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Daud Khan, Ahmed Raza and Mahnoor Malik speak to a young immigrant in Italy about his journey to Europe

By Daud Khan
ROME, May 11 2021 (IPS)

We met 22-year old Ali B. in a park in Rome’s city center on a rather cold and windy April evening. We could not share a meal, or even a coffee, as all restaurants were shut due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions. He had travelled down from Cerveteri (a small town about 50km north of Rome) where he works for an old couple. They provide boarding and lodging as well as a decent salary and social security benefits. In return, he has to cook for them and look after the kitchen.

Ali B.

Ali’s calm demeanor belies the arduous life he has lived. From losing a parent early in life to migrating to Italy at the tender age of sixteen, he has experienced serious hardships. Admirably, he has not let these experiences deter his ambition. When not at work, Ali spends time studying – he is keen to complete a high school diploma. He also contributes part of his time to writing a book about his experiences.

We decided to tell Ali’s story not only because it is moving but also inspirational. Most importantly, he embodies a spirit of independence and of courage for taking destiny in his own hands – making the most of whatever life has given him. He is also an example for Pakistani migrants in Italy. In the few years he has been here, he has shown what one can achieve by opening up to a new culture.

Given that Ali arrived in Italy at an impressionable age, he easily assimilated to the Italian way of life. Unlike many of his compatriots from Pakistan, his language skills and comfort with the Italian norms and customs has helped in integrating with locals and their culture. Talk of Pakistan, his life there or its culture does not invoke any strong nostalgia in him. Rather it reminds him of economic hardships and the life-threatening journey he embarked on a few years ago.

We asked him what the journey to Europe was like.

He told us that the journey started on a bus from his hometown close to Sheikhupura to Lahore, and then by train to Karachi. There, he met up with others and a group of 40 young men and boys was put on a small launch which took them to Iran. From there they travelled on foot, or by car and bus, to Turkey and eventually to Greece. At each leg, the group got larger or smaller as others joined or left – depending on the logistics of the next stage.

The journey to Greece took about three to four weeks and over this period he had about 10 handlers. Luckily for Ali, the handlers, many of whom were Iranians, were a generally humane lot. The travelers were usually provided food, a clean place to sleep and reasonable facilities. Most important, they were not mistreated in any significant way, as happens often on the human trafficking routes through North Africa where depravation, as well as physical and sexual violence are common.

We asked him why he chose Italy once he entered the European Union.

He said that upon arriving in Greece, he stayed in a camp managed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for over a month. At that time Angela Merkel’s government was making arrangements to allow groups of Syrian refugees to enter Germany. Ali and four other Pakistanis decided to mingle with the Syrians and found themselves on a bus headed to Austria. In Vienna, they were given train tickets to Germany.

The Pakistani boys realized that sooner or later the German authorities would find out that they were not Syrians and they would face an uncertain future. One of them managed to contact a cousin who was an agricultural laborer near Rome. Based on this short call, Ali and his small group decided that they were better off separating from the Syrians. Not having any money, they had to travel without tickets. Quite predictably they got caught by the railway staff and thrown off the train several times before they eventually ended up in Rome.

The “cousin” picked up the four of them and took them to Latina, an important hub for the production of fruits and vegetables for the Rome market. Many Pakistanis, often without any papers, work in the fields there. But Ali was only 16, a “minor” and generally even unscrupulous employers are hesitant to take them on. The next morning, Ali was put on a bus and advised to contact the police, inform them that he was a minor and ask for help.

So here was this 16 year old boy, cold, hungry, reduced to below 50 kilos, with long unkempt hair at Rome’s central railway station. No money, nor a word of Italian – and no documents except a birth certificate (janam pathrii).

We asked him what was the most frightening thing about this journey.

“In Iran we travelled for one night and a day in the boot of a car. I was with another rather big person. It was not only very uncomfortable but also frightening being in the dark for so many hours. Another time, Iranian police chased us and our handlers dumped us in an apple orchard and told us to hide among the trees. The Iranian apples are very nice, and we stuffed our stomachs and pockets.”

“But the really hair-raising part of the journey was when we had to cross a high mountain pass from Iran into Turkey. We joined a number of other small groups and were 40 people, including women, children and old people. The crossing was at night. It was very cold and the paths were icy and treacherous. I recall that a few people fell off the path and given the conditions, it was unlikely that they were rescued. I was terrified of falling off and being left behind.”

His recount is overwhelming and makes us wonder why a teenager from a relatively sound socio-economic background would dare to take such a plunge. So, we ask him what led him to leave home?

He revealed that hostile environments within the household coupled with limited economic prospects in his hometown drove him towards Europe.

“My mother passed away when I was thirteen. My father was preoccupied with managing his small plot of land and five buffaloes and had little time for me and my siblings. He remarried and I was sent to live with my paternal uncle. It was a hard and lonely time.”

“I did not get much schooling and never had time or energy to play with other children, or even to watch TV or listen to the radio. Next came a job in a local factory that manufactured parts for tractors. In addition to the factory work, I had to continue to look after my uncle’s small dairy enterprise. It was an unexciting and dull life and I was always tired.” He does not delve into more details. It is clear that this was a challenging period in his life.

Now in 2021, there is nothing dull or unexciting about Ali. He has friends from all over the globe, some of whom he met in learning centers funded by the government and international NGOs. He owns a smartphone, maintains a healthy social media presence and even runs a small business online selling silk-screened T-shirts.

We asked him when he did make the decision to leave.

“Working all the time, I knew nothing of a wider world. The decision to leave was made for me. One of my uncles, not the one I was staying with, but another one who often traveled and moved around with city folk, suggested we sell my late mother’s jewelry to finance my trip to Europe – I recall hearing we paid about Rs3-4 lakhs (about US$3-4,000 at the time). And so I was given a little case with a few clothes and some cash (I think it was about Rs5-10,000), and was sent off to Karachi. It was the last time I saw my home, my neighborhood or my relatives.”

We asked him what were the most important factors behind integration in Italy.

“The most important factor is language – we must learn Italian,” he said. “I was given the chance to learn in a center called Civico Zero in Rome. It is funded by Save the Children. They also helped me register for the various courses which helped me get a job. With language and a job, I have a chance to build a life for myself.”

We asked him if there was anyone who was instrumental in making him who he was today.

“Many people were kind to me. There were many people from NGOs working in various shelters – their dedication to helping me was incredible. There was a family in Rome who used to come by and take me out on weekends and buy me ice-cream. There were several Pakistanis, some were second generation and others who were here for a long time, who helped me realize how lucky I was to be in Italy and the importance of integration. All these people showed me more love and kindness than I got from my family. Now I have friends from all over the world, many of whom I met in shelters and while doing various courses. I am lucky.”

We asked him what were the activities and things he enjoyed the most.

“When I was at CivicoZero, I discovered theatre. I wrote and performed a 45-minute solo piece on my trip from Pakistan. I had no idea what theatre was or that anyone would be interested in what I had to say. I was wonderful. That was what made me start on my book – I want people to know my story.”

“Also it is nice in the countryside where I live, but I want to move back to Rome or another big city. There is so much to do in a city and so easy to meet people which I really enjoy.”

The writers are Pakistanis who work and live in Rome. This is the second in a series of articles on Pakistanis in Italy

Source: The Friday Times, Pakistan

 

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Excerpt:

Daud Khan, Ahmed Raza and Mahnoor Malik speak to a young immigrant in Italy about his journey to Europe

Justus Kimeu on his farm in Kithiani village, Makueni County, Kenya. By using the regenerative agriculture (RA) technique this farmer produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season. Almost 900 farmers in Kenya's two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni are participating in a pilot project to see how regenerative agriculture can be used to improve food productivity. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
MAKUENI, Kenya, May 11 2021 (IPS)

It is an uncommon occurrence to see farms with flourishing healthy crops in Kenya’s semi-arid Makueni County. But in Kithiani village, Justus Kimeu’s two-acre piece of land stands out from the rest. After embracing the regenerative agriculture (RA) technique, the 52-year-old farmer is looking forward to a bumper harvest of maize as all his neighbours count their losses following this year’s failed season.

“I have been a farmer for many years, but I have never seen such a healthy crop during such a dry season,” Kimeu told IPS. “All the road users who pass by this farm can hardly go away without stopping to have a second look at a crop that has defied the prevailing tough climatic conditions.”

Kimeu is one of 900 farmers in Kenya’s two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni who are participating in a pilot project to see how RA can be used to improve food productivity.

The technique, which is being piloted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is a dynamic and holistic way of farming that involves all the principals of permaculture and organic farming, such as minimum tillage, use of cover crops, crop rotation, terracing to reduce soil erosion, heavy mulching to keep the soils moist, use of basins to preserve soil moisture and the use of composted manure to give the topsoil the texture of a virgin fertile arable land.

“The main theory of this technique is actually to return the topsoil back to its original state,” Michael Mutua, an associate program officer in charge of RA at AGRA, told IPS. “Instead of feeding the crop, we concentrate on feeding the soil,” he said.

According the Food Sustainability Index created by Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) and the Economist Intelligence Unit, increased adoption of regenerative farm practices reduces carbon emissions during cultivation and sequesters carbon into the soil.

In a proposal of 10 interdisciplinary actions to finding ways to nourish both people and the planet post-COVID-19, one of the suggestions by BCFN was that the world develop internationally agreed-upon standards for RA practices and agroecology, as well as common definitions for healthy and sustainable food systems and food.

BCFN experts further acknowledged that regenerative and agroecological agricultural practices have the potential to boost soil health, preserve water resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To popularise the new farming technique in Kenya, AGRA collaborated with the two county governments of Makueni and Embu, and with the Cereal Growers Association (CGA) to identify lead farmers.

The farmers were then trained on RA practices and were supported to create plots known as ‘mother demos’.

“A mother demo is actually a place for farmers’ practical lessons,” said Mutua. “It consists of four plots, where one plot is done using all the recommended RA practices, the second one using farming methods commonly used in the area, the third one is by using part of the regenerative agriculture principles, and the fourth one is the control plot, where the same crop is planted without any agronomic practice,” he explained.

Each farmer then recruited up to 100 smallholder farmers from the neighbourhood to teach them from the mother demo. Once the farmers felt confident, they returned to their own farms to set up a baby demo, which is a single plot using all the principles of AR.

“Nearly all our farmers are at the baby demo stage,” said Mutua. “But a few bold ones like Kimeu went straight to implementation without doing a small demo for the learning purpose,” he said.

According to Kimeu, the lessons at the mother demo stage were sufficient, “and doing a baby demo for him, would amount to a wasted season,” he told IPS.

“When I decided to implement this technique, my farm was bare without much vegetation. So I started by making terraces and after it rained, different weeds sprouted. Together with my household members we manually uprooted all the weeds and left them on the farm to dry and decompose before making small basins in which we were going to plant the crop,” explained the farmer.

The basins were then filled with organic manure and some topsoil. And when it rained for the second time, hybrid drought tolerant maize variety seeds were planted inside the moist basins and any weed that sprouted was manually uprooted and left to dry and rot on the farm.

“We try as much as possible to avoid tillage or any form of disturbing the soil for it to regenerate naturally to its original form,” Kimeu said, noting that he also avoided use of conventional fertilisers.

With regenerative agriculture, weeds are used to form part of the soil. Farmer Justus Kimeu produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season using this farming technique. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Almost 900 farmers from the two counties are expected to graduate from the baby demo stage and implement RA during the 2021/2022 season. “If well implemented, it will more than double food security among the participating households,” said Mutua.

Bob Kisyula, the Makueni County Minister of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, told IPS: “If our smallholder farmers could embrace these techniques and produce such healthy crops, then we will never need alms and food aid even in the toughest seasons.” 

Kisyula said that the County Government also invested in rippers, which are used to ensure that there is minimum disturbance of the soil as part of the RA approach.

Today, Kimeu has become a role model and a village hero.

“In this short period, I have been approached by hundreds of farmers from my village and other places who are seeking to understand how the technique works,” he said.

 

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Credit: UNICEF/Nahom Tesfaye

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 11 2021 (IPS)

Thanks to President Biden, the US now supports a suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights to increase vaccine supplies. However, without vaccine developers sharing tacit technical knowledge for safe vaccine mass production, it will be difficult to rapidly scale up vaccine output.

Waiver delayed is waiver denied
The CEOs of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca had recently asked the US President to reject the waiver request. Nevertheless, on 5 May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced US support for a vaccine waiver. The hope is that many, mainly rich countries will now stop opposing the developing country waiver proposal.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver request by South Africa and India also includes COVID-19 tests, treatments and personal protective equipment (PPE), albeit only for the duration of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) remains grossly underfunded, and thus unable to achieve most of its objectives. Many developing countries are still not even able to effectively do mass testing to ascertain those infected and follow up measures.

The developing world also faces huge supply gaps, and hence, long delays in treatment. Many ‘frontline workers’ in poor countries remain poorly protected. All this, of course, adversely compromises the world’s ability to contain the pandemic.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Foot dragging for profit
The waiver request is clearly very specific, modest and limited. Affordably producing the other non-vaccine needs is still desperately needed. Involving patents, they are immediately actionable. Hence, it is crucial for the US to support the full waiver request.

As the WTO waiver requires unanimous approval by its members, there is likely to be much foot dragging. Furthermore, even if WTO member states eventually reach a consensus on approving the waiver in principle, there is probably going to be further procrastination in negotiating details.

The WTO Director-General hopes to get a decision by December despite the likely difficulties of achieving consensus. Already, the European Union has registered doubts. Hence, many fear the new US position is unlikely to boost supply quickly.

Vaccine monopolies not yet IP dependent
Getting vaccine developers to actually share the technical information required to rapidly scale up vaccine production can be challenging. After all, no successful vaccine developer has joined the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative to share such knowledge.

There are likely to be many changes to experimental vaccines in response to new knowledge, mutations and problems. Hence, IP per se may not be the most urgent obstacle to improving access to vaccines, even without developers ‘evergreening’ patents.

Patent details must be filed within 18 months, effectively an eternity in trying to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. But patent disclosures do not contain ‘trade secrets’ and other ‘tacit’ technical knowledge essential for quickly increasing vaccine output.

Vaccine profits kill
Pfizer’s CEO now projects a steady massive revenue stream as COVID-19 becomes endemic, e.g., requiring vaccine boosters. Unless the pandemic is globally contained, it will continue to threaten the world. While reducing the likelihood of severe infection, existing vaccines do not provide full protection against infection.

Vaccine developers — especially the major pharmaceutical transnational corporations — have already been dictating prices and other terms to customers. However, as their monopoly powers are not yet reliant on patents, suspending their IP rights does not ensure urgent access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Monopolies allow companies to almost unilaterally determine prices. ‘Super-profits’ can thus be secured with patents. Despite pioneering anti-trust law over a century ago, the US — the largest producer and market for many patented products — has no laws against ‘price gouging’, implying few checks on pricing practices.

Last week, Pfizer announced that prices of vaccines sold to the European Union will increase by 60% although development of its vaccine was heavily subsidised by the German government. Earlier, it announced an increase in sales revenue of over 70%, pushing up its share price and executive remuneration.

The current vaccination delay has been projected to cause an additional 2.5 million deaths! Delays are likely to allow more virus mutations, further setting back global herd immunity. This will mean many more infections and deaths as well as economic and other losses due to the pandemic and policy responses.

TRIPS discourages knowledge sharing
Until TRIPS, there were many technology transfer agreements with developing country governments, voluntarily negotiated by companies. But since 1995, TRIPS has induced more reluctance to share knowledge, retarding technological progress.

Refusal to share technology is the biggest stumbling block to rapidly ensuring global access to vaccines. Multilateral cooperation is urgently needed, not corporate or national greed.

But not a single major company has signed up to C-TAP, the WHO initiative for knowledge sharing to address the pandemic, ignoring Dr Anthony Fauci’s appeal to them to do so.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates and others misleadingly claim that developing countries do not have the capacity or ability to produce vaccines safely. Presuming developing countries’ lack of competence and capacity, without bothering to verify, provides yet another excuse for further delay.

In fact, many developing countries have previously produced vaccines. Of course, not all will be able to produce particular vaccines due to their specific technical requirements.

Existing COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental, only receiving conditional approval for emergency use. The urgent need to mitigate the severity of pandemic infections with such vaccines, after only Phase Two trials, is also the pretext for indemnity clauses in sales contracts.

Globalisation in recent decades has involved internationalisation of supply chains, with even high-tech corporations establishing sophisticated facilities in poor developing countries. But suddenly, developing countries are all dismissed as wanting.

Accelerate vaccinations for all
Late last month, President Biden reiterated his presidential campaign pledge to share COVID-19 “technology with other countries” and to “ensure there are no patents to stand in the way of other countries and companies mass producing those life-saving vaccines”.

The Biden administration must use its discretionary powers to accelerate needed progress. Besides making clear US WTO TRIPS waiver support for tests, treatments and PPE, the US has to compel vaccine companies to share the knowledge needed to quickly scale up safe vaccine production.

The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act applies to Moderna’s vaccine, publicly funded by Operation Warp Speed. The US government can require Moderna to fully honour President Biden’s original promise to share vaccine technology. After all, Moderna has promised not to profit from the pandemic.

 

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Justice Motlhabani, left, and Letsogile Barupi, followed by Oratile Dikologang, leave the magistrate’s court in Gaborone, Botswana, on April 14, 2020. (Mmegi/Thalefang Charles via Committee to Protect Journalists, New York)

By Jonathan Rozen
NEW YORK, May 11 2021 (IPS)

Oratile Dikologang was naked when police officers pulled black plastic over his head during his detention in April 2020. It was difficult to breathe, but the interrogation continued, he told CPJ in a recent phone interview.

“What are your sources, where do you get information,” he recalled them asking repeatedly. “It was the most painful experience,” he said.

Dikologang, the digital editor and co-founder of the Botswana People’s Daily News website, and two others still face jail time in relation to Facebook posts that police were investigating when they hauled the three in for questioning.

CPJ documented the incidents, and made several attempts to reach representatives of the government and police in Botswana for comment. Dikologang denies responsibility for the Facebook posts at the heart of the case, and said that police questioned him about his own reporting.

Dikologang told CPJ that he refused to reveal his sources – but he did provide the password to his phone. Police then “successfully extracted” and “thoroughly analyzed” thousands of the journalist’s messages, contacts, images, audio files, and videos, as well social media accounts and applications, according to an affidavit that they submitted to court to support the ongoing prosecution.

Other police documents reviewed by CPJ say Orange Botswana provided mobile account information for Dikologang and his co-accused, as well as another newspaper editor who was questioned during the investigation.

To examine the phone, police used a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) sold by Israel-based Cellebrite and a Forensic Toolkit (FTK) from U.S.-based AccessData, according to the affidavit from the Botswana Police Service Digital Forensics Laboratory, which CPJ reviewed.

Websites run by the two companies advertise their technologies’ utility for extracting information from phones and computers, as well as breaking into locked devices and decrypting information.

The search of a journalist’s phone in detention exemplifies the threat digital forensics technologies pose to privacy and press freedom around the world. CPJ has previously identified the acquisition of UFED and FTK in Nigeria, and of UFED and similar tools in Ghana – both countries where journalists report having their devices seized and being interrogated about their sources. And police in Myanmar used UFED to extract information from jailed Reuters reporters, The Washington Post reported in 2019.

“It’s a huge breach for a journalist,” Outsa Mokone, the editor of Botswana’s Sunday Standard newspaper, whose devices were taken when he was arrested in 2014, told CPJ in a phone interview this month. “We can’t protect our sources if our phones are seized.”

Dikologang was arrested alongside Justice Motlhabani, a spokesperson for an opposition political party at the time – who told CPJ that police tasered him during interrogation – and Letsogile Barupi, a university student who ran the Facebook page identified in the charges.

The police affidavit says that in February 2020, well before the arrests took place, a senior officer had ordered that their devices be searched for information about “offensive” Facebook posts. Barupi and Motlhabani also told CPJ that they gave police the passwords to their devices and accounts during interrogation in April.

Facebook pages they operated were subsequently disabled, they said, and CPJ has not been able to review the posts they were questioned about.

“This thing has sent shivers down the people who take journalism seriously,” the Standard’s deputy editor Spencer Mogapi told CPJ. Mogapi, who is also editor of local newspaper The Telegraph and chairman of the Botswana Editors Forum, said he was also questioned in the case because of messages he had exchanged with Motlhabani, which officers presented to him in a printout. He said he had known Motlhabani for years and was not charged in the case.

Police obtained the identity attached to Mogapi’s phone number in a “subscriber report” from his mobile company Orange Botswana, according to separate police documents submitted to court by the prosecution and reviewed by CPJ.

“It’s shocking,” Mogapi said when CPJ informed him of the report this month. “I don’t know what they have on me, what information they have about my contacts,” he said.

The documents say Orange Botswana also identified accounts owned by the three men facing charges and provided an “activity log” from Dikologang’s; a company representative previously told CPJ by email that they “comply with all court orders” and cannot disclose details to third parties.

In a follow-up email regarding Mogapi’s subscriber report, Orange Botswana said CPJ should direct questions to the police in Botswana.

Reached by phone in April 2021, Morwakwena Tlhobolo, the police officer who conducted the forensic searches and submitted the affidavit, said he was not able to answer questions without senior approval.

When CPJ called back, a person who answered the phone at the police forensics lab said that Tlhobolo was not permitted to respond.

Botswana police spokesperson Dipheko Motube has told CPJ before that he could not comment on the case because it was before the court, something he reiterated in response to a message about Mogapi.

Cellebrite responded to CPJ’s questions by email in April via representatives of Fusion Public Relations company. “We have multiple checks and balances to ensure our technology is used as intended. We require that agencies and governments that use our technology uphold the standards of international human rights law,” the email said.

“When our technology is used in a manner that does not meet international law or does not comply with Cellebrite’s values, we take swift and appropriate action, including terminating agreements,” the email said. Cellebrite declined to comment on “any specifics” involving their customers or the use of their technology.

On April 8, Cellebrite, which is owned by the Japan-based Sun Corporation, announced it would go public via a shell company and be listed on Nasdaq, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In an emailed response to CPJ’s questions, Sun Corporation said, “We are very sorry to hear about what happened, however we are afraid that we are not prepared to provide any comments, where there is no evidence provided.” CPJ asked what kind of evidence would warrant a response, but received no reply.

AccessData and its parent company, Exterro, did not respond to questions CPJ emailed in mid-April to addresses listed on their websites and to two people who identified themselves as Exterro marketing representatives on LinkedIn.

CPJ called AccessData’s offices in the U.S. but was unable to connect to a representative. A voicemail CPJ left on the company’s U.K. phone number in May was not returned before publication. In early May, a person who answered the phone at Exterro’s U.K. office said they would find someone to respond to questions, but did not return CPJ’s call before publication.

“This affects my work,” Dikologang told CPJ of the incident. “Since [my sources] know the phone has been taken by the state, maybe they will be afraid to give information.”

*Jonathan Rozen is CPJ’s senior Africa researcher. Previously, he worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Canada with the Institute for Security Studies, assessing Mozambican peace-building processes. Rozen was a U.N. correspondent for IPS News and has written for Al-Jazeera English and the International Peace Institute.

 

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In one of Africa's largest countries, people worry more about security and other diseases than Covid-19.

Defending champions Nigeria will face rivals Ghana in the first round of qualifying for the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations.

A man dies from burns after perfume is sprayed near a lit candle during a prayer service.

By External Source
May 10 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Melissa Fleming is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Global Communications – taking up her functions as of 1 September 2019 – and oversees operations in 60 countries and platforms that reach millions of people in multiple languages.

From 2009 until August 2019, Ms. Fleming served UNHCR as Head of Global Communications and Spokesperson for the High Commissioner. At UNHCR, she led global media outreach campaigns, social media engagement and a multimedia news service to distribute and place stories designed to generate greater empathy and stir action for refugees.

Ms. Fleming is a frequent interview guest on international media platforms and her talks are featured on TED.com. She is author of the book, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea, and host of the award-winning podcast, Awake at Night.

Ms. Fleming joined UNHCR from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where she served for eight years as Spokesperson and Head of Media and Outreach. Prior to IAEA, she headed the Press and Public Information team at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Earlier still, she was Public Affairs Specialist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, having started her career as a journalist. From 2016 to 2017, she also served as Senior Adviser and Spokesperson on the incoming United Nations Secretary General’s Transition Team.

Ms. Fleming holds a Master of Science in Journalism from the College of Communication, Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies from Oberlin College.

In a recent interview for the Awake at Night podcast, Ms. Fleming sat down with Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif to learn more about the mission of the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, and ECW’s movement to reach the world’s most marginalized children and youth.

Please find below ECW’s new, compelling and inspiring interview with Melissa Fleming.

ECW: You have dedicated your life to bringing awareness to the world of those left furthest behind – refugees and other forcibly displaced populations. You have worked around the globe reporting on their challenges and the need for compassion, you created and manage an award-winning podcast “Awake at Night” to share the work of UN officials in crisis-affected countries and you are leading the United Nations public information efforts to advance multilateralism and solidarity under the UN Charter. Please tell us what inspired you and keeps inspiring you to take this path in life?

Melissa Fleming: We spend most of our waking hours working for a living. From the start of my career, it was important for me to also live for the work I am doing. The best way I could find to use my talents to contribute was to communicate – not just in facts and figures, but in stories. And not just stories of suffering and death, but of resilience and hope. There is a saying – ‘statistics are human beings with the tears dried off.’ If we are going to build bridges of compassion to people who need our help, we need to stir hearts, produce wet tears and inspire giving.

ECW: Prior to COVID-19, the estimation of children and youth with their education disrupted amounted to 75 million. As a result of COVID-19, the estimation is today 128 million. In other words, the number of children and youth deprived of a quality education in crisis is rapidly growing. Why do you consider education or SDG4 such an essential service among all SDGs to those who suffer from forced displacement, armed conflicts and climate-induced disasters?

Melissa Fleming: It is deeply traumatizing for anyone to have to flee their homes, leaving the safety of their homes, the comforts of their community and the foundations of their past for a scary unknown. But for children, also being forced to leave their schools and friends and teachers behind is a calamity. That is why emergency schooling is so critical – not just so children can continue to nurture their minds, but also to give them a place of healing and hope.

ECW: You are also a staunch supporter of the UN-hosted Fund Education Cannot Wait, which is dedicated to those left furthest behind. ECW’s investments to date have reached millions of children and youth in crisis, and the Fund has dedicated 50 per cent of its investments to those forcibly displaced from their homes and countries. Could you please elaborate on your belief and trust in the Education Cannot Wait Fund and its positive influence in serving those left furthest behind and the United Nations mission?

Melissa Fleming: I served for 10 years at UNHCR and it pained me to see that education programs for refugee and displaced children were acutely underfunded. Not funding refugee education, I felt, was not just shortsighted, it was also dumb. During my visits to refugee camps and settlements, I have always thought, ‘If they knew them, they would care and if they cared, they would increase funding.’ What if they met Hany, a Syrian refugee teen who – when given only minutes to decide what to take with him when he had to flee – chose his high school diploma? A talented young man who was on track to go to university and become an engineer, who realized that certificate held the key to his future. Who, after two years living in a shack in a muddy field in Lebanon, told me: ‘If I am not a student, I am nothing.’

The Education Cannot Wait Fund is clearly filling a critical gap, so refugee children no longer have to languish, but can return to learning and heal from their trauma at the same time. I believe such investments in refugee children are also a strategic investment in a future of peace. That Education Cannot Wait is hosted by the UN system is also an illustration of how the United Nations moves with speed, delivers quality and with real results.

ECW: The United Nations Secretary-General, António Gutteres, the United Nations Deputy-Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, as well as the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, consider education a foundational right and priority for the United Nations and work in partnership with the World Bank, the European Union and the African Union, among others, to achieve SDG4 as a means of achieving all SDGs. How can you, as the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, help advance the United Nations ambitions and outreach among UN Member States and the private sector to achieve greater awareness and commitment to increase financial resources for education for refugees, internally displaced and other crisis-affected young people?

Melissa Fleming: Hearing about mass suffering and the millions of children out of school can generate shock and concern. But it can also cause people to shut off. When the problem seems too big to contemplate, it can make big refugee crises feel impersonal, and take away the sense that something can be done. The key to generate compassion and donations is to make this crisis relatable. What if this were your child? What does education mean to you? We universally love children and we instinctively want to protect them. What is effective for fundraising is relatable storytelling that connects to a potential donors’ own experience, with examples of the transformation that a contribution to education will bring. It is also inspiring to invite people to join an incredible coalition of Education Cannot Wait’s existing donors, advocates and partners.

But refugee crises are not just about numbers. They are about human beings.

ECW: You are the author of a very compassionate, highly successful and most relevant book in today’s world: A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival. You are a role model for all UN staff, and also an example of one of our most creative and empathetic women leaders in the UN. Please tell us a bit more about your book. What is your message and what can we all learn from it?

Melissa Fleming: I met so many remarkable refugees in my work, but there is one who, for me, is a real-life hero: Doaa Al Zamel, who survived one of the worst shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea. 500 of her fellow passengers, including the love of her life, her fiancé, drowned in front of her eyes. And when she was rescued, after four days and four nights on just a child’s swim ring floating in the middle of the Mediterranean, she had managed to save a little baby. I first told that story at the TED stage and then I wrote it in detail in a non-fiction account. And, my proudest moment was when I saw it first in print on a bookshelf in Barnes & Noble, at Union Square in New York City, which was the first stop of my book tour. Now it is optioned for a film, all a sign that people are hungry for individual human stories of remarkable survival, resilience and hope. There are millions of refugee stories that have these elements. They just need to be told.

ECW: Any final comments or inspirational words from you?

Melissa Fleming: I often think of this quote by Maya Angelou as an inspiration for our communications: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

 

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More than 100 people apply for asylum, as concern mounts over the conflict in Tigray.

By Benjamin Larroquette and Reina Otsuka
NEW YORK, May 10 2021 (IPS)

Data, analysis and information are essential building blocks in our race to save humanity from the clear and present risks posed by the climate crisis.

We are headed on a crash course with oblivion, and we need take definitive and far-reaching action if we are going to protect our people and our planet from the devastating impacts of rising seas, spiking temperatures, extreme weather and other climate impacts that are derailing human, social and economic development worldwide.

Benjamin Larroquette

The only problem is that we live in a world of digital haves and have nots. Simply put, we must bridge the digital divide and we must build more effective and actionable climate risk assessments if we are going to save humanity from the truly existential risk of this vast and complicated crisis.

Climate risk assessments will future-proof investments for the next 30 years and provide the evidence we need to achieve the targets for low-carbon climate-resilient development outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Understanding the challenge

While we are making progress in improving our ability to model climate change, there are still large gaps in the overlay of vulnerability, environmental and weather data that hinder our ability to accurately assess future risks and build effective models at the local, regional and global levels.

In Africa just 26 percent of weather monitoring stations met WMO reporting requirements as of 2019. Across the developing world, climate data is still being recorded by hand. These data sets go back 30 plus years. But with no way to validate its veracity, it offers very little to aid us as we work to clearly map and plan for various climate scenarios.

Our failure to accurately capture and analyze climate and weather data is putting lives at risk and derailing development gains.

Reina Otsuka

According to the WMO, “around 108 million people required help from the international humanitarian system as a result of storms, floods, droughts and wildfires in 2018. By 2030, it is estimated that this number could increase by almost 50 percent at a cost of around US$20 billion a year. The situation is particularly acute in small island developing states (SIDs) and least developed countries (LDCs). Since 1970, SIDS have lost US$153 billion due to weather, climate and water related hazards – a significant amount given that the average GDP for SIDS is US$13.7 billion. Meanwhile, 1.4 million people (70 percent of the total deaths) in LDCs lost their lives due to weather, climate and water related hazards in that time period.”

Bridging the digital divide

Progress is underway. In Malawi, data sets dating back decades are now being digitized, hydromet stations are sending live actionable data via the cloud, and public-private partnerships are allowing for increased analysis of climate data. This means poor rural farmers can improve profits and change their practices to adapt to new climate scenarios. It means the government can futureproof large infrastructure investments.

In Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia and other sub-Saharan African nations, low-cost automatic weather stations are being deployed to improve the collection of localized data, private-sector partnerships are improving the capture and analysis information, and vulnerable communities are benefiting from actionable early warnings and climate information.

Governments in Asia and the Pacific are making important steps in integrating data analysis into ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to proactively respond to and plan for multiple vulnerabilities. In the Philippines combined mangrove and coastal ecosystem impact is being assessed to protect vulnerable cities. In Viet Nam, geospatial assessment of flood impact is protecting rural infrastructure. In Tuvalu, new data is being collected via state-of-the-art LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, technology, to better understand the topography a unique weather patterns of the country’s atoll islands.

And while large gaps still exist, and more funding is needed, there are ways to apply low-tech solutions with high-tech know-how to leap-frog technologies and apply a new vision for weather and climate services.

The same way Africa skipped providing landlines and now can rely on mobile phones, so too can they use mobile networks to collect and share information, satellite and lightning data can improve cross-border information sharing, rainfade technology can be applied to improve weather forecasts, automated weather stations can be installed on cell-phone towers to ensure energy, security and transmission of information. With far reaching mobile connection, we can now reach the most remote farmers with important climate information and agricultural advisories.

By bringing together resources and know-how from the private sector, new technologies and new ways of working, there is a chance to bridge the digital divide and pave the way for a climate-resilient future.

Benjamin Larroquette is a Regional Technical Advisor for UNDP’s Nature, Climate and Energy team, with a focus on climate information, early warning systems and climate change adaptation.

Reina Otsuka, a Digital Innovation Specialist for UNDP’s Nature Climate and Energy team, is passionate about facilitating innovation processes and the application of digital technologies for sustainable development.

 

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A Christian monk is hanged for killing the head of desert monastery in 2018.

Colombia was one of the first countries in the Americas to receive the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility. Credit: PAHO/Karen González

By Riccardo Petrella and Roberto Savio
BRUSSELS / ROME, May 10 2021 (IPS)

The news of the Biden Administration’s willingness to lift intellectual property rights protections in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic has sent the world into turmoil, even though in recent days this willingness had become increasingly airy.

Big step forward? Victory for the “South” and the movements that have been fighting for this (including, for more than a year, the Agora of the Earth’s Inhabitants – agora-humanite.org – even though from the beginning we considered that the provisional suspension was a “par défaut” solution)?

Are we experiencing humanitarian compassion and confirmed dominance of the rich over the poor?

Interesting aspects

The position taken by Biden constitutes the change expected by the world. The media pressure on Biden and on the Democratic representatives in Congress was so strong that a negative or uncertain response would have cost Biden a great deal in terms of his global image. The language and form were also good, in total contrast to the previous administration. Biden did not disappoint.

Second point. He has given a breath of hope and credibility back to the ‘international community’ in a dramatic phase for the entire world population. We are still a long way from the “All Brothers” of Pope Francis, but the Catholic Biden has not failed to wink at his Pope’s public incitement

Finally, he forced the EU to follow suit. Yesterday, for the first time in many years of rejection, the EU also declared itself willing to discuss it.

Crucial aspects

The fact is that on the substance the change is not so evident.

Why? Let us examine carefully the statement of Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)

1. The statement begins with yet another statement of faith on the protection of intellectual property rights. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in services of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines”.

No dissociation from the founding principles of the dominant economy, nor a clear and open contrast with the world of business and the pharmaceutical industry, especially American. Moreover, the support given is rather restrictive, limited only to anti-Covid-19 vaccines. By introducing such a restriction in a very complex scientific and technological field (the production of basic materials indispensable to vaccine production, for example, is excluded), the effective possibilities of suspending protection are considerably reduced.

2. Article 31 of the WTO-TRIPS treaties provides for the possibility of waiving the protection of intellectual property in the event of serious needs and for public intervention. We mention in particular the “compulsory licence”, which authorises a State to allow the “local” production of all therapeutic tools (tests/diagnoses, medicines, vaccines…) without the consent of the companies holding the patents. In fact, this is the first time that the United States has not been generous but has shown that it accepts the respect of those WTO-Trips rules that it had always, since 1995, fought against because they were considered contrary to its interests.

In other words, the important ‘political’ change is that the United States, from being disrespectful of international treaties that do not suit them, has become a state that is willing, in the case of Covid-19 vaccines, to discuss how to apply the existing rules. The treaties, moreover, already specify the conditions under which exceptions to the protection of intellectual property can be applied. If one adds the above-mentioned restriction, one has to admit that the US position is rather tortuous and bizarre. But why do they do it?

3. A possible answer is given in the official statement. The US does not commit itself to anything specific. They say “We will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the WTO need to make that happen”, and correctly state that “These negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved”. That is, the US does not say, “well, as of tomorrow we will apply the rules of provisional suspension according to the conditions mentioned in the Treaties”. No, the statement insists that the negotiations will take a long time. How long? Three months, a year, three years? According to experts in the field, it will take, if all goes well, almost a year to rewrite the rules. And in the meantime?

4. It is clear from this that the real strategy of the US is to prioritise logistical and financial solutions concerning essentially the production of vaccines, their distribution and marketing at affordable prices, especially for the 92 low-income countries and other middle-income countries in increasing economic difficulty. The statement says “The Administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.

As our vaccines supply for the American people is secured, the Administration will continue to rump up its efforts – working with the private sector and all possible partners – to expand a vaccine manufacturing and distribution. It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce these vaccines”.

Considering the problem and solutions of the health crisis as a problem of production, supply and purchase, market prices and consumer solvency is typically an American/capitalist approach.

As is the appeal that since the security of supply of vaccines for the American people has been guaranteed, the US will increase its efforts to increase the production and distribution of vaccines at affordable prices paid for by the public authorities. Well, we have some difficulty in assessing this as a major step forward.

A mainly public health policy and solutions to the dramatic pandemic go beyond the processes of vaccine production and consumption. No opening is made for a public vision of the pharmaceutical industry and the world health system.

Vaccines, and first and foremost knowledge/science/, remain private under patent ownership. The market remains the principle and the fundamental regulatory mechanism. The financial imperatives of the market dictate the choices of the public authorities.

Hence the absence of any mention of the fact that the central axis of world health policy must shift from the rules on trade (WTO) to the rules on universal rights to health and the health system under the responsibility of public international bodies such as WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO…).

According to the American government, states are there to ensure the proper functioning of health markets, and to defend the security of their citizens in the context of a ‘world economic governance’ dominated by the rules of the WTO and the World Bank. The richer states have the task of helping the poorer ones. See the role of Covax and its probable financial strengthening.

We remain in the midst of the structural dualism of “rich and poor” and the logic of the inevitability of aid and the domination of the “North” over the future of the peoples of the “South” and the planet.

The oxygen crisis in India is a major example of the consequence of the inadmissible commodification and privatisation of oxygen for therapeutic purposes that has been going on for several decades.

Forget health as a universal human right, a common good, a public good! Forget ‘public health policy’.

In conclusion

The US position is new, but in some ways, it goes in a direction that is not necessarily better. It is also important that the US forced the EU, however recalcitrant, to state yesterday that Europe is also willing to negotiate.

No one can say what the outcome of the negotiations will be. In the meantime, putting the emphasis on increased vaccine production (“now that the American people are safe….”) means that the fundamental, structural premises unfortunately remain unchanged.

Of course, the fact that the ‘good’ emperor has finally listened to the cry of the people is not to be dismissed. But is this enough to sing victory? Whose victory?

Why should the peoples of the Earth thank the USA for the step taken?

In order to hope that the symbolic value of the change made by Biden will be transformed into an effective process in favour of the right to health and life of all the inhabitants of the Earth, other changes are objectively necessary.

The compassion of the powerful is only an illusory remedy.

*Riccardo Petrella is Professor Emeritus of the Catholic University of Louvain (B) and Roberto Savio is President of Other News; co-founders of the Agora of Earth’s Inhabitants.

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 10 2021 (IPS)

Producers and consumers seem helpless as food all over the world comes under fast growing corporate control. Such changes have also been worsening environmental collapse, social dislocation and the human condition.

Longer term perspective
The recent joint report – by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and the ETC Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration – is ominous, to say the least.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

A Long Food Movement, principally authored by Pat Mooney with a team including IPES-Food Director Nick Jacobs, analyses how food systems are likely to evolve over the next quarter century with technological and other changes.

The report notes that ‘hi-tech’, data processing and asset management corporations have joined established agribusinesses in reshaping world food supply chains.

If current trends continue, the food system will be increasingly controlled by large transnational corporations (TNCs) at the expense of billions of farmers and consumers.

Big Ag weds Big Data
The Davos World Economic Forum’s (WEF) much touted ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (IR4.0), promoting digitisation, is transforming food systems, accelerating concentration in corporate hands.

New apps enable better tracking across supply chains, while ‘precision farming’ now includes using drones to spray pesticides on targeted crops, reducing inputs and, potentially, farming costs. Agriculture is now second only to the military in drone use.

Digital giants are working with other TNCs to extend enabling ‘cloud computing’ infrastructure. Spreading as quickly as the infrastructure allows, new ‘digital ag’ technologies have been displacing farm labour.

Meanwhile, food data have become more commercially valuable, e.g., to meet consumer demand, Big Ag profits have also grown by creating ‘new needs’. Big data are already being used to manipulate consumer preferences.

With the pandemic, e-retail and food delivery services have grown even faster. Thus, e-commerce platforms have quickly become the world’s top retailers.

New ‘digital ag’ technologies are also undermining diverse, ecologically more appropriate food agriculture in favour of unsustainable monocropping. The threat is great as family farms still feed more than two-thirds of the world’s population.

IR4.0 not benign
Meanwhile, hi-tech and asset management firms have acquired significant shareholdings in food giants. Powerful conglomerates are integrating different business lines, increasing concentration while invoking competition and ‘creative disruption’.

The IPES-ETC study highlights new threats to farming and food security as IR4.0 proponents exert increasing influence. The report warns that giving Big Ag the ‘keys of the food system’ worsens food insecurity and other existential threats.

Powerful corporations will increase control of most world food supplies. Big Ag controlled supply chains will also be more vulnerable as great power rivalry and competition continue to displace multilateral cooperation.

There is no alternative?
But the report also presents a more optimistic vision for the next quarter century. In this alternative scenario, collaborative efforts, from the grassroots to the global level, empower social movements and civil society to resist.

New technologies are part of this vision, from small-scale drones for field monitoring to consumer apps for food safety and nutrient verification. But they would be cooperatively owned, open access and well regulated.

The report includes pragmatic strategies to cut three quarters of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions and shift US$4 trillion from Big Ag to agroecology and food sovereignty. These include “$720 billion in subsidies” and “$1.6 trillion in healthcare savings” due to malnutrition.

IPES-ETC also recommends taxing junk food, toxins, carbon emissions and TNC profits. It also urges criminal prosecution of those responsible for famine, malnutrition and environmental degradation.

Food security protocols are needed to supercede trade and intellectual property law, and not only for emergencies. But with food systems under growing stress, Big Ag solutions have proved attractive to worried policymakers who see no other way out.

Last chance to change course
Historically, natural resources were commonly or publicly shared. Water and land have long been sustainably used by farmers, fisherfolk and pastoralists. But market value has grown with ‘property rights’, especially with corporate acquisition.

Touted as the best means to achieve food security, corporate investments in recent decades have instead undermined remaining ‘traditional’ agrarian ecosystems.

Big Ag claims that the food, ecological and climate crises has to be addressed with its superior new technologies harnessing the finance, entrepreneurship and innovation only they can offer.

But in fact, they have failed, instead triggering more problems in their pursuit of profit. As the new food system and corporate trends consolidate, it will become increasingly difficult to change course. Very timely, A Long Food Movement is an urgent call to action for the long haul.

Food systems summit
According to Marchmont Communications, “writing on behalf of the UN Food Systems Summit secretariat”, the “Summit was originally announced on 16 October 2019 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and was conceived following conversations with the joint leadership of the three Rome-based United Nations agencies…at the High-level Political Forum in July 2019”.

On 12 June 2019, ‘Inspiration Speaker’ David Nabarro announced to the annual EAT Stockholm conference that a World Food Systems Summit (WFSS) would be held in 2021. The following day, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Office of the UN Secretary-General.

It stirred up so much controversy that the MOU was later removed from the website of the WEF, hardly reputed for its modesty. Unsurprisingly, many believe that the WEF “pressed the Summit onto a reluctant UN Secretary-General”, and can be traced to its Food Systems Initiative.

Apparently, initial arrangements had bypassed the Rome-based UN food agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme. Their heads were then consulted and brought on board in July 2019.

With so much at stake, representatives of food producers and consumers need to act urgently to prevent governments from allowing a UN sanctioned corporate takeover of global governance of food systems.

 

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The 193-member General Assembly, the highest policy making body at the UN, is described as a political non-entity playing only a subservient role to the Security Council in the election of Secretaries-Generals over the last 76 years. “If I am a Member of the General Assembly, the biggest UN organ that prides itself on one-country, one-vote policy, I will be insulted,” says the head of a coalition of NGOs. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 10 2021 (IPS)

As negotiations for the upcoming election—or re-election– of a UN Secretary-General gather momentum, one undeniable fact looms heavily over the final decision: the choice of a UN chief is the intellectual birthright of the five big permanent members (P5) of the Security Council, namely, the US, UK, France, China and Russia.

All others, including the General Assembly (GA) and civil society organizations (CSOs), remain bit players in the political drama currently unfolding in a world body which has remained locked down, since March 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 193-member GA, the UN’s highest policy making body, remains and will continue to remain a political non-entity playing only a subservient role to the Security Council.

The rules are cast in stone: the secretary-general shall be appointed by the GA upon the recommendation of the Security Council

Perhaps the GA’s only task is to rubber-stamp the decision made by the big powers—as it has sheepishly done over the last 76 years—even though it has the right, and the overwhelming votes, to reject any of the candidates nominated by the Security Council.

But so far it has not.

Meanwhile, how effective or ineffective is the campaign, mostly by CSOs and women’s rights activists, for the UN’s first woman Secretary-General?

With no public support from any of the P5 countries, the gender-empowered demand for a female UN chief may eventually be a good try in a lost cause.

Despite the UN’s campaign for gender empowerment, both globally, and also inside the world body, the UN has so far elected only four women -– in contrast to 71 men–- as Presidents of the General Assembly in the last 76 years, while it has never had a female secretary-general in the history of the Organization.

Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a coalition of over 100 women’s rights organizations from more than 40 countries worldwide, told IPS a true UN reform should address the continued dominance of the P5 in selecting the Secretary-General.

“This is the 21st century. I thought colonialism is over. If I am a member of the General Assembly, the biggest UN organ that prides itself on one-country, one-vote policy, I will be insulted,” she said.

Meanwhile, the authors of a 1996 landmark study on UN Reforms – Brian Urquhart and Erskine Childers, both senior UN officials – said the selection of the Secretary-General is quite literally part of a male-oriented “old-boy network.”

Titled “A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow’s United Nations”, the report, co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, called for “a standard policy of non-renewable terms of office, and a single seven-year term” both for the Secretary-General and for all executive heads throughout the UN system.

But that never got off the ground.

As things stand, the current incumbent Antonio Guterres is heading for a second term—unless he antagonizes either one of the P5, even if it is at the 59th minute of the eleventh hour.

In a distant past, the UN chief who had a running battle with the US – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt – was the only secretary-general who was denied a second term even though he garnered 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council, with the US exercising its veto against him.

Arora Akanksha, a UNDP staffer and a self-nominated candidate challenging Guterres, says: “The UN preaches democracy to the world but can’t organise a competitive election in its own backyard. It’s a hypocritical sham”.

“The absence of any women, people of colour, or young people from the race should set alarm bells ringing for anyone who cares about democracy, justice, or equality.”

But hers may be a voice in the wilderness because not a single P5 country has indicated its willingness to support her candidature—at least as of now.

She also does not have the sponsorship of either India or Canada, her motherland and her country of adoption respectively.

Asked about her current status in relation to the upcoming elections, Akanksha said, “I have reached out to all 193 member states. I have met with five countries so far. Countries are fearful of nominating me because of retaliation from members of the Security Council and the European Union.”

The other candidate apparently is Rosalia Arteaga, a former President of Ecuador, who is being officially supported by her home country, but prefers to be a candidate of CSOs, according to a report in PassBlue, a nonprofit, independent, women-led media site popular within the UN community.

Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former UN Under-Secretary-General and one-time Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UN, told IPS it is interesting to find that this year’s election for the Secretary-General is getting all the attention for the candidacy of individuals who are showing interest in the post.

Among them, the media – both social and traditional – outreach of Ms. Arora Akanksha seems quite wide ranging. “I am in full support of her campaign focus on a woman to be the next Secretary-General, as I have been advocating for years”.

But the point about the absence of “people of colour” is not factual as we know that out of nine SGs, five were non-white, said Ambassador Chowdhury, who was President of the UN Security Council in June 2001, and who led the process for a second term for Secretary-General Kofi Annan of Ghana (1997-2006)

“Also, I am sure Ms. Akanksha understands that when she says “The UN preaches democracy to the world …”, the functioning of the Organization is not democratic as the UN’s founders included in the Charter of the UN creation of the five permanent members of the Security Council whose positions finally decides the election of the Secretary-General.”

The basic point that she makes in her recent press release is that her “…candidacy is legally valid under the rules established by the UN in 2015” according to UN General Assembly resolution 61/321.

“The main focus and assertion of that resolution is that only Member States of the UN are invited to nominate candidates. I believe amongst Ms. Akanksha’s 200 policy experts, there would be people to know that and would have advised her correctly”.

To attain some credibility for her candidature, Ms. Akanksha should make efforts to obtain the agreement of a Member State to submit her name as a candidate. She had reportedly said earlier that “It was a positive discussion … I’m still waiting to hear what Canada’s position would be,” he noted.

“That would give her candidacy a much-needed credibility and elevate it to a formal one in accordance with the existing decision of the General Assembly. Without that, her pronouncements in her vision statement would remain hollow and merely a listing of areas and issues of concern which have been raised by many over the years”, declared Ambassador Chowdhury.

Saber Azam, former UN official and author of two books on Afghanistan and Liberia https://www.saberazam.com.told IPS the UN is at a very critical moment in its history. There is a need for profound reform.

“The President of the General Assembly cannot and should not ignore the candidacy of Ms. Arora Akanksha or anyone else who comes forward.”

Times have changed since the inception of the United Nations 76 years ago, he said, and the world has new realities. Decision-making powers must ensure that the process is transparent, inclusive, gender-balanced, and geographically fair. “The UN welcomes female candidates for all positions; why not the SG’s?”, he asked.

Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini, founder and CEO of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) told IPS this is one of the most difficult and important jobs in the world.

“It requires wisdom, political savvy, experience and a depth of humanity – a quality that is often undervalued.”

Given the UN is 76 years old as an institution, having difficulty to pull itself into the 21st century, there has been an urgent need for an SG that has vision, imagination, empathy for the marginalized and the energy needed to shift course and renovate the culture and practices of the system, she argued.

“At the very least, it would be good to see a job description setting out the criteria for eligibility. It would also be good to see the institution’s power brokers -– notably the member states – uphold the existing rules”.

For example, she pointed out, if the retirement age for UN staff is 65, shouldn’t the same rule apply to its senior leadership and special envoys? Instead, it seems that a different set of rules come into play above the 37th floor.

If the UN advocates principles of good governance, including transparency, should it not practice these principles in its own home? she asked.

“If the system is serious about gender equality and equal opportunity, should it not give female candidates a genuinely fair shot, and finally, if the UN is our chance of shaping a better future for future generations, why not consider having a younger person at the helm – one who has a genuine stake in the future, and who is at least among the world’s 87% of the population that is below the age of 65?” she added.

But none of these factors are being considered. Instead, there will be a little flurry from NGOs and women’s organizations, and a handful of brave alternative candidates, but in reality, the die is cast. Business as usual will prevail to the detriment of the original values and vision that led to the creation of the UN 76 years ago, she declared.

Explaining the process, Ambassador Chowdhury said: the position of Secretary-General is one of great importance that requires the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, and a firm commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

“The President of the General Assembly and of the Security Council invite candidates to be presented with proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills. Member States are invited to present candidates in a letter to the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council,” he added.

Cabrera-Balleza said “I also find it problematic that civil society continues to remain on the sidelines in this selection process. How many General Assembly and Security Council resolutions have sung praises to the critical role of civil society in implementing the mandates of the UN?”, she asked.

“That’s why I commend and strongly support various efforts of fellow civil society actors to demand transparency and inclusion in the selection of the Secretary-General, such as the “Campaign to Elect a Woman Secretary-General” (WomanSG campaign) 1 for 7 Billion, and #Forward”.

Thalif Deen, Senior Editor at the UN Bureau of Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, is the author of a newly-released book on the United Nations titled “No Comment and Don’t Quote Me on That” available on Amazon. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

 

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