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Day of the Girl Child: A Digital Generation Where Every Girl Counts

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 12:27

“People say that boys work in technology, but I think girls can also do it because when I started working on it, I really enjoyed it and it inspired me for the future, " says one of the Junior Regional Winners of the 2021 Technovation challenge, a UNDP supported programme that invites girls and young women to work in teams to code mobile applications and help solve real-world problems through technology. Day of the Girl Child October 11 Credit: UN Technovation

By Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
NEW YORK, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

The theme of this year’s annual International Day of the Girl Child, on October 11, “Digital generation. Our generation.”, recognizes the digital transformation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the pandemic accelerated the transition to online learning, working and networking, it also accelerated women and girl’s risk of being left behind.

In 2020, more than 60 million women in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) had no access to the mobile internet and so, were more likely than men to miss out on learning and working opportunities.

Access, ownership and use of digital tools are not gender-neutral: For instance, parents may be stricter with girls than boys in the use of mobile phones and activities that require the use of the internet, while households with limited computing resources might redirect these to boys and men over girls and women, often tasked with domestic chores and unpaid work. Factors such as affordability and cost also affect women and girls disproportionally.

Moreover, social norms, gender bias and a lack of support from the family and teachers often dissuade girls and women from choosing education programmes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and from pursuing careers in these fields.

19-year-old South African girl Sebabatso Ncephe (left) developed an app – Afya Yangu, or “My Health” in Swahili. By allowing hospitals to directly communicate with patients, the app helps patients maintain privacy and dignity. Credit: UNICEF/Mosibudi Ratlebjane

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, one in three girls report being discouraged by their families from choosing STEM subjects more broadly at university, while in Ukraine 23 percent of women aged 15-24 report a lack of self-confidence as the main reason for not pursuing a career in technology. With fewer women pursuing STEM fields, the scarcity of women role models for the younger generation persists, reinforcing the problem.

Gender equality in STEM

We must all join forces to advance gender equality in STEM. Measures include removing gender stereotypes in education, raising awareness and promoting STEM subjects to girls and women, and offering career guidance to encourage girls to consider studying in fields dominated by men.

Our regional advocacy platform, STEM4All, is engaging with multiple partners – from policymakers and academic institutions to women and girls themselves– in sharing knowledge, building coalitions and making connections to advance gender equality in STEM.

Earlier this year, the platform facilitated a ‘Girls in Tech: Central Asia’ event, which brought together leaders from the tech industry and ICT role models to share experiences and offer advice to more than 120 girls and women in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

One of our goals in the platform is to profile high-impact initiatives by our partners, government, and the private sector. For instance, the Engineer Girls of Turkey project is a wonderful model of how we can increase the employability of qualified women in engineering with scholarships, internships and mentoring, and coaching support.

In Azerbaijan, UNDP has partnered with USAID in piloting a nine-month mentorship programme to equip young women and girls with tools and advice to progress in STEM fields. The platform is powered by the Accelerator Labs, a UNDP learning network created to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Future of work

While the demand for workers in STEM occupations is only expected to grow in the future, in Europe and Central Asia, the share of women researchers in engineering and technology crosses 40 percent only in a few countries. The number of women in computer science is also particularly low compared to men: women are only 18 percent of ICT specialists in the EU, while just 16 percent of founders in the ICT and tech fields in Southern Caucasus and Western CIS are women.

Cultural and social norms, a lack of childcare support, and inadequate parental leave policies are major barriers to women entering and progressing in careers of their choice. These obstacles are amplified manifold in STEM fields, whose men-dominated workplaces and entrenched gender stereotypes present formidable impediments for many talented women.

Gender equality in STEM and in the future of work is a goal unto itself. We cannot deny half of humanity the opportunity to enter and succeed in this high-growth sector which powers the green and digital transition.

But there are also compelling economic and social reasons for us to strive towards this goal.

In the EU, for example, closing the gender gap in STEM could lead to an additional 1.2 million jobs. More women graduating in STEM subjects and choosing careers in higher-wage sectors can gradually increase their average earnings, helping to close the gender wage gap.

The world and the future of work need women’s skills and perspectives, talent and leadership, as much as those of men. This requires all our concerted actions to close the gender digital gap and leverage the power of technology to advance girls’ and women’s education, leadership and equal future.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger is Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator of UNDP, and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS. She was appointed to this position by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in August 2018 and assumed her duties in October 2018.

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Categories: Africa

China and the UN at 50- What We Can Achieve Together

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 12:10

Delegation of the People’s Republic of China making its debut at the UN Assembly Hall. Credit: Xinhua

By Siddharth Chatterjee
BEIJING, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

China was one of the architects of the United Nations and was the first signatory of the UN Charter in San Francisco in 1945.

But it was only in October 1971, with the Chinese delegation led by Mr. Qiao Guanhua, that China’s representation at the UN resumed. Since that time, the UN has had the great privilege of witnessing and supporting China in achieving one of the greatest periods of socio-economic progress in world history.

Now, on the 50th anniversary of China in the UN, I am honoured to serve as the UN Resident Coordinator, a post I took earlier this year.

While I took up my post in Beijing on 08 February 2021, I am only just beginning to understand its rich tapestry of over 5,000 years of civilization. The UN in China has had the privilege to shape and witness the profound economic and social transformations that have occurred since reform and opening-up.

As we commemorate a half-century of cooperation, a question naturally emerges: Which way now for the UN and China?

This is a weighty question, as China and the world are at a critical juncture. Tentatively emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with many countries still struggling terribly. Staring down the threats of climate change, with record-setting heat, fires, storms, and other disasters. Counting down the years in this “Decade of Action” to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

China’s standard-setting leadership in past decades gives me confidence that we can achieve even greater things in the years to come.

CHINA’S RECORD-BREAKING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening-up Policy began to transform the nation, as evidenced, for example, in Shenzhen, which changed from a fishing village on the Pearl River Delta into an international hub for research and innovation in a single generation.

And in 1979, China chose to accept development assistance from the UN, learning from its long experience in poverty alleviation and industrial and agricultural growth.

China’s success in the more than 40 years since then has been nothing short of miraculous. During this time, China:

The signs of this progress are evident not just in statistics, but in daily quality-of-life matters. Throughout China now lie the classic hallmarks of a market economy, with opulent shops from luxury brands, foreign and domestic. A far cry from what I saw as a young boy growing up near Chinatown in my native Kolkata, India, though fondly remembered as a warren of alleys, narrow aisles of food markets, elderly men playing board games in parks, with Chinese characters on the signs overhead.

For example, in Beijing during the early 1980s, cabbage was often the only vegetable on menus. With help from the UN’s development agency in China, availability at markets expanded — supporting the diversification of domestic vegetables and introducing new ones from abroad, such as broccoli.

This startling success is on track to continue. China’s per capita GDP is projected to more than double by 2025, reaching over $25,000, adjusted for purchasing power. The country’s surging economy is set to overtake 56 countries in the world’s per-capita income rankings during the quarter-century through 2025, the International Monetary Fund projects.

No less an authority than Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a United Nations SDG Advocate and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, has called China an “inspiration” in stopping the pandemic and ending poverty.

This progress is all the more remarkable considering the hit that the pandemic has delivered to the global economy. China’s generosity and leadership on this front are commendable.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the 9th World Peace Forum in Beijing “to build a “Great Wall of Immunity” to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, challenges remain. As with any economy at this stage of development, the relentless pursuit of high growth is reaching its natural limits, and China faces new economic, social, and environmental challenges.

NEW PRIORITIES FOR AGENDA 2030 AND BEYOND

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are meant to be achieved by the year 2030, and we are now in what is called the “Decade of Action.” I see three areas for close cooperation at this critical juncture.

First, a new sustainable development model. The Government recognizes slower economic growth as the “new normal.” Changing demographic, labour, and investment realities present China with new obstacles in addressing food security, pervasive inequalities, and cost-effectiveness in universal healthcare.

In a post-Xiaokang society, China needs to embrace innovations and services that drive equitable and inclusive progress, dealing with the legacies of rapid expansion to achieve the SDGs and leave no one behind.

Second, climate change. As a consequence of its large population and economy, China is the world’s single largest emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for a quarter of global emissions. Having recognized the environmental costs of this development model, President Xi Jinping has set a bold ambition for China to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

This enormous feat will require a massive transition in how China’s economy works and its population lives every day. Seismic shifts in investments and technologies will be needed. Here, China’s recent pledge to end all financing of coal plants abroad and redirect its support for developing countries towards green and low carbon energy is most welcome.

We will need to sustain this momentum ahead of and following the COP 15 UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, the second UN Sustainable Transport Conference in Beijing, and the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Third, multilateralism. China is a champion for multilateral efforts to address global challenges. China has the will, knowledge, and resources to contribute enormously to the SDGs and position itself as an exceptional member of the community of nations.

As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described, “In its successful efforts in the fight against extreme poverty, China’s accomplishments in the past decades set a powerful example that can be shared with other countries, through South-South Cooperation”.

Today, China is the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget and has sent more peacekeepers to UN missions than any other permanent member of the Security Council. China also played a vital role in shaping the consensus needed for the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

Future efforts should emphasize initiatives that expand vaccine access, grant debt relief to lower-income countries, and provide sustainable financing for infrastructure and climate efforts.

On this front, we hope the Global Development Initiative announced by President Xi Jinping recently will accelerate needed international cooperation efforts and we extend our support to contribute our expertise, in line with international norms and standards.

CHINA AND THE UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations family in China is in lockstep with China’s vision. The 2030 Agenda and the recently agreed-upon Country Framework are the blueprints for building on the gains of the past.

In this Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs, the UN can support this ambition and convene, connect and catalyze stakeholders in leveraging China’s development experience to benefit other countries, especially those in Africa, in the spirit of South-South Cooperation.

As the world deals with the pandemic, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres put forward a “Common Agenda” at the 76th Session of the General Assembly, where he said, “We face a moment of truth. Now is the time to deliver…restore trust…[and] inspire hope. Humanity has shown that we are capable of great things when we work together. That is the raison d’être of our United Nations”.

October 2021 will also be time for the UN and China to celebrate our 50-year relationship. China and the UN will reimagine, innovate, reinvigorate and continue the hard and daily work and dedicate ourselves anew to creating lasting prosperity for the people of China and all the world.

The author is Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in China

Categories: Africa

When Girls Have Access to Technologies, A True Digital Revolution Will Be In Sight

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 09:12

2.2 billion young people below the age of 25 don't have internet connections at home, and girls are more likely to lack access. Young girls in Guinea. Credit: Karl Grobl/EDC

By Margaret Butler, Julia Fan, and Amy West
NEW YORK, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

This year’s International Day of the Girl theme, Digital Generation, Our Generation, celebrates the potential of digital technologies while calling for the inclusion of all girls in accessing technology. The digital revolution will not be realized if girls without access to digital solutions are left behind. For years, advocates of technology for development have been repeating the mantra that technology is not a panacea. Yet in racing to connect, catch up, and create greater access, we ignore at our own peril the inconsistent or non-existent household- and community-level access girls have to technologies. While digital solutions are available and evolving all the time, they should be accompanied by hybrid methods which include new ways to use analog technologies, so that existing local resources are reimagined and redistributed in ways that support more girls learning.

If we want to ensure equal access to technology to close the gender digital divide, these on-the-ground realities are critical to decision-making and planning. To be clear, the global COVID-19 pandemic amplified digital platforms for learning, training, and connecting, but at the same time some 2.2 billion young people below the age of 25 still do not have internet access at home. Girls do not have equal access to or equal ownership of phones or tablets in the home, and they lack opportunities to gain the digital literacy, which would enable them to grow their own learning, expand their information sources, or communicate with others. The gender digital divide has increased in recent years, with only 15% of women in lower- and middle- income countries using the internet. Globally, girls have significantly less access to the internet, tablets, mobile phones, radio, and television than boys, further exacerbated by household poverty levels, geography, disability, and competing social cultural norms. An estimated 52% of girls have to borrow a mobile phone if they want access compared to 28% of boys. These technological gender gaps are most often due to girls and women lacking access, skills, familiarity with tools, representation and participation in STEM, and leadership and resource support to become champions within the technology sector.

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), which is made up of 76 organizations around the world that work with and for girls, has seen the effectiveness of hybrid approaches to technology solutions firsthand. Several of its members focus on strengthening the enabling environments that will reach and retain girls as participants in digital education, health and wellbeing interventions, and youth development opportunities that leverage existing local resources that are fit-for-purpose.

At AMPLIFY Girls, a CAG member based in Kenya, recent research in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda demonstrates that for girls, lack of access to remote virtual learning tools and resources is a clear barrier to staying in or returning to school. Girls do not have regular use of remote learning devices, such as radios, television, smart phones, or computers to participate in virtual classrooms. When directly asked about government-sponsored radio or television lessons, girls said that they did not participate because there was no radio or TV at home. For those that did have a radio or TV at home, a male family member had priority access and they were burdened regularly with household chores.

African organizations are often overlooked as innovators in the technology space, yet are providing contextually relevant services to close the gender digital divide. AkiraChix in Kenya recruits young women from the most remote communities in eastern Africa and invests in year-long training to help them successfully launch their careers in technology. Jifundishe runs an independent study program that young mothers, historically banned from returning to school in Tanzania, can access to complete both secondary and tertiary education through self-paced learning.

In the Philippines, another CAG member, Education Development Center (EDC), conducted early assessments on gendered use and access of technologies only to learn that few girls own computers or tablets in rural areas in particular, making it difficult to access virtual education and training offerings. Skills development training and materials in those contexts, therefore, have been disseminated through a blended learning approach comprising paper-based, self-directed curriculum for home-based learning, reinforced by interactive audio instruction and home visits by peer leaders and mentors (among these, women).

EDC also utilizes interactive audio instruction and blended learning at-scale to strengthen access and learning of soft skills, literacy and work readiness—this has been particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic, where in-person learning has come to a standstill. In Uganda, EDC has delivered a combination of interactive audio instruction and small group-based home learning activities, including HIV/GBV prevention and life skills curriculum to reinforce household protection messages and mitigate the high risks faced by girls during the pandemic. Radio remains an accessible and low-cost analog method for achieving learning and health messaging at scale.

Research by CAG members Women Deliver and Girl Effect in India, Malawi, and Rwanda show that digital technologies also hold promise for increasing access to sexual and reproductive health information for girls, but this increased information alone is not enough to produce improved health outcomes. While girls may access health information online, girls are wary of acting on that information because they are unsure of its validity and accuracy, as well as fear social stigma. Linking online information to appropriate youth-friendly medical and community services allows girls to verify that information and seek care.

As these examples and research demonstrate, hybrid digital and analog solutions are not only the most inclusive, but also lead to improved learning and development outcomes, especially for girls. Indeed, digital access is critical to development and innovation. But we should not throw any technology – old or new – at a challenge without ensuring that girls and boys return to school, and have equal access to the content, the tools, and the skilled and knowledgeable teachers and mentors who are vital to sustained uptake and learning outcomes.

On this International Day of the Girl, we call for the broadest access possible to critical health information and education, and we emphasize the importance of contextual relevance in choosing what tools – whether analog or digital – are most effective in achieving impact. If we do this, we create greater opportunities for girls to engage with learning first and then technologies, which ultimately will strengthen multiple development outcomes.

The authors are Margaret Butler of AMPLIFY Girls, Julia Fan of Women Deliver, and Amy West of Education Development Center. Amplify Girls, Education Development Center, and Women Deliver are active members in the Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), a member-led and driven organization dedicated to supporting, investing in, and improving the lives of adolescent girls.

Categories: Africa

UN Chief, in an Unprecedented War of Words, Battles it out with a Member State

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 08:45

Food is distributed to people in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

The first round of food distributions to people in Afar and Amhara regions impacted by the spread of the conflict in northern Ethiopia has been completed, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on October 5. However, distributions of supplies into Tigray are lagging behind due to various impediments to the movement of humanitarian aid, the UN agency warned. Credit: WFP/Claire Nevill

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 2021 (IPS)

A growing diplomatic battle is being played out at the United Nations between Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and one of the world body’s member states: the politically-troubled Ethiopia which is desperately in need of international humanitarian assistance.

But the war of words – in an institution where the Secretary-General is traditionally considered subservient to all 193 member states – is rare by UN standards forcing Guterres to exercise his “right of reply” in the Security Council, the most powerful body at the UN.

When the Secretary-General was confronted with a question at a news briefing last week specifically about his right of reply “which we had never –ever— seen in the Security Council”, it triggered the question: “is this an expression of the level of your displeasure, at the moment, with the Ethiopian Ambassador?”

“It is my duty to defend the honor of the United Nations,” Guterres shot back.

The brouhaha followed the Ethiopian government’s decision last week to declare seven UN officials, mostly doling out humanitarian assistance, ”persona non grata” (PNG).

In international diplomacy, PNG is based on the principle of reciprocity: “you expel our diplomats and we expel yours” as evidenced during the Cold War era between the UN and the then Soviet Union.

In a May 2018 piece, a former Diplomatic Editor of The Times Michael Binyon pointed out that expelling diplomats en masse became a characteristic of the Cold War, when diplomats from the Soviet Union and its allies were often suspected of being intelligence agents and were ordered to leave – usually after a spy scandal.

Inevitably, the Russians and their allies retaliated, kicking out western diplomats. The largest single expulsion was in 1971, when Britain’s Conservative government expelled 90 of the Soviet Union’s 550-stong embassy in London and stopped a further 15 diplomats from returning.

But the UN does not have diplomatic reciprocity, nor does Guterres have the power or the authority to expel Ethiopian diplomats either from the UN or from New York city.

The Ethiopians say the seven UN officials were booted out of the country because they “interfered in the domestic affairs of Ethiopia”.

But as of Friday, there was no response from Ethiopia to the Secretary-General’s request for concrete evidence for the expulsion.

Guterres also argues that the concept of persona non grata applies to relations between sovereign nations, not relations between the UN and its member states.

Ambassador Taye Atske-Selassie Amde of Ethiopia said his country was not under any legal obligation to justify or explain its decisions, and listed allegations of “misconduct” by UN officials.

The dispute was apparently triggered by the fact that the UN was also providing humanitarian assistance to rebel forces in a country where nearly seven million people require such aid.

When it provides urgently-needed food and medicine, the UN says, its distribution is not guided by politics, but by human factors.

Kul Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, a UN agency which has provided humanitarian assistance to millions of people world-wide, told IPS: “Yes, I am aware of several UNICEF and UN Reps being PNG’ed, but never did the UN take as strong and categoric public position as in this case”.

In the past, he said, the UN Secretaries-General and heads of agencies have protested and condemned such expulsions, “but I do not recall the UN ever questioning the offending government’s right to declare UN international staff persona non grata.”

Thus, it came as a (pleasant) surprise that in the case, involving UN staff PNGed by the Ethiopian government, the Secretary-General made a bold public statement questioning the actions and statements of the Ethiopian government both to the media and at the UN Security Council.

“I hope and trust that the S-G’s new-found position has been carefully reviewed and corroborated by the UN Legal Office and that it will be sustained –if the case were challenged at the International Court of Justice.”

In the past, Gautam pointed out, UN staff being PNGed by authoritarian governments for taking a principled stand in the best interest of the UN or the causes they serve (e.g. the best interest of children, in the case of UNICEF), was often seen as a badge of honour for the staff member concerned.

After all, UN staff pledge their allegiance to the UN Charter that speaks of “We the peoples of the United Nations”, and not “We the governments of the United Nations”.

And UN staff are specifically barred from taking instructions by their national governments or host country governments, he argued.

Humanitarian aid being delivered to the Tigray region of Ethiopia by a convoy of 50 trucks last month. UN appeals for faster passage for aid convoys to Ethiopia’s Tigray. Credit: WFP

“Some governments would prefer that the UN and its agencies simply send them a cheque as part of their cooperation. But the UN General Assembly as well as the governing boards of UN agencies, Funds and Programs expect the UN staff on the ground to carefully monitor the utilization and effectiveness of the support they provide,“ he said.

“Let us hope that the UN S-G’s well-considered response to the unilateral action by the Ethiopian government will lead to empowering UN international civil servants to carry out their humanitarian and development activities without any fear or favour in the best interest of the people to whom such support is intended.”

Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director Emeritus, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, told IPS “Lots of UN officials have been declared PNG by a country in which they were posted. SGs sometimes complain and sometimes keep quiet”.

Stephen Zunes, a Foreign Policy in Focus columnist and senior analyst, who has written extensively on the politics of the Security Council, told IPS: “I cannot recall any previous time a Secretary General has exercised his right to reply.”

But this is not the first time UN officials have been expelled or declared persona non grata, he pointed out.

Most recently, Morocco expelled most of the MINURSO peacekeepers from occupied Western Sahara and invoked PNG status on the Secretary General’s Personal Envoy Christopher Ross.

The difference is that with Morocco and with the other previous cases, the government in question had at least one permanent member of the UN Security Council as a staunch ally, thereby limiting the Secretary General’s ability to confront them so decisively, said Zunes.

“This unprecedented action regarding Ethiopia may be as much a reflection of Ethiopia’s relative diplomatic isolation as it is the seriousness of their anti-UN action,” said Zunes, a professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.

Gautam said, Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Abiy Ahmed, like Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, has deeply disappointed the international community by committing or condoning serious human rights violations against the people of an ethnic minority community in his own country.

The fact that some militants within the ethnic community may also have committed atrocities, does not justify the harsh and disproportionate actions against innocent civilians by the ruling government of a democratic state which must be held to a higher standard, he argued.

“While there have been several cases of UN officials expelled from various countries by authoritarian governments, Ethiopia declaring as many as seven UN officials providing humanitarian assistance as persona non grata (PNG) on seemingly trumped-up charges, is unprecedented.”

Also unprecedented is the position taken by the UN Secretary-General, whose spokesperson stated that “…it is the long standing legal position of the Organization not to accept the application of the doctrine of persona non grata with respect to United Nations officials”.

He went on to say that “This is a doctrine that applies to diplomatic agents accredited by one state to another state. The application of this doctrine to United Nations officials is contrary to obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and the privileges and immunities to be accorded to the United Nations and its officials”.

Categories: Africa

Pandemic Highlights Urgent Need to Improve Sanitation in Brazil

Fri, 10/08/2021 - 18:58

Many people living on the banks of rivers in the Amazon rainforest live in stilt houses over the water. Water into which garbage and other waste is dumped – the same water that is used for human consumption, with important consequences on their health, whose magnitude was underlined by the Covid pandemic. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RÍO DE JANEIRO, Oct 8 2021 (IPS)

Basic sanitation, a sector that is undervalued because, according to politicians, it does not bring in votes, has gained relevance in Brazil due to the pandemic that has hit the poor especially hard and the drought that threatens millions of people.

Brazil has made very little progress in sewerage construction in the last decade. In 2010, only 45.4 percent of the population had sewer service, a proportion that rose to 54.1 percent in 2019. Access to treated water increased from 81 to 83.7 percent in the same period.

During that time, however, hospitalisations due to waterborne diseases decreased by 54.7 percent, from 603,623 to 273,403, according to the study “Sanitation and Waterborne Diseases” by the Trata Brasil Institute, released on Oct. 5 in the city of São Paulo.

Among children under four, who represent 30 percent of the patients requiring hospital admission, the reduction was slightly more pronounced, 59.1 percent.

“The data make it clear that any improvement in the public’s access to drinking water, collection and treatment of wastewater results in great benefits to public health,” the Institute’s president, Édison Carlos, stated in the report.

Covid-19 has underscored the country’s social and economic inequalities by disproportionately affecting the poor, who for one thing are the least likely to have sewerage services.

This is reflected in the distribution of basic sanitation infrastructure by region in Brazil. In the North, only 12.3 percent of the population was served by a sewer system in 2019, the last year data was available from the governmental National Sanitation Information System (SNIS), which served as the basis for the study.

As a result, it is the region with the highest rate of hospitalisations, 22.9 per 10,000 inhabitants. It is also the region that concentrates the country’s most generous water resources, as it is located entirely in the Amazon basin.

But the presence of so many large rivers does not mean the local population has drinking water. In fact only a little more than half of the population has access to clean water.

The result is a high incidence of diarrhea, dengue fever, leptospirosis, schistosomiasis, malaria and yellow fever, all of which are waterborne diseases.

One of the favelas or shantytowns of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, where local residents have turned a stream into an open-air garbage dump and a source of frequent flooding due to lack of sewage and garbage collection. Nor do favelas in Brazil’s cities have piped water. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

At the other extreme, the Northeast region suffers from water scarcity in most of its semiarid territory. With only 28.3 percent of the local population served by sewer systems and 73.9 percent with access to treated water, it recorded 19.9 cases of hospitalisation per 10,000 inhabitants in 2019.

Part of the progress in sanitation in the region is due to the more than 1.2 million rainwater storage tanks that have been set up in rural areas by the Articulação do Semiárido (ASA), a network of 3,000 social organisations created in 1999.

The semiarid ecoregion, an area of 1,130,000 square kilometres (most of it in the Northeast) that is home to 27 million people, suffered the longest drought on record from 2012 to 2017, and even until 2019 in some parts.

But this time the hunger, violence and exodus to other regions triggered by similar calamities in the past did not occur.

Disparities in health

A comparison of Brazil’s 26 states reveals more alarming disparities. The northeastern state of Maranhão, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, registered 54.04 hospitalisations per 10,000 inhabitants, far higher than its Amazonian neighbour to the west, Pará, with 32.62.

“Maranhão faces huge challenges in sanitation, as does Pará, but it has higher population density, more people living close together and in contact with dirty water in the open air, for example. Its beaches, often polluted by irregular waste, are another factor to consider,” said Rubens Filho, head of communications at the Trata Brasil Institute and coordinator of its new study.

At the other end of the scale, Rio de Janeiro stands out with the lowest rate of hospitalisations, only 2.84 per 10,000 inhabitants, even though some of its low-income municipalities are among those with the poorest sanitation coverage.

“It is possible that some municipalities do not register cases of waterborne diseases or that people do not seek medical assistance,” Filho told IPS from São Paulo, in an attempt to put the low rate of hospitalisations into context.

“Above and beyond the differences between states, Brazil still has more than 270,000 hospitalisations for preventable diseases; these are costs that could be drastically reduced if everyone had sanitation coverage,” he stressed.

Rainwater harvesting tanks are now part of the landscape in Brazil’s semiarid Northeast, thanks to recent initiatives to help people live with drought. There are some 200,000 tanks for irrigating crops, like those of farmer Abel Manto, and 1.2 million to store drinking water. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

The North and Northeast are the poorest regions in the country, despite the enormous contrast in terms of their ecosystems – rainforest vs semiarid. They are both far from the goal of near universal sanitation in the country by 2033, set by a law – the Legal Framework for Sanitation – passed in 2020.

More precisely, the aim is to bring treated water to 99 percent of the population and sewerage to 90 percent in this enormous country of 213 million people.

The three regions least affected by the lack of such infrastructure, the Midwest, South and Southeast, are suffering this year from the effects of reduced rainfall, apparently due to climate change and no longer to occasional, short-lived droughts.

The low rainfall began in 2020 and since then has caused interruptions in the water supply in cities such as Curitiba, capital of the southern state of Paraná, and an increase in forest fires in the Pantanal, wetlands on the border with Bolivia and Paraguay, and in the southern Amazon jungle.

This year, many cities in the southeastern state of São Paulo began rationing water. In the state capital, São Paulo, and surrounding urban areas, the local sanitation company reduces the pressure in the pipes at night, a measure that prevents leaks but leaves some areas without water.

The fear is that there will be a repeat of the 2014 and 2015 water shortage crisis, which was similar to other shortages that have occurred this century. Twenty years ago a similar drought caused blackouts and ushered in energy rationing for nine months, starting in June 2001.

Brazil depends heavily on rivers for its electricity supply. Even though the proportion was much higher two decades ago, hydroelectric power plants still account for 63 percent of total installed generation capacity.

Reforestation and recovery of springs and headwaters have become part of the country’s sanitation and energy policy.

The frequency of droughts in south-central Brazil confirms the role of the lush Amazon rainforest in increasing rainfall in large areas of this country and neighbouring Argentina and Paraguay.

So-called “flying rivers” carry moisture from the Amazon to South America’s most productive agricultural lands and to watersheds that play a key role in the production of hydroelectricity. But deforestation of the world’s largest tropical forest is taking its toll.

A view of the shantytown in São Bernardo do Campo, the hub of Brazil’s automobile industry, near São Paulo. A common sight in the poor neighbourhoods in Brazil’s cities: unpainted cinderblock houses are stacked on top of each other over streams, into which they dump their debris and garbage. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Lessons learned from Covid-19

Covid-19 has highlighted the urgent need for sanitation. There is a consensus among epidemiologists that the lack of sanitation is one of the factors in the unequal spread and lethality of the coronavirus, to the detriment of the poor, by limiting access to proper hygiene as a preventive measure.

With 598,152 deaths recognised by the Ministry of Health up to Oct. 4, Brazil’s death toll is second only to that of the United States, which counts more than 703,000 deaths due to Covid. But in proportional terms, 280 Brazilians have died per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 214 in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland., which keeps a global record on the pandemic.

The need for improved sanitation infrastructure is also gaining momentum for financial reasons. Brazil’s states, whose governments control the main sanitation companies, see privatisation as a source of revenue to overcome their fiscal imbalance and possibly give the sector a boost.

The 2020 Legal Framework for Sanitation encourages the concession of the service to the private sector as a way to attract investment and meet the goal of near universal coverage.

Companies in four Brazilian states have already been privatised. In Rio de Janeiro, on Apr. 30, 2021, the sanitation services of three of the four areas into which the state was divided will be handed over to private groups for 4.2 billion dollars, 133 percent more than expected.

The fourth area is to be privatised later this year. The 35-year concession requires larger investments than the sums paid for the operation of the services.

Cleaning up rivers, lakes and bays, expanding and repairing the pipeline network, improving water quality and reducing distribution losses, estimated at 41 percent, are tasks that will fall to the new owners.

Categories: Africa

Rural Communities in El Salvador United to Supply Water for Themselves – VIDEO

Fri, 10/08/2021 - 18:02

The well of the community water system in Cangrejera, in central El Salvador, is 60 metres deep, and a 20-horsepower motor drives the pump that directs the liquid to a tank four kilometres uphill. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
LA LIBERTAD, El Salvador, Oct 8 2021 (IPS)

As the saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall, hundreds of families in rural communities in El Salvador are standing together to gain access to drinking water.

The Salvadoran state fails to fulfill its responsibility to provide the resource to the entire population, and the families, faced with the lack of service in the countryside, have organized in “Juntas de Agua”: rural water boards that are community associations that on their own manage to drill a well and build a tank and the rest of the system.

It is estimated that in El Salvador there are about 2,500 rural water boards, which provide service to 25 percent of the population, or some 1.6 million people, according to data from the non-governmental Foro del Agua (Water Forum), which promotes equitable and participatory water management.

One of those community systems has been set up in the small village of Desvío de Amayo, in the canton of Cangrejera, part of the municipality and department of La Libertad, on the central coastal strip of El Salvador.

The system provides water to 468 families in Desvío de Amayo and eight other nearby villages.

“Governments have the constitutional obligation to provide drinking water in each country, but when they are not able to do it, as it happens here, the families decided to meet to take decisions and seek support either from NGOs or municipal governments to set up drinking water projects”, José Dolores Romero, treasurer of the Cangrejera Drinking Water Association, told IPS.

Created in the 1980s, this board finally obtained in 2010 a contribution of US$ 117,000 from the National Administration of Aqueducts and Sewers (Anda), the sector’s authority, for the expansion and improvement of its network infrastructure, he explained.

For more information, you can read an article on the subject of this video here.

As agreed by those involved in this effort, each family pays seven dollars for 20 cubic meters a month. If they consume more than that, they pay 50 cents per cubic meter.

“We benefit from the water, it is a great thing to have it at home, because we no longer have to go to the river, remember that we cannot go there because it overflows during the rainy season, so this community system benefits us a lot”, María Ofelia Pineda, from the village of Las Victorias, told IPS, while washing a frying pan and other dishes.

“Before, we had two or three hours of water during the day, and now we have it all day long, I am very happy for that, because I have it all day and all night,” said Ana María Landaverde.

Categories: Africa

Mounting Scramble for Coronavirus Vaccines in Zimbabwe

Fri, 10/08/2021 - 14:39

Zimbabweans readily join the COVID-19 vaccine queues, but the rollout hasn’t been smooth. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
HARARE, Zimbabwe , Oct 8 2021 (IPS)

More than a month ago, she lost her parents, brother, and wife, to the coronavirus. Then her fiancé battled COVID-19, but 27-year-old Melinda Gavi said she had not contracted the disease.

Gavi joined crowds scrambling to get vaccinated at Parirenyatwa hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare even though she was previously sceptical about getting vaccinated against the dreaded disease.

Her parents, brother, and wife were equally sceptical of the COVID-19 vaccines before they were visited by the disease, which eventually claimed their lives.

In a country of about 15 million people, nearly 5.5 million have had at least had one dose of the vaccine the Reuters COVID-19 tracker, which assuming that each person needs two doses, represents 18.8% of the population.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed in October that Zimbabwe had received 943 200 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the global COVAX Facility in September and October for its ongoing vaccination campaign.

IPS has been following the rollout of the vaccines in various centres over the past few months, recording people’s personal experiences in the queues.

Gavi says it has taken her days to get vaccinated.

“This is my third day coming here at Parirenyatwa to try and get vaccinated,” Gavi told IPS as she stood in a long and meandering queue at Zimbabwe’s biggest hospital.

About 200 people gathered at the back of the hospital, some looking tired as they lingered in the queue. Some sat on the pavements and or flower beds, waiting for their turn to get vaccinated in the slow-moving queue.

“We have limited vaccines, and often on a day we are vaccinating just 80 people and everybody else often just goes back home without getting vaccinated,” a nurse who refused to be named as she was unauthorised to speak to the media, told IPS.

In February this year, Zimbabwe began vaccinating its citizens against coronavirus after receiving a donation of 200 000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.

But when the vaccine first arrived, it was met with growing scepticism from social media platforms like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook, which fuelled the vaccine hesitancy.

This is no longer the case. Now healthcare workers have to battle hordes of people scrambling for the vaccine.

“With time, as more and more people got vaccinated without severe safety fears, the public became more assured, and demand for vaccines gradually started to rise,” said epidemiologist Dr Grant Murewanhema in Harare.

In Bulawayo, on July 8, in the presence of IPS, at the United Bulawayo Hospital, a nurse moved along the queue of people waiting to get vaccinated, counting up to 60 recipients. She told the rest to return the next day.

She told them she only had enough vaccines for 60 people.

At number 60 was 47-year-old Jimmy Dzingai, who said he was a truck driver.

“Oh, better, at least I am going to get vaccinated,” said Dzingai then as he heaved a sigh of relief, folding his hands across his chest.

Meanwhile, as they were told to leave, others did so but grumbled as they filed outside the hospital, some waving their face masks in anger, shouting at hospital authorities for turning them away.

“This is not the first time I am coming here to try and get vaccinated. I have been here four times, and this is my fifth day starting mid-June – only to get excuses,” 54-year-old Limukani Dlela, a man who said he lived in Matsheumhlope, a low-density suburb in Bulawayo, told IPS saying that at times the excuse was that there not enough vaccines available and at other times there were a limited number of vaccines.

Corruption and nepotism have characterised this Southern African country’s bitter war against COVID-19, and many people like Dzingai, the truck driver, have not been spared by the rot.

As Dzingai stood at the end of the queue, four middle-aged women strode past him and all others, going straight to the head of the queue and quickly got vaccinated and left.

According to one of the nurses who manned the queue, “the four were staff members and couldn’t wait in the queue like everybody else.”

The nurse said this even though the four women, after receiving doses, immediately left the premises just like any other ordinary person.

“I was talking to my bosses right now, and my truck has been loaded for me to take the delivery to Zambia. I have told my bosses I was getting my vaccine. Instead, you are telling me I’m not going to be vaccinated. You should get water to inject me and give me the vaccine certificate. I will not leave this place without the vaccine,” swore the truck driver.

But the nurse would have none of it.

“You won’t be vaccinated today. That won’t happen, unfortunately,” she said.

Dzingai vowed to stay put at the hospital until he was vaccinated, but because the four women who jumped the queue and got vaccinated before him, it meant he (Dzingai) and three others who had waited at the end of the queue had to leave without the jab.

With many Zimbabweans like Dzingai now eager to get vaccinated, the government has so far authorised the use of China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm, Russia’s Sputnik V, and India’s Covaxin and the U.S. Johnson and Johnson vaccines.

It has not, however, been easy for people to get the doses. Now bribery has become the order of the day at Zimbabwe’s hospitals like Sally Mugabe Referral hospital in the capital Harare.

Lydia Gono (24), from Southertorn middle-income suburb in Harare, said she had to ‘switch to her purse’, which is local parlance for a bribe, to get quickly vaccinated at Sally Mugabe hospital, the closest medical facility to her home.

“I spent close to a week trying to get vaccinated here without success, but today I just rolled a US 10 dollar note in my hand and shook the hand of a nurse who manned the queue, leaving the note in her hand. I was taken to the front and vaccinated without any delay,” Gono told IPS.

Tired of the corruption and nepotism and the delaying tactics characterising the vaccination process at public healthcare centres, many middle-income earners like 35-year-old Daiton Sununguro have opted for the private medical centres to get their vaccines parting with US 40 dollars for a single dose.

“Paying is better than having to wait for many hours before getting the vaccine at public healthcare facilities. I will still come back and pay the other US 40 dollars for my second dose,” Sununguro told IPS at a posh private medical facility in Harare’s Mount Pleasant low-density suburb.

Categories: Africa

Build Forward Fairer in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Fri, 10/08/2021 - 07:44

A view of the city of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. Credit: UN News/Vibhu Mishra

By Windi Arini
JAKARTA, Oct 8 2021 (IPS)

Cities have been epicentres of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020. City authorities have been the frontlines responders—from running testing stations, to managing food distribution, to disposing of corpses. Yet they are often under-resourced, and their critical role in policy implementation is often overlooked.

Now a growing movement of Human Rights Cities is charting the way forward through pandemic recovery plans to not only ‘build back better’ but also ‘build forward fairer.’

In many cities, structural inequalities that existed before the COVID crisis had resulted in sprawling slums, traffic congestion and pollution. Poorer residents have limited access to water, sanitation, clean cooking fuels and other amenities: COVID and lockdown measures have exacerbated those inequalities.

Loss of income opportunities and confinement to sub-standard housing, for example, have made this a worse pandemic for some than for others. Local authorities should now take concerted action to include marginalised groups such as slum dwellers, women, migrants and minorities in pandemic response and recovery efforts—as some are already doing.

In the southern city of Birgunj, Nepal, bordering the Indian state of Bihar, many were cut off from access to basic amenities when the city went into lockdown. The city authorities set a target that no one should lack food, and undertook 45 days of relief distribution.

They also made household deliveries of oxygen to COVID patients, to reduce the load on the city’s hospitals.

In Nagpur, India, to tackle rampant profiteering, the city authority introduced a single-vendor system for sales of remdesivir, a drug used to treat COVID patients.

Baguio City. Credit: John Lorenz Tajonera / Unsplash

In Baguio City, Philippines, the city has surpassed the testing average, and has now set an ambitious target of vaccinating 95% of its residents.

These cities have all allied themselves with the growing movement of Human Rights Cities in the region. Their commitment is to reframe their policies and practices to align with human rights principles and norms that originated in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If the approach can be summed up in one phrase, it would be ‘no one left behind’ — the slogan popularised by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the international community in 2015.

Asian governments are often viewed as laggards in the implementation of international human rights standards. This is unfair. While social and development challenges loom large, city authorities are often in the forefront of action for change.

The pandemic has brought opportunity for local governments to better protect human rights—as the cities mentioned here have chosen to do. However, many local government authorities need capacity building and practical guidance to “localise” human rights in ways that are relevant to their own post-pandemic context. In this effort, national authorities can give important signals and support.

In 2016, the Indonesian government’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights established a national platform on Human Rights Regencies/Cities (Kabupaten/Kota Peduli Hak Asasi Manusia). The platform enables voluntary assessment of city authorities’ performance in fulfilling people’s economic, social, and cultural rights (such as the right to water and sanitation, or the right to food) while also giving attention to some civil and political rights (such as the right to information, non-discrimination and, more recently, participation in governance).

As of 2020, 439 of 514 regency and city authorities in Indonesia had participated in the program, and 259 of them had been recognised as Human Rights Cities or Regencies.

City authorities derive prestige from the award, and have taken steps to connect international human rights norms with national laws and city by-laws, policies and programmes. The East Lampung Regency in Sumatra, for example, has highlighted its commitment to achieving an inclusive, democratic and solidarity-based society through dialogue with urban dwellers.

A mayoral decree emphasises the city’s role in safeguarding human rights, and identifies the responsible units within the mayor’s office, their tasks, and the scope of their budgets.

In Gwangju, Republic of Korea, local authorities decided to tackle the issues of poverty, high suicide rates, out-of-school children, and mobility-impaired residents. Through open forums and consultations, in which they sought to understand the situation of migrants, undocumented workers and other marginalised residents.

Based on the outcomes, they devised several action plans that included educating citizens on migrant rights, and establishing a comprehensive support network for migrants.

In October 2021, the City of Gwangju convenes local government authorities from around the world at the annual World Human Rights Cities Forum. The City of Gwangju has been at the forefront in the promotion of the Human Rights City concept, and emphasizes the importance of local government authorities taking active and responsible roles in promoting and protecting human rights.

In this year’s forum, city authorities will discuss the emergence of new social contracts for the post-pandemic recovery, and 11 local authorities from Asia will present their own projects for integrating human rights-based approaches into local policies and programmes for more resilient, fair, and sustainable cities.

Throughout the region, there is a growing realisation that protecting human rights makes for safer, greener, and better places to live. Adopting a human rights-based approach helps prioritise vulnerable groups that would otherwise be overlooked, and addresses local needs and challenges through participatory processes. City authorities hold the keys to embedding good practice and ‘building forward fairer.’

Windi Arini is a Programme Officer at the Jakarta Office of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. She is a specialist in the area of Inclusive Societies and holds a Master of Philosophy in Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Oslo. Prior to joining RWI, she worked as a Human Rights Officer at the ASEAN Secretariat and as a Programme Manager for a law office.

Categories: Africa

Hack the Planet Competition 2021 Finalists Offer Innovative Climate and Ocean Solutions

Thu, 10/07/2021 - 20:08

Six finalists will pitch their concepts to a panel of judges for the grand prize

By External Source
Oct 7 2021 (IPS-Partners)

After an unprecedented pan-Commonwealth search for innovative satellite-driven solutions to tackle the challenges of the climate emergency and ocean sustainability, the Satellite Applications Catapult and the Commonwealth Secretariat are delighted to announce the inaugural finalists of the Hack the Planet competition 2021.

The six finalists include inspiring leaders with game-changing solutions that leverage the power of satellites to make a real difference in the Commonwealth and the world.

They will now enter the final stage of the competition for a live pitch event, where they will pitch their concepts to a panel of expert judges.

There is a prize-pool of £20,000 plus over £85,000 worth of satellite data and cloud computing services for the winners of the competition.

The finalists are:

CAPELLA (The Gambia)

Loop Recyclers Tech (Nigeria)

Marine Wildlife Tracking with Snapper GPS (UK)

Plastic-i: Mapping Ocean Plastics from Space (UK)

Project 30 (Trinidad and Tobago)

Terangi Team (Malaysia)

The ideas and commitment demonstrated by all six finalists to delivering real-world change greatly impressed the judges, who offered them their congratulations on reaching the final stage of the competition.

Earlier in the competition, 30 shortlisted teams were invited to participate in a rigorous, knowledge exchange programme where they learnt about satellite technologies and elements of design thinking that could support their ideas, and hone these into robust, compelling pitches.

The final event will be livestreamed on 14th October from 12:00 BST. To find out more and register to attend click here.

About the Hack the Planet competition

Hack the Planet is an entirely virtual international ideas competition that brings together concepts from diverse communities living on the front-line in facing the challenges of the climate emergency and ocean sustainability across the Commonwealth, together with the technical resources to support the innovation of new solutions. It is run by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Satellite Applications Catapult and supported by Amazon Web Services, Deloitte, Maxar and Planet Labs.

The competition aims to stimulate discussion around the development of new approaches tackling the sustainability of the ocean, incorporating satellite data and technologies. Solutions are aligned to the 10 action areas of the Commonwealth Blue Charter.

To find out more, visit http://hacktheplanetcompetition.com/

Excerpt:

Six finalists will pitch their concepts to a panel of judges for the grand prize

Categories: Africa

Mangrove Blue Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation

Thu, 10/07/2021 - 12:46

Mangroves could be the silver bullet needed to mitigate climate change, however, approximately 75 percent of mangrove forests globally remain unprotected and overexploited. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Oct 7 2021 (IPS)

Smelly, boggy, and full of bugs, mangroves’ superpowers are well hidden. However, there is rising confidence that mangroves are the silver bullet to combat the effects of climate change.

“Mangrove ecosystems are a habitat and nursery grounds for various plants and animals and can absorb three to four times more carbon than tropical upland forests, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change,” Dr Sevvandi Jayakody, a senior lecturer at Wayamba University of Sri Lanka, tells IPS.

Mangrove forests also act as a natural defence against storm surges, including mitigating the effects of cyclones and tsunamis, says Dr Nicholas Hardman‑Mountford, Head of Oceans and Natural Resources at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Within this context, he says, Commonwealth countries are working together under the Commonwealth Blue Charter, an agreement made by all 54 member states, to actively work together to tackle ocean-related challenges and meet global commitments on sustainable ocean development.

The Blue Charter works through voluntary action groups led by ‘champion countries’, who rally around marine pollution and the sustainable blue economy.

The Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods Action Group consists of 13 countries, including Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Maldives, Nigeria, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago Vanuatu, and the United Kingdom, is championed by Sri Lanka.

Mangrove blue carbon could bolster climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience efforts, experts say. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Hardman‑Mountford tells IPS that countries exchange knowledge centred on mangrove protection, management, and sustainability within the action group. Shared knowledge includes a wide range of topics, including policy, legislation, and regulatory frameworks.

Leveraging on the protective power of mangroves, Jayakody says that Sri Lanka is actively building its second line of defence. The country’s first line of defence, the reefs, were heavily compromised by the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami – one of the worst disasters in modern history, killing nearly 230 000 people across dozens of countries.

Such was the devastation that the government of Sri Lanka estimated losses of over $1 billion in assets and $330 million in potential output.

Worse still, approximately 35 000 people died or went missing. In Sri Lanka alone, property damage included 110 000 houses, of which 70 000 were destroyed. In all, at least 250 000 families lost their means of support.

Experts say that mangroves have immense capacity to prevent such catastrophes and combat other devastating effects of climate change.

Bolstered by growing scientific evidence, Trinidad and Tobago, the dual-island Caribbean nation, has made significant strides in building its defence using mangroves.

Dr Rahanna Juman, Acting Director at the Institute of Marine Affairs, a government-funded research institute, tells IPS that in 2014, the government of Trinidad and Tobago commissioned an aerial survey of the country. Using this data, an estimate of carbon in mangrove forests across the country was ascertained.

“This information illustrated how mangrove and other hardwood forests could offset emissions and was incorporated into the Greenhouse Gas inventory of Trinidad and Tobago. Importantly, the survey conclusively demonstrated that mangrove forests store more carbon per hectare than other hardwood forests,” Juman expounds.

In 2020, the Institute of Marine Affairs received funding from the British High Commission to fund a mangrove soil carbon assessment project involving Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Dr Juman indicates that the assessment found that “the amount of carbon in the mangrove soil was many times larger than the amount of carbon above the ground. This is an assessment that could be replicated in other Commonwealth countries because we have developed a low-cost technique of undertaking this important assessment.”

Adding that Mangroves are starting to be incorporated into the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, which means countries could potentially earn money from protecting and restoring mangroves.

Meanwhile, Hardman‑Mountford cites various challenges in exploring blue carbon because it is still an evolving area of science and policy.

Sri Lanka understands this challenge all too well. After the Tsunami, Jayakody says that the government launched vast mangrove restoration projects covering over 2 000 hectares in partnership with other agencies.

Due to limited information on mangroves, she tells IPS that a majority of these projects failed. Undeterred and leveraging on scientific research over the years, Sri Lanka is today a success story in restoring and conserving mangrove cover estimated at 19 600 hectares.

Other challenges facing countries keen on mangrove blue carbon include a lack of protection for mangroves because approximately 75 percent of mangrove forests globally remain unprotected and overexploited.

Over the years, Jayakody indicates that mangroves have been at a very high risk of destruction because their power to prevent coastal erosion, protect shorelines, and provide livelihoods for coastal communities through fisheries was not fully understood.

Hardman‑Mountford agrees, adding that mangrove forests have declined globally with a loss of between 30 to 50 percent over the past 50 years from over-harvesting, pollution, agriculture, aquaculture, and coastal development.

The Commonwealth has a huge role to play in reversing this decline.

Overall, there are 47 Commonwealth countries with a coastline.

“Nearly 90 percent of Commonwealth countries with a coast have mangroves, and at least 38 of these countries with mangroves have provided some level of protection to their mangroves. In all, 16 countries have protected about half or more of their mangroves,” he says.

This is a challenge that Sri Lanka is successfully overcoming. With an estimated 40 percent of the population in Sri Lanka living along the coastline, Jayakody says that there was an urgent need to protect both livelihoods and coastlines from further degradation.

“In 2015, Sri Lanka established the National Mangrove Expert Committee, and through that, all mangroves were mapped. More so, several new areas were brought under protection, and there have been relentless efforts to improve the communities’ understanding of the importance of mangrove ecosystem,” she says.

Further, Sri Lanka recently validated the Best Practice Guidelines on the Restoration of Mangroves in Sri Lanka and the national mangrove action plan, in line with the mangrove policy adopted in 2020.

Other countries making strides in the right direction include the Australian government’s involvement with blue carbon and especially ongoing efforts to build capacity in blue carbon science, policy and economics through multi-sectoral partnerships.

“To support its efforts in blue carbon advocacy and outreach, the Australian government launched the International Partnership for Blue Carbon (IPBC) at the UNFCCC CoP in Paris in 2015,” says Ms Heidi Prislan, a Blue Charter Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Australia is also one of the 28 countries that refer specifically to the mitigation benefits of carbon sequestration associated with coastal wetlands in its National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. In comparison, 59 other countries mention coastal ecosystems as part of their adaptation strategies.

To increase opportunities for blue carbon to participate in the national emissions reduction scheme, the Emissions Reduction Fund, the Australian government has supported research into potential mitigation methodologies that could be implemented to generate carbon credits from domestic projects.

Equally important, she says that Commonwealth member countries have collectively made 44 national commitments to protect or restore mangroves.

As the world stares at a catastrophe from the devastating effects of climate change, the massive potential of blue carbon and, more so, mangrove blue carbon to bolster climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience efforts can no longer be ignored.

Categories: Africa

The CDC Turns Its Back on Migrants and Science

Thu, 10/07/2021 - 11:46

Credit: UNOHCR.

By Jamile Tellez Lieberman and Joe Amon
PHILADELPHIA, US, Oct 7 2021 (IPS)

Last month, asylum-seeking families at the U.S.-Mexico border appeared to have won a victory, however temporary, in their last-ditch bid for safety in the United States. It was also a victory for evidence-based public health policy.

The 1,954-mile-long southern border has always been a magnet for debate, with deep political divides. Bolstered by Donald Trump during his presidency, long-simmering anti-immigrant rhetoric and xenophobia surrounding migration and immigration increased dramatically.

Starting in 2016, under the previous administration, thousands of migrant families who made it to the southern border were told by immigration officials that they must remain in Mexico to await their asylum decisions, rather than in the United States.

The CDC was once heralded for its apolitical, evidence-based public health policy. Sadly, this is no longer the case. The first step in restoring the CDC’s tarnished reputation is to repeal the CDC’s Title 42 order

With long waits for the processing of their asylum cases, families caught in this legal limbo were forced to make do in temporary settlements in Mexican border towns, many of which are controlled by cartels. Life in these settlements is violent, unstable and impoverished.

In March 2020, then Vice President Mike Pence directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to use its emergency powers to effectively seal the southern border, overruling the agency’s scientists. The CDC invoked Title 42 of the Public Health Service Act which gives federal health officials the ability to take extraordinary measures to limit transmission of an infectious disease.

In practice, the “extraordinary measures,” however, did not apply equally to all travelers entering the United States, including travelers who may have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nor were these measures calibrated to where COVID-19 cases were most prevalent.

These scattershot measures have no meaningful impact on the pandemic in this country. Instead, they victimize migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. from Mexico, including asylum seekers.

Despite promising that his administration would respect science, the CDC’s Title 42 order has been renewed under the Biden administration. Public health leaders, human rights advocates, and former CDC officials and academics have repeatedly called on the CDC to end the use of Title 42 in favor of evidence-based approaches that can protect migrants and the American public from COVID-19 transmission. United Nations officials have also raised concerns that the expulsions may violate the United States’ obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, weighed in on Title 42 and the recent COVID-19 surge on October 3, saying that migrants are “not the driving force of this, let’s face reality here.”

No matter the CDC’s reasoning, one thing is clear: this policy enables profound and irreparable harm to migrant families and single adults. If forced back to Mexico, they would be once again at the mercy of the violent Mexican cartels they were so desperate to escape.

Hope has come from the judiciary if not from the CDC. On September 16, 2021, a federal district court judge in the District of Columbia granted the motion to reject Title 42 and issued an order that prohibits the expulsion of migrant families, saying, “in view of the wide availability of testing, vaccines and other minimization measures, the Court is not convinced that the transmission of COVID-19 during border processing cannot be significantly mitigated.”

The CDC was once heralded for its apolitical, evidence-based public health policy. Sadly, this is no longer the case. The first step in restoring the CDC’s tarnished reputation is to repeal the CDC’s Title 42 order. This will jumpstart the overdue process of returning the CDC to its role as an exemplar in public health policy-making instead of providing cover for xenophobic immigration policies.

Beyond Title 42, the CDC must work to restore its reputation with the American public and regain our trust. This is urgent during the current public health emergency, as well as future crises. It will be a lengthy, painstaking process, but without it, the consequences to public health would be immeasurable.

The order to reject Title 42 was set to take effect on September 30, but an appeals court suspended the judge’s order on October 1, permitting border officials to expel migrants. Amidst this legal back and forth, the question we are left wondering is: Who are these measures meant to protect? The COVID pandemic in the U.S will advance and retreat regardless of immigration policy.

The CDC is turning its back on migrants, as well as science. More broadly, the Biden administration is not listening to scientists, despite his pledge to return to science-based, humanitarian, decision-making. It’s not too late to rebuild trust in science, migrants and their contribution to America, and the American people they hope to become part of.

Jamile Tellez Lieberman is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health and a Global Alliance for Training in Health Equity (GATHER) Fellow.

Joe Amon is the director of global health at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health and former director of health programs at Human Rights Watch.

Categories: Africa

Where on Earth is a Water-Secure World?

Thu, 10/07/2021 - 08:11

Water scarcity affects several African countries. The UN estimates that the number of people with insufficient access to water at least one month a year will surpass 5 billion by 2050. Credit: Orazgeldiyew / Creative Commons

By Vladimir Smakhtin
HAMILTON, Canada, Oct 7 2021 (IPS)

It is not uncommon for a water-centric research, policy or development organization or network to declare its long-term vision of the “water-secure world”. It reads nicely and feels great.

And it is intuitive and logical to perceive that a water-secure world is the one where “water security” is ensured. In every country.

The concept of “water security” has emerged on the global stage primarily over the last two decades. Its shortest and most elegant definition says water security is a “tolerable level of water-related risk to society.”

A conceptual framework of water security based on a more comprehensive definition encompasses various needs and conditions that should be taken into account — water for drinking, economic activity, ecosystems, hazard resilience, governance, transboundary cooperation, financing, and political stability.

Hence water security is not just about how much natural water a country has, although this matters a lot, but also how well the resource is managed.

Water security is considered a unifying concept that can help coordinate efforts towards a common goal. This common goal, however, remains unclear. Absolute water security simply does not and will never exist anywhere.

The devil, as usual, is in the details: how do you define “tolerable”, adequate”, “acceptable” — and other adjectives and variables that reflect the uncertainty normally associated with water security measures?

Perhaps the most advanced initiative to measure water security, started almost a decade ago with regular updates, is the Asian Water Development Outlook. It largely follows the principles of the water security conceptual framework noted above and employs over 50 indices to rate various aspects of it.

The most recent Outlook (2020) suggests that New Zealand, Japan and Australia are the most water secure nations in Asia-Pacific region, while Afghanistan is the most water insecure.

This is hardly surprising: the more developed a country is, the more effective its water management, the higher its water security ranking, even if the country’s water resources are limited.

Also, such regionally focused assessments compare a limited selection of countries and essentially reflect relative “status” rather than how close or far the countries are from achieving some global standards or milestones.

The uncertainty surrounding water security measures therefore prevails. All this has implications for development.

An obvious one is that the water-secure world we envision is either a mirage or a “nirvana concept.” The first is deceiving, the second unachievable. Either way, the focus created by imprecision is on movement, not on result, and conveniently excuses not knowing where we are going.

It may be argued, for example, that water security underpins, albeit implicitly, the global development Agenda 2030, including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 (entirely dedicated to water) and other water-related targets scattered through the SDG continuum.

Yet, similarly to water security itself, such SDG targets are either left “strategically vague” or simply undefined. Only SDG targets 6.1: universal (i.e. 100% in every country) water supply; 6.2: universal (i.e. 100% in every country) sanitation; and 6.3: halving (i.e. 50%, without country specifics) the proportion of untreated wastewater globally are explicitly quantitative.

Unclear, though, is whether their achievement by 2030 was politically or scientifically motivated. (The role of science, or lack thereof, in global water development is another debate).

From this standpoint, it is not surprising that the water-related SDGs set in 2015 have clearly turned out to be over-ambitious; indeed, it was conceded, even before the pandemic hit, that SDG6, for example, is off-track.

Going forward it may be more practical to define and quantify some globally acceptable water security standards — e.g. evolving, functional, optimal, or similar categories.

A country’s water status can then be seen in a context of these standards, and that, in turn, can help define action plans with a visible target.

Furthermore, the visibility horizons should be immediate short-term — five years or less — so that accountability is not passed to succeeding generations of experts, policymakers and politicians.

Water security standards need to relate directly to the number, type and scale of problems. To move from one standard to another, problems need to be eradicated, not just mitigated.

The “movement” towards nirvana water security may then become at least well-structured. Achievements and remaining gaps should be easier to see and articulate. And water science could finally play a central, practical role in the process.

Going even further, a water security philosophy may not even be necessary at all if we simply focus on solving — i.e. eradicating well-known water problems in a process designed with short steps and clearly measurable results, which should be realized in every generation.

Sadly, looking back at the last 50 years, it is hard to see a single global or regional water problem that has been, indeed, eradicated. And, accordingly, not a single country can currently boast that it is, indeed, water secure.

So much for a water-secure world.

Vladimir Smakhtin is the Director at the UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, which is supported by the Government of Canada and hosted at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. The Institute marks its 25th anniversary in 2021.

Categories: Africa

Stop Calling the Military Budget a ‘Defense’ Budget

Wed, 10/06/2021 - 12:12

Credit: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

By Norman Solomon
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Oct 6 2021 (IPS)

It’s bad enough that mainstream news outlets routinely call the Pentagon budget a “defense” budget. But the fact that progressives in Congress and even many antiwar activists also do the same is an indication of how deeply the mindsets of the nation’s warfare state are embedded in the political culture of the United States.

The misleading first name of the Defense Department doesn’t justify using “defense” as an adjective for its budget. On the contrary, the ubiquitous use of phrases like “defense budget” and “defense spending” — virtually always written with a lower-case “d” — reinforces the false notion that equates the USA’s humongous military operations with defense.

In the real world, the United States spends more money on its military than the next 10 countries all together. And most of those countries are military allies. What about military bases in foreign countries?

The U.S. currently has 750, while Russia has about two dozen and China has one. The author of the landmark book “Base Nation,” American University professor David Vine, just co-wrote a report that points out “the United States has at least three times as many overseas bases as all other countries combined.”

Those U.S. bases abroad “cost taxpayers an estimated $55 billion annually.”

As this autumn began, Vine noted that President Biden is “perpetuating the United States’ endless wars” in nations including “Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Yemen” while escalating “war-like tensions with China with a military buildup with Australia and the UK.”

All this is being funded via a “defense” budget? Calling George Orwell.

As Orwell wrote in a 1946 essay, political language “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” In 2021, the hot air blowing at gale force through U.S. mass media is so continuous that we’re apt to scarcely give it a second thought.

But the euphemisms would hardly mean anything to those in faraway countries for whom terrifying and lethal drone attacks and other components of U.S. air wars are about life and death rather than political language.

You might consider the Pentagon’s Aug. 29 killing of 10 Afghan civilians including seven children with a drone attack to be a case of “respectable” murder, or negligent homicide, or mere “collateral damage.”

Likewise, you could look at numbers like 244,124 — a credible low-end estimate of the number of civilians directly killed during the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq — and consider them to be mere data points or representing individuals whose lives are as precious as yours.

But at any rate, from the vantage point of the United States, it’s farfetched to claim that the billions of dollars expended for ongoing warfare in several countries are in a budget that can be legitimately called “defense.”

Until 1947, the official name of the U.S. government’s central military agency was the War Department. After a two-year interim brand (with the clunky name National Military Establishment), it was renamed the Department of Defense in 1949.

As it happened, that was the same year when Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” appeared, telling of an always-at-war totalitarian regime with doublespeak slogans that included “War Is Peace.”

Today, the Department of Defense remains an appropriately capitalized proper noun. But the department’s official name doesn’t make it true. To call its massive and escalating budget a “defense” budget is nothing less than internalized corruption of language that undermines our capacities to think clearly and talk straight.

While such corroded language can’t be blamed for the existence of sloppy thinking and degraded discourse, it regularly facilitates sloppy thinking and degraded discourse.

Let’s blow away the linguistic fog. The Pentagon budget is not a “defense” budget.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

Categories: Africa

Will Taliban Honour UN Treaties Signed by Afghanistan Over the Last 20 Years?

Wed, 10/06/2021 - 08:23

As schools slowly reopen in parts of Afghanistan, it is important to ensure that both girls and boys are able to return safely. Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August, they have made some commitments to uphold human rights. However, their subsequent actions have “sadly contradicted” those promises, the UN rights chief told a side event of the General Assembly on 21 September 2021. Credit: UNICEF

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 2021 (IPS)

When the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan receives the political blessings of the 193-member General Assembly– and eventually inherits its seat at the United Nations– it will have to ultimately prove its credentials as a member of good standing by adhering to the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – as all member states do.

But judging by Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights since it took office after the US pullout on August 30, it has given no indication it will abandon its longstanding policy of repressing women – and have barred them from schools, universities and workplaces.

The Taliban’s UN membership will undeniably give legitimacy to the only – or perhaps one of the few – member states which is ruled by an insurgent group once designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.

But a lingering question remains: will the Taliban, as a member state, honour all those UN treaties and international conventions—guaranteeing both human rights and women’s rights—signed or ratified by the former US-backed Afghan government over the last 20 years?

“With regard to accepting and honouring international human rights Treaties and Conventions– based on what we know today and the public declarations they have made, as opposed to practices on the ground– I would speculate they may declare their observation of Human Rights Treaties ‘within the context of Sharia Law’ which, of course, they will not define,” says one former senior UN official, who served in Afghanistan during the former Taliban regime (1996-2001).

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, set the record straight, when he told IPS: “Afghanistan is a member state of the UN, not the Taliban. Being a member state of the UN does not imply that Afghanistan is a party to all UN treaties. Only to those treaties to which it has, as a State, become party. The act of becoming party to a treaty is a conscious, well considered and deliberate act of a State.”

Afghanistan, as a State, will continue to be bound by the treaties to which the State of Afghanistan is a party, he said.

“When a State becomes party to a convention/treaty, the government becomes bound by it too. If Afghanistan is already party to any Human Rights treaty, including women’s rights and child rights, the government of Afghanistan will be bound by it,” he noted.

And there is no squiggling out of such an obligation, declared Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, one of the Articles of the UDHR, described as a milestone document in the history of human rights, points out everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, says the UDHR, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

The former Taliban government was described as an oppressive regime that denied some of the basic civil liberties to Afghans and provided a safe haven for terrorists of all political stripes while it also rejected a demand from the UN and the international community to name an inclusive cabinet with representation of women.

“Those who hoped for, and urged for, inclusivity will be disappointed,” said Deborah Lyons, UN Secretary-General’s Representative for Afghanistan.

“There are no women in the names listed,” she said last month.

Lyons also pointed out that the (new) Taliban government in Kabul “contains many of the same figures who were part of the Taliban leadership from 1996-2001”.

Of the 33 appointments, she said, many are on the UN’s sanctions list, including the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers and the foreign minister.

According to published reports, the Taliban has not only dismantled the Ministry for Women’s Affairs but also replaced it with the Ministry for Vice and Virtue, a notorious religious police of a by-gone era known to ruthlessly crack down on women who were seen in public without male relatives.

Dr Kohona, meanwhile, said the current Taliban authorities are not recognised by any other state. In the circumstances could they be considered to be the legitimate successor government to the previous authorities?

For all practical purposes, he pointed out, the Taliban appears to be in full control, including of the territory of Afghanistan and its population.

“The Taliban’s writ applies through most of the country. These elements are critical for the recognition of a government by the international community.”

Already Afghanistan’s neighbours have begun the process of working with the new authorities. Reports suggest that Afghanistan has been invited to join the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, said Dr Kohona.

“Afghanistan’s strategic location and its hoard of precious minerals tempted many before. One can assume that it would only a matter of time before the new authorities are recognised by other important states”.

Recognition of the new authorities in Kabul and efforts to pressure them into abiding by global human rights standards might also open up another can of worms, he argued.

The Afghan authorities could also turn round and seek accountability for the human rights violations and war crimes committed by the occupying NATO and other forces. Allegations abound, he said.

Australia has publicly acknowledged and apologised for the egregious acts committed in Afghanistan by its Special Forces. Many allegations relating to the troops of other occupying forces have also been made, said Dr Kohona.

Addressing the UN’s Third Committee on October 4, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Afghanistan’s human rights situation is “deeply worrisome”.

The Taliban said it will build a more inclusive political order which respects the rights of all persons. But early actions have been inconsistent with those commitments.

“We welcome the UN’s efforts to monitor and report on the human rights situation moving forward. We will judge the Taliban by its actions, not its words.,” she declared.

Meanwhile, the Taliban—represented by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan—last month named its own Ambassador Suhail Shaheen to replace the outgoing office holder Ghulam Isaczai –even as it unsuccessfully staked its claim for a speaking slot at the high-level session, which ended September 25, and a seat at the UN General Assembly.

So far, it failed in all its efforts.

Perhaps the most significant is its attempt to capture a UN seat which has to be approved, first, by the nine-member UN Credentials committee comprising Russia, China, the US, Sweden, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Chile, Bhutan and the Bahamas, and subsequently ratified by the 193-member General Assembly.

A tall order but it is likely to clear both hurdles—sooner or later. As of now, the Credential Committee is expected to meet sometime in November.

Asked about the status of Afghanistan’s membership, the President of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid told reporters last week: “The General Assembly, as the universal body, makes the decision”.

So, it will be the 193 countries who will decide,” he said, pointing out that the Credentials Committee will review and submit its findings and then the entire 193 member countries “will have the opportunity to decide.

“This has been the past practice and it’s been done many, many times”, he declared.

Categories: Africa

New Education Cannot Wait Annual Results Report Highlights Multiplying Education Challenges for Children & Adolescents Living in Emergencies & Protracted Crises amid Covid-19

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 19:50

By External Source
GENEVA / NEW YORK, Oct 5 2021 (IPS-Partners)

On this World Teachers’ Day, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, announced it has reached more than 4.6 million children and adolescents (48% of whom are girls) with quality education in more than 30 of the worst humanitarian crises around the world.

The Fund’s new Annual Results Report ‘Winning the Human Race,’ stresses the importance of investing in the teaching force to support and promote quality learning outcomes for crisis-affected girls and boys. To date, ECW has recruited or financially supported close to 150,000 teachers (including over 41,000 women) and provided over 2.6 million children and adolescents with individual learning materials in emergency contexts and protracted crises.

ECW’s COVID-19 education in emergency response also helped an additional 29.2 million vulnerable girls and boys and 310,000 teachers living in crises and emergency settings. This included support to distance-learning solutions and various integrated messages and products to ensure continuing education and protect the health and wellbeing of children, teachers and their communities through the pandemic.

Despite these achievements, ECW’s report underlines that COVID-19 acted as a risk-multiplier, not only creating new challenges but also amplifying existing risks for the most vulnerable groups, particularly girls and children and adolescents with disabilities.

“For millions of marginalized children and adolescents already caught in armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change-induced disasters and protracted crises, COVID-19 hit as a ‘crisis within an already ongoing crisis’,” said UN Special Envoy for Global Education, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown. “An entire generation in emergencies and protracted crisis faces irreversible loss. Among them, an estimated 20 million displaced girls, particularly adolescent girls, are at risk. The Annual Results Report 2020 is a living testimony of how we can resist the threats and stand greater chances of winning the human race. World leaders must step up and ensure adequate financing for education dedicated to all girls, children and adolescents support by our collective mission.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the importance of education to the fore. Today more than ever, education is the key to unlocking opportunity for the next generation: it kick-starts economic recovery, innovation, and climate action, and provides a safety net and lifeline for children and adolescents living in crisis-affected areas.

At the same time, the pandemic also negatively affected both overseas development assistance (ODA) and humanitarian funding for education. Some donor countries have already started shifting their budgets away from aid to domestic priorities. Meanwhile funding requirements for education in humanitarian appeals have significantly increased – from $1 billion in 2019 to $1.4 billion in 2020 – further widening the funding gap for the sector.

“COVID-19 has compounded the effects of armed conflict, instability, climate-related disasters and forced displacement from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, to the Sahel, Ethiopia and Venezuela – to name but a few of the crises where ECW is working with partners to fulfill the right of every girl and boy to a safe, quality education,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait. “We can win the human race provided that we are ready to invest in it and ensure that these children and adolescents access an inclusive 12 years of quality education. This is an investment in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, an investment in peace, an investment in our future, and an investment in our universal human rights and our shared humanity.”

Key Trends

While nearly all children worldwide have been affected by school closures due to COVID-19, those living in the poorest countries have been disproportionately so, according to the report. Since March 2020, schools in crisis-affected countries – where ECW prioritizes its investments to ensure that no child is left behind – have closed for an average of 32 days more than in other countries. Students in South Sudan, for example, lost 16% of their schooling over a lifetime, compared to 3% for students in countries of Europe and Central Asia.

The ECW report shows that this learning loss will only aggravate the pre-pandemic rate of learning inequalities, particularly affecting the 53% of children in low- and middle-income countries who, by the age of 10, cannot read or understand a simple text.

Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, the report also underscores multiplying risks for crisis-impacted children and adolescents.

The global climate crisis is having a significant impact on the well-being and educational opportunities of children and adolescents, with weather-related hazards such as storms and floods, displacing over 30 million people in 2020. With scientific consensus that extreme weather events will increase in severity and frequency, even more children will be put at risk.

In times of disaster, children usually account for almost half of those affected. Globally, more than a half-billion children live in areas with an extremely high flood rate and 160 million live in high or extremely high drought severity zones.

Forced displacement of people, including children, due to conflicts increased significantly in 2020, with ten countries producing three-quarters of the world’s refugees. In addition, there were 40.5 million new internal displacements in 2020 – connected in part to conflict, climate change, poverty and insecurity – the highest number on record.

Schools continue to be targeted in attacks. Between 2017 and 2019, there were more than 11,000 reported attacks on schools, universities, students and education personnel.

A call to action

Since its inception in 2016, ECW has mobilized US$828.3 million through the ECW Trust Fund, and helped leverage with its partners US$1 billion worth of programmes aligned with ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes in 10 countries.

“Working together with our partners, the scope of our collective achievements is unequivocal: less than 5 years into existence, ECW has demonstrated its proof of concept through concrete results. I call on world leaders, the private sector and our global community to urgently and generously support Education Cannot Wait in reaching the millions of children that are at risk of falling through the cracks,” said Sherif.

#ECWResults
• Total reach: ECW’s investments in holistic education programmes for crisis-affected girls and boys have reached 4.6 million children and adolescents (48% of whom are girls), with a focus on those left furthest behind: refugees (38%), internally displaced children (16.4%), and of host community children and adolescents and other vulnerable populations (45.6%). In addition, shorter and more targeted COVID-19 interventions aimed at continuing education and keeping children and adolescents safe from the pandemic reached a total of 29.2 million girls and boys in 2020 alone.
• Increased access to education: 96% of ECW-supported programmes increased access to education for crisis-affected children and adolescents. In Uganda, for example, the gross enrolment ratio of refugee children grew steadily from 72% in 2017 to 79% in 2020.
• Strengthening equity and gender equality: 94% of ECW-supported programmes show improvement in gender parity in access to education. Girls represent 48% of all children reached through ECW’s investments since inception, and 40% of teachers recruited or financially supported through ECW’s funding in 2020 are women. The percentage of children with disabilities reached grew from 0.2% since inception to 1.3% in 2020 across ECW’s programme portfolio.
• Increased continuity and sustainability of education: By the end of 2020, ECW had cumulatively reached some 275,000 children (51% girls) with early-childhood or pre-primary education interventions since its inception. The share of children reached with secondary education across ECW’s programme portfolio increased from 9% in 2019 to 13% in 2020.
• Improved learning and skills: Since ECW’s inception nearly 70,000 teachers (48% female) have been trained through regular non-COVID-19 programming. A total of 2.6 million teaching and learning materials were provided to children and adolescents (47% to girls). Learning outcome measurement has also expanded to an increasing number of ECW grants.
• Safe and protective learning environment: In 2020, ECW’s partners increased access to water and sanitation facilities in 2,225 learning spaces and provided some 3,100 children with safe transportation mechanisms to and from school. In 2020 remote mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions for children, teachers, and caregivers were undertaken, and more than 19,500 teachers (54% female) were trained on MHPSS. ECW investments supported children with school feeding programmes in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sahel region.

Excerpt:

Building on its innovative model that has already reached +4.6 million children & adolescents in the world’s worst humanitarian crises, Education Cannot Wait calls for urgent, bold investments in education in emergency programmes to avoid irreversible loss for entire generations.

Categories: Africa

Less Overseas Coal Is Good, But Developing Countries Still Need More Electricity

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 13:33

the EU, the U.S. (beginning under Biden) ) and others have been campaigning for governments to end their financing for new overseas coal-fired projects. Credit: Bigstock.

By Philippe Benoit
PARIS, Oct 5 2021 (IPS)

President Xi announced last month that China is stopping its financing for new coal-fired power plants overseas. With this announcement from Beijing, the governments of the world’s largest economies have now achieved a consensus to halt their overseas funding of coal plants in developing countries, thereby advancing global efforts to reduce future carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Energized by this success on climate, these governments should now turn their efforts to mobilizing the massive financing required to build the clean power projects that the developing world still needs to fight poverty.

Globally, nearly 30% of the energy sector’s CO2 emissions come from coal-fired power plants. Even as various developed countries moved to reduce their own coal use to lower emissions domestically, new coal power plants were being proposed across the developing world, often with financing from China under its massive Belt and Road Initiative.

The EU, the U.S. (beginning under Biden) ) and others have been campaigning for governments to end their financing for new overseas coal-fired projects. China’s announcement last month, following on similar ones by South Korea and Japan (as well as the G-7) earlier this year, represents the culmination of a successful international campaign against this financing

As China, as well as notably Japan and South Korea, funded coal plants abroad (cumulatively providing 90% of overseas public sector financing), climate specialists raised the alarm that these new plants would threaten global emissions reduction efforts.

Given these concerns, the EU, the U.S. (beginning under Biden) ) and others have been campaigning for governments to end their financing for new overseas coal-fired projects. China’s announcement last month, following on similar ones by South Korea and Japan (as well as the G-7) earlier this year, represents the culmination of a successful international campaign against this financing.

Even though there are other sources of financing for coal power plants (by some estimates, substantially larger than China’s), the decisions by Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul, as well as the parallel international effort among private banks and other financial institutions, will significantly slow new coal power investments in the developing world.

For example, it has been estimated that China’s new commitment could impact 44 power projects in Asia and Africa, resulting in a cut of $50 billion in investment. Moreover, the U.S. recently announced that it would oppose any new coal-based projects by multilateral development banks (MDBs), shutting off another source of potential financing.

And yet this success presents its own challenges, at least for poorer countries that were looking to benefit from the additional electricity these coal plants would provide. For example, the International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees that Africa’s electricity generation will need to more than double over the next 20 years under a business-as-usual case, and more than triple under a high development scenario.

To achieve this high development scenario, Africa will need to add about 700 gigawatts in new plants, which is nearly three times the continent’s existing installed generating capacity. Similarly, the IEA projects that the countries of the ASEAN region (such as Indonesia and Vietnam) will in the aggregate need to invest $350 billion in the power sector between 2025 and 2030 to further their economic development, a figure that rises to $490 billion under the Agency’s low-carbon scenario.

But will poorer countries be able to mobilize the financing for these electricity investments, especially as overseas financing for new coal plants disappears?

The U.S. and China have both recently announced their intention to increase funding to help developing countries meet the climate challenge, with Biden looking to double the U.S.’s annual contribution to $11.4 billion and Xi coupling his decision to end overseas financing for coal plants with a pledge to step up China’s support for green and low-carbon investments in developing countries.

Unfortunately, there are concerns that poorer countries will nevertheless be left wanting, especially as previous pledges to provide them financing have failed to fully materialize, notably the $100 billion per year in climate finance that developed countries committed to mobilize by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

To avoid this outcome and enable poorer countries to obtain the additional electricity they need, the successful diplomatic efforts that have gone into eliminating public funding for overseas coal projects need to be matched, and even exceeded, by a drive to boost funding for clean power plants.

This should not only involve increasing flows from the large development finance institutions of the U.S., China, the EU, Japan, etc. and from their other overseas investment agencies, but also mobilizing more private sector investment in developing countries, both foreign and domestic.

Non-traditional funders (including private foundations) also have a role to play. In addition, as the U.S. moves to block any coal projects and severely curtail other MDB investments in fossil fuel-based electricity, it and other wealthy nations should increase their shareholder contributions to these banks to increase lending to developing countries for clean electricity.

The rationale supporting these efforts is not only that the U.S., China, the EU, Japan, and South Korea are the world’s largest economies (representing over two thirds of global GDP), but also that they themselves continue to rely on coal plants to power their own economic growth. These coal plants, in turn, are generating large amounts of emissions that are using up the common carbon budget and leaving less room for electricity-related emissions from poorer countries.

For example, in 2019, 65% of China’s electricity came from coal-fired power plants that generated 4.9 gigatons in CO2 emissions (GtCO2), while the U.S. emitted 1.0 GtCO2 and the EU 0.5 GtCO2 from these plants. By comparison, all of Africa’s coal-fired power plants produced less than 0.3 GtCO2.

As a result, there are also important equity considerations which justify stronger action by these wealthier countries to support clean power investments in poorer ones. While many also point to the need for wealthier nations to reduce their own domestic coal emissions, the focus of this article is not on how these countries choose to run their national power systems, but rather on what poorer countries need and how wealthier ones can help.

As President Biden has repeatedly remarked, “climate change poses an existential threat to our future.” Ending investment in new overseas coal-fired plants will help to address this danger, for the benefit of both rich and poor. But poverty is also an existential threat, albeit one that does not imperil everyone. Rather it is a life-threatening menace principally aimed at the poor of the developing world. It is also one which wealthier countries can help to counter.

To fight poverty, the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America need a lot more electricity. In the interest of climate, wealthy countries have succeeded in cutting off coal financing to these regions. These wealthy countries now should build off this success by carrying out an even more ambitious poverty alleviation program funding clean power across the developing world.

Philippe Benoit has over 25 years of experience working in international energy affairs, including prior management positions at the World Bank and International Energy Agency. He is currently Managing Director-Energy and Sustainability at Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050.

Categories: Africa

Afghan Women – The Emerging Narrative and Why it is Wrong

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 12:02

By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan
ROME and AMSTERDAM, Oct 5 2021 (IPS)

The USA and its allies have repeatedly stated that promoting women’s rights was one of the key reasons they were in Afghanistan. The US military top brass, in a letter to marines stated that they were in Afghanistan “for the liberty of young Afghan girls, women, boys, and men who want the same individual freedoms we enjoy as Americans”.

Daud Khan

Post-war, women’s rights are now among the conditions for improved relations. For example, it is a one of the conditions for release by the US of US$9 billion of Afghan assets. Similarly, the EU has made also women’s rights one of the conditions of engagement with the new Afghan Government.

There is also much talk in the western press of how the new Government is trampling or women’s rights – girls are not allowed to go to school, working women are being told to stay home, and demonstrations by women are put down brutally. There is also much discussion of the fact that there are no women in the new Government. The position of the US and its allies, and the apparent intransigence of the Taliban, seems to suggest a long stalemate which will bring additional misery to ordinary Afghans.

However, there is also a second narrative on women in Afghanistan that is emerging. The starting point for this alternative narrative is that the vast majority of Afghan women live in rural areas; and have seen their suffering increase many fold during the 20 years of the war. The bombings, the killings, the arbitrary violence by warlords, some of who were allied with US forces, were what defined their daily existence. These rural women saw few, if any, benefits of the efforts by donors and aid agencies to improve living conditions. Corruption siphoned off much of the money and what little did get to the rural areas did not make any significant improvement in public services such as health, education or water supplies. For these women the return of the Taliban means, above all, a cessation of violence and a return to a rule of law – however flawed it may be.

This alternative narrative also points out that the women “who want the same individual freedoms we enjoy as Americans” are a small minority living in Kabul. Moreover, the freedoms they had under US occupation – to wear jeans, play football or cricket – are alien to Afghan society and traditional values. Hence losing such “rights” are quite irrelevant to the much of the country.

Leila Yasmine Khan

The two narratives lead to different courses of action. For those who ascribe to the first, it provides a moral justification for using all possible leverage to get the Talban to reverse their current positions on women’s rights, as well as on many other aspects of government. Moreover, it justifies suspending development projects, minimizing humanitarian aid, and even freezing Afghan assets – money which belongs to the Afghan people.

For those to who the second narrative holds more appeal, the ceasing of conflict and the departure of the foreign troops were the most important events for Afghanistan. From here onwards, the Afghan people have to decide for themselves what social mores and traditions they want to follow.

And, if they want to change, it has to be at the speed and pace of their own choosing. The international community which has a large responsibility for the misery and mayhem of the last decades should focus on repairing and improving infrastructure such as roads and irrigation; ensuring supplies of essential goods and services including food, water, fuel, health services and electricity; and creating the institutional structure and the trained manpower for the administration of public services such as administration, justice and policing.

Both narratives, as well as the actions deriving from it, are flawed.

Whatever geopolitical or economic interests drove the war, it is disingenuous for the US and allies to say that they were in Afghanistan for 20 years to help the Afghans and in particular Afghan women. The war has cost the US taxpayer US$2 trillion most of which went to the defense contracts with some crumbs to the corrupt Afghan Government officials. Given an average Afghan family size of seven, the US$ 2 trillion spent on the war is equivalent to US$350,000 per family. If even a fraction of this if had been invested properly it would have transformed lives – but this never happened. Now after 20 years of war, to impose further pain on the Afghans in the name of women’s rights seems heartless. Particularly galling is the freezing of Afghan assets in western banks at the time when the country desperately needs this money.

A laissez faire approach towards the new Government is, however, is equally callous. Women’s rights are not just about dressing as one likes, about participating in sports or wearing a veil in public. It is also about giving the right to be educated; to aspire to any job or career they wish; to live without repression; and have to freedom to move, to think and to speak without fear or hindrance.

The fact that 80% of Afghan girls don’t have schools that they can go to, jobs to which they can aspire, or the time, energy or money for sports or recreation, does not negate the rights of the 20% who do have some of these opportunities.

The countries in the region with influence in Afghanistan – countries such as China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey – must not turn a blind eye to women’s rights. On the contrary, they should use all the leverage they have with the Afghan Government to respect women’s rights be it for those who live in Kabul, be it for those who live in the most remote areas.

Daud Khan works as consultant and advisor for various Governments and international agencies. He has degrees in Economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology. He lives partly in Italy and partly in Pakistan.

Leila Yasmine Khan is an independent writer and editor based in the Netherlands. She has Master’s degrees in Philosophy of Cognition and one in Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric – both from the University of Amsterdam – as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome (Roma Tre).

Categories: Africa

Education Cannot Wait Annual Results Reveals the Devastating Impact of COVID-19 on Learning for Children in Emergencies and Protracted Crises

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 11:03

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait, visited a refugee site in the village of Modale, located 30 kms from Yakoma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Courtesy: Education Cannot Wait

By Alison Kentish
NEW YORK/GENEVA, Oct 5 2021 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of education globally, but for children in emergencies and protracted crises, its blow has been particularly devastating.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund that brings teaching and learning to children and adolescents in emergencies and crises, has said that 2020 was ‘exceptionally challenging.’

ECW released its Annual Results Report, Winning the Human Race today, October 5, World Teachers’ Day.

“The pandemic acted as a risk multiplier, as it not only created new challenges but also amplified existing challenges and risks for the most vulnerable groups, especially girls and children and adolescents with disabilities,” the report stated.

“With COVID-19 upending entire societies and socio-economic systems, 2020 is remembered as a uniquely challenging year in modern history. While close to 90 percent of learners worldwide saw their education disrupted – with nearly one year lost in schooling for one billion children – those who were already marginalized and left furthest behind in crisis contexts are paying a heavier price,” said UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown.

“An entire generation faces irreversible loss. Among them, an estimated 20 million displaced girls, particularly adolescent girls, are at risk of permanently dropping out of school, not only losing the opportunity to learn, but also the protection that education offers against gender-based violence, child marriage, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking.”

For the past nearly 5 years, Education Cannot Wait has worked tirelessly to minimize disruption in learning for close to 5 million children in some of the world’s most dire emergency and crisis zones in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen.

“Without immediate additional significant financial investments to support education in emergencies and protracted crises, entire generations will be lost. COVID-19 has compounded the already existing devastation of conflicts, climate-related disasters, and forced displacement from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, to the Sahel, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Venezuela – to name but a few of the 38 crises where ECW is working with partners to deliver on the right of every girl and boy to a safe, quality education,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.

As the world honors teachers at a challenging time for education, the latest ECW report is confirming that the global fund has recruited close to 150,000 teachers to help fill the gaps in education for children in crucial crisis settings.

ECW ensures that the teachers have access to resources and receive training in education in emergencies and protracted crises (EiEPC). The educators are also trained in the provision of mental and psycho-social support, gender, and inclusion.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, ECW acted proactively and decisively. Soon after the World Health Organization’s March 11, 2020 pandemic declaration, ECW initiated 85 grant packages in 32 countries. According to the annual report, ‘US$23.0 million was mobilized from the First Emergency Response (FER) reserve within 21 days, and a further US$22.4 million was approved in July 2020 – a total of US$45.4 million.’

It was the fund’s most rapid disbursement of funds and a concerted effort to protect the world’s children furthest behind. Over 29 million children and adolescents benefitted, with girls making up 51 percent of that figure.

With Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong opportunities for all as a guide, ECW has pivoted through the pandemic; scaling up resources and support for distance-learning amid school closures, promoting COVID-19 protocols, and supplying health and hygiene products.

In some countries, like Afghanistan, home visits ensured that the pandemic did not derail children’s learning.

In Yemen, ECW partner UNICEF donated electronic learning materials to over 330,000 children.

In Iraq, ECW and its partners embraced technology and used applications such as WhatsApp and Viber to communicate, send lessons, and support over 5,000 students.

Children in protracted crises in Afghanistan, Chad, Palestine, and Uganda received health and hygiene lessons, while emergency funds supported a range of continuing education programs.

ECW credits its rapid response and impact during the pandemic to the flexibility of the fund, and the resilience of its partners, communities, and the children and adolescents its serves. However, interrupted education and learning in the face of armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate, and food crises, and a pandemic pushing millions more into poverty, financing will remain a major challenge.

“If we are going to advance in our quest for the human race, our global community must play a pivotal role in making the notion of our ‘shared humanity’ a reality. This means providing these children with at least 12 years of quality education. This is an investment in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, an investment in peace, an investment in our future, and an investment in our universal human rights,” Sherif said.

ECW’s vision is to bring quality and inclusive education to at least two-thirds of children in the world’s most acute and urgent crisis regions.

According to the report, ECW has raised US$828.3 million through the ECW Trust Fund, and with its partners, helped leverage US$1 billion worth of programs aligned with ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programmes in close to 18 countries.

The fund has been a lifeline for millions of children in the grips of war, displacement, humanitarian and emergency crises. The fund has proven that even in the world’s worst crisis-affected countries, children and adolescents do not have to be left behind. On the contrary, they should, according to ECW, be the first in line for empowerment and global support.

“Working together with our partners, the scope of our collective achievements is unequivocal: less than 5 years into existence, ECW has demonstrated its proof of concept through concrete results for crisis-affected children and youth. I call on world leaders, the private sector, and our global community to urgently and generously support Education Cannot Wait in reaching the millions of children that are already falling through the cracks,” said Sherif.

Categories: Africa

Multilateral Financial Institutions Can Catalyze Public Development Banks (PDB) to Deliver SDGs

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 09:04

By Raghav Gaiha and Shantanu Mathur
NEW DELHI, India, Oct 5 2021 (IPS)

There is broad consensus that realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change require a transformative agenda for agriculture and food systems. In this context, the importance of mobilizing more investments and aligning them to sustainable development and inclusive rural transformation objectives, is widely acknowledged.

The gaps in investment
Estimates of investment required for achieving these goals show that the financing needs are considerable although the appraisals of incremental financing requirements differ significantly.

Raghav Gaiha

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Program (WFP) estimate that US$265 billion per year is needed to reach “zero hunger” by 2030 (SAFIN, 2021).

In 2019, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated total investment needs for food and agriculture at US$ 480 billion to achieve related SDGs in developing countries, with actual investment at US$220 billion, thus leaving a gap of US$260 billion.

These estimates suggest that transforming food systems to deliver healthy people, a healthy planet, and a healthy economy will require US$300 – US$350 billion extra per year over the next decade.

The swift and massive shock of the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the global economy into a severe contraction. The prospects of economic revival are highly uncertain and downside risks are predominant. Development finance gap is thus likely to worsen.

Towards meeting the financing gaps
To meet these needs, finance will be required from all sources to work in alignment with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. The extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) through to the end of 2021 led by the World Bank – will help most developing countries to focus on domestic priorities including getting SDG delivery back on track.

A Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI is in the making, while some International Financial Institutions (IFI) are expecting historical highs in their replenishments (IFAD, IDA, AfDB). In addition, there is a call for a new general allocation of USD 650 billion (IMF Special Drawing Rights) to be channelled to benefit vulnerable countries.

Shantanu Mathur

A Role for Public Development Banks
Public Development Banks (PDBs) have considerable untapped potential here, as financial institutions with state capital have a mandate to pursue developmental goals, (as opposed to solely commercial objectives in their bank operations. PDBs are distinct from State-owned commercial banks; they also differ in their mandates and instruments (World Bank Group & World Federation of Development Financing Institutions, 2018, IFAD, 2020, SAFIN, 2021). Non-sector specific PDBs have significant portfolios in agriculture or in other activities within food systems (e.g. in financing rural infrastructure, agro- processing, or other).

Yet other PDBs have a primary focus on agriculture but their portfolio includes other sectors. This is based on the notion that supporting sustainable small-scale farming through inclusive agri-food value chain development is between two to three times more effective as a means to eradicate poverty than other sectors.

Some PDBs target small-scale enterprises including producers, while others focus their portfolios on larger agribusinesses or larger investments, for instance, in agricultural infrastructure and markets. This diversity is key to understanding the role of different types of PDBs in advancing the 2030 Agenda.

The overarching goal, however, is to address market failures, with counter-cyclical roles, and greater risk tolerance than what other financial institutions have. Given their public mandate and close proximity to public policy and governance institutions, PDBs can play a catalytic role supporting accessible, affordable and usable financial services for rural poor people socially, environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes across food systems.

PDBs (which are already responsible for over two-thirds of formal financing for agriculture), can facilitate a change of course across the financial ecosystem. This includes mobilizing sustainable and green finance, issuing investment products, structuring blended solutions and public-private financing schemes.

At the same time, adopting digital solutions across their business operations, and delivering a suite of financial services and products to different types of clients in food systems – including women, youth, SMEs and smallholders. It is known that private investment in agriculture and/or in other activities within food systems is often constrained by many risks associated with poor infrastructure and economic returns. PDBs are capable of increasing their capacity to crowd in, de-risk, and help align commercial finance to the SDGs and to climate-related goals such as those set in the Paris agreement.

Mobilizing catalytic investments
Stimulating responsible private investment and financial innovations – such as through blended finance – are required to improve food security and nutrition and inclusive rural transformation, and to address the post pandemic gap in ODA. UNCTAD has estimated that around 75 per cent of the gap could be financed, in principle, by the private sector – with the potential to mobilize US$195 billion annually. PDBs are actively engaged in platforms where private investors, businesses, philanthropists and other entities are investing to fund SDG aligned projects.

In their Communiqué (Matera, June 2021) the G20 Development Ministers have welcomed the establishment of a “Finance in Commons” Working Group on Financing Sustainable Food Systems, led by IFAD, that is meant to bring together PDBs, recognizing the critical role of the private sector to build upon public efforts to improve agri-food systems.

As a concrete action – emerging out of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is the advent of a Coalition for Action to launch a PDB global Platform, with focus on increasing investments in inclusive and sustainable food systems chains, for accelerated learning, innovation, mobilization and deployment of capital and services.

Going forward, closing the financing gap will require strong international cooperation and political will to enhance the fiscal space to ensure sustainable domestic financing. Multilateral Development Banks can work with PDBs and test/validate sustainability-related financial instruments, encompassing (sustainability/green) bonds, funds and other investment vehicles aimed at advancing sustainable development objectives. This will play an important role in mobilizing much-needed finance to reduce the SDG financing gaps in developing countries and become possible long-term financing instruments of international and national public financial institutions.

Raghav Gaiha is Research Affiliate, Population Aging Research Centre, University of Pennsylvania, USA, & (Hon.) Professorial Research Fellow, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK; Shantanu Mathur is Lead Adviser & Senior Partnership Officer, Global & Multilateral Engagement International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
(The views are personal)

Categories: Africa

Making Online Health News Reliable, Accessible

Tue, 10/05/2021 - 08:53

Prayer flags during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empowerment platform Fuzia is concerned with their audience's mental health. Credit: Ankita Gupta Pramanik

By Fairuz Ahmed
New York, Oct 5 2021 (IPS)

Telemedicine and health-related information have experienced a massive uptake since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year. While online health services are seen as a panacea for many ills, disinformation and fake news reports have tarnished their credibility.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 found that many consumers have rapidly adopted new digital behaviors during lockdowns. This has opened up new digital opportunities and highlighted the next set of challenges. Across countries, almost 73% of the population now access news via a smartphone, up from 69% in 2020. During the pandemic, governments worldwide have focused on these personal devices to communicate. Consumers now depend more and more on personal devices to read up on Government restrictions, report symptoms, book appointments for vaccines, and access news.

Research done in 12 countries indicates that 66 percent of users use one or more social networks or messaging apps for consuming, sharing, or discussing news. Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, Instagram, and WhatsApp are among the leading social media platform for user engagement and news sharing.

Nina Jain, who lives in Connecticut, USA, says she has used online health information extensively since the start of the pandemic.

“I was frantically looking from one portal to the next, trying to make sense of what is going on with the pandemic. Being a mother of five children and taking care of elderly in-laws, it was imperative to navigate well and stay prepared. Community health centers were closed in our areas, and getting appointments at the doctor’s offices was very difficult,” Jain said in an interview with IPS.

“Telephone helplines, nurses-on-call, and government sites were my go-to portals for credible health news and services online. It took me and my family a lot of convincing to make my parents, who reside in India, agree to use online portals to book appointments and get treated. As a caregiver, this was a breakthrough and much-needed adjustment.”

An article published in Fierce Healthcare says telemedicine demand is expected to grow annually by approximately 38% over the next five years. Worldwide, innovative telemedicine companies and social media platforms are stepping up to meet this trend and are increasing telemedicine’s reach and improving what it can do.

Throughout the pandemic, women empowerment platform Fuzia has been concerned about ensuring its readers have credible and up-to-date information.

Fuzia co-founder Riya Sinha says this aligns with the website’s ethos of empowerment, diversity, inclusion and supports good health and well-being in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Through our community, we have begun to organize events and webinars and have tried to become a knowledge sharing and an experience-sharing platform, where real users express their concerns about menstruation, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), mental health, depression, stress, teen issues, and overall health factors,” Sinha says.

Fuzia’s co-founder Shraddha Varma agrees: “We do not want women to just be givers of care, but we also want them to be receivers of care. To actually take some time off and just listen to what the body is telling us, to not constantly feel like they deserve to suppress their voices.”

The site has more than 5 million followers. They have an active user base on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and use its extensive global presence to create a safe and creative space for users.

Dedeepya Tatineni, a user of the platform, found herself suffering from mental health problems during the pandemic. She made use of the forum and its counselors.

“The counselors of Fuzia are really helpful. I do not feel depressed now, and I feel a lot better. Expressing myself on Fuzia has made me feel more confident and happier,” Tatineni said.

Empowerment platform Fuzia assists communities through outreach programs. Credit: Fuzia

Research has indicated that as the pandemic spread throughout the world, it caused considerable fears – the disruptions during lockdowns and its effects on livelihoods exacerbated the impact.

An article in Nature indicates that early results from studies on mental health suggest that during the pandemic, “young people rather than older young people, are most vulnerable to increased psychological distress, perhaps because their need for social interactions are stronger. Data also suggest that young women are more vulnerable than young men, and people with young children, or a previously diagnosed psychiatric disorder, are at particularly high risk for mental health problems.”

For many women around the world, wellness, in general, is perceived as a luxury. Men often get priority for healthcare. Topics like menstruation, pregnancies, female hygiene, teen and tween’s mental, physical, sexual, and emotional well-being, postpartum depression are overlooked or not discussed because they are taboo.

Women and girls too are affected by “period poverty,” where lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, and waste management students miss classes and stay indoors.

Menstrual health is not just a women’s issue. Globally, 2.3 billion people live without basic sanitation services, and in developing countries, only 27% of people have adequate handwashing facilities at home, according to UNICEF. Not using these facilities makes it harder for women and young girls to manage their periods safely and with dignity.

Varma and Sinha are determined that Fuzia remains committed to providing a judgment-free zone and prepared for difficult discussions about taboo topics.

This article is a sponsored feature.

Categories: Africa

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