Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

News and Views from the Global South

Updated: 4 days 14 hours ago

Rich Country Hypocrisy Exposed by Vaccine Inequities

Tue, 07/13/2021 - 07:54

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 13 2021 (IPS)

‘No one is protected from the global pandemic until everyone is’ has become a popular mantra. But vaccine apartheid worldwide, due to rich countries’ policies, has made COVID-19 a developing country pandemic, delaying its end and global economic recovery.

Systemic inequities
Most rich countries have been blocking the developing country proposal to temporarily suspend relevant provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for the duration of the pandemic to more affordably and effectively contain it.

Anis Chowdhury

Needed to quickly scale up production and affordable access to relevant diagnostic tests, medical treatments, personal protective equipment and prophylactic vaccines, the proposal – by South Africa and India in late 2020 – is now supported by more than two-thirds of WTO members.

The Biden administration has reversed Trump’s opposition to the proposal, albeit only for vaccines. Without necessary complementary measures, and with continued opposition from European governments, the US partial policy reversal has not had any real impact so far.

As the World Health Organization Director-General notes, the pandemic is being prolonged by the “scandalous inequity” in vaccinations. “The global failure to share vaccines equitably is fuelling a two-track pandemic that is now taking its toll on some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people”.

With new, more infectious, even lethal variants spreading rapidly, experts fear the worst for poor countries is yet to come. Meanwhile, vaccines will generate astronomical profits. Soaring vaccine earnings have created at least nine new billionaires, with executives becoming very rich as share prices shoot up.

Leftovers now charity
Rich countries have been hoarding far more vaccine doses than they need. The European Union (EU) secured three billion doses, or 6.6 per person, while the US got 1.3 billion, or five each. Canada got 450 million for 38 million, or twelve each, the UK over 500 million, i.e., eight each, and Australia 170 million for 25 million, or seven each!

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

With mainly adults vaccinated, the actual ratios are even more obscene. UNICEF found most high-income countries had acquired at least 350% of doses needed. Agreements for vaccine delivery to low- and middle-income countries up to 2023 will only cover half their populations, at most.

The headline grabbing G7 promise of a billion doses actually involves 870 million doses, far short of the 11 billion needed. Some of this involves double-counting: 130 million was previously pledged to COVAX, the arrangement to supposedly ensure equitable vaccine access.

Supplies will not begin until year’s end, i.e., after their domestic vaccination programs are largely done. Most are doses ordered well in excess of needs. Clearly, the G7 does not have a serious plan, let alone commitment to vaccinate the world.

European hypocrisy
Although most EU parliamentarians support the TRIPS waiver proposal, the European Commission (EC), the EU executive, adamantly opposes it, offering half-truths as excuses. European leaders block progress by claiming that increased production and exports are more urgent, and require patent protection.

EC President Ursula von der Leyen sees the pandemic as a chance for vaccine-producing countries to export more, while dismissively asserting that waivers will “not bring a single dose of vaccine in the short and medium term”.

Although world-class facilities in the global South have long produced medicines and vaccines, French President Macron added insult to injury. “Can we really entrust laboratories that don’t know how to produce [vaccines] with this intellectual property and expect them to be producing tomorrow?”.

Now, the EC has legalised world vaccine apartheid by only recognising four vaccines – AstraZeneca (only if produced in Europe), Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Hundreds of millions in the global South vaccinated with AZ manufactured in India and many others will thus be banned from Europe!

New North-South divide
By 7 July, more than 3.32 billion vaccine doses had been administered worldwide, with 85% going to high- and upper middle-income countries, and only 0.3% to low-income countries. Africa’s vaccination rate (4% so far) is the slowest of all the continents, with some countries yet to start, while infection rates are rising fast.

Thanks to much higher vaccination rates, deaths in rich countries fell from 59% of the official world total in January to 15% in May 2021! The developing country share of pandemic deaths are underestimated at 85%, but nonetheless increasing rapidly.

The United Nations Secretary-General has warned, “Vaccine equity is the greatest immediate moral test of our times. It is also a practical necessity. Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone is under threat”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed investing US$50bn to help immunise at least 40% of the world population by the end of 2021 and the balance by mid-2022.

Ending the pandemic would accelerate economic recovery and generate US$9tn more in global output plus US$1tn in tax revenue by 2025. Yet, last weekend’s G20 Finance meeting refused to endorse it.

Reject new apartheid, cooperate
Outraged former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rhetorically asked, “vaccines for all or vaccine apartheid?”. Scaling up vaccine production to immunise the world quickly requires unprecedented international cooperation.

Suspending patents can help contain the pandemic, but the selfish policies of the global North have made COVID-19 a pandemic of the South. This is also impeding its end and recovery for all, besides deepening the North-South divide, and inevitably, associated resentments.

Meanwhile, the IMF warns of a ‘dangerous divergence’ in economic recovery between rich and poor countries. With their limited fiscal resources, high debt burdens and weak health systems, countries in the global South must urgently reconsider their options to address the escalating catastrophe.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); Related Articles

Categories: Africa

Pacific Islands Making the Move to Electronic Data Collection

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 19:57

Credit: Unsplash, Adli Wahid

By External Source
KIRIBATI, Vanuatu, Jul 12 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Between 2010 and 2020, many Pacific Islands and Territories have updated their traditional data collection processes, embracing new technologies. The island nations Kiribati and Vanuatu, among others, successfully switched to computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), a new data management system and a survey monitoring dashboard. The innovations implemented with support from the Pacific Community helped to weather the impact of the pandemic on census activities and to become fit for the purpose of tracking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“With limited internet access in the Pacific Island region, and the additional training required, the decision to switch to an electronic collection process was not an easy move to make initially. However, we and other national statistical offices across the region have reported a handsome payback,” says Aritita Tekaieti, Republic Statistician in Kiribati.

The CAPI format, for example, is cost effective and user friendly. The interviewers use a tablet, mobile phone or a computer to record answers. The technology’s self-correcting function means inconsistencies and mistakes are picked up and resolved during data capture, making the post-enumeration phase much more efficient.

In November 2020, Kiribati and Vanuatu embraced other technologies as well to conduct their national population and housing census. Both countries halted international travel following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant technical assistance had to be provided remotely. To overcome some of the challenges, the Pacific Community developed a real-time, online data management system and interactive monitoring dashboard for both the national statistical offices in Kiribati and Vanuatu.

The technologies are critically important for island states like Kiribati, which comprises numerous islands dispersed over millions square kilometres of ocean. The survey monitoring dashboard, for example, addresses challenges in conducting face-to-face surveys in the region’s remote villages and communities.

“Surveys often require monitoring during data collection to ensure progress. Monitoring interviewers in face-to-face surveys is necessary as individual interviewer behaviour often contributes to the quality of surveys. Thus, accurate fieldwork monitoring is becoming more and more important,” explains Epeli Waqavonovono, Director of the Statistics for Development Division of the Pacific Community.

As part of the monitoring dashboard, geographic visualisation of fieldwork can be an additional way to monitor progress and potential problems. In an ideal situation, the map-based tool can enable survey supervisors to provide the census coordinators with valid evidence of difficulties or poor performance in fieldwork. The timely discovery allows for faster interventions such as replacement or retraining of enumerators or the reinforcement of problematic geographic areas with additional interviewers. The benefits of monitoring the performance of censuses and surveys through a well-designed dashboard are evident.

“The dashboard is superbly helpful for our monitoring. The maps with red and orange points really help us in spotting errors. I viewed the dashboard every day and managed to download the check files and send them over to my headquarters to deal with any errors and inconsistencies in the interviews from the field,” says Agnether Lemuelu, Deputy Government Statistician at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in Kiribati.

The tools help to improve data timeliness, field monitoring, better supervision, and data quality checks, for example, through external dashboards and data quality systems, as well as the communication between headquarters, supervisors, and enumerators.

“The Pacific Sub-regional Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) supports the Pacific Community in its roll-out of CAPI and remote monitoring systems because in addition to promoting efficient and timely data collection, the technology can help to ensure adherence to international census methodology and standards. This facilitates data comparability among the Pacific countries and with the rest of the world,” says UNFPA Pacific Director, Dr Jennifer Butler.

“UNFPA recognizes the value of having tools that can be rapidly modified and tailored to national level needs while encouraging sharing of experiences across countries. Furthermore, the tools can also support the development of innovative approaches to data analysis and dissemination including visualization of results which can help to build the case for those furthest behind, particularly women, young people and the disabled.”

Censuses for the SDGs

Censuses count everyone and they therefore collect information on important populations, such as those with disability. Censuses are the data source for populating 15 percent of the Pacific SDG indicators. In lieu of comprehensive population-based administrative databases in the Pacific region, the census is the fundamental denominator for all population-based indicators of the SDGs. Censuses therefore contribute data towards 45 percent of the Pacific SDG indicators. This initiative was in the spirit of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) given it was a joint collaboration with the national statistical offices, UNFPA and the Pacific Community.

Data produced via the conduct of a Population and Housing Census are used in a wide array of planning and policy applications, ranging from education and health care to infrastructure and food security. Census data are used in the preparation of population projections, which are fundamental for social and economic planning. The census also serves as the sampling frame for other population-based social and economic surveys, complementing the collection and use of other population-based development microdata for applications such as ending poverty (SDG 1 – No Poverty) and hunger (SDG 2 – No Hunger), ensuring equal and sustained access to good health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene services, energy and work for all (SDGs 3 to 10).

Censuses are designed to provide information for policy and planning purposes across a broad spectrum of sectors and themes, which is intended to be used to guide social, economic and cultural development of the Pacific nations. The initiative aims to leave nobody behind.

Data is not evidence until it is in a useful format and in the hands of the decision makers, whether it be for policy development, prioritization for resources allocation or for designing program interventions. It is only then that the importance of timely and high-quality data becomes apparent. The Pacific Community, with UNFPA support, hopes to accelerate the process of putting the data in the right hands by continuing to build on these initial achievements.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Categories: Africa

New Global Framework for Managing Nature Through 2030: 1st Detailed Draft Agreement Debuts

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 17:56

Still a work in progress, the Global Biodiversity Framework will ultimately advance to UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15 for consideration by 196 member parties

21 targets, 10 ‘milestones’ proposed for 2030 en route to ‘living in harmony with nature’ by 2050; Include conserving and protecting at least 30% of Earth’s lands and oceans

By External Source
Jul 12 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat today released the first official draft of a new Global Biodiversity Framework to guide actions worldwide through 2030 to preserve and protect Nature and its essential services to people.

The framework includes 21 targets for 2030 that call for, among other things:

More than two years in development, the Framework will undergo further refinement during online negotiations in late summer before being presented for consideration at CBD’s next meeting of its 196 parties at COP15, scheduled for Kunming, China October 11-24.

The Four Goals for 2050:

The draft framework proposes four goals to achieve, by 2050, humanity “living in harmony with nature,” a vision adopted by the CBD’s 196 member parties in 2010.

Goal A: The integrity of all ecosystems is enhanced, with an increase of at least 15% in the area, connectivity and integrity of natural ecosystems, supporting healthy and resilient populations of all species, the rate of extinctions has been reduced at least tenfold, and the risk of species extinctions across all taxonomic and functional groups, is halved, and genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species is safeguarded, with at least 90% of genetic diversity within all species maintained.

Goal B: Nature’s contributions to people have been valued, maintained or enhanced through conservation and sustainable use supporting the global development agenda for the benefit of all;

Goal C: The benefits from the utilization of genetic resources are shared fairly and equitably, with a substantial increase in both monetary and non-monetary benefits shared, including for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Goal D: The gap between available financial and other means of implementation, and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision, is closed.

Milestones to be reached by 2030

The four goals each have 2-3 broad milestones to be reached by 2030 (10 milestones in all):

Goal A:
Milestone A.1 Net gain in the area, connectivity and integrity of natural systems of at least 5%.
Milestone A.2 The increase in the extinction rate is halted or reversed, and the extinction risk is reduced by at least 10%, with a decrease in the proportion of species that are threatened, and the abundance and distribution of populations of species is enhanced or at least maintained.
Milestone A.3 Genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species is safeguarded, with an increase in the proportion of species that have at least 90% of their genetic diversity maintained.

Goal B:
Milestone B.1 Nature and its contributions to people are fully accounted and inform all relevant public and private decisions.
Milestone B.2 The long-term sustainability of all categories of nature’s contributions to people is ensured, with those currently in decline restored, contributing to each of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals.

Goal C:
Milestone C.1 The share of monetary benefits received by providers, including holders of traditional knowledge, has increased.
Milestone C.2 Non-monetary benefits, such as the participation of providers, including holders of traditional knowledge, in research and development, has increased.

Goal D:
Milestone D.1 Adequate financial resources to implement the framework are available and deployed, progressively closing the financing gap up to at least US $700 billion per year by 2030.
Milestone D.2 Adequate other means, including capacity-building and development, technical and scientific cooperation and technology transfer to implement the framework to 2030 are available and deployed.
Milestone D.3 Adequate financial and other resources for the period 2030 to 2040 are planned or committed by 2030.

21 “Action Targets” for 2030

The framework then lists 21 associated “action targets” for 2030:

Reducing threats to biodiversity

Target 1
Ensure that all land and sea areas globally are under integrated biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning addressing land- and sea-use change, retaining existing intact and wilderness areas.

Target 2
Ensure that at least 20 per cent of degraded freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems are under restoration, ensuring connectivity among them and focusing on priority ecosystems.

Target 3
Ensure that at least 30 per cent globally of land areas and of sea areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and its contributions to people, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes.

Target 4
Ensure active management actions to enable the recovery and conservation of species and the genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species, including through ex situ conservation, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to avoid or reduce human-wildlife conflict.

Target 5
Ensure that the harvesting, trade and use of wild species is sustainable, legal, and safe for human health.

Target 6
Manage pathways for the introduction of invasive alien species, preventing, or reducing their rate of introduction and establishment by at least 50 per cent, and control or eradicate invasive alien species to eliminate or reduce their impacts, focusing on priority species and priority sites.

Target 7
Reduce pollution from all sources to levels that are not harmful to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and human health, including by reducing nutrients lost to the environment by at least half, and pesticides by at least two thirds and eliminating the discharge of plastic waste.

Target 8
Minimize the impact of climate change on biodiversity, contribute to mitigation and adaptation through ecosystem-based approaches, contributing at least 10 GtCO2e per year to global mitigation efforts, and ensure that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid negative impacts on biodiversity.

Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing

Target 9
Ensure benefits, including nutrition, food security, medicines, and livelihoods for people especially for the most vulnerable through sustainable management of wild terrestrial, freshwater and marine species and protecting customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities.

Target 10
Ensure all areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are managed sustainably, in particular through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, increasing the productivity and resilience of these production systems.

Target 11
Maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to regulation of air quality, quality and quantity of water, and protection from hazards and extreme events for all people.

Target 12
Increase the area of, access to, and benefits from green and blue spaces, for human health and well-being in urban areas and other densely populated areas.

Target 13
Implement measures at global level and in all countries to facilitate access to genetic resources and to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, and as relevant, of associated traditional knowledge, including through mutually agreed terms and prior and informed consent.

Tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming

Target 14
Fully integrate biodiversity values into policies, regulations, planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies, accounts, and assessments of environmental impacts at all levels of government and across all sectors of the economy, ensuring that all activities and financial flows are aligned with biodiversity values.

Target 15
All businesses (public and private, large, medium and small) assess and report on their dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, from local to global, and progressively reduce negative impacts, by at least half and increase positive impacts, reducing biodiversity-related risks to businesses and moving towards the full sustainability of extraction and production practices, sourcing and supply chains, and use and disposal.

Target 16
Ensure that people are encouraged and enabled to make responsible choices and have access to relevant information and alternatives, taking into account cultural preferences, to reduce by at least half the waste and, where relevant the overconsumption, of food and other materials.

Target 17
Establish, strengthen capacity for, and implement measures in all countries to prevent, manage or control potential adverse impacts of biotechnology on biodiversity and human health, reducing the risk of these impacts.

Target 18
Redirect, repurpose, reform or eliminate incentives harmful for biodiversity, in a just and equitable way, reducing them by at least US$ 500 billion per year, including all of the most harmful subsidies, and ensure that incentives, including public and private economic and regulatory incentives, are either positive or neutral for biodiversity.

Target 19
Increase financial resources from all sources to at least US$ 200 billion per year, including new, additional and effective financial resources, increasing by at least US$ 10 billion per year international financial flows to developing countries, leveraging private finance, and increasing domestic resource mobilization, taking into account national biodiversity finance planning, and strengthen capacity-building and technology transfer and scientific cooperation, to meet the needs for implementation, commensurate with the ambition of the goals and targets of the framework.

Target 20
Ensure that relevant knowledge, including the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities with their free, prior, and informed consent, guides decision making for the effective management of biodiversity, enabling monitoring, and by promoting awareness, education and research.

Target 21
Ensure equitable and effective participation in decision-making related to biodiversity by indigenous peoples and local communities, and respect their rights over lands, territories and resources, as well as by women and girls, and youth.

* * * * *

Says CBD Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema: “Urgent policy action globally, regionally and nationally is required to transform economic, social and financial models so that the trends that have exacerbated biodiversity loss will stabilize by 2030 and allow for the recovery of natural ecosystems in the following 20 years, with net improvements by 2050.”

“The framework aims to galvanize this urgent and transformative action by Governments and all of society, including indigenous peoples and local communities, civil society, youth and businesses and financial institutions. It will be implemented primarily through national-level activities, supported by subnational, regional and global-level actions.”

“This is a global, outcome-oriented framework for the Convention’s 196 Parties to develop national and regional goals and targets, to update national strategies and action plans as needed, and to facilitate regular monitoring and review of progress at the global level.”

Implementation

The draft Global Biodiversity Framework notes that effective implementation requires mobilizing resources from both the public and private finance sectors, ongoing identification of risk associated with biodiversity loss capacity development, technical and scientific cooperation, technology transfer and innovation.

It also calls for integration with relevant multilateral environmental agreements and other relevant international processes, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and strengthening cooperation.

Successful implementation will also depend on effective outreach, awareness and uptake by all stakeholders, a comprehensive system for planning, monitoring, reporting and review that allows for transparent communication of progress, rapid course correction, and timely input in the preparation of a post-2030 Global Biodiversity Framework.

* * * * *

Background

Biodiversity and its benefits are fundamental to human well-being and a healthy planet. Despite ongoing efforts, biodiversity is deteriorating worldwide and this decline is projected to continue or worsen under business-as-usual scenarios.

The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and sets out an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.

The draft framework reflects input from the second meeting of a Working Group managing the framework’s creation, as well as submissions received. The draft will be further updated in late summer with the benefit of input from the 24th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the 3rd meeting of the Subsidiary Body in Implementation, as well as the advice from thematic consultations.

Relationship with 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The framework will contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the same time, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals will help to provide the conditions necessary to implement the framework.

Theory of change

The framework’s theory of change assumes that transformative actions are taken to (a) put in place tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming, (b) reduce the threats to biodiversity and (c) ensure that biodiversity is used sustainably in order to meet people’s needs and that these actions are supported by (i) enabling conditions, and (ii) adequate means of implementation, including financial resources, capacity and technology. It also assumes that progress is monitored in a transparent and accountable manner with adequate stocktaking exercises to ensure that, by 2030, the world is on a path to reach the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

The theory of change for the framework acknowledges the need for appropriate recognition of gender equality, women’s empowerment, youth, gender-responsive approaches and the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the implementation of this framework. Further, it is built upon the recognition that its implementation will be done in partnership with many organizations at the global, national and local levels to leverage ways to build a momentum for success. It will be implemented taking a rights-based approach and recognizing the principle of intergenerational equity.

The theory of change is complementary to and supportive of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also takes into account the long-term strategies and targets of other multilateral environment agreements, including the biodiversity-related and Rio conventions, to ensure synergistic delivery of benefits from all the agreements for the planet and people.

* * * * *

About the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.

With 196 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation.

The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing are supplementary agreements to the Convention. The Cartagena Protocol, which entered into force on 11 September 2003, seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.

The Nagoya Protocol aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies. It entered into force on 12 October 2014.

Excerpt:

Categories: Africa

Combating COVID-19 and Ensuring No One is Left Behind

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 17:31

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja, and Bambang Susantono
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 12 2021 (IPS)

If the world wants to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure no one is left behind in the recovery, two issues thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic need attention: digitalization and regional cooperation.

Ensuring the digital transformation reaches all in Asia Pacific is one of the greatest challenges we face

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Even before COVID-19, the digital revolution was transforming how people and businesses work. As the pandemic unfolded, the accelerated adoption of digital technologies helped governments, education, private enterprise and people keep activities going amid social distancing, lockdowns and other containment measures. High-speed internet connectivity and financial technology hold immense promise for deepening financial inclusion, and keeping local economies alive, even in times of crisis. Yet many poor households, women and vulnerable groups have been unable to afford or access the benefits of digitalization.

Digital divides within and between countries in the region threaten to exacerbate existing gaps in economic and social development. We need more equitable access to digital technologies to drive innovation and create new business models.

Regional cooperation must refocus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Regional cooperation plays a critical role in managing the transition out of the current crisis, and a renewed focus on environmental and social dimensions of cooperation is essential. Working together can also help countries achieve digital transformation for all, including through joint efforts to develop and expand digital infrastructure, and legal and regulatory reforms that make these services more accessible.

Kanni Wignaraja

The pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of the region’s health, education and social protection systems, making life even more difficult for the poorest and socially excluded, and deepening inequalities within communities and countries, particularly for women. The crisis has shown the value of building universal social protection systems for all members of society — from infancy to old age — which can be bolstered to provide additional relief in times of crisis. There have also been huge disparities in the ability of countries to insulate themselves from the pandemic and roll out vaccines. This is widening development gaps. A renewed focus on people, their well-being and capabilities is needed through regional cooperation.

In recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental sustainability needs to become much more central to economic, social and global value chain integration efforts. By building low-carbon economies, including through a new focus on industry and tourism sectors to generate green jobs, we can help create a more resilient region. While governments recognize the potential to pursue more environmentally sustainable development as part of recovery, much more needs to be done if we are to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and protect our planet’s natural capital and biodiversity.

Meeting the needs of people and planet

Bambang Susantono

These issues, highlighted in a recent joint report by our three organizations, warrant greater emphasis as countries meet this week to review implementation of the SDGs at the United Nations High-level Political Forum. Policymakers have necessarily focused on containing the pandemic and meeting peoples’ immediate needs. Tangible action on the multiple interconnected dimensions of the SDGs poses difficult policy and fiscal choices. Regional collaboration around financing can help countries raise and expand resources to meet the SDGs. Key priorities include cooperation on tax, through common standards, and efforts to address tax havens and avoidance. In addition, countries in the region can work together to design incentives to align private investment with the SDGs and expand the use of sustainability-focused instruments that tap regional and global capital markets.

Another form of international cooperation is worth noting. Governments, multilateral organizations, development banks, philanthropic organizations and the private sector have joined forces in unprecedented efforts to fight the pandemic, such as through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative. Science, technology and innovation enabled by such partnerships will continue to drive countries’ efforts to recover and build resilience.

Today, what begins as highly local can soon become a global phenomenon. A reinvigorated multilateralism can and must respond faster to take on new challenges and expand provision of public goods. Together, our organizations will seek to nurture such cooperation to achieve the SDGs.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the Executive Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
Kanni Wignaraja is the Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Development Programme
Bambang Susantono is the Vice-President, Asian Development Bank

Categories: Africa

Reflections on South Sudan’s Ten Years of Independence

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 09:55

A child carries empty jerry cans to fill water from a nearby tap providing untreated water from the Nile river in Juba, South Sudan. Credit: UNICEF/Phil Hatcher-Moore

By Rajab Mohandis
JUBA, South Sudan, Jul 12 2021 (IPS)

The declaration of independence of South Sudan was a great historic moment that gave hope to South Sudanese on July 9, 2011. It brought a sense of satisfaction, indicating achievement of a life-time dream for which millions of our people across generations paid the ultimate price.

Now, after the celebrations marking 10 years of independence, we need to reflect and recommit to how to move forward together.

Following the declaration of independence South Sudanese who were internally displaced and those in refuge in neighboring countries returned to the country, settled, and started rebuilding their lives. Many built houses, produced their own food, and engaged in business.

Local governments were operational throughout the country. In most parts of the country, movement of people, goods and services were safe, day and night. The country had resources and international good will to support development in all sectors.

The country had legal frameworks necessary to govern itself. The laws attempted to address historical gender injustices and imbalances by providing for 25% affirmative action for women at independence, which has since been raised to 35%.

In summary, South Sudan at independence had resources, institutions, professionals and legal frameworks to govern itself, deliver basic services and set the country on the path to development.

Unfortunately, all these potentials were quickly squandered, leading to increased state fragility and failure.

Aspiration Betrayed

Power struggles among South Sudanese political leaders led to an outbreak of a civil war in December 2013, barely two and a half years after declaration of the country’s independence. Whereas literature on South Sudan presents many reasons, I attribute the crisis and lack of progress in the country to two main reasons.

First, it was ineffective political leadership at delivering on the mandate of government. This caused a meltdown in all other sectors including politics and governance, security and the economy.

Leadership is almost everything a country needs in order to make progress. It defines a unifying national vision to set a direction for a country, provides the means and creates the environment necessary for realization of the vision.

Firearms laid down by child soldiers associated with armed groups in South Sudan. Credit: UNICEF/Rich

This has been grossly lacking in South Sudan since the country became independent and as it stands now, there is no clarity as to where the country is heading.

The second was complete neglect of principles that guided the struggle for South Sudan’s liberation and independence. South Sudan is a product of decades of liberation struggles with clearly defined purpose and principles.

The text of the declaration of our independence recalled that our people led a “long and heroic struggle for justice, freedom, equality, human dignity and political and economic emancipation.” The declaration further states that we, the people of South Sudan “resolved to establish a system of governance that upholds the rule of law, justice, democracy, human rights and respect for diversity.”

However, these principles were not meaningfully pursued and realized, causing our country to descend into the civil war and consequently multiple conflicts.

The net effects of the leadership failure and neglect of the principles that guided our struggle for liberation and independence are severe. At the top of these effects is state failure.

The South Sudanese state is unable to perform its basic functions of government, like maintaining security for itself and for all citizens, enforcing law and order, delivering services to the population, and meaningfully resolving the multiple conflicts in the country.

The status of the Peace Agreement

The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) provides a reasonable framework for peace in our country. Consistent and full implementation of this peace agreement would enable South Sudanese to restore peace, security, and stability; address the humanitarian crisis, reform and strengthen effectiveness of public institutions, deliver transitional justice, write a permanent constitution and conduct credible elections within the agreed implementation schedule.

Unfortunately, 33 of the 44 months of the original timeline of the peace implementation have elapsed without achieving key milestones of the peace agreement. Transitional Security Arrangements, which were supposed to have been accomplished in the first eight months of the peace agreement are collapsing.

Not a single soldier of the initially agreed 83,000 necessary unified forces, has been graduated. Due to acute shortage of food and medicines, the forces have been deserting their cantonment sites and training centers. Needless to say, the functioning of all the security mechanisms created by the peace agreement is severely impaired due to lack of funds.

While these delays persist, civilians continue to pay the price of insecurity in the country. It may be noted that women have been among the main victims of this situation. In a nation-wide public consultation with women in all ten states of the country in March this year, they strongly expressed concerns about the slow implementation of the peace agreement and poor delivery of basic services like health, education, and water.

They felt that implementation of the 35% affirmative action would help increase the voices of women in the public decision making that would result in a resolution of the crisis in the country. However, most of the parties to the peace agreement have not been meeting their share of the 35% in the institutions of the unity government.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is the mediator and main guarantor of the peace agreement, but its effectiveness with regard to the peace agreement, appears to be diminishing.

First, almost all the member states of IGAD are more involved in their internal issues rather than regional response to conflicts in the last twelve months. Second, the South Sudanese parties to the R-ARCSS have become fairly immune to pressure from IGAD.

For example, IGAD called on them to dissolve the parliament within two weeks, but it took over 10 months for this to happen.

Expectations Moving Forward

The current situation of ineffective leadership and deliberate neglect of the purpose of our independence have maintained our country in crisis for the last ten years. Without a change in this status, the future can only be expected to remain the same or even worsen.

The volatile political, economic, security, and humanitarian situations are likely to remain mutually reinforcing. This will further complicate the situation for civilians in the country and stifle efforts to address the crisis and restore peace, security, and stability.

It is also highly likely that the civil population, civil servants, and political groups will get increasingly frustrated. These public frustrations risk causing instability of their own, in demand for improvement especially in the security, economic, and humanitarian situations in the country.

IGAD member states are likely to remain occupied in their internal national issues. This will only leave the parties on their own, without robust regional oversight and support.

The Way Forward

Learning from the past decade, South Sudan needs to chart a new and clear path for the next ten years.

First, South Sudanese, who genuinely represent the suffering masses need to be at the core of the solutions moving forward and not just those who wield power by the barrel of the gun.

On this note, the full spectrum of civil society – civil society organizations, faith-based leaders, women, youth, professional groups, and business community – must demand of the leaders in the unity government, effective discharge of their mandates as stipulated in the constitution and the peace agreement, or accept a reconfiguration of the political order into one that is capable of meaningfully resolving the problems in the country.

Second, the South Sudanese in their diversities should demand and ensure that South Sudan is governed by the principles that informed the struggle for the liberation and independence of the country. These initiatives must be deliberate, concerted, and sustained to ensure the next ten years is not another wasted decade of our independence.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) should support the efforts of South Sudanese from the categories outlined above, in any initiative to address the crisis in the country. The support from the United Nations may be in many forms.

The UNSC may work jointly with IGAD, the African Union and other actors in the international community, to raise the cost of willful sabotage of peace implementation, including perpetuation of violence, human rights abuses and restrictions on the civic and political spaces.

Rajab Mohandis is the Director for the Organization for Responsive Governance and the Civil Society Representative to the R-ARCSS peace process and Coordinator of the South Sudan Civil Society Forum (SSCSF).

Excerpt:

Ten years after South Sudan achieved independence, more children there are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance than ever before, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on July 6.

Categories: Africa

Nothing About Us, Without Us, Asian Youth Tell Parliamentarians

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 08:25

Some of the delegates at the Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement. Credit: APDA

By IPS Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jul 12 2021 (IPS)

Youth advocates from Asian countries called for an overhaul of a system that excluded young people from participation in policymaking.

During an interaction with parliamentarians from 23 countries, youth representatives considered an enabling political framework to be the most crucial reform required to remove inequities.

More than 100 youth representatives and parliamentarians participated in an Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement. The webinar was organised by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and supported by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Y-PEER Asia-Pacific Center.

Hitoshi Kikawada, Secretary-General of Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP), welcomed the delegates at the “innovative” dialogue, which would serve as a platform for “listening to the voices of young people, incorporating the needs of younger people and building a better future.”

Björn Andersson, Regional Director of UNFPA, said the dialogue would give impetus to the sentiment “nothing about us, without us”.

“Too many young people are still being left behind significantly. Inequality and inequities still exist, particularly in education, employment, access to services and political participation,” Andersson said, adding that the impact of COVID-19 had exacerbated the challenges and inequalities.

Migrants, young people in poor urban areas, girls and young women, people with disabilities, members of the LBTQI+ community, and those living with HIV all faced higher exploitation, violence, and mental health issues. They had poor access to health services and protection.

Youth needed to be involved in all stages of policy development, from design, planning, and implementation to evaluation, Andersson said.

Youth representative Situ Shrestha reported the results of a quick survey which showed that more than 50 percent of the respondents said they “not involved in any kind of consultation or dialogue with government at any level.”

She said there was a lack of good platforms for youth engagement, ineffective communication, and often youth did not trust government policies. Only meaningful engagement could reduce these gaps, Shrestha said.

Some of the delegates at the Intergenerational Dialogue of the Asian Parliamentarians and Youth Advocates on Meaningful Youth Engagement. Credit: APDA

Pakistani MP Romina Khursheed Alam said the young parliamentarian forum included members until they were 45 years old.

As lawmakers, there were attempts to ensure youth engagement in the parliamentary process – through internships for university students. She said as a member of the human rights standing committee, she was also concerned about the isolation of the transgender community.

She welcomed an international collaboration and expressed concern about the impacts of COVID-19 protocols, which included lockdowns where the mental health issues became prominent and violence, drugs, and other social problems increased.

Youth representative from Sri Lanka Ram Dulip told the gathering that youth used social media to raise socio-economic issues their communities experienced during the pandemic. He also said COVID-19 demonstrated the leadership potential of young people.

“Not only are they on the frontlines as health workers, but they are also advancing health and safety in their roles as researchers, as activists, as innovators, and as communicators,” Dulip said. Decision-makers should consider this and commit to ensuring youth voices are a part of the solution for a healthier and safer society.

Likewise, Sri Lankan parliamentarian Hector Appuhamy called on countries to use the innovative nature of youth to their economic benefit – and believed the youth parliament would be the most helpful mechanism.

Youth should be involved in critical decision-making Siva Anggita from Indonesia said. This included access to budgets – whether national or district to ensure that programmes for their development were funded.

Anggita was concerned that where young people were included in political participation, it “wasn’t a secret that they come from the privileged backgrounds”.

“So, it is important to make (changes to a) political system that includes all young people. So, all of the young people have the same opportunity,” she said.

Moderator Ayeshwini Lama said the youth survey during the preparatory consultation had confirmed the views expressed and put political reforms as one of the top three recommendations.

Sarah Elago, from the Philippines, expressed concern that while internet connectivity had ensured workers were connected to their work environments, it had some negative connotations, including “digital surveillance and privacy” issues.

However, she commended the youth in the Philippines for their involvement in many projects like community kitchens during the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped “combat hunger and poverty as exacerbated by the massive loss of jobs and livelihoods.”

Youth advocate Fura Sherpa called for a direct connection with policymakers – it was time to ditch the systems where youth were legislated about without being consulted.

“There was no actual participation of youth in creating policy about youth,” Sherpa said, and this needed to change. Policy should be written with direct “actual participation” of the younger community.

The forum called for three main changes – an enabling political framework that involved collaboration and dialogues between governments and young people. Secondly, needs-driven reform with policies reviewed and revised with emerging challenges; and thirdly, inclusiveness in including youth and marginalised groups in decision making.

The dialogue was welcomed by parliamentarians. Ananda Bhaskar Rapulu, an MP from India said the discussion had given him hope because, as lawmakers, they had learnt from the youths’ observations and aspirations.

Mariany Mohammad Yit, a former MP from Malaysia said while there was a National Youth Policy in her country, there was no data to assess its success. She commented that she was not sure the government was serious about youth participation – confirming a dominant theme of day’s debate.

Categories: Africa

“No Comment — & Don’t Quote me on That”

Mon, 07/12/2021 - 07:56

Secretary-General António Guterres briefing journalists in a pre-pandemic era. At left is his Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2021 (IPS)

When a Southeast Asian ambassador hosted a lunch for journalists, including reporters from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, he told us there was an ulterior motive for the sumptuous lunch at his residence.

“We will soon begin our two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council – and we need your cooperation (read: news coverage)”.

And then added: “Hey guys, remember, as the Americans say, there is no such thing as a free lunch”. A wise-cracking British journalist shot back: “Ambassador, there is also no such thing as a free press”.

Perhaps he was reflecting a famous quote attributed to an American journalist who once said the freedom of the press is only to those who own one.

Still, for scores of journalists covering the UN for their newspapers– thousands of miles away from home– one of the most coveted datelines is “Reporting from the United Nations.”

Some of these correspondents, both full-time and part-time, come from developing nations, including India, Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil, Cuba, Malaysia, Bosnia, Singapore, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, while others come from the Western world, including Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, UK and the US, plus Russia and China.

They occupy two floors of the 39-storeyed UN Secretariat building— with free office space in one of New York’s most expensive real estate markets.

Besides reporting on military conflicts, civil wars, genocide and war crimes high on the Security Council agenda, most UN correspondents were also gifted raconteurs who could spin a tale or two, particularly from their home countries.

The late Dharam Shourie, UN Bureau Chief for the Indian news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI), pointed out that journalists back home, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, could rarely afford the luxury of a tape recorder. So, most interviews, mostly with politicians and government bureaucrats, were either one-on-one or over the phone.

But if the interview got a strong blowback, politicians and government officials were quick to deny the entire story– or falsely accuse the reporter of either misquoting or concocting the quotes. Unfortunately, journalists had no proof to nail the lying politicians.

According to Shourie, there was a rare instance in the 1960s when a reporter, armed with a bulky tape recorder, went to interview an Indian politician. The politician asked the reporter: “What is it that you are carrying”.

Told it was a tape recorder, he said: “No tape recorders here. Leave it outside my office.” And added the punchline: “You are trying to deny me, my right to deny, what I am going to tell you.”

Shourie also told me about inviting a visiting journalist, a rigid vegetarian and a Brahmin Hindu, for lunch at the UN cafeteria. When he saw him serving himself beef stroganoff, Shourie was surprised and asked him: “I thought you were a strict vegetarian and did not eat beef.”

“Oh” said the visiting journalist: “I don’t eat Indian cows but I can eat American cows”.

Meanwhile, journalists, rarely if ever, were able to get any on-the-record comments or reactions from ambassadors, diplomats and senior UN officials because most of them followed the advice given to Brits during war time censorship in the UK: “Be like Dad, Keep Mum”.

But as a general rule, most ambassadors avoided comments on all politically-sensitive issues with the standard non-excuse: ”Sorry, we have to get clearance from our capital”.

But that “clearance” never came. Still, it was hard to beat a response from a tight-lipped Asian diplomat who told me: “No comment” – And Don’t Quote Me on That”.

A group of IPS interns from Germany, the US, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. Credit: IPS

On the other hand, most senior UN officials never had the basic courtesy or etiquette to even acknowledge phone or email messages. The lines of communications were mostly dead.

When I complained to the media-savvy Shashi Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and a one-time journalist and prolific author, he was explicit in his response when he said that every UN official – “from an Under-Secretary-General to a window-washer”—has the right to express an opinion in his or her area of expertise.

But that rarely or ever happened.

However, there were exceptions: When Inter Press Service (IPS) launched its daily UN conference newspapers, beginning with the 1982 Earth Summit in Rio, we were desperately chasing diplomats to get a sense of what was going on.

The meetings were mostly behind closed-doors, with the 134-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing nations, expressing disappointment at the absence of any concrete pledges for funding a global environmental plan.

As I was doing a wrap-up of the two-week long conference, I approached Dr Gamani Corea, a former Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and a member of the Sri Lanka delegation, for a final comment.

“We negotiated”, he said with a tinge of sarcasm, “the size of the zero”, as he held out his fingers to indicate the zero.

When he ran a summer internship programme at IPS, I also advised our interns of how crucial the lead para was in any news story—with would-be journalists spending weeks or months in journalism schools trying to crank out the perfect lead (or as the Americans call it the “lede”).

I quoted the demanding editor (Walter Matthau) in the 1974 Billy Wilder classic “The Front Page” (there were three remakes of it) who berates his reporter (Jack Lemmon) for missing the fact that his fictional newspaper “The Examiner” had landed a scoop in tracking down a killer.

Matthau complains he doesn’t see this in the lead while Lemmon responds that it was in the second para. An indignant Matthau shouts back: “Who the hell reads the second para (in a news story)?”

When I discussed some of the great newspaper headlines, I told my interns about one such legendary headline in the London Times in 1986 when a British Labor party politician Michael Foot was appointed to chair a committee to look into nuclear disarmament in Europe. The classic headline read: FOOT HEADS ARMS BODY. And a legend was born.

Meanwhile, there was a longstanding myth that journalists can do no wrong – and newspaper editors back home usually have the last word responding to any denials of a published news item: “We stand by our story” or “This correspondence is now closed”.

Still, I remember reading an anecdote about a newspaper in a small town in mid-West USA which erroneously ran an obituary of an ailing town official in the “Deaths” columns.

The indignant official called the newspaper editor from his hospital bed to confirm he was still alive and kicking—and demanding a retraction. “I am sorry”, said the editor,” We usually do not carry any corrections, but we can list your name under our “Births” column tomorrow”.

And then, there was at least one senior UN official with an off-beat sense of humor who recounted an incident — but insisted it should be “strictly off the record” lest he be accused of male chauvinism”.

He said he was speaking at a press briefing in Europe to launch a UN report, when following the briefing, several journalists rushed to the podium, as they most often do, with more questions or seeking exclusive quotes.

“There was this young buxom European woman reporter,” he said, “who approached me with a label pinned to her chest which read: PRESS”. And I did not know what to do”.

Thalif Deen, a former UN Bureau Chief for Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, is the author of a newly-released book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote Me on That” from which this article is adapted. Published by Amazon, the book is mostly a satire peppered with scores of anecdotes-– both serious and hilarious. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

Categories: Africa

A Film Challenging Religious Norms

Fri, 07/09/2021 - 12:44

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Jul 9 2021 (IPS)

When Turkish- Norwegian writer and filmmaker Nefise Ozkal Lorentzen heard about Seyran Ates’ mixed gender mosque in Berlin, Germany, she immediately decided to make a film on Seyran’s life. It took three years to produce the film, ‘Seyran Ates: Sex Revolution and Islam’ a portrait of a female Imam and her struggles in activating revolution within Islam.

In an interview given to me, Nefise says, “Gender” was the key concept in her quest into the mystery of Islam as a religion. “Seyran Ates is a very powerful woman, but besides being powerful, she is so real, and I found that so fascinating. This film is a journey through Seyran’s life from her humble beginning as a Muslim girl in Turkey’s slums to a female leader daring to challenge her own religion.

“It took me some time to penetrate through the fortifications of bodyguard protections and the thick walls of media interest in her work and to really bring her into “our living room”. Seyran is one of the most police-protected civilian women in our time. Therefore I chose to portray her as a daughter, sister, mother, aunt and also as a good friend,” says Nefise.

Seyran Ates is a human rights lawyer, founder and imam of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque in Berlin, where both men and women pray together, where headscarves are not mandatory and members of the LGBTQI community are welcome. Seyran has been unable to move freely for almost 15 years because of death threats, and has been under police protection from Muslim fundamentalists, turkish-kurdish nationalists and rightwing extremists. One of the main reasons for her attacks, is Seyran’s activism for gender equality and LGBTQI inclusivity in Islam.

“We are living in the 21st century but we are teaching Islam like in the 7th century. Islam needs a sexual revolution,” Seyran says in the film.

Over the past two decades, nefise has produced and directed several documentaries related to Islam. Her trilogy of films entitled, Gender Me (2008), A Balloon for Allah (2011) and Manislam (2014) have covered various topics from islam and homosexuality, women and Islam, power privileges and burdens of masuclinity in Islam and more.

“As a filmmaker, my honesty towards understanding people that I don’t agree with, it gives me an opportunity to build bridges between them and myself. As an artist I have been curious about searching for what is hidden behind reality and how it is interpreted. My cinematographic vision seeks the thin organic lines between reality and memory.

“If Seyran, a girl from the Turkish ghetto in Berlin, becomes the woman who can change the political narrative in Germany, then anyone could make changes in their community. I believe Islam can have a sexual revolution because the youth today can see through it, and they want their freedom, they want to be the drivers of their own lives,” Nefise says.

Nefise’s films have often created a stir because of the topics they has covered, but one can easily say they also opened up discussions, conversations and provided comprehensive treatment to often controversial subject of women, gender, homoseuxality, masculinity in Islam. Religion based social norms and values often go unchallenged and create neverending inequality producing mechanisms, often stemming from deeply rooted patriarchal beliefs.

The struggle in today’s Islamic society is torn between fundamentalists and extremists, often speaking their own narrative or interpretations on Islam and on behalf of Islam, and a pluralist faith which is undergoing its own set of revolutions and changes, most often quietly. “The problem has never been with the text, but with the context.”

By choosing to tell the story of a female Imam living in Germany, Nefise has managed to give a glimpse into the world of revolutionaries, what it takes to not just call for “sexual revolution” in Islam, but also what it takes to stand up for human rights, for gender equality, for LGBTQI rights in conversative and often extremist societies of the world – which are not isolated to just one practise or religion.

Seyran Ates in the film says she does not reject Islam, but she decided to change it from within. The challenge is, can a woman, a woman who fights for inclusivity of the LGBTQI community, who wants men and women to pray together, who believes that women have the right to lead prayers, who is also an Imam, can she act as a bridge between a more compassionate religion and victims of religious extremisms, which also includes racists, white supremists and others.

Reforms take time, and it takes much longer when you are also trying to challenge the given and taught notion of what your religion allows, expects and wants from you. Progressive Islam, in many mainstream Islamic countries is not considered Islam, as it brings about changes and that makes many religious heads uncomfortable. When Seyran Ates as a woman and also as an Imam calls for a sexual revolution within Islam, it definitely triggers Muslim fundamentalists as she has bullet scars to prove that she was attacked for trying to bring these changes.

“It is not only conservative right-wing people who have created many hindrances for progressive Muslim women, but also the left-wing intellectuals who do not dare to take the problems within the Muslim communities seriously. The gender revolution within Islam is highly necessary. I really believe that our film on Seyran Ates will trigger it,” says Nefise.

The author is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where Muslim women from around the world are invited to share their views. You can follow her on Twitter here.

Categories: Africa

Bridging the Gap and Crossing the Bridge

Fri, 07/09/2021 - 09:20

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jul 9 2021 (IPS)

It may be a challenge, but it is also an absolute necessity: bridging the gap between international law and reality and quickly crossing the bridge to reach all crisis-affected children and youth left furthest behind. Inclusive and equitable quality education is the right of every girl and boy and the objective of Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Yasmine Sherif

In fact, there are multiple challenges to overcome: in 2020, in countries of emergencies and protracted crisis – further hit by COVID-19 – the United Nations also registered more than 19,000 grave violations against children, according to the UN Secretary-General’s Report on Children in Armed Conflict, dated 22 May.

This crucial issue was further addressed in the subsequent UN Security Council open debate meeting on 28 June 2021. These grave violations include: the killing and maiming of children and youth; abduction of girls and boys; attacks against schools, their students and teachers; recruitment and use of children as soldiers; widespread sexual violence; and, the denial of access to schools for children and youth.

Despite this, on 5 July, another 150 students were reportedly abducted from a school in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Abductions, attacks against schools and schoolchildren appear to be increasing in frequency and they must end now. We join our strategic partners in calling for the safe, swift return of these girls and boys to their families.

This must be our wake-up call, spurring us to take strong collective action so that every child and youth can enjoy their inherent human right to quality education – without fear of airstrikes, abductions, sexual and gender-based violence and forced recruitment into armed and violent groups.

The numbers are staggering. Last year more than 8,400 children and youth were killed or maimed in ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Another 7,000 were recruited and used as fighters, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Syria. Abductions rose by 90 per cent last year, while rape and other forms of sexual violence shot up a staggering 70 per cent.

These numbers represent young people suffering multiple concurrent challenges: COVID-19, armed conflicts and lawlessness, a rise in severity of climate change-induced disasters, forced displacement and underlying issues of extreme poverty, hunger and inequality. Each one by itself is enough to push far too many girls and boys out of school, destroying their hope and stalling progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the full spectrum of human rights, and the commitments of the Safe Schools Declaration.

In emergency and protracted crises contexts, no such challenge comes alone, but rather as combined factors creating a storm of extreme helplessness, unspeakable pain and a loss of hope in the future. The innocent children and youth are the first victims, quickly followed by their families, communities, societies, their countries and indeed the world.

As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait places physical and legal protection and the respect for international law at the center of its investments in delivering on SDG4 for those left furthest behind. In closing the gap and racing for the Sustainable Development Goals, we must bridge the gap between our commitments in international law and the Safe School Declaration. We need the world’s leaders to look afar and within: to take all measures possible – political, financial, legal, physical – to support a safe and inclusive quality education for all girls and boys enduring daily threats to their lives in emergencies and protracted crisis.

During the June Security Council sessions, nations across the globe stood up to call for expanded support for education in emergencies and protracted crisis. As the most powerful body in the United Nations system, the UN Security Council can and must uphold peace and security and, in so doing, create an environment in which 128 million children and youth in crisis can safely access their right to an inclusive and continued quality education.

As a UN/UNICEF hosted global fund, Education Cannot Wait invokes both fast-acting emergency responses and multi-year resilience programmes in some of the most crisis-affected countries on the globe, such as in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Lebanon and Nigeria. By embracing a new way of working and bridging the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, Education Cannot Wait puts education first – not second, third or fourth – and ensures that protective measures are embedded in all its investments.

Still, we also need the Security Council and all UN Member States and Regional Organizations to translate their political muscle into financial resources and put an end to breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights law. With such powerful support, Syrian girls living with disabilities like Kawthar will have a chance to go to school for the first time. Teenagers like Maraseel Alsaqaf can sit for exams in Yemen and dream one day of becoming doctors and engineers. Ten-year-old Sabah and her friends can return to school in Somalia.

As a global fund dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crisis, and as a global movement for action, we jointly call on world leaders to make political choices based on legal imperatives and financial abundance. Indeed, our strategic partners: governments, public and private sector donors, UN agencies, civil society organizations, academia and the media stand together in our shared vision for those left furthest behind. Join ECW’s growing global movement to end grave violations and abuses against children and youth so they can benefit from their right to a safe learning environment and quality education. We call on public donors, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to urgently mobilize US$400 million for ECW.

In this month’s ECW Newsletter, we feature a compelling and inspiring interview with Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who is one of our fearless, tireless and passionate stakeholders and global leaders working round the clock to pave the way toward achieving universal and equitable quality education by 2030 in some of the most conflict-ridden parts of the world.

For girls like Kawthar, Maraseel and Sabah, education cannot wait and safe schools cannot wait. With bold, courageous and swift political and financial action, we can reach girls like Kawthar, Maraseel and Sabah with same sense of urgency. By bridging the gap, we can help them, and 128 million crisis-affected children and youth cross the bridge.

Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

Categories: Africa

The New Social Contract: an Opportunity for Deliberative Participation

Fri, 07/09/2021 - 08:32

A woman, accompanied by a child, casts her vote during the general elections in Mozambique. Credit: UNDP/Rochan Kadariya

By Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jul 9 2021 (IPS)

These days there hasn’t been certainly a shortage of reports portraying the decline of liberal democracy around the world.

With rising popularism and a divisive use of social media, we should not be surprised about a general malaise taking roots in most advanced liberal democracies.

From the Freedom in the World 2021 report published by the Freedom House to the Democracy Index 2020 released by the Economist Intelligence Unit to the IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Indices there is more and more evidence that liberal and representatives’ democracies are under duress.

Could the ongoing debate about a New Social Contract, a concept launched by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, help revive one of the essential elements of any democratic society, people’s interest and participation in the civic life?

If his recent re-election at the helm of the United Nations might have dissipated doubts that this new idea was just a fad, what are the chances for this debate surrounding the New Social Contract to become an opportunity to enhance public engagement at local levels without further dividing the gulf between classic liberal democracies on one side and other nations adopting less democratic, more authoritarian political systems?

Provocatively, could such debate instead help nearing such the gap?

To set aside any doubts, inevitably, the New Social Contract is not about enhancing democracy around the world.

This would clearly a utopian proposition for the Secretary General to embrace but rather an attempt to rethink and improve, regardless of the political system being adopted, the norms between citizens and the state.

Initially coined during the 18th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in 2020, Guterres made the case for a more just and inclusive society centered around the fights against inequalities and discriminations because, he said, “People want social and economic systems that work for everyone”.

Members of the Madheshi community of Biratnagar attend a political rally to demand autonomous federal regions and greater representation in parliament. Credit: UN Photo/Agnieszka Mikulska

“The New Social Contract, between Governments, people, civil society, business and more, must integrate employment, sustainable development and social protection, based on equal rights and opportunities for all”.

As vague as it is in terms of boundaries and ultimate goals, the New Social Contract can be seen as a framework that can, not only revitalize our societies but also build a fairer, cleaner and just economy able to overcome the multiple challenges created by the pandemic.

The Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals attached to it, offer the blueprint upon which such idea can be built locally.

Being still a working in progress, the New Social Contract can offer an impetus not only at re-designing the relationships between social partners, governments, unions and businesses but it can also be a source to generate more interest among the population about public life.

Making sense of it especially from the perspective of youth can be challenging but it is essential doing so because we cannot imagine a renewed citizenry without including youth whose vast majorities are uninterested and disenchanted from the public discourse.

A possible pathway to generate new passions for civic life among youth would start from helping them being more informed about what is happening at local and national levels, something that can evolve to higher forms of deep interests.

The last stage of this continuum would be supporting them into embracing forms of direct engagement.

Engagement is driven by a strong interest for the public life and the willingness to turn such desire to know more into contributions, actions on the grounds.

Last year, UNV came up with a new volunteering framework that fully captures the different features and characteristics of giving your time, energies and skills for the public good.

Indeed, volunteerism with its different forms and dimensions, is one of the best tools to involve people and youth in particular in the public life.

That’s why it is not surprising that the upcoming UNV’s State of the World’s Volunteerism Report, is going to explain how volunteerism can be a true enabler for determinant for the New Social Contract.

More opportunities for public engagement will also generate more trust, an essential trait of any healthy and cohesive society and it is here where the ongoing efforts to localize the SDGs can make the difference by bringing people together for the common good, for achieving the goals at grassroots levels.

Achieving the SDGs at this level is not about just actions, about mobilization of resources of human, in kinds or financial nature. It is also about deliberation and here, after this long detour, I am reconnecting with the issue of democracy.

The design of a New Social Contract as a conducive platform to achieve the SDGs locally by involving people on the ground, can be a tool to elevate the quality of democratic discourse, generating platforms for a new form of shared decision making or shared governance.

Interestingly, while political parties wherever they operate, might become a hindrance to such change because their role as gatekeeper of public participation would be eroded, this conceptualization of shared governance might become of interest to nations not adhering to representative, parties dominated liberal systems.

In the field of political science there is a dynamic movement of social scientists exploring the concept of deliberative democracy that would allow, through different means, including sortition, to have new forms of real, rather than token, forms of public involvement and participation in the decision making.

It’s true that so far, most of the attempts putting in practice deliberative democracy have been applied in the contexts with solid liberal democratic traditions.

A diverse range of “experiments” have been carried out with the most successful probably being the Ostbelgien Modell adapted by the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium where there is a permanent Citizens’ Council that enable an ecosystem of Citizen’s Assemblies.

Ireland in the past used successfully some aspects of deliberative democracy to involve the general public in discussing and debating key constitutional issues that also helped generating consensus on gay marriage gender equality.

This legacy continues with a Citizens’ Assembly that recently submitted a report, after prolonged consultations and deliberations, on the issue of gender equality.

Iceland has been using a hybrid form of public deliberation, though led by a small number of elected citizens but with ample opportunities for people to crowdsource the nation’s constitution.

Other forms, with vary degree of success and with different level of inclusivity and decision-making power, were tried in two provinces of Canada, British Columbia and Ontario.

Within the growing area of deliberative democracy studies, there is now a great interest on the so-called “deliberative micro public” where a limited number of citizens gather to decide on certain issues of common interest.

If you have seen The Best of Enemies, a movie portraying an exercise of public deliberation about segregated learning in the Jim Crow’s United States in the early seventies, you get the idea about what these might look like.

Many of these lessons learned might also be of interest to policy makers whose political systems have not embraced democracy.

With the discussions still going on how the New Social Contract should look like at local levels and with the agenda of SDGs localization being recognized as instrumental to achieve the Agenda 2030, we could have an opportunity to advance stronger forms of public participation in the decision making locally and everywhere.

This would strengthen the meaning of good governance around the world while also creating new space for deliberations in contexts that normally shut them.

Perhaps deliberative participation, a term that might be easier to sell globally, if properly carried out at local levels, could become a cornerstone of the New Social Contract, reinvigorating classic democracy where already exists while creating space for others political systems to evolve and be more inclusive.

The Author, is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not for profit in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives.

Categories: Africa

Q&A: UN Food Systems Summit Opportunity for the World to Unite on Healthy, Fair & Sustainable Food Systems

Fri, 07/09/2021 - 07:35

Food systems, from farm to fork to disposal, account for 21-37% of anthropogenic GHG emissions. Fresh produce at a supermarket. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 9 2021 (IPS)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic upended every sphere of life, the world was lagging on a goal to end hunger by 2030. According to the United Nations, more than 820 million people had already been categorised as food insecure, meaning they lacked access to reliable and sufficient amounts of affordable, healthy food.

The impact of measures to contain the virus, land degradation, climate change and the global extreme poverty rate rising for the first time in over 20 years, make the need for a transition to sustainable food systems more important than ever.

The United Nations Food Systems Summit hopes to bring together the science, finance and political commitment to transform global food systems. The goal is to introduce systems that are productive, environmentally sustainable, include the poor and promote healthy diets.

The Barilla Centre For Food and Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, a longstanding investor in research, education and high-level events on sustainable food systems has been actively involved in activities in the lead-up to the summit.

IPS interviewed the think tank’s Head of Research Dr Marta Antonelli and dietician Katarzyna Dembska about climate change and diets, successful food systems and the Foundation’s own initiatives to improve education, science and skills for healthy, fair and sustainable food systems.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

==========

Inter Press Service (IPS): The UN states that half of all agricultural land is degraded and that with climate change-fuelled desertification and drought, combined with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 34 million people at risk of famine. How can food systems be protected within this grim context?

Katarzyna Dembska (KD): According to the IPCC, land-use change, land-use intensification and climate change have contributed to desertification and land degradation. At the same time, many land-related responses that contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation can also combat desertification and land degradation, as well as enhance food security. Examples include sustainable food production, improved and sustainable forest management, soil organic carbon management, ecosystem conservation and land restoration, reduced deforestation and degradation, and reduced food loss and waste.

Integrated crop and livestock systems are an example of sustainable food production, that increases efficiency and environmental sustainability with a truly circular approach: for example, manure increases crop production and crop residues and by-products feed animals, improving their productivity. Rice-fish integrated systems, with a long history in many Asian countries, are another example of very integrated systems that also contribute to increased food security.

In addition, sustainable land management practices, implementing a zero-expansion policy which do not require land-use change, especially of new agricultural land into natural ecosystems and species-rich forests, has been identified by the Eat-Lancet commission as a key action to achieve the so-called Great Food Transformation.

IPS: What should the public know about the linkage between diets and climate change?

Marta Antonelli (MA): Food systems, from farm to fork to disposal, account for 21-37 percent of anthropogenic GHG emissions. The adoption of plant-based healthy and sustainable diets is powerful leverage for climate change mitigation, as well as to promote health, longevity and wellbeing. The Double Health and Climate Pyramid, developed as a tool to inform daily food choices, shows that all foods can be part of a diet that is good for us and the planet, with proper frequency of consumption and serving sizes. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains should be eaten daily; legumes and fish are the preferred sources of protein. There is a huge potential that still needs to be unleashed by establishing compulsory food education in schools; including sustainability concerns, besides health-related, in national dietary guidelines; ensuring enabling food environments that make it easy for citizens to adopt healthy and sustainable diets.

IPS: The UN Food Systems Summit in September hopes to help change the way food is grown, processed, packaged and marketed. What are your hopes for the landmark summit?

MA: The UN Food System Summit (FSS) provides an unprecedented opportunity to energise the global journey towards healthy, safe, fair and sustainable food systems, also to deliver the SDGs by raising awareness of citizens and landing concrete commitments. Agreeing upon a common purpose for global food systems is a fundamental prerequisite of any process of transformation. Nations, cities, municipalities, and communities will be enabled to build their own context and culture-specific vision, inspired by this universal purpose. Last but not least, the UN FSS is a unique opportunity to represent the voices of the millions of women who work throughout the food system from farm to fork, contributing to provide global food security, and to put agroecology and regenerative agriculture to the top of the agenda.

IPS: The Barilla Foundation has been at the forefront of food systems research. Earlier this year, you unveiled the food systems model that incorporates nutrition and climate. Can you tell me about the Foundation’s participation in the summit?

MA: The Barilla Foundation has been actively contributing to the journey towards the UNFSS through different activities throughout the year, including the release of a report on the EU Food Systems; the launch of the educational hub Seeds; and the release of the Double Health and Climate Pyramid with seven cultural versions. In September, a high-level event on the role of food businesses in food systems transformation will be organised in the framework of the initiative Fixing the Business of Food, with the UN SDSN, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investments and the Santa Chiara Lab of the University of Siena.

IPS: What are some of the successful systems currently being implemented?

MA: The Farm to Fork Strategy, set by the European Commission in May 2020, can be seen as an attempt to create a more integrated food strategy in the European Union (EU). It presents a comprehensive approach covering every step in the food supply chain, for the first time in Europe. It recognises the large contribution that food system transformation can give to achieve the decarbonisation target set forth by the European Green Deal, by setting concrete targets by 2030 that seek to address both environmental and public health concerns. The involvement of farmers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers will determine whether the process set forth by the Farm to Fork Strategy will act as a game-changer in the EU.

Categories: Africa

“The Critical Importance of Ecosystem Restoration”

Thu, 07/08/2021 - 15:41

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

By Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius, Jul 8 2021 (IPS)

June 2021 marked the launch of UN Decade on Ecosystem restoration. This effort aims at reversing the damage that us humans have caused and are still causing to Nature. It is clear that we have to reverse course and spare no effort into making this ‘Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’ a success. Preserving Nature and maintaining its services are critical for our survival on this planet and for our livelihoods.

Unfortunately, the World Bank is already forecasting that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the collapse of ecosystem services will result in contraction of GDP by 9.7% annually by 2030. This dovetails with the seminal work on of Prof. P. Dasgupta entitled ‘The Economics of Biodiversity” which reports that “Humanity now faces a choice: we can continue down a path where our demands on Nature far exceed its capacity to meet them on a sustainable basis; or we can take a different path, one where our engagements with Nature are not only sustainable but also enhance our collective wellbeing and that of our descendants”.

We could ask – How did we get there?

At the heart of the problem lies deep-rooted, widespread institutional failure. The solution starts with the understanding that and accepting a simple truth: our economies are embedded within Nature and not external to it. Yet, every single year, we lose ecosystem services worth more than 10 per cent of our global economic output. A third of the world’s farmland is degraded, about 87% of inland wetlands worldwide have disappeared since 1700, and a third of commercial fish species are overexploited and one million species are on the brink of extinction. Degradation is already affecting the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people – almost 40% of the world’s population.

Ecosystem restoration is needed on a large scale as it delivers on multiple benefits and helps us deliver on the sustainable development agenda. Restoration will no doubt curb the risk of mass species extinctions and future pandemics. Restoration of forest landscapes, farming, livestock and fish-producing ecosystems require special care and have to be brought to a healthy and stable state. Reviving ecosystems and other natural solutions could contribute over 1/3 of the total climate mitigation needed by 2030.

For this effort to be sustained on a global scale, institutions require sustained investments and there is growing evidence that it more than pays for itself. Policy makers and financial institutions are only slowly realizing the huge need and potential for green investment.

Agroforestry revival alone could increase food security for 1.3 billion people. Countries like Costa Rica has seen ecotourism grow to account for 6% of GDP by doubling its forest cover.

If by 2030, Mesoamerica and Indonesia could add 2.5BN $ to their economy simply by restoring coral reefs. A restored population of marine fish can deliver a maximum sustainable yield that could increase fisheries production by 16.5 million tonnes, an annual value of USD 32 billion.

Actions that prevent, halt and reverse degradation are needed if we are to keep global temperatures below 2°C. This implies better management of some 2.5 billion hectares of forest, crop and grazing land (through restoration and avoiding degradation) and restoration of natural cover over 230 million hectares.

Large-scale investments in dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and water management will make a vital contribution to building resilience to climate change, generating benefits around four times the original investment.

With careful planning, restoring 15% of converted lands while stopping further conversion of natural ecosystems could avoid 60% of expected species extinctions. Achieving successful ecosystem restoration at scale will require deep changes, including the adoption of inclusive wealth as a more accurate measure of economic progress. This will rest on the widespread introduction of natural capital accounting thus creating an enabling environment for private sector investment, including public-private partnerships.

Progress can be made by increasing the amount of finance for restoration, including the elimination of perverse subsidies that incentivize further degradation and fuel climate change, and also through initiatives that will raise awareness of the risks posed by ecosystem degradation.

Such bold transformations will happen when we start reforming agriculture; by changing how we build our cities; by decarbonizing our economies and by moving to circular economic models.

So far, none of the agreed global goals for the protection of life on Earth and for halting the degradation of land and oceans have been fully met. UNEP report of 2021 reports that only 6 of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets have been partially achieved. Ecosystem restoration alone cannot solve the crises we face, but it is key to averting the worst of them.

We need to rethink and re-create a balanced relationship with nature, not only by conserving ecosystems that are still healthy, but also by urgently and sustainably restoring degraded ones.

For too long, we have been using the planet as a sink for our waste products, such as carbon dioxide, plastics and other forms of waste including pollution. Degradation is undermining our hard-won development gains and is threatening the well-being of today‘s youth and future generations, while making national commitments increasingly more difficult and costly to reach.

We need to change how we think, act and measure success as transformative change is possible – we and our descendants deserve nothing less.

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
6th President, Republic of Mauritius

Categories: Africa

Calls to Halt Construction of Massive Oilfield in One of Africa’s last Wildernesses

Thu, 07/08/2021 - 11:43

A large part of the oil exploration areas in both Botswana and Namibia falls within the Okavango River Basin which flows into the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fracking is banned in some countries and has been blamed for serious water pollution, among others, and threats to the regional water supply are among environmentalists’ biggest concerns.Credit: Servaas van den Bosch/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jul 8 2021 (IPS)

Wildlife and environmental campaigners have called for international action as concerns grow over a project to create a massive oilfield in one of Africa’s last wildernesses.

ReconAfrica, a Canadian oil and gas company, has licensed drilling areas in over 34,000sq km of land in parts of northern Namibia and Botswana that overlap with Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA), which includes land in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

A large part of the exploration areas in both Botswana and Namibia falls within the Okavango River Basin which flows into the Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which supports the world’s largest remaining population of endangered savanna elephants, as well as dozens of other endangered or vulnerable species such as rhinos, wild dogs, and pangolins. It is also home to 200,000 people.

Campaigners fear the project could do untold damage to the delta’s ecosystem, threatening already endangered wildlife, the environment, and the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people who live on the land.

But as international media attention on the project has also grown, some foreign politicians are raising concerns too.

Last month US Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman Jeff Fortenberry urged senior officials to launch a government investigation of the project under the Defending Economic Livelihoods and Threatened Animals (DELTA) Act, which is designed to protect areas like the Okavango Delta.

And groups working to raise awareness of the project and its potential effects say international co-operation is needed and pressure from outside Africa must be brought to bear to stop the project going ahead for the good of not just the Delta, but the entire globe.

Ina-Maria Shikongo, an activist from Fridays for Future – Windhoek, which has led a public campaign against the project, told IPS: “We have no choice but to get this stopped. Local and international co-operation is needed because this does not affect just us here, but everyone, everywhere.

“ReconAfrica says there is the potential to extract 120 billion barrels of oil from this field. Can you imagine what all the build-up of toxins, from that, the emissions, everything, is going to do to already rising global temperatures?

“Even though we in the global south are feeling the effects of projects like these most, the global north is feeling them now too, with heatwaves. Everything is connected, all over the world. There is only one global carbon budget, and this project will use up a lot of it.”

ReconAfrica began drilling test wells in Namibia at the end of last year and if the tests are successful, hundreds of wells are expected to be drilled in the area.

The company’s own reports have suggested that the oilfield could potentially generate up to 120 billion barrels of oil, making it one of the largest oil finds for decades.

Although the licences were granted in 2015, criticism of the project has grown sharply over the last 18 months as details of it have emerged, especially suggestions in company promotions to investors that fracking, which involves blasting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks to extract oil and gas, could be used.

Fracking is banned in some countries and has been blamed for serious water pollution, among others, and threats to the regional water supply are among environmentalists’ biggest concerns.

Shikongo explained: “The big problem is our water. We have a very fragile ecosystem, we rely on the water that is underground. If that water gets poisoned, what is going to happen?

“Wildlife, local people, they all rely completely on our water, and if it is poisoned then you could destroy the local food system.”

Rosemary Alles, co-founder of the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos conservation campaign group, told IPS: “ReconAfrica has continued to deny that fracking is in the works; however, there is no inevitability that the company will not frack, despite its rhetoric du jour. The concern is legitimate. If fracking takes place, the immediate potential impacts in the context of waterways and air pollution will be devastating.”

Meanwhile, there are serious concerns about the impact operations could have on local wild animals, especially some of the 130,000 elephants which the Okavango Delta supports.

Conservationists point out that vibrations used in the exploratory work for the field, including in seismic surveys, can disturb elephants, while the inevitable rise in construction, road-building, and accompanying traffic in the area could push the animals away from established migratory routes and closer to villages and agricultural areas, creating easier access to hitherto inaccessible elephant habitat for poaching and a potential exacerbation of already growing human-elephant conflict.

One expert at a conservation group in the area, who asked not to be named, told IPS: “If this company is allowed to start drilling for oil in the Delta it will be a major environmental crime with inevitably devastating impacts on the natural world. In terms of what it will mean for elephants: until we know the scale of the operation it’s hard to estimate exactly, but history shows that oil extraction always means environmental disaster and this is right in the middle of the last wilderness in the elephants’ last stronghold: the KAZA.”

The project will also impact local communities and farmers, and there are concerns that these groups have not been engaged properly in consultations over the project.

UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has pointed out that there are hundreds of working farms within ReconAfrica’s drilling area. But in a recent press release, the group said that it was “far from transparent how, or indeed if, these communities are being consulted”.

It pointed out that the public consultations on the oilfield project have been either online or in person, and the vast majority of those living in ReconAfrica’s license area have limited or no access to the internet and the COVID-19 pandemic has severely restricted travel and public meetings. The meetings are also regularly conducted in English, which is not the first language for many locals.

“It is unclear whether their voices are being heard,” EIA said.

ReconAfrica has sought to allay all these fears. It has said it has currently been granted licences for exploratory work which do not allow fracking, and its officials have repeatedly said they are only interested in conventional extraction.

It has also issued official statements saying it believes the regional energy industry can be “developed in an environmentally and socially responsible manner that is accountable and supports the development and delivery of much-needed economic and social benefits….” and has pledged to take measures to address potential issues with noise and vibration affecting local wildlife when doing work.

Critics have questioned the validity and integrity of the Environmental Impact Assessments conducted for the project, but the company has rejected this criticism and any suggestions it is not meeting full legal requirements for the project.

In official statements it has stressed that it is “committed to continuing to work closely with, and under the direct oversight of, the governments in both countries, as well as their regional and traditional authorities, to ensure we continue to comply with relevant laws and regulations throughout all the stages of our operation”.

And it has claimed that its public consultations have been well-attended and welcomed by locals – although this is strongly disputed by many who went to them.

ReconAfrica has also highlighted the local economic benefits of the project, saying it will bring jobs and growth to the region – something government officials have also stressed.

Tom Alweendo, Namibia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, said in an interview with international media earlier this year: “Any volume of oil that is commercially viable will mean a lot to our economy. Not only in terms of employment, but income that would come into the treasury.”

However, environmentalists have questioned both the scale of the claimed local economic benefits and the thinking behind such a project given that only weeks ago the International Energy Agency said no new oil and gas fields must be exploited from this year on to ensure global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were brought down to net zero by 2050 and keep global heating within safe limits.

Shikongo, whose Fridays For Future – Windhoek has dubbed the oilfield a “carbon gigabomb”, said: “This project will only generate an income for a very few, but it will take away the livelihoods of millions of people. The oil needs to be kept in the ground.”

She re-iterated calls for global co-operation to stop this, and similar projects, and said there needs to be a move away from the “neo-colonialism” behind such projects.

“We need to stamp out this neo-colonialist system – Africa cannot continue to be treated simply as a resource for the global north. The global south and global north need to work together on this, because it affects us all. We’re all humans,” she said.

Allen added: “All western governments must apply pressure, particularly the USA and Canada. The DELTA Act could prove to be a means to an end. The possibility of bailing out the Namibian government must be on the front burner – it must be a point of conversation.”

Categories: Africa

Another Impending Cataclysm in Afghanistan

Thu, 07/08/2021 - 07:23

With all the major indicators for Afghanistan’s security and development looking “negative or stagnant” as international troops withdraw, the threats that lie ahead cannot be overstated, Deborah Lyons, Special Representative and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told the Security Council last month. Credit: UNAMA/Freshta Dunia / Kabul, Afghanistan.

By Saber Azam
GENEVA, Jul 8 2021 (IPS)

The Biden administration made a decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan based on the Trump-Taliban agreement. Their last combat soldier may have already left. There is nothing to argue about!

The US had to end its longest war, despite public fear at the highest military echelons of the country that “it would take possibly two years for [the terrorists] to develop [their] capability” and hit back wherever they want.

Simultaneously, NATO member states and their allies have also begun to depart, leaving the population of this war-torn country to face a dramatically uncertain future. It is believed that the withdrawal from Afghanistan is part of the US’s new strategy to reshape its presence in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

They would continue defending their interests but in a different manner. Let us hope that such a move is not a prelude to a more challenging “new great game” with Afghanistan bearing the brunt of it again.

The political and strategic outcome of nearly twenty years of US and NATO military presence in Afghanistan is debatable with contradictory conclusions. However, its financial cost, human loss, and psycho-social effects are terrifying facts.

President Biden and his close advisors have certainly acted in the best interest of the US. The real losers are Afghans. Despite trillions of US dollars poured into their country and extraordinary international support, their leaders could not distance themselves from the old demons.

Soon after they took possession of the country in December 2001, the practice of ethnic and religious discrimination, nepotism, corruption, and inefficiency gangrened the fragile foundation of the regime in Kabul that was essentially a power-sharing system among political traders.

Women carry bundles through a neighbourhood of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Credit: World Bank/Ghullam Abbas Farzami

The rest is a known story! A country ruined with its peoples desperate for peace, security, and livelihood, a forceful come back of the Taliban and their terrorist associates, a questionable outcome of the Karzai and Ghani regimes, a possible new and more ferocious civil war, and a dramatically unstable Southwest and Central Asia region, to name a few significant challenges.

The Taliban have already intensified their brutal attacks on the people and government forces. Their strategy this time around is to occupy the northern provinces of the country first, cut the Central Asian supply routes, and asphyxiate the regime as soon as the last foreign soldier leaves Afghanistan.

Would the terrorist organization succeed? What does the current situation imply for Afghanistan, the Southwest and Central Asia region, and the rest of the world? Of course, no one has a crystal ball, and all prophecies have parenthetically proven unfounded about Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the following assumptions would have reasonable bases.

In Afghanistan, it is clear that the Taliban aim at snatching power by the force of their guns and brutality. Ethnic and religious cleansing would soon follow. The efforts of the terrorist organization to “conquer” the country may temporarily be challenged by the defiance of the Afghan army and the emergence of a new popular resistance movement.

Timid efforts to push for a transitional government with the inclusion of the Taliban and the establishment of another futile power-sharing scheme seem already a dead endeavor, though both Mr. Karzai and Dr. Abudullah dream of leading it.

To safeguard their interests, major regional powers could pressure the beneficiaries of their direct or indirect support in Afghanistan to agree on a “national framework for governance.” This formula would reach its target initially. However, its longevity is not guaranteed.

A chaotic situation could rapidly follow, plunging the country into ethnic and religious rivalries. Some of or all the powers mentioned above may tacitly opt to effectively control parts and parcels of the country by proxy without infringing each other’s “red lines.”

Afghanistan would be divided into pieces. The economic and social survival of the populations in such a scenario would not be sustainable, leading to the collapse of the entire country.

Would another superpower step in to fill the gaps left by the US and NATO! The Russian Federation may have no desire to do so because of the not-so-distant communist and Soviet failure that led to the current state of affairs.

On the contrary, they would probably intervene, should there be any serious threat to Central Asia by the Taliban or their associates. The People’s Republic of China has always pursued a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

However, they would not welcome the Taliban and other terrorist organizations to inspire the Uighur Turkistan Islamic Party, also known as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. An alliance between the Russian Federation and China cannot be excluded to counter terrorist intrusion and advance.

India may willingly join any coalition that will effectively fight terrorism and extremism. Such a scenario would prolong the “new great game” and the agony of the Afghan populations.

Therefore, the possibility of a new dramatic civil war in Afghanistan with uncalculated consequences is real, leading to severe violations of human dignity and rights, bloodshed, and the destruction of public and private properties. In particular, women, children, human rights activists, and journalists will pay a high cost.

The Southwest and Central Asia region would face a fragile and tenuous condition, affecting several countries’ peace, stability, development, and economic prosperity. The chaotic situation in Afghanistan can easily migrate to Pakistan.

This country has been playing with fire for several decades by hosting and supporting the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist entities. Despite its nuclear status, Pakistan has numerous internal problems that have been curtained due to the Afghan dilemma.

The Kashmir, Baloch, and Pashtun issues would undoubtedly add to the sharp rise of homegrown extremism in this country, jeopardizing its safety and security.

In case of their success, the Taliban and their associates would endeavor to strengthen Central Asian Islamic extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Islamic Jihad Union, Tajikistani Ozod, and Hizbo Tahrir in their effort to carry their “jihadist” perception of Islam further to the north, even affecting the west Chines province of Xinjiang.

The Taliban could turn against the Islamic Republic of Iran too. Saudi Arabia and Iranian-backed militia have been fighting each other in Syria and Yemen in particular. Having bitter memories of their defeats, the Salafists could incite the “religious students” to hit within Iran, endangering the well-being prospects of the whole region.

The claims of independence by some populations that feel suppressed or territorial claims by some states could also be fomented, using religious doctrines, resulting in a dramatically unstable Southwest and Central Asia region.

The rest of the world would greatly suffer from the undeniable political and military successes of a terrorist organization such as the Taliban. In general, other similar groups would conclude that violence and terror would be rewarded, even if they faced superpowers.

This will indeed be a dangerous mindset. Terrorist organizations in Asia and Africa, in particular, could be inspired by the “success” of the Taliban and intensify their brutalities. Furthermore, the destabilization of Southwest and Central Asia implies an explosion of the Middle East.

It would automatically lead to severe clashes between or among those who claim leadership of the region. The oil production and supply chain could be the prime target of adversary powers, affecting mainly Europe.

Despite its devastating effects for Southwest and Central Asian populations, engaging in a “new great game” and making Afghanistan a battleground of proxy wars for the third time would not favor anyone, above all the Western giants.

There seems to be a better understanding between the People’s Republic of China and India, who fear the significant rise and success of terrorism, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, who has successful experience in fighting extremism on the other. This could instead lead to a “new global alliance” detrimental to Western interests around the world.

Expert views diverge on what could be in the best interest of the Afghan people, the region, and the rest of the world. There is no doubt that peace, stability, and serenity in Southwest and Central Asia will provide remarkable opportunities for reliable and equitable trade, cultural exchange, and mutual understanding among the peoples of the East and the West!

The miracle of the old days’ Silk Road was rooted in the peaceful status of the nations it crossed. From Shanghai and Beijing in China and Bengal in India to Venice in Italy, passing through the grueling land of current Afghanistan, the whole of Central Asia, Iran, and Turkey, the caravans journeyed without hurdle.

It resulted in an extraordinary commercial, economic, and financial boom in Europe. Its revival will only provide new enrichment and development opportunities for all. Afghanistan is the key to such revitalization, notwithstanding that with peace and stability in this country, an essential element of fear in the Middle East would also disappear.

This being said, the Taliban would most probably take charge of Afghanistan in the months to come and establish an Islamic Emirate. However, their regime would not survive for more than a few years.

The solution to the Afghan crisis has national challenges, regional impediments, and international hurdles [https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/03/achieve-peace-afghanistan/]. They must all be addressed at once and through a unique peace process.

Unless the fundamental challenges that divide the Afghan peoples for decades, even centuries, are not addressed adequately by the Afghans themselves, the tragedies would continue on their soil. Authoritarian systems, power-sharing attempts, and any form of wheeling and dealing have not and will never succeed. The Afghan people have been determined to live harmoniously in a peaceful and stable country.

However, Afghanistan’s leadership since long proved to be incompetent. Ethnic and religious bias, corruption, nepotism, hoodlum behavior, and lawlessness of those in power marred the efforts to attain democracy, progress, and respectability. There is no way they would prove different now.

A significant impediment to peace is that actors who were (or still are) vitally involved in the making and shaking of political, military, and economic developments of Afghanistan in the last four decades seem incarcerated in a firm position that their past actions were faultless, ignoring that the nobility of leaders is determined by their humility to recognize own mistakes.

Afghanistan desperately needs a young and incorruptible multi-ethnic team of leaders. They must establish a symbiosis with the populations, create the foundations of a democratic society suitable to all components of the country, address national challenges, agree with regional powers on impediments that create discord in Southwest and Central Asia, and secure the International Community’s support in responding to global hurdles.

For this to happen, youth in Afghanistan need to come together now to save their country in the foreseeable future.

A gain in Afghanistan is a reward for all. To strengthen peace and security in the world, it is vital to support without reserve the emergence of future young leaders from within Afghanistan so that they could take charge of the country upon the demise of the Taliban regime within a few years, something that the International Community and policymakers have systematically failed to do, so far!

* Saber Azam is a former United Nations official, writer, and regular contributor to the IPS. He has so far authored SORAYA: The Other princess, a historical fiction that overflies the recent seven decades of Afghan history through the work of a remarkable woman, and Hell’s Mouth, also historical fiction, summarizing the extraordinary work of humanitarian workers during the First Liberian Civil War.

Categories: Africa

Bangladesh’s Indigenous Forest Dwellers Fear Losing Ancestral Land as Officials Grapple with Land Grabs

Wed, 07/07/2021 - 13:22

Indigenous people form a human chain in Tangail district, Bangladesh as they demand legal rights to their ancestral forest land. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
TANGAIL, Bangladesh, Jul 7 2021 (IPS)

When the Bangladesh Forest Department felled Basanti Rema’s banana orchard, Rema, a Garo indigenous forest-dweller of Madhupur Forest, felt she was living a nightmare.

Rema, from Pegmari village in Madhupur, Tangail district, had cultivated the banana plants on half an acre in the Madhupur Forest. But the Forest Department claimed that the land on which the bananas were cultivated belonged to the department.

Rema’s story is not an unusual one as in the past the Garo and other indigenous minorities have been evicted from their ancestral land because of a lack of land rights.

“Land dispute is the main problem as the government declared 9,145 acres of land of Madhupur Forest as ‘absolute reserved forest’, putting our living in our ancestral land at risk,” Jonajetra, a member of the Garo community living inside the forest, told IPS.

He said the Forest Department often filed false cases against the indigenous people for allegedly felling trees. Even children as young as seven and eight years old were being sued.

In a gazette notification from Feb.15, 2016, the Ministry of Environment and Forests declared the land of Madhupur Forest as a forest reserve under Section 20 of the Forest Act-1927.

“The Garo people have been facing various problems in the forest. The Forest Department frequently files false cases against us,” Eugin Nokrek, president of Joyenshahi Adivasi Unnayan Parishad, an indigenous peoples’ organisation, told IPS.

“If we want to build a new house and dismantle our old one, the department obstructs our works. If we want to plant banana or pineapple orchards on our fallow land, we get objections from the Forest Department,” Nokrek said.

Fear of eviction

Despite living in the Madhupur Forest for generations, the indigenous Garo and other minorities have no right to the forest land. And drives by the Forest Department to recover land that has been lost to agriculture and land grabbing, has instilled a fear among indigenous community of losing their ancestral land.

“We are on the verge of eviction from our ancestral land as the government has declared the Madhupur Forest as an ‘absolute reserved one’. We can be evicted from the forest anytime,” said Nokrek, who is also a member of the indigenous Garo minority.

Decades ago, Madhupur Garh, in Tangail district, used to have 122,876 acres of traditional shal forest. It was broken down as follows:

45,565 acres in Madhupur,
47,220 acres in Sakhipur,
21,855 acres in Ghatail,
7,576 acres in Mirzapur and,
669 acres in Kalihati upazila.

Of these, 55,476 acres were reserved forests.

According to officials at the Tangail Forest Department, about 80,000 acres of the forest have already disappeared because of indiscriminate tree felling and forest grabbing. The process of land grabbing continues, officials said.

Tangail Divisional Forest Officer Dr. Mohammad Jahirul Haque said the department would continue its drives to recover forest land from grabbers. However, he assured IPS that there was no plan to evict the indigenous people from the forest and they would remain on their ancestral land.

According to Sanjeeb Drong, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, legally the Madhupur Forest is under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department but the indigenous people claim it as their ancestral land and had evidence to this effect.

Drong said the Madhupur Forest was home to the Garo, Barman and Koch ethnic minorities and they had been living there for generations.

Keeping a promise

While the country’s current government is considered friendly to the rights of the indigenous population — the 2008 election manifesto of ruling Awami League announced that once elected it would form an independent commission to resolve the land disputes of indigenous minorities — a fear of the actions of past governments still haunt the indigenous community here.

Nokrek said many indigenous families were evicted from the Madhupur Forest during the 2007 to 2008 period when a caretaker government was in office. Nokrek was concerned if there was a change in power, a new, controversial government could evict them.

“We are the forest dwellers and we demand legal rights to our land where we have been living for generations. We want legal recognition of our ancestral land so that nobody can evict us,” Nokrek said.

“If we have legal recognition, we will get compensation once the government want to acquire our ancestral land for greater interest,” he added.

Land owners are compensated when their land is acquired for government projects. But, the Garo and other indigenous minorities cannot receive compensation as they have no legal proof of ownership of the land.

“The long-dispute over the land right of ethnic minorities is yet to be resolved… the government has not formed the commission yet. The policymakers should take decisions on how to give the ethnic people’s rights to their ancestral land,” Drong said.

In 1956, the then Pakistan government declared the forest a national park and evicted indigenous people to acquire the forest land. And, upon Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, the Madhupur Forest was declared a national forest or reserved forest.

“Although Garo people had long been living in the forest, the land lords did not give land rights to them after the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act was passed in 1950. That is why they lost their rights to their ancestral land,” Drong told IPS.

Shrinking Shal Forest thanks to Land Grabs

“The majority portion of the Madhupur Forest has already been grabbed by influential people and local encroachers,” Drong pointed out.

Nokrek said the Forest Department was planting Acacia saplings, instead of traditional shal trees, under the social afforestation programme. “If any such project is implemented, the Forest Department, politicians and influential people find business there,” he said.

Noting that due to the pressure of an increasing population, the forest area was dwindling day by day, the indigenous leader said in recent years, factories and industries were established on forest land through the falsification of documents.

Divisional Forest Officer Haque said there was a total of 122,000 acres of traditional shal forest in Madhupur Garh, of which a vast area was occupied by local grabbers and influential people.

The Forest Department has so far recovered about 19,000 acres of grabbed forest land, he said.

As the forest is shrinking fast in Madhupur Garh, the forest official said, the government has taken a bigger initiative to restore the traditional shal forest and the fallow forest land will be brought under green coverage with the planting of new shal saplings.

Categories: Africa

Investing in Education as Driver for All Our Futures

Wed, 07/07/2021 - 07:50

According to UNICEF, Pakistan is facing a serious challenge to ensure all children, attend, stay and learn in school, particularly the most disadvantaged. While enrollment and retention rates are improving, progress has been slow to improve education indicators. Credit: UNICEF/Pakistan/ Asad Zaidi

By Mehnaz Akber Aziz and Julius O. Ihonvbere
ISLAMABAD / LAGOS, Jul 7 2021 (IPS)

Never before have so many children been out of school. 1.6 billion children and young people – more than 90% of students worldwide – have been impacted by school closures during the pandemic. Hundreds of millions of those children have gone without any learning at all, deprived of all the benefits that being in school provides.

In our countries, Pakistan and Nigeria, the situation is even worse.

Both countries have the world’s highest out-of-school populations, taken together our countries account for almost a third of the 258 million children who are entirely excluded from education, despite only making up 5% of the global population.

Pakistan is set to lose a larger share of students from the school system than any other country, with close to a million children expected to drop out, according to the World Bank.

In Nigeria, the worsening and widespread insecurity across the country, and particularly in the northern region, is leading to further school closures and population displacement.

Girls are disproportionately affected by these crises, through entering child labour, as well as teenage marriage and pregnancies, compounding all our fears about the increased risk of sexual violence and exploitation when girls are out of school.

In school but not learning

What’s more, millions of children across the world are in school but not learning.

The World Bank’s ‘Learning Poverty’ indicator – which calculates the number of children aged 10 who cannot read an age-appropriate sentence – found that more than half of children in low- and middle-income countries were in learning poverty prior to COVID, and that the pandemic has pushed this figure up to 63%.

In Pakistan, where 75% of children of late primary age were already in learning poverty prior to COVID, we are deeply concerned for their futures as the pandemic continues its destructive path.

The furthest behind face even graver challenges

The pandemic has also further exposed existing inequalities that prevent children from accessing education and further alienate those in school.

Lessons from past crises have shown us that these inequalities, including social and digital divides, mean those furthest behind and most vulnerable, including those facing marginalisation due to gender, poverty and disability, are at greatest risk of never returning to school.

Children in Nigeria are traumatized by abduction and need support, the UN says. Credit: World Bank/Arne Hoel

In Nigeria, insecurity combined with the economic impact of COVID-19 has pushed 7 million Nigerians into poverty, which has a catastrophic impact on education.

Without sufficient household income, and with the additional risk of attacks on schools exacerbated by the internal insecurity, many Nigerian children are no longer able to remain in school and instead roam the streets, often engaging in petty crimes.

We must ensure that as the world recovers from COVID-19 and seeks to address this rapidly growing education crisis, that those most marginalised remain our priority.

Investment is the key to ending the crisis

Many explanations exist as to why we are in this crisis. Ultimately, however, world leaders have made promises but failed to implement them.

In 2015, the world promised to deliver quality education for all the world’s children. To help deliver that promise, countries made commitments to spend at least 4-6% of GDP and/or 15-20% of total budgets on education.

Yet, six years later and one in four countries do not meet either of the benchmarks on national financing for education.

The financial implications of COVID have put national budgets under unprecedented pressure. Two-thirds of low- and lower-middle income countries have cut their public education budgets since the onset of the pandemic.

In Nigeria, the federal budget for education is the lowest in a decade at just 6.3% of the national budget, and in Pakistan, the 2021-22 budget allocates just 1.5% of GDP to education, continuing deeply concerning trends in both countries.

Rather than cutting budgets, we should be investing in education: funding re-enrolment to get all children back into school along with remediation programmes to address learning loss.

A once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform education

World leaders will convene the Global Education Summit in London on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th July to raise at least US$5 billion from donor governments and leverage billions more in domestic financing commitments.

Donor governments stepping up to fully-fund GPE remains critical, but the Summit could also provide a turning point for progress on national financing of education.

A call to action on domestic financing for education

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, who is co-hosting the Summit alongside UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has invited Heads of Government in all GPE partner countries to endorse a Call to Action on Education Financing.

The statement commits governments to maintain spending on education above 20% of national expenditure or to progressively increase spending towards this benchmark over the next five years.

It recognises that by improving the volume, equity and efficiency of domestic resources going to education we can deliver on the promise of education we made to the world’s children and fast-track progress towards achieving all development goals.

Ministers of Education are being invited to make commitments to improve the equity and efficiency of public financing for education. To make best use of both domestic resources and donor support for education, we encourage all governments to undertake strategic and holistic reforms to ensure that education financing is utilised most effectively and equitably.

President Kenyatta also calls for concerted action on debt relief and greater flexibility from the international banks in supporting countries’ liquidity. Without debt relief, our countries will be unable to allocate the necessary funding to public services, including education.

In 2020, the federal government of Nigeria spent the equivalent of 83% of revenue to service debt, money that could and should be spent instead on reducing the number of children out of school and providing them with a quality education.

Parliamentary leadership for education, COVID-19 and beyond

As Regional Representatives for the International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd), we are proud to be leading a global charge to call on world leaders to protect, prioritise and increase financing for education.

The past year has shown even more starkly the realities facing children living in Lagos and Lahore for whom returning to school remains a pipe dream. Financing education provides the route to unlock their future and millions more.

The cost of inaction is catastrophic, the benefits will be immense.

Mehnaz Akber Aziz, MNA – PMLN is a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan where she was first elected in 2018. She is Chair of the SDGs Committee on Child Rights and is also the International Parliamentary Network for Education’s Regional Representative for Asia. She completed a Masters in Anthropology at the Quaid-i-Azam University and a Masters in Gender and Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Prof. Julius O. Ihonvbere, is an elected member in Nigeria’s National Assembly representing Owan Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives where he is also Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education and Services. He is also the International Parliamentary Network for Education’s Regional Representative for Africa. Prior to being elected, he served as Secretary to the Government of Edo State and Chairman of the State’s Strategic Planning Team. He was previously Special Advisor to the Nigerian President on Program and Policy Monitoring.

Categories: Africa

Prioritising Menstrual Health and Hygiene During Emergencies

Wed, 07/07/2021 - 00:54

Menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM) must be integrated into the response to emergencies. | Picture courtesy: WaterAid India/Altaf Ahmed

By External Source
Jul 6 2021 (IPS)

Over the last few years, the world has witnessed accelerated action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment. This has also led to significant interest in menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM) as a critical factor in girls’ education and women’s participation in many spheres of life.

In India, this has led to the introduction of evidence-based guidelines and schemes to enable access to menstrual hygiene products. In 2015, the erstwhile Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (currently, the Ministry of Jal Shakti) launched national guidelines for menstrual hygiene management for school-going adolescent girls.

This led to the introduction of state-level operational guidelines in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and Jharkhand. Odisha and Rajasthan introduced schemes to improve access to menstrual products for adolescent girls from poor and marginalised groups. India has also witnessed innovations that expand menstrual hygiene product choice and deliver sustainable menstrual waste management solutions.

In many disaster settings, temporary or mobile toilets and bathing facilities are established. However, menstrual waste disposal remains a challenge. Some simple, temporary solutions include providing containers with lids in or near toilet stalls to collect menstrual waste and digging disposal pits near women’s toilet facilities

While the progress is encouraging, an area that continues to stymie the work on MHHM is the emergency context. Today, a number of states are confronted with the challenge of addressing menstrual health needs amidst dual disasters: cyclones and/or floods and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic that has been devastating in its scale and impact.

Like other emergencies, COVID-19 has had a differential impact, exacting a heavier toll on women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities. Menstrual health and hygiene is an area that most strongly unmasks this.

‘Periods do not stop for emergencies’ has been a common refrain, especially during the first wave of COVID-19, with organisations and the media highlighting how access to essential sanitary pads was abruptly curtailed due to the lockdown and restrictions on transport and mobility.

Some of these challenges have been addressed this year with essential supplies continuing uninterrupted. Yet, for many women and girls, continued access to safe menstrual products, safe and hygienic sanitation facilities, and information on MHHM remains a challenge.

With the closure of schools—which many girls depend on for access to menstrual hygiene products—girls’ ability to manage MHHM with safety and dignity is at risk. Many poor families facing severe economic stress are having to choose between spending on food and other essentials such as rent and buying sanitary pads.

The challenges are not only about access to menstrual hygiene products. Women and girls from low-income households have also been facing difficulties in managing menstruation in the changed circumstances where family members are present at home for most of the day in small, confined spaces. For women and girls living with a disability, who may not have access to caregivers in these circumstances, managing menstruation has been even more trying.

MHHM must therefore be integrated, as a priority, in the response to emergencies to ensure women and girls’ privacy and dignity. Living with dignity, even during disasters, is a fundamental human right. In 2020, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and WaterAid, in consultation with experts and practitioners in the field of MHHM and disaster response across the country, developed a framework for action on MHHM during emergencies in India.

The framework calls for the integration of MHHM across the continuum of emergency response—disaster preparedness, disaster response, and recovery. It also highlights the need to integrate MHHM into sexual and reproductive health services, and protection services where they exist.

A comprehensive approach to MHHM in emergencies includes:

1. Providing essential menstrual products

Product distribution is the mainstay of relief efforts. This may be accomplished through the provision of hygiene kits with sanitary pads and essential items such as underwear, soap, towel, paper to discard used pads, and usage information; the establishment of pad banks or pad ATMs in relief centres; or cash transfers to facilitate the purchase of menstrual products.

Some interventions have considered reusable cloth pads or cotton cloths to meet the needs of cloth users. In supporting product distribution for relief, efforts must keep in mind the product usage patterns and preferences in a community, the need for support materials such as underwear along with sanitary pads, and whether products will be needed once or on a recurring basis.

For instance, adolescent girls often prefer disposable sanitary pads, while older women may prefer cloth during menses. Cloth users may find sanitary pad use challenging, especially if they are unfamiliar with the product and do not typically use underwear. In some emergency contexts such as floods and cyclones, girls and women may struggle to use cloth pads hygienically due to water shortage, lack of privacy, and climate conditions.

2. Disseminating information

Relief efforts by civil society organisations have indicated that product distribution, accompanied by information dissemination about MHHM is most effective in meeting the needs of women and girls during disasters. Girls and women need to know how to use, maintain, and discard products safely with limited resources. Older women may be unfamiliar with sanitary pads and girls may use a product for a longer duration given limited supplies.

Challenges related to MHHM during emergencies may be further intensified by discriminatory norms and taboos that impose restrictions on women and girls. In many communities, girls and women are considered to be impure during menstruation.

They may be segregated from other family members for a few days, may not be allowed to present themselves in front of male members, or may face restrictions around leaving the home and interacting with people outside the home. Norms and practices related to discreet use and disposal of menstrual absorbents also exist.

They act as a barrier when girls and women access menstrual products in constrained circumstances and may place additional psycho-social stress on them during crises. The stigma and taboos related to menstruation have also prevented an integrated public health response to MHHM for many years in both development and emergency settings. Dissemination of accurate and scientific information is an important tool to tackle the discriminatory norms and stigma associated with menstruation.

3. Providing safe sanitation and waste disposal solutions

Gender-sensitive sanitation is another essential aspect of MHHM in emergencies. In many disaster settings, temporary or mobile toilets and bathing facilities are established. However, menstrual waste disposal remains a challenge. Some simple, temporary solutions include providing containers with lids in or near toilet stalls to collect menstrual waste and digging disposal pits near women’s toilet facilities.

These should be marked for menstrual waste to aid appropriate disposal. Long-term relief settings or established relief centres can institute other solutions such as quality incinerators and disposal chutes attached to a deep burial pit or burning chambers. Central to disposal is the need for discrete, usable, and culturally relevant solutions. For instance, it may not be appropriate to introduce incinerator solutions to communities that have strong beliefs around the burning of menstrual waste.

Efforts for MHHM product distribution, information dissemination, and ensuring hygienic sanitation during emergencies can only succeed when frontline responders are sensitised and trained to understand and address the needs of girls and women. This is particularly relevant in light of the culture of silence around women’s sexual and reproductive health, including MHHM needs. Incorporating brief sessions on the needs of girls and women, including MHHM needs, in capacity building initiatives for those involved in disaster response can help make the issue mainstream and strengthen the effort to integrate MHHM into emergency responses.

There is a lot to be learned about integrating MHHM into the emergency response from states such as Kerala, Assam, and Bihar that face natural disasters frequently. These states have demonstrated how the integration of MHHM in disaster preparedness can be done in simple ways: routine MHHM interventions delivered in schools and in communities can impart basic information on menstrual health and hygiene and equip girls and women to manage their menses safely during disasters.

Girls can be given information on making their own emergency hygiene kit with sufficient menstrual materials, underclothes, soap, and other essentials. Schools, anganwadis, and health centres can prepare themselves to be depots for menstrual products that girls and women can access when disaster strikes. Such measures also help in the recovery phase.

Some states, such as Odisha, have initiated vulnerability and capacity assessments before disasters using participatory tools to engage communities to predict, plan for, mitigate, and effectively respond to emergencies that are likely to affect them.

Finally, ensuring appropriate budget allocation is critical for integrating MHHM in emergency response efforts. Funds need to be apportioned for menstrual product distribution and facilities that meet MHHM needs. For instance, if mobile toilets are being installed, the budget must accommodate for a sufficient number of separate toilets for men and women.

Fundraising and mobilisation of in-kind resources must consider the duration of the emergency, whether certain supplies may be required regularly, and the number of girls and women who are in need. Menstrual hygiene supplies, akin to food rations, will be required regularly, not just during immediate relief efforts. They must be factored into budgets for continued support to communities till normalcy is restored.

Ensuring that women, girls, transgender men, and gender-diverse individuals are able to manage menstruation with dignity during emergencies is a matter of human rights. We ask you to join us to commit to ensuring MHHM as a basic right to be protected and advanced, in emergencies and beyond.

VK Madhavan has spent fifteen years working in rural India on an integrated development approach. He worked with the Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust in northwestern Rajasthan until 1998 and then with the Central Himalayan Rural Action Group (CHIRAG) from 2004 to 2012. In the interim, he worked on policy issues with ActionAid, as an independent consultant, and on women’s leadership and governance with The Hunger Project. Since May 2016, Madhavan has been the Chief Executive of WaterAid India.

Argentina Matavel Piccin is the Representative for UNFPA India and the Country Director for Bhutan. In a career spanning close to forty years, she has been at the forefront of programmes that have focused on the rights and health of women and girls and amplified the voice of youth and adolescents.

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

Categories: Africa

Agroecology as the Centrepiece of Sustainable Food Systems

Tue, 07/06/2021 - 08:35

The most important goal of a food system or of agricultural production is to increase food production for our increasing population, but nutrition is essential. Produce stall in Harlem, New York. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 6 2021 (IPS)

In three weeks, the United Nations will bring together farmers, scientists, policymakers and civil society for the last major event ahead of the September UN Food Systems Summit.

Billed as ‘the people’s summit,’ the Jul. 26 to 28 event will be hosted by the Government of Italy and adopt a hybrid model, with some delegates on-site in Rome and others online.

Its organisers say scientists will present the latest research in transforming global food systems, while policymakers are expected to discuss financing and action to tackle issues like land degradation, conflict and climate change, which are worsening global hunger and food insecurity.

Earlier this year, the Global Network Against Food Crises reported that acute hunger had risen to a five-year high. With the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, biodiversity loss and half of the earth’s land classified as degraded, the grouping warned that finance and urgent action were needed to reverse the rising trend of food insecurity.

General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) Million Belay believes that agroecology has a special role to play in hunger eradication.

Belay, a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and the Barilla Foundation, researches the transformation of food systems in Ethiopia.

While AFSA will not participate in the UN Food Systems Summit, Africa’s largest civil society group has been organising its own events, based on sustainability, indigenous knowledge and science.

Belay spoke to IPS about the importance of agroecology and how systems such as the Barilla Foundation’s Food Pyramid can help to target hunger at its root.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): Could we start with a brief introduction to the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa?

Million Belay (MB): The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa is a movement. It is broad-based – we have farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, women and youth networks, civil society networks, consumer networks and faith-based institutions.

Out of the 55 African countries, our members work in at least 50 of them and we work with two hands. On one hand, we fight the corporatisation of Africa. We fight for our lands, our seeds, our water and our lives. On the other hand, we propose a solution. Our solution is agroecology.

IPS: In the face of climate change, rising food insecurity and hunger, there has been a push to agroecology. How important is agroecology to tackling some of these critical issues of our time?

MB: Agroecology is a response to many issues on many fronts.

The most important goal of a food system or of agricultural production is to increase food production for our increasing population, but nutrition is essential. We must eat healthy food and this is an area which is very much impacted by climate change.

Also, when we produce food, the food system should not impact the biosphere, which includes our climate, our diversity, our water and our land. Food production should also be respectful of our culture. We have rich culture, which is the result of thousands of years of practices and traditions by our communities.

These are some of the important factors in the food system process.

The right to food is also very important. Everyone has a right to food.

The question is, therefore, what kind of system ensures this? Currently, unfortunately, the system is productivity-based, it is based on chemicals, on ownership of seeds and ownership of our land. Agroecology comes with a totally different paradigm. It ticks all the right boxes. It is basically based on the knowledge of people and the practices of the people, but it has a cutting-edge science to it as well.

Agroecology is also a social movement. That is why we are using it because at the center of agroecology is the right to food and human rights questions are intimately related to climate change, for example. Climate impacts our food. Climate impacts our water, our land and our lives. So many things are happening because of the problem that we didn’t create.

Agroecology deals with the soil, it deals with biodiversity which is important for resilience, because it’s based on the diversity of crops and the diversity of practices.

I think what climate change brings us as well is unpredictability into the future. What kind of agriculture is important for an unpredictable environment? You have no idea what is going to come tomorrow. Agroecology helps to answer these types of concerns.

IPS: The international community is preparing for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). As a food systems researcher, what are your hopes for the summit?

MB: We (AFSA) have already decided to organise a meeting outside of that food summit.

We do not agree with the process of the summit; how is it being handled or controlled or how the agenda is organised. We are not happy and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa has written a letter to the Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit Dr. Agnes Kalibata with a range of demands and they have not been fulfilled.

We however have started our own food policy development process which involves a country-level dialogue in 24 of the countries. They are food systems dialogues that we started even before the UNFSS.

Also, at the African Union level, we are trying to develop a food policy framework for Africa which is based on sustainability.

IPS: What is your role on the Barilla Foundation’s advisory board and how is the Foundation contributing to food system transformation?

MB: The majority of the board members are from Italy, but the issues that they raise have global impact. In addition to the scientific studies, they organise yearly global gatherings where critical issues about the global food system are discussed.

The outcomes of those global talks are very important to any part of the continent. My role primarily is to bring the African perspective, an African view, in my writings and discussions.

What is important to note is that it is not only the African perspective, but also the input of civil society which is not reflected in so many other spaces.

IPS: The Barilla Foundation continues to invest time and resources into the development of sustainable food systems. What are some of the food systems you think have been successful?

MB: The Foundation is forwarding a food pyramid. It is a very interesting concept that is in development. Previously, it was based on the Mediterranean Diet.

The food system indicators that they are developing are also noteworthy. In terms of a framework for the future, that pyramid and those indices are important for other regions. Other parts of the world can use these models to assess their own food systems.

After participating in one of the Foundation’s events, we organised our own event in Africa. We held the African Food System Summit last year. It was a very large activity and served as an example of what is happening in other parts of the globe.

What is really interesting is the composition of the board. There are people who are in touch with how the politics goes in Europe. There are scientists, really high-level scientists who are working on the impacts of a bad food system. There are university researchers who bring a different perspective and I bring the civil society and social movement side.

Excerpt:

The world is facing rising hunger and food insecurity, biodiversity loss and the impacts of a changing climate. Experts are increasingly looking to agroecology for sustainable food production.

Categories: Africa

Why we Need to Build Economies– not Walls– to Stop Migration

Tue, 07/06/2021 - 07:56

Women in El Salvador are participating in an educational program supported by the World Health Organization that teaches safe hygiene practices and food safety. The WHO works in collaboration with El Salvador’s government and other United Nations partner organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, UNWomen, and the World Food Program (WFP). The program aims to address foodborne illnesses and poor nutrition by educating local women who then pass on their knowledge to other women in the community. Credit: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

By Andres Baiza
SAN SALVADOR, Jul 6 2021 (IPS)

If you speak to farmers in El Salvador, many will tell you about the time they were driven to head north across Central America towards the US. The routes to the border are many, but the origins are so often the same: desperation and hope that better employment opportunities can be found elsewhere.

The faces you see of those arriving, in what could be the highest influx to the United States in 15 years, represent the reality in rural El Salvador, where so many people escaping poverty find only a dead-end.

Years of reliance on imported food has held back the development of the country’s agricultural sector, on which so many rural families rely. This has created a vicious cycle that suppresses the domestic market, limits job creation and forces rural workers to look to cities and other countries, particularly rural youth, who are reluctant to work in agriculture because they see limited returns.

For my family, producing on the land has been a way of life for generations, and I am familiar with the challenges that farmers face.

I also know that Salvadoran farmers need not face a binary choice of stay and struggle, or risk everything by moving elsewhere. Instead of carrying a bag of belongings to the border, harvesting a sack of vegetables can represent the way not only out of poverty, but into a position of security and even prosperity, and I have seen how this can work.

Agriculture can offer rural families a pathway to upward mobility and, as we believe at Acceso, a social agribusiness I lead in El Salvador, this is best achieved when the food value chain is “reverse engineered” from market demands backwards, prioritizing farmers’ interests.

By investing in small farmers to help improve their production to meet the demands of large local buyers, and developing solutions to aggregate their produce, we have shown how to create new and more secure incomes and livelihoods that offer rural communities a better alternative right here in El Salvador.

Dionel, a young farmer I work with in the highlands of Chalatenango, considered emigrating to the US seven years ago, but changed his mind when he found he was able to sell his produce consistently, and no longer had to rely on unpredictable informal markets.

For him, Acceso’s model created the market structure that provided income security and allowed his family to be empowered financially. For Dionel and others, this kind of investment in rural areas is vital because, as he says, “that is where the communities with the least job opportunities are found.”

Strategic investments into creating sustainable and profitable jobs can go a long way. Efraín, a 57-year-old farmer, knows this all too well. He has been to the US twice, but returned when he heard about improvements in the agriculture sector back home.

Now, he is part of our Acceso farmer network as well, benefiting from training on good agricultural practices and guaranteed market opportunities. The results speak for themselves: farmers have realized crop yield increases of more than 60 percent in just one year, while farmers’ incomes were more than 250 percent higher in 2020 compared to 2017.

It is not just yields that are increasing, but varieties too. Having started off planting chilli peppers, Efraín is now growing many more crops introduced by Acceso, which then aggregates the produce to sell to supermarkets and restaurant chains.

Increasing the number of crops has required more farm workers on his field, so not only has Efraín benefitted from diversifying his farm, others in his community have also been given the chance of a livelihood. Efraín’s goal is to see his business continue to grow, creating more opportunities for jobs, incomes and economic growth – and reasons to stay – for Salvadorans.

High quality, locally-grown produce is stocking the local supermarkets, something that wasn’t possible just six years ago when low volumes of produce were sourced locally by Acceso’s customers like Subway, Super Selectos, and others. Now, with more market structures in place, imports have decreased; for example, for Super Selectos from as much as 90 percent to less than 50 percent.

This has been made possible in part by Acceso’s work with farmers to improve access to quality seeds and affordable credit, which in turn has led to reliability and variety of produce.

New processing facilities have also meant that farmers’ produce can be handled, stored and packaged according to the standards required by major supermarkets and restaurant franchises.

Improving resilience throughout food value chains has proven to be critical. When the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns hit, certain market sectors, including restaurants and hospitality, slowed down.

Yet the continued reliance on supermarkets and stores for essential food meant farmers like Juan Carlos, who has worked with Acceso for seven years, could continue to benefit despite shifts in the market.

This stability means that he has continued to earn a living throughout the pandemic, and Juan Carlos no longer considers migration. For him, “staying in the country is the best option.”

The El Salvador I know is full of hard workers who want to prosper in their home country and see their children grow up and succeed. Ask many of the farmers I work with, who tried to migrate, and they will tell you that border crossings are often the last resort. Given the opportunity, they choose to remain or return to their homeland.

This logic can be applied to countries around the world. Instead of building walls, we should be building connections between farmers and markets for more secure jobs, economies, and prospects for rural families.

The vision of Acceso is simple: invest in opportunities, rather than barriers, and reduce the need for migration.

Acceso El Salvador, the leading smallholder sourcing company in El Salvador that sources more than 60 types of fruits and vegetables, and fish and seafood from smallholder farmers and fishers and sells to the largest national supermarket and restaurant chains.

Excerpt:

The writer is General Manager, Acceso El Salvador

Categories: Africa

Developing Country Solidarity Needed to Overcome Pandemic

Tue, 07/06/2021 - 07:30

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jul 6 2021 (IPS)

As rich countries have delayed contagion containment, including mass vaccination, in developing countries, much weaker fiscal efforts in the South have worsened the growing world pandemic apartheid.

Lessons from first wave
Despite limited fiscal resources and modest external support, government efforts also need to address unsustainability, inequality and other problems due to extant economic, social and environmental arrangements.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Early relief and recovery measures assumed that the pandemic would be short-lived and reversible. Hence, such measures were rarely sustained, let alone expanded in developing countries despite the growing need for them.

Appropriate social protection measures are needed for the longer term beyond those deemed temporarily necessary. The adverse effects of livelihood disruptions should be mitigated with income maintenance for employees and the self-employed whose livelihoods have been severely jeopardised.

Governments must try to maintain family incomes, enabling them to spend to survive, thus keeping the economy ticking and businesses afloat. With effective contagion containment, such programmes enable earlier resumption of economic activities, i.e., recovery.

Sustaining businesses, nurturing economies
A few, mainly developed countries have tried to minimise business destruction, worker layoffs and welfare losses. Developing country governments must also help revive and sustain economies and livelihoods to prevent pandemic recessions from becoming protracted depressions.

Few businesses and sectors can survive without adapting. Business survival options could include redeployment, infrastructure and facility repurposing, and staff retraining. Other options include additional credit to businesses, tax payment deferrals and even social protection.

Many businesses, especially those with less reserves, need help avoiding liquidation and paying employees. Governments may need to consider adapting American bankruptcy law to enable businesses to continue operating to work themselves out of temporary pandemic predicaments.

As early as April 2020, the pandemic had hit many businesses in over 130 countries, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. Two of three were hard hit globally as well as in Africa, with a fifth expecting to close within a quarter!

Anis Chowdhury

Of course, more lending and tax breaks mainly benefit the better-off, rather than those in greatest need, most vulnerable or adversely affected.

Although policymakers typically insist on targeting and means-testing for the poor, they rarely demand the same for businesses. But some ‘easy’ targeting is desirable to identify needy, but salvageable businesses.

One size cannot fit all
Business disruption has broader implications, threatening national economies. If relations necessary for viable economic transactions – such as trust among entrepreneurs, workers and customers – are disrupted, they will need to be rebuilt, typically requiring much time and expense.

Such ‘transactions costs’ incurred in building trust, seeking and keeping clients and customers, obtaining credit, recruiting workers and sustaining other longer-term relations are typically ignored. Hence, conventional economics is considered a poor guide to understanding the economy and designing policy.

Keynesian economists typically saw governments as the ‘employer-of-last-resort’ in response to economic downturns. But governments can also help by becoming ‘payers-of-last-resort’, enabling businesses to remain solvent, e.g., on condition of keeping, instead of firing involuntarily idle workers.

Conditions for access to policy support should be strict enough to deter abuse, but not participation. Strict verification and correction can wait, even until after the worse is over.

Disbursed state grants or subsidies, later found excessive, can be converted low interest loans. Governments can recover these later, rather than treat beneficiaries as fraudulent criminals.

Economies are certainly not homogeneous, monolithic or unchanging. And COVID-19 slowdowns are unlike previous recessions. As these are invariably uneven in impact, various sectors, industries and businesses are affected differently.

Hence, no single policy can possibly be suitable for all countries, at all times. Much has to be learnt quickly ‘by doing’, i.e., from experience, including those of others. Lessons may be both positive and negative, and rapid learning is crucial for improving policy design and implementation.

Who can we count on?
Without both effective contagion containment and mass vaccination, it will be impossible to control the pandemic. And with little external support, containment, relief and recovery measures in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will be all the more difficult.

Thus, the worst is yet to come in the global South, which must now brace itself for the dire consequences of delayed pandemic suppression and limited fiscal efforts. Meanwhile, the North seems unmoved by the International Monetary Fund’s warning of a dangerous new economic divergence globally.

The 870 million vaccines that the world’s seven richest large nations (G7) pledged to poor countries last month will immunise half that number, from late 2021. This is only eight percent of the 11 billion doses needed, noted former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

But despite ungenerous rich Western countries, the Fund has called for US$50bn to accelerate vaccination worldwide. It expects this to end the pandemic, enhance global output by US$9 trillion, and yield a trillion in additional tax revenue.

LMICs need to urgently respond to fast spreading pandemic surges. They also need to do so effectively, feasibly and equitably, expecting little help from the North. Domestic borrowing – enabled by central banks, sound policy design and South-South cooperation – will be crucial to success in these circumstances.

Relief, recovery, reform
With delays, new, more dangerous COVID-19 variants will threaten developing countries, as more effective contagion containment and fiscal efforts are slowed by the North. These will exacerbate avoidable tragedies and old inequalities.

Developing countries have no choice but to get the economy going despite reduced fiscal and monetary space and more debt. Greater government spending to address the pandemic can be financed with more domestic borrowing from central banks.

Foreign exchange is mainly needed to service foreign debt and pay import bills. Forex requirements can also be reduced by swap arrangements and restricting non-essential imports. Greater South-South cooperation can also enhance resilience and rebuilding for the future.

Recovery should not simply mean a return to the status quo ante. The decade before the pandemic left much to be desired, and there is little reason to restore it. The unsustainable, financialised and unequal pre-pandemic economy should be transformed to achieve more equitable and sustainable development.

After all, the North now undermines the very globalisation it once imposed on the South. Hence, it is imperative to instead establish new, more equitable, pacifist and principled international relations, under multilateral auspices, promoting cooperation.

Categories: Africa

Pages

THIS IS THE NEW BETA VERSION OF EUROPA VARIETAS NEWS CENTER - under construction
the old site is here
Copy & Drop - Can`t find your favourite site? Send us the RSS or URL to the following address: info(@)europavarietas(dot)org.

You are here

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Pages