Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 17 2021 (IPS)

 

Getting hard to breathe
hard to believe in anything
at all, but fear.
Peter Gabriel, Mother
of ViolenceLike most male Swedes of my age I had to enter obligatory military service for almost a year. In my barrack was a “born-again-Christian” who when he became angry shouted “Now you mock me, but when the Last Judgement has come I will sit in heaven and smile down at you while you burn in Hell!” Since then I have wondered about the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. It was written by a frustrated Christian man who by the end of 100 CE by Roman authorities had been deported to an isolated island where he wrote a long letter to Christian congregations in Asia Minor.

After rebuking his Christian brethren, John’s language became increasingly bewildering, telling the receivers of his letter that a gate had opened in the sky, while a mighty voice commanded: “Come up here and I will show you what happens next.” Standing by God’s throne John witnesses his wrath striking the earth. Four demonic riders sweep down. One of them, “followed by the Kingdom of Death”, is given power over a quarter of the world, killing its inhabitants with famine and plague.

We are far removed from the teachings of the carpenter from Nazareth, the Jesus who preached love and compassion, answering violence by turning the other cheek and declaring that: “All those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” However in the Book of Revelation he is depicted as carrying a scythe which he uses “to cut down his harvest”. Blood flows across the earth “in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.” The sea turns into blood, while the sun scorches the earth. In anguish humans bite their tongues into bleeding flesh, while carbuncles cover their bodies. The earth is cracked open by earthquakes, hail mixed with blood rains down and falling stars kill off the suffering humans.

Page after page is filled with horrors, while the “saved ones” rejoice. Not without reason, scholars who during the second century CE selected books to be included in the Christian Bible had serious doubts about this vengeful scripture. Dionysus, patriarch of Alexandria, wrote by the beginning of 200 CE: “Some before us have set aside and rejected the book altogether, criticising it chapter by chapter, and pronouncing it without sense or argument, and maintaining that the title is fraudulent. For they say it is not the work of John, nor is it a revelation, because it is covered thickly and densely by a veil of obscurity.”

It is difficult to understand how nice and pious people actually believe that this abominable and spiteful book is the unequivocal “Word of God”. I am familiar with otherwise sensible persons who believe that the vindictive Revelation advices them to avoid the COVID-19 vaccine and thus expose themselves – and even worse – their fellow human beings to mortal danger.

On web sites fundamentalist pastors and doomsday prophets refer to their favourite scripture – the Book of Revelation – in particular its thirteenth chapter, which among many oddities proclaims that “the second Beast” will force “all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so they could not buy or sell unless they had the Mark, which is the name of the Beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” It is doubtful if this statement really “calls for wisdom”, for sure it has called for idiocy.

For more than two thousand years people have counted letters in innumerable names to prove that the bearer actually is an incarnation of the Beast. Someone even assumed that former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was the Beast, since a letter count of his complete name – Ronald Wilson Reagan, resulted in 666, while his private home address had been 666 St. Cloud Road. It is not only persons that are associated with 666 – Corona has six letters and the bill presented to the U.S. House of Representatives for providing funds for COVID-testing was coincidentally labelled H.R. 6666. Anyone might find strange coincidences by combining numbers and accordingly some people has tried to find the hidden message of the Number of the Beast. They have for example pointed out that if 666 is written with Roman numerals it becomes DCLXV and thus contains every Roman numeral except M (1000) while their value decreases from 500 to 1, D = 500, C = 100, L = 50, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1. Does it mean anything? I don’t think so.

Almost any symbol has by one or another crank been interpreted as the Mark of the Beast. During the last fifty years any serial number; social security numbers, credit card numbers, passport numbers, post codes, bank accounts, SIM cards, as well as bar codes like the Universal Product Code (UPC), and a wide variety of similar markings like the Aztec Code, data matrices, QR codes and a host of designations and symbols with similar functions, have been interpreted as Marks of the Beast.

It is almost inconceivable how religious fundamentalists prefer implausible delusions and deceptions instead of simple explanations. As any other letter, John’s Revelation was written within a specific temporal and geographical context. If we look at the Greek word charagma, which John uses for “mark”, it equalled any mark engraved, imprinted, or branded, as well as stamped documents and coins.

During John’s lifetime, Christians were persecuted for not making offerings for the welfare of the emperor, who officially was considered as a divine being. John’s contemporary emperor and fierce persecutor of Christians was undoubtedly an insensitive “beast”. Suetonius (70-122 CE) described Domitian, Roman emperor 81-96 CE, as being “hated and feared everywhere”. A megalomaniac who demanded to be referred to as “Lord and God”. Once he wined and dined with his palace steward, lavishing him with kindness, only to crucify him the day after, just to prove that “he could do so”.

With reason John and his fellow Christians considered Domitian as “Anti-Christ” and worshipping him would be to worship the Beast. When John writes that people “could not buy or sell unless they had the Mark”, it might actually mean the Roman coins, which were stamped with Domitian’s picture, as well as official documents and contracts bearing his seal. However, John furthermore stated that the “mark” would be placed on the “right hand or the forehead.” This prophesy finds its source in the Jewish scripture Psalms of Solomon, which mentions how a mark is being stamped on evil people, though visible only to God and his angels.

How can these ancient notions be connected with a COVID-19 vaccine introduced in April 2021, while the concept “vaccine” did not exist before 1796, when Edward Jenner used it to denominate his cure for smallpox? The allure of the Mark of the Beast is that it may be applied to almost anything, something that the Church Father Irenaeus had discovered already by the end of 100 CE. Any enemy, any fear, may be connected with it, most recently the so called RFID.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has quite recently made it possible to, at a distance, read information contained in a tag. A tag may be a microchip small enough to through a syringe be injected under the skin. Such a chip can be used to track a person and may also contain essential information about her/him – an extremely advanced improvement of social security numbers and UPCs. RFID chips were originally operated into hands, but can now be injected in almost any body tissue. This while Neuralink Corporation, a neurotechnology company founded by centibillionaire Elon Musk, is developing a “sewing machine-like” device to implant microscopically thin threads into the human brain to create a “digital layer above the cortex”. This addition to the brain is supposed to enhance brainpower through a “symbiosis” between biological and artificial intelligence. For a Christian fundamentalist these endeavours may undeniably be connected with the Revelation’s prophecy about the Mark of the Beast as being placed on the “right hand or the forehead.”

However, microchips have nothing at all to do with vaccinating against a killer like COVID-19. To connect nanotechnology with a sentence in a two thousand years old, extremely convoluted text, which furthermore rambled against enemies of the true faith, is a harmful way of applying twisted and outright dangerous beliefs to health issues. To connect conspiracy theories with unproven, vindictive musings, which furthermore were considered as spurious by several founding fathers of Christianity, borders on criminal behaviour since it may lead to the death of at least thousands of people.

For thousands of years, bigots have imaginatively connected the Book of Revelation with current issues, which today happen to be vaccines, chip implants, and SIM cards. For the benefit of humanity we ought instead of falling victims to ridiculous speculations, be careful not to confuse personal convictions with the assumed meanings of an ancient, religious text. If we are religiously inclined it would be better to adhere to the Golden Rule of treating others as we want to be treated ourselves. A notion that actually is common in Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and many other religions.

Bauer, Luce Oliver and E. Marshall Wilder (2020) The Microchip Revolution: A Brief History. Piscataway NJ: IEEE Xplore. Bohlinger, Tavis (2020) https://academic.logos.com/the-covid-vaccine-has-666-written-all-over-it-and-why-that-doesnt-matter-according-to-revelation/ Eusebius (1990) The History of the Church. London: Penguin Classics.

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

 

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Degraded land in Labasa, Fiji

By Jamie Kemsey and Jalesi Mateboto
SUVA, Fiji, Jun 17 2021 (IPS-Partners)

As the UN and communities worldwide mark Desertification and Drought Day, the Pacific Community’s Land Resources Division (LRD) is strengthening its support for the sustainable restoration and management of Pacific countries’ landscapes, keeping in line with this year’s theme “turning degraded land into healthy land”.

This year’s Desertification and Drought Day takes on increasing significance as the region and countries worldwide recover from COVID-19. The goal is to demonstrate that investing in healthy land as part of a green recovery is a smart economic decision – not just in terms of creating jobs and rebuilding livelihoods, but also for insulating economies against future crises caused by health pandemics such as COVID-19, as well as climate change and nature loss. Healthy land initiatives can act to accelerate progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well.

In the Pacific, Desertification Day is an opportunity to promote awareness on efforts to tackle land degradation. We must remind everyone that reversing land degradation is achievable. It will require landscape approaches that recognise the importance of sustainable systems and practices, community engagement and the participation and cooperation of all those that work the land and depend on it for ecosystem services such as food, medicine and climate regulation.

Soil erosion and sedimentation are major problems in the Pacific. The steep land topography on most islands, in addition to highly erosive rainfall, contribute to high natural erosion rates. The past 30-50 years have seen substantial areas of sloping land converted to agricultural production. This extension of agriculture, as well as increased logging of rainforests, has caused considerable erosion.

The effects of this erosion are destructive, including land degradation and decreased productivity, sediment deposition in rivers with a subsequent increase in flooding, and damage to coastal ecosystems by transported sediment. The land tenure system, increasing demands for cash income, and the lack of awareness and commitment to protection and conservation contribute to the continuing problems of soil erosion and sedimentation.

The Land Resources Division, in collaboration with development partners including the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), German International Co-operation (GIZ), European Union (EU), Land Care NZ and Land care Australia, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), has worked with other regional organisations such as the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to assist member countries and territories to restore their landscapes. LRD provides support through technical expertise and research assistance in the agriculture, livestock and forestry sectors.

As LRD advances its focus on this year’s Desertification and Drought Day theme, we should keep in mind the statement from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification that success in this arena will bring economic resilience, create jobs, raise incomes, and increase food security. It will also help biodiversity to recover and lock away atmospheric carbon warming the Earth, slowing climate change.

In launching the 2021 theme, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said “Land restoration can contribute greatly to post-COVID19 economic recovery. Investing in land restoration creates jobs and generates economic benefits and could provide livelihoods at a time when hundreds of millions of jobs are being lost.” Desertification and Drought Day is important for the Pacific as well, as land restoration is essential to building thriving societies for all in the region. Let’s increase our respect and stewardship for our amazing, yet fragile, land. It is the key to our future.

Jamie Kemsey, Information Communications and Knowledge Management Adviser, Land Resources Division (LRD) at SPC

Jalesi Mateboto, Natural Resource Management Adviser, Land Resources Division (LRD), SPC

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Karim Asad Ahmad Khan was elected on 12 February 2021 as the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 16 June, he formally took office during a ceremony held at the Seat of the Court in The Hague, The Netherlands. A national of the United Kingdom, he is expected to serve a nine-year term in office. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe

By Agnès Callamard
LONDON, Jun 17 2021 (IPS)

As British barrister Karim Khan QC begins his term as ICC chief prosecutor, his first steps should be to proceed with investigations into alleged war crimes involving UK allies in Afghanistan and Palestine.

Last month, following months of heightened violations of the human rights of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups into Israel, Israeli forces carried out airstrikes targeting residential buildings in Gaza, killing entire families.

The attacks by Israel and Palestinian armed groups may well amount to war crimes under the Rome Statute.

Tragically, and to the shame of the international community, this pattern of likely war crimes is nothing new. But where previously the international community had ignored the evidence of its own eyes, this time the incoming prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will presumably have been watching events unfold with a view to gathering evidence and bringing perpetrators to account.

Following the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, Dominic Raab spoke of the need to “break the cycle of violence that has claimed so many lives”. But how? Surely, it can only come through proper accountability. That’s why the ICC’s investigation in Palestine, opened in March, is so important, especially to long-suffering victims.

Israeli air strikes destroyed buildings and infrastructure in Gaza. Credit: UNOCHA/Samar Elouf

After decades of injustice, this investigation offers the first genuine prospect for justice for victims in Palestine and Israel. Break the cycle of impunity and you have hope for the future.

It’s tremendously worrying, then, that Boris Johnson has voiced his opposition to the ICC’s Palestine investigation, calling it “a partial and prejudicial attack on a friend and ally of the UK’s”.

And unfortunately, the UK’s opposition isn’t unique. Other supposed supporters of a “universal ICC” are unwilling to extend this universality to Palestine. Of course, under Donald Trump, the USA went further, imposing sanctions on then ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and members of her prosecuting office.

Though President Biden has lifted sanctions, the US remains opposed to any investigation in Palestine or into any alleged crimes by US nationals around the world.

The prime minister said he hopes Khan would work for “reform” at the ICC. This is reasonable.

The ICC has not – yet – lived up to the expectations of the victims of some of the world’s worst atrocities. The prosecutor’s office in particular has faced numerous valid criticisms, especially related to the length of its investigations and the relatively few results it has to show for nearly 20 years’ work.

Amnesty, which played a crucial role in the development of the court, continues to press for reforms that serve the interests of justice and victims. Greater speed is one.

However, reforming the ICC should not mean that allies of powerful countries are given a free pass.

Khan will need to demonstrate he’s not afraid to pursue justice close to home. The UK itself has a poor record in bringing its forces to justice for crimes under international law.

There have been glaring failures to ensure effective investigations – let alone secure prosecutions – into alleged crimes committed in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq. In December, the ICC decided not to investigate war crimes committed by the UK military in Iraq.

Even though there has only been one prosecution out of the large number of alleged war crimes committed by UK forces in Iraq, the chief prosecutor was willing to accept the UK had not been “inactive”.

Despite clear examples of unwarranted delay and obstructive behaviour from the UK authorities, the ICC prosecutor said she could not substantiate allegations that the UK’s investigative and prosecutorial bodies had engaged in “shielding” perpetrators from justice. This raises clear concerns over the court’s willingness to take on powerful states.

The investigation in Palestine represents perhaps the first big test for Khan. The chief prosecutor needs to demonstrate his steadfast commitment to impartiality by pressing ahead with it, possibly in the teeth of opposition from Israeli allies like the UK and USA.
Karim Khan will need to be unphased by any attempts to strong-arm him.

The personal and professional consequences of pursuing investigations into powerful states, including the UK’s allies, may be heavy. It will require courage. Victims who are placing their hopes in the new ICC prosecutor will demand nothing less.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Secretary General of Amnesty International

Jeffery Moyo was reunited with his wife, Purity, and young son, after his release today, Jun. 16, from prison in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He said his incarceration would not deter him from doing his job as a journalist. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 16 2021 (IPS)

International correspondent Jeffrey Moyo, who was a released from detention today after being arrested for breaching Zimbabwe’s Immigration Act by helping two foreign journalists work in the country, says press freedom is undermined when journalists cannot work undeterred.

“I feel relieved as it was so horrible inside for 21 days without my freedom,” Moyo told IPS upon his release from Bulawayo Prison today, Jun. 16. “The detention is a complete infringement of press freedom in Zimbabwe.”

Moyo (37), a correspondent for Inter Press Service (IPS), the New York Times and other media, was arrested in Harare on May 26 and detained at Bulawayo Prison. He was released after 21 days when he was granted ZWL5000 bail unopposed by the state, which admitted to erring in finding him a threat to national security.

In May, Bulawayo Magistrate, Rachel Mkanga denied Moyo bail on the grounds that the journalist was a threat to national security and the county’s sovereignty. Moyo has been charged with violating Section 36 of the Immigration Act, based on an allegation that he made a false representation to immigration officials. This pertains to the accreditation of two of his colleagues, Christina Goldbaum and Joao Silva from the New York Times.

Fight for press freedom

The accreditation of journalists should not offend anyone or any authority in the country, Moyo said, arguing that the accreditation of journalists in Zimbabwe should be a right and not a difficulty.

“Journalists are not dangerous and do not cause any harm to any particular individual or government,” said Moyo, who was welcomed by his wife, Purity, and son outside Bulawayo Prison. “I am scared about what happened but I will not stop my work. …I am committed to doing my job as journalist no matter what the authorities say to me as long as I tow the line in terms of the law. I will continue to do my job.”

Moyo was granted bail on Jun. 14 and was set to be released on Jun. 15 but an error with his release papers at the Bulawayo prison resulted in him spending another night in jail.

“I am just happy that he has been released, I am relieved,” Purity Moyo, Jeffery’s wife, told IPS. She was prevented from seeing her journalist husband in prison and had communicated with him via letters.

“I thank my wife who brought me something to eat every day,” Moyo told IPS. “The letters my wife communicated to me gave me hope as did visits from colleagues from the media. I thank God that I am out and united with my family.”

Jeffery Moyo was overcome with emotion after his release from Bulawayo Prison today, Jun. 16. The international correspondent, who works for IPS and the New York Times, among others, was detained for 21 days when the state refused to grant him bail, calling him a threat to national security. Moyo was arrested on May 26 on charges relating to the accreditation of his New York Times colleagues. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Horrible prison

Moyo was arrested in May 26 and detained in Central Police Station in Harare. He was later moved to the city of Bulawayo, 400km from Harare, and detained at the Bulawayo Central Police Station under conditions he described as horrible and traumatising.

“I was detained overnight at the Bulawayo Central Police Station under horrible conditions; no bedding, no blankets and I was sleeping on the concrete floor and there was no food at the police station.”

It was only to get worse. 

Moyo said conditions at the Bulawayo Prison were inhumane. He said he was placed in a crowded prison cell with 18 other people. The food was bad.

“Health wise I am okay but the food in prison is horrible,” he said explaining that he was served porridge with no sugar or salt, plain sadza (a type of maize or cassava porridge) and dried vegetables and beans without cooking oil.

Violated rights

Moyo’s lawyer Doug Coltart told IPS that his client’s detention was a series of appalling violations of his human rights. The state, after three weeks of opposing bail, made a turn around to say it had no case against Moyo and that the grounds it cited for opposing his bail were baseless.

This demonstrates precisely how the denial of bail at the magistrate’s court is being used to punish innocent people, Coltart said. He also noted that in being denied the right to see his wife and relatives as well as his extended detention, despite being granted bail, were all violations of Moyo’s rights.

“The prison officials continue to refuse to show us the purported error in the warrant of liberation and this raises our strong suspicion that it was all a lie and an abuse of the detention process to keep him for an extra night,” Coltart told IPS.

Moyo is set to appear in court on Jun. 24 in preparation for trial. If convicted he could face 10 years in jail. Media rights organisations have welcomed Moyo’s release.

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• Calls for Zimbabwean Journalist Jeffrey Moyo to be Given a Fair Trial after Bail is Denied

Small-holder farmer works on a community vegetable garden in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, Jun 16 2021 (IPS)

The number of people facing acute food insecurity has hit a five-year high, according to a recently released annual report by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) – an international alliance of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies working to tackle food crises. In addition, the report noted that 28 million people were one step away from starvation. This was attributed to conflict, economic shocks due to COVID-19 and climate change associated weather events.

The continued trajectory of increase in food insecurity is making it clear that our current food systems are not resilient.  Moreover, with climate change expected to continue to bring extreme events — from droughts to floods to invasive insects to deadly cyclones — it is likely going to get worse. We must urgently act to reverse these current trends.

The questions, then, become these: How can we reverse these worrisome trends? How can we ensure that people, across Africa and around the globe have the tools, technologies, and resources to be resilient to climate change?

Many farmers continue to rely on an agricultural system that remains rain-fed and underdeveloped. With limited access to infrastructure, current agricultural knowledge and reliable access to financial services, their ability to build a resilient agricultural system remains an unattainable dream

To answer these questions, we must re-examine the underpinning roots to food insecurity.

First off, most of the people affected by hunger live off the land, many as small holder farmers. They depend on agriculture, a sector that is highly vulnerable to climate change.

Furthermore, many farmers continue to rely on an agricultural system that remains rain-fed and underdeveloped. With limited access to infrastructure, current agricultural knowledge and reliable access to financial services, their ability to build a resilient agricultural system remains an unattainable dream.

Based on the challenges above, tackling rising food insecurity would greatly benefit from modernizing agriculture and making the agricultural sector resilient to climate change.

The good news is that building a resilient agricultural sector and dealing with climate-linked weather events such as drought, flooding, tropical cyclones, and insect invasions can benefit from science.  Science can help to develop climate-smart efficient water management technologies such as the drip irrigation, improved drought and flood tolerant crops and crops that are resistant to insects and plant diseases.  Also important are advances in improving and restoring soil health which is fundamental and key.

In addition to science, countries that continue to face food insecurity must invest in climate smart agricultural practices. As defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), climate smart agricultural practices are approaches that help to transform and reorient agricultural and food systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate.

These approaches aim to sustainably increase agricultural productivity, adapt, and build resilience to climate change and reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the science-based solutions above are regarded as climate smart strategies.

Coupled with building climate smart strategies, is the need to invest in early warning systems, to ensure that farmers and citizens who continue to face hunger are not caught unawares. To do so, it is important that countries have access to reliable data.

Building resilient agricultural sectors must also go hand in hand with rebuilding rural communities’ infrastructures. Local roads, rural water, energy, and other infrastructures that are critical to ensuring an efficient and functioning agricultural supply chain.  Investing in upgrading rural communities should also result in job creation for the rural poor. It also could curtail urban migration, which continues to be an issue affecting many African countries.

Finally, all the above cannot happen and be sustainable without the strong presence of the people that are affected by climate change. They must be at the conversation tables where decisions are being made, or there should be appropriate channels to solicit their thoughts. Without these initiatives being locally driven, and involving broad coalition of stakeholders, we risk delivering unsustainable solutions that are heavily disconnected from the needs.

The task of achieving food security for all remains an enormous challenge. As we continue to invest in climate-smart strategies, upgrade rural infrastructure, and utilize science derived data evidence to improve agriculture and mitigate climate change associated weather events, we will make progress. We must do everything we can to fight food insecurity.

Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a Senior Food Security Fellow with the Aspen Institute, New Voices.

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

By M. V. Ramana
VANCOUVER, Canada, Jun 16 2021 (IPS)

Looking through my emails for the last year, I was struck by how often the adjective “unprecedented” occurred. The term, of course, referred to the global Covid-19 pandemic. One would imagine that this unprecedented year would result in unprecedented trends in other aspects of life.

But this is not the case for preparations to kill lots of people. That for me is the message of the 2021 Yearbook from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which documents how global military spending continued to increase, armed conflicts continued in many parts of the world, and the nine countries possessing nuclear weapons continued to modernize their arsenals.

Among these continuities is the increase in global military expenditure, which SIPRI estimates at nearly two trillion dollars in 2020, 2.6 per cent higher than the corresponding figure for 2019 and 9.3 per cent higher than in 2011.

For comparison, the World Health Organization estimates that the total government budget allocations for the Covid-19 health response is about $560 billion. This disparity in spending demonstrates the skewed priorities of the ruling elites in countries around the world.

A small fraction of these expenditures—72 billion dollars, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) —went to maintaining or manufacturing more of the most destructive of these military armaments, nuclear weapons.

These weapons are held by a tiny minority of states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—that buck the international desire for nuclear disarmament. (In comparison, as of June 2021, 86 states have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; 54 have ratified the Treaty.)

Credit: United Nations
UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu attends the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 2020. Credit: United Nations

The SIPRI report includes a detailed update of the world’s arsenals from the Federation of the American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project, which estimates that at the start of 2021, the nine nuclear weapon states “possessed approximately 13 080 nuclear weapons, of which 3825 were deployed with operational forces”.

The continued existence of these weapons of mass destruction demonstrates that the institutions responsible for these nuclear arsenals continue to thrive and shape public expenditures, more than three decades after the cold war was declared over.

Misdirected expenditures are hardly the only problem with these arsenals. Of much greater concern is their destructive nature. Although known from the U.S. bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons technology has changed significantly since.

Many of the thirteen thousand plus nuclear weapons today would possess tens of times the explosive power of those two bombs. These nuclear weapons are to be delivered through means that are much more technically advanced than the B-29 bombers that flew to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The arsenals are also part of military arsenals that are bristling with a mind boggling variety of high-tech weapons. There is also the possibility that hackers could compromise the computers that control nuclear weapons or provide information to officials about impending nuclear attacks.

But there is an even more dangerous context to these weapons. Periods of great tension between many of the major nuclear powers are becoming frequent: for example, between the United States and Russia, between China and the United States, between India and China, between Pakistan and India, and between the United States and North Korea.

Relations between China and the United States, in particular, have taken a turn for worse with two recent developments. Domestically, the US Senate passed the Endless Frontier Act, which the New York Times argued was “testament to how commercial and military competition with Beijing has become one of the few issues that can unite both political parties”.

Internationally, the G7 group of rich nations have agreed to fall in line behind U.S. President Joe Biden and supported the Build Back Better World (B3W) plan, which is framed as an alternative to China’s belt and road initiative.

Analyst Andrew Lichterman points out that this competition is happening when the whole globe is “part of the capitalist circuit of trade and investment” and “there are fewer opportunities for the ‘accumulation by dispossession’ available to competing states that characterized past forms of colonialism and imperialism”.

Add to this the growth of blood and soil nationalisms in many countries. Thus, the current conjuncture is profoundly different from earlier rounds of great power competition, and the possibility of war between them should not be ruled out.

The only possible check to this collision course will be social movements. But unlike the Cold War era peace movements, the new movements will have to be multi-issue ones, tying together the struggles for arms control and nuclear disarmament with struggles for climate justice, against racial and gender injustice, for indigenous rights, and for an equitable and fair economic system that is not predicated on endless growth.

This won’t be easy, but the alternative is worse.

M.V. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, and a scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

The link follows: https://sppga.ubc.ca/profile/m-v-ramana/

 

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Yasmine Sherif

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 16 2021 (IPS)

The climate crisis is amplifying the effects of instability and violence in the world’s poorest countries. Nowhere is this more visible than in Africa’s Central Sahel region, where increasing temperature, floods, droughts and other climate change-induced disasters are triggering conflicts, displacement, and pushing girls and boys into the shadows.

As world leaders come together to celebrate Africa Climate Week, in the lead up to this year’s climate talks in the UK, they must look at education – especially education for girls – as a cornerstone in delivering on our promises for peaceful, low-carbon development in places like the Central Sahel.

Taken together with other actions, education for children and youth caught in climate change-induced emergencies and protracted crises is essential in delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals and reaching the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Forced displacement puts children at risk

Climate change may not be seen as a direct catalyst of conflict, but it is often the root-cause to conflict, leading to forced displacement, or exacerbates conflict dynamics. It is now clear that climate change undermines the ability of vulnerable communities to enjoy their human rights, such as the foundational right of education, hence be able to best cope and adapt.

Unpredictable rains and floods in the Central Sahel, which is warming faster than the global average, are severely impacting populations and their ability to safeguard the right to education, build stability, and end cycles of violence and poverty that severely hamper access to an inclusive quality education. Communities and nations are plagued for decades as a result and the number of out-of-school children and adolescents continues to rise.

More than 1.5 million people have been uprooted in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger alone, according to recent UN reports – most over the last two to three years. Some 13 million people – including 7 million children – are in urgent need of education, food, water, shelter, health.

This under-covered and underfunded emergency, fuelled by multiple overlapping insurgencies, has evolved rapidly for complex reasons. And the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with climate change are putting even more girls and boys at risk every day. Girls are especially affected, as they are the first to bear the brunt of a climate-induced disasters closing down schools and any access to education.

Africa’s Sahel region is at the centre of the accelerating climate crisis, and is “a canary in the coalmine of our warming planet,” according to UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, who describes the level of international aid to help these countries adapt to climate change as “ totally inadequate”.

Researchers say average temperatures across the Sahel rose 1 degree Celsius from 1950 to 2010 while average annual rainfall fell 4.1 cm, outpacing global trends. By the 2060s, temperatures are projected to be 1.2 to 3.6 degrees higher.

Severe drought occurred in the 1970s and 1980s in this region. Moving forward, most projections actually predict an increase in rainfall. While this should be good news for farmers that rely on rains to water their crops, it actually may not be: the rains will be different than before, and will come in extreme events, triggering floods, landslides and other disasters. All these climate impacts are happening on top of COVID-19, rapid population growth, protracted violence and insecurity, gender inequality, and pervasive poverty.

Climate change is a risk multiplier – especially for girls, children with disabilities and other marginalized groups. Conflicts over scarce water and land resources are triggering violence, displacing communities and pushing coping mechanisms to the breaking point. And when things break, children and youth are those who suffer the most. One example comes from Nigeria, where recent analysis indicates that climate change is driving recruitment by armed groups.

Change is on the way. Countries across the Central Sahel are mobilizing resources to address climate change as a mechanism to reduce conflict. But climate action is not enough. We must connect the dots with education and other sustainable development endeavours to achieve long-term results.

Climate action and girls’ education

Without an education, crisis-affected children and youth – especially girls – are at high risk of sexual exploitation, domestic work, early marriage, child labour, and both girls and boys at higher risk of recruitment by armed forces.

Girls and adolescent girls in vulnerable households are more likely to leave school to get married in times of weather-related crises to help ease the burden of scarce household resources. The droughts in Ethiopia in 2010-11, for example, were followed by an increase in the number of girls sold into marriage in exchange for livestock.

Women and girls make up 80 percent of climate refugees worldwide, according to the UN. Warning of the long-term impacts of climate change on migration, the World Bank has estimated that, without concerted action, over 140 million people could be displaced within their countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America by 2050.

Gathering evidence on how the climate displaced are overwhelmingly female and poor, Malala Fund’s recent report, A greener, fairer future: Why leaders need to invest in climate and girls’ education, estimates that climate-related events in 2021 will prevent at least 4 million girls in poorer countries from completing their education. On current trends, by 2025, climate change will be a contributing factor in preventing at least 12.5 million girls from completing their education each year.

Countries that have invested in girls’ education have suffered far fewer losses from droughts and floods than countries with lower levels of girls’ education. A 2013 study analysing the links between girls’ education and disaster risk reduction projected that if 70 per cent of women aged 20 to 39 received at least a lower-secondary education, disaster-related deaths in 130 countries could reduce by 60 per cent by 2050.

Connecting the dots

In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, over 8 million children aged 6 to 14 are out of school, representing almost 55 per cent of children in this age group, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in late 2020.

In response to the growing crisis, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) announced new multi-year resilience programs for the Sahel in January 2021, making catalytic investment grants of US$33.3 million across these three countries – with the goal of leveraging an additional US$117 million in co-financing from national and global partners, the private sector and philanthropic foundations. The new programs will reach an initial 300,000 children and youth impacted by climate change, displacement, conflict and COVID-19. Additional investments in Africa – and across the globe – are connecting the dots between education and climate action, with a particular focus on girls and adolescent girls.

Call to action

We cannot achieve 12 years of free, safe, quality education for every girl without climate action. It is time for donors and other global leaders to make the link between education and climate change, not just in theory but in their financing and programming decisions.

As the Malala Fund recently stated: “As leaders gather in 2021 to address the climate crisis at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and other events, they must not overlook one of the most powerful yet underused strategies in the fight against climate change: Providing girls with 12 years of quality education.”

Quality education means the empowerment of girls and adolescent girls, who one day will enable a pathway to peace, security and stability. An inclusive quality education means resilience, preventive action and reduced risks from natural disasters. It means access to greater incomes and preparedness in the face of future emergencies. It is a pathway to a more sustainable future for all children and young people.

And today, their needs, their voices and their call for change can no longer go unheard. It is time to connect the dots between climate change and education and recognize the sharp reality of what is at risk for them and for generations to come.

The Regional Climate Weeks 2021 Virtual Thematic Sessions for the Africa Region are taking place from 15-18 June 2021. These sessions focus on partnering for whole society engagement in implementation, managing climate risks and seizing transformation opportunities.

Regional Climate Weeks are open to all stakeholders as a ‘go-to’ hub to build partnerships and showcase ground breaking action in the regions. They are designed to encourage and facilitate implementation of ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, along with the implementation of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Long-Term Low greenhouse gas Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS), and Global Climate Action and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The Virtual Thematic Sessions are the second segment of the Climate Weeks.

http://sdg.iisd.org/events/regional-climate-weeks-2021-virtual-thematic-sessions-for-africa/

 

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• FEATURED TRANSLATION – FRENCH

Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

A Saint Lucian farmer surveys his crops, during the annual dry season. Amid reports that half of the earth’s agricultural land is degraded, countries are reporting on progress to halt land degradation. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 16 2021 (IPS)

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told the first United Nations General Assembly meeting on desertification and drought in a decade, that his country’s report card will show it is well on track to meet its land restoration commitments.

“In India, over the last 10 years, around 3 million hectares of forest cover has been added. This has enhanced the combined forest cover to almost one-fourth of the country’s total area,” the Prime Minister told the Jun. 15 gathering.

He added that the country is working towards restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. That goal is part of the 2019 Delhi Declaration, in which member countries of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) pledged to enact national drought plans and restore land and soil affected by desertification and drought.

Land degradation, or the deterioration of soil to the point that it is no longer able to support ecosystems, is caused by both climate change and human activity such as deforestation.

It is a global concern.

The UN classifies half of all agricultural land as degraded. The impacts are far-reaching. They include widening food insecurity, with the world’s crop yields estimated to fall by 10 percent by 2050. The knock-on effect will be a spike in food prices as high as 30 percent, which could send hunger levels skyrocketing.

Statistics like these are drivers for the pledges in the Delhi Declaration.

They have also spurred a renewed commitment by countries to work towards achieving 15.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals – the attainment of a land degradation-neutral world.

Land Degradation Neutrality or LDN refers to the revival of land and subsequent restoration of biological and ecosystem functions, through sustainable practices.

It is a concept adopted at various levels in Saint Lucia.

That country has tackled soil erosion and degradation through agroforestry. Forestry officials encourage and provide assistance to farmers to plant trees on their land, along with their crops. The trees help to protect the soil, the crops and nearby rivers, while providing an additional source of income for farmers.

“Our freshwater supply depends on the trees,” Saint Lucia’s Forestry Chief Alwin Dornelly told IPS.

“Storms, climate change and deforestation lead to land degradation. We had to rehabilitate Saint Lucia’s riverbanks. By encouraging farmers to plant some native forest crops along with other plants that have economic benefits, this is resulting in reforestation, stabilisation and an income for the farmers,” he said.

The small island states of the Caribbean have been battling crippling drought for the past 5 years. For many countries, prolonged drought leads to rationing by water companies.

In June 2020, the Saint Lucian government declared a water emergency, with the Prime Minister Allen Chastanet warning that it was the worst drought the country had seen in a half-century. He told the nation that water levels at the Jon Compton Dam, which supplies water to over half the island, were dangerously low.

It is a reality that regions across the world are facing.

According to the UN, climate change-fuelled desertification and drought, combined with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic put 34 million people at risk of famine. The organisation says 2021 will be a critical year for restoring balance with nature.

For Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad, restoration cannot be achieved in the absence of support from indigenous communities.

“We all know that for indigenous peoples there is no difference between human beings and nature. We are part of nature,” she told the UN High-Level Meeting.

“With our way of life, our traditional knowledge, if we want to protect the ecosystem, we need indigenous peoples and local communities in rural areas. They can restore the land, the ecosystem and contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation for a nature-based solution.”

President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir urged countries to step up funding for forest-based solutions to the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises.

“Currently, forests and agriculture receive less than 3 percent of climate finance but hold more than 30% of the solution to the climate crisis,” he said.

“For an estimated $ 2.7 trillion per year, comfortably within the scope of the proposed COVID spending, we could transform the world’s economies by restoring natural ecosystems, rewarding agriculture that keeps soils healthy, and incentivising business models that prioritise renewable, recyclable or biodegradable products and services.”

The UN is calling on countries to adopt Land Degradation Neutrality targets, halt unsustainable agricultural practices and strengthen the tenure rights and technical abilities of agricultural workers.

 

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• Living with Drought: Lessons from Brazil’s Semiarid Region
• Caribbean Communities Building Resilience through Water Harvesting

Excerpt:

Jun. 17 is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. Amid reports that half of the earth’s agricultural land is degraded, countries are reporting on progress to revive arable land and restore biodiversity and ecosystem functions.

The Cerro Corredor solar complex in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile became the largest photovoltaic plant in operation in Latin America when it was inaugurated on Jun. 8. CREDIT: Cerro Corredor

By Orlando Milesi
SANTIAGO, Jun 15 2021 (IPS)

Chile is in a privileged position in the world to produce green hydrogen and boost the development of the new fuel thanks to the country’s optimal conditions for generating solar and wind energy, but the large investment required and the scarcity of water are two of the biggest obstacles to overcome.

This South American nation’s National Green Hydrogen Strategy aims for Chile to produce the world’s cheapest green hydrogen by 2030, to become a major exporter by 2040 and to reach an electrolysis capacity of five gigawatts (GW) by 2025.

“Our main goal is to become one of the top three exporters of green hydrogen worldwide by 2030, producing approximately 2.5 billion dollars worth each year at the lowest global cost,” said Minister of Energy and Mining Juan Carlos Jobet.

“We are extraordinarily blessed with some of the best solar and wind resources in the world,” he said on Jun. 2, alluding to the heavy solar radiation in the northern Atacama Desert and the strong winds in Patagonia, in the southern Magallanes region.

Chile increased the goal for clean electricity generation to 40 percent by 2030, coinciding with the Jun. 8 inauguration in the northern region of Antofagasta of the Cerro Dominador Complex, which became the largest solar plant in Latin America. A goal in which green hydrogen is beginning to enter the equation.

According to Jobet’s calculations, by 2030 Chile will produce hydrogen at 1.50 dollars per kilo, a price competitive with fossil fuels. The minister forecasts a potential market of 25 billion dollars that same year.

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, was already used for refining oil, methanol or steel, for example, but was generated from fossil sources, thus contributing to the emission of polluting gases.

Green or renewable hydrogen, on the other hand, is a fuel obtained by electrolysis of water, a process that separates hydrogen from the oxygen contained in water, using electricity from clean sources, such as solar and wind power, so as not to contribute to global warming.

Energy represents 70 percent of the cost of this process, so it is crucial to boost the steady decline of prices of these sources in the country.

Marcelo Mena, a professor at the Catholic University of Valparaíso, former environment minister and member of the government’s Green Hydrogen Advisory Committee, told IPS that the Strategy “is possible, but it requires a change in the way industrial policy is made in Chile.”

“Unlike in history, where ideologies have led governments to say that the market has to choose the winners and not States, I believe that here we have to choose, stake our bets on and seek comparative advantages. Betting on what Chile is in terms of its production,” he said.

Mena argued that “a high level of financing is required in the transition” and gave as an example the subsidies in Germany, equivalent to some 700 million dollars a year, while “what we have put in so far is 50 million.”

“A more robust subsidy is needed, a greater amount of funds because they are emerging technologies that require reducing the risk for investors,” he said.

By way of example, Mena said “a large green hydrogen project, from one to two gigawatts, requires an investment of close to one billion dollars.”

According to Mena, a leading expert in energy transition, green taxes can provide part of these resources.

A mock-up of the Haru Oni plant, which is about to begin construction in the southern Chilean region of Magallanes, where it will take advantage of the abundant wind energy provided by the area’s strong winds. With an investment of 45 million dollars, it will produce ecological methanol based on green hydrogen and the resulting gasoline will be used in conventional vehicles. CREDIT: Siemens Energía

No lack of doubts

Consultant María Isabel González, manager of the company Energética and former executive secretary of the state-owned National Energy Commission, has doubts about the country’s bet on the so-called fuel of the future.

“Producing green hydrogen in Chile is an overly ambitious goal, which is not in line with the circumstances here. Just compare the investments being made in countries like Australia, with projects for more than 27 gigawatts and an investment of 36 billion dollars,” she remarked to IPS."What is needed is a strategic look at what is going to be done with water, waste, citizen participation, transmission, space demands. Everything has to be transparent and discussed with the community. Otherwise, those who could be our promoters may become detractors." -- Marcelo Mena

She also argued that the idea of green hydrogen stood in marked contrast to the energy poverty suffered by half of the population in this country of 17.5 million people, who still have no access to hot water, while thousands of households use firewood for heating.

“Obviously a developing country like Chile should first solve the basic needs of its population and in particular of those most in need,” González argued.

That is why she suggests delaying green hydrogen plans.

Mena agrees that energy poverty is a problem, but believes that the situation can be addressed simultaneously with the production of hydrogen.

“We can promote an industry that generates revenues of around 20 or 30 billion dollars a year and with these higher revenues we can electrify the energy mix by replacing polluting firewood, which is expensive and causes high levels of deforestation,” he said.

Another issue is that generating green hydrogen requires a lot of water. According to González, nine tons to produce one ton of hydrogen. But Chile is facing a major drought that has lasted for more than a decade.

She said “this could be solved with seawater desalination,” but added that “this is not our only disadvantage” and cited the “significant” problem of Chile’s distance from the main markets.

This long and narrow country nestled between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean can export its products through its Pacific coast ports, ship them up through the Panama Canal or transport them across several South American countries to reach the Atlantic.

Mena believes that “the amount of water required is much less and there are ways to find this water without causing conflict. One is desalination and another is the use of sewage that today is discharged raw into the sea in northern cities.”

The Canela Wind Farm, with wind turbines 112 meters high and an installed capacity of 18.15 megawatts, generates electricity with wind from offshore in the Coquimbo region of northern Chile. CREDIT: Orlando Milesi/IPS

Darío Morales, director of studies for the Chilean Renewable Energy Association (Acera), which represents companies and professionals in the sector, admitted to IPS that water is a challenge that should not be minimised.

But he also mentioned the desalination option and pointed out that “one of the objectives of developing the domestic hydrogen market is to use it to replace fossil fuels, the refining of which also uses significant amounts of water.”

The investment challenge

Morales also noted that the Strategy calls for five billion dollars to be invested in hydrogen development by 2025, “which is an enormous challenge, especially if we consider that this must be accompanied by a major boost for renewable energies.”

He said these clean energies should at least double their current generation capacity.

According to Minister Jobet, Chile has the capacity to generate 70 times more renewable electricity than what it produces today.

Mena said the Strategy includes “investments of over 300 Giga of solar energy. In terms of panels per person, this would be 15 KW of power, equivalent to 40 solar panels for each Chilean.”

He said it was important to submit the plans to a strategic environmental assessment that would allow for consultation on this policy and look at environmental aspects.

“What is needed is a strategic look at what is going to be done with water, waste, citizen participation, transmission, space requirements. Everything has to be transparent and discussed with the community. Otherwise, those who could be our promoters may become detractors,” he said.

He also warned that “today green hydrogen is not competitive.”

“Costs have to come down, like they did with solar energy, whose costs were reduced by 90 percent in a couple of decades,” Mena said.

González noted that “according to the International Energy Agency, one kilo of green hydrogen, which contains about 33.3 kWh, costs between 3.50 and 5.0 euros (each euro is equivalent to 1.22 dollars), which means between 100 euros/MWh and 150 euros/MWh.”

A glimpse of dawn amidst the steam from the geysers of El Tatio, in northern Chile. Geothermal energy is another clean, non-conventional energy, in this case also infinite, which Chile is beginning to harness with the Cerro Pabellón Geothermal Power Plant in the municipality of Ollagüe. CREDIT: Marianela Jarroud/IPS

“To be competitive it should reach around 60 euros/MWh, or around two euros per kilo,” she said.

The Strategy aims for a cost of 1.30 dollars/kg H2 by 2030 and 0.80 cents/kg H2 by 2050. One cost reduction would come from lower electricity prices. Another would come from economies of scale, for which it is essential to develop domestic demand.

To reach this goal, “policies for the development of specialised suppliers and local technological development should be promoted. If any of these pillars fail, it will be difficult to achieve the expected cost reductions,” said Mena.

Eduardo Bitran, designated as one of 20 ambassadors of green hydrogen by the government of Sebastián Piñera, said the domestic market is led by the mining industry. “Moving towards green mining is a starting point,” he said. This would be followed by use in long-distance heavy-duty transport and passenger transport.

He said the coronavirus pandemic “has made us realise the extent of global interdependence.”

“The great post-pandemic threat is climate change. This is the last decade to prevent the planet’s temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius,” he said at a meeting of the Innovation Club, which he chairs.

Countries with productive potential and other consumers agreed to join forces to turn hydrogen into an alternative to fossil fuels, during an international meeting organised in Santiago in preparation for the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) on climate change, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November.

Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom and the European Union will seek to make green hydrogen affordable and competitive, they agreed at a virtual meeting on Jun. 3.

Minister Jobet stated that “what we have to do as a planet to use this hydrogen at an accelerated rate is to reduce its cost, because it is still more expensive to produce, transport and store than its oil or gas alternatives.”

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Shafi Bhuiyan. Credit : ITMDs file photo

By Shafi Bhuiyan
TORONTO, Canada, Jun 15 2021 (IPS)

In Canada, we are fortunate to have many talented newcomers eager to contribute to the country, including thousands of doctors from Africa, Asia and the Middle East who meet Canadian standards but are blocked from becoming practicing physicians. These doctors are Canadian citizens and permanent residents with recognized training and experience.

Internationally Trained Medical Doctors (ITMDs), also known as International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are individuals who obtain their medical license outside of Canada. ITMDs face significant barriers to obtaining a medical license to practice in Canada (Wong & Lohfeld, 2008). Residencies must be completed to obtain a medical license in Canada, yet there are few residency positions available to ITMDs compared to those trained in Canada.

In 2011, over 1,800 International Medical Graduates competed for only 191 residency spots that were set aside for ITMD (Thomson & Cohl, 2011). After decades of employment experiences, still thousands of ITMDs must seek other employment opportunities. However, many are unable to find employment commensurate with their training, and some are unable to find employment at all (Environics Research Group, 2014).

If now isn’t the time for Ontario to make better use of the trained doctors who are already here, when will it ever be?

To practice medicine in Canada, ITMDs must have an approved medical degree and pass merit based qualifying exams, i.e. Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Exam 1 (MCCQE1), The National Assessment Collaboration Examination Objective Structured Clinical Examination (NAC OSCE), Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Exam 2 (MCCQE2). A large number of ITMDs have already met these requirements and are keen to serve Canadians who need access to healthcare.

During the pandemic, many of these doctors worked tirelessly to help Canadians stay healthy, even on a volunteer basis. Numerous graduates of Ryerson University’s unique ITMD Bridging Program, which helps internationally trained medical doctors transition into careers in the non-licensed health sector,have been hired to help with Ontario’s COVID-19 response.

A rapid survey of ITMD program alumni from recent cohorts (2019- 2021) was conducted by [Bhuiyan, Orin and Krivova, 2021] with the purpose of identifying their current status regarding licensure preparations to practice medicine in Canada. We targeted 100 alumni out of 277 through an online survey using SurveyMonkey, and we received 97 responses.

The rapid survey illustrated that 35% of these ITMDs have already completed the MCCQE1 and NAC OSCE. Despite being eligible to join residency programs, the wait time for residency opportunities is 4- 10 years. The remaining 65% of surveyed participants/ITMDs have not completed the medical licence qualifying exams; 44% of respondents are still considering this option, but are unsure.

Of those [35%] who have already passed the exams, many are still waiting on opportunities to complete residencies, while others are losing hope and interest in a future in clinical practice. Immigrant internationally trained doctors in Canada want and deserve equal opportunities to practise medicine.

There is an acute shortage of family doctors in Ontario’s rural and northern areas. Before the pandemic, Ontario needed thousands of new doctors within the next few years to keep up with those who are retiring and the increased needs of an aging population. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue and increased the need for doctors. Offering internationally trained immigrant professionals a clear path to use their medical experience and qualifications will positively impact the ITMDs as well as their surrounding communities.

ITMDs are skilled health professionals who immigrated with the potential of contributing to the Canadian healthcare system. Canadian demographic pattern is continually changing, which makes it vital to keep up with the diverse cultural needs andaddress inequity in Canadian healthcare system. Canadian long-term care facilities, ageing population, indigenous community, immigrants and migrant workers, and rural health care facilities, are now under pressure in these changing times.

Statistics show that Canada is at the lower end of OECD countries with average doctors per capita being 2.8/1,000 people where OECD countries have 3.5/1,000. It is imperative that we have more physicians in Canada.

To ensure a win-win situation in post-pandemic health care setting in Canada, let’s work together [academics, policy makers and civil society] to help support new immigrant health professionals and local community to ensure that no one will be left behind.

The author, Dr. Shafi Bhuiyan PhD is Asst. Professor, University of Toronto’s Institute for Pandemics and co-creator of the pilot MScCH Program at the DLSPH, University of Toronto; co-founder of ITMDs Post Graduate Bridge Training Program at the Chang School and Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University; Board Chair, Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research

 

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Fresh water for the residents of the Majengo slums on Kenya's coast has come on tap as part of a UN-Habitat rehabilitation project. Credit: UN-Habitat/Kirsten Milhahn

By Branko Milanović
NEW YORK, Jun 15 2021 (IPS)

Is Africa marginalised in contemporary economics and politics, and in contemporary economic and political research?

Impressions gathered over the years and a bit of evidence (much more could be assembled) indicate that it is. I would distinguish three types of marginalisation: objective, objectified and subjective marginalisation.

Caused by poverty

Africa is not at the forefront of the new economic and social issues which arise in the advanced economies. Nor does it have the funds to maintain numerous intellectuals who create ‘theories’ and an ‘intellectual climate’. Objectively, both problems are caused by poverty.

It is not by accident that economics developed in north-western Europe. Modern capitalism, financial crises, problems of displacement of labour by capital, the use of fiscal and monetary policy to wage wars and so on were first encountered there.

This continues to the present day — albeit Modern Monetary Theory, outsourcing, artificial intelligence and the like have taken the place of Adam Smith’s discussion of the ‘invisible hand’ or David Ricardo’s disquisition on the role of machinery. None of these cutting-edge issues is present in less-developed countries.

Poor countries are thus attractive as a field of research — but nothing more.

Poorer countries also lack resources to maintain the intellectual class which could promote ‘their’ (domestic) issues and they thus become mere consumers of the ideas produced in the rich countries.

Branko Milanović

That has led to accusations of global-northern ideological hegemony but this is largely independent of one’s will: it is built into the very system of economics and other social sciences. We can deplore it but not much can be done about it.

At times it is reversed — as when such topics as industrialisation, central planning, land reform, saving and accumulation came to play an important role in economics. But this was exceptional and we are back to the ‘normal’ division of intellectual labour between rich and poor countries.

Ethical concerns

By objectified marginalisation I mean that, while Africa does not autonomously generate topics to be studied, it is often used as a ‘research field’ for themes defined by the north to be examined.

These topics may or may not however have much to do with African countries and may or may not have any real effect on the ground in Africa.

Consider randomised controlled trials. RCTs have long been plagued by ethical concerns (as well as questionable replicability). These arise because poorer countries and poor people implicated in them do not have much agency — or often even full understanding of what is happening and what they are supposed to do.

They are unable to shape projects or participate meaningfully.

Moreover, poor people’s participation is cheap since, when compensated, the amounts received are a fraction of what would need to be paid in rich countries for similar participation (assuming that such projects would ethically pass muster there).

Poor countries are thus attractive as a field of research — but nothing more.

Last year a project in Kenya randomly turned off water to households in default on their fees — to find out how they would react and at what point lack of water would force them to pay the municipality.

One could not imagine a similar project in which, say, households in New York or Paris, late in the payment of some city dues, would be treated in the same manner.

I have seen how foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) used to determine, and still frequently do, the research agenda in eastern Europe.

Often such projects have very little domestic ownership — even if on paper it might appear different. Northern consultants (who need such projects to write scientific papers or justify their fees) have huge power over local academics and communities.

They hold the purse strings: if one academic refuses to participate, another will easily be found.

This does not necessitate outright corruption, but incentives (fees, travel, co-authorship) are flashed in front of local counterparts. The economist Angus Deaton recently declared: ‘Using poor people to build a professional CV should not be accepted.’

Self-induced

These problems are not unique to Africa — they are experienced by all less-developed countries. I have seen how foreign-funded non-governmental organisations used to determine, and still frequently do, the research agenda in eastern Europe — until some of these countries became richer, their academic community stronger and more self-confident.

But African countries have contributed to their marginalisation by not having developed stronger academic and political counterparts. Such subjective marginalisation is self-induced.

For instance, the reaction in 1998 of the academic community and policy-makers in South Korea to an austerity programme imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the lack of reaction of intellectual communities in many African countries when exposed to even tougher IMF programmes.

South Korean academics went on the offensive, using extensive connections with their counterparts in the United States, and the west generally, to push back on IMF proposals. Outside of South Africa, I am not aware of anything similar in over half a century of African countries’ relations with the IMF.

If one puts the three causes of marginalisation together, they clearly flow from structural impotence to potential influence.

The self-marginalisation is even more puzzling because it cannot be put down to lack of knowledge of the world’s dominant language. The elites in all African countries are perfectly fluent in English and French — many in both.

By contrast, many eastern Europeans and some Asians are unfamiliar with English, which cuts them off from the most up-to-date research — even from mundane knowledge of whom to contact and how.

Early successes

If one puts the three causes of marginalisation together, they clearly flow from structural impotence to potential influence. There is nothing to be done about ‘objective’ marginalisation short of Africa growing faster, getting richer and thus provoking more interest — success always leads to interest — and in the process becoming financially able to shape the agenda.

This is what China has done. ‘Objectified’ marginalisation would similarly largely take care of itself with greater wealth, even if it might take longer to overturn.

It is in the subjective marginalisation where governments could reap some early successes: it requires spending a higher share of gross domestic product on research, creating much better universities and think tanks, and attracting foreign researchers who, if they were to live longer in African countries (not just visit for a fortnight), would no longer see African issues as a good way to publish a paper but would fully participate in academic life.

In addition, it requires building much stronger ties between the domestic research community and government. Then African countries could take more initiative and exercise more ownership when it comes to policy advice proffered from the global north.

This article is a joint publication by Social Europe and IPS-Journal.

Branko Milanović is a visiting professor at the City University of New York. Prior to that, he was, among other things, senior economist of the research department at the World Bank. For his book Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization he won the Hans-Matthöfer-Prize awarded by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Most recently he published Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World.

 

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Euratom inspectors conduct safeguards inspections at URENCO in the Netherlands. Credit: IAEA/Dean Calma

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 2021 (IPS)

The world’s nine nuclear armed states have downsized their military arsenals, but made up for their loss by increasing the number of weapons on high operational alert, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

As a result, the world is increasingly within striking distance of nuclear weapons—either by accident or by design.

The most vulnerable region is Asia, which is home to four of the world’s nine nuclear powers, namely, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea, the rest being the US, UK, France, Russia and Israel.

The study says the nine countries collectively possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021.

This was a decrease from the 13, 400 that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2020, since some of these weapons have gone into “retirement”.

But despite this overall decrease, the estimated number of nuclear weapons currently deployed with operational forces increased to 3,825, from 3,720 last year.

Around 2,000 of these—nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the US—were kept in a state of high operational alert ready for a strike.

World nuclear forces, January 2021

Source: SIPRI Yearbook 2021

While the US and Russia continued to reduce their overall nuclear weapon inventories by dismantling retired warheads in 2020, both are estimated to have had around 50 more nuclear warheads in operational deployment at the start of 2021 than a year earlier.

Russia also increased its overall military nuclear stockpile by around 180 warheads, mainly due to deployment of more multi-warhead land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

The deployed strategic nuclear forces by both countries remained within the limits set by the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), although the treaty does not limit total nuclear warhead inventories, according to SIPRI.

Meanwhile, a new report released last week by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), warned that nuclear-armed states spent $72.6 billion on their nuclear weapons – even as the pandemic spread in 2020, an increase of $1.4 billion from 2019.

The report, Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending, showcases how during the pandemic, which had devastating health and economic consequences last year, governments were increasingly channeling tax money to defence contractors, which in turn increased the amounts to lobbyists and think tanks to encourage a continued increase of spending.

Out of the $72.6 billion that countries spent on nuclear weapons in 2020 globally, $27.7 billion went to less than a dozen defence contractors to build nuclear weapons, which in turn spent $117 million lobbying and upwards of $10 million funding most major think tanks writing about nuclear weapons.

“The climate and Covid emergencies are showing us what we really need for our security and safety as human beings, and it’s not nuclear weapons,” said Dr Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy (AIDD) and a UK-based member of ICAN’s Steering Group.

“The UN system is struggling because its efforts to build cooperative peace and security are constantly undermined and strangled by aggressive nation states. Most people can see we need cooperation and sharing to solve global challenges, from vaccines to sustainable resources,” she told IPS.

But a minority of governments with nuclear dependencies and militaristic economies create the most dangers for everyone, said Dr Johnson.

“With their aggressive posturing, new types of weapons and corrupt selling practices they arm rivals, feed insecurity and wars, and undermine international security, law and human rights, she warned.

“As the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force this year, it has come as little surprise to see some governments kick back with extra bells and whistles on their pointless and insecure nuclear weapons”.

She said privileged governments with vested interests have engaged in similar angry retaliations when faced with other international treaties that bring much-needed legal constraints.

Professor M. V. Ramana, Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security, and Director, Liu Institute for Global Issues, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, told IPS the ICAN report documents the power of the political control wielded by companies involved in nuclear weapons production and maintenance is.

These companies profit enormously from their involvement in making these weapons of mass destruction and use a share of these profits to lobby for and shape the decision-making process in ways that further their profits, and loosen any semblance of democracy in this sphere, he said.

“To have such actions continue during a global pandemic is shocking, and reveals the completely misguided priorities of these nuclear weapon states and their allies,” said Dr Ramana, a scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

According to a breakdown provided by ICAN on global spending on nuclear weapons, the US leads the list:

• United States: $37.4 billion
• China: $10.1 billion
• Russia: $8 billion
• United Kingdom: $6.2 billion
• France: $5.7 billion
• India: $2.4 billion
• Pakistan: $1 billion
• North Korea: $667 million

The top 5 companies profiting from nuclear weapon contracts were:

• Northrop Grumman ($13.6 billion)
• General Dynamics ($10.8 billion)
• Lockheed Martin ($2 billion)
• Raytheon Technologies ($449.5 million)
• Draper ($342 million)

 

 

Dr Johnson said stigmatising and banning nuclear weapons not only affects the profits of military-industrial businesses, but the careers of many bureaucrats, academics and politicians who for decades have promoted spending taxpayer’s money on these weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) instead of investing more in their countries’ health, education, peace-building relations and environment-saving technologies.

“Like all peace and security objectives, nuclear disarmament is not a one-off project, but a transformative process that needs to be built and maintained throughout our lives.’

She said the TPNW puts UN bodies and activists in a stronger position in terms of international norms and law, but as will be seen as States Parties hold their first meeting in 2022, we have a lot of work ahead of us to construct the vital institutional, humanitarian and verification infrastructures for the Treaty to become universally effective.”

“Nuclear weapons still have the potential to cause great harm, so these dying kicks of nuclear colonialism need to be stopped. In Britain, many are now promoting the TPNW while campaigning for ‘Nurses not Nukes’ and accusing Boris Johnson’s government of violating Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations with recent policies that increase the role and numbers of UK nuclear weapons,” said Dr Johnson.

“ICAN’s recent nuclear spending report ‘Complicit’ deals with another dimension where civil society can exert very effective pressure. Not only does ICAN expose the high financial costs to the nuclear armed governments (and therefore people), but also names some of the major military-industrial and bureaucratic-academic profiteers”.

She said naming names is important, as civil society continues to lift the covers and expose the corrupt and dependent relations that have kept nuclear weapons in business since 1945.

Thalif Deen is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defence Marketing Services; Senior Defence Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group. He is also the co-author of “How to Survive a Nuclear Disaster” (New Century,1981).

 

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Excerpt:

On the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons last September, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres underscored the need to “reverse course and return to a common path to nuclear disarmament”.

Credit: Bantonglaoatang

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 15 2021 (IPS)

Last week, the largest rich countries, home to most major transnational corporations (TNCs), agreed to a global minimum corporate income tax (GMCIT) rate. But the low rate proposed and other features will deprive developing countries of their just due yet again.

New race to bottom
On 5 June, the Group of Seven largest rich countries (G7) agreed that TNCs should all pay GMCIT of at least 15%. This rate is just over half President Biden’s promise of a 28% US CIT rate during last year’s election campaign.

The G7’s 15% GMCIT rate is also almost 30% less than US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s 21% proposal. Her proposal was aligned with Trump’s much reduced CIT rate, rather than Biden’s 28% vow.

Unbelievably, this cut rate has been hailed as a “game changer” by the new Australian Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) chief and the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, among others.

Many have called for a GMCIT, especially those long concerned with reduced fiscal means. Notably, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) called for a 25% GMCIT to enhance development finance.

On average, official CIT rates have fallen by twenty percentage points since 1980. In high-income countries, they fell from 38% in 1990 to 23% in 2018. Meanwhile, they fell from 40% to 25% in middle-income countries (MICs), and from over 45% to 30% in low-income countries (LICs). Despite such lowered rates, TNCs still minimise paying tax.

Fiscal crises force tax reform
Contemporary fiscal crises have been decades in the making. The tax counter-revolution of recent decades cut not only public spending, but also tax revenue. Developments in the last dozen years have forced an ongoing fiscal policy turn.

The 2008 global financial crisis was met by massive financial bailouts and recovery measures. Declining tax revenue in earlier decades and its sharp decline during the Great Recession compelled related policy rethinking.

Meanwhile, debilitating inter-country tax competition remains unaddressed. Now, the pandemic has enhanced efforts to boost fiscal means to finance contagion containment as well as economic relief and recovery.

TNCs’ ‘base erosion and profit shifting’ (BEPS) practices are hardly new, having long adversely affected developing countries. To be sure, all countries have lost much tax revenue to such practices.

TNCs use ‘trade mis-invoicing’ – i.e., ‘paper transactions’ among linked companies – and ‘tax havens’ to minimise overall tax liability on their profits and income. Thus, effective tax rates are even lower, with many paying little in fact.

In 2013, the OECD launched its BEPS project, at the behest of the Group of Twenty (G20) largest economies, to reform taxation of TNC digital commerce (Pillar 1) and propose a GMCIT rate (Pillar 2).

ICRICT estimated yearly global revenue losses at minimally US$240bn, or 10% of global CIT revenue. Despite falling rates, CIT is still significant for government revenue, at 13-14% of global tax revenue, and 9.3% in OECD countries.

Between devil and deep blue sea
The OECD has long limited international tax cooperation to arrangements for its wealthy country members. Its BEPS proposal’s 12.5% minimum rate would raise no more than US$81bn in additional revenue yearly. Unsurprisingly, about 75% of the additional tax revenue envisaged would go to its rich member states.

The G7 proposal’s main attraction is that it seems simpler than the OECD blueprints. If more TNCs are taxed, than just a few large TNCs with profit rates over 10%, CIT revenue would rise significantly. For Yellen, a minimal Pillar 2 CIT rate on about 8,000 TNCs would yield much more.

For the G7, host countries will only have the right to tax 20% of ‘excess profits’ (over 10%) from the largest, most profitable firms. In the OECD draft, ‘residual’ profit untaxed by home – headquarters or ‘source’ – countries may be taxed by host countries.

Calculating and apportioning excess profit will always be moot. As home countries have the right to tax the ‘residual’, or balance untaxed by host countries, developing countries will have no more reason to offer tax incentives to attract foreign direct investment.

Both OECD and G7 proposals favour TNC home countries, even when host countries are the main profit source. Also, mechanisms to distribute ‘extra’ tax revenue would mainly benefit the richest countries, home to most large TNCs.

Incredibly, location of TNC production or employment, often in developing countries, is irrelevant for defining host countries. With generally lower incomes, developing countries are relatively less significant as sales jurisdictions except for affordable, mass-consumed goods and services.

Tax injustice rules
Some governments are expected to seek – and gain – exemptions to protect special interests, further eroding the already modest G7 proposal, e.g., the UK reportedly wants to exclude financial services. Also, some low tax countries are among those sowing doubts about the G7 proposal.

Meanwhile, tax justice campaigners have noted the painfully obvious: the G7’s 15% minimum is too low – much lower than average rates in most MICs and LICs, and closer to rates in tax havens like Singapore, Switzerland and Ireland. The rate is seen as reflecting G7 interests and preferences.

Instead, the G24 inter-governmental group of developing countries at the IMF and World Bank urges greater priority for host countries. The G24 and African Tax Administration Forum have also proposed various practical measures. These include distributing TNCs’ global profits among countries on a formulaic basis, considering factors such as production and employment, not just sales.

An IMF policy paper also argues for greater priority for LIC interests. It urges a simpler system, given their capacity constraints, and the critical need for “securing the tax base on inward investment”.

But achieving a fair and effective outcome is difficult. According to the Tax Justice Network, a 21% minimum rate would yield US$640bn more annually. Tax equity campaigners’ other proposals are also generally fairer to developing countries.

Reverse race to bottom
The G7 has lowered the GMCIT to 15%, close to the OECD’s 12.5% proposal, and much lower than Yellen’s 21%, Biden’s 28% and the ICRICT’s 25%. But the G20 could still reverse this downward trend as it can decisively influence the OECD BEPS Inclusive Framework outcome.

A related option is to begin implementation as soon as possible at a certain lower rate, with an irrevocably scheduled commitment to quickly raise the GMCIT rate according to a pre-set timetable to, say, 25%.

Much more remains to be done, much of it urgently. Developing countries can only seek tax justice on more neutral ground provided by truly multilateral forum, namely at the United Nations with the IMF providing needed technical support.

For the time being, however, the participation of many developing countries, mainly MICs, in the skewed OECD BEPS IF has to be urgently addressed to ensure its outcome is not detrimental to their medium- and long-term interests.

 

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Rabina Khan

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Jun 14 2021 (IPS)

In 2015, When Rabina Khan was running as an independent candidate in the Tower Hamlets’ mayoral elections in London, a male voter asked her what colour her hair was under her veil. Rabina replied and said, it was pink. This small interaction is what got Rabina inspired to write her book, My Hair is Pink Under This Veil.

The book is about a Muslim woman living in the United Kingdom and how she reconciles her faith with British culture to construct a successful political career against the backdrop of blame, bias, ignorance and misogyny. Rabina Khan through her own personal experience of wearing a Hijab, also highlights the outdated views about Muslim women, challenges the notions of what a Muslim woman can or can’t do and also questions the stereotypes.

“The reason why I responded in that manner was to question the notion that hijab wearing muslim women had no interest in hairstyles, vibrant colors, or fashion,” says Rabina Khan in an interview to me.

“There has always been this narrative around Muslim women that we are seen to be oppressed, we do not have a life, we do not anticipate to become professionals in different sectors or that we become politicians. Women like us, women of color, women of faith, do have a difficult time in mainstream society because we are seeing stereotypes, racism, and prejudice,” Rabina says.

Over the last few years, the United Kingdom has seen Islamophobia rise at a very disturbing rate. In 2011, Lady Warsi claimed that Islamophobia was socially acceptable in Britain, and “passed the dinner-table test”.

In 2015, the Muslim Council of Britain warned of increasing levels of Islamophobia in the UK after a few videos were posted online showing anti-Muslim abuse on public transport.

UN experts had warned of a ‘stark increase’ in hate crimes across the UK, post-Brexit vote in 2018. The UN Special Rapporteur on racism, xenophobia and intolerance, E. Tendayi Achiume said, “it was worrying that the anti-migrant, anti-foreigner rhetoric, developed around the campaign in favour of Brexit had become widespread in society, going as far as to add that a hateful and stigmatising discourse had become “normalised” – even involving some high-ranking officials”.

In 2019, a week after the Christchurch mosque attacks in New Zealand, the number of reported hate crimes against Muslims in the U.K. soared by 5. 93%. Muslims in Oxford, Southampton and Colindale, North London had reported “gun gestures or firearms noises being directed at them”.

Last year in 2020, a dossier of more than 300 allegations of Islamophobia against Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other members of the Conservative party had been submitted to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to launch a formal investigation.

Another report by The Labour Muslim Network, which is the largest group of Muslim members and supporters of Labour in one its reports stated that, more than one in four Muslim members and supporters of Labour partt – 29 percent – have experienced Islamophobia within the ranks of Labour party, “stemming from ignorance and systemic racism, which may not be overt but does exist.”

Just a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a qualified apology for offence caused by his past remarks about Islam, including a 2018 newspaper column in which he referred to women wearing burqas as “going around looking like letterboxes” and likened their appearance to bank robbers. A report in 2019 found that Islamophobic incidents rose by 375 percent the week after Boris Johnson’s article, with 42 percent of reported racist abuse in the streets of the UK directly referencing his language.

“His (Boris Johnson) comments had a profound effect, and a damaging effect on Muslim women, and specificially towards Muslim women in veil,” says Rabina.

“It is really important for politicians to be careful the way they depict Muslim women, and people of faith, whether they are Hindus, Sikhs, Christians or Jews, they have got to be careful because by demonising people, you push people back and not with you.

“There are 3.3 million Muslims living in the UK today, making billions of contributions for the British economy, we are a huge population and we are a big voter sector that should be valued and respected. So whilst I welcome Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologising, I also give credit to the Conservative party, because they were the party in government who introduced Sharia law finance for Muslim communties, so if they have managed to do that, I am sure they can manage to address the Islamophobic behaviour,” says Rabina.

For British Muslims and people of colour, hate crimes against minorities have become a new normal in the country. Many have chosen to leave the United Kingdom as it has become “too dangerous to stay”. Hate crimes have now been extended to Britain’s East and Southeast Asian communities as well, which has seen a 300-percent increase since the UK was placed under its first lockdown due to the coronavirus surge across the country.

These negative characterizations of minority groups in the United Kingdom perpetuates the view that minority groups embody the most extreme ‘other’ characteristic traits, or that they are a risk to national security due to dangers associated with inherent radicalisation or in the case of Islamophobia, that muslim voices of resistance are untrustworthy.

Whether it is Islamophobia, Xenophobia, hate crime against different communities or normalization of Islamophobia by politicians in the United Kingdom, all of it raises multiple questions whether they are simply a manifestation of a deeply rooted anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment in British politics. If so, then it is high time Britain changes its political culture and discourse and moves towards becoming an inclusive society that it was, atleast until a few years ago.

Prejudices, biases and political underrespresentation of ethnic minorities have often been used as a political tool during elections, but a government’s progress or a political leaders progress is determinded not just based on apologies issued for ‘past comments on Islam’, but on the overarching actions taken to ensure equality, inclusivity and mechanisms put in place to protect against such attacks or statements in the future, which should be considered not just offensive, but also an offence. Britain must fix it’s Anti-muslim sentiment problem and do it without othering the community and it’s people. As Rabina says, “double standard is a structural inequality that perpetuates bigotry, racism and Islamophobia.”

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.

 

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Charcoal sold in urban centres is usually illegally imported from Mozambique and Zambia, where charcoal has traditionally been produced. But this energy source is now being produced in Muzarabani District in Mashonaland Central Province close to the border with Mozambique, according to the Forestry Commission. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Jun 14 2021 (IPS)

Once a week a tonnage of fresh charcoal is dropped off at Sibangani Tshobe’s rugged, pit-stop stall by a hired, battered old Bedford lorry. Small, makeshift trolleys — nicknamed Scania’s — quickly cart off small loads and disappear into Old Pumula, the oldest suburb in the country’s second-largest city of Bulawayo.

Electricity blackouts have temporarily stopped in Zimbabwe, but higher power costs and an occasional cold spell still offer Tshobe a chance to make a few dollars.

“I sell a bag of charcoal for $7 and it is good business for me,” Tshobe tells IPS, indicating to a 50 kg polythene bag from other traders that is split into smaller bundles that he sells for $1.

High costs of electricity for cash-strapped Zimbabweans — the country has a poverty rate of just over 38 percent, according to the World Bank —  means that the demand for firewood for cooking, lighting and heating has increased.

And so too has the destruction of Zimbabwe’s fragile forests.

“With the high cost of electricity what does one do? This is a means to fend for my family. I am aware our business means destroying trees but we have to live,” Tshobe says.

Felling forests to keep warm

Each year, Zimbabwe loses about 60 million trees — some 33,000 hectares of forests — thanks to illegal deforestation, according to the the Forestry Commission, a body mandated to protect state forests.

Charcoal making is increasing the loss of indigenous forests and also increasing land degradation, says Violet Makoto, spokesperson for the Forestry Commission.

“Charcoal is happening and is a worrying trend necessitated by the energy challenges the country is facing. Yes, a few months back we had an issue of no electricity, so charcoal was coming in handy for cooking, especially in urban areas. Now, in most parts, electricity is available but beyond the reach of many due to the high tariffs,” Makoto tells IPS.

Charcoal production is depleting indigenous forests in Zimbabwe where hardwood trees are preferred to make charcoal. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Charcoal – favoured for burning hotter and longer than wood – is made from heating wood without oxygen. The practice is taking root across swathes of the country, dominated by native forest hardwoods such as the mopane hardwood species (Copaifera mopane J), Makoto says.

Charcoal sold in urban centres is usually illegally imported from Mozambique and Zambia, where charcoal has traditionally been produced. But this energy source is now being produced in Muzarabani District in Mashonaland Central Province close to the border with Mozambique, according to the Forestry Commission. The Midlands province, Mashonaland West Province and Matabeleland North province were also hot spots for charcoal production, says Makoto.

In Matabeleland North province charcoal producing areas include Hwange Colliery Concession, Gwayi River Farms and resettlement villages along the Bubi-Nkayi boundary, says Armstone Tembo, the Forestry Commission Chief Conservator of Forests. 

“We have been carrying out raids and confiscating the charcoal but our problem is that we are aware that even if we confiscate the charcoal people still go to those areas and cut down more trees and produce charcoal,” she says.

Last year, more than 30 people were arrested and fined for trading in charcoal with 1,9 tonnes of charcoal confiscated.

This year, more than 1,000 bags of charcoals were confiscated and 10 people arrested and charged for making and selling charcoal.

“We need a lasting solution that can completely eliminate charcoal making in the country. Maybe crafting new laws to directly address the issue of charcoal production in Zimbabwe would help.”

The production, marketing and even consumption of charcoal are crimes, unless one is buying charcoal made from exotic trees, according to Abednego Marufu, the Forestry Commission’s General Manager. Marufu says that there was an exception for timber companies who harvested exotic tree species, such as wattle, for charcoal making.

Charcoal from hard wood trees is wiping out forests in most part of Africa because of rising energy needs. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Tighter laws for culprits

The Forestry Commission is pushing for tighter laws to curb the practice, proposing a mandatory jail term, instead of fines, which are proving not sufficient deterrent. Currently anyone caught selling firewood and charcoal can receive a Level 7 fine for $59 or a year in jail.

“The Level 7 fine for people in communal areas is deterrent enough what is required by us is enforcement and we are working with the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Rural District Councils and the Environmental Management Agency to curb this activity,” Marufu says.

“We envisage a mandatory jail term rather than optional fines so that people can go to jail for three months. We feel it will be painful enough for people to understand that environmental crimes are serious.”

However, stricter fines are not necessarily the answer to issue, some activists note.

“The constant rise of electricity is unsustainable not just for consumers who are poor and unemployed but also for businesses because electricity is a key component of both the domestic and household economy,” Effie Ncube, a civil rights activist, tells IPS. He adds that high costs of electricity are also pushing up the costs of basic goods and services.

Last September, the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), the holding company of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), increased charges by 50 percent. These were increased by a further 30 percent in May. The increases were attributed to the high costs of importing electricity.

Soaring prices of basic food stuffs, food, fuel and energy are driving Zimbabweans to poverty, says Comfort Muchekeza, Southern region Manager of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, arguing that government needs to restore economic production for consumers to afford electricity.

“Energy is a really a sensitive issue,” Machemedza tells IPS by telephone. “It is high time the government comes up with alternative sources of energy and invites other players into the energy sector.  The cost of electricity today has gone beyond the reach of not only the ordinary consumers but even the middle class. Since September last year we have seen more than three increases in electricity and that is worrying.”

Wood fuels represent significant economic value in many countries, accounting for approximately $ 6 billion for the whole of Africa, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). More than $1 billion of this amount was made up by charcoal.

“Zimbabwe needs to invest in wide scale alternative energy sources like wind and solar so that people have access to affordable and clean energy at a time when firewood and charcoal are widely use but these have a serious environmental impact,” says Ncube.

 

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By Daud Khan
ROME, Jun 14 2021 (IPS)

Italy, as other countries, has been struggling to balance the health and economic challenges posed by COVID-19. Controlling the spread of the virus implied restrictions on economic activity, on school and college attendance, and on personal movement. It also had to deal with the economic and social implications of a fall of almost 10% in GDP. This has been hard for a country which, even before the pandemic, was one of the slowest growing economies in Europe, with unemployment, especially among young people in the South of the country, at alarming levels.

Daud Khan

So far the Government main response to the economic crisis has been to try to spend its way out. Support and subsidies to enterprises, as well as to individuals, have been ramped up. Much of this has been funded by borrowing and public debt, already high at 130%, has shot up to 160% of GDP. The Government also placed a moratorium on dismissal and firing of workers until the end of June, and there is talk of extending this even further. The moratorium has kept official unemployment down but it is clear that the numbers of those out of work looks set to increase sharply. Getting the economy going is thus imperative.

Fortunately, over the last couple of months there has been good news with regard to the spread of the virus. The rate of new infections been dropping, the pressure on hospital and Intensive Care Units have eased, and COVID-related death rates have been falling. At the same time, vaccination programs have been moving ahead. These trends led to a decision by the Government to start on a gradual easing of restrictions. As of 26 April students were allowed to return to schools, colleges and universities; theatres, cinemas and museums were allowed to have visitors; and restaurants and bars were allowed to stay open also in the evening, provided they had tables in the open air. In addition, a timetable for further easing of restrictions was announced, with a special focus on facilitating tourism in the critical summer period.

However, as many epidemiologists were quick to point out, the Government’s moves may prove premature. Death rates remain significant, much higher than last summer before the second wave hit. Vaccinations are proceeding with 26 million doses administered so far but only about nine million Italians, out of a total of a total population of 60 million (l15% of the population), has had the required two doses.

Moreover there are dangerous new variants lurking in the wings – most worryingly is the B.1.617.2 mutation (the so-called Indian variant). The Government has placed tight restrictions on those travelling back from South Asia asking some of them to quarantine in special COVID hotels. However, there are large communities of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Italy. Many of these people live in crowded, ghetto-like, conditions, ideal for the spread of the virus. There have already been some cases of the Indian variant near Rome and the Government has imposed strict lockdowns in these areas. But it remains a very worrisome situation.

In announcing the reopening measure, the Prime Minister said that the Government was taking a “calculated risk”. Several leading medical experts were quick to respond that the calculations were done badly and failed to adequately assess costs and benefits.

The outcome of the recent measures will play out in the coming months. The country may plunge back into the pandemic or else move rapidly towards normalization. However, the so called normalization may only be a superficial phenomenon. The Pandemic has created, or often exacerbated, several deeper changes in Italian society. The country will have to struggle with these for several years.

The pandemic and the lockdowns are created a growing unease among the population, especially among younger people. There are strident calls for “Liberty” and this often translates into a strong unwillingness to follow Government SOPs. Despite continuous warnings by authorities, many people simply do not maintain social distancing, do not wear face-masks, and gather in large groups especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

The feeling of oppression, a mistrust of authority, and a search for alternative realties are not new phenomena. However, the pandemic has sharply split society between those who see Government, Science and Rules as things for the common good; and those who are who feel alienated and are constantly searching for conspiracy theories to justify their actions.

The pandemic has also very sharply increased income and wealth inequality, and this has stoked feelings of helplessness and a lack of optimism in the future. One of the consequences of this was a sharp fall in marriages, an increase in divorces, and, most worryingly, an unwillingness to have children. In 2020, the birth rate, already low and lagging behind the death rate, reached its lowest level ever – around 400,000 a fertility rate of only 1.24 – well below the number of deaths (750,000). In a recent speech that touched on this issue, Pope Francis called it a “demographic winter, cold and dark”.

The pandemic has seen the significant faltering of traditional politics and leadership. The political parties have been continuously bickering. After several rather odd coalitions between the strangest of bed-fellows, the President had to ask a non-politician (the former head of the Italian and European Central Banks to take over as Prime minister. The traditional institutions failed even to manage the vaccination campaign and a uniformed serving general, sometimes referred to as the TV general due to his frequent public appearance, was placed in charge of the campaign.

The populist parties, some of which are part of the ruling coalition, continue to fan social and economic tensions and rail against restrictions. For example, when the Government confirmed continuation of the 10:00 pm curfew, one of the Ministers made a statement that no one would be fined if they were out after 10:00pm – provided they could show that they were at a restaurant, returning from work, or a host of other reasons. All of this made a mockery of the curfew as the police and other authorities have confused about what action they are expected to take.

The political tensions are likely to rise in the coming months. The Parliament has approved a Recovery and Resilience Plan in the amount of almost Euro250 billion – more than Pakistan’s annual GDP for a country less than 30% of its size – to be spent in the next 5-6 years. Of this amount, the bulk will come from EU funds and is conditional on a series of deep reforms. Many of these reforms have been in the programme of several Governments but never got implemented due to lack of political will and various entrenched vested interests.

In the past year the country has faced an agonizing period. Recovery now hinges on how things move forward. It will be hard but I remain optimistic.

Daud Khan works as consultant and advisor for various Governments and international agencies. He has degrees in Economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology. He lives partly in Italy and partly in Pakistan.

This story was first published in The Express Tribune, Pakistan

 

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By External Source
Jun 14 2021 (IPS-Partners)

 

The facts:-

The progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.

The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years.

Children in child labour are at risk of physical and mental harm. Child labour compromises children’s education, restricting their rights and limiting their future opportunities, and leads to vicious inter-generational cycles of poverty and child labour.

* The agriculture sector accounts for 70 per cent of children in child labour (112 million) followed by 20 per cent in services (31.4 million) and 10 per cent in industry (16.5 million).
* Nearly 28 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 years and 35 per cent of children aged 12 to 14 years in child labour are out of school.
* Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age. When household chores performed for 21 hours or more each week are taken into account, the gender gap in child labour narrows.
* The prevalence of child labour in rural areas (14 per cent) is close to three times higher than in urban areas (5 per cent).

Children in child labour are at risk of physical and mental harm. Child labour compromises children’s education, restricting their rights and limiting their future opportunities, and leads to vicious inter-generational cycles of poverty and child labour.

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Credit: UNICEF/UNI376255/Chol

By Hanna Hassan
ARLINGTON, Virginia, USA, Jun 14 2021 (IPS)

August of this year will mark the one-year anniversary of the end of South Sudan’s civil war, yet recent surges of violence suggest that peace is far from being realized. These attacks by armed groups include instances of sexual violence against women and girls.

Sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a significant characteristic in South Sudan’s conflict, threatening the livelihood and human rights of women and girls.

UNICEF reports approximately 65% of women and girls in South Sudan have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. These forms of GBV can leave women and girls with severe mental and physical health problems.

Why is the rate of sexual violence so high in South Sudan? According to human rights experts, the answer can be found in a fundamental element of South Sudan’s local economy—bride price.

In South Sudan, if a man would like to marry a woman, his family would have to pay for her, often in cows or goats, based on her negotiated value. Once women are married off, they are expected to bear many children, including daughters who are viewed as assets to acquire more cattle.

Therefore, early and forced marriages are common with more than 50 percent of girls married before the age of 18. Many young girls are married to elderly suitors because those men have more assets.

The objectification and commodification of women in South Sudanese society allow for a culture in which GBV is accepted and normalized. Traditional gender roles and conditions of poverty sustain the practice of paying bride price.

The lack of women’s rights in South Sudan not only leads to suffering but also challenges efforts to promote peace. Cultural notions that women are homemakers and child-bearers drive inequity.

Only 7 percent of girls finish primary school and fewer than 2 percent go on to high school. Families may also worry that girls may be sexually assaulted on their journeys to school, lowering their value and bride price. GBV prevents girls from pursuing their dreams and keeps families trapped in generational poverty.

The return on education is worth re-evaluating the importance placed on paying bride price. Studies show that a single year of primary school education has been shown to increase women’s wages by up to 20% later in life.

If South Sudan is to undergo significant economic development, women and girls must have access to education. “Women have the opportunity to contribute in building this nation into a country that is stable and peaceful,” said South Sudanese activist Rita Lopidia at the inaugural Women Building Peace Award.

Gender equity is intimately tied to achieving stability in South Sudan.

Meanwhile, Intercommunal fighting in the Jonglei region of South Sudan has led to kidnappings and killings. Credit: UNMISS

It is imperative that the government of South Sudan takes steps to reduce the prevalence of GBV and increase access to education. Addressing the root of this issue, begins with regulating bride price.

Excessive bride prices are a burden on both men and women. Men who cannot afford bride prices experience feelings of inadequacy and social seclusion. Village youths put their life at risk during livestock raids in neighboring tribes to be able to afford marriage.

Women experience violence in the form of physical and sexual violence resulting from the valuation of their worth in terms of livestock. By targeting social norms that perpetuate these levels of violence, South Sudan can inspire a movement towards rehabilitation and rebuilding.

Although commonly held perceptions will not change overnight, community-based efforts towards GBV education and awareness-raising will lay the foundation for establishing lasting women’s rights laws and policies. If women can become workshop leaders, teachers, and decision-makers in implementing the peace accords, South Sudan will be able to envision a country that serves the needs of all of its people.

The real price of marriage in South Sudan is the opportunity to realize peace and stability. Although bride price is commonly paid in cows and goats, families also sacrifice the well-being of their daughters and higher earning potentials.

The rise of physical and sexual violence in recent weeks indicates that South Sudan is at risk of falling back into large-scale conflict. If South Sudan is to continue on the path of peacemaking and change conditions of underdevelopment, regulating bride prices needs to be on the agenda.

Hanna Hassan is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, currently interning at the High Atlas Foundation.

 

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The rugged landscape of Tigray, Ethiopia’s most northern region, stretches away to the north and into Eritrea. The Tigray Region has been rocked by conflict since November 2020. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By External Source
DILI, Jun 11 2021 (IPS)

Seven highly respected leaders in conflict resolution have issued a call for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to take immediate action to bring a halt to the atrocities being committed in the Tigray region of his nation. The letter urges the Prime Minister to implement seven steps to resolve the crisis.

It was authored by José Ramos-Horta, former President of Timor-Leste and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and five other international diplomats and peace builders, “colleagues and friends the Prime Minister knows well,” including former President of Finland Tarja Halonen, former UN and Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Emeritus Bishop of Oslo and former Vice Chair of the Nobel Committee Dr. Gunnar Stalsett, former President of Slovenia and former UN Assistant Secretary General and President of the World Leadership Alliance Danilo Turk, and former UN Under Secretary General and Special Envoy for the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng.

The letter notes that “grave human rights violations and abuses are being committed against civilian Tigrayans, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, looting and destruction of property, mass executions, arbitrary arrests, rape, forced displacement of populations, hate speech and stigmatization including ethnic profiling. These attacks have caused tens of thousands of Tigrayan children and adults to flee their homes and to seek refuge in Sudan under extremely deplorable conditions.”

“As a result of this conflict, according to the United Nations, approximately 4.5 million of a population of 6 million people are in immediate need of humanitarian assistance,” it says. “Between two and 2.5 million people in the region will experience severe food insecurity through September. News outlets from around the globe are also increasingly writing of horrifying stories of rape, torture, and mass arrests.”

It recalls Abiy’s own words, from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech two years ago, “there are those, ‘who have never seen war, but glorify and romanticize it. They have not seen the fear. They have not seen the fatigue. They have not seen the destruction or heartbreak, nor have they felt the mournful emptiness of war after the carnage.”

Specifically, the leaders urge Prime Minister Ahmed to:

1. Act now and swiftly to save his country and end the suffering of Ethiopians afflicted by war in Tigray.

2. Invite independent and credible investigations, in full cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, into human rights abuses and violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by all actors in Tigray. We encourage the Prime Minister to ensure that other human rights organizations are provided access in order to independently investigate reports of human rights abuses and violations in Tigray.

3. Consider establishing a hybrid court empowered with jurisdiction to hold accountable Eritrean perpetrators of war crimes.

4. Fully cooperate with regional organizations and the international community to facilitate all-inclusive dialogue, reconciliation and healing, involving all political and civil society actors in Tigray with the goal of charting a consensual way forward for the region’s future governance.

5. Lead calls for a cessation of hostilities by all parties involved and encourage other parties to commit to ending the fighting immediately. Press for the immediate and verifiable withdrawal of Eritrean and Amhara regional forces from the Tigray Region.

6. Facilitate the work of international humanitarian staff including by issuing long-duration visas, expediting the process for the importation and use of satellite communication technology by humanitarian organizations, and instructing your military and allied forces to establish a civil-military coordination cell to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations on the ground.

7. Issue orders to protect all civilians in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia regardless of their ethnicity, including refugees and internally displaced persons, and particularly women in the light of widespread reports of sexual and gender-based violence.”

“It is clear that like all wars, the political dispute that led to the Tigray crisis cannot be resolved through military means alone,” it states. “The suffering inflicted on the people in the region has already been too great. For the good of Ethiopia, and the good of the region and the world, we ask the Prime Minister to work toward a political solution as soon as possible. It is only through dialogue and negotiation that lasting peace can be established, and the healing for so many can begin.”

There has been no response to date from Prime Minister Abiy.

Read the letter

SIGNATORIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT AND DISCUSSION.

By Yasmine Sherif
Jun 11 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The right to an inclusive quality education is not a privilege. It is a human right. Delaying or ignoring the right to an education equals failing to protect human rights. The longer we wait, the less we contribute to justice.

Yasmine Sherif

For the 128 million children and adolescents growing up in forced displacement and protracted crises, the denial of an inclusive quality education means delaying their growth, their safety and their lives. Born into violent conflict zones, forced displacement or a context where education is seen as a threat, they have no means whatsoever to reclaim their rights without international financing. Financing is key to defending, promoting and protecting the right to an education, which in turn is the very foundation of all other human rights and all other Sustainable Development Goals. International aid, such as grants and loans, as well as private sector financing, are thus powerful means to deliver justice.

Amongst the 128 million children and youth still waiting for such justice, 7.3 million are refugee children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 18. In parts of the Sahel in Western Africa, children are so afraid of being caught learning that they do their school-work in the sand – ready for it to be quickly erased should anyone question what they are doing. In the Central African Republic, attacks by armed groups force families to move on a regular basis, uprooting them overnight, fleeing for their lives, preventing children from feeling safe and repeatedly denying them stable access to learning. And in Nigeria, for adolescent girls, simply going to school puts them at immediate risk of being kidnapped or killed.

In this month’s Education Cannot Wait’s Newsletter, we interviewed one of the founders of the Education Cannot Wait Global Fund, Kevin Watkins, Chief Executive of Save the Children UK. He speaks to us about the right to education from the lens of justice. It is very much in the same spirit of another founder, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of Education Cannot Wait’s High-Level Steering Group, who often refers to our collective struggle for the right to a quality education as the civil rights movement of our century.

It is time to look at the right to an inclusive quality education, as the most important human right and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) of our times. Without 12 years of an education, all else falls away – be it local empowerment, gender-equality, ending poverty or maintaining peace and security. Imagine trying to achieve all that in any society without an education?

Martin Luther King Jr once said: “Justice delayed is justice denied.” The 128 million children and youth left furthest behind (the number significantly increased from an estimated 75 million to an estimated 128 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic), cannot reconcile with the fact that their justice is being both delayed and denied. Their sense of justice is right on target. To them, their education cannot wait.

In May 2021, the Education Cannot Wait Global Fund commemorated its Fifth Anniversary and the international community came out in full force to positively embrace our shared achievements (several of them quoted in this Newsletter). Since becoming fully operational four years ago, ECW and ECW partners have reached 4 million children and youth in crisis countries with quality education, and delivered emergency responses to over 10 million children, including in response to COVID-19.

With more financing, we could have reached even more children and youth. It is all about financing. With a funding ask of $400 million for 2021/22 (which is a modest ask compared to the needs, yet takes into account the economic recession), the Education Cannot Wait Global Fund can deliver justice to millions of more children and youth, by making sure that an inclusive quality education for those left furthest behind is neither denied, nor delayed.

Yasmine Sherif, Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)