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By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, May 9 2022 (IPS)

A revised Iran nuclear deal based on the 2015 JCPOA could provide the basis for a new Biden administration strategy that would limit Iran’s nuclear program to peaceful purposes and ensure that Tehran’s public pronouncement that it is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons becomes a de facto reality.

Righting the Wrong

Regardless of how flawed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; aka Iran nuclear deal) may be, it was by far better than having no deal. Trump’s withdrawal from the deal was most unfortunate as it did nothing but bring Iran ever closer to the nuclear threshold. Despite its public pronouncements to the contrary,

Tehran remains determined to acquire nuclear weapons at some point in the near future; however, it can change its position once it returns to the original deal and together with the US builds upon it. Nonetheless, to change the dynamic of the conflict and determine what it might take to modify Iran’s position, we need to better understand what is behind its nuclear ambitions.

Thus, it is important to first examine the clergy’s mindset and their motivation to acquire nuclear weapons in spite of Western powers’ objections and irrespective of the weighty, if not crippling sanctions that have been imposed on the country over the years.

With a long and proud history, vast natural and human resources (with a population of more than 90 million), rich culture, and geostrategic location, Iran feels that it is entitled to become the region’s hegemon where it can exert considerable influence.

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has felt threatened and isolated, living in fear of a US-orchestrated regime change. As such, Iran commits nearly $25 billion of its annual budget to the military (an increase of 11 percent from 2020, making it the 14th largest military spender in the world) and over the years it has built a powerful conventional armed forces led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Given however the limitations of Iran’s conventional military power projection, the next phase of its national defense doctrine was the development of a nuclear weapons program designed to achieve three main objectives.

Why Iran seeks nuclear weapons

First, Iran’s determination to realize its ambition of regional hegemony would be substantially augmented by the possession of nuclear weapons. Iran has no intention of threatening or using such weapons against any of its adversaries—especially Israel, which is in possession of second-strike nuclear capability that could wipe out half the country—but the mere fact of being a nuclear power will give it the prestige and regional sway that it desires.

Second, by acquiring nuclear weapons, Iran wants to establish the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD) and thus deter any nuclear power, such as the US or Israel, from attacking it, knowing full well that no country with nuclear weapons has been attacked since World War II.

India and Pakistan, who fought three conventional wars over Kashmir, have refrained from waging another war since they acquired nuclear weapons. The same can be said about North Korea, and if Ukraine kept its nuclear arsenals, Russia very likely would not have dared to invade it.

Third, as a predominantly Shiite state, Iran seeks to be on par with Sunni Pakistan and Jewish Israel, and cannot allow itself to be overshadowed by either. Moreover, Iran would feel confident that it can shield itself from regime change orchestrated by the US in particular.

Iran’s nuclear weapon strategy

Although Iran has time and again stated that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons and may remain true to its public narrative, based on solid intelligence evidence, Iran is seeking to achieve nuclear latency and produce enough weapons-grade uranium to construct three to four nuclear weapons in short order.

However, it may well take Iran 18 months to two years to miniaturize a nuclear head to be fitted onto a ballistic missile.

Meanwhile, the clergy is prepared to sign off on a return to the original deal provided that their demands are met. This would include removing most if not all the sanctions to get the financial relief they desperately need, unfreezing tens of billions of dollars, and removing the IRGC’s militant arm, the Quds Force, from the US terrorist list, which Iran is insisting upon and should not be a deal breaker.

As things stand now, once Iran returns to the original deal, it will wait for the expiration of the sunset clauses in 2031 to resume its nuclear weapon program; the Iranians are known for their patience, and they feel that time and God are on their side.

For the Biden administration to address Iran’s concerns and dissuade it from taking the final leap to acquire deliverable nuclear weapons, it must develop a three-pronged strategy: a) change its public narrative and convey to the Iranian public that the US has no intention of undermining Iran’s sovereignty and national security; b) craft a renewed JCPOA, build on it, and help Iran to become a constructive member of the international community; and c) establish a regional security architecture that will include all the countries from the Gulf to the Mediterranean.

Changing the public narrative

How the Iranian government and people perceive the US’ intentions matters greatly in shaping their public opinion. Any bellicose statements and threats emanating from the US or Israel plays directly into the hand of the clergy, as they will use these adversarial pronouncements to show their public that the US is Iran’s foremost enemy.

In so doing they not only justify their enmity toward the US but also blame it for the economic hardship the public is experiencing. For the Biden administration to impact Iranian public opinion, it must refrain from using acrimonious rhetoric and make it clear by every possible means that the US holds no animosity toward Iran and is open to settle any and all disputes with the government peacefully and collaboratively.

It should be noted that even after 43 years of reign by the clergy, the majority of the Iranian population, especially the youth, remain Western-oriented and would like nothing more than to restore normal relations with the West, to where they can travel and study.

We should also remember that before the 1979 revolution, Iran was one of the closet allies of the US, and two or three generations has not changed the public’s Western-leaning cultural foundation. Similarly, seventy years of Soviet communist domination did not alter the eastern European countries’ political orientation, which sought to join the Western democracies immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Needless to say, changing public narratives in and of itself will not be sufficient – it must be accompanied by action and sincere efforts to create a new environment not only to lend credibility to the new approach but in fact change the dynamic of the conflict.

Building on the renewed JCPOA

For that to happen, the Biden administration ought to make it clear to Iran that by returning to the original deal it can benefit greatly, not only from the initial phase of lifting the sanctions and unfreezing tens of billions of dollars but also by building on the new deal through:

1. Beginning a process of normalizing relations between Washington and Tehran by establishing initial diplomatic relations;
2. Renouncing publicly any effort to seek regime change, which is a prerequisite for any kind of Iranian cooperation;
3. Starting trade relations between the two countries and supporting Iran in joining the World Trade Organization;
4. Committing to not undertaking military or cyber-attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities as long as its nuclear program remains peaceful; and finally,
5. Creating a joint commission to address a host of conflicting issues to reduce tensions and build trust.

In return, Iran will be required first and foremost to end its nuclear weapons program and agree to unfettered and permanent monitoring of its nuclear facilities, stop threatening other countries, especially Israel, and cease its support of extremist and terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad.

Certainly, given that Israel is consistently threatened by Iran, it should be allowed to give its input regarding these issues through the US, without blowing its national security concerns out of proportion. Since Iran denies being engaged in any nefarious activity, the negotiation about these sensitive issues, including its cruise and ballistic missiles program, ought to obviously take place behind the scenes.

There will be many who would argue that such an approach amounts to nothing more than a pipe dream. They maintain that the Iranian government is religiously fanatic, politically radical, militarily aggressive with grandiose strategic ambitions, illogical, and a major destabilizing force in the region.

Indeed, anyone who listens to the clergy’s denunciations and condemnations of the US and Israel would concur that the Iranian regime is perhaps irredeemable and that only regime change would alter its behavior. One cannot dismiss this argument out of hand as Iran’s conduct in the region and beyond speaks for itself.

That said, the people of Iran want to grow, flourish, and live in peace, and the ruling clergy knows that they cannot achieve this as long as they remain economically hamstrung by sanctions while continuing to treat the US as a mortal enemy. Culturally, the Iranians are known to be calculating and strategically savvy.

To be sure, notwithstanding the leadership’s adversarial public posture and utterances against the US, they certainly prefer normal relations with America than perpetual enmity.

This however, should not preclude the US from pursuing a new Middle Eastern strategy that would effectively compel Iran to choose between two options: either to become a constructive player in the region or a perpetual enemy who must always be constrained by any means necessary, including the use of force.

Establishing a regional security architecture

As the Biden administration embarks on the process of reconciliation with Iran, it should concurrently begin discussions with its Middle Eastern allies—the six Arab Gulf states, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt—to form a regional security alliance.

Such an alliance is more likely to be established at the present than at any other time in the past, especially because of the Abraham Accords, where Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf, along with Sudan and Morocco, have normalized relations with Israel. The remaining Gulf states—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman—are already collaborating with Israel on many fronts, especially on security and intelligence-sharing.

The purpose of such an alliance would be to challenge Iran’s regional ambitions and pose a veiled threat to its national security, compelling Iran to choose between two options. Iran can either gradually moderate its position and become a constructive player in and outside the region, or stick to its ambition to become a nuclear power once the new deal runs its course.

If Iran chooses the latter, the Biden administration should then consider building the infrastructure that would provide a nuclear umbrella to all member states of the alliance, something that was floated by Hillary Clinton when she ran for president.

This strategy may seem far-fetched and undoable simply because of the huge differences in perception and the ultimate objectives of each side. But then we have to admit that since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the enmity and distrust between the US and Iran has only deepened.

Indeed, if there was an opportunity to build on the original deal and create more constructive relations between the US and Iran, it was blown away by Trump’s withdrawal from the deal. This has only further deepened Iran’s distrust of the US, which predates the 1979 revolution and is rooted in the US-backed overthrow of the democratically elected Mosaddegh government in 1953, despite the fact that they continued to maintain good relations from 1953 to 1979.

After 43 years of continuing hostility, it is time for a new approach. Iran is a large and powerful country and is not going anywhere. It occupies one of the most strategic locations in the world and thus it cannot be simply ignored, or written off as an irredeemable enemy that responds only to the threat or use of force.

A return to the original deal offers a perhaps rare opportunity to open a new chapter in the relations between the US and Iran and bring an end to a consuming conflict that will otherwise continue to dangerously destabilize the region.

The US can now change the dynamic of the conflict by offering Iran a promising prospect for economic prosperity and growth while enhancing its national security, or be subject to constant sabotage, crippling sanctions, and potential military attacks on its nuclear facilities, as President Biden and Israel vowed to never allow Iran to become a nuclear power.

The US can make this overture not only because it has nothing to lose, but also because it can demonstrate resolute leadership and be ready to change course by offering a solution from a position of strength, even if it stands only a small chance of success.

Since Iran consistently denies having any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, this strategy will allow it to forsake its nuclear weapons program without losing face, while leveraging constructively its vast potential as a major regional power.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years.

The global formula milk industry, valued at some 55 billion US dollars, is targeting new mothers with personalised social media content that is often not recognisable as advertising. Photo by Lucy Wolski on Unsplash

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, May 6 2022 (IPS)

The world’s leading health and children specialised organisations have once again sounded the alarm bell about what they classify as “shocking, insidious, exploitative, aggressive, misleading and pervasive” marketing tricks used by the baby formula milk business with the sole aim of increasing, even more, their already high profits.

On this, the World Health Organization (WHO) at the end of April this year explained that formula milk companies are paying social media platforms and influencers to gain direct access to pregnant women and mothers at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives.

The global formula milk industry, valued at some 55 billion US dollars, is targeting new mothers with personalised social media content that is often not recognisable as advertising.

The formula milk industry uses systematic and unethical marketing strategies to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions and exploitative practices that compromise child nutrition and violate international commitments.

“This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” says WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

The new WHO report titled Scope and impact of digital marketing strategies for promoting breast-milk substitutes has outlined the digital marketing techniques designed to influence the decisions new families make on how to feed their babies.

 

Business buys, collects personal information

“Through tools like apps, virtual support groups or ‘baby-clubs’, paid social media influencers, promotions and competitions and advice forums or services, formula milk companies can buy or collect personal information and send personalised promotions to new pregnant women and mothers.”

The report summarises findings of new research that sampled and analysed 4 million social media posts about infant feeding published between January and June 2021 using a commercial social listening platform.

These posts reached 2.47 billion people and generated more than 12 million likes, shares or comments.

 

Three times as much

Formula milk companies post content on their social media accounts around 90 times per day, reaching 229 million users; representing three times as many people as are reached by informational posts about breastfeeding from non-commercial accounts.

This pervasive marketing is increasing purchases of breast-milk substitutes and therefore dissuading mothers from breastfeeding exclusively as recommended by WHO.

“The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago,” said Dr Francesco Branca, Director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety department.

 

More and more powerful marketing techniques

“The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped.”

The report compiled evidence from social listening research on public online communications and individual country reports of research that monitors breast-milk substitute promotions, as well as drawing on a recent multi-country study of mothers’ and health professionals’ experiences of formula milk marketing.

The studies show how misleading marketing reinforces myths about breastfeeding and breast milk and undermines women’s confidence in their ability to breastfeed successfully.

 

Blatant breaches of law

The proliferation of global digital marketing of formula milk blatantly breaches the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code), which was adopted by the 1981 World Health Assembly.

The Code is a landmark public health agreement designed to protect the general public and mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry that negatively impact breastfeeding practices.

“Despite clear evidence that exclusive and continued breastfeeding are key determinants of improved lifelong health for children, women and communities, far too few children are breastfed as recommended. If current formula milk marketing strategies continue, that proportion could fall still further, boosting companies’ profits.”

 

Industry to stop, governments to act

WHO has called on the baby food industry to end exploitative formula milk marketing, and on governments to protect new children and families by enacting, monitoring and enforcing laws to end all advertising or other promotion of formula milk products.

This is the first time WHO has used a social media intelligence platform to generate insight into the marketing practices of multi-national formula milk manufacturers and distributors.

Social media intelligence platforms monitor social media for mentions of defined key words or phrases, which they gather, organise and analyse.

This industry standard approach “listens” to the billions of daily exchanges and conversations that take place amongst social media users around the world and on other digital platforms, such as websites and forums.

This investigation captured digital interactions that occurred between 1 January and 30 June 2021, referenced infant feeding across 11 languages and 17 countries, which together account for 61% of the global population and span all six WHO regions.

 

Pregnant women, exposed to aggressive marketing

Parents and pregnant women globally are exposed to aggressive marketing for baby formula milk, according to a report launched jointly by two UN agencies last February.

How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, the first report in a series by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women, and health workers in eight countries.

More than half of those surveyed acknowledged that they had been targeted by formula milk companies.

 

Unethical

UNICEF and WHO maintain that the formula milk industry uses systematic and unethical marketing strategies to influence parents’ infant feeding decisions and exploitative practices that compromise child nutrition and violate international commitments.

“This report shows very clearly that formula milk marketing remains unacceptably pervasive, misleading and aggressive,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, calling for regulations on exploitative marketing to be “urgently adopted and enforced to protect children’s health.”

The report found not only that industry marketing techniques include unregulated and invasive online targeting, but also sponsored advice networks and helplines; offered promotions and free gifts; and influenced health workers’ training and recommendations.

Surprised? Well, nobody should really be, now that the voracious push for making more profits and accumulating more money has already supplanted Nature and whatever is natural.

A variety of insect-based delicacies. It is estimated that 2.5 billion people around the world eat insects as part of their regular diet. Encouraging the eating of insects could have health and climate change benefits. Credit: icipe

By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, May 6 2022 (IPS)

Growing up in Samoya Village of Bungoma County in the Western part of Kenya, Elvis Wanjala has fond childhood memories of the rainy season, chasing and catching black-bellied winged termites in the rain.

“The termites would also come inside the house, attracted by the light late in the evening. My mother would sun-dry the termites and pan-fry them. We would then eat the crunchy termites with ugali (posho) and a serving of traditional vegetables,” he recounts.

“I grew up believing that everybody ate termites. At 11 years, I visited my uncle in Nairobi and was shocked to find that termites were more of a nuisance than food. One morning after a heavy downpour, I watched in awe as women and girls swept termites from their doorsteps and threw them in the bin.”

Beatrice Karare from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries tells IPS termites, and other insects such as grasshoppers, locusts, black and white ants, and crickets are part of traditional diets in Western Kenya, but not so in other parts of the country.

But with rising inflation, scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) say edible insects are a low-cost alternative to more expensive foods. The Kenyan ‘food basket’ indicates that food inflation rose by 20 percent in January 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

These are pan-dried nsenene. Researchers say edible insects provide low-cost alternative protein. Credit: icipe

Dr Saliou Niassy, a scientist from icipe, tells IPS edible insects contain high-quality protein, vitamins, fibre, calcium, iron, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and amino acids and are also an excellent source of healthy fats.

Insect oil produced through an icipe research project from two edible insects – the desert locust and the African bush-cricket – was richer in omega-3 fatty acids, flavonoids, and Vitamin E than the plant oil.

Niassy says as this East African nation grapples with increasing threats to food security such as “climate change, landscape degradation and pest invasion, edible insects are a viable and affordable alternative.” It is projected that Africa’s annual food import bill of  $35 billion could rise to $110 billion by 2025.

A survey conducted by icipe shows there are an estimated 500 species of edible insects in African communities. The Central African region is home to approximately 256 edible insect species. East Africa hosts about 100 species, and about eight species are available in North Africa. An estimated 17 primary species are used for feed and food in Kenya.

“We have had two main challenges as far as increasing consumption of insects is concerned, a lack of legislation around the production, packaging, and marketing of insects for food and strong perceptions that dictate what is culturally acceptable as food. There are also strong beliefs that you must be very poor to eat insects,” Karare explains.

Karare says some of these issues were resolved in December 2020 when Kenya became the first African country to develop national standards regulating the production, handling, and processing of insects for food and feed.

Included in the regulation are stipulations of the necessary minimum infrastructural and environmental requirements necessary for the ideal production of edible insects, including how they are packaged and presented.

Wanjala, now a teacher based in Nairobi, says communities that do not eat insects and children could be slowly introduced to insect products such as biscuits “so that the idea of eating insects can slowly sink in. When it comes to eating whole insects, I find that people are also more likely to try dry-fried, crunchy insects.”

Despite the challenges of creating a viable and attractive market for insects, Karare is convinced that insects can be part of the diet in many homes, drawing parallels with the journey of Kenyans embracing traditional vegetables.

“A few years ago, highly nutritious traditional vegetables were eaten by a few communities. In Central Kenya, for instance, Amaranthus was considered to be food for poor people. Today, Amaranthus is a popular delicacy and part of the menu in five-star hotels. The same with pumpkin leaves,” Karare observes.

“We need to educate the people that edible insects can add nutrients to a plant-based meal. More importantly, insects can even nutritionally replace meat.”

Pan-dried desert grasshoppers. Credit: icipe

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 2.5 billion people eat insects as part of their regular meals, whole or in processed food products such as snacks and pasta. Karare says the global edible insect market estimated at $112 million in 2019, could reach $1.5 billion by 2026.

There are approximately 1,900 edible species globally, including butterflies, cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, bees, dragonflies, beetles, domestic silk moths, centipedes and locusts.

According to FAO, turning to insects is not only good for the body but highly environment friendly and could contribute to reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. The livestock sector contributes significantly to climate change as total emissions from global livestock represent 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Cattle reared for beef and milk and inedible outputs such as manure and draft power account for 65 percent of the livestock sector’s emissions. Producing insects for food is yet another alternative to reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases, the FAO says.

Crickets need six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and half as much as pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein. Additionally, insect-based products are found to have a much smaller carbon footprint in comparison to conventional livestock.

With these revelations, Niassy says there is a lot more to learn and benefit from, “we have just scratched the surface in terms of sustainable access to biodiversity for resilience, livelihood, food and nutritional security in Africa.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Kateryna Timoshenko, Networks of People Living with HIV, Kirovograd oblast. Credit: 100%LIFE via UNAIDS

By Eamonn Murphy
GENEVA, May 6 2022 (IPS)

Alongside the devastation caused by bombs and bullets, the war in Ukraine has wrought another danger that can be as deadly as the violence itself: the disruption of access to health services for people who will not survive if cut off from health care.

Health provision has been badly hit, and supply lines crucial for the delivery of medicines severely disrupted. The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 186 attacks on health-care facilities since the war began.

WHO’s survey showed that of the Ukrainian households in which someone has a chronic health condition, one in three are now unable to get the medicines and care they need.

People living with HIV depend upon daily medication to keep them healthy and alive. More than 40 health-care facilities that provided HIV treatment, prevention and care services before the war have closed or been destroyed.

Many Ukrainians hemmed in by the conflict are unable to make a journey to the health facilities that remain. Approximately 260 000 Ukrainians are living with HIV. UNAIDS is working with partners to ensure the continuity of HIV services. Disruption to treatment services puts their lives on the line and risks a resurgence of the country’s HIV pandemic.

In what is a huge achievement, medicines have successfully been brought into Ukraine, thanks to PEPFAR (the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which has committed US$ 13 million to procure 51 million emergency doses of HIV medicines, enough to keep Ukrainians living with HIV supplied with life-saving treatment for a year.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria also is fast-tracking US$15 million in emergency funds for Ukraine and some nearby countries to enable continued provision of life-saving care.

Delivering medicine and humanitarian aid to those in need. Credit: 100%LIFE via UNAIDS

Now that HIV medicines have reached Ukraine, attention is focused on getting them to everyone who needs them. Before the war, the Ukranian AIDS response had built up an exemplary model of community-led services working in partnership with government. It’s the resilience of that network of community-led services built up over decades that has enabled the AIDS response to continue.

The Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and civil society organizations such as 100% Life, the country’s biggest network of people living with HIV, are working together to maintain services.

Delivering medicines in this war is a huge logistical and security challenge. Several volunteer drivers working for 100% Life have been killed while trying to deliver desperately needed HIV medicines to front-line areas.

Despite the enormous difficulties involved, grass-roots organizations are a lifeline for many people who move to safer places within or outside the country, providing them with humanitarian aid and HIV medicines—even in areas of intense conflict. Their courageous work is saving lives, but the needs and challenges are huge and growing, and resources are not sufficient.

“The situation for people living with HIV in Ukraine is desperate. We are trying to deliver medicines, food and other emergency assistance to people in need, but the work is dangerous and volunteer drivers are putting their lives at risk. If we don’t get more help, I am not sure how much longer we can continue, especially reaching people in the front-line zones,” Dmytro Sherembey, the Head of the 100% LIFE Coordination Council, has shared.

That is why UNAIDS has issued an urgent call to the international community to upscale support to help these everyday heroes to save lives.

The challenge to reach people in need has been greatly exacerbated by the displacement of people. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are now 7.7 million internally displaced people in Ukraine.

The war has also caused millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries, including Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

It is estimated that up to 30 000 Ukrainian refugees may currently need HIV medicines as the stocks they carry with them become depleted. WHO has helped to broker a deal with the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare to provide donations of HIV medicines to Czechia, Poland and other European Union countries receiving large numbers of Ukrainian refugees.

Ensuring that the medicines get to those who need them requires the involvement of communities of people living with HIV and key population networks in host countries to ensure tailored outreach and trust-building. These community-led organizations require upscaled international support too.

It’s clear from listening to those receiving and providing health services on the ground that what Ukraine most needs is peace. That is why the United Nations Secretary-General has called for a complete cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine.

The damage of this awful war means, however, that even once there is peace, enormous and long-term needs for international assistance will remain. Support will be needed in particular for community-led organizations, whose partnership with the public health system is key to ensuring health for all.

Meanwhile, as the impact of the war worsens, the world must increase support to Ukrainian civil society organizations to maintain health provision. This is vital to preventing a resurgence of Ukraine’s HIV pandemic. And for Ukrainians living with HIV, it is literally a matter of life and death.

Civil society networks, on whose creativity and courage HIV services depend, are managing to get life-saving HIV medicines to people. They do it on a shoestring, powered only by determination and love of humanity.

Many of those involved are themselves people living with HIV—they understand the gravity of what is at stake if they cannot continue their work. The help they provide to save lives risks their own. They do not seek international admiration, but they do need an upscaling of international help. And they need it now.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director and is leading UNAIDS’ humanitarian response.

Francisca Piecho stands with her daughter-in-law Johana Cruz and her grandson outside her home that now has electricity from solar energy, in the village of Cacho de Oro, Teotepeque municipality, in the southern department of La Libertad. Hers and other rural Salvadoran families have seen their lives improve with the arrival not only of electricity but also of a reforestation program in the area. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
TEOTEPEQUE, El Salvador , May 5 2022 (IPS)

After working on the family farm, Carlos Salama comes home and plugs his cell phone into a socket via a solar-powered electrical system, a rarity in this rural village in southern El Salvador.

“Just being able to charge the phone with our own electricity, which comes from the sun, is a great thing for us,” the 29-year-old farmer who lives in Cacho de Oro, a rural settlement nestled in hills on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Teotepeque municipality in the southern department of La Libertad, told IPS.

Salama’s mother, Rosa Aquino, was also enthusiastic about the electrical system installed in her home and 15 other houses in the village in late April.

“It feels good, we never had electricity… at night it makes you happy. When I was a child we used kerosene lanterns. And then battery lamps, and now we save what we used to spend on batteries,” Aquino, 45, told IPS.

Salvadoran farmer Carlos Salama recharges his cell phone by means of a solar energy system installed on the roof of the house where he lives in the village of Cacho de Oro, in the municipality of Teotepeque. Although the system does not support appliances that consume more than 500 watts, the families now have lightbulbs to use at night, can charge their cell phones and can use small appliances. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Poverty in plain sight

Some 50 families live in Cacho de Oro, dedicated to subsistence agriculture. And although the village has had electricity from the national grid for some years now, nearly twenty families, the poorest, have not been able to afford the connection to the grid.

That was the case of the family of Francisca Piecho, a 43-year-old farmer who lives with her son and his wife and their little boy in a dirt-floor dwelling.

Piecho’s husband works in another area of the country cutting sugar cane, as he could not find work in Cacho de Oro.

The family could not afford to pay the 500 dollars it cost to connect to the national power line that had finally reached the village.

“Some families have relatives in other countries who send them remittances, but we don’t have any, and we couldn’t afford it,” Piecho told IPS, while stirring a stew on a wood stove.

Her son was not at home when IPS visited the village. But Piecho said he works in agriculture, mainly during the May to November rainy season, because in the dry season there is almost no work available.

The village of Cacho de Oro is perched on top of a hill along the Pacific Ocean in southern El Salvador, a remote impoverished area where unemployment is particularly acute during the November to May dry season, when no agricultural work is available. The privatized electricity system has not connected these villages to the national grid because it is not profitable. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

In El Salvador, electricity distribution has been privatized since 1998, and many rural villages do not have electric power because they are very small and the companies do not see investing there as good business.

According to official figures, 95.2 percent of households in rural areas have access to electricity, while 2.0 percent use candles, 0.8 percent use solar panels, 0.5 percent use kerosene, and 1.4 percent use other means.

Official data also shows that the average monthly household income in urban areas is 728 dollars compared to 435 dollars in rural areas.

But now the poorest families in Cacho de Oro also have electricity, and from a clean energy source, thanks to the solar power project brought to the village by the governmental Environmental Fund of El Salvador (Fonaes), at a cost of 16,000 dollars.

Staff from the municipal government in Jicalapa, in the southern Salvadoran department of La Libertad, explain to a group of residents from the village of Izcacuyo about the solar electrification project that began in December 2021, as well as the community reforestation effort. CREDIT: Municipality of Jicalapa

Solar energy to the rescue

Solar panels were installed on the rooftops of the houses of nearly twenty families. The panel provides just enough electric power to connect a couple of light bulbs, charge a cell phone and plug in small appliances that consume less than 500 watts.

“If the appliances consume more than that, it’s not enough to turn them on,” Arturo Solano, a technician with Tecnosolar, the company that supplied the panels, told IPS.

He added that there are approximately 100 community solar energy projects in rural El Salvador, a country of 6.7 million inhabitants. About 7,500 homes have been electrified with this clean energy source.

“You have to adapt to the system and buy appliances that are compatible with the power it supplies,” he said, adding that the amount of energy provided depends on the investment made, because if you want more power, you have to install more panels.

Even so, with this very basic electricity service, the residents of Cacho de Oro are happy to at least have electric light and an outlet to charge their cell phones and stay in communication.

Before the arrival of the solar energy project, some of the families were able to connect to the national grid indirectly through neighbors who were connected. But this meant that they had to pay part of the monthly bill.

“Now we no longer pay part of the bill, which cost us five dollars. We use that money to buy some food, eggs or oil,” Francisco de la Cruz Tulen, a 30-year-old farmer who lives with his wife Milagro Menjívar, 21, and their two small children, told IPS, pleased to have electricity at no monthly cost.

In the rainy season, Tulen, like the rest, rents a small plot of land to plant the staple crops of Central America – corn and beans – to feed the family. He also works on other farms as a day laborer, to earn a little money.

But in the dry season, he leaves the village to look for work in the sugar cane fields. This work, one of the most physically demanding in agriculture, pays between six and 24 dollars a day.

In addition to the solar electrification project in the village of Cacho de Oro in southern El Salvador, reservoirs have been built to capture rainwater and irrigate fruit and timber trees planted to reforest the area and provide food, such as avocados, and keep the aquifers healthy. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Reservoirs for life

There is no potable water in Cacho de Oro. The families get their water from a spring that sometimes dries up in the dry season and at times they have to buy water in barrels brought in by truck. Each barrel costs 2.5 dollars.

“There are possibilities of getting piped water. A Japanese development cooperation project has dug a well, but we are still waiting to see,” German de la Cruz Tesorero, a resident of the village and the president of the local Communal Development Association (Adescos), an organizational system for small settlements in this Central American country, told IPS.

To maintain water sources and to provide food, the solar electrification project is also accompanied by a reforestation effort in the area. In addition, small reservoirs have been built to irrigate the trees and home gardens.

This has occurred not only in Cacho de Oro, but also in another village located downstream, called Izcacuyo, in the municipality of Jicalapa, also in the department of La Libertad.

Some families have planted vegetable gardens next to their homes in the southern Salvadoran village of Cacho de Oro, growing vegetables such as “pipián”, a highly prized local squash, to boost food production in this impoverished part of the country. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

The families of Izcacuyo have their own solar electrification project, inaugurated in December 2021, with the difference that they had never received energy from the national grid.

To charge a cell phone, villagers had to go to the canton of La Perla, a 30-minute bus ride away.

The total cost of the local electrification and reforestation project was 38,000 dollars, including 30,000 provided by Fonaes, 4,000 by the municipal government and the other 4,000 from work contributed by the community, which was counted as hours of labor.

Some 5,450 fruit trees have been planted in family plots, including avocado, lemon and mango trees, as well as timber species such as madrecacao (Gliricidia sepium), which offers advantages to the habitat and soils by fixing nitrogen.

The project also provided fertilizer to ensure that the trees grew well.

The municipal government’s idea is that in three or four years, families will be harvesting avocados, mangos and lemons, and part of the production can be marketed along the coastal strip of the department of La Libertad, catering to tourists and hotels and restaurants in the area.

“They will see the benefits in a couple of years,” said William Beltrán, a technician in the Jicalapa municipal government, during a meeting with IPS in San Salvador.

By External Source
May 5 2022 (IPS-Partners)

 

ECW: Congratulations on your appointment by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as the Special Adviser for the Transforming Education Summit. What do you hope to achieve through the Summit and why is it so critical that the world comes together to address the global education crisis around this September’s UN General Assembly?

Leonardo Garnier: In order to understand why it makes sense to convene the “Transforming Education Summit,” the first thing would be to recognize that, in terms of education, we are not doing enough, and we are not doing it well enough. Of course, there was some progress in the past decades, but it was insufficient and highly unequal. The simple truth is that, today, well into the 21st century, millions of children and young people are still not in school, and millions of those who are in school are not really learning, not really achieving the kind of learning that is relevant for their lives in the world they are living in. In most countries, we are lagging behind what was established as Sustainable Development Goal 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” And this is ethically unacceptable, socially perverse, politically dangerous but, also, highly irrational and inefficient from an economic perspective. And yet, this is what is happening.

That is why the Summit is so important: it is not a technical, but a political summit. It is a moment of truth for heads of states and leaders of nations and global institutions, where we must commit ourselves not just to accelerate the pace, but actually to reimagine and transform education systems because only through such a radical transformation will we be able to really accomplish the goals of inclusive, quality education for all.

ECW: We seem to be falling behind in our global efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (SDG4). What must political leaders, public and private sector donors, and other stakeholders do to align our efforts to achieve these goals and why is SDG4 so important in achieving the other goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda?

Leonardo Garnier: This is probably the most obvious and, at the same time, the most difficult question we are facing in education: we know that investing in education is the key, not just to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality but also as an essential part of promoting more peaceful and sustainable development. We also know that investing in education is critical for accelerating economic growth and improving the future income of people and nations. In fact, we know that the rates of return of investing in education are higher than almost any other kind of investment. Then, how do we explain the fact that we insist in under-investing in education?

Aside from the obvious fact that some countries are currently too poor to invest what they would need to invest in education – I will refer to this problem in the next question – I think there are structural and political-economy realities that explain that even in middle-income countries we do not invest enough in education. In order to explain such an absurd situation, I would propose two simplified hypotheses.

One has to do with what we call low-level equilibria or poverty traps, which means that, in countries where low wages and low productivity prevail, education per se is not perceived as an investment, but merely as an expenditure that will not significantly improve national growth and businesses profitability. Thus, the idea of increasing taxes to finance education is rejected by the business community and by the middle class because it is perceived as a negative distortion instead of being understood as a key game changer. The second and related hypothesis has to do with the political economy of such low-level equilibria and the highly unequal character of less developed countries: the elite – whether we are thinking of the 1%, the 10% or the 30% with higher incomes, have their educational needs pretty much solved through expensive private education. Thus, increasing taxes and expenditures for expanding and improving education is quite unattractive for them: they see it as wasting money on other people’s children. And … they don´t really care.

This is why, even if we know that financing education through taxes and the national budget would be a fair and efficient way of promoting both a dynamic and sustainable style of development, it does not appear as attractive to elites in countries characterized by predominantly extractive or low productivity economies. Low wages attract simple, unsophisticated investments, with low productivity, and these investments do not require better educated or skilled workers. Education, as I said, is perceived as a waste.

Low level equilibria do not wither away easily: they must be broken, so that education is not just “perceived”, but actually works as an investment producing the type of better paid and more productive labor force that a dynamic economy needs. For such a transformation, the voice of the majority of the population, which is now denied access to high quality education, has to be heard loud and clear in the political debate. This is not just a technical or economic matter, it is a political matter.

There are examples in recent history of countries that managed to escape low level equilibria, to transform themselves from extractive- or low-productivity economies with a largely poor and uneducated population, into a vibrant and dynamic society capable of both increasing productivity and wages and improving the education of their population. Such is the path towards equitable and sustainable development and that is the path this summit must promote.

ECW: The Transforming Education Summit is an opportunity to rekindle international political and financial commitment to education as a pre-eminent public good. You have an academic and professional background in both economics and education. Why is financing for education – including for global funds like Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies – a priority?

Leonardo Garnier: As I said, the reason many countries are not investing enough in education is complex. It is not just because of ignorance, because they “don’t know” how high the return to investing in education can be, but because their economy is based on the rents they extract from access to very cheap labor and natural resources. So, they don’t have the right incentives to either increase the productivity or guarantee the sustainability of such resources. Insofar as the political system reproduces the logic of an extractive economy, poverty and inequality will remain the inevitable result.

But even when a country manages to change the political balance in order to break free from such poverty trap, it is possible that the kind of investments required for such transformation – like investing in high quality education for all – are beyond their reach. For many poor countries, the relative weight of such effort, when compared to their national income or to their public budget, might be just impossible to sustain.

For this reason, in many low- and lower-middle income countries, national efforts would not be enough to adequately finance their educational investment and they will require the significant support of the international community. Unfortunately, the resources and financial instruments that have been available so far for this purpose, are amazingly small and difficult to access. Thus, in the same way we say we need to transform education, we also need to transform these financial instruments so that the amount, or resources necessary, to finance education across the world – and especially for those who need it the most – are really available and accessible.

Some quite innovative proposals are on the table, and I have no doubt that the Transforming Education Summit will be the right place to discuss them and bring them to life.

ECW: When you served as Minister of Education in Costa Rica, you were able to significantly improve the national enrolment rate, especially for marginalized rural and indigenous communities. Are there lessons that can be adapted and applied to help improve enrolment for children impacted by armed conflicts, displacement and other humanitarian crises?

Leonardo Garnier: The first lesson for any successful reform of education, especially when your purpose is to reach those that have traditionally been excluded from the educational system, is to understand the context and the specific reasons for such exclusion. In the case of Costa Rica, the debt-crisis of the 1980s had a dramatic impact on high school enrolment, which went down to a mere 50% and remained under 60% during the last two decades of the 20th century. Reasons for low enrolment had to do with at least three different dynamics.

One, which we can actually call exclusion, had to do with poverty and the fact that, for poor families, even a free high school education can be too expensive, not just because of indirect costs (books, uniforms and so on) but also because of the opportunity cost of the income that young kids could generate when they work instead of studying.

This type of exclusion had to be confronted through social programs that compensate such costs: wide access to school meals, free transportation and – this was very important – a program of conditional cash transfers for poor students, so they wouldn’t need to work to bring some income home. We also made large educational investment in rural areas and Indigenous communities, which were the ones suffering from the highest exclusion from the educational system. This combination of policies had a clear impact in terms of exclusion: urban/rural educational gaps, income-related educational gaps, and also the gap between students from low and high education background were all significantly reduced.

A second problem we identified could be called “expulsion”, and it was the result of academic failure leading to the need to repeat the academic year, which in turn led to a large over-age student population which easily tended to drop out of high school. This had to be confronted both through improvements in the quality of education, curricular reform, and through reforms in the evaluation system and the elimination of the policy that said that a student would have to repeat the whole year even if he or she failed in only one subject.

Finally, there was something I could very well call “repulsion,” which basically means that students drop out when they do not feel really engaged with what they learn at school, and with the whole experience of being a student. This, again, requires curricular innovations aimed at making learning interesting, useful, relevant and attractive for students living in today’s world. Confronting “repulsion” also had to do with a whole set of activities related with the school experience from a holistic perspective: the role of the arts played a key role; sports and games were also important; the participation in student organizations and student governments, and so on. All activities aimed at developing a sense of belonging in the educational community. With respect to Indigenous populations, this also required specific reforms aimed at respecting their culture and world view, and their right to have teachers from their own communities.

ECW: Armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters, COVID-19 and other protracted crises continue to push millions of children and adolescents out of safe, quality, inclusive learning environments. How can we transform the delivery of education in emergencies and build back better from these interconnected crises in places like Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Sahel and beyond? Also, as the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait and our strategic partners are embracing UN Reform, the Grand Bargain Agreement and Our Common Agenda. How can this reform agenda deliver on the UN promise to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and reaffirm human rights,” as outlined in the United Nations Charter?

Leonardo Garnier: As I said above, inequality has been ingrained in educational systems all over the world, thus reproducing and even widening the already large inequalities that characterize most countries in our planet. Most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, precisely those who would need the earliest and strongest support from public education, tend to be the ones who end up either excluded or receiving the weakest educational services.

But if this is true about what we could call structural inequality, it becomes even more dramatic when we are talking about those children and young persons whose educational opportunities are cut short as a result of particular emergencies arising from situations of conflict, climate change disasters, public health emergencies, or by their forced displacement within and across borders.

Displaced children, especially if they are perceived in some sense as “different” – whether for ethnic, cultural, religious, nationality or other reasons – often face not only educational exclusion, but also various forms of discrimination and aggression (bullying). What should be a mere accidental difference and a situation of vulnerability becomes a source of inequality and even violence. As usual, this tends to affect girls and women in a disproportionate way.

Schools, as educational spaces, should aim exactly for inclusion, not exclusion. Schools should always work as a haven for children facing such dire circumstances; not only as the place where they can continue to learn and develop their capabilities and to reach their potential, but also as safe, inclusive and caring places that makes them feel protected and welcome. Schools – and countries – should promote protection and inclusion in national education systems for refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and any kind of internally displaced children or young persons.

When we talk about “transforming education”, this should be a central piece in the transformation: schools and education systems should make sure that any boy, girl or young person confronting exclusion because of some kind of emergency will be immediately included and cared for and have equal opportunities to fulfil their right to education in emergency contexts. This should be particularly true for girls, young women, for gender diverse persons and for learners with disabilities who tend to face strongest discrimination. This includes not just their access to schools and to learning, but also the necessary emotional and psychological support required.

And yes, this can be expensive, but it is of the essence of human rights. Especially in large emergencies, this would demand significant additional resources to have not only the physical capacity to incorporate new students, but also the availability of adequately trained teachers for emergency contexts.

While highly developed countries might be in a better position to handle such extraordinary needs in times of emergency, it is not always so. And the situation is much more stressful and difficult for less developed countries, who will most certainly need international cooperation to handle the educational demand during unexpected crises. And yet, as has been repeatedly noted, the truth is that education remains one of the most underfunded areas of humanitarian aid, receiving less than 3% of total global humanitarian funding. This has to change. We must ensure sufficient, sustainable, and predictable funding for education in emergencies, including by supporting Education Cannot Wait’s funding need.

ECW: Reading is a key component of education, and we believe that readers (and writers!) are leaders. You’ve written some wonderful children’s books and as well as academic works on society and economics. Could you share the titles of one or two books that have influenced you the most in your life, and why would you recommend them to others to read?

Leonardo Garnier: Reading is many things: reading is useful, as it gives access to other people’s knowledge, which we might need to confront or solve specific problems or to further our own knowledge. Reading is humanly enriching as it lets us experience other people’s lives and tribulations, their feelings and their anguish, as well as their dreams and hopes. Reading puts us in contact with people from other cultures, other times, other places – or with people very much like ourselves. Reading is eye opening – or should I say mind-opening; and reading makes us re-think and re-evaluate our own perspectives, by confronting them with other, different perspectives. Plus, reading is fun and a pleasure, it is a joy. In all these senses, reading is a peculiarly human experience.

There are so many books that I have enjoyed through my life, and that have played an important role for me, that picking two is almost impossible and inevitably unfair.

Many academic books affected my understanding of human society and its complex and unequal development. Among them, I would signal one author – Albert O. Hirschman – because of his immense ability to combine social, economic and political theory with a very peculiar common sense. Of his many books, I would mention “The Strategy of Economic Growth”, “The Passions and the Interests”, and “Exit, Voice and Loyalty” as those which most influenced my own way of thinking about social, economic and political development. But there are so many others…!

And in the field of literature the task is even more difficult, so, again, I will mention three books. I always think of two of them as going very well together: Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984”: two books written many years ago and which prefigure many of the things we see today in this strange world we’re living in. (We could probably now add Margaret Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale” and have a trilogy). And then, there is the magnificent “Memoirs of Hadrian” by Marguerite Yourcenar. In her notes about this book, she quotes Flaubert as saying: “When the gods no longer existed and Christ had not yet appeared, there was a unique moment, from Cicero to Marcus Aurelius, when man was alone”. And that is what she was looking for in Hadrian; again, in her words: “A large part of my life would be spent trying to define, and then portraying this man: alone, and, at the same time, linked with everything.” As we all are.

ECW: The Transforming Education Summit is a key moment in 2022 to help change the world for the better for children. Please feel free to add in any points here about the Summit which you’d like our readers to know about as the world mobilizes towards it.

Leonardo Garnier: As the great Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, once said, we have to understand education as the responsible praxis of freedom. Every boy, every girl, every young person must be able to fulfil his or her full personal potential and to become the person he or she wants to be. Everyone should have access to the best education for achieving his or her goals and to actively participate in the construction of their own communities, of their own country and, of course, on the collective construction of the world we want to live in. That is what education is all about: learning to live together in peace in this fragile world.

My personal frustration is that saying this is nothing new. We’ve said it so many times it sounds like a platitude: all kids should be in school; all students should have access to a high-quality education. And yet, as I said at the beginning, the truth is that millions of kids remain out of school, and millions of students are not learning properly what is relevant for them. We always seem to find an excuse: there is not enough time; there is not enough money; resources are scarce; there are many other priorities; and so on.

Priorities, yes. Let’s look around. Let’s ask ourselves the simplest of questions: while millions of kids are denied their right to a good education, is it true that we are devoting every cent we have, every resource we have, to produce – and to consume – something that is more important that these kids’ education? Is this really about priorities? Or is it that really, we just don’t care enough?

I wonder if arguments or excuses for not assigning the necessary resources to fully achieve quality education for all would remain so if those who have the power to allocate those resources were deciding on the education of their own kids, and not just on the education of “other people’s kids.” If we really believe quality education should be for all – really for all – then we should also understand that every kid is our kid. And yes, they should be held accountable if they don’t do so.

This summit should tell not just whether we understand the importance of education for all; but whether we really care.

About Leonardo Garnier

Leonardo Garnier is the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Transforming Education Summit. A Costa Rican national, he is an economist who graduated with a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research in New York. He also holds a B.A. from the University of Costa Rica, where he is a professor. Garnier was the Minister of Public Education in Costa Rica during two consecutive terms (2006-2014), as well as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy (1994-1998).

As an academic, he has published articles in journals and books on economic and social issues linked to development, as well as the book “Costa Rica: un país subdesarrollado casi exitoso” (Costa Rica: an almost successful underdeveloped country), written with Laura Cristina Blanco. He is the author of three books of short stories: “Mono Congo y León Panzón“, “Gracias a Usted” and “El sastrecillo ¿valiente?”. Garnier is also the author of multiple opinion articles and actively participates as an opinion maker in digital media and social networks.

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, May 5 2022 (IPS)

This is our third episode on the ongoing movements of people around the world. You can listen to the previous ones, the first about climate migrants and the second on remittances, on any podcast app.

If you’re like me you were surprised to learn about the international students trapped in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February. In fact, the country had more than 75,000 students from abroad in 2020 according to the Ukraine government.

That figure highlights how student movement globally has changed in recent decades, with many scholars, particularly from the global South, bypassing traditional destinations like the US and UK for lesser known and cheaper centres. But one consistent trend is growth: in 2000 the number of international students globally was estimated at 2 million and by 2019 it had tripled to 6 million.

Our guest today, Rajika Bhandari, understands intimately the movements of international students. She was one herself in the 1990s, travelling from India to the US, where she eventually settled and began a career examining how students travel to learn in foreign countries.

Author of the recently published book America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility, Rajika tells me how certain aspects of the international student experience have remained the same, including financial challenges and adaptation issues. Meanwhile other issues have emerged, like the global rise in nationalism and the growth in academic refugees — young people who flee crises in countries like Ukraine and Afghanistan but are not treated like ‘official’ students in their receiving countries.

Rajika also puts a unique spin on a decades-old topic — explaining how the ‘brain drain’ that steals the young minds that represent the potential of poorer countries is morphing into ‘brain circulation.’ This post-modern movement can have multiple destinations, including students’ home countries, but those nations must be aware and engaged in attracting talent to come home.

Resources

Rajika Bhandari’s website. Check out the collection of articles on various aspects of international students.

Rajika Bhandari’s book — American Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

 

 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a press encounter with the President of Ukraine in Kyiv, 28 April '22. Credit: United Nations

By Nickolay Kapitonenko
KYIV, Ukraine, May 5 2022 (IPS)

Before the war, Ukraine’s dream to become part of the EU was exactly that – a dream. But the new political reality could make it come true.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed and to some extent even destroyed the familiar international political reality. Up until 24 February, Russia had been integrated into the global economy, had excellent growth prospects, and the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was almost finished.

Moreover, NATO had no intention of expanding in any direction and Ukraine joining the EU seemed to be a very long way off given the usual plethora of domestic problems the country was facing.

The Kremlin has chosen a calculated gamble to play to its own advantages, at great cost to many. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a profound crisis capable of dramatically changing how things pan out in the future, making certain developments highly probable which just two months ago seemed utterly implausible.

One such scenario relates to Ukraine’s EU membership. On 28 February in the besieged capital of Kyiv, the fate of which at that point was entirely unclear, President Zelenskyy signed a formal request to accede to the European Union along with a joint declaration with the prime minister and head of the Ukrainian parliament.

At that point, Kyiv had already been clinging on for four days, and the first doubts regarding Russia’s ability to wage a quick and successful campaign were beginning to plunge Europe into a state of strategic uncertainty.

Nickolay Kapitonenko

This was a great symbolic moment for Zelenskyy. For many Ukrainians, it was a light at the end of the tunnel, and for the EU it provided a potential basis for the future restructuring of the entire system of international security. And there is little doubt that the system needs restructuring.

In March 2014, a similar sense of symbolism and hope for the future accompanied the signing of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement, less than a week after the Crimean status referendum and at the height of the complex and volatile revolutionary events in Kyiv.

This step made a crucial contribution to the consolidation of Ukrainian statehood, to the country’s vision for the future and to its fundamental system of values. Stripped of the hope of rapid accession to the EU – the fact that the Association Agreement never provided for membership is often called to mind in Europe – Ukraine could at least focus on realising the potential of the most extensive association agreement in history.

In 2022, the context of the negotiations regarding EU–Ukraine relations changed dramatically. From an ever-moving prospect, Ukraine’s integration into the EU became one of very few elements capable of making some form of progress when it came to resolving the conflict.

NATO is not an option

It is all about security guarantees. The Russian invasion forced Ukraine to prepare for the next war. No promises — whether written or verbal — would be enough. From now on, when it came to relations with Russia, any Ukrainian government would have to proceed on the basis of a worst-case scenario regarding the course of events.

The only way of preventing renewed aggression from Russia is either to rely on direct security guarantees, or to invest a significant share of resources in constructing and supporting effective, modern armed forces. Membership in NATO could also be an effective mechanism to guarantee security but this does not seem realistic and Russia has declared it a threat to its security.

The rationale that prevailed before the war continues to apply here: a high risk of direct conflict with Russia makes Ukraine’s aim of NATO accession more difficult. In light of this, there are ongoing discussions about security guarantees on the individual country level and even on a multilateral basis outside NATO.

This is a complex debate. Firstly, few are in a position to give such guarantees, especially when we are talking about a potential conflict with Russia. The US is probably the only country that could provide effective and credible guarantees. It is the only country with the capacity to project its military power to an extent that would deter Russia.

Secondly, there are not many countries that would be willing to provide security guarantees carrying such high future risks. That said, the West cannot afford to refuse a dialogue on the issue of security guarantees because a continuation of the conflict in its current state presents Europe with serious problems.

Membership of the European Union, on the other hand, does not seem to antagonise Russia in the same way. In its pre-war rhetoric, Moscow never raised the issue of EU expansion and never accused the EU of being a threat to its security. This creates a certain amount of scope to pursue other possibilities.

Of course, EU membership cannot be seen as providing a complete security guarantee. However, it is capable of increasing the costs of aggression for Russia and providing the prospect of recovery for Ukraine’s frail economy. Such recovery would be a precondition for Ukraine to be able to sustain effective defence capabilities.

An open door for European membership

Obviously, it is not as simple as this. At the conceptual level, and this is something many European officials have already pointed out, it is impossible to force EU membership, even with the ‘accelerated procedure’. It is a lengthy and complex process requiring coordination of a myriad aspects, from legislation to technical standards.

Even the most optimistic assessments of Ukrainian politicians and diplomats suggest that the process could take several years. Austria, Sweden, and Finland joined in record speed, and the process still took around four years. Since then, the situation has not got any easier, indeed it has arguably become more complex as the number of legal norms and standards within the EU has increased significantly.

Moreover, there is already a ‘queue’ of five other countries waiting to join. These are all undeniably relevant obstacles, given the strong impact of EU bureaucracy and procedures even in these exceptional circumstances.

At the political level, there must be a consensus among all the member states of the EU. The overall situation in Europe has changed so much that rather than the purely symbolic support provided before the war in the form of declarations signed by a number of European states, today there is a broad social consensus when it comes to Ukraine’s European future.

This consensus was already manifested in the official statements from heads of various Eastern European countries asserting that Ukraine deserved to be provided the immediate prospect of membership.

Public opinion throughout Europe is gradually leaning towards supporting this idea – this is also evident in the reactions of national parliaments to the addresses given by the Ukrainian president.

Today, there are very few European politicians who would formally object to the very idea of Ukraine having a future in Europe. Of course, the task will not necessarily be easy. The sympathy and empathy expressed by Europeans towards Ukraine now needs to be translated into political results.

Mobilising the support of the most influential EU member states – Germany and France – will be of critical importance. What is required here is extremely delicate diplomacy and a thorough understanding of Berlin’s and Paris’ interests.

This includes restoring European security. Furthermore, taking this path would require putting an end to old disagreements or, at the very least, map out the prospects of this being achieved.

A question of European security

Yet all the key arguments pertain to security matters. It is not just about Ukraine protecting Europe from Russian revisionism at the cost of so many lives — and how EU membership could serve as a gesture of recognition of the importance of the country’s contribution to European security.

The issue is also that this European security is unlikely to be possible if Ukraine, as before the war, continues to remain in Europe’s ‘grey zone’, without allies, guarantees or a certain future. The threats for Ukraine may not be the same threats as for Europe – however, since Russia’s invasion, everything has fundamentally changed.

In the two months since the start of the conflict, Ukraine is no better prepared for EU membership than before the war. For Europeans, Ukraine joining the EU will be associated with certain risks and problems. But something else has changed as well – the overall situation when it comes to European security.

A continuation of the war will cost Europe far more. The EU can no longer stand by and wait, it, too needs to find a way out of the war being waged by Russia.

If Ukraine is granted the candidate country status in June, this will be an encouraging signal for everyone. That which up until 24 February seemed an impossibility, would become a subject of discussion and an entirely realistic, albeit somewhat remote prospect.

Nickolay Kapitonenko is an associate professor at the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and director of the Centre for International Relations Studies.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin

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Hadiza celebrates receiving her Menstrual Hygiene Management Kit. The 14-year-old is a member of a Girls’ Club at Dar es Salam camp. The kits remove a barrier to schooling in Chad – where children already face significant difficulties in accessing education. The JRS - ACRA - CELIAF project is funded UNICEF and ECW. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa

By Joyce Chimbi
Lake Chad, May 5 2022 (IPS)

Fourteen-year-old Hadiza smiles as she clutches a purple bag in her hands. Inside the cloth bag is a Menstrual Hygiene Management kit, an essential item that gives her dignity and enables her to continue with school even when menstruating.

Uncomfortable, in fear of being publicly shamed and ridiculed by their peers when they stain their clothes or period blood runs down their legs for lack of hygiene kits, an estimated one in every ten girls in sub-Saharan Africa miss school during their menstrual cycle.

In emergency and crisis settings, such as Lake Chad’s volatile and precarious security situation, young and adolescent girls are generally twice as likely to be out of school and face significant barriers to education.

Lake Chad is home to an estimated 19,000 refugees, 407,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), and 29,000 returnees, according to UNHCR statistics. Conflict-induced gender barriers to education and a lack of menstrual hygiene products and education around menstruation have long compounded difficulties girls face within the education system in Chad.

“When girls have their period, they feel ashamed to go to school. The first time I had my period, I felt scared and thought I was sick,” says Hadiza, who attends Espoir School, explaining that she experienced these emotions even though her mother and grandmother had told her what to expect.

To ensure young and adolescent girls in Lake Chad and Logone Oriental region do not face additional inequality and fall further behind in their education, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Chad – in consortium with ACRA Foundation and the Liaison Unit for Women’s Associations (CELIAF in French), and the support of UNICEF – has participated in the production and distribution of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) kits.

These kits are locally manufactured by the Tchad Helping Hand Foundation.

 

The Girls’ Club at Dibina school, Liwa subprefecture were photographed during an ECW and UNICEF visit to their projects in Bagasola. The project promotes Menstrual Hygiene Management for equal and inclusive access to education in Lake Chad and eastern Logone. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, also funds this MHM initiative. The initiative has included several MHM awareness-raising campaigns, training for schools and communities in the area, and the construction of hygiene facilities, such as toilets, to allow girls to properly manage their periods while attending classes.

“We must break down barriers that keep young and adolescent girls, like Hadiza, from the classroom. This is precisely what Education Cannot Wait is doing through our support of menstrual hygiene management for girls in Chad and other crisis-affected countries. Together with our partners on the ground, we ensure that girls no longer miss class during their period. This is a crucial investment in the education and futures of girls,” says ECW Director Yasmine Sherif. “Only when we remove each barrier so that girls can stay in school and complete secondary education can we build more inclusive, equal, resilient, and prosperous communities.”

“The initiative seeks to break the taboo around menstruation in schools. We have come a long way. Teachers are talking about menstrual hygiene management to their students without embarrassment or shame,” says Denis Codjo Hounzangbe, JRS Chad Country Director.

Girls’ Club at Dar es Salam camp celebrate receiving their Menstrual Hygiene Management kits. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) with other partners aim to ensure that adolescent girls don’t miss school during their menstrual cycle. Credit: Irene Galera, JRS West Africa

“This Menstrual Hygiene Management intervention includes the establishment of girls’ clubs which are helping break the silence around the issue of menstruation. Targeted girls learn about menstruation, start to speak freely about it, and sensitize their peers on the importance of hygiene management kits for regular school attendance.”

Hounzangbe says distributed hygiene products protect girls from public shame, missing classes, or dropping out of school. Additionally, he states that the impact of sensitization around menstruation in the community is evident.

“Some of the students’ mothers are now able to space their births. Before the intervention, they had no knowledge of their menstruation cycle,” he observes.

The education system in Lake Chad is strained, and the learning environment is challenging. However, there are more than 6,000 refugee and internally displaced students attending local schools now receiving much-needed support in menstrual hygiene management, according to Jesuit Refugee Service Chad.

Targeted recipients include refugee girls, returnees, and indigenous pupils, including girls with disabilities such as 15-year-old Malembe, who fled Nigeria to Chad in 2019 for fear of being attacked by insurgents known as Boko Haram.

Dar es Salam camp, Malembe’s new home, includes 5,772 children, 41 teachers, and 39 classrooms. She says the intervention has improved her and other girls’ quality of life.

Teacher Souhadi lauds the initiative for training teachers in MHM, which he says is critical to building a safe and inclusive environment for all students. He teaches at the Malmairi school, whose 621 students include 360 girls. All six teachers are men.

“There was a girl in the classroom, sitting on the mat. It was during the second break, and we were about to go home. When she stood up, her classmates noticed she was stained with blood,” he says.

“The girl was ashamed and did not want to get back up. I approached the girl to console her. I told her that she should not be ashamed, that she was not the only one having a period and would not be the last one either. That it is natural for all women and girls.”

The teacher finally convinced the shaken girl not to stay home because of her period. The teachers washed the stained mat, and the next day, the girl came to school and has since attended school without fail.

Souhadi asserts that the MHM training was beneficial for all teachers “because we learned to find the correct words to reassure girls that what is happening to them is a natural process.”

Bana Gana, 15, agrees. Menstruation used to prevent her from going to school.

“Before the JRS menstrual hygiene management kit, I had nothing to wear during my period. I just wore a skirt or underwear without any protection,” she recalls.

Against the backdrop of Chad having a very young population, with an estimated 58 percent of the entire population being under 20 years of age, the importance of improving access to education for all children cannot be overemphasized.

IPS would like to thank JRS and Irene Galera, JRS West Africa and Great Lakes Communications Officer, for collecting the testimonials.

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By Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya and David Toovey
KIGALI, Rwanda, May 4 2022 (IPS)

Over the last decade, Rwanda has invested in building efficient and resilient transport systems. Guided by the country’s Green Growth and Climate Resilience Strategy (GGCRS), the Government of Rwanda has carried out numerous initiatives to promote sustainable mobility and the green economy at large.

Road transport accounts for 13% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Rwanda and this is expected to continue to rise. That is why developing efficient and resilient transport systems is one of 14 programmes of action under the GGCRS. This specific programme of action has four key components that include:

● Improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles measured by reduction in emissions per kilometre
● Awareness of new technology
● Investments in infrastructure
● Developing efficient operational systems measured by reduction in emissions per km.

The 2018 Inventory of Air Pollution found high levels of air pollution across Kigali, mainly due to the burning of biomass and traditional cooking methods in rural and peri-urban areas and vehicular emissions in urban centers. The study found that from 2012 and 2015, the number of hospital admissions for acute respiratory infections doubled to more than 3.3 million. A major contributing factor to air pollution identified by the study was that 95.2% of cars in operation in Rwanda are currently more than ten years old with less stringent emissions standards than newer models. The Government of Rwanda is working to address the pollution levels and GGGI support is vital to ensure that the country can achieve its goal of reducing air pollution.

The Global Green Growth Institute has been supporting the Government of Rwanda to achieve low-carbon development. Part of the GGGI work has been supporting the transition to green cities and sustainable urban development, introduction of non-motorized transport, introduction of car free zones and adoption of e-mobility as a key elements to ensuring that cities are more livable, less polluting, and contribute to improved public health outcomes.

Over the past years, GGGI has supported a range of initiatives across the transport sector to emphasize green cities components of access to sustainable services through an emphasis on walking and cycling and recently in the area of e-mobility. GGGI Rwanda completed assessments in secondary cities and conducted stakeholder consultations on sustainable mobility. The work of GGGI has led to the introduction of cycling and pedestrian lanes on the roads in Kigali and across the six secondary cities as well as the introduction of public bycicle sharing scheme in Kigali and Musanze, and plans to introduce it in Huye and Rubavu cities.

From 2019, GGGI Rwanda has made headway into e-mobility and GGGI is providing technical support and awareness creation support. GGGI Rwanda also worked on a collaborative project on non-motorized transport o contribute towards the pedestrianization of car-free zones in the City of Kigali and the prioritization of walking and cycling infrastructure in urban centres. The aim of all these interventions is to reduce vehicular emissions through several means to support a multi-modal transport system with an emphasis on low-carbon options for residents and commuters.

Here are six ways Rwanda is building resilient and efficient transport systems at both the national and local levels.

1. Developing a national sustainable mobility policy

Rwanda is developing a national sustainable mobility policy to facilitate the transition to e-mobility as the country continues strives for low carbon economic growth. The policy will strengthen collaboration between the private sector and the Government of Rwanda, attract investment in electric mobility solutions, foster new transport innovations and enhance the usage of non-motorised transport as a part of a wider transit oriented development policy.

Rwanda’s transport sector is highly dominated by internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles (mostly old vehicles imported from abroad) , with each of the over 264 500 car registered in Rwanda powered by gasoline or diesel. The transport sector is rapidly growing, with an annual vehicle growth rate of about 12% according to Rwanda’s Ministry of Infrastructure. These fuel-powered vehicles are the biggest contributor to poor air quality along busy roads in Rwanda, according to a 2017 study on air pollution carried by REMA, Rwanda’s environment watchdog.

Among key proposed actions is to transition to electric vehicles, with the country aiming to have 20% of all buses transition to electric by 2030 and introduction of incentives for the adotpion of electric vehicles.

GGGI is supporting the transition to electric vehicles through supporting strategy and policy formulation, awareness creation and conducting assessments and research to support informed decision making. Specifically, GGGI Rwanda Sustainable Mobility Program supports the government of Rwanda to (i) provide strategic advice on the development of Rwanda’s e-mobility transition, specifically in the adoption of electric vehicles (including electric buses), (ii) Support in the formulation of the Transport Policy, Transport Master Plan, and regulatory framework governing the adoption of e-mobility, (iii) Strengthening of non-motorised infrastructure prioritization and engagement of vulnerable groups and (iv) resource mobilization.

Investing in sustainable mobility is expected to reduce levels of pollution and emissions from the transport sector and improve the overall commute experience across the country.

2. Attracting e-mobility investments

Rwanda has seen an increase in major e-mobility investments thanks to the country’s friendly doing business environment. For example, VW Mobility Solutions, Victoria Autofast Rwanda, Ampersand, Rwanda Electric Motorcycle Ltd and Safi/Gura Ride have all significantly invested in electric cars and motorbikes. Rwanda welcomes investments that support the transition to clean and green mobility.

3. Introducing e-mobility incentives

The estimated cost of transitioning to e-mobility and the adoption of electric vehicles in Rwanda is US $900 million. However, transitioning to electric motorcycles alone would save the Rwandan economy Rwf 23 billion (US $22 million) in fuel imports every year.

That’s why the Government of Rwanda has introduced numerous fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to fast-track the electric mobility transition and attract additional investments in the growing industry. These incentives include:

● Low Charging Costs: Costs for charging stations will be priced at the lowest industrial tariff, which is significantly lower than the residential tariff. Electric vehicle owners will also benefit from reduced tariffs when charging during off peak hours – from 11pm to 8am.

● Tax Breaks: Electric vehicles (including Battery- electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles), spare parts, batteries and charging station equipment are now exempted from import and excise duties, zero rated Value Added Tax and spare parts, batteries and other equipment will also be exempted from withholding tax.Ordinarily, vehicle imports have to settle a bill of 25 per cent import duty, 18 per cent VAT, five per cent to 15 per cent excise duty, depending on the size of the engine, five per cent withholding tax, plus other levies.

● Provision of land: Companies setting up charging stations across the country can now access government owned land on a rent-free basis.

● Promoting Local Production: Companies manufacturing and assembling electric vehicles in Rwanda can now enjoy a 15 percent Corporate Income Tax rate and tax holiday.

These incentives will make it easier for Rwandans to be part of the country’s efforts to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Expanding and enhancing public transport networks

Rwanda has been working to improve public transport infrastructure. In 2012, the government approved the Public Transport Policy and Strategy and the Ministry of Infrastructure ensures the national road network is expanded, rehabilitated, upgraded, and maintained. The same direction was reiterated in the overall National Transport Policy and Strategy for Rwanda adopted by Cabinet in April 2021, where the infrastructure development aims to ensure public transport connects different areas of the country, thus contributing to sustainable economic growth.

The City of Kigali is also working to increase the number of bus stations in Kigali and upgrade existing infrastructure to build the capacity of the city’s public transport network. A long-held plan to build a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that is expected to comprise of a 160 km road network around Kigali, that will be plied exclusively by buses with capacity of more than 100 passengers is also still on the table. In Addition, in May 2021, Rwanda entered a partnership with a private investment company to jointly work on introducing aerial cable cars in Kigali.

5. Improving the quality of public transport systems

The Government of Rwanda, through the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority, recently introduced the Public Transport Generation 2. The new system aims to improve public transport by increasing the use of technology, improving route planning, fostering a better vehicle mix and introducing a scheduled service.

To improve public transport, buses in Kigali are equipped with free internet for passengers and make public transport more attractive to users, thus discouraging usage of private cars. The provision of the internet is part of the Smart Kigali Initiative launched in 2013 to provide free wireless connection in buses and taxis, airports, hotels and restaurants among other places. Apart from expanding public transport facilities, the country also plans to introduce high quality, high frequency Dedicated Bus Lanes (DBL) for public transport in Kigali to further encourage the use of public transport instead of private cars.

In line with electrification of mobility, Rwanda aims to have 20% of all buses electric by 2030, which will result in an estimated reduction of 72,000 tCO2eq.

According to Rwanda’s Vision 2050, Rwanda will develop a modern and efficient transport system where median time taken to commute to work is 45 minutes by 2035 and 25 minutes by 2050. The percentage of population using public transportation will grow to reach 90% or more and convenient public transport will be accessible at least within 500metre radius or less from commuters homes.

6. Partnering to achieve sustainable mobility

The Government of Rwanda is working with a range of partners to achieve sustainable mobility and an efficient and resilient transport system. Key partners are the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), UNEP, KfW, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank (WB). These partners are working with the Ministry of Infrastructure and other government institutions on the following activities:

● Background and feasibility study on introduction of electric vehicles in Rwanda: In partnership with UNEP and KfW, a study was conducted to assess the feasibility of introduction of electric vehicles in Rwanda. This study sheds light on benefits in terms of emissions reduction, impacts on energy consumption, and other cross cutting issues associated with the new technology namely job creation, poverty reduction and gender dimensions.
● E-mobility Showcase: In collaboration with Rwanda Environment Management Authority, Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Infrastructure, GGGI hosted an e-mobility showcase on current and emerging technologies in Rwanda and connected companies with potential investors in the region and internationally.
● Electric Buses: GGGI has been providing support to the Government of Rwanda to prepare a conducive environment and bridging the knowledge gap for the uptake of electric buses – first within the City of Kigali, and eventually to other urban centers in the country. The team has supported by promoting investment, helping to produce an Electric Bus Charging Infrastructure Report and training government staff on e-Bus System Planning and Optimisation.
● Electric Buses: IFC has initiated a study to assess the feasibility of e-buses in Kigali and inform the Government of Rwanda on potential PPP model for deploying e-buses in Kigali for start up and with a possibility to replicate a model for larger scale deployment in the rest of Rwanda. This work is to be complemented by concurrent work conducted by IFC to develop a diagnostic framework to prioritize and evaluate selected Sub-Saharan African cities’ potential for adoption of e-mobility solutions.

Through a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) has also joined the effort to promote electric vehicles, including the following initiatives:

● Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle: REMA recently launched its first ever plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that will support the institution to fulfill its mandate of environmental protection and showcase that electric vehicle usage is possible in Rwanda.
● Converting ICE motorbikes to e-bikes: The United Nations Development Programme is also supporting REMA to retrofit 80 internal combustion engine motorbikes to electric motorbikes through a local company, Rwanda Electric Mobility. The initiative will support efforts to phase out polluting internal combustion engine motorcycles, particularly the motorcycle taxi fleet, which accounts for more than 80% of motorcycles in Rwanda. At least 40% of motorcycles, especially moto-taxis, will be eligible for the programme. Rwanda Electric Mobility aims to retrofit up to 30,000 motorcycles over the next five years.

Okechukwu Daniel Ogbonnaya is GGGI Country Representative and David Toovey is Communications Consultant at Spruik based in Rwanda.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The protestors’ main rallying slogan is ‘GotaGoHome’

By Neville de Silva
LONDON, May 4 2022 (IPS)

When I ended last month’s column hoping that April would not prove to be hapless Sri Lanka’s ‘cruellest month’ (in the words TS Eliot), I hardly anticipated the current turn of events.

In April, the country was to celebrate several ethno-religious festivals. The biggest among them was the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, celebrated by Sri Lanka’s majority community and its main minority. It was also the Muslim month of Ramadan and Easter, commemorated by the Christians.

For over one-and-a-half years Sri Lanka had been grappling with a fast-failing economy. The dwindling of foreign reserves and the consequent shortages of food, medicines, fuel, gas and kerosene for cooking were more recently compounded by power cuts, at times as long as 12hoursper day, bringing manufacturing industries to a standstill and forcing businesses to close down early.

With the country struggling to avert bankruptcy and an unprecedented rise in inflation and spiralling commodity prices, many working-class families, daily wage earners and farmers were facing penury and starvation.

Against this dire background Sri Lanka’s 22 million people were anxiously preparing for the April festivities, wondering whether there would be anything to celebrate.

Then it happened.

On March 31 the residents of Mirihana, a middle- class town on the outskirts of Colombo, held a candle-light protest to highlight the daily power cuts that disrupted their family activities. The protest, initially by women, attracted passers-by and huge crowds from neighbourhood towns and residential areas as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa lived in Mirihana in his private residence.

Swelling crowds shouting slogans later clashed with police firing tear gas and water cannons to break up the demonstration, but many of the protestors held their ground till the next day.

The Mirihana protest has sparked the island-wide conflagration that now has the once all-powerful Rajapaksa family-run government teetering on the wall like Humpty Dumpty awaiting a splintering fall. It will remain an important landmark in this uprising, which some have called, rather erroneously, Sri Lanka’s ‘Arab Spring’.

Mirihana began the assault against the Rajapaksa fiefdom that once seemed impregnable. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is president. Brother Mahinda, who served two terms as president, is currently prime minister. Another brother, Basil, a dual citizen with US citizenship and a home in Los Angeles, was until last month finance minister, and the eldest brother Chamal holds the post ofirrigation minister and state minister of security. Mahinda’s eldest son Namal, whom his father sees as heir apparent, was sports and youth affairs minister, among other portfolios.

It appears that the prime minister suspects he is going to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency

Together, the family reportedly controlled 72 per cent of government resources, free to use as they deemed fit, even to farm off to their acolytes and business friends in the way of government contracts and import monopolies, even during the Covid pandemic.

Today, however, that fortress of power and privilege appears as exposed as France’s Maginot Line, set to crumble against a German Blitzkrieg.

All the Rajapaksas, except Prime Minister Mahinda, lost their positions last month when President Gotabaya suddenly dissolved the cabinet in a desperate attempt to quell the mounting outrage against him. It seemed a weak moral sidestep, for the protesters’ cry was not only against the president but against the entire Rajapaksa family, which they claimed had dipped their hands into the country’s assets for personal gain.

Mirihana lit the fuse for the enormous protest that flared up at Colombo’s beach-front Galle Face Green, right opposite the Presidential Secretariat from where political power radiated. It was this that breached the Rajapaksa citadel.

Economists urged the government seek IMF assistance

At the time of writing, this protest – which shows signs of unifying the country’s multiracial, multi-religious society and has drawn crowds of all ages and a wide cross-section of the Sri Lankan community, including the professional classes – has entered its 17thcontinuous day, with hundreds of protesters camped there day and night despite the heat and rain.

Yet it is no Arab Spring. It is an orderly, non-violent protest, mainly of youth of all shades, with an inventive genius to keep themselves and their cause alive.

Never in Sri Lanka’s 74 years of post-independence history has the country seen anything like this, even though anti-government protests are nothing new to the country, which has seen Leftist political parties and associated trade unions functioning even under British colonial rule.

The main rallying slogan is ‘GotaGoHome’, telling Gotabaya to return to his home – also in Los Angeles –though he relinquished his US citizenship to be eligible to contest the presidential election in November 2019.

Built round that slogan are a myriad other satirical comments in song, verse, caricatures, cartoons and videos, the creative work of the protesters deriding the Rajapaksas, some demanding they return the country’s supposedly stolen assets and otherwise accumulated wealth in tax havens.

Although the protesters are now demanding that the whole Rajapaksa family pack their bags and quit, the main target quite rightly is President Gotabaya. It was his military arrogance – having played a role in the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) in 2009, under the leadership of his president brother Mahinda – and his ignorance of politics and governance, and over-reliance on incompetent advisers that started the economic rot.

With a group of retired and serving military men appointed to key civilian positions and a coterie of so-called intellectuals and businessmen as advisers, he plunged head-first into economic policy decisions.

Within a few days of assuming office, he had slashed VAT from 15 per cent to 8per cent and abolished some other taxes that cost the state a whopping 28 per cent in revenue. It led the Central Bank to print money feverishly to meet budgetary commitments, causing inflation.

Also disastrous was the overnight decision to ban chemical fertilisers that drove farmers to burn effigies of ministers and demonstrate on the streets, demanding restitution of their fertiliser needs or face food insecurity in the months ahead, forcing a once adamant president to retract.

While economists had foreseen the impending danger in depleting foreign reserves and international debt repayments this year, and hence urged the government seek IMF assistance, the president clung steadfastly to the advice of the Central Bank Governor and the Treasury Secretary, among others, who dismissed the idea for more than one year even ignoring cabinet support for IMF help.

In a belated gesture, President Gotabaya sacked the two officials immediately after replacing his cabinet with younger, untested MPs. He sent his new finance minister to Washington to plead with the IMF for immediate relief.

The president is hoping for political concessions he has agreed to – including returning to parliament and the prime minister powers that he usurped on coming to office through the 20thconstitutional amendment. He has now agreed to form an interim All Party government.

But one sees a growing rift in the once close-knit family. Names proposed by Prime Minister Mahinda for the new cabinet were ignored by his brother, causing the prime minister to boycott the swearing-in of the new ministers.

If the president opts for an interim government, it means he has decided to stay put but call for the prime minister’s resignation. It would appear that the prime minister suspects he is going to be sacrificed on the altar of expediency.

In an interview the other day, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa insisted that he will not resign and any reconstituted government must be under his leadership. In the meantime, he has been trying to whip up support against his ouster by canvassing MPs to muster the required 113 votes.

How the protesting public will react to all these political manipulations will depend on what is on offer. Right now, they are determined to continue until President Gotabaya surrenders, which seems unlikely.

Source: Asian Affairs, London

Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who held senior roles in Hong Kong at The Standard and worked in London for Gemini News Service. He has been a correspondent for foreign media including the New York Times and Le Monde. More recently he was Sri Lanka’s Deputy High Commissioner in London.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 4 2022 (IPS)

The Russian Federation, which invaded Ukraine last February killing scores of civilians and destroying entire cities, has been condemned, vilified and ostracized by the international community.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was emphatic last month when he remarked: “The use of force by one country against another is the repudiation of the principles that every country has committed to uphold. This applies to the present military offensive. It is wrong. It is against the Charter. It is unacceptable”.

And while the US and Western European nations have cut off all commercial and financial ties with Russia— treating Moscow as an international pariah– the UN Secretariat is continuing its multi-million-dollar contracts with a blacklisted Russia.

Metaphorically speaking, it triggers the question: does the UN’s right hand know what its left foot is up to?

The goods and services from Russia are primarily air transportation, mostly helicopters, including maintenance and servicing; information and communication technologies (ICT); and food catering, largely for the UN’s 12 peacekeeping missions.

Asked if the UN had received a letter from the Ukrainian Mission urging the Secretariat to end its procurements from Russia, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters last month: “We did receive, earlier in March, a petition by the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to us, to quote, “immediately suspend all non essential procurement cooperation of the UN with the Russian Federation.”

“We responded to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine a few days later that the procuring of goods and services and works by the UN Secretariat, is in accordance with the mandate given to us by the General Assembly and in [conformity] with the Financial Regulations of the UN, which requires such procurement actions to be done on the basis of best value for money, fairness, integrity and transparency, and effective international competition.”

He also pointed out that “it’s no secret that a lot of our aviation procurement for peacekeeping and just logistics comes from the Russian Federation, with also quite a bit from Ukraine.”

“The rules are set by the General Assembly, and we follow those rules. So, our position is set by the rules… the financial rules that we have… that we follow… The rules say procurement actions are done on the basis of best value for money, fairness, integrity and transparency, and effective international competition”.

But the 193-member General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy-making body, is missing in action (MIA) — or perhaps planning to pass the buck to the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee.

Asked for a response to comments from the UN Spokesperson‘s office, Christian Saunders, Assistant Secretary General for Supply Chain Management at the Department of Operational Support, told IPS: “The information provided during the briefing by the UN spokesperson remains valid.”

According to the latest available figures, the UN’s purchases from Russia amounted to about $115.6 million in 2021, with Moscow listed as the 5th largest supplier behind the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kenya and Switzerland.

The breakdown is as follows: US ($456.2 million), UAE ($329.3 million), Kenya ($192.4 million), Switzerland ($182.3 million) and Russia ($115.6 million).

The UN also has trade links with Russia’s largest helicopter operator, UTair – Helicopter Services, described as a leading provider of aviation services to companies in the fuel and energy industries, plus the United Nations.

Last year, the UN Procurement Division (UNPD) called for tenders for the following contracts in aviation procurement, where Russia has remained a front-runner.

One Medium Fixed Wing Turboprop Passenger Aircraft Support of UNISFA for a period of one year Plus two optional extension periods of one year each.

An Air Ambulance Aircraft Service with Guaranteed Availability based in Europe in support of UN Operations, for a period of three months, plus three optional extension periods of three months each.

A second Air Ambulance Aircraft Service with Guaranteed Availability based in Accra, Ghana in support of UN Operations, for a period of three months plus three optional extension periods of three months each.

Meanwhile, the approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022 is a staggering $6.38 billion. (A/C.5/75/25)—and payments to Russian contractors will flow largely from this budget.

But one question cries out for an answer: how will the UN pay for these purchases and services when Russians have been barred from most of the international banking system?

Speaking of Russia’s isolation at the UN, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters May 3: “We have been successful in isolating Russia in the Security Council, and that’s a significant success. We have been successful in unifying the voices condemning Russia in the General Assembly, but it came about because there was so much support for it in the Security Council. And getting 141 votes to support that effort was a significant success for all of us””.

“And we have been successful in unifying the UN in suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council. Russia is isolated in the Security Council, and every time we have a discussion in the Security Council as it relates to Russia, they are on the defensive and we will continue to keep them on the defensive until they end their brutal attack on the Ukrainian people”.

Last week Russia was suspended from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNETO), shortly after Moscow announced it had decided to quit in anticipation of the suspension.

Ian Williams, President of the Foreign Press Association, told IPS it is difficult within the rule, but the UN can be notoriously slow in paying its bills which might be appropriate in this case.

“But they do need an official body to bar contracts for Russian companies to protect staff involved and to ward off breach of contract. It is hard to leave it to the courage, or caprice, of UN bureaucrats”.

The UN had no compunction in hiring a CIA founded company to run UN missions along the Iraq-Kuwait border despite Iraqi protests at the UN, said Williams, author of ‘Untold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War.’

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Andrew Firmin
May 3 2022 (IPS-Partners)

Economic crisis has provoked a great wave of protests in Sri Lanka. People are demanding the resignation of the president, blamed for high-handed and unaccountable decision making, exemplified by his introduction of an agricultural fertiliser ban in 2021 that has resulted in a food crisis. People don’t just want the president’s removal: they want a change in the political balance of power so that future presidents are subjected to proper checks and balances. Hope comes from the wide-reaching and diverse protest movement that has put aside past differences to demand change.

Recent weeks in Sri Lanka have seen anger and protests alongside struggles to secure the basics of life – but also hope that change is coming. An economic meltdown has brought normal life to a halt. People are living with lengthy power cuts, almost no access to fuel and soaring prices that have made essential foods unaffordable, forcing many to cut down on their daily meals.

There’s no doubt that Sri Lanka’s economy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which largely put a halt to tourism and slashed remittances from Sri Lankans abroad, and most recently by Russia’s war on Ukraine, which has pushed up global fuel prices. But people are also pointing the finger at strong-arm president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his centralised and unaccountable brand of decision making.

A disastrous decision on farming

High global prices are affecting every economy, but Sri Lanka is doing notably worse than most, indicating that problems have been building up for some time. Sri Lanka has the region’s highest inflation, the value of its currency has collapsed and it has almost completely depleted its foreign currency reserves. This is all making it even harder and more costly to import the food and fuel it needs. The country has defaulted on billions of dollars of foreign debt repayments and is now in what could be lengthy negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. It’s a long way from the ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election manifesto.

On coming to power, Rajapaksa cut taxes, including corporate tax, and reversed the policy of the outgoing government that would have made the central bank independent and stop the government printing more money as a short-term economic fix. The government, including the administration headed by Rajapaksa’s brother Mahinda from 2005 to 2015, was accused of running up debt on grandiose infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s home-grown food supplies have been depleted as a direct result of a presidential decision. In April 2021, President Rajapaksa introduced a ban on chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The move, which came into effect straight away rather than being phased in over time, gave farmers no time to change the practices they had used for decades. The result was a swift decline in yields of rice, the key crop that feeds the nation, and export crops that earn essential foreign currency, notably tea.

Following protests in response to falling harvests, the government reversed its policy for some key crops and agreed to pay compensation, but it was already too late: Sri Lanka’s economic woes have been compounded by the need to import rice, on which it was long self-sufficient. Earlier this month, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, speaker of parliament, voiced his fear that many face the threat of starvation. A medical workers’ union has similarly warned of a national health emergency as the country struggles to import essential medicines.

For many farmers, who make up 27 per cent of Sri Lanka’s workforce, the fertiliser ban and its fallout epitomised an unaccountable president able to make unchecked decisions. Farmers, many of whom had previously backed the ruling party, felt taken for granted; some wondered if the scheme was a ploy to force small farmers off their land to enable large-scale commercialisation of farms.

An out-of-control ruling family

At the heart of the crisis is one powerful political family. When former army leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president in 2019, he was just the tip of the iceberg. He appointed his brother Mahinda, former president and one of five members of the family to win seats in the 2020 parliamentary election, as prime minister. He also placed two other Rajapaksa brothers and a nephew in the cabinet, making governing a private family business.

Presidential power was extended by constitutional changes in October 2020: the president gained additional powers to dissolve parliament, appoint and dismiss ministers and choose judges and the heads of key commissions, including the election commission. Unaccountable presidential taskforces were created, removing key issues from parliamentary scrutiny, and a slew of current and former army officers were given government roles previously held by civilians.

Unsurprisingly this consolidation of Rajapaksa family power was accompanied by a crackdown on civic space, with protest bans, the detention of activists and the harassment and criminalisation of government critics and independent media.

It was no shock that the government’s response to protests was to fall back on its machinery of repression. When protesters camped outside the president’s residence on 31 March to demand his resignation, teargas and water cannon were used and at least 50 protesters and several journalists were injured. Dozens of protesters were arrested, with some ill-treated in detention.

The following day the government introduced a state of emergency, imposing a curfew and giving itself the power to arrest and detain people without warrants. The military was deployed onto the streets. Internet and social media access were restricted.

Despite the curfew, there were thousands who came to the streets to protest peacefully. This was a large-scale civil disobedience from citizens, unprecedented in Sri Lanka.


BHAVANI FONSEKA

However, the pressure did not let up as people kept protesting despite the curfew. In response the government had to give some ground. On 2 April the cabinet resigned and President Rajapaksa offered to form a unity government, an invitation opposition parties rejected, since both the president and his brother showed no indication of stepping down. The next day 41 members of parliament quit the ruling coalition, leaving the Rajapaksas heading a minority government and potentially facing a future vote of confidence. The state of emergency, clearly untenable, was quickly withdrawn.

The protest movement continues, demanding that both President and Prime Minister Rajapaksa quit. More than that, protesters are insisting they don’t want another all-powerful president: they want a form of government where presidential power is subject to checks and balances and policies like the disastrous agricultural reforms can’t simply be pushed through. Protesters have also started to call for accountability over recent human rights violations, including those committed during Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war.

Voices from the frontline

Bhavani Fonseka is from the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an organisation that advocates for non-violent conflict resolution and democratic governance to facilitate post-war recovery in Sri Lanka:

The protests are spontaneous and come as a direct result of the current economic crisis, which is imposing a heavy burden on the people. They have been suffering from severe hardships due to a lack of essential items, including medicines, long power cuts and skyrocketing prices. In response, people have taken to the streets in peaceful protests across the country for more than a month.

It is important to state that the widespread protests are not linked to any political party. The opposition held their own protests weeks ago and continue to protest currently. But the ongoing protests are largely driven by angry citizens who oppose the involvement of politicians and members of parliament in their peaceful protests. There is frustration with existing political parties, including the opposition; people denounce them for not doing enough as representatives of the people.

In line with that, the thousands of people who have continued to protest in recent weeks demand a radical change. They call for the president and government to step down, a peaceful transition of power, and for structural reforms including the abolishing of the executive presidency. There is also a loud call to address immediate needs such as shortages of essential items, livelihoods and rising cost of living, among the many other calls from the protesters.

Sri Lanka has not seen this scale of protests in recent years – none that I can remember. Even the older generations are saying they have not seen a similar movement. As most of these protests are peaceful, they are making a difference by raising the profile of our domestic issues across the region and internationally. As a result, there is a recognition that the situation is quite bad in Sir Lanka.

Despite the curfew on the first weekend of April, there were thousands who came to the streets that Sunday to protest peacefully. This was a large-scale civil disobedience from citizens, unprecedented in Sri Lanka because it is the first time we have seen such large numbers of people coming to peacefully protest during a curfew.

Overall, the mobilisation of lawyers and of civil society to offer solidarity and support are quite high. Over 500 lawyers turned up to support those who were arrested on 31 March, and many other instances have seen lawyers appearing to protect the rights of citizens.

I believe that it is amazing how people are stepping out, creating ways of protesting despite the challenges and hardships.

 
Ruki Fernando is a human rights activist, writer and consultant to the Centre for Society and Religion:

This protest movement is the biggest and most diverse I have ever experienced in Sri Lanka. The protests are largely driven by angry, frustrated, disappointed citizens. Mainly the protests have been triggered by the ramification of the economic crisis that reached its peak with shortages of fuel, electricity, gas and medicines among many essential items that either disappeared from the market or had their prices hiked.

Protesters are also now demanding the truth about people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s civil war and even before. Their demands have expanded beyond the severe financial crisis to call for those in power to be held accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, disappearances and killings, disappearances and assaults on journalists.

The protesters are demanding long-term legal and institutional changes to the current governance system that must start with the resignation of the President Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksa family. Others call for the abolition of the 20th amendment to the constitution, which expanded the president’s executive powers.

Protest slogans calling on the president to ‘Go Home’ are now evolving into ‘Go to Jail’ and ‘Return Stolen Money’.

Repressive measures did not last in the face of the ongoing protests. The authorities had to release arrested protesters and revoke the declaration of emergency, the curfew was not extended and the social media shutdown was withdrawn.

I believe that when President Rajapaksa revoked the declaration of a state of emergency on 5 April, it was because he realised he was not able to sustain the necessary parliamentary majority that was needed for its continuation.

Most importantly, these protests, which are largely being led by young and students, represent a political awakening of various groups of our nation. Many women, older people, LGBTQI+ people, lawyers, religious clergy, artists and well-known people such as former cricketers have been part of the protests. They have enriched the spirit of defiance, resistance, courage and creativity unleashed by youth, on an unprecedented scale.

Aside from that, there is fear and uncertainty about what the future may hold for our country. There are many concerns about a potential military–police crackdown, especially after the shooting at protesters in Rambukkana that led to at least one death and several others injured.

There are also worries about sustaining the protests and a lack of clear political alternatives. But it has been an inspiring, heartening moment to see so many people, especially young people, standing up, creatively and courageously.

These are edited extracts of our conversations with Bhavani and Ruki. Read the full interviews here.

 
Diverse movement points the way forward

Pressure continues to mount. Some senior ruling-party politicians have said they back the protesters and called on the prime minister to quit. Influential Buddhist leaders have done likewise. It seems increasingly clear that if the president and prime minister had national unity and the best interests of the country at heart, they would stop clinging onto power.

Concern comes over the president’s close military links, which could help keep the Rajapaksas in power. Sri Lanka could be at a significant fork in the road: it could potentially become more democratic and pluralist, but alternatively it could transition into de facto military rule. Worryingly, the protests experienced their first fatality on 19 April when police opened fire on protesters blocking railway lines and roads in the town of Rambukkana, killing bystander Chaminda Lakshan and injuring several others. Violence towards protesters may increase if the Rajapaksas try to stay in power.

But hope comes in the unity across diversity of the protest movement. The political power of the Rajapaksas has rested on a stridently religious-nationalist appeal to a key segment of the country’s majority Sinhala Buddhist population, based on the exclusion of Tamil people and other minorities. But protesters are coming from all groups and mobilising outside party structures. Young people are denying their reputation for apathy by protesting in numbers. LGBTQI+ people, previously made invisible, are being embraced as part of the protest community.

People are no longer either intimidated or impressed by President Rajapaksa’s strongman posturing, and they no longer want such a leader. The protest movement is showing instead what Sri Lanka could look like, and making clear that the best way for the country to respond to its economic crisis is to listen to the voices of its people.

OUR CALLS FOR ACTION

– President and Prime Minister Rajapaksa should step aside in favour of a government of national unity to develop a consensus-based response to the economic crisis.
– The government should amend the constitution to restore checks and balances on presidential power.
– Sri Lanka’s protest movement must stay unified, respect the diversity of its members and resist factionalism.

The author is CIVICUS’s Editor in Chief

This story was originally published by CIVICUS Lens.

Excerpt:

Protest movement demands an end to unaccountable presidential power

Pacific Community health experts conduct laboratory training for COVID-19 testing with their healthcare colleagues in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , May 3 2022 (IPS)

Before the pandemic emerged in 2020, health services in many Pacific Island countries were under-resourced, under-funded and under-staffed. Now following recent outbreaks of COVID-19, advancing the capacity and development of health and medical services in vulnerable nations, such as Tonga and Kiribati, is increasingly urgent.

In the central Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati, virus cases have skyrocketed from zero to more than 3,000 since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the Polynesian kingdom of Tonga was hit early this year by a devastating submarine volcanic eruption and then a spike in COVID-19 cases.

“Ashfall and a tsunami from the volcanic eruption affected an estimated 84 percent of the population covering the whole of Tonga,” Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni’s office announced in late January.

In Kiribati, Margaret Leong, SPC’s Infection Prevention and Control Adviser, conducted training in the use of PPE with local healthcare staff. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

The deployment of health and medical experts to Tonga and Kiribati in February by the regional development organization, Pacific Community, have proven to be crucial support missions.

“Tonga is in a unique and unprecedented scenario. It is contending with a triple event: the volcanic eruption, the tsunami and COVID-19 outbreak. They are all related to one another. We are in Tonga in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, helping to ensure the quality of COVID-19 testing is maintained, aspiring to zero contamination, to support infection prevention and control,” Dr Sunia Soakai, Deputy Director of the Pacific Community’s Public Health Division told IPS from Tonga.

Tonga, an archipelago nation of 104,494 people in the southern Pacific Ocean, managed, for a long time, to stave off the pandemic, recording its first COVID-19 case only in October last year. Then on the 15 January, the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano, located 65 kilometres northeast of the country’s main island of Tongatapu, erupted violently, propelling massive amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere and triggering far-reaching tsunami waves. Many islanders were affected, either by health problems, such as breathing and cardiovascular difficulties, the loss of food sources or forced displacement.

But, as the world reached out to help, disaster recovery efforts were complicated by a spike in the pandemic. As of 20 April, Tonga recorded 9,220 cases of COVID-19 and 11 related deaths.

While Tongans receive free public healthcare, the island nation has limited health infrastructure and human resources. “We are providing support to three hospitals located on Tonga’s outer islands to boost their capacities for COVID-19 testing. That involves assisting them to collect samples and, if needed, transporting them to locations where equipment for testing is available…We’ve also been asked to conduct a thorough review of the country’s health protocols and procedures, such as handling of the deceased, quarantine requirements and procedures related to health care workers returning to work after positive diagnosis of COVID-19,” Dr Soakai described. “And we are working to ensure that other health services continue to be available to non-COVID patients.”

Local nurses dedicated to working in COVID-19 patient hospital wards in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

SPC is a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO)-led multi-agency Joint Incident Management Team and provides a wide spectrum of support services, including building the capacities of health systems, improving training and qualifications of healthcare workers across the region and commissioning new medical research.

“The team that was recently deployed to Tonga was very timely. They came when there was a lot of demand in our laboratory to do tests. This was before Rapid Antigen Tests were widely used for testing. We were sending up to 500 swabs per day and this was a challenge to our laboratory,” Dr Ana Akau’ola, Medical Superintendent of the main Vaiola Hospital in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, told IPS.

Earlier in the year, Elisiva Na’ati, a dietitian from the Pacific Community arrived in the country to aid recovery efforts following the volcanic disaster. “She came when there was a need to develop nutritional proposals for the islanders who had been displaced after the tsunami,” Dr Akau’ola added.

Across the vast Pacific Ocean, containing 22 island nations and territories with a total population of about 11.9 million, the role of the Pacific Community during the pandemic is, for many islanders, the difference between life and death. Many national governments work with constrained budgets and, therefore, funding and resources for health, with specialist and full hospital services often only available in main urban centres.

Only 12 of 21 Pacific Island countries have met the global goal of 4.5 healthcare workers per 1,000 people and national health expenditure per capita in 10 Pacific nations is US$500 or less, compared to the world average of US$1,000, WHO reports. It is not just islanders suffering from the virus, but also those afflicted with other serious illnesses, such as Tuberculosis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, who are experiencing over-burdened health clinics and hospitals.

Since the pandemic emerged, the Pacific Community has provided countries with laboratories, medical technology and skills for the testing of COVID-19, assisted vaccination initiatives, upskilled the capabilities of nurses for greater responsibility and strengthened national capabilities to monitor emerging public health threats.

In the atolls of Kiribati, home to about 119,940 people, SPC’s medical and health professionals worked alongside local health staff, patients and international partners, such as UNICEF, WHO and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which provided funding.

The country managed to keep COVID-19 from crossing its borders until January when its first case was identified in an incoming traveller. By April 20, 2022, Kiribati had diagnosed 3,076 virus cases in the country with 13 fatalities.

“We went into the country at the peak. We came to assist with preparing the wards, to support the training of PPE use. We set up isolation centres for patients in the community because the hospital beds were all full. We also worked with airport and border control staff, helping them to use practical and effective PPE, such as disposable gowns,” Margaret Leong, the Pacific Community’s Infection Prevention and Control Adviser, who was deployed to Kiribati in February, told IPS.

“Some of the issues and challenges they had were healthcare worker fatigue and psychological stress. Staff were getting sick, so there were insufficient numbers of healthcare workers at the peak. This put stress on the remaining healthcare workers,” Leong continued.

Laboratory training conducted by the Pacific Community-led health and medical mission in February and March boosted the capacity of Kiribati health services to cope with the pressures of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Credit: Pacific Community (SPC)

At the same time, Dr Lamour Hansell led the SPC’s Clinical Care Services part of the mission, helping to manage COVID patients in intensive care. “We started up a new hospital for COVID patients, supplying new infrastructure. An old hotel was found [in Nuku’alofa] and turned into a critical care facility. The Intensive Care Unit was located in the main hotel lobby and it was one of the best I have worked in,” Dr Hansell told IPS.

The work was relentless, round the clock and demanding, but Dr Hansell had only praise for his local colleagues, who, he said, were flexible and adaptable in the face of enormous professional and personal pressures. He witnessed many moments of courage and strength in his co-workers, remembering “one of the clinicians who had to treat and manage her own grandmother who had COVID-19. It was a very humbling thing to see, very humbling and inspiring,” he emphasised.

The number of new virus cases has slowed in both countries since the beginning of April, but internal lockdown restrictions remain in place. While the Pacific Community’s in-country missions responded to the peak of the crisis, the organization is accessible throughout the year to provide virtual, logistical support and mentoring to Pacific Island nations whenever it’s needed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Riya Shah and Arjun Kumar
NEW DELHI, May 3 2022 (IPS)

When the Covid- 19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan in 2020, no one imagined that it would wreak havoc on such a large scale. With over 6.2 million lives lost, countless infected and new variants emerging, the pandemic is still raging all around the world.

Governments all over the world have moved away from the lockdown method to one living with Covid. However, even after two years of the Wuhan outbreak, China has continued with its stringent Zero Covid policy.

Initially, the strategy was successful in reducing transmission to near zero but as highly transmissible variants like Omicron are surfacing, this policy seems to be faltering beneath its own weight. The resurgence of cases in 2022 and the month-long Shanghai lockdown has again put to test the effectiveness of the ‘zero tolerance’ Covid policy.

The nightmare returns

In early April, as the highly transmissible Omicron virus rummaged around China, it forced the 25 million-strong-city of Shanghai into complete lockdown. China’s most populous city and economic hub turned into a ghost town almost overnight.

With a massive resurgence in the number of active cases, a four-day lockdown was implemented on March 28, but due to increasing cases and its Zero Covid policy, the lockdown has continued indefinitely.

Shanghai reported over 29,300 cases on April 1, this spurred mandatory mass screening, community control, rapid contact tracing and other prevention measures to tackle the outbreak and prevent it from spilling over to other provinces.

With around half of the above 80-year age group unvaccinated, and less than one-fifth being given booster doses, the Chinese government has adopted strict measures to curb the spread of Omicron, which has triggered the worst outbreak since 2020.

During a State Council meeting, the co-ordinator of China’s Covid-19 response, Sun Chunluan declared that China will continue with the zero- Covid policy ‘without hesitation’. Many party officials from Changchun, Jilin and Shandong have also been sacked due to ‘ineffective performance’ in controlling the outbreak in Shanghai.

With cases surging, the local government in Beijing is also bracing for another Shanghai-style lockdown. The resurgence of cases can be attributed to the highly contagious nature of the Omicron variant, shortage of mRNA vaccines and the lack of hybrid immunity due to non-exposure to earlier strains.

Moreover, there has been a massive public outroar against the inhumane implementation of the policy in Shanghai. When people protested on their balconies against the lack of essential supplies, government drones blared, “Please comply with COVID restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing.”

Apart from taking a toll on the life of regular Chinese citizens, the mass lockdowns have also had serious economic impacts. As provinces accounting for up to 25% of China’s national GDP are under complete or partial lockdown, the faultlines of China’s one-size-fits-all Covid policy are becoming apparent.

With businesses shut down and people confined to their homes, unemployment rose to an all-time high since May 2020, at 5.8% and retail sales fell 3.5%, the first decline since July 2020.

Way Forward

Two years ago, China was lauded by the WHO for the most ‘ambitious, agile and aggressive’ disease containment strategy. While many countries were waiting for vaccines and developing herd immunity, 1.4 billion-strong China proved that elimination was possible solely through strict isolation measures and quarantine.

Moreover, drawing lessons from the previous SARS outbreak, China’s robust public health response proved effective in saving millions of lives.

Initially, there was a unanimous global outcry to blame China for leashing out the Wuhan virus. While China brought down transmission rates to almost zero by May 2020 and began hosting water park parties by August 2020, the situation elsewhere was quite bleak.

Today after almost two years as other countries are returning to normalcy, we see China returning back to lockdowns. Ironically, the chain of events seems to come to a full circle as China braces to curb its worst-ever Covid- outbreak since 2020.

Though adherence to the zero Covid policy comes with its own human and economic costs, the present leadership will likely continue with its tried and tested policy till the spread is contained. A hasty reversal of the policy would not only put into question the merit of the Chinese leadership but would also negatively impact public health and safety.

There is an urgent need to address the shortcomings of the zero Covid policy and craft a balanced exit strategy to pivot away from zero-tolerance and move towards cohabitating with the virus.

Riya Shah is a researcher with IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi and a Bachelor’s candidate in Chinese Language at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Dr Arjun Kumar is Director, IMPRI and China India Visiting Scholar (CIVS) Fellow 2020-21 at Ashoka University and Asian Century Foundation.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 3 2022 (IPS)

Capital flight from the global South is immense, with widespread adverse effects. A new book proposes measures to curb, even reverse capital flight from Africa. It also offers pragmatic lessons for many developing countries.

Out of Africa
On the trail of capital flight from Africa extends pioneering work begun much earlier. The editors – Leonce Ndikumana and James Boyce – estimate Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has lost more than US$2 trillion to capital flight in the last half century!

Leonce Ndikumana

SSA currently loses US$65 billion annually – more than yearly official development assistance (ODA) inflows. The book’s studies carefully investigate natural resource exploitation – of South African minerals, Ivorian cocoa, and Angolan oil and diamonds.

Such forensic country analyses are crucial to more effectively check capital flight. Outflows since the 1980s from the three countries have been massive: US$103 billion from Angola, US$55 billion from Cote d’Ivoire, and US$329 billion from South Africa in 2018 dollars.

Capital flight has been much more than cumulative external debt. Annual outflows were between 3.3% and 5.3% of national income. Nigeria, South Africa and Angola account for the most capital outflows from SSA, with Cote d’Ivoire seventh.

Resource booms
As governments get more revenue from natural resources, the fiscal ‘social contract’ is eroded. When people pay taxes, they expect state spending to benefit the public. But with more revenue from resources – via state monopolies, royalties and taxes – governments become less accountable to their own citizens.

Gaining and maintaining access to foreign credit has similar effects. Developing country governments then focus on ingratiating themselves with friendly foreign donor governments to get ODA, and on enhancing their credit ratings.

Hence, such regimes have less political need to provide ‘public goods’, including services, let alone accelerate social progress. Thus, erosion of the fiscal ‘social contract’ undermines not only public wellbeing, but also state legitimacy.

James K. Boyce

To secure power, ruling cliques often rely on ‘clientelism’ – patronage or patron-client relations – typically on regional, ethnic, tribal, religious or sectarian lines. Their regimes inevitably provoke dissent – including oppositional ethno-populism and civil unrest, even armed insurgencies.

Unsurprisingly, such regimes believe their choices are limited. Another option is repression – which typically rises as the status quo is threatened. The resulting sense of insecurity spreads from the public to the elite, worsening capital flight.

Exploiting valuable natural resources not only generates export earnings, but also attracts foreign investments. One result is ‘Dutch disease’ as the national currency rises in value – reducing other exports and jobs, inevitably hurting development prospects.

Thus, vast private fortunes have been made and illicitly transferred abroad. Ruling elites and their allies rarely only rely on either state or market to become richer. The book shows how both state and market strengthen private and personal power and influence.

Plundering Africa
The book’s case studies show how resource extraction has been central to capital flight. In all three countries, the efficacy of fiscal policy tools – especially to foster investments for development – has been undermined.

Outflows have increased with economic liberalization, as unrecorded financial outflows – via the current account – grow with freer trade. Thus, trade-related financial transactions enable corruption and capital flight.

In Côte d’Ivoire – the world’s top cocoa producer – rents initially came from supply chains connecting farmers to consumers. Corrupt partnerships – connecting domestic elites to foreign businesses – have been crucial to such arrangements.

Thus, natural resource primary commodity exports have enabled illicit capital flows. Ivorian cocoa exports have been consistently under-reported – with trade statistics of major importers showing massive under-invoicing by exporters.

Post-colonial political settlements have given a few privileged access to resource rents. With capital flight thus enabled, successive Ivorian regimes have been less obliged to spend more on development or public wellbeing.

Due to the cocoa boom, the post-colonial ‘Ivorian miracle’ ended when prices fell. The bust triggered a political crisis, culminating in civil war. But the crunch also meant the country could no longer service its foreign debt.

In Angola too, natural resources worsened its protracted civil wars. After these ruinous conflicts, oil rents enriched the triumphant nepotistic regime. This enabled the control to gain control of more, even as most Angolans continued to live in destitution.

Angola’s massive oil exports mainly benefited the small elite of cronies around the president. They failed to develop the economy or improve most lives. All this has been enabled by ‘helpful’ professionals who have enriched themselves doing so.

While benefiting its elite and foreign transnationals, Angola’s ‘oil curse’ has blocked balanced and sustainable development of its economy. Despite rapidly depleting its oil reserves, Angola and most Angolans have benefited little.

South Africa – SSA’s second largest economy after Nigeria – seems less reliant on natural resources. Post-apartheid economic liberalization has enabled capital flight as private corporate interests – especially the influential minerals-energy complex – quickly took advantage of the new dispensation.

By under-invoicing their exports, mineral interests have been engaged in massive capital flight and tax evasion. Meanwhile, business cronies have enriched themselves in new ways, e.g., in the state’s electric power sector. Such abuses were exposed by the Gupta family scandal, leading to then President Jacob Zuma’s downfall.

Stemming capital flight
‘State capture’ by politically influential nationals have undermined government regulatory capacities with help from transnational enablers. Ostensible ‘good governance’ reforms have enabled capital flight and tax evasion – by undermining ‘developmental governance’, including prudential regulation.

Institutional environments, mechanisms and enablers facilitate capital flight, tax evasion and wealth accumulation offshore. With often complex, varied and changing facilitation, capital flight has shifted massive wealth abroad for elites.

Transnational financial networks have eased capital outflows – at the expense of productive investments, good jobs and social wellbeing. Capital flight has worsened financing, including budgetary gaps – aggravating related social deprivations.

Wealth creation enhances the economic pie, but distribution depends on who appropriates it. Improved understanding of such varied and ever-changing relations of appropriation is crucial to effectively curb this haemorrhage.

Greater awareness should inspire and inform better measures to check capital flight from the global South. Instead of the Washington Consensus ‘good governance’ mantra, a developmental governance agenda is needed.

Hence, curbing capital flight is crucial for financing sustainable development. Checking capital flight and related abuses – such as trade mis-invoicing, money laundering, tax evasion and public asset acquisition by elites – requires well-coordinated efforts at both national and international levels.

All researchers, policymakers and regulators will gain from the book’s forensic analyses of financial, fiscal and other such abuses. International financial institutions now have little excuse for continuing to enable the capital flight and tax evasion still bleeding the global South.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
SINGAPORE, May 2 2022 (IPS-Partners)

 

 

“O, Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring….”
Walt Whitman

These days there is nary a dull moment in Pakistani politics. It is a cauldron where the mix from the globe, the region and the country boil in a deadly blend. Any unwanted spillage could do much harm at both home and abroad. For one thing it is a very large country with a population of over 220 million, the world’s fifth largest. For another it is one that hosts over a hundred nuclear war heads with potentials for horrendous destruction. Also, apart from these, importantly, it is a Muslim -majority polity and a practising democracy where stability or the lack of it would have ramifications for many societies of comparable milieu in the region, and beyond.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

Some weeks ago, its Prime Minister, the cricketing-star turned politician Imran Khan, captured media headlines around the world. His adoring supporters, millions of them, called him their “Kaptan“ or Captain, as if the nation was a cricket team that Khan skippered. If glory gives herself to only those who dream of her, Khan possessed her and rose to the pinnacle of power in his own adoring nation. But then, lady luck seemed to let go of him. His enemies combined and successfully brought him down, and his party the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaaf (PTI) down from government in a startlingly nerve-wrenching and nail-biting series of parliamentary manoeuvres in a ‘no-trust’ motion by only two votes, thus engulfing Khan in his toughest political crisis.

The opposition comprised three major parties the largely Sindh- based Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led by former President Asif Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto, the largely Punjab-based Pakistan Muslim League (N) led by Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of ex-Premier Nawaz Sharif, the party supremo residing in London and technically a fugitive from law, and the largely Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based Jamiat-e Ulema led by Mowlana Fazlur Rahman, a worldly cleric. Ideologically and personally, they were strange bedfellows, evidently brought together only for the purpose of toppling Khan! Immediately afterwards for a while it seemed they would fragment again, bickering over the pickings of gains, mainly distribution of ministerial positions. But wiser counsels prevailed, and they succeeded in papering over their differences, at least for now!

Khan initially demurred on resignation, and instead proposed dissolution of Parliament by the President and elections in three months’ time. But his decisions were reversed by the Supreme Court and he was narrowly voted out of office in Parliament, nudged it now seems, by what in Pakistan is called the ‘establishment , another name for the military. The army is currently led by General Qamar Bajwa, who sought to distance itself from Khan’s anti-American rhetoric obviously due to the Army’s strategic dependence on America. Khan, culturally more westernized than most Pakistanis, was trenchantly critical of the perceived ‘interference’ pf the US in Pakistan’s domestic affairs. He attributed his removal to a “foreign” “conspiracy supposedly hatched abroad and revealed in a cypher despatch from Pakistani Ambassador to Washington.

Obviously not one to mince his words Khan called the new cabinet a “bunch of thieves”, claiming vindication in the fact that nearly two-thirds were out on bail from charges of corruption, a malady wrecking the society like malignant cancer! He accused them of “Chhanga Manga politics” (in 1990 Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim league forcibly confined their legislators in a forest rest house at a place called “Chhanga Manga” near Lahore, in other words “roped in their horses and stabled them” till they could be let out for a parliamentary voting. Khan addressed massive rallies, or ‘Jalsas’ as they are called in Pakistan, in Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Karachi in Sindh and in Lahore in Punjab. In each of these rallies, hundreds of thousands gathered to chant his name, wave his banners, and cheer him on! In each he projected his PTI Party as an all-Pakistan organization without the provincial bias that mark the others. In each he asked if the new government was acceptable and in each the crowd roared back a resounding negative response! He frequently cited the historic example of Mir Jafar the army general who betrayed the last Muslim Nawab of Bengal Sirajuddoula to the English ion 1776 as the supreme act of treachery, which some could have related to his perception of the “establishment’s” perfidy! In all his rallies, he lustily asked of the crowds: “‘Imported hakumat’ manzoor hai”? (Is the imported government acceptable? Deafeningly, the crowds roared back: “Naa manzoor! Naa manzoor!” (Not acceptable! Not acceptable!)

The army was now caught between a rock and a hard place. While at a stated level the army claims to be apolitical, it has always been the most significant political component of the community. A very well -regarded strategic scholar and former Chief of army Staff General Jehangir Karamat has argued, with that the army in Pakistan is a mirror image of the society. There is logic in that claim in that, unlike the leadership of political parties, the army sociologically comprises non-feudal professionals. It includes some of the best engineers and doctors, disciplined, dedicated and representative of the urges of rural Pakistan. The strong military tradition, particularly in Punjab and the old North- West Frontiers, date back to the British Raj, and is more pronounced than anywhere in the South Asian subcontinent. Unsurprisingly, realpolitik analysts acknowledge its role in the nation’s body politic.

However, as a political entity, the army has evolved. It no longer, both by choice and capacity, seeks to control the government machinery directly, as it did under such military leaders like Generals Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia ul Huq and Pervez Musharraf. Instead, they work to exert influence covertly from behind the scenes under the cognomen of the ‘establishment’, or sometimes also overtly through such players as the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (DGFI), an office created by the British generals immediately after Partition, liaising directly with the Prime Minister, certainly more active and powerful now than then. The army’s challenge is that it needs to function as a political influencer without its participation in such political processes as elections. Because its power is sourced in public support and it cannot afford to be unpopular, it needs to pick and choose its allies in civilian politics with utmost circumspection. If for nothing else, it is for the fact that tacit public acquiescence is politically necessary to secure its large budgetary requirements.

Indeed, it was the Army which was said to help ease in Khan in 2018. But Khan, given his personality and a mind of his own, chose to strike-out on his own, which miffed the generals who may have eventually, with a nudge and a wink at least, helped to bring about his fall. But truth be told, the army quickly deduced unnatural partners in their new political masters, given, among other things, the latter’s perceived laxity about financial ethics. A change of heart was therefore not much beyond the rim of the saucer. But it did not depend on the army alone. For instance, the army would prefer Khan to rein- in his anti-western rhetoric. That may be contrary to Khan’s personal predilections, more so now because that anti-western stance in Pakistan has an electoral dividend, though at a political and economic cost. Even the mercurial Khan would probably judge that balancing would be key.

When after his triumphant ‘jalsas’, Khan, like Achilles in the Iliad, still smarting from his losses, retired to his tent, or rather his home at Bani Gala near Pindi for a brief hiatus before his next move, Bajwa had a huddle with his senior but retired peers in Lahore. Perhaps as an upshot the general declared that he would neither seek nor accept an extension of service when his retirement is due come November. Thereafter the army, albeit in a small way, sought to influence some key new appointments which were against the grain of its perceived interests or at any event, tastes. Also, with the contents of the dreaded “Exit Control List”, a key political tool in Pakistan; but, in both cases, not necessarily with absolute success vis-a-vis the current government, which would have exacerbated their peeve. Still, it’s too early to say if Khan and the army can hug and make up before the next general election.

And it is indeed on the next election that Khan is laser focused. He wants it now. He has directed all senior PTI leaders to spread out throughout the country to muster political support. As his next move, he has declared that unless a date for the election is announced in four weeks’ time, he will organize a ‘Tsunami’ march to the capital Islamabad with such a massive crowd drawn from all over the country as never seen before. He has urged all Pakistanis, irrespective of political affiliations, to join. He further threatened that the gathering will offer a ‘dharna’ (‘sit-in’) to continue till such time the election schedule is announced, with a change in the Election Commission leadership. The current government is obviously taking it seriously as authorities have been seen collecting for possible use shipping ‘containers’, a favoured item in Pakistan for its alternative use in creating roadblocks, this time for in-coming demonstrators.

One evidence of a change of wind in national politics, since Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif assumed office, could be the recent ruling of the Courts, a fair bellwether in this regard, to widen the catchment area for investigation into the ‘foreign funds case’ to include other parties besides the PTI. Also, the Lahore High Court has just turned down a prayer from Maryam Sharif, one of the most powerful leaders of the ruling Coalition parties, for the return of her passport legally impounded to enable her to accompany the Prime Minister on a trip to Saudi Arabia. So, what implications will any change in the position of the ‘wider establishment ‘ (the military plus the Courts) have for the future of Pakistan’s turbulent politics?

The answer, as with many critical queries that come to our minds may also just be, as the Bob Dylan song famously states, “‘blowin’ in the wind!”

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

By Paul Teng and Genevieve Donnellon-May
SINGAPORE, May 2 2022 (IPS)

Amidst a backdrop of rising food insecurity worldwide and a global food supply chain crisis, many countries are attempting to increase the level of food self-production. One improved input for farming which is receiving renewed attention is improved seed. The two most populous countries in the world, China and India, have recently made ground-breaking moves to improve their competitive position by developing new seeds which will improve their food production and increase resilience to climate change. So far, in 2022, new regulations on using biotechnology (genetic modification and gene editing) have been put in place by both countries to ultimately allow smallholder farmers to benefit from these new seeds.

Paul Teng

The COVID pandemic and, more recently, the Ukraine-Russia war have significantly disrupted food production and supply chains for food and farm inputs. Fears are growing about reduced crop planting by farmers in developing countries and reduced yields due to the lesser use of high-priced fertilizers. Apart from fertilizers, supply chain disruptions affect all inputs needed for farming, including seeds. The seed is the first link in the food chain. The availability and access to seeds are essential to farmers, particularly in developing countries or areas affected by droughts and other disasters, giving rise to the concept of “seed security, which the UN FAO defines as the “ready access by rural households, particularly farmers and farming communities, to adequate quantities of quality seed and planting materials of crop varieties, adapted to their agro-ecological conditions and socioeconomic needs, at planting time, under normal and abnormal weather conditions.” In many developing countries, quality seed is commonly produced by companies operating under public scrutiny.

The importance of having reliable supplies of improved seeds for farmers has been particularly highlighted in the world’s most populous country, China, where seeds are high on the policy agenda.

In early April 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for working toward food self-sufficiency and developing the country’s seed industry during a visit to a seed laboratory in Hainan Province, southern China. He noted that China’s food security could only be safeguarded when seed resources are firmly held in its own hands. President Xi’s comments come at a time when many countries aim to increase their self-production of food in anticipation of disruptions in supply chains such as those caused by the Ukraine-Russia crisis and the COVID pandemic.

Genevieve Donnellon-May

President Xi’s comments fit in the broader context of seed and food, issues that will only continue to grow in importance. They come at a time when there is rising food insecurity worldwide and a looming global food crisis brought on by the Ukraine-Russia War, a worsening geopolitical environment and growing vulnerability of the global food supply chains due to accelerated climate change impacts and Covid-19-related disruptions.

All the above background factors have led China and India to make important moves to tap a proven tool for developing new crop varieties, namely biotechnology.

In April 2022, China’s agriculture ministry announced plans for the first time after many years of deliberations to approve two new genetically modified corn varieties developed by the Syngenta Group. Earlier, In January 2022, China published new guidelines for the approval of gene-edited plants, paving the way for faster improvements to important food security crops. And this came amid a raft of measures to overhaul China’s seed industry, seen as a weak link in efforts to ensure it can feed the world’s biggest population. China’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tang Renjian, had likened seeds to the “computer chips” of agriculture.

In an unrelated parallel development, India approved a key change in rules at the end of March 2022 to allow genome-edited plants or organisms without any “foreign” genes to be subjected to a different regulatory process than the one applied to genetically engineered products. As in China, this is anticipated to lead to faster development of new crop varieties that can meet the challenges of climate change and higher yields.

However, not all interested parties support the use of biotechnology to develop new seeds or patenting new crop varieties. Although the evidence is strong that multinational and domestic seed companies have played a major role in lifting crop production through their improved seeds, this has also led to concerns about the control that the private sector may have over this important input for food production. And related to this issue of control of seeds is the patenting of new seeds.

There has been a rise in ‘seed activism‘ and interest in seed sovereignty as part of the pushback against the modern agricultural system that is supported by patented seeds such as hybrids. This pushback has been helmed by groups which exploit the fear (often speculative) that by having control over seeds, a handful of multinational companies, rather than farmers or countries, have control over the global food supply. This omits the reality that farmers have the right to choose whatever seeds to plant and even keep their own seeds if desired. These groups have also failed to recognize that investments to innovate and produce new seeds would not have been possible without adequate protection of seeds as intellectual property. Countries like China and India realise the importance of promoting innovations in the seed industry.

China, in particular, has announced that it aims to revitalize the seed sector, encourage germplasm collection, and strengthen intellectual property protection in the sector. In China, views on the importance of seeds in food security are reflected in various domestic policies such as in 2022’s “No 1 Central Policy Document”, the country’s agricultural blueprint. A top policy priority is the development of the seed industry in China.

The issues of seed sovereignty based on farmer-saved seed, when balanced against the track record of improved seeds from companies which give high yields, are complex. But in the final analysis, farmers will choose the seeds that give them the most assured yields under risky conditions, even if they have to pay for such seeds. This has been the case with almost all the developed and developing countries with food surpluses for export, such as the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil and Argentina. And consumers, as well as food importers are those who benefit by there being more food at affordable prices.

The first “Green Revolution” in Asia which took off in the 1970s was based on improved seeds of wheat and rice, bred using technologies which were novel at that time. However, towards the latter part of the last millennium, the need for more novel technologies to improve crops became obvious as yield gains were stagnating in many crops. The challenges facing all smallholder farmers arising from changes in climate, pests and natural resource depletion are becoming more intense and frequent. And unless new seeds are developed and made available to farmers in shorter timeframes, it is the consuming public that will suffer the consequences of reduced, unreliable food supply and higher prices.

The conundrum is how to balance local ownership of seed sources which are commonly unimproved and low-yielding with improved high-yielding seeds developed by seed companies (either domestic or multinational) using modern science. Ultimately, smallholder farmers worldwide deserve new “seeds of hope”.

Paul Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He has worked in the Asia Pacific region on agri-food issues for over thirty years, with international organizations, academia and the private sector.

Genevieve Donnellon-May is a master’s student in Water Science, Policy and Management at the University of Oxford. Genevieve’s research interests include China, Africa, transboundary governance, and the food-energy-water nexus.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Castle, Comfort Dominica. Dominica is the latest Caribbean country to sign on to the UN Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework, to accelerate progress with sustainable development goals and recover from COVID-19 Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
DOMINICA, May 2 2022 (IPS)

When Dominica signed on to the United Nations Multicountry Sustainable Development Framework for the English and Dutch Speaking Caribbean (MSDCF) in March, the country joined others like Saint Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Aruba as part of a 5-year framework to plan and implement UN development initiatives.

Support for the 2022 to 2026 agreement has continued to grow since December 2021, when Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and Guyana signed the cooperation framework, which hopes to help nations achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

For countries in the Caribbean, one of the most vulnerable regions globally, the framework is a critical instrument, based on building climate and economic resilience, the promotion of equality, and enhancing peace, safety, and the rule of law.

It is also crucial for a country like Dominica which in 2017 lost US$1.4 billion, or 226% of its GDP to Hurricane Maria. The small island state has been on a mission to build resilience across sectors through initiatives like its Climate Resilience and Recovery Plan, while grappling with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.

The country’s representatives have used platforms like the United Nations General Assembly to urge development partners to consider the unique vulnerabilities of small island states in their support packages.

The country’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says the UN framework will help Caribbean governments to implement programs that strengthen health, education, and social services while contributing to economic growth.

“We are operating in a tumultuous period defined by huge environmental and climate-related challenges, conflict, and economic uncertainty. The agreement proposes to help our small territories confront the trials of our time and achieve economic resilience and prosperity. It is cause for optimism as we devise ways to tackle our common problems together,” he said.

The agreement builds on a 2017-2022 framework which was signed by 18 Caribbean countries. Initiatives under that framework focused on areas such as building Caribbean resilience and the implementation of low-emission, climate-resilient technology in agriculture.

UN officials say that the new agreement, referred to as ‘the second-generation framework,’ considers lessons learned. Developed during the pandemic, it also acknowledges that COVID-19 has compounded structural vulnerabilities for Caribbean countries, which must now ‘build back better.’

“This new agreement opens a new era of cooperation to drive collaboration and mutual commitment for the people of Dominica,” UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Didier Trebucq said at the Dominica signing.

For months, leaders across the Caribbean have been speaking of being at risk of not meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, as they redirect scarce resources to cope with the protracted pandemic.

According to preliminary data from the UN, Goals 1 to 6, known as the ‘people-centered goals,’ have been severely impacted by COVID-19.

The Prime Minister of Barbados, the first leader in the Barbados and OECS grouping to sign the MSDCF, said the pandemic slowed progress towards meeting SDG targets.

“We’re going to have problems in the battle with poverty, we’re going to have problems in making sure that people don’t go hungry, we’re going to have problems in making sure that people have access to good health and well-being, as we know, is already happening in the pandemic. We’re going to have problems in delivering quality education and who have been the greatest victims of this pandemic if not our children across the world, many of who have been denied access to education because they don’t have access to things like electricity and online tools in order to be able to receive it,” Prime Minister Mia Mottley said, referencing Goals 1 to 4.

She said Goal 5 and 6 – Gender Equality and Clean Water and Sanitation are also at risk, noting that women have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, while countries like Barbados continue to be concerned with access to groundwater in the face of the climate crisis.

The MSDCF was developed by the six UN Country Teams, after rounds of consultation with government agencies, the private sector, development partners, and civil society organizations.

It will function at two levels; regionally by adopting joint approaches to common challenges and nationally to tackle country and territory-specific issues and vulnerabilities while helping governments to prepare for future external shocks.

According to the MSDCF, the vision is for the region to become more resilient, “possess greater capacity to achieve all the SDGs, and become a place where people choose to live and can reach their full potential.”

It promises to provide more effective support to signatory countries, through streamlined use of UN resources and in keeping with the goals of the recently approved UN Development system reform.

It hopes to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs and facilitate faster recovery from the socio-economic and health impact of COVID-19, with one regional voice on a shared development path.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Caribbean countries are signing on to the 2022-2026 agreement, hoping for increased development support to improve health, education and social services, while tackling climate-related challenges.

A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup (DDG 86) during a live-fire exercise, during Valiant Shield 2018 in the Philippine Sea September 18, 2018. Credit: U.S. Navy

By Daryl G. Kimball
WASHINGTON DC, May 2 2022 (IPS)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine, along with his implied threats of nuclear weapons use against any who would interfere, has raised the specter of nuclear conflict.

Last month, CIA Director William Burns said that although there is no sign that Russia is preparing to do so, “none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.”

As the war drags on, it is vital that Russian, NATO, and U.S. leaders maintain lines of communication to prevent direct conflict and avoid rhetoric and actions that increase the risk of nuclear escalation.

Provocations could include deploying tactical nuclear weapons or developing new types of nuclear weapons designed for fighting and “winning” a regional nuclear war.

For these and other reasons, U.S. President Joe Biden was smart to announce in March that he will cancel a proposal by the Trump administration for a new nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM), a weapon last deployed in 1991.

Before President Donald Trump, two Democratic and two Republican administrations had agreed that nuclear-armed cruise missiles on Navy ships were redundant and destabilizing and detract from higher-priority conventional missions.

Moreover, re-nuclearizing the fleet would create serious operational burdens. In 2019, Biden called this weapon a “bad idea” and said there is no need for new nuclear weapons. He was right then and is right to cancel the system now.

Nevertheless, some in Congress are pushing to restore funding for a nuclear SLCM to fill what they say is a “deterrence gap” against Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons arsenal and to provide a future president with “more credible” nuclear options in a future war with Russia in Europe or with China over Taiwan. A fight over the project, which would cost at least $9 billion through the end of the decade, is all but certain.

The arguments for reviving the nuclear SLCM program are as flimsy as they are dangerous. Serious policymakers all agree that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. But deploying nuclear-armed cruise missiles at sea would undoubtedly increase the possibility of nuclear war through miscalculation.

By deploying both conventional and nuclear-armed cruise missiles at sea, any launch of a conventional cruise missile inherently would send a nuclear signal and increase the potential for unintended nuclear use in a conflict with a nuclear-armed adversary because the adversary would have no way of knowing if the missile was nuclear or conventional.

Furthermore, even if Russia’s stockpile of 1,000 to 2,000 short-range nuclear warheads is larger in number than the U.S. stockpile of 320, there is no meaningful gap in capabilities. Superficial numerical comparisons ignore the fact that both sides already possess excess tactical nuclear destructive capacity, including multiple options for air and missile delivery of lower-yield nuclear warheads.

Both also store their tactical warheads separately from the delivery systems, meaning preparations for potential use would be detectable in advance.

If one president authorized the use of these weapons under “extreme” circumstances in a conventional war, as the policies of both countries allow, neither side would need or want to use more than a handful of these highly destructive weapons.

Although tactical nuclear bombs may produce relatively smaller explosive yields, from less than 1 kiloton TNT equivalent to 20 kilotons or more, their blast, heat, and radiation effects would be unlike anything seen in warfare since the 21-kiloton-yield atomic bomb that destroyed Nagasaki.

Proponents of the nuclear SLCM claim that if Putin used a tactical nuclear weapon to try to gain a military advantage or simply to intimidate, the U.S. president must have additional options to strike back with tactical nuclear weapons. They further argue that he should strike back even if that results in nuclear devastation within NATO and Russian territory.

Theories that nuclear war can be “limited” are extremely dangerous and ignore the unimaginable human suffering nuclear detonations would produce. In practice, once nuclear weapons are used by nuclear-armed adversaries, there is no guarantee the conflict would not quickly escalate to a catastrophic exchange involving the thousands of long-range strategic nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russian arsenals.

As Gen. John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said in 2018 after the annual Global Thunder wargame, “It ends bad. And the bad, meaning, it ends with global nuclear war.” As the supercomputer in the 1983 movie War Games ultimately calculated, “The only winning move is not to play.”

Adding a new type of tactical nuclear weapon to the U.S. arsenal will not enhance deterrence so much as it would increase the risk of nuclear war, mimic irresponsible Russian nuclear signaling, and prompt Russia and China to build their own sea- or land-based nuclear cruise missile systems. Biden made the right decision to cancel Trump’s proposed nuclear SLCM, and now Congress needs to back the president up.

The Arms Control Association (ACA), founded in 1971, is a national nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies. Through public education and media programs and its flagship journal, Arms Control Today, the ACA provides policymakers, the press, and the interested public with authoritative information, analysis, and commentary on arms control proposals, negotiations and agreements, and related national security issues.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Executive Director, Arms Control Association, Washington DC.