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Sibonisiwe Hlanze is one of 600 women who are allowed to harvest reeds from the Lawuba Wetland in Lawuba, Eswatini. She generates a seasonal income from this which allows her to purchase farming inputs. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
LAWUBA, Eswatini, Aug 10 2020 (IPS)

Sibonisiwe Hlanze, from Lawuba in Eswatini’s Shiselweni Region, lights up as she shows off her sleeping mat which she made from what she described as “the highest quality indigenous fibre”.

Hlanze boasts that she did not pay a cent for the likhwane (Cyperus latifolius) used to make mats that she sells to vendors from Eswatini’s commercial capital of Manzini. Instead, she simply walks a few metres to the nearby Lawuba Wetland where she collects the fibre during the harvesting season.

About 600 beneficiary women under the Methula Inkhundla (constituency centre) harvest fibre from the wetland in June from 7 am to noon.

Hlanze charges E100 ($5) for a sleeping mat. On a good season, she would make between 15 to 20 mats generating between E1 500 ($85) and E2 000 ($114).

“But now I prefer to only harvest and sell the raw fibre because I no longer have much time to make the mats,” Hlanze told IPS. She makes E200 ($11) from a bundle which is used to make handicraft items such as mats and baskets. Last season, she harvested about 10 bundles.

“Some women prefer to buy the fibre instead of going to the wetland to harvest for themselves because they find it tedious,” Hlanze told IPS. “The wetland has provided me and other women with a source of income because we’re unemployed.”

Considering that this is seasonal income, Hlanze said she uses this to make money to buy farming inputs.

Nkhositsini Dlamini, the secretary for Lawuba Wetland, concurs with Hlanze adding that in one season she generated E23,000 ($ 1,310) from sleeping mats whose fibre she harvested from the wetland. She sells her handicraft in Johannesburg at a higher price compared to when selling in Eswatini. Sleeping mats go for E300 ($ 17) in South Africa. 

“My child was admitted at the university but didn’t get a scholarship,” Dlamini told IPS. “I used that money to pay for the fees.”

Besides the fibre plants such as likhwane, inchoboza (Cyperus articulates) and umtsala (Miscanthus capensis), which are used for handicraft products, she said, there are indigenous medicinal plants at the 21-hectare natural wetland which help to heal various ailments such as scabies. The community also established a livestock drinking trough and a vegetable garden which draws water from the wetland.

Dlamini, however, states that the community was on the verge of losing this asset because it had become degraded over the years. For many years, she said, livestock used to graze from the wetland while local women were over harvesting the fibre. As a result, it was losing its spongy effect of storing water.

“The amount of fibre available at the wetland was significantly reduced, not to mention the number of cattle that used die after getting stuck in the mud,” said Dlamini.

The state of the wetland concerned Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku, who approached Eswatini Environment Authority (EEA) to support the community to protect it. Masuku, who is also a resident of the area, said he decided to act after noticing that the wetland had lost some of its indigenous plants such as reeds and experienced other biodiversity loss of animal species such as birds and snakes. It was also drying up.

“This wetland feeds the Mhlathuze River,” said Masuku in an interview with IPS. “It is also a source for a downstream dipping tank.”

Through the National Environment Fund, the EEA provided fencing material to prevent livestock from grazing and drinking from the wetland. The EEA partnered with World Vision who provided food aid for residents who constructed the fence under the Food for Work Programme. This was after the EEA had educated the community about the benefits of the wetland to their lives. The construction of the protection fence took place between 2010/11. EEA has protected 12 wetlands in the country using this fund.

“Once people know and see the benefits of conserving the environment, their attitudes and their behaviour change,” said EEA ecologist, Nana Matsebula. This was corroborated by a study done a University of Pretoria student, Linda Siphiwo Mahlalela, titled Economic valuation and natural resource rent as tools for wetland conservation in Swaziland: the case of Lawuba wetland.

The study found that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that households at Lawuba have high levels of knowledge about the benefits of conserving the wetland and the threats that endanger it. It also found that households have positive attitudes towards its conservation with income seemingly having influence towards this behaviour.

Matsebula said the community realised that the wetland also had a cultural value to the Swati nation.

“A sleeping mat comes from a wetland,” said Matsebula. “Besides using it for sleeping and sitting, no one in our culture gets buried without a sleeping mat.”

The mat is also one of the significant items at traditional weddings.

Besides the economic value of the wetland, Matsebula told IPS, the community was also educated on the ecological benefits. These include acting as a flood control by absorbing water during rain, replenishing the water table and acting as a reservoir for a diverse biodiversity.

“Wetlands are also important for climate change mitigation because they trap carbon up to 50 times more compared to forests,” he said, adding: “Wetlands take up to only 3 percent of the world total land area yet they hold up to a third of the world’s total carbon.”

Matsebula said environmentalists have over the years shifted from talking about preservation to conservation. The latter emphasises sustainable use of natural resources while the former discourages use altogether.

“It has been proven that when people realise benefits from the environment, they are most likely to protect it,” he said. 

But the wetland faces a threat from poor regulation. Criminals have also started to steal parts of the fence. Masuku said for this wetland, and others to be adequately protected, the government needs to take over its administration so that it is declared a national asset. While the community will continue to have the primary responsibility to protect it, the government should support with its monitoring and regulation.

“We need political commitment in the regulation of harvesting fibre and drawing water from the wetland,” said Masuku. “We also need stiff laws that will ensure criminals who steal the fence protecting wetlands are punished.”

For now, there are no permits and the users of the natural resources from the wetland regulate themselves. 

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The post Understanding the Benefits of local Wetland Encourages Eswatini Community to Save it appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Aug 10 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has become a scourge affecting all levels of human society – morals, behaviour, human interaction, economy and politics. The pandemic has wrecked havoc on our way of being and its impact will remain huge and all-encompassing. It is not only affecting our globally shared existence, it is also changing what has been called ”the little life”, i.e. our own way of thinking and being, our personal life situation and the one of those close to us; people we love and depend upon – our friends and family.

COVID-19 has so far mainly contaminated humans, though since everything on earth is connected it is already threatening other species, maybe the entire equilibrium of our vulnerable planet.

A painting by Paul Gauguin is inscribed with the questions D´où Venons Nous/ Que Sommes Nous/ Où Allons Nous – Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Questions we may ask ourselves while being confronted with COVID-19. When we reflect upon our origins it is difficult to avoid the most essential question of them all – What makes us humans different from other animals?

Like any other animal we are multicellular creatures, mobile and obtain our energy from food . Furthermore, we have muscles, nervous systems and internal cavities where food is broken down and converted into energy. As mammals, we can regulate our body temperature, our female variety can give birth to live children and breastfeed them.

However, our brain has difficulties in accepting that we actually are animals and thus highly dependent on nature. Our excessively abstract thinking, our ability to express ourselves in languages and symbols, have set us apart from other animals and contributed to the development of complex, ever-changing societies. We are able to communicate and cooperate in large numbers and have developed a unique capacity to believe in things existing purely in our imagination, such as gods, nations and money. This has placed us beside nature, made us think that we are unique and have the right to exploit everything for our own benefit, making us arrogant, prone to discrimination and making use of other creatures in an often abusive and even cruel manner.

Is this an unavoidable ingredient of the evolution of life on earth? As an answer to Gauguin’s first question: ”Where do we come from?” science has organized human evolution into six levels. We share the first five with other creatures, while the sixth level makes us unique.

In the beginning, chemical compounds developed in liquid water and became bacteria, which over millions of years were transformed into eukaryotic cells, containing a nucleus and organelles enclosed by a plasma membrane. Our bodies are constructed by such cells. Millions of years later, a third crucial advance came about – sexuality, i.e. the controlled and regular exchange of DNA between cells. Finally, the eukaryotic cells assembled into multicellular organisms and it is here we find the ancestors to all animal species, including Homo Sapiens.

The fifth transition was more of a social than a biological change – eusociality, a phenomenon that occurred when animals came together in huge groups, where they developed a high level of cooperation, based on division of labour and altruism. It is altruism that makes us human, meaning that we as individuals are prepared to benefit others at our own expense. You might, with good reason, claim that humans are not at all any sympathetic beings. That each one of us is mainly concerned with her/his own well-being, and this quite often at the expense of others. Nevertheless, while considering human society in its entirety it becomes evident that every individual is dependent on the welfare of others.

Humans are actually prepared to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of their loved ones, or even risking their lives for what they believe is the contentment and prosperity of the entire human society. They may act as health workers, fire men, or soldiers – there are numerous more examples of such tasks and assignments that actually have an altruistic origin. However, this is also common among other animals, even among such insects as ants and honey bees, where altruism is even more developed than among human beings. Nevertheless, the eusocial behaviour of such creatures is exempt from what we humans would call love and compassion.

What we humans have obtained at the sixth, and so far final, level of evolution is an advanced capacity for language, empathy and cooperation. This in spite of the fact that we easily may point out major shortcomings when it comes to the last two characteristics, especially empathy.

The crucial faculty that makes us human is language. Other animals are capable of communicating by sound, facial expressions, bodily postures, and movements, though they are unable to speak in the sense that they can create the words and symbols that constitute the imaginary concepts mentioned above. This human ability has delivered us from the shackles of instinct and premeditated behaviour. Humans can create and communicate imagined and real stories, something that enable us to move back and forth through past, present and future time, and from place to place. We are able to create imaginary worlds that can be transformed into reality.

Through experience amassed by empirical science and stored in books and other data banks, we can with the help of means of communication, like mathematics, and mentally created maps and plans, transform almost anything in accordance with our needs and imagination. This unique skill has developed from our use of language and given rise to the sciences and philosophical thoughts that now are transforming the entire biosphere, while abusing it to such a degree that we are currently on the verge of destroying it completely.

This leads us to Gauguin’s last question: ”Where Are We Going?” Our human capacity for changing things for the better is currently put to the test, and COVID-19 may be part of that challenge. The long chain of evolutionary development has taught us that survival and success do not depend on brutal force, but on empathy, compassion and cooperation. In these days, chauvinism is once again exposing its ugly face around the globe and political leaders assert that competition between nations is a driving force of human social evolution. However, contrary to such ideas science has proved that it is entirely reasonable that alliances and cooperation between large populations have been beneficial for cultural evolution and the sharing of resources. Innovations and beneficial solutions are more frequent within a large and diversified group, than in a small, homogenous one. Knowledge and skills are most effectively created and preserved within a global environment.

At the same time, it is also important to safeguard ”the little life”. It was apparently there that the success story of human evolution once began. Our current, massive cerebral memory banks were established by the African campsites of the first Homo Sapiens. While they prepared and shared their food they were talking about what had happened during the day and made plans for the future, and not only that – they entertained one another with tales about real and invented incidents and adventures, they sang and danced. While devoting time to such social interactions our ancestors developed and advanced their social skills and capacities. This meant that brutal strength and physical proficiency was not the most essential component in their struggle for control and survival. The main issue was to take care of and accept the abilities of each and every member of the group.

One specific feature of humans has been that we honour and take care of the elderly. It was the stories about their experiences and the time they, in particular grandmothers, were able to dedicate to their grandchildren, that made it possible for younger members of the group to procure and prepare food, as well as shelter and protection for all of its members. Both children and their parents could thus, by making use of the skills of the elderly, gain experiences that ultimately fostered human development.

It is social interaction and empathy, not violence and discrimination that have been essential contributors to the evolution of our larger brain and higher intelligence, as well as the enormous source of experience and knowledge we humans have amassed over time. Let us now hope that all this will lead to a global consensus that the future well-being and actual life on earth depends on us all and our ability to express compassion and work together as the eusocial creatures we de facto are. Hopefully this could be a lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching us that the earth is an enclosed sphere where every living creature is connected. It is now high time that humans shed their harmful arrogance and finally realized that peaceful coexistence, mutual support and shared responsibilities for our vulnerable biosphere is not only our raison d’être as human beings, but a necessity for the survival of our entire planet.

Harari, Yuval Noah (2019) Sapiens. A Brief History of Mankind. New York: HarperCollins. Wilson, Edward O. (2020) Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies. London: Penguin Books

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

 

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The post Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Michelle Belisle
Aug 10 2020 (IPS)

School as we all know it hasn’t changed that much in over a century. However, in the face of new threats to health and wellbeing, the future of those familiar structures that bring teachers and students together is starting to be questioned.

Large numbers of people in crowded spaces for long periods – it all runs contrary to what the experts advise to keep us safe from contagious diseases like COVID-19. Class size is no longer an academic debate over quality of instruction versus budgetary restrictions, but rather a life and death discussion of the transmission of pathogens.

Lockdowns closed schools for some 1.5 billion children globally. About half of these are located in developing countries where many had to take up jobs. As a result, Save the Children estimates that around 10 million may never return to school and warns that unparalleled budget cuts would see pre-existing inequality explode between rich and poor and between boys and girls.

But while COVID is the immediate challenge, it is also shining a spotlight on some of the larger issues surrounding the resilience of traditional education systems and practices.

Sending children home has highlighted the huge technology gaps between and within countries. Online teaching does not work if you have no quiet place to study, no computer or electricity. Some 500 million children already had no access to the resources and technology required to support distance learning. For these children, the education restrictions COVID has created are a permanent part of their learning experience.

While there are certainly initiatives in place attempting to close the technology gap, not enough attention is being given to what a more effective education system could look like. Would recreating the classroom in a virtual environment simply reproduce the same issues, gaps and challenges that marginalise the same groups but in a different way? What about the “soft skills” and the life lessons learned at school that aren’t so easily transitioned to worksheets and Zoom technology?

Recently released findings of the 2018 Pacific Island Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA), a huge collaborative exercise across 15 countries and more than 900 schools, showed improved literacy and numeracy skills of primary school students. But learning resource availability ranged widely. A third of students attended schools where only the teacher had a textbook (25 per cent) or there were no textbooks at all (8 per cent).

Measurement and data from such surveys have a big role to play in understanding how change impacts students. Now more than ever it is critical to have timely education data to help understand what is happening in our systems and how to respond to the new needs. We have to get past the idea of education data as a “report card”, judging students, parents, teachers and schools, and instead embrace it as diagnostic information holding the key to unlocking success into the future.

How can education systems strike a balance between using technology to reach students and keep classrooms safe while ensuring that all students are able to fully participate and benefit from the education experience?

Experts have made claims about how technology will change the way learning happens, but interestingly, radio, television, computers and now a plethora of smart technologies and connectivity platforms have really not made a great deal of difference to how school looks or what the processes are.

What has changed is our understanding of how students learn – what motivates them to keep learning and what turns them away from formal education. We have seen over time that students are more motivated and learn more readily when they are engaged and interested and what they are learning has meaning and relevance.

We know that students, like virtually all people, respond better to positive feedback and support than to threats, degradation and punishment. We know that children learn by observation from a very young age and that they value what the adults around them value, particularly those adults whose opinions matter to them and whose support and acknowledgement they strive for.

The quest for free, accessible and high quality education for all children is highly unlikely to line up perfectly with what governments can resource in terms of numbers of teachers, their materials and training.

It is possible though to provide the support and encouragement that children need one on one. A key element is the degree to which the significant adults in a child’s life take an interest in and pay attention to their education.

Our PILNA 2018 results showed that literacy and numeracy scores were higher for those children whose caregivers (parents or other significant adults) asked what they were doing in school and what they were reading, compared with the children of caregivers who paid little or no attention.

Regardless of their own level of education, adults can support the motivation of Pacific Island children to learn and grow academically.

Taking an interest in what children are learning is a first step but if we really want to support children, particularly when regular access to classrooms and teachers is not guaranteed, adults need to take a lead in developing the inquiring minds of young people.

But what are we actually doing to support this and are we asking the impossible of caregivers?

PILNA showed that students across all 15 participating countries struggled with critical thinking and problem solving. These are difficult concepts to teach, but the first step is to support the mindset that allows children to think critically.

Asking questions about the world around them is normal for very young children but over time we train them to keep their thoughts to themselves, that even asking questions is potentially disrespectful or will lead to appearing stupid. Questions met with frustration or ridicule teach children to remain silent. That is the first step to extinguishing the will to learn and one often taken in a mistaken perception that an authoritarian approach to demanding that students complete rote tasks is equivalent to supporting learning.

COVID-19 will not be the last crisis we face, but its global impact can be an opportunity to rethink our approach so that we are better able to adapt, both to future crisis situations and also to the evolving realities of society and technology.

It’s time to think beyond building a better classroom and instead use our experience and knowledge to create a better system — one that provides all students with high quality learning opportunities that lead to success in an unknown future.

 

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The post Building Resilience in Pacific Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Michelle Belisle is the Director, Education Quality and Assessment Programme at The Pacific Community (SPC).

The post Building Resilience in Pacific Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Rabiya Jaffery
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug 10 2020 (IPS)

The Persian Gulf is one of the most strategic waterways in the world and is also one of the most polluted.

According to estimates by experts, pollution levels in the Persian Gulf are 47 times higher than the world’s average and are steadily increasing.

The 600-mile body of water that is also known as the Arabian Gulf currently has 34 oilfields with more than 800 wells. In addition, roughly 85% of the oil extracted in the Gulf countries is exported – 40% of the world export of crude oil and around 15% of the world’s total export of refined products come from the region – and more than half of all the oil is carried by ships.

It is estimated that approximately 25,000 tanker movements sail in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage that connects the Persian Gulf to the open sea. Accidental spilling is unavoidable and, on average, 100–160 thousand tons of oil and oil products end up in the Gulf every year.

In addition to spills from tankers, oil spills and fires that have been a consequence of military activities that have taken place in the region over the past few decades have also severely contaminated the Persian Gulf.

The world’s largest oil spill, for instance, occurred during the 1991 Gulf War and an estimated 8-11 million barrels were leaked in the Persian Gulf waters as a result.

In an attempt to prevent the UN coalition forces from landing on the beaches of Kuwait that the Iraqi military was occupying at the time, Iraqi troops released oil at the Persian Gulf.

At least eight oil tankers, a refinery, two terminals, and a tank field were dumped in the waters and for at least three months, oil continued to spill into the Gulf at a rate of up to 6,000 barrels a day.

“Some of the oil spilled deep into the sea, burrowing up to 40 cm in the sand and mudflats. It remains there to this day,” writes Nick Barber in coursework published for Stanford University in 2018. “This disaster does not just highlight the responsibilities humans have in managing oil wells, rigs, pipelines, and tankers, it demonstrates how carelessness with a non-renewable energy source and pollutant, purposeful or not, can have devastating long-term environmental impacts that cannot be undone.”

In 2017, ScanEx and the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences began conducting the pilot project on the satellite monitoring of the state of the water of the Persian Gulf.

The results of the research confirmed the severe levels of oil pollution in the gulf waters and the damage, some of it which have been irreversible, on its marine life.

“In addition to military-led pollution, other issues such as warming waters due to climate change and the increasing saline levels due to desalination efforts by countries in the Gulf area aggressively worsening marine productivity and habitats,” says George Stacey, an analyst working with Norvergence, an environmental advocacy NGO.

Oceans are heating at a higher rate than were previously predicted and the Persian Gulf, which is already a relatively warm body of water due to its location and its shallow basin, makes it particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Scientists at the Climate Change Forum at the seventh World Government Summit in Dubai explained that rising sea temperatures could wipe out a third of the gulf’s marine species by 2090.

The findings have also been confirmed by a study conducted a the University of British Columbia (UBC), that a combination of human activities was pushing at least 35 per cent of the fauna in the Gulf waters to extinction in the next 60 years.

“The ongoing damage on the marine and coastal environment is going to impact the marine productivity which will have serious impacts on the health and commerce of the region,” adds Stacey.

Researchers at UBC state that environmental loss will particularly carry a heavy economic impact on fishing industries. Fisheries of Bahrain, with a relatively large fishing industry, and Iran, with the highest catch and fewer employment alternatives due to sanctions, are pointed out to be particularly vulnerable.

“The sea is very important to all the countries in the region and preserving it should be a priority on an individual, national, and regional levels,” says Stacey.

“A lot of the damage done in the past few decades cannot be reversed completely but it is not too late to prioritize the sustainability of the marine ecosystems of the gulf waters right now because any damages to it will trickle down to impact the communities living on its coasts and reverse years of development and advancements.”

 

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The post Warming Temperatures & Decades of Oil Spills Cause Irreversible Damage to the Persian Gulf appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Rabiya Jaffery is a freelance journalist covering climate change, migration, and human rights in the Middle East and South Asia. She is currently a reporting fellow for Norvergence, an international climate communications NGO.

The post Warming Temperatures & Decades of Oil Spills Cause Irreversible Damage to the Persian Gulf appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Phrang Roy, Chairperson NESFAS, India
Coordinator, The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP).

By Phrang Roy
ROME, Aug 9 2020 (IPS-Partners)

As we commemorate the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, let us not forget that supporting Indigenous Peoples is not only a social good; it is also a sound development policy.

Defending the lands, languages and cultural practices of indigenous peoples and tackling the racism and injustices against them will lessen the outbreaks of future pandemics and manage climate change.

Phrang Roy

Although there has been no homogenous pattern in the responses of Indigenous Peoples to COVID 19, Indigenous Peoples in many countries such as India (Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim), Thailand (Northern Thailand), The Philippines (Cordillera Region) etc. have very few COVID cases and their coping strategies have displayed their resilience. Their close relationship to nature and their respect of the wisdom and advice of Elders and those in governance have helped them to smoothly follow traditional isolation practices and to turn to often neglected local livelihoods and local food production systems.

There are of course indigenous communities in isolation such as those in the Amazon Basin for whom COVID 19 poses a huge threat to their lives and culture.

The Pastoralists whose livelihoods depend on animals and who move from place to place seeking water and pasture are also seriously challenged and terrorised by the Pandemic and the travel bans. The world must not leave them behind.

Their Right to Life, Traditional Livelihoods, Practices and Culture must be supported as universally enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Eighty percent of the world’s remaining biocultural diversity is in indigenous lands and territories.

Let us all recognise this as a critical asset for building a more sustaining and pandemic-free world for all.

The post International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2020 – Statement of the Indigenous Partnership (TIP)/NESFAS appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Phrang Roy, Chairperson NESFAS, India
Coordinator, The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP).

The post International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2020 – Statement of the Indigenous Partnership (TIP)/NESFAS appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The confinement policies put in place to address COVID have discouraged mass political gatherings, but the factors that drove the social unrest of 2019 remain and, in many ways, have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Credit: Carlos Vera.

By Ricardo Raineri and Philippe Benoit
Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

While COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across Latin America, its governments are developing policies which they hope will provide for a rapid economic recovery when the pandemic wanes.

In doing so, they will need to address the aspirations of the region’s growing middle and working classes — otherwise Latin America faces the prospect when it eventually emerges from the COVID crisis that widespread social unrest will undermine efforts to revitalize the economy.

From 2000 through 2014, Latin America significantly reduced poverty and created a vibrant middle class. These gains were fueled in large part by a natural resources export boon that generated a healthy 3.2% average annual growth rate (even after accounting for the financial crisis of 2008).

Equally important, many countries saw the consolidation of democratic regimes and the adoption of policies that produced important gains for many outside of the established elites. 77 million people rose out of poverty during this period and by 2010, the middle class exceeded the number of poor for the first time in the region’s history.

With this growing affluence, a new “citizenry” emerged, made up of the region’s expanding middle-class together with poorer working-class families, many of whom had risen out of poverty and struggled to maintain their position (the “strugglers”).

Latin America has seen the emergence of a growing and empowered citizenry whose aspirations must be addressed if the region hopes to produce significant and sustained economic and social advancements

Buoyed by economic and social gains, this citizenry looked forward to a better life marked by affordable transportation, more household appliances and consumer goods, improved healthcare, access to higher quality education for their children, and the prospect of increasing incomes and strengthened pensions.

By the end of 2014, Latin America’s economic fortunes had started to turn as the natural resources boon dissipated.  The price of minerals and other resource exports plummeted by 40% by 2016, which engendered an acute decline in the region’s annual growth rate to below 0.5% during the next four years . In the face of hardening fiscal constraints, governments began to reduce social and other benefits.

These changes, however, were taking place in a context of an increasingly vocal and confident citizenry that had emerged from the earlier period of economic gains and resulting societal shifts.

From Colombia to Chile to Ecuador and elsewhere, middle-income countries faced civil unrest in 2019 as the citizenry went out massively to protest in the streets against unmet expectations, economic dissatisfaction, inequality, discrimination and corruption.

Governments across LAC needed to address and adjust to this increasingly active citizenry, as epitomized by the Chilean government’s decision to move COP 25 to Spain in the face of widespread civil unrest in Santiago.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic burst upon Latin America, causing enormous economic and social damage. The IMF has projected that the region could see a 9% drop in output this year, potentially leading to the loss of more than 30 million jobs and the disappearance of well over 2 million of the region’s companies.

This crisis is pushing households out of the middle class and driving many strugglers back into poverty. The World Bank estimates that the number of poor people could increase by up to 23 million, taking the total number of people living in poverty in the region to more than 170 million.

Latin America will eventually emerge from the COVID-19 nightmare but will do so in a changed world presenting important challenges. The region’s governments are presently developing policies to revitalize economic growth, but are constrained by fiscal and other limitations that already were hampering their economies leading into the COVID crisis.

Moreover, many of Latin America’s trading partners are revisiting their reliance on global value chains, which may lower the demand for the natural resources that had helped to power the region’s economic growth.

Of particular significance, Latin America will need to address these macro-economic issues in a political and social context that continues to be marked by the forces that drove the civil unrest of 2019.  The confinement policies put in place to address COVID have discouraged mass political gatherings, but the factors that drove the social unrest of 2019 remain and, in many ways, have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.

Although the aspirations of the citizenry have arguably been somewhat obscured by the COVID crisis, they persist, as does the political and societal weight of this group.

To provide for an effective and sustainable outcome, Latin America must restart its economies in a manner that meets the needs of the region’s citizenry.

This requires a policy framework which: (i) promotes equitable and inclusive growth, ensuring that policies meet the needs of the citizenry and not simply the interests of entrenched elites; (ii) strengthens the quality and responsiveness of public sector institutions and services, notably by improving their accountability and technical capacities; and (iii) enhances the business environment for the private sector so as to transform the region into an attractive pole for both domestic and foreign investment.

The governments should also work to effect real regional economic integration which is severely lacking by promoting a collaborative rather than protectionist approach that provides for equitable exchanges amongst countries.

As Latin America looks to emerge from COVID, much of the policy discourse will be about regenerating the economic growth that is indispensable to increasing prosperity.  Yet, hidden behind the pandemic of 2020 are the events of 2019 that point to the ongoing risk of widespread civil unrest and societal disruptions.

While 2020 has reminded Latin America (and the world) that plagues are not confined to history books, it is similarly important not to forget the lessons of 2019.  Latin America has seen the emergence of a growing and empowered citizenry whose aspirations must be addressed if the region hopes to produce significant and sustained economic and social advancements.

 

Ricardo Raineri is former Minister of Energy of Chile and past President of the International Association for Energy Economics, and is currently a Professor of Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Philippe Benoit is a former Energy Sector Manager for Latin America at the World Bank and is currently a Senior Fellow with The Breakthrough Institute. 

The views expressed are those of the authors in their personal capacities.

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By External Source
Aug 7 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Indigenous Peoples are culturally distinct societies and communities.

There are approximately 476 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide, in over 90 countries.

They make up over 6 percent of the global population and 15 percent of the extreme poor.

Their territories are home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity.

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is celebrated on August 9 each year.

This year’s theme is COVID-19 and indigenous peoples’ resilience.

It will focus on the how preservation and promotion of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and practices.

They hold vital ancestral knowledge and expertise on how to adapt, mitigate, and reduce climate and disaster risks.

Indigenous peoples’ traditional expertise and relationship with nature show that the degradation of the environment can unleash disease.

They can teach us much about how to rebalance our relationship with nature and reduce the risk of future pandemics.

Now more than ever, we must safeguard their knowledge.

 

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Credit: Food Tank

By Danielle Nierenberg
Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

These 28 organizations are preserving Indigenous food systems and promoting Indigenous food sovereignty through the rematriation of Indigenous land, seeds, food and histories.

The world’s Indigenous Peoples face severe and disproportionate rates of food insecurity. While Indigenous Peoples comprise 5 percent of the world’s population, they account for 15 percent of the world’s poor, according to the World Health Organization.

But through seed saving initiatives, financial support, mentorship, and community feeding programs, many organizations are working to protect Indigenous food sovereignty—the ability to grow, eat, and share food according to their own traditions and values.

“We must care for this [natural] abundance as it will nourish our families—both physically as well as spiritually,” said Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham, Chancellor of the University of Hawai’i at West O’ahu at a Food Tank Summit in partnership with the Arizona State University Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems on the wisdom of Indigenous foodways.

In honor of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, Food Tank is highlighting 28 organizations from around the world protecting and cultivating Indigenous food systems. Through what many of the following organizations call rematration, they strive to return Indigenous lands, seeds, foods, and histories to Indigenous Peoples and protect them for future generations.

1. Aboriginal Carbon Foundation (Oceania)
The Aboriginal Carbon Foundation is building a carbon farming industry in Australia by Aboriginals, for Aboriginals. The Foundation offers training and support for new Indigenous farmers so they can learn how to capture atmospheric carbon in the soil. The carbon farming projects generate certified Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU), which major carbon-producing businesses must purchase to offset their carbon emissions. Income generated by ACCUs is reinvested in Aboriginal communities by the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation and its participating farmers.

2. AgroEcology Fund (International)
The AgroEcology Fund (AEF) galvanizes global leaders and experts to fund biodiverse and regenerative agriculture projects worldwide. Projects funded by AEF have included Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives, agroecology training institutions, and women’s market access networks on every continent. With the support of governments and financial institutions, AEF hopes that agroecology will become the standard model for food production worldwide within thirty years.

3. Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (Asia)
The Asia Indigenous People Pact is an alliance of Indigenous organizations across southern and eastern Asia. Collectively, the Pact promotes and protects Indigenous lands, food systems, and biodiversity. Their alliance is bolstered by regional youth and women’s networks, as well as support from international institutions, including the United Nations and Oxfam.

4. Association of Guardians of the Native Potato from Central Peru (South America)
The Association of Guardians of the Native Potato from Central Peru (AGUAPAN) is a collective of Indigenous farmers. Each farmer grows between 50 and 300 ancestral varieties of potato, which are indigenous to the Andes Mountains of modern-day Peru. AGUAPAN farmers preserve the crop’s biodiversity in their native communities and band together to advocate for economic, gender, education, and healthcare equity.

5. Cheyenne River Youth Project (North America)
The Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte, South Dakota has served Lakota youth for more than three decades. Its Native Food Sovereignty initiative offers public workshops on Three Sisters gardening of corn, beans, and squash. They also offer classes on Indigenous plants, gardening, and cooking. Their Winyan Tokay Win (Leading Lady) Garden serves as an outdoor classroom to reacquaint Lakota children with the earth. Their other programs use food grown in the garden for meals and snacks. They also sell surplus crops at their weekly Leading Lady Farmer’s Market.

6. Dream of Wild Health (North America)
Dream of Wild Health runs a 10-acre farm just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their Indigenous Food Share CSA program and farmer’s market booths sell produce and value-added products grown by Native Americans. During the summer, Dream of Wild Health offers a Garden Warriors program where children can learn about seed saving, foraging, farmers market management, and other aspects of food sovereignty. They also host the Indigenous Food Network (IFN), a collective of Indigenous partners who advocate for local and regional policy changes. The IFN also hosts community food tasting events featuring prominent Indigenous chefs.

7. First Peoples Worldwide (International)
First Peoples Worldwide was founded by Cherokee social entrepreneur Rebecca Adamson to help businesses to align with First Peoples’ rights. Now a part of the University of Colorado’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, First Peoples Worldwide continues to ensure that Indigenous voices are at the forefront of decision-making processes affecting their own self-determination. The organization works with businesses and institutions to assess their investments and guide them in incorporating Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests into their business decisions.

8. Indigikitchen (North America)
Mariah Gladstone’s Indigikitchen uses Native foods as resistance. Her cooking videos offer healthy, creative ways to eat pre-contact, Indigenous foods. The recipes abstain from highly-processed grains, dairy, and sugar, ingredients that did not become standard in diets of the Americas until European colonization. Indigikitchen hopes that its recipes inspire Indigenous cooks to connect with Native foods.

9. Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (North America)
The Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas provides model policies for Tribal governments to help promote and protect food sovereignty. They also co-organize the Native Farm Bill Coalition with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, the Intertribal Agriculture Council, and the National Congress of American Indians. The Initiative hosts annual Native Youth in Food and Agriculture Leadership Summits, where American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian youth can learn about agricultural business, land stewardship, agricultural law, and more.

10. Indigenous Food Systems Network (North America)
The Indigenous Food Systems Network (IFSN) is a convener of Indigenous food producers, researchers, and policymakers across the 98 Indigenous nations of Canada. IFSN supports research, policy reform, and direct action that builds food sovereignty in Indigenous communities. The organization’s Indigenous Food Sovereignty email listserv offers its subscribers everything from stories and legends to recipes and policy reform tools.

11. Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (International)
Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty is an international organization based in Rome, Italy connecting the world’s Indigenous People to agricultural research and advocacy groups. With Indigenous communities from China to India and Thailand to Latin America, Indigenous Partnerships forges dialogues within Indigenous communities to ensure free, prior, and informed consent between research and advocacy partners. Indigenous Partnerships also seeks to incorporate global and local Indigenous knowledge into non-Indigenous knowledge systems.

12. Indigenous Terra Madre (International)
Indigenous Terra Madre is a global network of Indigenous Peoples sponsored by Slow Food, an international institution based in Rome, Italy. The network amplifies Indigenous voices and protects the biodiversity of the crops Indigenous communities cultivate. By providing a platform for Indigenous communities to pool power and resources, Indigenous Terra Madre fights to defend the land, culture, and opportunity of all Indigenous Peoples.

13. Intertribal Agriculture Council (North America)
The American Indian Food Program by the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) helps Native American and Alaskan Native agribusinesses and food entrepreneurs expand their market reach. The Made/Produced by American Indians Trademark promoted by the IAC identifies certified American Indian products and is used by over 500 businesses. IAC’s other major American Indian Food Program, Native Food Connection, helps market Native American foods and food producers across the United States. IAC also offers technical and natural resource assistance to connect Native businesses with U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and conservation stewardship resources.

14. Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska (North America)
Through its Alaskan Inuit Food Sovereignty Initiative, the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska is convening Inuit community leaders from across Alaska. The Initiative seeks to unify Inuit throughout the state to advocate for land and wildlife management sovereignty. The Initiative also strives for international cooperation to promote food sovereignty across Inuit Nunaat.

15. Mantasa (Asia)
Mantasa is a research institution in Indonesia dedicated to expanding the number of indigenous plants consumed by the Javanese people. According to Mantasa, only 20 plant species comprise 90 percent of Javanese food needs. Their research is incorporating new wild foods from Indonesia’s vast biodiversity into Javanese diets to improve food security and nutrition. Mantasa also helps promote these foods to consumers and local farmers to increase their popularity.

16. Muonde Trust (Africa)
In Mazvhiwa, Zimbabwe, the Muonde Trust invests in Indigenous innovations in food, land, and water management. The Trust seeks out individuals with new ideas and provides peer-to-peer support to help bring those ideas to life. Muonde Trust currently supports innovations in indigenous seed saving and sharing, livestock and woodland management, irrigation systems, and constructing kitchen spaces.

17. Native American Agriculture Fund (North America)
The Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF) is the largest philanthropic supporter of Native American agriculture. The Fund offers grants to Tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions to support healthy lands, healthy people, and healthy economies. In 2020, NAAF is offering US$1 million in grant funds specifically for youth initiatives and young farmers and ranchers. NAAF is also centralizing COVID-19 relief information for Native farmers, ranchers, fishers, and Tribal governments.

18. Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (North America)
The Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance (NAFSA) places Indigenous farmers, wild-crafters, fishers, hunters, ranchers, and eaters at the center of the fight to restore Indigenous food systems and self-determination. NAFSA’s primary initiatives are the Indigenous Seedkeepers Network, the Food and Culinary Mentorship Program, and their Native Food Sovereignty Events. Each of these initiatives centers around the reclamation of Indigenous seeds and foods.

19. Native Seed/SEARCH (North America)
Native Seed/SEARCH preserves and proliferates indigenous seeds through their Native Access programs. Their Native American Seed Request program offers free seed packets to Native Americans living in or originating from the Greater Southwestern Region. The Bulk Seed Exchange allows growers to pay it forward by returning 1.5 times the seeds they receive to be put towards future Native American Seed Request packs. While Native Seed/SEARCH sells an assortment of popular seeds to the general public, its collection of indigenous seeds are only available to Native farmers and families. They hope these seeds will revitalize traditional foods and build food sovereignty.

20. Navajo Ethno-Agriculture (North America)
Navajo Ethno-Agriculture is sustaining Navajo culture through lessons on traditional farming. The seasonal courses focus on land, water, and food as students cultivate, harvest, and prepare heritage crops. During COVID-19, Navajo Ethno-Agriculture suspended its courses and is focusing on supplying neighboring farms with heritage seeds and farm equipment. They are also offering food processing and packaging services to protect and rejuvenate soil.

21. North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (North America)
Founded by the chefs of The Sioux Chef, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NāTIFS) is reimagining the North American food system as a generator of wealth and good health for Native communities. The organization seeks to reverse the effects of forced assimilation and colonization through food entrepreneurship and a reclamation of ancestral education. NāTIFS is establishing an Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis, Minnesota as a training center and restaurant for Native chefs and food. NāTIFS plans to eventually spread this model across North America.

22. Oyate Teca Project (North America)
In response to dire food access on the Pine Ridge Reservation in North Dakota, the Oyate Teca Project offers year-long classes in gardening, food entrepreneurship, and traditional food preservation techniques. Oyate Teca helps make local foods available to the community by selling produce grown in their half-acre garden at farmer’s markets. The project also serves as an emergency food provider for families and children.

23. Tebtebba (Asia)
Tebtebba is an international organization based in the Philippines committed to sharing global Indigenous wisdom. Its Indigenous Peoples and Biodiversity project strengthens Indigenous organizations’ research, policy advocacy, and education on biodiversity. The project also works directly with Indigenous communities to strengthen their governance structures, protect their land, and improve their food security.

24. Sierra Seeds (North America)
Rowan White and her organization, Sierra Seeds, are dedicated to the next generation of farmers, gardeners, and food justice activists. Her flagship program, Seed Seva, offers a multi-layered education on seed stewardship and Indigenous permaculture. The program is offered online, allowing anybody to access White’s wisdom. Additionally, Sierra Seeds offers a Seeding Change leadership incubator, where emerging food justice leaders meet virtually to support one another while developing individual projects.

25. Storying Kaitiakitanga (Oceania)
Storying Kaitiakitanga – A Kaupapa Māori Land and Water Food Story is a project of Dr. Jessica Hutchings and other Māori researchers and storytellers. The project was developed as part of the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge to collect the stories of Māori food producers across the food system. Storying Kaitiakitanga is exploring how traditional Māori principles and practices can inspire more sustainable food systems for the next generation. Stories include beekeepers, yogurt producers, and business development service providers.

26. Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (North America)
The Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a grassroots Lakota organization building food sovereignty on the Pine Ridge Reservation in North Dakota. Their reservation-wide Food Sovereignty Coalition is dedicated to reconstructing a healthy local food system. They have greatly increased food production on the reservation and train residents and students on Oglala food histories, current local foods, gardening, and food preservation.

27. Wangi Tangni (Central America)
In Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast, the women of Indigenous Miskita communities receive native plants from Wangi Tangni to grow for food, medicine, and reforestation. The organization provides communal and legal support for women, many of whom do not speak Spanish. The organization’s overall mission is to promote political participation and gender equality through sustainable development projects such as indigenous plant rematriation.

28. Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (North America)
The public schools of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and Arizona partner with the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project to build gardening spaces and provide nutrition education. The partnership is intended to reintroduce traditional knowledge and practices into students’ educations about food. The Project hopes that the community gardens will also inspire more Zuni to grow their own food and reduce rates of obesity and diabetes in their communities.

This story was originally published by Food Tank

 

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Excerpt:

Contributing author: Jason Flatt

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By Eliane Eid
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug 7 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Eliane Eid, IPS correspondent in Beirut spoke to a cross section of people who shared their views and fears with her. On the third day of the deadly explosion, amidst an outpouring of anger from the Lebanese people, Angelina, 18, speaks about her lost home in the Mar Mikhael area. Josette, 27, talks about her experience of the explosion while she was on the road and Charbel, 28, shares his thoughts about being a volunteer at this critical time. They are all numb and speak calmly of how their lives were turned upside down, with this tragedy affecting thousands of people.

 

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According to the United Nations, some 23.8 million additional children and youth (from pre-primary to tertiary) may drop out or not have access to school next year due to COVID-19’s economic impact alone. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

Countries with low human development are facing the brunt of school lockdowns, with more than 85 percent of their students effectively out of school by the second quarter of 2020, according to a United Nations policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on education.

At the launch, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said the pandemic “has led to the largest disruption of education ever”.

According to the brief, school closures resulting from the pandemic have affected 1.6 billion learners across more than 190 countries.

In the United Kingdom, there’s a difference in what’s affecting students and what’s affecting parents and teachers., according to professor Anna Mountford-Zimdars, who teaches social mobility at the University of Exeter. With students now attending schools remotely, she said, parents, teachers and guardians are prioritising issues such as safety, well-being and nutrition — not educational achievements. However, the students are “very concerned about their attainment and progression and how this affects their future prospects”.

Mountford-Zimdars spoke with IPS following the release of the U.N. policy brief. In May, her office at the university’s Joint Director of the Centre for Social Mobility published results of a survey about how school lockdowns are affecting parents and students across the United Kingdom.

“Students reported a sense of ‘loss of power’ with regards to shaping their next steps as the framework of attainment and opportunities for further education,” Mountford-Zimdars told IPS on Tuesday.

According to the brief, “some 23.8 million additional children and youth (from pre-primary to tertiary) may drop out or not have access to school next year due to the pandemic’s economic impact alone”.

The pandemic is worsening already-existing problems in the field, hampering learning for those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons.

‘Loss of power’

“In the most fragile education systems, this interruption of the school year will have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable pupils, those for whom the conditions for ensuring continuity of learning at home are limited,” the brief read.

It pointed out that the Sahel region is especially susceptible to some of the effects as the lockdown came when many schools in the region were already shut down due to a range of issues such as security, strikes, climate concerns.

According to the report, 47 percent of the world’s 258 million out-of-school children (30 percent due to conflict and emergency) lived in sub-Saharan Africa before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, with children now remaining at home full time may mean challenges for the parents, and could further “complicate the economic situation of parents, who must find solutions to provide care or compensate for the loss of school meals”.

This is present in Mountford-Zimdars’ findings as well. She told IPS that their research shows that the parents perceive the current situation as “crisis schooling” and not as “home education” or remote learning.

Silver lining

There are, however, some silver linings. When faced with the pandemic and lockdown, educational institutions responded with “remarkable innovation” to address the gap, the brief stated. It has also given educators an opportunity to reflect on how education systems going forward can be “more flexible, equitable, and inclusive.”

Mountford-Zimdars said their survey in particular showed that students with special education needs are “thriving more in the forced home-schooling than they did in mainstream schools.”

“There are lessons to be learnt of the factors that make home-education a better choice for some children – including the opportunity to tailor material to individual interests and needs, taking breaks and having fun together as a family,” she said.   

Acknowledging that often school  is a safe space for many children, she added, “We also need to recognise that there are divergent experiences of the school closure and there are also children and families who experience this as an opportunity to rethink how and why they are doing schooling the way they are.”

Going forward

The U.N. brief further discussed measures to take into account steps going forward — whether it’s for their return to the classrooms or to improve digital teaching. The brief recommends solutions designed around the issues of equal connectivity for children as well as making up for their lost lessons.

Mountford-Zimdars added to this list two important elements: a safe space for the students to share their at-home experience, and reflections on how they processed the pandemic. 

“It is important to create safe spaces for young people to talk about their experiences of being at home education,” she said, adding that for many students it hasn’t been a positive experience, owing to family circumstances, lack of access to nutrition, economic, social or cultural resources and technology.

“Now is an opportunity to provide spaces for talking through these experiences and, if necessary, offer further specialist support,” she added. “It would be immensely beneficial for mental health support to be available, widely advertised, and open through self-referral by young people themselves as well as those working with them in schools.”

Furthermore, she said, parents and teachers should guide students to reflect on positive lessons from the school closures.

“I would strongly recommend that instead of focusing solely on the lost learning of particular curricula, that the school reopening needs to be accompanied by a period of reflection. What have students learnt? How is this helpful for the future?” she added.

Related Articles

• Q&A: Child Marriage, FGM and Harmful Practices on Women’s Bodies to Increase Because of COVID-19
• The Sahel – ‘in Every Sense of the Word a Crisis’

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that developing countries would need more than the earlier estimated US$2.5 trillion to provide relief to affected families and businesses and expedite economic recovery.

Anis Chowdhury

With their limited fiscal capacities, developing countries will need to borrow more, increasing their often already high public debt burdens. Developing country debt has grown rapidly since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC), reaching historical highs even before the pandemic.

A deep pandemic induced depression may also require governments to take over huge private debt liabilities. All this has increased calls for urgent debt relief, cancellation and restructuring, and for new IMF and World Bank lending lines, including new IMF special drawing rights (SDRs).

Not enough debt relief
On 13 April, the IMF approved debt service relief for 25 eligible low-income countries (LICs), estimated at US$213.5 million, for six months, i.e., from 14 April until mid-October 2020.

On 15 April, G20 leaders announced their ‘Debt Service Suspension Initiative for Poorest Countries’ from May to the end of 2020 for 73 primarily LICs. The G20 initiative would cover around US$20 billion of bilateral public debt owed to official creditors by International Development Association (IDA) and least developed countries (LDCs).

Such steps are welcome, providing some temporary relief, but far short of the eligible countries’ long-term public and publicly guaranteed external debt of US$457 billion in 2018.

UNCTAD estimates that in 2020 and 2021, middle- and low-income countries face debt service repayments between US$700 billion and US$1.1 trillion, while upper middle-income developing countries expect to pay US$2.0~2.3 trillion.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The G20 initiative is already seen as merely kicking the can down the road. It does not cancel any debt, which is to be repaid in full over 2022–2024, as interest continues to grow. Hence, it is quite unlike the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

Furthermore, money saved from debt relief “can be used to pay the private creditors on time and in full”, i.e., prioritizing private over public creditors. The G20 initiative only applies to a limited number of countries, and does not impact the US$8 billion owed to private lenders and the US$12 billion debt to multilateral creditors.

An Oxfam report estimated that eligible countries are still required to pay at least US$33.7 billion for debt servicing this year, or US$2.8 billion monthly, “double the amount Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia combined spent on their annual health budget”.

Furthermore, the initiatives presume that Covid-19 shocks to developing economies will be short and swift, and that developing countries can make debt repayments over the next 3-4 years.

IMF and World Bank falling short
The World Bank has put in place a US$14 billion fast-track package to meet immediate health and economic needs, envisaging financial support of around US$160 billion during 2020-2021.

The IMF has doubled access to its Rapid Credit Facility and Rapid Financing Instrument to meet greater expected demand for emergency financing of about US$100 billion, without requiring “a full-fledged program in place”. By mid-June, various IMF facilities had committed around US$300 billion.

Although these financing instruments involve fewer conditionalities and faster approval, eligibility still depends on familiar — and, in current conditions, very restrictive — criteria. These include, inter alia, having to satisfy the ‘revamped’ joint Bank-Fund r” target=”_blank”>debt sustainability framework, which critics deem “obsolete”.
Therefore, actual urgent liquidity support falls far short of the IMF’s US$1 trillion lending capacity while the attempt to issue new SDRs for Covid-19 has been blocked by the Trump administration.

Debt reduction wrong priority now
The UN warned of the dire consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, and in May, argued that without bold policy action, the pandemic would set back the SDGs.

Facing the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s, many developing countries have little choice but to borrow to create fiscal space, rather than focus on complicated, time-consuming long-term debt restructuring, workouts or buybacks.

Instead of obsessing over debt, some developing countries are tapping global debt markets to meet Covid-19 financing needs. When governments can borrow on reasonable terms to invest in projects needed for sustainable development, debt may even be desirable, if not necessary, especially in resource-poor countries.

For some, in a low interest rate environment, it is reasonable for developing countries to borrow more, even raising their debt/GDP ratios to levels previously regarded as dangerous, to fund recovery. This time, it is really different as debt costs are lower and are expected to stay low for some time to come.

Furthermore, the consequences of fiscal inaction, so as to not take on debt, can be disastrous for the developing world, paradoxically making current stock of debt unsustainable. On the other hand, new borrowing to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on growth can make debt sustainable.

However, most non-investment grade developing countries have to pay substantially higher risk premiums, due to the prejudices and biases of market finance, even when their macroeconomic ‘fundamentals’ are sound.

Pandemic emergency financing fiasco
After the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the Bank launched the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) in July 2017, using insurance-like ‘catastrophe bonds’ and derivatives to raise private sector money for LICs’ pandemic responses.

The PEF promised to “blend the best of the public and private sectors, helping to keep 1.6 billion people safe” while “transferring [financial] risk [from governments] to international markets”.

To draw investors, the PEF has stringent and controversial rules on when and how much to pay-out. To make them attractive to investors, PEF bonds were designed to reduce the probability of paying out.

Due to its complicated approval process the PEF had not paid out a single dollar until the end of March, although the World Health Organization designated the Covid-19 outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, and a “pandemic” on 11 March. The pay-out decision was only made on 27 April; as of 27 July, only a paltry US$146.5 million had been “transferred to support” 48 countries — “too little, too late”, even for The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, its “cash window” – funded by donors – has not been replenished after being used up for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018-2019.

In April 2019, Larry Summers, former World Bank chief economist and US Treasury Secretary, described the PEF as “an embarrassing mistake” and “financial goofiness”, noting that the programme was “loved” for promoting private sector involvement.

Intermediation role required
With preferred creditor status, the Fund and the Bank can borrow ‘cheaply’, i.e., at the much lower interest rates available to them. By intermediating, they can enable developing countries, especially LICs and LDCs, to borrow cheaply for their relief and recovery.

A first step would be to ditch the last Bank president’s now discredited ‘mobilizing finance for development’ (MFD) framework to use public funds, including official development assistance (ODA), to leverage private finance for public-private partnerships (PPPs).

As with the PEF, the MFD approach has failed to leverage billions in ODA into trillions of development finance, as promised, mobilizing only US$0.37 of additional private capital for LICs for every US$1 of public money invested.

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World in her hands: Fuzia believes that supporting women in the digital field results in empowerment. Credit: Unsplash / Ben W.

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

A girl has many roles. She can be a daughter, a mother, a friend, a wife or a sister. But her first and foremost introduction is a person, a human and a voice. No matter what remote or accessible part she may belong to, her story is unique and belongs only to her own. And if a thought-provoking, positive platform echo her voice, it can achieve wonders.

Now in the age of the seamless digital connection, we’re capable of building a community where a woman in a small hut with a simple, smartphone can engage with a tech geek in San Francisco and talk about how to bake a cake or how to code. With the intention of building a community where women develop and lift each other, learn from one another, and are proud of womanhood – a few passionate women launched Fuzia.

The founders, 19-year-old Riya Sinha and co-founder and director Shraddha Verma, 31 say while they could not reach every part of the world physically, they can digitally reach women across the globe. They wanted to make each woman feel special, empowered, and independent and celebrate who she is.

Fuzia is a happy place for women empowerment, says senior marketing manager Singhal. It’s a place where 50 000 creative users of the site have committed themselves to lend a hand to other women.

“Harnessing the power of technology and digital progression, Fuzia is building up a global sisterhood and making it a platform where women are empowered, and gender gaps are eliminated,” the 24-year-old Singhal says of the site. Singhal has worked for the organisation for five years and was one of its first team members. She now oversees the creative activities and campaigns.

“Fuzia has, indeed become a happy place. It makes me proud to see how the power of social media and the internet has impacted the lives of the users positively through Fuzia,” she says in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service (IPS). She adds that every day she receives countless messages and testimonials that reinforce how the internet and technology play a significant role in women empowerment.

However, the internet is not always a happy place for women – especially young women. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) noted that digital spaces could be empowering places for opinion-formation, debate and mobilisation.

“However, cyberbullying restricts the opportunities offered by digitalisation. Young people, especially women are put off from taking part in political discussions or online debates. All of society is missing out when young women are not engaged because we are losing their potential to get involved in politics and become future leaders,” Virginija Langbakk, EIGE’s Director is quoted as saying.

Recent academic research showed that 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online. Girls are more likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying and half of the LGBTQ+ experience online harassment.

Power of collaboration: Fuzia uses the digital landscape to connect with women across the globe. Credit: Unsplash / Marvin M

Recently during a United Nations Women meet Cecilia Mwende Maundu, a broadcast journalist based in Kenya and a specialist in gender digital safety, affirmed women’s rights to a part of social media and in the digital space. She decried cyberbullying or other methods which push women from this sphere. She suggested women enhance their security in the digital field by:

– Creating a strong password;

– Having different passwords for different accounts;

– Download apps from authentic platforms and use two-factor authentication;

– Log out of your accounts;

– Don’t use public WIFI for sharing sensitive information, like online bank details;

– Use antivirus software and, if possible, use a virtual private network.

Fuzia tries to eliminate cyberbullying from its site. The platform is extremely cautious, and users need not fear having their information leaked or privacy hampered. Private information is not sold or shared with third parties. If a bully or offensive comment is detected, immediate action is taken. They are particularly concerned about this, as many users are preteens, teens, young adults, and so on. Fuzia prides itself in providing a secure, safe, and nurturing environment. Whenever a comment is posted, or a piece of writing is uploaded, it naturally goes through word screening, and certain derogatory words are detected and barred. The user is warned, and if the behaviour persists, the user is banned.

A safe environment like Fuzia Lounge (https://www.fuzia.com/) promotes empowerment. This is a virtual creative hub promoting a supportive and inclusive community where all members, male, female and third genders, are accepted and encouraged to express their beliefs in their inner powers, creativity, and potential. The community thrives on collaboration, sisterhood, support, and learning. It is central to the Fuzia philosophy which is based on providing women and others with a safe, bully-free, non-judgmental, and criticism-free virtual online space.

Creativity comes in many sizes and shapes. A person should have power to explore their creative niche, showcase their talents, learn from peers, and participate in engaging activities. The Fuzia Lounge is full of paintings, craft, poetry, blogs, calligraphy, photography, recipes, videos and so much more from all over the world which gives the user the feel of a close-knit global family. The members also engage through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fuzia World, and through the use of podcasts on platforms like Spotify and Hub Hopper.

Digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in our history, reaching around 50% of the developing world’s population in only two decades and transforming societies. In 2016 the United Nations passed a nonbinding resolution making the disruption of internet access a violation of human rights. In a report published by the United Nations telecommunications agency, it has been mentioned that more than half of the world’s population of nearly 8 billion will be using the Internet in 2018 and grow more in the following years. The latest figures also spotlight Africa, which shows the strongest rate of growth in internet access, from around two percent in 2005, to more than 24 percent of the African population in 2018 with 79.6 percent and 69.6 percent are an online presence in Europe and the Americas.

In 2020 it was reported that among Facebook users 54% are female, the rest 46% are male and or third gender. According to a Pew Research report, more US women than men are using Instagram, with 43% of the female respondents saying they used the social media platform. Only 31% of men admitted using it. Globally, this trend continues with 52% of females and 48% male using Instagram. In many advanced economies, nine-in-ten or more use the internet, led by South Korea (96%). Greece (66%). The most substantial increases in internet use since 2015 were in South Africa and Lebanon, which each experienced a 17-percentage point increase. The Philippines and Senegal have also seen significant improvements in internet penetration since 2015.

Today Fuzia’s network reaches about 6 million people globally, with ten hundred thousand active contributors, from over 30 countries. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, US, Philippines, UK are among the countries with the most membership. More than 40 000 members are added each month to the platform growth of about 35% year-on-year. A global team of 30 people are working remotely. Over the last eight years, Fuzia has continuously worked on improving their product after listening to users and understanding their feedback and needs. They have a sophisticated IT team that works around the clock to present the best user experience. Some of the state-of-the-art software they utilize to promote customer-oriented and user-friendly interfaces are Slack, G Suite, Google Analytics, Asana, and more. These are used to build web management, coordination, and seamless information flow.

Facebook, Instagram, Uber, and Airbnb are all household-name examples of digital platforms and networks that facilitate connections and exchanges between people. In 2020, and some of the jobs created by these trends include those in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Edge Computing, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT).

The growth of job opportunities in the digital space is turning established business models on their heads, leading many traditional businesses to transition to or incorporate a platform-based model. This calls for reform and adaptability. An employee, especially for a woman, can work from home much more easily, manage her family, and because she is equipped technologically and has a platform at hand.

Fuzia built up their business model following these trends and are leveraging remote work as a way of empowering more women around the globe. Their commitment to the empowerment of women goes beyond just interacting with them on a platform. Fuzia’s hands-on remote training includes courses on content service, blog writing, website content, video transcriptions, interview articles, video summary writing, subtitling services, copywriting, scriptwriting. Other courses include digital marketing, SEO, Google AdWords, SEM, ads management, and social media marketing promoting studies on SM Page management, pixel marketing, campaign management, executive branding, blog lounge management, community handling, and software development. They also ensure the creative side is covered by training on graphic designing, poster designs, banners, infographics, logo designs, book covers, website page designs, and others.

Fuzia founders believe that their platform can remove the gender gap in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. They say over 50,000 creative Fuzia users have committed to lend a hand to other women. With this global talent pool not only is there an opportunity for freedom and empowerment but a glimpse of a paradigm shift in which more women are involved in the digital space.

 

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There was widespread destruction in Hiroshima as a result of the nuclear bomb which was dropped on the Japanese city in August 1945. Credi: UN Photo/Eluchi Matsumoto

By External Source
Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

In a video message delivered to a Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan on Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has paid tribute to the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which devastated the city in 1945.

“Seventy-five years ago, a single nuclear weapon visited unspeakable death and destruction upon this city”, he said in his address. “The effects linger to this day”.

However, he noted that Hiroshima and its people have chosen not to be characterized by calamity, but instead by “resilience, reconciliation and hope”.

As “unmatched advocates for nuclear disarmament”, the survivors, known as hibakusha, have turned their tragedy into “a rallying voice for the safety and well-being of all humanity”, he said.

Intertwined fate

The birth of the UN in that same year, is inextricably intertwined with the destruction wrought by the nuclear bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Since its earliest days and resolutions, the Organization has recognized the need to totally eliminate nuclear weapons”, Mr. Guterres said. Yet, that goal remains elusive.

Dwindling arms control

The web of arms control, transparency and confidence-building instruments established during the Cold War and its aftermath, is fraying, said the UN chief, and 75 years on, the world has yet to learn that nuclear weapons diminish, rather than reinforce security, he warned.

Against the backdrop of division, distrust and a lack of dialogue along with States modernizing their nuclear arsenals and developing new dangerous weapons and delivery systems, he fears that the prospect of a nuclear-weapon-free world “seems to be slipping further from our grasp”.

“The risk of nuclear weapons being used, intentionally, by accident or through miscalculation, is too high for such trends to continue”, the UN chief added, repeating his call for States to “return to a common vision and path leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons”.

‘Time for dialogue’

While all States can play a positive role, the countries that possess nuclear weapons have a special responsibility: “They have repeatedly committed to the total elimination of nuclear weapons”, Mr. Guterres reminded.

“Now is the time for dialogue, confidence-building measures, reductions in the size of nuclear arsenals and utmost restraint”.

Strengthen disarmament

Calling for the international non-proliferation and disarmament architecture to be safeguarded and strengthened, the UN chief cited next year’s Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as an opportunity for States to “return to this shared vision”.

He also looked forward to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entry into force, along with that of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which he said “remains a top priority in order to entrench and institutionalize the global norm against nuclear testing”.

Amidst COVID-19

The commemoration took place in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Secretary-General said has exposed so many of the world’s fragilities, “including in the face of the nuclear threat”.

“The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons”, he spelled out.

“The United Nations and I will continue to work with all those who seek to achieve our common goal: a world free of nuclear weapons”, concluded the Secretary-General.

Recommit to disarmament

There truly is no winner in a nuclear war, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande President of the UN General Assembly told the ceremony.

“We must recommit to nuclear disarmament for there will never be a justification for the decimation caused by nuclear weapons”, he emphasized, urging everyone to “work relentlessly” to do so.

Calling the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons “a milestone agreement” in nuclear disarmament, he called on all Member States to sign and ratify it.

“In memory of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki…let us work together to create the future we want: a future which is free from the existential threat of nuclear weapons”, concluded the Assembly president.

Moral compasses

Meanwhile, the head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test -Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, said that the devasting blasts continue to “haunt humanity and raises a challenging question: Can we ever escape the destructive instinct that led to these horrific bombings”?

Calling the hibakusha a “forceful moral compass for humanity”, he maintained that their pain and stories have made nuclear risk more “perceptible and concrete”.

According to Mr. Zerbo, the hibakusha have taught that patience, determination and resolution are “indispensable in the long battle towards nuclear disarmament”.

“We must finish what we started because what happened in Japan must never happen again”, he said, adding,“we must hear them so we can act”.

Hiroshima, shortly after a nuclear bomb was dropped on this city in August 1945. UN Photo/Mitsugu Kishida

This story was originally published by UN News

 

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A teenage girl covers her face with her hands in front of a laptop computer, frightened by the news she reads about the pandemic. Photo: Dusko Miljanic/Unicef

By Andrés Cañizález
CARACAS, Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

Every era brings its own buzzwords or catchphrases along with it. The term du jour is ‘pandemic’, namely ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’; but alongside these words, speculation and forecasts over the post-pandemic world are flourishing. There is a proliferation of pieces and commentary on what our daily lives or the economy will be like once the epidemic is under control, that is, how we will live in the aftermath of the pandemic.

I will briefly delve into this forward-looking exercise. In the light of what we, all of the Humanity, are experiencing today, the very scope of these omens and forecasts is seriously threatened. Nobody, absolutely nobody, could have foreseen the scale that the current global health crisis would have when we were celebrating Christmas and wishing each other the best for this year 2020.

Once we are able to put a forecasting exercise into perspective, in the sense that it proves ineffective in allowing us to envision what would come, it is difficult to take as a given any projections made, from present day and place, as to what the post-pandemic world will be like.

Indeed, we have no idea of the world awaiting us. Uncertainty reigns in all aspects of social life.

Andrés Cañizález

Based on the above remarks, below I propose three dimensions that, in my opinion, will be distinctive regarding the exercise of journalism in the aftermath of the pandemic.

In the first place, and without a doubt, specialized journalism takes on capital importance. In countries of the South, we have not had many outstanding go-to personalities or figures in scientific or health journalism.

Once the coronavirus has been controlled, there will be a pressing need to train journalists in scientific and health issues. In the specific context of Latin America, Asia, or Africa, this is urgent.

This very pandemic, that has just unleashed a silent yet ruthless war over which will be the first vaccine to reach the market, in a battle involving pharmaceutical companies and governments, challenges journalism to appropriately cover what is going on in its rightful perspective.

Just as we advocate for a journalism that is capable of challenging political or financial power, today the world needs journalists with the training necessary to challenge the healthcare power. This encompasses ministries of health of different countries, international organizations specialized in this field, and obviously the business world of healthcare

We need journalists trained in public health, epidemiology, infectious diseases, vaccination, and so on. Journalists are not meant to replace doctors and healthcare specialists; but they must have a modicum of preparation to ask the right questions and put into the right context statements from health authorities, healthcare staff, and those people indeed affected.

Just as we advocate for a journalism that is capable of challenging political or financial power, today the world needs journalists with the training necessary to challenge the healthcare power. This encompasses ministries of health of different countries, international organizations specialized in this field, and obviously the business world of healthcare.

There is also a pressing need for solutions-oriented journalism. This exercise of journalism of putting oneself in the shoes of citizens and providing them with practical information has become manifest, in the current context, as a matter of absolute essence.

Imagine the media, in a country where government data are no longer existent, providing information on drugstores in major cities, along with their phone numbers, where you can find practical advice for dealing with domestic issues, or simply provide information on psychological or legal counseling offered free of charge by universities as part of their community outreach.

It is nothing less than putting oneself at the service of citizens. In countries of the North, citizens can have direct access to plenty of information online; but in nations of the South, that are disconnected and fragmented, the idea of the mainstream media providing a public service gains importance. Therein lies one of the challenges that has always surrounded the exercise of journalism.

This brings me to one last dimension. Journalism in the aftermath of the pandemic, as well as that during the pandemic, must be humane. It seems a truism, but it is essential that the media and journalists understand that the center of their endeavor is the human being. People are on both ends of a news story: On one side, they are the source or the protagonist of what is being told; and, on the other, they are the public that reads, listens, or watches.

And in the middle of both is the journalist, another human being who has the privilege of connecting both ends of that line.

The post Will There Also Be a Post-Journalism? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Andrés Cañizález is a Venezuelan journalist and Ph.D. in Political Science

The post Will There Also Be a Post-Journalism? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By UNESCO
Aug 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Leading personalities from all over the world have joined UNESCO in denouncing mounting racial discrimination in an advocacy video, United Against Racism, released today.

The 2’41” black and white film features messages by the following prominent women and men from the worlds of cinema, the media, music, sport and science alongside UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay:

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Freida Pinto, Naomi Campbell, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Jean-Michel Jarre, UNESCO Artist for Peace Marcus Miller, Jorge Ramos, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Yalitza Aparicio, Rossy de Palma, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Sumaya bint Al Hassan, Bobi Wine, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker, UNESCO Champion for Girls’ and Women’s Education Nadia Nadim, Amadou Gallo Fall, Ada Hegerberg and UNESCO Artist for Peace Gilberto Gil.

UNESCO has been on the forefront of the fight against racism since its creation in 1945. In 1978, it adopted the Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice which reaffirms that “All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all an integral part of humanity.”

 

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By External Source
Beirut, Lebanon, Aug 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Following the massive explosion in Beirut on 4 August, 2020, IPS correspondent Eliane Eid reports that the residents of the city are still shell shocked. Beirut looks like a battlefield, with destruction all around. The main port was on fire before the explosion. Described by some quarters as a “chemical bomb”, the explosion ripped through the heart of Beirut While the investigations have begun, the Lebanese community is uncertain as to what might have been the cause of this exposition that tore apart peoples lives with the blink of an eye.

 

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Children need diverse microbiomes in their environment to develop healthy immune systems. Credit: Josh Calabrese on Unsplash.

By External Source
Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

By 2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in towns and cities. Urban living brings many benefits, but city dwellers worldwide are seeing a rapid increase in noncommunicable health problems, such as asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.

Some scientists now think this is linked to biodiversity loss – the ongoing depletion of the varied forms of life on Earth. The rate at which different species go extinct is currently a thousand times higher than the historical background rate.

Microbial diversity is a large part of the biodiversity that is being lost. And these microbes – bacteria, viruses and fungi, among others – are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems. Because humans are a part of these ecosystems, our health also suffers when they vanish, or when barriers reduce our exposure to them.

 

The inner ecosystem

Promoting connections with nature – including the microbes many of us currently shun – should be a key part of any post-pandemic recovery strategy. We must protect and promote the invisible biodiversity that is vital to our personal and planetary health

Our gut, skin and airways harbour distinct microbiomes – vast networks of microbes that exist in different environments. The human gut alone harbours up to 100 trillion microbes, which outnumbers our own human cells. Our microbes provide services that are integral to our survival, such as processing food and providing chemicals that support brain function.

Contact with a diverse range of microbes in our environment is also essential for bolstering our immune system. Microbes found in environments closer to the ones we evolved in, such as woodlands and grasslands, are called “old friend” microbes by some microbiologists. That’s because they play a major role in “educating” our immune systems.

Part of our immune system is fast-acting and non-specific, which means it attacks all substances in the absence of proper regulation. Old friend microbes from our environment help provide this regulatory role. They can also stimulate chemicals that help to control inflammation and prevent our bodies from attacking our own cells, or innocuous substances like pollen and dust.

Exposure to a diverse range of microbes allows our bodies to mount an effective defensive response against pathogens. Another part of our immune system produces tiny armies of “memory cells” that maintain a record of all the pathogens our bodies encounter. This enables a rapid and effective immune response to similar pathogens in the future.

To help fight infectious diseases like COVID-19, we need healthy immune systems. But this is impossible without support from diverse microbiomes. Just as microbes have important roles in ecosystems, by helping plants grow and recycling soil nutrients, they also provide our bodies with nutrients and health-sustaining chemicals that promote good physical and mental health. This strengthens our resilience when facing diseases and other stressful times in our lives.

But our cities are often lacking in biodiversity. Most of us have swapped green and blue spaces for grey spaces – the concrete jungle. As a result, urban dwellers are far less exposed to a diversity of health-promoting microbes. Pollution can affect the urban microbiome too. Air pollutants can alter pollen so that it’s more likely to cause an allergic reaction.

“Germaphobia”, the perception that all microbes are bad, compounds these effects by encouraging many of us to sterilise all of the surfaces in our homes, and often prevents children from going outside and playing in dirt. The soil is one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth, so urban lifestyles can really disadvantage young people by severing this vital connection.

People living in more deprived urban areas have poorer health, shorter life expectancies and higher rates of infections. It’s no coincidence that these communities often lack accessible, high quality green and blue spaces. They’re also less likely to be able to afford, or have the time and energy to enjoy affordable fruit and vegetables.

 

What can we do?

We need to get serious about the urban microbiome.

Restoring natural habitats can help increase biodiversity and the health of city residents. Growing more diverse native plants, creating safe, inclusive and accessible green spaces and rewilding inner city and suburban parks can restore microbial diversity in urban life.

Our research is helping urban designers restore habitats in cities that can promote healthy interactions between residents and environmental microbes.

But access to these green and blue spaces, and affordable nutrition, must be improved. Support for allotments and community gardens could provide free, nutritious food and exposure to helpful microbes in one fell swoop, while sessions that teach people how to grow their own food could be prescribed by health professionals.

Promoting connections with nature – including the microbes many of us currently shun – should be a key part of any post-pandemic recovery strategy. We must protect and promote the invisible biodiversity that is vital to our personal and planetary health.

Jake M. Robinson, PhD Researcher, Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Biodiversity Loss Could be Making Us Sick – Here’s Why appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The COVID-19 response must address mental health alongside containment of the pandemic itself. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.

By Madhumitha Balaji and Vikram Patel
Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

To fully realise the mental health crisis that India faces in relation to COVID-19, one has to begin with recognising the very serious situation that existed even before the pandemic.

The government’s National Mental Health Survey reported that about 10 percent of adults meet diagnostic criteria for a mental health condition (ranging from mood and anxiety disorders to severe mental illness). The Global Burden of Disease study estimated that nearly 200 million people in India have experienced a mental disorder, nearly half of whom suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders.

India accounts for more than a third of the female suicides globally, nearly a fourth of all male suicides, and suicide has been the leading cause of death in young Indians.

Nearly 200 million people in India have experienced a mental disorder, nearly half of whom suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders.

India accounts for more than a third of the female suicides globally, nearly a fourth of all male suicides, and suicide has been the leading cause of death in young Indians

Yet, the government has spent very little on mental healthcare (estimated at less than one percent of the health budget), and this expenditure has been almost entirely on doctors, drugs, and hospitals in urban areas.

There is little community-oriented mental healthcare anywhere in the country. Unsurprisingly, between 70 to 92 percent of affected individuals have received no care from any source, of any kind, for their mental health conditions.

 

COVID-19 will impact mental health in two phases

One can consider the impact of the pandemic on mental health in two phases: The first is the acute phase, which coincided with the lockdown—the period when the pandemic surged through the country. The second phase will unfold in the months ahead, as the virus starts to get contained, but the economic fallout of the pandemic begins to bite deeper.

Right now, in the midst of the acute phase, people are terrified of the virus, of dying, or of loved ones contracting this disease. They are also scared of being quarantined, maintaining physical distancing, being isolated, and breaking the constantly changing rules.

For millions, these fears only add to the already daunting apprehensions about their livelihoods. These are not abstract anxieties; these are real, everyday worries.

If one considers all these factors, and adds to them the increase in domestic violence, the disruption of public transportation, the lack of access to routine health services, and the shortage of medical supplies, it seems almost normative that people are going to be very distressed during this period.

Indeed, there is already evidence in support of this distress. Internet-based surveys conducted between March-May 2020 show high rates of depression and anxiety in the general population.

For example, the ‘FEEL-COVID’ survey conducted in February-March 2020 with 1,106 people across 64 cities reported that a third of respondents faced significant ‘psychological impact’ because of COVID-19.

A number of other surveys indicate that such impact may be related to preoccupations with, or anxieties about contracting the virus, depression, sleeping difficulties, irritability, and loneliness.

 

The pandemic is affecting different groups in specific ways

• Women: In general, studies report many women suffering from anxiety and depression; this may be due to them facing the brunt of increased household responsibilities and domestic violence during the lockdown.
• Children: After speaking with 1,102 parents and primary caregivers, it was found that more than 50 percent of children had experienced agitation and anxiety during the lockdown. Media reports indicate that they may be experiencing fears about the virus, worries over access to online classes, and stress and irritability from being unable to go out. Many have faced violence in their homes or have been victims of cyber bullying.
• Young people: One survey reported that 65 percent of nearly 6,000 youth aged 18-32 years felt lonely during the lockdown, and 37 percent felt that their mental health had been ‘strongly impacted’. This is not surprising given that twenty-seven million young people lost their jobs in April 2020 alone, and 320 million students have been affected by the closing of educational institutions, and the postponement of exams.
• Migrant workers and daily wage labourers: Although there are no studies specifically with migrant workers, panic reactions have been observed in the millions who lost their livelihood and made desperate attempts to return to their rural homes. Daily wage laborers have also been heavily affected; a study of 1,200 auto drivers found that 75 percent were anxious about their work and finances.
• Doctors and frontline workers: A survey with 152 doctors found that more than a third of them are experiencing depression and anxiety due to the pandemic. Frontline workers are reportedly burdened by over-work, and anxious about contracting the virus.
• Sexual minority groups: A study of 282 people reported higher anxiety among sexual minority groups, and called for the attention of policymakers to take sensitive and inclusive health decisions for marginalised communities.
• People with pre-existing mental health conditions: The anxieties described earlier have been overwhelming for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Problems may also have worsened for individuals because of the disruption of mental health services and the difficulty of travel, which led to people reducing doses of prescribed medication.
• People with substance use disorders: The sudden closure of all liquor shops in the country and the cutting off drug supplies has resulted in withdrawal symptoms in many people with alcohol and substance use dependence, for example, delirium and seizures. Many alcohol ‘addicts’ distressed by their craving have also consumed poisonous substances such as hand sanitisers as substitutes and died, or died by suicide.

It is important to note that the surveys conducted were not entirely representative, as they focused primarily on English-speaking, urban adults with access to the internet. Nevertheless, the prevalence of anxiety and depression reported are uniformly high—up to 20 percent higher than previously reported data.

 

Responding to the crisis

There has been a flourishing of initiatives to address this rising tide of mental health problems. Some of these include:

• Telemedicine platforms such as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Mpower helpline, for example, received about 750 calls a day, and a total of 45,000 calls in just two months. E-platforms such as Lybate and Practo, have reported over a 180 percent increase in tele-psychiatry consultations.
• Central government initiatives include a telemedicine system whereby persons with mental illness can be provided with electronic medical prescriptions. However, this has not been very effective for poor persons in rural areas, or for obtaining medicines that cannot be sold over the counter without a hard copy prescription. The government has also issued a resource package that details guidelines for management of mental health problems, for use in primary and specialised health settings.
• At the state level, noteworthy responses include the ‘psychological support team’ constituted by the Kerala government, the reviving of the ‘Happiness Department’ in hospitals set up by the Madhya Pradesh government, and the initiatives at the Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT)and de-addiction centres by the Punjab government.
• Several nonprofits, private hospitals, and universities have set up helplines and e-counselling—for example, the Neptune Foundation, Trijog, Mastermind Foundation, Samaritans, Jamia Millia Islamia, and others. Additionally, nonprofits such as CRY, The Banyan, Sangath, and others have hosted webinars on mental health, and/or are providing free tele-counselling services.

 

Looking ahead: Threats and opportunities

As we look ahead, beyond the acute phase of the pandemic, the world will need to address an economic recession far greater than anything we have encountered before.

A rise in mental health problems is expected as an impact of this economic recession, the widening of inequalities in countries, the isolating physical distancing policies, and continuing uncertainties about future waves of the pandemic.

This is not surprising, given the strong association between poverty, inequality, and poor mental health. Mental healthcare systems will be ill-equipped to deal with this surge, not only because of the paucity of skilled providers, but also because of the narrow biomedical models of illness which dominate mental healthcare.

However, there is a body of evidence generated by community-oriented practitioners in India that involve a range of innovative strategies to address the structural barriers to scaling up psychosocial therapies.

Notably, it was demonstrated that pared down ‘elements’ of complex psychological treatment packages can be just as effective as standardised treatment protocols, and that these can then be effectively delivered by non-specialist ‘therapists’ such as community health workers.

More recent innovations demonstrate the acceptability and effectiveness of digital training in the delivery of psychological treatments and of peer supervision for quality assurance.

These delivery models when combined and scaled up, can transform access to one of the most effective interventions in medicine. By working towards scaling up evidence-based psychological therapies, Empower, an initiative of Sangath, is trying to do just this.

But beyond specific programmes, there is an urgent need for a national, government response across relevant sectors.

For example, when looking at education, we need to consider how to address the mental health needs of children and young people (and their parents) while ensuring that their learning continues in the absence of schools being open.

We need strategies to proactively respond to risk factors that are associated with mental health that we know are on the rise; for example, domestic violence. We need to support community action, to build social cohesion and solidarity.

Lastly, given the impact of the media on people (for example, in one survey 44.7 percent of respondents reported that they ‘freak out’ because of social media posts), it’s important for us to remember that we need to be intentional and sensitive in how we communicate about the pandemic.

This is a timely moment for all who are concerned with mental health—from mental health professionals to civil society advocates—to unite behind with one message: The COVID-19 response must address mental health alongside containment of the pandemic itself.

This is also a historic opportunity for us to completely reimagine what mental healthcare means. To acknowledge and embrace the plural ways in which mental health problems are experienced, we must go beyond the narrow, disease-based models of mental healthcare and embrace the diversity and the pluralism of mental health in our communities.

 

Madhumitha Balaji is a Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Early Career Fellow at Sangath, India. 

Vikram Patel is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the Harvard Medical School.

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

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Manju Begum, 85, stands in front of her flooded house in Medeni Mandal in Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh. She says she has not received any assistance from local officials since her home was flooded more than a week ago. With nearly 5.5 million people people across Bangladesh affected by severe flooding, humanitarian experts are concerned that millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, will be pushed further into poverty. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

By Farid Ahmed
DHAKA, Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

With nearly 5.5 million people people across Bangladesh affected by severe flooding — the worst in two decades — humanitarian experts are concerned that millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, will be pushed further into poverty.

With a third of the country under water, the National Disaster Response Coordination Centre in Bangladesh has reported that some 5.5 million people or nearly a million families were affected by the flooding as of Tuesday, Aug. 4.

The Health Emergency Control Room has recorded at least 145 deaths, mostly from drowning or snakebites, in 33 of the 64 districts affected by flooding.

In the past three days alone, two more districts were freshly inundated by heavy rains, affecting nearly half a million more people.

• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said in a Aug. 4 report that heavy monsoon rains in upstream regions continued to cause flooding in Bangladesh’s districts in the north, north-east and south-east, affecting some 5.4 million people.
• June to August is typically the monsoon season here, but since the start of June heavy rains have resulted in many of the country’s rivers reaching levels classified as “dangerous”.
• UN OCHA said the flooding had damaged houses, dykes, embankments, safe water sources and hygiene facilities and also adversely affected livelihoods, especially in the agricultural sector. It had also disrupted access to basic services such as health care and education.

“I have lost everything in the river Jamuna – my home, my croplands… it went under water so swiftly that I couldn’t save my belongings either,” Abdur Rahman from Sirajganj region, north-central Bangladesh said.

A number of low-lying areas in Sirajganj were affected by flooding when the Jamuna river levels rose in July, leaving hundreds homeless. The Jamuna and Padma rivers are two of the country’s main rivers. The Padma, the main distributary of the Ganges, also burst it banks last month. In several districts, school buildings, roads and other structures were destroyed.

It is not just Bangladesh that is affected. Flooding has wreaked havoc across a large part of South Asia. In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan several million people have been affected and scores killed. Assam, Bihar and part of West Bengal were the worst-affected states in India.

“People in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are sandwiched in a triple disaster of flooding, coronavirus and an associated socioeconomic crisis of loss of livelihoods and jobs,” Jagan Chapagain, the secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said.

“Millions of people across Bangladesh, India and Nepal have been marooned, their homes damaged and crops destroyed by floods that are the worst in recent years,” Chaplain added.

He said the flooding of farm lands and destruction of crops could push millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, further into poverty.

In Bangladesh, the worst affected are those who have become paupers overnight as they lost their homes, belongings and croplands.

In some districts, entire villages are under water, forcing people to leave their homes in search of safety while many were seen crouching on rooftops waiting for rescue. In the flooded northern districts in Bangladesh, it was a common sight of villagers marooned on the roofs of their houses along with their livestock or poultry while many others sought shelter on embankments or roads.

Arif Hossain from Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh, was a tailor by profession before the coronavirus pandemic. Now he spends his days ferrying people in the submerged locality on his small boat.

In central Bangladesh, major rivers continue to overflow, causing heavy flooding to ravage low-lying parts of the capital, Dhaka. In adjoining districts and northern parts of the country much of the population, who have already been affected by the coronavirus lockdowns, are in dire straits. Poorly-prepared relief operations have aggravated the plight of victims, triggering public anger and widespread criticism of the government.

“I haven’t received any kind of aid,” Hossain told IPS.

“Many people in the areas left the villages… those who have no place to go, like me, are staying here in homes that are already [flooded],” Hossain told IPS adding, “We’re staying in a room submerged in knee-deep water… my two children are always scared of snakes.”

• The flooding is the second natural disaster that the country has had to deal with in as many months. In May, Cyclone Amphan made landfall in the midst of the country’s coronavirus lockdown. More than 2.4 million people and over half a million livestock had to be evactued from the in the coastal districts of Khulna, Satkheera, Jessore, Rajbadi and Sirajganj.

Manju Begum, 85, who lives alone in Medeni Mandal in Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh, 55 kilometres from capital, decried the non-action of local public representatives. She told IPS that nobody from her local government had offered her assistance after her home had been flooded.

“Floodwater entered my bedroom eight days ago… I got a little amount of food only from my neighbours,” she said.

However, last week Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked all government officials to remain prepared to extend support to those affected by the floods. She assured the country that extensive assistance would be given to the flood victims.

Bangladesh state minister for disaster management and relief Md. Enamur Rahman said they had formed six committees to monitor the activities of government relief assistance programmes.

The government has distributed cash, rice and other materials to those affected by the flooding and allocations would be increased if needed, Rahman said at a press conference in Dhaka last week.

Mostak Hussain, humanitarian director for Save the Children in Bangladesh, said nearly two million children here were affected by the longest-lasting floods in over 20 years.

“This has been a devastating monsoon so far and we’re only half way through the season,” he said.

The flooding has also left a large number of women affected as their livelihoods such as livestock, poultry farming, vegetable cultivation or tailoring have come to a halt. Initially, they faced setbacks to income generation as the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the country being shutdown.

“I took a loan from an NGO and started a poultry farm a couple of years ago, but I was forced to sell the chickens at a cheaper price as water inundated my house… now I’m not sure how would I repay the loan or maintain the family expenditure as I don’t have any work,” Shahana Begum, a widow, told IPS.

Related Articles

• Cyclone Amphan – ‘We Didn’t Expect Devastation of Such a Scale’

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H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, visits a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 10 February 2020. Credit: Geremew Tigabu/UN OPGA

By Tijjani Muhammad-Bande
NEW YORK, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

The United Nations came into existence at a time of great despair, when the penholders of its founding document dared to imagine a better world, one that would be defined by peace and equality. Visionary world leaders chose hope over cynicism, empathy over indifference and partnership over distrust when they came together in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 to sign the Charter of the United Nations. They embarked upon a new, rules-based world order, with an Organization of unrivalled legitimacy at its core.

Over the past 75 years, the United Nations General Assembly has served as a “parliament of humanity”. As the primary deliberative, policy-making and representative body of the United Nations, the Assembly provides a forum to share perspectives, forge partnerships and build consensus. It is rooted in equality of both voice and vote. When there is disagreement, the Assembly provides space for respectful debate, where Members can generate understanding and reach compromise.

Within its remit as a principal organ of the United Nations, the General Assembly has assisted in guiding the transformation of our world over the past three quarters of a century. It adopts resolutions across a wide breadth of issues that reflect the aspirations of humanity across the three pillars of the work of the United Nations: human rights, peace and security, and development.

General Assembly resolutions have helped create the building blocks for the normative development of international law. In 1959, Assembly resolution 1472 (XIV) created the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. This initiated work that facilitated the use of modern technology and telecommunications. In 1957, the Assembly, by resolution 1105 (XI), decided to convene the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, paving the way for the adoption in 1982 of humanity’s first “constitution for the seas”—the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Charter of the United Nations set out the objective to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Accordingly, the General Assembly has worked hard towards the goal of eliminating atomic weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction. This was the genesis of the normative development of the international regime of disarmament and non-proliferation.

In 1948, the Assembly, by resolution 217 (III), adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This set of inalienable rights set out standards for equal treatment of all people and re-affirmed the preamble of the Charter:

“We the peoples of the United Nations determined … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women…”

Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, which was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945. Credit: UN Photo

The world has changed significantly since 1945, with more than 80 former colonies joining the Organization. In response to the peoples of the United Nations yearning for independence, the Assembly, in its fifteenth year, adopted resolution 1514, which provided the most authoritative and comprehensive formulation of the principle of self-determination. In 1966, resolution 2202 A (XXI) declared apartheid a crime against humanity. The Assembly continues to promote equality and dignity for all, including through the mandated 2015-2024 the International Decade for People of African Descent with the theme “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”, and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed on 21 March.

Indeed, the General Assembly has sought to end discrimination in all its forms. It adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons in 1975; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979; the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief in 1981; the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989; and, more recently, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.

In 2015, all Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development via resolution 70/1. The Paris Climate Agreement began in embryonic form as a General Assembly resolution. These twenty-first century milestones of multilateralism demonstrate the recognition of Member States that collective action is required to combat an existential threat and safeguard the world’s citizens and the planet we inhabit for generations to come. When faced with global challenges, solidarity remains our first and best line of defense.

The United Nations, however, is not a panacea. Despite its best efforts, conflict and strife persists, and in some cases irreparable damage has been done to society. We could not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, and the question of Palestine remains unresolved. These are regarded by many as cases in which the international community has fallen short. Therefore, we must reflect and continue to work together in the names of the communities that need us most, and in honour of United Nations peacekeepers and personnel who have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has led the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic since the onset of the crisis. The United Nations system has been most effective in galvanizing support for the most vulnerable. In the General Assembly, Member States rallied to adopt resolutions calling for solidarity and global access to medicines and medical equipment. They have also taken historic steps to enable the General Assembly to operate and uphold the vital work of the United Nations during this period by adopting decisions under new rules and procedures.

The 75th anniversary of the United Nations takes place at a moment of reckoning for our shared planet and shared future. This is a time for action, ambition and partnership. By 1 July 2020, over 10 million cases had been reported to WHO and more than 500,000 people had succumbed to the effects of COVID-19.1 This pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities, and the socio-economic impact is unprecedented in the history of our Organization. The Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, warns of a famine “of biblical proportions”; the United Nations Economic and Social Council reports that 1.6 billion children are unable to attend school in person; and the pandemic continues to disproportionately affect women and vulnerable groups, such as refugees and internally displaced persons.

Our continued response will require a recommitment to multilateralism as we build back better in this Decade of Action (2020–2030) to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2015, the membership of the General Assembly pledged to leave no one behind and shift the world onto a path of sustainable development and prosperity for all. We are in an unprecedented situation, and we must redouble our efforts to achieve the SDGs on time. This is a call to action for the United Nations as we reflect upon the future we want and the United Nations we need.

Three quarters of a century ago, the founders of our Organization demonstrated fortitude at a time of crisis. They chose to trust one another and unite in pursuit of a better world. In the inaugural address of the first President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Paul-Henri Spaak stated, “It is possible that one day, in the future, the pessimists may be right; I do not know. But I do know that today they are wrong. In San Francisco, they announced that the Charter could never be established; in London, that the Organization would never come into existence; in the past few weeks, that we should never meet again, and now, no doubt, that we are going to tear each other to pieces.”2

On the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, let it be clear that we will not let the founders of our Organization or ourselves down. “We the peoples” must remain steadfast in our resolve to advance the goals and principles of our Charter.

1Available from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic page of the World Health Organization website (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019) (accessed on 1 July 2020).

2United Nations, General Assembly Official Records, Thirty-fourth plenary meeting, U.N. Doc A-PV-34-EN (23 October 1946), para. 82. Available at https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/482476?ln=en.

This article was first published by the UN Chronicle on 6 July 2020.

 

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Excerpt:

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations.

The post The UN General Assembly: A 75-Year Journey Towards the Future We Want appeared first on Inter Press Service.