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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Oct 7 2020 (IPS)

The 26th of September, the Lebanese prime minister Mustapha Adib stepped down after less than a month on his post. The president, Michael Auon, stated: ”Lebanon will be going to Hell if a new government is not formed soon.” The question is if his nation is not there already. A horrifying image of the state of the nation was provided on the 4th of August when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in a dockside hangar, blew up in an explosion killing more than 190 people, injuring 6,500 and damaging thousands of buildings.

Before a Civil War engulfed the country from 1975 to 1990 Lebanon was called the Switzerland of the East, enjoying a thriving culture, freedom of expression and a diversified economy that included tourism, agriculture and banking. Now, Lebanon suffers from endemic corruption, fifty-five percent of its population live below the poverty line, while more than 30 percent is unemployed. During the past year food prizes increased by 367 percent.

The first and only time I visited Lebanon was in 1978. My friends and I had been on our way to Baghdad, trying to follow the tracks of the Berlin-Baghdad Express. The entire stretch of this legendary railroad was no longer navigable, but we had read that most of the rails and stations were still intact. The railway was built between 1903 and 1940 to connect Berlin with the Persian Gulf. It had been financed by the German Government to gain access to Middle Eastern oil and facilitate provision of goods and supplies to German colonies in Africa and the Pacific. Furthermore, the railway was a strategic move to diminish Russian and British interests in the area. Even if World War I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, loss of the German colonies and almost innumerable other obstacles delayed its construction, the Nazi regime could in 1940 celebrate the railway´s completion.

We came as far as Aleppo, where the rails turned east toward the Iraqi border, from there we took a bus to Damascus to apply for visas. However, at Iraq´s embassy we were told: ”Why travel to Baghdad? In these days life is complicated there. Go to Beirut instead, you´ll like it there.” A run-down taxi took us the 100 kilometres from Damascus to Beirut. Along the route we were repeatedly stopped at Syrian check points (the Syrian Army had in 1976 intervened in Lebanese internal fighting). When the startlingly young soldiers saw our worried looks they told us in broken English: ”Please, don´t worry. Beirut is fine, you´ll have a good time there.”

For Europeans like us Beirut looked strangely familiar, though destruction and desolation made us feel as if we had ended up in a parallel reality. We walked along The Corniche, the seaside promenade. On our left side were demolished apartment buildings and hotels, remains of the Battle of the Hotels that had raged the year before, characterized by heavy exchanges of rocket and artillery fire from various hotel rooftops and rooms. A postman passed by the ruins, placing letters and packages on the ground in front of them. To our left was the Mediterranean Sea, lined with stumps of palm trees. In front of a ruined hotel was an open-air restaurant with smartly dressed waiters attending an apparently wealthy clientele. Out on the sea, yachts lay anchored and speed boats raced by, towing water-skiers.

Lebanon means ”milky white”, probably in reference to its mountain peaks, which for more than half of the year are graced by snow. These inaccessible highlands are one of the reasons for Lebanon´s uniqueness. For thousands of years they have been a refuge for persecuted minorities. Maronites deriving their name from the Syriac Christian saint Maron had in the highlands been able to maintain their independence and religion. Their territory bordered areas controlled by the close-knit communities of the Druze, who do not identify as neither Muslims, nor Christians. Their scripture, Epistles of Wisdom, includes traits from the entire Middle East area finding their roots far back in age-old traditions. There were also Alawite communities sharing a faith considered to be Shiite, though their theology and rituals differ from mainstream Shia Islam. They do for instance drink wine and believe in reincarnation. In the Bekaa Valley and Southern Lebanon we find mainstream Shia Muslims, while the coast has traditionally been the territory of Sunni Muslim traders.

For thousands of years, refugees have found a haven in Lebanon. During the Armenian genocide in 1915, persecuted Armenians poured in from Turkey, their descendants now amount to approximately 150,000. Palestinian refugees arrived after the proclamation of the Israeli state in 1948 and now constitute approximately 300,000 of Lebanon´s inhabitants. During the recent Syrian crisis, 1.5 million refugees have arrived. With a population of seven million Lebanon is currently home to more refugees per capita than any other country in the world. At the same time the Lebanese diaspora is among the largest in the world. At least 10 million Lebanese live outside their country of origin and of them more than one million have maintained their Lebanese citizenship.

Lebanon is one of the few Middle Eastern nations that has been able to maintain its status as a democracy where free speech and tolerance are honoured, this in spite of more then forty years of constant clashes between its different population groups. On top of these calamities, the nation has during the last century suffered from foreign incursions. France, the U.S., Israel, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Libya have meddled in Lebanese politics. Armed forces from some of these nations have even invaded parts of the country, trying to take advantage of internal power struggles.

The same pattern was apparent when Germany through the Berlin-Baghdad Express initiative tried to tap the Middle East´s oil wealth, making the Middle East one of the scenes for power games between ”world-leading” nations, a tragedy that since then has continued unabated. Recently it was estimated that Lebanon´s 22,700 km2 offshore area may contain at least 95.9 trillion cubic feet of gas and 865 billion barrels of oil, thus wetting the appetite of not only its neighbours, but that of France and Russia as well, at the same time as powerful nations continue to consider Lebanon as a pawn in their game for world dominance.

Clans and influential families have for centuries dominated Lebanese politics and done so with foreign support. A situation further complicated by the fact that when clan members moved into formerly unknown territories family ties were often weakened, while traditions and religious convictions remained. It became important not where you came from, but whether you considered yourself to be a Druze, Maronite, Shia- or Sunni Muslim, Palestinian or Syrian, Armenian, Alawite, Greek Orthodox, or Catholic Christian. This is mirrored by a political system dictating that Lebanon’s president has to be a Maronite, the speaker of parliament a Shiite, the prime minister a Sunni and the deputy prime minister Greek Orthodox. Parliamentary seats are shared out proportionally among 18 religious groups, while public sector jobs are divided up among sects. Political parties use ministries to dole out jobs to their followers.

An anomaly discernible during the last months political development. Answering to socioeconomic demands, while seeking support from the country´s traditional political elite, the mainly Shiite Amal and Hezbollah parties were in October 2019 instrumental in bringing down the government of Saad Hariri. The president Michael Auon, a Maronite and former brigadier general who had fought pro-Syrian Druze and Palestinian militias, signed a memorandum of understanding with the two parties, making their parliamentary bloc dominant, though their disagreement about who is going to be finance minister is now blocking the formation of a new government.

Amal and Hezbollah supporters share cities and villages, while both parties are supported by Iran´s Shia government and Syria´s Alawite dominated regime. However, slight ideological differences and fierce competition for decision making positions caused a three-year conflict between the two parties, involving bombings, kidnappings and psychological warfare. In 1990, Iran and Syria brokered peace and convinced them to form an alliance.

Lebanon remains entangled in extremely complicated, clan- and family based politics. Some examples; the powerful Druze leader and socialist Kamal Jumblatt, was a supporter of PLO and backed by Syrian politicians who later became his enemies. Jumblatt gave crucial support to the Maronite Camille Chamoun (president 1952-1958), whose son Dany became leader of the Maronite militia, while his brother Dory led a coalition of politicians opposed to Syrian influence over Lebanese politics. After Dory suffered a heart attack in 2012 his son Camille Jr. now shoulders his father´s political commitments. After Kamal Jumblatt´s death, his son Walid became the leader of the Druze fraction of Lebanese politics. A powerful enemy and sometime ally to both the Jumblatt and Chamoun families was the Maronite Bachir Gemayel, a parliamentary power broker, allied to France. Gemayel saw his son Bachir elected President in 1982, only to be assassinated a week before his inauguration. His older brother Amine was elected to replace him.

President Saad Hariri who a year ago was toppled by the Shiite coalition fits well into this complicated pattern of related politicians. Serving as prime minister 2009-2011 and 2016-2019 Saad is the son of Rafik Hariri, a business tycoon who was prime minister 1992-1998 and again 2000-2004. A Sunni Muslim supported by Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and France, Rafik embarked on an aggressive economic policy based on privatization of major companies, foreign direct investments, and tax breaks. After an unprecedented rise, the GDP soon fell drastically, not hindering that Hariri´s personal wealth grew from one billion USD in 1992 to over 16 billion when in 2005 an explosion killed 23 people, including Hariri. On 18 August 2020, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon unanimously found Salim Jamil Ayyash guilty of the assassination. Ayyash, who is at large, is a member of Hezbollah and the verdict is now affecting Hezbollah´s prestige among the Lebanese.

COVID-19 adds fuel to the Lebanese disaster, while talks with IMF over a recovery plan involving a bid for 11 billion USD has stalled over disagreements between Lebanese politicians on assessing losses.

What about the disastrous 4th of August explosion? On the 21st of November 2013, MV Rhosus ported in Beirut. This huge freighter had embarked from Georgia with a cargo of ammonium nitrate destined for a factory in Mozambique, owned by a Portuguese company suspected of providing explosives for the 2004 Madrid train bombings. After inspection by the port authorities Rhosus was found unseaworthy and forbidden to live the port. The owners claimed bankruptcy and following a court order Rhosus´s cargo was sometime in 2014 brought ashore and kept in a sealed hangar. Four years later Rhosus sank just outside Beirut´s port.

The Rhosus tale is complicated, smelling of corruption and arms trafficking. It involves a shady set of actors – Cypriot, Portuguese and Russian businessmen, the Lebanese bank FBME and possibly Lebanese militia.

It is easy to get lost in the labyrinth of Lebanese politics and to avoid this I finish by taking consolation in my Beirut memories – of the postman making his rounds, delivering letters to owners of ruins and how people in spite of the mayhem around them went on with their daily chores and welcomed strangers in their midst. It is something of a miracle that a heartening, thriving mosaic of people and cultures still persists in Lebanon.

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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Young people pose questions to Secretary-General António Guterres during a UN75 event with youth at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. António Guterres said despite youth engagement during this period – including in the 2016 peace process in Colombia and in shaping the Global Compact on Refugees two years later – opportunities for them to contribute remain inadequate. “The world cannot afford a lost generation of youth, their lives set back by COVID-19 and their voices stifled by a lack of participation”, he said. “Let us do far more to tap their talents as we tackle the pandemic and chart a recovery that leads to a more peaceful, sustainable and equitable future for all”. Credit: UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferre

By Siobhan O’Neil and Kato Van Broeckhoven
NEW YORK, Oct 7 2020 (IPS)

As governments worldwide struggle to contain COVID-19, recent reports suggesting armed groups like Islamic State are resurging offer a sobering account of the many challenges that the global community now faces.

Indeed, the UN Secretary-General has warned that we must not let armed groups exploit fragilities caused by the pandemic, as “like the virus, terrorism does not respect national borders.”

The COVID-19 pandemic – and resulting economic fallout – has created fresh opportunities for gangs, criminal syndicates, and armed groups to instrumentalize the pandemic and grow their ranks.

From calls to weaponize the virus against police officers, efforts to exacerbate the chaos being caused by the pandemic to conduct deadly attacks, to highlighting their superior public health response, violent groups are taking advantage of the pandemic to consolidate their power.

To date, the policy conversation has been largely about the response of armed groups to COVID-19. It may be even more important, however, to consider whether a poor government response will create greater support for armed groups, especially among youth.

With COVID-19-related closings of schools, businesses and borders, youth may have even fewer opportunities for advancement in societies where there were few to begin with. that could lead to increases in associations with armed groups.

Our research suggests that economic drivers or a lack of social mobility will not be the only meaningful drivers of armed group association. Equally important are the pro-social appeals that allow armed groups to transcend being “the only option” to being perceived to offer young people a positive way forward.

IS’s communication strategy, for example, has largely been characterized by “soft power” appeals towards young people based on positive incentives.

These pro-social appeals can be extremely powerful, particularly with young audiences. For example, they suggest that young people can contribute to something bigger than themselves. As the pandemic makes it difficult to connect with peers, armed groups’ promises of a ready-made community and a “significant life” are likely to be all the more compelling.

Armed groups have proved adept at exploiting generational tensions even before the pandemic broke out: IS cast itself as a “generational revolt” against earlier waves of political Islam and even self-avowed jihadist predecessors. Groups like IS offer a chance for youth to bypass generational hierarchies.

In countries where establishing yourself financially allows you to marry, and thus enter adulthood in the eyes of your community, some armed groups – like Boko Haram – have facilitated marriages that would otherwise be financially impossible for young men in their ranks.

The promise of social mobility may elevate the appeal of certain armed groups once the economic impact of COVID-19 is felt.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare – and exacerbated – the generational divide, but the attention on youth proceeds the current crisis. Much of the discussion around “violent extremism” and “radicalization” in the last fifteen years has focused on youth. As digital natives, there have been concerns about the vulnerability of youth to online recruitment by violent organizations.

This concern, combined with their developmental needs and inclination for risk-taking has led to “a predominantly negative narrative on youth”. This pessimistic view had so permeated conventional wisdom about conflict that the UN Security Council took the unusual step of crafting a resolution aimed at shifting the narrative about youth to recognize their potential to positively contribute to peacebuilding.

But more needs to be done than changing the narrative alone. The international community has taken to reiterating that youth are able to play these roles, but rarely makes space for them do so in its efforts to prevent and respond to conflict.

As calls grow for a new social contract to address inequality, young people must be given a voice in designing and implementing peace processes, conflict prevention efforts and reintegration programming.

Youth are often treated as passive beneficiaries rather than partners in the road to recovery and peace. As governments – national to local – continue to rollout plans to address the pandemic, youth need to be represented in those policy discussions.

We need to ensure that young people are provided a place in society at large as we emerge from this crisis and beyond. Some armed groups appear to be making room – will we?

*Prior to joining UNU, Dr O’Neil was a consultant at the UN Mine Action Service (UNAMS) in Mali and Palestine and worked in US homeland security agencies. Dr O’Neil received obtained her doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her full bio can be found here: https://cpr.unu.edu/author/soneil

**Prior to joining UNU, Ms Van Broeckhoven worked on city-level programming aimed at preventing violent extremism in Belgium. She also worked as a consultant for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the World Bank’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, and Columbia University’s Global Policy Initiative. Her full bio can be found here: https://cpr.unu.edu/author/kbroeckhoven.

 

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Excerpt:

Dr Siobhan O’Neil* is Project Director at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research on the Managing Exits from Armed Conflict project. She was previously the Project Lead for United Nations University’s Children and Extreme Violence project and the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Project Manager

 
Kato Van Broeckhoven** is a Project Manager at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research on the Managing Exits from Armed Conflict project and previously co-edited Cradled by Conflict with Dr O’Neil.

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Neftalí Membreño (R), in charge of the machine room, checks the turbine and generator of the mini hydroelectric plant in the village of Potrerillos, Carolina municipality in the eastern Salvadoran department of San Miguel. This small rural community made up of 21 families built a small dam in 2006 that supplies them with electricity at a low cost. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
CAROLINA, El Salvador, Oct 7 2020 (IPS)

The people of Potrerillos, a village located in northeastern El Salvador, worked hard to achieve something that many doubted they could do: harness the waters of the Carolina River to install a community mini hydroelectric plant, which supplies them with cheap energy.

The project got underway in 2005 in this village in the municipality of Carolina, in the eastern department of San Miguel, and the plant began operating in 2006. It benefits 40 families not only in that community but also in the hamlet of Los Lobos, near the neighbouring town of San Antonio del Mosco.

 

 

The work was carried out with the assistance of the Basic Sanitation, Health Education and Alternative Energies (Sabes) association. Financing was provided by the government of the Spanish region of Navarra, and funds for the electromechanical equipment came from the Energy and Environment Alliance with Central America.

The total cost of the project was 120,000 dollars.

The design included an aspect that guarantees environmental sustainability: the water that moves the turbine returns to the river, so its flow is not affected by the mini power plant.

The lives of the inhabitants of Potrerillos, who are mostly subsistence farmers, have improved with the arrival of electricity.

Gone are the days when nights were lit by candles and kerosene lamps, and now the villagers can watch TV, enjoy a cold drink or charge their cell phones at home, without having to go to Carolina.

One important advantage is the cost of the energy: local households pay between two and five dollars a month, compared to a monthly power bill of around 25 dollars in neighbouring villages.

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A group of youths engaged in various activities in Machinga, Malawi, to prevent and help in fighting trafficking of children from the area to Mozambique. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Oct 6 2020 (IPS)

In August, police intercepted the trafficking of 31 people to Mozambique. The victims, all Malawians, included 17 children and 6 women. Their two traffickers, also Malawians, had coerced them from their rural village in Lilongwe district with a promise of jobs in estates in neighbouring Mozambique. But they were saved in large part thanks to their own community.

According to Malawian police, they incepted the trafficking after a tip-off from members of the community. This, the police say, is one of the fruits of using community policing to fight crime in Malawi. National spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service, Assistant Superintendent James Kadadzera, says the police owe many of their crackdowns on trafficking to the community policing system.

In Malawi, community policing is not vigilantism. It is a system where the police organise voluntary members of the community to form groups to detect crime and alert police for action.

“They are our eyes in places we are not present. They complement the efforts of our detectives. They sensitise fellow community members on safety and security issues,” Kadadzera tells IPS.

The Trafficking in Persons Act of 2015 provides for increased participation of individuals, institutions and communities in preventing human trafficking.

Involving communities in anti-human trafficking efforts means the crime can be tackled at its source and that trafficking transit routes are shut down.

However, after years of campaigning and a raft of frameworks and initiatives such as community policing, Malawi still ranks high as a source, destination and transit country for human trafficking.

A 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report for Malawi by the United States’ Department of State recognises Malawi’s “significant efforts” to combat human trafficking. But it says Malawi “does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking”.

The report highlights the case of Nepali women who were trafficked into Malawi last year, which  illustrates the fraudulent white-collar practices that are aiding trafficking here.

According to the report, there are credible reports of official complicity by police and immigration officials in the trafficking of the women into Malawi.

Even worse, the government transferred the whistleblower in the case, reportedly to prevent him from further investigating the crime and exposing the officials involved.

“In two sensitive cases,” says the report, “judges granted traffickers bail, and, in one case, there were credible reports that the trafficker continued to recruit women for labour trafficking in the Middle East while awaiting trial.”

McBain Mkandawire is executive director for Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO), which works with youth who are prime targets for traffickers for labour and prostitution purposes.

He says Malawi is struggling to combat human trafficking because of “a combination of the complicity of government officials and the rich at the top and high poverty levels at the bottom”.   

Human trafficking is a lucrative business for the rich and the powerful, Mkandawire says.

“This is a big money industry. High profile people facilitate it in one way or another. They finance it and frustrate justice because they profit from the misery of the poor,” Mkandawire tells IPS.

For example, he says, the estates where these people are trafficked to are not owned by poor people.

“Those estates are owned by the rich and the powerful. They know how their labourers are recruited. They facilitate the crime because they are profiting from the poor through cheap labour and poor working conditions. And they will do anything to frustrate efforts to eradicate human trafficking,” Mkandawire says.

He adds that through his organisation’s work on youth programmes around the country, apart from the public ignorance on how human trafficking works, high levels of poverty make Malawians easy prey for traffickers who lure them with false promises of better lives elsewhere.

In Machinga district in southern Malawi, child trafficking is one of major concerns for the community-based Youth Response for Social Change (YRSC). The youth organisation is located in a rural town in Machinga district on the border between Malawi and Mozambique. The remote town is the exit point out of Malawi via the main railway line to Nacala Port in Mozambique. 

Here, together with traditional leaders and the police, YRSC battles the trafficking of Malawian children to work in tobacco estates in Mozambique. Executive director for YRSC Lamecks Kiyare tells IPS the problem worsens during the months of August to November when the farming season begins in Mozambique.

He admits they face daunting challenges.

“It’s not easy. We face a barrage of challenges such as poor stakeholder coordination, lack of political will among community leaders and no financial resources to support the repatriated children,” Kiyare tells IPS.

According to Maxwell Matewere, the national project officer in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) in Malawi, combating trafficking remains a pipe dream as long as Malawi does not address the underlying causes.

“The problem continues due to lack of strategies to deal with the root causes of trafficking in persons. We cannot successfully fight trafficking in persons unless the country deals with poverty, unemployment and public ignorance on human trafficking,” Matewere tells IPS.

Matewere says while the police have demonstrated some positive responses in arresting offenders of human trafficking and taking them to court for prosecution, the courts themselves are not swift and bold in handling trafficking cases.

“The lower courts continue to apply the law with kindness and favour on the offenders. We are registering increasing number of cases whose convicts have received suspended sentences other than imprisonment. No one can learn anything,” he says.

YONECO has its own experience with the courts. It has been pursuing the trafficking of a young woman to a hospitality facility within Malawi. 

The suspects first appeared court in February 2019 but to date the magistrate is yet to set a date for trial. 

“We are not told the reasons for this lack of progress. Meanwhile, the trafficker is on bail, roaming around, perhaps trafficking more people in his freedom,” says Mkandawire of YONECO.

The Registrar of the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal, Agness Patemba, did not respond to IPS’ questions regarding complaints about the courts’ handling of human trafficking cases. 

However, issues of frustration over the delivery of justice in general by Malawi’s court system are well known. The Judiciary itself admits this in its Strategic Plan (2019-2024). It highlights poor work ethics among judicial officers and members of staff, corruption and delayed judgements among the threats to justice delivery.

But perhaps a more stirring and direct expose of the malpractices in the fraternity has come from the judiciary’s own senior judge, Esmie Chombo. In January 2018, the High Court Judge and Judge President for the Lilongwe Registry wrote a strong letter to the Malawi Law Society, outlining abuses of court processes by lawyers.    

Chombo accused lawyers of “judge shopping” and frequenting court premises at night to execute corruption schemes.

She further accused them of bribing court clerks to prioritise their work and remove from court files documents from opposing parties in order to mislead the court. There were also accused of bribing clerks to misplace or destroy case files in order to frustrate court proceedings.

She therefore called on judges and the lawyers’ body to swiftly uproot “these obnoxious practices before they take deep roots”.

Mkandawire says challenges of this kind are endemic and entrenched in the levels that hold the key to ending injustices in Malawi.

He says communities and other low-level groups can do their part. But official collusion makes Malawi’s fight against human trafficking a complex task.

“Until we get rid of corruption at every level and in every place, until we comprehensively tackle the root causes of human trafficking, this crime will remain a serious problem for us for a long time,” he tells IPS.

 

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

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A program to provide funds to purchase and install new water harvesting and storage equipment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has proved successful. Courtesy: Zadie Neufville

By Zadie Neufville
BELMOPAN , Oct 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

On the Eastern Caribbean (EC) islands of St Kitts’ Nevis, hotter and fewer rainfall days have begun to impact everyday life. 

Conservation officer Cheryl Jeffers explained that during dry spells, children are often sent home from school because there is not enough water for sanitation purposes. The COVID-19 pandemic had also begun putting more pressure on an already stretched system, she said.

Down in St Vincent and the Grenadines, many people have no public water system and no access to rivers or streams. On Canouan, the more than 1,600 residents must harvest rainwater or purchase potable water for their household use and other needs. The same is true for the more than 2,000 residents on Union Island and 350 or so on Mayreau. Locals complained that with noticeably fewer rainfall days, the water situation is getting worse.

“The people always say, 30, 40 years ago they could plant their crops year-round because rainfall was plenty. These days, most of the food comes from neighbouring islands,” Katrina Collins Coy, president and founder of the Union Island Environmental Attackers said. 

Residents complain that the lack of water is also driving up the cost of living since food is ferried in by boat or planes, and in the dry season, water is also brought in by boat from mainland St Vincent.

Both St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines are described as water-scarce by the World Resources Institute, a global research organisation. They are among the most water-stressed countries in the world, seven of which are in the Caribbean, and six of them are in the EC. Water-scarce is the term given when a country has less than 1,000 cubic meters of freshwater resources per resident. 

For some time, and certainly, since the 2015 droughts that affected most of the Caribbean, regional scientists have warned that countries, particularly those in the Eastern Caribbean could see declines of between 30 and 50 per cent in their average annual rainfall. And, as the region faces more periods of drought, things are expected to get worse in the two island states. 

But, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), with the help of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was able to assist by way of a regional project, the USAID Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP).

CCCCC is the regional institution of CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) with the responsibility for leading climate change mitigation and resilience building among member nations.

“One of the roles of the CCCCC is to engage with relevant partners to help countries with adaptation and mitigation challenges,” said CCCCC’s Keith Nichols. 

“CCAP was developed to help these and other vulnerable countries in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean to adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. We were happy to add these small water systems to the portfolio and also to provide solar systems as a power source for the pumps as demonstrations of how the Centre works with countries to reduce the region’s dependency on fossil fuels,” he explained.  Nichols heads the Programme  Development and  Management Unit at the CCCCC and is the USAID-CCAP project manager.

The Program provided funds to purchase and install new water harvesting and storage equipment in SVG. And in St Kitts and Nevis, 18 schools have been out-fitted with similar systems to ease the disruptions of the children’s education due to water shortages. 

Here, Collins Coy’s organisation partnered with the SVG Government and CCCCC to pilot the water harvesting project. So far, they’ve installed 178 water harvesting systems – 15, 1,000-gallon water tanks on Mayreau, 58 water tanks of the same size on Canouan and 105 in homes on Union Island. They’ve refurbished and covered the Papa Land (aka Bottom Well) and Top Wells on Union, installing solar panels and pumps to make it easier for residents to get water. The Attackers have also refurbished one of the two main reservoirs and catchment on Union Island and replaced the ageing and leaky pipelines serving the system.

“It has been a pleasure to see the completion of the well, which makes it easier for us to get water, we just use the tap. No more struggling with the buckets and rope, Union Islander Gerald Hutchinson said of the improvements. 

Many islanders like Susan Charles, agree that the project has made significant and life-altering changes to their access to water, easing the work of “drawing water from the well”. She pointed to the gate and fence which were built, and the covers that keep the water clean.

She added: “We are truly appreciative for the tank, the rains are coming so I no longer have to buy water, or wait for the bucket, you simply turn on the pipe.”

Over in St Kitts, water storage systems are being installed in primary and secondary schools as well as in nurseries in the two-island federation. The systems will ease the water problems experienced by the more than 4,000 students plus faculty in the beneficiary institutions. The project aims to build resilience by improving access to water by installing, refurbishing and enhancing water storage facilities to improve sanitation in 18 schools -11 in Nevis and seven in St Kitts. 

Jeffers works with the island’s climate change focal point, the Ministry of Environment, which is piloting the water project. She explained, “in Nevis, where water shortage is more pronounced, six cisterns used to capture and store rainwater are being refurbished”.

Charlestown High School, Nevis’ largest with 778 students and faculty was the recipient of a 6,000-gallon storage system. The new system will help to improve water storage capacity and end the disruptions to the educational institutions during times of drought, and times of emergencies.  

“The new installations and retrofitting of the existing systems helps teachers to maximise teaching time,” Kevin Barrett Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in the Nevis Island administration said, noting: “Too often we have to dismiss school because of maintenance or there is some emergency repair of the line”.

The project has also trained members of the beneficiary communities in both countries and staff of the institutions to carry out essential maintenance and servicing, and well as in simple water purification methods. As guardians of the wells in the beneficiary islands, the Attackers have undertaken to maintain the newly refurbished systems.

CCAP has delivered critical equipment to countries across the EC since the project began in 2016. These include 50 terrestrial automatic weather stations (AWS), five Coral Reef Early Warning Systems (CREWS) stations, a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR system) housed at 5Cs in Belize for use by the region, as well as related data storage equipment. 

The seven are from the Caribbean: Dominica, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St. Kitts and Nevis.

** The following article was contributed by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)

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Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 6 2020 (IPS)

Participation in global and regional supply chains has been one of the most reliable economic growth strategies, especially for developing countries in Asia and the Pacific. Smooth and efficient connectivity in both trade and transport has been indispensable to the region’s pursuit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Yet, containment measures for the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly interrupted production, transport, and distribution of essential goods. They exposed vulnerabilities in supply and underscored the costs of border procedures for transport and trade, which require extensive human contacts and increase the risk of infection. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which worked hard to enter supply chains, saw their livelihoods gone.

As COVID-19 crisis forced us to catch up with the digital future much faster than usual, there have been tremendous opportunities offered through digitalization. Trade and supply connections still functioned during lockdowns as customs and other government institutions not only streamlined their procedures but also turned to contactless and paperless trade. SMEs surviving the crisis did so because of their agility to speedily move to digital business operations. Businesses in textile, apparel, footwear, transport, and other sectors have almost entirely converted to digital operation.

Though a partial digital transition has occurred, supply chains face challenges in economies grappling with inferior quality and costly digital connectivity. The public sector now must catch up with the private sector to speed up moving government services to digital platforms. Creating enabling legal environment and investing in hard digital infrastructure must be prioritized in COVID-19 recovery packages.

Businesses, supported by their associations, are keen to adopt environmental sustainability principles as an innovation mindset by taking opportunity of global reshoring and redrafting of supply chains. Re-enabling trade and investment and strengthening connectivity can only be done with coordinated and collaborative government actions at the regional level based on mutual trust, solidarity, and sustainability.

Trade, connectivity and global supply chains, particularly sustainable and green trade, is not a zero-sum game. To achieve that, platforms on trade and transport initiatives to rally regional solutions to cross-border challenges are essential.

Developing appropriate provisions in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) can address crises like the pandemic. Despite countries in Asia and the Pacific having more than half of the world’s RTAs, not many have specific provisions to govern trade policy in situations like COVID-19 pandemic. With a relatively weak multilateral trading system, a “free for all” behavior has developed, with many countries imposing trade restrictions without any regard for the international rules or those under the RTAs they have signed. The ongoing UN-wide initiative to develop model provisions in RTAs to address a pandemic-like crisis is a significant step forward.

Enhanced support for trade facilitation, trade digitalization and development of paperless and contactless trade remains a priority. Accelerating trade digitalization is key to progress. The Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific is expected to cut trade costs by 25 per cent.

Finally, we must move forward rapidly to achieve digital, resilient, and decarbonized regional connectivity. The platforms provided by the Asian Highway Network and the Trans-Asian Railway Network have already brought countries together to capture and analyze their policy responses and impacts on regional connectivity. This resulted in concrete proposals on collaborative actions to improve its pandemic response in Asia and the Pacific.

Despite standing at a difficult crossroads, we can ensure that the path ahead is stronger, smoother, and well-connected than before. Through ongoing partnerships among the United Nations family, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is working together with member States and the private sector to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and realize a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

 

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Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

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Women hold Somali flags at a Women's Peace Forum in Mogadishu, November 2018. Credit: UNDP Somalia/Arete/Ismail Taxta

By Nika Saeedi
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has shifted our world. Over the last six months, no matter where we live, our lives, assumptions, and relationships have changed. Now, more than ever, we have witnessed people from all backgrounds and all ages rise to assist each other.

While communities have formed networks of mutual support, many of the institutions mandated to support them have failed to fully harness and amplify the wealth of capacities and support structures that already exist.

In international development in particular, a key blind spot that limits the effectiveness of our work exists in the rhetoric we use to understand the communities we work with.

UNDP, along with many other partners, continues to advance new approaches to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, but our continued use of terminology that fails to fully embrace the power of people impedes the transformative potential of our work.

This can also lead to inadequate policy and programming, or to insufficient – or inappropriate – action. One of the most prominent examples of this is our tendency to target support to individuals and communities facing poverty, conflict, or other sources of instability by identifying them as ‘vulnerable’ people.

For example, the problem with categorizing women as vulnerable group project women’s passivity and helplessness, denying them agency and power in the processes of change. A radical reaction to portraying women as vulnerable in recent years has been an over glorification of women’s role as fighters in support of violent extremist groups, hindering their capacity and role as peacebuilders.

Words matter. They shape mindsets, and mindsets shapes approaches and outcomes. There is an important distinction between a vulnerable person and a person living in a vulnerable circumstance.

When we define people by their circumstances, we fail to engage with them as multidimensional beings. It’s time for UNDP to move from using ‘vulnerability’ as a means of defining the people it supports, to considering all people as protagonists for change.

Nika Saeedi

This might allow us to meet people’s aspirations and assist us in assessment and conceptualization of where inequality stems from and who has a role in combating it.

By moving away from a deprivation perspective, which leads to divisive mentalities about the capacity of particular groups of people, we are better positioned to recognize the reality of humanity’s common journey in building a peaceful world, and the role of each individual as a protagonist in it.

We can start this journey by changing the words we use and therefore the whole narrative from vulnerability to empowerment and constructive resilience.

Whether this reconceptualization of what unites us to be reached only after a global crisis such as this pandemic has revealed the cost of humanity’s stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, or is to be reached through consultation and dialogue, is the choice before all.

We can choose to graduate from the idea of labeling women, youth, racial, religious and ethnic minorities as ‘vulnerable groups in the discussions that guide our decision-making. We can embark on a journey with greater clarity of vision and determination to question and reflect on how our policy and programming promote the nobility of them and draw on their experience.

To accept that the individual, the community, and the institutions of society are the protagonists of civilization building, and to act accordingly, opens up great possibilities for human happiness and allows for the creation of environments in which the true powers of the human spirit can be released.

Several opportunities to enhance our work with peacebuilders, activists, and other populations in bringing about sustainable change and to ensure we recognize and articulate with greater clarity their latent capacity may include the following:

• To stand with women peacebuilders to ensure they are recognized for their work and courage, have full inclusion and representation in local and global peace and recovery processes and are protected against threats and are receiving the resources to carry out their work. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of WPS, and UNDP is proud to join the International Civil Society Action Network(ICAN) and the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) as they launch the global #shebuildspeace call to action and campaign building on our partnership on Invisible Women.
• To recognize the powers endowed in people of faith, especially women of faith, at all levels. Women of faith are actively engaging in the local peace process and they are advocating against hate speech, initiatives addressing issues connected to the environment, like climate. UNDP and UN Women report on Conflicting Identities: The Nexus between Masculinities, Femininities and Violent Extremism in Asia recommend Programming take a whole-of-family and hole-of-community approach when designing interventions.
• To recognize the essentiality of community-based peacebuilding as parallel or pre-requisite to high-level negotiations. The effects of COVID-19 proved that local trust, access and resilience is essential part of social cohesion.
• To include and appreciate young climate change advocates, environmental defenders and environmental journalists who have recognized that creation is an organic whole and they are promoting systems required to respect the earth and to organize and fully utilize its raw materials. Their inclusion in essential in programs that promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
• To acknowledge the role of storytellers who provoke conversations, initiate reflections and ; and work of volunteer online defenders from across the globe combating trolls who spread hate speech.
• To show gratitude to the unique contribution of Indigenous peoples to our planet and our common future.
• To recognize persons with disabilities as having significant experience and innovative approaches to navigating barriers in their daily lives.
• To learn how people make decisions and act on them, how they think about, influence, and relate to one another, and how they develop beliefs and attitudes. We are working with young people to apply behavioral insights to address violent extremism in countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The innovation and resilience shown by communities amidst the pandemic have underscored the need for more expansive understandings of human relationships, and to place more emphasis on identifying the latent capacities and desires of those we hope to serve.

This means believing in people and their desires to be sources of peace and justice. This means opening our eyes to the extent of people’s capacity so that we can see more peacebuilders and changemakers in more places.

This means embracing the oneness of humankind and human nobility as a foundation for how we develop our policies and programmes.

 

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Nika Saeedi is Team Leader a.i., Prevention of Violent Extremism, Crisis Bureau, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The post World Peace is Not Only Possible But Inevitable appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 2020 (IPS)

Industrial policy – or the promotion of particular investments, technologies, industries, regions and enterprises – has been practiced by a variety of governments to try to accelerate economic growth and transformation.

The ascendance of the Washington Consensus, inspired by the neoliberal counter-revolution in economics, focused on alleged national macroeconomic mismanagement in developing countries and later, transition economies. This was typically blamed on ‘soft budget constraints’ (SBCs) in socialist states and enterprises, macroeconomic populism and industrial policy.

Vladimir Popov

Blaming industrial policy
Enterprise-level SBCs have also been wrongly blamed on industrial policy to promote certain economic activities, usually manufacturing with more advanced technologies. In practice, most industrial policy was quite selective, i.e., involving support of some industries, regions and enterprises at the expense of others.

While such selective support may or may not have been successful in promoting targeted industries, industrial policy has been wrongly, and sometimesdeliberately blamed for both enterprise and national level fiscal SBCs. Fiscal SBCs have been wrongly blamed on enterprise-level SBCs in socialist states, macroeconomic populism and industrial policy.

But contrary to many economists’ presumptions, in most economies, including many centrally planned ‘socialist’ ones, few enterprises were exempted from budgetary discipline. SBCs were therefore the very rare exception, not the rule, to promote desired new economic activities.

Enterprise-level SBCs did not “permeate all organizations” in socialist countries, as often claimed and assumed, but were instead quite selective, i.e., subsidies were provided to some enterprises, industries or regions, typically at the expense of others.

All centrally planned economies had both explicit and implicit subsidies. In most Eastern European and Soviet countries during 1989-1992, on the eve of transition, direct subsidies in the government budget amounted to 10-15% of national income.

In addition to direct subsidies for public utilities, housing and food, there were implicit price subsidies, particularly for users of fuel, energy and raw materials. Besides explicit subsidies from government budgets, rents from unsustainable, non-renewable resource extraction were shared with industries and consumers via lower prices.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Dwarf infant industries
The fiscal problem was not due to subsidization per se, or even to subsidization of manufacturing – at the expense of resource industries, trade and financial services. Rather, the problem was in the way such subsidization was carried out, i.e., by maintaining higher domestic prices for manufactured goods.

Such import-substituting industrialization (ISI) typically created industries which rarely became internationally competitive and viable. There have been all too many examples of failed ISI requiring ongoing subsidization of ‘infant industries’ incapable of ever becoming internationally uncompetitive.

These industries were exposed as unviable and unsustainable with trade liberalization and the end of Soviet era trade arrangements in the 1990s. Soviet industrialization from the 1930s had survived before that due to its insulated economic environment, with the ratio of Soviet exports to GDP not rising until fuel sales abroad rose with higher prices from the 1970s.

Perestroika reforms, initiated by reformist Soviet leader Gorbachev after the mid-1980s, failed to accelerate needed enterprise reforms or economic growth, but instead led to the ‘transformational recession’ of the 1990s, greatly exacerbated by the reforms during Boris Yeltsin’s first presidential term.

Many other enterprises – mainly in heavy industries, and often relying on Soviet technology, advice and aid – in other ‘socialist’ economies and developing countries subject to Soviet influence, experienced similar fates.

Thus, nations which tried to challenge Western hegemony met similar fates despite trying to make a virtue of ‘self-reliance’ compelled by the need to cope with Western-led trade and investment sanctions.

Successful industrial policy
Most countries trying to industrialize or to accelerate industrialization started with ISI, with effective protection enabling new enterprises to produce for domestic markets by keeping out imported foreign substitutes with prohibitively high tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers.

But many IS enterprises continued to survive, even profit from such supposedly temporary tariff protection and other government support, never becoming internationally competitive as promised by the ISI strategy.

In more successful ‘late developing’ economies, government support was conditional on meeting performance criteria which effectively attracted private investments. Such investors sought more handsome ‘rents’ by accelerating technological progress, productivitand international competitiveness.

Thus, for example, ‘effective protection conditional on export promotion’ enabled the emergence of internationally competitive enterprises in some East Asian economies. Export orientation has been especially important in improving output quality to meet internationally competitive product quality and performance standards while achieving cost competitiveness.

Without more effective means for disciplining enterprises to accelerate development, export-orientation – promoted by government policy, incentives and other support – has contributed to successful catch-up growth. East Asian economies subsidized competitive export-oriented industries which accelerated economic growth and transformation, some more successfully than others.

In China, for instance, exports compared to GDP increased from 5% in 1978 to 35% in 2006, before declining to 20% in 2018, while its GDP grew at an average of 10% annually, with its population rising slower than in most other developing countries due its ‘one child’ policy.

Appropriate industrial policy needed
Budget constraints in socialist economies were generally stronger than in developing countries and no less strict than in developed countries on average. SBCs in socialist economies were never pervasive, as widely believed, but selective, i.e., subsidizing some enterprises or industries at the expense of others.

Such selective support, while typical of industrial policy, may or may not successfully promote internationally competitive enterprises, but certainly provides no empirical support for the claim of pervasive SBCs in ‘socialist’ economies.

With state-owned enterprises, strict fiscal and enterprise-level discipline, including budget constraints, have led to restructuring, and more rarely, closures. But even when budget constraints have been less than strict, they have not been pervasive, as fiscally disciplined ‘socialist’ economies could not afford otherwise.

National-level macroeconomic mismanagement in developing countries and transition economies has all too often by ideologically defined by neoliberal economics. In so far as macroeconomic challenges are real and demand pragmatic policy attention, they should not be defined by distracting neoliberal chimera of alleged SBCs variously blamed on socialism, populism and industrial policy.

Unfortunately, the mythology surrounding SBCs has been used to throw the industrial policy baby out with the bathwater of ISI cul de sacs. Much more appropriate, yet pragmatic industrial policy is needed for developing countries and transition economies to ‘catch up’, as achieved by some East Asian and other economies.

 

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Wang Yi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, addresses the virtual Security Council summit-level debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Global Governance post Covid-19”. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan
AMSTERDAM/ROME, Oct 5 2020 (IPS)

Lockdowns, social distancing, face-masks and other restrictions on personal and social behaviour have helped slow the progress of the COVID-19 virus. Enough to allow health systems to start catching their breath, for doctors to work out treatment protocols, and for work to start on a vaccine. There is now a need to take stock of the many other impacts the pandemic is likely to have, particularly at the economic and political level.

In terms of short to medium term impacts, the developed countries have been the hardest hit in terms of mortality, and their economies are projected by the IMF to shrink by 8% over 2020. More critically, the economic contraction will disproportionately impact the poor in these countries and accentuate the inequality that has been rising over the last 30 years.

The US stock market has regained all losses despite the fact that millions are jobless. The tech giants continue to post immense profits. Jeff Bezos, founder and major shareholder of Amazon, is now the richest man on earth with a net worth of over US$200 billion – this means that if he were to live another 40 years, and wanted to use all his money before dying, he would need to spend almost US$14 million a day! This, at a time when a growing number of people cannot afford decent housing, adequate clothing and proper nutrition.

It has become clear that widespread disease and death, helplessly watching one’s loved ones die, and being turned away from hospitals, are not things that happen only in poor countries

In contrast to what is happening in the advanced economies, many developing countries – particularly in Africa and Asia – have experienced lower mortality rates. This differential impact could be due to demographics – with the younger population in these countries proving more resilient.

Or it could be due to their more frequent exposure to other viruses which have built up their immunity levels. In some countries such as China, Viet Nam and South Korea it was clearly due to the Governments’ containment measures and the high levels of conformity to government guidelines.

In other countries it could be that the virus arrived later, after having mutated in to a milder variant which was less aggressive. Or it could be something deeper. For example, it could be that the genetic code of people of European origin makes them more vulnerable than Asians and Africans.

Maybe this is why many countries in South and Central America that have been colonized by Europeans, also suffered heavily. But there are flaws in each of these hypotheses. Surely we will know more as data from hundreds of ongoing studies from around the world are completed, compiled and analysed. Or maybe we will never have a final definitive explanation.

In any case, the lower health impact in developing and emerging economies has meant a lower overall economic impact. According to IMF projections, the GDP in emerging markets and developing countries is expected to fall by 3% in 2020 (as compared to the fall of 8% in developed countries).

Some countries, particularly in South and Central America, have been badly hit, but there are many others which have got off relatively lightly. Among the major economies, China is the only one expected to post a positive GDP growth in 2020. Its exports have already rebounded and it is now running a massive trade surplus.

But in addition to its differential economic impacts, the pandemic has also changed perceptions. In developed countries, it has badly dented the view of many people who felt that they were living in a superior system which could withstand and cope with unforeseeable events.

That their higher standards of living, their state-of-the-art health care systems, their social cohesion, and the superior levels of institutional maturity would have made them less vulnerable. This feeling of comfort and complacency has been badly shaken.

It has become clear that widespread disease and death, helplessly watching one’s loved ones die, and being turned away from hospitals, are not things that happen only in poor countries.

Their self-confidence could be in for other jolts in the coming months. Many countries are seeing a rapid spike in cases in recent weeks especially in several European countries. One of the underlying factors is a phenomenon called compliance fatigue – a feeling of weariness after months of restrictions, and a tendency to ignore government guidance, claiming that the worst is now over.

This happened especially among the youth who started to disregard the repeated warnings of scientists and the authorities also because initially it seemed that only the elderly were at risk. They are now paying the price of this social anarchy and several countries are facing the spectre of new restrictions and lockdowns which is jeopardising the projected recovery for 2021.

The economic inequality and lower levels of confidence in the “system” will accelerate some major social and political trends in the developed world. It is difficult to foresee the details, but the disdain for global, national and local institutions which have failed to deliver for increasing numbers of people will continue to grow.

Populist parties, which have already used this growing disillusionment to increase their influence and to take power in many countries, are likely to grow stronger. A critical consequence will be that the isolationism seen in the past decade or so will increase with slogans such as “America First”, “Make Britain Great Again” and “Prima gli Italiani” gaining traction.

These factors are all pointing to a very different world from what we have been seeing. The traditional powers of the west are neither as strong economically, nor as confident of their social and organizational superiority. China, along with developing countries in Asia and Africa that have better weathered COVID storm, will likely increase their global footprint at a much faster rate that they have been doing in the past decades.

Will this make for a better and more equitable world?

 

Daud Khan is a former United Nations official who lives between Italy and Pakistan. He holds degrees in Economics from the London School of Economics and Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

Leila Yasmine Khan is an independent writer and editor based in the Netherlands. She has Master’s degrees in Philosophy and in Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric from the University of Amsterdam, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome (Roma Tre).

The post Will COVID-19 Change the Global Balance of Power? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Oct 5 2020 (IPS-Partners)

As COVID-19 shapes and re-shapes the “new normal” in the Pacific, organic food and products will be a key to community adaptation and resiliency in the region’s economies and livelihoods, with the opportunity to advance a more inclusive gender and people centred approach.

The POETCom initiative, under the SPC’s Land Resources Division, has recognized this by taking the next step in its Building Prosperity for Women Producers, Processors, and Women Owned Businesses through Organic Value Chains (BPWP) project, a collaboration with the Australian Government. The project seeks to empower women for greater access to sustainable livelihoods through participation in organic value chains.

POETCom has developed a toolkit for organic value chain assessment as part of the BPWP project. The kit was trialled in September 2020 at a workshop in Suva. Due to travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19, the project is trialling its toolkits in Fiji before implementing with partners in project countries.

Cicia Organic Monitoring Agency representative and POETCom member Petero Ratucove concluded, “This workshop helped recognize and act on the importance of designing implementations and interventions that account for the roles of women that would have otherwise been neglected in the overall economic development of any community. We need to communicate the importance of gender equity and ensure that we have more equitable distribution of ownership levels of engagement in decision making processes.”

The toolkit will help POETCom staff and partners deepen their knowledge and skills in gender and social inclusion mainstreaming, while guiding them to apply a gender lens to an organic value chain analysis or assessment.

The project works with individuals, families, producers and vendors, as well as organic governance structures. The four expected outcomes are:

• Women have increased financial independence and influence in decision-making within the household.
• Women are increasingly participating in organic value chains, including decision making processes.
• Women and men benefit from viable organic value chains that meet market needs and increase food security.
• The Pacific organic sector has more gender equitable policies and practices.

Building Prosperity for Women Producers, Processors, and Women Owned Businesses through Organic Value Chains launched in October 2018 and is being implemented in three phases over four years; initially working in the Republic of Marshall Islands and Palau with later activities planned for Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia

The workshop feedback is helping the POETCom team revise and finalise the working version of toolkit. The kit will then be applied by POETCom members to ensure challenges, opportunities and entry-points for women are identified and developed to secure equitable and equal benefits from organic agriculture. POETCom hopes to launch the finalised version of the project toolkit later in 2021 after trials in project countries.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

 

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By External Source
Oct 5 2020 (IPS-Partners)

This World Teachers’ Day, celebrated under the theme, “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future”, the Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait, UNESCO and UNICEF are calling for the resumption of salary payments for around half of the Yemeni teachers and school-based staff (estimated 160,000) who have not received regular salary payments since 2016. With suspended salary payments and schools regularly coming under attack, many teachers have been forced to find alternative sources of income to provide for their families.

The dire situation in Yemen, including ongoing conflict, natural disasters (flooding), wide-spread diseases (cholera, measles, polio), and poverty has pushed over two million children out of school and put at risk 5.8 million children who have been enrolled in school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers and school-based staff are critical to ensure continuation of education services and learning for every child in Yemen. Further delay in paying teachers will likely lead to the total collapse of the education sector and impact millions of Yemeni children, especially the most vulnerable and girls, putting them at risk of engaging in negative coping mechanisms such as child labor, recruitment into armed groups and forces, child marriage, trafficking and other forms of exploitation and abuse.

The global community must unite to end violence against children in Yemen and protect their health and right to education. Without a collective commitment to action, we will fail to meet the 2030 Agenda – Leaving no child and no teacher behind. A minimum of 70 million USD is needed to help address this gap and ensure teachers can receive a payment during the 2020-21 school year.

Education Cannot Wait, the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and UNICEF are committed to continuing our support for equitable, inclusive quality education for all Yemeni children. We join our voices to call on the international community and the authorities in Yemen to resume the payment of salaries to teachers in all parts of the country.

Above all, the parties to the conflict in Yemen should work towards peace to allow for recovery and a return to normalcy especially for the children who have suffered the tragic consequences of a conflict not of their making.

Source: Education Cannot Wait

 

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Entire communities are being gradually empowered to resist traffickers and are being taught the necessary legal knowledge to eradicate slave and bonded labour from their midsts in the near future. Credit: Rina Mukherji/IPS

By Rina Mukherji
PUNE, India, Oct 5 2020 (IPS)

One day, while the rest of his family were out at work, Kamlesh Pravasi from Jigarsandih village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh was “abducted when I returned home one day from school, by a contractor’s goons,” he told IPS. The then 12-year-old Pravasi, who was in the sixth grade, was forced to work in bonded labour in a brick kiln because his father could not repay a Rs 5,000 ($68) loan he had taken out from the contractor in order to pay for medical treatment for Pravasi’s sick brother.

Pravasi, along with his two younger brothers, was made to work from the early hours in the morning (from around 2 or 4 am) until 7 pm in the evening, for little or no payment. The family, comprising his parents and six siblings, could do little to alleviate their plight.

“Being illiterate, my parents were unsure of how much they owed to the contractor,” Pravasi admitted to IPS. The boys slaved in the kiln for five years — from 2012 to 2017 — until they were  eventually rescued by activists affiliated to the Human Liberty Network (HLN). HLN is a network of grassroots NGOs in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh working to end slavery and bonded labour.

Pravasi is now employed in construction work, and will soon sit for his intermediate grade /higher secondary examinations.

The story of Pravasi and his brothers is not an unusual one.

For Rajkumar Ram from Katahan village in West Champaran district of Bihar, a loan of Rs 30,000 ($410) taken 20 years ago meant that he and his entire family — including his wife, his three sons and young daughters — had to work in a brick kiln from 5 am in the morning to late evening for free.

The Ram family, like Pravasi and his brothers, where also rescued — but in their case help came from within the family.

Veena Devi (left) with her in-laws and husband. She was able to save her husband’s family from years of bonded labour. Courtesy: Rina Mukherji

Veena Devi, came to the rescue of the Ram family, after marrying into the family in 2015.

“It was when I enrolled for vocational training and non-formal education under a non-governmental   organisation-NIRDESH, that I realised what inter-generational bonded labour meant,” Devi told IPS.

She also learnt that the entire village of Katahan, comprising 37 families, had been condemned to such inter-generational bonded labour.

With a matriculation certificate, Devi took up a teacher’s job at a non-formal education centre, became a member of a local self-help group, and with the help of activists, raised the funds to secure their release.

Her husband, Bansi Ram, now works in a dress-making factory, while her father-in-law has opened a grocery shop. Her brothers-in-law work as plumbers, while her mother-in-law rears goats.

Parents may be lured with a lump sum ofRs 5,000 ($68) to Rs. 10,000 ($136) paid in advance, as Manav Sansadhan Evam Mahila Vikas Sansthan ( MSEMVS) executive director Dr. Bhanuja Sharan Lal told IPS. MSEMVS is an NGO that focuses on the eradication of child labour.

“We recently rescued nine children from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh who were trafficked to a panipuri (a type of snack) factory in Telangana after their parents were paid an advance of Rs 10,000 ($136) each. They were working free from 2 am to 4 pm in return for meals. Eight rescued children from Azamgarh (in Uttar Pradesh) were similarly employed in a textile factory in Gujarat as slave labour.”

Government initiatives & impediments in overcoming the problem

Of those most vulnerable are the Mahadalits and Dalits who have been confined to illiteracy and grinding poverty because of a casteist social structure.

Discrimination based on caste is illegal according to the country’s constitution and for more than 70 years the government has placed quotas on government jobs and education positions in order to ensure opportunities to all.

Affirmative action by the government has also contributed to Mahadalit children being sent to school, but most are first generation learners. This can limit the access families have to government schemes.

The Skill India initiative by the central government, which was launched in July 2015 and aims to train 400 million individuals in various skills by 2022, has evaded Mahadalit youngsters.

“To qualify for Skill India, you need to have a matriculation certificate. Poverty and family pressures cause most Mahadalit children to drop out after the sixth grade,” explains human rights activist and Adithi director Parinita Kumari of the reasons behind the exclusion of these groups.

Government efforts to rehabilitate migrant returnees through jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) too generally failed, since many were found to have no job cards and hence did not qualify.

• The Act guarantees 100 days of wage employment to a rural household where the adults are willing to undertake unskilled labour.

“While those who returned through quarantine centres arranged by the government, were registered, the ones who returned on their own, were not; this made it difficult for them to avail of government schemes,” Kumari said.

Initiatives that work

The Bihar government, under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, came up with a Mahadalit Vikas Yojana (Plan for the Development of Mahadalits), which was implemented in 2010. The Plan for the Development of Mahadalits saw the setting up of the Bihar Mahadalit Mission, wherein Mahadalits are being granted small pockets of land (122 square metres).

They are also supported with access to various financial, educational and other schemes, including the setting up of residential schools, community radio stations, assistance for buying school uniforms, skill development and women’s self-help groups.

Eradication of bonded labour is not an easy goal to achieve, given the circumstances that the practice draws sustenance from.

NGOs affiliated to HLN have been actively organising the most vulnerable communities in source, transit and destination villages into Community Business Committees, which use survivors/victims of trafficking as peer educators to impart the necessary knowledge to communities through awareness programmes. 

Since these individuals have first-hand knowledge of the modus operandi of traffickers, and are people drawn from within the community, the peer educators immediately strike a chord  among those they seek to educate.

“We have been conducting classes to impart knowledge on government helplines, and giving financial training through lead banks to survivors/victims of trafficking and rural communities in general so that they can access government schemes and apply for livelihood grants,” activist and Rural Organisation for Social Advancement chief functionary, Mushtaque Ahmed told IPS. 

Adithi has also been helping individuals take advantage of the Plan for the Development of Mahadalits, and access landholdings. 

Communities are also informed about government helplines to report trafficking, and given financial training through lead banks to access government schemes and livelihood grants.    

Consequently, entire communities are being gradually empowered to resist traffickers and are being taught the necessary, legal knowledge to eradicate slave and bonded labour from their midsts in the near future.

By empowering the poor to demand and access their rights, and imparting the necessary functional and financial literacy, one can be certain that “they don’t return to bonded labour,” Lal told IPS.

• This is the second in a two-part series on bonded labour in India. Find Part 1 here.

 

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

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Globally 75 million children who cannot access education as a result of crises. A dated photo of a Syrian child in a refugee camp in Jordan. Credit: Robert Stefanicki/IPS.

By Yasmine Sherif, Dean Brooks and Mary Mendenhall
NEW YORK, Oct 5 2020 (IPS)

Teachers are at the heart of children and young peoples’ educational experiences. Teachers play multiple roles in their students’ lives by supporting their learning, providing them with inclusive and safe environments to grow and develop, and helping them become more confident as they make their way in the world. As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day on Monday, 5 October and its theme–Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future–we must recognize the inspiring and transformative role that teachers working in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change induced disasters and protracted crises play in their students’ lives.

Even before the global pandemic, the lives and education of 75 million children and youth worldwide were already disrupted by crisis. Teachers living and working in these settings provide a lifeline to the young people desperate to be learning in school. Yet, they are often placed in classrooms with little to no training or professional development, and expected to work miracles with few teaching and learning resources and insufficient compensation. They also regularly encounter over-crowded classrooms with mixed-age students who need both academic and social-emotional support. All too often, teachers, schools and students are also subject to violent attacks, particularly in armed conflict settings.

Despite these challenges, teachers persist. They provide a sense of stability and structure in their classrooms that is desperately needed amidst unrest and displacement. Teachers working in these environments are innovative and resourceful in meeting the learning and development needs of their students. These teachers are “forced to reimagine education” and the futures of their learners everyday, something they were doing even before the coronavirus pandemic further exacerbated the challenges they already faced.

Yasmine Sherif

In Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, a Kindergarten teacher (a refugee from Uganda) created a garden inside her classroom to help her students learn about soil, seeds, markets and communities since there weren’t enough textbooks for her students to learn these topics. Despite the additional challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers’ unwavering commitment has continued, including the adoption of digital and remote learning tools and methods. As Mona Ibrahim, a teacher in Lebanon describes, ‘We used these tools during the 2012 conflict, as well as during the 2014 conflict, and now we are using it during the crisis of the coronavirus.’

Teachers working in contexts affected by conflict and disasters often experience the same disruption, violence, and displacement as their students. While they work tirelessly to provide psychosocial support to their students, they are rarely provided with this support themselves. A Somali refugee teacher in Kakuma refugee camp shared this sentiment in a recent report on teacher well-being: “All my problems which I’m getting at home, I’m just carrying them to the school.”

In many settings, compounding crises, suspended teacher salary payments and schools regularly coming under attack mean teachers are often forced to find alternative sources of income to provide for their families. In Yemen, an estimated 160,000 teachers and school-based staff have not received regular salary payments since 2016 due to the ongoing famine, conflict and spread of disease. This is why Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and other education leaders are today calling for the resumption of teacher salary payments and training for Yemeni teachers, and why ECW funds teacher training and, in certain contexts, provides incentives for teachers in crisis-affected areas.

To respond to teachers’ needs, our organizations, Education Cannot Wait and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) have forged a new partnership to build a toolkit that focuses on teacher well-being, particularly in emergency settings – a resource that will be developed in collaboration with teachers. The toolkit will further supplement the INEE Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery, the global framework for delivering quality education in emergencies, and the work of INEE’s Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaborative.

Concrete action steps like this are important. Better support for teachers working in crisis contexts will help ensure that millions of children and youth receive the right to inclusive and equitable quality education, and that global commitments—such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Compact on Refugees—are fulfilled.

Based on our respective work – both in financing and guiding the development of inter-agency standards, tools and support for education in emergencies, here are five additional ways that national governments, donors, and all relevant global, regional, national, and local stakeholders – and teachers themselves – can work together to improve teacher policies and practices:

● Prioritize teachers from the very onset of an emergency, through to recovery and development, with increased financial investments, better data, and effective planning so that adequate numbers of teachers, including female and minority teachers, are teaching where and when they are needed most.

● Respect teachers, including volunteers and facilitators, as individuals and professionals with appropriate and equitable recruitment policies, pay and employment terms, and working conditions.

● Enable teachers to support all learners by continuously investing in and dramatically improving the nature and quality of teacher preparation, continuous professional development, and sustained support.

● Support teachers’ well-being, recognizing the impact of crises on teachers in their own lives and in their ability to do their work, and providing comprehensive support to teachers at the individual, school, community, and national levels.

● Listen to teachers’ experiences and opinions, by including them in decision-making bodies and coordination mechanisms, program design and implementation, and research efforts.

Ongoing armed conflicts, crises and disasters have pushed millions of children and youth out of school around the world. Today’s ongoing health pandemic is doing further damage by rolling back progress that has been made in many places to get children and youth back into school and learning, especially for girls. Despite the compounding impact of COVID-19, it has also heightened our awareness of the vital role that teachers play. Now more than ever, we have a chance to transform education systems through the support we provide to teachers. Let us work together to do just that. Teachers around the world deserve nothing less.

Co-authors:

Yasmine Sherif is the Director of Education Cannot Wait. To donate to Education Cannot Wait’s work for teachers and students in emergencies, visit http://www.pledgeling.org/ECW and follow @EduCannotWait on Twitter.

Dean Brooks is the Director of the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. To find out more about INEE and to access inter-agency tools and resources to support teachers in crisis contexts please visit https://inee.org/collections/teachers and follow @INEEtweets on Twitter.

Mary Mendenhall, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University and a member of the INEE Teachers in Crisis Contexts Collaborative. To learn more about Dr. Mendenhall’s work, see her faculty profile and refugee education projects at Teachers College, and follow her at @marymendenhall1 on Twitter.

 

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• FEATURED TRANSLATION – FRENCH

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A delegation of six civil society organizations-- Amnesty International Nepal; Burn Violence Survivors Nepal; Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD); Justice and Rights Institute Nepal (JuRI-Nepal); Legal Aid and Consultancy Center (LACC) Nepal; and Women's Rehabilitation Center (WOREC)--- submitted a set of recommendations on the drafting of a new legislation on acid violence to Law to Justice Minister, Shivamaya Tumbahangphe, during a meeting at her office on 16 September, 2020. Credit: Burn Violence Survivors, Nepal

By Simone Galimberti and Sanju G.C.
KATHMANDU. Nepal, Oct 5 2020 (IPS)

After a prolonged lobbying campaign, the Government of Nepal recently took some important actions against perpetrators of acid attacks while offering better provisions to support the process of rehabilitation of their victims.

The turning point was an announcement made by Prime Minister K.P. Oli on the 10th September, 2020 in the aftermath of a meeting with a delegation of six civil society and human rights organizations actively working on the issue.

During the program that also included an interaction with a group of survivors, Prime Minister Oli declared the Government would introduce a new legislation that would curb and prevent acid and burn related crimes.

On the 28th of September, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari issued two ordinances strengthening the legislation against acid attack, a plague that is becoming more and more common in Nepal as elsewhere in the region.

The promulgation comes at a critical juncture when violence against women and girls in Nepal has been on the rise, especially during the Covid induced lockdown and what has now been hailed as the ‘shadow pandemic’.

Through the new measures, perpetrators will have to pay a much heavier price for committing such heinous crimes including an increase in prison term to 20 years and a fine up to approximately 10,000 USD that would be used to compensate the victims.

In addition, the Government will bear the cost of treatment of the victims and also will regulate in a much stringent way the sales of chemicals being used for such attacks.

While there is no doubt that the two ordinances that still must be approved by the Parliament within six months before automatically elapsing, are important milestones to effectively deal with acid attacks, they are falling short of expectations.

The group of civil society organizations (CSOs) working on the issue had recommended a completely new set of legislation rather than amending the Penal Code as done by the Government through the two ordinances.

The rationale for a completely new piece of law is straightforward: stronger punishments together with a resolute commitment for treatment, something that perhaps should be granted elsewhere, and a long due regulation on the sale of acid chemicals, do not go far enough to ensure that the problem will be definitely eradicated.

This is the reason why a comprehensive set of recommendations was submitted during the meeting with Prime Minister Oli, including not only preventive measures but, very importantly, also proposals to fully rehabilitate the victims towards regaining a normal life.

Besides the measures incorporated in the two ordinances, the representatives of the civil society have been demanding for special social protection and compensatory safety net, relief for dependents of the victims, safety, security, and protection from discrimination for the victims and their family.

Twenty-five years after the historic Beijing women’s conference in China – a milestone in advancing equal rights – violence against women and girls is not only common, but widely accepted, a new UN report revealed last week. Credit: UNICEF/Noorani

In addition, the civil society also called for awareness on the issue of burn and acid violence, its effects and treatment. The fact that the Prime Minister Oli followed up on its promise, albeit only partially, is praiseworthy but not enough.

“Though the proposed provisions in the ordinance are very progressive than the existing legal provisions, it will be more comprehensive if the new law addressed issues such as survivor’s safety, treatment and overall well-being” shares Sabin Shrestha, the Executive Director of the Forum for Women, Law & Development (FWLD), one of the organizations engaged in drafting the recommendations.

Moreover, as often happens in countries struggling to reinforce the rule of law, the real issue will now be to wait and see how the new provisions of the Penal Code will be implemented on the ground.

Shrestha shares the concerns: “the new legal provision needs to be translated in reality and focus should be on the implementation of the law. Effective monitoring mechanisms should be ensured ultimately benefiting the victim”.

The demands from the civil society must be taken further into consideration with an even more specialized act for acid and burn related crimes which is comprehensive and addresses the socio-economic, psychosocial, and emotional costs of acid and burn related crimes.

“It is important to ensure that the specific legislation on acid violence adopts a comprehensive approach to focus on all aspects of the crime and its impact on victims/ survivors” Shrestha adds.

While the focus of the two ordinances have been on acid attacks, burn related crimes, a definition broader than narrowed terminology of “acid attacks” should also be fully acknowledged and properly addressed as highlighted by Pratiksha Giri, Executive Director Burns Violence Survivors Nepal, a local not for profit actively working on the reintegration and rehabilitation of the victims.

While the two ordinances have rectified the existing loopholes within the law that prevented fair and swift justice in the past and have been drafted from a victim centered, justice oriented approach as it was explicitly advocated by Muskan Khatun, Jenny Khadka, and Sangita Magar on behalf of the 12 survivors who met Prime Minister Oli, which in itself is an important achievement, more action must follow.

The full eradication of acid and burn attacks requires not only a speedy approval of a dedicated piece of legislation but also a comprehensive approach to prevent any kind of violence against women.

“The education curriculum has incorporated issues of violence, social injustices and inequalities in its curriculum to create awareness around the prevalent issues of contemporary society however, only superficially” says Giri.

She further elaborates, “Educating young children acts as predominant factor to raise awareness and bring about positive changes in the mindset of young children through the knowledge they acquire from schools”. We cannot agree more.

Hopefully the steps taken by the Government will also embolden and encourage civil society activists and the survivors to ask for more.

It is their right and their demands must be heeded to at the earliest.

 

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Excerpt:

Simone Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit organization promoting social inclusion in Nepal & Sanju G.C. is a graduate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University.

The post Nepal Moves Against Acid Attacks on Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Windmills in Calama, in the Atacama Desert, in northern Chile. The projects in Chile to take advantage of its high potential in unconventional renewable energies have managed to reduce the country's dependence on imported fossil fuels and to reach a fall in the general cost of energy. Image: Marianela Jarroud / IPS

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Oct 2 2020 (IPS)

The way forward for energy transition and its link to an economic recovery after the depression caused by the covid-19 pandemic is focusing attention in Latin America and Europe, according to the 2nd Madrid Energy Conference (MEC), which concluded this Friday 2.

The intercontinental forum was held since Monday, September 28, in this case virtually due to the pandemic, organized by the non-governmental Institute of the Americas (IA), which is headquartered in the coastal town of La Jolla, in western United States.

Jorge Rivera, Panama’s Secretary of Energy and one of the sector’s leaders in Latin America who participated in the Conference, stressed that the transition is not an automatic process, but depends on a political decision and on the sector’s corporations.

“We have a great opportunity. We have an energy transition agenda for the next 10 years, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which includes a series of national strategies, decarbonization, digitalization, and energy democratization. We have a lot to do in transportation, industry, in the uses of energy,” he said.

Rivera insisted that “these measures have the potential to become a tool for post-covid economic recovery.

The Conference, which lasted five days and whose first edition took place in 2019 in the Spanish capital, brought together virtually ministers from five American nations, more than 20 companies´ presidents and more than 400 delegates from international organizations and experts from both continents.

The agenda addressed issues such as the climate crisis in the context of the pandemic, the situation of renewable energy on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the financing of post-covid recovery, the energy transition towards lower carbon models, energy storage in batteries and power grids, as well as different aspects of mobility.

Topics such as transport, gas, the outlook for oil corporations or the digitalization of the sector were also tackled.

An important part of the debates was linked to the climate crisis, such as carbon capture and storage and greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities responsible for global warming, as well as methane and the prospects of hydrogen, seen as an alternative to fossil fuels, on both continents.

For Alfonso Blanco, OLADE – Latin American Energy Organization’s executive secretary, the region has made significant efforts to accelerate the transition, but the impact of Covid-19 has generated an uncertain outlook.

One of the debate sessions of the Madrid Energy Conference, dedicated to the energy transition, which held its second virtual edition, between September 28 and October 2, organized by the Institute of the Americas. Image: IA

 

“Sustainability will depend on regional measures, but the region does not have a defined regional action. If we do not analyze the (financial) risk and develop a financing model for renewables, we will see problems of further incorporation of renewables. We have to think of specific strategies, according to the role of each sector,” he said.

In recent years, Latin America has advanced in the development of wind and solar sources as clean alternatives, but it faces the challenge of reducing the burning of fossil fuels in industry and transportation and improving energy efficiency.

This transition has come to a halt in nations such as Mexico, which prioritize support for hydrocarbons, as pointed out by Joost Samsom, partner and co-founder of the consulting firm Voltiq – Renewable Energy Finance, and Claudio Rodríguez, partner of the law firm Thompson & Knight LLP.

Stuart Broadley, executive director of the non-governmental Energy Industries Council (EIC) – based in London and which brings together energy companies – explained that phase I of the energy transition, currently underway, consists of the adoption of technologies such as wind and solar, and during which most countries have not invested much for different reasons.

 

The forthcoming future

Phase II, which the world has not yet entered, involves energy variations such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Broadley said that companies dedicated to promoting renewable sources are not going to invest in hydrocarbons and do not like oil companies jumping into their market, so they are not going to help each other. In view of this, regulations imply or should imply forcing them to work together and, for this, the government’s role is critical.

For Fernando Cubillos, head of Energy at IDB Invest, the private investment arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, renewable energies have shown resilience during the pandemic, competitiveness and attractiveness.

“The possibilities of reviving the economy may give a chance to introduce more renewable energy, which can help the recovery, and there is an opportunity to deploy more renewables. We see good conditions for renewables today. What is missing in some countries is the regulatory framework,” he said during the discussions.

 

The installation of photovoltaic panels in poor neighborhoods in Brazil, like these in Morro de Santa Marta, in Rio de Janeiro, which often respond to community and distributed generation projects. They also contribute to reducing the energy bill in these populations and moving towards sustainable generation and consumption. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS.

 

In nations such as Brazil, distributed (decentralized) and small-scale solar generation has become important on a commercial scale and has registered growth, which was possible thanks to the regulatory framework.

“We have seen that state-of-the-art technology is wind and solar, due to low costs, and it is very difficult to expand hydropower generation. We have seen potential for battery storage, but it’s not attractive yet”, Thiago Barral, executive president of Brazil’s state-owned Energy Research Agency, analyzed during the MEC.

Although the energy transition is in its first phase, Latin America is beginning to consider emerging technologies, such as CCS and hydrogen, whether from gas or renewables.

In the first case, CCS, the intergovernmental International Energy Agency (IEA), which brings together major industrial countries and is based in Paris, said that by 2020, governments and industry have committed around some $4 billion to such initiatives worldwide.

In the world, there are at least 15 projects in operation and seven under construction, but during the MEC experts estimated that at least 500 are needed globally.

The use of hydrogen is an unknown variant in the Latin American region. At the beginning of this century, Brazil was a pioneer in exploring this path, but abandoned it to develop sugar cane ethanol, renewable sources and hydro energy.

Chris Sladen, founder and director of the UK-based consulting firm Reconnoitre Ltd, said CCS “has been a dream for hydrocarbons. But it’s not a simple concept, it involves several joint projects” and the big question is how to take them to a commercial scale.

That technology, he proposed, should occur close to where carbon is generated, such as power plants, petrochemicals or cement factories.

Some 50 countries, most of them in the developed North, have instituted policies for the use of hydrogen. In Latin America, Chile has the potential to produce this resource at low prices and that can be a mitigation measure for a cleaner electrical matrix, according to its Undersecretary of Energy, Francisco López.

 

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White-rumped vulture. Credit: ANKIT BISHAL JOSHI.

By Karun Dewan
NAWALPARASI, Lumbiniī, Nepal, Oct 2 2020 (IPS)

Vultures get a lot of bad press. Unlike other birds which are praised for their melodious song or bright plumage, vultures have been traditionally reviled for feeding greedily on carcasses, and what many see is as a repulsive look. In many cultures, they are considered an ill omen and the Nepali language has many derogatory phrases.

A famous dialogue in the critically acclaimed and commercially successful recent Nepali movie Loot proclaims Kathmandu as a ‘the city of vultures’. What an insult to vultures.

This negative perception of vultures does not take into account the enormous ecosystem services provided by the raptors in consuming carrion, and reducing the spread of disease.

In fact, when vultures nearly became extinct in the Subcontinent in the past two decades because of the use of the veterinary anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, animal carcasses lay rotting in the fields and jungles becoming hotbeds for pathogens.

South Asia first started seeing a massive decline in its vulture population starting the 1990s, and no one quite knew why. The White-rumped, Long-billed and Slender-billed vultures declined by more than 99% in India and Pakistan.

In Nepal, between 1995 and 2001, there was a 96% decline in the Slender-billed vulture population, and the numbers of White-rumped vultures had gone down by 91% until 2011.

Researchers then zeroed in on the cause: the use of the analgesic diclofenac to treat sick livestock. Residue of the drug in the carcasses of those animals when consumed by vultures caused their kidneys to fail. Studies have shown that just 30ml of diclofenac can kill as many as 800 vultures.

 

Indian and Slender-billed vultures. Credit: ANKIT BISHAL JOSHI

 

The good news is that Nepal has established itself as a pioneer in vulture conservation over the years, and the birds are now showing signs of coming back.

Nepal is home to nine species of vultures of which seven have undergone considerable decline in recent years. The White-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), Slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostis), Red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) and Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) are in the IUCN critically endangered list.

The Egyptian vulture (Nephron percnopterus) is listed as endangered, and three species – Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), Cinerous vulture (Aegypius monachus) and Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) — are near threatened.

The first Vulture Conservation Summit in Kathmandu in 2004 took three key decisions: ban the use of diclofenac, establish breeding centres for endangered vultures, and rehabilitate them in the wild.

In 2006, diclofenac was banned by the governments of South Asia. The same year, Nepal opened world’s first food centre for the birds called the ‘Vulture Restaurant’ locally known as ‘Jatayu Restaurant’ in Nawalparasi district.

Operated and managed locally in an effort to provide the birds of prey with uncontaminated meat, it saw a significant revival of vulture populations in the area. Seven more ‘vulture restaurants’ have been set up across the Tarai and mid-hill districts: Rupandehi, Dang, Kailali, Kaski and Sunsari.

Similarly, a vulture conservation and breeding centre was set up in Kasara in the Chitwan National Park in 2008. The same year a ‘Vulture Conservation Action Plan 2009-2013’ was approved and implemented followed by a second action plan 2015-2019. The campaign has seen 74 districts (except Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur) declared diclofenac free.

At present, Nepal is on the verge of establishing the world’s first vulture sanctuary – which will not have a defined perimeter like other protected areas, but will stretch over 30,000sq km divided into inner core area and a buffer zone. The amount of diclofenac in the core area should be zero and less than 1% in the buffer region.

 

White-rumped vultures. Credit: NATIONAL TRUST FOR NATURE CONSERVATION/SAGAR GIRI

 

In order to increase the population of vultures in these protected areas, 31 vultures tagged with satellite devices have been released into the natural habitat in the last three years. Additional monitoring of 30 wild vultures fitted with satellite equipment is being carried out.

Despite these achievements, vulture conservation is not without challenges. Most conservation programs are limited to the Tarai and hence should be expanded to the mid-hills and the mountains.

Apart from diclofenac, other chemicals such as nimuslide, aceclofenac, and ketoprofen also appear to be harmful to vultures and regular monitoring to prevent excessive use of these drugs is recommended. Additional risks also come from declining natural habitat, food shortage and transmission lines.

Vultures mate for life, they stay together from nesting to hatching to rearing their young ones. They are found primarily in the Tarai and mid-hill forests of western Nepal and generally prefer to nest in enormous simal trees.

Despite the negative perception of vultures in culture and folklore, the birds have religious, cultural and environmental significance. Hindus worship it as the vehicle of Saturn. In the Ramayana, the vulture Jatayu fought till his last breath when Ravana abducted Sita. The practice of feeding the deceased to vultures is still prevalent in Himalayan communities that worship the scavenger as carriers of human souls to heaven.

More importantly, in the absence of vultures there will be no scavengers to dispose of carrion, leading to disease outbreaks among humans and cattle.

In monetary terms, one vulture in its lifetime saves about $11,000 for its role in carcass management.

It is in our interest to invest in vulture conservation. The first Saturday of September every year is marked as the International Vulture Awareness Day and it is in its 12th edition this year, Nepal should commit to work together with the communities, governments, environmentalists and conservation groups, because by protecting vultures we preserve biodiversity, and ultimately the safety and health of human beings.

 

Karun Dewan is with the World Wildlife Fund, Nepal.

 

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

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The kapenta (Tanganyika sardine) and bream fish sold by Sarudzai Moyo is a major source of income for her and great source of nutrition in the diet for struggling Zimbabwe families. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 2 2020 (IPS)

Sarudzai Moyo, a former teacher, has begun a new career as a fishmonger. Once a week she makes the 450km journey from Bulawayo to Binga, on the shores of Lake Kariba, where she buys between 100 and 150 kilograms of fish for resale as the demand for cheaper dietary options increase in Zimbabwe.

Fishermen sell a kilogram of fresh bream and kapenta (Tanganyika sardine) for $1, but back in Bulawayo Moyo sells a kilo for $3.50. A kilogram of beef sells for between $4 and $7 depending on the grade.

Business is brisk, Moyo tells IPS, but with more and more people leaving their formal jobs to pursue other income-generating ventures in sectors already flooded with unskilled labour, researchers say this is putting a huge strain on the sustainability of natural resources such as fisheries.

“People from all over the country can be found buying fish from Binga fishermen. Some even come with refrigerated trucks,” Moyo said.
“It is clear there is a huge demand for fish, not just in Bulawayo but all over the country,” she told IPS.

However, as more nets are cast into Lake Kariba, which lies on the Zambezi valley — a riparian boundary shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia — this has raised questions about the long term ecological effects and how these natural resources will be able to provide a source of livelihood for communities. Especially since the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) says 90 percent of the country’s fish production comes from Lake Kariba where Moyo and others are earning their incomes.

The Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) has noted that there is a connection “between good nutrition and the environment,” and the need to “take action on education programmes and awareness campaigns to make production and consumption patterns healthy and sustainable”. 

In fact, the Food Sustainability Index (FSI), created by BCFN and the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks Zimbabwe 70.5 out of 100 — where 100 is the highest sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic  for sustainable agriculture.

But in a country where incomes remain low, environmental and sustainability considerations have been trounced by the need to survive.

Tinashe Farawo is a spokesperson of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZPWMA), a government department tasked with protecting the country’s wildlife through the sustainable utilisation of natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
Farawo says while overfishing concerns have been raised in the past, the continuing entry of new and unregistered players in Lake Kariba has made it difficult to effectively create a sustainable ecological balance.

“Ever since the Kariba dam was built in 1958, the regulation has always been that at any given time there must be at least 500 fishing rigs in order to protect the resource for both current and future generations,” Farawo told IPS.

But a joint Zimbabwe-Zambia fisheries management committee last year found that “kapenta rigs operating on Lake Kariba is approximately 3 times above the optimum”.

With population growth on both sides of the Zambezi and the exponential growth of demand for fish, the number of rigs has ballooned with fish poachers being blamed for ecological degradation.

“Concerns of overfishing in Lake Kariba, especially of kapenta, have been an issue for a number of years now, and the trend has been growing and will probably continue to grow in the near future,” said Crispen Phiri, a fisheries scientist at the University of Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba Research Station.

“The slowdown in economic performance in both Zambia and Zimbabwe over the last decade or so has led many people to consider fishing or the buying and selling of fish as a full time or fallback livelihood alternative,” he told IPS by email.

ZPWMA officials agree that enforcing restrictions on fishing activities have proven difficult.

“Everyone and anyone can now cast their net and we need scientific explanations about the long term effect of this trend on our fisheries. One of the approaches we have pursued is trying to stem the excessive reliance on the Zambezi for fisheries by decentralising and creating other fisheries projects in other dams across the country,” Farawo told IPS.

Zimbabwe has previously banned issuing of new fishing licences in the Zambezi, citing concerns about the excessive fishing activities.

According to ZPWMA, annual fish hauls at the turn of the millennium stood at around 27,000 tonnes annually but dwindled to the current 15,000 tonnes.

FAO has commented that “kapenta was an important, affordable and accessible source of fish protein and nutrition in a difficult 2007-2008 period when the macro-economic climate was harsh”. Today, Zimbabwe finds itself replaying the hardships of that period, economic commentators say. So it is no surprise that poor families are once again turning to fish diets. Indeed, the FSI ranks Zimbabwe as 53.2 on a scale of 100 for nutritional challenges.

Yet researchers say demand is easily outstripping supply, highlighting an urgent need to act.

The BCFN says while nutrition and dietary needs is a priority, there is a need to “raise awareness on the systematic connection between good nutrition and the environment, take action on education programmes and awareness campaigns to make production and consumption patterns healthy and sustainable”.

This, BCFN says, will ensure the realisation of the U.N.’s Integrated Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda “which are all directly or indirectly connected to food”.

Yet researchers have also found the effect of a warming climate on sources of dietary needs such as fisheries, further compounding the sustainability of those resources.

“In a recent analysis that I and my colleagues did, we concluded that the increase in fishing efforts has been a major factor in the decline of kapenta catches and this has been worsened by the warming of the climate,” Phiri said.

For fishmongers such as Moyo, and the fishermen who supply her fish, these challenges could threaten their livelihoods, and the diets of those poor families who have turned to fish as a cheaper food source.

Related Articles

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• COVID-19: Reset Food Systems Now for a Better Future

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Illustration by Rawand Issa

By Farah Daibes
BERLIN, Oct 2 2020 (IPS)

Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, feminists across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been increasingly shedding light on the global shifts that will shape the Future of Work. From their perspective, those shifts would mainly be driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the impact of climate change and the looming global care crisis.

However, they did not account for a global pandemic that would shake the world and drive the acceleration of those shifts, drastically changing the way we live and work and making various feminist concerns about the inclusion, empowerment, and security of women in the labour market more pressing than ever.

Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, feminists across the Middle East and North Africa have been increasingly shedding light on the global shifts that will shape the Future of Work. From their perspective, those shifts would mainly be driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the impact of climate change and the looming global care crisis.

However, they did not account for a global pandemic that would shake the world and drive the acceleration of those shifts, drastically changing the way we live and work and making various feminist concerns about the inclusion, empowerment, and security of women in the labour market more pressing than ever.

The outbreak of digitalization

Across the world, strict measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the economic vulnerability of the most marginalized individuals and communities, and exacerbated their struggle to adapt when equipped with minimal resources, or none at all.

While countless businesses, schools, and public services are digitalizing their processes to minimize human interaction, many women in the MENA region are finding themselves increasingly excluded from the labour market.

More often than not, women have less freedom of mobility and control over household resources than men. Therefore, barriers such as the lack of adequate broadband infrastructure, the spread of digital illiteracy and a wide digital gender divide are affecting women disproportionately.

Because it offers more flexible working conditions, allowing women to simultaneously perform their unpaid care labour, women often choose informal employment, despite the lack of social security and protective labour policies. But because of the inadequacy in digital adaptation women of the region are left behind amidst the spread of online and platform-based gig work.

Overburdening the overburdened

With the spread of digital technologies, online platforms and now the pandemic, a patriarchal narrative that encourages women to perform home-based work to attain “work-life balance” has been gaining ground. Despite claiming to advocate balance, that narrative fails to address the importance of re-distributing unpaid care work within the household and reinforces the stereotypical role of women as primary caregivers.

In countries across the region where women are still too often confined to the private sphere, this is threatening years of progress towards overcoming the hurdles that limit women’s participation in the public sphere, especially in the workforce.

Working mothers, therefore, continue to suffer a “motherhood penalty” as well as time poverty, which limit their chances to advance in their careers and perpetuate the perception that their paid labour is secondary to that of men’s.

To help lift the burden, outsourcing care work at home to less privileged women, often migrants, has become the norm whenever possible within various countries in the region. Under the kafala (sponsorship) system, however, the lives and labour of these women are exploited and abused.

During the pandemic, their already precarious employment has become more so as hundreds of thousands of them faced income losses and worsening conditions. Additionally, most healthcare workers in the region are overworked and underpaid women who are now also facing major challenges that threaten their rights as well as their physical and mental health.

A green lining?

The expectations were, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, that the green economy would grow exponentially in the upcoming years. However, it is not yet clear whether the pandemic will accelerate or deaccelerate that growth, with hints suggesting that either can be true.

Regardless, many issues of gender discrimination are limiting women’s ability to equally benefit from emerging opportunities within green sectors. Discrimination in laws related to land ownership and inheritance, precarious and dangerous working conditions, difficulty in entering high-paid jobs and the struggle to attain decision making positions, all greatly disadvantage women.

This is especially true in the case of larger investments in renewable energy and agriculture as well as large-scale projects that aim to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Levelling the gender playing field

The changes we see around us today make the feminist concerns about the Future of Work even more concerning. Not only because the foreseeable challenges are arriving much quicker than expected and with no adequate preparation, but also because decision makers have a historic tendency to deprioritize women’s issues and the gender equality agenda in times of crisis. This is the time for action.

The barriers that threaten the inclusion of women in a digitalized world of work must be eliminated. Moreover, larger investments in care services and jobs as well as the re-distribution of unpaid care work between the state, the community and the private sector must now become a priority.

Lastly, existing gender discrimination must be addressed to ensure that a greener economy will not be a patriarchal one in order to guarantee equal opportunity for all in the future world of work.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS) based in the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s (FES) office in Berlin.

 

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Excerpt:

Farah Daibes is the Programme Manager of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Political Feminism project in the MENA region.

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Fishing boats, Lake Chad. Credit: Mustapha Muhammad/IPS

By External Source
YOLA, Nigeria , Oct 2 2020 (IPS)

Lake Chad is an extremely shallow water body in the Sahel. It was once the world’s sixth largest inland water body with an open water area of 25,000 km2 in the 1960s, it shrunk dramatically at the beginning of the 1970s and reduced to less than 2,000 km2 during the 1980s, decreasing by more than 90% its area. It is one of the largest lakes in Africa. It is an endorheic lake – meaning that it doesn’t drain towards the ocean.

Its origin is unknown but it is believed to be a remnant of a former inland sea. It doesn’t drain into the ocean but it has shrunk by over 90% since the 1960s due to climate change, an increase in the population and unplanned irrigation. Given the rate at which the lake is disappearing, in less than a decade it may cease to be.

The lake is central to regional stability. To achieve peace, countries should focus on reviving the water body rather than on military activities

Four countries share borders within the water body – Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon – and have formed a political union, the Lake Chad Basin Countries. Other countries indirectly connected to the lake are Algeria, Libya, Central African Republic and Sudan. Over 30 million people live around the lake.

For them, it’s a source of freshwater for drinking, sanitation and irrigation. It supports the livelihoods of farmers, pastoralists, hunters and fishermen.

The Lake Chad region, however, is one of the most unstable in the world. According to the 2020 Global Terrorism Index report, countries of the region are among the 10 least peaceful countries in Africa.

Our research focused on how the drying of this important water body contributes to the instability in the region.

We collected data from interviews with respondents from Lac Region in Chad, Far North Region in Cameroon, Diffa Region in Niger Republic and the North East geopolitical zone in Nigeria. These regions of the Lake Chad Basin Commission countries compose the Chad Basin Region. We also collected data from news reports.

The study found that loss of livelihoods has promoted criminality, easy recruitment by terrorist groups, and migration to urban centres. This has also led to violence and crime in cities and towns. Management of the shrinking lake has caused conflicts among the states that depend on it and this has made it more difficult for them to collectively fight insecurity in the region.

The lake is central to regional stability. To achieve peace, countries should focus on reviving the water body rather than on military activities.

 

Impact on livelihoods

The immediate impact of the drying of Lake Chad is loss of livelihoods.

One of the respondents said in an interview that:

Many years back, this water used to be what we depend on for farming, fishing and herding. Since the water has dried up, sustaining our livelihoods has become so hard. We can hardly farm now and we record regular death of our livestock because of lack of fodder and water to fatten them. Because of this, most people have abandoned farming, fishing and livestock rearing because they are no longer sustainable in this area.

Loss of the traditional means of livelihood leads to widespread poverty and food insecurity. A 2017 report estimated there were about 10.7 million inhabitants of Lake Chad Region in need of humanitarian services.

 

Impact on regional stability

The shrinking of the lake contributes to regional instability in four ways. First, some of the region’s people have taken to criminal activities for survival. One of the major criminal activities in the area is cattle rustling.

Reports have pointed to rising incidence of cattle rustling in the region. It’s easy to move cattle over the country borders in the area to evade arrest. Contemporary rustling has been associated with Boko Haram who resort to cattle rustling as additional means of raising fund in support of their operations. Boko Haram has become a serious security problem in the Lake Chad region.

Most of the response to the threat of the group has been military. For example, from 2009 to 2018, Nigeria’s defence budget totalled nearly $21 billion with a substantial part going towards the fight against Boko Haram.

Further, Boko Haram has capitalised on the loss of livelihoods and economic woes to recruit people into its ranks. It either appeals to the poor ideologically or directly uses economic incentives.

Interviews with respondents also revealed that the drying out of the lake has intensified long-distance migration of people and livestock to cities and towns of the basin’s countries.

The result has been competition for resources, especially farmer-pastoralist conflict. Between 2016 and 2019, almost 4,000 people died in Nigeria as a result of farmer-pastoralist conflicts.

As the lake has shrunk, the water has shifted towards Chad and Cameroon while the Nigerian and Nigerien sides have dried up. This forces people to cross national borders to reach the shoreline. Respect for boundaries disappears.

A complex web of social, economic, environmental, and political issues spills into interstate conflicts. This conflict relationship caused by access to and management of the lake has seriously affected the collective effort of the region’s states to fight Boko Haram.

 

Way ahead

The Lake Chad Basin Commission has identified the need to replenish the water body. There was a plan to build a dam and canals to pump water from the Congo River to the Chari River, Central African Republic and then on to Lake Chad.

It was first mooted in 1982 by the Italian engineering company Bonifica Spa, and discussed at the International Conference on Lake Chad in Abuja in 2018. Major challenges to this plan include funding, resistance from environmental campaigners and peaceful conditions in which to carry it out.

Unfortunately, this scheme is yet to see the light of the day. The commission’s member states lack the commitment required to take action, probably due to the conflict relationship between the other Lake Chad countries and Nigeria.

Yet if they want stability in the region, the key is to replenish the lake.

Saheed Babajide Owonikoko, Researcher, Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology

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

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Liu Xiaodong (China), Refugees 4, 2015.

By Vijay Prashad
Oct 1 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Here’s a story that encapsulates the terrible situation of our world: Associated Press reporters were on a Turkish coast guard vessel which picked up 37 migrants, including 18 children, from two orange life-rafts in the Aegean Sea on 12 September. The refugees were from Afghanistan, a country that shudders from an endless war. One of the refugees, Omid Hussain Nabizada told the reporters that the Greek authorities held them in Lesbos, put them onto life rafts, and then sent them into the turbulent seas. They were left there to die.

Since 1 March, Greece has suspended the right of refugees to claim asylum. The authorities have placed refugees into makeshift camps. The Moria Reception and Identification Centre in Lesbos (Greece) was built to hold 3,500 people but at its height it housed 20,000 people (due to the pandemic, the population was reduced to 12,000). Four days before Nabizada and others were rescued from the Aegean Sea, a fire tore through the Moria camp. Around 9,400 people lost their overcrowded shelters. This camp was constructed in 2015 to briefly hold migrants as they made their way to Europe from Afghanistan, Syria, and other areas where the West has perpetuated its many wars.

When the other European countries began to shut their doors to refugees, Greece became Europe’s plug; the refugees got stuck in places such as Moria.

In August, the engine of a boat exploded off the coast of Zuwarah (Libya), killing 45 refugees from Chad, Mali, Ghana, and Senegal. Fortunately, 37 people survived the explosion. It was a reminder that the passage of refugees across the Mediterranean Sea has not abated. In fact, the UN Refugee Agency said that 2020 has seen a threefold increase in refugee traffic in Italy and Malta as compared to 2019. The numbers of those on the move has not slowed down, despite the pandemic.

During the Great Lockdown, as aircraft fly relatively empty across much of the world, rubber boats and old trucks continue to carry large numbers of the impoverished peoples of our planet in search of a better life.

Oweena Camille Fogarty (Mexico), Untitled.

In 2018, a World Bank study showed that half the world’s population – 3.4 billion people – live below the poverty line, a number that increased during the pandemic. The Bank used the measure that a person who makes less than $5.50 per day is poor. Over the course of the past half century, states have increasingly privatised the delivery of key social services, such as education, childcare, health care, sanitation, and housing. These social costs are now borne by people with meagre means. That is why, in 2006, economist Lant Pritchett suggested that the threshold for measuring the poverty line be lifted to $10 a day. But even at this level, it is just not possible to cover the basic costs in a privatised society. Nonetheless, based on this threshold, Pritchett published an important paper which suggested that 88% of the world’s population lived in poverty.

The crushing weight of the Great Lockdown during the pandemic has worsened the social and economic condition of the vast majority of the world’s population. In June, the World Bank estimated that around 177 million people will slip into ‘extreme poverty’, the first such slip in thirty years. Half of those who will fall under the poverty line due to the pandemic will be in South Asia, while a third will be in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A new study from the International Labour Organisation shows that the working people around the planet lost 10.7% of their income in the first nine months of 2020; this equals a loss of $3.5 trillion. Workers in the poorer states bore the brunt, with losses of around 15% of their income, while workers in the richer countries saw losses of 9% of their income. The ILO found steady cuts in employment in the first two quarters of the year, with every indication that these losses will continue for the rest of the year, if not permanently.

Maysa Yousef (Palestine), Identity of the Soul, 2014.

Migrants like Omid Hussain Nabizada leave their homes where employment has collapsed and make perilous journeys. If they survive the passage, they at best find menial jobs (if they are able to find employment at all), earn a pittance, save that money, and then send it home. In 2019, such migrants sent $554 billion in remittances to their families in their countries of origin. Some countries – such as Haiti, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan – rely on these remittances for more than a quarter of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In April 2020, the World Bank estimated the ‘sharpest decline of remittances in recent history’, dropping by 19.7% to $445 billion. These declines, along with a decline in foreign direct investment and the collapse of exports for many of the countries of the Global South, have already created a dangerous balance of payments problems in many countries.

Refusal by wealthy bondholders (London Club), and the countries that back them (Paris Club), to allow for debt cancellation or even proper debt suspension puts immense pressure on these states as well as on the families that will lose an important source of basic income.

The lack of basic services – particularly health care in the midst of this pandemic – will create deeper distress. In 2017, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation warned that half of the world’s population did not have access to essential health services and that, each year, 100 million people are driven into poverty by the lack of income to pay for health care costs. This number is conservative, since in India alone – according to the national survey on social consumption – 55 million Indians were impoverished due to health care costs in 2011-12. That warning was not heeded.

Francisco Amighetti (Costa Rica), La Niña y el viento, 1969.

On 10 September 2020, World Suicide Prevention Day, the WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus reminded us that every forty seconds someone somewhere dies by suicide. Importantly, he noted that the means by which many commit suicide must be kept away from people, ‘including pesticides and firearms’. The mention of pesticides points a finger at the endless suicide epidemic in rural India, where hundreds of thousands of farmers and agricultural workers have taken their lives; this was revealed in a series of powerful reports by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Senior Fellow P. Sainath. The National Crime Records Bureau in India showed that, in 2019 – before the pandemic – every fourth suicide was committed by daily wage earners. These are the people hardest hit by the pandemic and the Great Lockdown; we have to wait until next year’s report to grasp the full impact of the deep social impact on farmers, agricultural workers, and daily wage earners, all of whom will be struck by the three pro-agribusiness farm bills foisted on the Indian population by its government this month.

Last week, the foreign correspondent Andre Vlteck (1962-2020) died in Istanbul. A few years ago, André introduced me to the Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez, particularly his song La Maza. Here are a few lines from Silvio, in honour of Andre:
If I didn’t believe in what I believe
If I didn’t believe in something pure
If I didn’t believe in every wound
…
If I didn’t believe in what hurts
If I didn’t believe in what stays
If I didn’t believe in what fights
…
What would my heart be?
What would the mason’s hammer be without a quarry?

The greatest tyrant in our time is a social system that impoverishes the majority of the world’s people, such as the people who drowned recently in the Mediterranean Sea, so that a small minority can live a life of luxury. If I didn’t believe in another world, I would find it hard to breathe.

Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

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