Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

The SafeBoda ride hailing app can now be used to order essential reproductive health supplies. . © SafeBoda Credit: SafeBoda/UNFPA

By Martha Songa - Cedric Muhebwa - Rakiya Abby-Farrah*
KAMPALA, Uganda, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)

When Betty Nagadya walks through the trading centre on her way home, she sings a song in the local Luganda language: “SafeBoda, SafeBoda, who needs a helmet?” she sings. “For those who feel cold, I have a coat for you.” But her song is not about clothing – it’s about condoms.

Ms. Nagadya is a village health team volunteer. She distributes condoms in her community in partnership with the motorcycle taxi company SafeBoda, all as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under Uganda’s COVID-19 lockdown, contraceptives and other reproductive health supplies – such as HIV tests, pregnancy tests and mama kits, which contain the supplies for clean, safe childbirth – have been in short supply.

But now these items can be ordered through the popular ride-hailing app SafeBoda, and they will be delivered directly to the individual’s doorstep. Ms. Nagadya’s song helps raise awareness about this new service. And her openness invites community members to ask questions. Many do, especially young people.

“Many of them are still shy to talk about using condoms,” she said. “But when I sing my song, they understand what I mean, so they come and ask questions. I teach them how to use condoms and give them to them. I also go to houses where I know there are people who might need condoms,” she said.

Ride-hailing app to the rescue

Even before the pandemic, there was a need to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services and supplies. For instance, an estimated 19 per cent of women in Uganda want to prevent or delay pregnancy but are not using a method of contraception, according to recent reports.

A SafeBoda driver delivers reproductive health commodities to a communitiy health team member. © Uplift Foundation Uganda. Credit: SafeBoda/ UNFPA

The outbreak of COVID-19 has only compounded the situation. Supply chains interruptions and transport restrictions have limited the availability of a wide range of essential reproductive health supplies.

In response, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), together with health officials, Marie Stopes and SafeBoda, with financial support from the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda, created an e-shop where individuals can order the products they need. By making the e-shop available via the widely used SafeBoda app, organizers were able to reach an extensive user base.

When a user requests an item, the app identifies the nearest pharmacy within a 7 kilometre radius where the item is in stock. A SafeBoda driver then picks up the item and delivers it to the user.

SafeBoda drivers also deliver reproductive commodities to local health centres – where health team members like Ms. Nagadya collect them for distribution – helping to fill gaps in the supply chain.

Most of the e-shop’s reproductive health items shop are subsidized and inexpensive. Free government-provided condoms can also be ordered. All delivery charges have been waived during the pandemic period. The service will continue post-COVID-19, for a nominal delivery fee.

The service is now up and running in the populous Kampala and Wakiso districts.

Re-thinking services for youth

Users of the SafeBoda app say this new service is an important development, “especially [for] things we fear to order over the counter,” said Flora Peace, from Nansana. “I am sure most people are excited about this.”

Many drivers are also happy about the development.

A SafeBoda driver delivers condoms. © AIDS Information Center Uganda. Credit: SafeBoda/ UNFPA

SafeBoda driver Moses Okanya, 25, has been delivering boxes of condoms to St Francis Hospital in Kakiri. He says this new responsibility is rewarding.

“I feel I have played a role to reach my fellow young people, because if the condoms are not in the hospital, then the young people are going to put themselves at risk. Making the condoms available to them is something I am proud of,” he said.

Mr. Okanya takes precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while working, diligently wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer. At the same time, he wants to make sure the COVID-19 crisis does not lead to the neglect of people’s other health needs. “We may put more emphasis on COVID-19, and then we are losing people from other diseases which have been there before,” he said.

Now is the time to consider new solutions to longstanding problems, UNFPA’s representative in Uganda, Alain Sibenaler, said.

“We have had to rethink and become more innovative in reaching young people and women with sexual and reproductive health-related information and services,” he said.

• This article was originally published in the UNFPA website (web@unfpa.org)

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A total of 9,144 solar panels were installed on the rooftops in this complex for a thousand poor families, on the outskirts of Juazeiro in the Northeast Brazilian state of Bahia. The system had a distributed generation of up to 2.1 MW, leaving a surplus whose profits were used for the community and its members. But it was not used until 2016, three years after it was installed, by decision of the regulatory authority. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

Solar energy has continued to expand in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic and should contribute to the economic recovery in the wake of the health crisis.

That is the assessment of Bárbara Rubim, vice-president of the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar), in charge of distributed generation.

“The pace of growth has slowed down a bit, but it is still exponential,” she said. “The pandemic has had a smaller effect than was expected and the installed power increased 30 percent in the first half of 2020.”

The total potential was 5,918 MW on Jul. 2, up from 4,533 MW at the end of 2019, according to official data from the National Electrical Energy Agency (Aneel), the energy regulator in this South American country of 211 million people.

This is a small amount in a country with a total capacity to generate 172,709 MW.

In Brazil, 60.4 percent of energy is hydropower, 8.7 percent comes from wind, 8.4 percent from biomass, 8.3 percent from natural gas, 5.1 percent from oil derivatives and 2.0 percent from coal.

But solar energy is the fastest growing source of energy, in line with the global trend.

Brazil was a late bloomer when it came to harnessing the enormous solar potential in its vast territory. The initial push came in 2012, when the country adopted rules that encourage distributed electricity generation, also known as decentralised generation because it is based on many small sources.

This coincided with the sharp drop in the cost of installing solar panels, which played a decisive role in the boom in recent years.

But this South American nation lags far behind the foremost countries in the development of this energy source, led by China, which added 30,000 MW last year to end 2019 with 205,700 MW of solar energy, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

This intergovernmental institution estimates that each installed MW generates 25 to 30 new jobs.

In Brazil, the expansion led to the creation of 37,000 jobs in the last semester, a period in which unemployment rose across the board due to the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in late February.

The initial forecast of generating 120,000 jobs this year has become more unlikely but has not been ruled out, according to Absolar.

Solar panels generate electricity to pump water to a tank on a neighbouring hill and to supply water by gravity to 120 families in a neighbourhood in Aparecida, a city in the state of Paraíba, in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

The industry had already proved its counter-cyclical nature by growing during the economic recession that hit Brazil in 2015 and 2016.

“In the crisis, people choose products that allow them to save money,” explained Frank Araújo, a solar energy businessman in Sousa, a city of 70,000 in the Northeast state of Paraíba.

Generating your own electricity is good business: the savings on the electric bill cover the initial investment in just a few years, said the owner of Ative Energy, which installs solar plants in dozens of cities in the Northeast region of Brazil.

His company’s turnover fell by 25 percent after the start of the pandemic, in April and May, but it rallied in June, he said.

“Some companies postponed their investments, out of caution until the economic situation becomes more clear,” he told IPS by phone from Sousa. “That happened mainly in the case of industries, but not in the case of pharmacies and supermarkets, which managed to maintain or expand their sales.”

At a national level, Rubim said the largest expansion of solar energy was in the commercial sector, keen on cutting energy costs, as well as among residential consumers.

Rural residents and businesses also invested heavily in this energy source, increasing their generating capacity by 120 percent in the first half of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, said Rubim, who is also director of Bright Strategies, a renewable energy consulting firm.

This is because rural energy has become more expensive due to the gradual reduction of a discount they enjoyed on the electricity tariff. In addition, rural producers tend to seek “synergies” to make more efficient use of the land, Rubim said in a telephone interview from São Paulo.

According to her analysis, the pandemic will favour renewable sources, especially solar, by reducing costs, including maintenance, and because it will drive up the price of electricity supplied by the distribution companies.

Consumers will have to pay at least part of the so-called “COVID bill” – a bank loan arranged by the government to help the power industry overcome the losses suffered in the face of falling energy demand due to the pandemic.

The loan aims to spread over five years the increase in energy tariffs that would otherwise affect consumers in one fell swoop. However, it will cause an additional cost that will make solar energy more attractive, Rubim hopes.

Solar panels were installed on the roof of the building of the Catholic Archdiocese in the city of Sousa, which houses administrative offices, an auditorium and a sports field. The electricity generated allows the “solar archdiocese” – as it has been dubbed – to save almost all energy costs and thus expand its social work in the municipality of 70,000 inhabitants in Brazil’s Northeast region. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

In addition, interest rates have fallen during the crisis, making it cheaper to provide the necessary credit for investments in solar plants, which are also favoured by greater sensitivity to environmental and climate problems.

Distributed generation, installed by its own consumers, has grown the most in Brazil in recent years. At the end of June, output reached 2,987 MW, three times higher than the previous year, and exceeded by 0.02 percent the output of large commercial plants.

In 2017 distributed generation was equivalent to just 17 percent of centralised generation. But the expansion of decentralised generation has been very uneven across the country.

The state of Minas Gerais, in the southeast of the country, is the leader, with 594 MW of installed power, 19.9 percent of the national total.

The state’s leading position highlights the importance of public policy, Rubim said. In 2013 Minas Gerais adopted the tax incentives, two years ahead of the other 26 Brazilian states.

It also pioneered the authorisation of units of up to five MW for multi-consumer shared generation, a formula allowed by Aneel since 2015.

Solar panels are also disseminated throughout the country for social and environmental reasons.

Sonnenhauss, a company located in João Pessoa, capital of the state of Paraíba, offers training and consultancy, in addition to installing solar energy systems and promoting projects.

Currently, it is installing 13 units in the interior of the state to serve rural communities. The idea is to pump water, in one case to supply 200 families and in others to implement irrigation systems for agricultural production and to promote a fruit pulp factory.

“In addition to the installation, we offer training to local personnel for the maintenance of the equipment and support at all levels,” Manoel Alves, one of the company’s electrical engineers and a professor at the Federal Institute of Paraíba, told IPS from that city.

In the same state, based in Sousa, the Semi-Arid Renewable Energy Committee (Cersa), a group of activists, has already promoted the installation of solar systems in several Catholic dioceses, schools and rural communities.

The “More Light for the Amazon” programme, created by the Brazilian government in February, aims to bring clean, renewable energy to some 300,000 people living in isolated communities that still lack electricity.

“The source will basically be solar, because of the ease of implementation, the low cost and the feasible maintenance, including by trained local residents themselves,” said Joilson Costa, coordinator of the Front for a New Energy Policy for Brazil, which brings together 31 social, environmental and academic organisations.

In the southern state of Paraná, the regional government decided to adopt solar energy in the 5,500 municipal schools in the state, beginning this year with 224 schools in seven municipalities.

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• The Sun Powers a Women’s Bakery in Brazil’s Semi-arid Northeast

The post Solar Energy Expands in Brazil Despite the Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: United Nations

By Isabel Ortiz
NEW YORK, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

 

Failing to help those in most need

COVID19 is devastating on older persons. The numbers are staggering, more than 80 percent of the fatalities due to coronavirus in the US and East Asia occurred among adults aged 65 and over. In Europe and Australia, the figures are even higher, 94 and 97 per cent of the deaths were persons aged 60 and over.

However, when contagions spread, older persons were denied access to beds and ventilators, despite being the most vulnerable group. Human rights experts were alarmed by the decisions made around the use of scarce medical resources in hospitals and intensive care units, discriminating solely based on age. Despite being helpless and most at risk, older persons were not prioritized; they were de facto sacrificed, denied treatment and emergency support.

“Older people have the same rights to life and heath as everyone else. Difficult decisions around life-saving medical care must respect the human rights and dignity of all,” stated the UN Secretary-General, deeply concerned about events during the pandemic.

The silent massacre in care homes

About half of the coronavirus casualties in high income countries were in care homes, though this is an underestimation because originally official death tolls did not include those who had died outside hospitals without a COVID19 test done.

Most countries reported insufficient protective equipment and testing in care homes for both residents and care workers. Thousands were infected of coronavirus in nursing homes, and while some staff heroically worked in dangerous conditions, others did not. Staff absenteeism added to real horror stories.

Isabel Ortiz

For example, in a nursing home in France, 24 persons passed away in only 5 days; they died alone in their rooms of hypovolemic shock, without food or water, because 40 percent of the staff was absent. In Canada, a criminal investigation was launched after 31 residents were found dead, unfed and unchanged at a Seniors’ Residence; after other disturbing cases, the Canadian military had to be deployed to assist and the government is considering to take over all private long-term care institutions.

In Sweden, protocols discouraged care workers from sending older persons to hospitals, letting them die in the care homes. In Spain, when the military were deployed to disinfect nursing homes, they were shocked to find people “completely abandoned or even dead in their beds.” Spain has launched criminal investigations into dozens of care homes after grieving relatives of thousands of elderly coronavirus victims claimed ‘our parents were left to die’.

Families demand justice, suing care services

In Italy’s Lombardy region, a resolution offering 150 euros (US$175) to care homes for accepting COVID19 patients to ease the burden on hospital beds, accelerated the spread of the virus among health workers and residents. Coffins piled up in nursing homes. Families are filing lawsuits for mishandling the epidemic.

In the US, more than 38,000 older persons have died in residences because of COVID19 and many families have filed lawsuits against nursing homes for wrongful death and gross negligence.

In the UK, families of care home residents who died from COVID19 are suing the Health and Social Care Secretary; the claims accuse the government of breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, National Health Service Act 2006 and the Equalities Act.

The multi-billion care industry lobbying to secure immunity against lawsuits

Long-term care is a lucrative and powerful industry. Europe’s care sector is concentrated in the hands of a few large private groups, often run by pension and investment funds. Also in the US, 70 percent of the 15,000 nursing homes are run by for-profit companies; many have been bought and sold in recent years by private-equity firms.

In the US, nursing homes and long-term care operators have been lobbying state and federal legislators across the US to pass laws giving them broad immunity, denying responsibility for conditions inside care homes during COVID19. Nineteen states have recently enacted laws or gubernatorial executive orders granting nursing homes protection from civil liability in connection with COVID19. Nobody is responsible for the suffering of thousands of older persons that died alone in care homes.

A better future: Redressing the deplorable situation of residences and long-term care

Due to the rapidly ageing population, all countries should invest more on health and long-term care services for older persons.

Health system capacity is strained because austerity cuts in earlier years. It was the shortage of beds, staff and equipment that made doctors discriminate against older persons and prioritize those younger, with more chances of survival to COVID19. Governments and international financial institutions must stop mean budget cuts that have condemned many to die, and instead invest in universal public health and social protection systems.

Countries must also invest in quality long-term care services for older persons. Half the world’s elderly lacks access to long-term care. At the moment, governments spend very little on long term care; instead, they have allowed private care services to develop, with minimal regulation. As a result, most older persons have to pay up to 100 percent of long term care out of their own pocket and most cannot afford quality services – a highly unequal system.

Societies have failed older persons during the COVID19 pandemic. Countries must redress this neglect and support survivors by properly regulating, inspecting and investing in quality care services for all older persons.

Isabel Ortiz is Director of the Global Social Justice Program at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University in New York, former director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, and former official of the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations.

 

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Credit: Nidwan.

By Pratima Gurung
KATHMANDU, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

In Nepal the COVID-19 crisis has been especially hard on indigenous peoples. We had to learn a new vocabulary and use words like quarantine, self-isolation, hand sanitizers and social distancing.

We also had to respect rules that did not previously apply to our lives. Indigenous peoples are not used to washing their hands all the time because our culture is so much closer to Mother Earth and because much of the time we don’t have running water.

The situation has been even more difficult for indigenous persons with a disability, like me. I cannot keep my social distance if I need help at the same time. I can manage on my own but as I only have one hand I have not been able to follow the health recommendations to the letter, which causes me a lot of anxiety. The pandemic has made me feel more “disabled” than ever.

Pratima Gurung, General Secretary, IPWDGN President, NIDWAN.

This is the situation that indigenous people with disabilities face everyday. Most of them don’t have access to vital medical supplies – for instance, people with spinal cord injuries who need catheters or those with hemophilia in need of plasma.

Indigenous women with disabilities have faced discrimination, violence and abuse. There have also been rising levels of suicide during this pandemic.

Indigenous people make up around one third of the country’s total population, approximately 11 million out of the 30 million Nepalese. Their special needs need to be addressed in a way that takes into account their cultures.

When the authorities announced the lockdown, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples could not get information about this virus in native, local and sign languages, because health and public campaigns around COVID-19 are still not indigenous and culture friendly.

The situation has been even more difficult for indigenous persons with a disability, like me. I cannot keep my social distance if I need help at the same time. I can manage on my own but as I only have one hand I have not been able to follow the health recommendations to the letter, which causes me a lot of anxiety. The pandemic has made me feel more “disabled” than ever

While the government is distributing relief packages to some residents, most indigenous people do not have the required paperwork to receive these supplies. To get help either you need to have a citizenship or disability card or your name should be registered. Most often vulnerable, marginalized groups like indigenous people and persons with disabilities do not have these documents so they are excluded from services. People are dying of starvation.

We don’t have a full picture of what it is really happening in the country. Nepal has been under nationwide lockdown since March and it has been extended about half-a-dozen times since. As COVID-19 cases continue to surge these measures will be extended until 22 July.

To improve things we first need to properly evaluate the situation on the ground. Indigenous people, especially those with disabilities, have special needs. Without disaggregated data by sex, age, ethnicity, disability, health status, income and geography we cannot properly address them. A blanket approach does not work.

In spite of all the difficulties, indigenous peoples are rising to the challenge. Some organizations, including the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal are disseminating information about COVID-19 and providing food and sanitation supplies to some communities. The indigenous TV channel has been giving information in both indigenous and sign language, with the support of the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal.

I hope the measures they have put in place (which aim to strengthen health systems, ensure job recovery and enhance access to social protection) will not leave us behind. We need to be part of any discussion that addresses these issues because only we know how the pandemic is affecting us. Implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 has therefore become more important than ever.

As an activist, this situation has been a real challenge for me and for my organization. I am confined in Katmandu and cannot travel. I feel that I am not helping my people as much as I would like. I fear that when we know what is really happening on the ground we will face a worse situation than the one we suffered after the 2015 earthquake that devastated our country.

 

This opinion editorial was originally published here

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Excerpt:

Pratima Gurung is General Secretary, the Global Network of Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities (IPWDGN) President, the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association in Nepal (NIDWAN).

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Rights experts say that the Myanmar government “has long shown a lack of commitment to breaking the cycle of impunity for widespread sexual and gender-based violence”. This is a dated photo of women travelling on a crowded train in Myanmar. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

A legislation that aims to protect women against violence in Myanmar, while long overdue, is raising concern among human rights advocates about its inadequate definition of rape, vague definition for “consent”, and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rhetoric.

Myanmar is soon to see the latest version of its Prevention of and Protection from Violence Against Women (PoVAW) introduced in parliament. But the Global Justice Centre (GJC), an international human rights and humanitarian law organisation focusing on advancing gender equality, has pointed out that the legislation falls short of addressing violence against women.

According to GJC, the language used in the law borrows from Myanmar’s 1861 Penal Code and thus perpetuates antiquated understandings of rape, such as; considering rape as violence committed only by men, the definition of “rape” constituting only of vaginal penetration, and no acknowledgement of marital rape.

“The Myanmar government has long shown a lack of commitment to breaking the cycle of impunity for widespread sexual and gender-based violence, a problem that is exacerbated by broader structural barriers with respect to Myanmar’s military justice system, and a lack of robust domestic options for accountability,” the GJC analysis has claimed.

Last week, Khin Ohmar, an exiled human rights advocate from Myanmar and founder and chairperson of the advisory board of Progressive Voice — a participatory rights-based policy research and advocacy organisation rooted in civil society, with strong links to grassroots and community-based organisations throughout Myanmar  —  shared how sexual violence in the country is used in a “systematic pattern to target ethnic women and girls”.

Ohmar was speaking at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, where she further reiterated how the military in Myanmar has carried out “unspeakable crimes” against ethnic minorities in the country.

Meanwhile, GJC has also published a list of recommendations that leaders can follow to ensure the law is comprehensive as well as applicable in today’s time.

IPS had a conversation with Akila Radhakrishnan, president of GJC, on the issue. Some parts have been edited for clarity purposes.

Inter Press Service (IPS): The year is 2020. How is Myanmar only now introducing the Prevention of Violence against Women Law (PoVAW)?

Akila Radhakrishnan (AK): There’s been a couple of things – I think the lack of will is a starting point. This is something consistently being pushed for by women in civil society since about 2013.

It has been raised as an issue and a part of the reason it’s such a priority is because the original laws we’re talking about date back to 1861.

We’re really talking about laws that haven’t been updated so with the political transition there was a moment when women in civil society saw the opportunity to think it’s time we had a comprehensive law on violence against women, updating progressive positions in the penal code and bring in things like protective orders or a more robust categorisations of kinds of sexual and other types of violence.

And in some ways, the military continues to perpetrate mass sexual violence. Some of the key things that civil society has been pushing for is bringing the military under a mandate of the law, which is antithetical to the military’s interest as well.

IPS: Despite Aung San Suu Kyi being the leader of the country, why are there still discrepancies in the legislation?

AK: Aung San Suu Kyi is no feminist. She has certainly in the past made stronger statements on sexual violence than she currently takes on but she’s very much seen certain types of political reform as her priority. If you look at the trajectory of the laws that were initially passed through the transition, most of the laws were really wound around issues that enabled foreign investment, for example.

There were certain laws that were due to be changed around issues such as certain types of press freedoms, many of which have been regressing in recent times in any case. There was never kind of a feminist priority set from the leadership.

There were certainly some amazing feminists who got elected, including from local women’s civil society who were elected to parliament. They even felt they’ll have the power to set what are the priorities to be passed, to be considered to be looked at in the context of a country that has a range of reforms that need to be undertaken.

Another issue is that it’s been really slow going in the part of some of the agencies that are involved in this as well such as others, such as the attorney general’s office, department of social welfare. There’s a complicated range of actors involved in the development of the law and in the pushback against the law as well

IPS: Where would you say the PoVAW law lacks most glaringly and needs to be most urgently addressed?

AK: Probably the most urgent one is the places where they continue to cling to the penal code and not really think through how to amend it. They kind of cling to the penal code definition of rape itself – it refuses to let go of rape as it was defined in the 1861 penal code.

We detail a range of issues with that specific definition. And a major part of the impetus was to say our more modern definitions of rape, that are more inclusive, that are gender neutral and have better definitions of consent and at the end of the day you’re creating this whole process and you’re clinging to something that’s there.

And related to that is issues such as marital rape as a crime that is somewhat separate from rape, it’s a lesser crime, a lesser penalty and you know that also stems out of an antiquated mindset.

IPS: Is this legislation only for cisgendered women?

AK: There’s a little bit of a tension there. The law itself is a violence against women law and that’s in the framework it’s been developed over quite a bit of time, so there’s been tension wanting to certainly to try to make the law as inclusive as possible [and] really thinking through how difficult it is to even bring this to fruition.

In this moment, it’s important to try to think of how you take an intersectional inclusive approach to this. But unfortunately we’re going to end up only with a VAW framework so we want to at least within that context — and this is really belying on the expertise of groups that do this work better than we do — to really think through how to make something like this as inclusive as possible.

IPS: There are many ethnic minorities in Myanmar, many who often flee the country. How are ethnic minorities targeted for violence and sexual violence?

AK: The military uses sexual violence as a tactic weapon in its conflict, as its violent actions against all ethnic minorities. It is a systematic pattern —  one that is met with impunity which is why legal reforms and accountability are so important. 

IPS: What are your hopes for the steps ahead for the PoVAW law?

AK: The law is an important step forward but in order for it to be a meaningful step forward it actually needs to take into account — and through the process be amended — so it meets international standards, and addresses some of the key issues with the law itself. Otherwise you get kind of a patchwork law where a lot of time and energy has been put into it, but it’s not going to achieve what it could’ve achieved to actually come in line with international standards.

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• Rohingya Women Take a Seat at the Table & Share Stories in a Growing Rights Movement

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Child in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Credit: UNICEF/UN0316934/Pasqualli

By Tapan Mishra
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

Mongolia has recorded very few cases of COVID-19, less than 300 as on date, despite its more than 4,000 kilometre porous border with China. However, the country faces a major economic impact from the pandemic.

The general picture of the COVID-19 situation in Mongolia is very positive. The Government of Mongolia closed all educational institutions including kindergartens, schools and universities at the beginning of the year.

It also introduced strict measures on social distancing, such as a ban on public gatherings, limiting public transportation, closing public spaces such as gyms, and making the wearing of masks in public compulsory. Travel has been very limited, including a complete ban on any international travel by road, rail, or air.

Mongolia has been very vulnerable to the pandemic, not only because of its physical proximity to China and Russia including close links and dependence for economic interests, but also due to its own inadequate health care system.

Despite these challenges, there has been no local transmission reported (cases have been limited to patients importing the virus), and I would say that the leadership of the country has dealt well with the pandemic.

Another factor that has helped in making Mongolia’s response a success story, is that the citizens of the country have diligently complied with the government’s directives and regulations.

The requirements to wear masks, ensure good hygiene, such as frequent hand-washing, and physical distancing, have been seriously adhered to. Even during the Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year in February, they complied with government orders, and did not even visit their extended families and elders, which is a tradition for Mongolian families.

Mongolian students adjust to remote learning. Credit: Global Press Journal/Dolgormaa Sandagdorj/ UNDP

Minimizing the impact

Several UN agencies are physically present in Mongolia, with more providing support from outside. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the UN bodies came together under the leadership of the office of the Resident Coordinator, and we have been following the World Health Organization’s response plan, and the UN’s humanitarian and socio-economic response plans.

This has involved setting up a socio-economic task force, and identifying the needs and priorities of the most vulnerable people in Mongolian society.

The UN Country Team has utilized well the $1 Million UN Secretary-General’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery MPTF (multi-partner trust fund) allocation, for supporting the Government of Mongolia in improving the national testing capacity, and have more supplies of personal protective equipment.

We have been also supporting development of the digital learning curriculum to enhance the quality of online learning, as children have not been able to go to school for around six months.

We stand ready to support the Government in every possible way, from their health, humanitarian, and socio-economic response plans, to their longer-term economic recovery.

The economic fallout

We do not know the full impact the pandemic is having yet, but we know it is significant. For instance, in the first quarter of 2020, the economy contracted by 10.7 per cent, and government revenue fell by 8.6 per cent year on year, whilst expenditure went up 19.3 per cent.

National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) team. Credit: NCCD of Mongolia

Mongolia has a large amount of debt, which means that there is an increased risk of defaulting on debt. According to the IMF, GDP is also expected to fall sharply to minus one per cent this year, down from 5.3 per cent in 2019.

To bolster the economy, the Government approved economic stimulus packages, worth over 10 percent of GDP, which included several measures to support vulnerable groups, including cash benefits; mortgages, consumer and business loan repayments were deferred; and the mortgage rate was reduced.

Development setbacks

Unfortunately, it is highly likely that the pandemic will set back the progress we have been making in Mongolia. The Government took early, effective action against the spread of COVID-19, but the increased borrowing, amid an economy hit by reduced exports, means that it will be difficulty to recover from the socio-economic impacts of the crisis.

In collaboration with the IMF, World Bank and other partners, we are conducting detailed studies to look at the real impacts, but we are also working with the Government of Mongolia to ensure that the recovery plans do not leave anyone behind.

I only hope that donors provide the funding that is needed to support the most vulnerable people in Mongolia, and help to ensure that the post-pandemic recovery benefits all members of society.

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Tapan Mishra is the UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia.

The post COVID-19 Means Development Setbacks for Mongolia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

With uneven progress in containing contagion, worsened by the breakdown in multilateral cooperation due to mounting US-China tensions, recovery from the Covid-19 recessions of the first half of 2020 is now expected to be more gradual than previously forecast.

Pandemic response measures
In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments, especially of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies, have introduced massive fiscal and monetary packages for contagion containment, relief and recovery.

Anis Chowdhury

Such efforts represent a U-turn after long eschewing countercyclical fiscal policy, mostly for ideological reasons, such as dogmatic commitment to ‘budgetary balance’ and ‘fiscal consolidation’, besides giving central banks more economic policy discretion since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated new government measures through mid-June 2020 at almost US$11 trillion. The Fund projected new borrowing by all governments to rise from 3.7% of global output in 2019 to 9.9% in 2020.

Projecting gradual recovery from the second half of 2020, the Fund expects average fiscal deficits to rise by 14% as global public debt reaches an all-time high, exceeding 101% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020-2021.

After much wrangling, EU leaders compromised on a new US$2.1 trillion (€1.8 trillion) package on 21 July. The European Commission has also activated the general escape clause in EU fiscal rules, allowing deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.

Complementary monetary initiatives include relaxing recommended Basel 3 capital buffers, lowering mandatory reserve ratios and easing terms for additional temporary credit facilities for banks and businesses.

Thus, central banks have committed an estimated US$17 trillion to extend ‘unconventional’ measures to buy corporate bonds, besides government bonds and government-sponsored mortgage-backed securities introduced during the GFC.

Windmills of financial minds
Macroeconomic economic policy makers must resist quixotic impulses to fight against financial ‘windmills of the mind’, instead fulfilling their responsibility to pursue consistently counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Financial market analysts exaggerate real concerns, even using discredited research. Citing old research, even doubted by The Economist, a Forbes columnist insisted that “the surge in government debt” would cause “economic growth to decline”, claiming that government debt beyond 85% of GDP would slow growth.

Global public debt came to 83% of world output in 2019, up from 60% in 2008, before the GFC. This sharp rise happened despite austerity measures since 2010 when many G20 and OECD countries adopted fiscal consolidation.

That turn to austerity followed advice from the IMF, OECD and European Central Bank, who invoked influential, but misleading academic research. But fiscal consolidation “after the Great Recession was a catastrophic mistake”, concluded a Forbes columnist. It failed to deliver robust recovery, let alone sustained growth.

Subsequent IMF research found fiscal consolidation raised short-term unemployment, with even harder impacts in the long-term, hurting wage-earners much more than profit- and rent-earners. IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard and his colleagues found Fund advice for early fiscal retrenchment inappropriate.

Windmills can block recovery
Reversing emergency expansionary measures too soon risks aborting recovery and may even trigger new recessions. Even an assets fund manager has acknowledged, “Like a course of antibiotics, an economic relief package is most efficacious when administered to completion”.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to balance the budget in 1937 after securing re-election, the ensuing downturn ended the recovery, only revived after deficit spending resumed in 1939. Also, countries that abandoned fiscal expansion for consolidation from 2009 had worse recovery records than others.

Deficits and debt have, in fact, not been reliable indicators of long-term growth prospects. Obsessed with debt and deficits, while ignoring spending composition and efficiency, ‘deficit hawks’ tend to downplay the potential growth impacts of expansionary fiscal policy.

Nevertheless, the Fund continued to warn in January 2019 that high and rising public debt constituted “a potential fault line”. Pre-pandemic economic stagnation, tax cuts and poor commodity prices induced larger fiscal deficits, requiring more government debt, now compounded by Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery efforts.

Clearly, government macroeconomic policies should not be guided by financial market whims. Leaving policy making to such influential market signals can push an economy in recession into a lasting depression. The recent IMF leadership transition appears to have led to greater pragmatism just in time.

Investing for the future
The Fund’s April 2020 Fiscal Monitor urged governments to take advantage of historically low borrowing costs to invest for the future—in health systems, infrastructure, low-carbon technologies, education and research—while boosting productivity growth. After all, a year ago, advanced economies were spending only 1.77% of their combined GDP on debt interest—the lowest since 1975.

Unusually, it also advised governments to enhance automatic stabilizers, including a tax and benefit system to stabilize incomes and consumption, involving progressive taxation and social security payments or unemployment assistance.

Undoubtedly, politicians are often tempted, by lower debt costs, to borrow to spend more on “populist” programmes while cutting taxes. Such irresponsible fiscal policies need to be corrected.

Clearly, governments need to look at how money, borrowed or otherwise, is spent. If, for example, borrowed money goes into investments enhancing productivity, public assets can contribute not only to growth, but also to revenue.

Covid-19 recessions are quite different from recent ones following financial crises. Yet, all recessions threaten to become depressions if not quickly and appropriately addressed.

We are in for a long hard struggle, on both public health and economic fronts. Policies must not only be appropriate for the problems at hand, but should also create conditions for a better future, rather than simply trying to return to the status quo ante Covid.

As visionary leaders did during and after the Second World War, we need appropriate plans, not only to revive economies and livelihoods, but also to build a more dynamic, sustainable and equitable economy.

 

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Women farmers in India. Credit: UNDP India.

By Shreya Deb
MUMBAY, India, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

Secure property rights are fundamental to the economic and social development of any country. However, in India, we are faced with a curious conundrum where more than 70 percent of a household’s assets are held in land and housing, yet there is insufficient data and research on people’s property rights.

On one hand, the government aspires to provide 18-20 million affordable housing units in urban areas, while on the other, more than 10 million housing units are lying vacant, as per the 2011 Census. The judicial pendency of land disputes is also high, with several million cases pending in Indian courts. Approximately 25 percent of all cases decided by the Supreme Court involve land disputes, of which 30 percent concern disputes relating to land acquisition.

All these factors, combined, result in insecure tenure for a large population, especially the poor and vulnerable, which in turn poses a complex set of challenges for effective governance. It also impacts the efficiency of our judicial system and our ability to attract investments.

According to the ‘Ease of Doing Business Rankings’, India ranks 156th on the metric of ‘Ease of registration of property’—in contrast with its overall rank of 63 in the 2020 index. With the current rate of population growth and increasing competition for finite resources such as land, it is important to draw policy attention to these issues.

 

Land governance and property rights have been largely overlooked in India

Despite the severity and complexity of this issue, land governance and property rights have been largely overlooked within policy research and development initiatives in India. The reasons for this are many, ranging from historical to political.

Patriarchal norms often hinder women from owning properties, even though studies have shown that when women own properties, families show better indicators of health, nutrition, and education

Historically, the bulk of the colonial government’s revenues came from taxing agricultural produce. Over time, as this revenue declined, the focus on rural land administration reduced. As our cities grew in an unplanned manner, we did not invest in building strong land administration systems. On a political level, land and housing are very valuable assets, which, when regulated poorly, attract corruption and violence.

In addition, land and housing often have deep emotional relevance for people, and access to these are, in some cases, dictated by old beliefs and traditional customs. For instance, patriarchal norms often hinder women from owning properties, even though studies have shown that when women own properties, families show better indicators of health, nutrition, and education.

Similarly, when marginalised groups own land, they have better food security and gain increased respect from the local communities. However, these require shaking up some deep-rooted social norms, which can be very challenging for both nonprofits and donors.

While India has undertaken reforms in many sectors of the economy, land and labour—the core factors of production—have not seen reforms. For decades, we have witnessed the effect of broken land administration in our daily lives.

With reportedly as much as 66 percent of all civil cases pertaining to property disputes, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that every Indian family has faced a property dispute. The COVID-19 pandemic has borne testament to some of these issues as well, as we see the scale of the impact it has had on people living in informal settlements, where issues of poor sanitation and housing are fuelled by lack of tenure security. It is quite evident that a bulk of our current social and economic challenges are centred around the lack of secure access to land and housing rights.

 

Reforming the land rights regime is critical for India to secure high growth

The fundamental building block to define and secure land rights for anyone, is the underlying property record. This record should accurately reflect all pertinent information, including ownership, the geo-coordinated location and boundaries of the property, any mortgage claims, tenant claims, and disputes.

Improving the accuracy of land records, including maps, should be the topmost priority. It is the basic infrastructure required for secure access to land and housing rights, and would bring in more confidence in land-related transactions, reduce conflict, encourage more investments, and also improve the government’s ability to deliver welfare schemes.

India also needs reforms in other critical land governance areas. We have progressive laws, such as the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which need to be implemented on the ground to ensure that more than 100 million people belonging to Scheduled Tribes are able to secure the patta (or land title) to their land and gain access to all welfare benefits that have not been made available to them till date.

Organisations, such as ARCH Vahini in Gujarat, that work towards helping communities secure land pattas have observed significant improvements in agriculture production and incomes. We need more nonprofits working in Adivasi communities to help families apply for pattas, which will have multifold benefits in reducing poverty in these areas.

Land leasing is the third area where we need policy reforms. Given the small landholdings in India, millions of farmers lease additional land to enhance their farm output. However, these contracts are largely informal, and farmers with informal leases do not get access to any government benefits such as agriculture credit, PM KISAN, crop insurance, fertiliser subsidy, or Minimum Support Price procurement.

A few states, including Uttar Pradesh, have recently amended their land leasing laws to allow tenancy to be formalised, thereby securing the rights of tenant farmers. Implementing these changes on the ground will require concerted efforts from civil society and government officials, as it requires changing decades-old practices.

Attention to reform in hitherto poorly focused areas, such as land and labour, will be critical for India to resume a high-growth journey. As we grapple with an economic slowdown due to COVID-19, the recently launched NCAER Land Record Services Index (N-LRSI) offers a step towards changing this.

The N-LRSI is the first piece of research that carries out an in-depth analysis of land records in India. The index assesses the current status of digitisation, identifies the existing gaps in each state, and can help under-performing states implement specific remedial actions.

The report finds that in 28 states and union territories, digitisation stands at 86.3 percent. However, it also reveals considerable accessibility issues, such as changes in administrative units and mismatch of names/spellings, language and translation issues, and other user interface problems. We clearly have a long way to go, and the N-LRSI could become a bellwether of improved land governance in India.

 

Technology can be leveraged to secure property rights

Technology, especially geospatial technology, can also significantly drive change on the ground. Drones are perhaps the most exciting new entrants in this spectrum, as they offer great potential for innovation.

Recently, the Odisha state government used drones to map close to two lakh households across the state. The whole exercise was completed in a matter of a few months, which by traditional methods would have taken several years.

Moreover, the drone imagery brought in transparency to the whole process and allowed the communities to engage with the maps to identify their own homes and community boundaries. This greatly helped in reducing information asymmetry and building trust. Nonprofits such as PRADAN have also employed geospatial tools to map land and help Adivasi families claim their patta.

The Government of India also recognises the importance of using technology, as seen from the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of the Swamitva scheme, which aims to map rural inhabited lands using drones and issue property cards to those living in abadi areas (inhabited rural land) without a record of rights.

While there is no doubt that technology can be a force for good, it is also important to acknowledge its limitations in social impact and transformation. Technology is not a silver bullet, and needs to be complemented by non-tech solutions, if we want sustainable impact. Therefore, the focus needs to be on responsible technology, that is used in close engagement with a range of actors, from businesses, to governments, to civil society.

 

Donors should pay more attention to the issue of property rights

Land and property rights are often viewed as a very political issue, which may discourage donors from investing in research in this area. Cognisant of this research gap, we, at Omidyar Network India, have invested in supporting the Property Rights Research Consortium (PRRC) to create evidence-based solutions, without political biases.

We also believe that there is an opportunity for donors working on WASH, agriculture, and gender issues to include secure land tenure as a key component in their programmes. For example, a programme working to improve farmer income enhancement would need to identify and support tenant farmers to make it truly inclusive, and could include a component to identify tenants and help them formalise the tenancy agreement and access government benefits.

Similarly, gender programmes can also try to include women’s names in the property documents, since research shows that it reduces instances of domestic violence and increases women’s confidence and agency. WASH programmes in urban slum communities also require access to land for sanitation infrastructure.

Ahmedabad’s Slum Networking Programme, which started in the late 1990s, demonstrated that providing secure tenure to communities can transform the sanitation and health conditions in informal settlements by leveraging government resources as well as community funds.

Recently, Ashif Shaikh, founder of Jan Sahas, aptly described land as a horizontal, cross-cutting issue across interventions. Evidence shows that that developing programmes that address the land use challenges of target communities are able to significantly boost the overall impact of the programme on the lives of families for a sustained period. Therefore, it is time that we start taking concrete steps towards securing land and property rights in India.

 

Shreya Deb leads Omidyar Network’s investments in property rights in India where her interests are in supporting scalable models that can help provide more secure land and housing rights to economically vulnerable people, including in urban slums

 

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

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Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, President of the International Court of Justice, speaks on the first day of a hearing before the Court. 10 December 2019, The Hague, Netherlands. Credit: UN Photo/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek

By Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf
NEW YORK, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

The Charter of the United Nations is not only the constituent instrument of the United Nations as an organization. It is a multilateral legal manifesto encompassing a set of basic principles and norms aimed at ensuring peace, freedom, development, equality and human rights throughout the world. These principles and norms reflect the shared values proclaimed in the preamble on behalf of the “Peoples of the United Nations”. As such, it is the most innovative and trailblazing multilateral treaty ever concluded among States. Today, it is a universal instrument by which all States have solemnly accepted to be bound in their international relations.

In 1945, as nations emerged from a second world war in the span of 30 years, a fundamental choice had to be made by the States participating in the San Francisco Conference convened to adopt the Charter. They chose the rule of law to govern international relations. This was the only way to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. This choice was also a result of the evolution of human civilization. It came out of the realization that the old system that made war permissible to right wrongs was not only barbaric and brutal, but fundamentally unjust.

Consequently, an obligation to settle international disputes by peaceful means was consecrated in the Charter, together with a prohibition on the use of force in international relations. The mission of the International Court of Justice, over which I currently have the honour to preside, is to resolve inter-State disputes peacefully in accordance with international law. The Court has so far done this more than 150 times.

The choice of the rule of law involved also a determination, for the first time in the history of multilateral relations, to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small.” We owe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the two covenants, to this determination by the peoples of the United Nations.

Equally important for more than half of humanity, which in 1945 was still suffering from alien subjugation and colonization, was the recognition in the Charter of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples that finally led to their freedom and independence. The universality of the Charter-based system and of international law would not have been realized without the proclamation of the right of all peoples to equality and self-determination. United Nations membership has grown from 50 States at San Francisco to 193 today, mostly as a result of the application of the right of peoples to self-determination.

A view of the Peace Palace, seat of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Hague, Netherlands. Credit: UN Photo/ICJ/Capital Photos/Gerald van Daalen

For the past 75 years, the above-mentioned basic norms, together with the others enshrined in the Charter, have fostered peace, progress, human rights protection, the emancipation of peoples and multilateral cooperation throughout the world. They have also furnished the legal framework upon which rests the rules-based multilateral system that enables both States and individuals to engage in cooperative activities across borders in a wide range of fields, ranging from aviation to shipping, from telecommunications to trade, from financial transactions to investment, and from health and environmental protection to education and culture.

It could, therefore, be said that the adoption of the Charter in San Francisco, and its implementation by the organs of the United Nations, have opened up broad and sweeping vistas for humanity to cooperate for the common good, to avoid armed conflicts and to work for progress based on equality and human dignity. Much has already been achieved, but much more remains to be done, as has been demonstrated by the recent challenges to the United Nations system raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Few would contest the enduring value and strength of the Charter as a normative instrument, even after 75 years of existence. Its purposes and principles have acquired a universal character unprecedented in human history. At the same time, the relevance and inspirational value of those principles for the progressive development and consolidation of the rule of law at the international level keeps growing. However, the question is whether the institutional mechanisms established by the Charter, as a constituent instrument, are still fit for the world of today with its multifaceted challenges. Some of them certainly are; but others may need to be updated.

The world has radically changed since 1945. Nevertheless, it might still be argued that if the United Nations did not exist today, it would have to be invented. Would it, however, be invented exactly in the same institutional set-up and operational mechanisms as in 1945? That is where a rethink becomes relevant. The 75th anniversary of the Organization may be an opportune moment to start the process. It will require serious engagement by all States. The Charter provisions on organs and institutions of the United Nations system are not carved in stone. They have been adjusted before due to changes in membership. They can be modified again, perhaps more profoundly this time, to allow the Organization to accomplish its noble purposes. It will not be done overnight, but it is worthwhile doing for the common good of humanity.

This article was first published by the UN Chronicle on 10 July 2020.

 

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Women in Nigeria collect food vouchers as part of a programme to support families 
struggling under the COVID-19 lockdown. Credit: Damilola Onafuwa/WFP

By Angela Lusigi and Achievement Dhlakama
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Africa, countries are simultaneously dealing with the health and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic, and how and when to ease lockdowns and curfews imposed to stop the disease spreading and get onto the path of recovery.

However, some government actions taken to restrict people’s movements during this crisis, including enforcement measures and emergency laws and policies, could have long-term impacts and the potential to undermine social cohesion ̶ the trust between governments and their citizens and the solidarity between citizens themselves.

With the health and wellness of millions of Africans at stake, governance measures taken to address COVID-19 must be appropriate, effective and sustainable. In some instances, responses to the pandemic so far have led to rising tensions and pushback against human rights.

Lessons from this pandemic should inform how governments, citizens and other partners can collaborate to strengthen governance and social cohesion during the response, and even beyond.

But the question is, what are the optimal measures and enabling environment required for response measures to succeed while protecting freedoms and minimising disruption to livelihoods?

Africa’s governance context is complex. Although there has been significant progress in democracy, the majority of countries are in the lower half of the 2019 Human Freedom Index produced by the US-based Cato Institute.

Yet another study, the Fragile States Index by the Washington-based Fund for Peace, finds that in some of these countries, political fragility and low trust in government institutions still remain a challenge.

As COVID-19 spread in Africa, there were also concerns that planned elections this year in at least 22 countries, in the midst of a pandemic, could heighten tensions and fears of suppression.

It is in this context that governments should guard against measures that fan mistrust between them and their citizens and could lead to undermining democratic processes or intensifying fragility.

Emergency laws limit rights and disrupt services, supply chains and livelihoods. At the start of the pandemic in Africa, at least 17 countries declared states of emergency, 9 declared states of public health emergency and 3 declared states of national disaster.

These measures are important in safeguarding public health and wellness, but their impact varies according to how they are communicated and understood, how oversight mechanisms function and whether there is trust between the government and its citizens.

A state of emergency empowers governments to perform actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to. These include making regulations without an act of parliament or taking actions without complying with statutory duties.

These emergency powers, although temporary in nature, could be used to introduce measures that may affect fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of movement or assembly, freedom of the media or freedom to work, among others.

On the other hand, a state of public emergency may help the government to take necessary measures to protect the public’s health. These include closing of schools, restricting travel, isolating people exposed to the virus and prosecuting those who do not comply with quarantine orders.

In the case of a national state of disaster, limitations of rights should not extend beyond what is necessary and must be in line with the constitutional values of the society.

The application of these measures to deal with the pandemic has not been without challenges. Firstly, these executive declarations were made in a hurry and with less consultation and oversight. Secondly, citizens were caught unprepared and were not fully informed about the extent of limitations of their rights.

There were media reports of altercations between civilians and police or military enforcing COVID-19 measures in some countries. In others, citizens are increasingly voicing their discontent with the lack of food, services, water and sanitation, and concerns about the abuse of authority by security forces. This may risk the effectiveness of COVID-19 response and recovery measures in the long run.

As countries move towards easing lockdowns and opening up economies, there is still need for a supplementary mechanism to help identify, isolate and trace COVID-19 cases. However, this raises new concerns over the use of surveillance technology to track the spread of the virus, infringement of data protection, and the right to privacy and non-discrimination.

Lessons from those early experiences can help guide governments on appropriate mechanisms to ensure that new measures to respond to COVID-19 do not threaten the fabric of society.

An effective and sustainable response must build on capable institutions that deliver essential services, community ownership and engagement, rights-based oversight control mechanisms and concrete partnership with other stakeholders, including the private sector.

Capable institutions at local and national level ensure the effective delivery of essential services including health, water and sanitation, that are at the heart of the response to COVID-19. For instance, South Africa and Zimbabwe are now delivering water to many undeserved areas and communities.

Community and youth engagement also make a difference in the uptake of public health provisions and in reaching those most impacted by economic and social lockdowns.

Several countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda have made provisions for cash and food to vulnerable populations. Communities are best positioned to identify those most in need, thereby improving the likelihood of actually reaching them.

They are also able to disseminate accurate information. In South Sudan, a digital community of youth —#DefyHateNow -— has helped to fight misinformation and raise awareness. In Benin, a young medical doctor has launched a mass media literacy programme in Francophone Africa called Arya, on Twitter.

Their hashtag #AgirContreCOVID19 has reached more than 90,000 people. They are now developing an application than can disseminate COVID-19 information in local languages. The provision of information as a ‘right’ to citizens and as a mechanism to build trust, promote adherence to measures and build social cohesion has become more important now than ever before.

Control and oversight mechanisms help to improve transparency and accountability. The examples of the national assembly in the Gambia and the high court in Malawi that challenged proposals to extend the states of public emergency in their countries illustrate the importance of capable oversight mechanisms.

Finally, for many cash-strapped countries, the government’s COVID-19 response will benefit from close collaboration with the private sector, which in Africa is a hub of innovation. From Cameroon to Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and others – businesses are transforming to produce necessary medical supplies and equipment and improve access to services through digital and mobile platforms.

As governments navigate these policy options it is clear that the most effective and sustainable responses to COVID-19 in Africa place people at the centre to preserve and strengthen social cohesion.

*This article originally appeared in Africa Renewal—a UN publication focusing on African news and analysis. www.un.org/africarenewal.

 

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The post COVID-19: Smarter Response & Recovery Measures Can Help Preserve Human Rights in Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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“Social cohesion is built over years and is the result of policies that allow everybody in society to share in its sustainable prosperity,” Ahunna Eziakonwa, Director - UNDP Africa

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By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja and Bambang Susantono
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

As lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear—a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently convened governments and stakeholders across the globe to focus on the imperative to build back better while keeping an eye on the Global Goals.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Asia was the first to be hit by COVID-19 and feel its devastating social and economic impacts. Efforts to respond to the pandemic have revealed how many people in our societies live precariously close to poverty and hunger, without access to essential services. Between 90 million and 400 million people in Asia and the Pacific may be pushed back into poverty, living on less than $3.20 a day. Many countries are taking bold actions to minimize the loss of life and economic costs, estimated in May by ADB at $1.7 trillion to $2.5 trillion in the region alone.

Mission orientation and mobilizing fiscal and social support that realize the SDGs

As attention shifts from the immediate health and human effects of the pandemic to addressing its social and economic effects, governments and societies face unprecedented policy, regulatory and fiscal choices. The SDGs— a commitment to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, globally, by 2030—can serve as a beacon in these turbulent times.

Our new joint report Fast-tracking the SDGs: Driving Asia Pacific Transformations, highlights six entry points for achieving the SDGs in the face of the pandemic. These include strengthening human well-being and capabilities, shifting towards sustainable and just economies, building sustainable food systems, achieving energy decarbonization and universal access to energy, promoting sustainable urban and peri-urban development, and securing the global environmental commons.

Each of these entry points has been disrupted by the pandemic. Yet, these disruptions may create opportunities for new approaches to deliver on SDG targets that reflect the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda.

What will it take to align systems and institutions with the SDGs as they build forward?

Kanni Wignaraja

The pandemic has exposed fragility and systemic gaps in many key systems. However, there are many workable strategies that countries have used, both before and after COVID-19, to accelerate progress related to development goals and strengthen resilience. Countries have taken steps to extend universal health care systems, strengthen social protection systems, including cash transfer and food distribution systems for vulnerable households. Accurate and regular data have been key to such efforts. Innovating to help the most disadvantaged access financing and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credits have also been vital. Several countries have taken comprehensive approaches to various forms of discrimination, particularly related to gender and gender-based violence. Partnerships, including with the private sector and financing institutions, have played a critical role in fostering creative solutions. These experiences provide grounds for optimism.

Policy revolutions to manage complexity

Responses to the COVID-19 crisis must be centered on the well-being of people, empowering them and advancing equality. Driving change in the people-environment nexus to protect the health of people and natural resources is key to a future that does not repeat the crisis we are in today.

We need a revolution in policy mind-set and practice. Inclusive and accountable governance systems, adaptive institutions with resilience to future shocks, universal social protection and health insurance and stronger digital infrastructure are part of the transformations needed. All are driven by a low carbon and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and energy transition.

Bambang Susantono

Several countries in Asia and the Pacific are developing ambitious new strategies for green recovery and inclusive approaches to development. The Republic of Korea recently announced a New Deal based on two central pillars: digitization and decarbonization. Many countries in the Pacific, already proponents of ambitious clean energy targets and climate action, are focusing on “blue recovery,” seizing the opportunity to promote more sustainable approaches to fisheries management. India recently announced operating the largest solar power plant in the region. China is creating more jobs in the renewable energy sector than in fossil fuel industries. Many countries in our region are expanding social protection systems as part of COVID-19 recovery to go beyond a temporary patch and include the marginalized, such as informal sector workers.

Institutions such as the United Nations and ADB have mobilized to support a shared response to the crisis. Now it is vital that we enable countries to secure the support they need to go beyond, to achieve the SDGs.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Kanni Wignaraja, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Bambang Susantono, Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, Asian Development Bank (ADB)

 

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The post A Determined Path to the SDGs in 2030 Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Unsplash / David Clode

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

“What do you think happens to kerosene when it is poured on your head?”
Surya stumbles as she speaks to IPS. “It goes down, it goes trickling down.”

When someone speaks to a burn victim, one naturally feels shocked, sad, and sympathetic. But in talking to Surya, who has the major part of her body burned, the feelings were of hope and inspiration. How is it possible to survive this trauma and still have so much love and joy to share?

Among the many domestic abuse survivors I have interviewed over the past several years, Surya stood out. The incident that forever changed her physical attributes paved the way of hope for millions all over the world. She had a shining soul and a beautiful spirit.

Sixty-two-year-old Surya is a mother of two and a burn abuse survivor. She was doused with kerosene by her former husband following a heated argument in Chennai, India, almost three decades ago.

It was a regular summer day and the couple had a rift. At one point both lost their cool and before it became physical she retreated and went to the kitchen. The last thing she remembers is a liquid poured on her that felt like intense burning. She ended up in a hospital for six months. It took another 2 years to get back on her feet. Had it not been for helpful neighbors who transported her to a hospital, Surya might not have survived her burns. Now, many years after the incident she speaks with confidence and says she has fully accepted her fate and the scars have made her stronger and sparked in her a love for life.

Surya’s energy was infectious and it confirmed the fact that people who have experienced trauma, can, in fact, learn to be happy again. She does not harbor hatred or resentment. Rather, she revisited, with great dignity, how she became a burn victim and how the incident unfolded.

“It is important to educate men and women alike to understand the various dynamics of a relationship, and how to foster tolerance from an early age,” Surya said to IPS. She went on to explain in detail how boys should be educated to understand their roles as brothers, husbands, and fathers.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 180,000 deaths every year are caused by burns – the vast majority occur in low and middle-income countries. In India, over one million people are moderately or severely burnt every year. According to India Today, twenty-one dowry deaths are reported across the country every day. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) states that in a single year more than 7,634 women die due to dowry harassment. Either they were burnt alive or forced to commit suicide over dowry demands. Bride burning continues in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and others.

Surya said to IPS that she had an arranged marriage and, as a dutiful wife, she respected her in-laws and tried her best to be a good wife and a good mother. But something was very wrong from the beginning. The way her husband treated other women in and out of the household was accepted as the norm. It was meant to be the duty of his wife and the mother of his children, to bear everyone else’s wrath. It was also a cultural expectation to remain silent, to uphold the family status, and save face. Her husband showed no empathy and the society Surya lived in made his abuse permissible.

This mindset of blaming women for everything that goes wrong in a household is echoed widely in South Asian countries. Women are taught from an early age to endure abuse. Although it is expected that women will hold the family unit together, this responsibility comes with the added expectation that they do not speak up and suffer in silence.

I asked Surya: “What is the one piece of advice you would give your own self if you could go back in time?” She replied that she would make sure to tell herself that anything and everything can happen to anyone.

No matter how much she would pray for things to be different and for things to get better, the physical and mental abuse continued and increased in severity. Her former husband considered himself as superior, believing he was always right and that women were nothing but objects to be dealt with harshly as he willed.

Surya stressed the fact that from an early age, boys need to be taught that men and women are equal. And everyone must speak up about how they feel. Men need to channel their frustration in a healthy way and should be encouraged to speak up as well.

According to The Lancet, in 2017 there were 197.3 million people with mental health problems in India, comprising 14.3% of the total population. Some 29.5 % of men went through depressive disorders closely followed by women.

Surya is now an advocate, speaking about her journey and inspiring many with her story. She works at a reputable company as a senior advocate and is now self-sufficient. Her journey has inspired many girls to get back on their feet and heal both mentally and physically from brutal trauma. She has also inspired a new tech startup that is working to provide safe and secure communication for domestic abuse victims.

Picture Courtesy: The Parasol Cooperative

Meghana (Megs) Shah, founder of The Parasol Cooperative said to IPS. “At the age of seven, I met Ms. Surya. She was unrecognizable except for a few distinct features. Her face was always covered and she wore a scarf around her scalp and the side of her face at all times. One day I walked in while she was on applying ointment – she was actually resetting ‘silicone prosthetic’ ears. There was a hole where her ears once used to be.

“I was startled, but it reminded me that injustice exists in the world and people can be cruel. It is this moment that shaped my desire to help people and stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. She and so many people like her
have had their lives compromised – that is my motivation and the reason behind creating my tech non-profit, The Parasol Cooperative.”

In many cultures, men believe they are especially privileged which creates added pressure and expectation. Suppressing emotions and fomenting anger takes center stage. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to minimize the global gender gap. Awareness from an early age can equip future generations to be more tolerant, expressive, and open.

Girls need to be taught to be vocal and to be aware of their surroundings. If a crime is committed, or if abuse takes place, these need to be exposed and women need space and ways to communicate their fears, without being judged or shunned by society. Community centers, schools, online, and offline outreach programs can come to aid in building such safe grounds for sharing and expressing concerns. In many societies, denial or making light leads to the problem blowing out of proportion. The society needs a collective shift in how abuse, oppression, and gender inequalities are dealt with.

The post Gender Inequality and Oppression of Women: A Survivor’s Story appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN Staff Day with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (left). Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 27 2020 (IPS)

When the coronavirus pandemic delivered a mortal blow to the United States, grounding the country to a virtual standstill and throwing its economy into a deep recession, hundreds and thousands were forced to work “remotely” while offices remained shuttered, beginning late March.

The United Nations, including the Secretariat in New York and UN agencies worldwide, was no exception– and remained locked down for more than four months with no end in sight.

And now, several major corporations and Silicon Valley high-tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, IBM and Morgan Stanley, are planning to “reduce real estate footprint” by urging most of their staff to continue working from home— indefinitely.

At the United Nations, more than 6,400 staffers, including those on the payroll of UN agencies based in New York, have continued to work remotely ever since the Organization was grounded.

But will the UN, facing a cash crisis and a severe shortage of office space in one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets in New York, urge hundreds of its own staffers to work from home – permanently?

Perhaps the only exceptions could be those designated by the UN as “critical” and “essential.”

Asked how the COVID-19 lockdown has impacted on the work of the Organization, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters last week: “Despite the lockdown, we are all working from home (and) the business of the UN has continued full throttle”

“We continue to support our humanitarian operations. We continue to support our peacekeeping operations and our development projects. And the Secretary General is very much out there with the policy briefs we put out on a regular basis. The UN may be physically closed, but it remains open for business,” Dujarric declared.

So, it raises the question: Is there any justification for all of the 6,400 staffers to return to the UN?

Perhaps working from home indefinitely is still a far better option than what corporate America is pushing for, including furloughs, mass layoffs, drastic salary cuts, and in some cases, filing for bankruptcy protection—as with JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew and Ann Taylor.

Will the UN also face such calamities in the post-Covid era—particularly if some of the major funders, particularly the high-paying US, defaults on its assessed contributions, cuts off funding and withdraws its membership—as it has already done with UNESCO, the WHO, the World Trade Organization and the Human Rights Council?

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN (2002-2007), told IPS: “As we are going through the on-going pandemic, very often we hear that “our world would perhaps never be the same again”.

“For many of us who are immersed deeply in the work of UN and its mission for decades and internalized that as part of our living culture, we wonder how would the citadel of multilateralism – the United Nations – shape up when the humanity, if ever, emerges free of this pandemic,” he said.

“It is being said that one clear manifestation of that could be that a big chunk of the UN work force at its Headquarters in New York will continue to work from home – permanently, in the manner some big corporate organizations are adopting the work culture ensuring that many work remotely, he noted.

Chowdhury said one can argue that in case of UN, it could be cost-effective and more efficient. Travel budget and operating expenses would be greatly reduced. No more files, paper trails, no more flyers, brochures, publicity materials.

“Think of how many trees would be saved and how environment would be less stressed. No overtime. Less security expenditure. Also, one issue would not arise – no possibility of sexual harassment in the absence of physical contact,” he argued.

For staff members, he pointed out, no more baby-sitters … household and related responsibilities would be shared hopefully.

“One can think of many other benefits, I guess,” said Chowdhury, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN (1996-2001) and Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee (1997-1998).

Faced with a growing need for more office space, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources delivered a message titled “Flexible Working Arrangements,” providing staffers with an option to work from home – and that was back in June 2019 long before the virus outbreak.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS that many staff like working from home —but they should be aware that with today’s technology the Organization can shift quite of bit of work to lower cost areas of the world.

As a cost cutting measure, the UN has been debating a proposal to relocate some of its offices to new locations, including Budapest, Nairobi, Montreal and Shenzen, but there has been no final decision.

A robot named Sophia had an interactive session last year with Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Meanwhile, will artificial intelligence (AI), which is expected to replace humans, be the wave of the future, even at the UN? Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

The total number of staffers in the global Secretariat, including over 32 UN agencies, is estimated at more than 37,500, according to the report titled “Composition of the Secretariat: Staff: Demographics.”

In a report to the Administrative and Budgetary Committee, back in December 2015, the Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Management Yukio Takasu said about 5,342 of UN staffers, including those working for liaison offices of UN agencies based in New York, were located in eight leased buildings outside the UN campus at a cost of $56 million a year.

He said rents were expected to spike in the coming years, and in 2023, favorable term leases of the DC1 and DC2 buildings, across from the Secretariat, which together housed over 2,060 staff members, would expire.

But when some of the existing leases expired, the staffers were gradually moved to the secretariat building causing a severe shortage of office space during the last few years.

Ian Richards, former, President, Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS Covid-19 has accelerated a lot of trends that were already underway.

One of these, he said, is telecommuting, for which the UN Secretariat was relatively behind, compared with both other international organizations and governments in general. “We are likely to see more staff making use of one or two days of telecommuting a week.”

At the same time, he argued, “we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from this exceptional period”.

History shows that normal life eventually resumes. Offices and meeting rooms will come back to life and permanent telecommuting won’t be an option, only partial telecommuting will, said Richards.

If you look to Europe, he pointed out last week, Vienna is almost fully back. Meanwhile Geneva is slowly resuming, with the Human Rights Council and the WTO General Council both meeting physically.

Salim Lone, a longtime Director of Communications under Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told IPS what is needed is office work being altogether redefined in a way that simultaneously addresses the challenges the world’s people and our planet are mired in.

“We have seen, entirely without any input from our thinkers and visionaries, a new world emerge in which tens of millions of office workers working from home have had reduction of the intense stress levels that increasingly lengthy commutes generate, resulting in much time being spent with families and significant reduction in greenhouse gases through reduced vehicular traffic and other activity”.

Moving away from the long, stagnant history of working from offices, he said, provides an exceptional opportunity for the United Nations to showcase its unique multi-lateral, multi-disciplinary and global norm-setting expertise, embedded in the Secretariat and organizations like the International Labour Organization, Habitat, UNEP and WHO.

He pointed out that the US corporate sector has taken a huge leap on the issue of remote work, making it permanent measure for large numbers of staff, given the significant implications for productivity and office space costs.

But the private sector inevitably is over-invested in profitability and in the last few decades has overseen drastic losses in formal jobs, pushing tens of millions into the so-called “gig economy” with lower wages, and without health insurance and annual or sick leave, he noted.

“The UN needs to add it’s much more credible voice to the many initiatives under way for the post-Coronavirus world,” said Lone, onetime spokesman for Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga for more than a decade and author of an upcoming book on Kenya in the Global Context (with a focus on the UN).

Chowdhury said all these, of course, relate mainly to the nearly 6,000 staff members in New York. But UN is an intergovernmental organization and the Member States are supposed to be the governing entity. The experience of a “new normal” should not be limited only to the change in physical aspects of its work culture.

How about the change of heart, change of behaviour, change of mindsets on the part of the Member States, the governors of the UN?, he asked.

“The hope of a “new normal” which we are anticipating would be dashed when we find that the today’s normal is dusted up and branded as the so-called “new normal”.

He said the plethora of UN online meetings preoccupying the delegations time and energy since March have shown no sign of any real change for the better decision-making.

The same old language, the same old obstinacy of holding on to the so-called national position, the same old irrational opposition to good ideas and thoughts in the name of instructions from the capitals, the same old manipulation of the decision-making processes by powerful Member States, the same old marginalization of the voice of the small, vulnerable Member States in pursuing their genuine, legitimate interest as the weakest part of humanity, Chowdhury pointed out.

“There has to be a leadership initiative for such a real change to happen. Who will provide that? My first choice is the world’s topmost diplomat, the Secretary-General of the United Nations,” he declared.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post If UN is Working “Full Throttle” While Locked Down, Shouldn’t Most Staffers Work from Home –Permanently? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 24 2020 (IPS)

Rohingya women are coming together to feature their own work, plight and stories in mainstream conversations about their community — a space they say they’ve been left out of.

“If we think of revolutions or liberty or think of any ways to liberate ourselves from the shackle of suffering and being dubbed as ‘the most persecuted minority on earth’, women have to be part of it,” Yasmin Ullah, president of the Rohingya Human Rights Network, told IPS.

On Jul. 24, the first ever Rohingya women-only panel, facilitated by Ullah and other organisations, brought together Rohingya women leaders from around the world who shared their experiences and knowledge at the “Her Voices, Her Journey: The Gendered Experiences of Rohingya Women” webinar.

It featured Azizah Noor, a refugee ambassador for the Refugee Council of Australia; Hasnah Hussin,  a refugee advocate who works with refugee support organisation Tenaganita in Malaysia; Razia Sultana, chairperson of the RW Welfare Society; and Zainab Arkani, co-founder of the Rohingya Association Canada.

“There are lots of challenges that Rohingya women face such as gender-based violence, societal and community expectations and these are things we need to address in our community,” Noor told IPS.

The webinar aimed to provide Rohingya women with the agency to tell their own stories and be included in the larger conversation surrounding Rohingya rights, the genocide and refugee crisis. Rohingya women are often not seen at the forefront of advocacy efforts for the community. Ullah said that often Rohingya women were invited to speak only around a certain narrative, or the same woman speaker would be invited to different events and talks.

According to Reliefweb International’s 2018 report, more than 52 percent of Rohingya refugees were women, but that was not reflected in panel talks or rallies for and by Rohingya refugees. 

“Not having a proportionate representation of our voices in different discussions at different tables is just so unjust,” Ullah said.

Moreover, it risks trapping Rohingya women in a constrictive narrative where they are only seen as victims. Ullah said when more women were included in the conversation about the refugee crisis as well as about the trials of Rohingya women, the narrative would eventually shift to also include their triumphs.

“It’s so important for the outside world to see that there are more to Rohingya women than a bunch of suffering women, a bunch of raped women, a bunch of survivors and know nothing about the outside world, there are so many exemplary women out there for their word to be shared, their ideas to be shared,” Ullah said.

How a fear perpetuated the invisibility

In many ways the invisibility of Rohingya women in the global movement around the rights of the Rohingya began in Myanmar. 

Ullah said many Rohingya women are encouraged to stay home for their own protection against the Myanmar military. Over time, she said, this has normalised Rohingya women’s absence in larger political conversations. She added that the deep fear of Myanmar’s military attacking Rohingya women lessened their overall participation in society. 

Myanmar’s military is notorious for sexual violence against Rohingya women, which some experts say is a genocidal tactic used against the ethnic minority.

Ullah said it’s so prevalent that the military could just show up to one’s door and drag a woman out to rape — rape survivors have shared their testimony of this.

While Rohingya women are encouraged to always stay indoors for their safety, this creates a shift in the views of the gender roles, which Ullah said are “a direct correlation of the military strategies, tactics and propaganda used on the Rohingya [people]”.

“The traditional value of Rohingya culture has kind of shifted multiple times, and it shifted because there is a lot of fear, insecurity for women being protected,” Ullah said. “That’s why women are kept home because there are so many things that could go wrong.”

“As a result, slowly Rohingya women have receded and became homebound and that turned into the kind of mindset that we see today,” she said.

Education and security

Ullah said that when given opportunities and a safe environment, Rohingya women thrive. One such example is Sultana, who documented sexual violence Rohingya women were subject to and received the prestigious International Women of Courage Award in 2019, among others.

“There is so much more to us, so many things that we are able to do, especially when we’re given the security granted by the state, human rights, education, access to healthcare, essential services,” Ullah said. “Those few things really pushed Rohingya women to excel in their career in their respective field of studies.”

Meanwhile, access to education for Rohingya refugees in itself remains a challenge, especially under the pandemic, said Noor, a former Rohingya refugee from Australia.

“Factoring in equity during COVID-19  is extremely important,” Noor told IPS. “Refugee families are already struggling with fitting in, and are often marginalised. Technology is something that not all refugee families have and resources are not available for all families.”

As for the panel, Ullah said this was the first of many to come and was optimistic about the turnaround for the event.

“The time is now because if we wait 20 to 30 years from now, the damage would already be done and it would be too late for women to even be involved in any of these discussions.”

Related Articles

• Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia
• Concerns for the Nearly 400 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off the Coast of Bangladesh

The post Rohingya Women Take a Seat at the Table & Share Stories in a Growing Rights Movement appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Many of the tools needed to tap into the potential of Africa’s livestock sector exist already. But with limited resources, they must be deployed smartly to improve the entire value chain. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By External Source
KAMPALA, Jul 24 2020 (IPS)

There is no shortage of technological innovations designed to boost animal agriculture in Africa. These range from GPS tracking systems which identify and trace pastoralists’ herds to livestock vaccine SMS services that alert farmers to disease outbreaks.

But to unlock the economic potential of the sector as demand for meat and milk swells threefold towards 2050, countries must invest in the critical areas that will improve quality across the whole value chain. That is increasing productivity and quality from the breeding of the animal throughout the production process to the end product. This includes safe storage, handling and sale.

My native Uganda offers some useful lessons from its use of smart investments in technology and farmer organisation. These have made it the only East African country that is self-sufficient in milk.

With meat and milk being perishable goods, innovation in the cold chain and sustainable energy supplies will help strengthen the sector. For example, an East African initiative which centralised milk quality testing and storage in chillers prior to sale increased yields sixfold within five years

In recent years, some private sector players in Uganda have invested in testing systems to detect aflatoxin in animal feeds. The goal is to prevent milk and meat contamination. Others have developed refrigeration units that are powered with biogas from manure. Both are among the innovations that improve the quality of the final product.

As highlighted by a new report from the Malabo Montpellier Panel on which I sit, the same can be achieved elsewhere. It can also benefit other livestock commodities, to give Africa food sovereignty across animal-sourced foods and greater access to international markets.

The report makes 11 recommendations for Africa’s livestock sector. These range from technological innovations and supportive policies to addressing trade barriers and challenges specific to each commodity.

 

Priority areas

African nations must be strategic in prioritising the infrastructure that will make the most difference to quality and productivity. The first priority is to increase consumer awareness around food safety, nutrition and sustainability to kickstart demand for better quality products.

Partly as a response to European consumer expectations around quality and safety, for example, Morocco developed a new system for animal identification and traceability in 2015.

Livestock can be identified using electronic tags that communicate with the national database via mobile phone networks. This increases transparency and traceability. It also promotes Moroccan animal products on international markets such as the European Union.

The second priority is then to direct technology towards opportunities to open up market access.

To unlock trade means investing in improved animal health, processing operations, storage and distribution. Meeting regional and international standards for food safety and quality is a vital goal. Africa currently contributes 2.8% of the global meat market, which translates to 14 million tons. The continent produces just over 10% of the world’s milk.

There are a number of barriers to increasing this production and gaining greater market share. They include limited availability of quality animal feed, access to affordable energy needed in producing and processing livestock, and limited infrastructure, particularly in the last mile.

With meat and milk being perishable goods, innovation in the cold chain and sustainable energy supplies will help strengthen the sector.

For example, an East African initiative which centralised milk quality testing and storage in chillers prior to sale increased yields sixfold within five years.

The volume of milk supplied to the 30km catchment area rose to three million litres a month. This increased income per smallholder household by more than 160% in Uganda, 120% in Kenya, and almost 65% in Rwanda.

The success of such projects in turn drives demand for continued innovation, such as solar-powered cold chains or interventions that protect other resources like water and grasslands.

Finally, countries also need to prioritise policies that support new technologies across the livestock sector.

To transform its milk production sector, Uganda privatised the state-owned processing company Dairy Corporation as well as creating a Dairy Development Authority.

The Dairy Industry Act of 1998 empowered the authority to enforce milk hygiene standards and quality controls. As a result, traders were licensed to meet public health and milk quality standards. This encouraged the modernisation of the sector through the expansion of pasteurisation plants and processing infrastructure as well as processing of high value products.

Certainly, the gains have trickled down to the farmers in better farm gate prices.

 

Conclusion

As the Malabo Montpellier Panel points out, many of the tools needed to tap into the potential of Africa’s livestock sector exist already. But with limited resources, they must be deployed smartly to improve the entire value chain.

Scaling up innovation at critical points will unlock new opportunities and help ensure animal agriculture keeps pace with a rising demand from a growing population.

 

Noble Banadda, Professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural and Bio Systems Engineering, Makerere University

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

The post How Smart Investments in Technology Can Beef up Africa’s Economy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Ippei Shibata
Jul 24 2020 (IPS-Partners)

There has been much discussion in recent months about how workers who transitioned to working from home—and those who were deemed “essential”—are less affected by the layoffs and job losses brought on by lockdowns than are workers in “social” jobs that require closer human interaction (e.g. restaurant workers). However, our new IMF staff research suggests that this does not tell the full story.

In particular, we find that while teleworkable jobs are indeed more secure than non-teleworkable occupations during the current pandemic-related recession, this pattern has also been observed during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–09—meaning that something more than pandemic-related restrictions is at play.

As the chart shows, unemployment has increased less for teleworkable occupations during both recessions. This pattern suggests that people in teleworkable occupations tend to keep their jobs not only because they satisfy the need for social distancing and other novel requirements of the current pandemic, but also because such people tend to be more highly-skilled and educated—and hence less vulnerable to recessions. The paper also finds that essential jobs have been less affected not only during the current recession but also during the Global Financial Crisis. On the other hand, while social jobs have been severely affected during the current recession, they were indeed less affected during the Global Financial Crisis.

Our research also confirms some interesting observations regarding the distributional aspects of recessions. It finds that young and low-skilled workers have always been harmed more in recessions, while women and Hispanics are more severely affected during the current recession. Women in particular are more likely to work in industries and occupations that are being affected more severely during today’s recession. During both recessions, low-income workers have suffered more than top-income earners.

The post Unemployment in Today’s Recession Compared to the Global Financial Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
SINGAPORE, Jul 24 2020 (IPS-Partners)

On the first Sunday of July, there was an important telephone call between the Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi and the Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Duval. Some important decisions were announced thereafter. This is not to say that these were the outcome of that interaction only. For weeks the militaries of both China and India and their diplomats had been negotiating on the grounds of the disputed territory along the Line of actual Control at the Galwan Valley, as well as through other channels to end the bloodiest border stand-off between the two Asian powers that had lasted two months. True, while not a bullet was fired in anger, troops had battled with sticks and stones that left twenty Indian soldiers dead and, reportedly, an unknown number of Chinese casualties. Indeed, it appeared that the two sides, who had fought a war in the Himalayas in 1962, was yet again on the brink of a possible war.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

The situation was rendered dangerous by a combination of other factors. Over the immediate past, thanks largely to the policies pursued by President Trump of the United States, the multilateral global institutions such as the United Nations were left with eroded powers. The US itself embroiled in deeply divisive domestic issues and the burgeoning movement to reshape traditional values viz., ‘Black Lives matter’, was becoming disinterested in any further global engagements. Moreover, elections due come November speeded up the process of the return to ‘Fortress America’. The entire world was reeling under the merciless spread of the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 which had rendered their populaces vulnerable, and governments looking inwards. Amidst the global turmoil, China was racing to reach the status of a peer of the US with aggressive assertiveness, and had signalled that it would brook no opposition from any quarter along the way to reaching this goal. So, there was no global supervision of conduct of states in an anarchical system, and no watchman to keep any combatant nations apart.

The crisis between China and India seemed to have gone ignored by much of the world. Some Indians, if social media was any indication of prevalent sentiments, appeared to veer towards the US, as a source of traditional counterbalance to China. The embattled US Administration did little to assuage Indian friends, and in a Hawaii between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese senior leader Yang Jiechi the Indo-Chinese spat found a mention only in passing. The Europeans urged calm on both parties reluctant to choose sides. India’s immediate neighbours, nearly each of whom had issues with India,( either bilateral or flowing out of India’s domestic legislations alienating Muslims) and being beneficiaries of China’s deep pockets, remained silent, except India’s arch-rival Pakistan, which unsurprisingly supported China. So, both China and India seemed bereft of any significant external support, and were largely left on their own to resolve the issues.

Only Russia, friend to both China and India, seemed interested to constructively engage to help stabilize. In late June, in a celebration of Russian victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World war, the two key guests who turned up in Moscow, even in masks, were the Defence Ministers of India and China, though neither country had any significant contribution to Moscow’s wartime triumph over Berlin. It would be naïve to believe Russian diplomacy did nothing to try close gaps between the battling protagonists, though Delhi claimed the two never met, which ironically, might have yielded better results, and probably did, than if they had actually interacted frontally!

While the standstill was in progress, there was a huge display of nationalism, particularly in India, where the electronic and print media went to town in criticism of China. Stiff retaliation was being urged upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself struggling to lead India out of the twin crises of COVID19, and a major economic downturn. Modi was aware that war would mean taking on China and Pakistan simultaneously, a tall order at any time, and now more so given the global situation. So, Modi opted for discretion as being the better part of valour, did the right thing by visiting troops at the borders, and also by being extremely circumspect in getting Indian forces to exercise ‘fire control’ at the borders. The Chinese public opinion was eerily quiet, as if nothing significant was happening, except that the ‘Global Times’ often seen as Beijing’s mouthpiece, would issue warnings from time to time urging India to desist from provocative actions. China put across that its primary ‘contradiction’ was the US, not India, but any attempts to join efforts to constrain China would be severely dealt with. What China was doing was reading India the riot act from the textbook of ‘scientific realism’ in international affairs.

Immediately following the Duval- Yang Jiechi talk, Delhi issued a Press statement which said that “it was necessary to ensure at the earliest the complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquillity” (Peace and tranquillity , ironically, is an oft cited expression that the Indians and Chinese use to describe their relations- this is also how they call the LAC line- however incongruous it may sound to the existing realities!) The Chinese Foreign Office also said, after the phone conversation, that the two sides had made ‘positive progress… to disengage frontline troops and ease the border situation. The Chinese were reportedly seen removing tents and structures in the Galwan valley. However, they will doubtless ensure capabilities are close at hand for instant deployment, if needs be. Indian withdrawal is as yet unreported at writing, but will surely happen, because India cannot afford to be engaged in a firefight with China at this time. It remains to be seen how far this disengagement can translate into genuine de-escalation. In July 1962 Chinese troops had disengaged from the Indians only to sweep down the Himalayas with a full-blown invasion in less than four months!

Even as they were withdrawing this time, the Chinese took out an insurance on Indian good behaviour, from China’s perspective. This was a Chinese fresh claim over Sakteng wildlife sanctuary in eastern Bhutan’s Trashigang district, supposedly based on an agreement between Bhutan and Tibet in the early eighteenth century. This is far away from Ladakh, on the eastern side of the LAC. Now, Bhutan, though sovereign, is bound by treaty obligations to India’s oversight of its foreign relations. Should it entertain any aspiration for untrammelled relations with China, this is not likely to be approved by Delhi. Now this Chinese claim is on territory that has no border with China, but with Arunachal, the Indian State, the entirety of which China claims for itself.

Obviously, this is something the Chinese now have on the files, to be brought up at any time in the future, if so required. It also serves as encouragement to Bhutan to obtain its full autonomy from Delhi, with a warning that links with India henceforth will come at a price! Also, it is noteworthy that the lesson of history is that China might give up on territories tactically, but not on its claims.

In future, the two dominating powers will be the US and China. But in the meantime, there will be a period of instability as China maneuvers to position itself to be a peer of the US, which the US will oppose. At this time some deft crisis management will be necessary. If there is a new Administration in Washington after the November elections, it will settle down to business as usual with Beijing because of the pre-existing economic linkages, and sober policy analysis will support such policy-direction. The course of deglobalization that COVID 19 has set in motion is likely to be corrected. Just as no man is an island, States in the global -system cannot also function in isolation over a long period of time. Depending on the nature of post-COVID recovery, it will be a slow process, but an inexorable one.

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies, National University of Singapore. He is a former Foreign Advisor (Foreign Minister) of Bangladesh and President of Cosmos Foundation Bangladesh. The views addressed in the article are his own. He can be reached at: isasiac @nus.edu.sg

Source: UNB United News of Bangladesh

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

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By Dr David Nabarro
GENEVA, Jul 24 2020 (IPS)

Dr David Nabarro is Special Envoy to the World Health Organisation on COVID-19 and Strategic Director of 4SD. He sets out his challenge to leaders to use COVID-19 as an opportunity for radical change that responds to the needs and the interests of all of humanity.

• Countries must work together
• Focus on equity
• Effective local action

David Nabarro

I just participated in the beginning of the High-Level Political Forum in New York in early July. This is the annual meeting that looks at how the world is progressing on the Sustainable Development Agenda. And it was quite clear that the officials and government representatives participating in that event are of the opinion that the advances that are being made on the Sustainable Development Agenda and on the Sustainable Development Goals are really threatened by COVID.

And not just because of COVID, but because of all the challenges that our world faces. We have to keep this work up, we have to keep connecting with each other, and finding the inner resources that are necessary for living systems leaders.

This is not an idle remark. I’m saying it as a heartfelt, genuine personal feeling. I think I’m reflecting the feeling of hundreds of millions of people all over the world who are looking for a different kind of leadership to help them find their pathways forward and to see COVID as a real opportunity to do that.

It means that we have to keep a narrative, the language that we use, the stories that we tell, patterns that we weave. Language has to be kept as simple as we can make it. It also has to be coherent and consistent. And that’s where I, and I think many others, so easily get tripped up. We must continue to develop the language and the metaphors that will help others as they try to establish and implement the new patterns of leadership. If we slip into the adversarial language of modern politics and present every issue as an “either, or” choice, we get stuck.

Finding these ways, finding the language, finding the idioms is my big challenge of now. At my own organisation, 4SD, we have produced a number of narratives that talk about local level solidarity with rigorous action to find the people with the disease and interrupt transmission.

Networks that brought together a non-hierarchical approach with a clear strategic direction, and with the capacity for adaptation to local realities; consistent and clear communication and continuous accountability. Without that, people can’t shift. We need to be able to trust our leaders, and we’ll only trust leaders through accountability.

What we’ve learned is that where action has been integrated and local, built around the basics of public health – interrupt transmission and suppress disease outbreaks – it has been an extraordinary success.

I want to share with you three major conclusions.

Countries must work together

The outbreak is advancing so fast, all over the world. The impact on people – their lives, economies and systems that are so important like food, like employment and systems for law and order – is just growing. There is nothing to suggest this is going to slow down in the coming weeks and months.
We need every national leader working together on it and treating it with the attention it deserves.

Get it done quickly. It’s no good waking up at the end of this year and realising that the world really has broken badly and international relations have fractured. We need to deal with it now.

Focus on equity

Thousands of people employed in really awful conditions is just one extraordinarily bad situation revealed by this virus. How many such situations of indignity and inequity are there? Where people are working under unacceptable conditions to enable people to have kind of food we want, the kind of products we want, the kind of opportunities we want?

This revealed inequity is right at the heart of my own thinking on whether I personally do not want to go on tolerating a situation where people’s lives are massively endangered. They are unable by economic and other reasons to reduce that danger, simply to enable me to have more luxuries and pleasures in my life. I am part of the system that encourages and then tolerates inequity. And I have to look at myself.

Effective local action

There’s no magic in this. People’s lives reflect the interconnections of systems in their own experiences in their own locations. We must focus what we do on local realities, respond to people’s perceptions in their local setting and encourage coordinated action.

The power of dialogue and engagement at local level flies in the face of the tendencies that some want to centralise and control in government. We’ve seen this in so many issues over the last few years, particular on this COVID. Well-organised, data driven, integrated, local level action is immensely powerful.

We can’t deal with climate change without global action and it’s really urgent.

At the same time, humans are not going to be able to find pathways through the current challenges by relying just on global factors. Let’s get better at encouraging local solidarity with coordinated, networked action.

We must do it through constant connections, without worrying about who’s in charge. Get more and more people appreciating the value system that has to underlie this way of working, and not worrying about where it’s going to lead to. Not worrying about who’s going to be in charge. Not worrying too much about whether a political leader here or there is going to be able to deliver. Just let the feeling grow that we need to be able to have these kinds of connections, working to navigate the challenges now and those still to come.

Dr David Nabarro is Special Envoy of the World Health Organization (WHO) on COVID-19. He is also Co-Director of the Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation and Strategic Director of 4SD, a social-enterprise focused on developing Skills, Systems and Synergies for Sustainable Development. This article is extracted with permission from David Nabarro’s Online Briefing on 9 July 2020.

This story was originally published by Thinking the Unthikable

 

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US President Donald Trump with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Jul 24 2020 (IPS)

I, like many of my fellow Americans, am extremely concerned about Trump’s dictatorial tendencies. Given his behavior – what he said and did over the past four years – he may well act on some of these tendencies, especially if he loses the election by a narrow margin.

The concerns I have are not numerous, but are extremely critical: what if he challenges the results of the election and remains adamant on calling for a recount or a new election entirely? What if he refuses to leave the White House and prevents the peaceful transition of power?

What if he calls on the military to occupy all major American cities while he still is the Commander-in-Chief between Election Day and the inauguration of the new president? And what if he prompts his supporters to take up arms, converge into the streets, and violently confront the likely massive number of protesters who would demand Trump’s removal from the White House, which could lead to some kind of a civil war?

Although many Democratic leaders, including Joe Biden, and scores of journalists and others have spoken about their concerns in this regard, there is still no rife discussion about the above unthinkable scenarios.

Besides, does Congress – the House and/or the Senate – have the constitutional power to take action in such a situation, or does the Supreme Court have the authority to intervene? Is there anything else in the constitution that would address these troubling issues?

The 20th Amendment says that “The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January.” But what if he doesn’t leave? I posed this question to Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and one of the country’s foremost constitutional scholars. “After all,” he said, “that has happened elsewhere in the world. 

My hope is that the courts would quickly rule that Joe Biden is the President and has all of the powers of the office… Every incumbent president who has lost a reelection bid, starting with John Adams in 1800, has left office without incident.”

In my view, however, Trump may well be an aberration. And what if Trump still will not leave the White House? Chemerinsky said, “I doubt that the military would stick with him in that circumstance. Of course, if it did, we would then have a military dictatorship, as other countries have experienced. What if some of the military with the right-wing militias support Trump.  Then we would have some kind of a civil war.”

While many Republicans and Democrats may think that any of these scenarios are far fetched, the fact remains that Trump has dictatorial tendencies and occasionally acts on them by testing the ground to gauge the public reaction and weigh how his base responds to his moves. Here is what he displays, and how much in common he shares with dictators in general.

President for life: Trump has said on many occasions that he will be president for life —in March of 2018, he played around with the idea after praising Xi Jinping for granting himself precisely that term extension. Trump also retweeted an absurd meme showing him remaining president for 88,000 years — slightly longer than the human lifespan.

‘I can do whatever I want: Like many despots, on Tuesday July 23, 2019 Trump suggested that the constitution gives him the power to do “…whatever I want as president.” But I don’t even talk about that.” Albeit, he often tries to do just that to see if he can get away with it.

Defies reality: Trump notoriously lies and create his own reality just like many dictators do. Bob Woodward reports in his book Fear that John Kelly described Trump as unhinged: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here.”

Presents himself as infallible: Authoritarian leaders never admit that they made a mistake, and neither does Trump. For example, in a tweet he refused to back down from his “forecast” that Alabama was going to be hit by Hurricane Dorian, which was false. Trump went so far as to alter the National Weather Service’s map of Dorian’s trajectory to include part of Alabama to ‘prove’ that he was right.

Vindictive: Vindictiveness is second nature to all dictators. Following his impeachment acquittal, Trump was characteristically vindictive towards his perceived enemies. They were “evil, vicious, corrupt ‘dirty cops.’” He is habitually mean-spirited and spiteful. Trump’s cruelty is often gratuitous, without any explanation. It is just who he is.

Narcissist: We have yet to know one despot who is not self-centered to the core. Trump, in fact, is a textbook narcissist. Sander Thomaes, developmental psychologist at Utrecht University, maintains that Trump is “a prototypical narcissist.” He has grandiose visions of oneself; the need to be admired, and envied.

Domestic military intervention: Trump is quick, like all tyrants, to resort to the military to show his strength and authority. On June 1, 2020 Trump deployed the military to intervene during the protests in DC. He dispatched federal troops with no identification to quell the protests in Portland two weeks ago against the will of the mayor, which continue to haul peaceful protesters off in unmarked cars, akin to the Gestapo. He is further threatening to send more federal law enforcement officers to major US cities. “We’re not going to let this happen in our country,” he said, “all run by liberal Democrats.”

Praises dictators: Trump’s affinity for dictators, whom he envies for doing whatever they please without accountability, is well-known. On Sept. 7, 2016 Trump said on NBC: “If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him. I’ve already said, he is really very much of a leader.” About the ruthless Turkish President Erdogan, he stated “I’m a big fan of the president.”

Attacking media: Free media is the biggest threat to authoritarian regimes. Trump’s attacks on the media are routine, calling it the “enemy of the people.” During last year’s trip to the G20 summit in Japan, Trump said to Putin regarding the media present: “Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it?”

Conspiracy theorist: Trump is a master in conspiracy theories. That’s what despots often concoct to punish their enemies. Among the many conspiracies he promotes, Trump claims Ukrainians, not Russians, interfered in the 2016 election and were working against him (despite overwhelming agreement from intelligence that Russians hacked the DNC server).

Withdrawal from international agreements/organizations: Authoritarian leaders often defy international agreements when it serves their interests to appeal to their political base. Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on climate change in June 2017, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May 2018, and the UN Human Rights Council in June 2018, among many others.

Trump’s attacks on critics: Dictators do not tolerate any criticism. In January 2017, in response to criticism from Rep. John Lewis, Trump said “Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results.”

Surrounding himself with Yes men: Like any despot, Trump retains only those who agree with him. As a former National Security Council official told Politico “I feel like you already don’t have an A Team or B Team. You’re really getting down to who’s left that will say ‘yes.”

I do not believe that Democrats and responsible Republican leaders should simply dismiss any of the above alarming scenarios only because they did not happen before. Trump is unlike any of his predecessors; he is corrupt to the core and his self-interest as he perceives it comes before the nation.

He desperately wants to cling to power, in whatever way he can. Just like any dictator, he will stoop to any low, cheat, lie, threaten, viciously attack his opponents, suppress voting rights (especially of the Black and Hispanic communities), and continue to delegitimize the upcoming elections even before they take place.

His enablers, the leadership of the Republican party, stood idly by all along and allowed him to run wild, to jeopardize the country’s domestic security and global standing, for which they will pay dearly come November.

I am hopeful that none of the above scenarios will occur. But can we be certain that, given his disturbing behavior and consistent efforts to emulate dictators, Trump would simply concede if he loses the election and peacefully vacate his office come January 20, 2021?

We can only hope so, but it will be a grave mistake not to take these clear warning signs seriously. Be aware America, and be prepared to act.

 

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Excerpt:

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

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Jennifer Maldonado (I), her little sister and Carmen Carbajal, at the entrance to her home in San Salvador. They hung a white flag as a sign that they had run out of food during the quarantine adopted by the government since March 21 to contain the COVID-19 infections, as did many families in El Salvador and neighbouring Guatemala. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It was supposed to have been a ground-breaking year for gender equality, but the coronavirus pandemic has instead widened inequalities for girls and women across every sphere. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Jul 24 2020 (IPS)

Sixteen-year-old Suhana Khan had just completed her grade 10 exams in March, when India imposed a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Since then, she has been spending her mornings and evenings doing household chores, from cooking and cleaning to fetching drinking water from the tube well. 

“I am really missing school. Nearly half the year has gone and we have no books and no teachers to teach. We don’t know if and when we will be able to resume our studies,” Khan, who is from Kesharpur village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, told IPS.

The disappointment in her voice is palpable. While teachers at the local government school are supposed to conduct online classes, most of the 350 households in the village have only one mobile phone with internet connectivity, which male members in the family take to work.

School closures are putting young girls at risk of early marriage, unintended pregnancies and female genital mutilation (FGM). A recent analysis has revealed that if the lockdown continues for six months, the disruptions in preventive programmes may result in an additional 13 million child marriages, seven million unintended pregnancies and two million cases of FGM between now and 2030.

Suhana Khan (right) has been unable to complete her schooling after schools in India closed during a nationwide lockdown. Now she works as a volunteer teacher for younger children. Courtesy: Bodh Shiksha Samiti

Khan has been fortunate to find work as a volunteer teacher with a local community based Non-Government Organisation, Bodh Shiksha Samiti. She teaches 11 children from her extended family for two hours daily in her own home.

“I wish there was someone to teach me too. I am desperate to continue my education and become a police officer so I am able to protect myself and other girls and women. We can’t step out of our homes after sunset. Every day, we hear of girls being abused,” she told IPS.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights and gender equality. It was supposed to have been a ground-breaking year for gender equality, but the novel coronavirus pandemic has instead widened inequalities for girls and women across every sphere – from education and health to employment and security. It has increased women’s unpaid workload and aggravated the risk of domestic violence. 

Gabriela Cercós, 24, from Barueri, a municipality in Brazil’s São Paulo state, told IPS, “Women, who work from home are overburdened with housework, home schooling and looking after their children. In isolation, domestic violence has grown. Recently my close friend was assaulted, but she didn’t report the incident because she has a child and she can’t afford to be a single mother.” 

As COVID-19 cases spiral, lockdowns are being extended, further isolating women living with abusive, controlling and violent partners. Civil society organisations are reporting an escalation in calls for help to domestic violence helplines and shelters across the world. But for every call for help, there are several others who are unable to seek support.

Globally 243 million girls and women (aged 15-49 years) have been subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the past 12 months. Yet, nearly 50 countries have no laws that specifically protect women from such violence. The global cost of public, private and social violence against women and girls is estimated at approximately two percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $1.5 trillion. As security, health and money worries heighten, and the stress is compounded by cramped and confined living conditions, these numbers will soar, according to United Nations Women. 

“Before COVID-19, we already knew that every country in the world would need to speed up progress to achieve gender equality by 2030. And we also know that disease outbreak affects women and men differently and exacerbates gender inequalities. That’s why to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have a strong response and recovery to COVID-19, we must apply a gender lens in order to address the unique needs of girls and women, and leverage their unique expertise. Without this gender lens, we can’t truly ‘Build Back Better,’” Susan Papp, Women Deliver’s managing director for Policy and Advocacy, told IPS.

Women Deliver, an international organisation advocating around the world for gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women, is powering the Deliver for Good campaign, an evidence-based advocacy campaign that calls for better policies, programming, and financial investments in girls and women. 

Essential maternal healthcare and family planning needs of girls and women have also been adversely impacted by reallocation of resources to contain the pandemic. 

“The impact of COVID-19 across Africa on women, girls and youth in particular has been immense. The pandemic closed more than 1,400 service delivery points across IPPF’s member countries, including nearly 450 mobile clinics, which are vital to reach rural populations, and in humanitarian settings so often poor and underserved,” International Planned Parenthood Federation’s (IPPF) Africa Regional Director Marie-Evelyne Pétrus-Barry told IPS. IPPF is one of some 400 organisations and diverse partners that have joined the Deliver for Good campaign by committing to deliver for girls and women. 

“Twenty of our African member associations reported shortages of sexual and reproductive health commodities within weeks of COVID-19 appearing. We’re now seeing the impact on our ability to deliver services, despite the very best efforts of our members to adapt to new ways of working. 

“The number of services delivered to young clients in Benin between March and May fell by more than 50 percent compared with the same time last year. In Uganda the fall was 47 percent. These are devastating figures, and the impact on women, girls and youth will be have a very negative impact on the development, livelihood and human rights of African women, girls and youth,” Pétrus-Barry added.

Women are primary caregivers, nurturing their own families, and they are also serving as frontline responders in the health and service sectors. Globally, women make up 70 percent of the health workforce – nurses, midwives and community health workers. They also comprise the majority of staff in health facility services, such as cleaning, laundry and catering. 

The pandemic has compounded the economic woes of women and girls, who generally earn less, work in insecure informal jobs and have little savings. Many women work in market or street vending, depending on public spaces and social interactions, which have now been restricted to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Almost 510 million or 40 percent of all employed women globally work in the four economic sectors – accommodation, food, sales and manufacturing – worst affected by the pandemic.

Cercós, who worked in hospitality at one of the international hotel chains earning a monthly income of BRL 2200 ($ 412) before the pandemic, is now on unemployment insurance. She’s just received the first of four instalments of BRL 1700 ($ 319) each.

“It is very difficult to get a job now. I have been having anxiety attacks. I am afraid to leave home and I am trying not to sink into depression. Some days are harder than others and the news doesn’t help,” she said.

This year, some 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty due to the COVID-19 crisis. In June, at the launch of the policy brief on food security, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ warned that the number of people who are acutely food or nutrition insecure will rapidly expand.  He is urging governments to put gender equality at the centre of their recovery efforts.

Gerda Verburg, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement coordinator and U.N. Assistant Secretary-General, noted that gender equality (SDG 5), good nutrition and zero hunger (SDG 2) are intrinsically linked. SUN is also a partner organisation for the Deliver for Good campaign, prioritising action and investments for girls and women.

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic reared its head, progress was stalling in these areas, alongside needed climate action. Although the impacts of the coronavirus on women’s and girls’ nutrition and food security are yet to be seen, there is no doubt that the loss of livelihoods and food system disruptions – disproportionally affecting women and the future perspectives of young women – will push countries even further from reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ensuring a more equal world, free from hunger and malnutrition in all its forms,” Verburg told IPS.

 

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