even basic sanitation and health care in camps for displaced people are often unavailable.

Even with a massive aid response, as the conflict continues, we are fighting a rising tide. It goes without saying that in these cramped quarters, where social distancing is a fanciful notion and suppressed immunity the norm, a single infection would lead to countless deaths. The coronavirus epidemic would write new stories of suffering in Yemen’s already long tale of woe.

The conflict in Yemen must end before it claims any more lives. Yemen’s military and political leaders have shown too often these past five years that they are not willing to make even small compromises for the sake of their country and its people.

And the international community, so far, has failed to muster the resolve to demand the ceasefire and political settlement that can bring the life-saving peace that Yemen’s people demand.

With coronavirus knocking on Yemen’s door, we need humanitarian aid to restore our health systems, tackle the diseases currently ravaging our people, and prevent a new catastrophe. We cannot afford to wait for the next crisis to hits.

The post Coronavirus Worsens Yemen’s Long Tale of Woe appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Abdul Mohammed is a humanitarian worker for Oxfam Yemen

The post Coronavirus Worsens Yemen’s Long Tale of Woe appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Ehtesham Shahid
ABU DHABI, Mar 26 2020 (IPS-Partners)

TRENDS Research & Advisory is organizing its first-ever E-Symposium to discuss the global impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and offer insights on the steps needed to mitigate its negative effects worldwide. This will be the first online symposium of its kind to be organized since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Gulf and Middle East region.

To be held on March 31, 2020, at 7 pm UAE time, the E-Symposium – Confronting the Challenges of COVID-19: A New Global Outlook – will provide a unique and innovative online platform for international experts covering medical, geostrategic and economic perspectives.

Panelists will offer insights on the factors behind the emergence of the crisis and will also include a special perspective on how China coped with the initial outbreak of the pandemic and adopted measures and solutions that could offer valuable lessons for other countries.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Ali, the Director General of TRENDS Research & Advisory lauded the Center and its staff for their contributions under these exceptional circumstances. “Harnessing modern technology to hold this E-Symposium will feed into the Center’s ambitious goals of strengthening scientific research and providing policy and decision-makers in the region and around the world,” he said.

The Director General said that ideas and recommendations are needed to deal with the challenge of Covid-19, which has become an existential threat to humanity. Dr. Muhammad Al-Ali expressed his confidence that this international E-Symposium, the first of its kind in the Middle East, will come up with recommendations that enhance the current regional and international efforts to curb the rapid spread of this pandemic.

“The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of more than 12,000 people and infected more than 300,000, in addition to having a calamitous economic and strategic impact on the entire world. Nearly 600 million people in around 22 countries are under forced social quarantine and 400 million under curfew,” he said.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Ali said that think-tanks and research institutes should play their role in supporting governments and countries in today’s circumstances so that we collectively stop this human tragedy by providing workable ideas, recommendations, and solutions.

With the COVID-19 crisis representing a historical milestone for the global community, this symposium performs a critical function in helping its participants identify the continuities and changes expected in the months and years to come.

The E-Symposium will be live-streamed via TRENDS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmaxK85OoRz8E1YaWHo6FQQ

The post TRENDS E-Symposium to Address Post-Corona Globalization Challenges appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Experts from around the world to discuss factors behind the crisis and the steps needed to mitigate its negative effects worldwide

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By UNCCD Press Release
Mar 26 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The international community is developing policy measures and actions to help the people most vulnerable to drought to take early action to avoid loss of life, and the heavy and growing losses of livelihoods and damage to property and ecosystems following droughts.

The Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought (IWG) that is leading this initiative is convening for the first time on 26 March through virtual meetings involving four task teams. The outcomes of the initiative could become effective as early as 2022.

The importance of early warning followed by early action for the most vulnerable people and ecosystems as well as the need for preparedness to respond fast, cannot be over-emphasized.

The IWG’s virtual meeting is taking place after the Group’s first face-to-face meeting, scheduled for 25-27 March in Brussels, Belgium, was suspended following the outbreak and global spread the corona virus, COVID-19.

“Over 70 countries worldwide are affected by drought, and the droughts are spreading to new areas, recurring more often and lasting longer, sometimes stretching over a few years or even decades in some regions. The impacts of these new drought patterns on people, property, infrastructure and ecosystems are unprecedented and are a growing concern for both developed and developing countries,” says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which is facilitating the work of the IWG.

“Half of the global land is projected to be drylands and may be more prone to drought by 2050. The increase in drought disasters is a wake-up call to this threat, especially because some avoidable impacts occur due to late action, and at worst, inaction. The possibility created by the IWG to share experiences and learn from the best examples of mitigating drought is a big step forward,” he adds.

Millions of people are dealing with the prospect of drought at the moment.

In just a few months (April), in a situation reminiscent of the 2015 to 2017 drought, a record 45 million people in Southern Africa may be food insecure, partly due to drought. The World Food Programme needed 489 million United States dollars by February 2020 to help the 8.3 million people that were already food insecure in the region, but had yet to raise half of the required sum.

Droughts destroy food that could feed 81 million people – a population the size of Germany – every day, for a year, according to a recent World Bank report. Drought is also one of the most cited reasons by young people leaving their homes in search of better lives elsewhere, including those migrating to Europe, according to a recent survey of migration patterns in Morocco.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this new inter-governmental initiative. Its value goes beyond the immediate outcomes of saving lives, livestock, rangelands and livelihoods in case of drought. It will improve security in some of the world’s most fragile areas,” Jarso Ibrahim Gollole, a pastoralist and natural resource advisor with Mercycorps in Kenya says about the results expected from the IWG.

“The conflicts that arise among communities living across borders – but also within borders – as they compete, in times of drought, over few and shrinking pastures would be minimized. Also, the influx of communities from neighboring countries seeking to take advantage of the government services set aside for affected communities in Kenya, where drought responses are better, even if they are not perfect, would decrease. A collective approach to managing drought is far better than what we have today,” he added.

Drought and drought impacts are also addressed under the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction processes of the United Nations. But the policy focus on drought is only one among many other disasters, that are more noticeable and get stronger policy actions, especially due to the dramatic nature of their arrival.

Droughts, by contrast, set in slowly and wreak havoc on some of the world’s poorest populations. By focusing only on drought, the IWG is expected to develop concrete, feasible and appropriate global options to address its socio-economic impacts effectively.

“Another world is possible. Drought resilience for countries at varying levels of economic development is possible. Witness the resilience of Ethiopia’s Tigray region to the 2014-2016 drought, the famous water harvesting scheme in Brazil’s north-east region, the Australian drought trust fund that helps farmers and the drought management approach of United States where a Presidential decree is issued early. How drought is managed must change fundamentally,” Thiaw said.

“Drought knows no boundaries, political or sectoral. It is a connector. The work of the IWG can bring much-needed coordination among stakeholders at all levels and rally affected countries to act and work together,” says Daniel Tsegai, the UNCCD’s drought expert in charge of the IWG process.

“Interest in the work of the IWG is already high. Governments, international and non-governmental organizations and other actors have sent close to 100 submissions for consideration. The submissions deal with issues such as collaboration among institutions, the barriers and challenges to drought response and recovery, the opportunities and measures for action as well as the lessons learned from successful cases,” he said.

The IWG was established in September 2019 following intense negotiations by governments during the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Its outcomes, which include recommendations for action, will be presented to policy makers at the 15th COP session in Fall 2021.

Notes to Editors
See the FAQ for background information about the Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought. For more information about the IWG meetings and processes, contact Daniel Tsegai, dtsegai@unccd.int or visit https://www.unccd.int/news-events/call-experts-intergovernmental-working-group-drought

Fact Sheet
Attached is a list of potential interviewees.

1. Mr. Daniel Tsegai
Programme Officer
UNCCD secretariat
E-mail: dtsegai@unccd.int
2. Dr. Caroline King-Okumu
International Development Opportunities Manager
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
E-mail: carkin@ceh.ac.uk
3. Mr. Jarso Ibrahim Gollole
Natural Resource Advisor and Pastoralist
MercyCorps, Kenya
E-mail: jgollole@mercycorps.com

For media-related questions contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int

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