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News and Views from the Global South

Updated: 3 days 18 hours ago

US and France Significantly Increase Arms Exports

Wed, 03/11/2020 - 17:32

By Ida Karlsson
STOCKHOLM, Mar 11 2020 (IPS)

There has been a significant increase in arms exports from the United States and France, according to a new report. The flow of arms to the Middle East has increased, with Saudi Arabia being the world’s largest importer.

More than a third, 36 percent, of all weapons traded worldwide are now manufactured in the United States. Major arms transferred from the United States went to a total of 96 countries.

The largest exporters of weapons in the last five years were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Together they accounted for 76 percent of all arms exports in 2015–19

Russia is still the second-largest arms exporter in the world but the country’s sales have dropped over the last five years. France has established itself as the third-biggest arms dealer, according to a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sipri, which analyzed trends over the past five years.

The largest exporters of weapons in the last five years were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Together they accounted for 76 percent of all arms exports in 2015–19.

France had the highest increase in arms exports among the top five countries. French arms exports reached their highest level since 1990, which accounted for 7.9 percent of total global arms exports.

US, German and Chinese arms exports also rose, while Russian arms exports fell. Russian arms exports accounted for 21 percent of the total arms exports.

”Russia has lost traction in India – the main long-term recipient of Russian major arms – which has led to a sharp decline in arms exports,” says Sipri researcher Alexandra Kuimova.

With its increase in exports, the United States is widening the gap between itself and Russia.

The Sipri report shows that countries in the Middle East have been stepping up their weapons import by 61 percent compared to the years before, with Saudi Arabia being the biggest importer worldwide.

”Half of the US arms exports in the past five years went to the Middle East, and half of those went to Saudia Arabia,” says Pieter D. Wezeman, senior researcher at Sipri.

All in all, European countries accounted for more than a quarter of the global arms trade. International arms trade grew by more than 5 percent between 2015 and 2019, according to the report.

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Categories: Africa

Why Pakistan Isn’t Taking that Final Step towards Polio Eradication

Wed, 03/11/2020 - 17:15

A polio vaccinator administers the oral polio vaccine to a child in Pakistan. The country remains one of three in the world where polio is yet to be eradicated. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPS

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Pakistan, Mar 11 2020 (IPS)

Dr. Rana Muhammad Safdar, the coordinator for Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, has sleepless nights thinking about what needs to be done for his country to eradicate polio.

“Not only me but the entire team is having sleepless nights thinking how best and how quickly we can reach the finish line,” he told IPS. “It’s always painful to hear a child getting paralysed for life from a vaccine-preventable disease.”

Last month, over 39 million children under the age of five were vaccinated across Pakistan. And a little more than 180,000 children were missed because their parents refused to have them vaccinated. While the number of missed children is marginal in comparison to those who were vaccinated, it has caused concern.

“The proportion of children missed in the last two campaigns due to refusals is very small (0.5 percent) but where clustered these can still provide the virus with the opportunity to survive longer and re-infect areas that we clean through so much hard work,” Safdar lamented.

The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme began 26 years ago with the “largest surveillance network” in the world — an army of 260,000 polio vaccinators going door to door to administer oral polio vaccine (OPV) to children under five. Yet the country is only one of three in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria (Nigeria has not reported any wild polio virus cases for a year, however there have been cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus in the West African nation), that has not eradicated the virus.

Last year, for the first time, Pakistan reported 25 positive Wild Poliovirus 1 (WPV1) cases across the country. Since the start of the year 23 new cases have been reported, with more expected to be recorded later this year.

The issue is so sensitive that every small gain by anti-vaccine groups takes the vaccination campaign two giant steps back. A video shared on Twitter last year, claiming that polio drops had some toxic ingredient making children sick, went viral and led to a round of refusals for months afterwards.

The reason for refusals include the same misconceptions that vaccination teams have been facing the past several years and include unfounded beliefs that; the programme is a western-funded campaign with some hidden agenda, polio drops are given to Muslim children to cause infertility and to stem the population of the Muslim community, it has some ingredients that are forbidden for Muslims, and that it causes paralysis.

Abrar Khan, a 29-year-old teacher, contracted polio when was just three. He’s no public health specialist, but Khan has an encyclopedia of knowledge about the virus. Five years ago he was a polio ambassador with the government’s Polio Eradication Initiative.

And he still makes it a point to visit homes in his locality of Baldia Town, in Karachi’s District West, that are marked by polio workers with an “R” because the family refused to have their children vaccinated. “I tell them it is their right to refuse; I try and convince them but even if they say yes to me, I have no way of knowing if they got their child vaccinated,” he told IPS in a phone interview.

He said people were more concerned about the other more common diseases their children where battling with, as well as the failing healthcare system. “One way to win these people over would be to provide better quality healthcare,” said Khan.

Swaleha Ahmed*, who asked for her real name not to printed because she holds a senior position within the polio programme, told IPS that if the government were to provide for the needs of young children, including paying for their healthcare, education and basic needs, “all those parents who hide their kids when polio workers visit their homes will come forward and get their kids registered to avail this childcare fund”.

Ahmed, who has been with the programme for some 17 years, pointed out that because the campaign was so old, complacency has set in. And as parents continue to refuse to all their children to vaccinated, it was discovered that some vaccinators in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where the virus originated and is circulating, were wrongly marking refusals as having been vaccinated.

“It happened in KP in the very remote areas where these workers have to walk miles in knee deep snow only to be told by families that they do not want their kids to be administered drops,” she said.

But the programme is trying to overcome this.

“We are telling polio workers that if they get refusals, it will not make a dent on their daily wages nor will they have to go again as someone else will be sent in their place if they face resistance,” said Ahmed. “They are also warned that if they are found to fake the process and mark the kids without first giving them drops, they can lose their jobs.”

But there is growing fatigue for this campaign from the side of parents as well. Nasik Abbas,who works as a supervisor in Tarnol, some 20 km from the federal capital, Islamabad, has been involved in the polio campaign for over 13 years. “Parents are now annoyed by the regular knocking at their door,” he told IPS.

Hifza Tahir, who works in Islamabad’s Bahria Town has been facing another dilemma. “They turn me away saying they will get their kids vaccinated from the hospital.”

Ahmed said the working hours and ways of working for polio vaccinators, some 62 percent of whom are women, needed to be reevaluated.

“We should not bind these workers by time and attendance. We are dealing with kids and their parents. So we should give the workers flexi times in which they must cover the required number of homes,” said Ahmed. In some cases, she said, it would make more sense to visit the house later in the day when the decision maker, usually a father, was home from work, or early morning before the kids went to school.

Ahmed, however, admitted that despite the challenges the polio programme has come a long way. “Today, the polio workers are better trained to deal with parents, have an ID card to prove their identity, are provided security and everything is documented,” she said.

The campaigns will continue with another round of special vaccination in high risk districts this month followed by a nationwide campaign in mid-April, said Safdar.

“Our efforts from December 2019 till April 2020 will push the virus back to 2017-18 levels and from thereon we will further push it towards zero polio by focusing on routine immunisation, improving basic health services, malnutrition as well as ensuring safe water and sanitation,” he said.

As Donors Ramp up Polio Funding, Worries of Comeback Persist

The post Why Pakistan Isn’t Taking that Final Step towards Polio Eradication appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

UN Reaches 90:90 Gender Parity in Senior Leadership Transforming Organizational Culture

Wed, 03/11/2020 - 17:03

Secretary-General António Guterres poses with women who comprise part of the leadership team, including Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (centre left) and Chef de Cabinet Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti. Credit: United Nations

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

The United Nations claims it has reached one of its primary goals relating to women’s rights in the world body: gender parity at senior levels of management and in the highest echelons of the Organization.

Leading the way, besides the UN Secretariat, is UN Women, ‘the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women’, created by the UN General Assembly back in July 2010.

Katja Pehrman, UN Women’s Senior Advisor on Gender Parity and the Focal Point for Women in the UN System, told IPS that 85% of UN Women at senior management (at D1 level or higher) are female.

“Achieving gender parity at the top level is indeed a major accomplishment and takes place for the first time in UN’s history,” she pointed out, as the UN commemorated International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8.

Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, “is truly leading by example, and this achievement comes at an opportune time as we are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, where the goal of equal representation of women and men was established”.

As the Secretary-General also has made clear, she pointed out, the parity agenda is not merely about numbers but also about transforming the organizational culture. Only that can guarantee sustainable results.

As part of its strong mandate, and through the network of 350 Gender Focal Points, UN-Women helps to guide the UN system on how to build a more inclusive and equal work environment in support of gender parity, she noted.

“This happens through the Enabling Environment Guidelines for the UN system which were published last year and include recommendations on standards of conduct, family-friendly policies, recruitments and flexible working arrangements,” she declared.

Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez, UN Associate Spokesperson, told IPS “We have full parity in (the ranks of) Under Secretaries-General (USGs) and Assistant Secretaries-General (ASGs) in the Secretariat and the Funds and Programmes – 90 men and 90 women”.

“This represents a first step for full gender parity in 2028 at all levels of the UN which remains our basic objectives,” she said.

In the UN hierarchy, the Secretary-General is the chief administrative officer (CAO), followed by the Deputy Secretary-General, Under-Secretaries-General (USGs), Assistant Secretaries-General (ASGs) and Directors (D-1 level and higher).

Guterres told delegates on March 9 that in January this year “we achieved gender parity – 90 women and 90 men – in the ranks of our full-time senior leadership, two years ahead of the target that I set at the start of my tenure, and we have a roadmap for parity at all levels in the coming years”.

Still, he complained that “women in parliaments are still outnumbered three-to-one by men, women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and unpaid care and domestic work remain stubbornly feminized the world over”.

In some areas, he said, progress towards gender equality has stalled or even gone into reverse.

“Some countries have rolled back laws that protect women from violence; others are reducing civic space; still others are pursuing economic and immigration policies that indirectly discriminate against women,” Guterres said.

Outlining some of the steps he plans to take in the future, the Secretary-General said: “I have reminded the entire senior leadership team about the special measures we have in place to advance parity throughout the system”.

If a male candidate is hired in an office or department that has not yet achieved gender parity, and where an equally competent female candidate had been identified, an explanation must be sent to my office detailing the reasoning for the decision prior to final selection being made, he declared.

Ian Richards, President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS the biggest problem remains the low representation of women in the field.

“Women certainly face greater challenges than men in certain field locations, particularly regarding access to relevant healthcare, and there is a lot the UN can do to improve the field working environment,” he said.

But the Secretary-General’s proposal– now before the General Assembly– to only fire men during downsizing exercises is not the way forward and is legally and ethically dubious, he added.

There needs to be a change in how the field is marketed.

“There are plenty of women in the field making successful careers at every grade yet the overall impression remains that the field is mainly for men.”

He said women in the field need to be held up as role models so that others follow. Human Resources needs to listen to their experiences and understand what the challenges are and how they can be overcome.

Aside from having better diversity on the frontline, said Richards, a key reason to have more women in the field is because those who rise to the top of the UN are more likely to have passed through the field on their way up.

Looking at it from another angle, a surefire way to get better gender equality in the field would be to make it compulsory for all staff who want to get to senior positions to take up at least one prior assignment in the field, with no opt-puts according to gender.

“But it wouldn’t be to the taste of everyone,” declared Richards.

The United Nations-wide Gender Parity Strategy, launched in September 2017, sets targets for equal representation of women and men, with specific commitments leadership and accountability; senior management; recruitment and retention; creating an enabling environment; and field operations.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, only the fourth female to be elected as President of the General Assembly in its 74-year history of overwhelmingly male Presidents. Credit: United Nations

While the UN secretariat and the UN’s affiliated agencies have made progress on gender parity and gender empowerment, the 193 member states have lagged far behind.

In its 74-year history, the General Assembly has elected only four women as presidents – Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India (1953), Angie Brooks of Liberia (1969), Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain (2006) and Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador (2018)

And that’s four out of 74 Presidents, 70 of whom were men.

The 15-member Security Council’s track record is probably worse because it has continued to elect men as UN Secretaries-General, rubber-stamped by the General Assembly.

And that’s zero out of nine male UN chiefs (Trygve Lie of Norway, Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden, U. Thant of Burma (now Myanmar), Kurt Waldheim of Austria, Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, Kofi Annan of Ghana, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea and, currently, Antonio Guterres of Portugal).

You can find more about the UN’s gender parity strategy at the UN here: https://reform.un.org/content/gender-parity-strategy

A few additional sources of information:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/07/improvement-in-the-status-of-women-in-the-united-nations-system-2019

https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/02/supplementary-guidance-on-the-enabling-environment-guidelines-for-the-united-nations-system

https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/74/128

https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/01/beijing-declaration

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

The post UN Reaches 90:90 Gender Parity in Senior Leadership Transforming Organizational Culture appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

CORRECTED VERSION: Stock Market Bubble Threat

Wed, 03/11/2020 - 16:36

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 11 2020 (IPS)

The US is currently still in a stock market bubble which, if history is any guide, is likely to end, as argued by Thomas Palley. While President Trump would, of course, like to sustain it to strengthen his November re-election prospects, the Covid19 black swan is already showing signs of pricking the bubble

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Meanwhile, US business investment has declined for many years. As shares of GDP, corporate profits or even market capitalization, such investment has been in decline for at least four decades. Clearly, ‘neo-liberal’ economic policies have failed to decades-long trend.

Financialization ‘unreal’
Julius Krein has underscored some dangerous financialization trends. Global stocks are now worth almost US$90 trillion, more than world output. Including equities, bank deposits, (government plus private) debt securities, etc., the total value of financial assets rose from US$118 trillion in 2004 to over US$200 trillion in 2010, more than double world output then.

Half of Americans own no stocks, while just ten per cent own over 80 per cent of equities, and the top one per cent has almost 40 per cent. With no increase in real investments, more funds in financial markets have served to worsen wealth inequality.

‘Capital returns’ in 1980, in the form of share buybacks and dividends, were about two per cent of US GDP, when real investment was close to 15 per cent. By 2016, real investment had fallen to around 12 per cent of output, while capital returns had risen to about 6 per cent.

Ironically, in an age of ostensible globalization, rising capital returns has become increasingly national in some economies, rather than involving cross-border capital flows, which fell from US$12.4 trillion in 2007 to US$4.3 trillion, i.e., by 65%.

The rise of finance, at the expense of the real economy, over the last four decades has slowed productive investments and economic growth, ending the post-war Keynesian Golden Age quarter century. Meanwhile, as profit rates declined, debt has increased.

Inflating stock market bubbles
Since the 1980s, as Palley has shown, ‘engineered’ US stock market bubbles have obscured lessons from preceding busts, explaining them away as Schumpeterian creative destruction. While each new bubble may retrieve some of the preceding loss, it never fully restores earlier economic gains.

Investors buy stock, expecting to sell at higher prices. Such purchases push up share prices, drawing new investors into the price appreciation spiral. The share price bubble continues to inflate until faith in ever rising prices ends, with the bubble imploding when enough buyers start selling.

Each new stock market bubble seduces share market punters to invest ever more, to gain even more, while obscuring public understanding of the economic malaise. And when prices fall, many shareowners hold on to their stocks, hoping for prices to recover, to make more, or at least, to cut losses.

Thus, stock market dynamics resemble Ponzi frauds, with earlier investors profiting from new investments. Handsome gains draw in more investments until even these are insufficient to meet rising expectations. Changes in market sentiments can slow the bubble’s growth, or cause reversals, even collapse.

Along the way, all investors feel richer, triggering wealth effects and market exuberance, typically irrational. When downturns occur, many are too embarrassed to admit to losses, especially if they have induced others, relatives and friends, to invest.

Thus, the dynamics of stock market speculative bubbles are akin to a collectively self-inflicted fraud as most retail investors lack the ‘inside’ information needed to make sound portfolio investment judgements.

Promoting stock market addiction
The US Federal Reserve’s apparent commitment to the stock market since Alan Greenspan was in the chair, and its growing, albeit varying influences on financial asset prices has been seen as giving the green light to speculation, enabling serial asset price bubbles over at least three decades.

Despite its balanced official mandate, unsurprisingly, US Fed leadership is widely believed to favour Wall Street, while mainstream economists view asset price inflation as the unavoidable price of overcoming recession, sustaining economic growth and the bubble’s wealth effect.

Unlike the Roosevelt era, when economic policy and war achieved full employment and improved labour conditions, decision-making in recent decades has been seen as better serving capital, with the bias justified by insisting that the interests of capital and labour are ‘joined at the hip’.

With 401K (a US employer sponsored retirement savings plan allowing employees to invest a portion of their salaries before taxes) and other investments in the stock market, widespread ‘middle class’ addiction to stock price inflation has also been economically and politically self-deluding.

But despite the sustained US stock market bubble after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the US ‘middle class’ continues to be economically squeezed, with relatively few having benefited significantly.

This stock market addiction is rooted in an illusion promoted by Wall Street, their enablers in the public authorities, and their cheerleaders among mainstream economists and the business media who identify the notion of shared prosperity with stock market indices.

But the history and dynamics of stock market bubbles imply that they simply cannot be the basis for shared prosperity, as suggested by all too many emerging markets’ governments. Sadly, wishful thinking to the contrary perpetuates the mass delusion promoted and perpetuated by those who stand to gain most.

Stock market bubbles serve to obscure the dangers of neoliberal financialization for the economy. Demystification of obfuscating narratives can not only improve public understanding of the problems, dangers and challenges involved, but also inform the reforms needed to address them.

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Categories: Africa

Is Our Academic System Ready for a New Coronavirus Normal?

Wed, 03/11/2020 - 12:32

Credit: Pîxabay.

By Esther Ngumbi and Brian Lovett
ILLINOIS, United States, Mar 11 2020 (IPS)

Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to lead by example and to provide current, high-quality information to the people and communities that support them. This responsibility is no clearer than during a public health and information crisis like the one presented by this novel coronavirus.

State and local governments in particular should be able to rely on Universities for guidance on protective evidence-based precautionary measures, whether it’s cancelling events, closing schools or formulating public health postings.

The University of Washington officially announced that it would cancel its in-person classes due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has affected more than 70 people in the state. Some 50,000 students are expected to take their finals and attend classes remotely.

How prepared is our education system to deal with coronavirus? It is undeniable that the educational system of today is built on a foundation of in-person community/group-based learning. How can we ensure that the rush to complete this transition to online courses does not exacerbate barriers and leave students behind?

Universities are faced with the sobering reality that the virus will continue to spread, buoyed by a botched national testing and appearance-focused denial from the top down. Across the nation, many universities are formulating plans to follow a similar approach, including developing contingency plans like moving classes online, canceling travel, and issuing websites, warnings and guidelines on how to deal with this novel virus.

We are not the only country preparing in this way and already globally, nearly 300 million students are out of school due to precautions over the spread of coronavirus, and this number is expected to continue to rise.

As we read the news and see the alerts on campuses in particular, with one of us being an Assistant Professor who is teaching an in-person class, it is starting to sink in that this class may soon have to move online. I realize that anytime soon, my students may not be able to attend in class in person. Professors are already exchanging tips and resources on how to transition courses online.

Some courses may weather the transition fine, but we still wonder how prepared is our education system to deal with coronavirus? It is undeniable that the educational system of today is built on a foundation of in-person community/group-based learning. How can we ensure that the rush to complete this transition in the face of a pandemic does not exacerbate barriers and leave students behind?

What does this new normal mean to the underprivileged, especially to people of color and underrepresented minorities, who may not have access to the internet to attend or listen to lectures, should in-person classes be moved online?

Unfortunately, services, such as free access to library computers and other typical university technology support will also be inaccessible to prevent the spread of the viruses.

Small business-as-usual tweaks to a curriculum will not be tenable solutions. This challenge requires solutions that consider underprivileged students first when planning transitions away from the traditional classroom, and this transition must be supported by intense empathy for students.

Like any new normal, the anxiety that comes along is high. It is high for students, faculty members, administrators, and university chancellors. We must recognize that, like us, our students are scared for themselves, for their vulnerable loved ones and for the continuity of their education.

As important, applicable and exciting as we all believe our classes are, we need to adjust our deadlines and expectations in line with our new reality. No line in a syllabus is worth upholding if it will increase student anxiety during a growing global pandemic.

The truth is, there are more questions than answers.

One thing for sure is that no matter the outcome, this moment will shape our education system. Like any change, new models by which education and classes are delivered to students will arise.

Those with power in academia, from a university president to a teaching assistant, have an opportunity to lead us through this crisis with a vision that at its core accessible and empathetic. These decisions cannot be made lightly, as what we do now will certainly shake the foundation upon which our educational system is built upon.

Dr. Esther Ngumbi (@EstherNgumbi) is an Assistant Professor at the Entomology Department and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is a Senior Food security fellow with the Aspen Institute.

Dr. Brian Lovett (@lovettbr) is a recent PhD from the University of Maryland Department of Entomology. His work has contributed to the advancement of transgenic mosquito-killing fungi for malaria prevention.

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Categories: Africa

Current Laws Cannot Protect Zimbabwe’s Women from Sex Trafficking

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 18:39

Victims say places like beauty salons have become hunting grounds for fixers, middlemen in sex and human trafficking. Courtesy: Ignatius Banda

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Mar 10 2020 (IPS)

Similo Ntuli* looks like a ordinary, fashion-savvy woman in her twenties. As a hairdresser and beauty therapist in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, Ntuli has her finger on the pulse of the latest styles and trends. But she also has, what she admits, are dark secrets.

“I have become suspicious of young rich women whose source of income cannot be explained,” she says. And she knows what she is talking about.

“I have been to Dubai (in 2018) where I was invited to work for some rich guys but what I saw made me think twice about how I want to make my money,” she tells IPS on condition of anonymity .

“The grossest sexual fantasies you can imagine can get a young girl money that is unthinkable here in Zimbabwe,” she says.

Ntuli says she was introduced to contacts or clients in the Near East by “a fixer” in Bulawayo. But she says she had to leave Dubai in a hurry after the demands to perform “despicable sex acts” proved unbearable.

Lobbyists in Zimbabwe are concerned by what they see as the weak enforcement of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, also known as the Palermo Protocol. It came into effect on Dec. 25, 2003 and seeks to prevent, suppress and punish the trafficking of persons.

Zimbabwe may be a signatory, along with 184 members of the U.N., but activists here say that enforcement efforts against organised human and sex trafficking remain inadequate as the true factors driving this are not being addressed.

Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and activists say that the lack of safety nets, awareness campaigns and legal recourse for exploited women has continued to expose them to exploitation.

“The rate at which foreigners come to the country exposes the young women to trafficking. Recently, Zimbabwe adopted the mantra that it is ‘open for business’ and potential investors in their quest to partner with Zimbabwe have been frequenting the country,” Fadzai Traquino, national director of Women in Law in Southern Africa, tells IPS.

She explains that because of the current economic climate perpetrators are able to take advantage of vulnerable young women, offering them “job opportunities”, explaining that those women who accept such opportunities often do so out of desperation.

“And so it becomes difficult to curb the pandemic as women are opting for these opportunities to secure financial and economic security,” Traquino says.

And, as Ntuli points out, there remain gaps in how human and sex trafficking crimes can be reported.

“I think people, including the police in Zimbabwe, have become cynical. I think its because of the economic crisis. Someone who I told my story to asked what I thought I was doing going to Dubai. I cannot even approach law enforcement officers on this matter as I feel I know what their reaction would be,” Ntuli says.

In 2019, the United States State Department issued the Trafficking in Persons Report noted that Zimbabwe “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”, while local researchers say more needs to be done if young women such as Ntuli are to come forward and report cases for justice to be served. Ntuli admits that she is unaware if there is any legal recourse open to her as a victim of sex trafficking.

“Educating vulnerable people about human trafficking for sexual exploitation is one piece to addressing the problem. As the Palermo Protocol mandates, governments need to deal with the root causes of trafficking for sexual exploitation, and these are grounded in gender inequality and discrimination,” says Tsitsi Matekaire, the global lead of End Sex Trafficking at Equality Now, an NGO that advocates for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and girls.

“Governments must ensure that women and girls are supported to reach their potential, free from the impact of discrimination and poverty, and create more equal societies so that they are not vulnerable to sex trafficking in the first place,” Matekaire tells IPS.

“Governments must ensure that victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation are properly supported to rebuild their lives after the traumatic experience, whether they have been trafficked within the country or where trafficked to another country,” she adds.

The International Criminal Police Organisation’s (INTERPOL) Vulnerable Communities unit has noted the importance of training local enforcement agents on how to conduct victim interviews in cases of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.

In responses to IPS’ enquires, the police organisation used the example of a successful INTERPOL-assisted raid of sex trafficking in West Africa in January, where local police were provided with specialised training to bust a trafficking ring.

While Zimbabwe has made efforts to address human and sex trafficking, Traquino says more still needs to be done.

“The Government of Zimbabwe has demonstrated overall increasing efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is not has not fully reached the required level of commitment in tackling human trafficking at large,” she tells IPS.

“There is more that can be done to conscientise young economically vulnerable woman. The state has not taken advantage of the platforms that the youth are mostly found at, particularly Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and various other social media platforms. Sensitising young women about the risks of trafficking on the [social media] platforms that they frequently visit can be effective as the message reaches them directly,” Traquino says.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ), which actively supports the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 8 of decent work and economic growth, has focused much of its work on eliminating modern slavery. It acknowledges that the “legal system is failing — human trafficking is illegal everywhere but it is growing everywhere”.

“As a consequence something has to change — we need new laws — governments are obliged to protect their citizens,” GSN states.

Gillian Chinzete, senior programmes officer with the Harare-based NGO Girls and Women Empowerment Network, also believes African governments and respective legislatures must be pressured to act.

“This will help in ensuring effective implementation of policies,” she tells IPS.

“Communities have little or no information about human trafficking. Human trafficking cases are hidden from the general communities,” Chinzete adds.

*Not her real name.

The post Current Laws Cannot Protect Zimbabwe’s Women from Sex Trafficking appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Young women in Zimbabwe are becoming increasingly vulnerable to sex trafficking because of the country’s economic climate and because of the lack of enforcement of international legal instruments.

The post Current Laws Cannot Protect Zimbabwe’s Women from Sex Trafficking appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

The United Nations, European Union and its Member States take strides to enhance their strategic partnership to help Kenya accelerate the attainment of the SDGs

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 17:26

The Government of Kenya, the European Union & the United Nations unite to accelerate Kenya’s Big 4 development agenda and the SDGs. Credit: Barbara @EUinKenya

By PRESS RELEASE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The United Nations, European Union and its Member States, and Government of Kenya met, for the first time, to explore ways they can combine efforts to best support the Government of Kenya in achieving its national priorities as outlined in Vision2030, MTPIII and the Big Four agenda.

Over a two-day retreat in Gigiri, Nairobi, the EU and UN committed to:

Mr António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, has stated that there are serious threats to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations, especially its development system, must be effectively reformed in order to be able to limit the impact of those threats. The reform of the United Nations development system involves a set of far-reaching changes in the way the UN development system works to help countries around the world in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The EU, and its Member States are strong supporters of this UN reform in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of UN development cooperation with Kenya, and all around the world.

Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya stated at the retreat: “As the UN Reforms are rapidly taking shape, we will be defined by how we address the SDGs through a “business unusual” approach. We have to innovate, take risk, leverage and reinforce each other to succeed. That is at the heart of the UN’s repositioning agenda. We are deeply thankful for the strong partnership with the EU and its Member States, and would like to applaud the Government of Kenya for its leadership of this important agenda”

H.E Simon Mordue, EU Ambassador to Kenya, praised the government’s commitment and the UNs’ reform efforts thus far, adding that “We need to act as one, which means enhancing and fully exploiting the full range of synergies of the EU, UN and indeed the Kenyan government and moving to financing coupled with sustained policy dialogue. This will allow us to unleash the full potential of our development support for the benefit of Kenya and her population”.

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About the UN in Kenya: Since 1963 the Government of Kenya and the United Nations are partnering to spur the Country’s social economic development. In 1996, the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) was established, becoming one of four major UN office sites and the UN’s headquarters in Africa. Kenya has been a top advocate of Agenda 2030 and was a member of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons who advised the United Nations Secretary General on the global development framework beyond 2015, adopted as Agenda 2030 including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Today there are 23 UN agencies operating from Nairobi, which are delivering as one support to Kenya in line with the USD1.9 billion UN Development Cooperation Framework (2018-2022) which was developed under the co-leadership of the Government and UN in consultation with key stakeholders. For more information: www.kenya.un.org/

About the EU in Kenya: The EU and its member states are a major development supporter of Kenya with over 4.5 billion euro in development assistance to Kenya for the period 2018-2022. EU and its Member States are strong supporters of UN reform in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the UN’s development cooperation with Kenya, and all around the world, in order to ensure the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are attained. For more information: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/kenya/1376/about-eu-delegation-kenya_en

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Categories: Africa

Brazil: Low on FSI but Much to Offer the South

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 15:29

Slash-and-burn clearing in the rainforest in the state of Acre, next to Amazonas. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

By N Chandra Mohan
NEW DELHI, Mar 10 2020 (IPS)

Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of coffee, sugar, beef, soya, cotton, and ethanol but due to its environmental and water footprint it ranks low on sustainability. Brazilian agriculture’s contribution to the loss of rainforest is a case in point – the Amazon lost as much as 3,465 square miles of forest due to fires last year – triggering widespread international outrage over the lax environment policies that allowed all of this to happen. Its large commercial cattle herd is also a source of greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil’s challenge is to make its model of agricultural development more environment-friendly.

For sustainable agriculture, Brazil has a score of 64.2 — out of a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 represents the greatest progress towards meeting a performance indicator — that gives it a lowly rank of 51 out of 67 countries in the third edition of the Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition in Italy. In Latin America, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia have higher scores than Brazil. The FSI is based on the three pillars of sustainable agriculture, nutritional challenges and food waste. Being an agricultural powerhouse therefore hardly implies greater sustainability.

Brazil’s agricultural sector grew rapidly – an average of 4.1 percent per annum between 1991 and 2015 — by extending the arable land frontier and through productivity improvements. Net forested area diminished by almost one million hectares between 2010 and 2015 according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development- Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations’ Agricultural Outlook 2019-28. The sector is dominated by large commercial and export-oriented enterprises. Scale economies contributed to lower production costs and a leading position in global trade. Brazil thus became the world’s third largest exporter of agricultural products, with exports reaching $79.3 billion in 2017.

N Chandra Mohan

Productivity changes are integrally related to the role of government agricultural research institutions, sometimes through collaboration with the private sector, like the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, EMBRAPA. For sub-level FSI indicators of sustainable agriculture like public support to R&D, Brazil is among the top 5 out of 67 countries. EMBRAPA played a significant role in transforming agriculture in the midwest or Cerrado region by introducing technologies from abroad like nitrogen fixation and no-tillage practices and livestock breeds and adapting them locally to produce more cotton, soybeans, maize and cattle.

As a leading agricultural power, the Brazilian model has lessons for the South, especially for countries relying on small holder farms to feed their growing population. Although large scale agribusiness enterprises dominate, the 4.4 million family farms who occupy less than 25 percent of agricultural land are still important in Brazil, thanks to several institutional measures. Comprehensive family farming programmes provided credit, insurance and marketing support. Family farms also contributed in part to school feeding programmes in the country. From 1999 to 2018, there was also a dedicated Ministry of Agrarian Development for family farmers.

The successful performance of Brazil’s family farms is reflected in the fact that they are responsible for 70 percent of domestic food consumption. They account for 87 percent of cassava, 70 percent of beans, 34 percent of rice and 21 percent of wheat that is consumed in Brazil. Family farms also account for 60 percent of milk and 50 percent of poultry (http://www.brazil.gov.br/about-brazil/news/2018/06/brazilian-family-farmers-are– the-worlds-8th-largest-food-producer). With annual revenues of $55.2 billion, the sector would rank Brazil 8th in the world in food production if the country relied only on family farmers for supply.

For such reasons, Brazil’s agricultural expertise has many takers in the South. Brazil’s president was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26 this year. Several agreements were signed during his visit that included collaboration for ethanol production, sharing of best practices in crop and livestock health, deepening cooperation in agriculture research between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and EMBRAPA, setting up cold chains and terminal markets for fruits and vegetables with state- of-art facilities, among others, according to the India-Brazil joint statement issued during the Brazilian President’s visit.

India is also keen to set up farmer producer organisations that will have collective strength for better access to quality inputs, technology, credit and marketing to improve small farmer incomes in various states. In this regard, it can benefit from the highly successful Microbacias 11 programme in the Brazilian state of Sao Paolo. In fact, couple of years ago, a team from India did visit Sao Paolo to learn from Microbacias 11 to improve the competitiveness of smallholder farmers in the state of Jharkhand as part of a South-South Exchange Programme. The upshot is that while Brazil must respond to climate change imperatives to make its agriculture more sustainable, as a leading global player it obviously has much to offer countries of the South.

(N Chandra Mohan is an economics and business commentator)

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Categories: Africa

Stock Market Bubble No Basis for Shared Prosperity

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 08:57

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 10 2020 (IPS)

The US is currently still in a stock market bubble which, if history is any guide, is likely to end, perhaps soon due to Covid19. President Trump would, of course, like to sustain it to strengthen his November re-election prospects.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Financialization ‘unreal’
Although focused on the US, William Lazonick’s seminal 2014 Harvard Business Review article, Profits without Prosperity, and Lazonick and Shin’s new book, Predatory Value Extraction: How the Looting of the Business Corporation Became the US Norm and How Sustainable Prosperity Can Be Restored offer invaluable insights into investment trends with implications for much of the world.

Julius Krein has helpfully reviewed recent US trends confirming the Lazonick concerns. Global stocks are now worth almost US$90 trillion, more than world output. Including equities, bank deposits, (government plus private) debt securities, etc., the total value of financial assets rose from US$118 trillion in 2004 to over US$200 trillion in 2010, more than double world output then.

Ponzi-like stock market dynamics
Since the 1980s, ‘engineered’ US stock market bubbles have obscured lessons from preceding busts, explaining them away as Schumpeterian creative destruction. While each new bubble may retrieve some of the preceding loss, it never fully restores earlier economic gains.

But the history and dynamics of stock market bubbles imply that they simply cannot be the basis for shared prosperity. Sadly, wishful thinking to the contrary perpetuates the mass delusion promoted and perpetuated by those who stand to gain most.

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Categories: Africa

Air Pollution in South Asia: Biomass Burning Emissions & its Impact

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 08:34

Use of Biomass for household cooking

By Hemraj Bhattarai
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Mar 10 2020 (IPS)

A young adult man requires 15 m3 or 15 kg of air, 1.5 liters or 1.5 kg of water and 0.75 kg of solid food every day. This indicates around 87% of our everyday basic requirement is air.

The simple question is, what happens to our health and environment if the same air gets polluted? The short and simple answer is, “pollution kills”.

Biomass burning (BB) in rural kitchens is still the primary source of energy particularly in developing countries. Around 3 billion people rely on open fires or simple stoves for cooking.
The World Energy Outlook report of International Energy Agency 2011 claimed 39% of the global population use biomass fuel either for cooking or heating and are largely consumed in developing nations.

For instance, the earlier findings during 2000s reported more than 80% of domestic energy in India is from biomass of which ~ 90% of the households use animal dung or wood for cooking. Huge amounts of gaseous and small sized particles that can enter into our lungs are released from the household BB or from rural kitchen.

This adversely degrades the indoor air quality and seriously affects human health and on a larger scale contributes to climate change and global air pollution.

Traditional cooking stoves which have incomplete combustion of biomass fuel and emit substantial amounts of pollutants is very common in the South Asian region. The common types of biomass fuel used are wood, dried animal dung, sugarcane bagasse, crop residue etc.

Ishora Devi – 50, is one of the regular users of biomass fuel in a traditional cooking stove. Every day she wakes up around 4:30-5:00 am, and burns the traditional stove to cook food for humans and animals (buffalo). She had a family of 8 members including her and two buffaloes.

Usually she burns on the stove 3-4 times a day and each time it lasts up to 1-2 hours, which means in a day she spends around 4-8 hours near the cooking stove in a smoky zone. She explained, “I use around 10 kg of firewood each day.”

The ceiling of her kitchen has already changed its color and turned in to black due to continuous burning of firewood and emission of soot particles. Similarly, the color of the door shows a significant difference in color i.e. the lower half is normal whereas upper half is brown or almost black.

This indicates, the smoke once released is hotter and lighter therefore tries to accumulate near the ceiling. Thus, a person who works in the kitchen by standing is more likely to be affected compared to the one who works by sitting.

Ishora Devi is just a representative of billions of people using biomass fuel who spends most of their life in the smoky environment. Most of the kitchens are not well ventilated therefore the air inside the kitchen cannot flow smoothly thus could cause suffocation.

Besides household biomass burning inside the kitchen, crop residue burning also has a strong influence on local to regional air pollution. Recent findings in 2019 highlighted the significant influence of countryside crop residue/wood burning on Delhi air quality particularly during post-harvest season i.e. winter and autumn.

The researchers used the state-of-the-art technology of dual carbon isotope fingerprint (δ13C/Δ14C) to come-up with this solid decision. The small-scale crop residue burning is frequently observed in rural sites over South Asia. Such open burnings release tremendous amounts of gases and aerosols which once released into the atmosphere, degrades its quality.

Dr. Lekhendra Tripathee from Nepal, an assistant Professor at Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is working in the field of air pollution in Himalayas and Indo-Gangetic Plain over the last eight years, claims, “the air pollution has no political boundary and could easily transport from one site to the other.”

He further added, “Humans are the polluter and victims of their action. The more we control the emission, the safer environment we will have to live in.”

Professor Cong Zhiyuan at Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Beijing, China, identified the transport of biomass burning emissions from South Asia to Tibetan Plateau and their impact on fragile and sensitive ecosystems in his paper published in Scientific Reports in 2015.

Biomass burning releases huge amounts of gases and aerosols related to carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and many more which are more likely to threaten the human life, climate and ecosystem therein.

Emission of huge amount of air pollutants as a result of crop residue burning in South Asian region

Biomass burning is the major cause of air pollution which leads to several chronic illnesses such as lung cancer, acute respiratory infection, asthma, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease etc.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012 estimated worldwide annual premature death of 4.3 million people as a result of indoor air pollution caused by biomass combustion during cooking.

In general, of the all deaths from lung cancer, ambient air pollution accounts for 29% and almost half (~ 43%) of the deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is caused by air pollution.

Women, children and aged people are mostly the victim of indoor air pollution. WHO reported, death of children under 5 years of age due to pneumonia is the result of particulate matter (soot) inhaled from household air pollution.

In short, air pollution is a global problem and more serious in the case of South Asia where biomass burning is extremely high. The increase in dependency over renewable energy such as hydroelectricity could help to maintain the atmospheric environment.

*Hemraj Bhattarai is a graduate student from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Currently, he works at the Kathmandu Center for Research and Education on issues relating to air pollution in the Himalayas and South Asia.

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Categories: Africa

An Ambitious Year for Climate Action Is a Big Year for Women’s Empowerment

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 19:25

By Frank Rijsberman and Ingvild Solvang
Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

This year, the Paris Agreement’s effectiveness as a global response to the climate crisis is being tested as governments are preparing to submit more ambitious national targets for mitigation and adaptation.

The combined ambitions of these targets should match the urgency to strengthening resilience and limiting the disastrous climate change impacts around the world.

The Paris Agreement aims to keep global warming well below 2°C and closer to 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial levels. This means reaching a peak in global emissions shortly and achieving climate neutrality by 2050, in other words target Net Zero Emissions by 2050.

Achieving this requires stepping up immediate actions that follow new models of economic growth and development that shift policies and investments towards low-carbon, green growth solutions.

Promotion of poverty alleviation, gender equality and social inclusion is embedded in GGGI’s support to our member countries in this transition. This is in recognition that achievement of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the Paris Agreement must align with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) priorities.

Mounting evidence shows that gender equality is an accelerator of development and of climate action, and GGGI suggests two key priorities for International Women’s Day 2020.

First, increased investments in climate change adaptation are essential for livelihoods, food security and disaster risk reduction, particularly to benefit women and girls, who are disproportionally impacted by climate change.

Second, “A Just Transition” is needed, particularly in renewable energy, to ensure enhanced opportunities world over for women to participate in decision-making and the economy.

Women and girls are more vulnerable to the Climate Crisis

The climate crisis impacts men and women differently and given their different roles in society. In the most climate vulnerable communities, women’s work and activities tend to be dependent on natural resources, and climate change results in more effort and time required to collect water, firewood, and secure food for the household.

Lack of access to sustainable energy services and productive assets and financial resources are key barriers to the ability of communities to adapt to a changing climate. With limited roles in community and household decision-making, and with lesser access to services and resources globally, women are further disadvantaged.

A study by McKinsey estimates that although women constitute 50% of the global population, they contribute only 37% to the global (formal) economy. Only 24.5% of the world’s parliamentarians are women.

And, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only 15% of the world’s landowners are female. Therefore, GGGI is working to make climate action work to accelerate gender equality by promoting gender-responsive plans, policies, technologies and investments.

In Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta, mangrove forests are essential to people’s lives and livelihoods. The Cyclone Nargis that hit the Delta in 2008 claimed more than 130,000 lives.

Consistent with a tragic global disaster pattern, 61% of those dead were female with the number much higher in some villages according to a 2014 post-disaster assessment undertaken by the Government of Myanmar and partners. This illustrates the gendered nature of climate disasters.

A UNWOMEN and UNDP review of evidence highlights how integrated approaches to political and economic empowerment are needed to support women participation and leadership in climate action, which in turns enhances their resilience. In the context of the Myanmar Delta, mangrove conservation is an essential response to the climate crisis.

GGGI is incorporating these gender perspectives into its work with the government on developing the case for community-led forest management, to safeguard men and women’s equal leadership and sustainable access to forest resources. In parallel, investments in fishery value chains could have significant positive impacts on rural women’s livelihoods through access to finance, technology and markets.

Women Have Untapped Potential in the Transition to Renewable Energy

A transition to renewable energy is essential to fight the climate crisis. About three-quarters of the first generation of NDCs made reference to renewable energy, and this focus is likely to increase as governments submit more ambitious targets and as the price of renewable energy has come down significantly in the last 5 years since the first generation of NDCs was prepared.

This shift requires a “just transition”, i.e. support for those who lose their jobs in the brown economy in the shift towards a green economy, to ensure a broad-based political will and public support for driving decarbonization of the economy.

GGGI has assessed the potential for green job creation in Mexico, Indonesia and Rwanda as a result of the switch to renewable energy in the NDCs of these countries, and found that considerable employment and economic opportunities can be created.

For example, achieving Mexico’s renewable energy targets under the NDCs would create 370,000 additional jobs compared to the business-as-usual scenario. While the number of green jobs gained will likely outpace the numbers of brown jobs lost, those losing their brown jobs are not the same people as those gaining new green jobs, and therefore a just transition is key.

Furthermore, by acknowledging the gender dimension of the renewable energy sub-sector, policymakers have an opportunity to ensure that women can participate in this expanding green labor force on equal terms as their male counterparts.

An IRENA report from 2019 estimates that only 32% of the current global renewable energy workforce are women and that the gender gap is even wider in technical and senior roles. In a 2020 report on the emerging wind energy sector, IRENA concludes women constitute only 21% of the workforce in this sub-sector, which is even lower that the global average for women in oil and gas (22%).

The reasons for these gender gaps are complex, and the NDC can be an important instrument to pair climate targets with socio-economic co-benefits and women’s empowerment.

A first step towards closing this gender gap is to have better quality gender data to drive responsive polices, for example in public procurement criteria that stimulate women’s participation in the RE workforce, conducive workplace policies, and measures to increase the number of women in energy-related education.

In the Mexican State of Sonora, where 21% of the energy workforce are women, GGGI has engaged with a broad range of public and private sector stakeholders to explore opportunities for gender equality in renewable energy sector. This should ensure a broader talent-base for a growing sector.

At the same time, Mexico has one of the world’s largest gender gaps in employment generally, and increased women’s participation could therefore significantly contribute to economic growth and increased welfare.

In conclusion, while gender equality and women’s empowerment are goals, they are also essential enablers of climate action and development more broadly. While upping climate ambitions in 2020, we must also step up our efforts to unlock the potential of women and girls around the world.

The post An Ambitious Year for Climate Action Is a Big Year for Women’s Empowerment appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Frank Rijsberman, Director General, and Ingvild Solvang, Head of Climate Action and Inclusive Development, GGGI

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Categories: Africa

Journalists Tell Slovakia’s PM-elect: ‘Thanks, but No Thanks’

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 14:01

Igor Matovic, Slovakia’s prime minister-elect, wants to fund investigative journalists to act as corruption watchdogs on government and state bodies. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

Plans announced by Slovakia’s prime minister-elect to fund investigative journalists to act as corruption watchdogs on government and state bodies have been dismissed as “a road to hell” by local journalists.

Igor Matovic, whose OLaNO party won Slovakia’s elections at the end of last month on the back of a strongly anti-corruption campaign, last week said investigative journalists were the best people to keep a check on the use of public funds by ministers and state officials.

But the idea, which comes just two years after Slovak investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova were shot dead, has been met with almost universal antipathy by the country’s journalistic community.

They say it could compromise journalists’ independence and fear it could be a way for political leaders to absolve themselves of responsibility for rooting out corruption.

Instead, they say, the incoming prime minister would be better off concentrating on introducing legislation to ensure they can do their work more efficiently and safely.

“It’s nice that Mr Matovic is thinking of us, and this idea may be well-meant, but it’s is a road to hell,” Arpad Soltesz, head of the Jan Kuciak Centre for Investigative Journalism, told IPS.

Matovic said just hours after he won the elections that he wanted a special unit set up to root out public sector corruption.

He suggested the unit be made up of investigative journalists working across the country who could investigate corruption in central government and ministries as well as regional authorities and state bodies.

The fund would receive 10 million EUR per year from the state – Matovic has suggested legislation could be brought in to guarantee the funding – and that a yet to be established journalists’ organisation would decide on allocating the financing from the fund.

Slovakia has seen a slew of corruption scandals, some involving people at the highest levels of government, in recent years. The story Kuciak was working on when he and his fiancée were shot in his home east of the capital Bratislava, exposed links between the Smer party and the Italian mafia.

Matovic told Slovak media the work of the fund “would [act as] the best independent arbitrator on the transparency of the use of public funds.”

However, journalists said it could raise serious questions over media independence.

Marek Vagovic, head of investigative reporting at the Aktuality.sk online news outlet which Kuciak was working for when he was killed, said in a Facebook post: “As one of the key pillars of respectable media is its independence, it is not appropriate to take any financial support from the government/state. Not now, not in the past, nor in the future…. It could lower public trust in us.”

The work investigative reporters do is widely recognised as a vital part of any free democracy in many states. But it is often expensive and not all newspapers can afford to do such reporting.

Because of this, funds are available in many countries, some with state financing, for investigative journalists.

However, many are clearly independent from governments which finance them, such as the Dutch Journalism Fund and the Dutch Fund for Journalism which receive millions of euro per year in funding from the Dutch Education Ministry, but which are also funded from other sources and which decide on grant applications using independent experts.

Matovic’s plans so far suggest money for the Slovak fund would come solely from the state – something which worries local journalists who point to neighbouring Hungary as an example of what can go wrong when government funds the media.

Populist Hungarian PM Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party are estimated to be in control of up to 90 percent of the country’s media, having used policy and public funding to essentially wipe out critical and independent news outlets.

In 2018, 467 media outlets alone, some of which had been created using public funds, were ‘given’ to the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA) – run by people close to Orban – by their pro-government owners. This effectively brought them under the control of the regime.

Beata Balogova, editor in chief of the Slovak daily Sme, was quoted in Slovak media as saying: “Forgive me if, in a region where Viktor Orban created KESMA, I’m a bit concerned about similar initiatives.”

Balogova and others have also questioned journalists’ powers to deal with corruption.

Matus Kostolny, editor in chief of the Dennik N daily, wrote in his paper: “Investigative journalists can uncover dozens of scandals, but they have no chance of uncovering everything and, unlike the state, they do not have the options to investigate, follow, and use documents that the police, prosecutors and secret service do.”

He added: “It is tempting to leave it to journalists to do, but, in reality it is the prime minister and his coalition partners who must be responsible for the government’s performance.”

Senior figures at Slovak newspapers have urged the incoming Prime Minister to instead focus efforts on making it easier and safer for journalists to investigate corruption.

Before his death Kuciak had told police he had been threatened by prominent local businessman Marian Kocner, whom Kuciak had written about. Kocner was later arrested and is currently on trial for ordering Kuciak’s murder.

“The government should not be paying investigative journalists. It should let them do their work freely and protect them if someone attacks them, or, wants to kill them. And then the government should act on what they uncover,” said Balogova.

In recent years journalists have also faced public denigration and personal attacks by politicians, especially from the Smer party and its leader Robert Fico.

Local journalists have said these repeated attacks by Fico – he called reporters ‘anti-Slovak prostitutes’ and ‘idiots’, among other things – and others helped create a hostile atmosphere towards society which emboldened Kuciak’s killers to carry out his murder.

They say Matovic must ensure politicians in his government do not do the same.

Peter Bardy, editor in chief at Aktuality.sk, said in a Facebook post: “We thank Igor Matovic for his well-meant [idea], but rather than a fund we would welcome the creation of an environment in which we are able to do our work without attacks from politicians turning us into targets for hate attacks.”

But they also want concrete legislative action on key issues which they say makes their work sometimes impossible.

Current libel laws allow for massive fines to be meted out to media for stories about individuals and organisations. Critics say that for some publications these fines would essentially put them out of business, which can deter them from running stories containing corruption allegations.

Meanwhile, journalists often complain they are unable to investigate misuse of public funds properly.

“Ministries hide information about their business activities, using legislative exemptions or claiming business confidentiality. This needs to be changed,” Zuzana Petkova of the Zastavme Korupciu (Stop Corruption) NGO, wrote in a blog in the Dennik N daily about the fund proposals.

Soltesz said he also wanted to see legislation ensuring the effective protection of sources.

“I would like to see legislation introduced whereby any journalist revealing their source against their will would face a legal sanction, in the same way that a doctor or a lawyer is required to adhere to rules of patient/client confidentiality,” he told IPS.

Matovic has defended his plans, saying he sees no reason why the fund would necessarily affect journalists’ independence, pointing out public broadcaster RTVS is financed by the state.

However, in the run up to the elections Matovic’s party attacked the very same broadcaster for a lack of independence, claiming it was censoring negative reports connected to the outgoing ruling coalition.

It is unclear whether Matovic will be able to implement his plans. While there appears to be tentative support among politicians in the four-party coalition government he is set to lead, it is hard to see how it could function given the clear lack of support among the wider Slovak journalism community.

“No one in any serious media is positive about this plan. We say thanks but no thanks. Journalism should remain independent,” said Soltesz.

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Categories: Africa

News Agencies Must Paint a Complete Picture of Coronavirus

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 13:44

Credit: UN News/Li Zhang

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

Recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “We have an epidemic caused by Coronavirus, but we have a pandemic caused by fear “.

This fear is worsened by how news agencies report the outbreak. These are some examples.

“Bodies ‘pile up’ in morgue as Iran feels strain of coronavirus” – CNN

“First UK death from coronavirus confirmed as cases surge to 115” – The Guardian UK

“Coronavirus: Global death toll exceeds 3,000” – Premium Times Nigeria

“Death toll from coronavirus in Italy rises to 148: Live updates” – Aljazeera

“Coronavirus update, map as death toll reaches 3,200. Infections soar in Italy, Iran and South Korea” – Newsweek

News outlets are often quick to report the number of infected and deaths due to Coronavirus. However, they do not highlight as prominently the number of Coronavirus survivors. Yet, there are many survivors.

Reporting the complete picture of the outbreak gives hope and builds confidence in people that being infected is not a death sentence. In contrast, continuing the negative reporting of COVID-19 increases hysteria, fear and panic associated with the outbreak

There are currently 110,624 reported cases; 62,397 have recovered, 44,396 are currently infected, with 3,831 deaths. herefore, there are 16 times as many people who have survived Coronavirus as those who have died from it. A breakdown of Coronavirus survivors in some countries are as follows, China: 58,721, Iran: 2,134, Italy: 622 and South Korea: 166. The much-reported Diamond Princess Ship has 245 survivors, and this is hardly reported.

The Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie describes this act of only focusing on one side of a story as the danger of the single story. In her TEDGlobal Talk, Chimamanda affirms that we are vulnerable and impressionable in the face of a story. She went further to say that, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.

These Coronavirus headlines by major news agencies spell death, gloom and despair. Unconsciously, people are only associating deaths with the Coronavirus outbreak. They are taking extreme measures, closing businesses and schools. Currently, nearly 300 million children are out of school because of fear.

On the extreme end, the National Association of Funeral Directors in the United Kingdom have indicated that if Coronavirus is declared a Pandemic, they would consider streaming funeral services online. According to the Association, this is to prevent the spread of the infection and give the bereaved a chance to mourn their loss. However, this could be counterproductive because internet trolls may use such videos to propagate fear and panic.

This must change. Indeed, reporting the complete picture of the outbreak gives hope and builds confidence in people that being infected is not a death sentence. In contrast, continuing the negative reporting of COVID-19 increases hysteria, fear and panic associated with the outbreak. It perpetuates the narrative that people do not survive the infection. Fortunately, the data show the contrary.

Henceforth, these are four ways to ensure balanced reporting by news organisation:

First, news agencies must begin to write the complete story and always mention numbers of survivors in their headlines. Their articles on the Coronavirus outbreak should be aspirational as well as factual. Leaving out the thousands of people who survive the infection is a great disservice to survivors and paints an incomplete picture.

Second, we need to hear Coronavirus survivors speak about their experiences. Journalists should interview these survivors and document their journeys. There is a great lesson in this regard from the CNN Global Town Hall on Coronavirus. During the townhall meeting, Carl Goldman, a survivor at the Nebraska University Teaching Hospital was interviewed. He got infected while aboard the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship. Watching him share the symptoms he experienced, how he was treated by health workers and his recovery was liberating. More of such interviews should be done with survivors to encourage us all.

Third, news agencies must keep reiterating preventative measures in their reporting. People should know that doing these would reduce their risks of getting infected. Avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands; wash their hands with soap under running water; cough/sneeze into a tissue paper or the curve of the elbows, maintain a distance of at least 5 feet from anyone coughing or sneezing, and contact their healthcare providers when in doubt.

Fourth, news agencies should be cautious about the types of information they share with the public. The World Health Organisation acknowledges that there is currently an infodemic – an overwhelming amount of true and false information on social media and websites. When the public is overloaded with only news of death, it could lead to internet trolls using such to create misinformation.

To keep fear from spreading faster than the actual virus, organizations must self-regulate and report the Coronavirus outbreak in a complete manner. It is the ethical thing to do. It is for public good and public health.

The post News Agencies Must Paint a Complete Picture of Coronavirus appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor is a medical doctor, the CEO of EpiAFRIC, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Nigeria Health Watch

The post News Agencies Must Paint a Complete Picture of Coronavirus appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

TikTok: Expressive Mechanism for many dealing with today’s world

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 13:43

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

“What do you get from the TikTok videos? Do you prefer the platform for entertainment, passing time or for connecting with your friends? I have seen comical videos, venting sessions and some that do not make any sense what so ever and some are just rude, making fun of others.” I asked the 14-year-old k-popper teenager flipping through the pages of a manga book while he chose to respond in English coming from a Spanish speaking family and studying Mandarin as a third language.

The reply was not quite as I expected and it compelled me to look into the reason ‘why’ rather than ‘what’. To better understand the reasoning I personally communicated with 23 teenagers who actively use this platform coming from 15 countries and each seemed to add something unique to their responses.

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. It is used to create short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. The application allows users to create short music and lip-sync videos of 3 to 15 seconds and short looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds. The app is popular in Asia, the United States, and other parts of the world. TikTok is not available in China, and its servers are based in countries where the app is available. (1) TikTok is by far one of the world’s most downloaded apps in recent years, having surpassed both the one billion and 1.5 billion downloads mark on the App Store and Google Play in a single year in 2019. The app reached its first billion only as recently as February 2019 and took just under eight months to gain half a billion more. (2)

As a 90’s child growing up with MySpace then Hi5 and now keeping social ties with my friends and families over Facebook and Instagram, TikTok seemed like unknown territory, and putting it into a well-defined genre seemed impossible. Surprisingly 41 percent of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. Another 24.5 percent of the visitors’ ages 18 and older fell into the 25 to 34 age group. (3) And the number count of users is increasing at a rapid speed.

Coming back to the responses I received from the young Generation Z, it seems like the appeal is a mix of various trigger factors. Similar to any form of social interaction this completes the void of connectivity, expressing emotions and need for getting the point across. Here they can experience the raw emotion with added drama.

For any human being, especially for teenagers, it is an inborn and sometimes desperate need to get their point across without being judged. To socialize, express and then to entertain themselves is a necessity and this can be daunting for some facing peer pressure, following social and community expectations and largely adhering to the geographical location, the mindset of others around him or her while abiding the family traits.

Tiktok videos are short and give a burst of entertainment from mostly non-celebrities and from people who are easy to relate to. The content is generated at home, rarely revised and formally formularized. There are most times no scripts, formality or preparation. People put themselves out there and be silly, open, serious and at times vulnerable. So for a teenager, it becomes relatable. And they can see the real person in the video, experiencing life and doing something as compared to a picture or status it becomes more valid.

And all this happens with the buffer of having a screen. There is no pressure of being uncomfortable with breaking the ice or make small talks to start the conversation or even need to look into someone’s eyes while conversing. And as most of the content is shared in public or showcased to a group of mutuals or friends, the target audience can be selected and a comfort zone can be established.

The fun, yet conflicting aspect of TikTok is that the person uploading the video content makes fun of themselves and expects mixed reactions. Here an expression can be shared without being direct or oppressive.

Rather than talking over the phone, many prefers to communicate through a media. Even when teenagers hangout, they will have their phones open and at times communicate through an online message or group chat, while being present in the same room. And this communication gets an edge when it is paired with a very short video where a person can see the facial expression, surroundings and read the body language. They put themselves out there to engage, socialize and sometimes be even evaluated by the peers.

Yes, there are issues and misuse or even scope for cyberbullying, pedophilia, body shaming, information leaking, and exploitation through social media platforms but these are not keeping users from taking part and exposing themselves. (4) Many users are well aware of the negative factors before posting the content but end up posting the content either way.

With new technology comes new challenges. An article published by UNICEF on February 2020 where one of TikTok’s biggest stars mentioned that she gets hundreds of thousands of hate comments every week, often focusing on her body and weight. (5) Similar to her story many other social media users have voiced concern of hate comments and cyberbullying.

But on follow up they have also found a way to cope with and channel their frustrations in productive ways seeking help and being vocal. Many teenagers learn actively and passively from experiences shared by these stars and learn how to deal and how to ask for help if they face such issues.

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is spearheading the virtual dance petition as a means to empower an estimated 1.2 billion people aged between 15 and 24, over 80% of whom hail from developing countries. More than 5000 people have already taken part in this venture. The UN is stepping up the fight against world hunger by inviting young people to #danceforchange on TikTok to persuade global leaders to do more to invest in rural youth and agriculture. (6)

Another example of using the social media platform to get the voice across is the interactive approach, where the younger generation can relate to and engage. (7) TikTok has teamed up with the United Nation Women to raise awareness about violence against women in India

The #KaunsiBadiBaatHai campaign has attracted more than 887.5 million views as of Monday. It is part of a larger initiative by UN Women of activism against gender-based violence. (8) The World Health Organization and the United Nations have also engaged through TikTok to spread service announcements about coronavirus in an attempt to reach teens with reliable information. (9)

In any of the social platforms time and space also has no barrier what so ever. A person can be in India while the first viewer can be from China and the first commenter can be from Uruguay. So when someone posts, they have a massive audience. Trends, voices, global issues, anything, and everything can be a topic. And it is interesting that apart from entertainment, many pressing topics like politics, climate change, social issues gain momentum with these short videos. From my discussion, it was pleasing to know that most teenagers are aware of climate change and are voicing concerns. They are equally alert of immigration and refugee situations around the globe, racially targeted factors, political tensions, social injustices, abortion issues and so on.

It was important also to learn that many have reached out seeking support and information from various organizations dealing with depression, suicide prevention, domestic violence, rape, bullying, pregnancy, LGBTQ issues and were voicing out using TikTok platforms. (10)

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok

2.https://www.oberlo.com/blog/tiktok-statistics

3.https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/social-media-108342

4.https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/social-media-fame-seeker/

5.https://www.insider.com/charli-dixie-damelio-tik-tok-biggest-stars-cyberbullying-video-2020-2

6.https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/05/29/un-calls-time-hunger-with-tiktok-dance-challenge

7.https://www.scmp.com/tech/apps-social/article/3040170/tiktok-teams-un-women-raise-awareness-about-violence-against-women

8. https://in.one.un.org/un-press-release/un-women-india-and-tiktok-unite-to-break-the-silence-end-violence/

9. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccabellan/2020/03/03/the-who-is-on-tiktok-is-the-world-ending/#48884e4c1f16

10. https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/suicide-prevention

11. https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/how-tiktok-caught-us-regulatory-crossfire-rose-global-video-stardom-1823353

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Categories: Africa

How Many Immigrants in the Future?

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 13:09

Pakistani migrant workers build a skyscraper in Dubai. Credit: S. Irfan Ahmed/IPS

By Joseph Chamie
NEW YORK, Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

The answer to the critical question of how many immigrants will there be in the future is: far below the number of people wanting to immigrate and far above the number of immigrants wanted. The discrepancy between the two opposing migration “wants” underlies the current divisive migration crisis sweeping the globe.

Surveys report that 15 percent of the world’s population, more than one billion people, would migrate to another country if they could. Moreover, the proportions wanting to move to another country are considerably higher in some developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa (33 percent), Latin America (27 percent) and Middle East and North Africa (24 percent).

Some countries in developed regions also have relatively high proportions wanting to immigrate, such as Russia (20 percent).

However, the current annual number of immigrants, about 5 million, is a just small fraction of the billion plus people wanting to immigrate. The total number of immigrants worldwide is also comparatively small, about 275 million or less than a quarter of those wanting to immigrate (Figure 1).

Source: Based on United Nations Population Division and Gallup.

In addition, right-wing and populist parties and nationalist groups in virtually every region of the world are putting increasing pressure on governments to oppose and resist accepting immigrants, especially those coming from very different cultures. Those parties and groups are also urging authorities to deport those migrants residing unlawfully in the country.

More than one billion people would migrate to another country if they could. The proportions wanting to move to another country are considerably higher in some developing regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa (33 percent), Latin America (27 percent) and Middle East and North Africa (24 percent)

Opinion polls in various migrant-receiving countries show that immigration is a top concern of voters with most having little appetite for more migration, especially illegal immigration. In the European Union, majorities in Greece (82%), Hungary (72%), Italy (71%) and Germany (58%) believe that fewer immigrants or no immigrants should be allowed to move into their countries. Majorities with similar views are also found in Israel (73%), Russia (67%), South Africa (65%) and Argentina (61%).

The anti-immigrant sentiment has also spread to include refugees and asylum seekers. Government policies to stem the tide of illegal immigrants are undermining the established rights and protections granted to refugees and asylum seekers. While in theory refugees have the right to cross borders in search of asylum, in reality countries are trying to prevent them from entering their territories.

Most recently, Greece, Bulgaria and other members of the European Union are alarmed that Turkey, which hosts the largest number of refugees, close to 4.1 million, is not restraining hundreds of thousands asylum seekers in its territory from reaching Europe.

In addition to many EU member countries, many other countries have policies to restrict refugee and asylum access, including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States.

The number of refugees worldwide in 2019 has more than doubled in the past decade, reaching approximately 26 million. In addition, UNHCR estimates that there are more than 3 million asylum seekers, 4 million stateless people and 41 million internally displaced persons.

While allowing countries to retain control over their borders, international laws, treaties and conventions also aim to protect and assist refugees and asylum seekers. However, the definitions of a refugee and legitimate asylum seeker are open to political interpretation, resulting in ongoing struggles in country capitals over who is covered and who is not.

In addition to those fleeing persecution, growing numbers of people are becoming refugees due to human rights violations and armed conflict. Humanitarian emergencies, widespread poverty and climate change are producing desperate people who have slim chances of migrating to another country other than arriving at its borders seeking asylum.

Also recently, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee found that it is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by a climate crisis. Under such a judgment, tens of millions of people could be displaced and become refugees in the near future due to life-threatening climate and environmental changes.

However, the definition of climate refugee remains an open issue for governments and international organizations.

Anticipating the future flows of international migration is a challenging undertaking that is affected by economic, political, social and environmental factors in sending, transiting and receiving countries.

Nevertheless, population projections with explicit assumptions on the expected net number of migrants in the future are useful as they provide insight about the effects of future migration on a population’s size, age structure and composition.

The United Nations population projections, for example, provide two scenarios, the medium and zero migration variants, for the future net number of immigrants for all countries and regions. In brief, the future net numbers of immigrants in the medium variant are assumed to remain unchanged at approximately current levels throughout the remainder of the 21st century (Figure 2).

Source: United Nations Population Division.

For analysts perhaps the safest answer politically is to assume immigration levels in the future will remain about the same as today, which seems to be the practice in most population projections. In the United States, for example, the main case scenario in the Census Bureau’s population projections to 2060 assumes net immigration levels will continue at slightly more than one million per year.

The politically safest answer, however, does not seem the most likely. Given a world approaching 8 billion inhabitants with unbalanced wealth and resources and unbalanced demographic trends compounded by climate change, it appears most likely that migration levels will be substantially higher in the coming decades.

Today more people are immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons than ever before. Those numbers have also been increasing, not declining, as more developing countries struggle with armed conflict, corruption, crime, hunger, poverty, unemployment, climate change and fragile governments.

It is therefore understandable that huge numbers of people in developing regions want to move to another country, typically a wealthy more developed country.

If the future is indeed more immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, what will be the responses of migrant-receiving countries? Their current policies are basically to build walls and fences, tighten borders, institute travel bans, limit refugees, restrict asylum seekers and deport migrants unlawfully resident. Given today’s record-breaking numbers of immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and others on the move, those policies do not seem to be achieving their intended goals.

Some advocate taking stronger anti-immigrant measures, such as refusing boat migrants ports to land, creating hostile environments for immigrants, using tear gas and water cannons, placing minefields along the border and shooting “infiltrators”.

They contend that if they do not stop the immigrant invasion and gain control over their borders, they will be overwhelmed and loose their culture and way of life as has happened in the past and is happening today in a number of countries.

Others have concluded that it is inevitable that there will be more immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the future. Rather than deny this likely trend, they recommend that countries make appropriate plans to deal with the expected migration increases.

While the number of immigrants in the future is a matter of heated debate, nearly all agree: people on the move – be they immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers – will remain a controversial and divisive political issue for the foreseeable future.

*Joseph Chamie, a former director of the United Nations Population Division, is currently an independent consulting demographer.

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Categories: Africa

The Arc of Justice: The World’s Religions Launch Strategic Priorities for Peace

Mon, 03/09/2020 - 11:17

By Prof. Dr. Azza Karam and Rev. Kyoichi Sugino
NEW YORK, Mar 9 2020 (IPS)

As a growing public health crisis becomes increasingly urgent, prominent global actors and institutions, including the United Nations, are confronted by the realisation that all hands on deck are required to address the cross-cutting challenges faced by our world today.

Another public health epidemic is but one of the major global challenges demanding coordinated and effective responses from diverse institutions, and civil society networks.

Income inequality continues to grow, with the world’s richest 1% in 2020 having twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.

The political and economic will critical to combatting climate change is more needed than ever, with virtually all States behind in their commitments to the Paris Agreement.

With communities ravaged by ongoing conflict, a record 70 million people have fled their homes. As calls for change echo across the globe, the percentage of people living in countries where civic space is considered “repressed” more than doubled in 2019.

Fundamental elements essential to securing human dignity – the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to society, the power to demand change, freedom from any and all forms of discrimination, and the ability to live within and nurture a sustainable environment – are rapidly eroding.

These challenges are striking at a time when multilateralism is threatened, space for civil society is shrinking, and the call for walls of separation are on the rise.

The opportunity to forge ahead as humanity through this turmoil may well exist within the deepest and widest infrastructures ever created and sustained by humankind: the world’s religious communities, to which over 80% of humanity claims some affiliation.

In recent years, international attention has undeniably been focused on the rise in religiously-motivated violence, furthering the focus on religion as (part of) the problem.

However, a relatively lesser known reality in parallel with these trends, may offer insights to solutions: a growing global network of believers working to address these challenges through a unique process of multi-religious peacebuilding.

These religious leaders and constituents hail from an array of religious and spiritual communities as diverse and complex as the world we live in. They are collaborating on, and implementing, development, humanitarian, and peace processes – guiding their societies towards cohesion, respect for differences and cultures of peace.

By convening in interreligious councils, representative of their religious institutions, leadership and communities, at national and regional levels, Religions for Peace – a multi-religious peacebuilding coalition with experienced interreligious platforms in 90 countries across six regions – has a unique and powerful mechanism for multi-religious collaboration and peacebuilding.

The 2020-2025 global Strategic Plan is the culmination of sustained multistakeholder debates and consensus-building, within the vast movement of Religions for Peace.

At the Religions for Peace 10th World Assembly in August 2019, over 1,000 representatives from 125 countries discerned a framework by which to organise their future collaborative action on these global challenges.

Another global consultation in December 2019 convened over 250 religious leaders to do a deep dive, with focused and honest deliberations, ultimately emerging with the consensus to prioritise six strategic goals: peaceful, just and inclusive societies; gender equality; environment; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; interreligious education; and global partnerships.

Uniting religious and indigenous leaders for the protection of tropical forests is a hallmark of the joint prioritisation of nurturing a sustainable environment, believed to be a matter of moral urgency and action.

The religious leaders also agreed to champion safeguarding the universal right to thought, conscience and religion within and beyond their own constituencies, including in this spectrum of commitments coordinating their responses to the rise in attacks on holy sites and places of worship.

They embraced a deeper focus on interreligious education – not to reinvent the wheel, but to collate the existing work and curricula in all corners of the world in an effort to facilitate knowledge and access to dispel ignorance and counter misconceptions at the root of intolerance, hatred and violence.

The Religions for Peace movement leaders also committed to scaling up multi-stakeholder partnerships with businesses, governments and civil society, to develop innovative approaches and seek resolutions together.

These goals and actions correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, and the multi-religious efforts will be measured and assessed using the SDG indicators agreed to by all member states of the United Nations.

The strategic priorities identified are built on legacies of powerful and effective interventions. Throughout Religions for Peace’s 50 years, these interreligious platforms have amassed a solid record of multi-religious engagement including mediating conflict and negotiating the release of child hostages in Sierra Leone, providing care and support for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS, mobilising 21 million multi-religious youth for global disarmament, and forging partnerships between religious and indigenous communities for rainforest protection – to name but a few.

But these priorities also herald a new era of resolve, and courage, among the world’s senior-most religious leaders and institutions, through their interreligious platforms.

To have gender equality as a strategic priority of such a movement, built on and by traditional religious institutions, is historic. After electing the coalition’s first woman Secretary General in 2019, Religions for Peace leadership are sending a clear message of commitment to action which includes increasing women’s leadership and impact within the movement, and beyond.

It is this blend of renewed and courageous resolve, together with skills steeped in decades of experience with multi-religious and multi-cultural engagement in development and human rights, which offers much needed alternative cultures of healing and peace. These interreligious councils not only drive the solution — they are a necessary part of the solution.

On this 75th year of the United Nations system, Religions for Peace – through its global, regional, national and grassroots interreligious council platforms – has been heeding the call for holistic responses to cross-cutting global challenges for 50 of these years.

With its 5-year strategy and actions now co-designed and approved by representatives of all the world’s religious institutions, the movement of Religions for Peace hereby calls on governments, civil societies and multi-lateral institutions to partner with it to create more peaceful, just and inclusive societies – leaving no one behind.

The post The Arc of Justice: The World’s Religions Launch Strategic Priorities for Peace appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Prof. Dr. Azza Karam is Secretary General-elect of Religions for Peace and Rev. Kyoichi Sugino is Secretary General, a.i. of Religions for Peace

The post The Arc of Justice: The World’s Religions Launch Strategic Priorities for Peace appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Coronavirus: Ten Reasons Why You Ought Not to Panic

Sat, 03/07/2020 - 23:28

Colorised scanning electron micrograph of MERS virus particles (yellow) both budding and attached to the surface of infected VERO E6 cells (blue). Credit: NIAID

By Ignacio López-Goñi
Mar 7 2020 (IPS)

Regardless of whether we classify the new coronavirus as a pandemic, it is a serious issue. In less than two months, it has spread over several continents. Pandemic means sustained and continuous transmission of the disease, simultaneously in more than three different geographical regions. Pandemic does not refer to the lethality of a virus but to its transmissibility and geographical extension.

We certainly have a pandemic of fear. The entire planet’s media is gripped by coronavirus. It is right that there is deep concern and mass planning for worst-case scenarios. And, of course, the repercussions move from the global health sphere into business and politics.

But it is also right that we must not panic. It would be wrong to say there is good news coming out of COVID-19, but there are causes for optimism; reasons to think there may be ways to contain and defeat the virus. And lessons to learn for the future.

1. We know what it is

The first cases of AIDS were described in June 1981 and it took more than two years to identify the virus (HIV) causing the disease. With COVID-19, the first cases of severe pneumonia were reported in China on December 31, 2019 and by January 7 the virus had already been identified.

The genome was available on day 10. We already know that it is a new coronavirus from group 2B, of the same family as the SARS, which we have called SARSCoV2. The disease is called COVID-19. It is thought to be related to coronavirus of bats. Genetic analyses have confirmed that it has a recent natural origin (between the end of November and the beginning of December) and that, although viruses live by mutating, its mutation rate may not be very high.

2. We know how to detect the virus

Since January 13, a test to detect the virus has been available.

3. The situation is improving in China

The strong control and isolation measures imposed by China are paying off. For several weeks now, the number of cases diagnosed every day is decreasing. A very detailed epidemiological follow-up is being carried out in other countries; outbreaks are very specific to areas, which can allow them to be controlled more easily.

4. 80% of cases are mild

The disease causes no symptoms or is mild in 81% of cases. Of course, in the remaining 14%, it can cause severe pneumonia and in 5% it can become critical or even fatal. It is still unclear what the death rate may be. Be it could be lower than some estimates so far.

5. People heal

Much of the reported data relates to the increase in the number of confirmed cases and the number of deaths, but most infected people are cured. There are 13 times more cured cases than deaths, and that proportion is increasing.

Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE

6. Symptoms appear mild in children

Only 3% of cases occur in people under 20, and mortality under 40 is only 0.2%. Symptoms are so mild in children that it can go unnoticed.

7. The virus can be wiped clean

The virus can be effectively inactivated from surfaces with a solution of ethanol (62-71% alcohol), hydrogen peroxide (0.5% hydrogen peroxide) or sodium hypochlorite (0.1% bleach), in just one minute. Frequent handwashing with soap and water is the most effective way to avoid contagion.

8. Science is on it, globally

It is the age of international science cooperation. After just over a month, 164 articles could be accessed in PubMed on COVID19 or SARSCov2, as well as many others available in repositories of articles not yet reviewed. They are preliminary works on vaccines, treatments, epidemiology, genetics and phylogeny, diagnosis, clinical aspects, etc. These articles were elaborated by some 700 authors, distributed throughout the planet. It is cooperative science, shared and open. In 2003, with the SARS epidemic, it took more than a year to reach less than half that number of articles. In addition, most scientific journals have left their publications as open access on the subject of coronaviruses.

9. There are already vaccine prototypes

Our ability to design new vaccines is spectacular. There are already more than eight projects underway seeking a vaccine against the new coronavirus. There are groups that work on vaccination projects against similar viruses.

The vaccine group of the University of Queensland, in Australia, has announced that it is already working on a prototype using the technique called “molecular clamp”, a novel technology. This is just one example that could allow vaccine production in record time. Prototypes may soon be tested on humans.

10. Antiviral trials are underway

Vaccines are preventive. Right now, the treatment of people who are already sick is important. There are already more than 80 clinical trials analysing coronavirus treatments. These are antivirals that have been used for other infections, which are already approved and that we know are safe.

One of those that has already been tested in humans is remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral still under study, which has been tested against Ebola and SARS/MERS.

Another candidate is chloroquine, an antimalarial that has also been seen to have potent antiviral activity. It is known that chloroquine blocks viral infection by increasing the pH of the endosome, which is needed for the fusion of the virus with the cell, thus inhibiting its entry. It has been demonstrated that this compound blocks the new coronavirus in vitro and it is already being used in patients with coronavirus pneumonia.

Other proposed trials are based on the use of oseltamivir (which is used against the influenza virus), interferon-1b (protein with antiviral function), antisera from people who recovered or monoclonal antibodies to neutralise the virus. New therapies have been proposed with inhibitory substances, such as baricitinibine, selected by artificial intelligence.

The 1918 flu pandemic caused more than 25 million deaths in less than 25 weeks. Could something similar happen now? Probably not; we have never been better prepared to fight a pandemic.

This article is republished from The Conversation. Read the original article.

The post Coronavirus: Ten Reasons Why You Ought Not to Panic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ignacio López-Goñi is microbiologist and works in University of Navarra (Spain).

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Categories: Africa

Feminists Rewrite Their Realities Across the Global Map

Fri, 03/06/2020 - 23:27

By Laila Malik
Mar 6 2020 (IPS)

In November 2019, thousands of Chileans took to the streets to perform an anti-rape, anti-femicide choreography organized by a small feminist collective called Las Tesis. The group created the choreographed chant in response to an upswing in violence against women and human rights violations in Chile, where 42 cases of sexual abuse are reportedto the police each day, with only around 25% resulting in judicial rulings.

It is a violence faced by women, trans and non-binary people all over the world. And it often results in complex, inconvenient, expensive and exhausting circumnavigations – or avoidance – of public space, even when the reality is that gender-based violence is just as likely to be committed in private as it is in public.

So when, months after the first Chilean feminist flash mobs, women from Nairobi to Karachi, Maputo to Istanbul and beyond, continue to creatively reclaim their own streets with local grievances and demands, they are collectively rewriting the global map. This rewriting is an example of a Feminist Reality – a way in which feminists take action to create, and re-create spaces and communities to be more equitable and just.

Roaring together in the face of police brutality and complicity

“The patriarchal behaviour is deep in our society and no one is doing anything,” says Nzira De Deus from Mozambique’s Fórum Mulher, the network of women’s rights and gender equality organizations that organized Chilean-inspired feminist flashmobs in the cities of Maputo and Beira.

“What we are doing with that song is denouncing the impunity we see in our community. We know who the rapist is but the police is doing nothing, and is in complicity with that situation. We need to continue to spread this kind of campaign, adapting an African version, denouncing not just in words, but also with this kind of thing.”

Coming together to address police impunity was also a powerful experience for Hum Aurtein, a group of womxn and non-binary people who advocate for gender justice who performed the choreography in Karachi.

“It was electric as we yelled “Yeh police, Yeh nizam, Yeh jagirdar, Yeh sarkar [This police, this system, these feudal land-owners, this government]” as men in a police van watched on and we pointed at them. So there was a sense of collective reclamation,” recalls Atiya Abbas, Hum Aurtein organizer.

When women speak truly they speak subversively — they can’t help it: if you’re underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.

Ursula LeGuin

In Nairobi, members of Maisha Girls’ Safe House decided to take the choreography to three locations in Nairobi where rape and other sexual violations are rampant, in slum areas and around local administration offices. The performance allowed girls and young women survivors of sexual violence to directly confront perpetrators, including agents of law enforcement.

“We did it in our small way and the impact it left was amazing,” says Florence Keah from Maisha Girls’ Safe House. “I can walk in the community and l hear the young children (some of whom were conceived from rape) chanting “And the rapist is you!”’

“We hope the message to the police reached home.”

Meanwhile in Istanbul, several hundred women who gathered to perform the choreography were tear gassed, dispersed and arrested by riot police for insulting state institutions. But a week later, eight Turkish women MPs used their parliamentary immunity to perform the chant in Turkish parliament, while colleagues held up some 20 pictures of the faces of women said to be killed in domestic violence.

Creating and harnessing the power of new feminist words

If there is one thing the global Las Tesis-inspired tsunami has shown, it’s that feminists are infinitely collaborative, creative, and keenly aware of their specific contexts and needs.

In Karachi, Hum Aurtein added a stanza to their chant about class, religion and labour to speak to forced conversions, honour killings and labour-based discrimination and harassment faced by women in Pakistan.

In Mozambique, Fórum Mulher changed the line “It’s the judges!” to “It’s the MPs!” to reflect their discontent with the ongoing impunity of the MP accused of raping a child. Beirut organizers adapted the chant to Arabic, adding new content around media responsibility and sexual harassment, while maintaining the rhyme. One Beirut organizer described participants as “full of rage”, saying, “They will translate it in every way possible, and the flash mob came out as a beautiful means to do so.”

In other instances, feminists have had to adopt entirely new language to adequately express specific gender injustices.

“The word for rape in Urdu is “ismatdari,”” says Abbas, “which links rape to a woman’s honour. That is not what the violence of rape is. Rape happens because rapists commit these acts of dominance and terror – and not for any other reason.”

To shift this mis-association, Hum Aurtein organizers added new lines to their chant, saying, “Hear this, it is rape [adopting the English word]! Not “female honour”!”

“Language is power, and language is responsibility,” reflects Abbas. “One can hope the reproduction of knowledge through language continues to be feminist in its approach and that a generation from now, our efforts to do that will realize meaningful change.”

Indeed, future humans may reap benefit from the courage, creativity and collaboration of today’s global feminists, but the volcanoes have been simmering for generations. Feminists all over the planet are linking with one another, shedding fear and finding untold strength and collective intelligence in community. The new map is already here, and its seismic energy is palpable.

Aurat March (Women’s march) in Pakistan. Credit: Shehzil Malik.

The post Feminists Rewrite Their Realities Across the Global Map appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Laila Malik is Information, Communication and Media Coordinator, Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)

The post Feminists Rewrite Their Realities Across the Global Map appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

VIDEO: I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights

Fri, 03/06/2020 - 18:35

By External Source
Mar 6 2020 (IPS)

The narrative surrounding women’s rights in 2020 carries much hope and possibility. This year’s International Women’s Day, bearing the theme “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights,” falls on the celebration’s 110th anniversary.

The occasion is monumental, and with 10 years remaining to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, such milestone moments will be written about, documented in the news, and read by many.

These dates are significant, of course, yet there is an undertone of wishful thinking that events in themselves can ignite powerful change, and a simplicity that disregards the more complex and insidious existence of systematic inequality.

That’s the issue with these occasions fostered by those with access – they create a barrier to understanding for those who aren’t even aware they are occurring. They don’t form part of everyday life for those most actively affected.

Women denied education, for example, won’t understand what specific legislation means for them. And Women with the privilege of being part of such occasions are likely to have a recognizable level of emancipation from explicit forms of oppression.

Political figures with an unequivocal platform to promote equality are becoming increasingly visible. From Germany’s Angela Merkl to New Zealand’s Jacinda Arden, torch bearers abound. But whilst 2020 could be a landmark year for gender equality, the efforts required to reach our goal have to be deliberate and far reaching. Just the instance of these events happening won’t have any measurable result.

With the SDGs acting as a blueprint for global efforts to eliminate poverty and inequality by 2030, the 10 years we have to achieve this are scarcely enough. More than half of the 129 countries measured in the 2019 SDG Gender Index scored poorly on SDG 5, which calls for international gender equality and the empowerment of all women. As the UN highlights: “The emerging global consensus is that despite some progress, real change has been agonisingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world.”

The post VIDEO: I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Landmark deep-sea mission to boost ocean action

Fri, 03/06/2020 - 16:17

By PRESS RELEASE
Mar 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

A deep-sea scientific mission to uncharted depths in the Maldives and Seychelles will gather valuable data to support the Commonwealth Blue Charter on ocean action and train local scientists.

The newest Commonwealth member country, Maldives, has joined Seychelles to launch a major joint scientific expedition to investigate unexplored depths of the Indian Ocean.

The ground-breaking multidisciplinary research mission, known as ‘First Descent: Midnight Zone’, was officially launched at the Commonwealth headquarters at Marlborough House.

Led by the UK research institute Nekton, the goal is to boost the sustainable governance of Seychelles and Maldivian waters, including the protection of 629,000 km2 of ocean.

It supports the Commonwealth Blue Charter – a shared commitment by member countries to protect the ocean from the effects of climate change, pollution and overfishing.

Minister for Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture of the Maldives, Zaha Waheed, said: “It is vital to comprehensively understand what lies beneath our waters in order for us to be informed enough to take necessary actions towards a healthy and prosperous ocean.

“This mission will, for the first time, show a glimpse of what the deep sea features and the biodiversity it holds. It will also contribute to the wider goal of marine spatial planning and ocean governance.”

A 50-person crew will set sail on 16 March, using the world’s most advanced deep diving submersible, equipped with a suite of research tools including sensor and mapping technology.

The data they collect will help countries define conservation and management priorities and map out marine protected areas. It will also help measure the impact of climate change and human activity in the area.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said: “We cannot protect what we don’t know and we cannot govern what we don’t understand. With 95 per cent of the ocean still unexplored by humans, we are only just beginning to grasp its profound influence on life, including its effect on global climate and ecosystems.

“It is pleasing to see the commitments of our Commonwealth Blue Charter leading to such far-reaching and innovative science-backed ocean action in, with and for our member countries.”

The expedition will focus on undersea mountains or ‘seamounts’ in the Midnight Zone – depths from 1,000 to 4,000 metres, where biodiversity peaks. This zone holds critical indicators to measure the impact of the climate crisis, fisheries management, heat absorption, acidification, ocean carbon cycle, and plastic, agricultural and industrial pollution.

The damage or overexploitation of seamounts can have widespread consequences on ocean health, food security, and other benefits the ocean provides, such as the discovery of new medicines.

Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change of Seychelles, Alain Decormamond said: “Seamounts form some of the most fascinating and richest locations in our waters and beyond in the wider Indian Ocean. We are therefore looking forward to exploring even deeper depths of our ocean to have a better understanding of natural characteristics and richness of these locations.”

The mission’s principal scientist Lucy Woodall from the University of Oxford added: “We find the greatest biomass in the upper few hundred metres of the ocean, but the peak of biodiversity is in the greater depths, in the Midnight Zone, from 1,000 to 4,000 metres. That said, less than 300 of 170,000 known major seamounts found in this zone have been researched to date, and they remain one of the least researched parts of the ocean.”

Nekton is also working with Commonwealth countries to develop the tools, skills, knowledge and networks to sustainably manage the ocean. Seychellois and Maldivian scientists will join the expedition to conduct pioneering research into their national waters. This is supported by training programmes, research grants and fellowships with the University of Oxford.

Seychelles champions the Commonwealth Blue Charter action group on marine protected areas. To date, 13 countries have stepped forward to lead on 10 topics they identified as priorities.

For updates on the expedition, visit nektonmission.org

For more information about the Commonwealth Blue Charter, visit bluecharter.thecommonwealth.org

Notes to Editor

The Commonwealth Blue Charter
The Commonwealth covers a third of the world’s coastal oceans, 45% of coral reefs and the majority of the world’s big ocean states and territories. Forty-seven out of our 54 countries have a coastline, and three of the remaining landlocked states border great lakes. The Commonwealth Blue Charter is a landmark agreement that engages all 54 Commonwealth countries to commit to actively co-operating to solve ocean-related problems and meet commitments for sustainable ocean development. Visit our website to learn how to join action groups.

Seychelles
The Seychelles Blue Economy Strategic Roadmap and Plan has been developed and implemented by the Government of Seychelles in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat. A key component of this, the Seychelles’ Marine Spatial Plan, is being undertaken in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. By March 2020 this will result in the sustainable management of all the Exclusive Economic Zone including 30% within the newly formed Marine Protected Areas (445,000 km2 of 1,336,559 km2). The implementing partner for the expedition is the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Change. Seychelles champions the Commonwealth Blue Charter Action Group on Marine Protected Areas.

Maldives
Maldives Blue Prosperity Programme is being undertaken by the Government of the Maldives in partnership with the Blue Prosperity Coalition and the Waitt Institute. The Programme begins in 2020 with a goal of the sustainable management of the Maldivian Exclusive Economic Zone including a spatial target of at least 20% within newly formed Marine Protected Areas (184,000km2 of 923,000km2). The implementation partner for the expedition is the Ministries of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture. First Descent: Midnight Zone is the third of four expeditions being undertaken in Maldives in support of Maldives Blue Prosperity. #KanduFalhuDhiraasaa and #NooRaajje

First Descent: Midnight Zone
First Descent is a series of missions undertaken by Nekton in partnership with Governments in the Indian Ocean region. Beginning in Seychelles in 2019, the Mission concludes with a State of the Indian Ocean Summit in October 2022 to deliver scientific consensus on the state of the Indian Ocean and to galvanise 30% protection by 2030. Each mission combines national commitments to ocean protection, marine spatial planning, applied research to inform ocean policy, inspirational communications to strengthen the public support for political action and investments in capacity development to create a legacy of long-term sustainable ocean governance. #MidnightZone #First Descent

Seamounts
Seamounts are undersea mountains formed by volcanic activity. Scientists estimate there are at least 100,000 seamounts higher than 1,000 meters around the world. Recent estimates suggest that, taken together, seamounts encompass about 28.8 million square kilometres – a surface area larger than deserts, tundra, or any other single land-based global habitat on the planet. Seamounts attract an abundance of marine life, many of which are endemic to individual locations. Seamounts are productive fishing grounds for more than 80 commercial species worldwide.

Nekton
Nekton is an independent not-for-profit research institute working in collaboration with the University of Oxford and is a UK registered charity. Nekton’s purpose is to explore and protect the ocean. Nekton’s missions are supported by a unique alliance of 40 business, government, academia and civil society partners uniting behind a common purpose to explore and conserve the ocean. They include:

Blue Prosperity Coalition
The Blue Prosperity Coalition is a global coalition of NGO’s, academic institutions, and foundations working together to promote growth and prosperity while empowering sustainable management of marine resources and ecosystems. The coalition assists committed governments in developing and implementing sustainable marine spatial plans to protect the environment and improve the economy at the same time. Primary members in the Maldives partnership include Waitt Institute, National Geographic Pristine Seas, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Nekton. #BlueProsperity

Waitt Institute
Established by Gateway, Inc. co-founder Ted Waitt in 1993, the Waitt Institute, partners with committed governments to develop and implement comprehensive, science-based ocean management plans that benefit both the economy and the environment with the ultimate goal of sustainable, resilient, and thriving seas that benefit all.

Digital Newsroom
For additional media materials including b-roll, launch video, still images, briefing notes and press releases, please visit Nekton’s digital Newsroom.

Hashtags
#commonwealth #bluecharter #nekton, #firstdescent #midnightzone #seychelles #maldives #oneoceanoneplanet #30×30 #KanduFalhuDhiraasaa

Media Contact

Josephine Latu-Sanft
Senior Communications Officer
Communications Division
Commonwealth Secretariat
T. +44 (0)20 7747 6476
Email: j.latu-sanft@commonwealth.int
Website thecommonwealth.org
Join the conversation Tweets by @commonwealthsec

The post Landmark deep-sea mission to boost ocean action appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

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