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By Adaora Okoli
NEW ORLEANS, US, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

When I contracted Ebola virus disease in August 2014 while working as a medical doctor in a well-known private hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, I was denied access to a potential cure.

For 15 days, I battled for my life in a debilitated isolation ward, not knowing if I would survive. But American aid workers who contracted Ebola were administered Zmapp, a monoclonal antibody treatment, which reduces the relative risk of death from Ebola by 40% as well as shorten the duration of stay in the Ebola treatment units. They survived.

We were told that Zmapp was expensive, in limited supply and only reserved for a few people. Although Zmapp missed the mark of effectiveness as a cure, its benefits could not be denied when compared to the standard of care alone at the time.

Imagine fighting the same disease but not having equal access to the available tools.

This is what universal health coverage is about: That quality health should not be sold to the highest bidder. It means that we must do all we can to prevent vaccine monopoly and have global collaborations to ensure that these vaccines get to the poorest of people so we can put an end to this pandemic

Imagine the psychological trauma of knowing that there might be a cure and not having access to it. Now, I see history about to repeat itself at a large scale- millions of people around the world, especially in impoverished communities may not have access to COVID-19 vaccines.

There has been excitement within the medical and public health community this month over early results of phase 3 clinical trials of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines which showed them to be over 90% and 94% effective in preventing COVID-19 respectively. This is comparable to the efficacy of measles vaccines which has led to a 99% reduction in its incidence compared to the pre-measles vaccine era. To date, there are over 50 COVID-19 vaccines at different stages of development.

An effective vaccine against COVID-19 is one of the many measures (in addition to testing, tracing, isolating, social distancing and providing health care workers with personal protective equipment) that we can use to combat this pandemic and stem future ones. And as exciting as the news of a potential effective vaccine is, the question, however, is how do we ensure that we all get access to it, including people living in impoverished communities, work multiple jobs and have no primary health care provider? Will it get to people of color who continue to be disproportionately affected?

Data shows that Black, Latinx and other people of color are more adversely affected by COVID-19 as is it the case in cities like New Orleans where I currently live and work as a medical doctor. Will it get to illegal immigrants in the U.S. who try to hide from the system because they do not want to risk being deported? What about the poor in Nigeria, where I am from, who have not seen a doctor in years and have no access to essential health services?

This inequitable access to health is not new. Gardasil, the first vaccine to be approved by the US food and drug administration in 2006 against Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes gential warts and cervical cancer, is effective in preventing cervical cancer and is administered to girls and boys at the age of 11 in the U.S. However, in Nigeria, a country that contributes 10% of the global burden of cervical cancer, a national HPV screening and vaccination program is non-existent. HPV vaccine is available in the private health sector but cost and weak health infrastructure remain a significant barrier to access.

A study in 2016 showed that Eastern Nigerian women were willing to pay about $11.68 dollars out-of-pocket to get their daughters vaccinated, in a country where more than half of the population earn less than $1.25 a day.

The last thing we need in the global fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic is vaccine capitalism which we are already seeing unfold. High-income countries have bought over 80% of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine stock leaving the poor with little or no access to it. In May 2020, Politico reported that President Donald Trump had offered German vaccine company, CureVac, large sums of money to move their research site to the U.S. and develop the vaccine for the U.S. only.

We cannot end a pandemic without collaborations and empathy for humanity and the millions of lives that have been lost since December 2019. If the COVID-19 vaccines are equitably distributed globally, it would cut down death by over 60%. But, a recent modelling study showed, it would reduce death by only 33% of wealthy countries buy them all up.

Thankfully, the World Health Organization (WHO), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi- the Vaccine Alliance, European Commission and France came together in April 2020 to launch an initiative called COVAX with the goal of ensuring a fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally.

COVAX aims to distribute 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses fairly by the end of 2021 so that people – regardless of their socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, gender, political affiliations – can have equal access to a promising vaccine.

This is what universal health coverage is about: That quality health should not be sold to the highest bidder. It means that we must do all we can to prevent vaccine monopoly and have global collaborations to ensure that these vaccines get to the poorest of people so we can put an end to this pandemic.

On December 12, 2020, as we mark the international Universal Health Coverage day, let us hold our leaders accountable to their commitment to achieve UHC. If Zmapp was the only proven cure for Ebola virus disease, I would not be here now writing this, because I did not have access to it.

May my dreams of a world with health for all come true.

Dr Adaora Okoli is a medical doctor who survived the Ebola virus disease, working to strengthen health systems in order to reduce the burden of infectious diseases in low-income communities and achieve equitable access for health to all. She is also an Aspen New Voices Fellow. Follow her on Twitter @DrAdaora.

The post We All Deserve Protection From Covid-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer was illuminated in the names of victims lost to COVID-19 in an online ceremony called “For Every Life” that paid tribute to the 60,000 victims lost in Brazil and 500,000 lost worldwide. About 87,000 Brazilians heard messages of hope and solidarity combined with music and prayer in a live broadcast over social media. It recognized the losses of families and selfless work of healthcare workers and others helping the country through the pandemic. July 2020. Credit: UNIC Rio

By Branko Milanović
NEW YORK, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

The current pandemic is probably the first global event in the history of the human race. By ‘global’ I mean it has affected almost everybody, regardless of country of residence or social class.

If, in a couple of years — when hopefully it is over and we are alive — we meet friends from any corner of the world, we shall all have the same stories to share: fear, tedium, isolation, lost jobs and wages, lockdowns, government restrictions and face masks. No other event comes close.

Wars, even world wars, were limited: people in Switzerland, let alone in New Zealand, did not have meaningful war stories to share with those from Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany or Japan. And in the past 75 years wars were local.

Many young people might have protested against the Vietnam war but most experienced none of its effects. People were outraged at the siege of Sarajevo, bombardment of Gaza or Iraq ‘shock and awe’.

But for 99.9 per cent of mankind that outrage did not change their daily routine one bit: they still got up early to go to school or work, laughed with colleagues, maybe went out for a drink and ended up at a karaoke bar. They had no stories to share with the residents of Sarajevo, Gaza or Baghdad — nothing in common.

Even football — and its fanatical supporters tell themselves world events mimic football — cannot compete. The last World Cup final was watched by 1.1 billion people, about one out of every six people in the world. There were still many who ignored its existence and could not care less which team won or lost.

Into the history books

Covid-19 will enter the history books as the first truly global event also thanks to our technological development: not only are we able to communicate across the globe but we can follow, in real time, what is happening practically everywhere.

Since infection, disease and possible incapacitation and death threaten all of us, even people who otherwise have not had much interest in news check their smartphones for updates on deaths, infection rates, vaccines or new therapies.

Covid-19 seems itself to have been designed for that role. Although its deadliness increases with age, its effects are sufficiently uncertain that even much younger and healthier populations are not left entirely carefree. Had Covid-19 been less random, it would have been less feared.

This global event is however also an odd event. It requires that people do not interact physically with each other. It thus brings out another, new dimension. Our first global event will have been the one where we never met face-to-face in real time with other people who lived through it.

Covid-19 probably made us leapfrog about a decade in realising the possibilities of decoupling work from physical presence in the workplace.

On reflection, however, this makes perfect sense. To be global, the event has to be experienced more or less equally by everyone at the same time. Limited by physical contact or presence, however, we cannot reach many people, simply because there is no possibility for each of us to meet thousands, still less hundreds of thousands, of others.

So, the first global human event, ironically, had to be an event devoid of human contact and physical touch — it had to be experienced virtually.

This is also why this pandemic is different from that of a century ago. Information could not then be easily transmitted nor shared. By the time people in India were dying of Spanish flu, Europe was recovering and was ignorant of, or indifferent to, deaths in India. But India too hardly heard of the deaths in Europe until the pandemic invaded it.

Globalising labour

What will remain, other than people’s reminiscences, of this global event? There are only a few things that we can say with any certainty.

The pandemic will have accelerated globalisation in the second factor of production—labour. (The first factor, capital, is already globalised, thanks to the opening of national capital accounts and the technical ability to move vast amounts of money around the world and to build factories and offices anywhere.)

Covid-19 probably made us leapfrog about a decade in realising the possibilities of decoupling work from physical presence in the workplace. Although in many activities we may, after the pandemic is over, go back to sharing physical offices, working in factory halls and so on, in many others we shall not.

This will not have an effect only on people working from home—the change will be much more profound. A global labour market will come into existence without the need for migration.

In some segments of the world economy (such as call centres or software design), that market already exists. But it will become much more common. The pandemic will be a giant leap forward for ‘mobility’ of labour — a peculiar mobility, that is, where individual workers will stay put at their places of residence but work in ‘offices’ or ‘factories’ miles away.

People who worry that globalisation might go backwards will be surprised. Due to the trade war between the United States and China, global value chains and trade might suffer a temporary setback. But in terms of labour mobility or, more exactly, labour competition — which is extraordinarily important — it will move forward.

Source: This article is a joint publication by Social Europe and International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin

 

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Excerpt:

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

The post The First Global Event in the History of Humankind appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has in some nations been converted into a noxious, political issue. One of many worrying examples is the rhetoric of Brazil´s president. On 10 November, when Brazil´s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 162,000 victims – the numbers have continued to raise and are now 179,032 second only to USA´s 296,745 – Jair Bolsonaro minimized the effects of COVID-19 by stating: ”All of us are going to die one day. There is no point in escaping from that, in escaping from reality. We have to cease being a country of sissies.” Bolsonaro actually said maricas, which like sissies is slang for gay people. Both expressions originally indicated ”small girls” – marica is a diminutive of Maria and sissy of “kid sister”. Bolsonaro thus defined homosexuality as effeminacy by associating gay men with affectation and cowardice. By connecting disease, fear, and femininity the Brazilian president not only ignored the strength and courage women throughout history have demonstrated by enduring childbirths and caring for others, it also shows a strong disregard for gender equality and the rights of women and gay people.

In several countries, gender equality has made progress in areas as education and labour force participation, though health inequality between women and men continues to plague several societies, where girls and women remain victims to ideologies and practices that make them more vulnerable than men to diseases originating from neglect, abuse, and mistreatment. Furthermore, women and girls are often subjected to physicians´ bias in diagnosis and treatment, while restricted access to education and remunerated work may hinder them from accessing adequate health services.

In most societies, women have been considered as subordinate to men. In both art and medicine, women have been viewed and interpreted from a “male point of view”. That a “male gaze” applies to how women’s bodies are perceived became evident to me when I sometime in the eighties read Edward Shorter’s A History of Women’s Bodies. Shorter described how religion and medicine have discriminated against women, primarily by disregarding their physical and mental health.

I had Shorter’s book in memory when I several years ago visited the Andean highlands and interviewed women about their life situation. What then upset me was the deplorable state of health of the women I met, assuming that it was my collaboration with a midwife that made them reveal physical pain and problems. Several diseases originated in difficulties during pregnancies, often experienced too early in life, and after that being far too frequent. Ailments related to the female body was burdened by prejudice, chauvinism, and religious bigotry and thus considered as shameful and concealed. My encounter with these women made me realize that gender equality is not exclusively a matter of relations between men and women – physical differences between the sexes must also be taken into account and addressed.

Through its intent to connect fear of COVID-19 infection with cowardice and effeminacy, Bolsonaro´s rhetoric not only reveals an inclination towards homophobia and misogyny, but furthermore demonstrates a lack of knowledge about the crucial role women have had in medical development. While being professionally engaged with gender issues, I have quite often been confronted with a view that almost exclusively emphasizes social injustices caused by male chauvinism. Of course, this is a serious problem that cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, this should not allow forgetting the fact that women’s bodies are distinctive from men’s. Neglect of women’s unique physical constitution has during centuries caused unnecessary suffering and limited
women´s well-being.

Childbirth is a unique female experience that excludes men, who cannot experience the pains and dangers it may bring about. Since time immemorial, childbirth has almost exclusively affected women – the expectant mother, the midwife, women friends and relatives. Men were generally excluded from the process. What midwives lacked in formal, academic learning, they compensated through experience and ancient traditions,

With the emergence of an academically founded medical profession and with it an increased interest in the income-generating business of midwifery, male doctors became during the 19th century increasingly interested in obstetrics and generally opposed to midwifery. Before male interventions, women generally gave birth in partially upright positions, being supported by other women. One reason for this was that giving birth was considered to be a social concern, as well as the technique facilitated the process for both mother and midwife since they could make use of gravity. However, male obstetricians preferred that women, while giving birth, remained in bed. Accordingly, obstetricians were in France, and the rest of Europe, called accouchers, from the French á coucher, go to bed.

It was claimed that surgeons were better trained in scientific medicine than midwives, who relied on popular medical traditions. In several countries, midwives were gradually legislated against in favour of male doctors. In his book, Shorter argued that increasingly male-dominated obstetrics initially were detrimental, causing unnecessary inconvenience and suffering. Furthermore, apart from facilitating the actual birth procedure, midwives also offered support and help during pregnancy and aftercare. They were generally, unlike men, mothers themselves and could thus consider ailments and dangers from a female perspective. Several of them were also knowledgeable about how to alleviate labour pains and how to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and in some cases, even experienced in abortions. The midwives were thus through their own and collective experiences well acquainted with how a female body functioned and reacted to various types of interventions.

The suppression of women midwifery is just one of many examples of how women systematically have been marginalized while healing and caring for the sick and injured. This does not mean that their care-giving has not been decisive. On the contrary, to take care of others has rather been considered as a female duty, even part of a feminine nature. A perception that meant women’s role in healthcare was taken for granted and they were offered neither education, nor payment. In Catholic Europe it was until quite recently, nonsalaried nuns who took care of the sick and were assumed to gain their knowledge through practice.

Well into the twentieth century, doctors were almost exclusively men and nurses were subordinate to them in everything (up to 1955 men were not allowed to serve as nurses in the US Army). In addition, nurses were paid significantly less than a medical doctor. Men in white were, and generally still are, considered as hospital royalty. Something still manifested through several hospitals’ big rounds when the chief physician, accompanied by doctors-in-training, visit bedridden patients, while female nurses discreetly remain in the background.

It was not until the bloody massacres of 19th century warfare that female nurses gained a greater role and nursing schools were established to train them in health care. However, education was mostly hospital-based and had well into the twentieth century an emphasis on practical experience. During the last century, wars continued to improve women´s position in healthcare. During World War I, nurses were integrated into the war effort, and during World War II warring nations established units with trained nurses. For example, the Nazis, who otherwise were reluctant to engage women in the war industry, recruited more than 40,000 nurses for their armies.

The recent rapid development of medical science is probably the most impressive human success story ever. It has not only been beneficial to human well-being, it has also contributed to increased compassion and reduced the brutality of everyday life. This development would probably not have been initiated without attention to women’s health. Due to immense pain and risk of fatal infections, surgical procedures were during millennia limited to superficial interventions, as well as amputations and trepanning. It was through male obstetric care that breakthroughs in concern for sterility took place. The first steps towards the discovery of the role of bacteria and viruses in infections occurred in 1846 when the Austrian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweiss discovered that more women died in maternity wards staffed with male surgeons, than those cared for by female midwives. Semmelweiss traced the cause to increased mortality to male medical students not washing their hands after dissecting corpses. Although Semmelweis’ sanitary recommendations were largely ignored and he himself was driven to madness, he is now recognized as a pioneer in aseptics and the prevention of hospital-acquired infections.

The presence of male doctors at birth made them realize the immense pain caused by disturbed nerve pathways and made them pursue more effective anesthetics. Advances that, together with aseptics, finally enabled surgical interventions inside the body. It was during a birth in Edinburgh in 1847 that James Young Simpson used chloroform anesthesia and, after the same method in 1853 had been used when Queen Victoria gave birth to Prince Leopold, anesthesia spread around the world. After Robert Koch in 1879 beyond any doubt had established that infections are spread by bacteria, and in 1881 introduced heat sterilization of all surgical instruments, medical science would never be the same again.

Accordingly, to label general health as a concern for “maricas” is not only a sign of ridiculous machismo, but also a manifestation of profound ignorance. When Jair Bolsonaro equaled “fear of COVID-19” with effeminacy he demonstrated contempt for the bravery and professionalism homosexual men have demonstrated as physicians and nurses, as well as he demeaned women who through centuries have combated sickness and fatal injuries, as well as caring for home and family and enduring painful births. On top of that, Bolsonaro revealed a profound ignorance of the fundamentals of modern, medical science and its foundations on women´s well-being.

Sources: https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-54902608 and Shorter, Edward (1984) A History of Women’s Bodies. London: Pelican Books.

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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A health worker fills a syringe with vaccine at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNICEF/Patrick Brown.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

There is a longstanding belief that virtually everything in this world is stacked up against the poor and the downtrodden.

The Covid-19 vaccine is no exception because some of world’s richest nations, including the US, Canada and UK, seem to have cornered most of the supplies — whilst marginalizing the world’s poorer nations.

The move towards hijacking the newly-found remedy has triggered a new brand of misguided patriotism: vaccine nationalism.

According to a report on Cable News Network (CNN) December 9, the histrionics from American and British leaders point to growing vaccine nationalism in wealthier nations.

Rich countries with 14% of the world’s population have bought more than half of all the most promising vaccines, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an international coalition of health and humanitarian organizations.

Nine out of 10 people living in 67 poor countries will miss out on the vaccine in 2021, the Alliance said, pointing out the deals made by rich countries mean they have “hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly 3 times over.” Canada has reportedly bought enough doses to immunize its citizens five times over.

“Unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 for years to come,” according to Anna Marriott, health policy manager for Oxfam, a member of the coalition.

Vaccine nationalism is also one facet of the widening economic inequalities between the developing and the developed world.

Ben Phillips, author of ‘How to Fight Inequality’, told IPS the scandal is not just that rich nations are marginalizing poor nations from scarce supplies but the bigger scandal is that there is only such scarcity of supplies because companies are being allowed to hoard licenses and know-how.

Between 1996 and 2001, the prioritization of companies’ intellectual property over people’s health meant millions of people in poor countries died from AIDS when the treatment to HIV was known, and producible cheaply, but was kept by profit-driven policy deliberately too costly and too rare, said Phillips.

He said: “it’s astonishingly mean-spirited, and utterly short-sighted, that the same approach is being pursued now with Covid-19”.

The drug company shareholders would still grow their riches – just a little more slowly – if licensing and know-how were shared so that international mass production at scale could begin, he noted.

“We can still change course. That way, lives can be saved and the global economy restarted. No one is safe until everyone is safe, and the world can’t recover till all countries can,” said Phillips.

“But none of this will be given freely by leaders – it will only happen if enough people push them to do so. Covid-19 survivors, backed by HIV survivors who know the stakes, are leading an inspiring fight for just that,” he added.

The United Nations says the widespread pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 1.6 million people worldwide since early this year, “is not only the greatest global health crisis since the creation of the United Nations 75 years ago but it is also a humanitarian, socio-economic, security and human rights crisis.”

Source: CNN, December 10

Addressing a two-day Special Session on Covid-19 on December 3-4, the President of the General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said: “The world is looking to the UN for leadership, to step up and take demonstrable action to address the greatest challenge our world is facing today. This crisis compels us to shake up how things are done, to be bold, and to restore confidence and trust in the United Nations.”

Professor Kunal Sen, Director at the Helsinki-based UN University– World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), told IPS while it is understandable that rich country governments want to immunize their own citizens, especially those in vulnerable categories, vaccine nationalism may deprive citizens of low-income countries of COVID-19 vaccines for many months to come.

“The world needs a people’s vaccine which can be provided universally, and it is important for the international community to develop a vaccine which is compatible with universal access,” he declared.

The New York Times reported December 10 that three of Trump’s close political allies, who were infected with the virus and recovered fast, were given medications that were unavailable to the rest of the Americans. As a result, Covid-19 is being described as a disease of the haves and the have-nots.

Asked about the “lip service” by rich countries on equitable access to vaccine while glaring inequalities persist in the distribution to Africa and other developing countries, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters December 9: “It’s true we are seeing vaccine nationalism moving with full speed. But the vaccines the African continent needs, and we all need… has to be properly supported. Or we will not be able to fight the pandemic anywhere effectively”.

The only way, of course, is to make sure that the COVAX initiative –a coalition of more than 150 countries, plus the World Health Organization, Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) — is fully financed.

The initiative, he said, needs $4.2 million in the next few months, and then additional funding afterwards, to make sure that vaccines approved by the WHO can be distributed in Africa sooner rather than later.

Guterres said: “It is my hope that we’ll be able to do it before the second quarter, but it is true that what we are seeing today is an enormous effort by several countries in order to ensure vaccines for their own populations. And until now, it has not been fully met, the requirements of COVAX in relation to the financing that is needed”.

But COVAX is working hard, he said, and there are several vaccines in the pipeline for COVAX, and it is perfectly possible to deliver if the financing is guaranteed.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reported December 9 that a Chinese vaccine, which will be accessible mostly to developing countries, has shown to be 86% effective in protecting people against Covid-19 in late-stage trials. The trials were conducted last week in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

  

The post A Vaccine That Was Hijacked by the Rich appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

“Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 will be one of the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as quickly as the vaccines can be produced,” says Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

The post A Vaccine That Was Hijacked by the Rich appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Dec 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro became the Minister of National Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso in February 2018 after a long academic career. Between 2012 and 2018, Mr. Ouaro was the President of the Université Ouaga II. Prior to that, the eminent mathematician held several teaching and administrative posts with Ouagadougou University. Mr. Ouaro is widely published, and has also served as the President of the Réseau pour l’Excellence de l’Enseignement Supérieur en Afrique de l’Ouest (Network for Excellence in Higher Education in West Africa). A leading advocate for education and equality, Mr. Ouaro has been awarded several academic awards in Burkina Faso and elsewhere.

In this incisive interview, the minister explores the upcoming Education Cannot Wait-financed multi-year resilience programme and the triple threat of Conflict, COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis, which have come together to displace over 1 million people in Burkina Faso. Learn more about ECW-financed programmes in the Sahel and Burkina Faso.

ECW: Please tell us about the situation in the education sector in Burkina Faso. What are the key challenges and priorities?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: In Burkina Faso, the education sector is suffering the negative effects of the security and health crises. The security crisis is characterized by terrorist attacks resulting in the deaths of students and teachers, as well as the destruction of education infrastructure. This has resulted in the closure of more than 2,300 schools and a massive displacement of populations estimated at more than one million people, including school-age children and youth. As for the COVID-19 health crisis, this resulted in the closure of all schools in Burkina Faso for several months. The education system is therefore faced with many challenges, including the reopening of closed schools, the schooling of displaced children and maintaining the continuity of education for all learners.

To meet these challenges, a certain number of priority actions are envisaged within our department through the National Strategy for Education in Emergency Situations, which is our reference framework for education in emergencies (EiE). This involves promoting access and retention through (i) the reopening of closed schools, (ii) increasing the capacity of schools in areas hosting displaced communities, (iii) the rehabilitation of damaged buildings, (iv) the establishment of temporary learning spaces, (v) relevant supplies to school canteens to take into account internally displaced students, (vi) the provision of textbooks and school kits for schools hosting displaced children, (vii) increasing coordination and steering capacities of the education sector, (viii) training teachers on the EiE/INEE standards approach and on education curricula in emergency.

In addition, the operationalization of “Educational Radio and Television” will ensure the continuity of education in areas that are hard to reach or with poor infrastructural coverage. In addition to this, the creation of an emergency fund for EiE will increase the resilience of the education sector in the face of these crises.

ECW: Your partnership with Education Cannot Wait has been instrumental in delivering emergency responses in the education sector. As we now move forward with a multi-year education investment that addresses both humanitarian and development needs in the education sector, what are your expectations on the ECW Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) which will be launched soon and why is it so crucial today.

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Education Cannot Wait for their unwavering support in our efforts to support education in emergencies. As for our expectations, we would like the multi-year programme to help improve access, quality, and the management and resilience capacities of communities. Regarding access, we hope this programme can help to diversify learning opportunities in areas affected by insecurity through the creation of temporary learning spaces and the promotion of education alternatives. These interventions should also facilitate access to school for many children from vulnerable households, minority groups, children living with disabilities, girls, etc. In addition, through interventions adapted to the emergency context, we would like to improve the quality of learning, protection and retention of students. Strengthening the technical and logistical capacities of state actors responsible for coordinating EiE activities is also a key expectation. Finally, the multi-year programme should help strengthen the resilience capacities of local communities. Indeed, due to the scarcity of resources and the recurrence of humanitarian crises, it is important to equip beneficiary communities with essential skills to prevent the occurrence of crises or to respond to them effectively.

ECW: Burkina Faso is facing the terrible triple threat of Conflict, COVID-19 and Climate Crisis. There are now over 1 million internally displaced persons and 20,000 refugees in Burkina Faso. Knowing what you know now, what is your message to children and youth in Burkina Faso?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: My message to children and young people in this context of both security and health crises is to have faith in the future. It may seem difficult, if not impossible, to hold on to hope in a context as complex as that of insecurity, but I would like to point out that faith is a powerful springboard for overcoming the trials that life places on us at times. While protecting us from relinquishing, it pushes us to cling to life, to dream of the world we aspire to and to fight to make our dream come true: a world where everyone occupies their rightful place in terms of the education they have received. Moreover, education can equip individuals with the knowledge essential to their permanent adaptation to an increasingly changing living environment. Conversely, the lack of education can plunge many children and young people into a certain vulnerability that could benefit terrorist groups who dream of embroiling them in their murderous madness. It is in this perspective that the State, together with its technical and financial partners, is doing everything to ensure quality education for all despite the specific circumstances of the emergency situation.

However, this dream cannot be realized without taking responsibility at the individual and collective level; that’s why I invite everyone to fully play their part. Moreover, our steadfast determination is to fight to guarantee them a quality education because it is the most powerful weapon to overcome ignorance. I firmly believe that by increasing the level of knowledge of individuals through education, we can bend the curve towards violence and hatred into the direction of a world of peace. Of course, it is a long-term struggle that requires us to dig deep within ourselves for the necessary resources to move forward, but together we will achieve it. We will certainly stumble, sometimes even fall, but we will always stand back up stronger, more determined and more convinced because we are fighting a fair fight.

ECW: During the Central Sahel Ministerial Roundtable convened in October, ECW pledged important seed funding to cover one-third of the total budget of the upcoming Multi-Year Resilience Education Programme in Burkina Faso (and Mali and Niger). What message would you like to share with donors in relation to the remaining $94 million funding gap and why is it urgent to fill the gap?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: Education cannot wait, as the name of your organization says. This is even more true in areas affected by crises such as in the Sahel, which is facing a gradual deterioration of the security situation. This has caused an increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and also refugees, and created huge gaps in terms of access to basic social services such as education and health.

In Burkina Faso, the number of IDPs increased from 779,741 in March 2020 to 1,049,767 in November 2020, an increase of approximately 34 percent. Children, who should benefit from basic social services in order to grow up in optimal conditions, constitute nearly 60 percent of IDPs. Unfortunately, resource mobilization does not keep pace with increasing needs. According to an overview of humanitarian needs published by OCHA, as of 30 July 2020, out of a total requirement of US$424.4 million, approximately 32.4 percent of resources have been mobilized, i.e. a funding gap of US$287 million needs to be filled.

When we compare the proportion of children in urgent need of education with the resources available, it seems imperative to once again seek support from donors. The need to fill this gap stems from the fact that if nothing is done urgently, more than 600,000 children will be deprived of education, protection and health. And, there is no need to explain how this could negatively impact the social equilibrium in this region and in the world in a few years. If we fail to create the conditions for the optimal and equitable development of children today, especially those who suffer the brunt of insecurity on a daily basis, it is the society of tomorrow that we are jeopardizing.

ECW: From your unique vantage point as Burkina Faso’s Minister of National Education and Literacy, do you have any words of advice for our readers around the world, who are committed to education for countries affected by crisis, like Burkina Faso.

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: We are delighted to know that there are people around the world who are committed to the education of children and youth in areas affected by crisis situations, such as those in certain regions of Burkina Faso. It seems very easy to destroy; but building, and above all, educating girls and boys to become productive, responsible adults, is a long-term endeavor which requires a lot of love, patience, selflessness, self-sacrifice, etc. We would like to assure ECW’s readers that we are doing everything we can to ensure that children and youth in areas affected by crises and other natural disasters in our country can benefit from an accessible, safe, inclusive, protective quality education. We would like to point out that taking an interest in, and learning about, the education situation in areas affected by the security crisis in Burkina Faso is already a significant step. This is support that we appreciate, applaud and encourage! Talking about it with friends and relatives is already taking a form of action. This is how we will establish a chain of solidarity on an international scale to overcome the destructive forces which try to destroy what is the best in humanity: brotherhood and sisterhood. Together, we are never alone.

ECW: In conclusion, we would like to learn a bit more about you on a personal level. We know that you are a mathematician and graduated with your doctorate based upon your thesis, ‘Etude de problèmes elliptiques-paraboliques nonlinéaires en une dimension d’espace’. Could you tell us about the three books that have influenced you the most, and why?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: I will cite two books that have really influenced me in my life. These are the books “A quand l’Afrique” by Joseph Ki-Zerbo, and “Il s’appelait Sankara” by Sennen Andriamirado. For me these two books mainly have two things in common. First, they talk about two illustrious African politicians, President Thomas Sankara and the historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo. These two characters constitute benchmarks for the youth of our countries through the journey of their careers – and for their love of the African continent in general and for their country Burkina Faso in particular. Secondly, these two works tell us that Africa cannot be developed by people other than by Africans themselves, hence the famous statement of Joseph Ki-Zerbo: “One does not develop X or Y, one develops oneself.” According to both of them, Africa must conquer its identity and be proud of its contribution to the human adventure.

 

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By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

The Pacific Island Developing State of Vanuatu has emerged as one of the region’s great success stories. Vanuatu has joined the ranks of Samoa and the Maldives as one of only six countries to graduate from being a least developed country, since the category was introduced by the United Nations in 1971.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

This historic achievement is the result of major development gains and strategic planning. It shows that the country has successfully raised levels of income and improved social development indicators, with marked declines in mortality rates and significant progress in education. All of these are among the factors the UN regards as critical in determining whether a country is considered as a least developed country or not.

Yet despite these development successes, accelerated actions are urgently needed to ensure Vanuatu can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Upon graduation, Vanuatu will no longer be eligible for international support measures granted to least developed countries. Unilateral and non-reciprocal trade preferences under Duty-Free Quota-Free schemes from various developed and developing trading partners will be off the table.

Fortunately, based on current trading patterns, the overall impact of losing preferential market access will be minimal, as more than half of Vanuatu’s main exports are being traded under negotiated duty-free market access arrangements, rather than afforded under least developed country concessional measures. Vanuatu will also remain eligible for financing on concessional terms under the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) as it is afforded a special status as a ‘small island economy’.

Importantly, Vanuatu will benefit from an improved country-image after graduation, which may attract larger flows of foreign direct investment as several other graduated countries have experienced.

Graduation is however taking place at a time of significant risks to the global economic situation. Unexpected shocks such as the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic are posing grave challenges to development.

Despite acting swiftly when confronted with the rapid spread of COVID-19, taking steps such as banning travel among islands, closing international borders and imposing curfews on businesses – the impact on Vanuatu has been severe. The resulting collapse of tourism has had widespread repercussions on the economy, with arrivals declining by 65 per cent in the year to July compared to the previous year. This contributed to an estimated 70 per cent job or income loss in the first six weeks after borders were closed and is an important factor in the decline in output of 8.3 per cent expected in Vanuatu for this year. The country also recorded its first official case of COVID-19 in November, having successfully warded off the virus for many months.

As a developing country, Vanuatu still remains vulnerable to other external shocks. The threats of climate change are very real. The first category 5 tropical cyclone of 2020, Tropical Cyclone Harold, demonstrated this as it passed over Espiritu Santo, Pentecost Island and Ambrym earlier this year, displacing an estimated 80,000 Ni-Vanuatu people, equivalent to over 27 percent of the nation’s population. This was the second strongest cyclone to affect Vanuatu, following Tropical Cyclone Pam of 2015, which suggests such storms are becoming more frequent as our climate changes.

The UN family has supported Vanuatu in its independence since 1980. Its regional development arm, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has been providing development assistance to Vanuatu since it became a member in 1984. More recently, this support has included identifying avenues to mobilize financial resources domestically in recognition that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require significant resources, especially in such a vulnerable environment.

Dedicated technical support has been provided since 2017 to assist Vanuatu produce its smooth transition strategy (STS), built upon Vanuatu 2030 The Peoples Plan – the National Sustainable Development Plan for 2016 to 2030 – that reflects the unique identity of the Ni-Vanuatu people. At the same time, ESCAP has provided advisory services to the National Coordinating Committee on Least Developing Countries Graduation, which oversaw the formulation of the STS and decided on its associated follow-up actions.

As we focus on building back better in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESCAP stands ready, along with the UN family, to continue supporting Vanuatu in its development aspirations and in implementing the STS. This includes support to link the STS with budgets, offering specialized technical assistance to strengthen capacities in trade negotiations and developing productive capacities in Vanuatu, thereby enabling better structural transformation and diversification of the economy.

This year, Vanuatu celebrates 40 years since its independence. By working together, we can build resilience to external shocks in the Pacific region to ensure the next stage in Vanuatu’s development journey will continue to be a success story in the decades to come.

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

 

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In the background can be seen the gigantic Cauchari Solar Park and in the foreground are tolas, typical drought-resistant shrubs of the Puna highland plateau. The largest plant of its kind in operation in South America is in the middle of nowhere, a few kilometres from the Kolla community of Puesto Sey, where there are now 962,496 solar panels. CREDIT: Cauchari Solar

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

The unprecedented growth of renewable energies in Argentina over the last three years has borne its greatest fruit: the Cauchari solar park, with nearly one million photovoltaic panels and 300 MW of installed power, which was connected to the national power grid on Sept. 26.

The solar park is located in the extreme northwest province of Jujuy some 1,700 km from Buenos Aires, near the borders with Chile and Bolivia, with whom it shares the Puna ecoregion of high Andean plains covered by grasses and shrubs.

The initiative cost 390 million dollars and is the latest reflection of China’s involvement in the Latin American economy: not only the two construction companies but also most of the financing came from the Asian giant."It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region…It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world." -- Guillermo Hoerth

An indigenous shepherd tending his llamas or a herd of wild vicuñas that flee as soon as they see a vehicle approaching are the only sights that attract the visitor’s attention – as IPS found on a recent visit to the area – in the solitude of the arid Cauchari environment, which covers some 800 hectares in the Argentine Puna, at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres.

Between September 2018 and October 2019, 2,664 trucks with containers loaded with Chinese components and technology arrived at this remote spot so far from the large centres of electricity consumption, where water is scarce and it is hard to breathe because of the altitude.

Previously they had disembarked in the Chilean port of Antofagasta, on the Pacific Ocean, or in the Argentinean port of Zarate, on the Atlantic.

“It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region,” Guillermo Hoerth, president of Cauchari Solar, a company owned by Jujuy province, told IPS by phone.

“It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world,” Hoerth added.

The president of the plant explained that the intense solar radiation throughout the year is combined with low temperatures, which help the panels retain heat and make the Puna an extraordinary place for this type of renewable energy.

Cauchari is the greatest success story of the Law of National Promotion of the use of Renewable Energies for the Production of Electric Power, passed by Congress in September 2015.

The new law modified the electric mix of this Southern Cone country, which is the third-largest economy in Latin America, built until then almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, large hydroelectric dams and, to a much lesser extent, nuclear energy.

According to official data, 135 new renewable energy projects, mostly solar and wind, have been launched in Argentina since 2016. The ones already in operation and those that are still under construction represent a combined total of 4,776 MW of installed power, with an estimated investment of close to 7.2 billion dollars.

The entrance to Cauchari Solar Park is reached by a desolate dirt road about 40 kilometres long that connects to paved highway 52, which in the northern province of Jujuy leads to the Chilean border. Technically there are three solar parks, to get around the 100 MW limit set by the tender. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

The most graphic reflection of the rise in renewable sources, which under the law have priority over conventional sources, is that they accounted for 9.1 percent of the electricity consumed in Argentina in the first 10 months of 2020 and climbed to a record 11.9 percent in October. Although it must be kept in mind that this occurred in a context of falling electricity consumption due to the drop in economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, renewable sources, which until three years ago represented less than two percent of electricity generation in Argentina, reached – with a slight delay – the goal of contributing eight percent of electric power, which Law 27191 of 2015 had set for Dec. 31, 2017.

The law outlines a second stage of the plan, with a goal of reaching 20 percent by 2025. But experts believe this will be virtually impossible to achieve.

The global economic crisis and Argentina’s financing problems – this year the country restructured almost 66 billion dollars of debt with private creditors and still owes some 52 billion dollars to the IMF – are major obstacles.

But they are not the only ones.

“Argentina is a large country, with great potential for solar energy in the north and wind energy in the south,” economist Julián Rojo of the General Mosconi Argentine Institute of Energy, a non-governmental research organisation, told IPS.

But “the problem is that for transporting electricity to the centres of consumption there is a lack of high voltage lines, which today are close to saturation. And there is no intention of investing in new ones,” he said in a telephone conversation.

An engineer oversees the installation of the panels during the construction of the solar park, which involved the arrival of more than 2,600 trucks carrying Chinese technology to a remote area in the Puna high mountain plateau in the northwest of Argentina. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

In Rojo’s view, Argentina does not currently need additional electricity generation, because peak demand was reached in 2017 and, if necessary, the country has an important gas pipeline network that makes it more convenient to build thermal power plants near the centres of consumption.

Making an offering to Pacha Mama for the expansion of the solar park

Marcelo Nieder, director of renewable energy in Jujuy province, told IPS that such a remote location was chosen to build the Cauchari solar park not only because of the excellent solar radiation in the Puna ecoregion, but also because a high-voltage line built in 1999 to export electricity to Chile passes through the area.

“Chile used it to supply its mining industry, but since 2006 Argentina stopped selling to Chile, so there was a possibility to take advantage of the power line,” he explained by phone from Jujuy, also the name of the provincial capital.

Because this high voltage line still has transport capacity the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, visited Cauchari in October to make an offering to the Pacha Mama – Mother Earth for the indigenous people of the Andean region – and to ask for an expansion of the solar park, up to 500 MW of power.

“We have already designed the expansion and we are betting that China will finance it, as in the case of the park that was already inaugurated,” Felipe Albornoz, president of Jujuy Energía y Minería Sociedad del Estado (JEMSE), the state-run energy and mining company that manages Cauchari, told IPS by phone from the provincial capital.

China’s state-owned Eximbank financed most of the construction, with a 330 million dollar loan that the province of Jujuy must pay back over 30 years, at an annual interest rate of 2.9 percent.

The remaining 60 million dollars were obtained through a green bond issued in the United States, for which the province of Jujuy is trying to postpone the maturity date, according to Albornoz.

Signs in Spanish and Chinese are an unexpected sight in the middle of the untamed landscape of Argentina’s Puna high mountain plateau and are a reflection of China’s heavy involvement in the development of solar power in Latin America. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

The president of JEMSE explained that Jujuy expects to sell power to the national electricity market for about 25 million dollars a year. The company projects that Cauchari will produce 840,000 MW/hour per year, which would save the emission of 325,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent into the atmosphere, thanks to the reduction in the use of fossil fuels.

Two percent of the net profits will go to Puesto Sey, a Kolla indigenous community that has collective rights over the land where there is now an endless expanse of solar panels.

The irony is that Puesto Sey, like the other communities in the area, do not receive electricity from Cauchari because they are not connected to the national grid.

Most of the villages and small towns in the Puna, mainly inhabited by Kolla indigenous people, are supplied with electricity from diesel-fueled generators, although in recent years some small local solar parks have been built.

Nor does Cauchari make a difference today in terms of local employment, because although the two-year construction process employed more than 1,500 people, the plant itself only needs 60 to 70 highly specialised technicians.

And perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether Argentina or any other Latin American country will ever be able to supply such large renewable energy projects with local technology.

Hoerth told IPS that the construction process brought about 100 million dollars to Jujuy’s domestic market, since 22.7 percent of the plant’s electromechanical components were domestically made.

However, the president of Cauchari said the local manufacture of technology for renewable energy sources is still a distant dream.

“I wish we could develop a national industry. But it is very complicated because China has reached such cheap costs that it has flooded the European market,” he said.

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Farmers in Indonesia’s West Java province. Indonesia’s agriculture sector is facing two major issues – decreases in both the number of farmers and irrigated rice fields. Credit: Kanis Dursin/IPS

By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

When his friends prodded him to use an agricultural app in July, rice farmer Mustafa reluctantly downloaded RiTx Bertani into his smart phone. Four months later, he feels happy to have given the technology a try.

“I started using the application in early September when I planted rice on 0.7 hectare of irrigated land,” the 41-year-old told IPS last month in a phone interview from Bondowoso regency in East Java, a one-hour flight east of the capital Jakarta.

“I cannot tell yet if it helps boost production or not, but I am very happy with the technology. It helped me detect and identify a rice disease in late September. We had always called rice diseases brown planthopper before and used the same medicines to control the disease. Thanks to the technology, we now know different rice diseases and can use appropriate insecticides to deal with them,” said the father of two.

Developed by start-up tech company PT Mitra Sejahtera Membangun Bangsa (MSMB), RiTx Bertani is designed to help farmers deal with climate change and other problems they may have through digital technology. RiTx comes from the words agriculture technology, while Bertani literally means farming.

Another farmer, Kurlufi, meanwhile, said he downloaded the application in 2018 but uninstalled it shortly after as he found it less helpful for his chilli crop. Earlier this year, he decided to reinstall it as the price of chilli suddenly dropped.

“The price of chilli has dropped sharply since the coronavirus hit the country in March. I looked for alternative crops when the application suggested that my field was suitable for cucumber,” the 42-year-old father of two told IPS from Banyuwangi regency, also in East Java.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 18,366 people as of today (Dec.10) has forced people to work from home and plant vegetables at their backyards, driving down the price of food crops due to low demand.

Kurlufi owns 0.95 hectares of farm land. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, he has planted cucumber on 0.6 hectares of his field for two successive seasons, harvesting eight kilograms of cucumber seeds in the first season and 18 kilograms in the second. Each season last for almost three months.

“I sold the seeds for Rp450,000 (US$32) per kilogram to a local company,” he said.

“I find the technology very useful for people who have no prior or little experience in farming. In my case, it helps me decide what crops to plant and when to hire workers to do the pollination as it provides weather forecasts for the next six to seven days,” Kurlufi added.

Mustafa and Kurlufi are two of 11,000 farmers in eight provinces in Indonesia using RiTx Bertani, one of dozens of agricultural apps currently available as the government promotes Smart Farming 4.0 or digitised agriculture.

MSMB project manager Rizal Dwi Prastyo said they have both hardware — in the form of on-field sensors, which are connected to the internet — and software — in the form of the RiTx Bertani app.

“Users have to submit detailed information about their fields, including the size, borders, latitude, and longitude for the sensors to locate. Once the sensors detect the fields, they immediately measure the soil’s moisture and air temperature and feeds those information to the internet,” Prastyo told IPS from Yogyakarta, a 50-minute flight east of Jakarta.

One sensor, which costs approximately $2,700, covers an area of 10 hectares of land.

Based on the soil’s current moisture, Prastyo said, agriculture experts at the company provide suggestions to farmers through the app on what crops suit their land best for the next planting season.

“Throughout the season, the sensors measure soil moisture and air humidity every 10 minutes and upload them into the internet. Users can read the feeds through the app under the sensor menu. Farmers need this kind of information to apply fertiliser or spray pesticides, if needed,” he continued.

The application, Prastyo said, also allows farmers to record all farming activity and save them under a record menu so they know exactly when next to apply fertiliser or spray pesticides or insecticides. Farmers can also ask for additional assistance through the online forum.

Activist Said Iqbal of non-governmental organisation People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty welcomed the use of apps in farming but said he doubted that digitised agriculture would improve the welfare of farmers and help the country achieve food sovereignty in the immediate future.

“Digitising the agriculture sector is unavoidable now but the root of the matter is farmers find no incentive to boost production. Why? Because they control on-farm activities only, while upstream and downstream activities are controlled by big businesses. It has become a public knowledge that intermediaries or traders earn more than twice of farmers’ earnings,” he said.

He also said most farmers in Indonesia were small holders, with each owning an average of 0.2 hectares of irrigated land. “Because of that condition, many farmers choose to sell their productive land and work as cheap labour, further reducing irrigated fields, especially on Java Island,” Iqbal said.

Another activist, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko of the Alliance for Prosperous Village, agreed with Iqbal, saying that Indonesia’s agriculture sector was facing two major issues – decreases in both the number of farmers and irrigated rice fields.

Quoting a report by the Central Statistics Agency or BPS, Jatmiko told a webinar in Jakarta that the country had only 33.4 million farmers in 2019, down from 35.6 million in 2015, while irrigated fields stood at 10.68 million hectares in 2019, down by 700 hectares from 2018.

These conditions have resulted in fluctuations in rice production, forcing the government to import rice to meet the needs of over 270 million people. BPS reports show that the country imported 444,508 tons of rice in 2019, down from 2.25 million tons in 2018, 305,270 tons in 2017, and 1.28 million tons in 2016.

However, in terms of sustainable agriculture, Indonesia has a score of 61.1 out of 100,where 100 is the highest sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic Key Performance Indicators. This is according to the Food Sustainability Index, developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition. 

In a bid to increase farmers’ welfare, since 2017 President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has promoted farmer corporation, where farmers are organised into business ventures, founded and financed by farmers themselves, with the aim of controlling both on-farm and off-farm activities in the agricultural sector.

Dr. Syahyuti, a researcher with the Indonesian Center of Socio-Economic and Agricultural Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture, said under the corporation concept, farmers are also involved in the provision of seeds, fertiliser, agricultural machines, and capital with on-farm activities, and buying, milling, and selling rice in off-farm activities.

Based on experiences in some sub-districts, Syahyuti said farmers corporations increased farmers’ income by 72 percent.

While the government is working to organise farmers into business groups, Mustafa is upbeat that digitised agriculture will help increase the number of farmers in Indonesia.

“I notice the number of people tilling land in the district has increased since [using] the RiTx Bertani [app]. Many of them are young and unexperienced. I get the impression that with the technology arming is no longer a dirty job, but a lifestyle that more and more people embrace,” Mustafa said.

 

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Credit: Forus International

By Bibbi Abruzzini
PARIS, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

On Human Rights Day, civil society calls for the protection of civic space as a fundamental freedom, as more than 80% of the world’s population live in countries where civic space is closed, repressed or obstructed.

Protecting civil society and fundamental freedoms means protecting the rights to associate and assemble, to express views and opinions. Civic space is the bedrock of any open and democratic society. When civic space is open, citizens and civil society organizations are able to organize, participate and communicate, claiming their rights and influencing the political and social structures around them. But this is not the case for most citizens around the world, new data unveils.

A recent study on Enabling Environment, with data from over 40 National NGO platforms, by Forus, Cooperation Canada, and AidWatch Canada, finds that 40% of NGO platforms continue to face high levels of impunity in the use of excessive force against human rights, gender and environmental defenders, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.

For 50% of NGO platforms, national laws and regulations are a key barrier to civil society activities in their country. In times of Covid, hurdles have multiplied, with 68% of NGO platforms noting that the health crisis was used to justify restrictions on their activities within the boundaries of legal and regulatory frameworks, and for 23%, the health crisis led to increased arbitrary restrictions.

“We’ve been really alarmed and we’ve spoken loudly through our megaphones, wherever we have been able to speak up, to say that governments should stop using the state of emergency to crack down on civil society,” says Sarah Brandt from Globalt Fokus, the Danish national platform of NGOs.

Some groups are more subject to harassment or interference by the government than others. In Cambodia, media outlets are particularly targeted. In Spain, the Occupy movement and those fighting against la “ley mordazas” or “gag law” introducing limitations on protests and imposing administrative sanctions against demonstrators both online and offline. In Colombia, Chile and Argentina, organisations representing indigenous, social leaders and trade unions are routinely scrutinized and attacked. In the UK, organisations that work with migrants, refugees, and the Muslim community face continuous pressures. In Denmark, the organisations being targeted include anti-establishment groups such as ANTIFA and Extinction Rebellion.

With increased surveillance, persecution and violence, only half of NGO platforms turn to national governments as institutional channels to promote accountability for attacks on civil society, while over two thirds use Human Rights Councils and the judiciary system. This shows the crucial role played by human rights institutions, which continue to be guardians of fundamental rights and never cease upholding democratic values.

Credit: Forus International

Carlos Andrés Orellana Cruz, joined ASONOG, the Honduran national platform of civil society organisations, to support local communities defending their territory from mining projects in one of the world’s most infertile lands when it comes to human and civil rights.

“The only way to protect ourselves is by protecting others. No struggle is or should be isolated, social change cannot happen in small groups of people seeking quotas of power, but in an active and mobilized citizen participation, with effective exchange of knowledge and commitment to principles of social justice and democracy,” Carlos explains.

In countries like Honduras, this is becoming increasingly difficult, as 2019 marked the deadliest year worldwide for frontline activists. In 2020, according to CIVICUS, attacks continued to target activists as well as journalists, and the Honduran government introduced a new criminal code enabling the criminalization of these actors. This dire context is coupled with the little support civil society receives from institutional channels. 42% of NGO platforms report examples of efforts by governments or other major development actor to actively discredit their work.

Lockdown has forced many protests off the streets, yet changes in the digital environment, including the implementation of new technologies, software and access to information, have positively contributed to an enabling environment for civil society, according to a third of NGO platforms interviewed in the study. In contrast, 40% have experienced mixed to negative impacts and 15% merely negative impacts, as online spaces exacerbate the risk of widening the digital gap, privacy breaches and crackdowns.

For activists like Yasmine Ouirhrane, former Young European of the Year and Founder & Podcast Host at We Belong, digital realms have opened new spaces for much needed cross-cultural dialogues. With her online platform and podcast she amplifies the voice of the “new daughters of Europe”, focusing on conversations with young women representing the diversity of the region, breaking stereotypes, navigating multiple identities, and challenging the conventional wisdom of what it means to “belong”.

“As Youth, we have been great advocates for our own rights. We have been outspoken: raising our concerns, tweeting our moods, demonstrating during Fridays for OUR future, even gaining seats at the decision-making table,” says Yasmine. “Yet, not all of us can speak up, not all of us are heard, not all of us are seen. Stories remain untold. The road for inclusion is still long and it’s time that we reflect on the invisible youth, the ones that have no means or hope to engage”.

The Forus Enabling Environment study calls for the inclusion of civil society in policy dialogues especially in rural and regional settings, in local languages and using diverse and locally appropriate technologies.

Only 7,5% of NGO platforms indicated that their governments effectively support civil society organisations with more limited capacities and resources.

This needs to change. Promoting a healthy civil society means protecting fundamental human rights, essential to the creation and maintenance of civic space, but more importantly of a healthy and just society.

The new report by Forus , Cooperation Canada and AidWatch Canada was produced with the financial support from Bread for the World and the French Development Agency.

 

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Excerpt:

Bibbi Abruzzini, Forus Communication team, Paris.

The post If Your Civic Space is Closed, your Human Rights Dissolve appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The United Nations is conducting a 16-day social media campaign from 25 November to 9 December for its 2020 Campaign: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The 16 Days of Activism is a worldwide campaign calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence (GBV). Credit: International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)

By Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera Balleza
NEW YORK, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic is NOT the biggest pandemic the world confronts at the moment, despite over 69 million cases and 1.5 million deaths worldwide.1 If it’s not COVID, what is it then? It is violence against women!

Globally, 243 million women and girls aged 15-49 have been subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the past 12 months alone.2 The figure increases by 30 per cent if the violence experienced by women and girls in their lifetime is added.3

These numbers are likely underestimates, since many women do not report sexual and intimate partner violence due to stigma associated with it. The UN Women policy brief on COVID-19 and VAW points out that less than 40 per cent of the women who have experienced violence seek help.

Those who do, often turn to family and friends, and less than 10 per cent report to the police. This perpetuates a culture of impunity as perpetrators go unpunished.

The data clearly shows that violence against women and girls is a global emergency, which requires urgent action. It can take many forms, from human trafficking and sexual slavery, through rape and forced sexual acts, to bettering and sexual harassment—on the street, at workplace, school and online.

Harmful cultural practices – such as female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage are also forms of violence against women and girls. The list goes on.

Gender-based violence can happen to anyone, anytime, and anywhere. However, some women and girls are particularly vulnerable. Some of them are young girls and older women, women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex, migrant, refugee and displaced women and girls, indigenous women and girls, women and girls from ethnic and religious minorities, women and girls with disabilities, and those living in situations of conflict and humanitarian crises.

The threat of violence faced by millions of women and men around the world has been compounded by the security, health, and economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are trapped at home with their abusers, while women’s shelters and domestic violence hotlines are struggling to meet demands.

As the world grapples with COVID-19, it is also past time to take concrete action to address the shadow pandemic of violence against women and girls.

United Nations response

There is no shortage in UN campaigns, programs, task forces and initiatives that all aim to end violence against women and girls

Groups such as the Group of Friends for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls and the Action Coalition for Gender-based violence bring together civil society, Member States, UN agencies, international organizations, and philanthropies provide space for sharing lessons learned, coordinating action and mobilizing resources to end violence against women and girls.

The Spotlight Initiative, a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations launched in 2019 has committed a record €500 million to end violence against women and girls.

Advocacy and communications campaigns such as the UNiTE by 2030 campaign managed by UN Women, call on governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the private sector, the media, and the entire UN system to join forces in addressing the global pandemic of violence against women and girls.

There is also the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee), all of which have specific but related mandates that address violence against women and girls.

How effective is the UN response to violence against women and girls? The effectiveness of the UN response was put to a major test by the outbreak of COVID-19. The massive increase in the incidence of violence against women and girls is an indication that the response is ineffective—or at best—insufficient.

While one could argue that the weakness of individual Member States both in managing the pandemic and addressing violence against women and girls cannot be attributed to the UN, the shortcomings brought to light by the pandemic beg the question: how can the UN improve Member States’ compliance with and implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and its supporting resolutions?

All of these are powerful international laws that call on the UN and Member States to take concrete actions on this issue. However, the pandemic has demonstrated that actions taken to date have barely scratched the surface of the complex and pervasive issue of violence against women and girls. An effective and sustainable response requires structural changes, and a re-evaluation of global priorities!

The UN Secretary-General’s call

The current global priorities are most clearly visible if we follow the money. USD $1.9 trillion! This is how much the world spent to run military institutions in 2019, the largest annual increase in military expenditure since 2010.4 Let that sink in!!!

Meanwhile, women’s shelters are underfunded, many women—including victims of sexual violence—do not have access to quality healthcare, including maternal and reproductive health, and many women’s rights organizations are struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To end violence against women, Member States and donors need to put their money where their mouths are. It is not only the right and necessary choice—it is also a smart investment.

According to the World Bank, violence against women is estimated to cost countries up to 3.7% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—more than double what most governments spend on education.5

UN Women estimates that cost to be approximately $1.5 trillion6 – almost at the level of the record-high military expenditures. Preventing violence against women and girls first and foremost saves lives—but it can also save money.

In his 2020 report on Women and Peace and Security, the Secretary-General drew attention to the stark difference between soaring rates of military spending and the strains in social protection systems including the unavailability of necessary health care that disproportionately impact women and girls. It also underlined how bilateral aid to women’s organizations in fragile or conflict-affected countries has stagnated at 0.2 per cent of total bilateral aid ($96 million on average per year).

The Secretary-General’s report marks the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325, arguably the most important international law that address violence against women and girls in conflict situations. It presents five goals for the next decade.

It called on the international community to “Reverse the upward trajectory in global military spending with a view to encouraging greater investment in the social infrastructure and services that buttress human security.”

Moreover, the Secretary-General urged Member States to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty, control the availability of armaments; to promote the participation of women in all arms control and disarmament processes and forums; and to reduce excessive military expenditures.

The current context calls for renewed efforts to curb military spending, which has been a chief strategic objective of the women’s movement for peace, he further stressed.

Complementing his call for reduced military spending, the other goal presented by the Secretary-General is to galvanize the donor community for universal compliance with a minimum of 15 per cent of ODA to conflict-affected countries dedicated to advancing gender equality, and the remaining 85 per cent to integrate gender considerations, including multiplying by five the direct assistance to women’s organizations.

The reduction of military spending does not only represent the possibility of financial resources that could support women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence as well as predictable core funds to women’s rights organizations.

It is also an opportunity to generate stronger political commitment to disarmament and arms control and eliminate the threats posed by the estimated one billion small arms that are circulating globally. It can also lead to preventing the use of arms to commit or facilitate serious acts of violence against women and girls.

We, in the women, peace and security community as well as all actors working on gender equality, human rights, and the elimination of violence against women and girls must waste no time.

Let us all come together and seize the moment to present our evidence-based analysis, and policy recommendations in order to influence policy outcomes and decisions that divert weapons spending to fund civil society’s initiatives to end violence against women and girls, and COVID-19 response and recovery.

1 Worldometer, “COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic”, Updated 9 December 2020. Accessed from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
2 UN Women, “COVID-19 and Ending Violence Against Women and Girls”, 2020. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/issue-brief-covid-19-and-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5006
3 World Health Organization, “Global and Regional Estimates of Violence Against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-Partner Sexual Violence”, 2013. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/85239
4 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, “Global military expenditure sees largest annual increase in a decade—says SIPRI—reaching $1917 billion in 2019”, 27 April 2020. Available at: https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2020/global-military-expenditure-sees-largest-annual-increase-decade-says-sipri-reaching-1917-billion
5 World Bank, “Gender-Based Violence (Violence Against Women and Girls)”, 25 September 2019. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/socialsustainability/brief/violence-against-women-and-girls
6 UN-Women, “COVID-19 and ending violence against women and girls”, 2020. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/issue-brief-covid-19-and-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-en.pdf?la=en&vs=5006.

 

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Maria Victoria (Mavic) Cabrera Balleza is Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Global Network of Women Peacebuilders

The post Reduce Military Spending – the Much-Needed Response to Violence Against Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Defenders Coalition

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

On 10 December every year, we celebrate Human Rights Day, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration guarantees a spectrum of human rights that belong to each of us equally, and unite us as a global community and upholds our humanity.

This year, 2020, has been one of unprecedented challenges and has underscored the need for renewed action to promote and protect human rights. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested societies across the globe, and set back human rights gains and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In Kenya, the multi-faceted impacts of the pandemic – on gender equality, health, education, livelihoods, rule of law and the economy – have tested efforts by the Government, United Nations, development partners and civil society to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, Vision 2030 and the Big 4 development agenda, and challenged us to ensure that we leave no one behind.

The crisis has hit the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest, and entrenched existing inequalities, discrimination and human rights challenges. Gender-based violence has skyrocketed; loss of employment and livelihoods have put further strain on families; the right to education is at risk for many children, particularly girls; and inequalities in access to water, adequate housing and health services have heightened vulnerabilities.

In this context, the theme of Human Rights Day 2020 is “Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights”, highlighting the need to build back better from the COVID-19 crisis by putting human rights at the heart of recovery efforts. This is a call to action and for unity of purpose to tackle discrimination, address inequalities, encourage participation and solidarity, and promote sustainable development for the benefit of all.

As the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, once remarked, “The pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world”. The crisis has exposed and exacerbated deep inequalities, entrenched discrimination and gaps in human rights protection. Only measures to close these gaps and advance human rights can ensure we fully recover and build back a world that is more resilient, just and sustainable.

COVID-19 has created an opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world – based on a “new social contract” that respects the rights and freedoms of all, and addresses the inequalities exposed by the pandemic. This “new social contract” – uniting Governments, the people, civil society and private sector – is the only way that we will meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

In this Decade of Action to deliver upon the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it is imperative to prioritise participation and inclusion, to ensure that we leave no one behind. Successful COVID-19 recovery efforts require the robust participation of civil society and inclusion of communities, to ensure the voices and priorities of the most affected, vulnerable and marginalised inform the recovery efforts. Public participation is a key tenet of the Constitution of Kenya, and has a key role to play in the COVID-19 recovery.

It is clear that this pandemic cannot be surmounted by a single actor. It is against this backdrop that the United Nations Country Team and the Government of Kenya, in line with the motto Umoja ni Nguvu (Unity is Strength), have identified strategic areas of cooperation and engagement under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, as well as the Socio-Economic Response Plan, that target COVID-19 recovery needs and continue the trajectory towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This is underpinned by a human rights-based approach that prioritises equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, and accountability.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that we are all in this together – and solidarity is the only way forward. Everyone has a role to play in building a better post-COVID world for present and future generations, and we must harness the active participation of communities, civil society, private sector, Government and the international community.

On this Human Rights Day, let us all commit to Stand Up for Human Rights to build back a more equal and sustainable society that advances the rights and freedoms of all. This unity of purpose will pave the way to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and delivering upon Kenya’s Vision 2030.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya

 

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The Escazú Agreement is the first binding instrument of its kind in the world to include provisions on environmental defenders. Credit: David Paniagua / Amnesty International.

By Graciela Martinez
MEXICO, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

The global health crisis that has marked 2020 did not put an end to another pandemic that has been plaguing Latin America and the Caribbean: murders and attacks against environmental defenders.

While COVID-19 may have eclipsed the momentum built up by young activists globally around the climate emergency in 2019, their efforts – together with those of organizations and coalitions from all over the region – have resulted in a positive outcome in this most difficult of years: more than 11 countries have now ratified the Escazú Agreement, meaning it will finally enter into force. Another 21 countries in the region have yet to join, however.

UN representatives have emphasized that the pandemic should be seen as a wake-up call to reconsider our relationship with the environment rather than as an excuse to bring progress towards protecting our planet to a halt. This is why the Escazú Agreement is more important now than ever.

In March 2018, governments from Latin America and the Caribbean agreed the region’s first binding treaty to protect the rights of individuals and groups in relation to accessing information, participation and justice in environmental matters.

Graciela Martínez. Credit: Credit: Courtesy of the author.

Costa Rica and Chile were at the forefront of these negotiations in the run up to its adoption. Costa Rica, however, is still in the process of ratifying the text, which is tabled before its Legislative Assembly, and Chile has yet to sign it. This latter’s failure to do so is all the more surprising and contradictory since it has, in the past, been a leading international force in environmental protection, even chairing the COP25.

The Escazú Agreement is innovative, for one thing because it is the first binding instrument of its kind in the world to include provisions on environmental defenders. The agreement recognizes the importance of such people’s work and obliges states to ensure their protection by establishing guidelines on appropriate and effective measures that can be taken to ensure they are able to work in safety.

These provisions are in response to the hostile climate faced by environmental defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean. Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras are some of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to defend land, territory and environment, according to the latest report by the international organization Global Witness.

It is no coincidence that virtually none of these countries have yet ratified the Escazú Agreement (the Mexican Senate approved its ratification just one month ago). Furthermore, according to this same report, Honduras – which suffers the highest per capita number of murders of environmental defenders – has not even signed it.

Two other major countries that have yet to ratify it and where Amnesty International has documented attacks against people defending the land and the environment in recent years are Peru and Paraguay.

There are a number of cases that can be used to illustrate this context, some of them better known than others, but all of which we have been working on in recent years.

The indigenous Lenca defender Berta Cáceres was murdered in Honduras in 2016 as a result of her opposition to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project. She was coordinator of the Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).

Then there is the indigenous Rarámuri defender Julián Carrillo, murdered two years ago in the Sierra Tarahumara, in northern Mexico, after expressing his opposition to a mining concession in his community’s territory because of its social and environmental impacts. Both families are continuing to seek justice.

There are others who are still alive but either in prison or displaced from their homes. In Guatemala, Bernardo Caal Xol, indigenous leader of the Q’eqchi’ Maya people and prisoner of conscience, has been unfairly incarcerated for more than two years now for defending the rights of the communities of Santa María Cahabón, which have been affected by the construction of the OXEC hydroelectric plant on the Oxec and Cahabón rivers.

Danelly Estupiñán, defender of the rights of Afro-descendent communities in Colombia, was forced to leave her home after receiving threats and harassment.

Almost all of these people had been granted some form of protective measures in their respective countries but these have not managed to address the structural causes of the violence they face. It is also no coincidence that all these individuals come from the different cultural backgrounds that make up Latin America and the Caribbean’s diversity.

It is precisely this diversity that the Escazú Agreement recognizes and, although it does not explicitly refer to the right to free, prior and informed consultation as recognized in International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169, the two instruments are clearly complementary.

This point is really important because behind many of these socio-environmental conflicts lies a lack of information and inclusion in the decision-making process on the part of those affected and a lack of effective mechanisms for accessing justice.

This is most evident in the case of indigenous and tribal peoples, whose exclusion is historical. The right to access information on environmental matters, key to the Escazú Agreement, is part of the informed consent of indigenous and tribal peoples, as is effective participation through legitimate representation and the incorporation and facilitation of traditional decision-making methods.

Of the 33 countries in the region, 24 have already signed the Escazú Agreement and 12 have ratified it. Argentina and Mexico still have to deposit the instrument with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to make it official. Once one of them does so, the agreement will enter into force 90 days later.

Countries that have not yet ratified it can still continue the process. The period for depositing signatures closed on 26 September but the nine countries that have not yet signed can now adhere to the agreement.

There is still a long way to go before we even consider what implementing the Escazú Agreement will mean for each country. But today, on the 22nd anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, when the International Day of Human Rights Defenders is commemorated, Latin America and the Caribbean can celebrate the fact that the region has this year taken an historic step and, unless there are any last minute surprises, will soon finally have an instrument in response to at least one of the region’s pandemics.

Graciela Martinez is Amnesty International’s campaigner for human rights defenders in the Americas

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Yasmine Sherif

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

Education is not a privilege. It is a fundamental human right. Yet, education is undervalued even at the best of times. We often fail to connect the dots between the right to education and the realization of all human rights. As noted by the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen, we have failed to give ‘this massive potential in transforming human lives’ the attention it deserves.

This is true especially in times of crisis. When conflicts, forced displacement and natural disasters occur, education is generally the first service interrupted and the last to be resumed, receiving the least amount of funding in humanitarian settings. Between 2010 and 2017, less than 3% of humanitarian funds were allocated to education. In an active crisis, education is lifesaving. It brings an element of protection from violence, provides mental health and psychosocial support and provides nutrition. In protracted crisis settings, the development of the child or adolescent is just as important. Still, educational needs tend to be put on the backburner, overshadowed by other sectors. This is not to say that water and shelter are not important. However, with humanitarian crises lasting for years, the lack of a quality education inevitably removes the foundation for human rights and real empowerment becomes elusive.

Education is a fundamental human right. It is the key to unlocking all other human rights – be it social, economic or cultural rights, or political and civil rights. The right to employment, the right to health, freedom of expression, the right to a free and fair trial, and the overarching prohibition against discrimination – all of these rights rest on the foundation of a quality education: to be able to claim, enjoy, protect and respect these rights. This is ever more important in countries affected by armed conflict, where the rule of law often is replaced by the rule by force.

Education’s impact on poverty is a prime example. According to the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report: ‘171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty if all children left school with basic reading skills’, while ‘educational attainment explains about half of the difference in growth rates between East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa between 1965 and 2010’. Poverty is a violation of human dignity. Education offers an economic improvement to the lives of individuals, while also restoring their right to dignity.

The International Labour Organization estimates there are 152 million child labourers, and 73 million of them work in hazardous conditions. The ILO views education, alongside social protection and economic growth, as indispensable measures in reducing child labour.

Increased literacy rates have been shown to increase political engagement too. UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics writes: ‘Participation in adult literacy programmes is correlated with increased participation in trade unions, community action and national political life.’ Alongside literacy and numeracy skills, appropriate education ensures a broad set of life skills — the ability to make well-balanced decisions, to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner, to develop good social relationships and critical thinking. Such skills are pivotal in creating a tolerant and aware community to prevent persecution, discrimination and violent conflict resolution. In crisis affected countries, education serves as a tool for young people to be prepared to re-engage with their political system, bolster their right to assembly and participate in creating a stable and accessible government, which is accountable to its people.

UNICEF credits education in playing ‘a critical role in normalising the situation for the child and in minimising the psychosocial stresses experienced when emergencies result in the sudden and violent destabilisation of the child’s immediate family and social environment.’ As noted by a UNHCR-led conference on the protection of children in emergency settings, education has a ‘preventive effect on recruitment, abduction and gender-based violence’.

Prior to COVID-19, an estimated 75 million school-aged children and youth were deprived of a quality education due to armed conflict, forced displacement and natural disasters. Today, they face the double blow inflicted by COVID-19, all while the numbers are growing. According to a recent report by the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Global Protection Cluster, experts estimate that an additional 15 million women and girls would be exposed to gender-based violence for every three months of Covid-19 lockdown globally.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) was established in 2016 to increase financial resources and accelerate delivery of quality education to those left furthest behind in conflict, forced displacement, climate-induced disaster and endemics. A global fund hosted in the United Nations and serving as a pooled funding mechanism, ECW was also tasked to support humanitarian-development coherence in the education sector.

In so doing, ECW brings together host-governments, UN agencies, civil society and private sector to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 4 in some of the harshest circumstances on the globe. The Fund has mobilized over US$650 million and delivered quality education to close to 4 million children and adolescents.

Since WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, ECW has invested in over 100 grantees (partners) across 35 different countries/contexts in multiple phases through our First Emergency Response. The second phase was dedicated exclusively to refugees, internally displaced and their host-communities.

Still, education is a development sector requiring sustainability and thus emergency assistance is not enough. Working with host-governments, and through established coordination mechanisms designed for humanitarian contexts, ECW invests in Multi-Year Resilience Programmes (MYRPs) that are designed and implemented jointly by both humanitarian and development actors. As a rights-based global fund, these investments place a strong emphasis on protection and gender, human rights and humanitarian principles.

The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, stated at the launch in August 2020 of his Policy Brief on Education: “Education is a fundamental human right, the bedrock of just, equal and inclusive societies and a main driver of sustainable development.”

As a human rights lawyer, I have hope that the international community of the 21st century will recognize that an inclusive quality education is the foundational human right for all other human rights. As we commemorate the International Human Rights Day, we all need to remember that children and adolescents enduring conflicts and forced displacement know all too well the consequences of inhumanity. By investing in their education, we still have a chance to restore their hope in humanity.

 

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Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

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"Intensifying the racial divide has been another negative legacy of the Trump presidency, which will take a long time to put right". Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider.

By Farhang Jahanpour
OXFORD, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

In a powerful address at the Hungry Club Forum on 10 May 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about US’s so-called “three original sins”, the evils of slavery, poverty and war or, more generally, racism, materialism and militarism.

He said: “There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racism is still alive all over America. Racial injustice is still the Negro’s burden and America’s shame. And we must face the hard fact that many Americans would like to have a nation which is a democracy for white Americans but simultaneously a dictatorship over black Americans. We must face the fact that we still have much to do in the area of race relations.”

Great strides had been made in the United States in combating racism since those words were uttered, but the events of the past year have shown that there is still a long way to go and the gains are still fragile.

Lenin’s old maxim, ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen’, seems to apply to the events since George Floyd’s death. The gruesome killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 25 May 2020 gave rise to an unprecedented campaign against police brutality in the United States, and in turn has acted as a fuse for a worldwide uprising against racism and inequality.

On average every year US police forces kill between 1,000 and 1,400 people, nearly half of them black, although black people constitute only around 13% of the population. In comparison, in the United Kingdom the average number of people killed as the result of police shootings is three

George Floyd was arrested, handcuffed and pushed face down to the ground while a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes, despite Floyd’s pleas saying that he could not breathe, until his body became motionless.

Floyd’s killing triggered massive demonstrations in more than 350 cities in the United States and around the world, and started a movement that goes well beyond the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and may prove to be a turning point in the campaign for racial equality.

What is remarkable is that those who took part in those massive demonstrations were not all black and ethnic people, but they were joined by millions of white people who reject the legacy of slavery and are determined to help their fellow human beings to achieve the dignity and equality that they deserve. They know that a society that is built on exploitation, discrimination and inequality diminishes all its citizens.

Many Americans may be unaware of the full horrors of slavery, but it has been one of the major unresolved problems in US history. Although some form of slavery had existed from the beginning of human history, with the rise of European powers and the need for cheap labor in the New World, slavery assumed industrial proportions, involving millions of people being grabbed and uprooted from their homes and shipped across the world to work in inhumane conditions on plantations.

Before it was over, millions of Africans would be killed for the profit of white colonialists. Armed with superior weapons, slave merchants would invade some African countries, pull young men, women and even children out of the embrace of their loved ones, put them in chains and transport them to the other side of the world to be sold as slaves. The “voyages of discovery” were not as benign as they have been made out, but were money-making enterprises with the natives and black slaves paying the biggest cost.

The infamous Zong massacre provided just one example of the cruelty involved in the transportation of African slaves. The killing of more than 130 enslaved Africans by the crew of the British slave ship on 29 November 1781 became notorious as it involved claims of insurance payment for the slaves that perished. According to the crew, when the ship ran low on drinking water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw enslaved people overboard into the sea, starting with women and children because they fetched less money in the slave markets.

According to official UN estimate, the number of black people killed during the slave trade exceeded 17 million but, according to other estimates, the number was as high as 60 and 150 million.

Even the lowest figure is too awful to contemplate. A main reason for the high death toll among the slaves was the tidal wave of war and desolation that the slave trade unleashed in the heart of Africa. While both Europe’s and Asia’s populations nearly doubled between 1600 and 1800, Africa’s population dropped from 114 million in 1600 to 107 million in 1800.

Out of those captured Africans, between 12,000,000-15,000,000 survived the ordeal of forced migration to become plantation laborers in North and South America and the Caribbean. But after having survived the ordeal, life on plantations was far from ideal.

In order to get an idea of the way the slaves were treated on plantations one has to read Charles Dickens’s “American Notes” which provides the details of what he saw with his own eyes during his trip to the United States. Charles Dickens visited North America from January to June 1842. In his book, he quotes some advertisements published in some US newspapers for recapturing the slaves who had fled. Here are just a few examples:

‘Ran away, a negro man named Henry; his left eye out, some scars from a dirk on and under his left arm, and much scarred with the whip.’

‘One hundred dollars reward, for a negro fellow, Pompey, 40 years old. He is branded on the left jaw.’

‘Ran away, a negro woman named Rachel. Has lost all her toes except the large one.’

‘Ran away, my negro man Dennis. Said negro has been shot in the left arm between the shoulder and elbow, which has paralyzed the left hand.’

‘Ran away, my negro man named Simon. He has been shot badly, in his back and right arm.’

‘Detained at the police jail, the negro wench, Myra. Has several marks of lashing, and has irons on her feet.’

‘Ran away, a negro girl called Mary. Has a small scar over her eye, a good many teeth missing, the letter A is branded on her cheek and forehead.’

While many other nations have admitted their guilt and apologized for past atrocities, the dreadful evil of slavery has not yet been properly admitted or compensated. On the contrary, discrimination against the children of the slaves still continues.

In the United States the laws generally favor policemen over black people. All a policeman has to say is that the victim had threatened him, so he or she had to be shot, and the law protects the policeman. They can even say that the victim had resisted arrest, and again they are covered by law.

To provide just a simple example of the grotesque disparity between the behavior of police forces in the United States and in other democracies, it is enough to point out that on average every year US police forces kill between 1,000 and 1,400 people, nearly half of them black, although black people constitute only around 13% of the population. There is a similar disparity in the number of people jailed in the United States.

In comparison, in the United Kingdom the average number of people killed as the result of police shootings is three. The figures for the rest of Europe are also similar to those in Britain. In all European states and Japan the figures are in single digits or the low teens.

In other words, the US police shoot dead more people on a single day than the police in different European countries kill in a whole year.

Of course, a part of this huge disparity is due to the fact that most Americans have access to firearms while in Europe and other democracies the possession of firearms is strictly controlled.

Changing this grotesque history of discrimination against blacks and other ethnic groups requires humility, empathy and reconciliation. Unfortunately, President Trump’s approach to this issue has been marked by arrogance, apathy and antagonization. President Trump has repeatedly linked African Americans and Hispanics with violent crime. He launched his 2016 presidential campaign in which he spoke of Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Following a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that included members of the far-right, neo-fascists and neo-Nazis, when one counter-protestor died as the result of a vehicle-ramming attack and 19 others were injured, President Trump said that some of them were “very fine people”. In July 2019, Trump tweeted about four Congresswomen of color, three of them born in the United States: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

On 1st June 2020, law enforcement officers used tear gas and other riot control tactics to forcefully clear peaceful protestors from Lafayette Square so that Trump could walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church and pose for a photo-op with a Bible in hand. He consistently condemned the protests and portrayed himself as a law-and-order president. In a morning conference call with US state governors on 1st June he told them: “You have to dominate, if you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time.”

Instead of trying to heal the wounds and calm the tempers, President Trump has deepened the wounds and created more hostility. As a result, the nation has become more divided than it has been since the Civil War. Intensifying the racial divide has been another negative legacy of the Trump presidency, which will take a long time to put right.

 

Farhang Jahanpour is a British national of Iranian origin. He is a former professor and dean of the Faculty of Languages at the University of Isfahan and a former Senior Research Scholar at Harvard. He taught Persian Literature at Cambridge University for five years and for more than 30 years he taught courses on the Middle East at the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. He also served as Editor for Middle East and North Africa at BBC Monitoring for 21 years.

 

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A landmark United Nations report is calling on governments to declare remittance transfer an essential service. Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

On Dec. 2 Gabriel Arias, 42, left a Washington Heights, New York, money transfer agency after sending money home to the Dominican Republic. For the past eight years, every fortnight he would come to this branch at 171st street after getting paid from his construction job. But things are different this year and he worries about his family back home. Arias lost his job in May, amid heightened COVID-19 restrictions in the state. He told IPS he has tried to work some odd jobs, but has barely earned enough for his monthly apartment rental. This early December visit to send money home was only his second since June.

“It has been hard because for a long time this year, I had no work. I came here speaking no English. I worked hard. Learned to speak and I took care of my mother and the family in the Dominican Republic. I had no job, no work since the COVID,” he told IPS.

Arias is not alone. A landmark United Nations report is calling on governments to declare remittance transfer an essential service and ensure access to humanitarian assistance, legal services and social protection for migrants and the displaced, as COVID-19 shifts the dynamics of global migration and hunger.

The report entitled “Populations at Risk: Implications of COVID-19 for Hunger, Migration and Displacement” is the first joint global report by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and World Food Programme (WFP) and analyses food security trends in the world’s migration hotspots during the pandemic. It warns that COVID-19 and measures taken to contain its spread have disrupted human mobility patterns, the consequences of which could been seen for years to come.

Earlier this year, countries across the globe instituted various tiers of entry requirements. According to the report, while those restrictions resulted in significantly reduced international migration in the first months of the pandemic, the ensuing dip in unemployment and food security led to a desperate need to search for work elsewhere – and a spike in migration due to necessity.

One of the areas hardest hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns involves remittances. Globally, migrant remittances are a financial lifeline for around 800 million people. World Bank figures put remittances to low and middle-income countries (LMICS) at over $550 billion in 2019. For more than half of these countries, funds sent by migrant workers to their relatives in their home countries account for over 5 percent of gross domestic product. However, remittance flows have plunged drastically in 2020 and according to the report, over 33 million people are at risk of going hungry as part of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19.

“If efforts are made to channel remittances properly and ensure as well that you reduce the financial costs, this would have a greater impact on development. The idea is also that good management of the remittance services can help to speed up the recovery from the crisis,” IOM Senior Emergency and Preparedness Officer Rafaelle Robelin told IPS. 

With remittances to LMICS expected to fall by about $100 billion in 2020 and 495 million full time job losses in the first quarter of the year, the report’s partners say it is possible that many migrants are sacrificing their own consumption and other needs, in order to send money to loved ones in their home countries. The report states that this is not a sustainable means of supporting families in the medium to long-term. It is also bad news for countries heavily dependent on remittances. 

“Coupled with the 32 percent drop projected for foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2020, contractions in the prices of natural resources and a significant decrease in tourism revenues, the drop in remittances will likely impact the financial stability of numerous countries….poverty, food security, nutrition, health and educational attainment are all being directly impacted by mobility restrictions and the decline in remittances,” the report said.

While it confirms the importance of migrant work and its contribution to the economies of home countries, the report also highlights the inherent vulnerabilities that migrant workers face and notes that the pandemic has exacerbated those risks.

“It has been very clear since the onset of the crisis, that the impact of COVID on migration and mobility would be huge,” said Robelin, adding that, “migration has a positive impact from the remittance angle. The fact that many people lost their jobs who migrated for development means, means that in the long term, those benefitting from the positive impact of migration, may suffer.”

The IOM official says restriction of movement may have also pushed people to move under dangerous circumstances. Mobile and displaced populations also face new challenges such as increased exposure to work-related abuse and exploitation, the risk of losing residence status, the lack of funds to buy hygiene items and difficulties accessing COVID-19 tests, as well as restrictions on their general freedom to travel back and forth to their country of origin.

The IOM and WFP predict that partial or full lifting of travel regulations will result in more people leaving home to find work in order to feed their families. They are calling for well-governed migration to be a cornerstone of the global response to COVID-19. They believe that making remittance transfer an essential financial service can help families to meet their food and other needs. They are also advising the global community to ensure migrant access to health services including immunisation and mental health support. The partners are also recommending that government recognise the significant role played by migrants by ensuring they have access to social protection initiatives.

Some governments have implemented COVID-19 relief packages. They vary across countries and regions. IPS spoke to a family in Brooklyn, New York, who has opted to send home barrels of groceries, household and hygiene products to their loved ones in Saint Lucia. Lawmakers on the Caribbean island went to parliament in June and amended a bill that provides for late November to early January duty free concessions on barrels of items for household use. They announced that those tax relief measures would now extend from June 2020 to January 2021, in order to assist the most vulnerable and the thousands of Saint Lucians who lost their jobs.

“We took advantage of the duty-free and were able to send food home. We sent cleaning products and items like hand sanitisers, thermometers, masks and months of supplies that are expensive or not available back home,” one family told IPS.

Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be much slower than the 2009 global financial crisis. The report’s joint analysis has concluded that an effective response and recovery plan must take into consideration the link between food security and migration.

Related Articles

• The Immense Cost 200 Million Migrant Workers Pay to Rescue their Families
• Coronavirus Leads to Nosedive in Remittances in Latin America

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Excerpt:

The International Organisation for Migration and World Food Programme’s first joint publication says restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 have limited human mobility and left 33 million remittance-dependent people facing hunger.

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School children in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Cameron Diver
NEW CALEDONIA, Dec 9 2020 (IPS)

Climate change and human rights are two key issues in international development and their interaction is increasingly in need of focus at national, regional and international levels. In the Pacific, where the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories are on the front line of both climate ambition and the ongoing effects of the climate crisis, climate change is recognised as the region’s single greatest threat. Urgent climate action is consistently called upon to protect the interests of youth and the most vulnerable populations, together with preserving the ‘shared needs and interests, potential and survival of our Blue Pacific and this great Blue Planet’.

At the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in October 2020, member countries endorsed the proposal to seek the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change by the June 2021 session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Small island developing states, including many members of the Pacific Community, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to their reliance on the ocean for resources, transportation and livelihoods. Shifts in biodiversity distribution as a result of climate change can have a devastating impact on coastal communities who are unable to adapt their way of living to compensate for the diminished resources and opportunities. For atoll nations, where thousands of people live on land that rises to a maximum of four metres above sea level, a rising ocean threatens their very existence. In this context, climate change has a profound impact on a wide variety of human rights, including the rights to life, self-determination, development, food, health, water, sanitation and housing, while also disproportionately affecting already marginalised groups. It is then, no surprise that the first intergovernmental statement to explicitly recognise that ‘climate change has clear and immediate implications for the full enjoyment of human rights’ was adopted in a small island developing state, the Seychelles, in 2007.

Cameron Diver

However, there is currently no specific legal right to seek refuge in another country due to climate change-induced displacement. International instruments, such as the UN Refugee Convention, apply generally to groups facing persecution from State or non-State actors but have not yet been legally extended to cover situations where people are seeking refuge in another country due to the onslaught of climate change. And while there is soft law reflecting human rights principles that can guide protection in this area for internal migration, such as the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, and a considerable amount of work on potential legal solutions, the question is, given the current reality and projections around climate migration, if the law alone is sufficient to address the multifaceted nature of these issues.

The interface between climate change, human rights and migration would appear to require an integrated approach taking into account, among others, political, social, cultural, environmental and legal aspects. In the context of the climate crisis, it requires a whole-of-society approach, together with strong international cooperation, to identify and implement solutions that protect the rights of all persons, regardless of nationality. For both displaced populations and those that welcome them, these solutions will need to anticipate preservation of rights such as those related to culture, identity, freedom of religion, access to employment, land and resources, or self-determination. Should island countries become uninhabitable, they will need to anticipate the extreme hypothesis of a State in climate-enforced exile and the complex ramifications for sovereignty, nationhood and issues such as sovereign rights over land-based and marine natural resources.

Due to their particular vulnerability to global warming, Pacific Island countries and territories are regarded by some as ‘a barometer for the early impacts of climate change’, with studies projecting that between 665,000 and 1.7 million individuals could be displaced due to the ongoing effects of climate change by 2050. In other words, this many people in the Pacific Islands alone, through no fault of their own, may be driven from their ancestral homes, their sacred places, the land and oceanscapes to which they are so deeply bound and of which they are the traditional custodians.

While developing legal frameworks to recognise the status and protect the rights of those individuals remains essential, it should not be seen as the panacea. In reality, there must be a global understanding of the fact that greater mitigation and adaptation efforts are not only critical to stem the tide of biodiversity loss, keep global warming under 1.5°C, or improve the health of the ocean. They will also very directly enable populations in the Pacific region, small island developing states around the globe and many others to remain on their islands, on their land, in their homes and with their families. Personally, I can think of no better way to respect and protect their human rights, cultures, identities and sovereignty.

 

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Excerpt:

Cameron Diver is the Deputy Director-General of the Pacific Community (SPC).

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Posters of rival tickets for mayor of Depok, a commuter city 40 minutes by train south of Jakarta where many of its 2.4 million residents work.Credit: Warief D. Basorie

By Warief Djajanto Basorie
JAKARTA, Dec 8 2020 (IPS)

In just over a day, on 9 December, Indonesia holds 270 simultaneous local elections for executive office. This involves nine of the republic’s 34 governors, 224 of 416 bupati (district chiefs) and 37 of 98 mayors. The polling was initially scheduled for 23 September but the independent KPU (General Elections Commission) put the date back to 9 December due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this batch of local polling, 105 million Indonesians aged 17 and above in this nation of 268 million people are eligible to vote.

Like the national election for president, local office elections are rigorously contested since the end of the 32-year authoritarian rule of President Soeharto in 1998.

During his prolonged regime, Soeharto appointed the country’s governors, mayors and district chiefs to maintain unopposed power through office loyalty. Many active military officers got such appointments in line with the-then dwifungsi (dual function) concept of the armed forces. Uniformed personnel concurrently had a military and a social-political role.

In post-Soeharto Indonesia, with the passing of a democratic election bill, the president no longer makes such arbitrary appointments. Moreover, the dual-function practice has ceased. Now, the run for legislative and executive public office is highly competitive.

Dynasty

What has aroused attention in this election-cycle is not so much how the coronavirus scourge affects the electoral process but more on who are in the running. The move of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s first son to enter the political arena has drawn public attention and apprehension.

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the elder of Jokowi’s two sons, is running for mayor in Surakarta, Jokowi’s hometown in Central Java and where he himself was a mayor.

At present there are 117 heads and deputy heads of local government in Indonesia tied into a dynasty-making relationship.

The Constitutional Court permits politics by affinity, notes Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, executive director of election watchdog Perludem, the Association for Elections and Democracy.

“What must be done is that its bad effects must be prevented where the space for competition becomes unequal,” she stated.

Banner of Depok City elections commission calls on residents to vote for mayor 9 Dec 2020. Top middle line in Bahasa Indonesia reads: Let’s vote for Depok City. Credit: Warief D. Basorie

“It is not seldom when long-time party cadres must be bested by those who have a kinship with party elite. For sure, this is unhealthy for democracy. Internal party reform must be undertaken to allow for recruitment with integrity,” she asserted.

“The meritocracy principle with the aspects of worthiness and competence is an absolute condition to back a candidate of quality,” states political communication scholar M. Jamiluddin Ritonga at Esa Unggul University.

Party cadre development is important. Give at least 10 years before a party cadre becomes a candidate for an executive or legislative office, insists political communcation lecturer Emrus Sihombing at Pelita Harapan University.

Political corruption

Corruption is on watchdog radar screens.

Candidates may need as much as USD1.5 million to USD7.5 million for their individual campaigns, according to one estimate. Cash-short candidates may get help from political financiers. If the candidate wins, the financier demands pay-back in the form of business concessions.

Elected office-holders have been caught in political corruption. KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) has detected and prosecuted 21 governors entangled in corruption from 2004 to July 2020. For the same period, 122 district chiefs, mayors, deputy district chiefs, and deputy mayors also got ensnared.

Stationary democracy

Single-ticket contests is also a searing issue. This is when a candidate faces no challenger. KPU identified 25 such tickets. The election law states a party or a coalition can field a candidate if they have at least 20% of the legislative seats won in the previous election.

Say, the candidate mayor garners the support of parties that jointly have more than 80% of the seats in the local legislature. Thus, any remaining parties together don’t have the minimum 20% seat-count to support a rival ticket. When this happens, that single ticket competes with a kotak kosong (blank box).

If the empty box wins the contest, the local KPU office would hold a new election that would have more than one ticket.

An empty box won the contest for mayor of Makassar in a 2018 local election. The KPU Makassar office is holding a second election this year with four tickets.

Single-ticket polling does not foster democracy as democracy thrives and throbs through competition.

With political party failure to promote meritocracy, corruption and unchallenged electoral contests, Indonesia’s democracy is not marching forward.

Significance

Indonesia’s democracy is imperfect. The local election process is wanting. However, the significance of Indonesia’s local elections is that they are a proving ground for national leadership. Surakarta city mayor Jokowi succesfully ran to be Jakarta governor in 2012. Two years later, in 2014 Jokowi stood for president and won.

Local election winners can stand for president in 2024. Front runners are Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, and Central Java Ganjar Pranowo.

Competition would be tough with established national-level figures. One is Prabowo Subianto, Jokowi’s opponent in 2014 and 2019. Another is businessman and former Jakarta vice-governor Sandiaga Uno who was Prabowo’s running-mate in 2019. A third is DPR speaker Puan Maharani.

Puan is daughter of Megawati Sukarnoputri, general chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle (PDI-P), the largest party in parliament. Megawati was the nation’s fifth president (2001-2004). Puan is also granddaughter of Indonesia’s founding father and first president, Sukarno. If Puan makes it, she would be a dynastic third-generation president in the making.

Warief Djajanto Basorie is Instructor, Dr Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS), Jakarta

 

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Family in a flooded village on the banks of the Atrato River in Chocó, Colombia. Credit: Jesús Abad Colorado/IPS

By Carmen Arroyo
NEW YORK, Dec 8 2020 (IPS)

After ten years without a strong La Niña weather phenomenon in Colombia, the climate pattern, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, could create a vacuum in food production and supply. Multilateral organizations, along with the Colombian government, are trying to implement measures to reduce malnutrition risk. Still, the population is already overwhelmed by a year of struggles that have deepened socio-economic differences.

Starting in March this year with the COVID-19 pandemic and followed by the hurricane IOTA in November, Colombia has seen its malnutrition levels rise dramatically. The pandemic has left over 37,000 deaths and an increase of 6.4% in unemployment in October compared to the same month in 2019. (This percentage doesn’t account for informal workers—47% of the population, according to the country’s statistics department DANE).

“[The socio-economic crisis] is coherent with a deepening poverty situation as highlighted by the latest official figures—35.7% of Colombian households were in poverty in 2019, already some 660,000 more than in 2018,” says Lorena Peña, the communications coordinator for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Bogota to IPS, going back to the numbers before the pandemic.

Those data points are likely to increase—especially in La Guajira, Norte de Santander and Bolivar,—as the country prepares for the expected La Niña-caused heavy rains, which the Colombian Weather Institute (IDEAM) estimates to last until May of next year.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), La Niña is a cooling of ocean surface temperatures that generates winds and rainfalls in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. In 2020-2021, the phenomenon is expected to be moderate to strong, as it was in the period 2010-2011. That time, La Niña claimed 300 lives and left an equal number of people injured.

This year, the phenomenon could lead to landslides, floods, diseases, and pests, say Jorge Mahecha, communications coordinator, and Martina Salvo, in charge of agricultural resilience, at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Bogota to IPS.

A drawback in Colombia’s nutrition achievements

In the past five years, Colombia has established itself as the leading middle-income country in sustainable agriculture and food nutrition, according to the Food Sustainability Index, developed by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Colombia achieved top performances in the use of land, air, and water in the ranking. It was second, out of 23 counties, in tackling nutritional challenges, such as undernutrition and hidden hunger, notes the report. It was also well above some of its peers, such as Mexico, regarding food nutrition indexes.

The Colombian flag flying over the castle San Felipe de Barajas in Cartagena de Indias, Bolívar, Colombia

However, the pandemic has meant a drawback for Colombia. Before La Niña, WFP was already estimating that 52.6% of the population had problems accessing food “of which at least some 3.5 million people [were forecast to be] severely food insecure,” told Peña from WFP to IPS. She added that food insecurity was more prevalent in Arauca, La Guajira, Norte de Santander, and Bolivar.

Now that La Niña is reaching Colombia, food security could further deteriorate, depending on the intensity of the weather pattern.

“The La Niña phenomenon tends to be associated with heavy rainfall in Colombia, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the crops will be harmed,” says Carmen González Romero, country manager for Colombia in the ACToday (Adapting agriculture to Climate Today for Tomorrow) project. The project is led by the International Research Institute, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “If the intensity of the rain is high enough, yes, it could destroy them.”

The impact could be felt throughout the food production system. “On the one hand, heavy rains could destroy the crops of subsistence farmers. This would not only impact their access to food in the present but also in the near future threatening their basic grain reserves,” explains González Romero. “On the other, large producers, associated with a guild and higher technological capacity, could also see their business endangered. This would generate a vicious cycle, laborers that work for them would lose their jobs and their income. Additionally, heavy rains could impact civil infrastructure, limiting the access to markets, which are essential for food security in the country.”

The FAO predicts that among the crops to be impacted by the torrential rains are the “pancoger crops [crops that meet a family’s nutritional needs] such as plantain, corn, yuca, and beans.” Other crops that Colombia exports, such as cacao and coffee, could also be harmed by the changing weather forecasts, add Mahecha and Salvo, from FAO.

Farmers and institutions prepare for La Niña

The Colombian government, its weather institutions, and farmers will have to face the consequences of La Niña soon.

Asked how farmers can prepare themselves for weather patterns, González Romero responds: “Farmers need access to climate services to optimize crop management and resources.” She adds that their capacity to prepare themselves for weather patterns also depends on their economic resources and the time they have to prepare.

Moreover, explains González Romero, there are financial instruments for climate risk transfers, such as index-based insurances, that could mitigate the harm of adverse climate events, be it floods or droughts. “They exist, but they are not widely available in Colombia, nor South America.”

At an institutional level, the government could create forecast-based financing systems that would trigger cash transfers to impacted workers if droughts or floods harm their crops, notes González Romero.

Multilateral organizations are also preparing for La Niña while they still try to alleviate the pandemic’s consequences. To ensure that malnutrition is not widespread, the FAO argues that food supply systems should be prioritized. However, some roads have become unusable, tells Peña from the WFP to IPS, adding that, for example, in-kind food transport to Alta Guajira was delayed in October.

The population that is expected to be impacted by La Niña is the most vulnerable, say the FAO representatives, adding that the same sector has also suffered the most during the pandemic.

The WFP is mobilizing “cash-based transfers where possible, and in-kind is also planned for areas where markets are not fully functional,” says the institution. They are working in Arauca, Bolívar, Chocó, La Guajira, and Norte de Santander, where food insecurity is widespread.

On its part, UNICEF is prepared to provide nutritional supplements to children under five years of age in the sites where WFP delivers food support.

As institutions and farmers try to grapple with the possibility of La Niña, stakeholders fear the weather phenomenon will deepen the socioeconomic differences already sharpened by the pandemic—especially in rural areas.

Still, it’s hard to predict the consequences of the phenomenon until it hits the country. “We have yet to see what La Niña brings,” concluded González Romero on a cautionary note.

 

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At a joint meeting of the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its Economic and Social Committee, a robot named Sophia had an interactive session last year with Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Cristian Alonso, Siddharth Kothari, and Sidra Rehman
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 8 2020 (IPS)

New technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, big data, and networks are expected to revolutionize production processes, but they could also have a major impact on developing economies.

The opportunities and potential sources of growth that, for example, the United States and China enjoyed during their early stages of economic development are remarkably different from what Cambodia and Tanzania are facing in today’s world.

Our recent staff research finds that new technology risks widening the gap between rich and poor countries by shifting more investment to advanced economies where automation is already established.

This could in turn have negative consequences for jobs in developing countries by threatening to replace rather than complement their growing labor force, which has traditionally provided an advantage to less developed economies.

To prevent this growing divergence, policymakers in developing economies will need to take actions to raise productivity and improve skills among workers.

Results from a Model

Our model looks at two countries (one advanced, the other developing) that both produce goods using three factors of production: labor, capital, and “robots.” We interpret “robots” broadly, to encompass the whole range of new technologies mentioned above.

Our main assumption is that robots substitute for workers. The AI revolution in our framework is an increase in the productivity of robots.We find that divergence between developing and advanced economies can occur along three distinct channels: share-in production, investment-flows, and terms-of-trade.

Share-in-production: Advanced economies have higher wages because total factor productivity is higher. These higher wages induce firms in advanced economies to use robots more intensively to begin with, especially when robots easily substitute for workers.

Then, when robot productivity rises, the advanced economy will benefit more in the long run. This divergence grows larger, the more robots substitute for workers.

Investment-flows: The increase in productivity of robots fuels strong demand to invest in robots and traditional capital (which is assumed to be complementary to robots and labor). This demand is larger in advanced economies due to robots being used more intensively there (the “share-in-production” channel discussed above).

As a result, investment gets diverted from developing countries to finance this capital and robot accumulation in advanced economies, thus resulting in a transitional decline in GDP in the developing country.

Terms-of-trade: A developing economy will likely specialize in sectors that rely more on unskilled labor, which it has more of compared to an advanced economy. Assuming robots replace unskilled labor but complement skilled workers, a permanent decline in the terms of trade in the developing region may emerge after the robot revolution.

This is because robots will disproportionately displace unskilled workers, reducing their relative wages and lowering the price of the good that uses unskilled labor more intensively.

The drop in relative price of its main output, in turn, acts as a further negative shock, reducing the incentive to invest and potentially leading to a fall not just in relative but in absolute GDP.

Robots and wages

Our results critically depend on whether robots indeed substitute for workers. While it may be too early to predict the extent of this substitution in the future, we find suggestive evidence that this is the case. In particular, we find that higher wages coincide with significantly higher use of robots, consistent with the idea that firms substitute away from workers and towards robots in response to higher labor costs.

Implications

Improvements in the productivity of robots drive divergence between advanced and developing countries if robots substitute easily for workers. In addition, those improvements will tend to increase incomes but also increase income inequality, at least during the transition and possibly in the long run for some groups of workers, in both advanced and developing economies.

There is no silver bullet for averting divergence. Given the fast pace of the robot revolution, developing countries need to invest in raising aggregate productivity and skill levels more urgently than ever before, so that their labor force is complemented rather than substituted by robots.

Of course, this is easier said than done. In our model, increases in total factor productivity—which account for the many institutional and other fundamental differences between developing and advanced countries not captured by labor and capital inputs—are especially beneficial as they incentivize more robots and physical capital accumulation.

Such improvements are always beneficial, but the gains are stronger in the context of the AI revolution.

Our findings also underscore the importance of human capital accumulation to prevent divergence and point to potentially different growth dynamics among developing economies with different skill levels.

The landscape is likely going to be much more challenging for developing countries which have hoped for high dividends from a much-anticipated demographic transition. The growing youth population in developing countries was hailed by policymakers as possibly a big chance to benefit from a transition of jobs from China as a result of its graduating middle-income status.

Our findings show that robots may steal these jobs. Policymakers should act to mitigate those risks. Especially in the face of these new technologically-driven pressures, a drastic shift to rapidly improve productivity gains and invest in education and skills development will capitalize on the much-anticipated demographic transition.

 

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Excerpt:

Cristian Alonso is an economist in the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department; Siddharth Kothari is an economist in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department’ Sidra Rehman is an economist in the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department.

The post How Artificial Intelligence Could Widen Gap Between Rich & Poor Nations appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Dec 8 2020 (IPS)

Fiscal and monetary measures needed to fight the economic downturn, largely due to COVID-19 policy responses, require more government accountability and discipline to minimise abuse. Such measures should ensure relief for the vulnerable, prevent recessions from becoming depressions, and restore progress.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

They should help the most helpless, especially in the informal sector and casual employment. Efforts should also seek to accelerate structural transformation towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progress was already falling behind before the pandemic, e.g., on mitigating global warming.

Unconventional measures
The pandemic and policy responses have created a most unusual situation, demanding extraordinary policy responses to mitigate threats to livelihoods and incomes. Bold initiatives are needed to overcome obstacles to sustainable development.

Unconventional solutions need to be considered as the conventional wisdom is part of the problem, especially since the neoliberal counter-revolution against Keynesian and development economics four decades ago.

In recent decades, counter-cyclical fiscal policies over business cycles have been replaced by annually ‘balanced budgets’ and ‘fiscal consolidation’. This has involved spending cuts for public, including social services, and social protection more broadly.

Taxation has become more regressive, with lower direct tax rates, on wealth as well as corporate and personal income, as indirect taxation, mainly on consumption, has grown. Such tax reforms and regressive government spending have worsened inequality.

Deficit financing inflationary?
Publics often presume that governments tax first in order to spend. In practice, they usually spend first, and then tax. Government spending typically requires more borrowing and debt, traditionally by selling bonds and other securities, including to the central bank.

Selling government treasury bonds to the central bank increases money supply, unless the monetary authority correspondingly reduces its other liabilities. Neoliberal critics insist that increasing money supply, popularly referred to by the media as ‘printing money’, must inevitably worsen inflation.

Anis Chowdhury

However, there is overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary as the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan greatly increased money supply over the last decade. They mainly did so by buying private securities, and getting commercial banks to lend more at lower interest rates.

As such unconventional monetary policies, including ‘quantitative easing’ (QE), in the last decade did not raise prices, there is no reason to presume that central banks buying treasury bonds – to pay for relief, recovery and building a better future – will be inflationary.

Deficit spending ineffective?
Governments can also borrow from the public, e.g., by selling bonds to them. But according to neoliberal beliefs, borrowing from the public will raise the interest rate, ‘crowding out’ private borrowers who cannot afford the higher ‘costs of borrowing’. Hence, they claim, investments will fall, slowing growth.

But for Keynesians, government spending is not inflationary when economic resources are not fully employed or utilised, i.e., as long as there is idle excess capacity, e.g., unemployment.

Keynesians also reject the neoliberal claim that public investment will ‘crowd out’ such private spending. Keynesians stress that economic stagnation discourages private investment. By boosting demand and sales, government spending increases private profits and investment.

Declining private spending or demand thus requires government spending to boost aggregate demand. Government spending on infrastructure, health and education also improves productivity, and hence profitability, offsetting higher borrowing costs. Thus, government spending serves to ‘crowd-in’, not ‘crowd-out’ private investment.

Incoherent, unsupported objections
The ‘Ricardian equivalence’ objection is very different, claiming that when governments borrow, people spend less, in anticipation of higher taxes. This supposedly undermines the intent of greater government spending to raise aggregate demand. But again, there is no strong supporting evidence for this effect.

This argument is not only quite different from the earlier ‘crowding out’ and inflation objections, but also implies that the three neoliberal arguments against deficit financing are mutually contradictory and cannot be coherently sustained.

In contrast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that “debt-financed projects could have large output effects without increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio, if clearly identified infrastructure needs are met through efficient investment”, accelerating recovery from the global financial crisis (GFC).

Similarly, in response to the pandemic induced recessions, the IMF argues that “increasing public investment … could help revive economic activity from the sharpest and deepest global economic collapse in contemporary history”.

‘Sound finance’, fiscal rules
Unfortunately, expansionary fiscal policies are often abused by ‘short-termist’ governments of the day, little concerned about the long- and even medium-term consequences of increased spending, borrowing and debt.

In response, neoliberals invoke ostensible ‘sound finance’ principles. Sound finance seems desirable when spending abuse, wastage and leakages are widespread. However, it has become a pretext for dogmatically opposing bold fiscal measures, however much needed. Neoliberals want fiscal rules to straight-jacket governments, obliging the authorities to balance budgets annually or keep fiscal deficits minimal. Many advocate independent fiscal boards, akin to politically unaccountable ‘independent’ central banks, ostensibly to minimise political influence on government budgetary decisions.

Even when fiscal rules or boards allow some flexibility in times of crisis, or in response to severe shocks, biases towards ‘fiscal consolidation’ and pro-cyclicality run deep, undermining development efforts. Hence, fiscal rules typically hinder, rather than help development.

Counter-cyclical, developmental ‘functional finance’
Instead, ‘functional finance’, proposed by Abba Lerner to mitigate prejudice against fiscal policy activism, is needed. Government spending and taxation policy should instead be consistent with counter-cyclical and developmental fiscal needs.

This was recognised by the Development Committee of the World Bank and IMF in Fiscal Policy for Growth and Development: An Interim Report which observed:
“the problem of fiscal policy design is a reflection of the choice of the fiscal deficit as the policy target. The fiscal deficit is a useful indicator …, but it offers little indication of longer term effects on government assets or on economic growth… There is clearly a need for fiscal policy to incorporate…the likely impact of the level and composition of expenditure and taxation on long-term growth while also maintaining a focus on indicators essential for economic stabilization”.

Oppose abuse, not more spending
Poorly accountable governments often take advantage of real, exaggerated or imagined crises to pursue macroeconomic policies to secure regime survival and to benefit politically well-connected cronies and financial supporters.

Undoubtedly, much better governance, transparency and accountability are needed to minimise the likely immediate and longer-term harm due to ‘leakages’ and abuses associated with increased borrowing and spending.

There has to be much greater discipline and stricter scrutiny of government borrowings, spending and debt, as well as of government-guaranteed liabilities. Consistently counter-cyclical fiscal policy over the course of business cycles provides useful guidance.

Publics and their political representatives, especially in developing countries, must develop more effective modes of disciplining fiscal policy conduct to ensure space for responsible counter-cyclical and developmental spending. However, that task should not block the efforts urgently needed to finance relief, recovery and sustainable development.

Central banks must support governments’ fiscal stimulus packages for relief, recovery and building a better future. This requires complementary fiscal and monetary policies working in tandem for sustainable development.

 

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