Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By Eliane Eid
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug 7 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Eliane Eid, IPS correspondent in Beirut spoke to a cross section of people who shared their views and fears with her. On the third day of the deadly explosion, amidst an outpouring of anger from the Lebanese people, Angelina, 18, speaks about her lost home in the Mar Mikhael area. Josette, 27, talks about her experience of the explosion while she was on the road and Charbel, 28, shares his thoughts about being a volunteer at this critical time. They are all numb and speak calmly of how their lives were turned upside down, with this tragedy affecting thousands of people.

 

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According to the United Nations, some 23.8 million additional children and youth (from pre-primary to tertiary) may drop out or not have access to school next year due to COVID-19’s economic impact alone. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

Countries with low human development are facing the brunt of school lockdowns, with more than 85 percent of their students effectively out of school by the second quarter of 2020, according to a United Nations policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on education.

At the launch, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said the pandemic “has led to the largest disruption of education ever”.

According to the brief, school closures resulting from the pandemic have affected 1.6 billion learners across more than 190 countries.

In the United Kingdom, there’s a difference in what’s affecting students and what’s affecting parents and teachers., according to professor Anna Mountford-Zimdars, who teaches social mobility at the University of Exeter. With students now attending schools remotely, she said, parents, teachers and guardians are prioritising issues such as safety, well-being and nutrition — not educational achievements. However, the students are “very concerned about their attainment and progression and how this affects their future prospects”.

Mountford-Zimdars spoke with IPS following the release of the U.N. policy brief. In May, her office at the university’s Joint Director of the Centre for Social Mobility published results of a survey about how school lockdowns are affecting parents and students across the United Kingdom.

“Students reported a sense of ‘loss of power’ with regards to shaping their next steps as the framework of attainment and opportunities for further education,” Mountford-Zimdars told IPS on Tuesday.

According to the brief, “some 23.8 million additional children and youth (from pre-primary to tertiary) may drop out or not have access to school next year due to the pandemic’s economic impact alone”.

The pandemic is worsening already-existing problems in the field, hampering learning for those living in poor or rural areas, girls, refugees, persons with disabilities and forcibly displaced persons.

‘Loss of power’

“In the most fragile education systems, this interruption of the school year will have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable pupils, those for whom the conditions for ensuring continuity of learning at home are limited,” the brief read.

It pointed out that the Sahel region is especially susceptible to some of the effects as the lockdown came when many schools in the region were already shut down due to a range of issues such as security, strikes, climate concerns.

According to the report, 47 percent of the world’s 258 million out-of-school children (30 percent due to conflict and emergency) lived in sub-Saharan Africa before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, with children now remaining at home full time may mean challenges for the parents, and could further “complicate the economic situation of parents, who must find solutions to provide care or compensate for the loss of school meals”.

This is present in Mountford-Zimdars’ findings as well. She told IPS that their research shows that the parents perceive the current situation as “crisis schooling” and not as “home education” or remote learning.

Silver lining

There are, however, some silver linings. When faced with the pandemic and lockdown, educational institutions responded with “remarkable innovation” to address the gap, the brief stated. It has also given educators an opportunity to reflect on how education systems going forward can be “more flexible, equitable, and inclusive.”

Mountford-Zimdars said their survey in particular showed that students with special education needs are “thriving more in the forced home-schooling than they did in mainstream schools.”

“There are lessons to be learnt of the factors that make home-education a better choice for some children – including the opportunity to tailor material to individual interests and needs, taking breaks and having fun together as a family,” she said.   

Acknowledging that often school  is a safe space for many children, she added, “We also need to recognise that there are divergent experiences of the school closure and there are also children and families who experience this as an opportunity to rethink how and why they are doing schooling the way they are.”

Going forward

The U.N. brief further discussed measures to take into account steps going forward — whether it’s for their return to the classrooms or to improve digital teaching. The brief recommends solutions designed around the issues of equal connectivity for children as well as making up for their lost lessons.

Mountford-Zimdars added to this list two important elements: a safe space for the students to share their at-home experience, and reflections on how they processed the pandemic. 

“It is important to create safe spaces for young people to talk about their experiences of being at home education,” she said, adding that for many students it hasn’t been a positive experience, owing to family circumstances, lack of access to nutrition, economic, social or cultural resources and technology.

“Now is an opportunity to provide spaces for talking through these experiences and, if necessary, offer further specialist support,” she added. “It would be immensely beneficial for mental health support to be available, widely advertised, and open through self-referral by young people themselves as well as those working with them in schools.”

Furthermore, she said, parents and teachers should guide students to reflect on positive lessons from the school closures.

“I would strongly recommend that instead of focusing solely on the lost learning of particular curricula, that the school reopening needs to be accompanied by a period of reflection. What have students learnt? How is this helpful for the future?” she added.

Related Articles

• Q&A: Child Marriage, FGM and Harmful Practices on Women’s Bodies to Increase Because of COVID-19
• The Sahel – ‘in Every Sense of the Word a Crisis’

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 2020 (IPS)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that developing countries would need more than the earlier estimated US$2.5 trillion to provide relief to affected families and businesses and expedite economic recovery.

Anis Chowdhury

With their limited fiscal capacities, developing countries will need to borrow more, increasing their often already high public debt burdens. Developing country debt has grown rapidly since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC), reaching historical highs even before the pandemic.

A deep pandemic induced depression may also require governments to take over huge private debt liabilities. All this has increased calls for urgent debt relief, cancellation and restructuring, and for new IMF and World Bank lending lines, including new IMF special drawing rights (SDRs).

Not enough debt relief
On 13 April, the IMF approved debt service relief for 25 eligible low-income countries (LICs), estimated at US$213.5 million, for six months, i.e., from 14 April until mid-October 2020.

On 15 April, G20 leaders announced their ‘Debt Service Suspension Initiative for Poorest Countries’ from May to the end of 2020 for 73 primarily LICs. The G20 initiative would cover around US$20 billion of bilateral public debt owed to official creditors by International Development Association (IDA) and least developed countries (LDCs).

Such steps are welcome, providing some temporary relief, but far short of the eligible countries’ long-term public and publicly guaranteed external debt of US$457 billion in 2018.

UNCTAD estimates that in 2020 and 2021, middle- and low-income countries face debt service repayments between US$700 billion and US$1.1 trillion, while upper middle-income developing countries expect to pay US$2.0~2.3 trillion.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The G20 initiative is already seen as merely kicking the can down the road. It does not cancel any debt, which is to be repaid in full over 2022–2024, as interest continues to grow. Hence, it is quite unlike the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

Furthermore, money saved from debt relief “can be used to pay the private creditors on time and in full”, i.e., prioritizing private over public creditors. The G20 initiative only applies to a limited number of countries, and does not impact the US$8 billion owed to private lenders and the US$12 billion debt to multilateral creditors.

An Oxfam report estimated that eligible countries are still required to pay at least US$33.7 billion for debt servicing this year, or US$2.8 billion monthly, “double the amount Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia combined spent on their annual health budget”.

Furthermore, the initiatives presume that Covid-19 shocks to developing economies will be short and swift, and that developing countries can make debt repayments over the next 3-4 years.

IMF and World Bank falling short
The World Bank has put in place a US$14 billion fast-track package to meet immediate health and economic needs, envisaging financial support of around US$160 billion during 2020-2021.

The IMF has doubled access to its Rapid Credit Facility and Rapid Financing Instrument to meet greater expected demand for emergency financing of about US$100 billion, without requiring “a full-fledged program in place”. By mid-June, various IMF facilities had committed around US$300 billion.

Although these financing instruments involve fewer conditionalities and faster approval, eligibility still depends on familiar — and, in current conditions, very restrictive — criteria. These include, inter alia, having to satisfy the ‘revamped’ joint Bank-Fund r” target=”_blank”>debt sustainability framework, which critics deem “obsolete”.
Therefore, actual urgent liquidity support falls far short of the IMF’s US$1 trillion lending capacity while the attempt to issue new SDRs for Covid-19 has been blocked by the Trump administration.

Debt reduction wrong priority now
The UN warned of the dire consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, and in May, argued that without bold policy action, the pandemic would set back the SDGs.

Facing the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s, many developing countries have little choice but to borrow to create fiscal space, rather than focus on complicated, time-consuming long-term debt restructuring, workouts or buybacks.

Instead of obsessing over debt, some developing countries are tapping global debt markets to meet Covid-19 financing needs. When governments can borrow on reasonable terms to invest in projects needed for sustainable development, debt may even be desirable, if not necessary, especially in resource-poor countries.

For some, in a low interest rate environment, it is reasonable for developing countries to borrow more, even raising their debt/GDP ratios to levels previously regarded as dangerous, to fund recovery. This time, it is really different as debt costs are lower and are expected to stay low for some time to come.

Furthermore, the consequences of fiscal inaction, so as to not take on debt, can be disastrous for the developing world, paradoxically making current stock of debt unsustainable. On the other hand, new borrowing to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on growth can make debt sustainable.

However, most non-investment grade developing countries have to pay substantially higher risk premiums, due to the prejudices and biases of market finance, even when their macroeconomic ‘fundamentals’ are sound.

Pandemic emergency financing fiasco
After the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the Bank launched the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) in July 2017, using insurance-like ‘catastrophe bonds’ and derivatives to raise private sector money for LICs’ pandemic responses.

The PEF promised to “blend the best of the public and private sectors, helping to keep 1.6 billion people safe” while “transferring [financial] risk [from governments] to international markets”.

To draw investors, the PEF has stringent and controversial rules on when and how much to pay-out. To make them attractive to investors, PEF bonds were designed to reduce the probability of paying out.

Due to its complicated approval process the PEF had not paid out a single dollar until the end of March, although the World Health Organization designated the Covid-19 outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, and a “pandemic” on 11 March. The pay-out decision was only made on 27 April; as of 27 July, only a paltry US$146.5 million had been “transferred to support” 48 countries — “too little, too late”, even for The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, its “cash window” – funded by donors – has not been replenished after being used up for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018-2019.

In April 2019, Larry Summers, former World Bank chief economist and US Treasury Secretary, described the PEF as “an embarrassing mistake” and “financial goofiness”, noting that the programme was “loved” for promoting private sector involvement.

Intermediation role required
With preferred creditor status, the Fund and the Bank can borrow ‘cheaply’, i.e., at the much lower interest rates available to them. By intermediating, they can enable developing countries, especially LICs and LDCs, to borrow cheaply for their relief and recovery.

A first step would be to ditch the last Bank president’s now discredited ‘mobilizing finance for development’ (MFD) framework to use public funds, including official development assistance (ODA), to leverage private finance for public-private partnerships (PPPs).

As with the PEF, the MFD approach has failed to leverage billions in ODA into trillions of development finance, as promised, mobilizing only US$0.37 of additional private capital for LICs for every US$1 of public money invested.

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World in her hands: Fuzia believes that supporting women in the digital field results in empowerment. Credit: Unsplash / Ben W.

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

A girl has many roles. She can be a daughter, a mother, a friend, a wife or a sister. But her first and foremost introduction is a person, a human and a voice. No matter what remote or accessible part she may belong to, her story is unique and belongs only to her own. And if a thought-provoking, positive platform echo her voice, it can achieve wonders.

Now in the age of the seamless digital connection, we’re capable of building a community where a woman in a small hut with a simple, smartphone can engage with a tech geek in San Francisco and talk about how to bake a cake or how to code. With the intention of building a community where women develop and lift each other, learn from one another, and are proud of womanhood – a few passionate women launched Fuzia.

The founders, 19-year-old Riya Sinha and co-founder and director Shraddha Verma, 31 say while they could not reach every part of the world physically, they can digitally reach women across the globe. They wanted to make each woman feel special, empowered, and independent and celebrate who she is.

Fuzia is a happy place for women empowerment, says senior marketing manager Singhal. It’s a place where 50 000 creative users of the site have committed themselves to lend a hand to other women.

“Harnessing the power of technology and digital progression, Fuzia is building up a global sisterhood and making it a platform where women are empowered, and gender gaps are eliminated,” the 24-year-old Singhal says of the site. Singhal has worked for the organisation for five years and was one of its first team members. She now oversees the creative activities and campaigns.

“Fuzia has, indeed become a happy place. It makes me proud to see how the power of social media and the internet has impacted the lives of the users positively through Fuzia,” she says in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service (IPS). She adds that every day she receives countless messages and testimonials that reinforce how the internet and technology play a significant role in women empowerment.

However, the internet is not always a happy place for women – especially young women. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) noted that digital spaces could be empowering places for opinion-formation, debate and mobilisation.

“However, cyberbullying restricts the opportunities offered by digitalisation. Young people, especially women are put off from taking part in political discussions or online debates. All of society is missing out when young women are not engaged because we are losing their potential to get involved in politics and become future leaders,” Virginija Langbakk, EIGE’s Director is quoted as saying.

Recent academic research showed that 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online. Girls are more likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying and half of the LGBTQ+ experience online harassment.

Power of collaboration: Fuzia uses the digital landscape to connect with women across the globe. Credit: Unsplash / Marvin M

Recently during a United Nations Women meet Cecilia Mwende Maundu, a broadcast journalist based in Kenya and a specialist in gender digital safety, affirmed women’s rights to a part of social media and in the digital space. She decried cyberbullying or other methods which push women from this sphere. She suggested women enhance their security in the digital field by:

– Creating a strong password;

– Having different passwords for different accounts;

– Download apps from authentic platforms and use two-factor authentication;

– Log out of your accounts;

– Don’t use public WIFI for sharing sensitive information, like online bank details;

– Use antivirus software and, if possible, use a virtual private network.

Fuzia tries to eliminate cyberbullying from its site. The platform is extremely cautious, and users need not fear having their information leaked or privacy hampered. Private information is not sold or shared with third parties. If a bully or offensive comment is detected, immediate action is taken. They are particularly concerned about this, as many users are preteens, teens, young adults, and so on. Fuzia prides itself in providing a secure, safe, and nurturing environment. Whenever a comment is posted, or a piece of writing is uploaded, it naturally goes through word screening, and certain derogatory words are detected and barred. The user is warned, and if the behaviour persists, the user is banned.

A safe environment like Fuzia Lounge (https://www.fuzia.com/) promotes empowerment. This is a virtual creative hub promoting a supportive and inclusive community where all members, male, female and third genders, are accepted and encouraged to express their beliefs in their inner powers, creativity, and potential. The community thrives on collaboration, sisterhood, support, and learning. It is central to the Fuzia philosophy which is based on providing women and others with a safe, bully-free, non-judgmental, and criticism-free virtual online space.

Creativity comes in many sizes and shapes. A person should have power to explore their creative niche, showcase their talents, learn from peers, and participate in engaging activities. The Fuzia Lounge is full of paintings, craft, poetry, blogs, calligraphy, photography, recipes, videos and so much more from all over the world which gives the user the feel of a close-knit global family. The members also engage through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Fuzia World, and through the use of podcasts on platforms like Spotify and Hub Hopper.

Digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in our history, reaching around 50% of the developing world’s population in only two decades and transforming societies. In 2016 the United Nations passed a nonbinding resolution making the disruption of internet access a violation of human rights. In a report published by the United Nations telecommunications agency, it has been mentioned that more than half of the world’s population of nearly 8 billion will be using the Internet in 2018 and grow more in the following years. The latest figures also spotlight Africa, which shows the strongest rate of growth in internet access, from around two percent in 2005, to more than 24 percent of the African population in 2018 with 79.6 percent and 69.6 percent are an online presence in Europe and the Americas.

In 2020 it was reported that among Facebook users 54% are female, the rest 46% are male and or third gender. According to a Pew Research report, more US women than men are using Instagram, with 43% of the female respondents saying they used the social media platform. Only 31% of men admitted using it. Globally, this trend continues with 52% of females and 48% male using Instagram. In many advanced economies, nine-in-ten or more use the internet, led by South Korea (96%). Greece (66%). The most substantial increases in internet use since 2015 were in South Africa and Lebanon, which each experienced a 17-percentage point increase. The Philippines and Senegal have also seen significant improvements in internet penetration since 2015.

Today Fuzia’s network reaches about 6 million people globally, with ten hundred thousand active contributors, from over 30 countries. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, US, Philippines, UK are among the countries with the most membership. More than 40 000 members are added each month to the platform growth of about 35% year-on-year. A global team of 30 people are working remotely. Over the last eight years, Fuzia has continuously worked on improving their product after listening to users and understanding their feedback and needs. They have a sophisticated IT team that works around the clock to present the best user experience. Some of the state-of-the-art software they utilize to promote customer-oriented and user-friendly interfaces are Slack, G Suite, Google Analytics, Asana, and more. These are used to build web management, coordination, and seamless information flow.

Facebook, Instagram, Uber, and Airbnb are all household-name examples of digital platforms and networks that facilitate connections and exchanges between people. In 2020, and some of the jobs created by these trends include those in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Edge Computing, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT).

The growth of job opportunities in the digital space is turning established business models on their heads, leading many traditional businesses to transition to or incorporate a platform-based model. This calls for reform and adaptability. An employee, especially for a woman, can work from home much more easily, manage her family, and because she is equipped technologically and has a platform at hand.

Fuzia built up their business model following these trends and are leveraging remote work as a way of empowering more women around the globe. Their commitment to the empowerment of women goes beyond just interacting with them on a platform. Fuzia’s hands-on remote training includes courses on content service, blog writing, website content, video transcriptions, interview articles, video summary writing, subtitling services, copywriting, scriptwriting. Other courses include digital marketing, SEO, Google AdWords, SEM, ads management, and social media marketing promoting studies on SM Page management, pixel marketing, campaign management, executive branding, blog lounge management, community handling, and software development. They also ensure the creative side is covered by training on graphic designing, poster designs, banners, infographics, logo designs, book covers, website page designs, and others.

Fuzia founders believe that their platform can remove the gender gap in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. They say over 50,000 creative Fuzia users have committed to lend a hand to other women. With this global talent pool not only is there an opportunity for freedom and empowerment but a glimpse of a paradigm shift in which more women are involved in the digital space.

 

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There was widespread destruction in Hiroshima as a result of the nuclear bomb which was dropped on the Japanese city in August 1945. Credi: UN Photo/Eluchi Matsumoto

By External Source
Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

In a video message delivered to a Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan on Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has paid tribute to the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which devastated the city in 1945.

“Seventy-five years ago, a single nuclear weapon visited unspeakable death and destruction upon this city”, he said in his address. “The effects linger to this day”.

However, he noted that Hiroshima and its people have chosen not to be characterized by calamity, but instead by “resilience, reconciliation and hope”.

As “unmatched advocates for nuclear disarmament”, the survivors, known as hibakusha, have turned their tragedy into “a rallying voice for the safety and well-being of all humanity”, he said.

Intertwined fate

The birth of the UN in that same year, is inextricably intertwined with the destruction wrought by the nuclear bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Since its earliest days and resolutions, the Organization has recognized the need to totally eliminate nuclear weapons”, Mr. Guterres said. Yet, that goal remains elusive.

Dwindling arms control

The web of arms control, transparency and confidence-building instruments established during the Cold War and its aftermath, is fraying, said the UN chief, and 75 years on, the world has yet to learn that nuclear weapons diminish, rather than reinforce security, he warned.

Against the backdrop of division, distrust and a lack of dialogue along with States modernizing their nuclear arsenals and developing new dangerous weapons and delivery systems, he fears that the prospect of a nuclear-weapon-free world “seems to be slipping further from our grasp”.

“The risk of nuclear weapons being used, intentionally, by accident or through miscalculation, is too high for such trends to continue”, the UN chief added, repeating his call for States to “return to a common vision and path leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons”.

‘Time for dialogue’

While all States can play a positive role, the countries that possess nuclear weapons have a special responsibility: “They have repeatedly committed to the total elimination of nuclear weapons”, Mr. Guterres reminded.

“Now is the time for dialogue, confidence-building measures, reductions in the size of nuclear arsenals and utmost restraint”.

Strengthen disarmament

Calling for the international non-proliferation and disarmament architecture to be safeguarded and strengthened, the UN chief cited next year’s Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as an opportunity for States to “return to this shared vision”.

He also looked forward to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entry into force, along with that of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which he said “remains a top priority in order to entrench and institutionalize the global norm against nuclear testing”.

Amidst COVID-19

The commemoration took place in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Secretary-General said has exposed so many of the world’s fragilities, “including in the face of the nuclear threat”.

“The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons”, he spelled out.

“The United Nations and I will continue to work with all those who seek to achieve our common goal: a world free of nuclear weapons”, concluded the Secretary-General.

Recommit to disarmament

There truly is no winner in a nuclear war, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande President of the UN General Assembly told the ceremony.

“We must recommit to nuclear disarmament for there will never be a justification for the decimation caused by nuclear weapons”, he emphasized, urging everyone to “work relentlessly” to do so.

Calling the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons “a milestone agreement” in nuclear disarmament, he called on all Member States to sign and ratify it.

“In memory of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki…let us work together to create the future we want: a future which is free from the existential threat of nuclear weapons”, concluded the Assembly president.

Moral compasses

Meanwhile, the head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test -Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, said that the devasting blasts continue to “haunt humanity and raises a challenging question: Can we ever escape the destructive instinct that led to these horrific bombings”?

Calling the hibakusha a “forceful moral compass for humanity”, he maintained that their pain and stories have made nuclear risk more “perceptible and concrete”.

According to Mr. Zerbo, the hibakusha have taught that patience, determination and resolution are “indispensable in the long battle towards nuclear disarmament”.

“We must finish what we started because what happened in Japan must never happen again”, he said, adding,“we must hear them so we can act”.

Hiroshima, shortly after a nuclear bomb was dropped on this city in August 1945. UN Photo/Mitsugu Kishida

This story was originally published by UN News

 

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A teenage girl covers her face with her hands in front of a laptop computer, frightened by the news she reads about the pandemic. Photo: Dusko Miljanic/Unicef

By Andrés Cañizález
CARACAS, Aug 6 2020 (IPS)

Every era brings its own buzzwords or catchphrases along with it. The term du jour is ‘pandemic’, namely ‘coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’; but alongside these words, speculation and forecasts over the post-pandemic world are flourishing. There is a proliferation of pieces and commentary on what our daily lives or the economy will be like once the epidemic is under control, that is, how we will live in the aftermath of the pandemic.

I will briefly delve into this forward-looking exercise. In the light of what we, all of the Humanity, are experiencing today, the very scope of these omens and forecasts is seriously threatened. Nobody, absolutely nobody, could have foreseen the scale that the current global health crisis would have when we were celebrating Christmas and wishing each other the best for this year 2020.

Once we are able to put a forecasting exercise into perspective, in the sense that it proves ineffective in allowing us to envision what would come, it is difficult to take as a given any projections made, from present day and place, as to what the post-pandemic world will be like.

Indeed, we have no idea of the world awaiting us. Uncertainty reigns in all aspects of social life.

Andrés Cañizález

Based on the above remarks, below I propose three dimensions that, in my opinion, will be distinctive regarding the exercise of journalism in the aftermath of the pandemic.

In the first place, and without a doubt, specialized journalism takes on capital importance. In countries of the South, we have not had many outstanding go-to personalities or figures in scientific or health journalism.

Once the coronavirus has been controlled, there will be a pressing need to train journalists in scientific and health issues. In the specific context of Latin America, Asia, or Africa, this is urgent.

This very pandemic, that has just unleashed a silent yet ruthless war over which will be the first vaccine to reach the market, in a battle involving pharmaceutical companies and governments, challenges journalism to appropriately cover what is going on in its rightful perspective.

Just as we advocate for a journalism that is capable of challenging political or financial power, today the world needs journalists with the training necessary to challenge the healthcare power. This encompasses ministries of health of different countries, international organizations specialized in this field, and obviously the business world of healthcare

We need journalists trained in public health, epidemiology, infectious diseases, vaccination, and so on. Journalists are not meant to replace doctors and healthcare specialists; but they must have a modicum of preparation to ask the right questions and put into the right context statements from health authorities, healthcare staff, and those people indeed affected.

Just as we advocate for a journalism that is capable of challenging political or financial power, today the world needs journalists with the training necessary to challenge the healthcare power. This encompasses ministries of health of different countries, international organizations specialized in this field, and obviously the business world of healthcare.

There is also a pressing need for solutions-oriented journalism. This exercise of journalism of putting oneself in the shoes of citizens and providing them with practical information has become manifest, in the current context, as a matter of absolute essence.

Imagine the media, in a country where government data are no longer existent, providing information on drugstores in major cities, along with their phone numbers, where you can find practical advice for dealing with domestic issues, or simply provide information on psychological or legal counseling offered free of charge by universities as part of their community outreach.

It is nothing less than putting oneself at the service of citizens. In countries of the North, citizens can have direct access to plenty of information online; but in nations of the South, that are disconnected and fragmented, the idea of the mainstream media providing a public service gains importance. Therein lies one of the challenges that has always surrounded the exercise of journalism.

This brings me to one last dimension. Journalism in the aftermath of the pandemic, as well as that during the pandemic, must be humane. It seems a truism, but it is essential that the media and journalists understand that the center of their endeavor is the human being. People are on both ends of a news story: On one side, they are the source or the protagonist of what is being told; and, on the other, they are the public that reads, listens, or watches.

And in the middle of both is the journalist, another human being who has the privilege of connecting both ends of that line.

The post Will There Also Be a Post-Journalism? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Andrés Cañizález is a Venezuelan journalist and Ph.D. in Political Science

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By UNESCO
Aug 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Leading personalities from all over the world have joined UNESCO in denouncing mounting racial discrimination in an advocacy video, United Against Racism, released today.

The 2’41” black and white film features messages by the following prominent women and men from the worlds of cinema, the media, music, sport and science alongside UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay:

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Freida Pinto, Naomi Campbell, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Jean-Michel Jarre, UNESCO Artist for Peace Marcus Miller, Jorge Ramos, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Yalitza Aparicio, Rossy de Palma, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Sumaya bint Al Hassan, Bobi Wine, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker, UNESCO Champion for Girls’ and Women’s Education Nadia Nadim, Amadou Gallo Fall, Ada Hegerberg and UNESCO Artist for Peace Gilberto Gil.

UNESCO has been on the forefront of the fight against racism since its creation in 1945. In 1978, it adopted the Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice which reaffirms that “All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all an integral part of humanity.”

 

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By External Source
Beirut, Lebanon, Aug 6 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Following the massive explosion in Beirut on 4 August, 2020, IPS correspondent Eliane Eid reports that the residents of the city are still shell shocked. Beirut looks like a battlefield, with destruction all around. The main port was on fire before the explosion. Described by some quarters as a “chemical bomb”, the explosion ripped through the heart of Beirut While the investigations have begun, the Lebanese community is uncertain as to what might have been the cause of this exposition that tore apart peoples lives with the blink of an eye.

 

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Children need diverse microbiomes in their environment to develop healthy immune systems. Credit: Josh Calabrese on Unsplash.

By External Source
Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

By 2050, 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in towns and cities. Urban living brings many benefits, but city dwellers worldwide are seeing a rapid increase in noncommunicable health problems, such as asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.

Some scientists now think this is linked to biodiversity loss – the ongoing depletion of the varied forms of life on Earth. The rate at which different species go extinct is currently a thousand times higher than the historical background rate.

Microbial diversity is a large part of the biodiversity that is being lost. And these microbes – bacteria, viruses and fungi, among others – are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems. Because humans are a part of these ecosystems, our health also suffers when they vanish, or when barriers reduce our exposure to them.

 

The inner ecosystem

Promoting connections with nature – including the microbes many of us currently shun – should be a key part of any post-pandemic recovery strategy. We must protect and promote the invisible biodiversity that is vital to our personal and planetary health

Our gut, skin and airways harbour distinct microbiomes – vast networks of microbes that exist in different environments. The human gut alone harbours up to 100 trillion microbes, which outnumbers our own human cells. Our microbes provide services that are integral to our survival, such as processing food and providing chemicals that support brain function.

Contact with a diverse range of microbes in our environment is also essential for bolstering our immune system. Microbes found in environments closer to the ones we evolved in, such as woodlands and grasslands, are called “old friend” microbes by some microbiologists. That’s because they play a major role in “educating” our immune systems.

Part of our immune system is fast-acting and non-specific, which means it attacks all substances in the absence of proper regulation. Old friend microbes from our environment help provide this regulatory role. They can also stimulate chemicals that help to control inflammation and prevent our bodies from attacking our own cells, or innocuous substances like pollen and dust.

Exposure to a diverse range of microbes allows our bodies to mount an effective defensive response against pathogens. Another part of our immune system produces tiny armies of “memory cells” that maintain a record of all the pathogens our bodies encounter. This enables a rapid and effective immune response to similar pathogens in the future.

To help fight infectious diseases like COVID-19, we need healthy immune systems. But this is impossible without support from diverse microbiomes. Just as microbes have important roles in ecosystems, by helping plants grow and recycling soil nutrients, they also provide our bodies with nutrients and health-sustaining chemicals that promote good physical and mental health. This strengthens our resilience when facing diseases and other stressful times in our lives.

But our cities are often lacking in biodiversity. Most of us have swapped green and blue spaces for grey spaces – the concrete jungle. As a result, urban dwellers are far less exposed to a diversity of health-promoting microbes. Pollution can affect the urban microbiome too. Air pollutants can alter pollen so that it’s more likely to cause an allergic reaction.

“Germaphobia”, the perception that all microbes are bad, compounds these effects by encouraging many of us to sterilise all of the surfaces in our homes, and often prevents children from going outside and playing in dirt. The soil is one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth, so urban lifestyles can really disadvantage young people by severing this vital connection.

People living in more deprived urban areas have poorer health, shorter life expectancies and higher rates of infections. It’s no coincidence that these communities often lack accessible, high quality green and blue spaces. They’re also less likely to be able to afford, or have the time and energy to enjoy affordable fruit and vegetables.

 

What can we do?

We need to get serious about the urban microbiome.

Restoring natural habitats can help increase biodiversity and the health of city residents. Growing more diverse native plants, creating safe, inclusive and accessible green spaces and rewilding inner city and suburban parks can restore microbial diversity in urban life.

Our research is helping urban designers restore habitats in cities that can promote healthy interactions between residents and environmental microbes.

But access to these green and blue spaces, and affordable nutrition, must be improved. Support for allotments and community gardens could provide free, nutritious food and exposure to helpful microbes in one fell swoop, while sessions that teach people how to grow their own food could be prescribed by health professionals.

Promoting connections with nature – including the microbes many of us currently shun – should be a key part of any post-pandemic recovery strategy. We must protect and promote the invisible biodiversity that is vital to our personal and planetary health.

Jake M. Robinson, PhD Researcher, Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield

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

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The COVID-19 response must address mental health alongside containment of the pandemic itself. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.

By Madhumitha Balaji and Vikram Patel
Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

To fully realise the mental health crisis that India faces in relation to COVID-19, one has to begin with recognising the very serious situation that existed even before the pandemic.

The government’s National Mental Health Survey reported that about 10 percent of adults meet diagnostic criteria for a mental health condition (ranging from mood and anxiety disorders to severe mental illness). The Global Burden of Disease study estimated that nearly 200 million people in India have experienced a mental disorder, nearly half of whom suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders.

India accounts for more than a third of the female suicides globally, nearly a fourth of all male suicides, and suicide has been the leading cause of death in young Indians.

Nearly 200 million people in India have experienced a mental disorder, nearly half of whom suffer from depressive or anxiety disorders.

India accounts for more than a third of the female suicides globally, nearly a fourth of all male suicides, and suicide has been the leading cause of death in young Indians

Yet, the government has spent very little on mental healthcare (estimated at less than one percent of the health budget), and this expenditure has been almost entirely on doctors, drugs, and hospitals in urban areas.

There is little community-oriented mental healthcare anywhere in the country. Unsurprisingly, between 70 to 92 percent of affected individuals have received no care from any source, of any kind, for their mental health conditions.

 

COVID-19 will impact mental health in two phases

One can consider the impact of the pandemic on mental health in two phases: The first is the acute phase, which coincided with the lockdown—the period when the pandemic surged through the country. The second phase will unfold in the months ahead, as the virus starts to get contained, but the economic fallout of the pandemic begins to bite deeper.

Right now, in the midst of the acute phase, people are terrified of the virus, of dying, or of loved ones contracting this disease. They are also scared of being quarantined, maintaining physical distancing, being isolated, and breaking the constantly changing rules.

For millions, these fears only add to the already daunting apprehensions about their livelihoods. These are not abstract anxieties; these are real, everyday worries.

If one considers all these factors, and adds to them the increase in domestic violence, the disruption of public transportation, the lack of access to routine health services, and the shortage of medical supplies, it seems almost normative that people are going to be very distressed during this period.

Indeed, there is already evidence in support of this distress. Internet-based surveys conducted between March-May 2020 show high rates of depression and anxiety in the general population.

For example, the ‘FEEL-COVID’ survey conducted in February-March 2020 with 1,106 people across 64 cities reported that a third of respondents faced significant ‘psychological impact’ because of COVID-19.

A number of other surveys indicate that such impact may be related to preoccupations with, or anxieties about contracting the virus, depression, sleeping difficulties, irritability, and loneliness.

 

The pandemic is affecting different groups in specific ways

• Women: In general, studies report many women suffering from anxiety and depression; this may be due to them facing the brunt of increased household responsibilities and domestic violence during the lockdown.
• Children: After speaking with 1,102 parents and primary caregivers, it was found that more than 50 percent of children had experienced agitation and anxiety during the lockdown. Media reports indicate that they may be experiencing fears about the virus, worries over access to online classes, and stress and irritability from being unable to go out. Many have faced violence in their homes or have been victims of cyber bullying.
• Young people: One survey reported that 65 percent of nearly 6,000 youth aged 18-32 years felt lonely during the lockdown, and 37 percent felt that their mental health had been ‘strongly impacted’. This is not surprising given that twenty-seven million young people lost their jobs in April 2020 alone, and 320 million students have been affected by the closing of educational institutions, and the postponement of exams.
• Migrant workers and daily wage labourers: Although there are no studies specifically with migrant workers, panic reactions have been observed in the millions who lost their livelihood and made desperate attempts to return to their rural homes. Daily wage laborers have also been heavily affected; a study of 1,200 auto drivers found that 75 percent were anxious about their work and finances.
• Doctors and frontline workers: A survey with 152 doctors found that more than a third of them are experiencing depression and anxiety due to the pandemic. Frontline workers are reportedly burdened by over-work, and anxious about contracting the virus.
• Sexual minority groups: A study of 282 people reported higher anxiety among sexual minority groups, and called for the attention of policymakers to take sensitive and inclusive health decisions for marginalised communities.
• People with pre-existing mental health conditions: The anxieties described earlier have been overwhelming for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Problems may also have worsened for individuals because of the disruption of mental health services and the difficulty of travel, which led to people reducing doses of prescribed medication.
• People with substance use disorders: The sudden closure of all liquor shops in the country and the cutting off drug supplies has resulted in withdrawal symptoms in many people with alcohol and substance use dependence, for example, delirium and seizures. Many alcohol ‘addicts’ distressed by their craving have also consumed poisonous substances such as hand sanitisers as substitutes and died, or died by suicide.

It is important to note that the surveys conducted were not entirely representative, as they focused primarily on English-speaking, urban adults with access to the internet. Nevertheless, the prevalence of anxiety and depression reported are uniformly high—up to 20 percent higher than previously reported data.

 

Responding to the crisis

There has been a flourishing of initiatives to address this rising tide of mental health problems. Some of these include:

• Telemedicine platforms such as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Mpower helpline, for example, received about 750 calls a day, and a total of 45,000 calls in just two months. E-platforms such as Lybate and Practo, have reported over a 180 percent increase in tele-psychiatry consultations.
• Central government initiatives include a telemedicine system whereby persons with mental illness can be provided with electronic medical prescriptions. However, this has not been very effective for poor persons in rural areas, or for obtaining medicines that cannot be sold over the counter without a hard copy prescription. The government has also issued a resource package that details guidelines for management of mental health problems, for use in primary and specialised health settings.
• At the state level, noteworthy responses include the ‘psychological support team’ constituted by the Kerala government, the reviving of the ‘Happiness Department’ in hospitals set up by the Madhya Pradesh government, and the initiatives at the Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT)and de-addiction centres by the Punjab government.
• Several nonprofits, private hospitals, and universities have set up helplines and e-counselling—for example, the Neptune Foundation, Trijog, Mastermind Foundation, Samaritans, Jamia Millia Islamia, and others. Additionally, nonprofits such as CRY, The Banyan, Sangath, and others have hosted webinars on mental health, and/or are providing free tele-counselling services.

 

Looking ahead: Threats and opportunities

As we look ahead, beyond the acute phase of the pandemic, the world will need to address an economic recession far greater than anything we have encountered before.

A rise in mental health problems is expected as an impact of this economic recession, the widening of inequalities in countries, the isolating physical distancing policies, and continuing uncertainties about future waves of the pandemic.

This is not surprising, given the strong association between poverty, inequality, and poor mental health. Mental healthcare systems will be ill-equipped to deal with this surge, not only because of the paucity of skilled providers, but also because of the narrow biomedical models of illness which dominate mental healthcare.

However, there is a body of evidence generated by community-oriented practitioners in India that involve a range of innovative strategies to address the structural barriers to scaling up psychosocial therapies.

Notably, it was demonstrated that pared down ‘elements’ of complex psychological treatment packages can be just as effective as standardised treatment protocols, and that these can then be effectively delivered by non-specialist ‘therapists’ such as community health workers.

More recent innovations demonstrate the acceptability and effectiveness of digital training in the delivery of psychological treatments and of peer supervision for quality assurance.

These delivery models when combined and scaled up, can transform access to one of the most effective interventions in medicine. By working towards scaling up evidence-based psychological therapies, Empower, an initiative of Sangath, is trying to do just this.

But beyond specific programmes, there is an urgent need for a national, government response across relevant sectors.

For example, when looking at education, we need to consider how to address the mental health needs of children and young people (and their parents) while ensuring that their learning continues in the absence of schools being open.

We need strategies to proactively respond to risk factors that are associated with mental health that we know are on the rise; for example, domestic violence. We need to support community action, to build social cohesion and solidarity.

Lastly, given the impact of the media on people (for example, in one survey 44.7 percent of respondents reported that they ‘freak out’ because of social media posts), it’s important for us to remember that we need to be intentional and sensitive in how we communicate about the pandemic.

This is a timely moment for all who are concerned with mental health—from mental health professionals to civil society advocates—to unite behind with one message: The COVID-19 response must address mental health alongside containment of the pandemic itself.

This is also a historic opportunity for us to completely reimagine what mental healthcare means. To acknowledge and embrace the plural ways in which mental health problems are experienced, we must go beyond the narrow, disease-based models of mental healthcare and embrace the diversity and the pluralism of mental health in our communities.

 

Madhumitha Balaji is a Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Early Career Fellow at Sangath, India. 

Vikram Patel is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the Harvard Medical School.

 

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

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Manju Begum, 85, stands in front of her flooded house in Medeni Mandal in Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh. She says she has not received any assistance from local officials since her home was flooded more than a week ago. With nearly 5.5 million people people across Bangladesh affected by severe flooding, humanitarian experts are concerned that millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, will be pushed further into poverty. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

By Farid Ahmed
DHAKA, Aug 5 2020 (IPS)

With nearly 5.5 million people people across Bangladesh affected by severe flooding — the worst in two decades — humanitarian experts are concerned that millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, will be pushed further into poverty.

With a third of the country under water, the National Disaster Response Coordination Centre in Bangladesh has reported that some 5.5 million people or nearly a million families were affected by the flooding as of Tuesday, Aug. 4.

The Health Emergency Control Room has recorded at least 145 deaths, mostly from drowning or snakebites, in 33 of the 64 districts affected by flooding.

In the past three days alone, two more districts were freshly inundated by heavy rains, affecting nearly half a million more people.

• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) said in a Aug. 4 report that heavy monsoon rains in upstream regions continued to cause flooding in Bangladesh’s districts in the north, north-east and south-east, affecting some 5.4 million people.
• June to August is typically the monsoon season here, but since the start of June heavy rains have resulted in many of the country’s rivers reaching levels classified as “dangerous”.
• UN OCHA said the flooding had damaged houses, dykes, embankments, safe water sources and hygiene facilities and also adversely affected livelihoods, especially in the agricultural sector. It had also disrupted access to basic services such as health care and education.

“I have lost everything in the river Jamuna – my home, my croplands… it went under water so swiftly that I couldn’t save my belongings either,” Abdur Rahman from Sirajganj region, north-central Bangladesh said.

A number of low-lying areas in Sirajganj were affected by flooding when the Jamuna river levels rose in July, leaving hundreds homeless. The Jamuna and Padma rivers are two of the country’s main rivers. The Padma, the main distributary of the Ganges, also burst it banks last month. In several districts, school buildings, roads and other structures were destroyed.

It is not just Bangladesh that is affected. Flooding has wreaked havoc across a large part of South Asia. In Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan several million people have been affected and scores killed. Assam, Bihar and part of West Bengal were the worst-affected states in India.

“People in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are sandwiched in a triple disaster of flooding, coronavirus and an associated socioeconomic crisis of loss of livelihoods and jobs,” Jagan Chapagain, the secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said.

“Millions of people across Bangladesh, India and Nepal have been marooned, their homes damaged and crops destroyed by floods that are the worst in recent years,” Chaplain added.

He said the flooding of farm lands and destruction of crops could push millions of people, already badly impacted by COVID-19, further into poverty.

In Bangladesh, the worst affected are those who have become paupers overnight as they lost their homes, belongings and croplands.

In some districts, entire villages are under water, forcing people to leave their homes in search of safety while many were seen crouching on rooftops waiting for rescue. In the flooded northern districts in Bangladesh, it was a common sight of villagers marooned on the roofs of their houses along with their livestock or poultry while many others sought shelter on embankments or roads.

Arif Hossain from Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh, was a tailor by profession before the coronavirus pandemic. Now he spends his days ferrying people in the submerged locality on his small boat.

In central Bangladesh, major rivers continue to overflow, causing heavy flooding to ravage low-lying parts of the capital, Dhaka. In adjoining districts and northern parts of the country much of the population, who have already been affected by the coronavirus lockdowns, are in dire straits. Poorly-prepared relief operations have aggravated the plight of victims, triggering public anger and widespread criticism of the government.

“I haven’t received any kind of aid,” Hossain told IPS.

“Many people in the areas left the villages… those who have no place to go, like me, are staying here in homes that are already [flooded],” Hossain told IPS adding, “We’re staying in a room submerged in knee-deep water… my two children are always scared of snakes.”

• The flooding is the second natural disaster that the country has had to deal with in as many months. In May, Cyclone Amphan made landfall in the midst of the country’s coronavirus lockdown. More than 2.4 million people and over half a million livestock had to be evactued from the in the coastal districts of Khulna, Satkheera, Jessore, Rajbadi and Sirajganj.

Manju Begum, 85, who lives alone in Medeni Mandal in Munshiganj District, central Bangladesh, 55 kilometres from capital, decried the non-action of local public representatives. She told IPS that nobody from her local government had offered her assistance after her home had been flooded.

“Floodwater entered my bedroom eight days ago… I got a little amount of food only from my neighbours,” she said.

However, last week Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked all government officials to remain prepared to extend support to those affected by the floods. She assured the country that extensive assistance would be given to the flood victims.

Bangladesh state minister for disaster management and relief Md. Enamur Rahman said they had formed six committees to monitor the activities of government relief assistance programmes.

The government has distributed cash, rice and other materials to those affected by the flooding and allocations would be increased if needed, Rahman said at a press conference in Dhaka last week.

Mostak Hussain, humanitarian director for Save the Children in Bangladesh, said nearly two million children here were affected by the longest-lasting floods in over 20 years.

“This has been a devastating monsoon so far and we’re only half way through the season,” he said.

The flooding has also left a large number of women affected as their livelihoods such as livestock, poultry farming, vegetable cultivation or tailoring have come to a halt. Initially, they faced setbacks to income generation as the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the country being shutdown.

“I took a loan from an NGO and started a poultry farm a couple of years ago, but I was forced to sell the chickens at a cheaper price as water inundated my house… now I’m not sure how would I repay the loan or maintain the family expenditure as I don’t have any work,” Shahana Begum, a widow, told IPS.

Related Articles

• Cyclone Amphan – ‘We Didn’t Expect Devastation of Such a Scale’

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H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, visits a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 10 February 2020. Credit: Geremew Tigabu/UN OPGA

By Tijjani Muhammad-Bande
NEW YORK, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

The United Nations came into existence at a time of great despair, when the penholders of its founding document dared to imagine a better world, one that would be defined by peace and equality. Visionary world leaders chose hope over cynicism, empathy over indifference and partnership over distrust when they came together in San Francisco on 26 June 1945 to sign the Charter of the United Nations. They embarked upon a new, rules-based world order, with an Organization of unrivalled legitimacy at its core.

Over the past 75 years, the United Nations General Assembly has served as a “parliament of humanity”. As the primary deliberative, policy-making and representative body of the United Nations, the Assembly provides a forum to share perspectives, forge partnerships and build consensus. It is rooted in equality of both voice and vote. When there is disagreement, the Assembly provides space for respectful debate, where Members can generate understanding and reach compromise.

Within its remit as a principal organ of the United Nations, the General Assembly has assisted in guiding the transformation of our world over the past three quarters of a century. It adopts resolutions across a wide breadth of issues that reflect the aspirations of humanity across the three pillars of the work of the United Nations: human rights, peace and security, and development.

General Assembly resolutions have helped create the building blocks for the normative development of international law. In 1959, Assembly resolution 1472 (XIV) created the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. This initiated work that facilitated the use of modern technology and telecommunications. In 1957, the Assembly, by resolution 1105 (XI), decided to convene the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, paving the way for the adoption in 1982 of humanity’s first “constitution for the seas”—the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Charter of the United Nations set out the objective to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Accordingly, the General Assembly has worked hard towards the goal of eliminating atomic weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction. This was the genesis of the normative development of the international regime of disarmament and non-proliferation.

In 1948, the Assembly, by resolution 217 (III), adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This set of inalienable rights set out standards for equal treatment of all people and re-affirmed the preamble of the Charter:

“We the peoples of the United Nations determined … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women…”

Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, which was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945. Credit: UN Photo

The world has changed significantly since 1945, with more than 80 former colonies joining the Organization. In response to the peoples of the United Nations yearning for independence, the Assembly, in its fifteenth year, adopted resolution 1514, which provided the most authoritative and comprehensive formulation of the principle of self-determination. In 1966, resolution 2202 A (XXI) declared apartheid a crime against humanity. The Assembly continues to promote equality and dignity for all, including through the mandated 2015-2024 the International Decade for People of African Descent with the theme “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”, and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed on 21 March.

Indeed, the General Assembly has sought to end discrimination in all its forms. It adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons in 1975; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979; the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief in 1981; the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989; and, more recently, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.

In 2015, all Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development via resolution 70/1. The Paris Climate Agreement began in embryonic form as a General Assembly resolution. These twenty-first century milestones of multilateralism demonstrate the recognition of Member States that collective action is required to combat an existential threat and safeguard the world’s citizens and the planet we inhabit for generations to come. When faced with global challenges, solidarity remains our first and best line of defense.

The United Nations, however, is not a panacea. Despite its best efforts, conflict and strife persists, and in some cases irreparable damage has been done to society. We could not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, and the question of Palestine remains unresolved. These are regarded by many as cases in which the international community has fallen short. Therefore, we must reflect and continue to work together in the names of the communities that need us most, and in honour of United Nations peacekeepers and personnel who have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has led the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic since the onset of the crisis. The United Nations system has been most effective in galvanizing support for the most vulnerable. In the General Assembly, Member States rallied to adopt resolutions calling for solidarity and global access to medicines and medical equipment. They have also taken historic steps to enable the General Assembly to operate and uphold the vital work of the United Nations during this period by adopting decisions under new rules and procedures.

The 75th anniversary of the United Nations takes place at a moment of reckoning for our shared planet and shared future. This is a time for action, ambition and partnership. By 1 July 2020, over 10 million cases had been reported to WHO and more than 500,000 people had succumbed to the effects of COVID-19.1 This pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities, and the socio-economic impact is unprecedented in the history of our Organization. The Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, warns of a famine “of biblical proportions”; the United Nations Economic and Social Council reports that 1.6 billion children are unable to attend school in person; and the pandemic continues to disproportionately affect women and vulnerable groups, such as refugees and internally displaced persons.

Our continued response will require a recommitment to multilateralism as we build back better in this Decade of Action (2020–2030) to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2015, the membership of the General Assembly pledged to leave no one behind and shift the world onto a path of sustainable development and prosperity for all. We are in an unprecedented situation, and we must redouble our efforts to achieve the SDGs on time. This is a call to action for the United Nations as we reflect upon the future we want and the United Nations we need.

Three quarters of a century ago, the founders of our Organization demonstrated fortitude at a time of crisis. They chose to trust one another and unite in pursuit of a better world. In the inaugural address of the first President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Paul-Henri Spaak stated, “It is possible that one day, in the future, the pessimists may be right; I do not know. But I do know that today they are wrong. In San Francisco, they announced that the Charter could never be established; in London, that the Organization would never come into existence; in the past few weeks, that we should never meet again, and now, no doubt, that we are going to tear each other to pieces.”2

On the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, let it be clear that we will not let the founders of our Organization or ourselves down. “We the peoples” must remain steadfast in our resolve to advance the goals and principles of our Charter.

1Available from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic page of the World Health Organization website (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019) (accessed on 1 July 2020).

2United Nations, General Assembly Official Records, Thirty-fourth plenary meeting, U.N. Doc A-PV-34-EN (23 October 1946), para. 82. Available at https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/482476?ln=en.

This article was first published by the UN Chronicle on 6 July 2020.

 

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Excerpt:

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations.

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King Felipe VI of Spain and his father king emeritus Juan Carlos. Credit: Palacio de la Zarzuela.

By Joaquín Roy
MIAMI, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

Long ago, I was reviewing the offer of readings on the Internet, as a break from the search for academic sources for one of those articles with which to comply with professional rules, impress colleagues and students, and continue climbing steps in the university.

I first came across an interview and then a quick review of a book, the ideas of which I found extremely helpful in solving intellectual dilemmas. The interview was a quick conversation between a new journalist and a veteran movie star: Jane Fonda.

I have not confessed to being a fan of the American actress nor have I recognized her father more than as a bare-bones actor. But some time ago I was struck by the marriage (third or fourth) of Jane with whom would be the founder of a pioneering television network, a model never well imitated: CNN, the work of Ted Turner.

Over the years, I have become a trapped consumer of this news invention, to the point that now, in the midst of the double pandemic (the virus and the one caused by Trump), I cannot do without the chain, even if it is to avoid the trump FOX.

In that interview (expanded on in her book, Prime Time) Jane Fonda proposed life as a series of theatrical acts. The first phase is training, which can be extended to professional and family life consolidation, the second stage. Her proposal is that the third stage is like a third act of theater.

Joaquín Roy

The evolution of life is, rather than a curve that goes up and then down, it is more like an ascending ladder. It is the third stage or act when you can be more productive, from the age of sixty or even after retirement. It is precisely in this phase when one can no longer afford to make the mistakes of the two preceding ones. In the third act you can do everything, except ridicule.

Ridicule is what King Emeritus Juan Carlos I is committing, after a long career, two previous acts in which history will recognize him full of personal achievements and political contributions.

In the first act, coinciding with his youth and personal settlement, he concentrated on complying with a script dictated by the harsh history of the first half of the 20th century in Spain.

The end of the monarchy of his grandfather Alfonso XIII, the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship imposed the rules of the game that he had to fulfill if he wanted his family to return to the throne, even if it was with the commendable sacrifice of his father Don Juan. The silence of Juan Carlos fulfilling all the steps is recognized as the basis of the achievements of the second act started.

Thanks to the collusion of the “Juancarlistas”, who were not monarchists, democracy was consolidated, culminating in the 23rd performance, of which their supposed double role as accomplice and hero has not yet been demonstrated.

The truth is that history weighed heavily on the family’s decision-making: Constantine, Queen Sofia’s brother, had lost the throne of Greece for his support of the military. Alfonso XIII had signed his delayed defenestration when he left command to General Primo de Rivera. Letting himself be carried away by General Armada, while Tejero pointed at the deputies was equivalent to a harakiri.

The truth is that this apparently impeccable second act began to show signs of malfunctioning as the already established democratic regime suffered the consequences of the faltering alternation between the two main parties.

The Socialist Party (significantly the mainstay of the Juancarlista monarchy) seemed exhausted after the repetition of Felipe González’s mandate. The coming to power of José María Aznar would be followed by a troubled foreign policy inclined towards the United States, affected by the Iraq adventure.

The moderating power of Juan Carlos suffered from lack of influence at the turn of the century due to the economic crisis. In that context, already in the third act of the monarch, it was seen how the behavior of the monarch was reeling.

Her daughter and son-in-law were accused of corruption, and the entire monarchy suffered an unprecedented trial. Her son’s wedding and the accession to the throne as Felipe VI failed to cover the damage of the father’s deteriorated behavior. The elephant Bostwana’s hunt, accompanied by his sentimental partner, led to abdication.

The discovery of the collection and laundering of commissions for the construction of the AVE to Mecca has been the drop that has filled the glass and that has culminated with the escape towards an innovative variant of exile.

In his third act, Juan Carlos I can even lose the privilege of being king emeritus. Jane Fonda will remind you that in the third act you cannot have free liberties that lead to ridicule. As an urgent remedy, with his son they have adopted the “social distance” (not six feet, but kilometers). Juan Carlos will also have to put on the mask to, in addition to protecting himself from the pandemic and avoid infecting the Spanish people, hide his now-disappeared smile.

 

Joaquín Roy is Professor Jean Monnet and Director of the Center for the European Union at the University of Miami

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Credit: Unsplash / Lynda Hinton

By Kaveh Zahedi and Van Nguyen
BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

After decades of impressive growth, for the first time, Southeast Asia is experiencing a drop in measured human development. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will likely take months to reveal itself and years to put right. Yet, a legacy of mobilizing under constraints is leading Southeast Asia’s pandemic response.

During the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown, the once bustling streets of Bangkok were unusually quiet. In the alley nested between two high-end shopping malls in downtown Bangkok, an elderly couple were not at their usual rice cart. Their regulars, motorbike taxi drivers and shop assistants, were absent. The couple have not returned now that things have eased. A Thai blind massage team shared, in our recent dialogue, that for them, no tourism equals no clients and no income.

Similar tales of woe can be heard in many other poor communities across Southeast Asia. Garbage pickers in the slums outside Manila; temporary workers living outside industrial zones in Ho Chi Minh city; undocumented migrants and refugees living along the borders of Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. They are among the 177 million people (below the $5.5 poverty line) that the World Bank now estimates will slip into poverty.

Southeast Asian communities are no strangers to calamities. In those times, they could probably turn to a relative, a friend or a neighbor for help. Or work extra to make up for the lost income. But the usual informal safety net only works if some are spared from the disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic does the exact opposite, striking everyone down at the same time. Closed restaurants need no kitchen hands; street hawkers and motorbike taxis are idle when all stay at home; empty hotels need no cleaning. The new brief by the Secretary General shows that Southeast Asia’s GDP is estimated to contract on average by 0.1 per cent in 2020 with 218 million informal workers having their livelihoods at risk.

The informality of work means that they are not protected by any formal social safety nets. Even before the crisis, our analysis shows that 60 per cent of the population in Asia and the Pacific had no protection when they become sick, disabled or unemployed. Many are so invisible that they would not even figure in the statistics. The prolonged drought in much of Southeast Asia and the looming monsoons in the coming months may risk sweeping away the few assets they have left. Their hopes for the future, investment in their children’s education, look grim. Poor children without internet access, computers and smart phones cannot readily jump into remote learning during school closures. Without safety nets, either formal or informal, to fall back on, many will inevitably slide into poverty with no clear respite in sight.

Yet good news has come from Southeast Asia. The region was among the first to be hit by the pandemic and contains some of the countries with the greatest success in curbing it, including Viet Nam and Thailand. Governments have been quick to roll out fiscal packages to help affected businesses and households. Our review of COVID-19 responses reveals a diverse mix of relief packages including support for health responders, subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprises, wage subsidies and direct cash transfers for vulnerable populations.

A myriad of local initiatives are another source of great hope. In Thailand, local voluntary groups have quickly come together to locate and provide essential packages to the most in-need communities, including those unregistered. New ways of providing health support have emerged such as teleconsultation for rehabilitation in Singapore and targeted telehealth services for children with disabilities in Malaysia. These good practices were shared in our recent dialogue for protecting and empowering persons with disabilities. Permeating these practices is a strong sense of coming together from both the public and private sector.

The crisis has also shown that limited fiscal space and resources have not stopped countries from supporting their people. Measures that once were thought to be expensive such as establishing universal health care and broadening social protection coverage are now rightly seen as essential investments in people. Measures that were seen as luxuries such as securing internet for all are now recognized as a lifeline especially for poor and vulnerable communities including refugees and migrants. Measures that would help us respond faster to crises such as providing people with basic legal identity are now a must.

Southeast Asia’s long road to recovery has started. Time will tell if the emergency measures can be “locked in” to help address the region’s deep inequalities and put it on a green recovery path as advocated by the United Nations Secretary General in his recent brief on COVID-19 in Southeast Asia. Only then will the people of Southeast Asia be more resilient in any future crisis.

Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Van Nguyen, Sustainable Development Officer, Environment and Development Division, ESCAP

 

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Credit: Fiona Lambe / SEI.

By Eco Matser
AMSTERDAM, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

The Sustainable Development goals on energy speak clear: universal access energy and clean cooking by 2030 (SDG7). But the current efforts are still lagging several steps behind the specific needs of the communities and are not enough to achieve energy access for all, especially clean cooking solutions.

Numerous studies have been done and plans have been developed how to do this, but most of them have overlooked people and their needs. The energy transition affects daily lives and we cannot ignore those who are potentially on the receiving end of these interventions.

We know that people can provide better guidance on how to move forward. This can be achieved by asking people themselves how they see this transition to clean cooking, how this would affect their habits and traditions, who can drive this change, and how they can actively promote it

We see a big gap between the sustainable objectives and the reality on the ground, and we know that people can provide better guidance on how to move forward. This can be achieved by asking people themselves how they see this transition to clean cooking, how this would affect their habits and traditions, who can drive this change, and how they can actively promote it. And this inclusive process should start now. 

Indeed, despite the progress and the essential role of clean energy services to spur socio-economic development, approximately 2.8 billion people lack access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking.

Access to clean cooking solutions remains particularly challenging in Sub-Saharan Africa, where progress has barely kept pace with population increase. Almost four million of people die every year for causes attributable to indoor air pollution, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), and most of them use traditional cooking fuels like firewood, charcoal and kerosene.

The COVID19 pandemic has stressed the fragility of the current socio-economic system, revealing the profound existing inequalities and questioning the pace of the efforts in achieving universal clean cooking access. 

 

Empower small communities 

Electric cooking has proven to be a cost-effective and feasible alternative, but a long-term successful energy transition must also address social impacts, behavioral and cultural factors.

These factors may be a barrier to the cooking transition, which should be dynamic and supported by other collateral needs, such as wider electrification in the communities. Scaling up these technologies requires a strong political will, targeted investments and policies, but also a better understanding of the socio-cultural aspects of cooking, such as taste, cooking practices, cultural norms, and gender roles. 

In Kenya, a group of people who currently do not have access to clean cooking technologies has been asked to plan a transition to clean and 100% electric cooking. The group explored ways to reach this.

During work sessions, the villagers use “backcasting” as methodology to explore possible pathways. In their view, the transition to electric cooking would not change food habits but would improve family safety and health.

It is also seen to leverage changes in the gender roles by relieving women of some of the household burdens, reducing the amount of time required for collecting fuels and doing chores, and allowing them to pursue income-generating opportunities, such as selling cakes and cookies.

The community envisions this change to be linked with access to a broader range of electrical appliances associated with modern living, and most of all they consider the community itself as a driver of change. 

The backcasting research with the Kenyan community showed once again that the clean cooking transition should start by empowering villagers, by supporting early saving and working with early adapters, and by building the know-how and confidence to engage with  government entities to access key services.

NGOs can play a crucial role in introducing new cooking transition technologies, demonstrating mini grids and training communities, but the community and specifically the early adopters of these technologies are those who can make this change real.

Governments and development partners, in turn, are called upon to spur progress on multiple levels, from public services and large-scale infrastructure to full electrification, to improved education and health facilities. All these sectors are profoundly interlinked and require cross-sectoral cooperation. 

 

Next steps 

Our study in Kenya with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) shows that people can imagine, envision and plan for a clean cooking future beyond fire. Once set goals, and given the technologies, fuels and finance availability, we have to make sure that investments are channeled into well-targeted measures that enable people in driving this change and make it happen. 

Our study is an initial step towards stressing the need of building a knowledge on the behavioral and cultural aspects of transitions to cooking with electricity.

Governments and donors must consider the household and community perspective, how the transition to electric cooking is perceived locally, and take actions based on the role and responsibilities of various actors engaged in the system, from the household to civil society. 

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Excerpt:

Eco Matser is Program Manager at Hivos

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Religions for Peace Interreligious Council of Albania distributing Covid relief supplies from the Multi-religious Humanitarian Fund. Credit: Erzen Carja

By Prof. Azza Karam
NEW YORK, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

— I have never been interested in religion or spirituality before, but I found myself tuning in to all sorts of on-line religion and spirituality related forums “in search of something.”

These are the words of a 30-something single young, middle class man (born into a Protestant-Catholic family background) in a European country.

The latter is known more for turning several churches into museums or shopping centers, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. When people are afraid, lonely and alone – they tend to seek “something” beyond science.

A quarter of Americans say their faith has become stronger because of the pandemic, according to a Pew survey conducted during April 20-26, 2020, of 10,139 U.S. adults.

But this is to be contrasted with the experiences of those from an older generation (60+) in the southern hemisphere, like my own 85-year old Muslim father, who lives to pray. For him, the mosque has, over the last decade since my mother’s death, become both his spiritual hub and social club.

His cohort is differing ages of retirees, who, in spite of very different political perspectives in a Middle Eastern country reflecting the now normal of intense polarization, treasure their prayerful community spaces. This middle class (an endangered species to be sure) of retirees, share a sense of deep faith informing their social and political convictions.

For many of them, the lockdown was experienced primarily s an inability to go to the mosque, and thus as almost physically painful. None of them countenanced the idea of on-line prayers, that doesn’t make any sense, they maintained. Their sense of depression was almost palpable throughout the lockdown period, as was their joy at the reopening of some mosques.

The coronavirus presents barriers to caring for the sick and to performing certain death and burial rites which are core religious practices, and especially needed in a pandemic that has already claimed nearly hundreds of thousands of lives.

In Sri Lanka for example, public health measures for safe burial practices have already challenged traditional rites, wherein authorities mandated cremations for Covid-19-linked deaths, despite the fact that cremation is supposed to be forbidden in Islam.

Covid-19 also complicates Jewish and Muslim burial practices of washing and cloaking bodies before burial, given concerns about transmission. Innovative religious responses seeking to reconcile public health policies with traditional burial practices have been taking place.

In Israel, for example, bodies are wrapped in plastic before burial, and before that, ritual washing is completed while wearing full protective gear. Some Islamic scholars are providing exegesis and guidance on how the ritual of washing the body prior to burials, could be conducted safely whilst following Islamic principles.

Religions for Peace Interreligious Council of Albania distributing Covid relief supplies from the Multi-religious Humanitarian Fund. Credit: Erzen Carja

This echoes what occurred during the Ebola crisis in West Africa. In fact, while COVID-19 differs from HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Ebola, there are nevertheless some important similarities.

In cases of dealing with diseases where transmission affects large numbers of people, and vaccines and medication remain relatively hard to find and/or provide to all affected, beyond the health inequities which are underscored during such times, there are critical lapses by national and international authorities in acknowledging and supporting the role of religious leaders.

In fact, during previous outbreaks of HIV/AIDS (around the world), and of Ebola in Central and West Africa, the strengths of religious communities were rarely incorporated into public policy – until national and international secular authorities lose the plot.

In Religions for Peace (the only multi religious organization representing all religious institutions and communities around the world with 90 national and 6 regional Inter-Religious Councils/IRCs), a founding mantra is that caring for the most vulnerable is deeply embedded in all faith traditions.

As a result, religious institutions, communities, and faith-inspired/based NGOs (or FBOs as they are often referred to), have historically served as the original providers of essential social services. In fact, FBOs are the first responders in most humanitarian emergencies. Their work includes providing spiritual sustenance for sure, but also hunger relief, heath care, and shelter.

This is not only a feature of the developing world. Samaritan’s Purse set up a health center at the height of the pandemic in Central Park – an icon of New York city. Caritas, at one point, was feeding 5,000 people a day, in Geneva, Switzerland.

For 50 years, Religions for Peace worked to equip its IRCs (through the respective religious institutions and services) to seek peace through advocating for human rights (including the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as women, religious minorities, the disabled, elderly, and youth), mediating conflicts, providing emergency humanitarian relief, and contributing to sustainable development efforts (including health, nutrition, sanitation, education and environmental sustainability).

The defining feature of Religions for Peace IRCs is multi-religious collaboration. The main principles of this collaboration are representativity and subsidiarity. In the case of the former, each IRC earns Religions for Peace affiliation by ensuring its governance represents each and all of the nations religious institutions, and communities. In return, each IRC is guaranteed its independence to determine its national/regional priorities, and its modus operandi.

Half a century of collaboration with several United Nations entities at different moments in time, provides a comparative context to enable an assessment of how the UN works with some religious actors.

At the very least, this historical time-line of partnership efforts on peace and security, sustainable development and human rights, provides a learning context. It is with that in mind that we can say that UN efforts in seeking partnerships with faith-based NGOs in facing the Covid-19 implications, are noticeably on the increase relative to pre-Covid dynamics.

Entities like UNHCR, UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO, and even non-operational entities like the Secretary-General’s own office, as well as UN Office of Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect, have, respectively, issued statements specifically calling on religious leaders and actors to uphold their unique influences (noted above), sought religious input on and in Covid Guidance documents, and (are) hosting multiple consultations to strengthen myriad joint responses.

Working with multiple stakeholders, Religions for Peace research is revealing that while some religious charities are struggling to find resources to continue their services for communities, other FBOs are able to raise more resources for pandemic relief, than anticipated.

This is particularly the case for Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist organisations in countries in Asia, but also Muslim and Christian charities in Africa and the Middle East.

Almost 90% of Religions for Peace IRCs reported a 100% increase in engagement (asks) of their advocacy and messaging efforts from/by national governments, particularly as of May and June 2020 – as compared to this time last year.

This is evidenced through national campaigns during religious occasions and holidays, as well as local awareness raising efforts by religious leaders in particular, as opposed to faith-based NGOs.

Out of the Covid response efforts tracked by 25 Religions for Peace IRCs in 4 regions, thanks to the Multi-Religious Humanitarian Fund administered by RfP, multi-religious efforts are, on average, much harder to encourage than efforts administered by Ecumenical or single religion organisations.

A rough estimate shows that out of the nearly 100 humanitarian assistance projects being tracked by RfP in 40 countries in parts of Africa and Asia, only 1 percent involve multi-religious efforts. Several IRCs have also reported finding it harder to even advocate for multi religious collaboration to provide pandemic assistance (food and medicine packages) in conflict impacted countries (i.e. more than it normally is to seek to mediate some of the conflicts and/or work with governments in mediation efforts).

While it is now almost a cliche to call for more partnerships with religious, or faith-based actors, this is simply not good enough. FBOs, like many NGOs fully immersed in relief efforts, are finding several (good) excuses not to work together.

Faced with a global pandemic, even the FBOs – ostensibly inspired by religious calls for serving all, including the most vulnerable – are less keen on collaborating across their multiple differences (institutional, theological, structural, financial and political), as they continue to serve millions.

Is it enough to serve all who need regardless of religious affiliation (the current bar against which religious NGOs are often measured by the UN and other international entities), or should a pandemic inspire more, and better collaboration among multi-religious partners?

One can but wonder what the relative lack of religious NGO collaboration may foretell for social coexistence after the pandemic, not to mention what this lack of collaboration spells for the legitimacy of the so-called prophetic voice many of them speak of.

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 4 2020 (IPS)

The 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization and its United Nations partners in mid-July, reports that chronic hunger continued to increase to 690 million worldwide in 2019, 60 million more than in 2014.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Some two billion people worldwide were already experiencing some food insecurity during 2019, a number likely to spike upward due to Covid-19. Although headline hunger numbers have been significantly revised down retrospectively with better official data, the uptrend remains alarming.

The 2020 UN report continues to expand its coverage of malnutrition, going beyond the old narrow focus on dietary energy or caloric undernourishment. With its cost estimates for healthy diets much higher than for energy-based diets, as many as three billion people in the world cannot afford nutritious diets.

Another false start in Africa
Even progress in addressing dietary energy undernourishment in the world has been uneven, with Africa projected to overtake South Asia in a decade as the region with the most hungry people, rising to 433 million in 2030 from a quarter billion.

The report False Promises argues that despite improved understanding of malnutrition, a narrow focus on increasing caloric supply, at the expense of both crop and dietary diversity, is being promoted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

AGRA promised to double productivity and incomes for 30 million small-scale farming households while halving food insecurity by 2020 in the 11 remaining focus countries using high-yielding commercial seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

Launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006, AGRA has spent almost US$1 billion promoting such practices. The report shows problematic outcomes, with AGRA “failing on its own terms”.

Who gains from subsidies?
As most farmers cannot afford AGRA’s expensive recommended commercial seeds and fertilizers, African governments subsidise them at the cost of about US$1 billion annually.

Subsidies for commercial seeds and fertilizers have mainly promoted ‘starchy’ crops, such as maize and rice, resulting in much more land planted with such subsidized crops, often replacing more climate-resilient, nutritious crops such as sweet potato and millet.

However, the promised productivity surge has not happened, only rising modestly, with net incomes barely increasing, if at all, despite the subsidies. Meanwhile, the number of hungry people in AGRA focus countries has increased by 30% since 2006!

Maize production rose 87%, mainly due to more land being planted with it, while millet fell 24%, with yields falling 21% in AGRA countries. Staple root crops, including sweet potato and cassava, saw a 7% yield decline under AGRA.

As it reaches its own 2020 deadline, neither AGRA nor the Gates Foundation has published any overall evaluation of its impacts on the yields, incomes, food security and nutritional status of the smallholder households reached.

Food systems for healthy diets
Most African farmers are believed to be poor, growing crops for both subsistence and sale. But diverse, healthy diets for them are now less affordable as nutritious, climate-resilient, ‘traditional’ crops have been displaced by AGRA-promoted crops such as maize and rice.

Such Green Revolution programmes have thus undermined sustainable crop diversity supportive of dietary diversity. These generally include more plant-based diets, considered better for both human health and the environment.

Sustainable farming should instead promote nutritious, affordable diets for all, especially the world’s half billion small-scale farmers who, along with their families, comprise many of the world’s hungry.

By contrast, nearly 300 large ‘ecological agriculture’ projects in more than fifty poor countries apparently averaged a 79% productivity increase, with declining costs and increasing incomes, more impressive than AGRA, and with superior nutrition outcomes.

Rwanda’s AGRA record
Rwanda’s purported success as an AGRA focus country elevated Rwandan Agriculture Minister Agnes Kalibata to AGRA’s leadership in September 2014. In late 2019, she was named to lead preparations for the UN Secretary-General’s World Food Systems Summit in 2021.

Rwanda’s maize production grew four-fold, with a 66% yield rise due to fertilizers and high-yielding seeds, with the rest presumably due to 146% more land under the crop. Rice output nearly doubled under AGRA, as planted rice land rose 147% as yields fell 19%.

But this boom has come at the expense of more nutritious and diverse small-scale agriculture, with the AGRA package imposed with a heavy hand, and the government reportedly banning cultivation of some other staple crops in some areas.

Sorghum, cassava, sweet potato, and other roots and tubers were more important food crops than maize before AGRA, providing dietary diversity and benefits to the soil. Land under cassava fell 16%, while that under sorghum declined 17%.

One step forward, two steps back
Dr Kalibata claims to have raised per capita calorie production from 1,700 to 2,700 daily. But Tim Wise’s Staple Yield Index suggests a more modest overall net yield increase of 24% after 12 years of AGRA-influenced policy.

Although maize output rose four-fold as rice harvested doubled, chronic hunger increased by over 40% between 2006 and 2019 as the number of undernourished rose by 1.3 million to 4.4 million according to the UN report.

Meanwhile, Rwandan poverty, which had fallen by half a million in the dozen years before AGRA, rose by half a million under AGRA.

The Rwandan government campaign was resisted by many farmers, eventually forcing it to relax some crop restrictions, to allow more diversity, as President Paul Kagame sought re-election in 2017. Nonetheless, maize and other favoured crops remain heavily subsidized and supported.

The AGRA model imposed on previously relatively diverse Rwanda farming almost certainly undermined its more nutritious and sustainable traditional agricultural cropping patterns, which are not easily measured using money-metric indices.

Replacing hunger with malnutrition
A popular and persistent misconception is that it is necessary to first overcome dietary energy undernourishment before addressing malnutrition. Dr Kalibata has argued that “poor, hungry countries can’t think about diet diversity, it’s a luxury”.

While traditional and subsistence food production and consumption undoubtedly had problems, food access and dietary diversity were generally better. ‘Hidden hunger’ is best addressed by dietary diversity, supported by crop diversity in farming, rather than the Green Revolution’s exclusive focus on raising caloric intake.

Thus, seemingly paradoxically, ‘dirt-poor’ subsistence farmers’ children may have better diets than those of richer mono-cropping farmers. Monoculture’s damaging impacts on biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems are also well-known.

With growing recognition of the many problems of health, human development and wellbeing due to malnutrition, including maternal, infant and child malnutrition, it would be a major step back to singularly focus on dietary energy intake.

Food systems against malnutrition
At the mid-point of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition since 2016, it is crucial that the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit ensures that food systems do not leave anyone behind in the ongoing struggle against malnutrition.

This could happen if micronutrient deficiencies and other health problems are ignored in singular pursuit of increasing caloric output, which may not even reduce hunger, as in Rwanda.

Clearly, progress will not be achieved by either a nostalgic return to tradition or subsistence in very changed circumstances, or blind faith in corporate profit-driven technological change, insensitive to the needs of resource and ecological sustainability, social justice, farmer welfare, food safety, human nutrition and health.

Progressively transform food systems
The July UN report, subtitled Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy Diets, suggests how food systems need to be changed to enable affordable, nutritious diets for the billions who cannot afford them, thus building on the 2014 second International Conference on Nutrition.

The report recognises the fundamental importance of both the ‘hidden hunger’ of micronutrient deficiencies and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Most fruits, vegetables and other nutrient dense foods are now beyond the reach of low-income households.

The challenge is compounded by poor food consumption habits and bad dietary behaviour due to other influences such as advertising, markets, convenience and changing lifestyles. Policies to reduce costs and improve access to healthy diets for all clearly need urgent attention.

As developing countries reconsider food supply chains after recent disruptions due to unexpected Covid-19 contagion, containment and relief measures, the vulnerable must be prioritized, with up to 130 million more projected to go hungry due to lost incomes.

 

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Riverbed mining in Arin, which flows into the Jhelum river via Wular Lake in Kashmir. Courtesy: ThirdPole.net/Athar Parvaiz

By Athar Parvaiz
Aug 3 2020 (IPS)

Going against its own orders, the government in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has ordered the fast-tracking of environmental clearances despite manifest evidence of illegal sand mining.

A few months after the Jammu and Kashmir government auctioned hundreds of stretches of riverbeds for mineral extraction, companies that won the bids are mining the riverbeds despite the lack of environmental clearance. This makes the mining illegal. But instead of stopping that, on July 30 the government ordered “fast-tracking of environmental clearance”.

What is happening in Jammu and Kashmir is part of widespread illegal riverbed mining all over South Asia, which flourishes despite reports by officials, independent experts and the media. Three journalists reporting illegal riverbed mining have been killed over the past five years in India; many others have been injured and threatened.

The mining is mostly for sand and rocks used to build houses, roads and so on.

In June, the government’s own Jammu and Kashmir Expert Appraisal Committee (JKEAC) pointed out that illegal riverbed mining was going on. Taking note of it, the Jammu and Kashmir Environment Impact Assessment Authority (JKEIAA) – again the government’s own – sought immediate steps to stop illegal mining.

Instead, within a week, the government ordered that environmental clearances be sped up.

JKEAC is an eight-member group of experts set up by the central government in consultation with the regional government. It assists the three-member JKEIAA set up directly by the central government. Both were set up in August last year.

Plans rejected, data absent

Since the auctions, JKEAC has either rejected environmental clearance for 80 riverbed mining plans (and 40 brick kilns) or asked for more information. “This, despite a lot of pressure from top government officials to grant environmental clearances to such projects. They are telling us these approvals are needed promptly as there is dearth of construction material such as sand and gravel for infrastructure,” a member of JKEAC told this correspondent, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“But we are trying our best not to clear mining projects in haste. There can be a huge environmental catastrophe if we fail to do our duty,” he said. “In a recent meeting, we informed the government that it should either let us work as we are supposed to work by taking the required time for reviewing these proposals or not ask us to review them at all.”

In a meeting held over video on July 23, JKEIAA said, “JKEAC has also expressed concern on the non-availability of any authentic replenishment data, sketchy district survey reports as well as various other issues. Accordingly, JKEIAA accepts following recommendations of JKEAC: 1. Issuance of strict advisories to the Director, Geology & Mining, J&K to check illegal mining without valid EC [environmental clearance] at appropriate level. 2. The Director, Geology & Mining, J&K to conduct replenishment studies of all basins across UT [union territory] proposed for extraction of minor minerals. 3. The Director, Geology & Mining, J&K should complete comprehensive EIA [environmental impact assessment] studies on catchment basis at the earliest.”

Government goes against its own

Instead, on July 30, the Jammu and Kashmir government issued an order for “fast-tracking of environmental clearance process” for mining operations. It cited “Acute and unprecedented shortage of key material for development works and challenging COVID-19 pandemic” as the reasons for its order.

Local residents had expressed concern before the July 30 order was issued. “This is an environmental catastrophe in the making,” said Ashiq, who lives close to the Farozpora river, in the Tangmarg area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir. “In our area, they are operating without any environmental clearances just because they have emerged successful during the bidding process.”

The rule says if a company wants to mine more than five hectares in a riverbed, the authorities are supposed to hold public hearings before clearing the plan. Over 70% of the blocks auctioned are over five hectares, but hardly any public hearings have taken place. Delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, JKEAC is still processing the applications. But the mining is going on; in fact it has accelerated in the lockdown caused by the pandemic, because few officials are on the ground to check.

Permits to mine sand, boulders and gravel from the beds of the Jhelum river and its tributaries have been auctioned for five years by Jammu and Kashmir’s geology and mining department. This year, bids were invited from outside Jammu and Kashmir as well, following New Delhi’s decision to scrap the semi-autonomous status of the region on August 5, 2019. Among other things, it means people from outside Jammu and Kashmir are now eligible to buy land and property and do business based on the region’s resources. Most of the mineral blocks auctioned this year have been bought by companies based outside Jammu and Kashmir.

“We had advised the government during a meeting in December last year that no mining should be allowed in Jhelum and other rivers till there is a basin-wise scientific mining plan as to which areas should be declared feasible for mining and which areas should be declared as river sanctuaries. It should not be done in a hotchpotch manner,” the JKEAC member said. “Any mining has to be done in a way that it doesn’t cause problems in flood management or functionality of water bodies.”

In recent years, Kashmir has faced many floods, notably the devastating floods in 2014 which killed hundreds of people.

Illegal mining in South Asia

In South Asia, especially in India, there are reports galore about illegal mining in riverbeds and some reports about killing of law enforcement officers, journalists and environmental activists.

A petition filed in India’s National Green Tribunal (NGT) said that due to the lockdown forced by Covid-19, illegal sand mining was going on even in officially protected areas in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On June 30, the NGT set up a panel to prepare a report on it.

Kiran Pereira, founder of the London-based website Sand Stories, has been working on sand mining since 2010. She said illegal sand mining in South Asia is particularly serious because of the nexus between builders, politicians and the “sand mafia”.

Adding that there are lots of claims from governments that enough is being done in terms of legislation, Pereira added, “Legislation is of no use unless it is implemented. Monitoring and enforcement need to be strengthened.”

The United Nations Environment Programme, Pereira said, has called this problem “one of the major sustainability challenges of the 21st century”. Sand is a non-renewable resource and fundamental to create concrete and glass, both of which are used in great quantities wherever construction is high on the agenda.

Activists have been trying to stop the practice. GD Agarwal, the doyen of India’s river experts, died in 2019 after a 111-day hunger strike – one of his demands was to put a stop to illegal riverbed mining.

In 2017, the Uttarakhand High Court declared Ganga and Yamuna “juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person” and banned mining in their beds. The government went to the Supreme Court against the order. The Supreme Court set aside the High Court’s order, deeming it unimplementable.

A UN report in 2019 said, “Sand extraction operations in emerging and developing economies are not in line with extractives and environmental management regulations. Resulting social and environmental impacts have been reported in India, China, and other locations across Asia, Africa and South America.”

The impact

Sand mining is linked to many changes in ecological structure, processes and biodiversity of freshwater systems, including habitat loss and degradation, reduction and changes to the diversity and abundance of macro invertebrate and fish populations, increased viability of invasive species, changes to food web dynamics, reductions in water quality and groundwater levels, and alterations to riparian processes.

According to research published by the Centre of Mining Environment, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Dhanbad, the large-scale extraction of streambed materials, mining and dredging below the existing streambed, and the alteration of channel-bed form and shape lead to several impacts such as the erosion of channel bed and banks, increase in channel slope, and change in channel morphology.

The solution

The 2019 UN report said, “Large-scale multipronged actions are urgently needed to implement technical and institutional innovations designed at the scale of regional infrastructure projects, large river basins and their downstream connections to deltas and coasts and global construction materials markets.” This, it said, “will need to involve a wide range of players – public, private and civil society organisations – from local to global levels.”

The report emphasised identifying sand sources that may be harvested at a sustainable level and according to guidelines, and with the support of agreed standards, best practices and decision-support tools, that are developed with inputs from all stakeholders.

This story was originally published on thirdpole.net and can be found here.

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Kenyan youth at the Kasarani stadium in Kenya's capital Nairobi. PHOTO-Nation media

By Ruth Kagia and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 3 2020 (IPS)

Africa’s demographic boom has been hailed as its biggest promise for transforming the continent’s economic and social outcomes, but only if the right investments are made to prepare its youthful population for tomorrow’s world.

Consider this. Every 24 hours, nearly 33,000 youth across Africa join the search for employment. About 60% will be joining the army of the unemployed. Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach over 830 million by 2050. Whether this spells promise or peril depends on how the continent manages its “youth bulge”.

President Kenyatta once said that “The crisis of mass youth unemployment is a threat to the stability and prosperity of Africa, and it can amount to a fundamental and existential threat”.

Investing in young people especially so that they are prepared for the world of work is the main mission of Generation Unlimited (GenU), a global multi-sector partnership established to meet the urgent need for expanded education, training and employment opportunities for young people aged 10 to 24.

On 05 August 2020, Kenya will launch the Generation Unlimited initiative. This initiative will bring together key actors from the public and private sector as well as development partners to help put into a higher gear this defining agenda of our time to ensure that we have prepared our children for a prosperous future by giving them the education, training and job opportunities that fully harnesses their potential. With a median age of 18, Kenya’s youthful population represents a real potential to reap a demographic dividend and accelerate its economic progress.

Kenya has one of the youngest populations in the world. With the right investment in their talents, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit, young people present an extraordinary opportunity for transformation, growth, and change.

Three quarters Kenya’s population is under the age of 35. Across Africa there are 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24, a demographic that is expected to double by 2045.

One of the greatest challenges facing governments and policymakers in Africa is how to provide opportunities for the continent’s youth, in order to provide them with decent lives and allow them to contribute to the economic development of their countries. As things stand, around 70% of Africa’s young people live below the poverty line.

In Kenya, the pillars for achieving GenU objectives are in place, with various initiatives for instance to strengthen education system through the recently-launched competency based curriculum and government promotion of programmes to enhance technical and digital skills.

The fruits of such initiatives can be seen through numerous youthful innovations from Kenya that continue to receive international attention. For instance, inspired by his great urge to communicate with his 6-year-old niece who was born deaf, Roy Allela, a 25-year-old Kenyan invented Sign-10, a pair of smart gloves with flex sensors to aid his cousin’s communication with the other members of the family.

The flex sensors stitched to each finger aid in quantifying the letters formed from the curve of each finger of the glove’s wearer. The gloves are then connected through Bluetooth to a mobile phone application that vocalizes the hand movements. This innovation won him the Trailblazer Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Gen U’s solution is to forge innovative collaborations with young people themselves. Since launching in 2018, the movement has brought onboard leaders from governments, foundations, and the private sector around the world. Its launch in Kenya underscores its government’s commitment to engage young people in pursuit of the Big 4 Development Agenda as well as Vision 2030.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is a global leader for the Generation Unlimited initiative. In Kenya, Gen U’s activities are coordinated by the Office of the President and the United Nations.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres were unanimously endorsed by world leaders to champion a new UN intervention on youth education, training, and employment at the UN General Assembly in 2018. Photo/PSCU

Shifts in today’s global economy demand that young people acquire skills aligned with dynamic labour needs, but local education systems have been slow to adapt. In many countries in Africa, school enrolment is up, but learning outcomes for young people remain poor. Most leave school without the skills the contemporary job market needs, and are ill-prepared for a world in which low-skilled jobs are increasingly automated.

A million young people join the workforce every year in Kenya, applying for jobs in a formal sector that can only absorb one in five of them. Some, however, find work at least intermittently in Kenya’s vibrant informal sector, which accounts for more than 80% of the country’s economy according to the World Bank.

Rather than focusing on opportunities in the formal sector, partners in the Gen U movement will look at strategies for supporting the informal sector with better infrastructure and an improved business environment. In doing so, it is hoped that it will be transformed into a recognised and legitimate sector.

Such initiatives have the full support of the recently launched Kenya Youth Development Policy, which seeks to underscore issues affecting young people. Technology will play a central role, and sector-based strategies will be central to the government’s approach.

The Kenya Youth Agribusiness Strategy, for example, will enable Kenya’s youth to access information technology for various value-addition ventures in Africa’s agribusiness sector set to be worth $1 trillion by 2030.

The Coronavirus pandemic has seen countries face changes in entire social and economic systems. Key industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, public services, retail, transportation, food supply, tourism, media and entertainment have been hard hit by the pandemic. The pandemic is an inflection point that is giving the old system a nudge. The post-COVID-19 world will be founded on a tech-savvy workforce that will inevitably comprise young people.

Calling on urgent action for young people, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on governments to “do far more to tap their talents as we tackle the pandemic and chart a recovery that leads to a more peaceful, sustainable and equitable future for all”.

In the run-up to the end of the SDGs era, we must ramp up the current level of investment in young people’s economic and social potential. As the vision of Generation Unlimited states, if the largest generation of young people in history is prepared for the transition to work, the potential for global progress is unlimited.

As President Kenyatta has noted, “the current generation of young people has the potential of expanding Africa’s productive workforce, promoting entrepreneurship and becoming genuine instruments of change to reverse the devastation caused by climate change.”

Ruth Kagia is the Deputy Chief of Staff to President Kenyatta. Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya. Mrs Kagia and Mr Chatterjee co-chair the Generation Unlimited Steering Committee in Kenya.

This article was first published in Forbes Africa

 

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Unless we make bold changes in the way we produce our food and manage our land, we will not be able to cut emissions sufficiently and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Credit: UNDP Afghanistan

By Haoliang Xu
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 3 2020 (IPS)

The theme of this year’s High-Level Political Forum, where governments reviewed progress on the Sustainable Development Goals was “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.”

Throughout this forum, which took place 7-16 July, one major theme emerged: how to use Covid-19 as an opportunity to reset national and global ambition.

Perhaps no goal lends itself to accelerating global ambition more than Goals 14 and 15. These two nature-related goals, covering ‘life below water,’ and ‘life above land,’ are foundations for many other Sustainable Development Goals and their targets, especially those related to the issues of food and water security, disaster risk reduction, sustainable livelihoods and climate mitigation. In fact, implementing nature-based solutions is a fast-track path for accelerated action across more than half of the SDG targets.

We know from recent reports, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (IPBES), that biodiversity is in rapid decline; we have wiped out 83% of all wild mammals, and a million species may go extinct by mid-Century. Our window to bend the curve on nature loss is closing, and Covid-19 provides a rare window of opportunity to act now.

The cost-benefit calculus for implementing nature-based solutions is compelling. Protecting 30 percent of the planet would cost 16 percent of global GDP, and is less than three percent of the cost of fossil fuel subsidies. Yet the benefits of protecting the planet are enormous – more than 5 to 1, with benefits primarily flowing to the more than 2.5 billion people who depend directly on forestry, farming of fisheries for their survival.

The cost of inaction is equally compelling – nearly half of all Gross Domestic Product globally is at risk from nature’s loss. Furthermore, as biodiversity and ecosystems unravel, we will face new global pandemics, new water crises, famine, new ecosystem collapses and forest fires and more.

And the cost of inaction has already become untenable. Clearly the time for accelerating progress on the SDGs through nature-based solutions is now. At UNDP we see three major pathways for taking action.

Credit: UNDP Peru

Three pathways for accelerated action and transformative pathways

First, we must invest in national nature-based safety nets. Although countries have committed to protecting 17% terrestrial area and 10% marine areas through the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and have committed to restoring 100 million hectares of land by 2020 through the Bonn Challenge, these targets are likely insufficient to tackle our planetary emergency.

By setting and implementing bold measures for protecting and restoring biodiversity, countries can realize multiple benefits. One of the more important of these is climate mitigation – protecting and restoring nature can provide up to a third of our climate mitigation needs.

Second, we can use the opportunity afforded by Covid-19 to implement fiscal stimulus and financial aid packages for nature-positive and climate-aligned recovery plans that accelerate the transition to a fair and green economy.

For example, UNDP’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) provides support for developing national biodiversity finance plans. One result is that 14 countries are looking at debt-for-nature swaps to accelerate the protection of nature. Similarly, we can see how to use public works programs to create green jobs, while also achieving multiple societal benefits.

For example, Pakistan is hiring unemployed workers to plant trees and South Africa has shown that ‘Working for Water’ and other programs can achieve multiple benefits while providing jobs.

Third, we can accelerate the pioneering and innovative use of technologies that can accelerate a green recovery. For example, the GCash Forest Platform, a mobile wallet is a UNDP-supported app in the Philippines, enables people to sign up and gather points for sustainable activities such as walking, forfeiting paper bills or buying organic produce while creating a virtual tree in the app.

Once this tree has fully grown, a real tree is planted somewhere in the Philippines. More than 2 million people already signed up for the app since it was launched one year ago, and over US$ 500,000 was invested in tree planting.

The outlook from the High-Level Political Forum is sobering; we are not on track to meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, Covid-19 is likely to further dampen our progress across many of the SDG goals and targets.

However, we can and must take bold action now. Nature-based solutions are one of our brightest hopes to build back better, and to accelerate action through transformation.

 

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Excerpt:

Haoliang Xu is UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support

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