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As the Turkish President signed a decree last week converting the ancient Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque, the UN cultural agency (UNESCO) said it "deeply regrets the decision" made "without prior discussion." It also called on Turkey to abide by its “legal commitments and obligations” in accordance with its status as a museum, on the World Heritage List. Credit: UN News/Jing Zhang

By Ian Williams
NEW YORK, Jul 14 2020 (IPS)

President Erdogan’s “reconversion” of the Hagia Sophia, into a mosque is a very Trumpian move, making a populist gesture to his base evoking shared misconceptions of history, reckless of its actual diplomatic and economic cost.

The late Roman mother church of Orthodoxy was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans when they took the city in 1453, and then converted to a museum by Kamel Ataturk, the secularist founder of Modern Turkey.

It is highly unlikely that there is any Muslim left alive who ever worshipped in the building, restored with taxpayer’s and tourist cash over most of a century.

The move by Erdogan-appointed courts also violates UNESCO conventions on World Heritage Sites, which include the whole area around Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi palace and associated mosques.

It is a godsend to Greek nationalists, since ironically its conflation of nationalism and religion puts it on a level with Greece, which, after a century is still stalling on building an official mosque in Athens.

He expediently evokes Al Aqsa, but provides a precedent for a similarly loaded Israeli court to “hand back” Al Aqsa to those who want to repossess the site of Herold’s temple.

As a combined blunder and illegality, it overturns a wise decision by Kamal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. And, in fact, most of the region and indeed the world, has a habit of viewing the past through the “patriotic” prism of modern day nationalism with imaginatively reconstructed histories.

When Erdogan began, he showed signs of an ecumenical reaching out to Christians, Kurds and other minorities, but those days are long gone and he has been throwing away advantages, not least the real restrictions on the Orthodox Church to which the de-museification of Hagia Sophia is just a tweak.

If he were less tunnel-visioned, he could make Istanbul a pilgrimage center, a world capital that with its potential attraction to both Orthodox Christians and Muslims. would make Rome or Mecca look like one-ring Circus.

Following World War I, Kemal Ataturk’s republican government showed itself blind not only to the city’s aesthetic grandeur but also to its sacred history. As Erdogan and his party know, Ataturk and his colleagues were no particular friends of Islam and had no sentimental attachment to the Ottomans they had overthrown, who had been dangerously cosmopolitan, encompassing far too many ethnic identities to be truly “Turkish,” in the new ethnonationalist mode.

Even as a mosque, the Hagia Sophia had kept its Greek name, “Holy Wisdom.” Astute Islamic architects – far from demolishing it like Modi’s Hindu nationalists, added minarets and made it the very model of the Ottoman Mosque.

Mehmet the conqueror of Constantinople did not see himself as replacing its glories, but more inheriting them. For the Ottomans, he took the title Kayser i Rum, Caesar of Rome, and many of their Greek-speaking subjects became partners of the sultans in running the empire.

Modern nationalist mouth-frothing notwithstanding, the people of “Constantinople” regarded themselves as Romans, not Greeks and called their city Stam Polis – the city – from which the Turks made Istanbul!

After Ataturk demoted it from imperial capital to provincial town, whatever it was called, they city went into economic decline. Its Greek population, although exempt from the unethical population exchanges between Greece and Turkey shrank and most of those remaining were driven out in a politically inspired pogrom in the 1950s—not because they were Christians but because they were considered a fifth column for Greeks nationalists who still cherished the idea of retaking the city. Nevertheless, a small remnant survived. They still call themselves Romans, “Rumi.”

Chief among the remaining Romans is His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, who in the eyes of the world’s Orthodox is, if not infallible, first among equals and certainly merits a twenty-one mass salute or whatever the equivalent for patriarchs, along with the pope.

However, Ataturk’s secularist and nationalist successors regarded him as merely the head of the church in Turkey. They insist that the patriarch be a Turkish citizen, but for fifty years have kept closed the only seminary that trained priests in Turkey. Hidden in a corner in the Phanariot district, poor Bartholomew cannot assemble the pilgrims the way the pope can in Saint Peter’s Square.

This is unenlightened policy. and just plain bad for business. The great religions may have had their hearts in Mecca and Jerusalem, but their heads were in Istanbul and Rome. Istanbul combines both. It is the original ecumenical pilgrimage place, offering you patriarchate and caliphate in one, churches and mosques to die for, and relics galore.

Ataturk’s followers were equally ambivalent about the glories of the sultans’ Topkapi Palace where the sultans, doubling up as caliphs, amassed the Amanat—“the Sacred Trusts.” Still on display is a collection of the Prophet’s facial hairs, head hairs, and even the fragment of one of his teeth.

This is the sort of thing that the devout are willing to pay to see. Topkapi is a reminder of a time when Istanbul was to Islam what Rome is to Catholicism. Similarly, the patriarchate is testimony that the city still hosts the head of hundreds of millions of Orthodox.

There are allegedly sixty hairs of the Prophet’s beard in the collection, although only one was on display last time I looked. That number may seem excessive, if not so much as Voltaire’s suggestion of building a fleet with wood from the Cross and floating it on the Virgin’s milk, but ancient accounts report Muhammad giving away his beard and hair clippings in his latter days, which would surely have been cherished by his followers.

Indeed, in contrast, some of the more dubious relics in the Topkapi were inherited from the Christians, such as the skull fragment, arm, and hand of St. John the Baptist. The provenance of Moses’s staff, Joseph’s turban, and Abraham’s cooking pot, not to mention King David’s sword, all seem to lack the chain of evidence of the more directly Islamic relics such as the hairs and the Prophet’s “honored standard” that the caliphs used to rally the faithful in arms.

Some of these relics were brought to Istanbul from Mecca to protect them from the Wahabi upsurge, with its disdain for tombs, relics, and such quasi-idolatrous habits of Turkic Muslims. The relics are displayed as museum pieces, aids to study rather than agents of sanctity, and most of the foreign\ tourists arriving seem to be in search of secular history.

They spend as much if not more of their time gawking at the sundry bejeweled tchotchkes of the sultans as they do at the relics. They show the same lack of reverence as the echoing tour parties trotting at the double through the Hagia Sophia, which has been for decades in a dusty state of perpetual repair and renewal: more scaffolding than mosaics.

Küçük Ayasofya, the little Hagia Sophia, the former church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. Its dome was a forerunner and template for the big one. It gives a better impression of the original church than its larger descendant.

Its marble walls survived, and around its interior frieze the original Greek inscription to the emperor Justinian and empress Theodora survives intact after fifteen hundred years. Its serenity and dignity is far more likely to evoke the city’s glory days than its quasi-fossilized successor further up the hill.

Istanbul is ready to step up to its destiny. But not enough people know about it. All it lacks is a strong marketing campaign with the appropriate state sponsorship to give the Vatican a run for the tourist purse. The vision is clear; all that is needed is the implementation.

This city could be the crossroads between Islam and the West. The history of the caliphate, the Islamic relics and the Ecumenical Patriarch, the churches and mosques, if given the chance, could begin to pull in the pious punters from across the globe.

It may seem odd for a secularist like myself to advocate it, but many people who could not sprint across the road to save their lives have waved their pom-poms for the economic benefits of staging the Olympics.

More seriously, though, it must surely be a good stereotype buster to remind people of the centuries of coexistence of Christianity and Islam in Istanbul during a period when the Inquisition burnt brightly in the West and the Orthodox emperors hosted mosques within the walls even before the “Fall of Constantinople.”

If the new administrators of the Hagia Sophia show similar reverence for history as those looking after the Küçük Ayasofya, the little Hagia Sophia, down the hill from the big one, the reckless decision could be ameliorated. Its dome was a forerunner and template for the big one. It gives a better impression of the original church than its larger descendant.

Its marble walls survived, and around its interior frieze the original Greek inscription to the emperor Justinian and empress Theodora survives intact after fifteen hundred years. Its serenity and dignity is far more likely to evoke the city’s glory days than its quasi-fossilized successor further up the hill.

But a gesture from Erdogan to the Rumi and patriarchal office and seminary would go even further to build bridges to the Orthodox world. Erdogan does not do sensitive but if he wants his missile supply assured, he could remember Putin’s espousal of Orthodoxy!

* Ian Williams is also a senior analyst who has written for newspapers and magazines around the world, including the Australian, The Independent, New York Observer, The Financial Times and The Guardian.

 

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Excerpt:

Ian Williams* is President of the Foreign Press Association in New York, a former President of the UN Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) and author of UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War.

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Ndiabou Niang was able to get access to prenatal care after her town’s mayor decided to finance the health membership of nearly 300 women and children. Courtesy: Réseau Siggil Jigéen

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Jul 14 2020 (IPS)

Pregnant with her second child, 30-year-old Ndiabou Niang was enduring pelvic pain, but couldn’t afford to access prenatal care in Diabe Salla, a village on the outskirts of the small town of Thilogne in north-east Senegal. Her husband was unemployed and her earnings of under CFAF 10,000 (17 USD) from selling seasonal fruits in the local market were insufficient to make ends meet.

During her last prenatal visit, she was prescribed some tests, an ultrasound and medicines that would cost CFAF 39,000 (USD 67). An astronomical amount for her meagre income. So she didn’t follow through with the treatment, opting to suffer in silence instead.

Many pregnant rural women, living below the poverty line, don’t follow through on their prescriptions and delay their prenatal visits till they are in their third trimester, which puts them at greater risk of pregnancy-related complications.

Senegal has integrated the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its national policies and plans, but socio-economic, cultural and religious norms and attitudes impede women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, especially in remote and rural areas. The challenges include early marriage, unmet contraceptive needs, early pregnancy, unsafe abortions and female genital mutilation.

The country’s version of Universal Health Coverage is Maladie Universelle (CMU) rests on mutual health organisations (MHOs) that provide health insurance wherein each person contributes a yearly enrolment fee that is matched by the government. The annual member contribution to the mutual health insurance is CFAF 3,500 (USD 6).

People in remote and rural areas choose not to join the mutual health insurance because Health Posts, local facilities that dot the country, have limited drugs and treatment options. Consultations at these posts cost CFAF 1,000 (USD 1.70), but they are not equipped to provide advanced obstetric care – like caesarean sections or blood transfusions. So the distances from local health posts to a district or regional hospital, poor road infrastructure, and cost and shortage of ambulances are some of the other challenges rural women face in accessing healthcare.

Aware of this, Réseau Siggil Jigéen (RSJ), an NGO that aims to promote and protect women’s rights in Senegal, through the IntraHealth International-led Neema project, a consortium of seven health organisations working to extend sexual and reproductive health services to last-mile recipients, began extensive advocacy to mobilise the community and local authorities to promote MHO membership.

After several sustained advocacy meetings, the mayor of Thilogne decided to finance the MHO membership for nearly 300 women and children. Niang, was one of them.

“It helped me to get X-rays, prescription drugs and have a caesarian delivery at the Regional Hospital Center of Ourossogui. The cost was CFAF 75,000 (USD 129), but as a MHO member, I only had to pay CFAF 15,000 (USD 25). I am now committed to do everything for my own health and my children’s health, who are 3 months and 18 months old,” she told the local RSJ member. She is also making her family and friends aware of the benefits and urging them to join the MHO.

RSJ and IntraHealth International have been working together for a decade to reposition family planning in Senegal and in the sub-region.

“Together, we introduced the fight against gender-based violence and early pregnancies in schools, and we help health workers improve care in their communities. Now we’re advocating to local governments to mobilise more domestic resources, which make reproductive health services accessible for pregnant women and teenagers who otherwise couldn’t afford them,” IntraHealth International’s Senegal Country Director Dr Babacar Gueye told IPS.

Several other mayors have also followed suit and made financial commitments to reduce maternal and infant mortality in their communities.

In Senegal, a Least Developed Country with 16.7 million people and a fertility rate of 4.5 per woman (2020):

• maternal mortality ratio remains high at 315 deaths per 100,000 live births (2017);
• 74 percent births were attended by skilled health personnel during 2014-2019;
• and only seven percent of girls and women could make a decision on sexual and reproductive health and rights during 2007-2018 period, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) World Population Dashboard Senegal.
• (Data to be read in context with technical notes and sources in the link above)

“Senegal can only embark on the path of development when young people and women are in good health, educated, well trained and equipped to seize development opportunities. Creating these conditions is a social, economic and political necessity,” UNFPA’s assistant representative in Senegal, Moussa Faye, told IPS.

Fifteen years after Senegal passed the 2005 Reproductive Health Law, the decrees to implement it have still not been ratified. The Deliver for Good Senegal campaign’s advocacy objective for 2020 is to get the decree on Family Planning enacted. It is part of a larger, global campaign powered by Women Deliver, a global advocacy organisation that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women.

The Deliver for Good Senegal campaign’s steering committee, convened by RSJ and Energy 4 Impact, is working with other civil society organisations and ministers to roll out a roadmap to push the competent authority to sign the decree.

“The campaign is advocating at national and local level to reduce maternal and child mortality rates and mobilise financial resources to strengthen the access of women and young people to family planning services and information, whatever their purchasing power and their geographical location. The implementing decree on family planning would qualitatively strengthen the health of mothers and children and help Senegal achieve the SDGs related to women’s health and rights,” Fatou Ndiaye Turpin, executive director of RSJ and co-leader of the Deliver for Good Senegal campaign, told IPS.

An implementing decree is also needed to describe the modus operandi to allow non-medical workers to provide a wide range of family planning services to vulnerable rural, disadvantaged urban, poor and young people, in particular through community-based distribution.

To ensure women in disadvantaged areas have access to family planning services, there is a growing emphasis on primary health care. For example, the community-based health worker programme, the Bajenu Gox Initiative (which means paternal aunt or godmother in Wolof) to train women to be leaders in reproductive health. Local bajenu gox are enlisted by the government to provide support to women during prenatal, delivery and postpartum periods, and advice on caring for children under five years old in areas where trained medical professionals are not available. 

While family planning policies have been progressive, Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit’s Director, Marie Ba told IPS, “One needs to balance this progress with the prevalent socio-cultural barriers, misconceptions and misinformation around contraception, reproductive rights and health, relatively high unmet contraceptive needs, inequality in terms of gender and social norms, especially in rural areas. For example, only 20 percent of married women aged 15 to 19 report making decisions alone or jointly with their husbands regarding their own health care.”

Many women still need to get permission from their husband or mothers-in-law to use a contraceptive and many young girls are unsure whether they are allowed to use contraceptives before they turn 18. According to UNFPA, the contraceptive prevalence rate for all women aged between 15 and 49 using any method of birth control was 22 percent (2020); and and 16 percent of all women aged between 15 and 49 had their need for family planning unmet (2020). 

Family planning options – birth control pills, implants, intrauterine devices, easy-to-use self-injectable contraception – are now becoming more readily available in regional health posts.

“However, three challenges remain. Stockouts at national and regional level – the stockout rate for injectables varies between 25 and 45 percent in key cities; the same is true for implants, where stockouts can reach 80 percent in the public sector. Secondly, problems with the supply of products to service delivery points. Thirdly, product quality control which remains variable and insufficient,” Turpin told IPS.

Child marriage is still prevalent. As many as 29 percent girls were married by age 18, according to UNFPA. It exposes girls to harmful consequences – sexual and psychological abuse and violence; early pregnancy, which has the risk of medical complications and even death.

Abortion is illegal in Senegal except when three doctors agree that the procedure is required to save a mother’s life.  It is also prohibited in cases of rape or incest. These strict abortion laws have forced many young women to resort to unsafe, illegal abortion services, which often put their health and lives at risk. The adolescent birth rate for girls aged 15 to 19 years was 78 per 1,000 births, according to UNFPA. 

“Abortion is the fifth-leading cause of maternal death in Senegal. It strongly influences maternal mortality with eight percent of maternal deaths linked to unsafe abortions and 50 percent of the reasons for emergency admission to referral maternities,” Turpin told IPS.

The COVID-19 restrictions have led to closure of many reproductive health and family planning services, disruption in supply chains of contraceptives, which are posing a significant risk to women and girls’ health.

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jul 14 2020 (IPS)

The recent explosion of private finance has nursed the hope, dream or illusion that it can be mobilized for the public good, e.g., to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, associated with Agenda 2030. However, such hopes ignore how changes in financial investing have deeply transformed corporations, national economies and prospects for the world economy and social progress.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Private finance boom
Private capital has exploded with financial deregulation from the late 20th century. Global finance increased 53% from 2000 to 2010, reaching some US$600 trillion (ten times annual world output), and was projected to reach US$900 trillion by the end of this year.

In its 2018 annual report, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) – an investor initiative in partnership with UN offices – estimated that investors with over US$80 trillion in combined assets had committed to integrate ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG) criteria into their investment decisions.

According to the IMF, between US$3 trillion and US$31 trillion in assets are managed by ESG funds, depending on the definition used. It also notes problems in evaluating ESG criteria, such as reducing emissions or raising labour standards, and hence fears ‘greenwashing’ financial investments with false claims of ESG compliance.

From active to passive investing
From 2006 to 2018, almost US$3,200 billion left actively managed equity funds globally, while over US$3,100 billion has gone into equity index funds, constituting “an unprecedented money mass-migration from active to passive funds”. The shift has given index providers considerable private authority and influence in global capital markets.

Mutual index funds have been available since the late 1970s, while the first exchange traded funds (ETFs) were launched in the early 1990s. The growth of passive or index funds has greatly accelerated in the decade since the global financial crisis (GFC).

Anis Chowdhury

Attracted by the much lower fees charged, passive funds had US$11.4 trillion globally by November 2019, five times more than in 2007. Jan Fichtner, Eelke Heemskerk and Johannes Petry discuss some implications of this money mass-migration to index funds for corporate governance, market competition and investment flows.

Wall Street’s new titans
Consequently, corporate ownership is increasingly concentrated and largely held by the ‘big three’ passive asset managers: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, already the largest owners of US corporations. In 2019, actively managed US funds were overtaken by passive funds. Some estimate that index funds will have over half the US capital market by 2024.

Describing passive investors as the true “titans of Wall Street”, Jill Fisch, Assaf Hamdani and Steven Solomon fear that passive investing’s rise raises new concerns about conflicts of interest due to ownership concentration and common ownership of rival firms, thus undermining competition.

In traditional investment funds, managers decide how and where to invest, e.g., which shares to buy. Instead of depending on fund managers, passive funds track selected constructed indices. This is increasingly done algorithmically, instead of reflecting or responding to price and other movements.

Index providers set standards
When investors invest via index funds, their decisions are effectively shaped by the indices the passive funds track. The three most influential index providers are the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International), the FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) Russell and the S&P (Standard and Poor) Dow Jones.

The main emerging markets indices have tremendous influence, particularly the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which includes large and medium-sized companies in 26 countries, including China, India and Mexico. Thus, MSCI effectively sets criteria for countries aspiring to qualify as emerging markets, requiring financial authorities to ensure free access to and exit from national stock markets for foreign investors.

Deciding what to include in indices is not just an objective or technical matter, but inherently political and subjectively discretionary, typically benefiting some over others. Setting criteria for inclusion thus endows index providers with the authority and power to greatly influence regulation and policies.

Indices influence capital flows
In the past, index providers only supplied information to financial markets. But with passive funds, index providers have considerably more authority in markets. With trillions of dollars invested worldwide, capital has been reallocated by index providers’ decisions, as innocuous as they may seem.

These often influence international capital flows much more than economic fundamentals. Massive portfolio investments typically flow into the financial markets of countries chosen for inclusion.

When China was added to key emerging market indices in 2018, reportedly after heavy lobbying, it was expected to attract portfolio capital inflows of up to US$400 billion.

Adding Saudi Arabia to the benchmark MSCI emerging markets index in 2018 was expected to bring up to US$40 billion into its stock market. This did not materialize, perhaps due to the Jamal Khashoggi murder scandal, treated by financial markets as a ‘reputational risk’.

Thus, the big three’s indices greatly influence global investment flows. Meanwhile, investors may unwittingly acquire controversial or problematic investments, either by investing in index funds, or by choosing options heavily invested in such funds.

Divesting for progress?
Clearly, the three biggest passive fund managers and three major index providers greatly influence portfolio investment choices, while the world remains largely oblivious of their biases, influence and impacts, wishfully hoping for the best possible outcomes.

BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, with US$7 trillion in funds under its management, gained approving attention by announcing divestment of its actively managed funds from firms making more than a quarter of their revenue from coal.

But, as most BlackRock funds passively track indices, these continue to invest in coal until such stocks are removed from the indices. Moreover, its CEO has made clear that it will continue to invest in controversial assets, including coal.

Following BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street have also announced they will increase their ESG funds. But ESG criteria are defined, interpreted and acted upon by the index providers, who use different, often problematic and non-transparent methods and data.

UN ‘blue-washing’?
ESG-rating firms disagree about which companies qualify, producing different sets of ostensibly ESG compliant stocks. Meanwhile, the IMF has not found any consistent differences in rates of return between the investment portfolios of ESG funds compared to conventional ones.

In August 2019, Vanguard dropped 29 stocks, noting they had been ‘erroneously’ classified as ESG by FTSE Russell. The rejected stocks included a gun manufacturer, a private prison operator, a restaurant and a pharmaceutical company.

Neither Vanguard nor FTSE Russell explained how and why the ‘error’ had happened, or the criteria involved. Most ESG indices include ‘industry leaders’ in almost all, including the most controversial sectors, only excluding the very worst offenders, which are quite subjectively, if not arbitrarily determined.

The Economist has noted, “Tobacco and alcohol companies feature near the top of many ESG rankings. And many funds marketed on their green credentials invest in Big Oil…the scoring systems sometimes measure the wrong things and rely on patchy, out-of-date figures. Only half the 1,700-odd companies in the MSCI world index reveal their carbon emissions”.

Unless there are more meaningful and effective means to ensure that private finance equitably and appropriately serves public needs, indiscriminate UN endorsement of ostensible efforts to mobilise private finance for sustainable development runs the serious risk of legitimising a massive fraudulent exercise in financial ‘blue-washing’, referring to the colour of the UN flag.

 

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Iêda de Oliveira sits at the wheel of one of the buses manufactured by the company she heads, Eletra, a pioneer in electric and hybrid buses in Brazil. She regrets that Brazil, due to a lack of adequate public policies, has lost the foreign market for buses and part of the domestic market to China, after having been a major exporter of buses to Latin America and other regions. CREDIT: Courtesy of Eletra

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

Electric transport, still limited in Latin America despite its urban benefits, could expand during the post-pandemic economic recovery, says Adalberto Maluf, president of the Brazilian Association of Electric Vehicles (ABVE).

If there are major investments in the necessary reactivation of the economy, they should form part of “a transition towards a green economy, in an agenda for the future,” as some European countries have already decided, said Maluf, who is also director in Brazil of the Chinese company BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of 100 percent electric vehicles.

“The transition to electric mobility powered by clean energy is beginning to generate growing interest among governments, and also among citizens,” notes the report “Electric Mobility 2019: Status and Opportunities for Regional Collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean,” released in Spanish on Jul. 2 by UN Environment.

This is reflected in “the emergence of different civil society groups dedicated to this sector and made up of enthusiasts, early adopters and entrepreneurs,” according to the report, which points to a bigger push in public transport in the 20 countries studied.

In a region that has rapidly urbanised, with 80 percent of the population living in urban areas, and where the number of large cities has climbed, electric vehicles are improving the environment, transportation, quality of life and collective health, in addition to opening up new economic possibilities and generating jobs and technological innovations.

Transportation is responsible for 22 percent of the region’s emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and 15 percent of greenhouse gases, according to the report by the regional office of the agency also known as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The electrification of 100 percent of urban transport would prevent 180,117 deaths from 2019 to 2050 in Mexico City, 207,672 in Buenos Aires and 13,003 in Santiago, by eliminating the gases and particulate matter emitted by conventional vehicles, the report estimates.

The efficiency of electricity, far superior to that of fossil fuels in vehicles, offers a great economic advantage in the medium term.

A bus manufactured by BYD, a Chinese company founded in 1995 that soon became a powerhouse in the production of rechargeable batteries, electric buses and cars and solar panels. In Brazil, the firm set up shop in the city of Campinas, 100 kilometres from São Paulo. Its production is focused on clean energy and transport. CREDIT: Courtesy of BYD Brazil

The electric vehicle is more expensive because of the battery, which can cost nearly half of the total for a bus that can run 200 kilometers without recharging, said Iêda de Oliveira, executive director of Eletra, an electric bus company founded in 1988 in São Bernardo do Campo, near the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo.

The price difference, she told IPS from that city by phone, is recovered in a few years from savings in energy and maintenance, since electric motors have fewer parts and wear out less.

The economic advantages are accentuated in countries that, like Chile, depend on imported oil and therefore suffer the effects of international price swings and exchange rate fluctuations.

Chile stands out in the electrification of its urban transport. Santiago’s Metropolitan Mobility Network had 386 electric buses by the end of 2019. There will be almost 800 by the end of 2020. BYD (Build Your Dreams) is the largest supplier of electric buses in Chile, Maluf told IPS by telephone from São Paulo.

Furthermore, Chile has set a goal to electrify its entire public transport fleet and 40 percent of private transport by 2050, as part of the National Electromobility Strategy approved in 2016.

Colombia also stands out, with 483 electric buses in operation or on order in Bogotá and another 90 in the cities of Cali and Medellín as of late 2019. The national goal for 2030 is to have 600,000 electric vehicles of all types, according to the UNEP report.

Costa Rica and Panama are other countries in the region that have adopted national electric mobility plans. Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay are in the process of hammering out their own strategies.

The Dual Bus is an innovation developed by the Brazilian company Eletra, which has the advantage of adding more flexibility to the electric bus, which can operate in two configurations: as a hybrid or trolleybus (with electricity supplied by overhead wires) and hybrid or pure electric (battery). In the hybrid, the electricity is generated internally by a diesel engine. CREDIT: Courtesy of Eletra

Brazil, which could lead this process even as a manufacturer of electric vehicles, “lags behind” in electrification, said Maluf, adding that “BYD sold 1045 buses in Latin America in 2019, only four percent of which went to Brazil.”

“Chile is a case in point; it was already a major importer of conventional buses from the Brazilian industry,” said Oliveira, who leads ABVE’s Heavy Vehicle Group, in addition to heading Eletra. “Because of its shortsightedness, Brazil lost the Latin American market to China.

“We need a public policy on electric transport, which is not only an environmental but also an economic question, because Brazil could be a leader, given our large fleet, our national spare parts industry, and our national technology,” she said.

Clear goals, available financing, more favourable taxation that takes into account environmental, social and health benefits, incentives for local battery production and the expansion of recharging infrastructure should form part of this policy, Oliveira said.

Relying on imported batteries proved to be a trap. Suddenly they became outrageously expensive due to the 35 percent devaluation of the Brazilian currency, the real, this year, she pointed out.

In her view, the race for higher-capacity batteries is not the only path to take. Another option is to create more charging stations and use smaller batteries. “Expanding the infrastructure and using smaller batteries makes more sense, if you can charge them more often,” Oliveira said.

Adalberto Maluf, president of the Brazilian Association of Electric Vehicles and director of marketing and sustainability at BYD Brazil, a subsidiary of the Chinese company that is the world’s largest producer of electric buses and one of the largest makers of solar batteries and panels, hopes that public environmental and health awareness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic will drive the electrification of transportation, especially urban transport. CREDIT: Courtesy of Adalberto Maluf

Maluf asserted that claiming there are not enough charging stations to argue against increasing the number of electric vehicles in Brazil is no longer justified. There are at least two electric vehicle routes, one on the country’s busiest highway between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and there are scattered charging stations elsewhere.

In addition, batteries can be charged quickly today, in half an hour, and in just 15 minutes 70 percent of capacity can be reached, he said.

Unfamiliarity with technology is the main factor curbing the spread of electromobility, Maluf said.

There is also resistance and political pressure from entrenched interests in the transportation industry, such as the traditional automotive industry, ethanol producers, fuel distributors and urban bus companies.

Nevertheless, electrification is progressing in different areas. Electric motorcycles, bicycles and scooters are mushrooming in cities that are adapting to new modalities.

Cargo transport is also gradually adhering to the new trend. The “retrofitting” of trucks to replace diesel engines with electric motors is Eletra’s new booming business.

In Brazil, hybrid electric vehicles predominate.

The UN Environment report recognises only 2045 electric vehicles registered in Brazil up to October 2019. But it only counts plug-in electric vehicles and excludes hybrids that run on an internal combustion engine and an electric motor that uses energy stored in batteries, which account for more than 90 percent of the electrified fleet.

ABVE statistics count a total of 30,092 electric vehicles registered from 2012 to June 2020. The number of vehicles registered rose threefold in 2019 from the previous year, to 11,858. Hybrids represented 95.4 percent of the total in 2018.

A diversity of options is the best route, given local needs and advantages, Oliveira argued. Adding a small battery to a trolleybus, for example, gives it flexibility that reduces the operating cost, she said.

New business models also promote solutions. Car-sharing, rental vehicles, electric generators, and associating energy distributors to urban transport are a few alternatives.

The Chilean model that separates the owner of the buses from their operators is interesting, as it attracts investment funds for the purchase of vehicles on a large scale, at lower costs, and facilitates solutions to conflicts, Maluf said.

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By Poul M. Thomsen
Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

Europe, like the rest of the world, faces an extended crisis. An element of social distancing—mandatory or voluntary—will be with us for as long as this pandemic persists. This, coupled with continued supply chain disruptions and other problems, is prolonging an already difficult situation. Based on updated IMF projections released last month, we now expect real GDP in the EU to contract by 9.3 percent in 2020 and then grow by 5.7 percent in 2021, returning to its 2019 level only in 2022. If an effective treatment or vaccine for COVID 19 is found, the recovery could be faster—but the opposite would hold true if there are large new waves of infection.

Some European countries will face a tougher recovery path than others. Several went into the crisis with entrenched product and labor market rigidities holding back their growth potential. Others depend on industries that are tightly integrated into cross-border supply chains, leaving them deeply vulnerable to disruptions of such links. In several large euro area countries, slow growth has coexisted with high public debt and limited fiscal space, constraining the ability to cushion shocks. Inescapably, sharply divergent initial conditions are likely to result in a highly uneven recovery across Europe.

Europe’s high-debt countries will bear the brunt of the social impact. For decades, several of these countries have seen their public debt burdens ratchet up in times of trouble and stabilize—but not fall—in good times. The stepwise pattern of rising debt speaks to a weak record of addressing structural deficiencies, whether due to institutional rigidity or insufficient political will. Results have included high unemployment and emigration, especially among the youth, and a trend toward less-progressive taxation—but pensions have largely been protected. COVID 19—a disease that calls for protection of the elderly but leaves the young shouldering much of the cost—complicates an already difficult demographic situation.

Fiscal policies for a transforming Europe

Against such backdrops, policies—especially national fiscal policies—need to start being repositioned for a longer crisis. At the outset of the pandemic, lockdowns were a vital tool to save lives. To help economic capacity survive a short but extreme disruption and allow activity to promptly bounce back afterwards, fiscal policies were eased sharply. Months later, fiscal support remains as vital as at the onset. But, as dislocations persist, resources will become stretched. Now is the time, therefore, to think ahead and reassess how best to use limited fiscal space without unduly burdening future taxpayers. The longer the slump, the greater will be the need to carefully target support for firms and households in the high-debt countries.

Policymakers must also recognize that the post-crisis economy may look very different from the economy of 2019. It is becoming clear that we are in the throes of—and that we need—permanent change. COVID 19 has reminded us that nature still reigns supreme, that environmental degradation must stop, and that investing in resilience is good policy. Moreover, prudence requires us to consider that this pandemic could last several years, and may well be followed by future pandemics. Europe must strive for a new, greener economy, one that can operate efficiently even with prolonged social distancing. It may take many years to complete, but transformation needs to be nurtured starting now. We cannot just return to the way things were before.

Change is already underway, with winners and losers. Digitalization has emerged as a key bulwark of resilience, yet also as a divide. Across Europe and beyond, countless employees are adapting to remote work, students to remote learning, doctors and patients to telemedicine, and firms to internet-based sales and door-to-door delivery. Countless others, however, are shut out. Many contact-intensive activities—hospitality, travel, and more—could take years to recover. Some outputs—take coal-fired power or carbon-emitting vehicles—may slip into terminal decline. Again, some countries will be hit harder than others, and inequalities could grow both across and within national borders. We may not yet be able to fully envision the new normal, but the transition has begun.

Public funds must be used to steer the needed resource reallocation while protecting the most vulnerable. In labor and product markets, the focus should be on flexibility, including by ensuring that short-time work schemes that tie workers to their employers are kept temporary. In the corporate sector, support programs must embed incentives that encourage uptake by firms with strong business plans and discourage uptake by firms on a path to failure. As liquidity needs become solvency needs, state aid may need to include equity injections—various European initiatives are already moving this way. Clarity on carbon pricing will also be important to set the stage for a climate-friendly recovery of private investment. Finally, public investment can and should take the lead, focusing on greening, digitalization, and other aspects of resilience.

Given divergent national conditions, there is a strong case for joint EU fiscal action. Supporting the recovery will continue to require substantial fiscal resources. By focusing EU funds on countries hardest hit by the pandemic or with less fiscal space, lower income levels, and greater environmental damage, the “Next Generation EU” package stands to improve outcomes for the single market as a whole. To do so, however, it is vital that it serve as a catalyst and not a substitute for structural reforms and prudent fiscal policies. With fundamental limits to the size of any joint EU assistance, the responsibility for ensuring that debt burdens are sustainable will remain squarely at the national level. Even with low borrowing costs, all countries will need to partner upfront stimulus provision with credible medium-term policy plans.

Preserving financial stability and the supply of credit

Through the acute crisis phase and beyond, monetary policy will need to remain strongly accommodative. With crisis-related demand shortfalls further weakening the inflation outlook, central banks must continue to deliver substantial stimulus and ensure that financial markets remain liquid. In practice, this means policy rates must remain at extraordinarily low levels for now, supported by net asset purchases that implicitly look to bond spreads and issuance volumes. Once the period of stress has passed, however, there will be a need for introspection—reflecting on the many years of missed inflation objectives, on how to properly demarcate monetary policy from fiscal policy, on the global decline in equilibrium real interest rates as savings outpace investment, on the choice of monetary instruments, and more. The European Central Bank’s strategic review remains as essential as ever.

Finally, another key priority in the coming period will be to ensure an uninterrupted supply of bank credit to the economy. History has taught us that, when efficient savings allocation breaks down, crises tend to last longer. For now, most European banks have the capital and liquidity they need to expand credit. But, as this crisis wears on, there will be many defaults, and these could erode bank buffers and lending capacity. Potentially, therefore, one feedback loop of this crisis may simply be time: the longer the pandemic, the greater the credit disruption, and the slower the post-pandemic recovery. It is vital that supervisors prepare banks for the coming test. Robust lending standards must be upheld, losses provisioned for fully and transparently, and restructurings of bad assets pursued actively to preserve value. In some cases, bank recapitalization may prove necessary.

A calibrated policy mix

With many difficult challenges lying in wait, managing this vast crisis will call for an increasingly calibrated approach going forward. The initial emphasis on opening the fiscal and monetary floodgates had its place. As time passes, however, policymakers must reflect also on longer-term considerations. Even as low borrowing costs soften some of the tradeoffs, responsible policymaking will still need to weigh immediate imperatives against future burdens on young taxpayers and new generations. Difficult reforms must be pursued with renewed determination.

The overarching policy goals are not one, but two: to save lives now, and to ensure that Europe emerges with a greener and safer economy for the long run, one where future generations can thrive equitably.

This article is from International Monetary Fund

 

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In Senegal, although gender parity has been achieved in favour of girls in primary education, the dropout rate at secondary school among female learners is high and few older girls remain at school and complete their education. Credit: Mikaila Issa/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

When Fatima* became pregnant in the middle of the school year and dropped out, she was disowned by her parents. Hers is a story that could have ended as another statistic of dropout rates among female learners in Senegal.

But Fatoumata Fall, a member of the Siggil Jiguen Network, an NGO that promotes and protects women’s rights in Senegal, heard about Fatima’s story from health officers at the Keur Massar Health Post. She approached municipal authorities for assistance.

Moustapha Mbengue, the mayor of the Keur Massar Municipality, offered moral and financial support for Fatima, enabling her to receive prenatal care. And the combined efforts of Fall and Mbengue also convinced Fatima’s parents to welcome their daughter back home. Mbengue also undertook to assist Fatima in continuing with her studies after childbirth.

It was a happy ending for Fatima.

Though many other girls in the West African nation face different realities.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), although gender parity has been achieved in favour of girls in primary education, where for every 100 boys enrolled, there are about 104 girls, the dropout rate at secondary school among female learners is high.

“Dropping out of school is significantly common not only in the transition from primary to secondary but also within secondary education,” observed UNESCO in its 2011/12 Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education fact sheet.

Alongside economic challenges, UNESCO mentions teenage pregnancy and early marriage as some of the reasons why girls do not remain at school and complete their education.

Fatou Gueye Seck, from the Coalition of Organisations in Energy for the Defence of Public Education (COSYDEP Senegal), told IPS the 2016 Multidimensional Review attributes the limited access to education for women and girls to early marriage, among other reasons.

Quoting a 2017 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Seck said 25 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 were married in 2014, compared to 4.6 percent of boys in the same age group.

• According to the U.N.Population Fund’s (UNFPA) report, “Against My Will: State of World Population 2020”, states the adolescent birth rate of girls aged 15 to 19 is 78 per 1,000 births.

“In Senegal, the gender index is still against girls,” Seck told IPS.

As a result, said Seck, the scale of illiteracy, especially among women in rural Senegal, is also symptomatic of the poor access to education. According to UNESCO, Senegal’s literacy rate for the population aged 15 years and above is 64.81 percent for males and 39.8 percent for females.

“This phenomenon remains very recurrent among women in rural areas where only 25.9 percent of them are literate,” Seck said.

Seck said a 2014 regional analysis of the phenomenon shows that the regions of Ziguinchor (62.3 percent) and Dakar (61.9 percent) have the best literacy rates. In contrast, the regions of Matam (24.9 percent), Tambacounda (26.6 percent), Diourbel (29.8 percent) and Kolda (33.1 percent) stand out with the lowest rates.

Quoting an OECD report, Seck said since 2016, enrolments in Functional Literacy Centres, which give dropouts a second chance at learning, have fallen by more than half. The number of learners – 92.5 percent of whom were women – dropped from 34,373 to 15,435.

The OECD attributed this underperformance to the inadequacy of the overall amount of funding towards the National Ministry of Education, Illiterate Youth and Adult Basic Education, which is below 1 percent of public spending on national education.

“In this regard, the 2007 Bamako conference [African Regional Conference in Support of Global Literacy] on the financing of non-formal education recommended that States increase this ratio to 3 percent,” said Seck.

Seck is also the president of the education theme of the Deliver for Good Senegal campaign, an evidence-based advocacy and communication platform that promotes the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women.

Powered by Women Deliver and various partners, part of the campaign’s activities are to help the country achieve Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals – access to quality education for all. The campaign is calling for the increased funding for school-based reproductive health education to keep young people in school. 

According to Seck, since the launch of the Deliver for Good campaign, the authorities of targeted municipalities have been successful in addressing issues related to education and sexual and reproductive health.

“As an example, [Mbengue] has been proclaimed ‘Mayor Champion of Education’ by his peers. In fact, the mayor made a commitment to increase the budget allocated for the reproductive health of adolescents and young people and declared himself a spokesperson for this cause to his fellow deputies of the National Assembly,” she said.

Seck stressed the important role of women in the family and in society, in general, adding that the more educated she is, the more crucial her place is in the economic and social development of the community. She said a society in which the percentage of educated women is high has more opportunities to access knowledge, economic, health and cultural assets than one made up mainly of illiterate women.

“Within the family, the role of the mother in the educational success of children in the family has been the subject of numerous studies, which have shown that children whose mother has a certain level of education are more likely to have successful studies than those whose mother is illiterate,” she said. 

She said Senegal’s 10-year Education and Training Programme, which put in place an important strategy and resources for achieving parity within the deadlines of the Education For All goal, are beginning to pay off.

“Indicators have started to evolve in favour of girls even if the gains must be maintained in view of the cases of early pregnancies which constitute a real obstacle to the development of girls,” Seck said.

 

*Not her real name

 

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Leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha in the Ciudad Barrios prison in the eastern Salvadoran department of San Miguel, in 2012. Credit: Tomás Andréu/IPS

By External Source
GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

After decades of harrowing gang crime, homicides have plunged in El Salvador on the watch of the new president, Nayib Bukele. Faced with the growth of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, previous governments resorted to “iron fist” policies to crush them, only to find these fuelled a backlash.

Since his 2019 election, President Bukele, a self-styled outsider, has won huge public support by presiding over a 60 per cent fall in murders. Yet prospects that this achievement will endure are in doubt. The collapsing homicide rate may stem not only from the government’s public security policies, but also from the gangs’ own decision to curb bloodshed, possibly due to a fragile non-aggression deal with authorities.

Bukele still enjoys remarkable popularity and has the capital to make progress on these fronts. Some of his policies thus far provide a good base for an approach that sustainably reduces the horrific bloodshed of El Salvador’s recent past. But short-term political calculations and an unnecessarily combative stance toward rivals risk distracting him and undercutting such an approach

In addition, Bukele’s confrontational style, which has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, risks entangling his security reforms in political battles. Broadly backed efforts to support affected communities, assist members wishing to leave gangs and encourage local peacebuilding are more likely to end definitively El Salvador’s cycle of violence.

The Bukele administration argues that the plummeting murder rate – with daily killings now standing at their lowest rate since the end of the country’s civil war (1980-1992) – represents the crowning achievement of a new security strategy. In theory, the government’s Territorial Control Plan couples robust law enforcement with violence prevention schemes.

It has reinforced joint police and military patrols in 22 municipalities suffering high rates of crime, while toughening confinement measures in jails in a bid to sever communications between inmates and the outside world. At the same time, the government’s goal of building dozens of “cubes” – glass-walled recreational and education centres – represents the flagship effort to brighten the lives of young people growing up under gang dominion and prevent recruitment into their ranks.

The precise reasons for the nationwide drop in homicides are hard to pin down. Statistical studies show that the Territorial Control Plan is most likely not the sole cause; specific local falls in murder rates do not correspond precisely to those areas where the plan has been implemented. Instead, in large part, gangs appear to have themselves decided to scale back their use of lethal violence.

Unassailable control over communities, declining gang rivalry and increasingly autonomous gang leadership outside jails may explain this decision more than the Territorial Control Plan. Yet other government policies might have played a role: numerous analysts and local activists ascribe the gangs’ move to an informal understanding between them and the authorities, who have allegedly ordered security forces to dial back their clashes with these groups.

A sudden killing spree attributed to MS-13 in April illustrated just how precarious the gangs’ commitment to reducing violence can be. Bukele’s reaction to the attacks, which left over 80 dead in a five-day span, reaffirmed his inclination to adopt punitive measures to force gangs into submission.

Images shared around the world from inside El Salvador’s high-security jails revealed inmates huddled together or forced into shared cells without any access to daylight. Although murder rates have since fallen again, the risk remains that gangs, now short of extortion income due to lockdown measures and indignant at the government’s crackdown, will once again resort to extreme violence.

 

Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, addresses the UN General Assembly’s seventy-fourth session – 26 September 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Laura Jarriel

Bukele’s political struggles reinforce the danger that improvements in security will be knocked off course. Some of the president’s moves to subdue his opponents and concentrate power in his hands, including the military occupation of the opposition-held Legislative Assembly in February and repeated fights over the legality of measures adopted during the COVID-19 emergency, have sparked outcry, particularly from foreign powers and civil society organisations.

His shows of strength toward the two parties that held a stranglehold on power in El Salvador for 27 years, as well as toward state and judicial institutions, serve his goal of winning a parliamentary majority in 2021. But by turning public security and health policy into a stick with which to beat his adversaries, the president could deprive his reforms of the wide political support they need to be effective and sustainable. Should violence resurge, he might also be tempted to resort to coercive policing in a bid for quick results, despite ample evidence from the tenure of previous governments that such measures usually backfire.

At a time when the national lockdown is starting to taper off, the government should strive to use its high levels of support to ensure that violence reduction becomes a lasting achievement. It should build on its existing programs and officials’ extensive networks of local contacts to ensure the needs of violence-affected communities are defined and addressed so as to prevent recruitment of vulnerable young people into gangs.

Callous new prison rules should be scaled back, or at least combined with a far greater effort to design rehabilitation schemes for jailed gang members. Security forces, for their part, should continue where possible to reduce their clashes with gangs and young people living in poor communities, and instead focus resources on capturing and prosecuting the most dangerous offenders.

Most importantly, the government could be in a unique position within the next year to decide whether or not to re-engage the gangs in dialogue. The failure of the gang truce in 2012-2013, which prompted an unprecedented spike in homicides after it fell apart, shows the risks of negotiating with hardened criminal outfits before a hostile public.

Should the gangs keep murder rates at current lows, however, and cooperate with authorities in ensuring health and humanitarian access to communities throughout the pandemic, then the government could seek to open talks. These might aim at establishing a process designed to address the deep-seated grievances that fuel El Salvador’s gang-related violence in exchange for members handing over their weapons.

Local initiatives to bring peace and development to marginalised communities could stand at the heart of these efforts. They could help build the trust required to embark on a national dialogue, which in turn should look to promote reforms that can eventually lead to the gangs’ disarmament and peaceful reintegration into society.

Bukele still enjoys remarkable popularity and has the capital to make progress on these fronts. Some of his policies thus far provide a good base for an approach that sustainably reduces the horrific bloodshed of El Salvador’s recent past. But short-term political calculations and an unnecessarily combative stance toward rivals risk distracting him and undercutting such an approach. Foreign donors and domestic political forces should urge him not to waste a rare opportunity to calm El Salvador’s troubled streets.

 

This article is an executive summary, the full original report produced by the Crisis Group can be found here: Miracle or Mirage? Gangs and Plunging Violence in El Salvador 

The post Miracle or Mirage? Gangs and Plunging Violence in El Salvador appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

A young and dynamic digital platform, named Fuzia, has attracted millions of women social media followers and 100,000 active global users with its eclectic mix of content. The platform showcases women’s talent and provides a support network.

Riya Sinha, 19 has been an activist for women since her early teens. Credit: Fuzia

Fuzia (https://www.fuzia.com/) was the brainchild of 19-year-old Riya Sinha and co-founder and director Shraddha Varma, 31. They developed their signature brand, “Happiness is Fuzia”, from their shared experiences of discriminatory practices that women and girls experience throughout the world.

“As I have worked on Fuzia, I think my background played a big part in forming my vision for Fuzia. From a young age, I have had the privilege to be able to travel to India and all around the world, experiencing different cultures and types of people. It helped me to create an awareness of my privilege and how life differed in many parts of the world,” Sinha said in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service (IPS).

The sisterhood is rooted in the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which aims to end all forms of discrimination, violence, harmful practices for women. Fuzia seeks to achieve the goal in which enabling technology, especially information and communication, is used to promote women empowerment.

What makes this community different is its belief in yet-to-become-successful women. The founders translate this belief by giving them a platform to showcase their talents. Young photographers, artists, creative and opinion writers, bloggers, and crafters log on and place their bright and distinctive works on the Fuzia website. The website is a conduit to robust debates on significant issues like Black Lives Matter with moving artistic tributes to, for example, a nurse in the time of Covid-19 competing for the audiences’ attention.

Fuziaite of the Week celebrates the most compelling content of that week. Recently, that honor went to a 59-year-old teacher and writer who blogs about her life experiences on the site. She, like many, finds this platform allows her distinctive and exciting voice to shine in a world where it could typically be blurred out.

Shraddha Verma, 31 sees Fuzia as an inclusive platform where women can interact in a non-judgmental and safe space. Credit: Fuzia

Fuzia has been a lifeline for many during the COVID-19 pandemic supporting, empowering, and voicing concerns over domestic violence, coping mechanisms, work-from-home dos and dont’s, and depression and anxiety management. The website and social media platform focused on mental health, physical well-being, and freedom of expression.

Fuzia also fosters women empowerment in the form of job hunting, linking up applicants with proper channels. It arranges periodic competitions, writing and art contests, technology workshops and forums, and live talks from women leaders. It gives women of color a step-up on their career tracks. One success story, Humaira Ferdous from Bangladesh, told IPS about how publishing her work on Fuzia led to her employment within the organization.

“I believe that the more you praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate. Fuzia helped me celebrate life to the fullest. I work here as a Graphic Designer now, but it feels like only yesterday when I couldn’t even think of being on this pedestal,” Ferdous says.

Sinha, who has been an activist since her early teens, says she could notice the sexism and inequalities that women faced in their communities where their free will and even thought processes are governed and guarded. Women and young girls from many South Asian countries at times feel suffocated and have no scope to express their voices, she says.

As young entrepreneurs, both Sinha and Varma sought out a solution. They came up with a concept that harnessed the accessibility of the internet, social media, and smartphones and connected the dots with technology.

Surveys show that 90% of teens aged 13-17 use social media. About 75% report having at least one active social media profile, and 51% report visiting a social media site at least daily. Two-thirds of teens have their own mobile devices with internet capabilities. Nowadays, for most countries, even from remote areas, getting access to the internet and social media is considered standard practice.

These women now have an online platform that is inherently inclusive and welcoming. On Fuzia, anyone can post her views, opinion, creative works, and voices safely and securely. The platform allows women to express themselves freely to a global audience in a judgment-free zone. The users are mainly from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia, and much of its content represents women of South Asian descent.

Fuzia maintains an active presence over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, website, and more with subcategories and pages. Initially, in the first year, they gathered more than 1 million supporters, and since then, growth traffic has increased by up to 35-45% each month.

There are no age brackets or geographical location barriers in Fuzia. Anyone can become a user and get their voices heard. Here the users come from various professions, age brackets, and backgrounds. Each contributes, engages, and helps each other as a friend and fellow user. A massive chain of skillful contributors, professionals, and industry movers and shakers are included in an engaging and unified platform. Fuzia empowers women daily by blurring social classes and status—it’s a platform where everyone is a friend and a sister within a massive network.

The authentic and remarkable way Fuzia stands in solidarity with women is key to its success. It provides work-life balance write-ups, has workshops for job readiness in which the values of mutual respect, work ethic, and environmental consciousness are emphasized.

Other platforms include mental health workshops, book clubs, and new releases of books and movies, discussions on current political and global issues, including societal norms, and much more.

Fuzia also has extended its wings to helping and uplifting people regardless of their color and gender. The website supports the LGBTQ community and provides a safe space for them to voice their concerns and seek help. It welcomes people with different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender-neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these.

Varma says Fuzia aims to challenge the mindset which forces women into subservient roles and mentions, “I have been brought up in a society where I have noticed a lot of stereotypical mindsets about a woman- how a woman should be, or what she should do. Societal and cultural restrictions have always led to women taking a backseat in everything, and in general, they have lacked the deserved opportunities. And, I think that Fuzia can help by empowering women to share their stories and stand together, giving them confidence in their voice and skill, and help in economic, social, and political liberation and understanding.”

It can be expected that this platform will spark a change in the young people’s mindsets as it is vital to bring people together on a common platform where they could realize their true potential, where they could start believing in themselves, and where they’re accepted.

 

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Securing the future of India’s fisheries both during COVID-19 and beyond, requires a deep dive into understanding their past, present, and possible future. | Picture courtesy: Arjun Swaminathan

By Mahima Jaini
NEW DELHI, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

Fisheries and aquaculture are an important source of food production, nutritional security, employment, and income in India. The fisheries sector is a direct source of livelihoods for more than 20 million fishers and fish farmers; contributes INR 1.75 trillion annually to the gross value added to India’s economy; and is a major export earner, with fish being one of the most important agricultural commodities to be exported from India.

COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown has left India’s fisheries in the lurch. However, India is not alone. Severe economic losses to fisheries have been reported across the world, and in all cases, the damage has been greatest for export-driven fisheries with complex supply chains. The virus may have been the trigger, but India’s barrel was already loaded with decades of well-intentioned but ill-fated policies, unregulated growth, and market instabilities. Securing the future of India’s fisheries both during COVID-19 and beyond, requires a deep dive into understanding their past, present, and possible future.

 

The past: Overcapacity of Indian fisheries

In 2011, labour-intensive trawl fisheries dominated more than half of India’s marine capture fish production, and it is likely that they continue to do so today. First introduced to India in the 1950s, trawling is a form of mechanised fishing that involves actively dragging a net through the water or on the seafloor, efficiently and indiscriminately catching everything in its path. Bumper catches, combined with government subsidies, fuel tax rebates, and growing competition lured a large proportion of India’s traditional fishers into motorising their traditional fleets. Between 1980 and 2014, the number of mechanised boats also grew from a mere 9,000 to more than 72,000.

COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown has left India’s fisheries in the lurch. However, India is not alone. Severe economic losses to fisheries have been reported across the world, and in all cases, the damage has been greatest for export-driven fisheries with complex supply chains

Prior to 1976, there were no marine spatial regulations, such as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Territorial Waters, and other maritime zones. This meant that mechanised fishing boats could efficiently exploit nearshore waters, leading to a decline in catch that was evident for mackerel, bombay duck, ribbonfish, and non-penaeid prawns as early as the 1980s. However, the per boat decline in catch was easy to ignore, as technological advances improved the overall ability to find, catch, and preserve greater quantities of fish, which continued to bring in ever-increasing revenues and export earnings.

With declining target stocks, fishing operations started catching a greater proportion of ‘bycatch’ or non-target species. Today, trawler catches can consist of anywhere between 50-90 percent of bycatch, which includes other seafood items, as well as non-edible species or ‘trash fish‘, which are bought by fish meal and fish oil (FMFO) companies. FMFO products, rich in dead marine biodiversity, are supplied to aquaculture and poultry farms, and at times even make it into the diets of our pets.

In the wake of all this development lay India’s traditional fishing practices and associated local ecological knowledge systems. As a result of a decline in target species and rising conflicts with traditional fishers, in 1988, Kerala became the first state to impose an annual seasonal ban on mechanised fishing within its territorial waters. Soon, others followed suit and by 2001 all of India’s coastal states had a seasonal fishing ban in place. In 2015, the centre established a uniform annual fishing ban (61 days) on all mechanised and motorised vessels operating in India’s EEZ.

The ban helps protect fish stocks and relieves pressure off the marine environment. It also creates a social safeguard, by reducing competition for traditional fishers and protecting marginalised fish workers from over-exploitation.

 

The present: COVID-19 and the monsoon ban

From the wastage of 10,000 metric tons of freshly caught seafood to the stranding of more than 15,000 migrant fish workers, the global pandemic has taken away the livelihoods of the millions of people involved in India’s fish production. On April 10th, 2020—two-thirds of the way through the first lockdown—the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) finally exempted fisheries and aquaculture from lockdown restrictions. But it was a little too late; irreparable damage had already been done.

Reopened fisheries faced disrupted commodity chains, a significant lack of consumer demand, and a rising fear of being infected by COVID-19. Migrant fishers—who make up a large part of India’s mechanised fishing workforce—were in no condition to go fishing. They had been stranded for weeks in deplorable conditions, on boats or at crowded fishing harbours, and they only wished to go home.

While the annual mechanised fishing ban began on the east coast on April 15th, 2020, the remaining permitted fisheries still struggled to re-establish themselves. States such as Kerala and Maharashtra made innovative strides in bringing seafood back on the table, but the majority of fishing operations continue to lie suspended in the unending lockdown limbo.

On May 25th, just days after Cyclone Amphan created havoc on the east coast, the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy (MFAHD) issued an order, opening east coast fisheries on June 1st (ahead of the regular June 15th start date) and modifying the west coast ban start date from June 1st to June 15th. This reduction in the annual fishing ban from 61 days to 47 days was claimed to be in lieu of the lost fishing days, but it most likely also helped absolve the government from any responsibilites related to financial compensation.

This amendment to the annual fishing ban is only for 2020, but it does little to solve current problems. The lifting of restrictions on mechanised and motorised fishing has exacerbated the struggles of India’s small-scale (non-mechanised) fishers and migrant workers—the most vulnerable sections of India’s diverse fishing population.

Not only has this increased competition and unnecessarily risked fishers’ lives during rough seas in order to supply to non-existent markets, it has also increased the likelihood of indebted fisher migrants being forced into bonded labour. These unfavourable developments have undermined the ban, the decades of negotiations that led to its extraordinary achievements, as well as the protection it offers to India’s dwindling marine resources.

 

The future: Self-sufficiency and sustainability

COVID-19 has made it clear that business as usual is no longer an option. It is a wake-up call to put people and the environment first. Fisheries are the only commercialised source of wild-caught protein, and they deserve our care and respect. For India, the current focus needs to be on the safety and well-being of fishers, the movement of fisher migrants back to home states, and financial and food relief support to fisher communities.

This lockdown is also an opportune time-out to reflect and revise the National Fisheries Policy Draft 2020 and the proposed 20,500 crore investment in marine fisheries, inland fisheries, and aquaculture. The new scheme does little to help fishers directly, mainly supports the wealthier and more powerful actors within the sector, and lacks provisions to improve the social capital of India’s fishing communities through education, healthcare, and environmental protection.

While the draft’s mention of hygienic fish handling and e-marketing strategies is a welcome plan for a post-COVID-19 world, the push to modernise our coastal villages, with new ‘state of the art’ harbours, landing centres, and fish markets will do little good without parallel improvements in India’s fisheries monitoring and management capacities.

The scheme also focuses on increasing inland and culture fish production, proposes the infusion of new technologies, and plans to promote fisheries development in new areas (including Ladakh!) for the “productive utilisation of waste land and water”. Setting aside the ethical, social, and ecological implications of what one considers as waste land or water, aquaculture operations often come with a long list of risks (for example, invasive species, water pollution, and disease).

One can draw parallels with the limited consideration here to the policies that promoted the mechanisation (and consequent exploitation) of India’s marine fisheries in the 1950s. COVID-19 is a game changer, and mere ‘growth’ and ‘productivity’ may no longer be reliable estimates of progress. A reimagining that emphasises health and well-being for humans and the environment is required.

Focusing on local and sustainable small-scale fisheries (SSF) would be one such option. SSFs tend to be more species-selective, support a lower catch volume, and use traditional fishing techniques that are COVID-19 safe as they involve fewer people, often land on beaches, and support a smaller consumer base. The world over, only those fishing businesses that supply locally or have short and simple commodity chains are surviving this new era. Supporting local demand rather than investing in foreign export-based fisheries will be a step in the right direction.

 

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

The post India’s Fisheries: Past, Present, and Future appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kisa Scholars receive their own planners at the conclusion of their “Creating a Timetable” lesson. Credit: AfricAid

By Jessica Love
DENVER, Colorado, Jul 13 2020 (IPS)

It’s no secret that under pandemic lockdown for so many months, young people around the world have coped in tremendous ways. They have found new outlets for learning and creative channels for developing and using their skills.

Young people like Mary, who kept her school subjects fresh through a group study via WhatsApp; Florence, who filled her time with an online professional development course to help improve her resume and elevator pitch; and Gift, a young girl who taught herself to make ice cream via YouTube and now aspires to open her own business someday.

Young people are adaptable, resilient.

But those are learned skills, and not every young person has an opportunity to learn them. In Tanzania, it is common for girls to grow up being told that they are weak, unimportant, and destined to remain in the domestic sphere as mothers and wives.

Only 39 percent of girls in Tanzania are lucky enough to attend school. Those who do face significant financial, cultural, and environmental challenges that can undermine their ability to make the most of their secondary school opportunity, resulting too often in dropout.

If you grow up thinking you are weak and unimportant, those thoughts stay with you. We believe what we are told. Which is why “soft” skills, such as resilience, inner strength, confidence, internal motivation, and leadership are so essential – especially for a young woman. If a girl is taught to understand her worth, her potential, and given the skills and tools to pursue her dreams, she is unstoppable.

Soft skills are often not taught in the classroom, but they do need to be taught. In Tanzania, AfricAid supports a locally-led mentorship program for secondary school girls run by GLAMI (Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative).

By pairing girls with university-educated Tanzanian women who once faced the same challenges as the girls they mentor, GLAMI bridges the gap between academics and a girl’s ability to live the future she chooses for herself. In her mentor, a girl sees her own possibility.

GLAMI Mentor Chonge takes a selfie with a group of Binti Shupavu Scholars after class one day. Credit: AfricAid

GLAMI’s four-year program for girls in lower secondary school is called Binti Shupavu, which translates to “courageous daughter” in Swahili. The program teaches study skills, personal leadership, health, and self-confidence with the goal of increasing graduation rates among vulnerable girls – which it does, by a remarkable 98 percent, compared to 69 percent national

For older students, the Kisa Project, which means “story” in Sawhili, is a leadership course that prepares young women in their last two years of secondary school to attend university and create positive social change in her community.

Only 3 percent of Tanzanian girls go on to tertiary education, but 97 percent of Kisa scholars do. Alumnae from both programs are more likely to complete school and advance their education, and less likely to become pregnant or be married at an early age. Graduates go on to start their own businesses and hold leadership positions in their communities.

Both programs build resilience, which has been shown to be a key factor in helping girls overcome challenges, leading to better emotional wellbeing and better outcomes later in life.

Resilience is what allows these scholars to bounce back from the myriad challenges they face – especially in times of COVID-19 – and to learn from these obstacles and become better prepared for future challenges.

Hard skills are important, too. Which is why GLAMI also provides girls with programming that helps them learn financial literacy, study skills, and time-management. Girls need resilience, confidence, and self-belief in addition to these practical skills if they are to succeed and become changemakers in their communities.

As UNESCO-UNEVOC leads the world in celebrating World Youth Skills Day on July 15, and highlighting the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship, let’s also highlight the need to give all of young people – especially girls – all of the skills they need to truly succeed.

Every girl has the potential to be a leader and every girl deserves to feel confident within and outside of the classroom. But first, she needs the right skills. And a mentor to show the way.

*Africaid works in close partnership with sister organization, GLAMI (Girls Livelihood and Mentorship Initiative), AfricAid also supports mentorship opportunities that help secondary school girls in Tanzania complete their education, develop into confident leaders, and transform their own lives and their communities

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Excerpt:

The international community will be commemorating World Youth Skills Day on July 15.

 
Jessica Love is Executive Director, AfricAid*, which works to improve the standing of women in society through robust, locally-led mentorship initiatives that cultivate confidence, improve academic and health outcomes, and promote socially-responsible leadership skills.

The post On World Youth Skills Day, Don’t Forget the Importance of Soft Skills appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Harabhara Cooperative is finding ways to sell their milk during the pandemic. Photo from Heifer Nepal.

By Heifer International
Jul 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

For nearly three months, the government of Nepal implemented a strict lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. And while it slowed the spread of the virus, it also put a tremendous economic burden on many families nationwide. As of June 15, the country transitioned to a “soft lockdown,” easing some restrictions such as allowing private vehicles to operate on an odd/even-day scheme. But the economic effect is already being seen.

At the onset of pandemic, the majority of migrant laborers from Nepal returned home, meaning that remittances, the source of more than a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product, dried up nearly immediately. Exacerbating the situation, families of migrant workers usually don’t have savings to bolster themselves in times of distress. And because the government of Nepal requires people arriving from abroad to spend 14 days in quarantine, returning migrant workers generally stay in quarantine centers, converted buildings that many say are in poor condition and unsafe.

In such trying circumstances, Nepalese farmers are supporting their neighbors. Established just four months ago, the Heifer-supported Laligurans group in Baijanath Rural Municipality collected fruits, vegetables and more than two pounds of rice from each of their group members and to give to a quarantine facility. Similarly, members of a different group of Heifer farmers in Baijanath Rural Municipality, Ward 1, utilized their monthly savings to buy and deliver soap and toothpaste to people staying in quarantine sites. Ward Chairperson Roop Bahadur Malla, said, “I am thankful for the groups who have come out to help. Every small contribution makes a big difference in this dire situation.”

The Laligurans group collected fruits, vegetables and more than two pounds of rice from each member to donate to a quarantine facility. Photo from Heifer Nepal

Farmers themselves have faced a significant amount of adversity during the lockdown, especially when travel was nearly completely restricted, and they could not transport their produce to markets. During the stricter phase of the lockdown, Heifer Nepal supported partner cooperatives in acquiring government transport passes.

In Newalpur, one cooperative used their pass to establish an agri-ambulance to collect vegetables from farmers and get them to markets. “I was so worried that all my produce would be spoiled,” vegetable farmer Bishnu Timalsina said. “I had been having sleepless nights and was so stressed. As soon as I heard that the Cooperative would be collecting and selling the vegetables, I have breathed a sigh of relief.”

Farmers in Falebas Municipality raise close to 180 cows and collectively produce up to 260 gallons of milk every day. With a complete halt in transportation early in the pandemic, the Harabhara Social Entrepreneur’s Women’s Cooperative found themselves in dire straits, with the dairy buyer unable to collect the milk from farmers in a timely manner. After acquiring a travel pass for the transport vehicle with support, the milk from the area is finding its regular market in Pokhara 40 miles away. The farmer-owned agribusiness also ensured preventive measures by advising its members to follow social distancing norms, wear masks and install a handwashing facility on the premises. To support the local government, the cooperative also donated 10,000 rupees, or $83, to the municipality’s COVID-19 response fund.

Prayash Social Entrepreuner Women’s Cooperative is one of many groups of farmers affected by the pandemic in Nepal. Photo from Heifer Nepal

Deeplagan Women’s Entrepreneurs Cooperative used their clout in the community to arrange for one of its community members to travel across the country to attend his mother’s last rites. Deepalagan also provided food to his family to support them during a particularly difficult time.

With the transition to the soft lockdown, the government has allowed opening of businesses and offices but not resumption of public gatherings in shopping malls, religious services or events. Businesses are open and running with limited occupancy, meaning Heifer’s cooperatives are starting to resume some of their regular activities.

But just as some challenges are easing slightly due to the soft lockdown, others are arising. The country’s monsoon season occurs this time of year, which poses an additional risk, especially as COVID-19 limits many services. According to Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs, nearly 1,000 people lose their lives due to monsoon-related disasters every year, with the annual damage exceeding $58 million. Additionally, a swarm of millions of locusts passed over Nepal’s southern border on June 27. Although the swarm has dissipated significantly, about 2,800 acres of crops in the country have been affected by the insects.

Through ongoing distance communication, Heifer Nepal’s project team is regularly communicating with the project partners, communities and cooperatives to keep updated about the situation and prepare plans to support in the context of COVID-19 and other ongoing challenges.

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By External Source
Jul 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Honourable Karina Gould was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Burlington in 2015.

A graduate of McGill University and the University of Oxford, Minister Gould is passionate about public service and international development. Before her election as the Member of Parliament for Burlington, she worked as a trade and investment specialist for the Mexican Trade Commission in Toronto, a consultant for the Migration and Development Program at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., and spent a year volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico.

Minister Gould has deep roots in her hometown of Burlington, Ontario, and is an active member of the community and an advocate for women’s issues and affordable housing. She has volunteered with and actively supports the Iroquoia Bruce Trail Club, the Burlington chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Mississauga Furniture Bank, Halton Women’s Place, and other local organizations.

Minister Gould lives in Burlington with her husband Alberto and son Oliver.

With the birth of Oliver, Minister Gould became the first federal cabinet minister to have a baby while holding office. She is passionate about breaking down barriers for women, youth, and underrepresented groups.

ECW. As Canada’s Minister of International Development and as a key member of ECW’s High-Level Steering Group, could you please elaborate on the importance of linking emergency humanitarian response with development to achieve quality education for vulnerable children and youth in countries affected by armed conflict, forced displacement and natural disasters.

Karina Gould. We have heard from children and youth affected by armed conflict, forced displacement and natural disasters, as well as their families, that education is a priority for them. And we know that education in emergencies is an issue that ideally works across humanitarian and development responses.

Working through the humanitarian-development-peace nexus is crucial to ensuring that both immediate and long-term education needs are fulfilled. By working through a nexus approach, we recognize that the immediate response of humanitarian actors is vital to keeping children engaged and protected, while the long-term vision of the development community is critical to maintaining gains towards SDG4 and to strengthen education systems and make them more resilient to crises in the future.

Education is often the first thing that is disrupted and the last thing to be rebuilt during an emergency. Despite the importance of maintaining a system of quality education, especially in protracted humanitarian situations, education is still not sufficiently prioritized for immediate humanitarian funding and development actors need to do more to support resilient national education systems that ensure education is not disrupted. This is why Canada supports organizations like Education Cannot Wait, which is emerging as a leader in demonstrating how education programming can be quickly and efficiently rolled out within the humanitarian-development-peace nexus space.

ECW. Canada is a staunch defender of multilateralism in addressing the world’s challenges and opportunities. With almost 80 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including 26 million refugees, Education Cannot Wait will dedicate its First Emergency Response to refugee education in its upcoming COVID-19 response actions this month. How do you see ECW’s progress so far in responding to COVID-19 and how can we strengthen collective efforts to deliver quality education to forcibly displaced populations, who often are left furthest behind?

Karina Gould. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how connected we all are to one another across the globe. At the height of the pandemic, 164 countries had closed their schools, which affected 1.4 billion students worldwide – over 90% of the world’s learners. This is on top of the already marginalized populations such as refugees and internally displaced peoples who did not previously have consistent access to quality education.

In the past months, the world has come together to try to stop the spread of the virus. We shared innovative ideas for how to make education and learning more accessible for those who had their education disrupted, to ensure a continuity of learning for all. These solutions are made more effective and are amplified when we work in partnership, including through our major multilateral institutions like Education Cannot Wait.

I have been impressed with Education Cannot Wait’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the speed with which they responded to the crisis in the first round of COVID-19 funding, and the commitment to focus the second round of funding on education for refugees, particularly adolescent girls. This is a group of children and youth who are often left behind and who are disproportionately affected by education disruptions due to displacement, and now even more so due to COVID-19. It is important that we take this time to strengthen our efforts to ensure these marginalized populations remain a priority in our global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These groups must not be forgotten.

We can strengthen our collective efforts to deliver quality education to forcibly displaced populations, who often are left furthest behind, by continuing to work through multilateral organizations like Education Cannot Wait and ensuring strong coordination with other partners on the ground, including other multilateral partners, civil society and local refugee organizations.

In January, I travelled to Congo and the DRC and witnessed firsthand the important work that ECW’s partner organizations like War Child Canada are doing on the ground to support improved access to education for refugees and displaced peoples, especially girls. Their radio program allows adolescent girls and boys to continue with their learning during school closures by transmitting lessons and allowing learners to access teachers through dedicated hotlines. There are even question and answer periods to keep things dynamic and to keep the youth engaged in learning. I have seen how these initiatives are making a difference on the ground, and it is by building on these partnerships that we can maximize our ability to reach the most marginalized children and youth, particularly girls, refugee and displaced children, to ensure they have the opportunities they deserve.

ECW. Education Cannot Wait greatly appreciates Canada’s continued strong support in meeting the educational needs of children and youth caught in emergencies and protracted crises – including Canada’s new contribution of CAD $5.5 million a few days ago, and the Charlevoix Declaration to strengthen girls’ education in emergencies. ECW is committed to ensuring that 60% of our beneficiaries are girls. As a strong advocate for girls’ education, why is it so important for girls, including refugee and adolescent girls, to have access to education in crisis contexts?

Karina Gould. Girls and adolescent girls face a unique and additional set of challenges that limits their chances of accessing and completing an education. These challenges include poverty, unequal gendered roles in the household and at school, gender-based violence, and school environments and curricula that perpetuate inequalities. In crises contexts, these barriers to girls’ education can be even further entrenched, with girls being 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys.

Through the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), Canada recognizes that gender equality is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Access to education is a pathway to achieving this goal. It can significantly reduce poverty, provide for better economic opportunities, and can improve health outcomes such as maternal and child health, protecting women and girls from child, early and forced marriage and providing essential sexual and reproductive health services that can enable women to engage in improved family planning.

Yet access is only part of the solution. We also need to make sure that once the children are in school, that they are learning. Quality teaching and learning, and ensuring that schools are safe places for children, particularly girls, are equally important and require additional efforts and resources, especially during a crisis. Ensuring that teachers are well-trained and equipped to instruct children who have or are living through a crisis; that curricula and learning materials reflect relevant cultural realities and do not perpetuate negative gender norms; and that girls and boys have access to adequate hygiene and WASH facilities are all required in order to keep children engaged and for families to continue to see the value in sending their children, particularly their girls, to school. This is why Canada, as President of the G7 in 2018, championed the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for girls, adolescent girls and women in developing countries to further address these challenges in order to ensure that girls – especially those affected by crisis and conflict – have access to quality education.

I personally believe that it is essential for girls, including refugee and displaced girls, as well as adolescent girls, to have access to education in crisis contexts.

ECW. Prior to becoming Minister of International Development, you were appointed Minister of Democratic Institutions in 2017 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, becoming the youngest female cabinet minister in Canadian history. Congratulations! You are an inspiration and a role model for girls and women around the world. What message and guidance would you like to share with girls who face education challenges – including the COVID-19 pandemic – in achieving their hopes and dreams?

Karina Gould. My message to girls around the world facing education challenges would be this: “You are worth it. I know it is hard and there are a lot of challenges you are facing. But your hopes and dreams are worth fighting for. You have so much to offer the world. You and your voice and your experience matter. The world needs you to keep studying, to keep dreaming, to keep pushing for what you want to see in the world.”

ECW. We’d love to learn a bit more about you on a personal level. Could you tell us what are the three books that have influenced you the most (or that you’d recommend to others to read), and why? We’d also love to know what kind of music gets you energized and motivated to address the challenges you face as Minister. Finally, is there an inspirational or motivational quote (or two) that you often turn to in life?

One of my favourite quotes is by Margaret Mead. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

It was hard to pick just three books, so here are my top four!

To Life by Ruth Minsky Sender

I read this book in grade 7, I was 12 years old. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, this book opened my eyes to the experiences of my own family. It helped me talk to my grandmother and understand what it was like to be a survivor and to have to pick up and restart a life after living through unimaginable trauma and loss. It is an incredible story of loss, tragedy, strength, courage and renewal.

Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn

I have always been a feminist. I have always believed in seeking and fighting for equality. But this book woke me up to the distinct disadvantages that women face around the world. Until I read this book I didn’t understand how dangerous giving birth was for the majority of women in the world. I learned so much and it made me want to learn even more. This book put me on a path to fight for women’s rights and women’s health around the world.

What is the What by Dave Eggers

This a fictionalized biography of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan. This book ignited my passion for protecting children from the ravages of war, building a more compassionate world, and fighting for the rights of refugees. It also led me to explore books about Africa written by Africans, which opened up a whole new literary world for me.

Anne of Green Gables Series by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Was one of my favourite series as a child, written by a great Canadian author!

ECW. Are there any final comments you would like to share with ECW’s global audience on the importance of refugee children’s education in emergencies, as well as the importance of not only prioritizing education in humanitarian contexts, but also delivering quality education with ‘the fierce urgency of now’, rather than waiting until the crisis is over.

Karina Gould. When schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was quick to mobilize to ensure – to the best of our abilities – that we focused on continuity of learning for out of school children. What I would like to reiterate is that we need to remember the vulnerable populations, including refugees and displaced children, who were not in school before the pandemic and who never had access to quality education. These children deserve the chance to learn, and must not be left behind.

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High school student in eastern India, studies a leaflet on menstrual hygiene. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Shubha Nagesh and Monalisa Padhee
DEHRADUN, India, Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

The Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown has intensified most inequities in society- specifically those that affect vulnerable communities, including persons with disabilities, particularly young girls. As an aftermath of recent media attention, many government organizations, nonprofits and philanthropies have come together to ensure girls and women in remote communities have access to menstrual care products.

Despite these efforts, a large number of girls with disabilities who face the double burden of discrimination — stigma of disability and taboos associated with menstruation — have been left behind.

Girls and women comprise more than half of the total number of persons with disabilities. The majority of them live in low and middle income countries. A number of them are denied basic human rights because society is not set up to meet their unique needs. For instance, a large number do not attend schools, are not employed meaningfully, and are subject to neglect, abuse, violence, sexual harassment and much else.

The menstrual health needs of vulnerable populations need to be prioritized. Each girl deserves to have a safe and dignified menstrual experience irrespective of her disabilities

Families and parents grapple with additional worries that include safety and hygiene around menarche (onset of periods) and menstruation. These concerns magnify for families whose daughters have cognitive and intellectual impairments and behavioural challenges as part of their disability. Knowledge and awareness around effective menstruation management becomes a challenge with heavy reliance on parents and or caregivers.

The pandemic has further worsened access and support due to restricted access, closure of establishments, traffic restrictions, and financial constraints. There are many families who are unable to afford disposable sanitary products for their daughters and rely on cloth which puts an additional burden of washing. These are re washed and reused- oftentimes, dried in closed spaces and corners that receive no sunlight, risking infection upon re use. Stigma continues around access, utilisation and safe disposal of menstrual products, particularly in urban poor and rural contexts.

Even outside pandemics and crises, the menstrual health needs of vulnerable populations need to be prioritized. Each girl deserves to have a safe and dignified menstrual experience irrespective of her disabilities. Policies and practices are best if inclusive and accommodate unique provisions and needs for girls and women with disabilities.

 

We propose the following four recommendations to ensure uninterrupted menstrual health services, particularly the supply of products during a pandemic or other emergency crisis situation.

 

First, it’s important to have an inclusive crisis management policy, one that prioritises the sexual and reproductive health needs of the girls and women with disabilities with deliberation. Developing systems prior to pandemics so these services persist as essential and vital at all times, will support uninterrupted services.

 

Second, provision of supplies in adequate quantities is essential- on an average if a girl or woman uses 15-20 sanitary pads per month, providing at least three month supplies of 20 pads a month to each girl with a disability will be reasonable. Girls with intellectual impairment, more often than not, are unable to keep track of their menstrual dates or identify symptoms that develop prior to a menstrual period. Having an adequate stock of pads beforehand to safeguard against situations like this pandemic will prevent girls from resorting to unhygienic practices.

 

Third, having adequate training of community health workers to identify the number of girls with disabilities in the community and their future needs, well in advance, and communicate with the agencies monitoring supplies to ensure regular and ample supplies.

 

Fourth, agencies who link the disabled community to organisations and donors must have robust systems in place to match needs, when it is required and where it is required. The processes must be seamless with needs outlined in advance, donations matched well with needs, priority measures to determine disabled communities who need supplies the most and accountability in distribution.

 

If all donors and philanthropies could come together to enable creation of centralised nodal agencies to channelise procurement, distribution, monitoring and evaluation, the system becomes transparent, accountable and effective. Including disability organisations in the dialogue and the actual effort that follows will ensure establishment of supply chains that deliver on time to those that need it the most such as remote villages, urban poor settlements, migrant communities, hard to reach slums.

Some of the above are already in place in India and need integration and scale to reach vulnerable populations, like those with disabilities. UNICEF recommends through recent guidelines processes that could be implemented to ensure menstrual products reach girls during a pandemic; these could be adapted by including the voices of girls with disabilities in formulating strategies to meet their needs.

After all, periods don’t pause for a pandemic and any other crisis and we need to ensure that the needs and challenges of the vulnerable population are adequately addressed.

 

Dr Shubha Nagesh is an Atlantic Fellow in Global Health Equity and works with the Latika Roy Foundation, Dehradun India

Monalisa Padhee, PhD, is the head of Women Wellness Initiative at the Barefoot College working with women and girls in rural India. She is a senior Aspen New Voices fellow and Atlantic Fellow for Global Health Equity.

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By Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
SINGAPORE, Jul 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

William Somerset Maugham was already an established author when he began to focus on short stories. His interest in this genre was actually meant to have been a form of relief from novel-writing, but interestingly it was this literary form that rendered him more famous in the East. Though intensely English in attitudes and behaviour, he was not quite a ‘legit Brit’. Born in Paris (in 1874), he learnt to speak in French before he spoke English, spent some time studying at Heidelberg Germany, before continuing further education in England, then settled down in the south of France. Having written a few novels, he turned to short stories. Perhaps due to his cosmopolitan exposure, he was deeply influenced, in his short stories, by foreign writers. In particular, the Russian author Chekov and the Frenchman Guy de Maupassant.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

He admired Chekov’s markedly superior characteristics, but was more approving of Guy de Maupassant. From the Frenchman, Maugham learnt not just to copy life in his tales, but also to dramatize, interest, excite and surprise the reader. Maugham thought Maupassant gave his stories a beginning, a middle and an end, a discipline that pleased him enormously. He declared that his prepossessions in the arts were on the side of law and order.

Maugham’s style was as ordered as his general plan. His language was simple and mellifluous. He liked to describe at length, almost exasperatingly so, but later corrected himself. His sentences were short. They balanced one another and were balanced in themselves. The wry sense of humour was pervasive, tempered by astringent cynicism. His writings had the requisite elements of character, emotion, and often an interesting cultural milieu. He used minimum of ornamentation in his prose, concentrating unflinchingly on the narrative line. He introduced readers to ‘shades of grey’ in life. His characters have streaks of virtue and vice that interplay in the narrative. His plots were compact. He thought the writer should need to prove nothing. Only paint a picture and leave it before you. You could take it or leave it. Most took it.

His philosophy in life was discernible in his “The summing Up’. It was one of resigned atheism and certain skepticism about the extent of man’s innate goodness and intelligence. In a very English fashion he understates his own profundity. He said: “I have never been anything but a story- teller; It has amused me to tell stories, and I have told a good many”.

Unlike his fellow Englishman, Rudyard Kipling, he held no brief for England’s imperial aspirations. In stories such as the “Rain” he comes through as an incisive allegorical critique of the white man’s colonial impulses. Maugham added a touch of the exotic oriental mystique as a backdrop to this tale of a white missionary’s fallibility. It was in the form of the incessant rain that continued to pour down with relentless force, unlike the light English drizzle ,as the story unfolds, symbolizing a pathetic fallacy that foreshadows a tragedy (the missionary’s suicide). Like many of his ilk in his time in Victorian and Edwardian England, he reached back to classical Greece for some of his techniques. A key one was ‘Anagnorisis’, a Greek word which translated into English means “recognition”. This is a moment in the unfolding of a tale that one character, oftentimes the hero or heroine suddenly recognizes another as being different from how he or she was initially perceived. As can be seen in his “Mister Know-All”.

Maugham first came to Singapore in 1921. He kept on coming back for four decades till a few years before his death (he died in 1965). He lived at the ‘Raffles Hotel’ which is still a landmark in the island Republic. He sat beneath a fragrant frangipani tree in the hotel’s’ Palm Court’ and crafted stories from tidbits of gossip overheard while dining with the local gentry. These men and women lived in rubber plantations of the Malay Straits, and had impeccable manners, afternoon teas, and evening cocktails of gin and tonic and the ‘Singapore Sling’. Often, they had deeply flawed human character, a treat for the observant writer. This was much like in the tea gardens in our parts, in Sylhet or in Darjeeling, which also inspired a contemporary Indian, Mulk Raj Anand, perhaps India’s first prominent English novelist.

In Singapore, British colonialism was spread more by the pen, rather than by the sword. Which is perhaps why, as the city was about to fall to the Japanese during World war II in 1942, Singaporeans made their “last stand” at the ‘Raffles’, not to fight, for they had already surrendered, but to sing the strains of “there shall always be an England, and England shall be free”. Maugham has at times used the term “Bengali” while describing the man on the street in Singapore. However, this “Bengali” was not necessarily a Bengali-speaking person, for those days it referred to anyone in Singapore coming over from Calcutta by ship, mostly Sikhs. The Tamils, on the other hand, came separately from Madras. Indeed, Singapore from 1830 to 1867, with the rest of the Straits, formed a part of the Bengal Presidency and was ruled from Calcutta. This is evidenced even at present in the architecture of many of the older buildings in the central parts, as also in names like ‘Victoria Hall’, ‘Clive Street’ or ‘Outram station’. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose issued his clarion call for India’s freedom-struggle from Singapore, through his famous address while launching the Azad hind Fauj:“Tum mujhe khoon do , mein tumhe Azadi dunga”! (You give me blood, and in return, I shall give you freedom!)

I want to make an important point here. From the very beginning, as a part of national strategy Singapore has sought to weave its British intellectual heritage with its Chinese-Malay-Indian ethos. This it has done in order to create a cosmopolitan backdrop, and also retain the past western linkages, (one reason why Sir Stamford Raffles rather than a local was ‘selected’ to be the ‘Founder’ of Modern Singapore) to facilitate its current role as a global financial and knowledge hub. To that perhaps, is also owed the fact that the National University of Singapore (NUS) is rated as Asia’s foremost citadel of learning. It has also helped the overwhelmingly Chinese city de-emphasize any ethnic nationalist tendencies, and successfully build a harmonious relationship with the other two communities, the Malays and the Indians. Also to create a separate identity, distinct from the origin of its majority population, which is why, today, as the world is being increasingly dichotomized between the two powers, the United states and China, Singapore is still able to deftly navigate between the proverbial Scylla and Charybdis.

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies, National University of Singapore. He is a former Foreign Advisor (Foreign Minister) of Bangladesh and President of Cosmos Foundation Bangladesh. The views addressed in the article are his own. He can be reached at: isasiac@nus.edu.sg

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

The post Somerset Maugham, His Short Stories, and Singapore: Mutual Influences appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kazakhstan's anti-gender bill aims for the complete erasure of concepts of gender and gender equality, according to rights activists. Courtesy: CC by 2.0/Steve Evans

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

 The coronavirus lockdown in Kazakhstan, and the resultant limited public oversight and limited publication engagement, has paved the way for the government to propose amendments to the country’s laws around gender that could see the exclusion of the rights of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ)  community. 

Aigerim Kamidola, Legal Advocacy Officer, ‘Feminita’ Kazakhstan Feminist Initiative in Kazakhstan, spoke to IPS this week after presenting her organisation at the Jul. 9 United Nations panel on sustainable development for LGBTI people in times of COVID19. She was one of a group of advocates from around the world who shared their opinions and experiences about how the community has been affected during the crisis. 

She explains how the period of the lockdown was used for “the introduction of amendments and additions to legislative acts of Kazakhstan on family and gender policy”.

“The Draft Law (an anti-gender bill) proposes amendments to the law on state guarantees on equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women. The anti-gender bill aims for the complete erasure of concepts of gender and gender equality. The only outcome of the bill is to erase the word “gender” from the national legislation,” Kamidola says.

“And through the comments of some MPs initiating this legislation, we see that the rationale they provided was that there are “too many genders” and that they have the intention to reinstate two sexes.”

But Kamidola points out “the general public discourse in Kazakhstan is very homophobic and transphobic”.

“On a state-level the subject is a taboo so state officials normally do not speak of it.”

Her organisation works with lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (LBTQ) women on issues of discrimination and hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Kazakhstan.

Inter Press Service (IPS): How has COVID-19 impacted the LBTQ community in Kazakhstan?  

Aigerim Kamidola (AK):  We’ve seen two main trends in Kazakhstan regarding LBTQ populations: first one is that the general measures, policies and legislations [around] the state’s response to COVID-19 pandemic didn’t take the intersectional approach at the core of it. As a result, they exacerbated the pre-existing inequalities that disproportionately affected LGBTQ people.

The second trend is measures that specifically target civil society and LGBTQ groups. Despite [the fact] that there was a state of emergency and the quarantine, when there was limited public oversight and civic and social engagement, the parliament and the government actually used the space to adopt certain legislation which actually targeted civil society groups.

IPS: What are some ways in which COVID-19 has affected the health of the members of the LBTQ community in Kazakhstan?

AK: With our allies from transgender initiatives, Feminita completed a big research project on access to healthcare of LBQ women and trans people in Kazakhstan in March. Because of the stigma by medical professionals, there’s a high resentment of the LBQT community for [asking for] medical help and that increases health risks. It’s not only HIV or STIs, which are normally spoken of, but also for other chronic disease and cancer-related diseases.

As a result, it makes the group of people more susceptible to health risks [in the event of a] pandemic or other epidemiological diseases.

IPS: Your organisation was denied registration as an NGO last year — how does this affect your ability to operate in the country and to serve the LBTQ community?

AK: We recently received the supreme court decision upholding the previous court rulings, confirming that there was no violation in a denied registration. And it surely affects the organisation’s institutional development because as a non-registered organisation, you’re not eligible to open a bank account, or apply for funding and hence [unable] to maybe be more effective in responding to some urgent calls. 

As a result, the initiative operates with a small group of people — most of them work other jobs on the side. And they cannot pay the initial salaries, or operate sustainably or have sustainable activities. And that of course exacerbates in the pandemic. 

On the other side, we see a contraction of funding too and it is [being] channelled towards the needs of pandemic response or healthcare needs. Then there’s a contraction of resources to activists and civil society groups and human rights organisations needs. We know that it’s just the beginning and that the financial effects of the pandemic will catch up later.  

IPS: Has the LBQT community reached out to your organisation during this pandemic?

AK: We’ve had some cases throughout this quarantine time. One in particular was regarding a woman who faced hate speech by a prominent sport athlete who made a degrading statement with incitement to hate, and the activist called him out. As a result, there was an avalanche of hate speech towards her and then she faced death threats online. She also faced threats by fans of the athlete. 

We launched a media advocacy campaign and also relocated her during the pandemic. The first measure of the pandemic response by the state was isolation, stay at home, as a safe space but home is not always safe for everyone and it was very problematic to relocate a person during the quarantine, because there was a lockdown measure in place. And borders between the states were closed, so it was impossible to relocate her to another state. She was relocated within the same state.

IPS: How does the current pandemic — and global lockdown — affect the LBTQ community’s work and participation in the SDGs?

AK: What is important for activists and civil society and also for international community when they deal with governments like in Kazakhstan — whose economy is very resource and industry driven, and places priority on a lot of investment coming in — we see quite a lot of political will in engaging with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. But at the same time it is a country with a low human rights record, that resents a human rights framework.

What is important is for us to actually strengthen the links between the human rights and SDG frameworks and one cannot be implemented without the other. The state cannot cherry pick the one it likes and just ignore the recommendations in human rights treaties.

 

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Outside of the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut, June 2020. Credit: This is Lebanon

By Eliane Eid
KESERWAN, Lebanon , Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

They were promised the world but ended up in a Lebanese household. This is the story of many domestic workers in Lebanon. With a 70-year-old sponsor system still in place, domestic workers are tied to their employers with little or no basic rights. The ‘Kafala’ system is the major problem behind what we have been seeing in Beirut in the last months.

Dumped outside of their embassies, many domestic workers were left without money, belongings, or their passports. In June 2020, when Lebanon witnessed a new wave of economic crisis, many of the Ethiopian domestic workers were left abandoned at their embassy doors in Beirut. With recent events that escalated the country’s economic situation, Lebanese people started losing the value of their national currency. And, since all domestic workers are paid in foreign currency, especially in US dollars, their employers were no longer able to pay what they owed their employees.

This situation exposed the reasons why Lebanon should abolish the ‘Kafala’ system and why Black Lives should also matter in Lebanon.

‘Kafala’ means sponsorship in Arabic. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) worked on policy briefs to explain and examine the situation of domestic workers in Lebanon and in the Middle East. While referring to the ‘Kafala’ system they analyzed the main points of why it should change. The system makes the worker’s immigration status legally bound to the employer or sponsor. The migrant worker must sign a written acceptance of his or her ‘kafeel’ (sponsor) in order to exercise their rights, without which they would not be able to leave the country.

“This situates the migrant worker as completely dependent upon a ‘kafeel’ for their livelihood and residency” (ILO, MFA). In other words, an employer or sponsor can restrict the movements and any communication of the worker leading to abusive practices such as overwork, underpayment and even extortion.

With the power granted to the sponsor, many ‘kafeels’ used it to oppress Migrant Domestic Workers (MDW), resorting to physical and psychological abuse.

Domestic workers in Lebanon are mainly from developing countries in Africa or from South and South East Asian countries. The majority of them are women and, according to Amnesty International, Lebanon is home to 250,000 domestic workers.

Working conditions in Lebanon under the Kafala system. Credit: Eliane Eid

There have been many approaches by international and local communities to reform the Kafala system and even abolish it. Several NGOs, the ILO and many foreign embassies have raised the issue of reform with the Lebanese Ministry of Labor in order to ensure the safety and protection of foreign domestic workers from forced labor and exploitation.

‘This is Lebanon’ (TIL) is one of the organizations that has been working to help raise awareness of this modern-day slavery and protect MDWs from abusive families and employers. To protect those who agreed to speak, TIL used pseudonyms to ensure that they are safe and can continue with their mission.

When asked about the existence of modern-day slavery in Lebanon, a member of TIL, Patricia, told IPS that the answer is “an unequivocal yes”. She explained that the system justifies racial and class discrimination leading to apartheid-style societies. The reason why MDWs are considered “inferior” or even “subhuman” is because the system creates a culture of xenophobia, race superiority, sexism, and classism, and because employers see themselves as owners of these workers due to the power granted by the system.

According to Patricia, many workers don’t even know that they will be working in homes. They are usually lied to and promised job opportunities such as working in shops, restaurants, offices, schools and many other positions. She also mentioned that Nigerians are the worst affected by these falsehoods.

Zahraa Dirani, a freelance journalist and member of Fe-Male, an NGO that works with women and girls in Lebanon to eliminate injustice in the country, told IPS that the situation of MDWs is inhuman.

“Kafala puts domestic workers under the legislation of slavery” said Dirani. She explained that this situation is not humanly acceptable and is not part of the 21st century. Dirani stated that “NGOs are playing an important role in the society because they are intercepting and helping MDWs while the government is practically nowhere on this”.

According to Dirani, when Fe-Male decided to work on the relationship between domestic workers and employers, “people asked us why would we mention the rights of domestic workers; they are stubborn and deserve what is being done to them. Why would I give her a cell phone, she gets more money than I do, she doesn’t need more rights – this Lebanese mindset was one of the main challenges that we had to face”. Dirani continued to explain that what they heard was expected, especially because the system gave the employers all the power to feel “higher” or even “better” than MDWs.

As of today, the solution remains opaque or unknown. Many MDWs were able to leave the country, but a lot of them are still waiting to see how this period unfolds. What is of concern, though, is how much pressure was brought on by the foreign embassies on the government and why they have been silent on the plight of their own nationals. IPS learned from TIL that most embassies are consulates run by “honorary consuls” and not foreign ministry officials of those countries. Here lies the conflict of interest and the unexplained businesses that have a huge impact on migrant workers. “They are Lebanese nationals who have used their position to foster their business interests and sometimes running a recruitment agency on the side”, TIL’s Patricia added.

Since many of the consulates have hidden agendas, the Lebanese government should take a stand to minimize the damage. Unfortunately, Lebanon is in a deep conflict with its own policies and the only action that came forth was to waive the fine for some MDWs in order for them to be able to leave the country.

Usually, whenever a migrant worker wants to leave, he or she has to pay 300,000 Lebanese pounds (approximately USD 200) as an exit fee. “This was prohibitive and meant that women who had escaped abusive employers who hadn’t paid them for months were effectively imprisoned in the country”, said Patricia.

The “Kafala system made people treat MDWs as if they were “things” or even a “property” while forgetting that they are human beings”, Dirani stated.

Imprisoned in a foreign country, left without money, lied to, abused, broken and left behind, why are the authorities turning a blind eye while so many are suffering? In Lebanon, each week, two female domestic workers die according to the General Security’s intelligence agency. Silence is not an option when human trafficking is pushed to the backburner.

 

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GBV Survivor supported by UNFPA Cambodia and the Ministry of Women Affairs and relevant stakeholders to ensure GBV survivors receive the necessary support both physically and emotionally to live free of violence and abuse. Credit: UNFPA Cambodia.

By External Source
PHNOM PENH, Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

Fulfilling women’s and girls’ rights through promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) is an essential prerequisite for reaching national development goals as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While many countries have made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality, preventing unwanted pregnancies, stemming the spread of sexually transmitted infections and fostering gender equality, gains in sexual and reproductive health and rights remain vulnerable against a rising tide of conservatism across the globe, compounded by entrenched local traditional harmful practices, and exacerbated by multiple crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic that threaten to shift the focus away from women’s rights issues and make access to much-needed resources all the more challenging.

Emerging from a history of daunting challenges, Cambodia nonetheless achieved a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), making considerable progress in adopting and implementing evidence-based national development policies, and strengthening its human capital. In this, it was guided as well by gender equality to ensure the rights of women including their right to sexual and reproductive health is upheld.

The pandemic is hitting already-marginalized communities particularly hard, deepening inequalities and threatening to set us back in our efforts of leaving no one behind with women and girls to undoubtedly bear the brunt of the crisis

But the considerable gains made could be compromised by crises such as COVID-19 and their socioeconomic fallout.

While COVID-19 has had an equalizing effect in its impact on various strata of society regardless of whether a country is “developed” or “developing”, not everyone is affected equally.

Indeed, the pandemic is hitting already-marginalized communities particularly hard, deepening inequalities and threatening to set us back in our efforts of leaving no one behind with women and girls to undoubtedly bear the brunt of the crisis.

Sophany, a 42-year-old mother of two from Tboung Khmum province in eastern Cambodia, has suffered from domestic violence and abuse from her husband for more than a decade till she escaped and filed for divorce. She is one of many who is feeling the weight of the pandemic.

During COVID-19, she lost her income as a food-seller to garment factory workers given the closure of some factories, and she has found it all the more difficult to raise her children, resulting in her estranged husband taking one of their children. This resulted in further mental suffering and distress, but with the support of her brother and the local authorities she managed to regain a livelihood, and now is willing to volunteer to help other women in a similar situation.

A recent study conducted by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, estimated that if lockdowns continue for six months with significant disruptions to health and other essential services, some 47 million women in low- and middle-income countries may not be able to access modern contraceptives resulting in seven million unintended pregnancies. The restrictions will also result in 31 million additional cases of gender-based violence during the same period.

The impact of the pandemic is not confined to women’s health in isolation. Women were already disproportionately represented in insecure labor markets that are now harder hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19, resulting in women like Sophany falling back into poverty. Furthermore, women’s unpaid care work has increased as a result of school closures and the increased needs of older people within the family.

The time is now to act and accelerate the promise made for women and girls in 1994 in Cairo at the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

In Cairo, Cambodia was one of 179 governments that signed on to a far-reaching Programme of Action that transformed our view of population and development – a genuine paradigm shift – by embracing individual rights and choices, including sexual and reproductive health and rights grounded in gender equality, as being at the heart of sustainable development.

Since 1994, Cambodia has been working hard to fulfill the ICPD Programme of Action, making remarkable progress in reducing poverty levels with the percentage of Cambodians living under the national poverty line falling from almost 48% in 2007 to 13.5% in 2014; maternal mortality rates decreasing by around 65% from 2005 to 2014; life expectancy at birth increasing from 58 years in 2000 to 69 years in 2013; and the first-ever National Policy on Gender Equality draft initiated in 2019.

Despite these achievements however, we must collectively work even harder to shore up these gains and ensure they are not rolled back amid the pandemic and its socioeconomic fallout. It is time for us all to realize our ICPD commitments, keep our promises, and build a Cambodia that is better and safer for all including women such as Sophany.

A quarter-century after Cairo, at the Nairobi Summit on the ICPD25 in 2019, we observed thousands of representatives from governments, civil society, multilateral and bilateral institutions, private sector and marginalized communities come together at another historic summit to reaffirm once again the centrality of SRHR to sustainable development, and collectively commit to the Three Zeros to be achieved by 2030: Zero Preventable Maternal Deaths, Zero Unmet Need for Family Planning, and Zero Gender-Based Violence and Harmful Practices.

 

Population Census reaches remote parts of rural Cambodia, here three-generation family captured. Credit: Mr. Taylor Weidman, UNFPA Cambodia.

 

For Cambodia that means doubling down on efforts to achieve the unfinished business of the ICPD by 2030, recognizing that without fulfilling the ICPD, we simply cannot fulfill the SDGs. Since our return from Nairobi, the Royal Government of Cambodia has actively undertaken necessary steps to introduce an ICPD25 roadmap and put in place a coordination mechanism to oversee the implementation of the ICPD25 National Commitments delivered at Nairobi.

On the occasion of the World Population Day 2020, celebrated on July 11 each year, with the theme of “Putting the brakes on COVID-19: How to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now”, we call on all partners and stakeholders to recommit to and prioritize the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls – including safer pregnancy and childbirth, increased access to modern contraception nationwide, and the prevention and management of gender-based violence (which currently affects one in five women in Cambodia).

We cannot do this alone. We need to work together around the clock – both to fight and contain this deadly virus and ensure at the same time that rights and choices for women’s and girls’ health and well-being are protected. We cannot be complacent and we cannot fail. The cost of failure will simply be too high to bear!

While COVID-19 presents numerous challenges, this unprecedented global crisis has also provided new opportunities and impetus to tackling the unfinished business of ICPD with ever-greater urgency. If we are to make progress on the ICPD amid and beyond the pandemic in this Decade of Action towards the 2030 SDGs finish line, we must put women and girls at the very center of development, recognizing that women and girls are ultimately at the heart of Cambodia’s remarkable, transformational journey of growth and change.

 

H.E. Dr. Ing Khantha Phavi, Minister, Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia, and Head of the Royal Government of Cambodia Delegation to the Nairobi Summit in 2019.

H.E. Mr. Chea Chantum, Secretary General of the General Secretariat for Population and Development, Ministry of Planning of Cambodia.

Mr. Daniel Alemu, Acting Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Cambodia

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Engineering students gave a new purpose to a 3D printer by producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for local health professionals. Credit: Andrés Bello Catholic University/UN Academic Impact

By Ramu Damodaram
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

Among the many compelling points made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in our “Rethinking Health” webinar this week was the absolute essentiality of global collaboration and transparency to contain the pandemic with which we are faced.

It’s an imperative between, but beyond, States and governments, which Secretary-General Guterres has affirmed, most recently when he spoke of how we must reimagine the way nations cooperate in a “networked multilateralism” where the United Nations works with others more closely and effectively.

The primary logic of the Academic Impact has been precisely the networks of scholarship and research that can underpin the achievements and the promises of multilateralism.

But when we determined that logic, many of us saw it as inherent to a gradual accommodative process, not one compelled by the urgencies the past few months have laid bare.

What we can be proud of is the scale of adaptation, innovation and reasoned experiment that our network displayed in addressing the many dimensions of our global crisis.

Let’s look at a few instances.

New Giza University (Egypt), whose Dr Lamiaa Mohsen we were privileged to welcome for our webinar, sent medical convoys to nearby communities, and sanitized houses with specialized equipment.

Students at Ahfad University for Women (Sudan) produced hand sanitizers after scientifically testing different combinations and formulas and then distributed them through local NGOs.

The University of Pretoria (South Africa) assessed nutritional needs of students from disadvantaged groups while offering support to policymakers on children’s nutrition and the pandemic’s impact on food security.

Across the Indian Ocean, Kristu Jayanti College (India) undertook a community social survey to assess the impact of the pandemic on disadvantaged communities to chart out a multidimensional strategy to address and improve their situation.

Western Sydney University (Australia) implemented a program of transitioning medical students into the hospital system as Assistants in Medicine, to meet the requirements of individual health services during the pandemic.

And at De Monftort University (United Kingdom) nursing graduates were fast-tracked to join the National Health Service to provide vital support during the pandemic. On related track, Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain) launched an initiative to offer virtual health support via videoconferencing or calling tools, for professionals and users working in nursing homes, to provide assistance on health issues, including those on COVID-19.

If these initiatives took advantage of the skills and readiness of students in the medical field, two other institutions co-opted those in engineering departments to bring their own expertise to bear.

Andrés Bello Catholic University (Venezuela) launched a project to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for health professionals in three local public hospitals, with a 3D printer handled by Engineering students.

And the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (Pakistan), through a research team of the Control Automation & Robotics Lab at the Faculty of Information and Technology, has developed a low-cost ventilator product called BUITEMS Vent-1 for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Related is the venture by Lehigh University (United States) where a research team has produced a device to ensure, through the use of UV-C light, the sterilization and reuse of N95 masks when new ones are unavailable.

These are only some of the examples of which we hear every day, each of which attests to the logic of our mission. Many years ago, a distinguished physician spoke of two things—-science and opinion; “the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.”

Today we are proud of our members who, in reinforcing the former over the latter each day, give life not only to that aphorism of Hippocrates 2400 years ago, but to children, women and men today.

*This article originally appeared in the UN Academic Impact Weekly Newsletter

academicimpact@un.org

The post COVID-19 & Why We Care appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ramu Damodaran is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact*

The post COVID-19 & Why We Care appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Donald Trump addresses the UN's General Assembly. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

By Joaquín Roy
MIAMI, Jul 10 2020 (IPS)

“As we were saying yesterday.” When, after an abnormal interruption of the school calendar, as happened recently with the extension of spring break (which does not coincide with “Easter”), I return to teach a class surprising my students with this phrase: “as we were saying yesterday. “

The students’ reaction, when asked about the origin of these words, is a general silence. I try to explain its background and take the opportunity to provide a review of the history of Spain (perfectly unknown) and Europe (somewhat better known).

Secondary is that they learn the biography of Fray Luis de León, the distinguished professor at the University of Salamanca, that they grasp some concepts of the Inquisition, something better known as part of the so-called Black Legend against Spain, very well established in American society, heir to the British.

In short, I reflected on my special circumstance of relationship with the generous readers and editors who have accepted me during more than half a century of producing columns for newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America. I considered it fair to clarify the reason for this hiatus of almost two years when I left silent the computer keyboard and freed editors from the heavy task of processing my texts.

Joaquín Roy

They were simply personal reasons, and an accumulation of academic work. It was not because of internal obstacles in the newspapers, to which I only have to thank for their patience for years and a certain disdain for discontinuing the offer. I hope you take it into account now that I intend to resume writing functions, with a new version of “as we said yesterday”

Why am I coming back now? Latent in several weeks as the pandemic eternalized and the institutional chaos of response was repeated, it has been installed in my perception of the country where I have lived since President Lyndon Johnson decided not to stand for re-election. I have felt the need to face the explanation of the very serious existential situation of that political entity, turned into a nation, in reality simply an idea, that we call the United States.

And the most concrete reason has been the installation of a person in (hopefully temporary) control of the course of the country. For the first time, in more than five decades of full residence in the United States, I feel the sense of danger of self-destruction of an admirable work, in every way. This fear is not exclusively due to the personality of the President.

The record of his conduct includes mistreatment of their subordinates, disdain for many of America's traditional allies (Germany, Italy, France), and ill-concealed admiration for a handful of authoritarian or decidedly dictatorial colleagues (Putin, Bolsonaro). He enjoys disregard of public health officials (Fauci, the most prominent), culminating in personal insults against his predecessor Obama, an action that is a fragrant violation of customary uses of American political liturgy

It simply reflects or takes advantage of the feelings of an imposing part of society that Richard Nixon (comparatively much less fearsome than Trump) called “the silent majority”. Now he has emerged from his burrow with impressive naturalness, spiced with a slogan to “make America great again”, as the motto embedded in the President’s baseball cap says.

The moment the United States now lives under Trump is much more serious than the Watergate experience. Among other comparisons, the honorable decision that Nixon made with his resignation, when detecting that the dismissal was imminent through impeachment, is not in the Trump script. Reinforced by the imperfect expulsion process carried out by the Democrats, in the Trump scenario there is only the overcoming of each and every one of the violations of political good taste and the breach of the most basic protocol laws.

The record of his conduct includes mistreatment of their subordinates, disdain for many of America’s traditional allies (Germany, Italy, France), and ill-concealed admiration for a handful of authoritarian or decidedly dictatorial colleagues (Putin, Bolsonaro). He enjoys disregard of public health officials (Fauci, the most prominent), culminating in personal insults against his predecessor Obama, an action that is a fragrant violation of customary uses of American political liturgy.

After his obscene appearance at the front of a Washington Episcopal parish, where traditionally the newly elected presidents come, brandishing a Bible, after having cleaned the grounds of peaceful demonstrators with tear gas and battering, his own Joint Chief of Staff was embarrassed to be forced to accompany him. A dozen senior military veterans (some recently in office charged and abruptly fired) have censured him, something unusual in military history.

Embarrassed, select Republican leaders comment privately (some already in public) on the disaster of the party founded by Lincoln, by actions that will only leave a trace of the fetid smell of failure. They accuse him of being incompetent, ignorant, inept, outdatedly stupid and now causing the collapse of pandemic treatment. Unusual phenomenon, a conservative minority yearns for Trump’s defeat in November.

His hatred for immigrants (legal or undocumented) contrasts with the motto embedded on the support of the Statue of Liberty. In the words of the poet Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, your crowds, moaning to breathe free.”

For all these reasons I have decided to return, with the generosity of the editors and the magnanimity of the readers.

 

The post The Return appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Joaquin Roy is Professor Jean Monnet and Director of the European UnionCenter at the University of Miami

The post The Return appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Migrant workers in Dubai. Photo: AFP

By C R Abrar
Jul 9 2020 (IPS-Partners)

During the pandemic, forced return of migrants has become a major issue of concern for intergovernmental bodies and the global civil society engaged in migration issues. The United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM) has urged states “to suspend forced returns during the pandemic, in order to protect the health of migrants and communities, and uphold the human rights of all migrants, regardless of status”. UNNM has called for a halt to arbitrary expulsions and reiterated that their “protection needs must be individually assessed; and that the rule of law and due process must be observed”. It reminded the states that these obligations under international law “can never be put on hold and are vital to any successful approach to combatting Covid-19 for the benefit of all”.

In separate memos to the governments of six Gulf states, a coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged those states to “refrain from arbitrary deportations of migrant workers… as a means to contain Covid-19”. Closer to home, five leading civil society organisations including Migrant Forum in Asia have noted that “the repatriation procedures have been undertaken hastily by countries of both origin and destination, without any proper redress mechanism… This is a gross violation of labour rights on a large scale”.

Expressing concern that some destination countries are exerting pressure on the origin countries to take back the latter’s nationals, the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants in a memo implored the UN Secretary General “to appeal to those destination countries (of the Gulf region) to refrain from pursuing such a policy at this critical juncture”.

There are legal, moral and ethical issues with the way the forced returns are being pursued by the Gulf states. It has also been noted that forced returns can intensify public health risks for everyone. With overstretched public health systems, almost all these countries have little capacity to protect the returnees and their communities through testing, self-isolation and institutional quarantine.

In all likelihood, despite the pleas and supplications, most countries of origin (CoO) of migrant workers including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines will experience large scale return of their migrant workforce once the flights resume. Therefore, it has become imperative that concerned authorities of the CoO, including Bangladesh, develop strategies to competently negotiate return with the Countries of Destination (CoD). A collective initiative by the CoO, perhaps under the aegis of the Colombo Process, is likely to yield better outcomes than bilateral negotiations. The origin countries also need to frame the reintegration policies for forced migrants. Documenting the returnees is one of the first tasks in such a process.

The core element in any repatriation negotiation between the CoO and CoD should be upholding the rights and dignity of migrant workers. All those concerned with repatriation (labour, health, immigration authorities) must guarantee and verify that no worker is deported without receiving compensation, pending wages and other dues, testing and treatment for Covid-19, identity papers and other related documentation. If clearance of outstanding dues is not possible due to prevailing conditions, CoD should commit to ensuring that employers will settle all outstanding claims as soon as the situation permits. As the primary frontline stakeholder, missions of CoO have particular obligations to ensure compliance of labour and international standards of the concerned CoD.

While negotiating return, Bangladesh should insist that CoD declare amnesty to those who are in irregular status and allow applications for visa extensions for the workers who could not apply on time due to Covid-19 to facilitate their return to home countries. The cases of workers who were forced to be in undocumented status (by their Kafeels or other reasons) should be investigated and the concerned workers be provided due redress before they are repatriated.

Bangladesh should ensure that all migrant workers be tested for Covid-19 free of charge, regardless of visible symptoms prior to departure or embarkation (as has been negotiated by Sri Lanka). Only those workers should be permitted to return who test negative. The CoD should ensure that the migrant workers have access to quarantine facilities during the period in which test results are under process. Due care must be taken so that workers remain protected and are not exposed to possible infection or transmission in such holding areas.

The cases of detained migrants should be dealt on a case-by-case basis with due diligence by Bangladesh Missions and the Labour Department of the concerned CoD. Their irregular status should not be in the way of accessing testing and treatment of Covid-19 prior to their return.

The Bangladesh missions should establish a mechanism to register returning migrants. Among other things, it should record personal details of the worker, name and address of the employer, type of work, skill level and outstanding claims of wages and end of service or other benefits (if any). Ideally, if there are outstanding claims or unresolved labour disputes that the worker is involved in, the missions may secure a power of attorney from the worker so that those could be pursued by the missions in his/her absence in future.

While transporting the workers, Bangladesh should insist that either the concerned employer or the government should be made to bear the costs of air travel. In no instance should forced deportees be made liable to pay for their return flight. Both parties are to ensure strict compliance of the World Health Organisation’s guidelines pertaining to air travel including seating allocation, handling of cases suspected during flight, reduction of exposure and limiting transmission, availability and use of personal protective equipment and air recirculation system.

Upon arrival in Bangladesh, all returning migrant workers should be obliged to undergo Covid-19 tests, as tests conducted prior to their departures may provide false results (a practice that the Philippines has introduced). Appropriate messages targeting the returnees and members of their families should be developed so that they adhere to the mandatory 14 day home quarantine. Tracing and tracking mechanisms should be in place so that the government can monitor if the returnees adhere to home quarantine rules. Suitable institutional quarantine facilities should be established for those who show symptoms of infection when they arrive. Those placed in such facilities should be provided with food and water, appropriate accommodation including sleeping arrangements and clothing, protection for baggage and other possessions, and suitable medical treatment. They should be given the opportunity to contact their families and be treated with respect, maintaining their dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms and minimising any discomfort or distress.

Effective reintegration policy necessitates that the government develop a comprehensive policy that addresses stigmatisation of returnees as carriers of virus through disseminating appropriate social messages. It should also encompass developing a database of returnee workers with information on their personal profile, skills and language competence, so that those could be linked with potential employers both at home and abroad; creating opportunities for re-skilling of migrants commensurate with potential demands, both within the country and outside; encouraging banks and other financial institutions to extend loans to returnee migrants at low interest and providing them with financial literacy and basic book-keeping, and help establish mechanisms to market their products.

The reintegration policy should also have provisions for social protection of migrant workers and members of their families who are severely affected by the pandemic, drawing upon contributions of the government, insurance programmes and Wage Earners’ Welfare Fund. The special needs of women returnee migrants should also receive due consideration. Needless to say, the prime stakeholder, the migrants, and the civil society should be engaged from the very start of the process of charting out a reintegration policy.

Despite a lot of good intentions and a plethora of policies, laws and institutions, migrant workers of Bangladesh have largely remained unprotected and underserved. Covid-19 has provided an opportunity to rectify the situation. Planning a comprehensive return and reintegration strategy for migrant workers can be the beginning of such redemption.

C R Abrar is an academic. He is the Coordinator of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). He acknowledges the insights gained from “Between Peril and Pandemic: MFA Policy Document 3” and deliberations of the RMMRU eSymposium “Migrant Workers of South Asia: Experiences of Return, Repatriation and Deportation” on June 24.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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