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Credit: DegreesOfLatitude

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Jun 8 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought the world back to the essentials: health and food. Fighting the spread of the virus while ensuring access to food has proven to be a challenge in many countries. The loss of income is reducing families’ ability to feed themselves; movement restrictions and lack of labour for planting and harvesting are a strain on the chain that brings food from field to fork. Hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable people are on the brink of acute hunger, and food insecurity is likely to increase globally.

The fragility of the food chain and the role played by agriculture in the multiple, unfolding crises—including climate change, diminishing biodiversity, and nutritional crises in the forms of undernutrition and overnutrition—are not new issues. But the current emergency is adding a sense of urgency to the need of rethinking the way in which food is produced, distributed and consumed.

COVID-19 “is exacerbating a lot of weaknesses in our current food systems,” Emile Frison, member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, told Degrees of Latitude. “The vulnerability of … large industrial production systems has been clearly shown through this pandemic …,” he stressed.

What strategies exist to build food systems that are resilient to shocks? What alternatives are there to industrial agriculture?

Agroecology is one of those models. No longer niche, it is at the core of global and national legislations, and is increasingly being implemented on farms. Is it economically feasible? Can it feed a growing world population? What are the constraints for the transition to agroecological food systems?

That is what we are going to investigate in our series of articles devoted to the future of food.

This article was first published by Degrees of Latitude

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Padma River Basin, Bangladesh Credit: Nidhi Nagabhatla

By Nidhi Nagabhatla
HAMILTON, Canada, Jun 8 2020 (IPS)

Do migrants willingly choose to flee their homes, or is migration the only option available?

There is no clear, one-size-fits-all explanation for a decision to migrate — a choice that will be made today by many people worldwide, and by an ever-rising number in years to come because of a lack of access to water, climate disasters, a health crisis and other problems.

Data are scarce on the multiple causes, or “push factors,” limiting our understanding of migration. What we can say, though, is that context is everything.

UN University researchers and others far beyond have been looking for direct and indirect links between migration and the water crisis, which has different faces — unsafe water in many places, chronic flooding or drought in others.

The challenge is separating those push factors from the social, economic, and political conditions that contribute to the multi-dimensional realities of vulnerable migrant populations, all of them simply striving for dignity, safety, stability, and sustainably in their lives.

A new report, ‘Water and Migration: A Global Overview,’ (https://bit.ly/3gxDgE7) from UNU’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, offers insights into water and migration interlinkages, and suggests how to tackle existing gaps and needs.

Its information can be understood easily by stakeholders and proposes ideas for better informed migration-related policymaking, including a three-dimensional framework applicable by scholars and planners at multiple scales and in various settings.

The Report also describes some discomforting patterns and trends, among them:

• • By 2050, a combination of water and climate-driven problems and conflicts will force 1 billion people to migrate, not by choice but as their only option;

 

• • Links to the climate change and water crises are becoming more evident in a dominant trend: rural-urban migration;

 

• • That said, there is a severe lack of quantitative information and understanding re. direct and indirect water and climate-related drivers of migration, limiting effective management options at local, national, regional, and global scales

 

• • Global agreements, institutions, and policies on migration are concerned mostly with response mechanisms. Needed is a balanced approach that addresses water, climate, and other environmental drivers of migration

 

• • Unregulated migration can lead to rapid, unplanned, and unsustainable settlements and urbanization, causing pressure on water demand and increasing the health risks and burdens for migrants as well as hosting states and communities

 

• • Migration should be formally recognized as an adaptation strategy for water and climate crises. While it is viewed as a ‘problem,’ in fact it forms part of a ‘solution’

 

• Migration reflects the systemic inequalities and social justice issues pertaining to water rights and climate change adaptation. Lack of access to water, bad water quality, and a lack of support for those impacted by extreme water-related situations constitute barriers to a sustainable future for humankind.

Case studies in the report provide concrete examples of the migration consequences in water and climate troubled situations:

• • The shrinking of Lake Chad in Africa and the Aral Sea in Central Asia

 

• • The saga of Honduran refugees

 

• • The rapid urbanization of the Nile delta, and

 

• The plight of island nations facing both rising seas and more frequent, more intense extreme weather events.

In addition, the added health burdens imposed on people and communities by water pollution and contamination create vicious cycles of poverty, inequality and forced mobility.

While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda does not include an explicit migration target, its mitigation should be considered in the context of SDGs that aim to strengthen capacities related to water, gender, climate, and institutions. These issues resonate even as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent news stories have chronicled the plight of desperate migrant workers trapped in the COVID-19 crisis in India, and of displaced people in refugee camps where social distancing is unachievable, as is access to soap and water, the most basic preventive measure against the disease.

Add to that the stigma, discrimination, and xenophobia endured by migrants that continue to rise during the pandemic.

Even at this moment, with the world fixated on the pandemic crisis, we cannot afford to put migration’s long-term causes on the back burner.

While the cost of responses may cause concerns, the cost of no decisions will certainly surpass that. There may be no clear, simple solution but having up-to-date evidence and data will surely help.

On World Environment Day ( https://bit.ly/3dnKkks) last week (June 5), we were all encouraged to consider human interdependencies with nature.

Let us also acknowledge that water and climate-related disasters, ecological degradation and other environmental burdens causes economic, health and wellbeing disparities for migrants and populations living in vulnerable settings.

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Excerpt:

Nidhi Nagabhatla is Principal Researcher, Water Security at the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, funded by the Government of Canada and hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada

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PRESS RELEASE
 

By External Source
Jun 8 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Commonwealth Secretary-General is urging governments to ensure their countries’ post-COVID economic recoveries are environmentally sustainable and safe for the ocean.

Forty-seven of the Commonwealth’s 54 member countries have a coastline while 25 are either small island developing states or ‘big ocean states’ relying heavily on the ocean for food and income.

On World Oceans Day (8 June), Secretary-General Patricia Scotland calls on countries to reform development strategies in a way that supports vibrant and sustainable blue and green economies.

Patricia Scotland

She said: “The ocean is the life blood of so many Commonwealth countries and our environment should be the cornerstone as we put plans in place to recover our economies. The Commonwealth covers more than a third of coastal oceans in the world, contributing to a global ocean-based economy valued at US$3 to 6 trillion per year.

“COVID-19 impact has radically altered some of our key economic sectors and transformed the way we live, communicate and do business. While the fallout from the pandemic has had a huge impact on our blue economies, it also presents a crucial opportunity to strategise on how to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable economic practices built on climate resilience and ocean sustainability.

“The Commonwealth Blue Charter is one of the most effective platforms for global ocean action in the international landscape today. I commend the work of our member countries through the action groups and welcome the support we have received from national, regional and global partners, enabling us to mobilise together for ocean health.”

The Blue Charter is the Commonwealth’s commitment to work together to protect the ocean and meet global ocean commitments. Ten action groups, led by 13 champion countries, are driving the flagship initiative. More than 40 countries have signed up to one or more of these action groups, and counting.

Commonwealth Blue Charter action groups include: Sustainable Aquaculture (led by Cyprus), Sustainable Blue Economy (Kenya), Coral Reef Protection and Restoration (Australia, Belize, Mauritius), Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods (Sri Lanka), Ocean Acidification (New Zealand), Ocean and Climate Change (Fiji), Ocean Observations (Canada), Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance (marine plastic pollution – United Kingdom, Vanuatu), Marine Protected Areas (Seychelles) and Sustainable Coastal Fisheries (Kiribati) .

Members of the private sector, academia and civil society – including Vulcan Inc, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Nekton Foundation and many others – are also engaged as Blue Charter partners.

To find out more about the Commonwealth Blue Charter, visit the website.

Notes to Editor

For interviews with the Commonwealth Secretary-General on this issue, please contact Josephine Latu-Sanft via email or WhatsApp +44 7587657269

Media Contact

Josephine Latu-Sanft
Communications Division
Commonwealth Secretariat
T. +44 (0)20 7747 6476
Email: j.latu-sanft@commonwealth.int

Website thecommonwealth.org
Join the conversation Tweets by @commonwealthsec

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Excerpt:

PRESS RELEASE

 

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Jerald Aruldas, a journalist from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and his colleague, were held by city police for 9 hours for reporting on stories around alleged government corruption around the food aid distribution system and how doctors in Coimbatore faced food shortages while working during the COVID-19 lockdown. Courtesy: Jerald Aruldas

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

Governments have made the media “a scapegoat” across Asia, targeting journalists who are simply reporting on the failures or shortcomings of their leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, press freedom experts have warned.

“Governments have said that the real emergency caused by the pandemic has made it necessary for them to prevent the spread of false information that might, for example, cause panic,” Steven Butler, Asia programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told IPS. “Of course, in at least some cases it’s the government decisions themselves that have led to confusion and panic, and the media has simply become the scapegoat.”

Butler spoke to IPS following an appeal by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet who on Wednesday warned that censorship has become more severe in countries across Asia under the pandemic. She requested governments around the world to take “proportionate” actions in case someone is spreading false information, and that those actions must comply with requirements of “legality, necessity, proportionality, [and serving] a legitimate public health objective”.

“When you have a police official defining necessity of a person’s arrest and detention on the basis that a ruling party politician came to the police station to file a case against the person, there is much to be concerned about how authorities interpret necessity, proportion and legality,” Saad Hammadi, Regional Campaigner of the South Asia division at Amnesty International, told IPS.

He was speaking about the plight of Bangladeshi journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol who had disappeared for almost two months before he was “found” and taken to police custody — just in time for World Press Freedom Day.

Before Kajol’s disappearance and subsequent arrest, he was already facing charges under Bangladesh’s highly controversial Digital Security Act.

There are similar cases across Asia. 

In May, IPS reported on a number of cases in India where journalists were also arrested or detained for criticising the government.

In India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, journalist Jerald Aruldas and photographer M Balaji had been detained for 9 hours after a series of pieces that exposed corruption in the government food aid distribution system, and the food issues that doctors in Coimbatore city faced. Their editor, Andrew Sam Raja Pandian, was subsequently arrested and released but was charged under several sections of criminal laws as well as The Disaster Management Act, 2005 for publishing the stories.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) records show governments in 12 countries across Asia are targeting journalists or anyone expressing their criticism about the pandemic response: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

For people in all 12 countries where the arrests have taken place, the stifling of press freedom is not new. According to Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom 2020 Index, all 12 countries ranked quite low, with Malaysia and Nepal being the least restrictive among the group, and China and Vietnam being some of the most restrictive.

‘Fake news’ used as an excuse to restrict press freedom

In all these countries, the charges are some variation of the trope that any criticism is “false news”. Governments are making arrests or detaining those speaking up with the excuse that their so-called “fake news” incites panic among communities. In Cambodia, a child as young as 14 was arrested, along with 30 other individuals, for sharing commentary on social media. 

In Bangladesh, China, and India, health personnel, journalists and ordinary citizens have been detained or arrested for voicing similar concerns about their respective government’s response, or lack thereof. In Nepal, a bureaucrat was arrested for criticising the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s unacceptable that even one person is persecuted for legitimately exercising their right to freedom of expression but since March this year, at least 16 journalists have been detained or sued on charges that are in contravention of the rights protected under international law on freedom of expression,” Hammadi of Amnesty International told IPS.

Bachelet said it’s crucial to remain alert and vigilant about misinformation at this time. During the first few weeks of the coronavirus crisis — even before it was termed a “pandemic” — misinformation surrounding the disease had become a crucial concern. In response to this, the World Health Organisation launched the EPI-WIN, which would provide users information in a timely manner, filtering out an overload of information without solutions.

An already existing problem

While the OHCHR statement came almost six months into the coronavirus crisis, experts have been ringing alarm bells about the issue for some time now.

In May, while observing World Press Freedom Day, Hammadi wrote that it’s important to be vigilant against those who are “exploiting” this moment to spread misinformation, but warned that “some governments are themselves exploiting this moment – to suppress relevant information uncomfortable for the government or use the situation as a pretext to crack down on critical voices”.

Butler of the CPJ told IPS that these are countries that were already armed with the trope of “false news” to charge journalists. And the pandemic only exacerbated that.

“Additional emergency legislation and decrees have increased pressure on journalists as governments boost efforts to control the flow of information,” Butler said. “In many cases, they have used these powers to go after journalists who report shortcomings in the government response to the pandemic. In some cases, the charges against journalists have been incredibly petty.”

In her appeal, Bachelet warned that heads of state must not use the crisis “to restrict dissent or the free flow of information and debate.”

“A diversity of viewpoints will foster greater understanding of the challenges we face and help us better overcome them,” she said. “It will also help countries to have a vibrant debate on the root causes and good practices needed to overcome the longer-term socio-economic and other impacts. This debate is crucial for countries to build back better after the crisis.”

Related Articles

• Q&A: Misinformation in the Time of an Uncontainable Virus
• Protect Journalists’ Rights so We can Stop the COVID-19 Disinfodemic

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By Manuel Manonelles
BARCELONA, Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

Six months after the outbreak, the new global scenario resulting from the impact of COVID-19 is gradually becoming much more defined. From the very beginning, we sensed that little good could result from a situation so surprising and unexpected. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that we are entering times of extreme volatility in the international sphere. Times of uncertainty and incandescence as we have not seen for years.

The unrest in the United States and Brazil are clear signs in this direction. It is not by coincidence that they are occurring in the two countries with the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the world. The US in its way to the two million cases and with more than 100,000 deaths; and Brazil has exceeded half a million cases and more than thirty thousand dead, without taking into account the underreporting in both cases.

The destabilizing potential of COVID-19 in some of the world's major powers, and in parallel with the relations among them, is substantive; as is the resulting uncertainty

While it is true that the origin of the worst riots in decades in the United States is the death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police of an African-American citizen, it is obvious that the resulting anger has been fuelled by the accumulated frustration of recent months.  A time when structural racism in the United States has been overwhelmingly confirmed by the percentage of coronavirus deaths in the African American population, much higher than in the white one. The result is forty cities in the US with curfews, the deployment of the National Guard and Military Police in various States, and the militarization of the capital, Washington DC; quite serious.

The point, however, is that these are not two isolated situations, and that the destabilizing potential of COVID-19 in some of the world’s major powers, and in parallel with the relations among them, is substantive; as is the resulting uncertainty.

Keeping with the case of the United States, the confrontation between President Trump and several Governors –almost leading to a constitutional crisis -, the attacks on the WHO or the progressive and dangerous escalation of tension with China, always in the context of the coronavirus crisis, do not predict anything good.

And all this in the context of an electoral year in the US, with an epidemiological curve that is resisting to significantly decline, with 40 extra millions of unemployed … and one of the most controversial presidents in history who is running for re-election. Territory paid for by uncertainty.

Moreover, the references from the White House to the “Chinese virus” have had no real effect on Beijing, and rather have helped consolidate the evolution towards a more aggressive foreign policy such as that promoted by president Xi Jinping. In fact, the comparison of how the United States is facing the pandemic with respect to China, with all its shadows and doubts, does not burden Washington.

And after Hong Kong comes Taiwan. Very few days separate the announcement of the new legislation on Hong Kong, with its implications, the Beijing government withdrew the word “peaceful” from its annual call for reunification with this island. In a matter of few weeks, these two events added up to the seventh incident -so far this year – between the Chinese and Taiwanese air forces; new skirmishes between Chinese and Indian troops in the disputed border area in the Himalayas (and the consequent sending of reinforcements to both sides of the border). To this, we have to add the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by the Chinese Coast Guard in waters also under discussion; or reports of incidents with Chinese ships around a Malaysian-managed oil rig.

Nor can we ignore the situation in the Russian Federation. After 400,000 cases of COVID-19, and a growing case curve, Putin is experiencing its lowest popularity in a long time, while the follow-up on social media of its main opponents rises like foam. Even more, this is pending on a referendum on July 1 to approve the constitutional reform that must perpetuate him in power. Referendum that will do little to contain the pandemic.

In this context, the images of a few months ago in which Russia sent cargo planes full of masks to the United States or deployed military support in the fight against coronavirus in northern Italy are far away. Nor has Russia been able to avoid tensions with China, with mutual reproaches over the closure of land borders or the importation of new cases from one country to another.

Latin America is a growing area of concern which, along with the United States, is the new epicentre of the pandemic, bringing over 3 million cases over the 2.3 million in Europe. The paradigmatic case is the aforementioned Brazil, with a “denialist” president, a faithful follower of the Trump doctrine, despite already being the second country in the world in number of COVID-19 cases.

We will see how countries like Chile react now that they have surpassed 100,000 cases, dragging a season of instability with a strongly contested government on the street (which it should be recalled that was forced to move the COP25 Climate Summit from Santiago de Chile to Madrid). Another case is Peru, which, despite having taken stricter measures, is already approaching 180,000 cases. The coronavirus is also growing in the Persian Gulf and India, where the world’s largest confinement is being lifted, affecting approximately 1.3 million people.

It is in a context like this, where there are few countries in the world – and less among the great powers- that can really show off for their management of the pandemic, that incentives and the temptation to find internal or external scapegoats to divert attention or redirect public anger are particularly high. If we add controversial or autocratic leadership, pre-existing tensions or the worrisome short-term forecasts in the economic field, the scenario we face is unpromising, and above all uncertain.

While in Europe the storm (or its first wave) calms down, in the rest of the world the pandemic grows, together with its resulting instability and volatility.

 

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Excerpt:

Manuel Manonelles is Associate Professor of International Relations, Blanquerna/University Ramon Llull, Barcelona

The post High Volatility appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Pritha Mitra and Seung Mo Choi
Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

Food security in sub-Saharan Africa is under threat. The ability of many Africans to access sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs has been disrupted by successive natural disasters and epidemics. Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, locust outbreaks in eastern Africa, and droughts in southern and eastern Africa are some examples. The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest catastrophe to have swollen the ranks of 240 million people going hungry in the region. In some countries, over 70 percent of the population has problems accessing food.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s most food-insecure region, and in the June 2020 sub-Saharan Africa Regional Economic Outlook, we show that climate change is increasing that insecurity.

The sub-Saharan is particularly vulnerable to the forces of climate change. Almost half the population lives below the poverty line and depends on rain-fed agriculture, herding, and fishing to survive . With each climate shock, whether drought, flood or cyclone, farmers suffer directly, while shortages elevate the price of food for all.

Lives lost, increased vulnerability

Africans are easily pushed into food insecurity because their ability to adapt is limited by many factors, including low savings and access to finance and insurance. As a result, lives are lost, malnutrition rises, health worsens, and school enrollment drops. All this, ultimately damages the economy’s productive capacity.

During these times of COVID-19, we are seeing these challenges play out.

Credit: International Monetary Fund

The measures to contain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic, while critical to saving lives, risks exacerbating food insecurity. Border closures, lockdowns, and curfews intended to slow the spread of the disease are disrupting supply chains that, even under normal circumstances, struggle to stock markets, and supply farmers with seeds and other inputs.

Designing COVID-19–era measures to improve food security

At this critical juncture, sub-Saharan Africa needs to prioritize policies targeted at reducing risks to food security as part of fiscal stimulus packages to counter the pandemic. Our analysis suggests these policies should focus on increasing agricultural output, and strengthening households’ ability to withstand shocks. This would have the added benefit of reducing inequalities while boosting economic growth and jobs.

Boosting agricultural output

Even before the pandemic, many countries in the region were proactive in protecting their food supply by raising crop productivity and reducing their sensitivity to inclement weather. For example, Mozambique is the location of a global pilot for newly-developed, heat-tolerant bean seeds, while in Ethiopia, some farmers’ yields rose by up to 40 percent after the development of rust-resistant wheat varieties (rust is brought on by higher temperatures and volatile rainfall).

Maintaining this momentum calls for continued progress in improving irrigation, seeds, and erosion protection, all of which would substantially boost production. Meanwhile raising farmers’ awareness would also accelerate implementation of these measures.

Withstanding shocks: An outsized impact

Adapting to climate change is critical to safeguarding the hard-earned progress in economic development sub-Saharan Africa has achieved in recent decades. However, adaptation will be especially challenging given countries’ limited capacity and financial resources.

The priority then should be on making progress in select, critical areas which could have an outsized impact in reducing the chances of a family becoming food insecure when faced with shocks from climate change or epidemics.

For instance, progress in finance, telecoms, housing, and health care can reduce a family’s chance of facing food shortages by 30 percent:

• Higher incomes (from diverse sources), and access to finance would help households buy food even when prices rise, allow them to invest in resilience ahead of a shock, and better cope afterwards.
• Access to mobile phone networks enables people to benefit from early warning systems and gives farmers information on food prices and weather—just a single text or voice message, could help them decide when to plant or irrigate.
• Better-built homes and farm buildings would protect people and food storage from climate shocks. Combined with good sanitation and drainage systems, they would also preserve people’s earning capacity by preventing injuries, and the spread of disease, while ensuring safe drinking water.
• Improved health care helps people return to work quickly after a shock; and, along with education, raises their income potential and helps inform their decisions.

Social assistance also has a major impact as it is critical in compensating people for lost income and purchasing power after a shock hits. Insurance and disaster risk financing can be critical too, but the success of these programs in sub-Saharan Africa often relies on government subsidies and improvements in financial literacy.

Concentrating adaptation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa on policies that have outsized impacts, including on food security, will help reduce their costs. Implementation of these strategies will be expensive—$30–50 billion (2–3 percent of regional GDP) each year over the next decade, according to many experts.

But investment now will be far less costly than the price of frequent disaster relief in the future, both for lives and livelihoods. Our analysis finds that savings from reduced post-disaster spending could be many times the cost of upfront investment in building resilience and coping mechanisms.

Securing sources of financing is especially challenging against the background of the pandemic and rising global risk aversion. But by stepping up financial support for adaptation to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, development partners can make a tremendous difference in helping Africans put food on the table and recover from the pandemic.

Credit: International Monetary Fund

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Senior citizens supervise the construction of a community-run tree nursery and collective farm in Alangalang of Philippine’s Eastern Visayas region. Courtesy: Divisoria Peatland Farmers Association/WEAVER

By Stella Paul
HYDERABAD, India , Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

In the Philippines, May has long been a month of joy when farmers harvest their rice crop and celebrate the Pahiyas harvest festival. But this year, the mood was somber. The food production and supply system also affected, thanks to the coronavirus lockdown, and the economy frozen. As a result, millions of Filipinos, especially senior citizens, are now looking at an uncertain future.

• The country reopened gradually on Jun. 1, with some businesses being allowed to open.

Vulnerable Elderly in a Pandemic

Currently, 8.2 million of the country’s 109 million people are in the 60 and above age group, with almost 5 percent of the population aged 65 years and above. However, according to projections made by the Commission of Population and Development, a government institution, the numbers are growing and by 2030 the Philippines will have an elderly population of above 7 percent, putting it alongside the ageing Asian countries of Japan, China and South Korea.

But the welfare of the elderly has been a matter of public concern in the Philippines.

The country’s Human Rights Commission says that at least 40 percent of senior citizens experience abuse of some kind. This includes verbal, physical and financial abuse, perpetrated mostly by their children and other family members.

The commission, however, admits that there is a dearth of credible research done on the issue. A 2017 presentation by the advocacy group Coalition of Services of the Elderly also mentions that elderly Filipinos often become “the subject of discrimination, ridicule and even abuse. Some consider them merely as objects of charity and not individuals with inherent, equal and universal rights as other members of the society”.

An urban slum in Manila, Philippines. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerabilities of the urban poor, especially senior citizens. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

As part of its current work in Asia, the Asian Population and Development Association is looking primarily into the issue of the advanced ageing of Asian societies.

It’s policy brief on Ageing in Asia acknowledges that “policy responses to population ageing inherently involve questions of values, any responses require both the active involvement of parliamentarians and the creation of platforms for public discussions on these issues”.

Indeed, the abuse of senior citizens has prompted lawmakers in the Philippines to propose a special law to protect them. The “Anti-Elder Abuse Act,” was introduced to parliament last January and proposes to fine and penalise those who abuse senior citizens physically, psychologically, financially or sexually.

The proposed law also recognises senior citizens as a vulnerable sector who should receive a PhP 5,000 to PhP 8,000 (between $100 to $160) in cash assistance. It was approved by the country’s House of Representatives in February but is still to be formally passed into law. 

But in the meantime, the lockdown and subsequent restrictions put into place to fight the COVID-19 pandemic increased the vulnerabilities of the elderly. Local media regularly reported on senior Filipinos suffering from a lack of food and medicine as they remained indoors.

Risa Hontiveros, the Philippines first socialist woman senator and one of the country’s youngest lawmakers, has been a fierce advocate for senior citizen’s rights and protection. Hontiveros tells IPS that the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the vulnerabilities of the Filipino elderly, particularly the poor.

“Since the government imposed what it calls the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) under which people are prohibited from leaving their houses except for frontliners and other essential personnel, poor senior citizens who still work, many in the informal sector, have been deprived of their main source of livelihood. They are left with very little choice but to rely on local government food packages that are simply not enough, and in many cases, inconsistent in their distribution,” Hontiveros says.

Fighting Curbs on Working Elderly

The lockdown in the Philippines started on Mar. 8 and and by the end of April the government had announced people over 60 and younger than 20 would be forbidden from leaving their homes even after “enhanced community quarantine” measures were lifted in early May. 

It drew massive protests from senior citizens as an overwhelming majority of them (over 6 million) were still in active jobs. The country currently has a workforce of 45 million.

The regulation was based on the number of COVID-19 patients and casualties aged 60 and above, and initial cases that showed transmission occurred mainly among the elderly who generally have weaker immune systems.

An elderly pedicab driver in Manila. The elderly, especially from poor communities, continue to face multiple vulnerabilities and sustainability challenges in the Philippines, which have increased due to the COVID19 pandemic. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

But seniors citizens argued that not many of them are sickly or weak and those who were still earning, have to support their families financially.

To put a blanket curb on their mobility served to push them towards acute financial struggle and insecurities.

Finally, in May, the government allowed senior citizen who are part of the formal workforce to return to work. The stay-home order for those outside of the organised job sector, however, still remains valid and continues to be opposed by senior citizens who have taken social media to voice their anger.

According to members of one such group on Facebook “Seniors sa Panahon ng COVID”, the government’s decisions are only hurting the already vulnerable seniors further.

“It only goes to show that our voices are still not being heard by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) ) and we will remain in ISOLATION until full quarantine is lifted and by approximating it, it might last until somewhere next year. That is too much already for us to be imprisoned in our homes,” Virgilio Dedeles, one of the group members, says.  

Missing Essentials

For poor senior citizens, locked in their homes and dependent on aid, this means continued uncertainty and vulnerability.

76-year-old Lola Rosita of Malabon city says that since the lockdown began, the government has provided relief goods twice, but it’s still not enough. “We really need medicines to treat our current health conditions, hygiene kits, and face masks but we can’t buy them,” Rosita tells IPS.

The struggles of seniors living with disabilities is even greater.

Lola Paz, 71, from Bagong Silangan in Quezon city has a leg impairment due to avascular necrosis. She says that the government relief works are inadequate and lacking transparency.

“Based on my observation, the government doesn’t make any considerations to older persons. They know that older persons are at risk but we are ignored, especially as we face all these difficulties. We, [senior citizens] should be one of the priorities,” she tells IPS.

Hontiveros also agrees. 

However, the unclear guidelines and their actual implementation have caused much confusion in communities.

Quarantine guidelines failed to consider elderly couples and the elderly living alone, making access to food and other basic commodities difficult.

“My office, in partnership with the Coalition of Services of the Elderly and other senior citizens’ organisation launched a relief mission that provided immuno-packs containing masks, milk, vitamins, rice and other food items,” Hontiveros says.

Mobilising for Food Security

But in some provinces, senior citizens are using innovative ways such as diverse use of land and community farming to save off insecurities.

71-year-old Lola (Grandma) Anita lives in Alangalang, a town in the country’s second-largest peatland — the Leyte Sab-e Basin.

But she is not retired. These days Anita spends hours supervising a plant nursery that is part of a community initiative led by senior citizens to ensure food security for all through environmental conservation.

The nursery is run by Divisoria Peatland Farmers Association (DPFA), a collective that has joined hands with local government to restore the peatlands endangered by indiscriminate agricultural activities, deforestation, land degradation and occasional forest fire.

The restoration of the peatland – originally an initiative of the ASEAN Peatland Forest Project – aims to replant areas to suitable crops for local people and restore the natural, indigenous vegetation in some areas.

In the nursery, Anita is joined by several other senior citizens who are collectively growing plants and vegetables that are indigenous to their province and which can help restore the peatland eco-system.

Since the COVID-19 crisis began, farmers have not able to market their produce due to travel restrictions.

But with their collective subsistence farming, these senior citizens are not just restoring the peatland eco-system, but are sustaining their community, checking potential food loss while doing this sustainably.

The collective nursery is part of a larger plan, explains Paulia Lawsin Naira, founder of a local NGO called WEAVER, which works closely with the peatland restorers by mobilising and training them.

“Each of the plants grown here has multiple uses and can open up more livelihood opportunities for the locals. For example, Lanipao is used both for fuel wood and house construction and Ticog grass is used for handicrafts,” Lawsin tells IPS.

For Anita, being able to sustain their community while doing this sustainably is the need of the hour.

“COVID-19 has affected us [senior citizens] so much. The nursery helps me stay productive and also earn by making meaningful contributions to our environment,” she tells IPS.

 

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

Another episode of the spectacular show that could be called The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Saga of the Trump Presidency, scripted and acted by Trump himself, took place on 1st of June.

As U.S. cities were scenes of demonstrations and looting, President Trump declared himself to be ”the president of law and order” and said he was going to dispatch ”thousands and thousands” of law enforcement personell to Washington, to stop the ”destruction of property”. Meanwhile, tear gas, rubber bullets, shields and horses were used to empty the Lafayette Park in front of the White House from demonstrators. When the coast was clear it was time for the President´s photo-op. With a solemn expression Donald J. Trump walked across the park, between rows of police officers in full riot gear. He positioned himself in front of the boarded-up St. John’s Church. The President was handed a bible, which he raised, pointed to and said ”A Bible”. With a grave face he remained silent for a moment, before continuing: ”We have a great country. That’s my thoughts. Greatest country in the world. We will make it greater. We will make it even greater. It won’t take long. It’s not going to take long. You see what’s going on. You see it coming back.” That was all – bad play-acting, nothing more. No substantial message, no mentioning of the fact that the riots were the result of failed social justice, unequal distribution of wealth and benefits, insufficient and inadequate education, health services and housing, and endemic racism that the richest nation on the planet has been unable to tackle and which have become worse during the inept and reckless Trump administration.

To use church and bible as props is just another example of the Society of Spectacle that the former TV show host is trying to promote while he as U.S. President is serving greed and egocentrism instead of trying to bolster a decent living standard for his compatriots and address the greatest threat to humankind – the collapse of our natural habitat. I doubt if Trump ever read much, or anything at all, in the bible. If he began doing so he would already after the first page find that humans were chosen to ”rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:28). A task that cannot be compatible with the extinction of the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and every living creature moving on ground. Whatever Trump intended by his bible waiving it could not have been to convey a message to take care of human lives and nature. Donald Trump, self-proclaimed upholder of Christan faith, is among other things a great supporter of plastic, a product that after having been popular for eighty years now is threatening to choke the world to death.

In 1869, a New York firm offered USD 10,000 to anyone who could find a substitute for ivory. Winner was a certain John Wesley Hyatt, who for the first time in human history invented a material unconstrained by the limits of nature, i.e. it could be manufactured without materials like wood, metal, stone, bone, tusk, and horn. Synthetic polymers were produced through a chemical process based on petrolium as the essential raw material. Plastic could imitate several natural substances and be crafted into a wide variety of shapes. It was improved by several chemists, among them some Nobel Prize winners, and was during the last century marketed as ”the material of a thousand uses”. However, the plastics´ spread all over the world did not begin in earnest until World War II, when the U.S. industry came to consider an increased production of plastic just as important to victory as military success. After the end of the war, production of plastic continued unabated. Considered to be an inexpensive, safe and clean substance, plastic eventually became the symbol of a future of abundant material wealth, finally liberated from the limitations that nature for thousands of years had imposed on human ingenuity. However, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to processes of natural degradation and they remain as harmful waste for thousands of years.

Approximately, 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide each year, 10 percent is recycled and 12 percent burned, while at least five million metric tonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans. More than 90 percent of all seabirds contain plastic in their organism and it is estimated that by 2050 it will by weight be more plastic than fish in the oceans.

Compounds used to manufacture plastics are released into air and water and thus enter all organic life, not the least humans. Plastic harms the human endocrine system – phthalates, bisphenol A (BRA), a component used in several plastics, imitates the female hormone estrogen and cause damage to thyroid hormones, which play a vital role in the metabolism, growth and development of the human body. Other chemicals used in the production of plastics cause skin inflammatory diseases and asthma. Children, as well as women in their reproduction age, are most at risk of having their immune- and reproductive systems damaged by hormone-disrupting chemicals used in plastics and regularly released into the environment. Recent studies have also found a link between phthalates and a rise in autism among children.

Unfortunately, plastic production and plastic waste is just one example of our mindless and ruthless destruction of earth’s precious resources. President Trump’s bible waiving in support of his political agenda is both pathetic and offensive. If religion is going to be a useful tool for the salvation of mankind we ought to emphasize compassion and cooperation inherent in the message of several religions, instead of the hate, violence and contempt for others preached by fanatics in support of their own twisted religious ideas. If we were in need of a global faith it ought to be in the form of a religious conviction fomenting support to the protection of the natural resources the entire creation depends upon.

Instead of waiving the bible, and any other scriptures, let us implement what is best for all of us and not follow a leader like Trump who pays homage to greed and profit at the expense of nature. When he in August last year inaugurated a huge plastic producing plant in Pennsylvania, Trump stated that ”elimination of fossil fuels” would not create any new jobs and invited ”the Pennsylvanians” to admire ”his” initiative to bring jobs to ailing areas and consider this to be a valid reason to vote for his re-election as the U.S. president. When asked if it was wise to spend so much money and effort on producing such a harmful product as plastic, Trump did true to form blame China: ”Well, we have a tremendous plastics [sic] coming over from Asia, from China, and various others [sic], It’s not our plastic that’s floating over in the ocean […] No, plastics are fine, but you have to know what to do with them.”

As of May 2020 the Trump administration has rolled back 64 environmental rules and regulations, and an additional 34 rollbacks are in progress. Trump has been a stout supporter of coal and oil production and his administration supports energy development on federal land, including gas and oil drilling in national parks, as well as in nearly all U.S. waters, the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas leasing ever proposed. The Trump administration has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, replaced the Clean Power Plan with something called Affordable Clean Energy Rule that does not cap emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s pollution-control policies have been rewritten, something that in particular benefits the plastic industry, since it eases control of its waste management. Furthermore, the Trump administration has repealed the nation’s Clean Water Rule and is currently proposing significant cuts in funding and changes in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. When he waves his unread bible, Trump probably thinks it might make voters conclude he is God’s chosen candidate. However, it is actually hard to believe if God intended humans to be ”rulers of the earth” he expected that such a rule would contribute to the destruction of our habitat.

Unlike Trump, as a true God´s servant, Pope Francis in his encyclica Laudato si, Praise Be to You, stated that we currently experience a relentless exploitation and destruction of the environment, caused by apathy, the reckless pursuit of profits, excessive faith in technology and political short-sightedness, and declared: ”Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.” A message that probably would not suite Donald J. Trump while he for political reasons tries to make use of the bible.

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

 

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The post The Bible, Donald Trump and Plastic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

"I love L.A. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful.
Everybody's plastic – but I love plastic. I want to be plastic."
   &nbsp         &nbsp         &nbsp                                                     Andy Warhol
 

The post The Bible, Donald Trump and Plastic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN Women

By Lan Mercado, Mohammad Naciri, and Yamini Mishra
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 5 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has brought the world to a halt. Nations, businesses, and schools have closed, and billions are confined to their homes. Yet millions of care workers step out daily to keep the lights on and support those in need.

The majority of them are women – nurses, community health workers, sanitation workers, and others. They earn little and are grossly undervalued despite keeping our society and economy running.

Other forms of care – looking after families, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water aren’t paid at all. This ‘invisible’ work contributes over US$10.8 trillion a year to the global economy, and before COVID-19, women and girls provided 12.5 billion hours of free care work every day.

On average, women spend over 4 hours for every hour men spend on care work in Asia and the Pacific – over 4 times as much. Women spend nearly 11 times in Cambodia and Pakistan, 10 times in India, and 3 times in Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Yet, when Asia launched Covid-19 responses and stimulus packages, women and care work’s amiss. This callous neglect is a result of prioritizing the economy above everything else, compounded by social norms that undervalue care work and leave the burden to women and girls.

Care work, with no pay, has deprived women and girls of education, skill development, and gainful employment. It has left women with precarious jobs, insecure incomes, and no social safety. The pandemic has multiplied the load on care systems, already depleted and unfair, falling mostly on women.

Lockdowns have increased child and elderly care for women.

With schools shut in 188 countries,1.5 billion students and over 63 million primary teachers are confined to their homes. Social gender norms have left women and girls spending more time caring and providing educational support to children.

Older people are at greater risk to COVID-19, and in Asia, where elderly often live with their children, women will shoulder the responsibility for looking after them.

Times of uncertainty and disease worsens inequalities for women.

By default, women are more likely to be in poorly paid jobs at the lowest ends of value chains without a chance at education or building skills. With a looming global depression, they are likely to be the first fired and last re-hired.

There’s a high risk of losing fragile yet meaningful gains made in formal workforces – limiting women’s ability to support themselves and families, especially for female-headed households.

80 percent of world’s domestic workers are women. Uncertainty looms for many domestic workers who travel internationally from the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and elsewhere.

Women send US$300 billion home yearly, half of total global remittances. Migrant women losing jobs due to restrictions will hit their families back home.

As caregivers, women face higher risks from Covid-19.

Globally, 70% of poorly paid health care workers are women – in frontlines – often without training or proper safety equipment. In China’s Hubei province, 90% of health workers are women.

Each ASHA community health worker from India’s Panjab visits at least 25 homes a day to screen suspected patients; majority without safety equipment, training, and testing, and COVID-19 cases are rising among them.

Within homes too, women hold the main responsibility of care for patients discharged from hospitals or placed in quarantine at home.

Women and girls, locked-down in their homes, are facing escalating domestic violence – likely stuck with their abusers. Life-saving support to survivors from front-line services, such as heath, police, and social welfare may be slow or at a halt altogether as they are overburdened.

We need to act now to protect women and girls and recognize care work that is sustaining us through this crisis:

• Asia must come together to save lives of all including caregivers from COVID -19. The governments must invest in information, training, and safety equipment. All caregivers – whether at homes or hospitals – need access to testing, treatment, and health care. When a vaccine or treatment is available, it must be accessible and affordable to all including women and girls living in poverty.
• Care workers including unpaid carers must have social protection. Employers -government or business – must support childcare for all who need it. Cash aid to those with livelihoods hit must be enough for a decent living – especially for those kept away from jobs due to care burdens. International lenders and governments must make social protection a priority in stimulus packages.
• Businesses must respect human rights and be responsible for workers. While at work, all workers must have safety equipment to protect themselves. Flexible working hours, paid leave, and work from home will ease the extra burdens pandemic has created – especially for the care workers.

Looking beyond, as we build anew our broken economies and societies, we must reduce, redistribute, and represent care work once and for all:

• ASEAN, SAARC, and governments need inclusive Regional Action Groups to develop regional and national policies to recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid and underpaid care work. These policies must be backed up by resource and infrastructure investment to create secure and decent care work opportunities.
• We must professionalize care work and create women’s social enterprises to help care workers transition to decent work through training, education, and certification.

Finally, we must promote healthier social norms on care work, share care work equally, mobilize public support, and call for flexible work arrangements to balance work and family commitments.

“Women’s Unpaid and Underpaid Work in the Times of Covid-19: Move towards a new care-compact to rebuild a gender equal Asia,” an online brief/blog by the three agencies detailing issues and recommendation in depth will be made available on the 1st of June at:

• https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2020/06/womens-unpaid-and-underpaid-work-in-the-times-of-covid-19
• https://asia.oxfam.org/latest/blogs/womens-unpaid-and-underpaid-work-times-covid-19

The post Covid-19: Caring for Care Workers appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Lan Mercado is the Regional Director for Oxfam in Asia; Mohammad Naciri is the Regional Director for UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; Yamini Mishra is the Director, Global Issues Programme for Amnesty International --- International Secretariat.

The post Covid-19: Caring for Care Workers appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Unsplash / Gabriel Benois

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

Maliha Masud (25), was promised an affluent life and opportunities for higher education. A bright student studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, she wanted to complete her studies and become someone her parents would be proud of. She was promised an opportunity to get her Master’s degree from a good university in the United States but, two years later, was left battered and wounded at the doorstep of a shelter.

Maliha was 20 years old when she married an immigrant living in the United States, who was completing his Master’s at a renowned university. A marriage arranged by a “reputable marriage medium,” she was promised the freedom to study and work after the nuptials. For the dowry, her father sold the family’s only property, bore all expenses for the wedding ceremony, and even bought the entire family plane tickets to travel to the United States.

“I was tricked,” Maliha told IPS. “They robbed me and my parents. My marriage only lasted two years and it was the worst two years of my life. As soon as we arrived in the US, they took my passport, wedding jewelry, and all my student documents. I was barred from leaving the house and the only way I could communicate with my parents was on a landline – and I was only allowed to speak when one of my in-laws’ was present in the room. I was trapped.

“My ex-husband had a love affair with a woman here before marrying me. My in-laws tried to make him end it by getting him married to me against his will. They threatened me, telling me that I was nothing but a refugee, here, and after they found me trying to call the police, they burned all my documents.”

Maliha was beaten and left at the gates of a local shelter in California. After months of treatment, she recuperated. She had no papers to prove her identity and her passport, certificates, along with all her belongings, had been destroyed. With the help of community outreach and the government, she could finally establish her identity and retrieve whatever was left at her in-law’s house. Her husband was taken into custody, was tried for battery and now has a permanent criminal record for domestic violence.

After healing with therapy and trauma assistance, Maliha moved to the East Coast. A New York based NGO named SAFEST (South Asian Fund for Education, Scholarship & Training, Inc) supported her with shelter and helped her to complete her studies. Four years later, she was self-sufficient and became actively involved in helping other women manage trauma and in raising awareness within the immigrant community.

According to the New York Times, the number of homicides by intimate partners in the US rose to 2,237 in 2017. This was a 19 percent increase from the 1,875 killed in 2014. The majority of these victims were women. Women often do not report the abuse to police, believing the process is futile.

Credit: Unsplash / Donald Martinez

According to a survey by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), women who had demonstrated a credible fear of being deported to their native country, 40 percent said they experienced sexual assaults, rape, physical attacks, and threats. Yet, they did not report to the police.

Asked by IPS about the top most priorities for ensuring safety for newly arriving immigrants, Mahila says that the main thing she can emphasize on is access to information: “When a girl gets married and comes to the US, she naturally becomes dependent on her husband and in-laws. I could speak English and could reach out for help. But I felt overwhelmed with fear, with the threat of abandonment, and I had no relatives or ties here.”

Mazeda A. Uddin who runs SAFEST in New York, focuses mostly on the immigrant community from South Asia. She has helped more than 120 women survive extreme domestic violence. She also helps men and the LGBTQ community in terms of rehabilitation and job readiness.

Speaking with IPS, Mazeda said: “I get calls not only from New York state, but also from other states, from girls who are desperate for help, but do not have enough courage to call the police or speak up. Most of the cases we deal with are immigrant women who came to this country by marriage and they are denied a normal life or opportunity to integrate. It is common to see isolation as a tactic to keep them indoors and have documents taken away. Also, threats of deportation, threats of harming relatives back home, and using children as a means to inflict more harm are very common for the Asian demographic.”

She stated that most cases her organization deals with are from India, Bangladesh, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The victims are mostly between 18 and 35 years old, and come to the US under spousal visas and tourist visas. Many, however, live as undocumented people.

According to the Migration Data Portal, female migrants face stronger discrimination and are more vulnerable to mistreatment than male migrants. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) no. 5 aims to achieve gender equality and to empower all women and girls. Over the past 25 years, there has been some progress in reforming laws towards improving gender equality, but discriminatory laws and gaps in legal protection persist in many countries.

Mazeda explains that if women are subjected to gender-based violence, they may qualify for protection through the US asylum program. If a man or a woman declares themselves belonging to the LGBTQ community and can show proof of hostility in their own countries, they too can receive asylum in the US.

SAFEST has partnerships with various organizations that cater to various demographics and minority communities and provide extensive mental, financial, and emotional support for them. Erasing the language barrier by providing linguistic training is especially important in combatting domestic violence. Mazeda sees this as a mandatory requirement. Often, women are crippled by the inability to communicate and remain homebound – a condition exploited by oppressors.

Under the Violence Against Women Act, several immigrants and non-immigrant visa categories are available for victims of partner violence, sexual assault, rape, or human trafficking. Spouses of US citizens or lawful permanent residents (i.e. green-card holders) may be eligible for permanent residence on the basis of that abuse, allowing victims to obtain lawful status without their abuser being notified.

Maliha’s case, and those encountered by Mazeda, show just how impactful the information and knowledge gap can be on the lives of the vulnerable arriving in the United States. Without the ability to properly communicate, or understand the new paradigm of law they are going to be living under, many abuse victims fall through the cracks into lives of indignity. As much as we believe in the depth of our civility, we need community-based, grass-roots efforts, to provide assistance to those in need.

The post Migrant Women Exploited by Those They Trust appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Asif Zaman
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

Lockdowns have been the main measures to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 infections. But lockdowns typically incur huge economic costs, distributed unevenly in economies and societies. In fact, some governments acknowledged that they were choosing ‘life over economy’.

‘Life vs. Economy’: A false dichotomy
As lockdowns have been repeatedly extended arguing that economy can be revived but not the dead, it has become increasingly clear that ‘lives and livelihoods’ are intrinsically intertwined. The longer the lockdowns, higher is the risk of hunger and hence death.

Asif Zaman

Lockdowns can set back progress and people’s welfare irreversibly, especially for the vulnerable. Most ‘casual’ labourers, petty businesses and others in the ‘informal’ economy find it especially difficult to survive extended lockdowns.

With millions already jobless, the International Labour Organization (ILO) warns that nearly half of global workforce are at risk of losing livelihoods. The United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) estimates that a 20% income or consumption contraction could increase poverty levels by 420–580 million. It is estimated that 9 out of every 10 students in the world have been disrupted.

Therefore, many countries, especially developing ones, are under increasing pressure to re-start their economies.

Re-starting the economy: ‘To be or not to be’
The countries that are easing lockdown restrictions are also seeing spikes in the COVID-19 infections. South Korea re-tightened lockdown restrictions after spike in cases. Iran reopened in April to save the economy, but within a month designated Tehran and eight provinces as “red zones”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and reputed medical journal, The Lancet, warned against scaling back lockdown restrictions too quickly.

Countries now need to find an optimal manner of re-starting the economy. However, the timing and pace of relaxing restrictions will depend, among others, on what the countries have done during the lockdown period, e.g., increase supply of personal protective equipment (PPEs), intensive care beds (ICUs), creating mass awareness about precautionary measures, etc.

Countries also need to maintain law and order and a planned process of opening the economy is required. So, what should this planned process look like? What will the optimal approach be based on?

Here we suggest 3S – Smart, Science-based and Sectoral – solutions

Smart Solutions
Epidemiologists talk of “smart containment” that all can practise. By ‘smart’ we mean effective but cheap; innovative but easy-to-use solutions to minimize the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace. This requires cross-fertilization of ideas from different disciplines: public health experts, clinicians, industrial-organizational psychologists, economists, architects, and engineers. Lessons from the best practices of the globe need to be compiled, customized and tested.

One of the main reasons why countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam have coped better than others is that they learnt difficult lessons after the SARS epidemic of 2002-04. The same can be said about Ghana, Senegal and some other African countries which experienced the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak .

Good primary-health systems can devise and disseminate sensible adaptations as seen in Vietnam and the Indian state of Kerala. Rwanda and the Indian state of Karnataka installed foot-operated handwashing stations at busy places such as bus depots and railway stations. Such facilities should be installed in slums and work places. Local leaders must play an active role to spread health messages, regarding face-masks, and isolation of suspected.

Science Based Solutions
Science means data. Armed with data, governments can continuously refine their policies. Up to date data on both health and socio-economic outcomes will support evidence-based decision-making. However, low statistical capacity needs to be addressed urgently. The solutions for workplace safety must have solid scientific foundation – risk assessment of a workplace and strategies for mitigation must be scientific.

To limit the risk requires an epidemiological approach that focuses on the places and people most likely to spread the disease. Thus, greater focus has to be on high-risk urban slums, prisons and refugee camps where people live in congested quarters with limited facilities for good hygiene practices. For example, architects and urban planners are experimenting with innovative solutions in Dhaka.

Tracing, testing, isolating and treating have to be an integral part. But mass testing is expensive, and the Vietnam experience of targeted approach coupled with contact tracing and selective quarantine seems more suitable for poor countries.

Sectoral Solutions
Solutions for the Garments Industry, Banking Sector, Construction Sector, etc. need to be tailored based on sectoral and site-specific risk assessments. Then, customized protocols for the various sectors need to be developed so that these sectors can start operating by minimizing the risk of contagion.

For example, industrial engineers can redesign the workplace of RMG industries to ensure adequate physical distancing with little changes. The workers’ flow or movement needs to be properly designed and monitored. There should be protocols during entry to the factory and during their stay. Special equipment like automatic/foot operated hand washing stands or disinfection chambers using food grade disinfectants can to be installed at the gate of each floor.

The service sector requires customer/client flow solutions. These solutions ensure customer/client satisfaction and safety of both customer/client and service provider.

The construction industry requires site management protocols such as: site entry/egress procedures, limiting number of workers on site, maintaining worker hygiene, delineating risk zones, etc. The construction project schedule needs to be designed in a way so that workers can work in parallel avoiding high labour-intensive functions.

All sectors need to have customized protocols for COVID-19 cases: procedures for detecting symptoms, isolating infected staff and arranging hospitalization if needed. Psychological counselling is required to elevate worker morale.

Government stimulus packages can be tied to the compliance of the guidelines for workplace safety. Adoption of new risk minimizing technology can also be subsidized through the stimulus package. However, building awareness among entrepreneurs is also critical in successful implementation of such guidelines.

This is a mammoth task to prepare sector-wise customized protocols. These protocols have to be approved by appropriate regulatory bodies. Sectoral experts can play a key role in helping government develop these guidelines. Signs that the virus may be weakening also gives us hope.

Dr. Asif M. Zaman, Environmental Engineer, MD Esolve Intl Ltd. He also teaches at the North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh (asif@esolveint.com)

The post Shedding Some Light at the End of the Covid-19 Tunnel: Plotting a Way Forward appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: KMP

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

Landless farmers who produce rice for the landlords of big “haciendas” can’t get more than a little pocket money from their harsh work—not enough to provide diverse and healthy food for their families. Seasonal workers on sugar-cane plantations know that they can count on only six months of earnings. When summer arrives, those whose irrigation facilities have been destroyed by typhoons, or those who never had any, struggle while waiting for the rain.

That was the snapshot of agriculture in the Philippines when the COVID-19 outbreak hit the country. And it still is. The colonial past shaped a farming sector dominated by large export-oriented monocrop plantations; large plots devoted to agribusinesses, industrial plants, or housing subdivisions; and, still, 7 out of 10 farmers with no land, regardless of decades of attempts to enforce land reform.

“The agriculture in the Philippines is not actually ready for any pandemic,” said Kathryn Manga, community development worker and project officer at Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, KMP, the Peasant Movement of the Philippines, founded in 1985 and supported by the Agroecology Fund. It has more than two million members, representing landless peasants, farmworkers, peasant women, and young farmers.

“Even before COVID, the agriculture in the Philippines was not sufficient to support its people… There was already a crisis, with prices of commodities, even vegetables and rice, that have gone up,” she told Degrees of Latitude.

Farmers have never stopped advocating and putting their lives at risk for “genuine land reform” as a prerequisite for the development of an agricultural model able to ensure food security: “The monocrop practice has really destroyed the ecosystems, the natural resources of our country. We would want Filipino farmers to enjoy a system where they would be able to decide what type of crops to plant. Something they can think of eating with their family,” Manga said.

What farmers grow is now mostly intended for sale, and diversity of production is rare. Manga told the story of those who cultivate rice, one of the most important staple commodities of the country: “When they sell their palay – the palay is the rice – for a low price, they go home with the little money they get … After selling their palay to the landlord … they have to go [back] to the market to buy rice.” Nothing remains for self-consumption because all the rice goes to pay land rents or inputs needed for production.

Farmers in the lockdown

Credit: KMP

COVID-19 containment measures added “chaos” to an already fragile situation, according to Manga. The military and authorities controlled the movement of farmers, preventing them from tending farms and selling their produce. Volunteers who took part in relief operations to bring food to the most vulnerable were detained and charged with the accusation of violating the quarantine, six of them from KMP. However, small-scale agriculture is still proving its resilience in this emergency.

Lockdown “has really been very militaristic,” Manga said. “Check-points were placed in many different regions, [and] also in Metro Manila. … People were just told to stay at home. Without a job, they were not able to eat. For farmers it is very difficult … There’s really no work from home for them.”

Access to food has been an issue not only for rural poor but also for urban communities: “If the Philippines’ government will not really support agriculture, it will be difficult to have food security especially in urban areas, to access good and low-price vegetables in Metro Manila,” she said.

However, networks of farmers have been able to mobilize food even during the lockdown. From Bulacan—50 km north of Manila, where a past programme of KMP helped farmers to occupy unused land—come the vegetables that are feeding the most vulnerable in the city. “These are mostly for urban poor communities, for homeless people, for workers who are not able to go home to their provinces. It started with a Church organization that has a mobile kitchen and looked for a community of farmers who were producing vegetables.”

KNP, whose member organizations have been able to deliver ten thousand kilos of vegetables in the first month of operations, has also launched an online food shop whose profits support their relief activity.

Land, agroecology for resilience

Credit: KMP

At the root of insecurity, however, is a century-long agricultural system based on extensive farming. It has been designed based on the export of high-value commodities like sugar, pineapple, and banana, as well as on production of rice.

Government, according to farmers organizations, has failed to address the crucial question of land distribution and is not providing the support that farmers need for production, including self-production of seeds or irrigation. “There is no production support for the Filipino farmers. There’s an irrigation bill that was passed two years ago, but until now it has not been given a budget by the government,” Manga said.

Farmers plant on land they rent and what they get is barely enough to pay for it. “They do not have the certificate of ownership.” That’s the point, she stressed. “[If] most of their produce has to be as payment, they won’t have extra for their own [consumption].”

“If you have a small plot that you can till, if you can grow a garden with vegetables, it would be easy. Many people [now live on what they] call ‘survival crops,’ crops that they do not really plant regularly, but they find around—root crops or vegetables which grow wild”.

Ownership of land means farmers can choose what to grow for themselves and for their communities in a model of agriculture based on diversification and sustainability. The agroecological model “will bring healthy food to Philippinos and the farmers,” Manga said.

Filipino farmers have practised agroecology for a long time, but monocrop and GMOs planting, according to Manga, has led to a decreased biodiversity and increased dependency on external inputs, including chemicals. Farmers are now trying to replant local seed varieties and are looking for diversification in the farm: “Those who are practising diversified farming still have rice, [but also] vegetables, root crops, fruit trees, and medicinal plants … which is also food for them. They have some animals ….”, she said.

Access to the market remains a major bottleneck: “Many of our farmers still need to go through the middlemen who buy the products at the very low price and then they transport to the nearby markets, in Metro Manila or in the region,” Manga explained. Middlemen, for instance, can pay 16 pesos for squash that will be sold on the market for 50 to 60 pesos each. When KMP offered to buy some farmers’ produce at a higher price, they expressed great concern: “It will make the middlemen angry and many of them will not go back to us,” they said. KMP is trying to overcome the problem by working with local organizations instead of individual farmers.

However, in the long-term, food security is a matter of rights: “The State should recognize the right to food, the right to produce food, the right to till the land, and to have control of the land that farmers have been tilling for generations. Farmers have the right to choose their own production system,” Manga said.

This article was first published by Degrees of Latitude

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By El Hassan bin Talal
GENEVA, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

In these difficult times for the Palestinian people and for justice, the Government of Israel is proposing to add further to the turmoil by unilaterally absorbing large swathes of the Palestinian West Bank of the Jordan River. It might therefore be fitting to remind the world of the chronology of the events leading up to the creation of the State of Israel in May 1948.

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal

In 1947, the UN had passed Resolution 181, which clearly divided Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Israeli. Sadly, Israel—almost immediately after coming into being—adopted a policy of intimidation aimed at the civilian population of those areas allocated to Palestine, resulting in the Nakba, the catastrophe which led to the fleeing of the inhabitants of those areas to safe haven in neighbouring countries, and adding further to Palestinian diaspora.

As a consequence of the Israeli aggression, the Palestinian people asked Jordan to intervene to protect and ensure their territory. The Arab Legion, largely commanded by British officers, secured East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Israeli occupation. This led to the Rhodes General Armistice of April 1949.

Subsequently, at the Jericho meeting in 1950, Palestinian notables requested the “Constitutional Union” of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem. The agreement was that this should prevail until such time as a Palestinian state could come to fruition, without prejudice to the inherent Palestinian right to Self-Determination.

It would be useful to recall that The Partition Plan Resolution of the General Assembly of 1947, upon which Israel relied for its declaration of statehood on the 14th of May 1948, was meaningless unless Israel accepted the UN Charter under which the territory and people of Palestine were already subject to the legal imprint of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Mandate for Palestine 1922, and the UN Charter of 1945.

The Charter expressly included “the principle of self-determination of peoples”. Israel’s attitude to the UN Charter is consistently selective, invoking what assists its case, and ignoring what destroys it.

In November 1947, my grandfather King Abdullah I wrote in an article in the American Magazine: “We Arabs ask no favours. We ask only that you know the full truth, not half of it. We ask only that when you judge the Palestine question, you put yourself in our place.”

The full article can be found on my late brother King Hussein’s website: http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/kabd_eng.html.

These words were written on the eve of the 53rd anniversary of the 1967 war.

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal served as Crown Prince of Jordan from 1965-1999 alongside his brother, the late King Hussein of Jordan.

 

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By Cecilia Russell
MILAN, Italy, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inherent fragility of food systems, Marta Antonelli told an international video conference organised by the Barilla Center for Food Nutrition (BCFN).

However, she said, it also offered an opportunity to reset the way food is produced, distributed and consumed.

The pandemic disrupted the food system, triggering food insecurity and resulted in sharp increases in the cost of food – up to 10 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Jobs were lost, children who received one meal a day at school lost access to this source of nutrition, and the pandemic would see an increase in the number of people who go hungry.

Antonelli, who is BCFN’s head of research, said the pandemic had focused global attention on the importance of nutrition. With one in three adults in developed and developing countries overweight or obese with their share of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes created a community vulnerable to the disease.

Antonelli said the launch of BCFN’s 10-point strategy on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, aimed to create a global dialogue of scientists, businesses, NGOs, civil society about the organisation’s actionable strategy to enable eaters – people – to make healthy and sustainable choices easily.

The wide-ranging 10-point strategy includes creating international best practise for creating healthy food systems – while respecting food preferences and culture, cut down on food loss and waste on farms, kitchens and restaurants, involve business to focus on health and sustainability.

It also includes a call to incentivise technological and digital innovation in food and agricultural information, improving seed security and building and education to empower eaters to make sustainable and healthy food choices.

Speaker after speaker highlighted nutrition and food impact on the COVID-19 pandemic: from its genesis in bats to implications for those sickened by the virus.

“COVID-19 is providing unprecedented opportunities to create a resilient food system that is truly regenerative and restorative, healthier for people, and leaves no one behind. This is also essential to accelerate the transition towards the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are all directly or indirectly connected to food,” BCFN said in a statement.

Professor Riccardo Valentini of the University of Tuscia, RUDN University of Moscow said habitat destruction was crucial for understanding the genesis of the pandemic. COVID-19 was not China’s problem or the problem of any other one country. It needed to be addressed globally.

This reinforced the theme that there is only one health system: for humans, animals, plants and the environment.

At least two speakers addressed the issue of COVID-19 and nutrition – of food as medicine or how bad nutrition could jeopardise health.

Gabriele Riccardi, of the University of Naples Federico II, said middle- and high-income countries, with their mainly animal-based and refined carbohydrate diets, found it exposed people to the devastating effects the virus. COVID-19 adversely affected people with comorbidity associated with obesity like heart diseases.

It was significant Riccardi said, in the last ten years many countries, which had previously improved nutrition, had moved in the wrong direction. The consumption of fruit and vegetables declined, while the use of meat increased.

He called for a system which supported production that ensured availability and affordability of good nutritious food even in the most remote marketplaces.

Camillo Ricordi, from the University of Miami on the other hand, said early studies indicated that good nutrition, in particular, adequate consumption of vitamins D and C and Omega 3 enhanced the immune system and produced clear benefits in resistance to the disease and ability to decrease inflammation.

Barbara Buchner, of the Climate Policy Initiative said the pandemic was a wake-up call for all social and financial systems to be better prepared for a crisis. She said it was frightening that only 8 percent of public finance was currently channelled into sustainable land use and this was exaggerating the growing crisis of food security in many nations.

She said it was likely that $20 trillion would be spent in the next six to 18 months to stimulate economies as governments globally rollout plans and cash for economic stimulus and enhancing social safety nets.

“We have a window to rebuild our world for more inclusive, more resilient, more sustainable future,” Buchner said. It was essential financial solutions that can drive resources towards sustainable agriculture supply chain were found – for example, through public-private incubator initiatives such as the Global Innovation Lab for climate finance.

She concluded that global solidarity and leadership were critical for maximising the positive impact of the recovery on building a resilient food system that is healthy, healthier for the people, but also for the planet and that leaves no one behind.”

 

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Zekiya Louis (R) and Manuela Ramirez (L) handing out free water to protesters in Times Square, New York. Credit: James Reinl/IPS

By James Reinl
NEW YORK, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

The United States has been a story of broken dreams and broken glass this past week.

Once again, an unarmed black man died at the hands of a white police officer, with George Floyd being pinned to the ground under a lawman’s knee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as stunned passersby made cell-phone videos of the incident to post on social media.

Once again, local protests snowballed into nationwide rallies against police violence and racism that in some cases led to clashes, smashed windows, torched cars and looted stores — dashing hopes that America was making progress on race relations.

In New York City, Zekiya Louis, a 29-year-old beautician and entrepreneur, headed to Times Square to pass out free bottles of water at a Black Lives Matter protest aimed at prompting action from a Washington elite that has struggled with civil rights woes for decades.

“It’s becoming a problem now because nine out of ten times it’s black people who are the victims of police violence — and we’re tired of that,” Louis, who was born in the U.S. and has family in the Caribbean, told IPS. 

“I know that a lot of people are protesting and they’re angry and they’re breaking stuff. But you gotta understand we tried protesting peacefully, we tried holding hands and coming together, and what we got was more violence and tear gas.”

The U.S. has been convulsed by waves of protests and mayhem since Floyd, 46, died on May 25 in the state of Minnesota after police officer Derek Chauvin, 44, pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street.

In videos, Chauvin appeared unphased as Floyd repeatedly gasped and said he could not breath, while onlookers urged officers to release the detainee, who had been accused by a deli worker of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.

Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest were sacked soon after videos of the incident became a viral sensation and the latest example of police violence against an unarmed black man to send shockwaves across the U.S.

Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder and the other three former  officers — Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng — face counts of aiding and abetting murder.

The Floyd saga follows the high-profile cases of police killing unarmed black men, including  Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York, and others that also prompted waves of grief, demonstrations and soul-searching.

Within days, protests had spread from Minneapolis to dozens of cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Washington, some of which were accompanied with violence and looting. Police have made some 9,300 arrests. 

Protestors have been met with tear gas, flash grenades and, at times, excessive force by the authorities. Police have targeted journalists, including the arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez as he was broadcasting live. Officers have also been injured.

President Donald Trump expressed his “sorrow” at the “horrible thing” that ended Floyd’s life, but also courted controversy by threatening to use soldiers and warning via Twitter that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.

On Monday, Trump made headlines again, threatening to deploy the military on U.S. soil and posing for cameras while holding a bible in front of a damaged church shortly after police had used tear gas to disperse peaceful protesters from the scene.

On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, urged U.S. politicians to “condemn racism unequivocally” and “truly tackle inequalities” in a society in which whites are richer and healthier than blacks.

“The voices calling for an end to the killings of unarmed African Americans need to be heard,” Bachelet said in a statement.

“The voices calling for an end to police violence need to be heard. And the voices calling for an end to the endemic and structural racism that blights U.S. society need to be heard.” 

While many protesters demanded accountability for the officers involved in Floyd’s death, they also raised broader concerns about heavy-handed policing, systemic inequality between black and white Americans and the painful legacy of slavery.

At a briefing with journalists, veteran rights campaigner Rev Al Sharpton said that the Floyd case must lead to new federal laws, the BBC reported.

“If we come out of all this and do not have federal legislation where we can protect citizens from local policing … then all of this is drama to no end. Drama in the street must be geared to fundamental legal change,” said Sharpton. 

Back in Times Square, Manuela Ramirez, a 23 year-old Colombian student and waitress, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, called for big changes to how police officers perceive the citizens they are paid to protect and serve.

“I believe that there’s a lot of good cops and there’s a lot of bad cops killing people — and that’s what we shine the light on,” Ramirez told IPS. 

“It’s that mentality of these people who are just going to do bad things to us, and nobody should think like that.”

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WHO delivered medical supplies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Congo in April 2020. Credit: World Health Organization (WHO)

By Lawrence Surendra
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

In the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic, the much-anticipated 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) of the WHO concluded without any major controversies or disagreements.

The landmark WHA resolution to bring the world together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, co-sponsored by more than 130 countries, and adopted by consensus, called for the intensification of efforts to control the pandemic, and for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus.

Basically, a message that any vaccines produced should not be privatised by corporate capitalist greed.

Pandemics have been with us for a very long time. Medical science and public health focus on infectious diseases spanning the pre-antibiotic and post-antibiotic era, has tried to keep pace with the newer forms and zoonotic variations and shown us that reducing the emergence of a virus to a single source is futile.

The eminent flu epidemiologist, late Dr Louis Weinstein, commenting on the 1968 Hong Kong Flu epidemic that appeared simultaneously all over the world, observed that such epidemics do not spread from a single source. Humans have constantly battled with new infectious diseases.

Post COVID, anti-bacterial treatments for what are called ‘sick-car’ and ‘sick building’ syndromes are now flourishing. Though, however much we sanitise and keep our immediate environment clean, will that help in the fight against infections and infectious diseases?

Dr. Zinsser in , ‘Rats, Lice and History’, wrote in 1935, “ Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world … however secure and well-regulated civilized life may become, bacteria, protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes and bedbugs will always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when neglect, poverty, famine or war lets down the defences….

About the only genuine sporting proposition that remains unimpaired by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species is the war against these ferocious little fellow creatures which lurk in the dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects and waylay us in our food and drink and even in our love”.

His work was considered a classic with the NYTimes calling it, “one of the wisest and wittiest books that have come off the presses”.

Looking for the source of the viruses is a distraction in understanding the causes. The destruction of our natural environment, clearly, has been the major cause for the pandemics that humanity has faced.

COVID 19 forcefully brought this truth home; while forcing a lock down on the activities of humans, it allowed the natural world to breathe again.

Rene Dubos, the pioneer of Ecological Medicine, who was awarded a Pulitzer in 1969 for his classic work, ‘So Human an Animal: How We Are Shaped by Surroundings and Events’, brought to us long back the connection between the state of our natural environment and our pathologies.

Writing in the Scientific American (1955) an article titled, “Second Thoughts on the Germ Theory’, he wrote, “During the first phase of the germ theory the property of virulence was regarded as lying within the microbes themselves. Now virulence is coming to be thought of as ecological. Whether man lives in equilibrium with microbes or becomes their victim depend upon the circumstances under which he encounters them”.

He was the one who coined the expression, “think globally, act locally” which nowadays is used like a fashion statement, without knowing the origins or the deep philosophical significance Rene Dubos attached to an expression that he first coined. The current COVID world has forcefully shown the importance of “thinking globally and acting locally”.

Where do we go from here in managing this global public health crisis and repairing the relationship of humans to the planet and its sentient beings? The question ‘What now?” is posed as a query for action, for a road map, in the way, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation Report ‘What Now: Another Development ‘
posed it in 1975.

Another Development: Approaches and Strategies was launched in 1976, as an independent contribution to the Seventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Development and International Cooperation. With a print run of 100,000 copies in six languages, the Report came to play a significant role in the development debate during the following years.

The ‘What Now Report’ was envisaged as a “tribute to the man, Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General 1953–1961 and one of the last century’s most remarkable international leaders, who more than any other, gave the United Nations the authority which the world (now) needs more than ever”.

The five principles of ‘Another Development’ in 1975 stated, “Need based – Development geared to meeting human needs, material and non-material; Endogenous – stemming from the heart of each society which defines in sovereignty its values and the vision of its future;

Self-reliant – implying that each society relies primarily on its own strength and resources in terms of its members’ energies and its natural and cultural environment;

Ecologically sound – utilising rationally the resources of the bio-sphere in full awareness of the potential of local ecosystems as well as the global and local outer limits imposed on present and future generations.

And based on Structural transformation – so as to realise the conditions required for self-management and participation in decision making by all those affected by it, from the rural or urban community to the world as a whole, without which the goals above could not be achieved.

These five principles are even more relevant today and could be the new Panchseel of a new commitment we should make for mutual co-existence between peoples and between humans and nature.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, delivering the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold Uppsala Lecture on Earth Day in 2018 and titled, ‘Twenty-first century challenges and the enduring wisdom of Dag Hammarskjöld’, stated that, “The problems of our time are global problems that can only be solved with global solutions”.

Pointing in his lecture that Hammarskjold, “was a man of culture”, Guterres said, “that allowed him to have a universal view, a universal perspective; to consider diversity as a richness; to be able to understand others; to promote tolerance; to promote dialogue and to find solutions for the most difficult and intricate diplomatic problems of his time”.

“This is what, indeed, is sometimes lacking today” and that, “the proof that this translated into a vision of the world that remains as accurate today as during his lifetime is very well captured” he said in what Hammarskjold had said then, ‘Our world of today [of course many decades ago] is more than ever before, one world. The weakness of one is the weakness of all, and the strength of one – not the military strength, but the real strength, the economic and social strength, the happiness of people – is the strength of all. Through various developments that are familiar to all, world solidarity has been forced upon us. This is no longer the choice of enlightened spirits, it’s something which those whose temperament leads them in the direction of isolationism have also to accept’.

Almost five decades later, organizations with the history, prestige and authority like the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation are uniquely placed to draw upon the wisdom of the past and cooperatively navigate Earth and humanity to a safe place.

Reviving the spirit of ‘What Now’ as the new Panchsheel that works beyond nation states and the strong men that lead these nations states lies the future.

The Foundation needs urgently to take initiatives, using the current crisis as an opportunity to create new global institutional platforms for solidarity based on the principle of ‘planetary citizens’ away from the hyper-nationalists of the present who in history, have “goose stepped” us into disasters.

New generations are looking for such answers. The world must move away from the strong-man politics of men who are also no ‘men of culture’.

Former US President Barack Obama in his Nelson Mandela speech in South Africa, commenting on strong man politics dominating the major large nations of the world, said, “Look around. Strongman politics are ascendant, suddenly, whereby elections and some pretence of democracy are maintained—the form of it—but those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning”.

Fortunately, both in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere we now have women in power who are bringing a different quality to national and global leadership.

From Asia, and in small countries like South Korea articulate women of such clarity and depth of experience in international leadership, like Madam Kang, Kyung-wha Korea’s Foreign Minister, are leading with such finesse the Foreign Policy of a nation wedged between big powers. These resources of leadership need to be harnessed for the global good.

The theme for World Environment Day (Friday June 5), is ‘Time for Nature’. Humanity has ‘Time for Nature. Nation states and strong men who lead them have no time for nature which is why we are in the mess we are in and why we need ‘Another Development’ led by this new generation of women leaders currently managing national and global affairs with such wisdom.

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Excerpt:

Lawrence Surendra is a Chemical Engineer and Environmental Economist and has been a Scholar-in Residence at the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden

 
“Before there can be truth there must be a true man”-- Chuang-Tzu

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By Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

The world economic contraction so far this year is largely due to measures, especially at the national or local level, to contain or prevent Covid-19 contagion, particularly those restricting business operations, thus reducing economic activity, output, incomes and spending.

Vladimir Popov

Lower business and worker incomes have reduced spending, for both consumption and investment, and thus overall or aggregate demand. While there has indeed been much novel ‘financial folly’ in the last decade, responsible for its dreary ‘recovery’, and financial circumstances will retard recovery, the cruel public health dilemma posed by the viral pandemic is surely its immediate cause.

To be sure, recent economic performance in much of the world had been quite lacklustre, with no strong recovery since the 2008-09 global financial crisis and Great Recession despite the unexpected impact of ‘unconventional monetary measures’, especially in the north Atlantic economies.

Recessions and recessions
The recessions have been quite uneven, due to different circumstances and responses. Various aspects may bear some resemblance to other supply-side recessions, e.g., those caused or worsened by post-war conversion of armaments industries, oil price shocks (e.g., in 1973, 1979, 2007) and ‘shock therapy’-induced ‘transformational recessions’ in ‘post-communist’ and other economies in the 1990s.

A general recession typically involves declines in many, if not most industries, sectors and regions. Such output contraction typically implies underutilized production capacities, raising unemployment unevenly during a general recession.

In contrast, a structural recession refers to falling output in one or a few related industries, sectors or regions, not sufficiently offset by other rises. However, not all supply side recessions necessarily involve structural transformation, especially if not deliberately induced by government.

Really different this time?
A structural transformation – with unviable activities declining as more ‘competitive’ alternatives grow – may not involve overall economic contraction if resource transfers – from declining activities to rising ones – are easy, rapid and low cost.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Such resource transfers typically require ‘repurposing’ labour as well as plant, equipment and other ‘fixed capital’ stock. Typically, unplanned structural transformations result in supply-side recessions as resources are withdrawn without being redeployed for alternative productive ends.

Some examples include post-war recessions when converting military industries to peacetime non-military purposes after wars end. After the Second World War, US output declined for three years, and was 13% lower in 1947 compared to 1944.

The 1990s’ recessions in many post-communist economies were similarly due to poor management of structural transformations with declining agriculture and manufacturing, often despite more resource extraction, with some contractions deeper than the 1930s’ Great Depression.

In market economies, such adjustments typically increase unemployment as industries become unprofitable – e.g., due to cost spikes – and lay off workers. Growing unemployment lowers wages, while the conventional wisdom claims that cheaper labour costs will induce new investments.

Market resolution of such unexpected, massive disruptions is likely to be poorly coordinated, slow and painful, with high unemployment for years. Alternatively, governments can guide, facilitate and accelerate desired changes with appropriate relief and industrial policy measures.

Keynes needed, but not sufficient
Slumps in travel, tourism, mass entertainment, public events, sit-down eateries, hotels, hospitality, catering, classrooms, personal services and other such activities have been due to physical distancing and other containment requirements.

Such collapses will not be overcome with support, relief and stimulus measures as most such activities cannot fully resume soon, even in the medium term. Expansionary Keynesian fiscal and monetary policies to address collapses in aggregate demand have limited relevance in addressing government-mandated restrictions intended to contain contagion.

Furthermore, as Nobel economics laureate Paul Romer and Alan Garber note, “loan guarantees and direct cash transfers will stave off bankruptcy and default on debt, but these measures cannot restore the output that is lost when social distancing keeps people from producing goods and services”.

Of course, relief measures for those losing incomes can help mitigate the effects of the adverse supply and demand shocks involved, but much depends not only on direct, but also indirect, second or even third order effects, partly reflected in Keynes’ ‘multiplier’ muted by other government measures.

A necessary precondition for the multiplier to accelerate broader economic recovery is the prior existence of underutilized productive capacities. Otherwise, increasing demand will simply raise prices when output and efficiency cannot be quickly increased profitably.

One size does not fit all
Newly restructured economies will inevitably emerge from the pandemic, but some will do better than others. There is and will be greater need and demand for new as well as modified goods and services such as medical supplies, health facilities, care services, distance learning and web entertainment.

Economies trying to adjust to the new post-contagion context should use industrial policy or selective investment and technology promotion to expedite restructuring by directing scare resources from unviable, declining, sunset industries to more feasible, emerging, sunrise activities.

Enabling, incentivizing or even requiring needed resource reallocations can help overcome supply bottlenecks. China and other East Asian countries have already had some early successes in thus addressing their Covid-19 downturns.

All workplaces adversely affected by precautionary requirements will need to be safely reconfigured or repurposed accordingly. Structural unemployment problems, due to skill shortages not coinciding with available labour skill supplies, can be better addressed by appropriate government-employer coordination to appropriately identify and meet skill requirements.

Government policies, e.g., using official incentives, can thus encourage or induce adoption of desirable new practices, such as ‘clean investments’ for ‘green’ restructuring, e.g., by using renewable energy and energy saving technologies. Without such inducements, stimuli and support for desirable new investments, desired structural shifts may be much more difficult, painful and costly.

Thus, the ongoing Covid-19 crisis should be seen as an opportunity to make much needed, if not long overdue investments in desirable sunrise industries, services and enterprises, including personnel retraining and capability enhancement as well as workplace repurposing.

Vladimir Popov is a Research Director in the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute in Berlin and author of How to Deal with a Coronavirus Economic Recession?

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Credit: URDEE IMAGE/ZUMA WIRE/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

By Antoinette Sayeh and Ralph Chami
Jun 4 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling the economies of rich and poor countries alike. Yet for many low-income and fragile states, the economic shock will be magnified by the loss of remittances—money sent home by migrant and guest workers employed in foreign countries.

Remittance flows into low-income and fragile states represent a lifeline that supports households as well as provides much-needed tax revenue. As of 2018, remittance flows to these countries reached $350 billion, surpassing foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and foreign aid as the single most important source of income from abroad (see Chart 1). A drop in remittance flows is likely to heighten economic, fiscal, and social pressures on governments of these countries already struggling to cope even in normal times.

Remittances are private income transfers that are countercyclical—that is, they flow from migrants into their source country when that country is experiencing a macroeconomic shock. In this way, they insure families back home against income shocks, supporting and smoothing their consumption. Remittances also finance trade balances and are a source of tax revenue for governments in these countries that rely on value-added tax, trade, and sales taxes (Abdih and others 2012).

In this pandemic, the downside effect of remittances drying up calls for an all-hands-on-deck response—not just for the sake of the poor countries, but for the rich ones as well. First, the global community must recognize the benefit of keeping migrants where they are, in their host countries, as much as possible. Retaining migrants helps host countries sustain and restart core services in their economies and allows remittances to recipient countries to keep flowing, even if at a much-reduced level. Second, donor countries and international financial institutions must also step in to help migrant-source countries not only fight the pandemic but also cushion the shock of losing these private income flows, just when these low-income and fragile countries need them most.

Transmission of shocks

Remittances are income flows that sync the business cycle of many recipient countries with those of sending countries. During good times, this relationship is a win-win, furnishing much-needed labor to fuel the economies of host countries and providing much-needed income to families in the migrants’ home countries. However, this close business cycle linkage between host and recipient countries has a downside risk. Shocks to the economies of migrant-host countries—just the sorts of shocks being caused by the coronavirus pandemic—can be transmitted to those of the remittance-recipient countries. For example, for a recipient country that receives remittances representing at least 10 percent of its annual GDP, a 1 percent decrease in the host country’s output gap (the difference between actual and potential growth) will tend to decrease the recipient country’s output gap by almost 1 percent (Barajas and others 2012). Remittances represent much more than 10 percent of GDP for many countries, led by Tajikistan and Bermuda, at more than 30 percent (see Chart 2).

The pandemic will deliver a blow to remittance flows that may be even worse than during the financial crisis of 2008, and it will come just as poor countries are grappling with the impact of COVID-19 on their own economies. Migrant workers who lose their employment are likely to reduce remittances to their families back home. Recipient countries will lose an important source of income and tax revenue just when they need it most (Abdih and others 2012). In fact, according to the World Bank, remittance flows are expected to drop by about $100 billion in 2020, which represents roughly a 20 percent drop from their 2019 level (see Chart 3). Fiscal and trade balances would be affected, and countries’ ability to finance and service their debt would be reduced.

Banks in migrant-source countries rely on remittance inflows as a cheap source of deposit funding since these flows are altruistically motivated. Unfortunately, these banks are now likely to see their cost of operations increase, and their ability to extend credit—whether to the private sector or to finance government deficits—will be greatly reduced (Barajas and others 2018). Furthermore, the typically credit-constrained private sector—mostly comprising self-employed people and small and medium-sized enterprises—is likely to lose remittance funding, in addition to dealing with even tighter credit conditions from banks. All this will come on top of lower demand for their services and products as a result of the crisis.

That’s not all. A prolonged crisis could worsen pressure in labor markets of rich countries, and out-of-work migrants could lose their resident status in host countries and be forced to return home. For example, in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which rely on migrant labor from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, the drop in the price of oil and economic activity could result in migrants (some of whom are already infected with the virus) returning home. They are likely to join the jobless in their home countries—in labor markets already brimming with unemployed youth—as well as put more pressure on already fragile public health systems. This could heighten social pressure in countries already ill prepared to deal with the pandemic and possibly also fuel spillovers beyond their borders. People escaping tough situations in their own countries are likely to seek other shores, but richer countries, also in the midst of fighting the virus, may have very little desire to allow migrants in—potentially leading to an even greater refugee crisis.

Global threat

Compared with previous economic crises, this pandemic poses an even greater threat to countries that rely heavily on remittance income. The global nature of this crisis means that not only will recipient countries see remittance flows dry up, they will simultaneously experience outflows of private capital, and maybe a reduction in aid from struggling donors. Typically, when private capital flees a country because of a macroeconomic shock, whether climate related or because of a deterioration in the country’s terms of trade, remittance flows come in to lessen the impact of capital flight. By contrast, in this current crisis, poor countries can expect to experience both phenomena—capital flight as well as a drop in remittance flows.

With global demand likely to suffer, it would be hard for remittance-recipient countries to export their way out of this crisis. Currency depreciation cannot be expected to spur demand for their exports or attract tourism since this shock is systemic (Barajas and others 2010). Currency weakness will likely worsen the economic situation for many of these low-income and fragile states whose debt is in foreign currency, further depressing local demand and resulting in greater shrinkage of local economies.

What can be done?

The crisis has the unique effect of tightening fiscal constraints in low-income migrant-source countries just when there’s much more for the public sector to do, both in terms of protecting the population from the pandemic and supporting local economies in weathering huge negative shocks. The loss of tax revenue resulting from the drop in remittance- supported consumption will only make things worse for governments already strapped for funds and severely strain their ability to engage in countercyclical fiscal measures. This creates tremendous urgency for the international community to help, even when rich countries are themselves facing huge fiscal burdens.

It is in the best interest of rich countries for migrants not to go home as well as to provide resources for poor countries to fight the pandemic. Infection rates are much higher in rich countries and are especially high among migrant workers owing to their dismal working and housing conditions. Migrants who go home are at risk of taking the virus with them. If this happens, poor countries will provide a rich incubator for the virus that will boomerang as refugees seek new shores. Then it will take decades—and many lives—for the world to be rid of this virus.

Three key actions need to be taken now.

First, host countries need to stabilize the employment opportunities of the migrant workers in their economies. Relief packages that target employment protection for citizens in rich countries can also help migrant workers remain employed. Recognizing the need to protect and stabilize the welfare of migrant workers, the prime minister of Singapore recently assured migrant workers in his country that “we will look after your health, your welfare, and your livelihood. We will work with your employers to make sure that you get paid and you can send money home . . . This is our duty and responsibility to you and your families.” Action by host countries can help keep the remittance lifeline alive, as well as reduce the likelihood of migrants returning home.

Extending protection to migrants will also help advanced economies get back to full production sooner. If host countries send migrants back, it will take even longer to restore production in rich countries to former levels. In countries such as the United States that depend on seasonal labor, keeping migrants within their borders and enhancing testing for infection will bring a double benefit—ensuring the supply of fresh agricultural products for the host country and preserving remittances for migrants’ home countries.

Second, countries receiving returning migrants will need help to contain, mitigate, and reduce the escalation of outbreaks. Donor countries must help with the cost of virus mitigation, in an effort to lessen the severity of the crisis in local economies and stave off potential spillovers.

Returning migrants are likely to place further stress on the health care systems of migrant-source countries, which are struggling to contain local infections and avoid a shutdown of the local economy. Authorities in these countries will need enhanced testing as much as possible in urban areas, as well as support in implementing quarantine measures for returning migrants who may be infected. If the return of migrants is handled in this manner, there could be longer-term benefits for their home countries as well. Migrants who expect to be permanently repatriated may bring their savings with them, and their work skills could bring development benefits to their home countries.

Third, given that poor countries’ governments have limited room for maneuver, these countries will need the assistance of international financial institutions and the donor community. International financial institutions need to shore up fiscal and balance of payments assistance to these countries. This should include ensuring that these countries’ most vulnerable people—those most reliant on remittance inflows for their consumption and well-being—are able to access social insurance programs. And, perhaps now more than ever, the global effort to meet Sustainable Development Goal 10, reducing the high cost of remittances to 3 percent, could take center stage.

This crisis makes it clear that as a global community we, rich and poor countries, are all in this together. We can either lift all boats or, together, face the consequences of rising social inequality.

The post Lifelines in Danger appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Antoinette Sayeh is deputy managing director of the IMF, and Ralph Chami is assistant director of the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development.

The post Lifelines in Danger appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Brendan Esposito/AAP

By External Source
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, Jun 3 2020 (IPS)

I can’t breathe, please! Let me up, please! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!

These words are not the words of George Floyd or Eric Garner. They weren’t uttered on the streets of Minneapolis or New York. These are the final words of a 26-year-old Dunghutti man who died in a prison in south-eastern Sydney.

David Dungay Jr was killed when prison officers restrained him, including with handcuffs, and pushed him face down on his bed and on the floor. One officer pushed a knee into his back. All along, Dungay was screaming that he could not breathe and could be heard gasping for air.

Dungay’s death in custody occurred in Long Bay prison during the 2015 Christmas season. It happened a short drive from an elite university, next to affluent, waterside suburbs.

But his horrific death did little to pierce this white bubble of privilege. The media barely blinked. The politicians did not emerge from their holiday retreats. None of the officers involved were disciplined or called to account.

 

Australia’s glass house

It is comfortable for us in Australia to throw stones at racist police violence in the United States. It is comfortable because we do not see our own glass house.

This is evident in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments to 2GB on Monday:

And so as upsetting and terrible is the murder that took place, and it is shocking … I just think to myself how wonderful a country is Australia.

It is “wonderful” because we do not see the horror inflicted by the criminal justice system on First Nations people.

It is “wonderful” because we do not ever call their deaths in custody “murder”, using instead the euphemisms of “accident” or “natural causes”.

It is “wonderful”, because we have so normalised the passing of First Nations people that we are never shocked when they are killed.

It is “wonderful”, because we have a vocabulary to defend police officers responsible for racist violence, including people doing an “extremely difficult job”.

The official response to the killing of Dungay has wide ripples in the white Australian community and the legal community. His family maintain that the killing of their son, brother and uncle, who was unarmed, was murder. No criminal charges have been brought and the coroner in November 2019 blamed Dungay’s pre-existing health conditions. His comments minimised the responsibility on the part of the officers:

it is most likely that the cause of David’s death was cardiac arrhythmia. It is noted that David had a number of comorbidities, both acute and chronic, which predisposed him to the risk of cardiac arrhythmia … However, the expert evidence also established that prone restraint, and any consequent hypoxia, was a contributing factor although it is not possible to quantify the extent or significance of its contribution.

 

First Nations people are the most incarcerated in the world

The deaths in custody of First Nations Australians are not hidden. As a nation, we are choosing not to look at them. In 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody documented 99 deaths in custody.

Since then, 432 Indigenous Australians have died in custody, according to Guardian Australia’s Deaths Inside project.

First Nations people are the most incarcerated in the world, surpassing the rates of African American people in the United States. In 2019, for every 100,000 First Nations adults, 2,481 are in prisons, compared with 164 non-Indigenous people.

Despite comprising 2% of the general adult population, First Nations Australians are 28% of the prison population. For First Nations women, the rate is 33% and they are 21 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous women. This is a product of systemic racism that also contributes to disproportionate deaths in custody.

Yet the deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. Everyday occurrences of police brutality against First Nations people, frequently filmed and uploaded on social media platforms, have even less formal oversight. The casual complacency about the harm inflicted on First Nations people means we do not know the true extent of its occurrence.

On Tuesday, a NSW police officer was put on restricted duties after a video emerged on social media of him appearing to kick an Aboriginal teenager.

 

Protesting deaths in custody in our backyard

In the wake of Floyd’s death, Dungay’s nephew, Paul Silva pointed to the lack of response to First Nations deaths in Australia:

We don’t get the same big response in Australia as they do in the United States with the Black Lives Matter movement, but we have had many people, both First Nations and non-Indigenous people standing with us. We can build on that – we need many more to join us. We can take inspiration from the United States and get back out on the streets in our own backyard, where there is so much brutality against Black people too, that’s the only way to get justice.

While the spotlight has been shone on the protests in the United States, most Australians would be unaware that each year on the anniversary of Dungay’s killing, there has been a protest, mostly at Long Bay jail.

This week in cities around Australia, protests are planned in the name of First Nations people who have died in custody. The numbers of those who converge on the streets is a litmus test of national tolerance for racial violence against First Nations people in the criminal justice system.

 

Where does racial violence against First Nations people end?

Despite more than 500 First Nations deaths in custody since 1980, there has never been a successful homicide prosecution in the criminal courts. Indeed, only a handful have resulted in charges being laid in manslaughter or, less frequently, murder.

A police officer has been charged with murder following the shooting death of a 19-year-old Warlpiri man last year. The officer intends to plead not guilty.

The Victorian Coroner this April also referred the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day to prosecutors for further investigation.

Without accountability, justice will not flow for the families and the chain of racial violence will not be broken.

The danger of expressing outrage towards African American deaths in custody is that we deflect our own agency and responsibility. We legitimise the violence at our doorstep that is in our control.

It allows us to walk past racist police interventions on the false assumption that the problem is with the First Nations person rather than the police and Australian culture.

The only response to racism is resistance. This must take place not simply in passive solidarity with African Americans, but in our active support, protest and sacrifice for the lives of First Nations Australia.

 

Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney

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

The post ‘I Can’t Breathe!’ Australia Must Look in the Mirror to See our Own Deaths in Custody appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Commonwealth economic adviser, Tamara Mughogho
Jun 3 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Imagine a world without the internet and erase the last few decades of technological advancement. Then imagine how governments, schools and businesses would have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the pandemic continues its relentless march around the globe, there have been debates about the effectiveness of response strategies such as social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Particularly, there is concern about the ability of countries with larger populations to enforce these measures.

There is no question that technology has played a major role in the world’s response to COVID-19. It has allowed children to continue their education, people to shop online and work from home and governments to continue to function. But are we maximising the full potential of technology to fight this global pandemic?

How technology can help

Innovation and best practices are emerging across the Commonwealth, with countries like Singapore, Kenya and the UK developing or using technology to continue economic activities or control the spread of the virus. For instance, mobile apps are used in Singapore to trace and track infected individuals and those with whom they have come into contact.

Mobile technologies are also used to determine if people are breaking lockdown regulations. Such innovations could provide avenues for countries struggling with containing the spread of COVID-19, particularly those with very large populations.

These strategies are especially useful for the Commonwealth, which includes some of the most highly and densely populated countries in the world, such as:

• India (1.3 billion people)
• Pakistan (220 million people)
• Nigeria (206 million people)
• Bangladesh (164 million people)

Some of these nations have faced major challenges in enforcing lockdown measures with strong opposition from parts of their populations. In some cases governments have resorted to using force, with deadly consequences.

On the other hand, there are countries with smaller populations, like New Zealand, effectively managing to control the spread of the outbreak. It is therefore worth examining the correlation between population size and the effectiveness of COVID-19 responses, and how technology can help.

Protecting trade

Another important consideration is how technology can protect business and trade. The World Trade Organization estimates that the pandemic will cause global trade to decline between 13 and 32 percent. This would amount to a trade slump surpassing those caused by the Global Financial Crisis and the 2003 SARS Pandemic.

A decline in global trade could have negative impacts on fiscal sustainability for already economically vulnerable countries, and leave small states, that are heavily reliant on trade, with decreased revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic has therefore necessitated a step-up in technology infrastructure to ensure the continued efficiency of financial transactions and to help countries keep trading.

It is clear that the world needs to act together to mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic.

The post Blog: Making technology an effective weapon in the battle against COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This blog is part of the seminar series on ‘The Economics of COVID-19’.

The post Blog: Making technology an effective weapon in the battle against COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.