Africa

A viral dance hit points the way to positive developments but there are dangers ahead.

There are fears the new Covid-19 variant could be more resistant to current vaccines.

The closure was imposed after the country reported its first case of coronavirus.

Siddharth Chatterjee with CS Eugene Wamalwa, Heads of Missions from the United Nations Mission and other development partners visited the Frontier Counties Development Council Counties with a view of leveraging on opportunities considering geographic proximities in addressing shared developmental challenges in the marginalized Counties. Credit: West Pokot County, February 2020

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 4 2021 (IPS)

 

Happy New Year, Kenya.

Several milestones in my personal and professional life have made Kenya a cherished place for me. I started my UNICEF career in Rumbek, South Sudan in June 2000, and my rest and recuperation breaks were in Nairobi. In fact Kenya was the first African country I had ever visited and, frankly, it was love at first sight.

I came back in November 2004 to serve with UNICEF Somalia based out of Nairobi, and in 2006 I got married in Kenya. My son who was 3 years old in 2014, has had his formative years growing up in Kenya, and considers himself Kenyan.

The following year I left to serve in Iraq, and I wondered if I would get an opportunity to return to Kenya. Seven years later, it happened: in April 2014 I came back as the United Nations Population Fund Representative (UNFPA) Representative and in August 2016, I was selected to lead the UN Country Team in Kenya as the UN Resident Coordinator and the UNDP Resident Representative.

Over the years, my bond with the country has been forged through jubilation and the shared suffering of tragedy. I have rejoiced at improvements in many health indicators in counties such as Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo and Lamu where an unconscionable number of women used to die in childbirth, but where great progress has been made. I have also mourned in horror at the number of lives lost to terror attacks, the murder of 36 quarry workers by terrorists in Mandera county (I was in Mandera the same day), the slaughter of innocent students in Garissa University and the dastardly attack at Nairobi’s DusitD2 hotel.

The end of my tenure as UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya falls on 13 January 2021, with new experiences and challenges awaiting me as I prepare to take up my next position as the United Nations Resident Coordinator (designate) to China.

This is not the end of my relationship with Kenya, but rather an opportunity to strengthen my ties with the country, and for sharing my knowledge and first hand insights about its great potential. It is also a chance to entrench South-South-Cooperation, a crucial part of the answer to Kenya’s, and more broadly Africa’s, unique opportunities to accelerate growth.

I realize that Kenya still faces formidable challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to deepen this even more. Devolution has brought considerable resources and autonomy to counties, and yet lack of capacity, weak financial and regulatory oversight, will continue to hinder efforts to combat the asymmetry of wealth and human prosperity which will be a major obstacle to Kenya’s rise.

I am delighted with the country’s progress towards its Vision 2030 aspirations and the SDGs goals. School enrolment rates are up; more families are accessing maternal and child health services; social, economic and political opportunities for women have increased; major inroads have been made against child marriage and FGM, with President Kenyatta personally leading on this.

My experiences as the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya have reiterated that by prioritizing investments in women and youth, Africa’s real potential can be unleashed, and I am proud of the support on this that we have been able to provide through the entire UN Kenya Country Team.

By 2030 agri-business will be US$ 1 trillion worth in Africa. Almost two-thirds of Kenya’s population is below the age of 30, and the future of food production rests in their hands. Kenya’s economy is anchored in agriculture, where 70% of the population earns its livelihood.

In most parts of the world, crop yields have grown ahead of population increases, helping to free them from hunger and famine, but not in Africa. We looked for creative and sustainable ways to harness Kenya’s strong internet penetration to exploit information technology that adds value and strengthens the economic appeal of agri-business for young people and creates digital jobs as well.

President Kenyatta has noted that “the current generation of young people has the potential of expanding Africa’s productive workforce, promoting entrepreneurship and becoming genuine instruments of change to reverse the devastation caused by climate change.”

Africa’s demographic boom has been hailed as its biggest promise for transforming the continent’s economic and social outcomes, but only if the right investments are made to prepare its youthful population for tomorrow’s world. Kenya launched the Generation Unlimited initiative spearheaded by the Head of State, and can serve as a blueprint to harness the demographic dividend that Africa’s youth represent.

Women’s empowerment was our other key pursuit, with special emphasis on access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. Without this, Kenya’s population is likely to continue its rapid increase, putting pressure on land and water resources, threatening livelihoods, food security, and straining already weak health systems. Gains made in women’s sexual reproductive health and rights took several steps backward in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reproductive rights must be a critical part of our arsenal to fight future pandemics.

It is in Kenya also that I witnessed creative ways of overcoming bureaucracy. Large organisations are often accused of responding too late or with too little in times of crisis, and my tenure saw many. Drought, floods and the worst locust invasion in 70 years, plus the Covid-19 pandemic, all upended much hard-earned progress. As a team however, we went beyond individual UN agency mandates in partnership with the Government of Kenya to quickly establish rapid responses to these emergencies, reducing the socio-economic impact, earning the confidence of the Government and overturning the common perception of the UN as an unwieldy bureaucracy.

The Government’s leadership was meritorious on all counts and that is why I have stated unequivocally why Kenya deserves an A+ for its response to the triple humanitarian crisis.

I am proud to have been part of many milestones in the partnership between both levels of the Government of Kenya and the UN, and to count on the unfailing support of the leadership of Kenya at all levels of Government. Kenya’s potential is boundless, and the country now offers stronger platforms for new shared-value investments than ever before.

I also express my sincere appreciation to the entire UN family in Kenya, the development partners, our donors and well-wishers and civil society partners and, most of all, the wonderful people of Kenya.

With a firm belief in a common destiny, I intend to keep telling the story of the emerging powerhouse that is Kenya.

My wife, son and I carry Kenya in our hearts.

Thank you for everything. Your generosity and friendship is nonpareil.

God Bless, Kenya.

Asante, Kenya, na kwaheri hadi tutakapo kutana tena!

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya. Follow him on twitter @sidchat1

 

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The post This Is Not a Goodbye, Kenya – Asante na Kwaheri ya Kuonana appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Women’s empowerment is a crucial aim of the social networking site Fuzia. Credit: Fuzia

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Jan 4 2021 (IPS)

A cherished snapshot of a happy mother and a smiling grandmother is universally associated with a good childhood. In the movies, TV, or media, a broken or depressed mother’s face is hardly seen. But the reality is somewhat different. The measures communities and society take to ensure that women and girls are protected and supported are often questioned.

Shraddha Varma, co-founder, and director of social networking site Fuzia believes in enhancing women’s lives.

“Women empowerment is incomplete without key aspects like health, wellness, education, financial independence. Fuzia, being a leading women’s networking platform, is constantly taking initiatives to touch on these aspects. We understand during and post COVID-19, and females must amp up their self-care and approach for an all-rounded approach for health and happiness.”

Fuzia takes advantage of the growing population of women who turn to social media for inspiration and knowledge, especially in the Indian subcontinent. According to Statista, with over 560 million internet users, India is the second-largest online market globally, ranked only behind China. It was estimated that by 2023, there would be around 650 million internet users in the country. In the United States, 91% of women use the internet, and in 2019, 22.6 percent of Africa’s female population had online access, compared to 33.8 percent of men.

With COVID-19 lockdowns, schools and businesses moving online, the numbers of users have also skyrocketed in many parts of the globe. Even people, like the elderly and homemakers, who only used technology for communication or entertainment, are using it differently. People in this demographic are now rapidly adapting to using digital technology as an everyday activity for education, teaching, shopping, communication, and skills-building.

Riya Sinha, the co-founder of Fuzia (https://www.fuzia.com/), in an exclusive interview with IPS, said that she had come to understand society and culture from travelling extensively.

“As I have worked on Fuzia, I think my background played a big part in forming my vision for Fuzia. From a young age, I have had the privilege to travel to India and all around the world, experiencing different cultures and types of people,” she said.

“This variation of experiences, cultures, societies paired up with technology has enabled us to grow Fuzia to what we are today. Using our platform anyone from any part of the world can have access to lessons and workshops on skill-building, communicating, art, literature, learning and more.”

Fuzia tackles taboo subjects. Credit: Fuzia

It is giving access to these resources at the heart of the social networking sites brand: “Happiness is Fuzia”.

Varma echoes the comments and adds: “With Fuzia lounge and mobile app the world has become accessible for many women right from the palm of their hands. You do not need to pay a fee to be a member, and there are no restrictions to the content we publish for access.”

The co-founders are proud of their platform’s track record of ensuring that people can express themselves without being judged.

“With the security of no-bullying policy and judgment-free usage at our platform, many topics are discussed which otherwise would go untold. We strictly monitor content, and professional advice is often given as live sessions and information board posts from experts,” Varma said.

Women, who often use online platforms for information on every topic from religion to subjects seldom spoken about find easy access to reliable data on the Fuzia website.

Fuzia ensures that subjects often considered taboo are included in their daily content. This includes menstruation, sexual issues, safe sex, LGBTQ matters, teen and tween topics, sexual harassment, and domestic abuse.

They ensure that people know how to seek help if they require it and substantially impact helping those who are suicidal or are seeking help for mental health issues.

The website hosts regular live sessions where industry experts take live questions and give their inputs.

The developers at Fuzia have pinpointed what women want from a digital platform. They have developed technologies that focus on creating products and virtual environments where women feel included and safe. As a by-product, it has assisted with women becoming employed and skill sharing. Fuzia’s platforms include training – it is here that may of Fuzia own staff have been recruited. Others have found ways to turn their hobbies into livelihoods with the platform’s support in terms of shoutouts and campaigns and Fuzia provided a stepping-stone for them to explore new career paths.

The World Economic Forum’s founder, Dr Klaus Schwab, remarked: “Achieving gender equality is necessary for economic reasons. Only those economies (that) have full access to all their talent will remain competitive and prosper. But even more important, gender equality is a matter of justice. As a humanity, we also have the obligation to ensure a balanced set of values.”

When women are locked out of digital products, businesses lose customers, and product development gets hampered. The founders of Fuzia believe that Fuzia can lessen the gap in the digital divide and gender inequality.

This article is a sponsored feature.

 

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Contamination of rivers and streams by mine waste in the vicinity of the Panguna copper mine in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Jan 4 2021 (IPS)

Local communities in the vicinity of the abandoned Panguna copper mine, have taken decisive action to hold the global mining multinational, Rio Tinto, accountable for alleged environmental and human rights violations during the mine’s operations between 1972 and 1989.

The mine operated in the mountains of central Bougainville in Papua New Guinea until 1989.

The complaint by 156 residents was lodged with the Australian Government in September by Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre and subsequently accepted in November, paving the way for a non-judicial mediation process.

“We and the communities we are working with have now entered into a formal conciliation process with Rio Tinto facilitated by the Australian OECD National Contact Point and talks with the company will begin very shortly,” Keren Adams, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre in Melbourne told IPS.

Rio Tinto was the majority owner of the Panguna mine through its operating company, Bougainville Copper Ltd, with a 53.8 percent stake. However, 17 years after it began production in 1972, anger among indigenous landowners about contaminated rivers and streams, the devastation of customary land and inequity in distributing the extractive venture’s profits and benefits triggered an armed rebellion in 1989. After the mine’s power supply was destroyed by sabotage, Rio Tinto fled Bougainville Island and the site became derelict during the decade long civil war which followed.

The mine area, which is still controlled by the tribal Mekamui Government of Unity, comprising former rebel leaders, hasn’t been decommissioned and the environmental legacy of its former operations never addressed.

Now, according to the complaint, “copper pollution from the mine pit and tailings continues to flow into local rivers … The Jaba-Kawerong river valley downstream of the mine resembles a moonscape with vast mounds of grey tailings waste and rock stretching almost 40 km downstream to the coast. Levees constructed at the time of the mine’s operation are now collapsing, threatening nearby villages.”

Gutted mine machinery and infrastructure are scattered across the site of the Panguna mine in the mountains of Central Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

There are further claims that contamination of waterways and land is causing long-term health problems amongst the indigenous population, such as skin diseases, diarrhoea, respiratory illnesses, and pregnancy complications.

Helen Hakena, Director of the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency in Bougainville’s main town of Buka, fully supports the action taken by her fellow islanders.

“It is long overdue. It is going to be very important because it was the big issue which caused the Bougainville conflict. It will lay to rest the grievances which caused so much suffering for our people,” Hakena told IPS.

The Bougainville civil war, triggered by the uprising at the mine, led to a death toll of 15,000-20,000 people.

The people of Bougainville believe that Rio Tinto has breached the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by failing both to take action to mitigate foreseeable environmental, health and safety-related impacts at the mine and respect the human rights of the communities affected by its extractive activities. The Human Rights Law Centre claims that “the mine pollution continues to infringe nearly all the economic, social and cultural rights of these indigenous communities, including their rights to food, water, health, housing and an adequate standard of living.”

“While we do not wholly accept the claims in the complaint, we are aware of deteriorating mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas and acknowledge that there are environmental and human rights considerations,” Rio Tinto responded in a public statement.

“Accepting the AusNCP’s ‘good offices’ shows that we take this complaint seriously and remain ready to enter into discussions with the communities that have filed the complaint, along with other relevant communities around the Panguna mine site, and other relevant parties, such as Bougainville Copper Ltd, the Autonomous Bougainville Government and PNG Government,” the statement continued.

In 2016, Rio Tinto divested its interest in Bougainville Copper Ltd, the operating company, and its shares were acquired by the PNG and Bougainville governments. Simultaneously, the corporate giant announced that it rejected corporate responsibility for any environmental impacts or damage.

Panguna mine’s copper and gold await political settlement before extraction can resume. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Mineral exploration in Bougainville in the 1960s, followed by the construction of the Panguna open-cut copper mine, occurred when the island region was under Australian administration. It would subsequently become a massive source of internal revenue Papua New Guinea, which was granted Independence in 1975. During its lifetime, the Panguna mine generated about US$2 billion in revenue and accounted for 44 percent of the nation’s exports.

The mining agreement negotiated between the Australian Government and Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia in the 1960s didn’t include any significant environmental regulations or liability of the company for rehabilitation of areas affected by mining.

There has been no definitive environmental assessment of the Panguna site since it was forced to shut down. However, about 300,000 tonnes of ore and water were excavated at the mine every day. In 1989, an independent report by Applied Geology Associates in New Zealand noted that significant amounts of copper and other heavy metals were leaching from the mine and waste rock dumps and flowing into the Kawerong River. Today, the water in some rivers and streams in the mine area is a luminescent blue, a sign of copper contamination.

Bougainville residents’ action comes at the end of a challenging year for Rio Tinto. It is still reeling from revelations earlier this year that its operations destroyed historically significant Aboriginal sacred sites, estimated to be 46,000 years old, in the vicinity of its iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company’s CEO, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, has subsequently resigned.

Nevertheless, Adams is optimistic about the corporate giant’s willingness to engage with Bougainville and PNG stakeholders.

“In the first instance, we hope that this non-judicial process will help to facilitate discussions to explore whether Rio Tinto will make these commitments to address the impacts of its operations. If not, then the communities will be asking the Australian OECD National Contact Point to investigate the complaint and make findings about whether Rio Tinto has breached its human rights and environmental obligations,” the Human Rights Law Centre’s Legal Director said. A full investigation, if required, could take up to a year.

Ultimately, the islanders are seeking specific outcomes. These include Rio Tinto’s serious engagement with them to identify solutions to the urgent environmental and human rights issues; funding for an independent environmental and human rights impact assessment of the mine; and contributions to a substantial independently managed fund to enable long term rehabilitation programs.

Otherwise, Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre predicts that “given the limited resources of the PNG and Bougainville governments, it is almost inevitable that if no action is taken by Rio Tinto, the environmental damage currently being caused by the tailings waste will continue and worsen.”

 

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Five steps Nigerian start-up Paystack took to build and strike a $200m deal with Stripe.

Only positive discrimination can help persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups to access to the job market. Credit: UNDP, Nepal

By Krishna Gahatraj and Simone Galimberti
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Jan 4 2021 (IPS)

In Nepal, a dominating culture traditionally representing the elites, the so-called higher castes of the society according to the Hindu culture, still endures and prevails.

As consequence access to power is escaping those who really need a chance to get it most, those disenfranchised and disempowered.

Persons with disabilities, members of the dalits that according to the Hindu mythology are considered lower castes and often treated as ‘untouchable’, together with indigenous communities and certainly women have considerable fewer chances.

The ongoing pandemic is surely exacerbating this divide with even less job opportunities being available, pushing them furthest behind at the bottom of the society. How can we change such inequitable status quo from the perspective of someone so far excluded from power?

A comprehensive quota system applicable also in the job market would offer an important steppingstone towards a truly inclusive and just nation. If you are one of them your chances at getting employment are truly slim.

This is mainly because of structural discrimination that is still prevailing in our society that blocks you from emerging through multiple barriers: lack of quality education and accessibility, a constant sense of not belonging together with other invisible constraints that make your journey towards self-empowerment daunting if not impossible.

If against all odds a person from a disadvantaged group happens to get good education and develop her skills, her chances at getting a well-qualified job will be incredibly small in comparison to others from dominant groups. We should not be surprised after all.

Despite having their rights now enshrined in a new constitution nominally founded on inclusion and equality, persons from such groups are still systematically discriminated on daily basis. As consequence, persons with disabilities like other vulnerable groups are always left behind from accessing the same opportunities comparing to other privileged counterparts.

Credit: UNDP, Nepal

In some cases, the discrimination is overt and consciously made, but in many others, it happens unconsciously, based on old prejudices that fuels peoples’ mindsets. As baffling as it can be citizens from vulnerable groups are never able to meet all the expectations and requirements. The bar is always higher for them.

A major issue is that disability and caste are still viewed as uncomfortable subjects to be dealt with at work place no matter the qualification, skills and potential of candidates from minority groups traditionally discriminated.

Hence, the institutional barriers set by employers, and overall by society, must be challenged, assuring equal access for those citizens whose rights to equality have been systematically discriminated.

The prevailing tokenistic approach for improving works force diversity and inclusion will never bring a transformative change in our structures, systems and behaviors and we cannot just wait for a more sensitive corporate leadership to emerge. When the leadership does consciously discriminate, evidence-based grievances and complaints cannot find a safe channel of readdress.

As consequences many job prospects from marginalized groups stop even applying.
How can we question, challenge and reverse these discriminatory attitudes at work place? A well designed affirmative legislation framework is the only option available together with the right economic and social policies uplifting the economy and the society.

The existing quota for minorities groups are exclusively applicable to public sector and often are not enforced and disregarded.

For example, legal provisions to ensure adequate representations of persons with disabilities in the elected legislatures were never enforced and the mandatory employment quota of five per cent for persons with disabilities as per the Civil Service Act is scarcely implemented.

First, we need to ensure such existing protections are going to be fully applied but this won’t be enough. We also need an affirmative framework for the private sector, including not for profit and developmental work, that rather than been seen as a drag to the recovery, can be a propeller for more dynamic job market.

An economy that will be more open and welcoming to minorities will be a stronger one, that will help the country to graduate to middle income country by 2030. Positive discrimination laws that takes due account of the intersectionality nature of the problem are needed if we want to change the society and ensure that even the most marginalized citizens, can have a fair shot at life.

A more inclusive economy is not a zero-sum game. A stronger and more inclusive economy means that there will be more opportunities for everybody but achieving that also implies a recognition that we need to address and revert the recurrent barriers.
The dominating class must accept their responsibilities and play their part.
It might be hard to believe the fact that the decision to hire someone might at the end depend on your family name or disability.

Turning the country into a more diverse and inclusive nation is choice that will have long term benefits. A stronger quota system enforceable also in the private and not for profit job market can make this happen.

 

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Excerpt:

Krishna Gahatraj is a disability and social inclusion expert and activist; Simone Galimberti is Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO working on youth’s social inclusion with a focus on disability rights in Kathmandu.

The post Wanted: Affirmative Legislation in the Job Market in Nepal appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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