Africa

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A young boy cooks food at his home in Masunduza, Mbabane, Eswatini. Experts say the current food system does not promote or produce healthy diets. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Dec 3 2020 (IPS)

As the world accelerates towards achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it is time to replace the current broken food system. With only a decade left to reach the deadline, evidence shows that the way food is produced, processed and transported is not only destructive to the environment but it is also leaving millions behind.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) The State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2019 report, over 820 million people across the world are hungry. In the meantime, the World Health Organisation states that in 2016, 1.9 billion adults were overweight and, of these, 650 million were obese.

Moreover, in 2005 the agriculture sector accounted for more than half of the global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that an already fragile system was not resilient as more people were left hungry as lockdowns imposed by governments across the globe exposed a system that relies on transporting food for several miles across the world.

Farmers in African countries grow what they do not eat and eat what they do not grow. Eswatini, for instance, does not grow enough maize to feed its 1.1 million people but it exports tonnes of sugarcane to Europe each year. It does not help that more than a billion tonnes of food are wasted globally each year.

As experts observed during the one-day Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork summit hosted by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (BCFN), on Dec. 1, the food system is incapable of taking the world to the promised land – Zero Hunger by 2030.

This is because despite the lack of access for many people and the negative impact agriculture has on the environment, most of the available food is not healthy.

According to Jeffrey Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University and director of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the world needs a new food economy.

“Food is overly processed with too much sugar added to it, leading to unhealthy diets,” said Sachs. He blamed this on companies who are obsessed with profit to the point of feeding people with “highly addictive” processed foods and poor regulation by governments to ensure a change of behaviour.

Sachs said while diets will differ based on cultural context but, generally, healthy diets have more fruits and vegetables and are based more on plant protein rather than animal protein.

“Changing the food system is a complex challenge, but the first step is to know where we want to go, and that’s toward a healthy diet produced with sustainable agriculture,” said Sachs.

While many of the speakers during the event lamented a broken system, Chris Barrett, professor and co-editor-in-chief of Food Policy at Cornell University, said it is not all gloom and doom. He said the system has been phenomenally successful in 2020 such that the world is seeing a record high cereal harvesting despite the pandemic and climate change. He also said about 5 billion people will have access to affordable healthy diets this year.

“How do we combat the challenges while acknowledging the successes?” he asked.

As other speakers noted, it is a system that was designed many years ago and it has served its purpose. The current cracks to the system are a sign that it needs to be replaced with one that is compatible with the “new normal”.    

While technological advancement and innovations are part of the proposed solutions to change the system, policy formulation and education for behavioural change are equally important. Protecting the rights of the marginalised such as indigenous people and ensuring that they have access to land are part of the game-changers.   

Elly Schlein, the Vice President Emilia-Romagna, Italy, observed that political will and resources are needed to create the right incentives to change the system.

A timely discussion as the world gears for the U.N 2021 Food Systems Summit which the U.N Secretary-General, António Guterres, will host on November 30 to December 04. The objectives of the U.N. Summit are:

• Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all 
• Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns
• Boosting nature-positive production at sufficient scale 
• Advancing equitable livelihoods and value distribution 
• Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress

The Resetting the Food System from Farm to Fork summit produced five recommendations for the U.N. meeting, which Dr Agnes Kalibata, the Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, gladly accepted. She said the summit presents an opportunity to evaluate progress towards 2030 and shift things around to ensure that the SDGs are met.

A decade is enough to shift things around as suggested by Guido Barilla, the Barilla Group and BCFN Foundation chair. He said only doubters would want to languish in their comfort zone claiming a decade is too short to change the status quo.

While bringing issues to the table and discussing them during a summit it important, the real test is in the implementation of strategies that such meetings produce.

 

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The United Nations is conducting a 16-day social media campaign from 25 November to 10 December 2020 for its 2020 Campaign: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The 16 Days of Activism is a worldwide campaign calling for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence (GBV). Credit: UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)

By Renata H. Dalaqua
GENEVA, Dec 3 2020 (IPS)

“What does the Women, Peace and Security Agenda have to do with arms control and disarmament?”.

Under varying formulations, this question keeps coming up whenever someone refers to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda as a basis for ensuring that women’s voices and their specific security needs were taken into account in multilateral arms control discussions.

Even for those supportive of bringing gender equality concerns to disarmament fora, the linkages between WPS and arms control were not always clear. To tackle this, UNIDIR’s Gender and Disarmament programme initiated a nine-month research project that resulted in Connecting the Dots, a report that outlines the interconnections between arms control and the WPS Agenda and sets out concrete ideas for further dialogue and collaboration among distinct policy communities.

Shared goals

The WPS Agenda and arms control and disarmament share the broader goal of preventing and reducing armed violence. The current trend towards gender-responsive arms control is strengthening these synergies, highlighting the importance of women’s meaningful participation in discussions related to weapons.

At the core of landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security is the assertion of women’s right to participate in decisions related to war and peace.

Likewise, that resolution acknowledges that conflict affects women and girls differently to men and, therefore, crisis management, humanitarian and development responses need to take account of the specific needs of women and girls.

Renata H. Dalaqua

Since SCR 1325 (2000), the Security Council has adopted ten resolutions on WPS, collectively forming the basis for what is often referred to as the WPS Agenda. It is commonly defined as having four interconnected pillars:

• • Meaningful

participation

• of women in decision-making processes at all levels and in all aspects of international security;

 

• •

Prevention

• of violence against women and girls and of any violation of their rights;

 

• •

Protection

• of women and girls from all forms of violence and from any violation of their rights;

 

• •

Relief and Recovery

, that is, ensuring that the voices and concerns of women and girls are accounted for when creating the structural conditions necessary for sustainable peace.

Arms control and disarmament measures can strengthen all those pillars, effectively helping to implement the WPS Agenda. Despite these convergences, multilateral processes on WPS have rarely addressed the governance of weapons.

For its part, initiatives in the field of arms control and disarmament to improve women’s participation and tackle gendered impacts of weapons have not been framed explicitly in connection with the WPS Agenda.

Misconceptions

How do we explain this disconnect? UNIDIR found two misconceptions that hinder the integration of WPS and arms control.

First, is the belief that gender relates primarily or even exclusively to women and girls. This is not the case. Gender is a broad construct that refers to the roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society at a given time considers appropriate or a “norm” for women and men, for girls and boys, and for non-binary or gender-fluid people.

Gender norms are socially constructed differences – as opposed to biological differences (sex) – and they function as social rules of behaviour, setting out what is desirable and possible to do as a man or a woman in a given context.

Gender points to a relational view of male, female, and trans categories as contextually and relationally defined. Thus, the way women interact with issues of weapons and armed conflict cannot be addressed by focusing only on women.

For this conversation to be effective, men and masculinities must be part of the Agenda. Moreover, as long as gender-related debates are considered “women’s issues”, their reach will be limited and progress towards the integration of gender perspectives into arms control and disarmament will be slow.

The second misconception is that WPS resolutions only apply to conflict or post-conflict situations and, thus, would not be relevant to multilateral arms control processes, which tend to be seen as instruments negotiated by and for societies considered to be at peace.

But this is not true, as many of the WPS-related activities are relevant in peacetime as well, especially those that deal with prevention of violence in general and of violence against women and girls. Femicides, in which weapons play a role, are particularly visible in areas or countries that are otherwise relatively peaceful.

Moving forward

As the WPS Agenda enters its third decade, states and civil society actors are looking for ways to strengthen its implementation. UNIDIR’s research offers several recommendations to contribute to those efforts.

• • Go beyond merely adding women. Efforts should be taken to ensure that women, men and persons of other gender identities affected by armed violence can meaningfully participate in arms control and disarmament. This could take participation to the next level, overcoming the simplistic notion that gender equates to women.

 

• • In addition to small arms control, the goals of prevention and protection should inform multilateral processes on cybersecurity. After all, online gender-based violence (GBV) is a serious issue and it can turn into armed violence, as we have seen in attacks perpetrated by the so-called

incels

• .

 

• • Lessons learned from gender-sensitive victim assistance in mine action should be applied to protocols and agreements dealing with weapons of mass destruction. In view of sex-specific and

gendered effects of chemical, biological

and nuclear weapons, a gender-responsive approach to assistance under WMD treaties could help states and their populations to become more resilient and recover more rapidly.

Ultimately, the WPS Agenda provides a practical structure for the comprehensive integration of gender perspectives across the whole range of arms control and disarmament processes. Bringing these policy areas closer should be of equal interest to both arms control practitioners as well as WPS advocates.

This piece presents findings from a larger research project. The author is grateful to Dr. Renata Dwan and Dr. Henri Myrttinen for their contribution and insights.

The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network (ELN) or any of the ELN’s members. The ELN’s aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address pressing foreign, defence, and security challenges.

 

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The post Lost in Translation? Understanding Relevance of Women, Peace & Security in Arms Control & Disarmament appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Renata H. Dalaqua is Programme Lead for Gender & Disarmament at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)

 
At the core of landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security is the assertion of women’s right to participate in decisions related to war and peace.

 

The post Lost in Translation? Understanding Relevance of Women, Peace & Security in Arms Control & Disarmament appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Pablo Vieira Samper
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 3 2020 (IPS)

For those of us in the international climate action community, 2020 isn’t ending the way we expected when we rang in the new year. Even before 2020 dawned, countries were hard at work planning for their first updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the Paris Agreement’s five-year NDC revision cycle. NDCs are official statements, prepared by countries themselves, outlining the commitments they are making to reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change’s impacts. They are at the heart of putting the Paris Agreement into practice and pursuing action on a global scale.

Pablo Vieira Samper

We were thrown a curveball, however, as an unexpected and devastating global pandemic shifted national priorities toward public health and economic recovery. And even though we faced one of the hottest years on record—in which the impacts of climate change were seen and experienced in wildfires, floods, hurricanes, droughts, and other adverse events—countries’ domestic agendas were forced to deal with pandemic-related topics.

Still, the imperative to act has not disappeared. In fact, it is more critical than ever. Fortunately, while work to support and enable countries to increase ambition in their enhanced NDCs was delayed in some cases, it was not derailed. The work has had to forge ahead through significant and unforeseen obstacles, but it has continued. And the NDC Partnership has played a significant role in keeping action on the agenda and keeping results within reach.

The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of countries and institutions collaborating to drive transformational climate action through sustainable development. While nations signal their Paris Agreement commitments with NDCs, the NDC Partnership brings together countries, institutions, and resources in new ways to accelerate implementation and enhance ambition over time.

We have seen significant progress in the implementation of national climate commitments during the four years since we were founded to support developing countries in achieving their commitments under the Paris Agreement. We grew to more than 180 members, including developed and developing countries as well as major international institutions and non-state actors. We mobilized and disbursed more than a billion dollars through multiple member-managed NDC financing facilities. And through an innovative Climate Action Enhancement Package launched just a year ago, a total of 65 countries now receive support to enhance NDC quality and raise climate ambition. A great deal of this work was accomplished despite the challenges of a global pandemic.

Our success was made possible by the impressive commitment of our members and their shared conviction that by working together, we can be more than the sum of our parts. And as we finalize our second work program to guide us from 2021-2025, we aim to build on our early successes to drive still more ambitious action on climate change and sustainable development. While countries are finalizing their five-year NDC revisions, our second Work Program will support the transition from planning to implementation, and once again into planning for higher ambition. And it comes as we face a stark reality, that global action on climate change still lags well behind what is needed.

More effectively engaging youth in climate action is one way the Partnership has driven ahead with bringing a whole-of-society approach when developing and implementing climate solutions. In our first years, 17 countries requested support related to youth engagement. As a result, our Steering Committee called for a Youth Task Force (YTF).

Despite the pandemic, the YTF led a consultative process this year with youth from around the world to identify priorities and obstacles for youth engagement in climate action and make recommendations for the Partnership to meaningfully engage youth. Moving forward, as we implement the Youth Engagement Plan (YEP), youth will have a seat at the table with processes, projects, capacity, and engagement mechanisms all built specifically with this audience in mind.

While COVID-19 presents monumental challenges, it also presents opportunities to integrate green recovery as countries rebuild their economies. In June, the Partnership launched an Economic Advisory Initiative to deploy economic advisors to prepare green recovery plans and packages in response to COVID-19. Our drive to put climate at the heart of COVID-19 recovery plans is driven by country needs captured in our survey of 68 developing countries at the onset of the pandemic. Our unique coordinating role and responsiveness means we have already deployed advisors to planning and finance ministries in 33 countries, with support from 13 of its members. A virtual Thematic Expert Group and a Green Recovery Network have also been established to enhance the economic advisory support and facilitate ongoing learning. This level of responsiveness and coordinated support is exactly what we need to keep climate action relevant and in sync with the global state of affairs. Five years after the Paris Agreement’s signing, actions like these are keeping it alive.

This month, at our Annual Members Forum, Costa Rica and the Netherlands pass the torch to the NDC Partnership’s new Co-Chairs, Jamaica and the United Kingdom. While there is much to be proud of as we reflect on progress made in this year and the past four years, we still face major challenges. We, as a Partnership and an international community, are grateful for Costa Rica and the Netherlands’ leadership over the past two years. They have set a high bar, but with Jamaica and the U.K. taking the helm, our record of strong, decisive, and forward-looking leadership is all but guaranteed to continue.

The challenges we face are great, but we are up to the task.

 

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A BBC reporter's relative fled to neighbouring Sudan by foot and boat, losing his shoes on the way.

Credit: Nepali Times.

By Sonia Awale
KATHMANDU, Dec 2 2020 (IPS)

The global pandemic hijacked 2020 and reset priorities, but countries now need to regroup and renew their commitment to cap global warming at well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in Paris in 2015.

On 12 December, it will be the fifth anniversary of the signing of the landmark climate accord when 196 countries, including Nepal, will be presenting their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce the impact of the climate crisis.

NDCs are voluntary commitments by countries to reduce their carbon footprints, but there are fears that a world in the throes of a Covid-19 induced economic crisis will follow through on past commitments—even as scientists warn that the earth is warming much more rapidly than forecast five years ago in Paris.

The Himalaya is literally a hotspot because the mountains are warming faster than the global average. But activists say Nepal’s own ‘Enhanced NDC’ does not go far enough in mitigating carbon emissions, or adapting to the impact of the climate emergency.

The Himalaya is literally a hotspot because the mountains are warming faster than the global average. But activists say Nepal’s own ‘Enhanced NDC’ does not go far enough in mitigating carbon emissions, or adapting to the impact of the climate emergency

The document has been put up for public comment and is subject to revision. Its highlight is that Nepal for the first time mentions ‘net-zero emission’ as a future goal.

But the document does not give a timeline to achieve it, and only says that the country will formulate ‘a long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy’ sometime next year.

In the region, Bhutan has already declared itself carbon neutral—meaning its forests absorb more than the CO2 it emits. China, responsible for 28% of total annual carbon emissions, recently pledged peak emission before 2030 and attain net-zero by 2060. President-elect Joe Biden as committed that the US, which contributes 15% of CO2 annually, to zero carbon emissions by 2050, as have Japan, South Korea and the UK.

India, the fourth largest CO2 emitter globally, is lagging but has been investing heavily in solar power, and by setting targets to electrify railways and phasing out diesel and petroleum vehicles by 2030.

Nepali activists say the country’s NDC could have gone much further to set realistic firm pledges, since it is starting from such a low carbon base.

“We could have easily set a target of net-zero by 2050. In fact, we can achieve it by 2030 if we are really committed,” says environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar. “Our emission is negligible, we are a low-carbon economy and have much cleaner sources of energy like hydroelectricity at our disposal.”

In 2014, a report showed that Nepal’s forest area had doubled in 25 years, and it absorbed half of Nepal’s total emissions from burning fossil fuels. However, another report last year showed that carbon emission was rising faster than vegetation cover, and frequent wildfires were themselves pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Manjeet Dhakal, adviser to the Least Developed Countries support group at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says: “I’m pretty confident we will achieve net-zero by 2050. But what is important in this discussion is that, while we may be among the smallest emitters, our emissions are increasing and forests are not absorbing CO2 as they used to.”

 

 

Nepal’s annual per capita carbon emission is one of the lowest in the world at 0.29 tons. In comparison, an average American pumps 16 tons of carbon every year, and Qataris burn 37 tons. However, Nepal’s per capita emission is rising significantly due to the growing import of petroleum products and thermal electricity from India.

As new roads are built and more vehicles imported, Nepal’s main driver of fossil fuel consumption is the transportation sector. Motorcycles account for 80% of all vehicles in Nepal, and phasing them out for battery-powered two-wheelers would significantly reduce petroleum imports.

Electric public transport will need subsidies from the government and investors but it also means utilising Nepal’s clean energy from hydropower and further reducing our carbon footprint. Last fiscal year, Nepal’s petroleum import reached Rs200 billion— 2.2 times higher than the country’s total income from exports. Imports of diesel, petrol, aviation fuel and LPG went down slightly in 2020 due to the pandemic and lockdowns.

Switching to electric public transport and battery vehicles to reduce the petroleum import bill by just 10% would save Rs21 billion a year. This will also clean up the air. Air pollution killed 41,000 people in Nepal last year. This winter that risk for patients with respiratory issues is combined with Covid-19 complications.

Bishwo Nath Oli, Secretary at the Ministry of Forest and Environment agrees. “We plan to produce 15,000MW of clean energy by 2030 and we need a strategy so that it is properly consumed and utilised. Electrification of transport is the best way to go about it, along with electric stoves and biomass to cut emissions significantly.”

Nepal’s Enhanced NDC has set a target of turning 25% of all private passenger vehicles sales, including two-wheelers, to electric. It also aims to make 20% of all four-wheel public transport battery-powered by 2025. Most of Nepal’s three-wheel vehicles are already electric.

Planners hope to increase these numbers to 90% and 60% by 2030. Similarly, in 10 years Nepal aims to develop 200km of electric rail network.

But activists are sceptical. Prime Minister KP Oli had declared in 2018 that 25% of all vehicles in Nepal would be electric by 2020. However, Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada scrapped tax subsidies for electric vehicles in this year’s budget, although his successor has restored some rebate for smaller battery-powered cars.

But even if these targets are met, they are too conservative, says Bhushan Tuladhar. “Our targets are often too ambitious or too relaxed. With the new NDCs, we can see this pattern in sectors such as industry, waste and agriculture which are either too vague or too conservative,” he adds.

Planners have also not taken into account that the cost of electric vehicles is already at par with diesel vehicles of the same capacity, and will decline further as the price of lithium-ion batteries continues to fall. Increased affluence means more people will opt for two-wheelers and automobiles, most likely electric, especially as India and China phase out production of diesel and petrol vehicles.

While Nepal’s voluntary commitment sets a target to reduce coal consumption and air pollution from brick and cement industries by 2030, it does not mention how, and by how much. The NDC document only says the government will ‘formulate guidelines and establish mechanisms’ by 2025 to monitor emissions from large industries.

On the waste sector, the NDC says that by 2025, 380 million litres/day of wastewater will be treated before discharge to natural courses, and 60,000 cubic meters/year of faecal sludge will be managed. But it has targeted only 100 of Nepal’s 753 municipalities for waste segregation, recycling and waste-to-energy programs by 2030.

Nepal’s 2016 NDC pledged to increase forest cover to 40% of the total area, and here the country exceeded the target and current forest cover stands at 44.74%. The new NDC has included more community forests, and says 60% of Nepal’s area will be forest, pledging to stop deforestation of the Chure range.

Similarly, intercropping, agroforestry, conservation tillage and climate-smart agricultural technologies are all mentioned in the NDC, but missing conspicuously from the discussion is farm mechanisation.

Nepal aims to increase hydroelectricity generation  rom the current 1,400MW to 15,000 by 2030. Of this, 5,000MW is an unconditional target, and the remainder is contingent on funding from the international community. In fact, Nepal will need $25 billion to meet its NDC targets, and most of this will be dependent on foreign aid.

Manjeet Dhakal admits the targets in the new NDC may not be ambitious, but he says they are realistic. He adds: “For the longest time Nepal was the most vulnerable to climate change. But time has come for us to show our leadership and commitment to net-zero by implementing the targets set.”

 

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

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Food and medicines are said to be running out for millions of people in the conflict-torn region.

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By Education Cannot Wait
Dec 2 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Nyagoa Dak was born to a world in chaos. Her story is one of loss, of redemption, of struggle and of triumph.

At a very early age, Nyagoa lost her parents to the conflict in South Sudan. As the conflict escalated, she escaped with her grandmother to Ethiopia in 2014. There they settled in the Pugnido refugee camp in Ethiopia’s Gambella region.

When they arrived there were no educational programmes for refugees – let alone a girl with a disability like Nyagoa. Unable to walk, the bright-eyed six-year-old was left out of many of the activities in the camp. She didn’t play with other children. She didn’t go to school. Nyagoa was a forgotten child living in a forgotten crisis.

With funding from Education Cannot Wait, Save the Children mobilized parents, teachers, children and the community to get refugee and host community children and youth back in school in Pugnido.

Through the Parent Teachers and Student Association, volunteers like Sara started cleaning the school and reaching out to children living in the area. Through this work, they met Nyagoa and her grandma. No child should be left behind. Especially a child as sweet and courageous as Nyagoa. So they decided to carry the little refugee girl on their shoulders to her preschool classes. Nyagoa had made a friend.

More friends were soon to follow. RaDO, a local organization that supports children with disabilities, provided Nyagoa with a wheelchair.

“I don’t have any word to express my happiness. Thanks to Save the Children, Sara and her friend, I am attending school and playing with friends. My situation is changed,” says Nyagoa.

Nyagoa’s teacher couldn’t be more proud of this joyful and brilliant girl, who’s found her place amongst the other preschool children. “You can read from her face the sense of ‘Yes, I can learn.’ There is nothing more inspirational than being in school for a child like Nyagoa and we need to mobilize the community to bring more and more children with disabilities to schools.”

One of the beneficiaries of the ECW-supported programme, Nya Banytik Hoth, 14, grade 4, learns at Makod Primary and Secondary School in Tierkidi Refugee Camp, Gambella Region. Credit: UNICEF Ethiopia/2018/Mersha

Responding to COVID-19
Nyagoa’s journey is far from over. After seven months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in Gambella are only now reopening.

Through Education Cannot Wait’s COVID-19 education in emergencies response, Save the Children and other partners are providing schools with disinfectants, water and sanitation facilities, and training on prevention and protection methods to slow the spread of the virus. Children are benefiting from expanded psychosocial support, gender-responsive education, and early literacy programmes. And teachers are receiving advanced training on math and early childhood development to ensure they have the tools they need to provide quality learning outcomes for special-needs children like Nyagoa.

The Big Picture
Ethiopia hosts the second largest refugee population in Africa. While drought, conflict, poverty, displacement and unequal access to education still exist, the nation as a whole is making impressive strides in providing access to education for refugees, internally displaced people, and other at-risk children, and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.

The gains in enrollment are impressive. With support from a US$15 million Education Cannot Wait initial investment implemented by UNICEF and other supports, the primary gross enrollment ratio for refugee children in Ethiopia rose to 67 per cent in 2019, up five per cent from the year before.

Education Cannot Wait expanded this investment through a multi-year resilience programme. Launched in 2019, the programme is led by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education in partnership with Save the Children International, UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait and the Education Cluster.

ECW’s catalytic grant is designed to activate resource mobilization efforts from donors, civil society organizations, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to fully-fund the programme, which will cost an estimated US$161 million over three years. The programme is designed to reach close to 750,000 girls and boys displaced by the crises in Ethiopia.

Nyagoa received a wheel chair and returned to school. Credit: Save the Children / Ethiopia

“This is an opportunity for aid partners to work together in breaking the cycles of inequality, illiteracy, poverty and hunger that too often come with forced displacement and jeopardize a child’s development. It’s a new vision for how nations can address the pressing educational needs of internally displaced children, refugees and returnees. We must step up to address this challenge and I call on all partners to join our efforts and contribute to this multi-year resilience programme to ensure no child is left behind in Ethiopia.” – Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.

In Ethiopia, which hosts the second-largest refugee population in Africa, ECW funding boosted access to education for refugee children and youth (mainly from South Sudan) in the regions of Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambela.

Learn more about the impact of ECW funded programming in Ethiopia in our 2019 Annual Report.

The post Nyagoa’s Long Journey appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Patients seeking treatment at the Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Credit: World Bank/Dominic Chavez

By Davide Malacrino
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 2 2020 (IPS)

Wealth begets wealth. This simple concept of privilege has added to growing discontent with inequality that has escalated under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A paper co-authored this year by economists from the IMF and other institutions confirms that wealthier people are more likely to earn higher returns on their investments. It also shows that the children of wealthy people, while likely to inherit that wealth, aren’t necessarily going to make the same high returns on investments.

Detailed data on wealth are extremely rare, but 12-years of tax records (2004-2015) from Norway have opened a new window into wealth accumulation for individuals and their offspring.

The Nordic country has a wealth tax that requires assets to be reported by employers, banks and other third parties in order to reduce errors from self-reporting. The data, which are made public under certain conditions, also make it possible to match parents with their children.

The data show that an individual in the 75th percentile of wealth distribution who invested $1 in 2004 would have yielded $1.50 by the end of 2015—a return of 50 percent. A person in the top 0.1 percent would have yielded $2.40 on the same invested dollar—a return of 140 percent.

Another significant finding: High returns both bring individuals to the top of the wealth scale and prevent them from leaving it. Controlling for age, parental background and earnings, moving from the 10th percentile to 90th percentile of wealth distribution increases the probability of making it to the top 1 percent by 1.2 percentage points compared to an average probability of 0.89 percent.

Why do rich people earn high returns? Conventional wisdom suggests that richer individuals put more of their assets toward high risk investments, which can result in higher returns.

But our research finds that wealthy people often earn a higher return even on more conservative investments. Richer individuals enjoy pure “returns to scale” to their wealth. Specifically, for given portfolio allocation, individuals who are wealthier are more likely to get higher risk-adjusted returns, possibly because they have access to exclusive investment opportunities or better wealth managers. Financial sophistication, financial information, and entrepreneurial talent are also important.

These characteristics make the returns to wealth persistent over time. This research is the first to quantify this mechanism and show that it is likely to matter empirically.

Do high returns persist across generations? The answer is a qualified yes. Wealth has a high degree of intergenerational correlation, but there are important differences in how returns to wealth accrue across generations.

The children of the richest are likely to be very rich, but unlikely to get as high returns from this wealth as their parents did. This suggests that while money is perfectly inheritable, exceptional talent is not.

IMFBlog is a forum for the views of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and officials on pressing economic and policy issues of the day. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF and its Executive Board.

 

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The post How the Rich Get Richer appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Davide Malacrino is an Economist in the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

 
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The post How the Rich Get Richer appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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