Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

With the Covid-19 contagion from late 2019 spreading internationally this year, governments have responded, often in desperation. Meanwhile, predatory international law firms are encouraging multimillion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits citing Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery measures.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Sharing the pain
Most governments failed to introduce sufficient precautionary measures early enough to prevent Covid-19 contagions from spreading. And when they did act, they often believed they had little choice but to impose nationwide ‘stay in shelter’ lockdowns to enforce preventive physical distancing.

To enable businesses and households to survive the adverse effects of such lockdowns, governments have provided relief measures, for at least some of those believed to have been adversely affected, especially for businesses better able to lobby effectively.

Meanwhile, there are already thousands of mainly bilateral investment treaties as well as bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements worldwide, enabling foreign investors to sue governments before private arbitration tribunals to profit from their wide-ranging treaty rights.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) can claim staggering sums in damages for alleged investment losses, for either alleged expropriation, or more typically, indirect ‘damage’ caused by regulatory changes, in this case, Covid-19 government response measures.

As some such measures try to share the burden of the crisis, e.g., with asset owners and other contracting parties, the international law firm Shearman & Sterling advises financial firms, “While helping debtors, these measures would inevitably impact creditors by causing loss of income”, referring to debt relief and restructuring efforts among others.

Foreign registered real estate or property companies can also sue governments that protect lessees or tenants who cannot make their lease or rent payments as contractually scheduled after their operations are shut down or disrupted by emergency regulations imposed.

Pharmaceutical and medical supplies companies can also appeal to such arbitration tribunals to claim losses due to price controls and ‘violated’ intellectual property rights for Covid-19 tests, treatments, medical and protective equipment as well as vaccines.

Lucrative ISDS lawsuits
In recent months, international law firms have been encouraging ISDS lawsuits citing government measures to check contagion and mitigate their economic consequences, urging clients to invoke investment and trade agreements to claim for allegedly lost income or additional losses or costs due to new government policy measures.

Another firm Ropes & Gray advises: “Governments have responded to COVID-19 with a panoply of measures, including…limitations on business operations, and tax benefits. Notwithstanding their legitimacy, these measures can negatively impact businesses by reducing profitability, delaying operations or being excluded from government benefits…For companies with foreign investments, investment agreements could be a powerful tool to recover or prevent loss resulting from COVID-19 related government actions.” [my italics]

Shearman & Sterling advises, “Some interventions will be protectionist—they will seek to support or benefit domestic enterprises (strategic or otherwise) but not foreign investors”, without mentioning their generally far lower tax contributions and generous investment incentives enjoyed.

Profiting from the pandemic
After advising clients to look out for discriminatory measures which could become the bases for such claims, law firm Sidley warns governments that proceedings can be very costly as “it is not only the actually invested amounts that can be considered recoverable damages, but also lost future profits”.

Such law firms remind their clientele that many of the more than thousand ISDS lawsuits filed worldwide have arisen during political or economic crises. Covid-19 pandemic response measures are now being widely studied as possible pretexts for another round of lawsuits.

These corporate lawsuits can impose massive fiscal burdens on governments. As Pia Eberhardt shows, legal costs average well over US$6 million per party, but can be much higher. Hence, such suits can drain government fiscal resources.

Although it becomes much more expensive if governments lose, they still have to cover their own legal expenses even if they do not lose. As of 2018, governments had been ordered to pay US$88 billion for settlements made public.

There is considerable scope for such cases given the still growing, broad range of government Covid-19 measures, e.g., foreign-owned water supply companies can sue governments for insisting that more public water supply sources be provided, or household water supplies remain uninterrupted, even if water bills are not settled, to enable more regular hand washing.

ISDS undemocratic, illegitimate
International investment law is generally independent of national legislatures and biased toward TNC interests. Investment agreements prescribe foreign investor rights and privileges very broadly, but their duties and obligations, usually rather minimally.

Sovereign national societies, parliaments and governments have considerable scope for discretion in addressing complex political issues involving diverse social and economic interests. Also, national courts generally do not award damages for lost future profits as these are considered completely conjectural.

But ISDS provides much more favourable treatment to powerful TNCs. Also, international arbitration tribunals ignore and undermine the legitimate scope for national courts, law-making and democratic government decision-making.

The typically transnational arbitration tribunals that interpret such law generally ignore recent legal developments, which take more account of the rights and responsibilities of various other stakeholders in national societies. Thus, arbitration awards tend to be much more lucrative, for both TNCs and their lawyers, than ordinary national court decisions.

A South Centre Southview urges considering various measures in response to the threat such as terminating or suspending investment treaties, withdrawing consent to arbitration, statutorily prohibiting recourse to arbitration and appealing to TNCs’ corporate moral responsibility

Already, there are growing appeals for an immediate moratorium on ISDS lawsuits and to end ISDS proceedings involving Covid-19 emergency measures, while some countries, e.g., India, South Africa and Indonesia, had scrapped some of their bilateral investment treaties even before the crisis.

The Southview opinion also chides the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for trifling with marginal reforms, instead of radically reconsidering the very illegitimacy of international investment arbitration itself.

As the world struggles to cope with an unprecedented ‘black swan’ public health threat, the prospect of a world recession taking the planet into depression is greater than ever in the last eight decades. The need to end ISDS provisions and lawsuits is more urgent than ever.

The post ISDS Enables Making More Money from Losses appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN News

By Ritah Nansereko
KAMPALA, Uganda, Aug 18 2020 (IPS)

World Humanitarian Day is the perfect time to refresh our push to localize humanitarian aid for COVID-19 and all the challenges we face. Celebrating #RealLifeHeroes!

I’ll never forget the day when the Palabek refugee settlement officially became home to South Sudanese refugees in the Acholi Sub-region of Northern Uganda. The year before, I had visited the area in Lamwo District with my team from the African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD).

We were shocked to find hundreds of refugees, mainly women and children, living under trees. They had no protection and told us that cross-border attacks by rebels were frequent. Still, they refused to move on to the closest designated Refugee settlement in West Nile.

I remember them telling us repeatedly, ‘we will not be safe there; our people are fighting there too’. One woman pointed to a watering hole and said, ‘we’d rather drink water here with the cattle than go there’.

After we left and I got back to the coordination office in Kampala, their words continued to dance in my mind. I had to do something.

Immediately my team and I joined hands with Lamwo District Local Government officials, the Wanainchi, together with the refugee representatives, and we began to lobby the central government asking for the establishment of the refugee settlement in Lamwo District.

In less than a year, the Ugandan government responded to our appeal and in April 2017, Palabek became the official home to over 20,000 of refugees at the time of its inception. My heart filled with pride that once again, we Ugandans had answered when our neighbors knocked on our door. Currently Palabek hosts more than 53,000 refugees.

I use this case as just one example of how, over the years, local leaders and organizations have increasingly become the first responders when disaster hits. Refugees in Uganda, always receive their first emergency support from the local actors.

Uganda is the largest refugee hosting country in Africa. The country hosts about 1.4 million refugees, the majority from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ritah Nansereko

Uganda’s progressive refugee policy has enabled its nationals to stand with refugees and share their limited resources with them. Northern Uganda is one of the country’s poorest region, but it hosts over 60% of the refugees. All are settled on citizens’ land.

The great contribution of the hosting communities, the local NGOs and the government has meant that many refugees have been given a second home after being forcibly being displaced from their country of origin. Unlike other hosting countries, Uganda’s refugees, especially the majority in the northern part of the country, are integrated within the hosting communities.

And yet, time and again, local actors and communities, who have shown that they are part of the solution, are sidelined when the international actors arrive. Suddenly, we ‘lack capacity’ and our indigenous knowledge and physical proximity are undervalued.

Debates on localization and the balance of power between the so-called Global North and Global South have been gaining traction in humanitarian discourse over the last decade. The first UN World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 in Istanbul was intended to fundamentally reform the humanitarian sector so that it could react more effectively to today’s many crises.

Among the major things emphasized was the need to adapt to new challenges through local, inclusive, and context specific responses.

This need to re-think global humanitarian response has to a large extent been driven by escalating humanitarian needs – over 168 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide today, coupled with protracted crises around the globe, which call for a more diverse thinking.

The current global COVID-19 pandemic has posed yet another threat to the already shrinking humanitarian basket. It has exposed once again the need for more country-based systems that are able to address emergencies and mitigate future risks, using locally available solutions.

But on the ground, the shift to valuing local actors as critical part of the solution is still not being felt enough. The rhetoric has not translated into action. And I have been forced to face up to the reality that the humanitarian system was built by and for international actors, multilateral organisations and international NGOs. Not for us to find local solutions to global problems.

What does this side-lining look like in practical terms to those of us who are local actors? It means not being asked to participate in key policy debates. It means not being part of the planning process for major interventions. It means that funding to local actors is still below 10% of total humanitarian funding.

In the case of Uganda, although it is one of the first countries to adopt the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and has further integrated refugee response in the National Development Plan Three (NDPIII), local groups are still left in the periphery during the planning and implementation of refugee response programs.

There is a persistent misinterpretation of localization by many international agencies that limits localization to local-staff recruitment and one-off project-based community consultations.

This is not enough, especially as we are responding to a protracted refugee crisis. Response programmes need to speak to each other at every stage, if not there is a great risk that we end up with parallel response strategies which in the long term means that there is a gap between the emergency and the recovery phase.

Local groups must be included in order to manage smooth transitions from the emergency and recovery phases, where host communities play a fundamental role.

Closer to home, in Palabek, after mobilizing for the establishment of the settlement alongside fellow local groups, we received no support to continue our work. You cannot imagine my disappointment when after fighting so hard for its opening, only INGOs received funding.

The reason given was that none of us local organizations had “the capacity” to offer humanitarian services. It felt like once again, the commitment made in Istanbul, to “empower national and local humanitarian action by increasing the share of financing available to them” was mere lip service.

So today, we continue work at the service of implementing partners. The set structures within the settlement themselves are skewed towards giving INGOs more power. Everything we do, must be approved by them. More often than not, they do not support our innovative ideas, claiming that they are not up to standard!

This paternalistic attitude needs to change. INGOs need to be willing to have real partnerships with local actors. And yes, this also means giving up some of the jobs and some of the money so that we have the “capacity” to help find long lasting solutions to emergencies like the refugee crisis.

We’ve talked enough. We’ve shown that we can lead humanitarian interventions. Now we need more action from all those concerned. And I think that change needs to start from those who currently hold the power, INGOs. They must:

– Develop strategies that will support local actors to regain the space to operate where we are needed.
– Meaningfully engage local groups in all processes of planning and implementation of response programs in our countries, through our national disaster management and humanitarian response plans.
– Develop a new Global Humanitarian Response Plan that includes local and national NGOs directly, recognizing that our perspectives and contributions are not always reflected in Humanitarian Country Teams (HCTs) and in clusters.
– Support and encourage unconventional, alternative and creative responses that go beyond standard sectoral approaches. These must empower local people and organizations, including the faith community and women-led organizations, to take active leadership roles.
– Work in collaboration and coordination with us and local authorities, to address and ensure humanitarian principles and standards are met.
– Provide flexible funding, including adequate and consistent support for organizational overhead and staff
– Provide greater direct funding to local and national groups under the new COVID-19 funding mechanisms, opening up calls for new partners, with simplified and fast-tracked partner assessment processes, wherever possible. Grants should be allocated directly to Local and National NGOs, rather than via intermediaries.
– Track the Global Humanitarian Response Plan COVID 19 funding through International Aid Tracking Initiative (IATI) reporting, so there is transparency and accountability of the funds being raised in the names of populations in Crisis.

I firmly believe that localization will not be achieved until the application of the historical westernized humanitarian systems are regulated, to give room for local context-based solutions.

As we celebrate #RealLifeHeroes on World Humanitarian Day, we shouldn’t leave it as a one-off ceremony, but rather use it as an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to local actors so that they can in turn continue to support populations in need.

It is a chance to work in earnest to remove the bottlenecks that have hindered their ability to access humanitarian funding and operational space.

African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD) is a local woman-centered humanitarian and development organisation in Uganda that works in refugee protection response; education in emergency and women’s rights advocacy.

The post We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ritah Nansereko, Executive Director – African Women and Youth Action for Development

The post We Must Prioritize Local Solutions to Global Problems appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Aug 17 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The European Commission (EC) is one of the founders of Education Cannot Wait, which was established at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 and aims at increasing funding and efficiency in delivering quality education to some 75 million children and youth affected by conflicts, natural disasters and forced displacement. EC plays a major role since in advancing education in the humanitarian-development nexus during crisis. Please elaborate on the EC vision in driving education to achieve humanitarian-development coherence and deliver quality education in situations of crisis, for refugees, for girls, and other stakeholders who are left furthest behind.

The Commissioner Lenarčič: Education is an essential part of EU humanitarian assistance. It is a powerful tool to bring positive changes to individuals and to wider society and bring hope for a better and more sustainable future. Schools also protect children from violence and provide food, water, health care and hygiene supplies. They provide children with safe space and help them cope with traumatic experiences.

We need to remember that half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected countries. When a child’s education is disrupted by an emergency, there is a high possibility that they will never return to school. Just over half of refugees of primary school age attend school, and less than a quarter of the equivalent age group is in secondary school. We are deeply committed to bringing those girls and boys back into education and ensure their return to safe and quality learning within three months of their education disruption, so they have the rights and opportunities they deserve.

I am an advocate for greater investment in education, and we have set our own target at 10% of EU’s humanitarian aid budget. We support the education system reform to provide for greater quality and resilience, and capacity building of education actors. The protection of education against attacks is another important objective. Education needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner, we take seriously our global responsibilities and contribute to coordinated multi-stakeholder education actions that create added value and enhance impact.

Commissioner Urpilainen: Beyond the initial emergency response, education is and will remain a top priority for EU development assistance, particularly for children living in fragile contexts.

Strengthening education systems is at the core of our development programmes. We work through long-term partnerships with national governments to expand education services, to re-build infrastructure destroyed by disasters, and to strengthen the resilience of education systems to withstand future shocks. We improve governance systems to ensure that education services are equitably distributed, staff are paid regularly, and finances are managed efficiently.

In 2018, the European Commission produced a Communication on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises, which sets out our vision of shared responsibility. We use the term ‘nexus’ to describe the shared space of humanitarian, development and political instruments to achieve education for all. Within the European Commission, and among EU Member States, we have the different tools needed to address these different needs.

1- You jointly visited Burkina Faso earlier this year to assess the ongoing crisis. What were your main takeaways from the trip? What left you feeling hopeful about the work we are doing and the role of education in protracted crisis to achieve peace, stability and sustainable development?

Commissioner Urpilainen:

I was deeply impressed by the resilience of the families I met. Long-term poverty, poor infrastructure and weak social services have prevailed for many years. The current security and forced displacement crisis is worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises risk undermining the education gains made in Burkina Faso in recent years, in terms of access to education and the quality of teaching and learning.

The national education system in Burkina Faso has significant development needs to improve the infrastructure, system management and quality of education. Girls are more likely to be out of school, and some 52% of girls are subject to early marriage.

During the visit I had an opportunity to talk with Burkinabe youth who emphasised the importance of accessibility in vocational education and training (VET). This point was raised also by President Kaboré in our meeting. Skills acquired through quality training help support smooth transition to labour market. In the long term, skilled labour force is a key element of sustainable economic growth and stability.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Unfortunately, hundreds of schools have been closed in Burkina even before COVID-19 pandemic. Many have been under attack, affecting thousands of children and teachers. Out-of-school and vulnerable girls and boys face violence and exploitation, including gender-based sexual violence, child labour and forced recruitment.

Scaling up and improving humanitarian assistance to Burkina Faso has become an imperative. More, better and faster humanitarian aid requires adequate coordination. Only an integrated approach can ensure communities’ security, the ability to meet their needs and aspirations, and to restore trust.

Education is crucial in this respect. To intensify our efforts, we recently decided to support two large multi-annual partnerships to address broad education and protection needs in the Sahel region with the EU’s humanitarian aid budget.

2- What motivates you to be part of the Education Cannot Wait, and as members of the ECW High-Level Steering Group? What do you hope to achieve through supporting this rapidly growing global fund?

Commissioner Urpilainen: I strongly believe in the power of collective action. Education Cannot Wait was formed to mobilise a collective response to urgent needs in education in emergencies, bringing together traditional and new actors. The European Union was part of ECW’s inception, bringing development funding to allow multi-year, predictable support.

From a development perspective, I place great importance in the Multi-Year Resilience Programming window of the fund, which incentivises humanitarian and development actors to come together in joint response.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Following the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, ECW created an impressive dynamic around the importance of education in emergency contexts. It rallied in an unprecedented way donors from around the world to support initiatives to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality education.

The sense of urgency, strong collective action, enhanced prioritisation and capacity to respond are our shared goals. From the humanitarian perspective, I would like to highlight the First Emergency Response Window. The EU has been strengthening in the past years the work of education clusters and working groups, as well as systematic inclusion of education in the rapid response mechanism. Together, we can continue to be a vocal advocate for the strengthening of clusters, improving coordination, needs assessments and localisation. We can also better identify and develop innovative approaches and build partnerships at the systemic level.

3- How do your different departments, the DG for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid and the DG for International Cooperation and Development, work together strategically and practically to promote quality education in the humanitarian-development nexus for girls, boys and youth caught in protracted crises?

Commissioner Lenarčič: Working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus is at the core of our efforts. The first step was to develop a joint policy framework, making sure we have clear, shared objectives and goals. This is provided by the 2018 Communication on Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises, in which we jointly commit to four common goals (access to education, quality education, protection of education, coordination and partnerships). The EU Member States also endorsed this policy framework through Council Conclusions in 2018.

At country level, we have joint planning and review processes. EU Delegation staff and ECHO staff sit together at important moments, such as the formulation of the Humanitarian Implementation Plans (HIP), or the annual reviews of Multiannual Indicative Plans (MIP). Processes are often shared, such as monitoring visits, reviews, planning workshops. There is a regular exchange of information.

Our presence in the field is mutually reinforcing, with humanitarian actors operating in contexts where development instruments are not present, e.g. active conflicts or hard to reach areas.

Commissioner Urpilainen: Our EU Delegations have strong credibility with education ministries, based on years of partnership through budget support, technical assistance and policy dialogue. When appropriate, information from our humanitarian teams can be channelled into policy dialogue with national authorities. This is an effective way of influencing policy dialogue and improving coordination among actors, who may be trying to tackle the same issue from different angles.

Within the ‘nexus’ space we operate in different ways according to our mandates, but we share the same goals. We promote equity and equality, especially gender equality. We focus on the poorest and most vulnerable, striving for inclusive education systems. Peace, tolerance, good governance and non-violence are essential values in all education support.

4-What are the EU’s main priorities for education in emergencies and protracted crises in your new strategy for 2021-2027?

Commissioner Lenarčič: The EU’s policy framework for education in emergencies of 2018 will continue to guide our actions and offering children affected by humanitarian crises access to safe, quality, and accredited education.

Yet, we know that COVID-19 has disrupted education for 1.2 billion learners globally and added a new layer of complexity for education in humanitarian settings, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities.

I am deeply concerned about the most vulnerable children, at risk of never returning to school. If even a small percentage do not return to education, this translates into millions of children. We will strive to forge even closer links between child protection and education and promote integrated and comprehensive approaches to children’s needs.

To build up better education systems, we should focus more on the equity and quality aspects. Innovative, digital-based solutions are key but they should be accompanied with adequate attention to connectivity, skills and knowledge of teachers and caregivers, accelerated education programmes to bridge the education gaps, and development of alternative remote learning channels, such as pre-registered offline content or TV/radio-based teaching.

The scale of needs is unprecedented and requires sustained, timely and coordinated financing. Our key commitment to dedicate 10% of EU’s humanitarian aid budget to education remains for the years to come and will guide our policy, advocacy and funding support.

I was struck by the findings of the recently released report “Education under Attack 2020” by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. Much remains to be done to protect students, educators and personnel and schools from attack. Protection of education will also feature high on my agenda as Commissioner.

Commissioner Urpilainen: The current crisis risks reversing decades of progress towards education for all. We must re-focus attention towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 as education is part of the solution.

I have decided to boost the share of education expenditure in the upcoming EU Development Financing between 2021-2027. As a former teacher, I am convinced that investments in education will bring great returns in terms of human development, poverty eradication and reducing inequalities.

We know how important teachers are. For children caught up in cycles of violence and crisis, a reliable teacher can be the anchor that keeps them on track, helping them find their best future. We will support teachers’ professional development programmes and curriculum reform, so education teachers have the tools needed to provide 21st century skills to children.

Furthermore, qitting in school is not enough. Students need to graduate with strong skills. We are preparing students to live in a new world, to work in jobs that do not exist yet, with technology that has not been invented yet. Strengthening education systems to meet these needs is our main priority over the next seven years.

5- In 2019 and 2020 ECW increased its engagement in the Sahel and the Middle East as two regions in crisis. How do you see ECW making a difference for children’s education, particularly girls in these regions in trouble?

Commissioner Lenarčič: ECW plays a major role in advancing education in the humanitarian-development nexus during crises. ECW has been an important voice, highlighting the dire and worsening situation in the Sahel region and in the Middle East. ECW operates at an impressive speed – we saw this for the COVID-19 First Education Response funding, which reached 26 countries in March.

Furthermore, ECW has a clear targeting – focusing on vulnerable children affected by crises. This combination holds great potential for children in the Sahel and in the Middle East. In these regions, children are affected by multiple crises, often overlapping, and it is the most vulnerable, particularly girls and displaced children, who are left behind. The emphasis that ECW places on girls is much needed, considering for example the huge disparities in gross enrolment rates and literacy levels, e.g. in the Sahel region, girls are on average 17% behind boys.

The weight that ECW has as a donor allows it to push for more integrated actions, understanding that the educational needs of girls and boys cannot find their solutions only in education but require a more holistic view of the multifaceted barriers to education, which is particularly valid for regions like Sahel or the Middle East.

Commissioner Urpilainen: ECW’s plans to start Multi-Year Resilience Programmes throughout the Sahel in 2020 offers much hope. Countries like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali require medium and long-term planning. The multi-year framework aims to improve coordination and incentivise joint planning and financing.

We are proud to be part of Education Cannot Wait’s drive to improve coordination and joint planning for children affected by crises.

6- The EU/EC plays an instrumental role at the global level and in its partnership with the United Nations, the World Bank and other regional and international and multilateral institutions. How do you see EU/EC’s role in supporting the achievement of all Sustainable Development Goals, not the least Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education, as we face COVID-19 and a continued uncertainty of the future. What can we all do to build back better?

Commissioner Urpilainen: In these extraordinary circumstances, the Sustainable Development Goals and the agenda of ‘leaving no one behind’ are more important than ever.

We need to draw a joint roadmap that considers COVID-19 and we need to harmonise the aid architecture for education. But above all, the education community must come together with a clear message: education is a top priority. Education for all will enable the achievement of the other SDGs, and it is especially in times of crisis that we realise its power.

People on the move take their education and skills with them, helping them to adapt to and thrive in new settings. Educated people are quicker to take up technology solutions to access information, such as health messages or remote learning programmes. Science and technology offer innovative solutions. We depend more than ever on highly skilled healthcare providers and data analysts. Educated agriculturalists can take up new opportunities in green farming.

Commissioner Lenarčič: Furthermore, we need to use our collective voice to speak to the wider global community, to ensure all decision-makers are convinced of the importance and power of education.

The agenda of building back better requires appropriate consideration to equity and quality, and lessons learnt from diversified strategies to address distance learning, especially in low-income countries and in humanitarian contexts. A people-centred approach that focuses on the most vulnerable groups and on people in vulnerable contexts should remain at the heart of our actions.

 

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In Ethiopia, a nine-year-old child carries jerry cans filled with water to her home, four kilometers away from the borehole. Credit: UNICEF/Ayene

By Dr Joshua Castellino
LONDON, Aug 17 2020 (IPS)

The murder of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, an icon of the Oromo people in Ethiopia was a tragic loss for all who struggle for rights in systems that fail to accommodate them.

Suspicions around motivations for this murder and the swiftness of his burial in his village, rather than with a state funeral in the capital Addis Ababa in keeping with his status, enraged a community already in shock.

What happened next is disputed, interpreted and misinterpreted. The discernible facts state that violence broke out, over 200 people were killed and the government responded with mass arrests and an internet shut down, both ostensibly to curb further spread of violence.

Accounts of the violence showed “disturbing hallmark signs of ethnic cleansing”, as my organisation, Minority Rights Group International (MRG), wrote in a statement. We were particularly concerned about the dissemination of hate and incitement to violence targeting local minority communities. Many now fear the current lull may be the proverbial calm before a storm.

The situation bears the features of a society that could spiral into even more widespread violence unless concerted actions are taken to restore confidence. A critical step will be to seek an inter-community dialogue involving all those voices of moderation who are present right across Ethiopia’s incredibly diverse communities.

I am convinced that those who seek a peaceful resolution to the current ongoing tensions represent the true majority of Ethiopians, regardless of their backgrounds.

Modern Ethiopia only recently emerged from a long period of authoritarianism that created a hostile human rights climate. Its popular young Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, elected in 2018, was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace ‘for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea’.

He promised a vision of an inclusive Ethiopia and had already been awarded the 2018 Gender Award plaque for his role in promoting gender equality. Of Oromo ethnicity, he has gained widespread national support and has been feted as bringing positive change to Ethiopia.

Modernising Ethiopia requires vision, skill, empathy, political capital, and a determination to place Ethiopia on a world stage to contribute and benefit from global trade. A significant change is needed to ensure that rights flowed to all, and that the traditional dominance of certain ethnic groups, indicative of the choice of national language of the State, could give way to a pluralistic democracy based on common heritage, not ethnic lineage.

The Oromo, constituting an estimated thirty four percent of Ethiopia’s population while the largest ethnic group, suffered decades of exclusion and forced assimilation. This decimated their pastoralist lifestyle, further threatened in recent years by proposals to extend the capital Addis Ababa into traditional Oromo pastoral land.

The history of oppression gave rise to the Oromo Liberation Front in the 1970s which operated as a militarized group, even aligning with the Eritrean struggle for independence. Despite this history, the Oromo backed the candidacy of the current Prime Minister hoping he could uplift and modernise Ethiopia creating a country with rights for all.

The ethno-linguistic make up of Ethiopia is worth reflecting on. According to Minority Rights Group’s World Directory on Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, the population (102.37 million, 2017 census) consists a federation of ethnic, linguistic, religious, and regional minorities.

The census listed over 90 distinct ethnic groups, speaking over 80 languages, with the greatest diversity in the south-west, with Amharic (a Semitic language), Oromo, Tigrinya and Somali spoken by two-thirds of the population.

About 43.5 per cent of the population is Orthodox Christian, 33.9 per cent are Muslim with the remainder Protestant, Roman Catholic or followers of traditional religions.

Negotiating this terrain and seeking an optimal future for Ethiopia is a delicate task. There are legitimate political questions ahead, including the potential impact of altering the federal state and how that could undermine ethnic groups that do not feel represented in national politics.

A history of violence and oppression may also need to be factored in, as well as seeking accountability for the years of authoritarianism. Ethiopian society is divided on these tough political questions, which only Ethiopians can answer and decide a way forward.

Arriving at a consensus and clear plan is key to the country’s future stability, but such a discussion can only take place if the ambience of hate is not stoked.

There has been a tendency globally in recent years for anger and discontent to dominate the political, leading to name-calling, fuelling of hate and perpetration of violence. Recent history shows how such an ambience privileges strident voices and extremists, silencing the calm, intelligent moderate voices who need to find a way of configuring a peaceful path to prosperity.

The only way to preserve Ethiopia’s heritage and global contributions lies in celebrating its diversity and fostering a unity that makes Ethiopia much greater than the sum of its parts.

In the days, weeks and months – if elections are cancelled due to coronavirus – the international community must support the voices of moderation, to create an ambience where the force of argument rather than the argument of force dominates.

It is vital to guard against signs that authoritarianism may be returning to the country’s governance, and to urge social media companies to act responsibly to safeguard against hate speech or other comments that inflame tensions.

Writing in the 1950s after a period of intense hatred, a scholar emphasized the importance of ‘beating swords into ploughshares’. Today words are wielded as swords, and when uttered passionately and disseminated to angry mobs, they create lasting damage. Beating anger into empathy is the urgent need of the hour.

The rewards are great: in the short-term prevention of violence, in the long term, the collective awakening of a country with incredible potential to take up its place on the world stage.

 

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The post Beating Anger into Empathy: the Need of the Hour in Ethiopia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Joshua Castellino is Executive Director at Minority Rights Group International and Professor of Law at Middlesex University.

The post Beating Anger into Empathy: the Need of the Hour in Ethiopia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: United Nations

By Shubha Nagesh
DEHRADUN, India, Aug 17 2020 (IPS)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) at-least 15% of the population globally has some form or other of a disability- considered the world’s largest minority population and one that any of us can join at any point in our lives. It therefore makes so much sense for each one of us to invest towards inclusion, so everyone has the right to live their life to their full potential and contribute meaningfully to society. This article seeks to highlight the updates from the disability world in the past four months, particularly the last month, both globally and in India.

As we continue to learn to cope with a global emergency of unprecedented scale, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) celebrated its 30th anniversary, since it was signed into law on July 26 1990. Considered to be the most important civil rights act since 1960, the ADA is essentially the law that prohibits discrimination against disabled people.  The act hoped to give people with disabilities equal opportunity, full participation, independent living and economic sufficiency.

The ADA generation comprises of young people who ‘came of age’ under the ADA- young people who are willing to relate with, acknowledge and not just accept the disability, but in fact take pride in it.

Their spark to make their own lives better is warming others to do the same, thereby creating a whole generation of people who now approach life with a rights-based perspective- a much needed magnification of the spectrum of disability justice.

Somehow this flicker has to warm up beyond America, particularly in middle and low income countries, which in fact is home to the majority of people with disabilities.

The right attitude also allows for the health care provider to view the person first and the disability later, enabling the person’s right to assessment, intervention, treatment, rehabilitation, or inclusion

The inequities faced by them has been made more than evident in the face of the pandemic, as they seem to be dying more than ever, are denied treatment rightfully theirs, and continue to be discriminated against by not just health systems, but others too, all of which influence their chances at life and death.

In India, two events took place in recent times that impacted people with disabilities- in July, the government of India proposed amendments to the Rights of Persons with Disability Act (RPDA) 2016, to decriminalise minor offences, in as many as 19 legislations.

This proposal to negate and water down the Act was met with huge resistance from disability advocates and activists across the country, who insisted that doing the same would adversely affect people with disabilities in India. The solidarity and the strength with which the community came together to resist these lame changes in the name of “easing business” by the Government, succeeded in cancellation of the amendments.

Also in July, the Supreme Court delivered a significant decision that people with disabilities are socially backward and therefore qualify for the same benefits and relaxations as candidates from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, both in education and employment.

The Delhi High Court has reiterated that as per Census 2011, illiteracy rate among people with disabilities was almost 51% in India and despite the quota for disabled rising from 3-5%, employment rates and retention rates continue to be abysmally low. Hopefully with this new decision when put to full effect could elevate people with disabilities, particularly their education and employment potential.

As someone who has worked with children with developmental disabilities for almost ten years now, based on what we have seen and what we hear from parents, families and the older children, while there are an array of barriers that prevent inclusion into society, perhaps the most difficult one to overcome is the attitudinal barrier or the mindset of the larger society that chooses discrimination over diversity and its acceptance.

This challenge is large, escalates other barriers, has multiple origins like hate, ignorance, fear, lack of understanding etc, needs to be addressed from multiple levels and dimensions, and will take years to come through.

As a medical doctor, the one aspect I would like to focus on is training for medical professionals on disability; for all cadres of health workers and early on in the curriculum, for its impact on the individual, their family and society at large is significant.

This education, if provided the right way, could be life changing in understanding disability and impairment, provide equitable and timely intervention and address people with disabilities with dignity and respect.

If young doctors, particularly those in rural and peri-urban contexts understood disability and referred children for early intervention as soon as they picked up red flags in development, it could improve quality of life for children significantly and save the families and the health systems considerable investments in rehabilitation.

It could support families to access healthcare more often and thereby have positive health outcomes, leading to overall improvement in the health of the population.

Further, the right attitudes could also facilitate reduction of other barriers, including physical barriers like infrastructure, health communication could become more accessible and inter sectoral coordination between different departments could facilitate more one stop solutions for people with disabilities.

The right attitude also allows for the health care provider to view the person first and the disability later, enabling the person’s right to assessment, intervention, treatment, rehabilitation, or inclusion. But above all this, people with disabilities could be  treated with equal opportunities for access, treatment, medical benefits and therefore improve opportunities for education and/or employment, all of which would eventually contribute to the progress of society.

If this isn’t worth fighting for, what is?
It’s time to rethink disability, embrace it and handle it with love.
Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope- Maya Angelou

The post The Battle over Barriers for People with Disabilities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Shubha Nagesh is a medical doctor and works with the Latika Roy Foundation

The post The Battle over Barriers for People with Disabilities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photo by Natasha Connell on Unsplash

By External Source
Aug 17 2020 (IPS)

People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton poured seeds and lead shot into human skulls to measure their volumes. Gustave Le Bon found men’s brains are usually larger than women’s, which prompted Alexander Bains and George Romanes to argue this size difference makes men smarter. But John Stuart Mill pointed out, by this criterion, elephants and whales should be smarter than people.

So focus shifted to the relative sizes of brain regions. Phrenologists suggested the part of the cerebrum above the eyes, called the frontal lobe, is most important for intelligence and is proportionally larger in men, while the parietal lobe, just behind the frontal lobe, is proportionally larger in women. Later, neuroanatomists argued instead the parietal lobe is more important for intelligence and men’s are actually larger.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, researchers looked for distinctively female or male characteristics in smaller brain subdivisions. As a behavioral neurobiologist and author, I think this search is misguided because human brains are so varied.

 

Anatomical brain differences

The largest and most consistent brain sex difference has been found in the hypothalamus, a small structure that regulates reproductive physiology and behavior. At least one hypothalamic subdivision is larger in male rodents and humans.

But the goal for many researchers was to identify brain causes of supposed sex differences in thinking – not just reproductive physiology – and so attention turned to the large human cerebrum, which is responsible for intelligence.

Within the cerebrum, no region has received more attention in both race and sex difference research than the corpus callosum, a thick band of nerve fibers that carries signals between the two cerebral hemispheres.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, some researchers found the whole corpus callosum is proportionally larger in women on average while others found only certain parts are bigger. This difference drew popular attention and was suggested to cause cognitive sex differences.

But smaller brains have a proportionally larger corpus callosum regardless of the owner’s sex, and studies of this structure’s size differences have been inconsistent. The story is similar for other cerebral measures, which is why trying to explain supposed cognitive sex differences through brain anatomy has not been very fruitful.

 

Female and male traits typically overlap

Even when a brain region shows a sex difference on average, there is typically considerable overlap between the male and female distributions. If a trait’s measurement is in the overlapping region, one cannot predict the person’s sex with confidence. For example, think about height. I am 5’7″. Does that tell you my sex? And brain regions typically show much smaller average sex differences than height does.

Neuroscientist Daphna Joel and her colleagues examined MRIs of over 1,400 brains, measuring the 10 human brain regions with the largest average sex differences. They assessed whether each measurement in each person was toward the female end of the spectrum, toward the male end or intermediate. They found that only 3% to 6% of people were consistently “female” or “male” for all structures. Everyone else was a mosaic.

 

Prenatal hormones

When brain sex differences do occur, what causes them?

A 1959 study first demonstrated that an injection of testosterone into a pregnant rodent causes her female offspring to display male sexual behaviors as adults. The authors inferred that prenatal testosterone (normally secreted by the fetal testes) permanently “organizes” the brain. Many later studies showed this to be essentially correct, though oversimplified for nonhumans.

Researchers cannot ethically alter human prenatal hormone levels, so they rely on “accidental experiments” in which prenatal hormone levels or responses to them were unusual, such as with intersex people. But hormonal and environmental effects are entangled in these studies, and findings of brain sex differences have been inconsistent, leaving scientists without clear conclusions for humans.

 

Genes cause some brain sex differences

While prenatal hormones probably cause most brain sex differences in nonhumans, there are some cases where the cause is directly genetic.

This was dramatically shown by a zebra finch with a strange anomaly – it was male on its right side and female on its left. A singing-related brain structure was enlarged (as in typical males) only on the right, though the two sides experienced the same hormonal environment. Thus, its brain asymmetry was not caused by hormones, but by genes directly. Since then, direct effects of genes on brain sex differences have also been found in mice.

 

Learning changes the brain

Many people assume human brain sex differences are innate, but this assumption is misguided.

Humans learn quickly in childhood and continue learning – alas, more slowly – as adults. From remembering facts or conversations to improving musical or athletic skills, learning alters connections between nerve cells called synapses. These changes are numerous and frequent but typically microscopic – less than one hundredth of the width of a human hair.

Studies of an unusual profession, however, show learning can change adult brains dramatically. London taxi drivers are required to memorize “the Knowledge” – the complex routes, roads and landmarks of their city. Researchers discovered this learning physically altered a driver’s hippocampus, a brain region critical for navigation. London taxi drivers’ posterior hippocampi were found to be larger than nondrivers by millimeters – more than 1,000 times the size of synapses.

So it’s not realistic to assume any human brain sex differences are innate. They may also result from learning. People live in a fundamentally gendered culture, in which parenting, education, expectations and opportunities differ based on sex, from birth through adulthood, which inevitably changes the brain.

Ultimately, any sex differences in brain structures are most likely due to a complex and interacting combination of genes, hormones and learning.

Ari Berkowitz, Presidential Professor of Biology; Director, Cellular & Behavioral Neurobiology Graduate Program, University of Oklahoma

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

The post Brain Scientists Haven’t Been Able to Find Major Differences Between Women’s and Men’s Brains, Despite Over a Century of Searching appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Aug 17 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Sri Lanka is a country endowed with abundant natural beauty. The serenity of its geographical bounties matched the peaceful nature of its polity in the aftermath of the passage of power to local political leaders with the withdrawal of the British from the island in 1948. Its Constitution was crafted by some of the brightest legal minds of the British Commonwealth. The nation seemed well on the path to prosperity and progress. So much so, that once Lee Kuan Yew looked upon that country as a model for Singapore, with its commonly shared experience, to emulate.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

Then tragedy struck. The bane of South Asia in the post-colonial era has been the inability of diverse communities to co-exist. Alas, Sri Lanka was no exception. The majority Sinhalese Buddhists became locked in a bitter civil war with Hindu Tamil separatists. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President from 2005-2015, and now Prime minister, crushed the rebellion with an iron hand. He was aided by his younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, then Defence Secretary, now, President. During that process the brothers tended to turn a Nelson’s blind eye to human rights. The people, thereafter, experimented with change by bringing into office Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. He amended the constitution rendering the Prime minister more powerful than the President. But his governance was perceived as a dismal failure. Last year the Easter Sunday attack by Islamist militants led to much death and destruction.

With a sense of wary exasperation, the Sri Lankans turned once again to the Rajapaksa brothers. In November 2019, this time, Gotabaya, the younger Rajapaksa won the Presidential polls. He had spoken at my think tank, ISAS in Singapore, on a couple of occasions, and I was fairly familiar with his ideas. During a visit to Sri Lana for a Sri Lankan Military Seminar, I was able to sense the rise of the popularity of the Rajapaksas. Gotabaya, upon winning the Presidency in the November polls, immediately appointed his elder brother, the former President, Mahinda, as the Prime Minister. It was, albeit in a minority government as the Parliamentary elections were yet to be held, and the Rajapaksa popularity wave was not yet reflected in the membership numbers in that House. With some delay due to COVID-19, which incidentally the Rajapasas handled well, with 2839 cases and only 11 deaths , giving them a further electoral boost. Parliamentary elections were held on the 5th of August. Predictably the Rajapaksa Party, Sri Lanka Pradujana Peramuna (SLPP), swept the polls, winning 145 of the 225 Parliamentary seats.

Now only 5 more members supporting would give the SLPP the “super majority” of two-third of the total numbers to carry out any amendments they have in mind. For starters, one would be the restoration of the old powers of the President, a stated aspiration of Gotabaya. Then, as per his promises, other measures would be implemented to make the country economically and militarily secure. Such majority would now be easy to come by. Several other political parties are said to be eager to offer their support to enjoy some privileges of participating in what will naturally be a very powerful government.

There is one lurking danger, however. The elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa has always enjoyed being the one calling the shots. Indeed, during his previous ten year rule the ideological basis of governance was a set of concepts entitled Mahihda Chinta, literally translatable as ‘Thoughts of Mahinda’, reminiscent of Mao’s ‘Red Book’ or the ‘Green Book’ of Libya’s Moammer Gaddafi. That could be seen as perilously close to an admiration for a personality cult of his own. So, are there any potentials of future differences between the two brothers, now that the planned reforms, to be passed by the “super majority” Parliament and Prime Minister would accord greater powers to the President? A possibility, but an unlikely one, given, at least as of now, the proximity of the siblings, not just Mahinda and Gotabaya, but others, who are also in the political power-core. It is more likely that the ideas of all the siblings will fuse into an over-arching “Rajapaksa Chinta’, the ‘Thoughts of the Rajapaksas’.

The massive return of the Rajapaksas will have significant implications for global and regional politics. South Asia and the Indian Ocean region is currently witnessing a highly sharpened Sino-Indian rivalry. This is also being played out in all the neighbouring countries of India, except for in Pakistan, where the Chinese sway is paramount. In the past, India, had been supportive of the Hindu Tamil minority in international fora which had caused the Rajapaksas to turn towards China. Mahinda actually blamed India for his electoral defeat in 2015. The predilections of the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Narendra Modi in India for Hindutva could exacerbate problems of relationship with Sri Lanka as well, as in the case with other countries in the region.

China, long India’s rival for Sri Lanka’s attentions, had funded the Humbantota port project in the Rajapaksa hometown, which did create a debt-issue, that might, however, be re-examined under the new circumstances. Thereafter China provided US $1,4 billion for the Colombo port-city project, which is expected to hugely help transform the Sri Lankan economy. Actually, now that the Rajapaksa will have untrammeled power to decide as they choose, they could be rationally look to China’s vast financial capabilities for the fruition of their aspiration to turn Colombo into a global financial hub.

On the other hand, the India -Japan collaborative East Container Terminal project, signed during the previous Sirisena government seems about to come a cropper, faced with massive problems and major strikes. The Rajapaksas have been left unimpressed with regards to its tardy progress. Nonetheless, Narendra Modi of India won the race to be the first of the two competing rivals to reach the Rajapaksas in offering congratulations on the electoral victory. But it is unsure what role such an optical triumph will play in determining the ultimate policies of the victorious Rajapakesa brothers which are likely to be shaped by deeper reflections on the perceived national self-interest of their country.

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

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Family farming is a “critical sector” for Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC), with approximately 16.5 million farm holdings across the region. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17 2020 (IPS)

With limited transport options to carry their goods to the market, lack of protective gear, and limited financial resources, family farmers across Latin America are facing grave consequences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a survey carried out by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) with 118 family farming specialists — defined as professionals with high levels of knowledge in the agricultural sector in general and family agriculture in particular — across 29 countries, many of the respondents said they were already facing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Family farming is a “critical sector” for Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC), according to the IICA report, with approximately 16.5 million farm holdings across the region.

Mario Léon, manager of IICA’s Territorial Development and Family Agriculture Programme, at the headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, told IPS that 80 percent of LAC’s production units are family farming units, with 56 percent of them being in South America and 35 percent in Mexico and Central America. These holdings account for between 30 to 40 percent of the agricultural GDP of the region. Given the pervasive fear among customers of contracting the coronavirus, it’s farmers who are suffering: with difficulty in  selling their products and being able to carry them to the market.

“However, it is possible that the most dangerous food shortages may occur in those regions and countries that are net food importers, particularly among the most vulnerable sectors of the population (the poor and indigent),” Léon told IPS.

Full excerpt of the interview below:

Inter Press Service (IPS): Throughout the survey, it consistently appears that “restrictions on travel and movement” is a key factor affecting the family farmers. What role does traveling and commuting play in business for them?

Mario Léon (ML): Many LAC regions with FF communities are far removed from urban centres and have an inadequate road network, which creates logistical costs and increases the prices at which goods are ultimately sold. When transportation is restricted, they cannot receive production inputs or even those food products that may not always be produced or available in rural communities, such as noodles, sugar, oils, cleaning or personal care items, medicine, etc. If production inputs do not reach communities, agricultural activities cannot continue. Similarly, during the harvest, if transportation is restricted, products cannot be distributed and since storage, silos and refrigeration facilities are not always available, the produce is wasted. This is partially due to a lack of organisation and the inability to access proper transportation for distribution.

IPS: How has the restriction of movement affected family farming?

ML: Measures taken to curtail the pandemic, such as restricted movement, has affected family farming in various ways. On the demand side, it has caused the temporary closure of outlets and services, including food stores, which has led to a contraction in the food demand, which in turn has forced prices downward and has made it difficult for some producers to place their products on the market. Consumers have also reduced their visits to traditional markets, out of fear of contracting the virus.

On the supply side, given that family farming  production activities are not usually labour intensive and that most of its production processes have always been done without the need for close physical contact, the effect of the pandemic on this aspect is thought to have been minimal, for now. The limitations it faces, therefore, relate more to services to transport agricultural products to markets and the restrictions on vehicular movement in the countries.

IPS: Is the current crisis affecting any marginalised groups within family farming differently: such as women or indigenous communities? 

Yes. Women play a leading role not only in the home but also in the production and selling of food. They are the ones normally involved in short circuit trade and in the selling of products, allowing the family to generate an income. They manage the household and complement the efforts of the production unit. In many countries, women are responsible for horticulture production, the growing of medicinal plants and the rearing of small animals.

Women are also involved in processing family farming  production, via small scale agro-industry. When sales outlets are temporarily closed or restricted, this limits their options and affects them directly. The situation is more complex in indigenous communities. Distance, the lack of communication media or outlets to sell their craftwork is aggravated by social confinement and makes their situation worse.

IPS: In what ways do you believe these groups have been affected?

ML: Although the survey did not conduct an in-depth assessment of how these marginalised groups have been affected, one would expect that they have and perhaps more, given that the demand for food has been decreasing, creating increased competition among producers to access markets. Producers who are more equipped and have more linkages to trade channels have been able to access markets, causing marginalised groups to be displaced and their income to be reduced. Social distancing measures have also exacerbated the effects of the pandemic on marginalised groups that, even before the crisis, had limited access to production services and markets, which is a situation that has now been further aggravated by their limited digital education. This has affected their capacity to promote their business undertakings during the pandemic.

IPS: The survey report says, “There has also been a decline in available drivers and transport operators, arising from restrictions imposed as preventive measures or through fear of the risks associated with transmitting and contracting the virus.” Do family farmers often rely on outsourced drivers and transport operators to take their produce to markets? 

ML: Local markets, including collection and supply centres as well as retail markets, are the primary destination for family farming products in Latin America. Most producer organisations are of an informal nature and lack any kind of legal status; therefore, they are unable to enter into commitments relating, among other things, to the purchase of vehicles to transport their products to markets. As a result, their market access is dependent on intermediaries, namely transporters who collect products and then transport them to sales centres, reducing profit margins for producers. Some family farmers do have their own transport services, either because they form part of an association or, in just a few cases, because they are able to generate enough income to purchase their own vehicles; however, the vast majority of farmers rely on intermediaries. Quarantine measures have reduced the availability of transport services. Additionally, due to a lack of sanitary protocols, entire crews of truckers at several companies have fallen ill with the virus, which has hindered the transportation of products.

IPS: The survey says, “this relationship between producers and intermediaries was most affected in zones in which associative enterprises had been weakened the most, thereby limiting the negotiating power of family farmers.” What factors lead to this reduced negotiating power for them?

ML: Because marketing processes via producer organisations have come to a standstill, farmers have undertaken individual efforts to sell their products at the prices offered by intermediaries. Collective marketing has been affected by reduced product volumes and the absence of contracts and/or agreements that foster social cohesion within producer organisations, which were already weak.

Related Articles

• Family Farming Wages a Difficult Battle in Argentina
• Latin America in Search of Sustainable Food Systems

The post Q&A: Family Farming in Latin America & the Caribbean Hard Hit by COVID-19 Restrictions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Folake Olayinka
Aug 15 2020 (IPS)

In 1918, the Spanish Flu, a deadly influenza caused by the H1N1 virus, decimated the world. Over the course of four successive waves, it infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population at the time, resulting in 50 million deaths.

More recently between 2014 and mid-2016 , the Ebola virus epidemic was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history—causing devastating  loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the West Africa region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. These outbreaks, as well as SARS and MERS, each have provided lessons on how to better handle future pandemics.

The biggest takeaway for COVID-19? We need effective leadership and an intersectional response.

For years, scientists and thought leaders have warned about the need for preparedness against a potential pandemic. Five years ago, Bill Gates in his TED talk ‘The next outbreak? We’re not ready’, drew attention to a potential epidemic from a corona-like virus.  In an interview in 2019, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci shared similar sentiments.

In a sense, a pandemic like COVID-19 was anticipated and yet it still took the world largely by surprise. When it came, it changed everything, as we knew it would. It also exposed deep underlying disparities and inequities fueling poor health outcomes. In the absence of a vaccine, health professionals and public health leaders explored the range of interventions and tools they could deploy against the virus from simple infection control measures to hospital-based intensive care.

Although the focus continues to be minimizing the death toll while urgently working towards a vaccine, it is important to reflect and learn from the past months. What did leaders do well and what did they not do well, while not fully understanding the disease and how can we use these lessons right now and in the future?

Rapidly changing information led to a complex cycle of responses but at the center of this conversation is the recognition that the intersection between public health leadership and political leadership holds the key to getting ahead of the disease.

With the unprecedented spread of the pandemic, varying transmission rates at country levels, cross border spread, and a lack of a cure or vaccines, both political and public health leaders have had to chart new pathways in order to limit the catastrophic impact of the virus.

Another critical question is what type of leadership is needed to get through such an unprecedented crisis? New Zealand presents an effective leadership model not only through their rapid and aggressive response, but also a strong adaptive leadership in that complex intersection of politics, health and economics.

 

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-fourth session, 24 September 2019. UN Photo/Cia Pak

Without a doubt, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern provided effective political leadership in eliminating COVID-19 as declared on June 8, 2020 about 11 weeks after the first case. It can be argued that by basing decisions on science and prioritizing health outcomes, the leadership of New Zealand set a high bar for other leaders to overcome COVID-19.

The early lockdown measures were stringent and fast and certainly affected the amount of income from tourism usually seen at this time of the year in the short term. This approach was necessary to achieve longer term objectives of restoring the health and economy.

Going into the lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement in March 14, 2020, “we must fight by going hard and going early.’’ This leadership strategy was certainly effective by any standards. Jacinda Ardern not only successfully eliminated COVID-19 within eleven weeks; she also balanced her leadership with empathy.

She demonstrated purposeful, empathic leadership based on science and public health. This aligns with the leadership approach put forward by Former President of Liberia, H.E Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, who led her country to recovery after fourteen years of civil war.

“To me, there is no contradiction between being an empathetic leader and being a strong leader.” A lot can be learned about effective leadership from these women leaders in times of crisis.

Here are five critical things that leaders need to do to get ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic:

1. Use the scientific evidence and data regularly to innovate, adapt tools and approaches to contain disease, reduce severity of illness and prevent deaths
2. Listen and respond to people’s concerns, needs with empathy; communicate consistently clearly and factually through trusted voices and ensure access to accurate information at all levels
3. Collaborate and coordinate actions across sectors at global, country and subnational levels, with communities and relevant stakeholders. This will create greater efficiency and avoid wasting resources
4. Adapt approaches based on emerging issues, draw lessons fast and apply relevant learning using talent and technology
5. Rapidly determine high-risk populations, those suffering the greatest burden and address systemic inequities that perpetuate spread of the disease.

 

To be sure, this pandemic has brought the political, health and economic leadership of countries into a complex intersection and leaders have had to grapple with taking the right decisions.

There are a number of considerations that inform the type of decision-making, resources, and interventions that must be prioritized to prevent deaths, stop the spread of the diseases, protect vulnerable populations, and keep the economies running. But COVID-19 anywhere is a threat everywhere and to overcome it, the world will need coordinated and effective leadership.

Only a healthy nation can grow an economy. Effective leadership, particularly in a time of crisis, is the key to restoring economic balance.

There is still a ways to go for many regions and countries in combating COVID-19, but I am sure that leadership modeled after Jacinda Ardern and the critical actions above will go a long way in halting the pandemic where they are applied. With the right leadership at all levels, we can have a better and more resilient post pandemic world.

 

Dr. Folake Olayinka is a global health leader and a senior advisor with JSI in Arlington Virginia. She has particular interest in immunization, maternal and child health, infectious diseases and leadership. She is an Aspen Fellow. Follow her on Twitter @joflakes

The post Leading in Time of COVID: A True Test of Leadership appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Saul Escobar Toledo
MEXICO CITY, Aug 14 2020 (IPS)

A group composed by women and men, called Nuevo Curso de Desarrollo (New Course for Development) based at the National University of Mexico recently published a document to propose a set of measures to change the current economic policy in Mexico. This proposal responds to a diagnosis of the current situation: at this point of the year, the serious social damage inflicted by the health and economic crisis can already be observed. As we know, in Mexico as in many other countries, there was a great economic disruption caused by COVID. Millions of people ceased to receive income from their work. However, the Mexican government has not carried out sufficient support measures to compensate for these losses. The result is easy to guess: many households have been rapidly impoverished. It is estimated that between 10 and 16 million people in April earned much less to the point of not being able to acquire the basic food basket , a situation that has continued for many of them during May, June and July. And while it is true that more and more workers are returning to their jobs, the losses caused have not been repaired.

Saul Escobar Toledo

The lack of support has led many people to abandon their confinement to seek an income for their sustenance. This, in turn, puts the population in greater danger. The Group considers that this dynamic can be corrected: contain the pandemic, protecting sources of employment and revive the economy are goals that can be achieved at the same time, they are not necessarily contradictory.

The paper recognizes the progress made before the health crisis: there was a significant increase in minimum and contractual wages; the right to a basic pension for the elderly was expanded; and support was extended to other vulnerable groups. But the situation changed dramatically, and yet the economic policy did not.

This situation – says this group – must be corrected. Therefore, an emergency strategy is urgently needed for the remainder of 2020 and for 2021. This new course could return some of what families have lost and, above all, make economic reactivation faster.

Since existing social programs are no longer sufficient, immediate action is required to protect formal workers who have become unemployed or underemployed, and informal workers who have not got no income at all.

The Group emphasizes that the reactivation of the economy cannot rest solely on the dynamics of the market. Both private consumption and investment will grow very slowly if there is no determined action from the state. That is, if there is no strong fiscal impulse. So, it is necessary, and it is now more urgent to launch a program to expand public spending. This means increasing the public deficit for 2020 and prepare a larger budget for 2021.

Financing of public expenditure can be covered by the flexible credit line of low cost available in the IMF and also by the Central Bank. Additionally, the banking system can cooperate with the recovery by granting more credit to companies and individuals and to support the government. Higher public spending should not necessarily become an unpayable debt and an unbearable burden for future generations.

In addition, it is required to carry out a set of legal reforms to implement unemployment insurance; a basic income for the poorest and most affected ; and the strengthening of development banks (strangely frozen today), as well as an industrial and regional policy that does not rely solely and passively on the supposed benefits of the trade agreement with the United States and Canada.

Additional borrowing should be seen as transitory and confined to overcome the emergency. Therefore, the document says, a tax reform cannot be postponed. A reform that lays the foundations for a new inclusive and sustainable economy. The undeniable political strength of the president of the republic, granted by elections that took place in 2018, must and can serve to achieve this agreement.

The government can presume that, despite the adversity, there is a balanced budget. But what good is that when inequality and poverty are exacerbated? The Mexican state and, first of all, the federal government have to recognize that there is a debt more important than the one recorded in public finances. And that is the income losses suffered by millions of Mexicans, losses that may last many months more.

If anything has been learned from the crises of capitalism in the last hundred years, it is that the laws of the market cannot be trusted. It is, then, time for politics, for decision-making, for a change of the economic course.

Note: The complete list of members of the Group and their publications are available at: http://www.nuevocursodedesarrollo.unam.mx

Saul Escobar Toledo, Economist, Professor at Department of Contemporary Studies in INAH (National Institute oh Anthropology and History, México) and President of the Board of the Institute of Workers Studies “Rafael Galvan”, a non-profit organization. His recent work : “Subcontracting: a study of change in labor relations” will be published soon by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Mexico City.

 

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The post Enough Is Not Enough – Call for Urgent Change in Mexican Economic Policy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Aug 14 2020 (IPS-Partners)

‘Stronger collective efforts and collaboration are key to meeting the urgent education needs of children and youth affected by crises’: this is the unifying message from leaders and youth advocates brought together by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and Devex in a high-level, Global Discussion held online on 12 August, on the occasion of International Youth Day.

Over 2,550 people from across the world tuned in to watch the ‘Stronger Together: Education in Emergencies & Protracted Crises’ event live, which was chaired by UN Special Envoy for Global Education, the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, hosted by ECW Director Yasmine Sherif, and moderated by Devex Editor-in-Chief, Raj Kumar. The Global Discussion shone a spotlight on the challenges faced by girls and boys caught in humanitarian crises to access education.

The discussion was particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has further compounded barriers and plunged the world into the worst education crisis of our lifetime. Eminent expert speakers from around the world underscored potential solutions to meet these challenges and the progress made in recent years, as evidenced in the new ECW Annual Results Report. They stressed the importance of building on these achievements and ramping up efforts to avoid losing hard won gains to the pandemic.

UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High Level Steering Group, the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, kicked off the discussion by emphasizing that the world’s most vulnerable crisis-affected children and youth are now doubly hit by COVID-19. While 13 million refugees, 40 million displaced and an overall 75 million girls and boys in conflict and emergency zones already had their education disrupted, with the impact of COVID-19, another 30 million – who were in school before the pandemic – may now never continue their education. ‘It is incumbent upon us to send out a message of hope that, by getting every child who is in a conflict or an emergency zone into school, we can be the first generation in which every child is getting the chance of schooling,’ he said.

UNHCR High Profile Supporter and Syrian Youth Advocate for Refugees Nujeen Mustafa underlined that education is an inherent right and that it is ‘unacceptable and inexcusable’ for millions of children and young people to be denied this right. Recounting her story and the difficulties she faced in accessing learning opportunities as a disabled girl growing up in Syria, she called on policymakers not to see children from conflict zones as ‘a burden or a problem to solve’ but rather as ‘treasures’ who should be valued and provided with the opportunities they deserve.

Norway’s Minister of International Development, Dag Ulstein, stressed that ‘we are in the midst of a crisis that we never thought would come, which makes it even more difficult for the most marginalized ones to access education, especially in areas affected by conflict and crises.’ Minister Ulstein reaffirmed Norway’s commitment to education in emergencies and protracted crises saying ‘no one should be left behind.’ He underlined how Nujeen’s personal story is a testament to why it is so crucial to invest in the most marginalized girls and boys to fulfil their right to education and unlock their full potential.

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Kelly T. Clements, stated that ‘education is a lifeline for refugee children and youth’ and it is ‘our duty to provide it to them’. She highlighted how COVID-19 is making it even more difficult for refugees to access education, especially for those who lack the necessary connectivity for remote learning solutions or for those who can no longer access the specialized support they need. Clements stressed the urgency of increasing support, in particular for refugee girls, who face heightened risks of child marriages, early pregnancies and sexual violence.

ECW Director, Yasmine Sherif, presented key highlights of the new ECW 2019 Annual Results Report showing how stronger collaboration and multilateral efforts are key to achieving inclusive, equitable quality education outcomes for children and youth in crises settings. She underscored ECW’s flexibility and lean structure as instrumental to increasing the speed of education emergency responses and the accountability to crisis-affected communities. Sherif also stressed encouraging funding trends with close to $800 million mobilized to date by ECW at both the global level and with ECW-supported country-based programmes, as well as the growing share of global humanitarian funding allocated to education that went from 2.6 per cent in 2015 to 5.1 per cent in 2019. Despite this progress, she said ‘much more remains to be done’ and appealed donors to urgently contribute an additional $310 million to ECW. ‘We are about to enter a new phase where education will be put at the forefront. If we all work together, we jointly can take this to the next level’, she stressed.

‘If my education had waited, I would not be the Minister of Education today in Afghanistan,’ said H.E. Rangina Hamidi. The first female Minister of Education since the post-Taliban era of Afghanistan related how her father’s determination for his girls to be educated led him to seek refuge with his family in the United States. Minister Hamidi stressed that 3.7 million children are out of school today in Afghanistan, 60 per cent of whom are girls. She said the COVID-19 pandemic must be seized as an opportunity to be creative and think beyond the traditional provision of education. ‘If girls cannot attend school and access traditional education, then, we need to take education to girls where they are: in their villages, in their homes,’ she said. Minister Hamidi stressed that Afghanistan has become a leader in community-based education: ‘We have successful results that show that when you take education to their communities, girls do get educated’.

UNHCR DAFI Scholar and Youth Advocate for Refugees, Deborah Kalumbi, recounted her story as a refugee girl forced to flee her home in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo for Zambia, and the challenges she faced in accessing education in a different language in a new country. Education helped me embrace and accept my new life,’ she stressed. She also highlighted how important education is to protect refugees, in particular refugee girls who face increased risks of child marriage and early pregnancies if they are out-of-school.

UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta H. Fore, stressed that ‘education is the foundation of all humanitarian and development responses’ and must the addressed as a continuum from the first day of an emergency through to recovery and longer-term development. She underscored five areas that must be prioritized to ensure girls in emergencies and protracted crises can have a better access to education: affordability of education, access to distance learning, community mobilization and mentoring, protection and youth participation. ‘Education is the greatest asset we can give to a young people,’ she said. Fore called on all event participants to join forces to connect every child and young person to learning in the coming years – including through access to distance learning and digital skills – which has the potential to truly ‘change the world.’

Canada’s Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, Kamal Khera, stressed that ‘Education Cannot Wait has been a leader in demonstrating how education programming can be quickly and efficiently rolled out within the humanitarian, development and peace nexus’. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, she stressed the importance of seizing the opportunity of the reopening of schools to create better and more resilient education systems that provide access to the most marginalized and vulnerable children and youth, including the inclusion of refugees in national education systems.

Theirworld President, Justin Van Fleet, called on world leaders and policymakers to deliver on their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals. ‘We have the technology and the resources we need, we have all the partners and we know what needs to be done. There is no excuse to not achieve these education goals,’ he stressed. ‘We know that education is what unlocks the solution to the pandemic: economic growth, jobs for young people, better health, nutrition, and we know that investing in early years is what gives a child the best start in life,’ he said. Van Fleet underscored the importance for young people to hold leaders to account and to keep pushing this agenda. ‘There is no excuse to give up right now,’ he said.

Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General, Jan Egeland, wrapped up the discussion stressing the importance of recognizing achievements in the field of education in emergencies and protracted crises in recent years. ‘There has been progress, we need to build on that.’ However, Egeland stated that youth (15-24 years old) have been excluded from this progress and are largely ‘out of education, out of livelihoods and out of hope’ and must urgently be prioritized. He also underscored the massive setback of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘The crisis is profound, therefore the investment in alternative education, remote education, new technology has to be much bigger,’ he said. Egeland concluded his remarks with a message from children: ‘we need education as much as we need food, it is a question of survival.’

Source: Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

The post Stronger Together: Education in Emergencies & Protracted Crises appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A General Assembly session in a locked down United Nations.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 2020 (IPS)

There is no love lost between the United Nations and US President Donald Trump.

When he addressed the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in September 2018, Trump falsely told delegates that “in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country”

The misleading statement triggered loud laughter from world leaders and delegates from 192 countries—perhaps with the sole exception of the US delegation which, not surprisingly, stayed mum.

But as he does with all negative reactions, Trump later gave it a spin. He said the delegates did not laugh at him, they really laughed “with him”.

That was another big lie – even as the Washington Post, which keeps track of his false statements in its fast-growing data base, says Trump has uttered over 20,055 “false or misleading claims” so far (and counting).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/

And as an avowed unilateralist, Trump abhors multilateral institutions.

Since he took office back in January 2017, he has either de-funded, withdrawn from, or denigrated several UN agencies and affiliated institutions, including the World Health Organization, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UN Human Rights Council, among others.

Even though the UN Secretariat in New York, along with myriads of agencies worldwide, are working remotely, Trump is now planning to address the General Assembly in mid-September – in person.

Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told a virtual event last month that Trump would be “the only world leader to be speaking in person,” pointing out “this is the 75th anniversary (of the U.N.), so it makes it even more special,” according to a report in Politico.

But the UN has maintained, irrespective of who addresses the next 75th General Assembly sessions in person, the building will still have to be “largely empty” because of the continued COVID-19 lockdown since end March.

As the old saying goes: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

In a vibrantly-sarcastic comment, Kul Gautam, a former UN assistant secretary-general, told IPS: “Let Trump’s address at the 2020 UN General Assembly be his last hurrah in an empty GA Hall with world leaders mocking him from afar, and bidding him adieu!”

Gautam pointed out that American leadership was decisive in creating and sustaining the post-World War II architecture of multilateral diplomacy with the United Nations as its centerpiece.

“Ever since Franklin Roosevelt coined the term “the United Nations” and Harry Truman signed its Charter, making the US the first country to ratify it, all American presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, have made some positive contribution to strengthening the UN and the multilateralist world order,” he added.

President Donald Trump will go down in history as the sole American President who made zero contribution to strengthening the UN, declared Gautam, a former Deputy Executive Director of the UN children’s agency UNICEF and author of: ‘Global Citizen from Gulmi: My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of the United Nations’.

With US presidential election campaign virtually grounded due to the spreading coronavirus pandemic, Trump may be looking at the UN as a global political platform to advance his re-election bid, scheduled for November 3, as he has fallen far behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

That may be an irony of ironies because of Trump’s distaste towards UN institutions
and more importantly, his virulent attacks on people from UN member states, including Haitians and Africans,

At a 2017 White House meeting, Trump apparently said all Haitians “have AIDS’; that Nigerians should “go back to their huts in Africa’; and also questioned why US should welcome people from “shithole countries” in Africa, according a report in the New York Times June 20.

At the United Nations, the African Union (AU) alone represents 55 member states in the world body.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU), told IPS: “As usual, I’m afraid that Trump will embarrass himself and the United States with his brash and often incoherent statements.”

“There is no doubt in my mind that he will boast about how he handled the coronavirus, and he may very well say that America handled it better than any other country, when in fact the precise opposite is true,” he said.

Given his low numbers in the polls, he will try to boast about America’s military strength, and probably the ‘wonderful’ trade deals that he made.

“I suspect that, just like (in September 2018), many of the assembled will laugh and dismiss much of what he will say,” declared Dr Ben-Meir, who is also Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute.

Trump, who predictably changes his mind ever so often, may still decide to abandon the idea of physically addressing the UN.

Gautam told IPS: “As the champion of “America First” unilateralism, Trump sought to disrupt and undermine many carefully crafted multilateral initiatives ranging from climate change, human rights, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, to the much-needed global solidarity to tackle the greatest pandemic to hit humanity in modern times.”

The damage caused to these initiatives and institutions by Trump, he argued, will take a long time to heal and remedy, “but I am confident that over the long haul, good sense will prevail over this historic aberration.”

Asked about Trump’s plans to address the General Assembly in person, UN Deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters July 30: “I don’t want to speculate on what the future will hold. As you know, the Secretariat will be in touch, basically through the Office of the President of the General Assembly, with the Member States on their representation. “

When it comes to it, he said,” we have made clear what the conditions in the building are, what the need is for a scaled back ceremony.”

But Member States, he pointed out, are aware that they have different options, including recorded messages or, in some cases, appearances.

“We trust and expect that all Member States will abide by the need to keep the numbers low, and we’ll see what they do in terms of their preparations,” Haq noted.

The post If Trump Delivers His Last Hurrah to an Empty United Nations, Will it Still Make a Sound? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Refugee Rohingya children in Coz's Bazar aren't allowed to attend local school. For many, continuing their education was unattainable until Bangladesh announced in January that refugee children could also receive a formal education, and would be educated on the school curriculums used in both Bangladesh and Myanmar in preparation for their repatriation. Credit Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
HYDERABAD, India , Aug 14 2020 (IPS)

15-year-old Humaira* sits on the mud floor of her hut in Ukhiya camp, Cox’s Bazar, listening as the rain beats down on the tarpaulin roof.

Three years ago, Humaira arrived in Bangladesh at the refugee camp in Cox Bazar, which is now the largest such camp in the world, housing nearly a million Rohingyas. Her family had fled their home in Rakhine state, Myanmar, after her father had been killed by the army.

As a refugee child, Humaira wasn’t allowed to enrol in a local school. Confined to home, Humaira, who dreams of becoming a school teacher someday, suffered silently.

But things changed in January when the government of Bangladesh announced that refugee children could also receive a formal education, and would be educated on the school curriculums used in both Bangladesh and Myanmar. In addition, they could also learn professional skills that could help them find jobs in the future.

The news excited Humaira, who had been depressed, says her mother Samuda Khatun. “For the first time since the death of her father, my daughter was smiling again,” Khatun tells IPS.

•  The shift in government policy came after Bangladesh announced its plan to repatriate the Rohingyas to Myanmar, the preparations for which have already begun.
• A formal and accredited education would help the refugee children to return to schools in Myanmar after being repatriated.

Returning to Rakhine state, which is still in the middle of an armed conflict, is upsetting most Rohingyas. But Humaira doesn’t seem to care. “All I want is to study,” she says.

The schooling year was meant to start in April, but by then the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a national lockdown across Bangladesh. And Humaira’s dreams of schooling were postponed.

Funding children’s education in crisis

Humaira is one of 75 million children and youth across the world living in crisis today.

Many of them have never been to school or have lost two to three years of education due to war and  displacement. Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a multilateral global fund, is now addressing the funding gap for education in crisis. In fact, ECW figures show that in 2015 some 39 million girls alone were out of school because of war and disasters.

Since 2016, ECW has reached nearly 3.5 million children and youth in 29 humanitarian crisis-hit countries, including Bangladesh. Of them, 48 percent are girls.

Working with 75 partner organisations, ECW has so far provided $662.3 million for supporting education in emergencies.

On Aug. 11 ECW launched its 2019 Annual Results Report tiled Stronger Together in Crisis.

According to the report, ECW has committed $12 million to support Rohingya refugee children’s education in Bangladesh, of which $6 million has already been provided. The funding has so far helped 63,000 students enrol at various learning centres run by ECW partners and local communities. The goal is to reach 88,500 children, 51 percent of whom are girls.

The challenges surrounding Rohingya children are many. About 65 percent of them can only read letters, not words or a sentence.  Only seven percent of Rohingya refugee children can read a paragraph of text or do basic maths. To address this, ECW has taken a holistic approach to education, which includes adopting a series of ‘out of the box’ techniques.

In the Rohingya refugee camps, teachers in the learning centres are trained in inclusive education, child protection, emergency preparedness and giving  psychosocial support to children dealing with trauma. 

A special focus has been on non-formal learning opportunities like solar installation and maintenance, hand sewing, embroidery and tailoring. Alongside, separate toilets for boys and girls have been built to help the girls feel secure and at ease.

A holistic approach

Henritetta Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, which hosts the ECW secretariat, described the holistic approach the fund has been taking to support education in crisis.

“We have created a focus on five areas. One, affordability: we need to make sure a girl can afford to go to school. Second is distance learning. We have got to  try to get every girl reached by distance learning. Third, we have to mobilise communities, so there is lots of help out there. Fourth, protection. There is so much difficulty if you are an IDP or a refugee, so we need to help. And lastly, we really want young people to participate.  So, education is a ladder out of poverty. Its the greatest asset we can give to young people,” Fore said. She was speaking at a high-level virtual seminar host by ECW on Aug. 12.

The webinar was also addressed by former United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown, Jan Egeland, Norwegian Refugee Council secretary-general,  Afghanistan minister of education H.E. Rangina Hamidi, Theirworld president Justin Van Fleet, Norway minister of international development Dag-Inge Ulster and Canada’s parliamentary secretary Kamal Khera, among others.

Deborah Kalumbi, a 3rd-year student at Cavendish University, Lusaka, and the recipient of a U.N.High Commissioner for Refugees scholarship, was another attendee.

Kalumbi’s family fled to Zambia from their home in the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo when she was just seven. Unlike many other fellow refugee children, Kalumbi was able to enrol in school, which she describes as challenging as well as enriching.

“It was difficult as everything was new and different. We were also treated as different. However, education made me understand the diversity that exists and value its importance,”  said Kalumbi, who is now a vocal advocate for the rights and education of refugee youths.

A collective achievement

From the beginning, ECW has focused on building strong partnerships at global and local level, to deliver inclusive, equitable, quality education for children and youth caught in crisis. According to the new report, this approach has been successful as there is a distinct growth in political commitment for the emergency education sector. Similarly, education in humanitarian crisis is also becoming a priority.

For example, globally, the share of education in all humanitarian funding increased from 4.3 per cent in 2018 to 5.1 percent in 2019, representing a record amount of over $700 million.

At the webinar, ECW director Yasmin Sherif credited the progress to the partnership model the fund had adopted. “It’s all about being together. We were able to move fast because we acted together,”  Sherif said, pointing to the fund’s continued investment during the COVID-19 crisis.

In the first four months of 2020, ECW has provided $60 million to 33 countries to educate refugee and displaced children and youths aged three to 18 who were hard-hit by COVID-19 .

Call for more support

However, despite the significant progress of the past tree years, ECW is still underfunded. So it is now  calling upon other donors and partners to step up and provide further financing to fill the gap.

“ECW and its partners are working to urgently mobilise an additional $310 million to support the emergency education response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other ongoing crises. Together with in-country resource mobilisation, this will allow us to reach close to nine million children annually,” Sherif said.

Khera, Canada’s parliamentary secretary who also spoke at the webinar, said that when a crisis breaks out, the list of priorities usually excluded education. She said it was now time to change this in order to avoid the risk of a generation getting lost without education.“We must combine measures to ensure continuity of education during the COVID crisis,” Khera said.

Keeping hope alive

One of the most notable speakers on the webinar was Brown – former United Kingdom prime minister and chair of the ECW high-level steering group. Delivering a strong message to the global community, Brown said that there was an urgent need to support education of children and youths in a global crisis like the pandemic.

Half a world away, in Cox’s Bazar, Humaira also waits in hope of the day when she can start her schooling.

Since September, mobile internet services have been banned in her camp, so children here live on the other side of the digital divide, unable to attend any possible online classes that were set up during the lockdown. So Humaira just has to wait for the pandemic to be over.

“Once this disease is over, I can go to school. Once I become a teacher, my mother will get some relief. Our lives will change,” she says, hope flickering in her eyes. 

*Surname withheld upon request.

 

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More than 50 million construction workers in India build our homes and cities. | Picture courtesy: Godrej Industries Limited

By Gayatri Divecha and Pooja Lapasia
MUMBAI, Aug 14 2020 (IPS)

Basant Lal Chaudhary migrated from his village of 1,200 people in Madhya Pradesh, to a city of 90,000 people in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016. He last worked as a construction worker, before the COVID-19 lockdown forced him out of employment.“I used to earn a daily wage of INR 350. That was my only source of income,” he shares. During the lockdown, he along with others who worked with him, are finding it difficult to make the ends meet.”I don’t know whether I will be able to find work here anytime soon.”

More than 50 million construction workers in India build our homes and cities. Like Basant Lal Chaudhary, an average construction worker earns just over INR 350 a day (US$ 4,70) with almost no perks or benefits. Many workers are their families’ primary earners. For the high risk of the jobs they are involved in, they are seldom provided a safety net.

Approximately 87.4 percent of workers in the construction industry are categorised as casual labour, and they make up a majority of the informal workforce in our country. In 1996, the Indian parliament enacted two laws which had the potential of providing protection and dignity to this workforce:

• The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, (BOCW Act or BOCWA).
• The Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act (Cess Act).

 

Understanding these laws and what they mean

These laws mandate that construction companies pay a minimum of one percent cess on the construction cost. This money is then directed to the welfare of construction workers registered under the BOCW Act. The act ensures the safety and welfare of these workers and their families. Benefits include pension, education and maternity assistance, loans for purchase of tools, and accident and medical expenses.

We don’t have to wait for a pandemic to highlight the gaps in our present system. A well-planned structure will ensure workers get the benefits they are entitled to, no matter the external circumstances


Despite this, data released by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in early February 2019 showed that only about 35 million of the 50 million construction workers were registered under the BOCW Act. Even here, up-to-date information is unavailable on the number of active registrations. For example, Delhi has 5,39,421 workers registered totally, but only 1,28,394 are active as per the state website. It is not clear how many of these registered workers are local and how many are migrants, because none of the systems we have come across captures this.

Since the inception of the Cess Act, states and union territories have collected an estimated INR 52,000 crores from construction companies. However, until 2019, less than 40 percent of the corpus was spent on welfare of the construction workers. Here, there are sizeable differences among states:

• As many as 21 of the 37 states and union territories have spent less than 30 percent of their collected funds.
• On the other hand, Kerala was the only state to have spent more than the collected funds (121 percent).
• Importantly, some states, which collected the highest amount of cess, have spent the least on the welfare of construction workers. For instance, Maharashtra spent only five percent of the INR 7,400 crore that it had collected. Similarly, Delhi collected INR 2,190 crore, but spent only nine percent of it.

With COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown, the government asked states to use their unspent funds to provide immediate relief to construction workers. This was a welcome move, not only because it would ease distress amongst labourers, but also because it marked what will probably be the first time in 24 years that we will see an uptake in spending from this fund.

However, to avail these benefits, the workers needs to be registered under the BOCW Act. Low registrations, especially among the significant migrant population, has led to exclusion of a large section of the construction workforce. “I am not registered anywhere. I don’t have much knowledge about it. I just do my labour work,” shares Basant Lal. Like him, millions of workers (often the most vulnerable) not only miss out the relief package benefits, but also on other welfare benefits they and their families are entitled to.

COVID-19 or not, registering under the BOCW Act is crucial as it is the first step in availing any support from the government. But why are the registrations so low and what can be done to change this? Let us break it down.

 

Increasing BOCWA registrations: What needs to be done

 

1. Adoption of a single window system

The current system allows for registration and support in one state without any portability option. This is incompatible with the reality of migrant labourers who are often working in multiple states in a given year. For example, Delhi has seen 87 percent fall in registered workers since 2015—largely because people dropped off the system when they migrated elsewhere for work.

Consider Govind and his family. They moved from Jhansi to Jodhpur to make a living as construction labourers. They are registered under BOCW Act in Jhansi; however, because of the move, their registration has most likely shifted to an ‘inactive’ status, leaving them unable to avail any benefits. They share, “We have not got any benefits of that registration yet. We are not aware as to what the benefits are, and how to avail them.”

Given this reality, states need to have mechanisms that ensure seamless portability of the informal workforce. A Model Welfare Scheme has been outlined by the Ministry of Labour and Employment following the Supreme Court directive, where each worker will be allotted a unique identification code that can be used across the country. As Jan Sahas recommends in their report, states should expedite the implementation of the new model that will help streamline the registrations and benefits in a single window.

 

2. Easy registration

Currently, workers are required to fill out a detailed form to register under BOCW Act. For instance, in Delhi the four page form was turned into a 12 page form. Filling out the form with all necessary details is usually a big task for workers as they have low literacy levels and little access to digital systems.

Additionally, the onus of registration is currently on the workers. It would be fruitful to shift this onto contractors or developers. In the short-term, employers will be able to easily register workers. They have the resources to do so, and they already collect details such as PAN, Aadhaar, and bank account details. In the long-term, employers could then formalise these employment relationships through official contracts and registration to authorities.

 

3. Relaxation in proof of employment certification

Under this act, workers need to submit 90 days certification of proof of employment in the last 12 months. In reality, the industry has a high rate of worker turnover. For example, at our Godrej Properties Limited construction sites, workers typically stay with us for about 45 days. This number is far lower at smaller construction sites. As workers keep moving, they find it difficult to have a 90 day documented proof of employability, especially from contractors that employ them for short projects. This rule should therefore consider relaxing the certification of work to 90 non-continuous work days annually.

 

4. Partnering to increase registrations

A large number of construction workers work at the nakas as daily wage earners. It is important to reach out to this segment and get them registered. To this end, a number of steps can be taken.

Firstly, state BOCW Act boards can partner with nonprofit organisations that work with migrant workers to effectively register daily wage workers at worker facilitation centres. Additionally, information counters can be set up at state transport bus stands, railway stations, and nakas for workers to easily access information. Even a central worker helpline number will be useful. For example, the Delhi government is holding a registration drive during the lockdown to get more workers in the system. Maharashtra is also replicating this idea, and it can be quickly taken up by other states. However, support from developers and the construction industry is crucial to boost this drive.

In addition, corporates can widen the social protection net by proactively engaging with suppliers, vendors, and partners to formalise registration and licensing, set standards for employee protection, and socialise linkages to public schemes. Stakeholders can be incentivised or penalised and progress can be monitored.

Lastly, it would be worthwhile for the BOCW Act boards to explore a public-private partnership to monitor registrations through different mediums (online, through civil society organisations, developers, builders, contractors, and so on).

We don’t have to wait for a pandemic to highlight the gaps in our present system. A well-planned structure will ensure workers get the benefits they are entitled to, no matter the external circumstances.

This article was written with inputs from Jan Sahas and Dimpy Dave.

Gayatri Divecha heads Corporate Social Responsibility for Godrej Industries and Associate Companies

Pooja Lapasia leads communications for the Corporate Social Responsibility function at Godrej Industries and Associate Companies

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

The post Getting India’s Construction Workers Their Entitlements appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kalpana Nagari and Kalawati Auji from Godavari Municipality who face double discrimination from society for being Dalit and because their relatives tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from India. Credit: UNNATI CHAUDHARY

By Unnati Chaudhary
KAILALI, Nepal, Aug 14 2020 (IPS)

Across Nepal, it is the already under-served and vulnerable who have been affected by the prolonged lockdowns. But it is the Dalit returnees from India who have tested positive and their families who face double discrimination.

The Ministry of Health issues a daily tally of COVID-19 cases, but no one is counting the poorest of the poor who are dying of hunger or pre-existing diseases, or have been have been driven deeper into destitution.

Kalpana Nagari, 30, works as a day labourer by the roadside in Godavari Municipality to earn enough to feed her two children. This time of year there are plenty of jobs planting or weeding paddy fields, but she is unemployed because of social stigma after her husband, Tika Narayan, tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

Tika Narayan Nagari had returned from India after he lost his job there on 15 May. He tested positive was quarantined altogether for 50 days first at the border, and later because of delays in getting his test result. But even after he got out, the Dalit family has been shunned by neighbours and society.

The non-Dalits in the quarantine used to get hot water, lunch, and more food than us. If we asked for more food, they would ignore us

Her family used to face discrimination even before because they were Dalit, but COVID-19 has added another layer of prejudice. Even that is not what worries Kalpana the most – it is not earning enough to feed her family.

“Without work, how are we going to feed our children that is what I am most anxious about,” says Kalpana, who does not have a house of her own and lives with her sister-in-law. Her husband had to go to India to find work to repay a loan he took for his mother’s funeral.

“During every meal, I worry about where the next one will come from, and I feel faint,” says Kalpana. “The landlords did not give me any work in the rice fields because they said ‘your husband has corona, you might also be infected’.’”

Kalawati Auji, 40, is also from Godavari and raised her three sons all by herself after her husband died nine years ago. Her eldest son died last year, and her youngest has heart disease. Her middle child, Dipak is 22 and worked in Bareilly in India. It was the money Dipak sent home that allowed Kalawati to pay for food and medicines for her daughter-in-law, son and grandson.

But Dipak lost his job and returned to Nepal on 30 June. He tested positive for COVID-19 and was confined in a quarantine for 34 days where he was ostracised both for being infected, and for being a Dalit. After coming home, he quarantined himself in a cowshed for a week.

But even after he recovered, the family has been harassed and humiliated by neighbours. Neither Dipak not Kalwati can find a job, and they owe a neighbourhood provision store Rs50,000.

Says Kalawati: “This pandemic has come to kill the poor like us.”

Fifty-year-old Harish B K also returned from Bareilly in the first week of May. Among the 234 people whose swab samples were taken, Harish was among 70 who tested positive – only two of them were non-Dalits.

“The non-Dalits in the quarantine used to get hot water, lunch, and more food than us. If we asked for more food, they would ignore us,” he recalls. Now out of quarantine, but jobless, deep in debt, and facing double discrimination and humiliation, Harish says he often has suicidal thoughts.

Godavari Municipality says it has plans to provide farm subsidies to the most vulnerable during the pandemic and lockdown. Deputy Mayor Ratna Kadayat says the plan will give priority to Dalits, women, and marginalised communities under the ‘Prime Minister’s Employment Program’.

But these future plans are a mirage for most Dalit families like the Nagaris, Aujis and BKs here. Their needs are urgent and immediate, and they have heard these promises before.

Rights activist Savitra Ghimire at the Dalit Women’s Rights Forum (DWRF) says the relief may be too little too late for most Dalit families. Godavari and the Attaria highway intersection are hotspots for a surge in coronavirus cases. In the past month alone, the area got 4,000 returnees from India, and of them 349 tested positive and 294 have recovered and gone home.

However, being virus-free is just the beginning of the struggle for Dalit families here in western Nepal. As more and more districts re-impose lockdown, business is not expected to pick up soon, and this means fewer options for employment. And even if jobs open up, Dalit returnees and their families here will be the last to get them.­­­

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times

The post COVID-19 Sharpens Caste Discrimination in Nepal appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Search and rescue team combs rubble in Beirut after a blast on 4 August 2020. Credit: UNOCHA

By External Source
Aug 13 2020 (IPS)

The catastrophic explosion in Beirut’s port is a manifestation of the Lebanese political elite’s predation and dysfunction. Among the country’s long-suffering citizens, shock is quickly yielding to fury. It may be the last chance for those in power to effect long-overdue structural reforms.

From all we know, the blast that destroyed much of the port in the Lebanese capital Beirut in the early evening of 4 August was an accident – but if so, it was an accident only in name. Storing, against repeated warnings, more than 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate for nearly seven years under unsuitable conditions near a densely populated area amounted to asking for a catastrophe to happen.

Blatant, perhaps criminal, negligence and bureaucratic ineptitude were the immediate causes of the explosion that killed over 150, injured more than 5,000, displaced up to 300,000 and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage to the city – and counting

Blatant, perhaps criminal, negligence and bureaucratic ineptitude were the immediate causes of the explosion that killed over 150, injured more than 5,000, displaced up to 300,000 and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage to the city – and counting.

In that sense, the disaster is only the latest, if most dramatic and devastating, manifestation of the dysfunction that has marked the Lebanese state for three decades. It is the product of a predatory political elite that has held state institutions in its grip and sucked them dry while allowing public services for ordinary citizens to break down to the point of non-existence.

The networks of political influence, patronage and corruption they have built have compromised accountability, due process and professional conduct on all levels. Their behaviour has pushed Lebanon over the brink of bankruptcy and beggared much of the population.

The headline in The Daily Star, a local newspaper, captured the bottom line particularly well: “Lebanon’s officials are its worst enemies”. Unless these political elites finally accede to the demands for fundamental reform, Lebanon will slide further into economic abyss, and public outrage may well lead to unrest and violence.

The blast will accelerate the Lebanese economy’s tailspin, immiserating a larger and larger part of the 6.8 million-strong population, one in five of whom are Syrian refugees. The Lebanese lira has lost more than 80 percent of its value since October, impoverishing citizens who now struggle to afford basic goods, which are mostly imported.

Banks have largely refused to dispense their customers’ savings, as they grapple with their own apparent insolvency. On 6 August, the Lebanese Central Bank announced support for businesses and individuals seeking to repair damage, yet experts remain sceptical that the institution can squeeze enough dollars out of its shrinking foreign reserves to make a real difference.

The liquidity crisis, loss of credit and resulting collapse of local demand, which was then deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced businesses to scale back operations or shut down entirely, shedding or furloughing tens of thousands of employees. State-provided electricity has dwindled to just a few hours per day, as fuel has become scarce.

Lebanese politicians have responded to the country’s political-economic crisis with characteristic lack of seriousness, arguing among themselves over the scale of losses at Lebanon’s politically connected banks, and who should make them whole. Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over an economic rescue package have deadlocked as a result.

Now Lebanon’s national crisis has been made much worse. With Beirut’s port incapacitated, and smaller facilities along the Lebanese coast likely unable to take much of the load, bringing in sufficient supplies of food and medicine will be a challenge.

The blast also destroyed the main grain storage silos and stocks of medical equipment. Enterprises that have weathered the crisis thus far will find it even more difficult to import equipment and materials to keep business going or to export their products. State tax and customs revenue will plummet further, forcing the government to fund its budget through the printing press and thus initiating a new round of hyperinflation.

Even before the latest disaster Lebanon was in need of humanitarian assistance. Now the need has become acute, and the volume of required aid, in particular medical staff and supplies, food to replenish destroyed stocks and building material to fix damaged shelters, has only grown.

Thankfully, a number of countries across the Middle East and in Europe are already pitching in. They will have to do more, as the effects of the Beirut port’s destruction and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese set in, compounding the country’s misery. They should provide assistance directly to the affected population and through local and international non-governmental organisations present on the ground.

Lebanon’s political leadership may still have a chance to do the right thing and institute long-overdue reforms, as the Lebanese people have demanded, and on which international donors have conditioned an economic rescue. The corrupt political arrangements that have bankrupted the country and that led ultimately to the 4 August disaster cannot be allowed to continue; they have reached their end. They will not be revived by some miraculous injection of foreign money.

Two months ago, Crisis Group published a report on how to pull Lebanon out of the pit. We emphasised that the political elite that has ruled Lebanon for the past 30 years must carry out structural reforms that prevent corrupt and self-serving cliques from appropriating state resources and public goods in order to win the substantial international support the country needs to emerge from the economic crisis.

Now those elites are again facing the wrath of the country’s citizens, as they did in October 2019, when hundreds of thousands rallied against the politicians in charge. Those protests followed another humiliating episode in which the government was helpless to control wildfires after neglecting for years to pay for maintenance of donated firefighting helicopters.

The latest disaster is a similar failure, but on a monumental, much deadlier scale. It seems likely to unleash a new wave of popular fury. Lebanese are seething on social media.

Activist groups that played a prominent role in the October protest movement are starting to mobilise again, raising their popular slogan demanding the removal of the country’s entrenched elites: “‘All of them’ means ‘all of them’”. Already in April and May, sporadic protests against deteriorating living conditions had sparked violent confrontations with the security forces, causing casualties. New demonstrations could spin out of control completely. A major protest has been called for 8 August.

If the Lebanese elites do have a chance to fix what they have broken, it may well be their last. They, along with the politicians whom they elevated and the officials whom they helped appoint, will have to face up to a Lebanese public that, after so many years of abuse and neglect, has now been terrorised by its own government with an entirely preventable explosion of world-historical size and destructive power. The public is justifiably enraged, and it has less and less to lose.

 

This statement was originally published by the Crisis Group

The post The Beirut Blast: An Accident in Name Only appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Students learn with tablets in a school in South Africa. Credit: AMO/Jackie Clausen.

By External Source
Aug 13 2020 (IPS)

Most young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa continue to be denied access to information and communications technology because of poor infrastructure and the digital divide.

The cost of mobile data is part of the problem. For example, compared with its fellow members of the BRICS group of nations, South Africa has the highest average price for 1GB of mobile data.

One gigabyte of mobile data costs an average of US$1.01 in Brazil, $0.61 in China, $0.52 in Russia and $0.09 in India. It costs an average of $4.30 in South Africa. As a result, many young people in low-income communities don’t have instant access to the internet.

One gigabyte of mobile data costs an average of US$1.01 in Brazil, $0.61 in China, $0.52 in Russia and $0.09 in India. It costs an average of $4.30 in South Africa. As a result, many young people in low-income communities don’t have instant access to the internet

This situation is compounded by the lack of uneven technology infrastructure and adequate skills on how to use digital platforms. Though network operators continue to invest in infrastructure to provide quality network coverage, the cost of accessing the internet remains too costly for most citizens.

People know the importance of having information and communications technology skills and these are critical to their daily lives. As a result, most families have some level of digital skills and technology in their households. Young people gain much of their digital literacy outside the classroom in an informal context.

But we found in our research that most job seekers don’t have the skills required to effectively search for employment information on digital platforms.

The number of South Africans aged between 15 and 24 years who were not in education, employment or training was recorded at 34.1% of this age group (3.5 million) in the first quarter of 2020. When the age cohort was expanded from 15 to 34 years, the number of people in this category increased to 41.7% (20.4 million people) during the same period.

Information and communications technology skills are becoming essential in an environment that’s shifting from industry and manufacturing to a knowledge and digital economy. Information and communications technology literacy skills are therefore critical in making young people more employable in the economy.

Failure to address the implications of digital illiteracy may negatively affect young people who aren’t in education, employment or training. It keeps them from earning a living and contributing to the country’s economic growth.

The research

Our study sought to explore how digital literacy skills can advance the lives of people looking for employment. The first phase of the study was carried out in the Gauteng province of South Africa using interviews for primary data collection. The participants comprised of young people who weren’t engaged in any education, employment or any sort of training.

We found that there are many challenges which prevent people from efficiently using information technology for this purpose. These include the high cost of internet connections and the lack of knowledge about how to use digital platforms.

We found that looking for employment comes at a cost, so accessing online services was a challenge. Some of the respondents said they couldn’t search for employment by using the internet because they didn’t have access to internet or because they were digitally illiterate.

We also found that not all young people who aren’t in education, employment or training have sufficient digital skills. Only 56% of the participants had attended some sort of digital literacy skills programme at some stage, while 44% indicated they had not attended any such initiative. Most of people from poor families have no means to unblock the barrier that prevents them from getting training and accessing digital platforms – and this is often because of the financial cost attached to it.

What was interesting from the results was that there were young people who hadn’t received any training but had taught themselves to navigate and search for information on jobs, educational and other developmental opportunities on digital platforms. This was because they had access to digital resources. What’s interesting about it is that some of the young people are willing to learn on their own (trial and error) on how to use various online services.

The results also showed that those who have no access to smart computing devices and internet connection subsequently lacked the skills to search for information on work and development in virtual spaces.

 

Going forward

In a developing country like South Africa, the government must provide supportive structures and policies that prepare young people and enable them to actively participate in the economy. In the South African context, it’s worth highlighting that because of persistent historical inequalities, not everyone has had the same opportunities to access information and communications technology, so solutions need to be tailored.

Young people need an enabling environment to continuously refine their skills through either formal or informal programmes. The government must provide services for them so they can use skills centres and quality internet connection points. This will assist young people in keeping their skills set relevant to market needs.

 

Walter Matli, Researcher and senior lecturer, Vaal University of Technology

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

The post Young South Africans are Shut Out From Work: They Need a Chance to Get Digital Skills appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Globally 75 million children who cannot access education as a result of crises. A dated photo of a Syrian child in a refugee camp in Jordan. Credit: Robert Stefanicki/IPS.

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Aug 13 2020 (IPS)

“Not being able to go to school is not something I’d wish on any child in this world,” said 21-year-old Nujeen Mustafa, a young advocate for refugees who fled the Syrian war with her sister. Mustafa, who now lives in Germany, is also the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) high profile supporter.

Speaking at a virtual seminar hosted by Education Cannot Wait (ECW) a day after the organisation launched its 2019 Annual Results Report, Mustafa said growing up in Syria was not easy. Even before the war, she said, she had to educate herself at home via TV, with the assistance of her older siblings, because government buildings were not accessible to someone who had to use a wheelchair like herself. Mustafa was born with cerebral palsy.

“As the conflict started, the situation deteriorated even further,” Mustafa told over 700 participants of the webinar held on International Youth Day, Aug. 12. “I had to flee because my safety was jeopardised.”

The high-level webinar was also addressed by former United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown, Norwegian Refugee Council secretary-general Jan Egeland,  Afghanistan minister of education H.E. Rangina Hamidi, Theirworld president Justin Van Fleet, Norway minister of international development Dag-Inge Ulster and Canada’s parliamentary secretary Kamal Khera, among others.

Mustafa said the 75 million children who cannot access education as a result of crises was a demonstration of a failure on everyone’s part and that it was “unacceptable and inexcusable”. Her story resonates with many of the children in countries experiencing emergencies or conflict as highlighted in the ECW annual report titled Stronger Together in Crises.

Speaking at the same event, former United Kingdom prime minister Brown said the world has a lost generation of 30 million refugees, 40 million displaced and 75 million in conflict and emergency zones.

“We now have the COVID generation deprived of school,” said Brown who is chair of the ECW high-level steering group and also the U.N. special envoy for global education. “Some people think 30 million children will never return to school even though they have been there before the pandemic.”

Brown said it was necessary to send a message of hope based on three pillars. Firstly, faith that education can bridge the gap between what people are and what they have in themselves to become. Secondly, the message should be based on the belief that every child who is in a conflict or emergency zone can be brought to school. Finally, he said the message should be based on confidence that the $310 million needed by ECW to do its work can be raised.

“Hope doesn’t just die when a refugee ship is lost at a sea,” said Brown. “Hope dies when young people cannot plan and prepare for the future because there’s no school, no education within their grasp.”

Although there is still a long way to go in supporting children and youth in conflict countries, the Stronger Together in Crises Report shows significant progress. From 2017 to 2019, the primary enrolment rate for refugee children improved from 53 percent to 75 percent in Uganda and from 62 percent to 67 percent in Ethiopia. ECW disbursed $131 million across 29 countries in 2019, more than its 2017 and 2018 investments combined.

“Globally, the share of education in all humanitarian funding increased from 4.3 percent in 2018 to 5.1 percent in 2019, representing a record amount of over $700 million,” reads the report.

ECW director, Yasmine Sherif, attributes the progress made to three reasons. Firstly, breaking down silos and having all stakeholders working together to mobilise resources.   

“Remove this whole issue of trying to raise money for oneself, one’s own siloed area but we’re bringing it to the sector, bringing it to the children and the youth out there and that’s what the fund does,” said Sherif.

Secondly, Sherif said, removing bureaucracy has resulted in moving with record speed in response to COVID-19.  She said just a few weeks after the World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic, ECW was able to deliver in 27 countries and exhaust its entire emergency funding that was available and attracted more funding for a second round.

“Thirdly, ECW is part of a multilateral system that has been questioned over the years but if we’re going to be stronger together we have to be multilateralist,” she said. “We have to believe in the multilateral system that was created precisely for this.”

Sherif said 3.6 million children have been reached through a holistic approach that caters the needs of a child and youth from mental health and psychosocial services to school feeding where WFP plays an important role. Considering that teachers are mentors and role models to young people during their formative years, ECW involves their training.

ECW also provides cash assistance that allows most families of the 75 million children who are living in extreme poverty to send their children to school because they may not be able to do so even if the school itself is free. It also creates infrastructure that is conducive to children with disabilities and provides protection especially in countries where there is violence and conflict. It also empowers governments to build their own coordination units and sustain the investments made   

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is hosting the ECW secretariat. UNICEF executive director, Henrietta Fore, said there is not enough advocacy to support children in conflict and emergency zones with learning, yet education is part of the humanitarian and development agenda.

“It is needed in the first day of the crises as you can see from Nujeen and it is needed five years later,” said Fore. “So, we have to think differently, it is a continuum of assistance we’re giving.”

She said the best thing that has been discovered is giving the world a great idea. One great idea that is considered is, if everyone could join with connecting every young person to learning everywhere, it would make a big difference.

“If we could do this in the next couple of years, it would change the world and it would make people realise that education is the foundation of all humanitarian and development response,” she said.

Ensuring that the education needs of children in crises zones needs resources and ECW is appealing for more support.

Related Articles

• The World Needs You. Now.
• The Foundation to Build Back Better: Education
• We Cannot Let the Education Gap Widen at the Start of the Decade of Action

The post Keeping Education within the Grasp of Refugee Children appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Aug 13 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Coral reefs are iconic, but we have all seen the images of bleached areas that were previously teeming with life and colour. These ecosystems, and more broadly coastlines, are a vital part of the efforts to protect biodiversity. So how are coral reefs doing? Are we too late? Can we still secure a better future for reefs and people? In this week’s episode, Brit talks to Dr. David Obura. David has studied coral reef resilience and adaptation his whole life. He founded CORDIO, a non-profit organisation specialising in finding solutions that benefit marine ecosystems and people. To find out more about IPBES, head to www.ipbes.net or follow us on social media @IPBES.

The post Dr. David Obura: The New Natural appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 2020 (IPS)

Developing country debt has continued to grow rapidly since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC). Warnings against debt have been reiterated by familiar prophets of debt doom such as new World Bank chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, once dubbed the ‘godmother of austerity’.

Anis Chowdhury

Growing debt burden
Falling commodity prices, dwindling foreign reserves, slower global growth and weakening currencies have made it harder for developing countries to meet external debt payments.

This has involved economies of all income categories, reaching historical highs even before the pandemic. By early May, more than 100 countries had asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.

Developing countries’ government debt is likely to worsen with the pandemic induced recessions, triggering appeals for urgent debt standstills, cancellations and restructuring. While accumulated debt is undoubtedly problematic, debt phobia is now limiting fiscal options for coping with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

In March, the United Nations called for a US$2.5 trillion package for developing countries to cope. By May, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that the need is far greater.

While the Trump administration blocked the latest IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)
initiative, other debt relief initiatives, e.g., by the G20 and the IMF, are quite inadequate. Even David Malpass, the Trump nominated World Bank president, has criticised the G20 for falling short on debt relief, insisting “more needs to be done”.

Debt buybacks hardly novel
Surprisingly, rather than seeking to finance stronger fiscal responses to Covid-19 recessions, Joseph Stiglitz and Hamid Rashid have joined the chorus to address “catastrophic debt crises”, offering no evidence they are “impending”.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

They discuss various options for debt relief and restructuring, and offer guidelines for bond buybacks, without mentioning April proposals by the UN, UNCTAD, the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

While recognizing some limitations, the duo insist “bond buy-backs present a highly attractive solution, offering substantial debt relief at a relatively low cost”, which “has not received sufficient attention”.

They urge the IMF to use its New Arrangements to Borrow to buy debt at a discount, supplemented by funds from donors and multilateral institutions, but offer no convincing evidence why debt buybacks should now be prioritised over fiscal resources for recovery.

Brady debt buybacks
Under a US-led debt buyback initiative, named after then Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, indebted developing countries purchased US Treasury bonds to collateralize more than US$160 billion in replacement ‘Brady bonds’ from 1989.

The scheme restructured the debt of 18 developing countries long after sovereign debt crises began in 1981, following the US Fed’s sharp increase of interest rates to kill inflation. Thus, governments helped banks take defaulted loans, trading for small fractions of their face value on illiquid secondary markets, off their books.

Some banks took ‘haircuts’, but still got much more than what was available in secondary markets. Unlike in the current era, US interest rates were high, and thus, countries bought the Treasury zero-coupon bonds at an attractive discount.

Bloomberg’s Sydney Maki argued on 5 May that a second Brady plan is unlikely to work. The Brady plan transformed commercial bank loans, many in default, into collateralized bonds, but government debt today is owed to more diverse creditors including New York hedge funds, Gulf sovereign wealth funds and Asian pension funds.

Maki doubts that fund managers’ fiduciary duties would allow them to be lenient, even if so inclined. Terms of many deals cannot be legally changed without approval from most bondholders.

Debt buybacks for whom?
As some have noted, the plan undoubtedly relieved “pressure on Wall Street”, saving large US commercial banks which had pushed loans to developing countries in the 1970s. Stock prices of US commercial banks with significant developing country loan exposure rose 35% by US$13 billion after countries accepted the deal.

Jeremy Bulow and Kenneth Rogoff noted that “when highly indebted countries retire their deeply discounted debt, either through buy-backs or ‘debt-equity’ swaps, they may simply be using their scarce resources to subsidize their creditors”.

For them, buybacks and debt-equity swaps “are by themselves a boondoggle benefiting … creditors”. Stiglitz and Rashid dismiss this as just a “possibility”, citing the 1988 Bolivian debt buyback and the 2012 Greek bond buyback as two “good examples” of success stories.

In fact, when Bolivia bought back US$308 million in debt at face value in 1988, the price rose to 11 cents from 6 cents on the dollar, lowering the market value of the remaining debt (US$362 million at face value) to US$39.8 million.

As the earlier market value of its total bonds (US$670 million at face value) was US$40.2 million, the buyback only reduced its debt by US$400,000. This miniscule reduction cost donors US$34 million, which Bolivia would have been better off investing otherwise.

Furthermore, debtor countries participating in the Brady plan were required to deregulate, liberalize and privatize, i.e., implement structural adjustment, to qualify for Fund-Bank money to supplement their own foreign currency reserves for buybacks.

Greek tragedy
Financed by European taxpayers, the Greek buyback experience was no better. The price of 10-year benchmark Greek bonds also rose, as yield fell 147 basis points following announcement of the buyback.

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis observed, “rumours of a debt buyback have pushed these bond prices to above 43%”; “its effect will be a net debt reduction 40% less than the Eurogroup’s stated target”, constituting “a reward to hedge funds and a ruthless,… massive involuntary haircut for Greece’s embattled banks”.

The New York Times agreed that the “bigger winners were hedge funds, which pocketed higher profits than many had expected”, while Moody’s Analytics correctly predicted that the “bond buyback will not end Greece’s debt woes”.

Greece was forced into excruciating austerity, plunging it into economic depression. As the economy contracted by 24%, unemployment hit 26%, the highest in the euro zone, by September 2009, less than a year later. Thus, debt buybacks may well help financial markets, litigious funds and global finance, rather than indebted countries.

Bond buybacks no panacea
Undoubtedly, debt buybacks may sometimes work in favourable circumstances when well planned as part of a broader financing strategy. Ecuador’s 2008-2009 bond buybacks were part of its external debt restructuring to secure relief from illegitimate ‘odious debt’.

With no pressure from acute financial stress, Ecuador repurchased over 90% through financial intermediaries, at 35 cents on the dollar, as its bond prices fell during the GFC.

Jeffrey Sachs agreed with Bulow and Rogoff that debt buybacks are “not necessarily a panacea for heavily indebted countries” unless “part of a comprehensive arrangement” for reduction of all debt with the full participation of all creditors involved.

Writing before Brady, he doubted the feasibility of such debt reduction as the US had previously blocked such arrangements in the interest of US banks. The political influence of US financial lobbies has only grown in recent decades. And, as Maki notes, a comprehensive arrangement involving all creditors is an even taller order now as they are more heterogenous.

Furthermore, it was reasonable then to assume that debtors only had a certain amount to repay, with other prices adjusting accordingly. However, bond market prices today easily ‘overshoot’, while debt restructurings are rarely sufficient, often delayed and very costly.

Promoting buybacks, backed by institutions like the IMF, also runs the risk of encouraging holdouts in future debt restructurings.

Instead of using scarce financial resources to buy back bonds, multilateral institutions and donors should help developing countries retrieve fiscal space to urgently prevent Covid-19 recessions becoming depressions.

 

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