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With a Little Help, Local Communities Rack up Record Success with Heritage Rice Grains

Tue, 06/29/2021 - 10:34

Several Indian rice-eating states have a diversity of heritage rice varieties rich in nutrition, flavour, taste and texture that have been grown for centuries. Pictured here are farmers with the Jeeraphool variety. Courtesy: Deepak Sharma

By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India, Jun 29 2021 (IPS)

Madhuri Roy left the famous Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam. She had sought the goddess’s blessings for the safe delivery of her youngest daughter’s baby, which was due in a few weeks. Shanty shops lined the temple outside and Roy’s eyes fell on a stack of black rice packets. All through her daughter’s pregnancy she had craved her childhood favourite black rice pudding. But during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown Roy could not procure it even though Meghalaya, her Himalayan home state, grew it.

The temple shopkeeper informed Roy the rice had come from the Jorhat district of Assam, the gateway to India’s north-east. The four heritage rice varieties he stocked, which previously verged on extinction, were being revived by small groups of farmers, he said.

Several Indian rice-eating states have a diversity of local rice varieties rich in nutrition, flavour, taste and texture that have been grown for centuries. Some even come with pest-repelling properties. They were mostly cultivated using grandparents’ traditional know-how that cared foremost for soil health, which the elders knew must sustain future generations.

The Kola Joha or Black Husked Rice rich in nutrients such as protein, minerals that Roy bought for her pregnant daughter also contains the high levels of antioxidant that protects cells, tissues, and vital organs.

With high fibre and low sugar it is an aromatic winter-grown rice native to Assam that has been revived with three other varieties from an almost-lost status to being currently farmed by hundreds of smallholders.

Marketed since December 2020, traditional rice growers are now targeting the burgeoning health-conscious Indian middle and upper class as their clients.

Kola Joha was just one of 24 heritage rice varieties identified and selected, after nutritional profiling, for revival across Assam under the Native Basket brand by Guwahati-based NGO Foundation for Development Integration (FDI).

FDI’s initiative was recognised and adopted along with similar projects in seven other Indian States and the Union Territory of Ladakh by a project funded by the Global Environment Facility, which is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and theIndian Council of Agricultural Research though the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

The project titled “Mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity conservation and utilisation in the agricultural sector to ensure ecosystem services and reduce vulnerability”, runs from 2017 till November 2022. It aims to address the sustainable development goals to achieve zero hunger, take action to combat climate change and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of land.

In fact, a report titled The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 by UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO), launched on June 3, highlights croplands ecosystem restoration as a number one priority.

It underscored “restoration must crucially involve the knowledge, experience and capacities of indigenous people and local communities to ensure restoration plans are implemented and sustained.” The UN Decade is building a strong, broad-based global movement to halt the degradation of ecosystems and ramp up restoration and put the world on track for a sustainable future.

The first customer at Native Basket outlet by Guwahati-based NGO Foundation for Development Integration (FDI), which has identified 24 heritage rice varieties for revival. Courtesy: Sonal Dsouza

Local grains regain their rightful place and more

Even before Assam’s ancient rice genes were being tracked and revived, a group of 20 indigenous women farmers in Surguja district of Central-eastern Indian state Chhattisgarh realised the threats to the survival of their traditional rice variety called Jeeraphool, roughly translating to ‘Cumin-Flower’ taking its name from its petite cumin-shape and pleasant aroma.

It had survived — barely.

And only because it was a ritualistic necessity in festivals and temple offerings.

In 2005, the small group of tribal women formed a self-help group to protect and promote their heritage grain. As its popularity gradually increased in local markets, the number of group members grew.

After registering Jeeraphool with Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority of India, the women’s collective then applied, with technical support provided by the Alliance, for a Geographical Indication tag (the Jeeraphool variety is primarily grown only in Surguja district).

It was approved in March 2019 for a period of 10 years. The heritage rice has now found its place on India’s food export list.

The women self-help groups are striding ahead with their success, linking up with companies and local-level government offices to produce and market alternate products from the rice. From 120 hectares and 180 tonnes of Jeeraphool grains in 2005 they have more than tripled cultivation to 400 hectares harvesting over 1,000 tonnes in 2020 in Surguja district. The agricultural heritage has traversed a long journey to victorious survival.

Besides promoting agrobiodiversity conservation, food and nutritional security, and climate resilience, the revival of local seeds has empowered Surguja’s women farmers as it reaffirms their position as repositories of traditional knowledge and has set an example for other indigenous women to fight for tenure rights over farmland they have used since their ancestors.

In Assam, under the Native Basket brand, farmers have learnt to not just grow their rice but to independently handle market linkages after the Alliance, ICAR-NBPGR and FDI aided in registering the brand’s intellectual property rights.

The small and marginal farmers have also organised into Farmer Producer Organisation.

Armed with a brand name, their everyday rice variety, which sells higher quantities, fetched 50 percent more at 1,550 rupees ($22) per quintal. Their aromatic rice brought in up to 20 percent higher. Over 2,000 farmer families are benefiting the whole gamut of activity from production to processing and sale.

In the eight different locations where the Alliance is working, 19 community seed banks currently conserve, maintain and provide farmers ready access to over 2,000 traditional varieties of different crops.

Prior to the1960s Green Revolution, which was initiated to address malnutrition in the Global South, India was home to an estimated more than 100,000 rice varieties. Most were lost when hybrid, high-yield, bio-engineered rice varieties were introduced. However, in some unknown inaccessible rural corners local rice have been conserved, planted year after year in tiny patches by smallholder custodian farmers for cultural and dietary preferences. These are being tracked and amplified.

Indigenous women, custodians of heritage seeds, pose in their village seed bank in Odisha’s Koraput district in India’s Eastern Ghats. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Sustaining the revival

It’s not a smooth revival path, however.

“Policy is there but there is a conflict between enhancing production (that promote high yielding varieties and heavy use of fertilisers) and producing sustainably (which is what) traditional farming is. It promotes use of native seeds and organic fertilisers and pesticides. There are few institutional program with multi-stakeholders involving public-private and communities including NGOs,” Jai Rana, the India national coordinator of the UNEP- GEF project and a senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), told IPS.

On how the farming community can be incentivised to bring much more farmland under traditional crops Rana said, “better pricing of produce and assured marketing or buy back systems would work best. In initial stages a combination of subsidy in addition to marketing linkages would be necessary but thereafter getting a good market price would be key.”

Highlighting the importance of a sturdy financial mechanism for ecosystem restoration Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Environment, Climate and Biodiversity Office, said 20 percent of 4.5 billion hectares of agricultural land on the planet is severely degraded and could reduce food productivity by 12 percent. This, he said, was not because we do not know how to restore it, but because incentives had to motivate farmers to engage with sustainable soil practices.

Mansur was speaking at the virtual press briefing at the report launch of Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate.

“Disincentives too need to be included in the mechanism for degradation that will penalise systems that are, maybe, lucrative but not in equilibrium with required sustainable use of natural resources,” Mansur said.

A rich source of protein, iron, fibre and antioxidants black rice works against cancer, diabetes and heart disease. In ancient China, black rice was considered so unique and nutritious that it was forbidden for all but royalty. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

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Categories: Africa

The Last Coral Reef Wilderness: the Chagos Archipelago

Tue, 06/29/2021 - 06:27

In 2015, scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) came to the Chagos Archipelago to assess the status of the reefs. Over the course of two months at sea, they conducted thousands of surveys of the benthic and reef fish communities at over 100 locations across the archipelago. Credit: KSLOF/Ken Marks

By Liz Thompson
MARYLAND, USA, Jun 29 2021 (IPS)

On the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history—scientists from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation traveled to the Chagos Archipelago to study some of the most remote coral reefs on Earth.

What we found were reefs teeming with life, but also worrying signs of the unfolding coral reef crisis.

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on the Global Reef Expedition to assess the status of coral reefs around the world. Over the course of ten years, the Expedition circumnavigated the globe, visiting over 1,000 reefs in 15 countries in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and their associated seas, to assess coral reef status and resiliency.

The Expedition surveyed the coral and fish communities on some of the most remote coral reefs on Earth, and there was no better place to do that than in the Chagos Archipelago.

In 2015, the Foundation assembled an international team of scientists to study the coral reefs of the Chagos Archipelago for the final Expedition research mission. Over the course of two months at sea, the scientists conducted thousands of surveys of the benthic and reef fish communities at over 100 locations across the archipelago.

Because of its remote location and protected status, Chagos was the perfect place to study global issues such as climate change and overfishing that threaten the long-term survival of coral reefs.

Reefs are declining due to a variety of human impacts, including coastal development, fishing pressure, and pollution, but these local pressures are absent in Chagos since the archipelago is uninhabited, save for the military base on Diego Garcia.

Prior to the Expedition, estimates indicated Chagos could contain more than half of the healthy reefs remaining in the Indian Ocean.

What we found in the Chagos Archipelago was a stark reminder that the coral reef crisis is affecting reefs everywhere, even in the last great coral reef wilderness area on Earth.

While surveying reefs in the Chagos Archipelago, scientists witnessed the beginning of a mass coral bleaching event, when corals turned neon-colored shades of pink, blue, and yellow. Credit: KSLOF/Derek Manzello

When the research mission began, we found reefs teeming with life, a diverse assemblage of corals, and an abundance of fish. The reefs of the Chagos Archipelago were truly exceptional; they had some of the highest density of coral and fish recorded on the entire Global Reef Expedition.

Reefs were surrounded by schools of jacks and snappers, swarms of small fish clung to the reefs, and large fish such as groupers, sharks, and rays were found throughout the area. Chagos had an astounding abundance and diversity of life in the water and on the seafloor.

However, towards the end of the research mission, we witnessed the beginning of what would become a catastrophic and global coral bleaching event.

In the clear and unusually calm waters of the Indian Ocean, we watched the reefs bleach before their eyes. During the first signs of bleaching, corals turned vibrant, almost neon-colored shades of pink, blue, and yellow before turning white, as the corals tried to protect themselves from the sun’s harmful rays after losing their symbiotic algae.

As the warm waters persisted, the extent of the bleaching was readily apparent and impacted the vast majority of the shallow-water corals.

There was hope that corals in Chagos would bounce back to health relatively quickly. But a study shortly after the bleaching event found live coral fell dramatically from the relatively healthy 31-52% observed on the Expedition, to only 5-15%.

Since then, there have been promising signs the reefs are recovering, but it is unlikely that the reefs will regain their high coral cover for at least a decade after this latest bleaching event.

Because the Expedition was the last research mission to survey the reefs prior to the bleaching, the findings from this research mission will be extremely useful to marine managers as they assess the impact of the bleaching event and monitor how the reefs are recovering over time.

The scientific findings from the research mission were recently published in The Global Reef Expedition: Chagos Archipelago Final Report. This report contains detailed information on the diversity and abundance of corals and reef fish species, along with valuable baseline data on the state of the reefs at a point in time.

This report can help government agencies, conservation organizations, and scientists manage and conserve reefs in the archipelago.

The world has already lost 50% of its coral reefs in the past 30 years. The rest could be gone by the end of the century if nothing is done to save them. With the increased frequency of coral bleaching due to a changing climate, combined with growing human impacts such as overfishing and pollution, coral reefs face an uphill battle to survive.

In the face of the coral reef crisis, the reefs of the Chagos Archipelago face some of the best odds, despite recently bleaching. They are protected, relatively free from human influence, and still contain large and healthy fish populations and a stunning diversity of life.

This diversity may be helping the reefs in Chagos recover from bleaching, but it may also be one of the key factors that could help these reefs survive well into the future.

The Expedition mission to the Chagos Archipelago gave scientists the chance to study some of the most pristine coral reefs in the Indian Ocean. Our findings illustrate what remarkable places coral reefs can be when given the opportunity to thrive, but they also highlight the perils all reefs face in a changing world.

Liz Thompson is Director of Communications for the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. She has more 15 years of experience in marine conservation, policy and communications and writes about the need to protect our marine environment for the use and enjoyment of future generations.

The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is a nonprofit environmental organization that works to protect and restore the world’s oceans through scientific research, outreach, and education. As part of its commitment to Science Without Borders®, the Foundation provides information to governments, scientists, and local communities so that they can use the latest science to work toward sustainable ocean protection.
www.livingoceansfoundation.org

Categories: Africa

Myths, Lobbies Block International Tax Cooperation

Tue, 06/29/2021 - 06:03

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 29 2021 (IPS)

Too many have swallowed the myth that lowering corporate income tax (CIT) is necessary to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) for growth. Although contradicted by their own research, this lie has long been promoted by influential international economic institutions.

‘Beggar-thy-neighbour’ policies
The early 1980s’ economics ‘counter-revolution’ impacted the ‘Washington Consensus’ of the US federal government and the two Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs) – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Anis Chowdhury

Thus, the rise of ‘supply side’ economics in the US – advocating lower direct taxes on income and wealth – influenced the world. Without evidence, IMF researchers justified its policy advice thus: “The complete abolition of CIT would be the most direct application of the theoretical result that small open economies should not tax capital income.”

Noting that capital is highly mobile, and can more easily evade taxes than labour, IMF economists even recommended that “small countries should not levy source-based taxes on capital income”. Meanwhile, the Bank’s highly influential, but dubious Doing Business Report has recommended tax incentives without evidence.

To get BWI approval, developing country governments have undertaken tax reforms, reducing progressive direct taxation. Instead, they have favoured more regressive indirect taxes, such as the value-added tax (VAT), sometimes dubbed the goods and services tax.

Consequently, IMF tax policy recommendations to Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during 1998-2008 reduced corporate and personal income tax rates while promoting VAT. And following Bank advice, Tanzania – Africa’s third largest gold producer – ended up subsidising, not taxing foreign mining companies!

Evidence contradicts advice
World Bank research and surveys have long found that tax incentives do not really attract FDI inflows. A Bank report found no strong evidence that tax incentives attracted non-resource ‘greenfield’ or additional new FDI.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

It also found “tax incentives impose significant costs on the countries using them”, including fiscal losses, rent-seeking, tax evasion, administrative costs, economic distortions and “retaliation against new or more generous incentives” by competitors.

An earlier Bank brief noted “tax incentives are not the most influential factor for multinationals in selecting investment locations. More important are factors such as basic infrastructure, political stability, and the cost and availability of labor”.

It also argued that tax incentives do not compensate well “for negative factors in a country’s investment climate”. Meanwhile, the “race to the bottom…may end up in a bidding war, favoring multinational firms at the expense of the state and the welfare of its citizens”.

Researchers have unearthed no strong evidence that tax incentives are beneficial. While some incentives may attract FDI, they crowd out other investments; hence, overall investment and growth do not improve.

An IMF report noted, “Tax incentives generally rank low in investment climate surveys in low-income countries, …investment would have been undertaken even without them. And their fiscal cost can be high, reducing opportunities for much-needed public spending…, or requiring higher taxes on other activities.”

Even Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) research confirmed BWI findings that tax incentives hardly attracted FDI. The Economist also found a weak relationship between tax rates and business investment as well as growth rates.

A UK government report cast more doubt: “effectively attracting FDI needs public spending, so narrowing the tax base works with tax incentives for low-income countries could be contra-productive”.

Race to bottom hurts all
IMF findings confirm that ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ tax competition worsened avoidable revenue losses. Such ill-advised efforts to attract investment inevitably accelerated CIT rates’ ‘race to the bottom’.

BWI advice to governments has undoubtedly lowered CIT rates. But despite lower CIT rates, transnational corporations (TNCs) still minimise paying tax, e.g., by shifting profits to tax havens and exploiting loopholes.

CIT rate averages for high-income countries (HICs) have dropped twenty percentage points since 1980, falling from 38% in 1990 to 23% in 2018. Meanwhile, they fell from 40% to 25% in middle-income countries, and from over 45% to 30% in low-income countries (LICs).

Cut-throat competition has especially hurt developing countries, which rely much more on CIT than developed economies. IMF research found a one-point average CIT rate cut in other countries reduces a developing country’s CIT revenue by two-thirds of a point.

Such tax cuts induce other concessions, further eroding the base for corporate taxation. Thus, tax revenue is doubly lost by both rate and base cuts. Fund staff estimated revenue loss at 1.3% of GDP in developing countries, due to base erosion and rate reductions – much worse than in developed countries.

The UK government estimated global revenue loss due to TNC tax minimisation at US$500-650bn annually. Such adverse effects were two to three times higher in LICs than in HICs. SSA countries lost the most revenue relative to GDP, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia.

A third of global revenue loss – US$167-200bn – is from low and middle-income countries (LMICs), costing them 1.0-1.5% of national income. With better tax administrations and larger formal sectors, HICs can replace such losses more easily than LMICs with generally weaker tax systems and larger informal sectors.

Tax breakthrough
The IMF and others now agree that an international minimum CIT rate can stop this race to the bottom and TNC profit shifting. The group of seven largest rich countries (G7) recently agreed to a minimum 15% rate, rejecting US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s proposed 21%. Even The Economist agrees the G7 proposal favours rich countries.

Earlier, the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) had recommended a 25% minimum and fairer revenue distribution to developing countries.

Finance ministers from Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Germany joined Yellen in welcoming the recent G7 agreement for a minimum global CIT rate, while expressing confidence “that the rate can ultimately be pushed higher than 15 percent”.

An influential piece has claimed ‘A Global Minimum Corporate Tax Is a Bad Idea’, again citing the myth that low taxes will attract FDI. Invoking new Cold War fears, it claimed China and Russia would also gain an unfair advantage in luring “even more” FDI.

Trump-appointed Bank President David Malpass opposes the agreement, claiming it would undermine poor countries’ ability to attract investment despite Bank research showing otherwise. Pro-Trump governments in Hungary and Poland also object to the G7 deal. Developing countries cannot allow such tax-cutters to speak for them.

Developing country members of the G20 must insist on a higher minimum and fairer revenue distribution at its forthcoming finance ministers meeting. If the G7 refuses to start with anything more than 15%, an agreed rate increase schedule of an additional one percent annually would get to 25% in a decade.

International tax rules are currently set by rich countries through the OECD. Developing countries participate at a disadvantage. Instead of allowing it to control the process, they must urgently insist on an inclusive, balanced and fair multilateral process for international tax cooperation.

Categories: Africa

Acceleration Rights Plan for Gender Equality Mooted at Equality Forum

Mon, 06/28/2021 - 20:09

Katja Iversen with French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 2019 Gender Equality Council

By Nayema Nusrat
NEW YORK, Jun 28 2021 (IPS)

As the global gathering for gender equality, the Generation Equality Forum, kicks off in Paris on June 30, 2020, IPS conducted an exclusive interview with Katja Iversen.

Iversen is a leading global influencer on leadership, sustainability, and gender equality, an executive advisor to Goal 17 Partners, UNILEVER, Women Political Leaders, and others. She was also on President Macron’s G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council in 2019.

The Generation Equality Forum, convened by UN Women and co-chaired by the Presidents of France and Mexico, comes when the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse global progress on gender equality.

The forum is expected to affirm bold “gender equality investments, programs, and policies and start a 5-year action journey, based on a Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality which will be launched at the Forum,” according to a media statement.

Iversen spoke extensively about the need for women to be included in decision-making, the role of the private sector, and how the world is on a tipping point.

“If we want to see positive development for both people and planet, we – in short – need more women in power and more power to women, in the economy and politics,” Iversen said. “The upcoming Generation Equality Forum, hosted by UN Women in collaboration with the governments of France and Mexico, comes at a pivotal moment and provides a great opportunity to catalyze progress. I want to see the whole world reacting to the clarion call coming out of Paris this week”.

She stressed that now was the time to act because “we see a destabilizing and widening inequality gap in the world. We also see a growing conservatism and pushback on women’s rights, including sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). And very concretely, we see skyrocketing increases in gender-based violence, enhanced misogyny, women carrying even more of the unpaid care work, as well as alarming rates of girls dropping out of school, and women leaving the labor force”.

She spoke about the need to involve the private sector in creating a more gender-equal world.

“The private sector is a lead employer of women, women are consumers, and we will not see gender equality, nor a sustainable world at large if the private sector does not commit to change. Luckily more and more companies are stepping up to the plate and investing in sustainability and gender equality,” she told IPS.

She and Goal 17 Partners, a network of executives and entrepreneurs integrating the UN’s Sustainable Development goals into business practices, are working with new companies who are getting engaged in the SDGs, including SDG 5 on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Together, including UN Foundation, UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (BSR), UN Women, they have been shepherding commitments to Generation Equality.

“There is a tremendous need AND potential, not least for small- and medium-sized enterprises, whether we are talking women’s leadership, equal pay, parental leave, financial inclusion, diverse, inclusive and harassment-free workplaces, or health and education. Investing in the various aspects of gender equality is both the right and economically the smart thing to do, research shows”.

Regarding research, Katja Iversen spoke to IPS about the need for better and more data and research: “Decision-makers, whether in governments, funding institutions or private sector, need to invest in and get more and disaggregated data. If we don’t know the details of how many or where girls and women live and die, work and want to go to school, give birth or care for the sick, whether they are rich or poor, we won’t get the right policies, programs, or investments that can drive the needed solutions.”

She pointed out that according to UN Women, less than 25 percent of national COVID decision-making bodies have women included.

“It is too easy to cut resources from people who are not at the decision-making tables. We urgently need to get many women into leadership, including the COVID response and recovery efforts. All evidence shows that when more women are included in decision making, there is a more holistic approach and both societies and people fare better.”

In that regard, she highlighted some transformational, political commitments that will be put forward at the Generation Equality Forum, including from the vast network of Women Political Leaders, which count thousands and thousands of women ministers, mayors, parliamentarians, heads of states, and leaders from the private sector.

“I believe we will see some real game-changers,” she said.

Iversen expressed concern about the strong need for further funding, not least for women’s organizations on the frontline. It is linked to the recent and severe cuts to gender equality and sexual and reproductive health that could badly affect women and their health, especially in vulnerable communities.

“Adding to what happened during former US President Donald Trump era, the cuts we see right now from several countries, including the UK, will have devastating effects for girls, women, and gender equality, including for the most marginalized in emergency and humanitarian situations,” she told IPS. “The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), for example, estimates that with the 130 million GBP (180 million USD) the UK wants to withdraw from the Supplies Partnership, UNFPA could have helped prevent around 250,000 maternal and child deaths, 14.6 million unintended pregnancies and 4.3 million unsafe abortions.”

IPS: UNFPA and its partners estimate the significant health service disruptions by COVID 17 could result in 47 million women in low- and middle-income countries going without contraceptives. How do we deal with this loss of access to the most basic SRH services, especially now that the second wave of Covid-19 is disrupting health services again in many parts of the world?

KI: The shift of staff and funds away from maternal and reproductive health services due to the COVID response is devastating, and it will have ramifications for years, if not decades. We know from Ebola that maternal mortality went up, that access to family planning went down, and that girls and women paid the price in both lives and livelihood. Unfortunately, the evidence is mainly anecdotal as women’s health is not documented and measured the same way as other health services, just as there, in general, is a tremendous lack of sex-disaggregated data, including on key Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators and in COVID infections and deaths. This time – under the COVID pandemic – the gaps in SRHR services, shifts in resources, and cutbacks on services must be documented – in data and stories.

IPS: In many countries, the removal of the tampon tax (or period tax) has been at the forefront of equality of access to SRHR. What other key issues do you think we must focus on to ensure equity of access to SRHR and greater bodily autonomy?

KI: I am thrilled to see SRHR and bodily autonomy being a priority of Generation Equality and to see countries like Denmark, France, Burkina Faso, and UNFPA, etc., lead on this.

A woman’s right to decide on her own life and body is a fundamental human right. Bodily autonomy for girls and women – in all their rich diversity – is political, social, economically, and health-related. It is about having the power and agency to make choices over our own body, fertility, and future, living a life free of violence and coercion in both the private and public sphere, deciding who to have sex with and how to love. It’s about the right to decide whether to get children – or not – about having a health system that supports this with the full range of SRHR services readily available, affordable, and accessible. Bodily autonomy ties into norms, structure, systems – and if we want equity and health for all, we need to address all of it. I am glad to see this included in the progressive Generation Equality roadmap, with strong suggestions on how to counter gender-based violence, climate change, promote economic justice and feminist movements and leadership, etc.

The world is at a pivotal moment and a tipping point. With enough people and institutions reacting to the Clarion Call from the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, I believe we can make it tip the right way.

Categories: Africa

Why Pacific Island Nations, like the Federated States of Micronesia, need Climate Change Finance for Food Security Now

Mon, 06/28/2021 - 12:37

Robby Nena's small house, made of concrete and tin roof, is built on reclaimed land at the edge of the Finkol river, about 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean within the Utwe Biosphere Reserve Transition Zone in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Climate change impact means that his home is frequently inundated with saltwater during high tide. Courtesy: Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO)

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Jun 28 2021 (IPS)

Robby Nena is one of the many farmers and fishermen on the frontline of climate change in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), where coastal flooding and erosion, variable and heavy rainfall, increased temperature, droughts and other extreme weather events are becoming all too common.

FSM is one of the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). These nations contribute less than 0.03 percent of the world’s total CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, they are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, climate change and sea level rise. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast.

“Every time it rains, our home and farm get flooded, destroying our crops, damaging infrastructure and posing a major health hazard. Our tapioca and taro crops were completely destroyed in the major flooding event last month,” Nena tells IPS from Utwe village in FSM’s Kosrae state via a choppy Messenger call.

His small house, made of concrete and tin roof, is built on reclaimed land at the edge of the Finkol river, about 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean within the Utwe Biosphere Reserve Transition Zone.

“The river and ocean meet here so we also get frequently inundated with saltwater during high tide,” says Nena, who lives with his mother, teacher wife and two children.

The already evident and worsening impacts of climate change on food security and livelihoods in PICTs are being exacerbated by lack of timely access to climate finance for mitigation and adaptation, say climate advocates.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), part of the financial mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is currently the world’s largest dedicated multilateral climate fund and the main multilateral financing mechanism to support developing countries in achieving a reduction of their GHG emissions and boost their ability to respond to climate change.

Belinda Hadley, Team Leader of FSM’s National Designated Authority (NDA) for the GCF, says that currently FSM doesn’t have the technical, financial and human capacity to access climate finance for mitigation, adaptation and resilience projects, which are much needed for the growing climate change challenges.

“It is difficult to make our proposals bankable because of all the requirements. English is the language for climate finance applications, and to most people in FSM, articulating needs, challenges and activities into proposals is no easy feat as various islands have their own distinct indigenous languages,” Hadley tells IPS.

GCF proposals, in order to be successful, need a strong and robust explanation of the climate impacts and risks to be addressed. The climate rationale description, as requested in the GCF proposal template, requires access to sound climate science and data.

Consequently, not having climate data disaggregated from development data thus makes it difficult to demonstrate climate change impacts separately from other sustainable development issues.

“This requirement of separate data for climate change makes it difficult for us. We have climate change and development data consolidated and integrated into one because of our small population and dispersed geography,” says Hadley.

FSM comprises of more than 600 islands spread across the four states of Kosrae, Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei. This geographical spread makes disaster preparedness and response a challenge and financially costly.

The pandemic has added another layer to the hard realities of climate change for the people of FSM.

“We were working on accessing climate financing to begin our adaptation efforts and move forward with our national adaptation plan, but we have not been able to conduct state consultations and meet stakeholders. All attention and resources have been focused on COVID-19 preparedness measures. Everything else has been pushed to the backburner,” Hadley tells IPS.

GCF operates through a network of accredited Direct Access Entities (DAE) and delivery partners, who work directly with developing countries for project design and implementation.

Robby Nena (centre) farms and fishes for subsistence. Fish are a mainstay of food security in most Pacific Island Countries and Territories and subsistence fishing still provides the majority of dietary animal protein in the region. Courtesy: Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO)

The Pacific Community (SPC), which supports PICTs with overall coordination and capacity building for their engagement with climate finance mechanisms such as the GCF, is the delivery partner for FSM’s NDA. It supported the Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT) to become an accredited DAE and to develop FSM’s first full-sized GCF project on food security, which was approved for funding in March 2021.

MCT’s Deputy Executive Director Lisa Ranahan Andon tells IPS, “This very first GCF grant to the FSM is going to the people who most need this intervention – and those are the most vulnerable farmers and fishers.”

“We are confident that our approach, integrating disparate one-off projects into a cohesive national approach, will increase the positive impacts on communities. We are in the process of fulfilling the pre-disbursement requirements and anticipate a first disbursement and project initiation in January 2022,” she adds.

Andon feels that this first award should help pave the way for other PICTs and national DAE in the region to secure GCF financing.

FSM accounts for only 0.003 percent of global CO2 and other GHG emissions, yet it has set an ambitious target of 35 percent emission reduction by 2025.

Besides the GCF, the country has been receiving some climate financing from the Adaptation Fund, European Union, Global Environment Facility, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others, mainly for food and water security, renewable energy, coastal protection and disaster risk reduction.

Kosrae Conservation & Safety Organisation (KCSO), a small non-profit organisation supports and implements climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the local communities of Kosrae through climate finance from amongst others, the MCT. Under one of its 2018 grants, they controlled and collected Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS), which is an invasive species that destroys coral in FSM, to experiment the use of COTS as a green fertiliser.

“The farmers we distributed it to all claim that the COTS were a good natural fertiliser. We repeated the COTS collection this year and supplied it to four farmers in different villages. Nena is one of them. Three of the four farmers are seeing very good results,” KCSO’s Executive Director Andy George tells IPS.

“If these farmers planted 50 plants and they can eat off it, then that is a success for us. Apart from helping them become self-sufficient in meeting their subsistence requirements, we also educate them towards climate adaptation and mitigation,” he adds.

A lot of farmers like Nena only do farming and fishing for subsistence. Local produce includes eggplant, sweet potato, taro, banana, sugarcane, coconut and citrus plants. Fish are a mainstay of food security in most PICTs and subsistence fishing still provides the majority of dietary animal protein in the region.

While PICTs have small populations and land mass, SPC’s Deputy Director General in Noumea (New Caledonia), Cameron Diver tells IPS, “They are the custodians of significant resources such as tuna stocks, which countries around the globe rely on for food security. If these nations cannot access the level of climate finance required to address climate change impacts on these resources, then this could threaten food security for global populations well beyond the region.”

Categories: Africa

Universal Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Are Critical for Truth, Trust and COVID Recovery in Asia and the Pacific

Mon, 06/28/2021 - 11:51

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Kanni Wignaraja and Omar Abdi
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jun 28 2021 (IPS)

With health systems at a breaking point, hospitals at capacity and desperate family members searching for oxygen for loved ones, the devastating second wave of COVID-19 that has swept across South Asia has felt ¬surreal. Official figures have indicated record-breaking daily coronavirus cases and deaths, not only in South Asia, but across the entire Asia-Pacific region during the latest surge. As devastating as it has been, the truth is we may never know how many people have died during the pandemic.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Underreporting of deaths is common across the Asia-Pacific region, with an estimated 60 per cent of deaths occurring without a death certificate issued or cause of death recorded. One reason for this is the lack of a coordinated civil registration system to accurately record all vital events. This issue is exacerbated in times of crisis, as many of the poor die as they lived: overlooked or without being officially counted.

Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems record deaths and other key life events such as births and marriages. A complete approach to civil registration, tracking vital statistics and identity management relies on multiple arms of government and institutions working together to collect, verify and share data and statistics so they are reliable, timely and put to right use. Without such official data and records during catastrophes such as a pandemic, we see how fast people get left out of extended social protection, vaccination drives and emergency cash transfers. Conversely, it significantly limits the ability of the most vulnerable groups to claim this access and their rights.

The need for accurate data and reporting mechanisms is critical at all times and even more crucial during humanitarian situations, whether a natural disaster or health emergency, when urgent decisions are required and hard choices have to be made. Governments, health authorities and development partners need timely and complete data to know the extent of the issue. This data can guide evidence-based decisions on where resources should be deployed and assess which interventions have been most effective. The more complete, accurate and trustworthy the data, the better the decisions. Or at least, the leadership is unable to use the excuse of ”we did not know.”

Kanni Wignaraja

In 2014, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) convened the first Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, during which the Asian and Pacific CRVS Decade (2015-2024) was declared. Governments later set a time frame for realizing their shared vision – that all people in the region will benefit from universal and responsive CRVS systems.

These are complex and vast systems that need both technological and human capabilities to do it correctly, and the political commitment to sustain the effort. Development partners, including ESCAP, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), continue to actively work with governments and institutions to support the development of national civil registration systems, vital statistics systems and identity management systems such as national population registers and national ID card schemes.

A challenge facing governments has been transitioning from a standalone paper-based registration system to an integrated and interoperable digital one. UNICEF has worked with countries in the region on the registration of newborns, digitalization of old records and creation of integrated digital birth registration systems. UNICEF is also working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve integration of health services and civil registration, allowing governments to provide uninterrupted civil registration services and respond faster to health priorities, especially during crises.

Omar Abdi

UNDP and UNICEF play leading roles in implementing the UN Legal Identity Agenda, which aims to support countries in building holistic, country-owned, sustainable civil registration, vital statistics and identity management systems. Recognizing the importance of protecting privacy and personal data, UNDP advises countries on the appropriate legal and governance framework and has been engaged in supporting civil registration, national ID cards and legal identity in countries.

It is clear from the report by ESCAP, Get Every One in the Picture: A snapshot of progress midway through the Asian and Pacific CRVS Decade, that many countries in our region have seen improvements. However, we need to do more to ensure that all countries are able to produce reliable official statistics. And to use this to also learn and look forward.

The human toll of the COVID-19 crisis has been immense with far reaching consequences for the most vulnerable families. To respond effectively to disasters and build back better, it is time we get everyone in the picture.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Kanni Wignaraja is the Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP
Omar Abdi is the Deputy Executive Director of Programmes, UNICEF

Categories: Africa

Towards an Equal Future in Parliaments

Mon, 06/28/2021 - 11:16

Women's Political Network, Credit: UNDP Montenegro

The Women’s Political Network was established in Montenegro in November 2017 to promote equal political and economic rights and to combat gender-based-violence. The initiative was funded by the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.

Meanwhile the UN will be commemorating International Day of Parliamentarism on June 30.

By Mirjana Spoljaric Egger
NEW YORK, Jun 28 2021 (IPS)

In elections last October in Georgia, women’s share of seats in parliament went up by nearly seven percent, following the enforcement of a 25 percent quota for women candidates.

In North Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia, which apply a 40 percent legislated gender quota, women exceeded 30 percent in parliament. And in Kosovo*, women won more seats in parliament during the 2021 February election than in any previous year, gaining a 40 percent share.

But, as heartening as these results are, they are rare stars for women in the political firmament.

Women worldwide hold just over a quarter of all seats in parliaments and all positions of speakers in 2020, with 53 countries having at least one woman speaker.

At this rate it will take 50 years for parliaments to reach gender parity. Other estimates lead to gloomier forecasts – such as 145.5 years to reach gender parity in legislative and executive branches of the government.

If recent electoral trends are any indication, parliaments in most countries covered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will not reach gender parity by 2030.

Among countries that are likely to reach gender parity, more than half have adopted gender quotas. One of the most widely applied tools to accelerate progress on women’s political representation, legislated quotas allow more women to get elected and have a shot at changing gender social norms.

A 2017 survey conducted among top and middle management of parliamentary political parties in Georgia – complemented with the reports and personal experiences of female politicians and activists – highlighted the obstacles faced by Georgian women striving for a political career. Credit: Daro Sulakauri/UNDP Georgia

Numbers matter. Part of the solution to increasing women’s political participation lies in the ability to track progress and comparing data across countries. For example, legislated quotas – despite being a somewhat contested phenomenon – were applied last year in 81 states globally, including 25 countries and territories represented on UNDP’s recently updated Equalfuture platform.

Launched in 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, this online portal showcases progress in women’s participation in national parliaments in 57 countries and territories in the Europe and Central Asia region over the past 26 years.

Equalfuture now features updated data on women’s presence in electoral politics.

It shows that, despite progress, women in the ECA region have just over a fourth of seats in national legislatures. In only six countries in the region are women speakers of parliament – Azerbaijan elected a woman speaker for the first time in 2020 – while there are women speakers in just 20 of the 57 countries in the UNECE region.

To argue that there have never been so many opportunities open to women as there are today is to ignore the powerful hold of gender bias in society. Nearly half of the population in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) believe men make better political leaders than women. The bias ranges from more than 60 percent in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan supporting this view to less than 30 percent in Croatia and Montenegro.

This could be one of many reasons why young women in 2020 made less than one percent of all parliamentarians worldwide.

Gender bias is just one in a constellation of factors in the slow crawl in women’s political representation.

Violence against women in politics is a formidable obstacle to women’s entry to the political sphere. This increasingly recognized phenomenon is alarmingly pervasive: in 45 UNECE countries, most women parliamentarians have suffered psychological violence or been the target of online sexist attacks on social media during their mandate. Almost half received death threats or threats of rape and beating, and a quarter suffered sexual violence.

Women aspiring to politics are also subject to vicious forms of cyberviolence not foreseen in the Beijing Platform for Action which called on parliaments to have no less than 30 percent of women in their ranks. Abusive online comments aimed at women politicians are inversely proportional to the number of women in political office. During the parliamentary elections campaign in Georgia in 2020, women were only 22 percent of candidates but the target of 40 percent of all hate comments. Most comments called on them to stay home and give up their political ambitions.

Given the many gender fault lines laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is little surprise that women make up only 24 percent of the COVID-19 task force members worldwide. With its profound impacts on women’s paid and unpaid work, the pandemic has set back decades of hard-won gains in gender equality.

More women than men lost their jobs while their care burdens intensified during the pandemic. With fewer resources and less time to spend on the activities outside the household, fewer women are likely to engage in politics.

However, without women’s input, countries risk making poor decisions at a pivotal moment of recovery from crisis.

On the upcoming International Day of Parliamentarism (June 30), let us celebrate not only parliamentarians but gender-equal parliaments as a cornerstone of a well-functioning democracy. And let us redouble our efforts to dismantle the barriers and dislodge the biases that hold women back from an equal future in political decision-making.

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 UN Secretary-General in August 2018 and assumed duties in October 2018. She oversees UNDP operations in 18 countries and territories of Europe and Central Asia: https://www.eurasia.undp.org/content/rbec/en/home/about-us/about-the-region.html

Learn more about the progress of women’s participation in politics in 57 countries and territories over the past 26 years through UNDP Eurasia’s online platform Equalfuture.

* References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)

Categories: Africa

UN’s Double Standard on Human Rights Abusers Protects Big Powers

Fri, 06/25/2021 - 17:59

Children in Douma, East Ghouta. The siege on East Ghouta lasted almost seven years. Douma is home to more than 250,000 people living amidst large scale urban destruction, wide contamination with explosive remnants of war and limited access to essential services. Credit: UNICEF/UN0264239/Syrian Arab Republic/Sanadiki

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 25 2021 (IPS)

When the UN’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict was released last week, it was expected to “name and shame” some of the world’s worst human rights violators – particularly the abusers of children.

But these violators were protected– and never stigmatized—despite the hundreds of children killed by warring parties in ongoing conflicts, particularly in Yemen, Syria and Myanmar, involving the US, Russia and China as arms suppliers, triggering criticism from UN watchers and human rights organizations.

Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, told IPS: “We continue to be disappointed that the Secretary-General (SG) is not using the “list of shame” to hold all parties accountable for their grave violations against children”.

The message he is sending to the Saudi-led coalition regarding their operations in Yemen is that “as long as they kill and maim fewer children than they did the year before, they can stay off the list”.

“We also saw in the case of Myanmar how disastrous it was to remove the Tatmadaw (the country’s armed forces) from the list while they were still recruiting and using children; the number the following year tripled”.

The SG should not make listing decisions based on his hopes for future improvement, but based on the facts on the ground, said Becker.

His repeated failure to base his list, on the UN’s own evidence, betrays children and fuels impunity. ”Now that his second term as Secretary-General is assured, he should abandon that approach and ensure his list reflects the facts. And the UN Security Council should insist that he list all violators, without exception,” declared Becker.

The oil-blessed Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition in the military conflict in Yemen, is a longstanding political and military ally of the US– which along with the UK, China, Russia and France– is armed with veto powers in the Security Council.

Russia provides political and military support to war-ravaged Syria while China, one of the largest arms suppliers to Myanmar, has undermined Security Council attempts to impose an arms embargo in the conflict-ridden country.

Ian Williams, President of the New York-based Foreign Press Association (FPA) and author of ‘UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War’, told IPS Guterres has adopted a human rights profile that is low enough to be subterranean.

History suggests that one of the few weapons open to the SG and the UN collectively is “naming and shaming”, he said, pointing out, it is also true that many member states — like the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) that refuses to support the Uighurs, are also shamelessly unprincipled in the face of power — but an ethical and forthright SG, as the tribune for the UN Charter, could turn the tide.

“If Guterres is more concerned about posterity than his pension—and if he wants to make the history books rather than the footnotes– he should take his cue from Dag Hammarskjold, speak truth to power. And avoid chartered aircraft,” said Williams, a former President of the UN Correspondents’ Association (UNCA).

Various models of SG-ship have been tried, he pointed out, but none of them are entirely successful.

“Kofi Annan was tried the nice approach. Ban Ki-moon tried being nice in public, firm in meetings with heads of state, and furious in private with the gratuitous insults they heaped upon him”, said Williams.

Perhaps the most hard-hitting comments came from Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW): “Guterres’s first term was defined by public silence regarding human rights abuses by China, Russia, and the United States and their allies,” he said, referring to the three veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

“With his re-election behind him, Guterres should use the next five years to become a strong vocal advocate for rights. His recent willingness to denounce abuses in Myanmar and Belarus should expand to include all governments deserving condemnation, including those that are powerful and protected.”

Since taking office in January 2017, Guterres has rarely criticized or called for accountability by specific governments or their leaders, said Roth.

Guterres “adopted a non-confrontational approach toward former US President Donald Trump’s efforts to sideline human rights by undermining multilateral organizations like the UN and embracing authoritarian leaders.”

He adopted a similar approach to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang by China’s government, now the UN’s second biggest financial contributor, after the US, and to war crimes by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, complained Roth.

HRW also said Guterres has been reluctant to criticize abuses by Russia’s government, which has frequently used its veto power in the Security Council to block human rights-related resolutions on Syria and elsewhere. Guterres should also exercise stronger leadership against the global pushback on women’s rights, it added.

According to Watch List on Children and Armed Conflict, the Secretary-General removed the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition from his annual list of child rights abusers last year, despite the UN finding that it was responsible for killing and maiming 222 children in Yemen in 2019.

At the time, he had vowed to re-list the coalition if it failed to sustainably decrease violations.

“As the UN’s latest report shows, the Secretary-General’s decision to remove the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition from his shame list last year sent a clear message that parties can get away with killing children,” said Adrianne Lapar, director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict.

“If the Secretary-General does not immediately reconsider his decision and return the coalition to his list, he seriously undermines international efforts to protect children in war and emboldens warring parties to be more abusive against children.”

Meanwhile, Save the Children, a leading humanitarian organization for children, pointed out that 194 Yemeni children were killed and maimed in 2020, but the UN Report on Children and Armed Conflict again fails to hold perpetrators to account.

But despite the killings in Yemen in 2020, according to UN verified data, the Saudi and Emirati led coalition gets a green light to continue destroying children’s lives in Yemen, the organization said.

“In a disheartening decision, the UN Secretary General António Guterres again failed to include the coalition in this year’s ‘list of shame’.”

It was taken off the list last year, with a commitment by the Secretary General to relist them unless there was a ‘sustained significant decrease in killing and maiming’. By not relisting the coalition, Guterres sends the message that reducing the number of child casualties to about two hundred is ‘good enough’ progress, Save the Children said.

Matthew Wells, Deputy Director of Thematics for Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme said Guterres, “who has just been given another five-year term; must become bolder and more courageous in prioritizing human rights and calling out perpetrators, including on children and armed conflict.”

Together with the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, he should commit publicly to applying the same standard irrespective of perpetrator or context – producing a complete list based on evidence and objective criteria, something he has failed to do again this year.

Next year, he must follow the criteria laid out in 2010; the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and Israeli military, among others, will again prove a key test.

For their part, UN member states must demand a credible list. Why have teams on the ground put themselves in danger to document violations that get ignored?, asked Wells.

Categories: Africa

To Build Back Better from the Pandemic, We Must Overhaul the Way We Deal with Development Finance

Fri, 06/25/2021 - 17:09

Patricia Scotland

By Patricia Scotland
LONDON, Jun 25 2021 (IPS)

Over the past 18 months, the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have transformed our lives and prompted a period of deep reflection as a global community. In some sense, we are only now starting to understand our vulnerabilities, and in particular, how deeply exposed and interconnected we are as people, communities and as countries.

At the same time, the pandemic has been a stark eye opener on our capacity to deal with the risks and shocks, at both individual and country level. The experience has shown us our vulnerability, and comparatively, our resilience is only partly determined by our income or economic status.

For small states in particular, the focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a figure which sums up the economic strength or income of a country, can never fully reflect the potential impact of external shocks outside the control of any government. A country’s high income, for example, does not negate its vulnerability to climate disasters, which can reverse years of development gains overnight.

In other words, measures such as GDP, or other equally narrowly focused economic statistics only provide us part of the picture. We need much more nuanced and comprehensive measurements and indicators to assess our full risk factors, and more precisely, our susceptibility to harm.

This has been regrettably demonstrated by the ongoing pandemic, during which as someone recently noted, ‘while we are all in the same storm, we’re not all in the same boat.’

GDP was settled upon as the simple and translatable measure of economic progress over 75 years ago, with the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions.

It has certainly been a useful measure, yet most economists and experts today would agree that it is not the best measure of a nation, whether in terms of its economic progress, its sustainability or its potential. Put frankly GDP is too blunt a tool to serve as the only measure of success and progress, especially in these times of rapidly accelerating economic, social and environmental change.

We face a much more complex world than we did decades ago, a world which is also much better understood, and more thoroughly analysed any point in our history. And we need to update the tools we use to tackle this new world in a way that is fit for purpose. Big data, analytics, and Artificial Intelligence permeate every aspect of many of our lives. And yet, when it comes to development finance, we still rely singularly on an incomplete GDP figure to assess what type of funding countries should get, and how much.

This is why the debate has been building around new ways to assess less-developed and at-risk countries, and how they can be best supported by international financial institutions. It is also why the Commonwealth alongside many organisations, including the UN, has started to consider other more nuanced and constructive ways of assessing nation states and vulnerabilities.

The Commonwealth has approached this debate objectively, not to be swayed by one interest or group but to use rigorous analysis to lead an open discussion about how best to target support the poorest and most vulnerable nations in the world.

With over a third of the world’s sovereign nations as members, including 32 small states, and approximately 2.4 billion people living in the Commonwealth, we have a duty to address and advise on these issues, and to find consensus on a way forward.

In this vein, I am immensely proud of the work done by my team to produce the Commonwealth’s Universal Vulnerability Index for consideration by Commonwealth member countries. This Index, which weights country’s vulnerability against their built up and policy-related resilience, will give policymakers and financial institutions a sound tool by which to assess who is most in need of support.

And if adopted, we are convinced that the Index will transform the way we invest and deliver finance to developing countries.

One thing is clear. As we emerge from this crisis, we cannot return the business as usual. In order to respond effectively as an international community to the interlinked global crises confronting us today, we must overhaul the way we think about development finance, particularly in the post COVID world. We need to move beyond the thin analysis that GDP and per capita income provides us and to come up with a new way of determining the type of support vulnerable countries could receive. It is crucial that we do better, and we indeed can, through a tool such as the Universal Vulnerability Index.

Excerpt:

The author is Commonwealth Secretary General

Categories: Africa

Weaponizing Science in Global Food Policy

Fri, 06/25/2021 - 12:10

By Maywa Montenegro, Matthew Canfield, and Alastair Iles
SANTA CRUZ, California, Jun 25 2021 (IPS)

In July, the United Nations will convene “Science Days”, a high-profile event in preparation for the UN Food Systems Summit later this year. Over the course of two days, the world will be treated to a parade of Zoom sessions aimed at “highlighting the centrality of science, technology and innovation for food systems transformation.”

Maywa Montenegro

Nobody disputes the need for urgent action to transform the food system. But the UNFSS has been criticized by human rights experts for its top-down and non-transparent organization. Indigenous peoples, peasants, and civil society groups around the world know their hard-won rights are under attack. Many are protesting the summit’s legitimacy and organizing counter-mobilizations.

Scientists are also contesting a summit because of its selective embrace of science, as seen in a boycott letter signed by nearly 300 academics, from Brazil to Italy to Japan.

Through the Summit, “science” has been weaponized by powerful actors not only to promote a technology-driven approach to food systems, but also to fragment global food security governance and create institutions more amenable to the demands of agribusiness.

Recipe for Elite Global Governance

The UNFSS was announced in 2019 by the UN Secretary General as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The announcement came just after the UN signed a strategic partnership with the World Economic Forum. It also elicited outcry from social movements when Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, was chosen to lead the forum — a powerful signal of UNFSS allegiances.

The “multi-stakeholder” structure of the summit has raised concerns from observers who recognize the privatization of multilateral public governance it presages. While Kalibata describes the UNFSS as an inclusive “peoples’ summit,” more than 500 smallholder and peasant organizations signed a letter criticizing the summit’s multi-stakeholder platforms: “Instead of drawing from the innovative governance experiences that the UN system has to offer, the UN-WEF partnership is helping to establishing “stakeholder capitalism” as a governance model for the entire planet.”

Matthew Canfield

Through one lens, multistakeholderism looks like a set of “inclusive” practices: the summit has five Action Tracks (e.g. “Ensuring Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All” and “Boosting Nature Positive Production at Sufficient Scale”), an endless number of “dialogues,” and an elaborate online forum where anyone can participate.

However, this profusion of spaces obscures the fact that the UNFSS has no built-in structures of accountability. This is particularly troublesome because, as UN special rapporteurs have observed, the summit’s process was pre-determined by a small set of actors: “The private sector, organizations serving the private sector (notably the World Economic Forum), scientists, and economists initiated the process. The table was set with their perspectives, knowledge, interests and biases.”

The scientific ideas shaping those parameters, then, should invite our curiosity and concern. What kinds of science are included — and excluded? What are the implications for the future of global food system governance?

Defining Science as Investment-Friendly Innovation

A new Scientific Group of the UNFSS, created to support a “science- and evidence-based summit,” provides some clues. In theory, the Scientific Group works to “ensure the robustness, breadth and independence of the science that underpins the summit and its outcomes.” In practice, the Group’s practices impoverish the scientific base on which the summit is meant to make policies.

Unlike existing global science advisory panels where experts are nominated through an inclusive and democratic process, the Scientific Group is handpicking experts amenable to “game-changing” solutions — access to gene-edited seeds, digital and data-driven technologies, and global commodity markets.

Alastair Iles

As a result, key areas of expertise, such as agroecology, Indigenous knowledge, and human rights are being excluded while industry and investor-friendly viewpoints are promoted as visionary.

While the Scientific Group appears at first to be diverse in terms of disciplines and geographies, it in fact reflects a set of overlapping, elite networks. Partners include well-worn institutional champions of the Green Revolution (the CGIAR), the central nervous system for “free trade” policy globally (the World Trade Organization), and a powerful consortium of wealthy nation-states (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), among others.

By drawing on these networks, the Scientific Group is serving as a gatekeeper for determining the meaning and boundaries of “science.” An analysis of its publications reveals critical flaws stemming from the Scientific Group’s narrow approach to scientific expertise. These include:

for Bill Gates

Science can and should play a role in global food governance. But far from the current UNFSS model, science can support in all its complexity and breadth, alongside many other expertises with equal rights to shape the future of food.

Maywa Montenegro works as an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, specializing in politics of knowledge, biotechnology, and agroecology.

Matthew Canfield is an assistant professor of Law and Society & Law and Development at Leiden Law School specializing in human rights and global food governance.

Alastair Iles works as an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, researching agroecology policies and sustainability transitions.

Categories: Africa

“The Creation of a Palestinian State Is Inescapable”

Fri, 06/25/2021 - 10:59

A building damaged by an Israeli air strike amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza City. Only a political solution will end the “senseless and costly cycles of violence” between Israelis and Palestinians, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said in a briefing to the UN Security Council in May. Credit: UNRWA/Mohamed Hinnawi

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Jun 25 2021 (IPS)

Every Israeli will sooner than later realize that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only way by which Israel can protect its democracy, independence, national security and national Jewish identity. Denying Palestinian statehood defies Israel’s existence as we know it.

Righting the Wrong

The continuing international consensus that supports the establishment of a Palestinian state only strengthens the Palestinians’ resolve to never abandon their quest for a state of their own.

Having held on to this position for more than seven decades, they still have no reason to accept anything less, regardless of the vast changes on the ground. They will continue to wait and engage in sporadic violence and mini wars, as we have seen time and again, regardless of the heavy toll in human lives and destruction.

However, besides the consistent international consensus in support of a Palestinian state, Israel also has a moral and practical obligation for its own sake to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians based on a two-state solution.

Israel’s very existence is based in morality—the West felt the moral responsibility to support the creation of the state because of what happened to the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust—and its continuing existence as a free and independent country depends on its moral standing both as a democratic state and as a Jewish nation.

Discrimination of the Jews

The Jews were discriminated against, persecuted, and segregated, and millions perished during World War II simply because of their religious identity.

Their horrifying historic experience makes it morally unacceptable to subjugate other people, especially the Palestinians with whom they coexist and will have to continue to coexist indefinitely, and yet Israelis treat them with derision and contempt the way the Jews were treated for centuries in foreign lands.

Thus, maintaining the occupation in any form defies what the Jews worldwide stood for and sacrificed for millennia. True, the Palestinians have made many mistakes and to this day some Palestinians groups remain vociferous in their threats against Israel.

These threats, however, have never amounted to being existential, and right-wing Israeli parties have over the years deliberately exaggerated the potency of such threats to justify the occupation and the often-draconian policies against the Palestinians.

Given the fact, however, that since 1967 new irreversible developments (such as the building of new and expansion of existing settlements and intermixing of populations) occurred, the two-state solution appears now to many Israeli and Palestinian observers as either unrealistic or undesirable, or both.

They no longer believe that a two-state solution is possible, especially given the inter-dispersement of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, and Israel’s unwillingness to relinquish much of the occupied territories.

These facts are leading the believers of the one-state solution to argue that it is the only practical alternative.

One state is not an option

Such an alternative will never be accepted by the Israelis at large, as that would compromise the state’s Jewish national identity and its democracy by virtue of the fact that the nearly 3.1 million Palestinians in the West Bank and the 1.6 million Israeli Arabs will constitute roughly 45 percent of the total combined population of Jewish and Arab Israelis and Palestinians.

If we were to include the Palestinians in Gaza, the total number of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs will be near that of Israeli Jews.

Although the Jewish fertility rate has now surpassed that of the Arabs for the first time, with an average of 3.1 per Jewish woman versus 3 per Israeli-Arab woman, that does not change by much the demographic time bomb.

In fact, even without the Palestinians in Gaza, a minority of nearly 50 percent makes it impossible to maintain the Jewish national character of Israel without violating the Palestinians’ human and political rights.

Under such circumstances, if free and fair elections are held, it is unlikely that an Israeli coalition government could be formed without the participation of the Arab parties, as we have already seen.

To prevent that from happening, Israel would have to apply military laws to govern the Palestinians, along the line of what is in place today in the West Bank.

This would make Israel an apartheid state, which would be unacceptable not only to the international community but to many Israelis who believe that Israel has a moral obligation to treat all citizens equally before the law.

For these reasons, no Israeli government has considered the creation of one state by annexing the entire West Bank with its Palestinian population to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Occupation defies Israel’s existence

Instead, Israel chose continued occupation with creeping annexation of land, and in so doing it maintained control over the territories and built settlements, governing the Palestinians under military law yet applying Israeli laws to the settlers.

Although many Israelis maintain that the current status of Israeli occupation of the West Bank is sustainable and may well be a way of life for decades to come, over three-quarters of the Israeli Jewish population (76.7 percent) supports the Abraham Accords, which required Israel to stop further annexation of any Palestinian territory.

Most Israelis recognize that further annexation will damage any chances at making peace with the Palestinians and freeze further normalization of relations with other Arab states.

Every Israeli who opposes the establishment of an independent Palestinian state should ask themselves if there would be a circumstance under which the Palestinians would abandon their aspiration for statehood.

The answer is clear—that simply would not happen.

Why on earth would they give up their right to a state of their own? What force—Israeli or foreign—could compel them to do so? What kind of political or economic pressure will coerce them to submit to the harsh Israeli occupation and resign themselves to unending humiliation and despair?

After 72 years of Palestinian resistance and the extent of suffering they have endured, nothing will dissolve the Palestinians’ determination to realize what they aspire for, to govern themselves in a free and independent state.

In fact, continued occupation defies the very reasons behind the establishment of Israel, which was intended to be a haven for the Jews where they could live in peace and security.

The notion that occupying the West Bank will make Israel more secure has been shown after 53 years to be nothing but an illusion, as Israel has never felt completely secure yet has also never faced a legitimate existential threat that it could not meet with ease.

However, as the Palestinians, moderate and extremists alike, continue to challenge the occupation, they ensure that Israel will always feel insecure and spend billions of dollars on its security.

Some Israelis find comfort in the fact that several Arab states have normalized relations with Israel before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ended, which was a precondition to normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab state under the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.

Since then, however, many Arab states have grown weary of the Palestinians’ repeated missed opportunities to reach an agreement with Israel and no longer want to be held hostage to their intransigence.

Pressure through normalization

There are already clear signs that this normalization process has put some pressure on the Palestinians to moderate their position and be more realistic about the concessions they need to make to reach an agreement with Israel.

This kind of pressure, however, will not alter their principal demand for statehood, and every Arab state that normalized relations with Israel—the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan—made it clear that they are against the occupation and view the two-state solution as the only practical option.

In the final analysis, both sides know that there is no way out of coexistence by virtue of their proximity, the inter-dispersement of their respective populations, the significance of Jerusalem for both sides, national security, the widespread of the settlements, and extensive common interests.

This leaves us with one conclusion: the only realistic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one that can ensure the democratic integrity, independence, and Jewish national identity of Israel and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.

The new Israeli government must remember that the establishment of a Palestinian state is inescapable. Israel must accept this inevitability, or become ever more a pariah state rejected by its friends and reviled and constantly threatened by its enemies.

Categories: Africa

Southeast Asia and Food Price Inflation: Double Whammy

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 21:04

Across the world, climate change and Covid-19 disruptions have led to rising food prices in the past year. Southeast Asian countries, which have not been immune to such challenges, need to build resilience in their food security policies.

By Paul Teng
Jun 24 2021 (IPS)

In 2020, Southeast Asian countries were already facing varied challenges that affected the region’s food supplies and prices. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic later in the year exacerbated the region’s food insecurity and poverty. Southeast Asian countries need to take a hard look at food security, even as the double challenges — climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic — continue to fester.

Paul Teng

Southeast Asia is not alone when it comes to the challenges posed to food security. Indeed, most of the world has been grappling with increased food prices in the past year. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s latest report of the benchmark Food Price Index — which tracks the prices of meat, dairy, cereals, vegetable oils and sugar — rose for the 12th consecutive month in May 2021 to 127.1, its highest level in nearly ten years.

One of the drivers for the price increases is vegetable oil, notably palm oil, whose prices have been increasing since the fourth quarter of 2020. But global cereal prices also shown a significant rise in the past months. Dry weather and production disruptions due to Covid-19 coupled with high global demand led to the depletion of palm oil inventories, resulting in a classical demand surge-supply slump situation. This has inevitably driven up up prices. Biodiesel demand also increased the demand for soybean oil.

Southeast Asian countries were only just recovering in 2020 from the effects of the African swine fever which killed millions of hogs, and from large areas of crops devastated by the Fall Army Worm (which started in the Americas and proceeded to afflict sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent, China and Southeast Asia). In the same period, countries across Southeast Asia implemented measures to curb the Covid-19 pandemic. Movement controls disrupted food supply chains, increased losses of agricultural produce on farms, and increased food waste. The net result is that food insecurity and poverty have increased in many Southeast Asian countries in the past year.

Beyond the impact of the pandemic, climate-related phenomena have affected agriculture in food producing economies of Southeast Asia and in the countries which conduct food trade with the region. The ongoing drought in parts of western and mid-western United States, important agricultural areas, have impacted harvestable crop areas and potentially will lower crop yields. As the US is an important exporter of wheat, soybeans and maize to Southeast Asia, there is real danger that price inflation of basic food commodities will increase further.

According to the FAO, 10 per cent of Southeast Asia‘s population of 650 million suffers from food insecurity. So any increase in food prices will drive more people to hunger and reduced food intake. But the situation in Southeast Asia cannot be viewed in isolation from countries that are large food importers. Demand in China, one of the world’s biggest food importers, has been strong as the country has recovered from the pandemic earlier and faster than the rest of the world. Different parts of China have suffered from drought in the south and floods in the east. Much agricultural production occurs in the vicinity of the rivers and their flood plains, and even a small decline in production could inevitably lead to a large absolute increase in food demand due to China’s large population size. In past years, when China had gone shopping for food in the international markets, Southeast Asian countries have had to compete for the limited amounts available, especially in staples like rice.

Southeast Asia’s growing middle class has concurrently increased demands for wheat products and animal protein, both of which cannot be met by the production of animal feed crops like soybean and maize in the region or Asia as a whole. The FAO, in its analyses, has attributed part of the food price increases to supply-side issues such as harvest delays and reduced crop yields in exporting countries like Brazil.

It would appear that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over in Southeast Asia, with the resurgences of 2nd and 3rd waves of infection. Natural calamities linked to climate change are further anticipated to negatively affect food production in many of the food exporting countries. For the region, the typhoon (cyclone) season of 2021 is only just beginning. This will put a strain on the ability of the region to grow enough food. Furthermore, reductions and disruptions in food supply chains leading to price spikes appear likely to continue in 2021 and beyond. Asian countries are also likely to implement tighter biosecurity measures such as improved animal health requirements and increased surveillance as part of strategies to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases. To avoid the chaos created during the 2007-2008 food crisis, openness in reporting outbreaks and transparency in data sharing will be key to avoid panic buying.

In the near future, the effects of climate change are likely to increase rather than decrease, and together with the disruptions caused by the pandemic, will potentially create a ‘perfect storm’ for food supplies and prices. So ‘preparedness’ as a policy will be important for ASEAN to build resilience in its food security.

This article was first published by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute as a commentary in Fulcrum.” With a link back to the original article — https://fulcrum.sg/southeast-asia-and-food-price-inflation-double-whammy/

Professor Paul Teng is an Associate Senior Fellow in the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak institute. He is also Dean and Managing Director of NIE International, Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

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Categories: Africa

New global index seeks to transform how developing nations are supported

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 15:20

By External Source
Jun 24 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland has spoken today urging the international community to make crucial changes to how it delivers finance to developing nations, proposing a new system that moves beyond the use of GDP as the sole criteria for receiving certain types of support.

At a virtual media briefing, the Commonwealth Secretariat presented a ground-breaking study that assesses how vulnerable or resilient developing countries are to economic, socio-political and environmental shocks, such as climate change, which could influence how much international finance they can access.

The proposed Universal Vulnerability Index (UVI) has been shared with Commonwealth member countries for their review in ongoing consultations. If endorsed globally, the Index could transform the way development finance is delivered to developing nations.

Speaking ahead of the event the Secretary-General said:

“We must do better and act smarter when it comes to the support the international community gives to more vulnerable countries. If we are to rise above the current interlinked global crises we face, we need to muster all our resources in the most effective way.

“In an age of big data, complex analysis and artificial intelligence we cannot rely on decades-old systems and 18th century concepts to guide us but must fundamentally overhaul the way we think about development finance.

“We need to move beyond the thin analysis that GDP and per capita income provide us in determining of the type of support vulnerable countries should receive, towards a more realistic, nuanced and comprehensive understanding of what drives vulnerability and resilience. We cannot return to business as usual.”

‘Realistic’ multidimensional approach

Developed by experts at the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development, the UVI uses widely available data to generate single composite scores for vulnerability for 138 developing countries. The Index takes into account factors such as climate change, exposure to natural disasters or economic shocks, internal violence as well as governance.

Key to the study is the distinction it makes between ‘structural’ factors that are beyond the control of the state, such as a country’s geographic location and size, and ‘non-structural’ ones that are more dependent on the will of governments, such as policy performance.

According to these indicators the poorest nations in the world – those classified as Least Developed Countries – are the most vulnerable group, along with Small Island Developing States at the frontline of the climate crisis. Specifically, the report finds that the highest levels of vulnerability occur in Africa, closely followed by the Pacific and Caribbean regions.

The study has been presented to the Commonwealth’s governing board and is undergoing further consultation with member states. It will feed into international discussions around vulnerability, resilience and the efforts of small states to make a “green recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes to Editors

• The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal sovereign states. Our combined population is 2.4 billion, of which more than 60 per cent is aged 29 or under.
• The Commonwealth spans the globe and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. Thirty-two of our members are small states, many of which are island nations.
• The Commonwealth Secretariat supports member countries to build democratic and inclusive institutions, strengthen governance and promote justice and human rights. Our work helps to grow economies and boost trade, deliver national resilience, empower young people, and address threats such as climate change, debt and inequality.
• Member countries are supported by a network of more than 80 intergovernmental, civil society, cultural and professional organisations.

Media Contacts

Rena Gashumba
Communications Adviser, Commonwealth Secretariat
+447483919968, r.gashumba@commonwealth.int

Josephine Latu-Sanft
Senior Communications Officer, Commonwealth Secretariat
+44 7587657269, j.latu-sanft@commonwealth.int

Website thecommonwealth.org
Join the conversation Tweets by @commonwealthsec

Categories: Africa

Ivanancy Vunikura: Navigating the Waves of Change

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 12:45

By External Source
SUVA, Fiji, Jun 24 2021 (IPS-Partners)

In April 2021, the Pacific Community (SPC) coordinated the 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the 7th Meeting of the Pacific Ministers for Women, hosted by the Government of French Polynesia. The conference brought together decision-makers, development partners, research institutions and civil society organisations. Following this landmark event, SPC will continue to publish portraits of inspiring gender champions who are at the heart of Pacific development programmes.

One woman who isn’t afraid to engage herself in these ocean spaces is Ivanancy Vunikura, an ocean defender and sailor.

Ivanancy is one of the few women in the world who can claim that she has sailed the vast Pacific ocean on a traditional Vaka.

She started her sailing career with the Uto Ni Yalo, a Fiji-based association whose role is to promote sustainable, reciprocal relationship with nature by encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean – and gathering trash on the remote islands it visits. In 2011, traditional boats from Uto Ni Yalo sailed from the South Pacific to the USA, creating history and reclaiming the ocean.

This sail led her to work for the Okeanos Foundation where she currently advocates for sustainable sea transportation and the revival of traditional sailing in the Pacific.

Her sailing journey hasn’t always been smooth. Ivanancy had to fight storms, rough seas, and sometimes adverse cultural beliefs.

“I remember visiting a community where it was a taboo for women to sail with men, so we had to ask for permission from the chief upon arrival’, she recalls.

“We were granted permission, but it was hard to work with men from the community who joined our sailing cruise, since they were not used to share the Vaka with women. However, this didn’t deter me, and eventually, we all managed to work together.”

Ivanancy said that, because of their education, many women in the Pacific think they are not worthy enough, and not brave enough to stand up and have their voices heard. But winds are now changing, and Ivanancy believes that “Women also have a place at the helm of the Pacific Vaka”.

Source: The Pacific Community (SPC)

Categories: Africa

Latin America Vastly Underspends on Green Post-Pandemic Recovery

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 12:37

Two drill rigs at the Vaca Muerta oil field in Loma Campana, in southern Argentina. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

By Fermín Koop
BUENOS AIRES, Jun 24 2021 (IPS)

Latin America is investing too little in a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 2.2% of the region’s stimulus funds spent on environmentally sustainable projects last year, according to a new platform developed by Oxford University and the UN.

Last year, the 33 countries of the region allocated US$318 billion to fiscal and stimulus measures to alleviate the economic impacts of the pandemic, of which only $46 billion qualifies as green, according to the platform. The percentage is significantly lower than the 19% it calculates as the global average.

“The region has reached an economic crossroads. Either governments continue to support the old, dying industries of the past or invest in sustainable industries that can drive future prosperity,” said Brian O’Callaghan of Oxford University. “The new economic opportunities for the region are monumental.”

The region has reached an economic crossroads. Either governments continue to support the old, dying industries of the past or invest in sustainable industries that can drive future prosperity,
Brian O'Callaghan, Oxford University

Analysis of more than 1,100 policies shows that 77% of Latin America’s pandemic recovery budget was allocated to short-term rescue measures to address urgent needs and save lives. Only 16.1% went towards long-term recovery plans.

On average, the region allocated US$490 per capita to pandemic recovery, while in other developing economies the figure averages $650. Only six countries spent more than 0.1% of their GDP on recovery plans. They were Chile (14.9%), Bolivia (10.5%) and Brazil (9.26%).

Guy Edwards, a researcher on the geopolitics of climate change and Latin America, said the region is at risk of being left behind if it doesn’t change direction. He called for a review of spending plans and the careful elimination of fossil fuel subsidies to reduce the negative impact on fiscal accounts, emissions and deadly air pollution.

“Working with countries to align their recovery plans with the Paris Agreement will be a vital first step,” he said, adding; “This requires supporting countries to prioritise investments and policies to protect nature and boost renewable energy and clean public transport, which can create jobs, reduce inequality and tackle the root causes of migration.”

Latin America: An economy in recession

Latin America’s GDP fell by 7.7% last year and will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, according to the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). As elsewhere in the world, countries have been urged to seize the crisis as an opportunity to initiate a green recovery.

However, achieving this has proven difficult for Latin America. In addition to responding to the demands of the pandemic, governments in the region have to cope with high levels of sovereign debt to private creditors, multilateral agencies and, in some cases, China.

“The response to the pandemic is leading to increased debt, which limits our ability to direct investments towards environmental sustainability. However, putting climate action as a driver of recovery has never been more important,” said Andrea Meza, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister.

The region has accounted for nearly a third of all global deaths from Covid-19, despite being home to 8% of the world’s population, UNEP said. The situation has pushed environmental and climate policies down the list of government priorities in most countries.

The new Oxford University platform, which for now uses preliminary data, revealed that most pandemic recovery funds have been spent on infrastructure for fossil energy sources and unsustainable port and airport infrastructure, leading to increased carbon emissions.

Argentina, Mexico and Brazil focused their post-pandemic spending on these polluting sectors, providing increased subsidies to fossil fuel companies and boosting new projects. Chile, Jamaica and Colombia, meanwhile, stood out for their efforts in electric transport and renewable energy.

“We seek to develop short-term measures but with a long-term vision, promoting the circular economy and new businesses associated with natural capital,” said Daniel Gómez Gaviria, deputy director of Colombia’s National Planning Department. “Government revenues are concentrated in fossil fuels and minerals, so we need to diversify.”

A green recovery

Boosting a green recovery in Latin America not only makes sense in environmental terms but also in economic terms, thanks to the numerous benefits and jobs that could be generated.

The 2015 Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 2°C by the end of the century. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions must peak as soon as possible and then fall to zero by 2050.

The transition to net emissions is technically possible in Latin America, according to a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through carbon-free electricity production, electrification of industry and transport, and enhanced energy efficiency.

“There is still an opportunity for governments in the region to pursue smart and environmentally sustainable investments. The benefits of that kind of spending are really very good,” O’Callaghan said. “A green recovery can reduce inequality and lead to sustainable economies.”

The region would save up to US$621 billion annually if the energy and transport sectors achieved emissions neutrality by 2050, while generating 7.7 million new jobs, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Most countries’ climate commitments submitted so far fall short of meeting Paris Agreement targets. Latin America is no exception, according to ECLAC. To reverse this, new, more ambitious commitments are expected in the run-up to the COP26 climate summit in November.

Latin America accounts for 5% of global emissions, mostly from the energy sector, agriculture and land-use change. But the proportion is increasing as countries continue to develop fossil fuels and fail to embark on an energy transition.

Costa Rica remains the only country in Latin America to have officially presented, and started to implement, a long-term decarbonisation strategy, which includes the energy sector. Other countries such as Chile and Argentina are working on it and could present their respective plans this year.

Edwards said: “The design of long-term decarbonisation plans, working closely with all stakeholders, can help to guide the recovery and support governments to select sustainable infrastructure projects to help people and get economies aligned with the Paris goals and the Sustainable Development Goals.”

This article was originally published by ChinaDialogue

Categories: Africa

Global Herd Immunity Remains Out of Reach Because of Inequitable Vaccine Distribution – 99% of People in Poor Countries Are Unvaccinated

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 10:37

Women in Nigeria collect food vouchers as part of a programme to support families struggling under the COVID-19 lockdown. Credit: WFP/Damilola Onafuwa

By External Source
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 24 2021 (IPS)

In the race between infection and injection, injection has lost. Public health experts estimate that approximately 70% of the world’s 7.9 billion people must be fully vaccinated to end the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 21, 2021, 10.04% of the global population had been fully vaccinated, nearly all of them in rich countries.

Only 0.9% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

I am a scholar of global health who specializes in health care inequities. Using a data set on vaccine distribution compiled by the Global Health Innovation Center’s Launch and Scale Speedometer at Duke University in the United States, I analyzed what the global vaccine access gap means for the world.

A global health crisis

Supply is not the main reason some countries are able to vaccinate their populations while others experience severe disease outbreaks – distribution is.

Overall, countries representing just one-seventh of the world’s population had reserved more than half of all vaccines available by June 2021. That has made it very difficult for the remaining countries to procure doses

Many rich countries pursued a strategy of overbuying COVID-19 vaccine doses in advance. My analyses demonstrate that the U.S., for example, has procured 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, or 3.7 doses per person. Canada has ordered 381 million doses; every Canadian could be vaccinated five times over with the two doses needed.

Overall, countries representing just one-seventh of the world’s population had reserved more than half of all vaccines available by June 2021. That has made it very difficult for the remaining countries to procure doses, either directly or through COVAX, the global initiative created to enable low- to middle-income countries equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Benin, for example, has obtained about 203,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine – enough to fully vaccinate 1% of its population. Honduras, relying mainly on AstraZeneca, has procured approximately 1.4 million doses. That will fully vaccinate 7% of its population. In these “vaccine deserts,” even front-line health workers aren’t yet inoculated.

Haiti has received about 461,500 COVID-19 vaccine doses by donations and is grappling with a serious outbreak.

Even COVAX’s goal – for lower-income countries to “receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20% of their population” – would not get COVID-19 transmission under control in those places.

The cost of not cooperating

Last year, researchers at Northeastern University modeled two vaccine rollout strategies. Their numerical simulations found that 61% of deaths worldwide would have been averted if countries cooperated to implement an equitable global vaccine distribution plan, compared with only 33% if high-income countries got the vaccines first.

Put briefly, when countries cooperate, COVID-19 deaths drop by approximately in half.

Vaccine access is inequitable within countries, too – especially in countries where severe inequality already exists.

In Latin America, for example, a disproportionate number of the tiny minority of people who’ve been vaccinated are elites: political leaders, business tycoons and those with the means to travel abroad to get vaccinated. This entrenches wider health and social inequities.

The result, for now, is two separate and unequal societies in which only the wealthy are protected from a devastating disease that continues to ravage those who are not able to access the vaccine.

A repeat of AIDS missteps?

This is a familiar story from the HIV era.

In the 1990s, the development of effective antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS saved millions of lives in high-income countries. However, about 90% of the global poor who were living with HIV had no access to these lifesaving drugs.

Concerned about undercutting their markets in high-income countries, the pharmaceutical companies that produced antiretrovirals, such as Burroughs Wellcome, adopted internationally consistent prices. Azidothymidine, the first drug to fight HIV, cost about US$8,000 a year – over $19,000 in today’s dollars.

That effectively placed effective HIV/AIDS drugs out of reach for people in poor nations – including countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemic’s epicenter. By the year 2000, 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were living with HIV, and AIDS was the region’s leading cause of death.

The crisis over inequitable access to AIDS treatment began dominating international news headlines, and the rich world’s obligation to respond became too great to ignore.

“History will surely judge us harshly if we do not respond with all the energy and resources that we can bring to bear in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said South African President Nelson Mandela in 2004.

Pharmaceutical companies began donating antiretrovirals to countries in need and allowing local businesses to manufacture generic versions, providing bulk, low-cost access for highly affected poor countries. New global institutions like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria were created to finance health programs in poor countries.

Pressured by grassroots activism, the United States and other high-income countries also spent billions of dollars to research, develop and distribute affordable HIV treatments worldwide.

A dose of global cooperation

It took over a decade after the development of antiretrovirals, and millions of unnecessary deaths, for rich countries to make those lifesaving medicines universally available.

Fifteen months into the current pandemic, wealthy, highly vaccinated countries are starting to assume some responsibility for boosting global vaccination rates.

Leaders of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union and Japan recently pledged to donate a total of 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries.

It is not yet clear how their plan to “vaccinate the world” by the end of 2022 will be implemented and whether recipient countries will receive enough doses to fully vaccinate enough people to control viral spread. And the late 2022 goal will not save people in the developing world who are dying of COVID-19 in record numbers now, from Brazil to India.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic shows that ending the coronavirus pandemic will require, first, prioritizing access to COVID-19 vaccines on the global political agenda. Then wealthy nations will need to work with other countries to build their vaccine manufacturing infrastructure, scaling up production worldwide.

Finally, poorer countries need more money to fund their public health systems and purchase vaccines. Wealthy countries and groups like the G-7 can provide that funding.

These actions benefit rich countries, too. As long as the world has unvaccinated populations, COVID-19 will continue to spread and mutate. Additional variants will emerge.

As a May 2021 UNICEF statement put it: “In our interdependent world no one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Maria De Jesus, Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Center on Health, Risk, and Society, American University School of International Service

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Categories: Africa

COVID-19 as Instigator of Bigotry, Chauvinism and Megalomania

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 09:43

Antoine-Jean Gros: Napoleon Bonaparte Visits the Plague Stricken in Jaffa.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 24 2021 (IPS)

By the end of April 2019, a government campaign to vaccinate more than 40 million children under five against polio in Pakistan was suspended after a series of attacks on health workers and police. On 23 April, a police officer protecting polio workers was gunned down in Bannu, the same day a polio worker was in Lahore seriously wounded by a father “protecting his child from vaccination”, these incidents were followed by the murder of another police and a health worker under his protection. Health workers were also seriously wounded in the districts of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries where polio remains, in all other nations of the world vaccination campaigns have eliminated the disease. In April this year, three female polio vaccine providers were killed in Afghanistan.

It is Islamist militants, urged on by fanatic preachers, who oppose polio vaccination, claiming it is part of a “Western conspiracy” to sterilise Muslim children. As in all religions, we find in Islam fanatics who erroneously claim that their holy scriptures demand them to carry out odd and even abominable acts, like killing health workers trying to protect their human fellow beings.

Since it does not explicitly mention medical treatment, the Quran cannot be used for anti-vaccination propaganda. However, several hadiths (collections of words and actions by Prophet Muhammad) mention the Prophet’s views on healthcare and none of them can be interpreted as being opposed to vaccination. The most commonly quoted utterance of the Prophet concerning medicine comes from hadiths collected by Sunan Abī Dāwūd (d. 889 CE): “Make use of medical treatment, for God has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease, namely death.”

Contemporary Muslim scholars, like the members of The International Islamic Fiqh Seminar have established that “the use of the current vaccines against COVID-19 is permissible in Islam, and their use becomes obligatory upon everyone, if the authorities oblige to do so, thus Muslims are obliged to be respectful and obedient to the instructions of their authorities, especially with regard to issues related to the public interest, particularly the protection of life.”

The senseless murders of health workers indicate an unfortunate connection between healthcare, religion and politics, which create absurd convictions that bring misery and death to others. A tragic development also evidenced by misguided, populist politics connected with COVID-19, which instead of “believers and infidels” have emphasized a concept that may be described as “the West and the rest”. A view that certainly is different from the one of religious fanatics killing vaccinators, but which nevertheless indicate how beliefs may distort reality

Even a wealthy and fairly well organized country like Sweden has been affected by chauvinism connected with COVID-19. Measures to mitigate COVID-19 have been connected with nationalism when homage was paid to a “uniquely Swedish” approach to COVID-contagion. Public veneration of the influential State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell went during the heights of the pandemic far beyond common trust and for many he became an idol, widely admired for his recommendations to keep schools, restaurants and shops open, while assuring his fellow citizens that wearing of face masks was unnecessary. Journalists and trendsetters, who otherwise would cringe at any sign of nationalism, praised Tegnell as an incarnation of Sweden’s soul and stamina and his office was flooded with flowers sent in from grateful citizens. All this played into the hands of chauvinist politicians who exploited nationalistic feelings to convey their xenophobic messages.

Signs of similar trends are appearing all over the world. The United Kingdom and the U.S. have, at least initially, applied different strategic responses than most of their European allies and it was not uncommon to hear references to these measures as being based on a conception that Anglo-Saxon cultures are “exceptional” and even superior. In Japan, Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, is used as an overarching term for codes, practices, philosophies and principles of the samurai culture and has by Japanese nationalists been referred to as an admirable aspect of their “unique” society. Self-congratulating media declared that the “bushido spirit” contributed to Japan’s resilience to COVID-19, just as South Korea’s successful efforts to combat the disease has been referred to a more recent, but similar national trait – Ssauarbi.

In Italy the rapidly growing political party The Brothers of Italy, as well as The Northern League, are repeatedly associating the COVID-19 crisis with immigration, accusing the Italian government of applying a double standard in favour of immigrants, while penalizing Italian businesses and freedom of movement. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has hailed the Brothers of Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni as a role model for European Conservatives, expressing hopes for a future collaboration to “defend Italians against migration flows and protect traditional family and Christian culture.”

Among his compatriots Orbán has, like many other populist leaders, depicted himself as the sole leader capable of battling COVID-19, enticing public opinion to support him in his efforts to defend “Hungarian values”. On the 30th of March 2020, the Hungarian Parliament voted in favour of creating a state of emergency granting Orbán to rule by decree, implementing prison sentences “for spreading fake news” and sanctions for leaving quarantine. Two and a half months later the state of emergency ended. However, the same day a new law was passed removing the requirement of parliamentary approval for future “medical” states of emergencies, allowing Orbán’s government to declare them by decree.

Orbán, and other populist leaders, like Brazil’s Jair Bolsanero and India’s Narendra Modi, trust that their charisma and popularity among certain sections of society allow them to appear as role models and champions while confronting COVID-19. An illusion that might prove to be dangerous, both for them and their fervent supporters.

Lulled into complacency by declining infection rates, Modi acted as if he had won the battle against COVID-19. A delusion which combined with hopes for winning the next general elections gave rise to a series of critical mistakes. Instead of focusing on concerted measures to vaccinate all citizens and provide sufficient supplies to the health care system, Modi turned his attention to winning state elections and permitted massive political rallies without ensuring any COVID protocols. At the same time he continued trying to satisfy his Hindu base, for example by allowing the Kumbh Mela to take place. This is a Hindu major pilgrimage and festival celebrated in a cycle of approximately 12 years, when millions gather at the four main river-bank sacred sites; Allahabad (Prayagraj), Hardiwar, Nashik and Ujjain. This year, most pilgrims defied protective masks and social distancing. Furthermore, religious leanings have induced Modi to concentrate his messages to Hindu believers and his party has not shied away from blaming Muslims for spreading COVID-19.

Modi exposes a tendency to disregard science and advice from experts, while surrounding himself with religiously motivated people. The Indian Prime Minister has approved of the creation of a Ministry of Ayush to promote alternative medicines, such as ayurveda, naturopathy and homeopathy and his government has called for more research into the medicinal properties of milk, dung, and urine from indigenous Indian cows. Several members of Modi’s government have in their official capacities been promoting false, and even harmful remedies. One example among many is Surendra Sing, member of Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Assembly and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Last month, Surendra claimed that consuming gaumutra (cow urine) every morning on an empty stomach would “guarantee” protection from the novel variant of the coronavirus, which now is spreading fast across the subcontinent.

The reckless behaviour of leaders like Orbán, Bolsanero and Modi is appalling, in particular since it is combined with extreme narcissism and assurances that the unique values of their nations will save the lives of their inhabitants.

A leader’s task cannot be to stir up animosities and foment political objectives that benefit him/herself. Instead they ought to use their powers to support those who need help, mitigate catastrophes, and assure that forward-looking measures are in place to avoid them. For the well-being of all citizens, political leaders cannot be allowed to disregard the responsibilities imposed upon them and which they have sworn to accomplish. True leadership is a commitment that means putting the best interests of everyone first and forget about personal benefits.

The International Islamic Fiqh Seminar https://www.iifa-aifi.org/en/11120.html

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

Excerpt:

A confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Categories: Africa

A Time for Systemic Solutions in Latin America & the Caribbean

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 08:43

A woman in the Dominican Republic receives food from a government soup kitchen set up to help fight hunger triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, UN agencies warn against rising hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Credit: WFP/Karolyn Ureña

By Luis Felipe López-Calva
NEW YORK, Jun 24 2021 (IPS)

The first wave of COVID-19 never ended in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Since the region became a hotspot for the pandemic in June 2020, successive waves have continued to build upon the first.

Despite being home to just 8% of the world’s population, the region has suffered 20% of total confirmed COVID-19 cases and 32% of total confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The relentless spread of the virus has brought with it not only the tragic loss of so many lives, but also devastating economic and social damages.

Poverty and hunger are once again on the rise in the region and growth prospects are bleak. With limited access to vaccines in many countries, hopes for a return to “normal” remain distant.

Luis Felipe López-Calva

What went so wrong? With adequate warning of the spreading virus, many countries in the region responded swiftly at the onset with strict containment measures.

Unfortunately, in LAC it was not only the response to the pandemic that mattered – but fundamentally, the “pre-existing conditions” that characterized the region prior to the pandemic’s arrival.

These pre-existing conditions, or structural weaknesses, made countries in the region more vulnerable to the multiple and interconnected crises associated with COVID-19.

UNDP’s recently launched Regional Human Development Report, “Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean”, looks at two of these conditions: high-inequality and low-productivity.

It explores how underlying factors related to ineffective governance work to propel these outcomes in a mutually reinforcing vicious cycle (a “trap”). In particular, it highlights how the concentration of power in the hands of “the few” works to distort public policies in ways that both perpetuate existing patterns of inequality and hold back productivity growth in the region.

Exiting this trap will only happen if countries take bold action to embrace systemic solutions that consider the complexity of the dynamics between governance, inequality, and productivity. For years, countries in the region have invested in various solutions to address these challenges.

Community kitchen serves hot lunches for Peruvians. Credit: WFP/Guillermo Galdos

However, many of these responses were short-term, designed to separately address different symptoms of a much deeper problem. This has left countries with a large set of fragmented and costly policies that segment the labor market, provide erratic risk protection to households, do not redistribute income sufficiently towards lower-income groups, and bias the allocation of resources in ways that punish productivity and stable growth.

The region cannot afford to stay stuck on this path.

While the pandemic has accelerated the urgency of this challenge, citizens were already demanding change before we knew what COVID-19 was. As citizens poured onto the streets of LAC in late 2019, it became eminently clear that “business as usual” was not working for “the many.”

LAC countries made important development progress over the past thirty years, but the events of more recent years have revealed just how fragile that progress was. We celebrated a temporary reduction of inequality in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it was both insufficient and unsustainable—largely propelled by a commodity boom, targeted cash transfers, and a compression of the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers.

While many countries achieved middle-income status, they have been unable to consolidate themselves as middle-class societies. Millions have been left behind as opportunities have fallen short of people’s aspirations for their own lives and their expectations of their governments.

What we have learned is that there is no single “silver bullet” policy that can change this. The region already has many “good” policies in place. The challenge we face now is a structural one.

It requires rethinking the foundations of our systems from a longer-term perspective and considering the interconnected ways in which these issues work to reinforce one another in positive or negative directions.

While there are many potential entry points, the potential for universal social protection systems that ensure that everybody is protected, that income is redistributed towards those in need, that the policies deployed to achieve these aims provide incentives to firms and workers to increase productivity, and that the sources of revenue are sustainable, is particularly important.

This requires a principle of universality understood in three complementary dimensions: (i) All the population exposed to a given risk needs to be covered through the same program; (ii) The source of financing should be the same for each program, based on the type of risk covered; and (iii) When programs provide in kind benefits, quality should be the same for all.

A social protection system built around these universal principles offers the region a route to increasing spending in social protection while strengthening the foundations of long-term growth, and a path to enhance social inclusion.

Moving in this direction could represent “a third moment” in the history of social protection in the region. The first moment occurred over 75 years ago, when countries began the construction of their social protection systems; and the second moment occurred in the early 1990s, as countries emerged from the “lost-decade” of the 1980s.

It is possible that the current moment of crisis associated with COVID-19 may open the required political space for this third moment to take place, as countries contemplate substantial changes to their social protection and taxation systems in their efforts to contain social damage, restore fiscal balances, and resume growth.

Excerpt:

The writer is Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN Development Program (UNDP)

Categories: Africa

130 Countries Promise to Protect and Invest in Health Care Workers

Wed, 06/23/2021 - 10:32

Members of a Community Health Nursing Team in Roseau, Dominica According to the World Health Organisation at least 115,000 health and care workers globally may have lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 2021 (IPS)

One hundred and thirty countries have signed a statement recognising the efforts of health care workers, first responders and essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic – “one of the greatest global challenges in the history of the United Nations”.

The statement affirms their support for the World Health Organisation’s declaration of 2021 as the International Year of Health and Care Workers.

On Tuesday, the nations launched their statement before the UN General Assembly.

“Our appreciation for health and care workers cannot begin and end with the pandemic,” said Volkan Bozkir, President of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly.

“Each and every day, millions of nurses, midwives, doctors, researchers, emergency medical technicians and more, provide us with the support needed to live healthier lives. Whether in prevention or treatment, the entirety of our healthcare system is built upon the shoulders of the women and men who work tirelessly to provide us with relief in our times of need,” he said.

The joint statement was proposed by the permanent missions of Brazil, Georgia, Japan, the Republic of South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

“We recognise the efforts made by health workers in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, through measures to protect the health, safety and well-being of people and express our support to all continuous work emphasising the importance of providing all health and care workers with the necessary protection and support,” it stated.

It also calls on signatories to ensure that health and care workforces are fully protected and equipped to deliver health care at all times. It singled out workers at the forefront of the pandemic response and states that they must be offered priority access to vaccination against COVID-19.

One of the country’s that ensured these workers were prioritised in vaccine access was Saint Lucia.

“Our vaccination plan was set it out in a phased approach and in the first phase, we were looking at the persons who were at highest risk like our health care workers, our first responders, our essential care workers, elderly homes and our elderly caregivers, alongside people over 65 and those with chronic diseases,” the country’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar-George told IPS.

A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, Belmar-George says the country’s health and care workers’ commitment on the frontlines is unwavering.

“We remain focused as our public health teams and stakeholders strive to keep everyone safe,” she said.

Like health teams across the globe, those in Saint Lucia have embarked on vaccination drives. For the country’s health and care workers, a successful vaccination campaign is key to reopening the country’s tourism-dependent economy. The most recent statistics from the Caribbean Public Health Agency show that 27.6 percent of those eligible for the COVID-19 shot have been vaccinated.

“For us in Saint Lucia our 3 main risks for community spread are the tourists coming in, our returning nationals and the illegal entry from neighbouring Martinique. It’s extremely important for us to try to get 70 percent of our population vaccinated. That’s the goal we are working towards as we try to open up,” Belmar-George told IPS. “We are dedicated to our vaccination drive and embarking on targeted interventions. We are working.”

Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr. Tedros Adhanom told Tuesday’s General Assembly that according to the organisation’s estimates, at least 115,000 health and care workers may have lost their lives during the pandemic.

“The health and care workforce has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic and far too many have felt the brunt of its impact. Infections among health and care workers have been widespread and many have suffered from anxiety, fatigue and occupation burnout,” he said.

With its theme “Protect. Invest. Together,” he warned that it is time to ensure that these essential workers are adequately compensated for their work, that they have access to continuing education, career advancement opportunities and safe working conditions.

The statement urges countries to prioritise investment in resilient health infrastructure and health systems in their COVID-19 recovery plans and ensure that this aligns with the 2030 Agenda for good health and wellbeing.

It further states that member countries are “deeply concerned” that the world’s health and care workers are experiencing anxiety, distress, occupational burnout, stigma, physical and psychological violence.

It expressed unease over a shortage of health and care professionals in many developing countries, a situation that threatens health systems.

With a challenge to draft a global health and care worker compact to protect those who protected the world during COVID-19, it hopes to recognise the courage, care and commitment of health and care workers across the globe and guarantee that their contribution to society is always appreciated.

Excerpt:

The countries signed a statement in support of the 2021 International Year of Health and Care Workers. The statement was launched at an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Categories: Africa

Water Harvesting Strengthens Food Security in Central America

Wed, 06/23/2021 - 10:01

Angélica María Posada, a teacher and school principal in the village of El Guarumal, in eastern El Salvador, poses with primary school students in front of the school where they use purified water collected from rainfall, as part of a project promoted by FAO and Mexican cooperation funds. The initiative is being implemented in the countries of the Central American Dry Corridor. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
SENSEMBRA, El Salvador , Jun 23 2021 (IPS)

At the school in El Guarumal, a remote village in eastern El Salvador, the children no longer have to walk several kilometers along winding paths to fetch water from wells; they now “harvest” it from the rain that falls on the roofs of their classrooms.

“The water is not only for the children and us teachers, but for the whole community,” school principal Angelica Maria Posada told IPS, sitting with some of her young students at the foot of the tank that supplies them with purified water.

The village is located in the municipality of Sensembra, in the eastern department of Morazán, where it forms part of the so-called Central American Dry Corridor, a semi-arid belt that covers 35 percent of Central America and is home to some 11 million people, mostly engaged in subsistence agriculture.

In the Corridor, 1,600 kilometers long, water is always scarce and food production is a challenge, with more than five million people at risk of food insecurity.

In El Guarumal, a dozen peasant families have dug ponds or small reservoirs and use the rainwater collected to irrigate their home gardens and raise tilapia fish as a way to combat drought and produce food."We are all very proud of this initiative, because we are the only school in the country that has a (rainwater harvesting) system like this.” -- Angélica María Posada

This effort, called the Rainwater Harvesting System (RHS), has not only been made in El Salvador.

Similar initiatives have been promoted in five other Central American countries as part of the Mesoamerica Hunger Free programme, implemented since 2015 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and financed by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid).

The aim of the RHS was to create the conditions for poor, rural communities in the Dry Corridor to strengthen food security by harvesting water to irrigate their crops and raise fish.

In Guatemala, work has been done to strengthen an ancestral agroforestry system inherited from the Chortí people, called Koxur Rum, which conserves more moisture in the soil and thus improves the production of corn and beans, staples of the Central American diet.

José Evelio Chicas, a teacher at the school in the village of El Guarumal, in El Salvador’s eastern department of Morazán, supervises the PVC pipes that carry rainwater collected from the school’s roof to an underground tank, from where it is pumped to a filtering and purification station. The initiative is part of a water harvesting project in the Central American Dry Corridor. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

“The best structure for conserving water is the soil, and that is where we have to work,” Baltazar Moscoso, national coordinator of Mesoamerica Hunger Free, told IPS by telephone from Guatemala City.

Healthy schools in El Salvador

The principal of the El Guarumal school, where 47 girls, 32 boys and several adolescents study, said that since the water collection and purification system has been in place, gastrointestinal ailments have been significantly reduced.

“The children no longer complain about stomachaches, like they used to,” said Posada, 47, a divorced mother of three children: two girls and one boy.

She added, “The water is 100 percent safe.”

Before it is purified, the rainwater that falls on the tin roof is collected by gutters and channeled into an underground tank with a capacity of 105,000 litres.

Farmer Cristino Martínez feeds the tilapia he raises in the pond dug next to his house in the village of El Guarumal in eastern El Salvador. A dozen ponds like this one were created in the village to help poor rural families produce food in the Central American Dry Corridor. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

It is then pumped to a station where it is filtered and purified, before flowing into the tank which supplies students, teachers and the community.

The school reopened for in-person classes in March, following the shutdown declared by the government in 2020 to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are all very proud of this initiative, because we are the only school in the country that has a system like this,” added the principal.

There are 40 families living in El Guarumal, but a total of 150 families benefit from the system installed in the town, because people from other communities also come to get water.

A similar system was installed in 2017 in Cerrito Colorado, a village in the municipality of San Isidro, Choluteca department in southern Honduras, which benefits 80 families, including those from the neighbouring communities of Jicarito and Obrajito.

Rainwater is filtered and purified in a room adjacent to the classrooms of the school in the village of El Guarumal, in the eastern department of Morazán, El Salvador. Gastrointestinal ailments were reduced with the implementation of this project executed by FAO and financed by Mexican cooperation funds. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Vegetable gardens and tilapias boost food security

About 20 minutes from the school in El Guarumal, following a narrow dirt road that winds along the mountainside, you reach the house of Cristino Martínez, who grows tomatoes and raises tilapia in the pond dug next to his home.

The ponds are pits dug in the ground and lined with a polyethylene geomembrane, a waterproof synthetic material. They hold up to 25,000 litres of rainwater.

“The pond has served me well, I have used it for both the tilapia and watering tomatoes, beans and chayote (Sechium edule),” Martínez told IPS, standing at the edge of the pond, while tossing food to the fish.

The cost of the school’s water harvesting system and the 12 ponds totaled 77,000 dollars.

Martínez has not bothered to keep a precise record of how many tilapias he raises, because he does not sell them, he said. The fish feed his large family of 13: he and his wife and their 11 children (seven girls and four boys).

And from time to time he receives guests in his adobe house.

“My sisters come from San Salvador and tell me: ‘Cristino, we want to eat some tilapia,’ and my daughters throw the nets and start catching fish,” said the 50-year-old farmer.

Cristino Martínez and one of his daughters show the tilapia they have just caught in the family pond they have dug in the backyard of their home in the village of El Guarumal in the eastern department of Morazán, El Salvador. The large peasant family raises fish for their own consumption and not for sale. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

According to FAO estimates, the ponds can provide about 500 fishes two to three times a year.

The ponds are built on the highest part of each farm, and the drip irrigation system uses gravity to water the crops or orchards planted on the slopes.

Tomatoes are Martínez’s main crop. He has 100 seedlings planted, and manages to produce good harvests, marketing his produce in the local community.

“The pond helps me in the summer to water the vegetables I grow downhill,” another beneficiary of the programme, Santos Henríquez, also a native of El Guarumal, told IPS.

Henríquez’s 1.5-hectare plot is one of the most diversified: in addition to tilapias, corn and a type of bean locally called “ejote”, he grows cucumbers, chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and various types of fruit, such as mangoes, oranges and lemons.

“We grow a little bit of everything,” Henríquez, 48, said proudly. He sells the surplus produce in the village or at Sensembra.

However, some beneficiary families have underutilised the ponds. They were initially enthusiastic about the effort, but began to let things slide when the project ended in 2018.

A farmer proudly displays some of the tomatoes he has grown in the region known as Mancomunidad Copán Chortí in eastern Guatemala, which includes the municipalities of Camotán, Jocotán, Olopa and San Juan Ermita, in the department of Chiquimula. Water harvesting initiatives have been implemented in the area to improve agricultural production in this region, which is part of the so-called Central American Dry Corridor. The initiative is supported by FAO and Mexican cooperation funds. CREDIT: FAO Guatemala

An ageold Chorti technique in Guatemala

In Guatemala, meanwhile, some villages and communities are betting on an agroforestry technique from their ancestral culture: Koxur Rum, which means “wet land” in the language of the Chortí indigenous people, who also live in parts of El Salvador and Honduras.

The system allows corn and bean crops to retain more moisture with the rains by combining them with furrows of shrubs or trees such as madre de cacao or quickstick (Gliricidia sepium), a tree species that helps fix nitrogen in the soil.

By pruning the trees regularly, leaves and crop stubble cover and protect the soil, thereby better retaining moisture and nutrients.

“Quickstick sprouts quickly and gives abundant foliage to incorporate into the soil,” farmer Rigoberto Suchite told IPS in a telephone interview from the village of Minas Abajo, in the municipality of San Juan Ermita, Chiquimula department in eastern Guatemala, also located in the Central American Dry Corridor.

Suchite said the system was revived in his region in 2000, but with the FAO and Amexcid project, it has become more technical.

As part of the programme, some 150 families have received two 1,500-litre tanks and a drip irrigation system, he added.

“Now we are expanding it even more because it has given us good results, it has improved the soil and boosted production,” said Suchite, 55.

In the dry season, farmers collect water from nearby springs in tanks and, using gravity, irrigate their home gardens.

“Many families are managing to have a surplus of vegetables and with the sales, they buy other necessary food,” Suchite said.

The programme is scheduled to end in Guatemala in 2021, and local communities must assume the lessons learned in order to move forward.

Rainwater Harvesting Improves Lives in El Salvador

Categories: Africa

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