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Updated: 3 days 18 hours ago

UN’s Cash Crisis Can Have Serious Consequences, Staff Unions Warn

Thu, 10/10/2019 - 12:13

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 2019 (IPS)

The UN’s smoldering cash crisis, which has threatened staff salaries and payments to vendors, has triggered strong reactions and rattled the over 6,400 staffers who work in the 39-storeyed Secretariat building in New York.

The proposed cuts in spending, which also cover about 37,500 UN staffers worldwide, excluding over 25 UN agencies, have put the focus on several issues, including a “bloated bureaucracy,” and more critically, on the time and money spent on endless overseas trips by some high ranking UN officials who are constantly “airborne”.

http://ask.un.org/faq/14626

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice-President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS, the cash crunch in the 1990’s was much worse, but Under-Secretary-General Joe Connor managed to solve it.

“Over the last 10 years, the UN has become a bloated organization, especially at the top. If the cash crunch is considered so serious now, there should be a complete hiring freeze along with the other measures announced,” said Candusso, a longstanding staffer, until his recent retirement.

Patricia Nemeth, President, United Nations Staff Union, told IPS staff at the United Nations are alarmed by the cash flow crisis facing the organisation.

“In addition to the anxiety we feel regarding next month’s salary, constant financial uncertainty limits our ability to fulfil our mandates or deliver services to the most vulnerable,” she said.

The United Nations Staff Union in New York has been working closely with the Under Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance and the Controller to keep staff informed of the situation as it evolves.

Among the various mitigating measures, the Union welcomes the instruction to limit all official travel to essential activities.

“In this spirit, we expect senior officials to lead by example, as we are in this together”, said Nemeth, who is also Vice President for Conditions of Service – The Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations CCISUA

“More importantly, on behalf of our 15,000+ constituents (NY staff and local staff in the peacekeeping missions) the Leadership of the United Nations Staff Union appeals to those countries who have not yet done so to heed the Secretary-General’s call and make the payments required to ensure that the work of the United Nations can continue, with the resources required to accomplish the mandates they themselves have given us.”

“We count on the world’s leaders to support the UN’s valuable work, improving the lives of current and future generations,” she declared.

Ian Richards, President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS: “Obviously staff are very worried about what is going on. We are pleased that the Secretary-General has prioritised payment of salaries and we have also been asked to advise on which meetings and events can be delayed for when there is more money available.”

If things get worse, Richards warned, this will have serious consequences.

“Staff have rent and other bills to pay and for those in dangerous duty stations, we need to be able to continue paying for their safety and security”.

He said this could also impact the UN’s ability to deliver food to the most needy and protect the rights of the most vulnerable.

Focusing on the UN’s mandates, Nemeth told IPS the world is faced with countless pressing issues, from violent conflicts to natural disasters, all set against the continued need to promote sustainable development for all.

The United Nations is the leading force in humanitarian efforts; in maintaining peace and security; and in offering hope for the most vulnerable, all of whom aspire to the most basic needs: life, liberty, dignity, peace, security and justice.

“Yet our critical work around the globe is currently hampered by delays in the payment of Member States’ contributions, compounded by overly restrictive financial rules.”

“We are grateful to the Secretary-General for his continued efforts to ensure that Member States fulfil their obligation to come forward with their assessed contributions. However, if the situation does not improve, we call on the Secretary-General and his team to calibrate their response to ensure that staff is protected, and ask him to cooperate closely with the Staff Unions to find practical solutions,” she declared.

UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters the Secretariat could face a default on salaries and payments for goods and services by the end of November unless more Member States pay their budget dues in full.

The Secretary-General has therefore requested additional steps be taken immediately, including further reductions in official travel; postponing spending on goods and services; and discontinuing events scheduled outside official meeting hours at headquarters duty stations.

In addition, conferences and meetings may have to be postponed or services be adjusted. He is reviewing further options, said Dujarric.

The Secretary-General has already written to Member States about “the worst cash crisis facing the United Nations in nearly a decade”.

Stressing the Charter obligation of Member States, the Secretary-General thanked the Member States who have paid their regular budget assessments, which is now 129, and urged those who have not paid to do so urgently and in full.

By the end of September, Member States had paid only 70% of the total assessment for the regular budget, compared with 78% at the same time last year. The Secretariat had put in place multiple measures since the beginning of the year to align expenditures with cash inflows.

The 64 states that have yet to pay regular budget dues in full for 2019 are: Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Eritrea, Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Israel, Kiribati, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Yemen.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post UN’s Cash Crisis Can Have Serious Consequences, Staff Unions Warn appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Abortion Remains an Unresolved Issue: ICPD25 Meeting next Month

Wed, 10/09/2019 - 17:18

Osamu Kusumoto is Secretary General and Executive Director of Asian Population and Development Association (APDA)

By Osamu Kusumoto
TOKYO, Japan, Oct 9 2019 (IPS)

Currently, the topic of abortion as human rights leaves the world bustling. When the state of Alabama1 in the United States enacted a very strict ban on abortion, it shocked the world. This prompted so-called conservative movements, led by female business owners, to make a full-scale advertisement in the New York Times claiming abortion is a human right2 ; hence the global debate between pro-life and pro-choice.

Osamu Kusumoto

This discussion is a remnant of the debate at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. Twenty Five years into the ICPD and the struggle between opposing views persists, causing the continued disruption in the　accessibility of women to reproductive health. This is especially true in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to show that pro-life and pro-choice are actually following the same logical development despite failing to arrive at the same conclusion.

Current Status of ICPD and Reproductive Rights

As its name suggests, ICPD is a conference that places population issues in the context of sustainable development, which served as the basis of the current Agenda 2030. However, the population problem has been treated as a value and not a scientific issue. Following this paradigm, possible solutions are unattainable.

Efforts are being made to include abortion in the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA), particularly in paragraphs 5.5., 7.3. and 7.36, which defines Reproductive Rights. The principles behind such effort are that:

A) Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents.

B) These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so.

The concept of the reproductive right is not included in the human rights defined by the UN CESCR.

Pro-choice advocates aim to expand the definition of reproductive rights in the ICPD PoA and position the right to abortion in 7.3, which refers to the number of and spacing of children. As such, the right to abortion is not an infringement to self-determination, which is central to the concept of human rights.

Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, regard abortion as infringing on the right to existence of another life, which is a gift from God.

However, it must be recognized that unplanned and unwanted pregnancies also happen. One case in point is the Yazidi girl who got pregnant as a result of sexual assault by members of ISIS. She was alienated from her community causing further victimization of the child. This is just one case and many more are happening in different parts of the world. Such abuse put women and girls in difficult position. How can this kind of problem be addressed?

The basis of human rights is respecting the dignity of human life as part of society regardless of one’s race, religion, or culture. Therefore, this contradicts the concept that abortion is a human right. Obviously, no matter how extensive the discussion on this problem could go, no logical solution can be reached. Ergo, it is meaningless to engage in an argument that will always end up in a stalemate.

Possible solution

Reproductive Rights as defined in the ICPD PoA intends to prevent pregnancy in situations where self-determination is not possible – these cases must be devoid of theological debates. Serious discussions and negotiations had been made during the formulation of the ICPD PoA and it can be assumed that a reasonable conclusion was drawn because it was adopted and ratified by many countries.

The debates on abortion may be addressed through a democratic decision-making mechanism. Unless the conditions for achieving reproductive rights are there, such as the meaningful empowerment of women, access to education, improved socioeconomic status, advancement in the field of health – especially in family planning – and full dissemination of reproductive health services, women cannot be held accountable.

Abortion is not a matter that should be recognized as a right yet, but it is an issue that should be treated with the utmost care. Appropriate medical measures must be put in place for situations where the conditions for reproductive rights cannot be met, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. Otherwise, prolife means denying the life and dignity to human beings who are victims of circumstances.

The suggestion is to separate the issue of abortion from reproductive rights. This way, it will be possible to present a more realistic, reasonable and relevant solution that could be more commonly acceptable.

1 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alabama-senate-abortion-bill-passes_n_5cd9fba1e4b073aa0b3266d9?guccounter=1
2 https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/27402?utm_source=owned&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=mailmagazine_0522_1461&utm_content=art1

The post Abortion Remains an Unresolved Issue: ICPD25 Meeting next Month appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Osamu Kusumoto is Secretary General and Executive Director of Asian Population and Development Association (APDA)

The post Abortion Remains an Unresolved Issue: ICPD25 Meeting next Month appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

“Window of Opportunity to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change is Fast Shrinking”

Wed, 10/09/2019 - 17:09

By Stella Paul
INCHEON, South Korea, Oct 9 2019 (IPS)

“The window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic climate change is fast shrinking,” executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Yannick Glemarec, tells IPS.

He was speaking at the GCF Private Investment for Climate (GPIC) Conference, which took place in Incheon, South Korea, from Oct. 7 to 9. The conference has been an important platform to encourage greater dialogue among investors on the barriers they face, share past and current investment experiences and exchange innovative ideas while assuring them of all assistance and support by GCF.

“When I started my career 30 years ago though we had 80 years before we would cross the 2 ° Celsius threshold. Today we face the real risk of crossing it within 20 to 30 years or 40 years,” Glemarec says.

Executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Yannick Glemarec speaks to IPS from the GCF Private Investment for Climate (GPIC) Conference, which took place in Incheon, South Korea, from Oct. 7 to 9 about the need for scaling up private investment for climate projects. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

“In addition what we have found over the past fews years is that 2 ° Celsius might be already far too much for a number of countries for a number of communities for a number of ecosystems. We thought, for example, that we would not see major threats to ecosystems before an increase of temperature to 3, 4, 5, 6° Celsius. Today we believe that coral reefs could be wiped out by the time we reach 2 ° Celsius,” he says.

In this interview with IPS, Glemarec candidly shares his views on the urgency of more actions in both climate mitigation and adaptation and also the urgent requirement of more finances to make these actions possible.

He also shares some details about how GCF is working to mobilise these finances, especially from private investors as public money is not enough to meet the massive needs. Finally, he shares some examples of positive leadership by GCF in developing countries where private investment helped set up and run energy projects with great success.

Global Climate Change Investment Heavily Tilted Towards Mitigation and Low on Adaptation

The post “Window of Opportunity to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change is Fast Shrinking” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

In this Voices from the Global South podcast executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Yannick Glemarec speaks to IPS from the GCF Private Investment for Climate (GPIC) Conference, which took place in Incheon, South Korea, from Oct. 7 to 9 about the need for scaling up private investment for climate projects.

The post “Window of Opportunity to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change is Fast Shrinking” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

The Most Important Meeting You’ve Never Heard Of — & the Grand Challenge on Inequality

Wed, 10/09/2019 - 15:18

Credit: United Nations

By Ben Phillips
MEXICO CITY, Oct 9 2019 (IPS)

Last month 195 world leaders once again met in New York for big speeches and grand events. But on inequality, when all is said and done, more has been said than done.

Four years after governments across the world committed to fight inequality as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, far too little has been seen in the way of government action. That’s not the verdict of critical NGOs – that’s the official assessment of UN Secretary-General António Guterres himself.

As Guterres told countries, adding only the thinnest diplomatic coating, “the shift in development pathways to generate the transformation required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is not yet advancing at the speed or scale required.”

Indeed, he noted, “the global landscape for Sustainable Development Goal implementation has generally deteriorated since 2015”. It is in this context that the UN has called for a “decade of delivery” following five years in which we the people have been able to feast on words whilst fasting on action.

For years, grassroots organisations have been sounding the alarm about the damage being caused by widening inequality. More recently, the formal debate on inequality shifted and the accepted mainstream normative position has become that inequality is dangerous and needs to be reduced.

The UN has also stepped up in providing coordination and advice. But governments have not shifted in recognition of the new consensus. Cynicism about whether anything will be done has taken root amongst even the most hopeful observers.

And the big headlines from this year’s UN General Assembly did very little to counter that cynicism, dominated as they were by the world’s loudest leaders, who seem to make up for an absence of substance with a surfeit of bombast.

Quietly, on the sidelines, however, another group met to plan not a communique on the stage but a series of actions at home. It was not a huge group of countries, just a dozen, but it included countries from every region of the world and every income level.

They met not because they think they have the answers, but because they are keen to learn from each other and to act. From Indonesia to Sierra Leone to Sweden to Mexico, they and others gathered in the first heads of state and government meeting of the Grand Challenge on Inequality, a new multi-stakeholder initiative to support vanguard governments, committed to tackling inequality, in finding the path by walking it.

Then, even more crucially, these same leaders mandated senior leaders and officials – the doers – to gather just after the New York meetings in Mexico City, and then in a few months in Jakarta, and onwards, to plan the implementation of a series of practical country-specific policies to narrow the gap between the runaway few and the many pushed behind.

You haven’t heard about this meeting because the leaders don’t believe that they have yet earned the right to declare themselves the leaders. Saint Francis of Assisi said “Preach the Gospel, and if you must, use words.”

In a similar spirit, the country leaders in the Grand Challenge on Inequality recognized, in the New York and in Mexico City meetings, that the power of their commitment to tackling inequality will be shown not in what they say but in what they do.

They recognized that there is no single policy that on its own can beat inequality, and so a series of complementary policies year on year is needed. They recognized that tackling inequality means taking on vested interests: that it means progressive tax and universal public services, it means protected workers and regulated corporations, it means designing policy from the bottom-up not the top-down, and it means tackling the wealth and power of the very wealthy.

As part of that, they opened themselves up to forthright challenge from grassroots social movements and trade unions, and shared what they as leaders were finding most challenging and the lessons they had learnt from their mistakes. It was, I’ll confess, something of a shock to hear leaders start off not with justifications but with self-criticism.

It was a world away from the (in)famous “Big Men Who Strode New York”. In a world saturated by the fake, to witness sincerity was disorientating.

It is early days for the pioneer governments Grand Challenge on Inequality, but, as a witness and as someone who has spent years bluntly challenging governments for their failures, here’s why it matters: social transformation doesn’t happen when people recognize that ther society is unfair – it happens when people also recognize that it can be fairer.

And that depends on people witnessing change, somewhere. Cynicism and despair are ultimately tools of the status quo. There is nothing more dangerous to those who would keep things as they are than the threat of a good example.

And, quietly, this group of countries, of leaders who do not call themselves leaders, are starting to build that good example. Oxfam have started to call this group of governments the “axis of hope”. Perhaps these governments could be more prosaically named the “axis of action”.

Grassroots organising will remain essential to help foster leaders’ determination, and to push back against the pressures that will continue to be exerted by economic elites. There is no certainty that change is coming. But there is no longer certainty that it isn’t. And the sound that accompanies this change is not the bang of fireworks. It is a quiet whirring of hard work.

The post The Most Important Meeting You’ve Never Heard Of — & the Grand Challenge on Inequality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ben Phillips is an author and activist on inequality.

The post The Most Important Meeting You’ve Never Heard Of — & the Grand Challenge on Inequality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

The Superfoods of the Andes and the Himalaya

Wed, 10/09/2019 - 13:49

Amaranth cultivation in Jumla district in Nepal. Credit: LI-BIRD

By Sonia Awale
KATHMANDU, Oct 9 2019 (IPS)

The nutritious grain that mountain peoples of the Americas and high Asia cultivated were displaced by wheat and rice, but they are staging a comeback thanks to growing public consciousness about health.

Food items like pickled potato, roasted corn, tomato in curry and chilli paste are as Nepali as you can get. But few here know that these staples of our food heritage have their roots in the Andes, and were actually brought to Europe and Asia only in the last 500 years.

Just like the Andes, the Himalaya has its own superfoods like chino (Proso millet) and kaguno (Foxtail millet) which have similar nutritional value to quinoa, but very few know of their existence

Now, there is growing demand for other lost crops of the Incas like amaranth and quinoa among urban Nepalis. These grains are high in protein, low in carbohydrates, gluten-free and rich in micronutrients and minerals.

In fact, amaranth and quinoa are healthier alternatives to rice, particularly for diabetes and hypertension patients. Another South American fruit, the gooseberry, is much sought after for its fibrous and antioxidant properties.

“We might cater to a limited market, but there is a growing demand for superfoods. In fact more and more of our customers prefer to eat quinoa instead of rice,” said Roseeta Raymajhi of Fresh Shelf and Beverage in Baluwatar that has been supplying quinoa for two years.

The Incas grew a variety of crops and vegetables, exotic fruits, beans and tubers. But with the Spanish conquests, native crops were replaced with European foods and many were lost. However with better understanding of their nutritional value, some of the lost crops of the Inca are being rediscovered.

Amaranth is now also cultivated in Nepal’s Jumla and Humla districts, where the arid mountains have a similar soil and climate to the Andes. Iron-rich amaranth leaves (latta ko sag) are eaten as a vegetable, and larger-scale amaranth cultivation in Doti and Achham districts cater to a rising demand in India.

“Many mountain crops like amaranth had been neglected but these are climate smart superfoods and that is where the future is,” explained Rita Gurung of LI-BIRD, the Pokhara-based agro-biodiversity research organisation.

She says the crops need commercial-scale production and an campaign to promote their nutritional value by recipe generation so that Nepalis will make them a regular part of their diet.

Just like the Andes, the Himalaya has its own superfoods like chino (Proso millet) and kaguno (Foxtail millet) which have similar nutritional value to quinoa, but very few know of their existence.

“We have so many highly nutritional foods, but we have abandoned them for processed and packaged foodstuff and vitamin capsules,” laments public health expert Aruna Uprety.

It has been over four years since Saurav Dhakal started Green Growth, an online shopping portal for organic produce in Kathmandu. He has seen gradual increase in demand for locally grown organic and nutrient rich produce, but says farmers have to be first convinced that there is a market for them.

“There are traditional recipes to all of our indigenous foods that we have to relearn and propagate,” Dhakal says.

This Dasain, let us replace rice with kodo (millet), phapar (buckwheat), jau (barley), til (sesame), aalas (flax seed) so that when we eat, drink and make merry, we also become healthier.

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

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Categories: Africa

UN Faces its Worst Cash Crisis in Nearly a Decade

Wed, 10/09/2019 - 12:01

By Stéphane Dujarric
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2019 (IPS)

The Secretary-General wrote to Member States about the worst cash crisis facing the United Nations in nearly a decade. The Organization runs the risk of depleting its liquidity reserves by the end of the month and defaulting on payments to staff and vendors.

This is the only way to avoid a default that could risk disrupting operations globally. The Secretary-General further asked governments to address the underlying reasons for the crisis and agree on measures to put the United Nations on a sound financial footing.

These included adjusting hiring and other non-post expenses based on expected cash availability. Had it not contained expenditures globally from the beginning of the year, the cash shortfall in October could have reached $600 million and the Organisation would not have had the liquidity to support the opening of the General Assembly debate and the high-level meetings last month.

To date, we have averted major disruptions to operations.

These measures are no longer enough. The Secretariat could face a default on salaries and payments for goods and services by the end of November unless more Member States pay their budget dues in full.

In addition, conferences and meetings may have to be postponed or services be adjusted. He is reviewing further options.

The Secretary-General noted that this is a recurrent problem that severely hampers the Secretariat’s ability to fulfil its obligations to the people we serve.

We are now driven to prioritize our work on the basis of the availability of cash, thus undermining the implementation of mandates decided by inter-governmental bodies.

The Secretary-General therefore looks to Member States to resolve the structural issues that underlie this annual crisis without further delay.

The Secretary-General has also kept the staff informed of these developments.

Footnote:

As of Tuesday 8 October 2019, 129 Member States have paid their regular budget dues in full. For a list of those countries, see http://www.un.org/en/ga/contributions/honourroll.shtml.

At this time, Member States have paid US$1.99 billion towards the 2019 regular budget assessment. The outstanding amount for 2019 for regular budget is US$1.386 billion.

Meanwhile in a letter dated 7 October addressed to all UN staffers, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says: I am writing to update you again on the troubling financial situation facing the United Nations. As you know, I have been working closely with Member States and managers over the past few months to solve the liquidity crisis facing our regular budget.

The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States. Most of them have fulfilled their Charter obligations and have paid in full and some even on time. We are regularly engaging those who have not yet paid in full and will continue doing so.

With your help, we have been containing expenditures globally from the beginning of this year to align it with our liquidity. Without these measures, we would not have been able to meet payrolls and fulfil our obligations towards vendors this month.

To date, Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month.

I want to assure you that we are in this together. I have made every effort to protect staff from this crisis and I will continue to do so. I wrote to Member States on 4 October 2019 to explain that we are at a critical juncture for regular budget operations and that I must now take additional stop-gap measures to ensure the salaries and entitlements of staff will be paid as usual.

The Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance will meet with senior managers tomorrow to explain these measures.

I have asked the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance to continue to work with the various departments and offices to further contain non-post expenditure wherever possible.

Managers will be asked to explore avenues to further limit expenses during the last quarter, including postponing conferences and meetings or seeking ways to reduce related expenses by adjusting services.

I am also directing them to limit all official travel to the most essential activities and to further reduce all other non-post expenses. This includes postponing purchases of goods and services, implementing energy saving and other measures to reduce utility bills and temporarily curtailing expenses on managing facilities.

Everything is being done with the major objective: To protect staff from the impact of our liquidity problems. I ask you to engage with your managers if you have any concerns. Please also share with them your ideas for curtailing expenditures in your areas of work. Together, we will manage in these difficult times.

I will continue to work with Member States to solve this problem to enable the United Nations to carry out its vital work.

Thank you for your cooperation and your service during these challenging times.

The post UN Faces its Worst Cash Crisis in Nearly a Decade appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Stéphane Dujarric is Spokesman for the Secretary-General

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Categories: Africa

One Billion People Have Preventable Eye Conditions, Increasingly Linked to Lifestyle Choices, According to WHO

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 18:42

A child receives treatment in the northeastern district of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By External Source
GENEVA, Oct 8 2019 (IPS)

A staggering 2.2 billion people already suffer from eye conditions and visual impairment today, but the global need for eye care is set to increase “dramatically”, with lack of exercise a key factor, the UN health agency said on Tuesday, unveiling its first ever report on vision across the world.

While welcoming recent successes in eliminating common conditions such as trachoma in eight countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted evidence indicating that eye problems are increasingly linked to lifestyle choices, including screen time.

Youngsters are among those at risk, WHO’s Dr Alarcos Cieza told journalists in Geneva:

“It is unacceptable that 65 million people are blind or have impaired sight when their vision could have been corrected overnight with a cataract operation, or that over 800 million struggle in everyday activities because they lack access to a pair of glasses”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

“In children, one of the factors that may influence the increased number of children with myopia, is that children do not spend enough time outdoors. It is a trend that is already observed in some countries like in China”, he said. “But of course, it is a trend that we can predict in other countries if they are an everyday habit, especially with child populations.”

Eye ‘never relaxes’ indoors

The problem with staying inside, is that the lens in your eye rarely relaxes, WHO’s Dr Stuart Keel explained.

“When you’re indoors, the lens inside your eyes is in a complete flex state, or it’s flexed but when you’re outside, it’s nice and relaxed.”

Pointing to recent scientific data from China investigating the “clear link” between time spent outdoors and the delayed onset of later-stage short-sightedness, Dr Keel cautioned that studies on “near-task” activities such as watching video on a tablet computer, were “not as conclusive at this stage”.

According to the WHO’s World Report On Vision, the burden of impairment tends to be greater in low and middle-income countries.

Women also suffer disproportionately, along with migrants, indigenous peoples, and those with disabilities and rural communities.

“Eye conditions and vision impairment are widespread, and far too often they still go untreated,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is unacceptable that 65 million people are blind or have impaired sight when their vision could have been corrected overnight with a cataract operation, or that over 800 million struggle in everyday activities because they lack access to a pair of glasses.”

Population growth and ageing – along with lifestyle changes and urbanization – will also “dramatically increase” the number of people with eye conditions, vision impairment and blindness in the coming decades, WHO’s report shows.

One of the study’s main findings is that prevention is key, since at least one billion people are living with sight problems that could have been avoided with timely treatment.

Addressing this backlog of vision impairment or blindness owing to short and far-sightedness, and cataracts, will require $14.3 billion, the agency notes.

It points out that prevention is particularly important in low-income regions including western and eastern sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where blindness rates are on average eight times higher than in high-income nations.

The combination of a growing and ageing population will also “significantly” increase the total number of people with eye conditions, but this too could be turned around with preventative measures.

Typical conditions that could be treated if diagnosed early, include diabetic eye disease, along with cataracts and glaucoma.

“Vision impairment should not be seen as part of the ageing process,” Dr Cieza insisted, “because if you receive the appropriate care, for example, in the case of glaucoma, you can prevent the vision impairment associated with glaucoma, or if you receive cataract surgery, you can avoid the visual impairment associated with cataracts.”

High-quality eye care for all

Another key thrust of WHO’s report is that high-quality eye care should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their income and location.

To do this, treatment should be included in countries’ national health plans as an essential part of the overall aim of achieving effective universal health coverage, it says.

For the most part, eye conditions that can cause vision impairment and blindness –cataracts, trachoma and refractive error – are the main focus of national prevention strategies.

Nevertheless, other eye conditions that do not typically cause vision impairment – including dry eye and conjunctivitis – should not be overlooked, WHO says, noting that they “are frequently among the leading reasons for presentation to eye health care services all countries”.

This story was originally published by UN News

The post One Billion People Have Preventable Eye Conditions, Increasingly Linked to Lifestyle Choices, According to WHO appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Beware High-Fat Diets

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 12:30

By Wan Manan Muda and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct 8 2019 (IPS)

Two decades into the 21st century, all too many people still associate being ‘overweight’ with prosperity, health and wellbeing, mainly because being thin has long been associated with being emaciated due to hunger, undernourishment and malnutrition.

Overweight and obesity can easily be assessed by anthropometric measures, including the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. But BMI thresholds for overweight and obesity may differ by ethnic group or country.

Wan Manan Muda

The standard World Health Organization (WHO) BMI cut-off for overweight is 25, while the threshold for obesity is 30, understood as an abnormally high percentage of fat, which can be either generalized or localized.

Obesity pandemic
In 2014, McKinsey Global Institute estimated 2.1 billion overweight people, including the obese, then almost 30% of the world’s population. The related economic burden was estimated to be over US$2 trillion, a close third to civil conflicts and smoking.

By 2016, an estimated 1.97 billion adults and over 338 million children and adolescents worldwide were categorized as overweight or obese, following the rapid increase in overweight, including obesity, in recent decades.

An estimated 6% of children under 5 years of age were overweight in 2016, up from 5.3% in 2005. Similarly, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults rose by 27% between 1980 and 2013.

The situation in many middle-income developing countries is especially dire as higher incomes and more food consumption have reduced hunger while worsening other forms of malnutrition, including ‘hidden hunger’ or micronutrient deficiencies. The resulting health condition of much of the population generally imposes heavy costs for themselves, their families and their nations, while reducing their incomes.

Role of the brain
Obesity is typically due to nutrient imbalances where food ingested is stored as fat, instead of being utilized for energy and metabolism. Epidemiological evidence suggests ‘high fat’ and carbohydrate diets contribute to obesity, and the relationship between dietary fat and the degree of obesity.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Although there is now a near consensus that unhealthy diets worsen obesity and health, less is known about neurological changes to the brain due to such diets. Recent research finds that high-fat diets — specifically those with considerable fats and carbohydrates — contribute to irregularities in parts of the brain regulating body weight.

A recent study found that high-fat diets stimulate inflammation in the brains of mice, triggering physical changes in such cells, and encouraging the mice to eat more and become obese. As this happens before the body displays signs of obesity and body weight changes, it implies that high-fat diets induce the brain to want to eat more.

Thus, it is possible that high-fat diets may not just affect humans physically, but also alter food intake neurologically. Hence, it is detrimental when food rich in fat and carbohydrates is easily available, encouraging even more eating.

Health threats
Many factors contribute to obesity, including lifestyle, diet, individual genetics and gut bacteria. Besides high fat and carbohydrate diets, immune system activity can also contribute to obesity, although details remain unclear.

The presence of large numbers of fat cells changes micro-biomes inside the body, causing the body to respond negatively. Worryingly, obesity has been closely linked to various chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

Recent research also clarifies how they affect various diseases of the brain, including Alzheimer’s, a neurological disorder associated with changes in brain cells more prevalent among the obese.

Such evidence continues to grow. Therefore, high fat diets have not only contributed to the developing world’s overweight and obesity pandemic, but may also have caused damage to brains and brain functioning.

Prevention better than cure
Changing diets, food consumption and human behaviour have all contributed to the nutrition transition and obesity pandemic.

While the developing world makes slow progress in overcoming hunger, or dietary energy undernourishment, much more needs to be done to educate the public about problems of malnutrition besides macronutrient deficiencies.

Micronutrient deficiencies, or ‘hidden hunger’, as well as diet-related non-communicable diseases also need to be addressed.

Already, those associated with overweight and obesity have been growing rapidly to pandemic proportions in recent decades, mainly due to dietary and other behavioural changes.

The authors recently co-authored Addressing Malnutrition in Malaysia available at: www.krinstitute.org

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Categories: Africa

UN Women Ambassadors Rise to New Heights But Fall Short of Gender Parity

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 11:53

Circle of Women Ambassadors

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8 2019 (IPS)

New York’s diplomatic community has continued to be enriched by a record number of women Permanent Representatives (PRUNs)—50 in all, as of October 2 – compared with about 15 to 20 back in the 1980s and early 1990s.

But the history-making number is still short of gender parity, falling far behind the 140 men who are PRUNs in the 193-member General Assembly, the highest policy-making body at the United Nations.

The remaining three women are designated Charge d’Affaires ad interim or acting heads of their respective diplomatic missions – and don’t hold the rank of PRUN.

https://protocol.un.org/dgacm/pls/site.nsf/files/HoM/$FILE/HeadsofMissions.pdf

The 50 PRUNs, who are also designated as Ambassadors, are members of an exclusive association called the “Circle of Women Ambassadors”— even as the circle has steadily kept widening.

The only other glass-shattering UN event took place in September 2014 when six of the 15 members of the UN Security Council– long monopolized by men– were women.

“It’s a little strange that it’s taken us this long,” Ambassador Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg, was quoted as saying, more than five years ago.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told delegates last week that “no country in the world is on track to attain gender equality by 2030, and women continue to be hampered by discriminatory laws, unequal access to opportunities and protections, high levels of violence, and damaging norms and attitudes.”

So, gender parity among men and women ambassadors may be a long way off.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, and a one-time UN Under-Secretary-General told IPS: “To me any progress which manifests equality and representation of women’s recognized engagement is welcome.”

The fact that, at the moment, the number of women Permanent Representatives to the UN at its headquarters has reached the highest point ever is a development worthy of our attention, he said.

“However, we have a long way to go even to reach the numerical equality among 193 Member States”, said Ambassador Chowdhury, the initiator of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 as President of the Security Council in March 2000: a resolution that underlined the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, and on peace negotiations and peace-building.

“In this context, I recall the Call to Action by civil society (which I proudly co-signed) for the world leaders on 25 September 2013 as they converged in New York for the General Assembly’s high level meetings urging them to take action for equality of women’s participation at all decision-making levels in four areas”, he added.

4. Appointment by Member-states of More Women as Ambassadors to the UN in New York and Geneva. [reality: overwhelmingly underrepresented by women]

On all four points, the UN community needs to do much more to call it history-making, said Ambassador Chowdhury.

Kshenuka Senewiratne, Sri Lanka’s trailblazing ambassador– her country’s first female permanent representative (PRUN) in over 63 years– told IPS that gender empowerment has continued to advance in her home country, even as women outnumber men in many walks of life, and particularly in higher education.

She said this is also reflected in the Sri Lankan foreign service where women have dominated over men in open competitive exams.

“And it is possible the same trends continue in many developing nations— even as the UN tries to advance its 2030 Development Agenda where gender empowerment remains one of the priorities.”

But still, “I have yet to hear my colleagues here say that it was a concerted gesture of gender balance that they got posted to New York,” she declared.

Barbara Crossette, a former UN Bureau Chief for the New York Times, told IPS: “My initial thought is that this phenomenon of more powerful women in diplomacy is not unlike women rising on their own in politics and not just by inheriting leadership as widows, daughters or other kin of men, such as Indira Gandhi, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Benazir Bhutto, Chandrika Kumaratunga or Cristina Fernández de Kirchner”.

She pointed out there are now more Angela Merkels, Michelle Bachelets or Elizabeth Warrens, to name only a few.

“Women are also rising in international agencies and civil society organizations, gaining expertise in global affairs, geopolitics and armed conflict, often in uniform and wearing a peacekeeper’s beret”, said Crossette, the senior consulting editor and writer for PassBlue and the United Nations correspondent for The Nation.

Asked whether more female diplomats will aid the cause of greater gender equality, she said: “ I would say, not necessarily, unless the Secretariat and missions in the field come down harder on denigrators and abusers of women. And, as Louise Frechette (a former UN deputy Secretary-General) told me in an interview, only if member states chose the most competent, outstanding women when making nominations to fill appointments in the UN system. They should be the models”, she declared.

Reinforcing his arguments further, Ambassador Chowdhury said the political significance of this increase in the number of the women Ambassadors would be that their joint actions would draw more attention, bearing, of course, in mind that all Ambassadors to the UN act generally on the basis of instructions from their respective capitals.

“But, I believe, their coalition can join hands to focus on issues particularly those directly related to women’s empowerment and equality, like Goal 5 of SDG.”

They can also ask for greater engagement of Secretary-General’s leadership in the implementation of UNSCR 1325 on women and peace and security which has made the realization of women’s equal participation at all decision-making levels obligatory on all members of the United Nations and whose 20th anniversary is coming up in October 2020, he noted.

Realizing gender parity at the senior posts of the UN, both at headquarters and at field levels, could be another area for joint effort.

“Women Ambassadors could strategize to turn this newly gained numerical enhancement into an effective coalition to attain global objectives of women’s equality and empowerment,” he argued.

Apart from this increase in the number of women Ambassadors, another encouraging development had been that three consecutive women Ambassadors have been elected as President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2017 –from the Czech Republic, 2018, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and 2019 from Norway.

This has improved somewhat ECOSOC’s dismal record of women Presidents, he said.

Since its beginning in 1946 and all the way upto 2003, ECOSOC’s practice of electing only men was challenged by Ambassador Marjatta Rassi of Finland as its first woman President, followed by second woman in 2009 before the successive three women Presidents – a total of 5 out of 74, said Ambassador Chowdhury.

“Given the unacceptably poor women’s representation as General Assembly and ECOSOC Presidents, women Ambassadors can continue their relentless efforts to improve gender parity in high offices,” he declared.

Meanwhile, addressing a working luncheon of the Circle of Women Ambassadors last April, the former President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces said: “At the UN too – where we should be leading by example – only a quarter of Permanent Representatives are women. Only one of the General Assembly’s main committees is chaired by a woman. I hope that we, in this Circle, can encourage our colleagues to nominate more women to leadership positions in the General Assembly, and across the UN.”

In his annual report on “The Work of the Organization” released last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed the world body continues to make significant progress towards gender parity.

For the first time in the history of the United Nations, “we have achieved gender parity in the Senior Management Group and among Resident Coordinators, and are almost at parity among the senior leadership ranks across the Organization, well ahead of my target date of 2021.”

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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Categories: Africa

Global Climate Change Investment Heavily Tilted Towards Mitigation and Low on Adaptation

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 11:16

A farmer tends to vegetables in a greenhouse in Antigua, where a climate-smart agricultural initiative seeks to improve farm productivity. Participants at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Private Investment for Climate (GPIC) Conference heard that will climate change funding has increased, most of it is being spent on mutation and not adaptation projects like this. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Stella Paul
INCHEON, South Korea, Oct 8 2019 (IPS)

Good news: the graph depicting climate investments has been steadily increasing. Climbing from the 2012 figure of $360 billion in climate investments across the world to close to $600 billion currently.

But despite the upward trend, its not even halfway to the $3trillion needed each year till 2030 to meet the development goals for capping global warming to 1.5 ° Celcius.

This was the broad picture that emerged on the first of the three-day Green Climate Fund (GCF) Private Investment for Climate (GPIC) Conference, which began on Monday, Oct. 7, in Incheon, South Korea. Attended by 600 people, including private investors, government officials and international finance experts from a diverse sector, this is the 2nd edition of the conference.

Addressing the conference at the opening ceremony, executive director of the GCF Yannick Glemarec said that the world needed to dramatically scale up adaptation and mitigation efforts and both of these had enormous investment opportunities. The conference, he reminded the attendees, was designed to act as an ideas marketplace to explore how to redirect the huge amount of funds held by large banks and other institutional investors into driving climate action in developing countries.

“Opportunities for private sector investment in energy in developing countries alone are estimated more than $23 trillion from now to 2030. Today, the private sector manages more than $210 trillion in assets but invests only a very limited amount in climate finance due to severe market barriers,” Glemarec said.

At the conference, he hoped, the participants would be able to “reflect on these barriers and provide some actionable solutions”.

Barbara Buchner, Executive Director of the widely renowned Climate Finance programme at the Climate Policy Initiative, says global investment is heavily tilted towards mitigation and is low on adaptation. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

Mitigation- Adaptation gap

Most of the current private investments are in climate mitigation sectors, such as e-transport and renewable energy. Adaptation projects around the world, including agriculture and land, still fail to attract private investments, they noticed.

“Globally, private investment is heavily tilted towards mitigation and is low on adaptation,” says Barbara Buchner, Executive Director of the widely renowned Climate Finance programme at the Climate Policy Initiative — a global policy think tank that works to improve energy and land use policies around the world.

According to Buchner, CPI has been tracking private investment in climate change since 2011 and right from the beginning, private investors have shown their preference for projects that cap carbon emissions such as renewable energy and transport projects, instead of forests or agriculture.
In 2016, the total climate finance in climate adaptation projects globally was $22 billion, while in mitigation projects it was $436 billion. Though investment has increased since then –the mitigation investments are now around $600 billion, Buchner reveals.

The reasons, she says, are many: lack of awareness and knowledge of climate risks, domestic policy and regulations that hinder mitigation, denied market access, social attitudes, multi-layer complexities of investing in adaptation projects on agriculture, water and land and a general lack of understanding in how such projects can result in profits.

“Mitigation projects, on the other hand, are more investment ready as the technology is already available and therefore one can just go and invest. The impact of the investments also are more direct and visible,” she said.

Yannick Glemarec (left), executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Andrew Holness (right), prime minister of Jamaica, talk at the 2nd Private Investment for Climate Conference. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

Leadership matters

While risks and a lack of attraction and understanding were more common barriers for private investment, a lot was also dependent on political leadership, said some experts.

For example, Africa needs infrastructure funding worth $130-170 billion a year, but government and public funding will alone will not be enough to meet this goal.

So, the region needs to attract private investment. However, at present, there are few business opportunities for the private investment, said Koffi Klaousse, project development director at Africa 50 – an infrastructure fund.

“We have numerous projects, but very few of them offered an actual investment and business opportunity for the private sector,” Klausse said, before emphasising that political leadership at the country level could change the scenario by making it more possible for private investors to play a significant role.

Earlier on the day, an example of positive leadership was also shared by Andrew Holness – prime minister of Jamaica – a country that has attracted nearly $1 billion worth of private investment. The only head of the state at the conference, Holness described how his government has been trying to interpret the climate threats as a great opportunity for private investment

“For us, climate change is a disaster. But if we embrace the challenge, it could also mean an opportunity,” said Holness.

“If weather is going to be more severe, then we must build more resilient and climate smart infrastructure and mobile more public and private resources to support the effort,” he said before asserting to attendees that Jamaica would continue to be “fiscally responsible” and continue to reduce its debt burden to make itself more investment friendly.

In past decade alone, the country had been able to reduce its debt burden to 60 percent from over a 100 percent. And it is on track to meeting the goal of 50 percent of energy being produced by renewable sources.

The conference, which ends on Oct. 9, will continue discussions on a number of issues, including exploring how to shift the trillions of dollars held by institutional investors, how to tap climate bonds to fund climate-focused action, and expanding the role of financial innovation to boost climate investments in infrastructure, energy and land use.

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Categories: Africa

Hollywood and Business Luminaries Spotlight World’s ‘Stateless’ Woes

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 09:46

Over a million Rohingya refugees are without a state as Myanmar refuses to recognise them as citizens. Pictured here is the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS

By James Reinl
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8 2019 (IPS)

Movie star Cate Blanchett and businessman Richard Branson spoke up this week for the millions of people around the world who cannot get passports and other papers because they lack an official nationality.

The United Nations says the problem — known as “statelessness” — is getting worse, as a worldwide trend towards nationalism means governments are increasingly loath to help people viewed as unwelcome outsiders.

From the mostly-Muslim Rohingya people across Myanmar and Bangladesh to the masses of stateless folks in Côte d’Ivoire, Thailand, Latvia, Syria and Kuwait, Blanchett, Branson and others urged governments to tackle the problem.

“Statelessness has a devastating impact on millions of people around the world,” Blanchett, an Australian double Oscar-winner, told journalists on Monday during a week of intergovernmental talks in Geneva.

“They experience marginalisation and exclusion from cradle to grave … It’s total invisibility.”

By one count from 2017, some 70 countries reported on 3.9 million stateless individuals, but the U.N. agency for refugees, UNHCR, says the real figure globally is likely three times higher with some 12 million people impacted.

The world’s biggest stateless population are the Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom have sought safety in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar, which does not recognise them as citizens.

“No one should have to suffer the indignity and exclusion that comes with being stateless,” Branson, a British billionaire wrote on Monday.

“Fortunately, over a hundred states have come together in Geneva this week to commit to do more to put an end to statelessness once and for all.”

It’s difficult to imagine how any country can maximise its potential by ignoring significant populations of stateless people. My take on statelessness and how to solve it https://t.co/R5gRApf5pa #IBelong @Refugees pic.twitter.com/SoGgG1rJtb

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) 7 October 2019

The U.N. calls statelessness a “man-made problem” stemming from a “bewildering array of causes” — often legal directives and the re-drawing of national borders. Some 600,000 people remain stateless after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Stateless people are often denied certificates at birth and remain excluded for the rest of their lives, the U.N., says. They lack the papers for travel, marriage, work, schooling, healthcare, and opening bank accounts.

“Statelessness can deny people and communities their identity and sense of self, contributing to the breakdown of family and social relationships and creating legal problems for generations,” said U.N. deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed.

“And stateless people are voiceless people. Prevented from voting or participating in public life, they are without representation anywhere.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the decade-long “#IBelong” campaign was making gains towards ending statelessness by 2024, with more than 220,000 stateless people acquiring a nationality since 2014.

“This is an area in which – for relatively little investment – wide-reaching impact is within our reach,” said Grandi.

In July, Kyrgyzstan became the first country to officially end statelessness. The U.N. says Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan could also meet the 2024 deadline; while Thailand is boosting efforts on its 479,000 ethnic hill tribespeople and other stateless individuals.

Madagascar and Sierra Leone have rewritten their laws so that mothers can confer citizenship to their children, as fathers have long been able to do. Still, 25 nations do not readily grant mothers this right – one of the leading causes of statelessness globally.

But Grandi also highlighted the Rohingya, and the Indian state of Assam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has vowed to disenfranchise millions of Muslim immigrants amid a polarising election campaign.

“The progress is far from assured: damaging forms of nationalism, and the manipulation of anti-refugee and migrant sentiment – these are powerful currents internationally that risk putting progress into reverse,” said Grandi.

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Categories: Africa

Reforms Will Grant Nationality to Children of Iranian Women

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 16:04

By Rothna Begum
GENEVA, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

After more than a decade of women’s rights activism, Iran’s Guardian Council has finally approved an amendment that would grant Iranian citizenship to the children of Iranian women married to foreign men.

The Guardian Council was the last body needed to approve this long overdue reform to Iran’s discriminatory citizenship law.

Previously, Iran’s civil code granted children and spouses of Iranian men citizenship automatically, while children born in Iran to Iranian women and foreign fathers must live in Iran at least until they are 19 before they can apply.

It is unclear how many children in Iran have Iranian mothers and foreign fathers. However, the issue has come to prominence in recent years because of tens of thousands of registered and unregistered marriages between Iranian women and Afghan men whose children are unable to obtain citizenship on an equal basis.

Rothna Begum

Research in other countries has shown that such discrimination can harm children’s access to education, health care, housing, and employment when they become adults.

The latest attempt to reform the law was inspired by Maryam Mirzakhani, a world-renowned Iranian mathematician and Fields Medal recipient who passed away from cancer in 2017. Because her husband is not Iranian, her daughter cannot obtain Iranian nationality.

In May, Iran’s Parliament finally adopted the proposed reform, but it went back and forth from the Guardian Council, a body of 12 Islamic jurists, to determine whether it is in accordance with Iran’s Constitution and Sharia (Islamic law). They approved the amendment last week.

While this is a long-awaited victory for Iranian women, the newly-amended law does not equalize access to citizenship completely. Iranian women must apply for nationality for their children, while children of Iranian men are granted nationality automatically.

Children who turn 18 can apply for nationality themselves. A security check is required in both cases.

Most concerning is that that the amended law requires the Intelligence Ministry or the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to certify that there is no “security problem” before approving citizenship in these specific applications.

This vaguely defined provision can be used to arbitrarily disqualify applicants if they or their parents are seen as critical of the government, particularly in eastern and western border areas where cross-border marriages are more common and where authorities keep a tight grip over peaceful activism.

In a matter of weeks, Iran’s newly-amended law will finally see children of Iranian women able to apply for the same benefits that children of Iranian men have.

But Iran should remove the remaining obstacles to ensure that children of Iranian citizens, whether men or women, are granted citizenship on an equal basis. They are all, after all, Iranian children.

The post Reforms Will Grant Nationality to Children of Iranian Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Rothna Begum is Senior Researcher, Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch

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Categories: Africa

‘Salty’ Concern: Tackling High Salt Consumption in China

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 15:42

Veena S. Kulkarni, Associate Professor, Department of Criminology, Sociology and Geography, Arkansas State University, USA; and Raghav Gaiha, (Hon.) Professorial Research Fellow, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, England.

By Veena S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha
NEW DELHI, India and JONESBORO, US, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

China’s almost meteoric transition from a being a low income to a middle income country within a span of four decades is often perceived as a miracle analogous to the post Second World War Japanese economic development experience. China’s GDP rose from $200 current United States dollars (US$ henceforth) in 1978 to $9,470 current US$ in 2018 (World Development Indicators, The World Bank). Unsurprisingly, China’s rapid and near sustainable growth has attracted widespread interest among academics and policy makers alike.

Veena S. Kulkarni

China embarked on a set of systematic reforms of its centrally planned economy in the year 1978, which ignited this spark of economic growth. In nearly three decades after the reforms, China increased its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) eightfold with an average growth in GDP and GDP per capita of 9.5% and 8.1% percent (measured in constant US$), respectively (Hofman and Wu 2009). These figures appear more exceptional when seen relative to China’s performance: a) in the pre-reform period and b) by its contemporaries at that time. While China with an average GDP per capita rate of 2.1% was out ranked by several countries during a two-decade period before the reforms, its GDP per capita was the highest across a list of 105 countries for the years 1978-2005 (Hofman and Wu 2009). The extraordinary growth in income levels seem to have been replicated with respect to other economic indicators such as poverty rates and wealth per adult. The poverty head count ratio declined by more than one fifth in less than a decade from 17.2% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2017 (World Development Indicators, The World Bank). Additionally, there is a notable increase in the wealth per adult from US$4,292 in 2008 to US$47,810 in 2018 (Global Wealth Data Book 2018, Credit Suisse Research Institute). Further, convergence between the timings of the economic reforms with that of the demographic transition led to low dependency ratios (low share of non-working relative to working age population) creating a ‘perfect storm’ for bolstering economic growth. The more recent trends of the economy growing between 6-7% do admittedly indicate a downward trajectory but the prospects in absolute terms remain high.

However, this more seldom than not favorable scenario is projected to have an expected and significant impact on the age composition and epidemiological profile of China. All the standard health indicators show that China has completed what demographers would call mortality/epidemiological transition. Mortality/epidemiological transition is characterized by two interrelated components: a) a greater concentration of deaths at older ages, and b) a dominance of deaths by degenerative illnesses as compared to communicable diseases. Life expectancy at birth in China between 1990 and 2017 rose by nearly a decade for women (from 70.7 years to 79.9 years) and over third quarter of a decade for men (from 66.9 years to 74.5 years) (Global Burden of Disease). Such dramatic rises in life expectancy obviously translates into increasing share of the elderly total population. The percentage of population 65 years or older has more than doubled from 4.43% in 1950 to 9.33% in 2015 and is projected to increase to 11.97% in 2020. An examination of the trend indicates the rate of growth of the elderly unlike the period between 1950 and 1970 has not only been consistently on the rise, it has done so noticeably after 1990. The projected percentage of elderly population at 11.97% in 2020 is more than twice that in 1990 (5.63%) (World Population Prospects 2019, United Nations Population Division). The projection for year 2040 considering the age of 60 as the benchmark predict more than one in four persons to be elderly (World Health Organization).

On the second component of the epidemiological transition, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) affect for more than 80% of the 10.3 million premature deaths and 77% of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), the statistic that is not that distant from other OECD countries. A review of the ranking of the top ten most causes of major deaths for the years 2007 and 2017 reflects the realization of the second part of the mortality/epidemiological transition. Except for the road injuries, the ten major causes of deaths fall in the category of degenerative illnesses. Further, both in 2007 and in 2017, the first four causes, stroke, ischemic heart disease, COPD and lung cancer are nearly unequivocally related to lifestyle factors. Stroke and ischemic heart diseases that are highly correlated with hypertension rose by 27% and 54% between 2007 and 2017. Additionally, there was 95.7% spike in percentage of most deaths caused by hypertensive heart disease between 2007 and 2017. Hypertensive heart disease moved from a rank of 11 to a rank of eight. In a similar vein, the ranking of the impact of diseases with respect to the number of years of life lost (YLLs) or causing premature deaths shows stroke and ischemic heart disease as topping the list both in 2007 and in 2017. Further, between 2007 and 2017 the increase in that ‘deadly’ impacts were 21.8% (stroke) and 43.9% (ischemic heart diseases). The corresponding rise for hypertensive heart disease was 79.8%. Yet another disconcerting evidence on the growing detrimental effect of hypertension can be gleaned from the climbing in the ranking of diseases causing disability. Stroke moved from being the thirteenth highest in 2007 to being fifth highest in 2017. The combined effects of causing most deaths and disability owing to stroke and ischemic heart disease is respectively more than 25% and 40%. Also, relative to ten countries in the comparison group delineated by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Project, based on GBD’s regional classification, trade partnerships and sociodemographic indicators, YLLs and DALYs due to stroke and ischemic heart diseases is the highest in China.

Raghav Gaiha

The above patterns and trends clearly evince a transition to a lifestyle that is more prone to incidence of cardiovascular diseases, a change that has been empirically observed to accompany usually interrelated reasons such as rising levels of income, urbanization, globalization and consumption of processed food as substitute to home made and fresh food. The latter appears to be a prominent contributor to China’s epidemiological profile tilting toward cardiovascular illnesses such as stroke, ischemic heart disease and hypertensive heart disease. Dietary risk has been found to be the most significant factor in explaining most of the deaths and disability in 2007 and in 2017. Additionally, there was a 29.6% increase in the risk caused by dietary patterns between 2007 and 2017 (Global Burden of Disease).

One of the integral ingredients for making food edible and/or enhance taste is salt. However, salt is the primary source of sodium and increased intake causes hypertension and consequently heightens the probabilities of stroke, heart attack and other related cardiovascular ailments. The average salt consumption for a healthy Chinese is 10.5 grams as opposed to the recommended 6 grams as per the Chinese Dietary Guidelines (World Health Organization). This higher than optimal quantity of salt utilization has been attributed in addition to putting salt in home cooked food and at the table (such as soy sauce, fish sauce and table salt), increasing eating of packaged food combined with lower consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, dietary fiber like whole grains. The diet part is in particular significant given the high dietary risk. The Food Sustainability Index, a weighted average of indicators in the health and nutrition category, has been created by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN). China ranks 21 among the 38 countries for which the Nutritional Challenge Index has been created also by The Economist.

The enormity of role of salt in determining people’s healthy diet and consequently healthy years of life acquire prominence when coupled with the facts that China’s population is aging quite rapidly and elderly are more susceptible to hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, reduction of salt is considered as one of the most cost effective strategies to improve health outcomes and reduce number of deaths. World Health Organization estimates 2.5 million deaths globally could be prevented if salt consumption is reduced to the recommended level.

Expectedly, World Health Organization in collaboration with the local organizations and with the Chinese government has initiated public service campaigns to increase knowledge, awareness and support to homes, schools, work places and the food industry to reduce amount of salt. The State Council as part of the Healthy China 2030 Initiative has set a goal of reducing the salt intake by 20%. Also, at the forefront of recognizing the urgency of reforming the food industry to align with ensuring a sustainable production of healthy food is the Barilla Foundation as evidenced by its unveiling of the report, ‘Fixing the Business of Food, the Food Industry and the SDG Challenges’ on September 24, 2019.

In addition to the advocacy and the activism aspects, an area that demands a careful assessment is governmental expenditure on health care. The slowing of economic growth coupled with the shifting demographics toward the elderly enhances the urgency of planning for the future. It is estimated that government expenditures on health would increase three times to about 10% of the GDP by 2060 (The World Bank and World Health Organization 2019). This is all the more critical considering illnesses such as hypertension that are usually a consequence of high salt consumption. As hypertension does not cause symptoms at the early stages, it can easily go undiagnosed. In China it is estimated that only 13.8% of the 270 million people who have hypertension have the disease managed (World Health Organization). Thus, it is pivotal to focus on both preventative and curative measures with respect to the occurrence of illnesses caused by unhealthy dietary lifestyle that include high salt consumption. Not doing so implies high cost to the society with respect to loss of productive years through death and/or disability. Based on China’s compliance with the mission of World Health Organization and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are founded on the ambition of ‘leaving no one behind’, it appears that China is committed to the goal of reducing the salt intake within the next decade as part of the larger initiative of providing a healthy productive life to all of its citizens.

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Excerpt:

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Categories: Africa

Three Ways to End HIV Stigma and Discrimination

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 14:16

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

As a Public Health Doctor, I often meet people who experience stigma simply because they live with HIV. One person who still haunts me is a woman who is HIV positive and when she was in labor, a midwife would not help her. Instead she shouted at her to just push out the baby and then she stood far away from the bedside, disgusted by the woman’s HIV status. No one should go through such stigma at a vulnerable situation when they are about to birth life.

Another lady I met was denied university admission because she is HIV positive. She was screened for HIV without her consent, her HIV-positive status was disclosed publicly, and she was asked to leave the private university.

This is not okay. All forms of HIV-related stigma must stop. When people experience stigma and discrimination they may be afraid or ashamed to access HIV services. This fear of stigma has far-reaching implications – it could cause people to delay being tested and knowing their HIV status and getting help, before it’s too late.

Globally, there are approximately 37.9 million people living with HIV, with 770,000 deaths, based on 2018 data. In 2018, there were 1.7 new HIV infections. Seventy-five million people have been infected by HIV since the epidemic began and 32 million have died as a result. HIV-related stigma can have serious consequences.

These are ways to deal with it.

Americans wrongly believe that HIV can be transmitted through sharing glass (27%); touching toilet seat (17%); and swimming in a pool with someone who is HIV positive (11%)

First, government across the globe should increase investments in health education to improve people’s knowledge of HIV and its modes of transmission. It should not be taken for granted that people are aware.

For instance, according to a survey of Americans by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans wrongly believe that HIV can be transmitted through sharing glass (27%); touching toilet seat (17%); and swimming in a pool with someone who is HIV positive (11%). Instead, one can get HIV when there is contact with body fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk.

Targeted information should be deployed on platforms where people congregate and interact. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp serve this purpose and should be used. Globally, there about 3.5 billion social media users – an estimated than 2.7 billion of these are Facebook users.

In 2016 at peak of the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil, Facebook pulled anonymized posts about conversations on Zika virus. This was shared with UNICEF to design a campaign that provided the right information for individuals to protect themselves against Zika virus. Facebook can replicate the same to tackle misinformation about HIV and reduce stigma.

Second, enforce HIV antidiscrimination laws to deter offenders from discriminating against people living with HIV. For instance, In 2015, the Nigerian President Jonathan signed the HIV/AIDS Anti-Discrimination law.

One of the objectives of the law is to help more Nigerians to seek testing, treatment and care services without fear of facing stigma and discrimination. The law does not permit HIV screening as a prerequisite for employment and school admissions.

There are fines of $1400 for individuals and $5,700 for institutions who violate the law. The fines could come with prison term of up to one year in addition to these fines. Although not as robust as Nigeria’s HIV antidiscrimination law, Ghana’s patient’s charter protects individuals from discrimination based on type of illness.

Third, end the discrimination against key populations like men who have sex with men, sex workers and transgender people as this discourages them from accessing care, pushes them underground and increases their risk of transmitting HIV.

Globally, these populations account for 54% of new HIV infections – 88% in Western and central Europe and North America; 95% in Middle East and North Africa; and 64% in Western and central Africa.

Compared to non-key populations, the risk of acquiring HIV is 22 times higher among men who have sex with men and injection drugs users; 21 times higher among sex workers and 12 times higher for transgender people.

Specific changes include ending discriminatory laws. Countries including Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia and others criminalize LGBT folks and that needs to change. Further, transgender people are harmed and killed without consequences for the perpetrators.

For example, recently, a black transgender woman was burned to death in Florida. Therefore, donors must keep working with governments to repeal these laws and punish those who perpetrate violence against key populations.

The Former Wales rugby captain, Gareth Thomas’ revelation this month that he is HIV positive because someone threatened to blackmail him, shows that no one is immune to stigma. As long as new HIV infections occur, governments, donors, private sector and communities must continue work to end HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

The post Three Ways to End HIV Stigma and Discrimination appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

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

The post Three Ways to End HIV Stigma and Discrimination appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Africa’s Mineral Wealth May Just have to Stay in the Ground to Protect a Changing Climate

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 13:26

The extraction of natural resources across Africa, including minerals like gold, is being affected by a changing climate. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

As a result of climate change, resource extraction industries in Africa will be impacted by asset stranding, researchers say.

“Stranding implies that several natural assets are going to become commercially unviable around the world as a result of climate change and the inability of countries to exploit them,” said Vanessa Ushie, manager of the policy analysis division at the African Natural Resources Centre of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which supports African countries to leverage their natural resources for sustainable development.

Ushie told IPS stranding is an increasingly important policy issue that African countries should consider because they are highly dependent on natural resources, with an average 70 percent of their exports being minerals.

As the content struggles to reach its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of global goals identified by the United Nations to end poverty and inequality among member states, a wealth of natural resources that could be used for Africa’s development remain largely untapped.

Some 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves including platinum, gold, diamonds and coal are found in Africa, yet the continent still has high levels of poverty.
Africa also has 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves and 8 percent of natural gas, according to the African Development Bank.
Climate change is threatening the exploitation of these resources and more importantly of the non-renewable energy sources; coal, oil and gas.

Keep them in the ground

As a result of the impact of climate change, Africa has difficult options when it comes to its mineral resources, researchers say. Can it keep the resources in the ground and risk economic stagnation or find profitability in clean energy sources?

“We are aware of the Paris Agreement and the commitment of African countries, just like their global counterparts, to reduce carbon emissions in order to meet the target of keeping global warming below 2°Celsius,” Ushie said. “With that warming target, it is clear that certain minerals will have to be left below the ground especially those that emit the highest carbon into the atmosphere.”

The AfDB says “stranded assets” have in recent years attracted a lot of interest, as climate-driven changes justify a shift to low-carbon development in the natural resources sector. More than 185 countries have agreed to leave two-thirds of proven fossil fuels in the ground to meet the Paris Agreement climate target.
In 2017, the International Energy Agency warned that oil and gas assets worth 1.3 trillion dollars could be left stranded by 2050, if the fossil fuel industry does not adapt to greener climate policies.

Speaking at the end of the U.N. Climate Action Summit recently, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, said world leaders should act on the outrage of millions of people around the world who marched against climate change and calling for and end to the use of fossil fuels.

“We urge all nations to commit to achieving carbon neutrality before 2050 to immediately end construction of, and investment in, coal power and to implement a green transition that is just and equitable,” Robinson said.

Stranded assets

But many African countries are extracting coal, gas and oil with new discoveries, signalling future fortunes that could be difficult to forfeit.

In 2019, French oil firm Total made public its discovery of a large “gas condensate” in South Africa. The gas condensate – effectively a liquid form of natural gas – is a more prized than crude oil.
In Kenya, British oil company Tullow Oil projected 2024 as the earliest likely date by which the country can expect gains from its Turkana oil. Vast oil reserves have also been discovered in Uganda.

For the African continent, a latecomer to the fossil fuel boom, arguments for asset stranding could influence development gains and also interrupt economic growth.

Ushie said some assets will be stranded due to changes in markets and investment flows, as global extractive companies and investors adjust their portfolios to meet new, low-carbon regulations. Other extractive assets are at risk due to changing consumer demand, such as the growing use of solar energy and electric vehicles in developed countries.

An opportunity or obstacle?

“With growing climate change and the ensuing low-carbon transition, Africa’s mining sector faces serious risks, and some opportunities,” Ushie told IPS, noting that African countries need to understand and respond to the new normal.

The AfDB is promoting a diversified approach to energy provision and integrated natural resource management. The solution lies in investing in localised and resource-efficient energy options like decentralised, community-owned local solar, wind and biomass projects.

By 2020, the Bank will have contributed $17 billion to climate finance for African since it developed a funding mechanism through its Climate Change Action Plan. Besides, the Bank’s Africa NDC Hub has supported African countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and helping countries attract sustainable financing opportunities such as green bonds to support climate change adaptation in high risk countries.

Research evidence for low carbon policies

“We want to model scenarios under which stranding could occur for various minerals and fossil fuels, and provide policy advice to governments on how they could respond to this risk,” said Ushie. “There should be a robust public debate on stranded mineral assets and resources, and this is why the AfDB is engaged in policy platforms such as the Inter-Governmental Forum on Mining, Metals and Sustainable Development.”

The Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development to be held in Geneva, Oct. 7-11 , has the theme; “Mining in a changing climate’”, indicating that even at a global level, there is recognition that resource extraction is being impacted by climate change.

The forum is a good opportunity for the Centre and the Bank to be engaged in global policy dialogue on the future of mining, which is a critical industry in Africa, she said.

Fatima Denton, Director of the U.N. University’s Institute for Natural Resource, told IPS the global shift from fossil fuels and the drop-in technology costs of renewables are an opportunity for the African continent to increase investment in green energy sources.

With rapid urbanisation of most African economies, coupled with a rising demand for electricity, African nations have begun taking advantage of this opportunity to increase investment in renewables, Denton said.

A 2018 study by Bloomberg Finance indicates that developing countries are beginning to lead the global clean power transition. A total 114GW zero-carbon power capacity was added in developing countries in 2017 compared to 63GW added in wealthier nations.

With the drop in global gas prices, more African nations were focusing on growing their gas economies. Renewables have greater need for metals and materials, creating opportunities for African countries with reserves of these resources essential to the construction of wind, solar, electricity transmission.

“Despite the opportunities mentioned above there is the challenge of when African economies will actually strand their fossil fuel assets and the lack of funding to invest in green growth opportunities as stated in their NDC’s,” Denton said.

Energy security in a low carbon future entails transition towards clean renewable sources, not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieving sustainable development in critical sectors such as agriculture, mining, health and education, said Denton.

The post Africa’s Mineral Wealth May Just have to Stay in the Ground to Protect a Changing Climate appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

South Sudan’s Authorities Allow Serious Human Rights Abuses to Flourish and go Unpunished – Report

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 12:36

By Maged Srour
ROME, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

Human rights movement Amnesty International has accused South Sudanese authorities for lack of independence as they have allowed allowing human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity to go unpunished.

In a report released today, Oct. 7, Amnesty noted that despite investigation committees and various reports that are compiled on the violence that resulted from the internal war that broke out in December 2013, authorities continue to “deny credible reports implicating the armed forces in serious human rights violations. When the President does respond by setting up investigation committees, they lack independence and impartiality and, with the one exception, do not result in criminal trials”.

The post South Sudan’s Authorities Allow Serious Human Rights Abuses to Flourish and go Unpunished – Report appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Brief Reflection on Trump’s Impeachment

Mon, 10/07/2019 - 11:58

Donald Trump addresses the UN's General Assembly. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

By Roberto Savio
ROME, Oct 7 2019 (IPS)

It is very likely that the idea of impeaching Donald Trump will be a boomerang. Trump fans are listening to a furious campaign which smacks of coup d’etat and call his accusers traitors who deserve to go to jail.

In the first three hours after the announcement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, that an impeachment process would be launched, Trump received a million dollars, five million in 24 hours, and 8.5 million in two days. His campaign received 50,000 new donors.

Trump won the election by just under 80,000 votes. It should be borne in mind that the US electoral system does not elect the president by the majority of the votes of its citizens, but by delegates that each State elects to vote the president. For historical reasons related to how the Union was created, the less populated and less developed states have proportionately more delegates than the large and wealthy states.

Roberto Savio

Trump ran his campaign in the less developed and less populous states, and in practice ignored the big cities and the most populous states, like California. In the popular vote, that is of citizens, Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton won by three million votes.

I think the Democrats have done Trump a great favour. In any case, even if the impeachment passes in the House of Representatives (where the Democrats have a majority), it has very little chance that it will pass in the Senate where, again for historical reasons linked to the creation of the United States of America, each state has two senators, regardless of its population. Wyoming, with 578,000 inhabitants, has two senators, as does California, the most populous state in the country, with 37.2 million people.

And it is precisely the less developed states and those with smaller populations that allow Republicans to have the majority in the Senate. For the impeachment to be successful, a two-thirds majority of senators would be needed, which is highly unlikely.

I think the Democrats have done Trump a great favour. In any case, even if the impeachment passes in the House of Representatives (where the Democrats have a majority), it has very little chance that it will pass in the Senate

The only possibility is to increase the number of voters, who do not exceed 50% of those who have the right to vote. But will the impeachment have this impact? Are the citizens of the less developed states going to increase their electoral participation in protest at Trump’s actions? There is no evidence of this, and much will depend on who the Democratic candidate is going to be.

The camapign of demonising Joe Biden is going to have some impact. And the progressive candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are the kind of politicians who seem too elitist in the states that vote for Trump. They are very conservative regions, and Trump has the unconditional support of the Evangelical Church, which is estimated at 40 million parishioners, while the Catholic Church is very conservative.

Obviously, if there is an economic crisis, this could have a transverse impact since Americans traditionally vote with their pockets. But, for the moment, 90% of Republican voters – as well as his parliamentarians – remain loyal to Trump.

Herein lies the fragility of democracy, when it is based on non-democratic rules. Boris Johnson was elected prime minister, not by the British people, but by around 160,000 members of the Conservative Party. The difference is that Johnson has had to expel 21 members of his party, all high-profile parliamentarians.

He has been blocked on his personalist and authoritarian path by the Supreme Court, which has annulled his decision to prorogate Parliament. In the United States, no like-minded parliamentarian has criticised Trump, and the Supreme Court has a Republican majority, which will change the American legal system considerably.

The lesson that comes out of all this is that democracy works if it has laws that guarantee the balance of powers and there is a conscious and interested citizenship in the common good, not divided in a partisan way, where the other is considered an enemy and not one that has different ideas.

The case of Brexit and Trump are good examples. But let’s not forget the case of Hungary, where Viktor Orban, after being democratically elected, developed a xenophobic policy against migrants, carried out tight control of the press, the National Election Commission and the judiciary, enriched his faithful with funds from the EU, changed the entire electoral system accommodating it to his party and then declared himself follower of an illiberal democracy.

Given the possibility that the united opposition will win the municipal elections in Budapest on October 13, Minister Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff of Orban, has warned that in this case, the government would cut funding to the capital city.

The style has been similar to that of Hitler and Mussolini, who came to power in a democratic way and then eliminated democracy by identifying an enemy of the people, in whose name they said they spoke: Jewish power.

Today the main targets of the populist and xenophobic right for raising its electoral quotas are immigrants.

Brexit was largely due to the announced arrival of millions of Turks, who were not even in the European Union. Trump made the Mexican and Central American “invasion” the strong point of his defence of the American people, along with the Chinese threat. If the voter swallows these mythologies, democracy is certainly in danger. Trump and Johnson are just the tip of the iceberg.

Publisher of OtherNews, Italian-Argentine Roberto Savio is an economist, journalist, communication expert, political commentator, activist for social and climate justice and advocate of an anti neoliberal global governance. Director for international relations of the European Center for Peace and Development.. He is co-founder of Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and its President Emeritus.

The post Brief Reflection on Trump’s Impeachment appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Press freedom: Forking paths in a world of discontent

Sun, 10/06/2019 - 16:53

Protesters gathered in Cairo shouting anti-government slogans on September 21. PHOTO: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY/REUTERS

By Tasneem Tayeb
Oct 6 2019 (IPS-Partners)

The recent protests in Egypt, sparked by the allegation of financial misappropriations by a government contractor against the country’s current president and former army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, have died down almost as soon as they came to life. The Sisi administration resorted to its usual tactic of using brutal muscle power to clamp down on the protesters and the media. While the national media outlets—very much under the control of Sisi—did not dare breach “professional codes”, the Egyptian State Information Service (SIS), which is responsible for accrediting foreign journalists, warned the media that it has “carefully monitored” the protest coverage.

The SIS also called on the reporters to “strictly abide by professional codes of conduct.” This coming from a suppressive regime, with a track record of detaining journalists and feeding fabricated content to the local media outlets, it would not be hard to read between the lines when it comes to the SIS guidance.

The country’s autocratic regime has also detained Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein in solitary confinement for the last 1,017 days, with charges and accusations that till date remain uncorroborated. The detention is in breach of the law of the land, which sets a maximum of 620 days of pretrial detention for people under investigation for felony. To make matters even muddier, there had been reports that the journalist was refused even passable medical attention after he suffered a broken hand, in an episode that carries reverberations from the imprisonment of the country’s first democratically elected president, who died while held in solitary confinement, with inadequate treatment and medicines.

In the 2019 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Egypt stood at 163rd out of 180 countries. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) annual report, Egypt held 25 journalists in 2018, and along with Turkey and China, accounted for half of all the journalists detained in 2018.

The situation in Turkey presents a grimmer picture, where 68 journalists had been incarcerated in 2018—all of them facing anti-state charges. Turkey’s uproar over the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, while fully warranted, comes with a slight hint of irony. At a discussion organised by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) in Stockholm earlier this year, journalists who have had to flee Turkey in recent times claimed that journalists are being systematically targeted by the Erdogan regime and being brutally punished on the flimsiest of charges. Levent Kenez, former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s Meydan daily newspaper, which the Turkish government had pulled the plug on in 2016, said, “Defendants are not selected randomly, but systematically. When analysing cases, one can easily notice that those who were critical of the government, reported on corruption or exposed Erdogan’s support for jihadist elements at home or abroad, were blacklisted long before.”

Closer to home, in India, media outlets in Kashmir are struggling to cover events after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in August this year. A recent report by two rights networks—Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) and the Free Speech Collective (FSC)—presents a despairing picture of the condition of journalists and media in Kashmir. The report reveals a “high degree of surveillance, informal ‘investigations’ and even arrest of journalists who publish reports considered adverse to the government or security forces; controls on the facilities available for print publication; government advertising to select publications; restrictions on mobility in select areas including hospitals and the most crippling communications shutdown of all time. Significantly, there is no official curfew, no official notification for the shutdown.”

The arrest of journalists has become a common scenario in the enchanting valley, which is also one of the most militarised zones in the world with the presence of around 900,000 troops. According to CPJ, as of September 24, at least four journalists have been detained since July 25 this year. While one was released later, the whereabouts of Qazi Shibli, editor of news website The Kashmiriyat, remain unknown, and two others—MT Rasool of Rising Kashmir and Sheikh Saleem of Kashmir Convener—have been kept in detention in a government-owned guest house in the valley’s Bandipora town, without any reason behind their arrest being forthcoming.

Apart from the fear of arbitrary detention, according to Kunal Majumder of CPJ, “communication blackout, the internet shutdown, limited access to government officials and politicians, strict controls on the flow of information, restrictions on travel, direct and indirect intimidation of journalists, and the long-running problem of dwindling government advertising revenue” have muzzled the media in Kashmir.

Often governments also resort to the use of soft power coercion to control and suppress the media; this is usually done through curtailing commercial revenues of media houses. In most of these cases, the governments not only cut down their own advertisement to these news outlets, but also discourage big corporations from giving advertisements to these media platforms. By doing this, the government tries to cripple the media outlets so that they go out of operation due to shortage of fund. A classic example of this is our own country, where the government had in 2015 asked the largest telecoms and consumer goods companies in Bangladesh to “restrict” their advertising in two of the mainstream newspapers.

Francis Fukuyama, in his book “Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy,” suggested that three elements are essential for a well-ordered society and good governance: a strong state, the rule of law and democratic accountability. However, rule of law and democratic accountability run contrary to the idea of a strong state, because when a state becomes strong, it becomes prone to discouraging accountability and rule of law. So how does one strike a balance between the three? Through a set of democratic institutions that enable a stable equilibrium.

Free press, by design, is one such institution. If there are dissenting voices within these ranks, they can easily be quashed. Alternatively, they can also spark constructive debates—debates that are the lifeblood of vibrant democracies.

Which path should we take? That is entirely up to us.

Tasneem Tayeb is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is @TayebTasneem.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Categories: Africa

Ground-breaking Clean Air Protocol to Guard Human Health and the Planet, Enters into Force

Sat, 10/05/2019 - 13:38

Credit: Bigstock.

By External Source
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5 2019 (IPS)

European and North American countries will take a major stride in cleaning up the atmosphere next Monday, 7 October, through the implementation of an amended legally binding treaty to limit the amount of emissions polluting the air.

With 18 countries and the European Union now having ratified the amended treaty, from a total of 51 who have signed, including many of the countries which are part of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the official entry into force marks an important step to curb pollutants closely-linked to climate change, ecosystem degeneration, and potentially life-threatening human health.

The Gothenburg Protocol, established back in 1999, sets forth legally-binding emissions reduction commitments for 2020 and beyond, for major air pollutants, and is rooted in the UNECE’s 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), originally intended to stop the occurrence of acid rain.

Beyond targeting well-known air pollutants, the Protocol was updated in 2012 to include reduction of fine particulate matter, pollutants shown to cause devastating climate change effects over short periods of time.

7 million premature deaths per year

UN experts have deemed air pollution a human rights violation – a deadly, man-made problem responsible for some seven million premature deaths, every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

UN experts have deemed air pollution a human rights violation - a deadly, man-made problem responsible for some seven million premature deaths, every year, according to the World Health Organization

The agency has said toxic air is “the world’s largest single environmental health risk” and a leading cause of death by cancer.

The Protocol sets emission ceilings for major polluters: sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5), shown to damage human health.

The compounds are released from various household and ambient sources; from motor fuel combustion, to heat and power generation, to cooking and heating fuels; having lasting health effects even with only mild exposure.

Of the pollutants the Protocol aims to target, Particulate Matter, NOx and (SO2), show the strongest evidence of causing harm, WHO found.

Smoke poses the most serious threat to humans, as a pollutant composed of fine particles that can enter the lungs, travel through the bloodstream and penetrate vital organs.

Approximately 3 billion people cook and heat their homes using polluting fuels, and around 3.8 million die each year from exposure to air pollution., WHO says.

Slashing levels of particulate matter, specifically a component known as black carbon, could also help in the fight against climate change. Scientists have found that black carbon, which has light-absorbing properties, remains in the atmosphere for little time, yet has drastically darkened snow and ice in the Artic region, thereby contributing to regional warming.

40 years – clean air

As parties break new ground in clean air policy, additional UNECE Member States are expected to ratify the Protocol in coming months.

The 1979 LRTAP Convention will see 40 years since its inception in December, growing from 32 countries to now 51 Parties, and giving birth to eight protocols which have set emission reduction commitments through the decades, including Gothenburg.

UNECE has recognized that the LRTAP and its protocols have reached achievements that are “unparalleled”, from decoupling emissions and economic growth, cutting back certain air pollutants by 40 to 80 per cent, recovering forest soils from acidification, and avoiding some 600,000 premature deaths per year.

In another bid to protect human health and the environment this week, a group of more than 100 scientific experts have advised the elimination of a new group of hazardous chemicals, during the 15th meeting of the Stockholm Pollutant Review Committee (POPRC-15).

The compounds Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) and its salts, which are widely used in a number of consumer goods from carpets to clothing and leather, have shown to be detrimental to the human nervous system, brain development and endocrine system and thyroid hormone.

A follow-up 2020 meeting will further review impacts of two additional hazardous chemicals, Dechlorane Plus and Methoxychlor, taking into account the substances’ toxic impact on humans and wildlife, which would lead action toward their elimination, or reduction in production and use.

This story was originally published by UN News

The post Ground-breaking Clean Air Protocol to Guard Human Health and the Planet, Enters into Force appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Can Cities Save the World?

Fri, 10/04/2019 - 19:01

The post Can Cities Save the World? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

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