Africa

Globally, women are grossly underrepresented in scientific research and development. Credit: Bigstock

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, Mar 17 2021 (IPS)

Over a month ago, the world celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. But the celebrations ring hollow when there’s still been no meaningful progress in the representation of women in the research sciences field.  At present, less than 30 percent, of scientific researchers worldwide are women, a percentage that has been the same for almost a decade.

Despite this lag in progress, consistently, and predictably so, from the United Nations, to professional societies, to Universities, there is often the message shared that “Every girl can be a scientist”. As a woman scientist, who is very lucky to be in science, because, without luck, and I mean, nature’s luck, I would never been a scientist, I know this statement isn’t true right now.

The truth is, the way our society and systems are set up, few girls, especially girls like me, from rural communities, can ever be scientists. How do we expect them to be scientists without the resources and facilities to allow them to experience the magic of science? How do we expect them to get into science when they do not have societal role model scientists that look like them?

And even if they are lucky like me, how do we expect them to succeed, if many end up in institutions that are still grappling with low representation of women in science? How?

These are the questions I struggle with every time I hear the overly optimistic and unrealistic statements that are not backed up by policies to support them. Moreover, it is also clear that the ongoing pandemic has amplified these challenges.

I am an optimist too and I hope to see – want to see – equal representation of women in the sciences. To get there, though, we must envision and implement big changes.

First and foremost, there is need to avail resources and all necessary infrastructures to introduce girls from all communities, including marginalized communities, to science. This means investing in creating research labs and community science centers and science museums.

These spaces present excellent spaces for young and curious students including girls to interact with science. In the United States, there are several science centers that are doing a great job. From Maryland Science Center to Orlando Science Center to Museum of Science + industry Chicago.

Alternatively, university institutions, research centers and other professional societies can work with organizations present in marginalized communities to provide the platforms for girls and women from marginalized communities to access science at an early age.

I still remember my first day at a modern lab at Kenyatta University and how it mesmerized and aroused curiosity in me. Now imagine, if we arise the curiosity for many more girls and at a younger age, then the statistics will change

The American Association for Advancement of Sciences, for example, has the Science Linkages in the Community Initiative that works with and trains community based partners in an effort to ensure that younger students have hands-on, inquiry based STEM activities. Museum spaces. Such programs should continue.

From firsthand experiences, I know what access to the right infrastructures can have. I still remember my first day at a modern lab at Kenyatta University and how it mesmerized and aroused curiosity in me. Now imagine, if we arise the curiosity for many more girls and at a younger age, then the statistics will change.

Second, once exposed to science at a younger age, girls and women need concerted mentoring, funding and encouragement. The truth is science, like any other career has its good and bad days. Mentoring schemes that continue to support women at the early years, where they are likely to transfer to other non-science disciplines, is necessary.

Mentors have played a critical role in my journey as a scientist-holding my hand, providing support and encouraging me every milestone of my journey. We cannot afford to lose any women through the pipeline.

Third, as they continue to move through the pipeline, and early into the college years, it is important once again that they are supported. Fully paid internships and mentoring programs at these stages are key. At the same time, funding and scholarships are also key, so that they dedicate most of their time while in college in pursuing science without having to work multiple jobs.

Reflecting on my science journey, funding through scholarships and fellowships by universities and numerous organizations including the American Association for University Women and the Schlumberger Faculty for the Future were very instrumental. Without them, I would not have afforded to stay and pursue a career in science.

At the undergraduate level, there also needs to be a clear job pipeline. Career offices and undergraduate studies should provide as many opportunities as possible so that these future scientists are exposed to and discover several pathways to take. At the graduate level, support, mentoring and access to opportunities are also key.

This is extremely crucial as at this point, many make the decision to either stay in science or to finally transition to other careers. Additional resources such as grant writing courses could also go a long way.

Once they make it into science careers, whether in universities, research institutions, or in private and tech companies, it is important to also be supported. Data evidence suggest that women researchers still face so many challenges –from-sexism, workplaces that are not diverse enough, to inflexible work hours to allow women researchers to balance work and family responsibilities.

Therefore, universities and workplaces should put in place policies to correct these issues. Importantly, when policies are instituted, there needs to be well articulated metrics about how they will track success and evaluate whether the policies are working.

Let’s create the right policies and support systems to ensure that many more girls and women pursue and stay in science – then we can truly celebrate.

 

Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a Senior Food Security Fellow with the Aspen Institute, New Voices.

The post Every Girl Can’t Be a Scientist Until We Make Big Changes appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A displaced Yemeni woman stands outside a makeshift shelter that she shares with her extended family. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said while the Biden administration is ‘stepping up its diplomacy’ to end the war, peace is impossible if the Houthis continue their relentless attacks against the Yemeni people and Yemen’s neighbours. (file photo) Courtesy: IOM/O. Headon

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen has warned that the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, is rapidly deteriorating as Yemenis, including women and children, face hunger, injury and death.

Martin Griffiths told a UN Security Council briefing on Tuesday that one million internally displaced people are also at risk, amid escalating combat.

“Fighting forces on both sides have suffered heavy losses in this unnecessary battle. I see shocking reports, as I am sure we all do, of children increasingly getting drawn into the war effort and deprived of their future,” he said.

In 2011, Yemen became a hot spot in the Arab Spring, the surge of pro-democracy protests in the Middle East and parts of Northern Africa. The country’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to cede power to his deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, after 3 decades of authoritarian rule. Hadi’s term in office was however tumultuous and by 2014 Yemen was locked in civil war. The crisis escalated the following year when insurgent Houthi forces seized the capital Sanaa and a number of western cities.

The UN said in December that the war had claimed almost a quarter-million lives. That figure included over 3,000 children.

Griffiths reminded the Security Council that both Yemenis and migrants are suffering. He called for an independent investigation into a massive blaze at an overcrowded detention center in the country’s capital last week. The fire killed 40 people and injured close to 200 others – mostly Ethiopian migrants. Human Rights Watch said the incident was caused by the Houthi’s ‘reckless use of weapons’.

The UN Envoy warned that incidents like the deadly fire represent just a fraction of the pain and suffering wrought by the protracted war. He told the council famine has arrived “to add to the tragedy of Yemen”.

“It is logical therefore and it has been incumbent upon the parties for a very long time, and now more than ever, to agree to stop the fighting and to silence the guns,” he said.

“A nationwide ceasefire, along with the opening Sana’a airport and ensuring the unhindered flow of fuel and other commodities into Yemen through Hudaydah ports, are urgent humanitarian imperatives.”

Meanwhile, the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said the world is ‘running out of time’ and failing to meet the financial goals needed to tackle the crisis. A donor conference held in March raised $1.7 billion for the cause, half of what is needed to stave off large-scale famine.

“I again call on everyone to do everything you can – including money for the aid operation – to stop the famine,” Lowcock said.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said while the Biden administration is ‘stepping up its diplomacy’ to end the war, peace is impossible if the Houthis continue their relentless attacks against the Yemeni people and Yemen’s neighbours.

“Unfortunately, Houthi attacks have continued unabated since December, when they attempted to assassinate the new Yemeni cabinet. And today, the Houthi offensive in Marib is taking the lives of more Yemeni men, women, and children. They are also cruelly detaining innocent people,” she said.

Describing the situation in Yemen as ‘hell on earth,’ the U.S. Ambassador said it is time for heightened commitment by all concerned nations, to contribute money and aid to Yemen.

“Millions of Yemeni people remain in dire need. For them, the words that we say here in the Council can only go so far. The important thing is that we act, and we act now, as we have heard from all of our speakers today,” she said.

“We all expressed to a number here on this screen our shock at the situation. We all called for an end to the violence, and we all declared our support for the Yemeni people. Let’s translate these statements into actions.”

 

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Pexels /Artikel auf Deutsch lesen/ Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)

By Anja Papenfuss
BERLIN, Mar 17 2021 (IPS)

Women get freezing cold in trains and in big city offices because the air conditioning is set for men’s sensitivity to the cold. They spend the whole theatre interval (when visits to the theatre were still possible) in the queue because there are too few toilets.

What may appear to be more of a nuisance – a lack of public toilets for women – is a life-threatening problem in many countries in the world. In some federal states in India, women have no access to toilets and fritter away valuable time looking for a safe place. If they don’t find it, they are often sexually harassed or even killed.

City authorities don’t record these special needs, and they are therefore not taken into account. But the problem is broader. In a large number of areas, data is not collected by gender. That’s true for example in medical research, which is mostly geared towards men for convenience’s sake.

It’s also true in traffic planning, giving preference to cars that are overwhelmingly used by men, although the majority of women globally travel by foot or by bicycle. In winter, it’s first the streets that are cleared although most accidents take place on pavements.

In her book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, the British author and feminist Caroline Criado-Perez has collected such facts and data from all areas of life, cultures and parts of the earth on just 500 pages.

Anja Papenfuss

Criado-Perez shows the huge gaps in data to the detriment of women in the workplace, in the design of basic commodities, in medicine and in public life. The ubiquitous discrimination of women is underscored with sobering figures.

And they prove what we have only presumed up until now: the world is not only partly but almost exclusively geared to men’s needs. She calls it ‘one-size-fits men’.

When data bias becomes life-threatening

The fact that the data gaps are so grave is also because we live in the digital age. Data is the new gold. With data, people can earn a lot of money and some base far-reaching decisions on it every day. That’s why it makes a huge difference whether data is taken from men or from women for an algorithm and with which data artificial intelligence is fed.

Criado-Perez comes up with the example of job-related assessment tests: Men always got the job if applications were only evaluated by artificial intelligence because both the questions and the answers referred to male views of life.

Another example: when the New York Philharmonic Orchestra introduced an anonymous musical test, the number of female musicians rose from 0 to 45 per cent. The same phenomenon can be observed in the evaluation process for scientific essays: If neither authors nor evaluators are known, then more essays come in from female academics and receive a higher mark.

If there’s a will, there’s a rather simple way: it doesn’t cost more money to collect data from women and about women to include them in the decision-making.

In the health sector too, women are mostly overlooked. For example, they are often given the wrong treatment when they have a heart attack because they often show ‘untypical’, i.e. non-male symptoms. Women are 17 per cent more likely to die in a car accident than men. Why?

Because it’s almost exclusively male dolls that are used in crash tests. Agricultural equipment and machines are only designed for men. Men are usually taller, have bigger hands and more strength.

Women, who use equipment or machines that are not suited for them on a daily basis, have health problems and are more likely to have accidents. Men are the measurement for all things. Or why, for an evening meal, are the costs for the food and the hotel allowed as expenses but the travel and babysitting costs are not? Criado-Perez has collected a huge number of similar examples.

A few successes

The good news is that this can be changed. If there’s a will, there’s a rather simple way: it doesn’t cost more money to collect data from women and about women to include them in the decision-making.

It doesn’t cost more money to take female instead of male test subjects for research. In many areas it would make economic sense to take women more into account. If infrastructure and research are geared more towards women, this does not only lead to women being treated equally but also leads to cost savings. As cost savings are highly valued in our capitalist world, this transition becomes more likely.

But for this to happen, many voices need to come together and demand the ‘gender data gap’ to be closed. Perhaps that includes those men who have read the entertainingly written book and have been persuaded that their view of the world is not the only right one.

The author has even had a few (rather symbolic) successes: Thanks to her perseverance, an image of Jane Austen can now be found on the British 10 pound note. Alongside the image of the Queen, she is the only woman on a British note. It’s also down to Criado-Perez that the statue of a female lawyer stands on Parliament Square in London next to many hundreds of male statues.

*Anja Papenfuss was previously head of FES’s Press Department, and before that, she worked as a policy officer in its political analysis unit. She edited the German-language sister magazine, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft. She studied political science in Bonn and Berlin.

Source: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Berlin

 

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The post Failing to Collect Data About Women is no Trivial Offence appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The writer is Global Editor in the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Communications Department*

The post Failing to Collect Data About Women is no Trivial Offence appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The starfish could represent a lucrative trade but they also play a key role on the coastal ecology.

Gunmen opened fire on four vehicles bringing people back from a market in the Tillabéri region.

District Manager, HRLS Program, conducts a client workshop in the presence of the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Sakhipur Upazila, Tangail. Cedit: BRAC

By Jenefa Jabbar
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

The 410 Legal Aid Centers that I manage in Bangladesh for BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Services received approximately 35,900 requests for assistance in 2020. Almost all of them involve gender-based violence against women and girls.

In Bangladesh, gender-based violence comes in many forms: physical abuse; husbands throwing wives out of the home in domestic disputes; husbands demanding that their wives get more dowry money from their families, and child marriage, among others. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the problem, as unemployment and other financial stresses have grown. BRAC documented a nearly 31 percent (8,709) increase in reported incidents of violence against women and girls in 2020 compared to the same time last year (4,566).

The problem, however, is global. The United Nations estimates that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner (not including sexual harassment) at some point in their lives. In some nations, that number rises to 70 percent.

Through our experience, BRAC has developed an integrated five-step approach to addressing gender-based violence. This approach includes prevention, protection, partnership, rehabilitation, and monitoring. It can be replicated worldwide to defeat gender-based violence.

Prevention requires increased awareness of gender-based violence. This must be done on every scale – from global to local, justice-seeker to duty-bearer. Leaders and the public need to understand the extent and nature of the problem, the factors that influence it, and what can be done. Leaders of government, civic institutions, and religious groups need to help change the norms that have made such violence so pervasive for so long.

At BRAC, we conduct Human Rights and Legal Education (HRLE) classes with our own specially designed curriculum to inform women of their basic legal rights in cases of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, community violence, child marriage, inheritance, and trafficking, among others. In 2020, we reached out to 53,994 women and girls through these classes and provided advice and counselling to 10,492 women by phone, as the pandemic caused people to be in lockdown. In addition, BRAC organizes workshops with local community leaders on the legal rights of women and girls and the leaders’ responsibilities.

HRLS Officer provides legal assistance to a justice-seeking client in Nangalkot Upazila, Comilla. Credit: BRAC

BRAC also supports community-based women’s groups called Polli Shomaj, which are active in 54 of the nation’s 64 districts, working to stop child marriages and other forms of gender-based violence and to help women access relevant resources. In 2020, they prevented 1,091 child marriages – an increase of 196 percent over the same period in 2019.

Protection should also be pursued through proper implementation of the laws against gender- based violence. Unfortunately, the court system in Bangladesh has a backlog of 3.7 million cases, which gives perpetrators comfort that they are unlikely to be punished.

BRAC enables access to justice through alternative dispute resolution in cases that can be appropriately resolved without formal courtroom litigation. In other cases, BRAC provides court case support through its 350 enlisted panel lawyers across the country. In 2020, BRAC’s Legal Aid Centers resolved 19,854 complaints through alternative dispute resolution and filed 2,469 civil and criminal cases.

Partnership enables collaboration with government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to combat gender-based violence. Through partnerships, BRAC assists survivors of violence in getting immediate medical and shelter support and in lodging complaints at police stations. BRAC works with other service providers to assist the government in fulfilling its commitment to ensure access to justice.

Rehabilitation – both social and economic – is another vital area for mainstreaming the survivors of gender-based violence. They must be supported rather than shunned, and they must have the financial resources to survive without their abusive husbands. BRAC has succeeded in recovering a sizable amount of money for victims of gender-based violence, through alternative dispute resolution and court cases. In 2020 alone, BRAC’s Legal Aid Centers recovered $5.1 million (US) for victims. Recovery of those funds not only exacts a cost to the perpetrator; it supports the victim in her quest to establish a life free of such violence. A woman free of violence but left destitute has not received justice.

Survivors must also be re-empowered through skills training, so that they can find jobs, and through ongoing education, so that they can graduate. Re-empowerment must also be aligned with rehabilitation. The stigma of being abused must be eliminated. The norms that perpetuate gender-based violence must change.

Monitoring is essential, as it provides the latest data to increase awareness of gender-based violence and energize efforts at prevention. Monitoring should be performed by government but often falls to nongovernmental organizations – both to collect the data and provide an independent assessment. Regardless, government participation is vital.

Monitoring is needed in advance of incidents to help prevent them. Checking a girl’s birth certificate, for instance, in advance of marriage can help prevent child marriage. Monitoring is also needed to understand trends – in gender-based violence itself, criminal cases filed, judicial outcomes, and changing circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everyone must step forward to end gender-based violence. This five-step integrated approach marks the path. It is time for all of us to join in the march to a new day when gender-based violence is no more.

The author is Director of Human Rights and Legal Aid Services and Social Compliance at BRAC, based in Bangladesh.

 

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Credit: @ Mahnaz Yazdani

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

Inequality characterizes the world we live in, predisposing how we act and think. We perceive our existence as composed of dichotomies – men and women, young and old, black or white, as well as a difference between those who have and those who do not have access to wealth, health, education and influence. Dichotomies are also born out of comparisons, about how things are now and how they could have been, how they were before and how they are now.

COVID-19 is on the mind of a majority of the world’s population and as in everything else what is happening to us it is influenced by inequalities. Many are exhausted from isolation and worries: personal and economic losses mingle with ignorance about what COVID-19 really is and how it will develop. Among the many factors governing decisions concerning the pandemic are preconceived differences between nations and age groups.

During a briefing on the 18th of June and 2nd of July last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed A Global Framework to Ensure Equitable and Fair Allocation of COVID-19 Products. The recommendations were based on statistics indicating that one percent of the world’s population are healthcare system workers, while eight percent are 65 years and older, and a further 15 percent adults have “comorbidities”, which place them in high risk for fatal COVID-19 infections.

Most governments have declared they intend to follow WHO’s recommended allocations for a vaccine roll-out, by prioritizing “health- and social care workers” as the first group to receive the COVID vaccine. These people are in “developed countries” estimated to constitute three percent of the population. The second stage of vaccinations will benefit individuals who are at “high risk” and/or “above 65 years of age” (approximately 20 percent), while a third stage will benefit “further priority groups”, whose need is based on their health conditions (20 percent).

It may be emphasized that WHO’s Allocation Framework was foremost recommended to be applicable to “low income countries” and “low and middle income countries”, while making it free for “self-financing” nations to acquire a preferential access to a still limited global access to COVID vaccines. This means that wealthy nations are free to enter into advance purchase agreements with manufacturers and thus capture the constrained supply of vaccines, most of them have already secured preferential access, meaning that they currently control a larger proportion of the vaccine supply.

However, under a scheme called Covax WHO intends to, in cooperation with the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), ensure that 92 “poorer countries” will receive access to vaccines, at the same time as 98 “wealthier countries”. Currently Covax has raised 6 billion USD, but at least another 2 billion USD are still needed to meet its target for 2021.

Vaccines produced in the UK, US, Europe, Russia and China have already been approved and bought and are now being distributed in countries around the world. High-income countries are currently holding 4.2 billion doses of COVID vaccines, while low-middle income nations have obtained 670 million, meaning that rich nations, representing 14 percent of the world’s population, so far has bought up more than half of the most promising vaccines.

Accordingly, poor countries are still lagging behind in the race for obtaining enough vaccine, while several of the Covax signatories, which have provided funding to the programme, are directly negotiating their own deals with pharmaceutical companies. Accordingly, they may be undermining the initiative by taking doses off the market, risking that demand will continue to outstrip supply. Of course, every political leader wants to protect her/his own population first, though during a global pandemic no country can be safe until all countries are protected.

The facts above are clear for all to see, though they are just the tip of an iceberg of inequalities connected with COVID-19. One aspect that so far has not been widely acknowledged is the degree to which youngsters and children are affected by and suffering from the effects of COVID-19. They are actually those who are scheduled to be the last ones to obtain the COVID vaccine. This group does not only include adolescents, but the entire so called Generation Z, i.e. the demographic cohort which grew up with internet and portable digital technology and whose majority now is taking care of the sick and elderly, as well as maintaining the production and services that support us all.

Small children are also hard hit by COVID-19. The number of children under five dying from avoidable diseases increased considerably last year, since the pandemic in many nations has paused the fight against infectious diseases and overturned vaccination programs. Children and young people are also experiencing increased abuse and neglect due to COVID-19. Particularly young people, and women to a higher degree than men, are suffering from closure of schools, universities and diminished job opportunities. A worrisome trend is that at least 13 million girls are assumed to have been married off at an earlier age than before, mainly due to school closures and missed education- and job opportunities.

For those of us who have children and grandchildren, young and old, COVID-19 now confirms that our generation has let them down. With good reason, our young ones raise their voices accusing us for belonging to a generation that has been willing to sacrifice its children for its own welfare. It is only when we ourselves are being threatened that we have been prepared to take drastic action. Young people might tell us: “Look what you have left behind as heritage to us – a wrecked climate, a polluted earth and weapons of mass destruction, and now you demand that we remain secluded at home to prevent you from being infected with COVID-19.”

When I observe young people and children around me it is easy to discern the difficulties they have to cope with. How they struggle with themselves and their existence. Most young people feel worse now, than before COVID-19. They worry more about their future, while fewer and fewer think life is meaningful. Youngsters, finding themselves in a period of life when social interaction is crucial for their development and well-being, are now being secluded between four walls in homes that many of them are forced to share with frustrated, ageing and nagging parents.

The majority of the world’s children did not go to school last year and it has been demonstrated that the education of those students who received distance education have slipped behind. Danish researchers found that eight-graders in Copenhagen who due to COVID-closure did not go school gained an average of 7.6 kilos, of which 3.3 kilos were pure fat. Children simply stopped moving. In other areas the effect may have been the opposite when children from poor families have missed their school lunches.

A survey by the German Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) found that students on average had halved the time they spent on learning and homework, while Germany’s weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, warned that poorer education entails a risk of physical and mental illness, while reporting that education economists had calculated that four months of closed schools reduced a future annual income by 2.5 percent.

It has been stated that the financial crisis that shock the world 15 years ago led to around 10,000 more suicides than normal. Currently, European and American organisations working to prevent suicides are warning that their hotlines are getting overworked. The economic distress of millions of young people and struggling families trying to make ends meet, due to lay-offs and decreasing job opportunities in the wake of COVID-19, does not bode well for the future.

Unfortunately, I do not think I am an alarmist. It is high time we concern ourselves with the welfare of the world’s children and young people. Let as take the COVID-19 as a warning and let us remind ourselves that we cannot act in a laissez-fair manner by avoiding what parents have done before us – considering the well-being of their children to be their main priority.

Main sources: BBC: Covax: How will Covid vaccines be shared around the world? 24 February https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55795297, Ifo Insitute: COVID-19 school closures hit low-achieving students particularly hard. 15 November 2020 https://www.ifo.de/en/node/60075 Gardell, Jonas; Vi offrar barnens hälsa och framtid i covidstrategin, 1 March https://www.expressen.se/kultur/jonas-gardell/vi-offrar-barnens-halsa-och-framtid-i-covidstrategin/

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

 

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South African officials suspend a school head accused of lowering a pupil into a pit latrine by rope.

The actor played Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die, and was also a crew member in Alien.

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

The COVID-19 crisis poses an unprecedented threat to development in the Asia-Pacific region that could reverse much of the hard-earned progress made in recent years. The good news is we know how to tackle this challenge. Recovery from the pandemic and our global efforts to deliver the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 must go hand-in-hand. The Goals provide a compass to navigate this crisis, faster and greener, everywhere and for everyone.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Results from the 2021 edition of the Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report published today by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) show that the region fell short of its 2020 milestones for the Goals, even before entering the global pandemic. The region must accelerate progress everywhere and urgently reverse its regressing trends on many of the Goals and targets to achieve the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the last decade, Asia and the Pacific has made extraordinary progress in good health and well-being (Goal 3), which may partly explain its relative success in reducing the health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its population. Yet despite these hard-won gains, the region faces many challenges, such as providing an adequate healthcare workforce, reducing premature deaths and improving mental health.

As we find our way out of this pandemic, we must focus efforts on more equitable and greener growth. The environment and the most vulnerable population groups should not pay the price for our economic ambitions and rapid industrialization (Goal 9, another area of faster progress for the region).

The most alarming observation in the new ESCAP report is regressing climate action trends (Goal 13) and life below water (Goal 14). The Asia-Pacific region is responsible for more than half of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Adverse impacts of natural disasters on people and economies increase year-by-year. The quality of the oceans continues to deteriorate due to unsustainable human activities, and economic gains from sustainable fisheries are decreasing.

The COVID-19 pandemic was another urgent signal that our unsustainable consumption and production put unbearable pressure on ecosystems. Unless there is a transformative change towards a sustainable future, pandemics will emerge more often, with more damage to our societies and economies. Wildlife and ecosystem conservation are vital to prevent future pandemics and the transfer of diseases from animals to humans.

Robust evaluation of progress on the SDGs is disrupted by lack of data. Data availability on the indicators has increased in the region in recent years as more countries prioritize the SDGs. However, challenges remain, and we need to do more to fill data gaps on nearly half of the official indicators without sufficient data to tell us the true story of progress.

It is too soon to see the real impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on progress towards the SDGs. However, early studies from UN agencies in the Asia-Pacific region show no single Goal is safe against the pandemic’s negative impact. In particular, the “leave no one behind” objective of the SDGs is at high risk. Early data show that mothers and children, students, informal workers, the poor, elderly, refugees and asylum seekers are extremely vulnerable. Simultaneously, despite a short-term dip in air pollution during strict lockdowns, the pandemic’s negative environmental impacts have already emerged. Additionally, there are concerns that the economic recession caused by COVID-19 might lead to a decline in investment in protecting natural environments.

Recovery measures are an excellent opportunity for us to rethink our options for development pathways that are inclusive, more resilient and respect planetary boundaries. As we enter the Decade of Action to deliver the 2030 Agenda, we need to reinforce our collective commitment to the SDGs and let it provide our compass for building back together, better and greener.

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

 

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By Simi Mehta and Ritika Gupta
NEW DELHI, India, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues that the world is collectively facing at the moment. It is contended that strengthening the global response is pertinent to combat the threat of climate change.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted in 1992 that entered into force on 21 March, 1994, primarily aims to prevent anthropogenic interference in the earth’s climate system and stabilize Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

With this aim, the Conference of Parties* meets every year to assess progress and review documents by countries on their plans to combat climate change.

COP and the Paris Agreement

The Conference of Parties (COP) is the core decision making body of the UNFCCC. The Parties are the States that have ratified the Convention. Their task is to review its implementation by reviewing the various documents and emission inventories submitted by Parties.

From the first COP meeting held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995 there have been 25 meetings so far. The 26th COP meeting, 2020 was scheduled to be held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is now scheduled for November 1-12, 2021.

The COP meetings have resulted in several important decisions and agreements. For instance, COP 3 was one of the most important meetings held in Kyoto, Japan that led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. It called upon the developed countries to reduce their GHGs and established legally binding obligations under international law. Similarly, the Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 countries at COP 21 in Paris in 2015.

It is a legally binding international treaty on climate change that aims to limit global average temperature to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degree Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. However, the implementation of this agreement requires comprehensive economic and social transformation. It works on a 5-year cycle of goals and actions carried out by countries.

In 2020, countries were supposed to submit their plans for climate action – known as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs, which was postponed to 2021 in the COP 26 due to the pandemic. The NDCs are the goals and actions that the countries communicate as their plan to undertake to reduce their GHG emissions to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Means of implementation of India’s NDCs

The Paris Agreement provides a framework for financial, technical and capacity building to the countries that require it. Climate finance is particularly important as it is needed for mitigation and adaptation efforts by the countries.

As such, the agreement reaffirms the need for developed countries to offer financial assistance to those needing it for reducing their GHG emissions and also in their pursuit of climate-resilient development. India’s climate actions have mostly been funded by domestic resources.

However, to achieve the goals set forth, the substantial scaling of the climate action plans should be complemented by financial resources and assistance from developed countries. There would also be additional investments required for strengthening resilience and disaster management.

The Paris Agreement also discusses technological development and transfer for achieving the goals of the Agreement. India has advocated for global collaboration in Research & Development (R&D), with regards to climate change adaptation and mitigation, particularly in clean technologies. It has also advocated for enabling their transfer, and free Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) costs to developing countries.

The Agreement emphasizes upon climate-related capacity building for developing countries and exhorts the developed countries to extend their support for the same. In this area, India aims for a manifold scaling up of the country’s renewable energy targets and India’s climate change goals which are linked to the implementation of policies such as the programme on Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) and the cleaning of rivers.

What are India’s NDCs?

India ratified the Paris Agreement a year after the submission of its Intended National Determined Contribution (INDC). Its NDCs for the period 2021 to 2030 are as follows –

● To put forward and further propagate a healthy and sustainable way of living based on traditions and values of conservation and moderation.
● To adopt a climate-friendly and a cleaner path than the one followed hitherto by others at a corresponding level of economic development.
● To reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 33%–35% by 2030 below 2005 levels.
● To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030 with the help of the transfer of technology and low-cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF).
● To create an additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
● To better adapt to climate change by enhancing investments in development programmes in sectors vulnerable to climate change, particularly agriculture, water resources, Himalayan region, coastal regions, health and disaster management.
● To mobilize domestic and new and additional funds from developed countries to
implement the above mitigation and adaptation actions to bridge the resource gap.
● To build capacities, create a domestic framework and international architecture for quick diffusion of cutting-edge climate technology in India and for collaborative research and development for such future technologies.

Union Budget 2021-22

To achieve the above goals, India has begun to tread on the objectives of promoting a variety of renewable energies, such as by the introduction of newer, more efficient and cleaner technologies in thermal power generation, reduction in emissions from industries, transportation sector, buildings and appliances, waste etc.

The implementation of the Green India Mission remains a priority. This Mission is a comprehensive program towards sustainable environmental development through which the country can protect, restore and enhance forest cover and other afforestation programmes, along with planning and implementation of actions and schemes to enhance climate resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change.

The Union Budget was presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2021. Some of the key proposals to enhance India’s comprehensive environment protection efforts include: Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for generating hydrogen from green power sources; Capital infusion of ₹1,000 crore to the Solar Energy Corporation of India; ₹1,500 crore to the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency; Centre’s clean air programme with a fund of ₹2,217 crore for air pollution control in 42 cities with a million plus population; Voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles; Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0: Allocation of ₹141,678 crore over a period of five years from 2021-2026; Allocation of₹4,000 for Deep Ocean Mission for five years; Launch of Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban), with an outlay of ₹ 2,87,000 crores to be implemented over 5 years for universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crores household tap connections, as well as liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities..

India’s progress so far

Even though India’s GHG emissions have more than doubled between 1990 to 2015, when India entered its liberalisation period, it still remains less than other G20 nations. Among the G20 nations, India has one of the most ambitious targets set for reductions in GHGs.

Experts believe that India has remained on track to achieve its NDC by 2030, which will be catalysed with the adoption of its National Electricity Plan, which aims to achieve 47% capacity from non-fossil sources by 2027.

Any complacency cannot be afforded. A decrease in the budget allocation for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change from ₹3100 in 2020-21 to ₹2869 is not an encouraging signal.

This is especially true for the renewable energy sector where India needs to stepping up its planning and implementation as we move towards the attaining the Agenda 2030. Since the energy sector contributes massively to the production of GHGs, tackling this area could contribute to fulfilling its NDCs.

India needs a consolidated mitigation plan which should include reducing fossil fuel subsidies, phasing out coal, better coordination between the central and state governments and raising self-sufficiency by domestic manufacturing in the renewable sector.

With regards to the NDC about creating an additional carbon sink, not much is being done in the afforestation/reforestation sector. There is a lack of data pertaining to the Green India Mission and reports show that the Mission has been consistently missing its targets due to a lack of funding at the centre and state level.

There needs to be a dedicated ministry or committee responsible for afforestation, which should be funded adequately and take the recommendations of an expert panel on mapping and planning. The Clean Air Program for air pollution control in 42 cities with a million plus population and the Hydrogen Energy Mission has the potential to reduce India’s carbon footprint are important steps in the right direction.

India is well on its track to achieve its 2030 climate targets. However, it needs to do more in the mitigation and adaptation sector by creating a holistic mitigation plan. The COVID-19 pandemic and extreme environmental events such as Cyclones Fani and Amphan and droughts in several parts of the country highlight significant setbacks in terms of achieving the yearly targets and the overall goals by 2030.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic induced lockdown temporarily brought down emissions to some extent wherein we witnessed the nature in its pristine form, it will continue to rise unless a green COVID-19 recovery strategy plan is created and followed.

Simi Mehta is CEO and Editorial Director of Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi and Ritika Gupta is Assistant Director of IMPRI.

 

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Young farmers who have land are failing to access bank loans despite the Zimbabwean government touting farming as the final frontier that will guarantee the country's food security needs. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

It is not everyday that a young farmer registers success in his enterprise and vows this is what he will do for the rest of his life. Yet this is the story of Lihle Moyo, a 27-year-old farmer from Gwanda, about 160km south of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.

With little to no experience in farming, Moyo says he took over his father’s plot and turned it into a thriving poultry, cabbage, tomato and onion farm two years ago as an experiment.

“I had just finished college and had nothing to do, no source of income,” Moyo told IPS.

He pooled resources with assistance from siblings working outside the country to finance the installation of a borehole, water storage tanks, a generator and initial start-up capital for the project on his father’s eight hectares of land.

His success is outstanding in a country where farming has proven to be a headache for local farmers, especially in the aftermath of the country’s much criticised land redistribution programme that saw Zimbabwe morph from net food exporter to dipping into its scarce forex reserves to import grain.

“Not many young people I know are interested in farming because where are they are going to get start-up capital,” said Moyo on being asked why other young people like himself have not been too eager to take up farming.

While commercial famers in Zimbabwe previously received agro-loans from banks, financial institutions have been reluctant to lend to farmers who benefitted from the land reform exercise citing lack of collateral and security for farmers.

The same has plagued young farmers who, like Moyo, have land but are failing to access bank loans despite government touting farming as the final frontier that will guarantee the country’s food security needs.

Farmers are therefore expected to source their own resources despite the government launching schemes that provide free inputs such as seeds and free fertiliser.

“Even if you get these free things, you still have to think about how you are going to maintain your farm. And in any case one still has to contend with the fact that not every young farmer wants to plant maize. We want to try other things,” Moyo said. 

Other aspiring young farmers such as 30-year-old Dumisile Gumpo, also from Gwanda, have given up on large-scale farming ambitions.

“I am only farming now on my parents’ land because of the rains,” Gumpo said. “After the rains, it means I will wait again for the next rainy season,” he said.

Gumpo plants traditional staples that include maize, pumpkins and peas.

“I would love to do farming all year round but I don’t see how when I have no cash to venture into other things such as poultry or even installing a borehole,” he said, expressing the frustration of many young farmers in Zimbabwe.

To make matters worse, the Gwanda region where the two young farmers are based is well-known for illegal mining activities whose promise of instant riches have attracted thousands of young people from across the country. 

Experts have noted that youth agriculture has failed to take off in Africa because of policy inconsistencies by governments and poor research on the needs of young farmers.

According to the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), there are about 1.2 billion people aged between 15 and 24, with 600 million residing in rural areas globally.

IFAD has noted that especially in the midst of COVID-19, the “re-invention of the agricultural sector is indispensable today,” and young people are going to be at the centre of that revolution.

The Enhancing Capacity to Apply Research Evidence (CARE) project sponsored by IFAD and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) runs the Policy for Youth Engagement in Agribusiness and Rural Economic Activities in Africa.

The project seeks to understand the factors influencing youth engagement in agribusiness and rural farm economies among other areas of focus.

Researchers, however, are wary that there has been little traction in driving youth participation among African countries.

“Policy makers, government agencies, and other stakeholders need to come up with incentives that will attract youth involvement in agriculture practices if CARE-IFAD goals are to be realised,” said Esther Kwaamba, an agricultural economist at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.

“From research, the trends are the same among youths. They are not involved in agriculture because of lack of finance, access to land, poor infrastructure and agriculture machinery being expensive,” Kwaamba told IPS.

While IITA says there is need to increase “youth engagement in profitable agriculture and agribusiness is critical for sustainable development,” young farmers such as Moyo and Gumpo find themselves in a position where they have to teach themselves the ropes while they go.

“I have no business model, I just do what I think needs to be done. For example with the poultry project, I lost a lot of chicks when I first started because I had no clue about the business of raising chickens,” Moyo told IPS, exposing the difficulties many farmers face in a country where inflationary pressures have pushed many business to the ground.

While Zimbabwe has in the past distributed youth economic empowerment loans, Moyo says it has always been difficult to access these loans as farming is not seen as an enterprise that guarantees immediate returns.

“We have seen in the past young people being given loans but even for any project it has always been hard to get anything from government imagine telling them about your big ideas about farming,” he said.

Experts say the problems for young farmers are far-reaching as there remains a dearth of informed approaches to the youth involvement in agriculture.

“There is lack of you-specific research-based evidence to inform the design of youth-relevant policy and development programmes,” said agro-economist Dr. Shiferaw Fekele, in a presentation to CARE Intermediaries training focusing on youth research youth in Africa.

“There is need for more scholarly research to explore well-informed business opportunities in agriculture,” Feleke said.

A better approach to addressing this, according to Fekele, would be to have “youths researching youth” because “youths have a better grasp than anyone else of their peers’ real needs, aspirations, challenges and perspectives on agriculture”.

This rings true for Moyo and Gumpo, whose experience could well be a pointer for other youths on what needs to be done to attract more young people to farming in a country where tens of thousands of university graduates are without jobs alongside unskilled young people who leave school without hope of gainful employment.

“There is a need to strengthen the capacity of young Africa scholars in generating, appraising and disseminating evidence based-results and also strengthen the ability of key stakeholders to use evidence-based approach in policy development related to youth empowerment,” Fekele said.

The CARE project is already working with young researchers to inform the future action plans of national government that will lead to better youth policies.

These concerns could mean it is still a long way before young farmers such as Moyo add to the continent’s food security needs and take up land’s labour as a fulltime and lifelong occupation.

 

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Save the Children says Islamist militants in Cabo Delgado have killed children as young as 11.

Sculpture of Enrique de Malacca <ahmadfuadosman.com>

By Felice Noelle Rodriguez and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 16 2021 (IPS)

Globalisation’s beginnings are symbolised by Ferdinand Magellan’s near circumnavigation of the world half a millennium ago. But its history is not simply of connection and trade, but also of intolerance, exploitation, slavery, violence, aggression and genocide.

Magalhães, conquistador
The Philippines today struggles with this history. Some Filipinos highlight the warm native reception extended to Magellan’s fleet and the first Catholic mass, reminiscent of American Thanksgiving mythology. For others, native resistance to conquistador aggression, captured by Danilo Madrid Gerona’s biography of Magellan, is more memorable.

In 1494CE, Pope Alexander VI, now of Borgias TV series infamy, united the Iberian Catholic kings behind the Inquisition. His Tordesillas treaty, after Christopher Columbus’ 1492 ‘discovery’ of the New World under Spanish royal auspices, gave the Portuguese rights to Brazil and all lands east of it, with Spain getting the rest of the Americas.

Felice Noelle Rodriguez

Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 with the help of an Arab trader. In February 1502, he returned to demand that the ruler of Calicut (Kozhikode) expel all Muslims. When rejected, da Gama bombarded the port city and severely maimed those he captured.

Under Portugal’s second Viceroy to the East, Afonso d’Albuquerque, Fernão de Magalhães distinguished himself in several Portuguese naval sieges, attacks and sackings of ports in southern India and beyond.

Portugal had its eyes on Malacca well before arriving there. For the Portuguese chronicler Tome Pires, Malacca then was the greatest port in the world.

Magalhães arrived with the first Portuguese expedition to Malacca in 1509, returning in 1511 with a thousand men under Albuquerque’s command to capture it.

Magalhães was later injured in the 1513 Portuguese invasion of the Maghrib (Morocco). This aggression had begun almost a century earlier under the legendary Prince Henrique, Henry the Navigator. Later, after failing to get what he believed to be his due, Magalhães moved in 1517 to Sevilla, the base of the Spanish Inquisition and navy.

Magallanes, near circumnavigator
As Ferdinand Magallanes, he persuaded Spanish King Carlos V to sponsor his proposed circumnavigation to get to the Moluccas spice islands in Southeast Asia by sailing west, as allowed by the Tordesillas treaty. The monarch provided him with five ships, crew and provisions for the expedition.

On 16th March 1521, Magallanes’ depleted fleet of three ships arrived in the eastern Visayas in the central Philippines. The ships had sailed through the straits at the southern tip of the Americas which now bears his name. Sailing on to Cebu, he demanded native acceptance of his God and King, plus tribute.

He twice attacked the small neighbouring island of Mactan, where the Cebu airport now is, razing two villages who did not comply. Anticipating the third attack before dawn on 27th April, Lapulapu – a local leader, with the name of a grouper fish species – prepared to resist.

Portrait of the slave circumnavigator <enriquedemalacca.com>

Over-confident and arrogant, Magallanes shunned offers of reinforcements. Lapulapu’s mobilised village defence force greatly outnumbered and prevailed against his. Thus, the 500th anniversary recalls a rare victory for native resistance against the conquistador.

Of the five ships in his original fleet, only the smallest, Victoria eventually returned to Spain in 1522 under Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano. Nevertheless, despite the loss of most of his ships and many crew, the King still made a huge profit.

Slave, the first circumnavigator?
But there is another, largely untold story. After the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511, Magalhães left with a captured teenage slave, whose original name no one knows. Perhaps to honour Henry the Navigator, Magellan renamed him ‘anRyk’, probably a Catalan version of the name.

A favourite slave of Magellan, anRyk served as his interpreter and was to be freed upon his death. However, the ship’s captain refused to honour the will. Unsurprisingly, anRyk deserted. Thus, he may well have become the first to circumnavigate Earth, as some claim he returned to live out his life near Malacca, avoiding the Portuguese there.

In 1957, a history teacher in Singapore named Harun Aminurrashid published a novel to inspire children in the newly independent Malaya. The hero was a character loosely based on what was known about anRyk, whom he lionised as Panglima (Commander) Awang.

Thus, we have the heroic figure of Panglima Awang. Almost Spartacus-like, the captured defeated slave becomes the hero. Recent portraits as well as a sculpture of Enrique da Malacca by the Malaysian multimedia artist Ahmad Fuad Osman strengthen this image.

A Man of All Nations
Today, anRyk is claimed by several contemporary Southeast Asian nation states. Some Malaysian historians have reified the fictive Panglima Awang. Thus, Malaysian memorialisation has involved not only making history from fiction, but also creating new myths from history.

Indonesian claims rely on self-appointed Magellan chronicler Antonio Pigafetta’s suggestion that anRyk was from Sumatera; others claim he was from the Moluccas, Maluku today. Some Filipinos insist he stayed there, becoming Filipino before there was even a Philippines. More than anyone else, anRyk symbolises island Southeast Asia, the Nusantara.

In Iberia, in Europe, in the West, there is a subtle debate over personalities and dates. For the Portuguese, the circumnavigation began under Magellan’s leadership in 1519. For their neighbours, the Spaniard Elcano led the Victoria back in 1522. His diverse crew allows pan-European claims, ignoring most slaves, presumably of colour, who were not deemed worthy of mention in the official ship manifests.

Imperialism today is, in many ways, a far cry from what it was five centuries ago. Yet, there are many continuities and parallels, including racisms, cultural, including religious intolerance, exploitations and oppressions of various types despite changing forms, relations and even vocabularies.

The voyages of exploration and conquest were driven by greed. Nonetheless, God, king and country have been readily invoked to legitimise avarice and atrocities. Invoking 21st century intellectual property norms, globalisation today involves vaccine imperialism, apartheid and genocide.

Dr Felice Noelle Rodriguez is a Filipina historian. She is now a Scholar-in-Residence in Kuala Lumpur and Visiting Fellow at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

 

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Anti-colonialist David Stuurman was held on the notorious prison island long before Nelson Mandela.

President John Magufuli has not been seen in public for two weeks, amid rumours that he is sick.

The UN General Assembly in session. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias
 
“The basic problem is that the 193-member General Assembly has deferred too many times, for too long, and on too many issues to the UN Security Council and the five permanent members (P-5) of the UN Security Council (UNSC)”.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations has continued to pursue a notoriously longstanding tradition of doling out some of the highest-ranking jobs either to the five big powers, who are permanent members of the Security Council—namely the US, UK, China, France and Russia – or to Western industrialized nations such as Spain, Italy, Canada, Sweden, Germany, plus Japan.

As a result, the world’s developing countries, comprising over two-thirds of the 193 UN member states, have been complaining they are not being adequately represented in the higher echelons of the world body –- despite competent candidates with strong professional and academic qualifications vying for these jobs.

The 134-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing countries, complained last year that “persistent imbalances in equitable geographic representation in the UN Secretariat are a major concern.”

And, worse still, some of the big powers lobby the Secretary-General recommending their own nationals to succeed to the same post – and, at times, in consecutive years — implicitly claiming that some of the senior positions in the UN hierarchy are their political birthrights.

With Mark Lowcock’s decision to step down as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) last week, there is a guessing game as to which big power or which Western nation will get that job.

Lowcock is a British national and there are widespread rumors that UK has already recommended a Briton as his successor.

Since 2007, British nationals have held that post for four consecutive terms: John Holmes, Valerie Amos, Stephen O’Brien and Mark Lowcock.

Is there a fifth Briton in line for that position?

In an “open letter” to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the UN Association of UK has urged him “to champion a transparent, inclusive and merit-based appointment process for the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC)”

Over the past decade 20% of roles at Under-Secretary-General or above have gone to nationals of the Permanent Members – nearly 10 times higher than is proportional, said the letter signed by over 52 signatories, including former senior UN officials, members of the House of Lords, academics and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

“Ringfencing” roles excludes a large swathe of global talent and creates a perception of partiality, which can undermine the appointee’s authority and compromise the Secretary-General’s independence, the letter added.

Meanwhile, since 1997, the post of USG for Peacekeeping Operations has been monopolized by France with five French nationals succeeding each other: Bernard Miyet, Jean-Marie Guehenno, Alain Le Roy, Herve Ladsous and Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

And since 2007, the US has held the position of Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs: Lyn Pascoe, Jeffrey Feltman and Rosemary DiCarlo.

Not surprisingly, another permanent member of the Security Council, the then Soviet Union clung to that position no less than 13 times since 1952 when the post was designated USG for Political and Security Council Affairs.

Arpad Bogsch, a U.S. national of Hungarian origin, held the post of director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva for an all-time record: 24 years (1973-1997).

Still, the United States, the largest single donor, continues to unreservedly hold the unique monopoly of nominating its own national as the head of the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, since its inception in 1947.

The seven U.S. nationals who have uninterruptedly headed that agency include Maurice Pate, Henry Labouisse, James Grant, Carol Bellamy, Ann Veneman, Anthony Lake and Henrietta Fore.

No other agency at the United Nations has had a stranglehold on such a senior position in the history of the organization.

The independence of the Secretary-General is a longstanding myth perpetuated mostly outside the United Nations. As an international civil servant, he is expected to shed his political loyalties when he takes office, and more importantly, never seek or receive instructions from any governments.

But virtually every single Secretary-General—nine at last count– has played second fiddle to the world’s major powers in violation of Article 100 of the UN charter.

Over the last few decades, successive Secretaries-Generals have played ball, particularly with the Big Five – caving into their demands – in order to avoid a veto, particularly when their re-election comes up before the Security Council.

The current SG Antonio Guterres of Portugal has declared his intention to run for a second term in office, beginning 2022. But he has to placate the big Five or curry favour with them – whichever comes first—in order to avoid a veto.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt never got a second term because he was vetoed by the US—even though 14 of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in his favor.

When he took office in January 1992, Boutros-Ghali noted that 50 percent of the staff assigned to the U.N.’s administration and management were U.S. nationals, although Washington paid only 25 percent of the U.N.’s regular budget.

Thomas G. Weiss, Distinguished Fellow, Global Governance, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, told IPS the Secretary-General “gave away the store as part of his campaign in 2016. His re-election effort will follow the same path. The electoral college has five members”

Competence has occasionally been a qualification for the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), but not always. Nationality and the SG’s electoral promises and chits, however, are always the primary consideration, said Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Ramesh Thakur, Emeritus Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Toda Peace Institute,
Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, told IPS the basic problem is the General Assembly (GA) has deferred too many times, for too long, and on too many issues to the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the five permanent members (P-5) of the UNSC.

It is past time for the GA to assert itself, use the power of the purse, and use it universal membership against the self-serving narrow clique of the P-5 dominated UNSC, he pointed out.

“The UN’s unique legitimacy flows from its universal membership, which means the GA, not the UNSC. I would like the GA to adopt a formal censure of the SG for violating the 1992 GA resolution,” he argued.

“And then follow it up by mandating the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (or its successor if that has changed since my days) to read the annual report on the distribution of senior posts – Assistant Secretaries-Generals (ASGs), SG, and all special envoys and representatives at that rank – by the UN’s regional groupings, said Thakur, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Senior Vice-Rector at the UN University.

And where someone has dual nationalities, this should be reflected in the report, to stop someone who is both a US and an African country national, for example, from claiming 100% representation of that African country. Make that 50% US and 50% second nationality. And equivalent for all countries, noted Thakur.

“In other words, the primary blame for this continued racist domination lies not with the SG, not with the UNSC, but with the GA and its failure to impose standards and accountability,” he declared.

Joseph Chamie, an independent consulting demographer and a former director of the UN Population Division, told IPS while it is understandable that P5 members may wish to maintain their disproportionate advantages, and in some cases, monopoly with respect to USG and higher UN appointments, the world has changed markedly over the past 75 years and appointments at those high levels need to take those changes fully into account.

Simply in terms of demographics, he argued, the P5 members represent substantially less of the world than in the past. In 1950 the P5 countries represented 36 percent of the world’s population; today they represent 26 percent.

In addition, he said, the educational levels, career experiences and professional dedication of men and women in developing countries have also increased markedly over the past seven decades and in most instances are comparable to those in developed countries.

“It should be obvious to any impartial observer of the repeated breaches of the 1992 General Assembly resolution concerning no national of a Member State should succeed a national of that state in a senior post,” he said.

While it is important to have gender equality at high levels of the UN, it is also important to avoid “ringfencing” roles and posts, which contributes to undermining the credibility, effectiveness and support of the United Nations system, said Chamie.

The Secretary-General’s decisions on future appointments to high level positions in the Organization, he said, would benefit greatly from being transparent, inclusive and merit-based.

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS, who was one of the signatories to the letter addressed to the British Prime Minister, told IPS a key factor holding the UN back from achieving the aims of the UN Charter is the assertion of narrowly defined geo-political interests by the big powers.

“If anything, the pandemic has taught us, it’s the need to invest in people centred multilateralism to meet the demands of the 21st century”

He said “it could be a beautiful thing if senior UN appointments reflected the diversity of member states while demonstrating a strong commitment to core UN values.”

Hard-nosed assertion of raw power by the P5 without consistent fidelity to international norms has caused much suffering in the world, declared Tiwana.

The writer is the author of the newly-released book on the United Nations titled “No Comment — And Don’t Quote me on That” –From the Sublime to the Hilarious. The book is available on amazon:
https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

  

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This is the first time a primary school has been targeted in a wave of similar kidnappings.

The health system in the conflict-hit Tigray region has "almost completely collapsed," says MSF.

By Shammi Quddus
Mar 15 2021 (IPS-Partners)

My newsfeed on International Women’s Day: “Happy Women’s Day to my superwoman! You got promoted to Vice President at the bank, you are an amazing mom to our kids, you make sure a simple guy like me has his life in order and take care of your parents and in-laws with the utmost care. Salute!”

I wonder what the guy is doing since his wife seems to be doing the work of four people combined.

I scroll on.

“We are launching a campaign to celebrate the superwoman in your lives! Your mom, your wife, your sister they do much for us! Send us a recorded video and you can win a special discount for your next order.”

This has become standard fare of International Women’s Day in social and traditional media. While this type of superwoman hype feels good, it perpetuates certain harmful norms.

First, congratulating women for being superwomen is congratulating them for doing it all—working a full time job and shouldering caregiving for children and the elderly. Why are women doing it all? Do they have 36 hours in a day? What are their partners doing? By celebrating this definition of a superwoman, we reinforce the idea that women doing it all is the gold standard when in reality, it is a perpetuation of entrenched patriarchal norms that absolves men of taking up household responsibilities.

Second, the superwoman label takes permission away from women to seek help. Women who cannot do it all or refuse to are shamed and shunned. It puts immense pressure on all women to keep up the appearance of having it all together when in reality, many are struggling to balance work and family, and carve out a sliver of time for self-care. If anything, we need to do the opposite and communicate that juggling so many roles is unsustainable. Something has to give and something will give. Many women often end up quitting careers they love or suffer in silence from poor mental and physical health.

Third, it hides the fact that being a superwoman is a class issue. Women who can afford daycare or nannies can keep working with school-going kids. Having a family car makes pickups and drop-offs much easier. Having grandparents who live in the city and look after the young ones is a big relief. These advantages are not available to the millions of women who work in low-paid jobs. Such women are rarely picked up by media to be superwomen. The prerogative only belongs to the white collar, upper middle class who can afford the extra help.

So what can we do instead?

Enough with the superwoman label. It’s not helping women. It’s hurting women. Yes, there are women who do a million things for us. Thank them in person but have a conversation to figure out how the work can be shared more equitably in the home and workplace. These conversations need to take place with mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and even the women who work for us—the nannies, the cleaning ladies, the cooks. If you are a leader in an organisation, instead of celebrating the lone superwoman in the C-suite, ask yourself why your C-suite is not half female. Better yet, ask your women.

International Women’s Day was established more than a century ago to fight for equality. Let’s honour that vision by making sure personal and professional success is attainable not just by superwomen, but by all women.

Shammi Quddus is a Product Manager at Google. She is a wife and mother of two, and not a superwoman.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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