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By Tsitsi Matekaire
LONDON, Feb 13 2020 (IPS)

Online sexual exploitation is a global epidemic that is increasing at an alarming rate.

At any one time, 750,000 individuals across the world are looking to connect with children and young people online for sexual exploitation. The expansion of the Internet, advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs), and the development of increasingly sophisticated digital tools that provide anonymity, mean that the number of potential victims is growing exponentially, and so too is the pool of those seeking to abuse them.

An investigation by The New York Times on how technology companies and the US government are being overwhelmed by this epidemic found that a record 45 million online photos and videos of child sexual exploitation were reported by US-based technology companies to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2018.

And the problem is getting worse. In 2019, record-breaking 70 million total images and videos were reported to NICMEC, an enormous increase on the 1.1 million it received in 2014.

Children and young people are especially connected online. One in three Internet users worldwide are under the age of 18 years, and with availability and accessibility continuing to improve, more and more children own or have access to Internet-enabled smart devices.

Technology is also making children contactable around the clock. Young people across the world are spending an increasing amount of time online, and in the US, teenagers are now engaging with screen media seven hours per day on average.

Accompanying this is the expansion of social media, which has created a plethora of new opportunities for would-be offenders to connect and interact with children anonymously and unsupervised.

Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation. They are subjected to a double layer of discrimination because they are young and female, and are sexualized from a young age, both in the way society treats them and in how the media portrays them.

Sexualized images of girls and young women are ubiquitous in advertising, merchandising, and the entertainment industry. All this perpetuates gender stereotypes that can negatively impact the developing body image and self-esteem of girls.

Social media has amplified these long-standing pressures, pushing girls to conform to particular sexualized narratives, and leaving them especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation both off and online.

New data gathered by UK based internet watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) revealed that 30 percent of sexually explicit images of children found online are self-generated.

IWF took action over 124,605 images found online between January and November 2019. Over three-quarters of these images (78 per cent) featured children aged 11 to 13, most of whom were girls.

Adolescent girls are particularly at risk of being groomed, coerced, or blackmailed into providing explicit images and videos, often via webcams, which can then be posted online and shared via networks operating across the world.

In some instances, children are sending videos and images to their peers on smartphones and via social media platforms. For the most part, this content will remain with the person it was intended for, but sometimes material is passed onto others. Once online, it is almost impossible to control where it ends up or stop its spread.

Victims can be left feeling sexually violated, powerless, socially isolated, and stigmatized. A range of mental health problems are associated with this, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Exploited children are at a heightened risk of becoming exploited and vulnerable adults, and as victims reach the age of majority, they no longer have the legal protections afforded to minors in different legal and policy contexts.

Particularly disturbing can be the ongoing sense of re-victimization arising from images of abuse being shared repeatedly across the digital landscape and viewed multiple times by countless people.

Frequently, requests asking for content to be removed are ignored, or image taken off one online platform, soon reappear elsewhere. This can feel like ongoing sexual assault, casting a long shadow that can have a profoundly damaging impact continuing into adulthood.

Commendable efforts in progress, but more challenges to overcome

Governments, technology companies, research institutions, civil society organizations, donors, and many others are rising to the challenge and are providing various examples of successful interventions and innovations.

In 2009, Microsoft partnered with Dartmouth College to develop PhotoDNA, a technology that aids in locating and removing online child abuse content. Today, PhotoDNA is used around the world to detect and report millions of illegal images. It works by creating a unique digital signature of an image called a “hash”, which is similar to a fingerprint.

The hash can then be matched to copies of the same image so they can be located and removed by governments and tech companies.

Organizations such as NetClean and Thorn are harnessing the power of technology to create tools to assist law enforcement, tech platforms, and civil society organizations in identifying illegal material online, track exploiters, and bring them to justice.

The Global Threat Assessment by WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online has brought together governments, the tech industry, and NGOs to galvanize global action, increase understanding about the nature and scale of the problem, and develop and implement strategies.

These efforts are commendable and have begun to make inroads. However, the globalized nature of online sexual exploitation, combined with it continuously expanding and evolving landscape, means we still face enormous challenges and new obstacles.

Not everyone around the world is being afforded the same protections. International women’s rights organization Equality Now is undertaking a review of existing international and regional legal frameworks relevant to online sexual exploitation to understand in greater detail the practices, gaps, and opportunities.

Technological solutions need to work alongside legal and policy solutions, but existing legal frameworks are diverse and inadequate. In many countries, legislation and law enforcement have failed to keep up with cybercrime, and some governments have not yet prioritized the threat or have limited resources to invest in infrastructure and safeguards to protect vulnerable people.

Exploiters and the online platforms they use operate across national borders, and legislation has not been updated to adequately address issues regarding legal jurisdictions. For instance, any website – whether a large multinational company, one set up specifically to facilitate exploitation, or any other platform – may use servers located in various locations overseen by different legal authorities.

Other difficulties arise from balancing the rights to privacy and freedom of expression with the need for regulation that protects vulnerable people from exploitation.

Analysis of the problem, and identification and development of solutions, needs to include a gendered lens so that the specific vulnerabilities and needs of adolescent girls are considered and addressed.

Teenage girls often fall through gaps in the law, leaving them without the same basic protections that are in place for younger children, meaning they are less safe, less likely to be given support, and less likely to receive justice if their rights have been violated. They are also commonly blamed or even criminalized instead of being treated as victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The global and complex nature of online sexual exploitation requires that all of us come together to find solutions. This involves applying a gendered lens to research and understanding how the Internet and technology are being misused to facilitate sexual exploitation.

We need to formulate and adopt common international regulations or a global convention the layout the responsibility and accountability of all actors involved in the online sexual exploitation of vulnerable people. This involves having mechanisms in place to address new legal challenges as they emerge.

Crucial to success is having survivors at the center of discussions so their voices are heard and their perspectives inform and strengthen solutions. Listening to those with first-hand experience and documenting systematically what they have been through can help us identify what needs to change and put better protections in place so the world can benefit from an Internet that is safer for all. For media enquiries and interview requests please contact Sr.

*Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional and national legal advocacy. Equality Now’s international network of lawyers, activists, and supporters achieve legal and systemic change by holding governments responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sex trafficking, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

For details of our current campaigns, please visit www.equalitynow.org and find us on Facebook @equalitynoworg and Twitter @equalitynow.

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Excerpt:

Tsitsi Matekaire is Global Lead for Equality Now’s End Sex Trafficking programme.

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Women form the largest labour population, yet prior to the passing of the ‘Sindh Women Agricultural Workers Bill’, customary laws in Pakistan did not recognise women as legal inheritors. Copyright: Asian Development Bank, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. This image has been cropped.

By Quratulain Fatima
ISLAMABAD, Feb 13 2020 (IPS)

When Pakistan’s eastern Sindh province passed the ‘Sindh Women Agricultural Workers Bill’ on 20 December, giving women in agriculture, livestock, fisheries and other agro-based work the same rights and benefits enjoyed by workers in the industrial sector, it was a revolutionary step for the whole of South Asia. 

The new legislation is limited to Sindh province but speaks volumes about the state of women’s rights in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan, countries where  agriculture is  the biggest sector and women form the largest labour population.

As a land revenue officer and administrator in Pakistan for the past nine years, I have come across women who have worked their whole lives on lands they are prevented from owning by male relatives.

Although they make up more than half the agricultural labour force in developing nations, women own only 10 to 20 per cent of the land

Although Pakistan’s land and inheritance laws make it mandatory to divide land fairly among heirs on the death of the owner, more often than not women avoid staking claims for fear of being ostracised by their male relatives.

In Pakistan, as late as the 1960s, land records were maintained according to customary laws as introduced by the British Raj in pre-partition India. The said customary laws did not recognise women as legal inheritors and the family trees required for keeping land records omitted women’s names to deny them legal existence.

In 1960, the enforcement of Islamic laws of inheritance saw inclusion of women in land ownership. But in practice, this right to property was twisted either by force or by manipulating it to ‘gift’ their share to male relatives. Few women with rustic backgrounds dare stand up against this injustice — but that is a larger struggle against extreme patriarchy.

The state of women’s land and agriculture rights in Pakistan is a microcosm of the historical barriers that prevent them from owning land or farming around the world. For example, until 1850, married American women had no legal right to own land, and in Brazil, women’s right to own land became official only in 1988.

In 2010, the Nicaraguan government finally adopted legal measures to improve rural women’s access to credit in order to facilitate their path toward land ownership. There is very little sex-disaggregated data on land ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but most studies suggest that women own far less land than men.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 said that only a handful of countries are approaching economic equality, and estimated that it will take another 257 years for the world to achieve economic gender equality. While 78 per cent of men are in the labour market, only half of all adult women are employed.

To achieve gender parity, the rights of women employed in the agriculture sector are urgent and important. Although they make up more than half the agricultural labour force in developing nations, women own only 10 to 20 per cent of the land. That restricts a woman’s chances of making farming contracts that provide higher incomes and better returns on labour.

Gender norms in developing countries also prevent women from bringing their crops to market, and when they do, they usually face hostile environments in male-
dominated farm markets.

Governments can intervene on behalf of women farmers. They can reposition gender equality and protection as central to all development initiatives. The first step, as taken by Pakistan, can be to end discrimination against women farmers under the law, followed by rights to buy and sell land, demand equal wages for agricultural labour, take legal steps for income generation, and access credit, technology and technical assistance.

Enacting the laws is not enough, implementing them through good governance is as important.

Gender-focused policies towards women farmers and donor initiatives like ‘Feed the Future,’ aimed at empowering women farmers, can be helpful in private and public sector alike. Access to gender-specific trainings, agri-extension services, mobile technology for market information and laboursaving technology for enhanced productivity are other empowering measures.

Women in agriculture must be facilitated to avail of finance and loans, infrastructure and markets so that they can switch from wage-based labour to sustainable ownership farming. Women-only farm markets and women focused subsidies on crops and equipment may generate better results than generic policies.

FAO estimates that given equal access to agricultural resources, women’s farming yields can increase. By giving women the same access as men to agricultural resources such as credit, technology and equipment, increase in productivity on their farms in developing countries can rise by 20—30 percent which, in turn, can help feed an additional 100—150 million people in the world.

FAO asserts that earning extra income would enable women to spend more money on health care, nutrition and education for their children — investments that could produce long-term, positive results for farm families and their neighbours.

Sindh province seems serious in implementing the new law. However, Pakistan is a country where land reforms have been thwarted by big landlords who tend to be influential politicians.

Implementation can begin with documentation of all women labourers working in agri-sector. Defining punishments and fines for persons who indulge in discriminatory practices against women workers are another step. Above all, the law needs to be followed by policies and practices in a consistent manner.

Gender equality may still be a hundred years away but giving women agricultural rights will not only help close the gender gap but also boost the economy and reduce poverty.

 

Quratulain Fatima, is a co-founder of Women4PeaceTech and a policy practitioner working extensively in rural and conflict-ridden areas of Pakistan with a focus on gender-inclusive development and conflict prevention. She is a 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellow.

 

This story was originally published by SciDev.Net

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By External Source
Feb 12 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Pacific Community (SPC) is calling for contestants to join the Pacific Healthy Recipe Contest and showcase their cooking skills and creativity to promote healthy eating and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Up to 75 per cent of deaths in Pacific countries are related to NCDs, such as diabetes and heart diseases, with unhealthy diets and lifestyles seen as important factors in their development.

From observation, the Pacific diet has changed over time and consumption of local foods has transitioned into consumption of more imported processed foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt. Approaches to improve eating habits includes trainings on healthy eating, development of resources to improve knowledge and health promoting campaigns to increase awareness.

Who can apply?
The contest will be open to all Pacific Island Countries and Territories.

How to apply
The contest will be launched through SPC social media.

Contestants will be invited to:
– Complete the registration online until 29 February 2020
– Follow the directions given to submit details of their recipe that they have created together with a photo of the prepared dish.

Prize
The winner and their entire family (up to 10 people) will enjoy a gourmet meal prepared in the comfort of their own home by a well-known chef!
All participants will get a copy of the ‘Pasifka Plates’ cook book.

How to assess the winner?
Assessment of the winner will be based on:

• Use of local ingredients
• Recipe with less sugar, salt and fat
• Creative and aesthetic presentation
• Showcasing of Pacific cooking traditions.

The recipes will be made available on the SPC website as well as shared through other means of communication.

Useful links:
Competition Terms and Conditions
Participation Form

For more information, it is possible to contact the organizers at the following address: health-enquiries@spc.int.

Media contacts:
Solène Bertrand-Protat, Non-Communicable Diseases Advisor, Public Health Division (PHD), Pacific Community (SPC) | soleneb@spc.int

General Inquiries:
Evlyn Mani, Communications Officer, Public Health Division (PHD), Pacific Community (SPC) | evlynm@spc.int

Alexandre Brecher, Senior Communications Officer, Corporate Communication Office, Pacific Community (SPC) | alexandreb@spc.int

About SPC:
The Pacific Community has been supporting sustainable development in the Pacific, through science, knowledge and innovation since 1947. It is the principal intergovernmental organization in the region, owned and governed by its 26 member countries and territories.

Division
Corporate
Public Health Division (PHD)

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A blue ice area, part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Professor Chris Turney, Author provided<

By Chris Fogwill, Chris Turney, and Zoë Thomas
Feb 12 2020 (IPS)

Rising global temperatures and warming ocean waters are causing one of the world’s coldest places to melt. While we know that human activity is causing climate change and driving rapid changes in Antarctica, the potential impacts that a warmer world would have on this region remain uncertain. Our new research might be able to provide some insight into what effect a warmer world would have in Antarctica, by looking at what happened more than 129,000 years ago.

We found that the mass melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet was a major cause of high sea levels during a period known as the Last Interglacial (129,000-116,000 years ago). The extreme ice loss caused more than three metres of average global sea level rise – and worryingly, it took less than 2˚C of ocean warming for it to occur.

To conduct our research, we travelled to an area on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and drilled into so-called blue ice areas to reconstruct the glacial history of this ice sheet.

Blue ice areas are areas of ancient ice which have been brought to the surface by fierce, high-density winds, called katabatic winds. When these winds blow over mountains, they remove the top layer of snow and erode the exposed ice. As the ice is removed by the wind, ancient ice is brought to the surface, which offers insight into the ice sheet’s history.

While most Antarctic researchers drill deep into the ice to extract their samples, we were able to use a technique called horizontal ice core analysis. As you travel closer to the mountains of the ice sheet, the ice that been brought to the surface by these winds progressively gets older. We then were able to take surface samples on a straight, horizontal line across the blue ice area to reconstruct what happened to the ice sheet in the past.

Drilling into blue ice.
Professor Chris Turney, Author provided

Our team took many measurements. We first looked at the fine layers of volcanic ash in the ice to pinpoint when the mass melting took place. Alarmingly, the results showed that most ice loss happened at the start of Last Interglacial warming, some 129,000 years ago – showing how sensitive the Antarctic is to higher temperatures. We think it’s likely this melting started well before the ocean warmed by 2˚C. This is concerning to us today, as ocean temperatures continue to increase, and the West Antarctic is already melting.

We also measured temperature-sensitive water molecules across the blue ice area. These isotopes revealed a large shift in temperatures, highlighting a major gap in our record at the start of the Last Interglacial. This indicates a period of sustained ice loss over thousands of years.

This period of missing ice coincides with extreme sea level rise, suggesting rapid ice melt from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. DNA testing of ancient microbes preserved in the ice revealed an abundance of methane-consuming bacteria. Their presence suggests that the release of methane gases from sediments under the ice sheet may have also played a role in accelerating the warming process.

The West Antarctic ice sheet can tell us a lot about the effect of warming ocean temperatures because it rests on the seabed. It’s surrounded by large areas of floating ice, called ice shelves, that protect the central part of the sheet. As warmer ocean water travels into cavities beneath the ice shelves, ice melts from below, thinning the shelves and making the central sheet highly vulnerable to warming ocean temperatures. This process is currently being researched on the West Antarctic Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier”.

Using data from our fieldwork, we ran model simulations to investigate how warming might affect the floating ice shelves. These ice shelves protect the ice sheets and help slow the flow of ice off the continent. Our results suggest a 3.8 metre sea level rise during the first thousand years of a 2˚C warmer ocean. Most of the modelled sea level rise occurred after the loss of the ice shelves, which collapsed within the first two hundred years of higher temperatures.

These findings are worrying – especially if persistent high sea surface temperatures could prompt the larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet to melt, driving global sea levels even higher. But our findings suggest the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be close to a tipping point. Only a small temperature increase could trigger abrupt ice sheet melt and a multi-metre rise in global sea levels.

At the moment, research suggests that global sea levels could rise between 45-82cm over the next century. However, it’s thought that Antarctica will only contribute around 5cm of this – most of this sea level rise will be caused by warmer ocean waters and the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. But based on our findings, Antarctica’s contribution could be much greater than anticipated.

Despite 197 countries committing under the Paris agreement to restricting global warming to 2˚C by the end of this century, our findings show that even minor increases in temperature could have far-reaching impacts.

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

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Excerpt:

Chris Fogwill, Professor of Glaciology and Palaeoclimatology, Keele University; Chris Turney, Professor of Earth Science and Climate Change, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW, and Zoë Thomas, ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSW

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A UN meeting on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Credit: UN Photo/Kim Haughton

By Cora Weiss
NEW YORK, Feb 12 2020 (IPS)

75 years ago following the end of the Second World War and the first time any state has dropped an atomic bomb, not once, but twice, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 51 countries from all continents met to create the United Nations.

Its primary purpose, as stated in the Charter says: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…” Of course, it is also dedicated to human rights for all and equal rights for men and women and nations large and small and more…

But peace, prevention of war, is its ”most profound purpose,” Ambassador William vanden Heuvel said when he suggested we organize this conference on “War No More”.

It is to this purpose, to save humanity from war, that the Committee on Teaching About the UN with the co- sponsorship of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN, has dedicated its conference which will convene on February 28, 2020. https://teachun.org/conference/2020-un/.

We honor the UN on its 75th anniversary and call for the full implementation of this purpose.

Cora Weiss

It is often said that as long as there are people there will be war. But it hasn’t always been that way and certainly war is not inevitable.

Indeed, not only has the UN called for saving succeeding generations, but the Charter also calls for “…the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources…” (Art 26); the First Committee is dedicated to Disarmament.

It goes on, “… (Art 2.3) All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means…” and (2.4) states, “All Members shall refrain from the threat or use of force…”

Some say that as long as there is a right of self-defense (Art 51) there shall be war. We will see what the lawyers and experts including Liechtenstein’s Ambassador Christian Wenaweser and James Ranney, international law professor, say in their conversation.

Have you heard of Bertha von Suttner, the young poor Princess who answered an ad from Alfred Nobel for a housekeeper. In short, she left his employ having persuaded him to turn the profits from his invention of dynamite to support a Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1905 Bertha became a Nobel Peace Laureate for writing the best-selling, “Lay Down Your Arms”, (Die Waffen Neider) probably the only novel written about disarmament, and for organizing the world’s first International Peace Congress.

It resulted in banning hot air balloons, mustard gas and dumdum bullets. Did she anticipate climate change?

Getting rid of war has been a hope for generations. Eleanor Roosevelt said that that, “the idea of war is obsolete”. Abolishing war has been a serious multinational effort.

A Hibakusha, one of the survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, speaks at a special event commemorating Disarmament Week in October 2011. Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Following the first World War and the League of Nations, the Kellogg Briand Pact, 1928, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/kellogg was signed by all “major states” including the foreign ministers of the US and France, who agreed not to… “resort to war to resolve disputes or conflicts of whatever nature.’’

The Pact could not prevent or stop wars of “self-defense” and had no enforcement capacity.

Lord Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, who said that nuclear weapons threaten the “continued existence of mankind”, also called for the end of war. War, in the age of atomic bombs, “is the most serious problem that has ever confronted the human race,” said Lord Russell. Thus, the Russell Einstein Manifesto of 1955 was signed by the world’s leading scientists including Marie Joliot-Curie.

www.theguardian.com › world › jul › russell-einstein-peace-manifesto…

In 1999, on the centennial of the world’s first Peace Congress, the Hague Appeal for Peace convened 10,000 people from over 100 countries in The Hague and called for Peace is a Human Right and it is Time to Abolish War. Archbishop Desmond Tutu told us, “If the world could get rid of Apartheid, why not war?” www.haguepeace.org

UN Secretary–General Kofi Annan addressed the HAP conference, urging everyone, “Don’t despair, don’t deny and by all means don’t ever give up”.

The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century with 50 Articles going from a Culture of War to a Culture of Peace, became a UN document, A/54/98.

It created the Global Campaign for Peace Education which states, “A Culture of Peace will be achieved when citizens of the world understand global problems, have the skills to resolve conflicts, and struggle for justice non-violently.

“War No More” takes its name from the drawing, Nie Wieder Krieg, (War Never Again) 1924, by the German artist and peace activist, Kathe Kollwitz. Her son was killed in the first World War. https://archive.org/details/warnomorefinalitalics2

The apocalyptic twins, nuclear weapons and the climate crisis, are the existential threats destined, if not reversed, to cause the war no one survives. As long as there is armed violence between states, or groups, no amount of good governance, democracy, human rights or development can be sustained.

Positive Peace, says the Institute for Economics and Peace, not only looks at the risks of violence but at what builds peaceful and resilient societies.

We urge everyone to imagine what the Future they want looks like. What can you take away from this conference to work on to make your future happen? What can we ask of the Member States to make a World Without War?.

Footnote:

The “War No More” conference will be welcomed by the Chair of CTAUN Anne-Marie Carlson; the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the UN, Ambassador Cho Hyun; and Under-Secretary-General, Virginia Gamba, Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict.

The conference is organized around 6 conversations: It starts with Nobel Peace laureate and Liberian activist and educator, Leymah Gbowee in conversation with author, activist Gloria Steinem facilitated by ERA Coalition CEO, Carol Jenkins. They will discuss the role of civil society and women in the prevention of war and in peace processes.

New technologies follow: Hypersonics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, cyber warfare with Michael Klare, Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association, in conversation with Eleonore Pauwels, Senior Fellow, Global Center on Cooperative Security, Adaora Udoji, award winning journalist, expert in emerging technologies, and facilitator Mark Wood, graduate student Columbia University.

———

Tony Jenkins, Global Campaign for Peace Education, (GCPE.org) and Eunhee Jung, Founder and President. Intercultural Virtual Exchange of Classroom Activities, (IVECA)will be in conversation with Ramu Damodaran, UN Academic Impact (UNAI) serving as facilitator.

Women Peace and Security and Youth Peace and Security will be discussed by Mavic Cabrera Balleza, founder and chief of Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Mallika Iyer and Dinah Lakehal and Heela Yoon with George Lopez, Notre Dame Univ professor, as facilitator.

UN Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitso will discuss disarmament with Randy Rydell, former UN Senior Political Affairs Officer with George Lopez also facilitating. Camryn Bruno will perform a Spoken Word on small arms. World Peace through Force of law not Law of Force, will be discussed by Liechtenstein’s UN Ambassador Christian Wenaweser and James T Ranney. Their facilitator will be Jutta F. Bertram-Nothnagel.

*During the Vietnam War, Cora Weiss was co-chair of the Committee of Liaison which hand-carried mail to American pilots –POW’s– in North Vietnam and brought mail back to their families every month for 3 years. And she, with a few others, brought three former POW’s home as a peace gesture before the war ended.

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Excerpt:

Cora Weiss* is an Honorary Patron of the Committee on Teaching About the UN (CTAUN), the UN Representative of the International Peace Bureau and President of the Hague Appeal for Peace. She was among the few women drafters of Security Council Resoluion 1325, Women, Peace and Security, and among the founders of the Global Campaign for Peace Education (GCPE).

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Women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day in India. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Diya Dutta
DELHI, India, Feb 12 2020 (IPS)

Women’s unpaid care work is the hidden engine that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses, and societies moving, yet it is not accounted for.

Inequality is writ large in our economies. Not only are the top one percent capturing greater wealth than the bottom 50 percent of the population, there appears to be significant gender disparity within billionaire wealth as well. Globally, roughly one out of ten billionaires today are women—and the same was true in 2010.

The situation is particularly telling in India—currently there is only one female billionaire for every 20—down from one in 12 in 2018.

In its annual Global Gender Gap Report (2020), India continues to be ranked poorly in terms of improving the gender gap. At a composite rank of 112 out of 153 countries, it has moved down four places from its previous rank of 108, and the economic gap has gotten significantly wider since 2006.

Women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day in India—a contribution of at least 10 percent of GDP

The country fared poorly on three of the four measured segments: economic participation (149); health and survival (150); and educational attainment (112); while ranking fairly high for political empowerment (18). The composite rank puts India behind Bangladesh (50), Nepal (101), and Sri Lanka (102).

 

Women and work

The transfer of women’s work from household to commercial employment is among the most notable features of economic development. Yet, India is marked by abysmally low and falling female labour force participation.

The government of India’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) estimated female labour force participation at 23.3 percent in 2017-18. This means that three out of four women aged 15 years and above are not working nor seeking work.

This is worrisome, especially since unemployment rates are highest amongst women with advanced levels of education (24.6 percent) as compared to those with tertiary levels of education (16.2 percent) and basic level of education (2.9 percent).

A common explanation provided for this is that more numbers of girls are enrolled in education. However, PLFS data indicates a fall in workforce participation for older women—those between 30-50 years of age where two out of three women were reported as not working.

It is most pronounced in women aged between 35-39 years: 33.5 percent of them were reported as not working in 2017-18 as compared to nine percent in 2011-12. That is one in three women not working, versus the one in 11, six years prior.

There appears to be a mismatch between demand and supply—there is a lack of adequate decent jobs for the educated youth in this country especially women. Social norms also restrict the kind of jobs that women and young girls can take up, leaving them with few opportunities for paid employment.

Most women in the prime working age category (between 30-50 years) reported ‘attending to domestic duties only’, which refers to running of the household and taking care of children and/or elderly relatives.

Unpaid care work is the hidden engine that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses, and societies moving.

Women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day in India—a contribution of at least 10 percent of GDP. When calculated in actual terms this means women’s unpaid care work contributes INR 19 lakh crore of the GDP, which is twenty times the entire education budget of India in 2019, three times the revenue of Reliance Industries, and four times that of ONGC as per 2018-19 data.

 

But paid care isn’t working in women’s favour either

Women consistently earn less than men—the estimated earned income for women in India is just 20 percent of male income; and they are concentrated in the lowest paid and least secure forms of work. For example, women make up two-thirds of the paid care workforce.

Jobs such as nursery workers, domestic workers, and care assistants are often very poorly paid, provide scant benefits, impose irregular hours, and can take a physical and emotional toll.

It is a vicious cycle where the high burden of unpaid care work inhibits women and girls from pursuing education and engaging in paid employment. With little or no education and low skills, women are left to collect the scraps of low paid, insecure, unskilled jobs. This explains why they account for only 30 percent of professional and technical workers, and 20 percent of leadership roles in the country.

Oxfam’s latest report, Time to Care, shows that the pressure on carers, both unpaid and paid, is set to grow in the coming decade as the global population grows and ages. Climate change could worsen the looming global care crisis—by 2025, up to 2.4 billion people will live in areas without enough water, and women and girls will have to walk even longer distances to fetch it. Eighty percent of indigenous people live in Asia and the Pacific, a region vulnerable to climate change.

 

Governments created the inequality crisis—they must act now to end it

Globally, governments are massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to collect revenues that could help lift the responsibility of care from women and tackle poverty and inequality. At the same time, governments are underfunding vital public services and infrastructure that could help reduce women and girls’ workload.

For example, investments in water and sanitation, electricity, childcare, healthcare could free up women’s time and improve their quality of life.

The issue of unpaid care work is central to women’s economic empowerment, and not accounting for it in statistical systems and economic growth measurements is likely to impact policy interventions aimed at improving access to opportunities for women.

The four R’s of unpaid care work—recognise, reduce, redistribute, and represent—should be the framework guiding policies and programmes which seek to address the skewed distribution of unpaid activities among men and women.

The state plays an important role in reducing the skewed distribution of unpaid work between men and women, and the issue should be viewed as a shared responsibility between households and governments.

 

Know more

• To know more about the state of inequality in India read the India supplement of Time to Care.
• Read this IDR article that uncovers trends, identifies data gaps, and makes actionable recommendations for policy design through a meta-analysis of India’s female labour participation.
• Read this feminist comic which explains the mental load that women carry on a regular basis.

 

Do more

• Use the ‘Care Calculator’ to estimate the financial worth of the care work you do.

 

Diya Dutta is Research Manager at Oxfam India. She has been leading the inequality research work at Oxfam India for the past three years. She has contributed to Oxfam’s India Inequality Report 2019 and Oxfam India Inequality Report, On Women’s Backs. She has been working on the issue of unpaid care work for over a decade and has been a researcher for more than 15 years. Diya has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University and an MPhil from Oxford University.

 

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

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By Nina Suomalainen
GENEVA, Feb 11 2020 (IPS)

There has been a disturbing increase in violence perpetrated against children in conflicts worldwide, coupled with almost total impunity.

A crucial step towards stemming this deplorable trend is to strengthen accountability for child rights violations and to deter would-be perpetrators. This requires specialized child rights investigations, established and backed by the international community.

Child victims and survivors of human rights violations have unique needs and face different challenges than adult populations in achieving access to justice.

At Justice Rapid Response – a facility of more than 700 experts ready to be deployed to investigate international crimes – we have been building up our roster to include child rights experts to help bolster the ability of international justice mechanisms to address these needs.

A recent report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, focusing on child rights violations, highlights the need for investigations that deliver accountability.

The report documents the devastating consequences of the conflict in Syria on children. They have been killed and maimed, and subjected to myriad violations by warring parties since 2011. Rape and sexual violence have been used repeatedly against men, women, boys and girls as a tool to punish, humiliate and instill fear.

While there have been significant advances in the development of international legal instruments and standards to uphold child rights, much still needs to be done to ensure these obligations are enforced.

But as the conflict rages on in Syria, recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry risk falling on deaf ears.

Nina Suomalainen

The Commission, in its report, urges all parties in the conflict to respect the special protection to which children are entitled under international humanitarian and human rights law, and to ensure accountability for violations that have already occurred.

It also makes a series of recommendations on increasing the support for children who have suffered abuses.

In the context of Syria, there are limited avenues for bringing justice to the conflict’s victims. And even when those do exist, there are several barriers blocking children from participating safely in justice processes.

Child rights expertise was, however, central to the Commission of Inquiry’s documentation, analysis and reporting of crimes against children and its subsequent child-specific recommendations. This is helping to lay the foundations for evidence that can be used by future international justice mechanisms.

The findings of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria reveal part of a global crisis of child rights violations in conflict. According to a Save the Children report released last year, more than 420 million children worldwide – nearly one in five children – were living in ‘conflict zones’ or ‘conflict-affected areas’ in 2017, an increase of nearly 30 million children over the previous year.

The number of children living in conflict-affected areas has increased drastically since the end of the Cold War, states the report, due to increased incidence of armed violence in more urban settings, as well as numerous long-running conflicts.

Children are known to suffer disproportionately from the effects of conflict, yet there are still massive gaps in the availability of child-specific data to paint a clearer picture of their plight.

Fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry – established by the Human Rights Council or General Assembly to investigate human rights violations – rarely include a specific focus on child rights violations in their mandate or team composition.

As a result, grave violations involving children can occur untracked. This makes it challenging to respond in time to protect child victims and survivors, and harder still to hold perpetrators to account.

Exposing patterns of crimes involving children paves the way to accountability. However, the process of documenting and investigating these crimes presents unique challenges to avoid inflicting further trauma or harm to children.

Frequently deep-rooted gender biases against women and girls can also further impede the effectiveness and sensitivity of investigative and judicial authorities.

The limited international capacity for investigating conflict-related violence must not continue to block justice for child victims. Impunity for crimes involving children is a grim prospect for humanity. It not only has a destructive effect on individual child victims, but it also fuels grievances that inflame and perpetuate conflicts across generations.

In Syria, the situation is so dire that humanitarian organizations have trouble keeping count of the exact number of child casualties amid the chaos. While it is too late to bring back lives and years of childhoods lost, together we still have a chance to salve a collective and festering wound by bringing some amount of justice for child survivors.

The international community must not miss this opportunity.

The post Investigation a Crucial Tool for Preventing Child Rights Violations in Armed Conflicts appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Nina Suomalainen is Executive Director, Justice Rapid Response

The post Investigation a Crucial Tool for Preventing Child Rights Violations in Armed Conflicts appeared first on Inter Press Service.

IITA Director General Nteranya Sanginga told IPS that Africa should build capacity to research and innovative its food systems to beat hunger and poverty. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 11 2020 (IPS)

Africa needs to invest in agriculture by putting more resources into innovative research and development that can boost food and nutritional security, according to leading scientist, Nteranya Sanginga.

Sanginga, Director-General of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in Ibadan, Nigeria, says Africa comes short on leveraging its huge resources when it comes to transforming agriculture for economic growth.  

“Investment in research in Africa is poor, less than one percent and when it comes to agriculture, it is worse because the leaders do not understand the importance of research,” Sanginga told IPS.

“Today if you kill IITA in Africa then you have killed agriculture research in Africa.”

Sanginga, a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has specialised in agronomy and soil microbiology. He has been involved in agricultural research and development, particularly in applied microbial ecology, plant nutrition and integrated natural resources management in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Africa, Sanginga says, should build capacity for research in order to innovative its food systems to beat hunger and poverty.

Young people hold the key to the continent’s food future, says Sanginga who launched a Youth agriprenuers programme at IITA to help young African create profitable agribusinesses.

Farmers weeding a wheat field outside Accra, Ghana. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

Speaking at a meeting of the African Leaders for Nutrition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week, African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina said Africa should invest in skills development for the youth so the continent’s entrepreneurs can leverage emerging technologies to transform Africa’s food system to generate new jobs.

• Africa’s population is projected to double to 2.5 billion people in 40 years putting pressure on governments to deliver more food and jobs in addition to better livelihoods.
• The good news is that Africa’s economic growth is rising and expected to register 3.9 percent in 2020 and 4.1 percent in 2021, according to the AfDB’s 2020 African Economic outlook report.
• According to the World Bank, African agriculture and agribusiness could be worth $1 trillion in the next ten years. But Africa must overcome several barriers to agricultural development from poor infrastructure, limited credit access for farmers and low use of improved inputs and mechanisation.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has estimated that Africa needs to invest up to $400 billion in agriculture over the next ten years to meet its food needs.

To date, 44 African countries have signed the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Compact to spend 10 percent of their budgets on agriculture and increase their productivity by at least 6 percent. This follows the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security made by African Heads of State in 2003.

Under Sanginga’s leadership, the IITA won the 2018 Africa Food Prize for its cutting-edge agricultural research and innovations that have boosted nutrition and incomes. Since its founding 50 years ago, IITA has developed new, improved and high-yielding varieties of cassava, cowpea, maize, banana, soybean and yam. Overall, for Africans, the value of the crops developed by IITA and its partners now stands at over $17 billion, underscoring its contribution to Africa’s agriculture and economy.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): How is IITA leveraging its successful research to push for greater investment in agriculture research?

Nteranya Sanginga (NS): Our legacy is starting a programme to change the mindset of the youth in agriculture. Unfortunately [with] our governments that is where you have to go and change mindsets completely. Most probably 90 percent of our leaders consider agriculture as a social activity basically for them its [seen as a] pain, penury. They proclaim that agriculture is a priority in resolving our problems but we are not investing in it. We need that mindset completely changed.

Akinwumi Adesina, a colleague we worked together with at IITA, and I had a discussion that one day we would change the way agriculture has gone. This happened when I became DG and when he became Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria. We managed to change the way agriculture was perceived in Nigeria but he never succeeded in getting the government to invest more that 3 percent in agriculture in Nigeria. So agriculture is to be considered an investment and two countries in Africa have made that happen: Ethiopia – which is investing about 20 percent of its budget in agriculture – and Rwanda. 

We must invest in agriculture in the same way we invest in mining. For example, Nigeria imports $5 billion worth of food per year, buying food from outside such as rice from Thailand and wheat from the U.S. You know the significance of this is that we are exporting jobs instead of creating jobs here, we are creating jobs in Thailand for rice [producers/farmers] and the U.S. for wheat [producers/farmers]. We have proven that we can produce rice and wheat. Again and again that mind-set of the leaders who basically do not understand that all the other continents developed through agriculture. We have to make the case for agriculture.

IPS: IITA has places a strong emphasis on approaching agriculture as a business. What are the policies needed that will create an opening for this?

NS: I think we are not going to create a miracle in Africa. We have to follow what other people have done. Adesina started smart subsidies in Nigeria and instead of giving money like you would do in the U.S. or Europe, he started buying equipment and fertilisers and other inputs for the farmers, that is working.

I do not see another way of helping agriculture in Africa if we do not facilitate and subsidise. Mind you, in the U.S. or Europe if you stop subsidies all those farmers will leave agriculture so you need to ensure that you find some way of helping our farmers invest in agriculture. It is leadership and policies that are needed.  Why would we allow someone to steal $10 billion from a country and not make an effort to invest this in something useful?

Besides, most banks in Africa consider agriculture risky but some have started initiatives to help farmers. In Kenya, Equity Bank has understood that agriculture is a business. In Nigeria, there has been a programme to put some money and de-risk lending for agriculture. In fact Equity Bank in Kenya lent to farmers and who had less than one percent default in their repayment rate. So really agriculture is a good business but still banks are reluctant.

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The post Q&A: Africa Must Innovate its Food Systems in Order to Beat Hunger and Poverty appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Leading scientist and director general of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), NTERANYA SANGINGA, speaks to IPS correspondent Busani Bafana about how the institute is leveraging its successful research to push for greater investment in agricultural research.

The post Q&A: Africa Must Innovate its Food Systems in Order to Beat Hunger and Poverty appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Claire Lim and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 11 2020 (IPS)

Many medicines and medical tests are unaffordable to most of humanity owing to the ability of typically transnational pharmaceutical giants to abuse their monopoly powers, enforced by intellectual property laws, to set prices to maximize profits over the long-term.

Most basic research is funded by government grants, and in recent years, by philanthropic initiatives. When a profitable opportunity presents itself, venture capitalists fund ‘last leg’ efforts to patent an innovation and ‘take it to market’, as the patent holder ‘takes all’.

Claire Lim

Patents, a form of intellectual property rights (IPRs), are believed by many to be necessary to incentivise innovation, and to recover research and development costs, by creating a temporary legal monopoly.

IPRs are monopoly rights
After securing patents, patent holders typically take additional measures to deter and undermine potential competitors, and to consolidate and extend their monopoly position for as long as possible by any means available. Private companies have then used their monopolies to charge exorbitant prices.

In 2015, Turing Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to Daraprim—a drug used by cancer and HIV patients to fight deadly parasitic infections—raising its price 50-fold from USD13.50 to USD750! The ‘price gouging’ company was controlled by Martin Shkreli, dubbed ‘Pharma Bro’ by the US media and once deemed ‘America’s most hated man’.

Private companies eager to extend their monopolies try to ‘evergreen’ them, by registering ‘follow-on’ patents involving minor variations closely linked to the original invention. By ‘evergreening’, the patents system has been used by companies to create long term monopolies.

Others engage in ‘patent trolling’, obtaining many patents to profit from litigation or licensing, without inventing anything or making products of their own. Trolling enables patent owners to blackmail those in need to their patents, sometimes by creating ‘patent thickets’—webs of overlapping IPRs—and related bottlenecks, limiting utilization of patented knowledge and effectively hindering further innovation.

Before the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017, TPP provisions would have extended IP protections to cover ‘biologics’, i.e., naturally occurring substances, such as insulin for diabetes patients.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

These onerous TPP provisions have been suspended in the successor Comprehensive and Progressive TPP (CPTPP) following US withdrawal, but can easily be reinstated, e.g., to induce the US to rejoin the TPP.

Tripping up public health
Through various means, US-style IPR regimes have spread worldwide since adoption of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Under TRIPS, all WTO members have to provide a minimum level of IPR protection which includes, among other things, patent protection for a minimum of 20 years, including for imported IPRs registered in other countries.

TRIPS also stipulates conditions for using the ‘compulsory licence’ concession allowing governments to license the use of a patented invention to a third party or government agency without the consent of the patent-holder.

There is moot evidence that TRIPS benefits developing countries by attracting foreign investment, promoting technological transfer and increasing innovation. Instead, TRIPS has imposed substantial, avoidable costs on developing countries.

Where developing countries have made use of TRIPS concessions, they have faced international pressure from pharmaceutical giants and their governments to limit, if not eliminate the scope of these exceptions

Malaysia is the first country to use ‘compulsory licencing’ under TRIPS to produce sofosbuvir for Hepatitis C treatment. The drug, from patent owner Gilead, costs almost RM300,000 (USD68,000) for the full course, while generic substitutes cost just over RM1000. US ‘big pharma’ has applied pressure on Malaysia to stop using its ‘compulsory licence’.

IP for intellectual piracy
Developing countries are generally unable to check the monopolistic practices of transnational pharmaceutical conglomerates due to underdeveloped antitrust regimes, weak law enforcement capacities and their influential partners.

Such companies may ‘re-package’ medicinal products and processes from developing countries’ ‘traditional knowledge systems’ to secure patents on them, including naturally occurring substances known as ‘biologics’.

Turmeric is widely used in India for medicine, food and dye among other things. In 1995, the US granted the University of Mississippi Medical Center a patent for the use and administration of turmeric powder to heal wounds, granting it an exclusive right to sell and distribute turmeric.

The Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) objected, arguing that turmeric had been so used in India for centuries, providing historical references in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi and other languages. The US patent was eventually revoked because it lacked the ‘novelty’ element, but it required herculean efforts.

Alternatives
Developing countries are now no longer able to require technology transfer, further limiting their ability to develop their own technological capacities and capabilities. Hence, many developing country governments are told they have no other way to industrialize except by generously inducing transnational companies to locate parts of their ‘value-adding’ activities in their economies.

Innovation, Intellectual Property and Development, by Joseph Stiglitz, Dean Baker and Arjun Jayadev, suggests alternatives to incentivise innovation, especially relevant for developed economies. These include: centralized direct R&D financing; decentralized funding through tax breaks for research spending; using prizes to recognize and reward innovative research; and establishing open source platforms to promote free knowledge flows.

Without the strong private monopolies enabled by current IP rules, the currently unaffordable prices of medicines and other products can be significantly reduced while developing countries will have much better prospects for developing internationally competitive industrial capacities and technological capabilities.

Claire Lim is a lawyer who used to practice in England. Jomo Kwame Sundaram was a university professor and senior UN official. Both work with the Khazanah Research Institute, whose views are not expressed here.

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By Pedro Conceição
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2020 (IPS)

Inequalities. The evidence is everywhere. And although they may be hard to measure and summarize, there is a sense in many countries that many are approaching a precipice beyond which it will be difficult to recover.

Not all inequalities are harmful, but those that are perceived as being unfair tend to be. Under the shadow of sweeping technological change and the climate crisis, those inequalities hurt almost everyone.

Pedro Conceição

They weaken social cohesion and people’s trust in government, institutions, and each other. They are wasteful, preventing people from reaching their full potential at work and in civic life, hurting economies and societies. And when taken to the extreme, people can take to the streets.

The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2019 Human Development Report, opens a new window to understand and address inequalities in human development. “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: Inequalities in human development in the 21st Century” asks what forms of inequality matter and what causes them.

It recognizes that pernicious inequalities are generally better thought of as a symptom of broader problems in a society and economy. It also asks what policies can tackle the underlying drivers—policies that can simultaneously help nations to grow their economies sustainably and equitably expand human development.

There is far too much in the report to cover in this short post so let me focus on two important points.

1. A NEW GENERATION OF INEQUALITIES IS EMERGING, EVEN IF MANY 20TH CENTURY INEQUALITIES ARE DECLINING

It is common knowledge that some basic inequalities are slowly narrowing in many countries, even if much remains to be done. The indicators of basic achievements in the figure below all show narrowing inequalities between countries in different human development groups, though the gaps are still wide.

In life expectancy at birth (driven mainly by survival to age 5), in access to primary education, and in access to mobile phones, countries with lower human development are catching up with more developed countries.

In contrast, and much less well known, inequalities in more advanced areas are widening. Countries with higher human development have longer life expectancy at older ages, higher tertiary education enrollment and more access to broadband—and they are increasing their lead.

Figure 1. Slow convergence in basic, rapid divergence in enhanced capabilities

Source: Human Development Report Office calculations based on data from the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

These new inequalities may be one reason behind an apparent increase in concern about inequality: These are the inequalities that will shape people’s ability to seize the opportunities of the 21st century and function in a knowledge economy, and to meet challenges, including the ability to cope with climate change.

2. INEQUALITIES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CAN ACCUMULATE THROUGH LIFE, FREQUENTLY HEIGHTENED BY POWER IMBALANCES

Understanding inequality—even income inequality—means looking well beyond income. Different inequalities interact, while their size and impact shifts over a person’s lifetime.

Inequalities start before birth, and the gaps can increase over a person’s life if they are not counteracted, creating self-perpetuating engines of privilege and disadvantage. This can happen in many ways, and the report looks in detail at one set of linkages: the nexus between health, education, and parental income.

Parental incomes and circumstances affect the health, education, and incomes of children. Health gradients—disparities in health across socioeconomic groups—can start before birth and may accumulate.

When that happens, inequalities compound and spiral: Children born to low-income families are more prone to poor health and lower education. Those with lower education are less likely to earn as much as others, while children in poorer health are more likely to miss school.

And when children grow up, they typically partner with someone having similar socioeconomic status, reinforcing the inequalities across generations. It is a cycle that is often difficult to break, not least because of the way inequalities in income and political power co-evolve.

When the wealthy shape policies that favor themselves and their children—as they often do—that drives further accumulation of income and opportunity at the top. Unsurprising, then, that mobility tends to be lower in more unequal societies.

A NEW TAKE ON THE GREAT GATSBY CURVE

The positive correlation between higher income inequality and lower intergenerational mobility in income is well known. This relation, known as the Great Gatsby Curve, also holds true using a measure of inequality in human development instead of income inequality alone (see Figure 2).

The greater the inequality in human development, the lower the intergenerational mobility in income—and vice versa. These two factors go hand in hand, but that does not imply that one causes the other.

In fact, it is more likely that both are driven by underlying economic and social factors, so understanding and tackling these drivers could both promote mobility and redress inequality.

Figure 2. Intergenerational mobility in income is lower in countries with more inequality in human development

Note: Inequality in human development is measured as the percentage loss in Human Development Index value due to inequality in three components: income, education, and health. The higher the intergenerational income elasticity, the stronger the association between parents’ income and their children’s income, reflecting lower intergenerational mobility.

Source: Human Development Report Office using data from GDIM (2018), adapted from Corak 2013.

WHERE TO NEXT?

The report has a template framing a rich set of policy suggestions for governments wishing to act, but stresses that there is no silver bullet. Tackling inequalities requires addressing the drivers, not just the symptoms. Two arguments are central to this.

The first is that inequalities do not always damage a society, nor do they always reflect an unfair world. Some inequality is productive in rewarding talent and effort, and some is probably inevitable, such as the inequalities from diffusing a new technology.

Preventing anyone from access to a new health treatment until everyone can have it makes no sense. But some inequalities—especially in opportunities—are unjust and damaging. They have deep roots, and we focus on these inequalities and their drivers.

The second argument is that the sorts of inequalities that concern us most are not so much a cause of unfairness as a consequence of an unfairness deeply embedded in our economies, societies, and politics. That sense of unfairness can lead to alienation and become a wellspring of anger.

The human development lens—placing people at the heart—is central to approaching inequalities and asking why they matter, how they manifest themselves and how best to tackle them.

This is a conversation that every society must have for itself, and that should begin today. The 2019 Human Development Report is a contribution to inform and to help shape those conversations.

The post Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Water falls through these enormous pipes to activate the 20 turbines of the Itaipu hydroelectric plant on the Brazilian-Paraguayan border. Caring for the water in the reservoir, as well as reducing the pollution in the rivers that run into it, help make this binational plant one of the most efficient in the world, with a projected useful life of 184 years. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
FOZ DO IGUAÇU, Brail, Feb 10 2020 (IPS)

Fomenting biogas production among agricultural producers may seem at first glance to be a distraction from the purpose of Itaipu, the giant hydroelectric power plant shared by Brazil and Paraguay, but in fact it is part of their energy business strategy.

“Protecting the quality of the water (in the reservoir) is essential for power generation,” explained General Luiz Felipe Carbonell, coordination director in Itaipu Binacional, the company that manages the power plant on the Paraná River, which forms part of the border between the two countries.

The efficiency of Itaipu, the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world in terms of potential, has been proven by the record amount of electricity generated: 103 million megawatts/hour in 2016, which exceeds the best performance of China’s Three Gorges power plant, whose installed capacity is 60.7 percent higher.

While the Brazilian-Paraguayan plant has a potential of 14,000 MW, the potential of Three Gorges is 22,500 MW. But generation depends on water flow, turbine efficiency and demand.

Biogas production in southwestern Brazil is on the rise, mainly due to the use of livestock manure. In the west of the state of Paraná, part of whose rivers flow into the Itaipu reservoir, there were 4.2 million pigs, according to the 2017 agricultural census.

Sedimentation is a risk that can shorten the life of a hydroelectric plant, which in Itaipu’s case is estimated at 184 years. In addition to the quantity, it is necessary to consider “the quality of the sediments,” noted Marcio Bortolini, adviser to the coordination director.

Organic waste, like the manure from pig farming, drives the proliferation of especially harmful species, like the golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei), an invasive species that appeared in the Itaipu reservoir in 2001, he explained.

The mussel from Southeast Asia often clogs pipes and brings turbines to a halt when it latches onto hard surfaces.

Bortolini described this situation when he took part in a Jan. 27-29 workshop on biogas for Brazilian journalists, organised by IPS and the International Center for Renewable Energy (CIBiogás), with support from the U.S.-based Mott Foundation.

General Luiz Felipe Carbonell, Itaipu Binacional’s coordination director, says that caring for the environment is vital for the power plant’s productivity and longevity because it reduces sedimentation, among other things. Using organic waste to produce biogas helps eliminate invasive species in the reservoir that damage the dam and equipment. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

“Without good water quality, several species of fauna will settle in and affect our reservoir and the machinery,” said Carbonell, one of the army officers appointed to Itaipu and the Brazilian government under President Jair Bolsonaro, who himself retired from the army as a captain in 1988.

Efforts to combat the golden mussel and protect water quality managed to reduce the population of the invasive shellfish and keep it under control, said Itaipu administrators during the workshop held at the CIBiogás facilities in Foz do Iguaçu, the main city where the power plant is located.

“Besides the golden mussel, a danger to our maintenance service, we have the freshwater hydroid (Cordylophora caspia), an invasive species that corrodes concrete, and therefore represents a physical danger to the dam,” said the general.

The main cause of these threats is organic waste, which is why “we use it to produce biogas and at the same time to improve the environment and the quality of life of the populace,” Carbonell told IPS at the plant’s facilities.

Therefore, disseminating biogas as a source of heat, biomethane and bioelectricity, and promoting other energy alternatives, such as solar, hydrogen and less polluting batteries, does not distract Itaipu from its business of generating hydroelectricity, he said.

Ademir Eischer produces biogas using the manure from the 1,200 pigs on his farm. He is one of the 18 farmers who supply the mini biogas power plant in the municipality of Entre Rios, in the west of Paraná state. The main benefit, he said, was the elimination of the stench of the raw manure that fertilises his hay crop next to his home, because biodigestion removes the strong odour by making use of the gases. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

The same is true with regard to the reforestation of the surrounding area, where 44 million trees have been planted, because it protects the environment and the reservoir by reducing erosion and maintaining the water table. These are measures that support water security, an indispensable factor for the business.

The general also mentioned the plant’s efforts to boost the well-being of the surrounding population, and said health conditions have improved as a result of the projects.

Itaipu runs several social, economic development and technological programmes. Electric vehicles, a biodiversity corridor, tourism, local development and child protection are part of this focus, as is the Federal University of Latin American Integration, installed within the Itaipu area.

“Cultivating Good Water” stands out as a wide-ranging programme, initiated in 2003, in which more than 2,000 public and private entities have been involved in more than 60 social, economic and environmental actions, including fish farming, medicinal plants, garbage recycling and recovery of more than 200 micro-watersheds.

The programme is based on the principle of caring for water in order to generate more electricity for longer periods and to produce biogas for energy, environmental and water quality purposes.

Biofuel production was increased at the initiative of Itaipu, in a mission transferred to CIBiogas, founded in 2013 as an autonomous, non-profit entity. Itaipu is one of its 27 partners, which include the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

From a biogas producer’s point of view, the environmental benefits have more to do with the air than with the water.

For example, the stench of “raw” manure has almost disappeared on the farm where Ademir Eischer uses manure to grow hay, his main source of income.

With just three hectares of land that runs up against the highway in the small municipality of Entre Rios, Eischer – who also fattens 1,200 hogs – can’t expand his pig farming operation, and the field planted with hay almost reaches his house.

“I’ve been working in haymaking for a long time and decided to start producing biogas because of the smell. When the manure goes through the biodigester, it loses 70 to 80 percent of its odour and we gain a lot in terms of quality of life,” Eischer told IPS during a visit to his farm.

Biodigestion consists of extracting methane (CH4), hydrogen sulphide (H2S, mainly responsible for the bad smell) and carbon dioxide (CO2), which make up the biogas, from the manure that can then fertilise the soil without the pollution and smell of the gases.

The production of biogas from the manure of pigs like these ones on Ademir Eischer’s farm is a new business with great potential in the western part of the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil, an area where there are more than four million hogs. Biogas also eliminates the waste that pollutes local rivers and leads to sedimentation in the Itaipú reservoir created by the dam built for the giant hydroelectric plant shared by Brazil and Paraguay. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Methane, which is removed in much greater proportion than the other gases, is 21 times more aggressive than carbon as a greenhouse gas that warms the planet, which is why its extraction and use as a source of energy contribute greatly to mitigating the climate crisis.

Eischer is one of the 18 pig farmers whose biogas generate almost all the electricity consumed by the municipal government of Entre Rios do Oeste, population 4,600, which inaugurated its own mini power plant in July 2019.

Another local pig farmer and biogas producer, Claudinei Stein, highlighted other benefits: the “reduction to almost zero of mosquitoes” that used to pester him and his employees on the farm, while posing the risk of transmitting diseases.

In addition, the manure minus the gases has improved the fertilisation of the soil where he grows soybeans and corn on his 12 hectares.

Pedro Colombari says that with the bio-fertiliser resulting from biodigestion he has managed to improve his pastures to the point of fattening 10 cattle per hectare per year – quite a feat in a country where, on average, farmers only raise a little more than one cow per hectare.

“Now I’m trying to double that productivity on an experimental two hectares,” with more intensive fertilisation and irrigation, he told IPS.

His 400-hectare farm, where he raises 5,000 pigs and 400 head of cattle and grows soybeans and corn, generates its own electricity using biogas, in a microgrid in which several generators, using varied sources and batteries, can operate together and outside the main grid, offering greater energy security.

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Credit: OECD

By Jonathan Donner
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 10 2020 (IPS)

By 2030, sub-Saharan Africa will be home to more than a quarter of the world’s population under 25. Between 15 and 20 million young people will enter the African workforce each year, joining the ranks of the millions of currently under- and unemployed people searching for better livelihoods.

Does this massive growth present an urgent challenge or an extraordinary opportunity? It depends in part on whether young people can acquire the skills they will need to participate in an increasingly digital economy.

One pathway to learning these skills has, until now, gone mostly under the radar, but it may be a surprisingly powerful ally in meeting this challenge.

Some of the same digital marketplace platforms that are changing economic sectors and connecting workers to gigs are now putting training at the core of their operations. This upskilling has become essential to providing the levels of service and quality customers demand.

There are currently more than 250 marketplace platforms active in sub-Saharan Africa alone. They touch many economic sectors: ride hailing and delivery, freelancing, services and trades, even agriculture, the biggest employer on the continent.

When these platforms train, they train broadly. While coding or IT skills are an important component, many platforms train in a variety of subject matters, using a variety of methods.

Some platforms offer training in digital and financial literacy; Uber has partnered with Old Mutual to deliver money management classes to driver-partners. Some platforms teach specific vocational skills, like the Kenyan service platform Lynk, which prepares people to be everything from carpenters to beauty technicians.

Other platforms teach soft skills, like Nigerian ride-hailing platforms Gokada and MAX, which invest extensively in customer service training while onboarding drivers.

Importantly, all of these skills are portable. They can be applied on and off the job, and, once transferred, they can’t be taken away. If the scale and quality of platform-led upskilling continues to rise, it could have a transformational impact on economic growth and sustainable development in the region.

Jumia training in session. Credit: Neha Wadekar

With the support of the Mastercard Foundation, Caribou Digital has produced a white paper analyzing the potential of training programs offered by platforms.

We found three broad approaches in practice. The first is of course to provide online training materials, ranging from simple “FAQs” and blog posts to videos and tutorials.

Notably, we found many using innovative approaches, like Sendy, an African delivery and logistics platform that has designed videos for drivers to watch at mechanic workshops or gas stations while their bikes are being maintained.

Some of the larger platforms offer training moments within workflows—training that happens almost without the user’s awareness. For example, the African e-commerce site Jumia uses AI to offer sellers a “Content Score’’ that automatically measures the quality of a product’s content listing, allowing small merchants to improve their advertisements in real time.

However, we were most surprised by the amount of coaching that happens face to face. For example, the Kenyan services platform Lynk has set up Fundi Works, a production workshop that allows carpenters to train with a master carpenter to improve their techniques.

They are also trained on procurement of raw materials, storage practices, and the processes involved in furniture design, to ensure high quality finished products.

Meanwhile the Nigerian ride-hailing platform Gokada has partnered with a defensive driving academy that has reduced training time in the classroom and the field from seven days to three.

Almost every platform we spoke to, large and small, relies on some degree of interpersonal training to upskill its workers and suppliers.

The influence of platforms on all kinds of markets is likely to grow. Not all of this influence is good—platformization has raised important concerns about competition, worker safety, wages, and consumer choice.

But if platforms’ commitment to training correlates with their growth, their influence on skills acquisition around the world could have a major positive impact. Our research shows that marketplace platforms can be powerful new partners for governments, educational institutions, and worker organizations looking to upskill the continent’s workforce.

It is therefore time to foster collaboration around what we have dubbed “platform-led upskilling”. With a dedicated community and shared perspective comes the opportunity to compile best practices across industry sectors and training approaches as well as to analyze returns on investment to platforms, and the efficacy of skills training and improved livelihoods among their workers and suppliers.

A lot of this evidence is currently hidden and fragmented, held inside different platforms’ vendor support departments. The development community can act as a catalyst and partner with platforms to more systematically gather and share this evidence.

Preparing a generation of young Africans with the skills for the digital age will require all hands-on deck. Platforms won’t replace investments in improving and extending schools, NGOs, and training academies, or in advancing employee training.

But the reach of platform-led upskilling is growing along with the rise of platforms.

The question “Could Africa’s marketplace platforms help upskill a generation?” is still open, but the answer is worth pursuing systematically and vigorously. Platform-led upskilling is a promising way in which platforms can act not just as disruptors but as stewards of the markets in which they play.

The post Could Africa’s Marketplace Platforms Help Upskill a Generation for the Digital Age? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jonathan Donner is Senior Director of Caribou Digital, a research and advisory firm dedicated to building inclusive and ethical digital economies.

The post Could Africa’s Marketplace Platforms Help Upskill a Generation for the Digital Age? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Zoltán Kálmán
ROME, Feb 10 2020 (IPS)

Reducing poverty and inequalities, eliminating hunger and all forms of malnutrition and achieve food insecurity for all – these are some of the most important objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. Still, the rate of poverty and inequalities is increasing and over 820 million people are going hungry. In addition, 2 billion people in the world are food insecure with great risk of malnutrition and poor health. This alarming situation is further aggravated by current trends such as the rate of population growth, impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation and many others. Transition to more sustainable food systems can provide adequate solutions to all these challenges. Pulses could play an important role in this transition, having nutritional and health benefits, low environmental footprint, and positive socio-economic impacts as well. What is required to promote and support the production and consumption of more pulses? This question is particularly relevant now, since 10 February is the World Pulses Day.

Following the successful implementation of the International Year of Pulses (IYP) 2016, the Government of Burkina Faso took the initiative and proposed the establishment of World Pulses Day (WPD). Under Resolution A/RES/73/251, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) designated 10 February as World Pulses Day to reaffirm the contribution of pulses for sustainable agriculture and achieving the 2030 Agenda. WPD is a new opportunity to heighten public awareness of the multiple benefits of pulses. Pulses are more than just nutritious seeds, they contribute to sustainable food systems and a ZeroHunger world. The UNGA has invited FAO, in collaboration with other organizations, to facilitate the observance of WPD.

The topic of this year’s WFD celebration is “Plant proteins for a sustainable future”. According to FAO data, pulses are an important source of plant-based protein, providing on average two to three times more protein than staple cereals such as rice and wheat on a gram-to-gram basis. Additionally, the amino acids found in pulses complement those found in cereals. Protein is crucial for physical and cognitive development during childhood. Pulses are nutrient-dense, providing substantial amounts of micronutrients that are essential for good health. They are a good source of iron and can play an important role in preventing iron deficiency anaemia. They also provide other essential minerals such as zinc, selenium, phosphorous and potassium and are an important source of B vitamins, including folate (B9), thiamine (B1) and niacin (B3). The high B vitamin content of some pulses is of particular benefit during pregnancy as it supports the development of the foetus’ nerve function.

Pulses have a number of well-known agronomic benefits as well. They can fix nitrogen, improving soils’ organic content and reduce fertilizer needs, thus contributing to mitigating climate change impacts. Pulses increase productivity through appropriate crop rotation or intercropping. Producing a wide variety of pulses has an important role in preserving biodiversity. Pulses have very low water footprint, which is an essential feature particularly in dry areas.

These are well-known scientific and empirical evidences and I think we can simply say pulses are good both for the health of people and for the health of the planet.

Pulses are important also from socio-economic point of view, including income diversification, providing employment opportunities, improving livelihood in rural areas, etc.

Having all the nutritional and health benefits, having a numerous positive agronomic impacts, as well as the favourable socio-economic implications, why pulses do not have appropriate place in our production and consumption patterns? I can give you my answer: because of the lack of appropriate policy environment for the production and consumption of pulses.

As we know, farmers, in particular family farmers are the producers of our food and they are the best custodians of our land and other natural resources, including biodiversity, to preserve them for future generations. Family farmers have the traditional knowledge and experience, combined with innovative solutions to do farming sustainably. At the same time, farmers are also very clever and smart: their decisions to follow one or another farming method depends on the profit they can realize. To some extent farmers’ profit is linked to the markets, but their profit is mainly the consequence of governments’ policies, to provide subsidies (or policy incentives) to orient farmers’ choices, to ensure the economic viability of farming.

It is generally accepted that governments provide policy incentives to shape their food systems, including orienting farmers’ and consumers’ choices. The important question is whether the appropriate food systems are promoted and supported by these incentives?

As a current prevailing practice, high percentage of farm subsidies supports unsustainable, input-intensive, monoculture farming, with all the well-known negative consequences (biodiversity loss, soil degradation, etc.).

On the other hand, policy incentives can and should promote sustainable solutions, better reflecting the real interests and priorities of governments to preserve soil health and biodiversity, through crop diversification, including the production of a variety of pulses.

To take the right decisions policy makers should be provided with appropriate information, giving due attention to all the positive and negative impacts (the so-called environmental and human health externalities) of the various food systems. These externalities are translated in dollar terms and there are existing scientific studies showing the real costs of environmental damage and the enormous costs of public health expenditure in national budgets, as a consequence of unsustainable food systems.

This true cost accounting principle, based on solid scientific evidence, provides a good basis for taking appropriate decisions which food systems (including production and consumption patterns) should be promoted by national policy incentives. While providing assistance and policy advice to countries, UN organizations (including FAO) should pay due attention to the real costs of food and suggest national policy makers to support and promote sustainable solutions, including the production and consumption of pulses.

Pulses should also receive appropriate attention during the elaboration of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. This process is going on now, and the Guidelines will be adopted in October this year by the Committee of World Food Security (CFS).

It would also be desirable if the Food System Summit in 2021 could help promote pulses as important elements for the transition towards more sustainable food systems.

The post Pulses for a Sustainable Future appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Zoltán Kálmán is Permanent Representative of Hungary to the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP). He was President of the WFP Executive Board in 2018.

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Credit: United Nations

By Ameen Izzadeen
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb 10 2020 (IPS)

In the wake of the latest coronavirus outbreak, movie buffs are drawing an eerie parallel with the film Contagion, a 2011 thriller based on a lethal airborne virus called Nipah and how the world’s medical community battled to find a cure for the pandemic.

The movie, which is much in demand on streaming sites, attributes the origin of the virus to a bat.

Another movie that comes to mind is “Cassandra Crossing”. This 1976 thriller casts Richard Harris and Sophia Lauren in the lead roles. The story begins with an abortive attempt by three terrorists to bomb the US mission at a global health organisation in Geneva. In violation of international conventions, the US has developed viruses and stored them in containers in the mission.

Security officers kill a terrorist and wound another. One escapes but not before he knocks over a container and is splashed with its harmful content. He stows away in a train taking nearly a thousand passengers to different European capitals.

The American military officer in charge of the secret biological weapon programme knows the customized virus is virulent, airborne and contagion. There is no cure. He rebuffs advice that the train is stopped, the terrorist arrested and quarantined.

He fears that most of the passengers have, by now, been affected by the virus. He insists that the train be rerouted to a disused railway line that goes to a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland so that the passengers could be quarantined there.

But the train has to cross the dangerously unsound Cassandra Bridge. It is a deliberate attempt to prevent a pandemic by killing all the passengers, regardless of whether they are affected or not.

Biological weapons. Credit: United Nations

As the coronavirus continues to spread, China would not take such inhuman measures and eliminate the entire population in the city of Wuhan, though it is accused of taking horrific measures to eradicate what it sees as a social virus in its Xinjiang province where millions of Uighur Muslims are alleged to have been kept under social quarantine until they disown their religious and cultural identities which the Chinese authorities see as symptoms of major social epidemic that poses an existential threat to China.

The movie “Cassandra Crossing” is fiction, but, in reality, countries do develop biological weapons –germs, viruses and fungi targeting humans, livestock and crops.

This is not to imply that the latest coronavirus outbreak is a biological weapon test going wrong at a Wuhan laboratory — or an enemy nation has released a deadly virus in a highly populated Chinese town with the aim of sabotaging China’s global ambitions.

But the truth is biological warfare – or germ warfare — has been part of war for millennia.

History records that as far back as 400 B.C. armies had poisoned enemy wells and used poisoned arrows. History also records that in the 18th century America, the British colonialists gave small pox infected blankets to Native Americans with the intention of killing them in an epidemic.

Then, during World War I, Germany developed anthrax, glanders, cholera and a wheat fungus and allegedly spread plague in St. Petersburg in Russia.

After the end of World War I, nations agreed on the Geneva Protocol to curtail biological weapons. Yet, during World War II, Germany, Japan, Britain and the US disregarded the protocol and developed plague, syphilis and paralysis-causing botulinum toxin.

It took 22 years after the end of World War II for the so-called civilised world to acknowledge the evil of biological weapons that fall into the category of weapons of mass destruction, along with chemical weapons and nuclear weapons.

Some 179 states have ratified the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons. It requires the parties to give an undertaking that they will “never in any circumstances develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain” biological weapons.

But the convention allows nations to conduct ‘defensive’ research so that they will be prepared to face or survive an attack or a virus outbreak. In other words, they are allowed to make a virus to kill a virus.

Laboratories in Australia, Hong Kong and Europe say they have cultured the coronavirus — 2019-nCoV in a race to develop a medicine as the death toll from the outbreak reached over 800 in China alone, as of February 9, while the number of cases stood at more than 28,000 in China — mainly in the Hubei Province — and nearly 200 elsewhere.

However, it is believed that some countries also develop offensive biological weapons and chemical weapons. There is little distinction between the chemical and biological weapons from a definitional aspect.

For instance, Agent Orange the United States used during the Vietnam War may be a chemical weapon, but the harm it caused was no different from that of a biological weapon. Similarly, the use of depleted uranium by the US in Iraq also falls into the grey area between chemical and biological warfare.

During the Bosnian war, the Serbs used shells containing the Cold War-era nerve agent benzilate in the bombing of Srebrenica, and in the ongoing Syrian conflict, the government forces are accused of using similar weapons.

The US is not the only big power which stands accused of using banned weapons. Take Russia. Despite its accession to the 1972 BWC and the 1993 Chemical Weapon Convention, it drew worldwide condemnation for the killing of a dissident Russian spy in 2006, by using a highly radioactive polonium-210 poison and a similar attack in 2018 on another dissident spy and his daughter.

The possibility of terrorists using portable biological weapons topped the international agenda after more than a dozen people were killed in the Sarin nerve gas attack carried out by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo in three Tokyo subway stations in 1995.

Adding to the concerns is the anthrax scare that hit the US days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to media offices and politicians.

Five people died and 17 were infected in the bioterrorism attack that continued for weeks. Suspicion fell on two bioweapon experts. One was cleared; the other committed suicide before he was formally charged.

All this indicates the ineffectiveness of the BWC, a gentlemen’s agreement which largely requires the parties to submit only annual reports of compliance. The convention lacks a formal investigation mechanism to deal with violations.

And what better time than now to reinforce the convention when the world is gripped by the coronavirus threat?

*Ameen Izzadeen is Editor International and Deputy Editor, Sri Lanka Sunday Times

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Fajt, Jiří and Adam Budak (2017) Ai Weiwei: Law of the Journey. Prague: Národní galerie.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Feb 10 2020 (IPS)

Humans belong to a species that is constantly on the move . Since some Homo Sapiens 125,000 years ago began to move from the African continent, humans can be found all over the world, even in such utterly inhospitable places as the icebound plateaus of Antarctica. By moving, humans have tried to escape inadequate food-supply or otherwise unacceptable living conditions. Natural forces have forced them to leave, or even more commonly – violent actions by other humans. With them migrants have brought their means of expression and interaction, some of them expressed through their art.

Art can be a language shared between individuals, nations, and cultures. It can restore identities lost or abandoned when people have settled in new places, within new contexts. It may become a means of being heard and seen in an unsympathetic world. Art may also be used to make us aware of human suffering amidst a contemporary ambiance that far too often has become characterized by political dogfights and collective hysteria.

Two years ago, while in Prague I visited the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei´s exhibition Law of the Journey and its strong impact has remained with me ever since. Ai Weiwei had for long periods lived among refugees on the Greek islands, in the Turkish-Syrian and the US-Mexican border areas, where he collected material and stories, filmed and photographed. The Law of the Journey was the last in a series of diverse events concerning the European refugee crisis, which Ai Weiwei in his witty, provocative and often aesthetically pleasing manner previously had presented in Vienna, Berlin, and Florence. On each occasion he had added new objects and activities around the same theme.

To me, the Law of the Journey revealed itself as an epic statement about the human condition – an artist’s expression of empathy and moral concern in the face of continuous, uncontrolled destruction and carnage. It was hosted in a historically charged building, a former 1928 Trade Fair Palace, which in 1939–1941 served as an assembly point for Jews before their deportation to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt (Terezín) where 33,000 met their death, while another 88,000 were re-routed to be gassed in Auschwitz and Treblinka.

In spite of the fact that the country’s population has suffered from both Nazi terror and Communist oppression making several persons flee their country, the current Czech government has opposed the European Union’s refugee quotas. Its prime minister even threatened to sue the EU because the organization tried to force the Czech Republic to accept more refugees. When Ai Weiwei accepted the Czech Republic’s National Gallery’s invitation to stage an exhibition, the country’s official refugee reception had been modest, between July 2015 and July 2017, the Czech Republic had received 400 Syrian refugees.

Ai Weiwei declared that an important reason for his acceptance of the offer to organize an exhibition was his admiration of the Czech Republic´s former president Vaclav Havel, whom he admired as a valiant fighter for freedom of expression and global humanism. In the exhibition´s brochure, Ai Weiwei stated:

“If we see somebody who has been victimized by war or desperately trying to find a peaceful place, if we don’t accept those people, the real challenge and the real crisis is not of all the people who feel the pain but rather for the people who ignore to recognize it or pretend that it doesn’t exist. That is both a tragedy and a crime. There´s no refugee crisis, but only a human crisis. In dealing with refugees we have lost our very basic values.”

In the foyer to the grand hall of the exhibit was a giant snake undulating just under the roof. Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that it was made out of childrens´ life vests. Two corridors led into the large central hall. They were wallpapered with black and white, stylized images. Cold and with sharp lines, they depicted war, destruction, refugee camps, dangerous voyages across the sea, risky landings, followed by new camps and deportations. The picture strips were reminiscent of Babylonian-Assyrian reliefs, associations confirmed by the fact that they were initiated with images of Greek and Babylonian warriors, followed by modern war scenes with city ruins, helicopters, tanks, and robotic fighters. This aesthetically pleasing stylization of war and misery served as a reminder of how war often has been depicted in various forms of propaganda. There were no individuals in these pictures, only standardized templates of human beings, like documentary films depicting war and torment through the cool distance of a camera eye. Like so much in Ai Weiwei’s art, his manner of expression indicated a keen knowledge of aesthetics during various epochs. It could be inspired by the Chinese, as well as European art. Ai Weiwei nurtures a deep respect for craftsmanship.

After this discreet introduction, the exhibition visitor found her/himself overwhelmed by a huge rubber raft, more than seventy feet long, diagonally hovering over the grand hall with 258 faceless passengers on board. The raft shaded a marble floor with inscriptions of quotes from famous humanists, who from Mengzi and onwards have been appealing for compassion while pointing to the importance of helping our neighbour. Visitors moving around in the shadow of the enormous raft became diminished by its immensity. Its presence, the impact of its darkening shadow could not be avoided. As we moved under it, we trampled upon words pleading for understanding, compassion, assistance, and participation.

The impersonal black rubber figures crouching inside the raft were bigger than us and sat tightly packed, with their backs bent. On the shining marble floor, other rubber figures floated in lifebuoys lifting their hands as if to attract attention. The menacingly shadowed cool marble with its quotes reminded us that even if we live a life overcast by bad conscience and fear most of us still seem to be unaware of, or not bothered by, desperate appeals that tell us it would be far better for us all if we shared love and compassion, instead of preventing our fellow humans from enjoying equal rights and freedom. Instead of nurturing feelings of empathy we are inclined to use violence whilst turning our backs to starvation, pain, and afflictions of others.

The walls of the great hall were not wallpapered with aesthetically pleasing drawings but instead decorated with thousands of densely arranged colour photographs depicting boat refugees and those lingering in wretched camps around the world. Their diversity constituted quite a beautiful backdrop to the distressing scenery with the enormous, sinister rubber raft. The wall decorations were similar to mosaic photomontages that have become fashionable in advertising. However, if you approached the walls and scrutinized the photos you could distinguish derelict vessels and rafts packed with people, barbed wired refugee camps, people crowding in rain and mud under plastic sheets, and corpses washed ashore.

I reached the top floor from which, through a glass wall, I could look down on the huge rubber raft. From this viewpoint it turned out to contain hundreds of children curled up in the middle of the vessel, surrounded by adults. The children were also made of inflated, black rubber. When I turned around I discovered that on the floor of the spacious room I was standing in, just like the one in the grand hall below, visitors’ shoes were trampling on text messages. These were not made in marble but laminated in plastic. The entire floor area was covered with messages from the web – this white noise that constantly surrounds us, day and night. The texts consisted of fanatical condemnations of “the refugee avalanche”, day-to-day profane and hateful outbursts, as well as factual accounts of deaths, anguish, statistics and figures, sensible proposals and desperate disclosures.

On this floor there were symmetrically placed racks with hangers holding a wide variety of garments. Each rack had a handwritten note informing what it displayed – “children’s jeans”, “rompers”, “children’s clothes, 0-7 years”, “life jackets, children’s sizes, 0-7 years”, etc., etc. These were garments and equipment gathered on beaches of the Greek Islands. They had been washed and classified according to type and size. There were also lots of shoes and boots in strictly organized rows. Like hair, eyeglasses and similar objects that have been in contact with an individual’s body, the apparel collected by Ai Weiwei’s collaborators awoke thoughts about personal lives. A huge accumulation of such things might serve as a reminder of our own, personal life, as well as the death that constantly threatens it. Seeing all these items was reminiscent of the shock of being confronted with the piles of personal belongings displayed in Auschwitz. These things bear witness to the inconceivable, cold-hearted violence and brutality that once befell their owners.

Ai Weiwei’s provocative installations will probably not have the political impact he might hope for. They will neither change history nor the attitudes of people who want to close their countries´ borders for people in desperate need of shelter, food, and security. Nevertheless, art as an expression of awareness of human suffering and an appeal to our compassion is something that has to be valued, not least because it reminds us of the better aspects of humanity. Humans are naturally social beings. We live in communities, both within our family and a larger society, and such a life is certainly more pleasant, more stimulating and safer if we are caring and friendly, rather than greedy, easily irritated and hostile.

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

The post Globalization of Indifference: Ai Weiwei and the Refugee Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Aasha Mehreen Amin
Feb 7 2020 (IPS-Partners)

One of the interesting perks of being a brown South Asian, travelling anywhere in the world, is the special attention you get from various official quarters. Getting a visa anywhere in the northern hemisphere, for instance, is like winning a lottery and could even count as a status symbol. Prior to such a windfall, if it at all occurs, it will mean filling out pages of a form that can ultimately be published as a booklet of your family’s ancestry and a mini biography of yourself. The unique complexities of being someone from the subcontinent makes the whole process a delightful conundrum—if, for example, your father was born during British rule and lived through the Partition, the independence of India and Pakistan, and then that of Bangladesh, how do you answer “Where is your father from?” Should it be British India, India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, or all of the above?

Your special status becomes even more apparent when you actually travel and have to go through multiple security checks where you know you will receive extra scrutiny compared to people of any other nationality—well, besides being or even looking Middle Eastern, to certain eyes. Then you get royal scrutiny of a totally different level.

On the plane you know you shouldn’t linger too long outside the lavatories, especially not in front of the exit and definitely not with your partner—two brown people hanging around is much worse than one and can set of the alarm bells in many a paranoid passenger.

The conspicuous way in which a brown complexioned South Asian is treated makes you think you are the most important character among all the other passengers of uninteresting (as far as security personnel are concerned) ethnicities. In fact, sometimes you are so conscious of the extra attention that you may even start behaving strangely—like nervously tapping your leg, sporting an exaggerated air of nonchalance that actually makes you look like you’re hiding something, or worse, smiling at the immigration officer in what you think is a friendly way that proves your innocence but ends up as a sinister grimace that can only spell impending trouble.

Personally, I don’t know what I do to make security personnel be so drawn to me and it has been like this since long before 9/11, when the world didn’t think that every Muslim in the planet was potentially a closet militant. For whatever reason, whenever I travelled to the West I would be singled out from the queue and be subject to interrogation.

Decades later, the legacy has endured and thanks to the horrific terror attacks in the name of religion and a successful global campaign of Islamophobia, I find myself getting undivided attention from overzealous security personnel. When travelling especially to and from the US, it is with almost certainty that I will be picked out randomly among all the hundreds of passengers and then have the privilege of having a generous “pat down” (a euphemism for institutionalised groping) by a stern looking female security officer ominously wearing surgical gloves. The last time this happened was when I was just about to board the plane and the officer just stopped me at the gate and asked me if I would mind stepping aside.

Of course I mind, I wanted to say as my fellow passengers walked by with curious glances, but obviously didn’t, even when in a monotone she explained all the objectionable things she was about to do to me.

One of the weird things I do when embarrassed or, in this case humiliated beyond belief, is to start smiling in a slightly deranged manner which hardly helps matters. So, while being felt up and down in the name of a security check and as another officer went through the entire contents of my humungous bag, all I could do was make embarrassed chortling sounds resembling a duck choking on its own saliva. I am not sure, though, whether I was more mortified by the invasive touching (I almost wanted to tell her to massage my aching lower back while she was at it) or by the fact that the other officer was now going to discover the sachets of instant coffee, creamer, and sugar I had snagged from the airport hotel room along with the balls of tissue carrying discarded gum (I hate littering), chocolate wrappers, a crumpled bag with an extra pair of socks, crumbs from forgotten cookies, not to mention paper napkins with makeup stains, and a half eaten Snickers bar.

Security clearances at airports in present times have definitely managed to strip us of all vestiges of dignity and sense of privacy. Thus, woe betide if you are wearing loose pants that have been kept in place by a tight belt as you will most definitely be asked to take off the belt along with your shoes and jacket—oh your watch, earrings, keys etc. too—anything that may set the monitor off, which in my case could very well be the colour of my skin.

Only a few brave souls are unaffected by the bizarre stripping ritual at security checkpoints. Last year, a young man made news when he walked up to a security checkpoint at an airport in Detroit, removed all his clothes and accessories before approaching the metal detector. When he passed through in nothing but his birthday suit and with flying colours, the first thing he put back on was — his watch. Apparently, the police and the fire department responded but as he posed no threat the police did not arrest him. But then again, he was white and one wouldn’t recommend such flamboyance in the case of a brown South Asian.

Aasha Mehreen Amin is Deputy Editor, Op-Ed and Editorial section, The Daily Star.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Although women and girls account for a far smaller share of total homicides than men, they bear by far the greatest burden of intimate partner/family‐related homicide, and intimate partner homicide. Source: UNODC report

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

“I soiled my pants, I could feel the wetness seeping into my waistband, my eyes started to become blurry. Only the sound of the blaring television assured me that I was still alive. I tried to stop thinking and make my mind go completely blank. Over the years I have adapted and now I can make my mind go numb. But the only nagging question ringing on my mind during the last 45 seconds was: will this stain the carpet? Should I clean myself first or should I clean the carpet first? Which one is safer? Did he notice the stain?

I laid there without a word hoping and praying that he does not notice the wetness. I am pretty sure he will start to bash me noticing the stain. We just bought the carpet two years back and it is messed now for me. I laid down holding my breath.

His grip started to get loose. I saw him examining the wet spot on his jeans and his eyes change to a different color of red. A little later he moved his foot that was firmly digging on my chest. His mother scrunched her nose and tucked a portion of her garment to block the smell. She held my son by his arm and pulled him out of the closet. I saw my son being dragged to the kitchen. Although the blood on my eyes was making it hard to see, still I was relieved that my 6-year-old did not have to see his mother soiling her garments and her face red with blood. I laid there for roughly five minutes until my husband left the room.”

She takes a pause, touching the old cut on her lips and wipes the corner of her eyes marked with various shades of blue and purple. She speaks like this with vivid descriptions every time she comes to the shop. Then as expected, comes the routined realization of guilt, regret, and anger followed by her denial and helplessness. “It is not his fault. It is not. He is a good man, he buys me food, he gave money for laundry but sometimes he loses his patience. He is not a bad man.” She nods her head and forces a faint smile. He holds my hands and gestures me begging to stay calm.

This story is of a girl named Selina, who is a regular at the Asian store down the road.

Selina was only 16 years old when a family came to meet her as she came back home from school one day. All she knew was: the family lives in America and is affluent. She was married that evening. After a year, her husband brought her to the United States. For the last 7 years, she has never been permitted to meet anyone from her family or go back home. She does not have access to a telephone nor is she permitted to go out of the house alone. The only surrounding she knew was the house she lives in, the grocery store and the route to her son’s school. Coming from the same country as me, she speaks to me every chance she gets when her mother in law is not with her. I have seen her many times in the shop, hesitant, perplexed and with bruises. Today she came fully covering her face, limping and looking for a stain remover for her carpet.

I took another look at her face and at the fresh bandage covering her forehead and after 3 years of trying to gather some courage, I finally picked up my phone and dialed. (1)

Domestic abuse and violence are the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically; however, the one constant component of domestic violence is one partner’s consistent efforts to maintain power and control over the other. (2) Sometimes in the early stages of a relationship, it cannot be determined if one person will become abusive and to what extent that might lead to. Domestic violence intensified overtime. Outwardly an abuser seems like a wonderful person, liked by his colleagues and friends but gradually may become aggressive and controlling. Also, an abuser may have episodes of being violent and being loving or caring moments later. The abused might stay in a constant state of denial hoping for the episode to pass and then get back to normality.

The question comes in relation as to why the abuser does not voice her concerns or reach out for help. Also why they do not break the cycle of abuse? In the majority of countries with available data, less than 40 percent of the women who experience violence actually speak up and seek help of any sort. Among women who do, most look to family and friends and very few look to formal institutions and mechanisms, such as police and health services. Less than 10 percent of those women seeking help for the experience of violence sought help by appealing to the police or other organizations. (3) Between 960,000 and 3,000,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported each year, while many other incidents go unreported. (4) It is estimated that more than ten million people experience domestic violence in the U.S. each year. (5) In many cases, it has been seen that there is a massive gap between the number of abused women reaching out for help than the actual number of women facing abuse.

The victim’s reasons for staying with their abusers are extremely complex and, in most cases, are based on the reality that their abuser will follow through with the threats they have used to keep them trapped: the abuser will hurt or kill them, they will hurt or kill the children, they will win custody of the children, they will harm or kill pets or others and will ruin their victim financially. The victim in violent relationships knows their abuser best and fully knows the extent to which they will go to make sure they have and can maintain control over the victim. (6)

There is a growing body of research data demonstrating that immigrant women are a particularly vulnerable group of victims of domestic violence., where a widely utilized technique to dominate the abused is isolation. It is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their gender status in the United States. Drawn from unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman’s relationship with her spouse; the second is related to the frequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions. (5). This group of women tends to have fewer resources, stay longer in the relationship, and sustain more severe physical and emotional abuse. It has been seen many times that abusers of immigrant domestic violence victims actively use their power to control their wife’s and children’s immigration status and threats of deportation as tools that play upon victim’s fears so as to keep their abused spouses and children from seeking help or from calling the police to report the abuse.

Due to the language barrier, the immigrant women who have limited speaking ability of the language spoken in the foreign country get sidelined by default. During their doctor’s visits, children’s school visits and other social interactions they remain highly dependent on their spouses or upon family for getting their point across. So, if they want to voice out their concerns they are barred and monitored. It is a well-known common practice of many first generations and second-generation families to keep the families’ personal identification documents like passports, birth certificates, health insurance cards, social security cards and financial documents under the control of the male of the house. The women are always under constant surveillance and monitoring. Another interesting factor adding to the muted voice of abused women is financial dependency. Following traditions and cultural norms, regardless of educational background or social standing, a major portion of the immigrant women are required to put their earnings or savings into a joint account that she and her partner share. And in most cases, she holds no access or decision-making ability of her own money even if she is earning.

An update to Selina’s story:

One phone call made by her neighbor 2 years back, changed her life for the better. It took her 2 months to heal physically in a hospital, took 23 sessions of physical therapy to walk properly and hours of counseling to get back her mental health and stability. She now works in a bakery and can speak basic English after a year of training offered by her local shelter. She is living in a one-bedroom apartment with her son and she recently sent $50 to her ailing mother back home from her paycheck. Every time her cell phone rings, she smiles and pauses before answering. She loves the fact that she can breathe without taking permission from anyone and can speak with anyone she wishes to.

Notes

1. Selina’s story: The actual name and location of the victim and reporter have been kept confidential.

2. https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2497/domestic_violence2.pdf

3.United Nations Economic and Social Affairs (2015).
The World’s Women 2015, Trends and Statistics,p. 159.
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen.html

4. The Gateway Center For Domestic Violence Services. City of Portland, Oregon. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
5. NCADV. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
6. https://ncadv.org/why-do-victims-stay
7.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1009460002177

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Ding Ding is Deputy Division Chief, Caribbean 1 Division, Western Hemisphere Department (WHD) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), & Inci Otker currently works at the Western Hemisphere Department, IMF and is mission chief for St. Kitts and Nevis & Trinidad and Tobago and Division Chief of Caribbean III.

By Ding Ding and Inci Otker
WASHINGTON DC, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

The Caribbean economies have long recognized the value of working together. Improving regional integration—for instance, through more intraregional trade and policy coordination—can help the region’s small-size economies build greater resilience and scale, as well as enhance bargaining power on the global stage.

According to the latest IMF research, further liberalizing trade and labor mobility in the region can generate significant economic benefits—potentially over 7 percent of the region’s GDP in 2018.

While policymakers of the Caribbean Community* (CARICOM) remain committed to further integration and progress has been made, the implementation of integration initiatives and policies toward the goal of a regional economic union has been slow and needs to be accelerated.

Work in progress

Compared to other well-integrated regions, like the ECCU and EU, the Caribbean lags. The integration indices, which measure the degree of intraregional economic and institutional integration, suggest that Caribbean community’s integration has proceeded in several waves, with periods of integration followed by slowdowns in progress, including in removing remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and constraints on intraregional labor movement.

Financial integration has proceeded faster with tightly-interconnected financial systems across the region, but capital markets remain underdeveloped and fragmented. Harmonizing economic and structural policies to support a single economic space is still work in progress, with lacking harmonization and coordination of investment codes, tax incentives, and macroeconomic policies.

Pain points

Why has progress in regional integration been slow for the Caribbean? A combination of institutional, political economy, and structural factors underlie the slower implementation of integration policies.

The lack of a regional body with powers and accountability that can help transform community decisions to binding laws in individual jurisdictions is a key impediment. A decision-making process based on unanimity principle, where each member retains its sovereign authority, also hinders progress.

In the absence of a facilitating regional architecture, cooperation must rely on well-aligned national interests and shared goals, but national incentives do not seem to be well-aligned for integration, with its potential benefits perceived by some as uncertain, potentially uneven, and only materializing over a long horizon.

Differing export/production structures and income and development levels make it challenging to harmonize economic and structural policies around well-integrated policy frameworks.

Some regional authorities attribute the slow pace of implementation to a “crisis of will,” as much as to wasteful duplication and slow progress in harmonizing legal and institutional frameworks and to binding resource/capacity gaps.

A worthwhile goal

The Caribbean authorities broadly agree that integration should remain a top priority and greater collaboration is critical to tackle common challenges. It is important to capitalize on this momentum.

Recent IMF research finds that further liberalization of trade and greater labor mobility within the region can generate significant benefits.

A 25-percent reduction in non-tariff barriers and trade costs within CARICOM and vis-à-vis non-CARICOM trade partners can boost trade and improve welfare gain for all members—at about $6 billion, or 7.6 percent of the region’s GDP in 2018.

It can also help restructure economies from contracting to expanding sectors, resulting in a net employment gain across the region.

Way forward

Greater cooperation is the key to furthering regional integration in the Caribbean. While these economies’ small size and supply constraints may potentially limit benefits from economic integration, acting as a group can enhance the scale, bringing widespread benefits and helping the region further tap into global value chains.

That is, regional integration should not be an end-goal, but a means to an end of deepening Caribbean integration into the global economy.

At a time when momentum for economic integration seems to have stalled, close cooperation in high priority areas for the region can help demonstrate benefits of coordinated action and serve as a building block to the ultimate goal of full integration.

Key areas could include:

• Addressing impediments to institutional integration by harmonizing and rationalizing institutions and processes across the region and resolving resource/capacity constraints;
• Facilitating an equitable distribution of benefits through well-structured, adequately-resourced mechanisms to help realign national and regional interests;
• Enhancing functional policy coordination in the areas of common challenges, including building climate resilience, containing violent crime, and coordinating tax policies and systems to limit harmful competition; and
• ensuring financial stability in an increasingly more interconnected financial system.

What is CARICOM?

*The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is comprised of twenty countries (fifteen Member States and five Associate Members), mostly island states in the Caribbean stretching from the Bahamas in the north to Suriname and Guyana in South America. It was established by the English-speaking parts of the Caribbean in 1973 with the primary objectives to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and coordinate foreign policy. CARICOM is the oldest existing integration movement in the developing world.

The post Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ding Ding is Deputy Division Chief, Caribbean 1 Division, Western Hemisphere Department (WHD) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), & Inci Otker currently works at the Western Hemisphere Department, IMF and is mission chief for St. Kitts and Nevis & Trinidad and Tobago and Division Chief of Caribbean III.

The post Strengthening Caribbean Regional Integration appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The $683 million will be used for efforts towards women’s reproductive and sexual health rights across 57 countries, of which about $300 million will be directed towards UNFPA’s projects in Arab state regions, including countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Somalia. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2020 (IPS)

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is appealing for $683million in their mission to address sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls in conflict areas in the world. 

At the Humanitarian Action Overview 2020, launched on Thursday, the sexual and reproductive health agency highlighted the urgency with which the issue should be treated. 

With more than 168 million people currently requiring humanitarian assistance in the world, UNFPA projects 45 million women, girls and young people will be affected by some kind of conflict this year. 

For women and girls, sexual and health reproductive health rights have often come as secondary priority in crisis situations, but experts say it’s time to make them a primary concern. 

“[These] types of service have long time been forgotten,” Arthur Erken, Director of UNFPA Division of Communications and Strategic Partnerships (DCS), told IPS. “It should not be an afterthought, it should be part and parcel of [the whole concern].”  

“We’re focusing on women and what they’re going through because they’re on the front lines,”  Ann Erb Leoncavallo of UNFPA told IPS. “They’re trying to take care of their children, they’re getting pregnant, they’re having babies, they’re getting bombed, they’re suffering from floods, high waters, you name it.”

Leoncavallo added that many of the women in areas of conflict might head single-parent households or have their own trauma. “They get depression, they get traumatised because they faced increased of gender-based violence,” she said.  

The $683 million will be used for efforts towards women’s reproductive and sexual health rights across 57 countries, of which about $300 million will be directed towards  UNFPA’s projects in Arab state regions, including countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, and Somalia. 

In order to help women reach out for help, unlearn their shame and stigma, UNFPA is currently working with a “safe space” for many women to take a break from their everyday activities. 

The “women and girl safe spaces” is dedicated space in the refugee camps where women can come and meet with other women, share notes, relax, and have a safe environment to discuss concerns and ask for help, Erken explained.

“It’s safe, men are not allowed,” Erken said, adding that the purpose of the space is to put a lot of attention to calming women, giving them breathing space, and often counselling services.

He says there doesn’t seem to be any stigma about women coming into these spaces, pointing out refugee camps in Jordan that have the facility. He learned from some of the service providers the women do visit, when their kids are in school and their husband occupied. 

Dr. Afrah Thabet Al-Ademi, a UNFPA medical doctor in Yemen who works with women who have escaped conflict, says education has a role to play in destigmatising these services for refugee population.

A staggering $100.5 million is being requested specifically for the crisis in Yemen, the highest on the list provided by UNFPA.

“A lot of women who are not educated, who feel targeted, and feel stigma to talk about their needs or family planning,” Al-Ademi told IPS. 

She recalls one time when she was meeting with a woman who had just given birth and who had covered her baby with a headscarf. 

“When she exposed the baby, I found that she covered the baby with a newsletter, she didn’t have clothes,” Al-Ademi told IPS. 

As a result, UNFPA in Yemen is now developing a kit specifically for mothers of new borns, to be put in “health facility for any woman who comes in for deliver”.

“The clothes is like a dignity for her,” said Al-Ademi.

The “Mama Kit” has clothes for the baby, pads for the mother, blankets, and diapers, among other things for the newborn. 

UNFPA is also allocating funds for Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Sudan, Bangladesh, and Venezuela to assist with sexual and reproductive health for the women in those countries.

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