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There is growing understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity. Credit: UNDP Peru/Mónica Suárez Galindo

By Martin Sommerschuh
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has invited the world to reflect on relationships – between people within and across countries and communities, and between people and nature around the planet.

The virus has also reminded us of the intricate interrelationships that comprise our world and of our responsibilities to others, especially society’s most vulnerable members.

The theme of this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which was commemorated on August 9, was “Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract.” The idea of a ‘social contract’ – an agreement among members of a society to cooperate for the benefit of all – dates back centuries. What is new, however, is an emerging mainstream understanding of the vital role Indigenous peoples play in providing benefits to all humanity.

First, Indigenous peoples have constructed sustainable food systems and social safety nets that help us reimagine a pathway for all of society. Three Equator Prize winners from 2020 and 2021 showcase how their robust social systems enabled them to remain resilient and resourceful, even during a pandemic.

When the pandemic hit first in March 2020, the women of the Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas del Territorio Cabécar Kábata Könana in Costa Rica’s Talamanca region quickly organized a barter system to ensure isolated families and communities would have enough food. The association’s work is based on rotational and regenerative agriculture, rooted in traditional knowledge.

In Amazonian Ecuador, the first lockdown due to the coronavirus coincided with torrential rain and flooding. Thanks to the quick actions of Kichwa leaders, food and hygiene products reached even the most remote families of the Pueblo Originario Kichwa de Sarayaku.

The group is now working with the GEF Small Grants Programme to revitalize ancestral knowledge of traditional medicines.

In Kenya, the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy brings together cutting-edge science with traditional Maasai land management and agricultural practices. Profits from entrepreneurship initiatives helped support food delivery and hygiene programmes to thousands of people during the pandemic.

Martin Sommerschuh

Second, Indigenous peoples are stewards of a large portion of the lands, water and biodiversity that provide a planetary safety net for humanity. According to two recent reports, Territories of Life and The State of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, Indigenous peoples are custodians of a third of the planet’s terrestrial surface.

These territories are proven to be more ecologically intact than other areas and are critically important for global water security, for our climate goals and for the conservation of biodiversity, to name only a few.

Simply stated, we cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda without the support and collaboration of the world’s Indigenous peoples. Three examples from Equator Prize winners illustrate how important (and vast) these lands and waters are.

Forum Musyawarah Masyarakat Adat Taman Nasional Kayan Mentarang brings together 11 Indigenous groups on Kalimantan (Borneo) to protect 20,000 square kilometres in a co-management arrangement with the government.

In Canada’s Northwest Territories, the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation manages 26,000 square kilometres between the Canadian boreal forest and the arctic tundra – a globally significant carbon sink and freshwater source.

In southern India, the 1,700-member, Indigenous-run Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited protects species in the 5,500 square kilometre Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve through organic production and sustainable harvest of local crops.

Despite this critical importance of Indigenous territories to global goals, encroachment through illegal mining and logging continues to expand. Indigenous peoples have legal rights to only about 10% of the world’s land despite their stewardship over a third. Intimidation, violence and murder of environmental defenders continues to accelerate.

Indigenous peoples provide us with invaluable models of knowledge and practice, based on reciprocity and sharing. Their lands and waters are of incalculable benefit to all of humanity. Yet our current social contract has failed to recognize these contributions.

It is time for a new social contract.

A good start to such a contract could include: recognizing the unique knowledge and practices that can help us chart a new pathway toward a more sustainable society; strengthening legal recognition of Indigenous territories and protection against illegal mining and logging; ensuring safety for environmental defenders; and guaranteeing a much stronger seat at the table of local, regional, national and global dialogues that affect their futures.

The new social contract, then, is one that supports Indigenous peoples locally, and helps achieve goals globally.

Source: UNDP

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Programme Specialist and Coordinator, Equator Initiative, UN Development Programme (UNDP)

Oskar Olin with his sheep.

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

I am in the Swedish countryside, lush and beautiful in its late summer attire, having a conversation with the son of a friend of mine. Oskar Olin runs a sheep farm, Stabbehyltan Lamm AB, where he practises holistic management. His three-hundred sheep graze within an area of 30 ha where Oskar every day moves his flock from one pasture to another. It takes between 45 to 90 days before the sheep are back on the same pasture where the rotation began. The animals are thus not overgrazing the area, while they at the same time trample down a protective layer of vegetation, which fertilizes the soil. Carbon is bound in the earth, soil organic matter increases, retaining humidity and accordingly deepen the root systems of wholesome plants.

Oskar is thirty-one years old and has for four years been back in his native place. During his younger years he was quite adventurous and did for example during a year work with horses on ranches in Spain. After that he ended up at a rancho in Mexico where he came in contact with holistic land management, finding that the land on the other side of the fence was constituted by sand and gravel, while his employer’s pastures were lush and green. Oskar told me that it was on Rancho La Inmaculada de los Aguirre he learned “that it’s all about making everything work and interact in a beneficial manner. Make your family happy and prosperous, make animals and crops to grow in harmony with their natural environment and feel good. Keeping soil and land healthy and moist, while your economy becomes robust and sustainable.”

His Mexican employer made Oskar interested in theories and practices of the Zimbabwean Allan Savory, who claims that properly managed livestock can heal a wounded, natural environment. Savory declares that livestock breeding (wild grazers are hard to manage) might mitigate desertification, provided that the domesticated animals are allowed to preserve grasslands in such a manner that these are enabled to sequester enough atmospheric carbon dioxide to reverse climate change. Overgrazing is a result of keeping livestock in the same place for too long, i.e. feeding on individual plants over and over again, while these are trying to grow back again. A means to reverse desertification would be to properly manage grazing livestock and protect large natural herds of grazers such as bison, zebra, and wildebeest, which guarantee a healthy regrowth and maintenance of grass land and counteract the still common, global practice of slash-and-burn, artificial over-fertilization, and expansion of unnecessary, and even environmentally damaging, crops. Savory states: “How can natural resources possibly be to blame? Only our management of those things can be causing problems. It is our management that places millions of animals in barbaric, inhumane, force-fed factories at great cost to our health, economy and environment and it is our management that calls fossil resources fossil fuels and burns them at a destructive rate.”

Sitting in the crisp grass and talking about all this with Oskar, while being surrounded by his bleating sheep, made me remember when I in 2008 and 2009 spent some time in the Markala district of Mali. There I sat, together with my friends and interpreters Seydou and Mamadou, in the shade of baobab trees talking with village elders, who in their long boubous, measured gestures, as well as their patient and clear-minded manner of debating, made me imagine ancient, Greek philosophers. They told me that with every year the desert advances causing poverty and misery, forcing “our desperate youngsters to lose their lives in pursuit of wealth and happiness within your wealthy countries, up there in the far north.”

I had been hired to make a study of how livelihoods would be affected by land expropriation and sugar production. The Government had signed a contract allocating Sosumar (Société Sucrière de Markala), a conglomerate of various private investors and the South African sugar giant Illovo, a lease comprising 39,500 ha. The intention was to develop sugar-cane plantations, annually producing 190,000 tonnes of sugar and 15 million litres of ethanol.

At least 2,000 peasants had to be resettled to villages erected within the affected areas. The project was acclaimed as being able to “benefit close to 156,000 inhabitants through the creation of 8,000 direct and 32,000 indirect jobs, capacity building and improved living conditions. Implementation of the project will require optimal management of water resources, especially during the dry season.”

Associated British Foods owns 51 percent of Illovo, which controlled 70 percent of Sosumar. Illovo is Africa’s biggest sugar producer and had, at the time I was hired, operations in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. Sugar and ethanol were mainly directed towards the European market, which allowed for duty and quota-free exports for producers in developing countries. Illovo’s sugar exports into Europe were then 400,000 tonnes per year.

My task was to carry out interviews with the local population and with their cooperation develop plans for the construction and facilities of future “resettlements”. For me it was a rewarding experience to listen to and interact with persons who defined themselves as Mandé (Bambara), mainly subsisting on farming and Peul (Fula/Fulani), most of whom were pastoralists. For centuries Mandé and Peul have shared the territory. The Mandé, who produced millet, sorghum and vegetables, had obtained most of their meat from the Peul, whose cattle were allowed to graze the Mandéfields after harvest.

I was generously received and told that sugar-cane fields would completely change traditional ways of living. Centre-pivot irrigation, a system where elongated sprinkler tubes rotate around “pivots”, i.e. centre points pumping up water from the ground, would mean that all trees in the area had to be cut down. Among them the mighty baobab trees, which many Mandé and Peul consider to be sacred. There were no plans to compensate the locals for their loss of fuel, shadow and sacred meeting points.

Graveyards had to be dug up and their contents removed. The s´í-trees would also be lost. Women use their seeds to manufacture and sell sìtulu, shea butter, widely used in cosmetics as moisturisers and lotions. Furthermore, villagers would be forced to live surrounded by a forest of more than two metres high sugar-cane stems, among which crop-devouring birds, insects and vermin would thrive. Age-old, traditional agriculture would be substituted by back-breaking cane-cutting under a scorching sun. Paths and pastures of cattle herding Peul would disappear. Warm water from sugar refineries would affect and even kill the fish in rivers and canals. Pious Muslims told me they knew of gambling, drinking and prostitution developing in shanty towns growing up around the two huge sugar mills already established in Mali.

Villagers told me they preferred that the Government provided them with loans to establish rice paddies: “We cannot afford to do it ourselves since it takes at least two years before the paddies will yield any harvests. We live by our millet and vegetables and cannot afford to be without them while paddies are constructed. The sugar will not feed us, but it grows rapidly and the two harvests it yields per year will provide us with the cash we need to survive.”

As a matter of fact, Office du Niger, the governmental management and irrigation authority for rice growing zones had already in 2003 contributed a 74 hectare plot of land to the US company Schaffer and Associates, which had been contracted by USAID to undertake a feasibility study for a sugar refinery. The trials of cane varieties amounted to a cost of USD 1,5 million, indicating that neither “development organisations”, nor the Malian Government, were particularly interested in stimulating any subsistence farming of local agriculturists.

USAID’s interest in Sosumar was among other things also part of a political agenda to limit Chinese interests in Malian sugar production. China Light Industrial Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation (CLETC) owns the two sugar enterprises of Mali and intends to expand its landholdings and sugar production.

Unaware, I had become part of a convoluted political game involving profiteering private and governmental agencies that apparently did not have neither the well-being of poor agriculturists, nor a mitigation of threats from climate change and desertification, as their main goal. Only one third of Mali is not desert land and the people of Markala told me that “every year badlands devour huge tracts of fertile land. Please do not talk about culture and environment with your bosses. We don’t want the sugar, but must have it. There is no other solution. No one helps us to stop the advancing desert. If we don’t get cash from the sugar we will die. If our culture, our way of being is eradicated, so be it. Our children have to live.”

Political turmoil and machinations eventually killed off the Sosumar sugar initiative. The ecological crisis is constantly getting worse. While sitting together with Oskar Olin and his healthy sheep within a fertile Swedish meadow, I could not help wondering if all the effort and money that went into the non-realisation of such an unhealthy export crop as sugar was just another example of the unimaginative greed of a wealthy few.

It is high time to learn to listen to the needs and experience of poor agriculturists around the world. To advertise and implement viable, environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, like those of the young, practically inclined and idealistic Oskar Olin in Stabbehyltan, who on a small scale reproduces the land preservation instincts of wild grazers.

Sources: Bafana, Busani (2019) “Q&A: Holistic Land Management – Only a Movement can Prevent Desertification,” IPS, Oct. 4. Wikileaks (2009): A spoonful of Chinese sugar sours US investors in Mali.

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

 

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS)

As New York city struggles to cope with the widespread outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus Delta variant -– which has claimed more than 100,000 cases per day in the US— the United Nations is laying down strict guidelines at its headquarters (UNHQ) for staffers, diplomats and visiting delegates.

In a letter released August 13, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Delta variant “is posing some challenges to our planning, and we will be taking additional precautionary measures to ensure a safe work environment for our personnel and delegates. “

The UN will continue to follow all restrictions imposed by New York, the host city for the world body. Under new restrictions announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, proof of vaccination is mandatory to go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, theatres and gyms—with more restrictions to follow. Those unvaccinated will be barred from these premises.

Conforming to city guidelines, the UN is expected to insist on proof of vaccination to use several of the dining facilities in the Secretariat building and also mandatory in-house mask-wearing.

“In order to align UNHQ’s approach to indoor dining with that of NYC’s guidance, we will soon require proof of vaccination for seated meals at cafeterias and other dining facilities on premises.,” says Guterres.

Further guidance on full return to work is being developed and will be issued in September.

To ensure adequate protection for all colleagues, effective August 13, all UN personnel must wear masks when indoors on premises. “We will reassess this requirement as conditions warrant.”

The letter says the most significant driver of COVID19-related risk is vaccination status. Accurate information on the vaccination status of staff is therefore essential to determine risk and appropriate mitigation strategies.

Aitor Arauz, President of the UN Staff Union in New York and Vice-President, UN International Civil Servants’ Federation (UNISERV), told IPS: “We are dealing with simultaneous crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, where the UN has a lot of staff currently in danger.”

“What I can say on the issue of dining facilities at UNHQ is that, as a general principle, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Staff Union has supported close alignment with host city and NY State guidelines; an approach that provides staff a sense of coherence and consistency”.

However, he cautioned, enforcement of these particular measures may prove a challenge given the particularities of our working environment.

Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS requiring proof of vaccination in duty stations where all have had a chance to get jabbed is a sensible way to get things up-and-running again while keeping staff and diplomats safe.

“We’re looking forward to similar measures in Europe and in due course elsewhere,” said Richards, who is based in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN has placed several TV monitors outside committee rooms, primarily aimed at diplomats and visiting delegates, with warnings that read: “No face to-face meetings unless individually risk-assessed; 2 people per elevator; Lower your mask and present your valid UN ID when requested by Security: By swiping your valid UN ID you confirm that in the past 14 days you have no Covid-19 symptoms, no positive Covid-19 rest result; and no close contact with a confirmed or suspected Covid-19 case.”

In several US cities and businesses, the ultimatum is more severe than the UN: “Get Vaccinated or Get Fired.”

At the Winchester Medical Center, nurses were told: “Get the shot or face termination”. In Sacramento, California, the Mayor has insisted that all new hires and current city employees should get vaccinated, or face being terminated. Both proposals are getting major pushback from unions, who say workers have the right to choose.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced that some 60,000 employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.

The governor’s proclamation has given state workers until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. And employees who do not provide proof of vaccination will be dismissed from employment, unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

Since December last year, more than 353 million doses have been administered, fully vaccinating over 167 million people or 50.4% of the total U.S. population.

The rest remain unvaccinated– either for personal, political or medical reasons. But the UN does not have a head count as to how many of its more than 3,000 staffers in New York have been vaccinated.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS that as a vital member of the New York community, the UN also has a responsibility to contribute to the city’s efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded Covid19.

“The UN enjoys wide immunities under international law but the virus does not recognize rights and immunities invented by man,” he pointed out.

Many of the staff members, he said, live in communities scattered in places far from the Head Office and travel to work. They could be exposed to the virus.

“The restrictions imposed by the Organization are for the protection of all. Most importantly, the Organization must further refine options for working from home”.

“With modern technology, this should not pose too many difficulties”, said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the letter from Guterres also says all staff at UNHQ, in consideration of the need to protect one another, will be required to report their vaccination status including through EarthMed with immediate effect.

In addition, any personnel who has been on site and has a positive COVID-19 or Antigen test result must report the results immediately to the Division of Healthcare Management and Occupational Safety and Health through the confidential self-reporting portal (medical.un.org) in order to ensure effective risk mitigation at the workplace.

“I continue to be very grateful to those staff who have been working on premises throughout the pandemic, either because their functions could not be performed remotely or when remote work would have impacted their effectiveness and efficiency,” says Guterres.

“I particularly commend those who did so when we did not have the protection of vaccination. As the presence of unvaccinated staff potentially increases the risk for other staff members, whether vaccinated or not, vaccinations will be mandated for staff performing certain tasks and/or certain occupational groups at UNHQ whose functions do not allow sufficient management of exposure.”

This mandate may be waived where a recognized medical condition prevents vaccination.

Those staff members who will be required to be vaccinated must receive the final dose of a vaccine no later than 19 September 2021.

Any COVID-19 vaccine that is recognized by the WHO, or under routine approved-use by a Member State’s national health authority, is accepted. Affected staff will be notified by their respective offices during the week of 16 August.

“As personnel serving in New York, we are privileged to have access to effective vaccines through local vaccination programmes. In addition to requiring certain staff to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage all personnel who have not already done so to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated to promote your safety and health and all those around you.”

“The situation continues to be monitored and the possibility of additional measures announced will remain under consideration and will be reviewed and adapted as needed,” says Guterres.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that United Airlines, Amtrak, Capital One, McDonald’s, Facebook, Disney, Netflix and Google, among others, have joined a growing list of companies to mandate vaccines for all or some workers.

 

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When 33-year-old Kimani Mwaniki, an Irish potato farmer in Elburgon, Nakuru County in Kenya’s Rift Valley, heard about a farmer’s virtual school, he didn’t hesitate to enrol. He was keen to learn how the programme will enable him to get higher crop yields for his market in the capital city Nairobi and elsewhere. For years, […]

Credit: UN Women

By Quratulain Fatima
ISLAMABAD, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

The past weeks have been quite traumatic for the women of Pakistan. Recently, a young woman named Noor Mukadam was murdered and beheaded by her alleged partner in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city. A few weeks ago, the prime minister’s statement on rape erroneously construed the crime as being the fault of the victim.

The domestic violence bill aimed at protecting women was sent to an all-male religious council for review. Additionally, a horrific video surfaced on social media where a group of so-called moral policing men harassing and assaulting a young woman.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address

These alarming incidents contribute to why Pakistan stands 153 out of 156 countries in the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report. Pakistan is among those countries where 70% of women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime by their intimate partners and 93% of women experience some form of sexual violence in public places in their lifetime.

Every other woman in Pakistan experience sexual violence at least once in her lifetime. Some like Noor Mukadam have lost their lives in the process.

Sexual harassment and sexual assaults are one of the biggest issues in Pakistan. This epidemic is spread from the streets and markets, all the way to the workplace — and in some cases even the home. Pakistan’s government had in 2020 passed a praiseworthy anti-rape legislation that mandates legal proceedings in such cases to be completed within 04 months. However, without implementation, it will serve no purpose.

Sadly, Pakistan’s culture often makes a woman’s chastity a matter of the whole society’s honour. As a direct consequence of this warped worldview, most Pakistani women are still reluctant to report domestic violence, sexual assault or harassment cases.

A cultural shift is slow and at times it seems to be reversing in with the rise of extremist and ultra-religious thought strains in the society. Pakistan’s official statistics show that at least 11 cases of rape are reported in country every day. However, conviction rate for rape remains at markedly low 0.3%.

All too often in our country, moral policing societies link sexual assault with clothing or a woman’s behavior. We must stop blaming women for sexual violence and start reforming the men who commit such violence.

I know firsthand how nonsensical it is to blame women’s clothes for men’s behavior. Once a man  groped me in public while I was waiting for my parent’s arrival from the Hajj pilgrim at the airport. I was wearing head covering over a fully covered dress and I felt traumatized and humiliated by his actions.

So, when I hear the premium of Pakistan — or for that matter any men around me — speaking on rape and sexual assault as being somehow linked to wearing inappropriate clothing, I know from my core that this is wrong. It doesn’t matter what we wear, it still occurs.

Victim blaming is not new, of course. People often blame sexual assaults on women’s clothing or behavior and even their education, irrespective of cultures, countries or places. Since the beginning of time, women have been portrayed as the temptress, the ones who lured man out of the comforts of heaven.

Many people claim that sexual assault happens to women who make bad choices, who step out in the dangerous world without precautions. But this is a myth which has been debunked many times through various evidence based studies. Yet time and again, we hear statements blaming women’s dresses for the violence they suffer.

The real problem which apparently was missed by such views is the widespread culture of impunity, low conviction rates for sexual crimes, women’s fear of reporting the crime and obscuration of social attitudes. Across the world, sexual violence is very difficult for women to address.

Victims are often blamed for “provoking” the sexual abuse with their behavior or dress. Reporting sexual harassment and assault can mean that the victim is labelled as a person of “loose morals” or as “a liar”.

When these myths are endorsed from a position of power, like in the case of Pakistan’s premier, it kicks you in the gut unlike other victim blaming one might hear. A leader sets the tone for the country and him perpetuating victim-blaming myths is extremely harmful.

Most government and non-government campaigns for the safety of women revolve around how women should protect themselves. There is a fundamental flaw in this approach. We need to rethink and re assess it and focus on how to stop the harassing behavior irrespective of how women dress or act.

Rather than women, it is men who need to be educated to be non-violent. Good men need to not let criminal men hide behind their silence. Educational campaigns and societal views need a profound shift. At schools and at homes, young boys and men need to be educated to know the importance of consent, non-violence and of treating women as equal human beings.

There should also be a sex offender registry for countries like Pakistan and efforts to shame and name the perpetrators and not the victims. States need to take clear stance against rape and sexual harassment rather than having vague notions of honor we need solid policies and implementation to stop the violence. Only then women can be protected and feel safe as equal citizens.

Quratulain Fatima is Cofounder Women4PeaceTech and a policy practitioner working extensively in rural and conflict-ridden areas of Pakistan with a focus on gender inclusive development and conflict prevention. She is a 2018 Aspen New Voices Fellow.

Farmers attending a solar irrigation pump demonstration by Pumptech during a fieldtrip to Bawku, Ghana. Data-driven tools are helping solar irrigation companies target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. Credit: Thai Thi Minh / IWMI

By Thai Thi Minh and Cecily Layzell
ACCRA, Ghana, Aug 13 2021 (IPS)

‘Know your customers’ is arguably the first rule of marketing. By identifying and segmenting customer groups, companies can target their products and services to the right people, in the right way. This can open-up opportunities for growth, inform product development and improve customer retention.

But market segmentation is also easy to get wrong, often because of a lack of research and data. In Ghana, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is working with solar pump manufacturers and suppliers, farmers and other stakeholders in irrigated agriculture to boost the adoption of solar technologies that meet target users’ needs.

In many off-grid areas, petrol and diesel pumps are commonly used for irrigation. However, they are expensive to run and contribute to environmental pollution.

With the abundance of sunshine in Ghana, solar pumps offer small farmers a promising alternative – if they can afford the initial investment. To begin addressing this issue, IWMI joined forces with Pumptech, a distributor of solar pumps manufactured by the German company LORENTZ.

The pumps are designed for off-grid water pumping and several models are specifically aimed at smallholders.

Focusing on Ghana’s Upper East Region, which experiences high rainfall variability, IWMI then conducted a survey to determine the market potential for the pumps.

Four market segments were identified among smallholders: resource-rich farmers, mobile farmers (who rent land each season), resource-limited individual farmers (who have permanent access to cultivated land) and groups of farmers (who are interested in investing in solar-powered irrigation but need time and self-organization).

Each segment is slightly different in terms of the amount of water needed, land access, pump preferences and capacity to pay for the technology.

Pumptech shared these insights during a meeting on market segmentation and the suitability of solar pumps for small-scale irrigation. The meeting is part of an ongoing series of multi-stakeholder dialogues in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Initiated in 2019 by IWMI under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), the dialogues bring together relevant actors to facilitate and accelerate farmer-led irrigation development both nationally and globally.

Customized solar suitability maps

Another insight that emerged was the benefits of customized solar suitability maps for business growth. In 2018, IWMI began mapping solar irrigation suitability in Ethiopia. These maps pinpointed areas for smallholder farmers to introduce solar irrigation without depleting water resources.

IWMI then refined the mapping framework to produce an online interactive tool for sub-Saharan Africa. Geospatial information on high-potential locations for solar irrigation pumps is now available for the entire region.

Most recently, IWMI has been working with solar manufacturing and distribution companies to demonstrate how the maps and tools can be customized and incorporated into companies’ sales zoning and marketing strategies.

One of these companies is PEG Africa, which operates in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. Using the maps, PEG Africa identified the areas of biggest opportunity for its pumps, based on water resource type and depth, and adapted its marketing strategy to focus on these areas.

The maps are also being used in Ethiopia by companies such as Rensys. But during a similar multi-stakeholder meeting organized with the World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group, stakeholders noted that the limited supply of solar pumps in Ethiopia is holding back market expansion.

Price is an issue, too. This is despite the government making agricultural water technologies tax exempt in 2019. It is hoped that the country’s soon-to-be-published National Water Policy and Strategy, which incorporates several IWMI recommendations, will remove many of these bottlenecks.

Making solar technologies inclusive

An area that participants at both events agreed needs extra attention is ensuring solar irrigation technologies are inclusive. Women in particular, are more likely to face difficulties accessing resources such as land, credit and information that would enable them to invest in irrigation.

As a first step to making solar pumps more accessible, IWMI has partnered with farmers and private companies to test innovation bundles that combine pumps with financing models like pay-as-you-own.

This model allows farmers to use the irrigation equipment while making regular payments until the total cost of the pump is paid off. Payments may be weekly, monthly, quarterly or scheduled around harvest times when cash flow is highest.

IWMI is currently working with several companies in West and East Africa to refine this payment plan, so that it can be tailored to each client, including women and resource-poor farmers.

Other companies interested in helping to expand small-scale irrigation in Africa and beyond are encouraged to get in touch.

Thai Thi Minh is Senior Researcher – Upscaling Innovations, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Cecily Layzell, IWMI Consultant

 

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Argentina will receive a 347 million dollar loan from the World Bank to upgrade one of the most important suburban railway lines in the city of Buenos Aires. The operation is part of the multilateral lender’s new policy, which deepens its commitment to the fight against climate change. “The premise is that development and climate […]

The absence of world leaders may be visible in a near-empty General Assembly Hall, come September. Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

The annual high-level debate during the upcoming 76th General Assembly sessions beginning September 21 —which traditionally attracted over 150 world leaders in a pre-pandemic era– is now clouded in uncertainty.

Will it be in-person or via video conferencing? Or will it most likely be a hybrid session with a mix of the two options, as it was last year.

The uncertainty has been prompted by a fresh wave of the deadly Delta coronavirus variant which is threatening to either lock- down New York city—or undermine all plans to return to normalcy or near-normalcy.

Asked whether there is a list of world leaders who have decided to be at the session in-person, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on August 11: “The short answer is, I don’t have the list. … which is not to say the list doesn’t exist”

Pointing out the second wave of infections in the city, he said: “I think what we have to keep in mind is that the situation is extremely fluid with the Delta variant, and what plans and what people may announce now may very well change before 21 September”.

The plans may depend on what Member States decide to do at the last minute– given the situation in their own country, given the status of international travel and given what’s going on here, he said. “So, I think we just need to plan for the unexpected.”

Right now, he said, the format of the GA remains unchanged; “it’s what we had announced a few weeks ago, which is Member States will have the choice of either having an in person delivery of a speech or a video delivery of the speech”.

“I assume that a lot of plans will be made at the last minute because of the changing situation of the Delta variant in the four corners of the world… It is not for me to confirm the travel plans of a Head of State or Head of Government, especially this far out from the GA in a time where things are so volatile, in a sense, of what will happen”.

Health workers tend to patients in a temporary COVID-19 emergency ward, in New Delhi, India. Credit: UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh
Cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19 continue to climb worldwide, mostly fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which has spread to 132 countries, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in July.

With specific exceptions, several US Presidential proclamations currently suspend and limit entry into the United States, including immigrants, nonimmigrants, or noncitizens who were physically present within specific countries during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these restrictions apply to individuals and nationals from China, Iran, UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, India and the European Schengen area which includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html

But several lingering questions remain: will world leaders, billed as speakers at the General Assembly sessions, be exempted from these restrictions?

And are these leaders willing to take risks visiting a country with more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, reaching that mark for the first time since February?

The New York Times reported on August 10 that America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers during the pandemic, even those fully vaccinated. With fears of the Delta variant raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

But nearly two months later, even as Europe has overtaken the United States in vaccinations, America’s borders remain closed to most European travelers, even ones with vaccinations. And with fears of the Delta variant of the virus raging, there appears to be no end in sight.

According to the Times, the US decision to remain largely closed has dismayed Europeans
and frustrated their leaders, who are demanding that Europe’s decision to open its borders be reciprocated.

When asked for an update on the format for the high-level week, the General Assembly Spokesperson Amy Quantrill told reporters on July 27 that the letter of 23 June was the latest formal correspondence on this matter.

The Spokesperson confirmed the honor system related to vaccination status will continue for the high-level week. By swiping their UN passes, staff and others are confirming they have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 10 days and have not had symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

For unvaccinated people, she said, swiping their pass means that they have not had close contact with a person with COVID-19 in the last 10 days.

Meanwhile, the staff at the UN secretariat, which provides services, directly or indirectly, to the GA sessions is not in full force. Since early July, UN staffers, numbering over 3,000, have been given the option of either working from home or in-person.

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS that while staffers should return to work in-person, but that will depend on various factors—including what mitigation measures the UN has taken, and will take, if the situation gets worse.

If the outbreak makes the UN a hazardous work environment, he asked, will staff be able to stay home?

In any case, he pointed out, the Organization should have a policy to allow exemptions and accommodations for staff (including for medical reasons and domestic situations where children are still home from school)

In Geneva, which is the second largest UN city, things are virtually back to normal. The UN meetings were mostly online and also in a hybrid mode – both in-person and online.

Prisca Chaoui, president of the 3,500-strong Staff Union at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), told IPS there is a gradual return to the office, and currently about 50% of staff are back in their offices. This is also due to Swiss protective measures like physical distancing still being in place.

As for guidelines on wearing masks, UNOG is abiding by the recommendations of the Swiss authorities, and is in close contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) and following their advice. Staff have no concerns whatsoever as all the protection measures have been put in place and being implemented in full, she added.

While staff have never stopped working and delivering on the mandate of the Organization, many staff look forward to getting back to the office, Chaoui declared.

As the current 75th GA sessions comes to a close in early September, the outgoing President Volkan Bozkir said he advocated the value of in-person meetings throughout the 75th session and, following the application of appropriate measures, convened in-person meetings of the General Assembly throughout the year.

As the situation on New York improved, the President implemented an increase in the number of delegates in the General Assembly Hall from 1 to 1+1 and for the High-Level Week to 1+3.

To ensure that all Member States have an equal opportunity to participate in high-level week, the option for Member States to send a pre-recorded video statement was included, if delegations are unable to travel due to on-going COVID-related concerns.

This option, he said, was not intended to replace in-person attendance but rather provide delegations with an alternative means to attend that is mindful of the disparity in the implications of the pandemic on delegations, including due to the matter of vaccine equity.

 

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Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Aug 12 2021 (IPS)

Earlier in January, Indian journalist Nidhi Razdan found out she was a victim of one of the most sophisticated and elaborate cyber attacks. Razdan wrote in a piece that it was all an attempt to access her bank account details, personal data, emails, medical records, passport and access to all her devices, including computer and phone.

Nidhi Razdan

It all started in November 2019, when she was invited to speak at an event organized by the Harvard Kennedy School. Razdan was later contacted by an apparent organiser of the event, who asked if she would be interested in applying for a teaching position.

“I was interviewed online for 90 minutes, it all seemed legitimate, the questions were thorough and professional. I did a basic google search and found a journalism degree programme being offered by the Harvard Extension School, which lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile,” Razdan wrote.

In an interview given to me here, Nidhi Razdan says, “I have been a victim of a horrible cyber crime and I am not going to be embarrassed about it, I am proud of being able to stand up, speak the truth and help other people who have been through cyber attacks to have the courage to raise their voice against it.

“I wasn’t the only target, there are other people, I have made my experience public, but most of the other victims are hesitant because of the reaction they would receive,” said Razdan.

Nidhi Razdan, a journalist based out of New Delhi, India has worked with one of the country’s leading broadcasters, NDTV 24×7 for 21 years, where she rose to the position of Executive Editor. Razdan has extensively covered Indian politics and foreign policy, reporting from Pakistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Afghanistan, China, Tibet and more.

“Journalism is not just a job, it’s your life”, Razdan says. At a time when the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom index in India has dropped two places and ranked 142 on the 180-country list, Razdan flags her concern on the state of journalism, “I feel as an institution the judiciary has failed us in upholding our rights.”

“Press freedom is difficult in India because of the constant need to control the narrative. The way reporters are being hounded with FIR’s in small towns and false cases for stories that they are working on, that kind of harassment is unjustified and uncalled for,” Razdan says.

In June 2020, a few months into the lockdown, 55 Indian journalists were arrested, booked, and threatened for reporting on COVID-19. According to this report, barely just 40 days into 2021 five journalists were arrested in India, highest in any year since 1992, including FIRs and sedition charges.

RSF in its report has described India as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly. “They are exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.

“In 2020, the government took advantage of the coronavirus crisis to step up its control of news coverage by prosecuting journalists providing information at variance with the official position,” the report stated.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its report, Getting Away with Murder, ranked India 12th on the index that fares the worst when it comes to prosecuting killers of journalists.

During the 2019 Indian general elections, journalists fighting fake news faced multiple threats and abuse. Several English-language journalists who report on politics and social issues, mostly all female, told CPJ that “online harassment was endemic to their work, while some said they felt the election had driven an increase in social media messages seeking to threaten, abuse, or discredit them.”

According to this report, hostility against women journalists by online trolls is ending up in physical attacks. “The death of Lankesh, which was associated with online violence propelled by Hindutva extremism, also drew international attention to the risks faced by another Indian journalist who is openly critical of her government: Rana Ayyub. She has faced mass circulation of rape and death threats online alongside false information designed to counter her critical reporting, discredit her, and place her at greater physical risk.”

Human Rights Watch in this report said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has increasingly harassed, arrested, and prosecuted rights defenders, activists, journalists, students, academics, and others critical of the government or its policies.

“India continued to lead with the largest number of internet shutdowns globally as authorities resorted to blanket shutdowns either to prevent social unrest or to respond to an ongoing law and order problem,” the report states.

“In the last few years, and post 2014 in particular, we have definitely seen greater attempts to put pressure on the media in ways that I have not experienced before.

“For them (government), democracy means only praise of the leadership, praise of government schemes, in nation building they would like to define what nationalism is for all of us, so the media must fall in line, and communication must be one way. I think it comes from a deep sense of insecurity and the need to control the narrative all the time.

“There is also this certain ecosystem that doesn’t like independent, outspoken women at all, unfortunately that includes women trolls as well,” says Razdan.

In an interview given to me earlier, Geeta Seshu, a journalist who specialises in freedom of expression, working conditions of journalists, gender and civil liberties said, “The internet has always held out the promise of democratic communication.

Organised groups use the internet to incite hatred and abuse. When no action is taken against these vigilante groups by either the state or by private companies, they jeopardise and end up destroying all democratic space,” Seshu said.

As for Razdan, the cyber attack is still being investigated, she says, “it was a very unpleasant experience, I am used to being trolled, but I have been a victim of a very horrible crime. I hope it serves as a lesson and if it can help even one person out there, who has been through a bad experience, then it’s worth speaking up.”

 

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Excerpt:

Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi.

Flood damage in Hagen, Germany. Credit: Bärwinkel,Klaus, Creative Commons.

By External Source
Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

The world watched in July 2021 as extreme rainfall became floods that washed away centuries-old homes in Europe, triggered landslides in Asia and inundated subways in China. More than 900 people died in the destruction. In North America, the West was battling fires amid an intense drought that is affecting water and power supplies.

Water-related hazards can be exceptionally destructive, and the impact of climate change on extreme water-related events like these is increasingly evident.

In a new international climate assessment published Aug. 9, 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that the water cycle has been intensifying and will continue to intensify as the planet warms.

The report, which I worked on as a lead author, documents an increase in both wet extremes, including more intense rainfall over most regions, and dry extremes, including drying in the Mediterranean, southwestern Australia, southwestern South America, South Africa and western North America. It also shows that both wet and dry extremes will continue to increase with future warming.

 

Why is the water cycle intensifying?

Water cycles through the environment, moving between the atmosphere, ocean, land and reservoirs of frozen water. It might fall as rain or snow, seep into the ground, run into a waterway, join the ocean, freeze or evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also take up water from the ground and release it through transpiration from their leaves. In recent decades, there has been an overall increase in the rates of precipitation and evaporation.

 

Some key points in the water cycle. NASA

 

A number of factors are intensifying the water cycle, but one of the most important is that warming temperatures raise the upper limit on the amount of moisture in the air. That increases the potential for more rain.

This aspect of climate change is confirmed across all of our lines of evidence: It is expected from basic physics, projected by computer models, and it already shows up in the observational data as a general increase of rainfall intensity with warming temperatures.

Understanding this and other changes in the water cycle is important for more than preparing for disasters. Water is an essential resource for all ecosystems and human societies, and particularly agriculture.

 

What does this mean for the future?

An intensifying water cycle means that both wet and dry extremes and the general variability of the water cycle will increase, although not uniformly around the globe.

Rainfall intensity is expected to increase for most land areas, but the largest increases in dryness are expected in the Mediterranean, southwestern South America and western North America.

 

Annual average precipitation is projected to increase in many areas as the planet warms, particularly in the higher latitudes. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

 

Globally, daily extreme precipitation events will likely intensify by about 7% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) that global temperatures rise.

Many other important aspects of the water cycle will also change in addition to extremes as global temperatures increase, the report shows, including reductions in mountain glaciers, decreasing duration of seasonal snow cover, earlier snowmelt and contrasting changes in monsoon rains across different regions, which will impact the water resources of billions of people.

 

What can be done?

One common theme across these aspects of the water cycle is that higher greenhouse gas emissions lead to bigger impacts.

The IPCC does not make policy recommendations. Instead, it provides the scientific information needed to carefully evaluate policy choices. The results show what the implications of different choices are likely to be.

One thing the scientific evidence in the report clearly tells world leaders is that limiting global warming to the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 C (2.7 F) will require immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Regardless of any specific target, it is clear that the severity of climate change impacts are closely linked to greenhouse gas emissions: Reducing emissions will reduce impacts. Every fraction of a degree matters.

Mathew Barlow, Professor of Climate Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

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

Zimbabwean cities like Bulawayo are facing urban sprawl as regional African governments commit to decent and affordable houses. Credit: Ignatius Banda

By Ignatius Banda
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Ndaba Dube, a Bulawayo resident, says he built himself a home on a small piece of land after the authorities kept him on the housing waiting list for more than two decades. The land he chose is in an old township established before Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
“People are building their homes all over the place, and when you ask them, they will tell you council approved it, but I know from my own experience I couldn’t wait any longer,” Dube told IPS.

In the capital city Harare, authorities have recently responded to the practice of residents illegally occupying and building on council land by demolishing the buildings, even in some cases, imposing residential homes. This triggered a national outcry and fear that other municipalities across the country might follow suit.

With the demand for decent and affordable housing increasing in Zimbabwe’s second city, the municipality previously turned to what it called ‘in-fill’ stands, pieces of land that existed as gaps left in old townships, as a solution.

While the city says it has not issued building permits for the past five years, construction of such in-fill stands continues.

The proliferation of building of illegal housing comes at a time UN-Habitat says African governments need to make tough calls to realise the housing-for-all dream.

African finance and housing ministers met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from June 21 to 24, 2021, where they noted that most African countries are currently facing housing crises driven by high population growth.

Added to that were increased urbanisation, poor urban planning, dysfunctional land markets, rising construction costs, the proliferation of informal settlements, and underdeveloped financial systems, the ministers said

Bulawayo’s urban sprawl has only exposed the extent of the city’s housing crisis, with city officials turning to private landowners and surrounding districts for more land.

While the municipality says it has made efforts to avert congesting urban areas by not issuing permits for in-fill stands, this has not stopped residents such as Dube from constructing their homes in a country where owning a house remains a pipe dream.

“Council recognises that land is inelastic and by all means, urban sprawl needs to be avoided,” said Nesisa Mpofu, Bulawayo municipality spokesperson, in an interview with IPS.

“We do not process individual in-fill stands. It should be noted that no in-fill stands have been processed in the past five years.”

Yet buildings on in-fill stands are sprouting across the city, with some homes being built on wetlands and rocky ground – a practice condemned by city planners.

“If local authorities claim that they are not aware of housing constructions, it may mean they are parallel structures within their system,” said Abigail Siziba. She represents the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA), which lobbies the municipality on residents’ issues.

“A thorough land audit where red flags are attended to is necessary to ensure those involved in illicit land deals face the law so that residents regain trust in the housing system,” she told IPS.

Zimbabwe is one of several countries that signed the Yaoundé Declaration in June, which seeks affordable housing for all. The leaders recognised that to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, there was a need to accelerate the building of decent, affordable housing.

Zimbabwe’s long-running economic crisis characterised by mass retrenchments and eroded incomes have seen banks suspending housing loans as lenders routinely faced foreclosure and lost their homes.

But the illegal housing constructions have also come at a cost for residents.

Burst sewers have become the order of the day as existing infrastructure has not been upgraded to accommodate the additional houses.

“To be honest, we do not know who approves these homes because ever since these houses were added to our neighbourhood, we are experiencing clogged toilets. Even you report to the municipality nothing happens,” said Mariam Bhebhe, a resident in one of the city’s old townships.

“What we were previously told was that council was not issuing stands, and people were buying the stands from private developers, but it is clear now … this is not a private developer building these houses,” Bhebhe told IPS.

Mpofu insists that the local municipality does not approve of the new buildings.

“Some of these areas would have been left undeveloped when the various suburbs were initially developed, as they were considered difficult areas to develop,” Mpofu told IPS. She added this included rocky terrain, areas that required additional stormwater drains, and that needed deep or special foundations.

Effie Ncube, a community organiser in the city, said the municipality needs to make land allocations transparent if ordinary residents are to benefit from any housing projects.

“There has been a lot of corruption surrounding housing in the city where we have seen multiple allocations of land to individuals simply because they have financial clout,” Ncube told IPS.

“This has led to the exclusion of poor people who cannot raise capital to build their homes. That’s why there are a lot of suspicious housing developments across the city, but no one is being held accountable.”

Early July, the municipality announced its plans to take over part of the land belonging to the country’s largest psychiatric hospital located in the city, citing demand for residential housing, again highlighting the extent of shortage of land in the country’s second-largest metropolis.

The UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda for Africa, working with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and United Cities and Local Government of Africa (UCLGA), says it seeks to support local authorities and government to generate not only the best policy but also to generate data to inform the implementation of SDG 11.

SDG 11 seeks to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and sustainable.”

According to Oumar Sylla, Africa Regional Director for UN-Habitat, between 800 and 900 million people in Africa currently live in the cities.

UN-Habitat estimates that by 2050, more than half of sub-Sahara Africa’s population will reside in the cities.

The UN agency seeks to reduce what it calls “spatial inequalities” and is “working with cities and municipalities to develop strategies on national urban policy, on housing policy and also, how to embed urbanisation into national development plans.”

Under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe has established a National Development Strategy for housing that will explore other options for mass housing such as high-rise buildings on the realisation that land is “inelastic,” Mpofu says.

But the country’s economic performance could derail those ambitions.

 

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COVID pandemic allowed artists to find expression. Credit: Fuzia.com

By Fairuz Ahmed
New York, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Screens, devices, and smartphones replaced the human touch and day-to-day interactions as COVID-19 protocols forced millions of people into harsh lockdowns and prolonged isolation.

Screens, devices, and smartphones replaced the human touch and day-to-day interactions as COVID-19 protocols forced millions of people into harsh lockdowns and prolonged isolation.

According to a report published by UNICEF, even with more than 90 percent of the countries adopting digital and broadcast remote learning policies, more than 1 billion children were at risk of falling behind due to school closures.

With school closures, remote learning and work from home, the world also faced issues with mental health, depression, coping with the loss of loved ones and heightened stress.

Irene Zaman, who has been working with teens and adolescents in New York schools for more than 15 years, told IPS in an interview that the mental health of children, teen and their parents was a significant issue.

Artist Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan says art helped with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan

“We have got many requests from parents to offer mechanisms to assist the mental and emotional well-being of the children. This was something we never experienced, and the adaptation had to be quick,” Zaman said.

“Children, teens and even parents were facing challenges, severe or prolonged feelings of depression or sadness. As a new routine, the schools started to call homes, offering therapy and support. Among these, of the most engaging of them was art therapy for dealing with stress.”

A pilot study published in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health and completed during the pandemic showed that “emotion-based directed drawing intervention and a mandala drawing intervention may be beneficial to improve mental health in elementary school children.” These interventions could take place both online and via video conferencing.

Artist and entrepreneur Muthulakshmi Anu Narasimhan agrees with the findings. “One thing that is vital about art, especially during COVID, has been how therapeutic it is. Throughout my life, I have leaned on art to get me through difficult times. It helps me stop thinking about everything else and focus on creating something from nothing,” she said in an exclusive interview with IPS.

“When I bring to the world a physical representation of an idea I had, it gives me not just joy but a sense of triumph and accomplishment. Going through a lockdown and caring for two children as a single mom was difficult, but my art helped me rebalance and give a creative outlet to my fears and exhaustion. This not only resulted in a wider clientele and happier mental state but also better art! My art grew leaps and bounds because of how much I relied on it.”

Ironically while artists, performing artists, and musicians suffered financially during the pandemic, it was these things that kept people engaged. The World Economic Forum estimated that a six-month shutdown cost the music industry alone more than $10bn in sponsorships. It noted that innovative platforms were beginning to change this downward trajectory.

Riya Sinha, a co-founder of online platform Fuzia, told IPS that her platform had quickly adapted and had increased its focus on arts and learning.

“Earlier this year, with a focus on skill development and microlearning, we launched a series of webinars, quizzes, e-books and courses. We also provided a free platform and international audience base for upcoming artists to share their work,” Sinha said. “Word of mouth and international engagement has been unprecedented in helping create what we are today.”

Fuzia is an online hub that aims to drive women empowerment and gender equality by providing inspiration, empathy, and creativity, Sinha says. Any user with internet access can share this safe space and express themselves to an audience of about five million users.

Fuzia’s co-founder, Shraddha Varma, agrees: “Freedom of expressing creative personas and learning are the steps towards self-discovery and empowerment. Through us, learning and engagement opportunities are accessible and affordable to every individual worldwide with internet access”.

Fuzia harnessed the need to be creative and to share experiences. It created a safe place where women and others, could meet, and share their art – and at times also build a career.

Humaira Ferdous Shifa, who is currently a full-time student and working as an illustrator at Fuzia, says she started her journey as a user and ended up with a position as a graphic artist.
“I was interested in making friends and having an audience to share my work, and this was the best medium to explore. I found incredible growth in my professional and personal life.”

The platform celebrates its 9th anniversary in August with a Fuzia Creative Summit. The summit will offer a three-day virtual gathering bringing together experts, artists, and industry leaders, all under one remote roof. Here upcoming artists will have an opportunity to showcase their talents and immerse themselves in creative expression.
This article is a sponsored feature

 

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This year has given us the most vivid insights into what the new world will look like, whether it is droughts and fires in California or the latest tragic wildfires in Greece, as temperatures get so hot that even a small spark sets them off. Credit: Miriet Abrego/IPS.

By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
NEW YORK, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is absolutely right to call the latest UN climate report a “Code Red for Humanity.” Without immediate and serious action, we are condemning future generations to a dismal future.

Already, we have wasted too much time. Next year, it will be half a century since first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm warned us of the risks to our environment from human activities. More than 30 years have passed since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its first report (the latest report is its sixth). Even that first report in 1990 warned of humanity’s impact on greenhouse gas concentrations and planetary warming. Again, our actions over subsequent decades have been woefully inadequate.

If we were to permit a 2 °C increase in temperature, then the record temperatures recorded recently in the United States and unexpectedly in Canada would become 14 times more likely to happen again in future, both there and elsewhere

This year has given us the most vivid insights into what the new world will look like, whether it is droughts and fires in California or the latest tragic wildfires in Greece, as temperatures get so hot that even a small spark sets them off.

The IPCC report also looks at heat waves. If we were to permit a 2 °C increase in temperature, then the record temperatures recorded recently in the United States and unexpectedly in Canada would become 14 times more likely to happen again in future, both there and elsewhere.

There has already been an increase in the number and the strength of. Flooding is happening more often and again in places not expected as rain falls in a different way to how it did before These heavy downpours, most recently in Germany, show that the flood defenses were built for a different type of downpour and will required huge infrastructural overhauls if this is to be the new normal.

Then there is the cascading effect if the forests and vegetation have burnt down. When the rain comes again there is now nothing to hold the water back, meaning floods will have a greater impact on already devastated communities.

The key here is water. The UN’s climate negotiations only added water as a key issue to the negotiations in 2010 due to campaigning by the multi stakeholder efforts of the Water and Climate Coalition. The approach to greenhouse targets missed a huge opportunity to address the key sectors that were either contributing to the problem or would be impacted by it.

 

No Minor Injuries

Why are so many political leaders either in denial about the need for urgent action, or simply paying it lip service? The current sense of denial is unsettlingly reminiscent of the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In one painfully funny scene, a mysterious dark knight bars the path of our hero, King Arthur. The two fight and King Arthur expects the knight to stand aside when he cuts off the knight’s arm. But the knight refuses, claiming at first that it is merely a “scratch”. The fight resumes and the knight loses his other arm. Again, he refuses to submit or step aside, claiming it is “just a flesh wound.”

This is where we stand with climate change. Already, we have inflicted great injuries on our planet and we need to respond accordingly. We cannot pretend the globe has just suffered a few minor cuts and scrapes. If our world was the dark knight, you could argue that we have, through our actions, already severed a limb. We must cease our attacks and treat this as a global emergency for our global health. No band aid solution or plastering over the damage will do. Inaction will not cut it.

In a health emergency, time is of the essence. You cannot wait to call an ambulance or try to carry on as normal. If you do, the patient may not survive. The IPCC’s latest report shows we must act immediately and take the strongest action possible.

 

A Call to Action

So, what can be done with the UN IPCC’s new warning?

First, those countries that have not yet submitted new Nationally Determined Contribution targets under the UN’s Paris agreement should do so immediately.

Secondly, developed countries should increase their contribution promised in 2015 for funding from $100 billion a year for climate work to at least $200 billion by the Climate Summit in Egypt in 2022.

Thirdly, and even more importantly, governments need to aggressively focus on the corporate sector and its responsibilities. This should include making it a requirement for all companies listed on any Stock Exchange to have to produce their sustainability strategy and their Environmental, Social and Governance Report (ESG) every year. This should be a requirement for remaining on the stock exchange. This should also require them to produce science-based targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gases by 2050. Companies’ voluntary, self-created goals are no longer sufficient.

Perhaps it is even worth considering having Stock Exchanges publish the total carbon of their members and to start considering them putting a cap on what the Exchange would allow and what their contribution to net zero will be.

Fourthly, the role of local and sub-national governments needs to be supported and enhanced. Actors at the local and regional levels are critical to delivering what we need. They need to be supported to set their own 2030 targets and 2050 net zero strategies. To enable them to achieve this, central governments will need to support them and provide the extra funding. All planning decisions should be based on the new projections of climate change and building in flood plains should stop.

Fifthly, governments should review the impacts on climate change of all existing policies and not proceed unless they are within the strategy to deliver the NDC and the 2030 and 2050 Net Zero strategies. In short, governments need to start incorporating climate change into all of their thinking across all sectors. The problem is too vast, and too urgent, to do otherwise.

Sixthly, all governments need to urgently review their disaster risk reduction strategies ahead of a major UN conference on this subject scheduled for next May in Bali.

At all levels of government we need to review the interlinkages between water, agriculture, energy and climate change to ensure that planning is climate proofed. Without accounting for each of these sectors, the solutions will not be big enough to meet the challenge.

Finally, as voters, taxpayers and citizens, we need to press our political leaders to put climate change at the top of their list of priorities. They need to be reminded that it is not just future generations that will judge them and their policies—we can do so, too.

 

A Code Red Emergency

We have a decade to turn this around. Already, we have seen global temperatures rise by 1.09 °C. The IPCC suggests we may pass the all-important threshold of 1.5 °C by 2034 to 2040.

In fact, things may be even more pressing. The report that came out on Monday was the “summary for policymakers”, which means it was a negotiated document with both progressive nations and more climate sceptic and cautious countries negotiating the exact wording. While the findings were certainly scientifically sound, it is quite likely the language could have been—and probably should have been—even more urgent. We would do well to remember what some politicians have said over the last few years; if they have denied the science in the past then now is surely the time for them make way for others who are willing to give this issue the weight it so clearly deserves.

 

Felix Dodds is an Adjunct Professor at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina where he is a Principal Investigator for the Belmont funded Re-Energize project. He co-coordinated the Water and Climate Change Coalition at the Climate Negotiations (2007-2012). His new book is Tomorrow’s People and New Technology: Changing How We Live Our Lives (October 2021).

Chris Spence is an environmental consultant, writer and author of the book, Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet. He is a veteran of many climate summits and other United Nations negotiations over the past three decades.

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha (on screen) of Thailand addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-fifth session last September. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Jan Servaes
BRUSSELS, Aug 11 2021 (IPS)

Could the rise of the youth-led ‘Ratsadon’ movement lead to changes in Thai politics?

Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha now faces an ongoing threat as the movement continues to mobilize many, especially young people, against the government. They have broken traditional taboos by opening new conversations about the monarchy and shaping public discourse to question many conservative views in Thai society.

Their main demands are: First, they want the former coup leader and now elected prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, to resign. Second, they want to change the constitution, which was written by a commission appointed by the military during Prayuth’s military rule. Third, they want to reform the monarchy, and Article 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste act.

According to Tamara Loos, professor of history and Thai studies at Cornell University, the Ratsadon movement is not just about the monarchy, but rather “a massive cultural shift” away from total submission to the established powers.

Young people question those in positions of power, from state authorities to parents and teachers. Outsiders see parallels with the ‘roaring sixties’ in the US and Western Europe.

Supporters of the Ratsadon group believe that Thailand can change for the better. They want to shake up the social fabric to decentralize power, reduce inequality and create more opportunities for ordinary Thais.

Ratsadon, which means ‘common people’ in the Thai language, is run by young Thais – in their twenties and thirties or even younger. Their logo is the raised three fingers from the Hunger Games. The same symbol used by the opposition in Hong Kong and Myanmar.

Months of street protests and calls for reform were seen as an act of defiance against the old establishment in Thailand. They followed an important political development when the progressive Future Forward Party was disbanded in February 2020.

Founded in 2018, Future Forward became popular among young voters. It took a critical stance against the military, monopolies and the current 2017 constitution, which was written during Prayuth’s military rule.

The Future Forward party came third in the 2019 general election with around 6.3 million votes before being dissolved by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2020 for violating “election laws” that are still up for debate. Even the US embassy in Bangkok condemned the ban.

Thus, the establishment seems largely intact, thanks to the thick layer of nepotism and corruption ingrained in the Thai system. Prime Minister Prayuth is still in power as opposition calls for the former junta leader to resign went unanswered.

Meanwhile, attempts to amend the constitution as a result of the 2014 coup have also floundered, stalling in a parliament packed with Prayuth’s allies.

The ongoing protests resulted in lawsuits. Nearly 700 protesters have been charged with crimes ranging from causing unrest to sedition. Among them, a record 103 have been accused of the infamous Lese Majesty Law.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) call for the Thai authorities to end legal prosecution against individuals exercising their right to freedom of expression and to amend article 112 to bring it into line with Thailand’s human rights obligations under the 1966 International Treaty on Civil and Political Rights.

But public pressure on the government is mounting. The recent spate of COVID-19 outbreaks has sparked a new wave of anti-government protests that have seen older political groups return, including some of Prayuth’s former allies.

Only 6% of Thailand’s population of more than 70 million has been fully vaccinated and most of the country including Bangkok is under lockdown with a night-time curfew. Gatherings of more than five people are currently banned.

The Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index ranks more than 120 countries and regions on infection management, vaccine rollouts and social mobility at the end of each month. Thailand is listed last in the current listing.

The Prayuth government is feeling the hot breath of popular anger and is trying to find a way out. If we are to believe a leaked government document, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul want to be exempted from any future prosecution for the fiasco of the COVID-19 campaigns.

On the other hand, others are called in, such as “Captain” Thamanat, the rapidly rising heroin-convicted Secretary-General of the ruling military Palang Pracharath Party who seems to be protected by powerful interests.

What does this mean for the anti-government movement? How will all the groups reconcile their differences and how much of a threat do they pose to the government now?

Political commentator Voranai Vanijaka recounts the differences: Royalists are afraid to support the Move Forward Party and the Progressive Movement to remove General Prayuth, because then the monarchy will also come under attack.

People also don’t want to support Pheu Thai because of the shadow of Thaksin Shinawatra and the history of the red shirts. The Re-solution Movement is trying to put constitutional reform and the junta-appointed 250 senators back at the center of attention.

But, Voranai says, at the moment we seem to be content to release our frustrations on social media. “We post really mean things about General Prayuth with really mean hashtags. Then we post really mean things about each other. We then go to bed convinced that we have done our bit for democracy, especially if we get a lot of ‘like’ clicks and shares.”

“Continue to criticize and condemn the Prayuth regime, it is not only our democratic right, but it is also a democratic duty of the conscientious citizen. But understand that as long as we, the common people, cannot overcome our hatred of each other and cross the barrier, as long as we cannot find a unifying actor/factor, General Prayuth will continue to giggle for at least four, if not more years.”

However, initially peaceful and playful demonstrations have become increasingly grim and violent.

“Thais are tired of seeing the same general (and his cronies) in power amidst continuing economic malaise,” observes Paul Chambers, a political analyst and lecturer at Thailand’s Naresuan University.

“With the voice of the people increasingly silenced in parliament, more people will take to the streets to make their voices heard,” Chambers said. “Repressing them can only be temporary,” he added. “Thai elites will eventually have to make concessions to reformers. The only question is when.”

Jan Servaes was UNESCO-Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He taught ‘international communication’ in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, the US, Netherlands and Thailand, in addition to short-term projects at about 120 universities in 55 countries. He is editor of the 2020 Handbook on Communication for Development and Social Change
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8

 

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The UNFSS hopes to transform how food is produced, packaged, and distributed to tackle food insecurity and wastage. Credit: Alison Kentish

By Alison Kentish
Roseau, Dominica, Aug 10 2021 (IPS)

The world has been put on notice that there is no time to waste in achieving the goal of food systems transformation.

Through Pre-Summit and national dialogues, scientists, policymakers, farmers, NGOs, private sector representatives and youth groups have been building momentum ahead of the United Nations Food Systems Summit in September. The goal is to ensure that the world produces food with greater attention to climate change, poverty, equity, sustainability and waste reduction.

The Global Alliance for the Future of Food is one of the partners addressing the urgency of food systems transformation for food security, equity, the global economy and COVID-19 recovery. Since 2012, the alliance of philanthropic foundations has engaged in global discussions, supported and led global food transformation research and advanced initiatives in climate, health and agroecology.

The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) collaborates with the Alliance to share ideas and knowledge to design projects capable of guaranteeing a more sustainable food system for future generations.

IPS spoke to the Alliance’s Senior Director of Programmes, Lauren Baker, about the urgent need to overhaul food systems, the impact of COVID-19 on those systems and why true cost accounting is essential to the international effort to revamp the production, sale and distribution of food.

Dr Lauren Baker

Inter Press Service (IPS): The Global Alliance for the Future of Food has been on a mission to make food systems more sustainable and equitable. The UN Food Systems Summit has the same goal. What do you want to see the Summit achieve?

Lauren Baker (LB): Through the summit process, we have been committed to engaging a network of champions in food systems. We are championing systems thinking, transparency and accountability. We uphold the need for diverse evidence and inclusive representation throughout the process.

Our goal has been to bring the focus of research on one issue, which we think is a significant lever for food systems transformation, and this is being echoed by many in the summit process. This is the issue of true cost accounting.

Over and over across the action tracks, we have heard people emphasize the need for measurable and transparent approaches like true cost accounting to move us forward. What true cost accounting is: we look at the negative externalities of food systems that are not fit for purpose. The industrial food system has several significant impacts on human health and the environment. We need to take these into account, use that information to think differently and make different decisions that advance and uphold the true value of food and bring the alternatives to light.

There are many food systems initiatives proliferating around the world that are healthy, equitable, diverse, inclusive, renewable and resilient. How do we shine a light on those integrated benefits of food systems when they’re managed properly, and they’re not extractive?

(IPS): What are some of the food systems lessons you think we’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?

(LB): I think the Summit comes at this time when everyone’s awareness of food systems issues is heightened, and this makes the work of the Summit even more critical.

One of the key lessons has been just how vulnerable equity-deserving groups are in the context of this kind of global emergency. If you extend that into future emergencies that will come our way because of climate change, then we need to address those issues of equity and the social systems that lift people instead of making them more vulnerable in the context of something like a pandemic.

We have seen essential workers continue to be stressed. We have seen the impact of COVID on migrant workers, farmers and supply chain resilience. We have seen that the global supply chain through COVID, on the one hand, has been very vulnerable. On the other hand, it’s been durable, but there has been increasing interest because of COVID on resilient local and regional supply chains. Throughout the Pre-summit, I heard government officials and other actors emphasizing the importance of building and strengthening local and regional supply chains.

I think it’s just highlighted resilience overall – the idea of resilience and how food systems are connected to our other crises, like our crisis of inequality globally, our climate crisis and our biodiversity crisis. We now see that those things are intimately connected, and the solutions will have to be interrelated as well.

(IPS): How important is indigenous knowledge to this mission of food systems transformation?

(LB): In our work on true cost accounting, I think indigenous knowledge is very undervalued if you consider the true value of food systems.

Indigenous people historically have managed and stewarded their food systems and have knowledge that they can offer to the world. Their knowledge is very place-based, and I heard throughout the summit process about how important place-based science knowledge innovation is. That type of knowledge provides a grounded perspective, a different worldview that connects us to the places we live in different ways than we are connected presently.

(IPS): Food systems experts also continue to push for agroecology to be at the centre of these discussions. What is your take on this?

(LB): For me, when you look across the food system, agroecology is a systemic solution that brings forward all of these values that I was talking about in a really clear way.

Agroecology can improve livelihoods in terms of shifting from a system that has negative impacts to positive benefits. It is creative and knowledge-intensive. It is also placed based and ecological. It is diverse, so we need to uphold the importance of agricultural biodiversity and agriculture as connected to, wild landscapes too. Agroecology connects in a nice way to our wild spaces, to agroforestry, where biodiversity and habitat can be preserved and enhanced.

We’re doing some great work right now to assess using a true cost accounting framework, all of these agro-ecological initiatives around the world to look at their positive impacts on the environment, socio-cultural impacts on human health and their economic impacts.

We are excited to be launching that work at that the food system summit in September. We think it’s an important way to hold up agroecology, indigenous knowledge and the creativity in urban communities that we see around food systems.

(IPS): What do you think is the key message ahead of the Food Systems Summit?

(LB): One key message for me is just the importance of transparency in all of this.

How do we ensure that our global leaders act boldly right now and embrace measurable transparent approaches, systemic approaches, that actually can facilitate inclusive transformation as quickly as possible? We just can’t afford to wait!

 

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By External Source
Aug 10 2021 (IPS-Partners)

In the latest edition of The Interview, Indian-American astronaut Sirisha Bandla speaks to Hindustan Times and talks about the gender bias that she thinks exists in the aeronautical field. She talks about stars, describes how she gradually fell for the space environment and how space exploration became a passion for her. On July 12, the 34-year-old aeronautical engineer became the third Indian-American woman to fly into space when she joined British billionaire Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic’s first fully-crewed successful suborbital test flight from the US state of New Mexico. Watch the full video for more.

Source: Hindustan Times

With most of its land only a few feet above sea level, Kiribati is seeing growing damage from storms and flooding. But even under a zero carbon emissions scenario, sea level rises would continue for centuries, causing massive human displacement and loss of livelihoods for billions of people. Credit: UNICEF/Vlad Sokhin

By Adam Day
NEW YORK, Aug 10 2021 (IPS)

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its starkest report yet, expressing a clear consensus on the rapid changes to global temperatures.

While this has been called a “code red” moment and a “wake-up call” for action, the report builds on what the scientific community has been saying for decades: climate change is irrefutably being caused by human activity and it is having system-wide impacts on every aspect of our lives today.

As Greta Thunberg points out, the IPCC report only summarizes the science, it does not tell us what to do. Unless we take a transformational approach to climate change, we will continue to collectively hit the snooze button long after the last alarm bell has rung.

A transformational approach recognizes that we are already beyond any of the best-case scenarios, views climate change as central to our collective security, and demands a new understanding of growth.

We are already beyond the 1.5 degree threshold

For the first time, the IPCC report lays out what would happen if we ceased all carbon emissions today. Global temperatures would stabilize in a few decades, reversing some of most pernicious effects of climate change.

But even under a zero carbon emissions scenario, sea level rises would continue for centuries, causing massive human displacement and loss of livelihoods for billions of people. And that is under a highly improbable scenario of a total end of carbon emissions right now – the reality is going to be much worse.

While the 1.5 degree goal is a useful tool to encourage emissions reductions and greater funding, realistically we need to start planning for some of the worst scenarios laid out by the IPCC and others. We need the kind of global disaster preparedness that was clearly lacking when the pandemic broke out.

The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC will take place in November 2021 in Glasgow. Credit: United Nations

Climate is fundamental to our security

As our recent research has shown, climate change is acting as a risk multiplier for conflict and insecurity across the world, often causing risks indirectly through displacement, economic shocks, natural disasters, and rapid changes in livelihoods.

From climate wars to farmer herder conflicts, rising global temperatures are contributing to instability. This points to the need to move climate change from a marginal issue to a central one across all major areas of government: security, health, infrastructure, education, and development.

The Biden Administration’s decision to make climate change part of the US national security strategy is the right step. We will need to tackle climate holistically across all government functions rather than treating it as an isolated, standalone issue.

A transformational approach to growth

Estimates of what is required to cope with climate change runs into the trillions per year, already far outstripping the pledges made under the Paris Agreement. As global populations and urbanization increase together, the cost of climate change is not only rising dramatically, it constitutes an existential risk to our model of human development.

Mobilizing resources is part of the story, but if we pour those resources back into the same kind of energy consumption – or worse, if the pandemic response bypasses the safeguards put in place to protect the environment in a rush to build back better – it will be like putting a band-aid on an amputated limb.

What is needed is a more fundamental shift in how we view development and prosperity: rather than being measured solely in terms of Gross Domestic Product, we need to value and measure our collective wellbeing, the sustainability of our actions, the ability of our production to contribute to a cycle rather than an endless output of carbon.

While continuing to mobilize funds, the COP26 agenda needs to also push this more transformational agenda, to think of development as a symbiosis with our environment rather than a parasitic or predatory relationship between humans and the Earth.

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Director of Programmes at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research

By Mary Suma Cardosa, Chan Chee Khoon, Chee Heng Leng and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
PENANG and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 2021 (IPS)

To achieve universal health coverage, a country needs a healthcare system that provides equitable access to high quality health care requiring sustainable financing over the long term. Publicly provided healthcare should be on the basis of need, a citizen’s entitlement for all regardless of means.

Mary Suma Cardosa

Health inequalities growing
But recent decades have seen health care trending towards a two-tier system – a perceived higher quality private sector, and lower quality public services. One typical consequence is medical doctors, especially specialists, leaving public service for much more lucrative private practice.

This ‘brain drain’ has led to longer waiting times and complaints of deteriorating public service quality, as more people with means turn to private facilities. As costs in private hospitals are high and increasing, this causes those who can afford private health insurance to turn to it to hedge their bets.

If these trends are not checked, the gap between private and public health sectors in terms of charges and quality will grow, increasing polarisation in access to quality health care between haves and have-nots.

Health care financing
Financing arrangements are key to developing an equitable healthcare system that is financially sustainable in the long run. For universal coverage and equitable access, health financing should be based on social solidarity through cross-subsidisation, with the healthy financing the ill, and the rich subsidising the poor.

Experience the world over shows health markets functioning poorly, both in financing and providing healthcare. Furthermore, heavy reliance on market solutions has contributed to spiralling costs and constrained healthcare access.

Private health insurance
A voluntary private health insurance (PHI) scheme cannot be financially viable in the long term as individuals with lower health risks are less likely to buy insurance from a scheme which they see as primarily benefiting others less healthy.

Chan Chee Khoon

Since voluntary schemes are usually based on PHI, government support for such schemes would strengthen these companies. There are good reasons to be wary of the growing influence of PHI interests in healthcare financing discussions.

Premiums for PHI are risk-rated, meaning that individuals with pre-existing conditions and higher risks – such as the elderly, or those with family histories of illness – will face un-affordably high premiums or be denied coverage.

‘Moral hazard’ and ‘supplier-induced demand’ in a ‘fee-for-service’ reimbursement system encourage unnecessary investigations and over-treatment, or costly monitoring to limit such abuse. Hence, PHI companies use ‘managed healthcare’ services to contain costs by limiting investigations and treatments.

Voluntary PHI schemes charge high premiums while fee-for-service payments escalate costs which inevitably raise premiums. Thus, the US spends the most on health in the world, but with surprisingly modest health outcomes to show for it.

Much public expenditure is needed to insure the poor, especially those with prior health conditions. Achieving UHC would require costly public subsidisation of such profitable arrangements. This would not be cost-effective, let alone equitable.

Government support for PHI companies would strengthen their growing presence and influence, typically involving transnational insurance conglomerates. PHI companies are likely to try to undermine others threatening their interests.

Social health insurance
Unlike VHI, social health insurance (SHI) is usually mandatory to cover the entire population. Although often proposed and promoted with the best of intentions, the limitations and problems of SHI are also important to consider.

Chee Heng Leng

SHI would effectively require collecting an additional ‘payroll tax’ from the public. This could be designed with various distributional consequences, e.g., if flat, it would be regressive. As an additional tax would reduce take-home incomes, SHI schemes have been difficult to introduce.

Like PHI, SHI also has inherent tendencies for over-treatment and cost escalation due to ‘moral hazard’ and ‘supply-induced demand’. These require costly, strong and typically bureaucratic administrative controls.

Surviving SHI schemes owe their ‘success’ to specific reasons, e.g., Germany’s evolved from its long history of union-provided health insurance. But most working people in developing countries are not in formal employment, let alone unionised. Hence, SHI would have difficulty gaining broad acceptance.

In any case, Germany and other countries with successful SHI in the past have been moving to greater revenue funding of healthcare as formal employment and unionisation decline with changing labour arrangements.

With SHI, government revenue would still have to cover the indigent and poor. It is difficult to collect premiums from the self-employed, or the casual and informal workers not on regular payrolls. But universal coverage would not be achieved without including them.

Revenue financed healthcare
Inherited revenue-based healthcare financing is basically sound and should not be replaced due to other healthcare system problems. In most societies, revenue-sourced healthcare financing can be retained, reinforced and improved by:

o increasing government health care allocations.
o reducing ‘leakages’ by eliminating waste, corruption, ‘cronyism’, etc.
o promoting ‘developmental governance’, competitive bidding, etc.
o raising government revenue, especially from more progressive taxation, e.g., wealth, ‘windfall’ and ‘sin’ taxes, especially on activities worsening health risks such as tobacco and sugar consumption.

Revenue financing better
Revenue-financing avoids many administrative costs incurred by PHI and SHI. It has no need for an elaborate parallel system, costly mechanisms and more staff to register, track and pay SHI contributors and beneficiaries, and to deter selfish opportunistic behaviour.

Compared to PHI, SHI seems like a step forward for countries with weak or non-existent public healthcare systems. But moving from revenue-financing to SHI would be a step backwards in terms of both equity and cost-effectiveness.

SHI requires additional layers of health care system administration – to enrol, collect, ascertain coverage, determine benefits and make payments – which incurs unnecessary costs compared to revenue-financing.

Hence, such insurance systems involve much more per capita health spending, raising it by 3-4%. Despite being much more costly than revenue financed systems, they do not have better health outcomes.

As SHI effectively imposes a payroll tax, it discourages employers from hiring employees with ‘proper’ labour contracts. Hence, SHI was estimated to reduce formal contracts by 8-10% and total employment by 5-6% in rich countries.

International evidence clearly shows progressive tax-funded public health systems are more equitable, cost-effective and beneficial than SHI. Public health programmes needing popular participation, e.g., breast or cervical cancer screening, have worse outcomes with SHI compared to revenue-financing.

This can be best achieved by improving or developing a revenue-funded healthcare system, with additional resources deployed to expand and enhance primary health care, and better service conditions for medical personnel.

Strengthening public healthcare services can do much, not only to improve staff work conditions, but also morale and pride in their work.

Mary Suma CARDOSA is a medical doctor specializing in pain management and past President of the Malaysian Medical Association. CHAN Chee Khoon, ScD, is a health systems and health policy analyst with postgraduate training in epidemiology. CHEE Heng Leng, PhD, is an academic researcher working in the area of health and health care policy. All are members of the Citizens Health Initiative.

 

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Following bereavement, children experience grief, distress, and other emotional and behavioral difficulties which must be addressed. | Picture courtesy: Vicky Roy/Save the Children-India

By External Source
Aug 9 2021 (IPS)

The second wave of COVID-19 brought with it unimaginable grief, agony, and frustration. India saw a sharp increase in the number of deaths, especially among younger people, which meant that many children lost one or both parents. Reports of people seeking help for orphaned children as well as requests to ‘adopt’ these children emerged on social media.

Data collected and presented by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in the Supreme Court as of June 8th, 2021 revealed that COVID-19 left 3,621 children orphaned. Additionally, more than 26,000 children lost one of their parents and 274 children were abandoned. These numbers, which are likely to be higher, indicate grave protection-related issues for children.

In the absence of proper documentation—such as a death certificate indicating death due to COVID-19 or as a result of other COVID-19 related issues such as mucormycosis—many eligible children may not be able to access the benefits of these schemes

To address this emerging child rights issue, the central government and various state governments announced social protection packages for children orphaned due to COVID-19. These packages mainly include cash transfers (different governments have designed various modalities) and concessions with a preference for the education of children who have been orphaned.

Some packages also include health insurance and employment assurance upon completion of education. Though timely, there is a conscious need to design, allocate, and implement these schemes using a child-sensitive lens that responds to gender and age-appropriate needs.

 

Design better schemes

In most state government packages, an orphaned child will receive monthly cash transfers ranging from INR 2,000 to 5,000. Like various other programmes, the basis for allocating these amounts isn’t clear and lacks consistency across states. The targeting and eligibility criteria also vary from state to state. For example, the Andhra Pradesh government will provide benefits to orphans from families living below the poverty line.

However, we know that measuring income in India is a complex process and many poor people are unable to access the benefits of welfare programmes that are designed on the basis of income criteria. The monthly cash transfers for children who have been orphaned are primarily provided to promote foster or kinship care (where a family that is already known to the child becomes responsible for their care).

And so it is not clear whether the government will assess the economic situation of the family in which a child lost their parent, or that of the foster care or kinship family, or both. Evidence shows there are higher chances of exclusion errors due to this type of condition.

On May 29th, 2021, the central government announced a package for children who have lost their parents due to COVID-19. It provides financial support for education, health insurance, and a fixed deposit or corpus of INR 10 lakh in the name of the child. Once a child turns 18, they will be given monthly support for five years for their higher education and when they turn 23, they will have access to the corpus amount.

While the central government package focuses more on educational needs, the state governments’ announcements focus on immediate financial needs. Holistically, they complement each other. However, it is not clear whether orphaned children are eligible to avail benefits of both the state and central government schemes. Further, children may find it difficult to access these cash transfers in times of need, as they will be controlled by their caregivers until they are 18 years old.

Another challenge is that the schemes that have been announced do not make any mention of monitoring systems. It has been found that in the absence of some mechanism to monitor such schemes, they do not perform well.

 

Simplify access to schemes

The second wave also highlighted that COVID-19 related deaths were under-reported. This too will pose a challenge in the implementation of government schemes that target orphaned children. In the absence of proper documentation—such as a death certificate indicating death due to COVID-19 or as a result of other COVID-19 related issues such as mucormycosis—many eligible children may not be able to access the benefits of these schemes.

Save the Children has found that most vulnerable children and their families lack identity proof and bank accounts, which will make it impossible for them to access these packages. Further, children who have been abandoned or lost one parent due to COVID-19 have been totally excluded from these schemes. These children are equally vulnerable as those who have lost both parents and are also at risk of child labour and trafficking.

Keeping these issues in mind, we recommend simplifying the conditions to include children who have been abandoned or lost one parent due to COVID-19 as well. Governments must also notify a date for the implementation of these schemes which will help simplify the process of identifying beneficiaries as well as reduce the chances of exclusion by error.

 

What about psychosocial needs?

While the schemes that have been announced appear to fulfill education and financial needs, they have neglected the immediate and long-term psychosocial and emotional care required by children. They have missed acknowledging the importance of building an emotional connection between children and kinship caregivers. Moreover, these schemes have missed highlighting the specific early childcare requirements of children in the age group of 0-6 years.

Following bereavement, children experience grief, distress, and other emotional and behavioural difficulties which must be addressed too. Evidence shows that in the absence of responsive care and parenting as an integral part of these schemes, cash transfers may not be able to achieve the desired result of promoting foster and kinship care.

We also know that children who have been orphaned and their caregivers both need sustained support to adjust and adapt to the new situation. In absence of social workers or frontline workers who can deal with child protection issues under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme, providing this much-needed support poses another challenge—the announced packages have not recognised the need for it.

It is critical to translate these well-appreciated announcements into child-sensitive schemes to ensure every child who is vulnerable and at-risk as a result of the pandemic is protected. Child-sensitive social protection schemes are designed in a specific manner.

They need to provide equal opportunity, address age-specific needs, prioritise children’s needs of care, protection and psychosocial well-being, and be integrated with other government programmes. More importantly, the targeting criteria and conditionalities need to be simple and inclusive, rather than designed to promote exclusion.

Think tanks such as NITI Aayog must come forward to provide policy directives or frameworks that governments can use to design an integrated child-sensitive social protection scheme. State governments can also reach out to civil society and child rights organisations to seek support in designing and implementing these schemes. The pandemic and its growing impact on children is a timely reminder to invest adequately in children in an integrated manner.

 

Anisha Ghosh is a development sector professional with more than 10 years of experience, specialising in child rights. She currently works with Save the Children-India as Assistant Manager, Policy and Advocacy (poverty & inclusion) focusing on child poverty, gender, resilience & climate change, and urban issues. She is a postgraduate in journalism and a graduate in sociology. She is a passionate advocate for social justice and human rights.

Pranab Kumar Chanda works with Save the Children-India as Head of Child Poverty. Pranab’s work integrates child sensitivity in governments’ social protection, livelihoods, and skill building programmes. An alumna of International School of Social Sciences, The Hague and XISS, Ranchi, Pranab has more than 17 years of experience in livelihoods, social protection, skill-building, and resilience building. His key interest areas include dynamics of (child) poverty, social protection, youth employment, and their linkages with child rights and well-being.

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

 

Secretary-General António Guterres (left) discusses the State of the Planet with Professor Maureen Raymo at Columbia University in New York City. December 2020. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9 2021 (IPS)

A landmark report on the hazards of climate change predicts a devastating future for the world at large.

Authored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and released August 9, the study is being described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “code red for humanity”— a rallying cry before an impending global disaster.

“The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible,” warns Guterres.

He says the internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius is perilously close. “We are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts, and pursuing the most ambitious path. We must act decisively now to keep 1.5 alive.”

The recent changing weather patterns worldwide– including the devastation caused by wild fires in 13 states in the US, plus Siberia, Turkey and Greece, heavy rains and severe flooding in central China and Germany, droughts in Iran, Madagascar and southern Angola– warn of a dire future unless there are dramatic changes in our life styles.

The impending hazards also threaten animal and plant species, coral reefs, ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica, and projects a sea-level rise that threatens the very existence of the world’s small island developing states (SIDS) which can be wiped off the face of the earth.

The 10 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases include China, the US, the 27-member European Union (EU), India, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran and Canada.

The study predicts that average global temperatures are likely to rise 1.5 degree Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit and will continue to warm for another 10 years. At that point, nearly one billion people worldwide could face life-threatening heat waves at least once every five years.

Rescuers pull villagers from flood waters in Xingyang city in China’s Henan Province. Credit: WMO

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing global climate, water-related hazards top the list of natural disasters with the highest human losses in the past 50 years, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released July 20.

According to a report in Cable News Network (CNN), scientists say the only way to keep from reaching this point of no return and to prevent even more catastrophic damage is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero.

As many as 260 million people in the US are expected “to experience high temperatures at least 90 degrees by the end of the week as a new heat wave settles over parts of the country.”

Nafkote Dabi, Climate Policy Lead at Oxfam, warms of the climate change repercussions amid “a world in parts burning, in parts drowning and in parts starving”.

The report is “the most compelling wake-up call yet for global industry to switch from oil, gas and coal to renewables. Governments must use law to compel this urgent change. Citizens must use their own political power and behaviors to push big polluting corporations and governments in the right direction. There is no Plan B’.

Asked whether the UN was on the right track in its fight against the hazards of climate change, Dr Shilpi Srivastava, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) , told IPS: “The UN needs to strongly urge the rich countries to contribute substantively towards climate finance, in particular towards adaptation and addressing loss and damage.”

She said the world body should encourage its member countries to ensure that policies for adaptation and mitigation, including achieving net zero emissions, are just and inclusive, and do not bring undue harm to those on the frontline of climate change.

She also pointed out that the report comes amidst another year of severe heatwaves, droughts, flooding, forest fires and extreme events which are impacting communities across the globe.

“The findings should serve as a reminder that we need to urgently prioritise support for those who are most disadvantaged and already experiencing the worst impacts of climate change”.

“We need transformative climate justice for people across the globe who’ve been marginalised and excluded from decision-making on impacts and interventions. We need to talk about loss and damage for vulnerable communities and must hold governments accountable to deliver programmes that bring meaningful and positive change in the lives of those most affected by climate change.”

She said leaders meeting at COP26 (in Glasgow in November) need to listen to science and take decisive actions to keep fossil fuels in the grounds. In parallel, they must ensure that policies for mitigation and adaptation are just and inclusive.

“Technical fixes will not take us very far, and can perpetuate the systems of inequity and injustice in the form of displacement and land grabs, something we are already witnessing in the name of ‘green’ solutions,” she warned .

“Policymakers need to recognise the place-based realities of people living in the planet’s most vulnerable places and ensure that their lived-in experiences, voice and knowledge (s) count in decision making. Our global biodiversity and climate crisis requires action, but action that addresses the root drivers of the crises – poverty, inequity and marginalization,” she declared.

Refugees in Minawao, in northeastern Cameroon, plant trees in a region which has been deforested due to climate change and human activity. Credit: UNHCR/Xavier Bourgois

Meanwhile, Guterres said 2021, “must be the year for action”, as he called for a number of “concrete advances”, before countries gather for COP26 – the 26th session of Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“Countries need to submit ambitious new nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that were designed by the Paris Agreement. Their climate plans for the next 10 years must be much more efficient.”

“We are already at 1.2 degrees and rising. Warming has accelerated in recent decades. Every fraction of a degree counts. Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels. Extreme weather and climate disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. That is why this year’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow is so important,” he noted.

Guterres also pointed out that “the viability of our societies depends on leaders from government, business and civil society uniting behind policies, actions and investments that will limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We owe this to the entire human family, especially the poorest and most vulnerable communities and nations that are the hardest hit despite being least responsible for today’s climate emergency”.

The solutions are clear, he argued, “Inclusive and green economies, prosperity, cleaner air and better health are possible for all if we respond to this crisis with solidarity and courage.”

All nations, especially the G20 and other major emitters, need to join the net zero emissions coalition and reinforce their commitments with credible, concrete and enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions and policies before COP26 in Glasgow.

The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus the 27-member European Union (EU) .

Oxfam’s Dabi said in recent years, with 1°C of global heating, there have been deadly cyclones in Asia and Central America, floods in Europe and the UK, huge locust swarms across Africa, and unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires across the US and Australia ―all turbo-charged by climate change.

Over the past 10 years, more people have been forced from their homes by extreme weather-related disasters than for any other single reason ―20 million a year, or one person every two seconds.

She pointed out the number of climate-related disasters has tripled in 30 years. Since 2000, the UN estimates that 1.23 million people have died and 4.2 billion have been affected by droughts, floods and wildfires.

“The richest one percent of people in the world, approximately 63 million people, are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution as the 3.1 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity,” said Dabi.

The people with money and power will be able to buy some protection against the effects of global warming for longer than people without those privileges and resources ―but not forever. No one is safe. “This report is clear that we are at the stage now when self-preservation is either a collective process or a failed one,” she added.

She said very few nations ―and none of the world’s wealthy nations― have submitted climate plans consistent with keeping warming below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. If global emissions continue to increase, the 1.5°C threshold could be breached as early as the next decade.

The IPCC report must spur governments to act together and build a fairer and greener global economy to ensure the world stays within 1.5°C of warming. They must cement this in Glasgow.

Rich country governments must meet their $100 billion-a-year promise to help the poorest countries grapple with the climate crisis ―according to Oxfam, not only have they failed to deliver on their promise, but over-inflated reports of their contributions by as much as three times, she declared.

The IPCC comprises experts and scientists from around the world and its report was compiled by more than 200 scientists from 195 countries.

 

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