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Aïssata Ba is amongst several rural women selected by Energy 4 Impact to participate in an economic empowerment programme, which provides women entrepreneurs with access to renewable energy technologies. Courtesy: Energy 4 Impact Senegal

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, Jun 24 2020 (IPS)

Aïssata Ba, 45-year-old widow and mother of seven children, has been practising market gardening for the past 30 years in Lompoul Sur Mer village in the Niayes area of north-west Senegal. For many women in the village, endowed with fertile soil and favourable climate, it is the primary source of income throughout the year.

But lack of infrastructure, access to sustainable energy, financial support, equipment and knowledge of modern practices makes it a hard toil for these women engaged in market gardening, which is small-scale production of fruits, vegetables, flowers and cash crops during the local growing season and sold directly to consumers.

Aïssata had to manually prepare seedbeds, remove weeds and irrigate her 0.15 hectare plot by drawing water from the well, a bucket at a time, with the help of her two sons 17 and 23 years old.

“It was physically draining and time consuming. It limited our production capability,” Aïssata told IPS via Mariama Traore, Energy 4 Impact’s (E4I) Gender and Advocacy Officer and Co-Leader of Deliver for Good Senegal Campaign, powered by global advocacy organisation Women Deliver.

Energy 4 Impact, a non-profit organisation working with local businesses to extend access to energy in Africa, and Siggil Jigeen, an NGO that promotes and protects women’s rights in Senegal, are steering the Deliver for Good Senegal Campaign to invest in girls and women for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The focus priorities of the campaign, a coalition of local representatives of civil society organisations, government leaders, U.N. agencies, and the private sector, include increasing women’s access to resources – clean and renewable energy.

In 2018, only 42.3 percent of households in rural areas had access to electricity, according to Senegal Energy Ministry’s 2019-2023 Energy Sector Policy Paper. Most rural households, institutions and small businesses in Senegal currently rely on hazardous, traditional and inefficient energy sources, such as wood, for lighting, cooking and other energy needs.

“This low availability, adoption and use of welfare-enhancing electrical appliances, especially in poor and rural communities, specifically impacts the time women spend in poverty and the drudgery of labour-intensive activities,” Traore told IPS, adding that “Women’s paid and unpaid labour status and power relations, gendered social norms related to land and asset ownership and independent income, dramatically influence their ability and incentive to access modern energy services and appliances.”

Aïssata is amongst several rural women selected by Energy 4 Impact to participate in an economic empowerment programme, which provides women entrepreneurs involved in farming, dairy production, agriculture and shop owners access to renewable energy technologies, such as solar-powered pumps, freezers, solar systems, and equipment for drying, milling, and processing crops.

Since installing the solar pump, Aïssata’s production has increased from 900 kg to 1,428 kg of vegetables and her six-monthly turnover has shot up to $617 from $350. 

“It has not only improved my productivity and income, but also our living conditions. I also received technical knowledge to evaluate the profitability of crops, support with accessing finance for the pump and learning modern business skills,” she said.

“Last year, my onion crop was the first to arrive on the market, giving me a competitive edge to sell it at a premium price. Since then, I have had a good cycle of crops – tomatoes and cabbages, turnips and onion seeds. This phenomenal transformation in such a short time has inspired me to invest in more land and install a solar sprinkler system in the future,” Aïssata added.

Limited access to energy has been impeding the country’s socio-economic development. The campaign is ensuring that women are being locally recognised as key actors within the energy sector.

Earlier this year, 43-year-old Assy Ba was helped with a loan to buy a solar freezer for her restaurant in the small town of Manda in Tambacounda region, south-east of the national capital Dakar. This made it possible for her to sell cold food products in her off-grid electricity village. Her restaurant had a steady stream of customers stopping for refreshments as Manda is located at the crossroad of two main routes leading to the southern part of Senegal bordering Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. She also had regulars from the large weekly markets.

“My monthly turnover increased to around $400 from a mere $60 or 65 and I could also save food wastage. But since the COVID-19 travel lockdowns have been imposed, we only get very few local customers. I am eating into my savings. My husband is too old to work. Every day, I worry about feeding our eight children and repaying the business loan,” Assy told IPS via Traore.

Energy 4 Impact studied the impact of COVID-19 on 20 women entrepreneurs it supports.

• 95 percent said they were very worried about their financial future and the future of their businesses and how that will impact access to food and health.
• 70 percent of them said that their business was strongly impacted, mainly by the loss of customers and the supply of raw materials, and they had difficulty in repaying their loan.

“We believe it is crucial, more than ever before, to focus on expanding energy access to power economic activities, as this has a very tangible impact on women’s welfare and opportunities,” Energy 4 Impact’s West Africa director Mathieu Dalle told IPS.

• In Senegal, women comprise almost 50 percent of the population.
• 47 percent of the 15 million Senegalese live below the poverty line and half the population is food insecure, according to the National Agency of Statistics and Demography of Senegal.

For rural women, involved in agriculture, food security is a major challenge and that is the reason they need sustainable energy sources to improve and increase the production, preservation and processing of food.

With funding support from ENERGIA, an international network on gender and sustainable energy, and other development partners, Energy 4 Impact’s Foyré Rewbé2 – Empowering Women, Engendering Energy project is assisting women with solar energy. In its sixth phase (April 2019 to March 2022), the project aims to increase the number of rural women entrepreneurs – involved in cereals and peanut farming, fisheries and aquaculture, livestock production, light industry and agro-processing, trade and services – in sustainable Productive Uses of Energy (PUE).

“We are advocating that part of the revenue from oil and gas should fund the development of renewable energies, especially for women’s income generating activities,” Traore told IPS.

The solar resources in Senegal are characterised by 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, and average overall daily solar irradiation of 5.8 kWh / m2 / day. These resources have been harnessed through photovoltaic and thermal solar systems.

The campaign’s advocacy work has led to gender being integrated into national energy policies and programmes. “Women are the heart of society and any progress is only possible through their participation,” said Fatou Thiam Sow, gender focal point and coordinator of studies and planning unit at the Senegalese Ministry of Energy.

Women’s empowerment, including economic empowerment through expansion of renewable energies, has to be at the core of reducing carbon emissions and building climate-resilient societies.

Since the Women Deliver for Good Senegal Campaign began, many women organisations are today more aware of and they are defending their right to access clean and sustainable energy for their domestic and productive uses.

COVID-19 has significantly impacted women-led businesses across Africa. “Women are disproportionately represented in most of the economic sectors hit by the pandemic. Ensuring that stimulus packages and post COVID-19 policies are gender-sensitive will be critical to getting African women entrepreneurs back on their feet,” Esther Dassanou, coordinator of the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa programme, told IPS.

 

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By External Source
Jun 24 2020 (IPS-Partners)

This guidance note highlights the emerging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women migrant workers, focusing on the key challenges and risks they face. It makes recommendations in the context of the economic and social response and recovery packages that governments are putting forward, supported by examples of existing good practices from around the world.

View online/download

• Publication in full (PDF, 272KB)

 
Source: UN Women

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Blackened waters in the Makoko neighbourhood of Nigeria’s commercial capital mirror the harsh reality of lockdown. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

By Kevwe Okporua
LAGOS, Nigeria, Jun 24 2020 (IPS-Partners)

A riot of canoes bumping into each other in narrow waterways — paddlers yell a chorus of instructions to other boats: “Move! Shift! Stop!”

Expletives are thrown in for good measure in one of three languages spoken here — Egun, Yoruba and French. Children can be seen floating by in large plastic basins, joining the hustle and bustle of traffic.

The Nigerian Government is reaching out to vulnerable urban areas, with some technical advice from WFP. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

Makoko, an informal waterfront settlement in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, is often referred to as the ‘Venice of Africa’, if also ‘the world’s largest floating slum’ where thousands live cheek by jowl in stilt houses nestled deep in murky black waters.

One participant in the daily chorus is Owolabi James. He’s ferried residents and visitors around these waterways for almost 20 years — yet he’s only 25. “I was born and bred here,” Owolabi says with a smile. “I started doing this work when I was a child, and now I own the canoe that I work with.”

With the shortage of boats, getting a ride is difficult at the best of times. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

At first glance, Makoko’s population could be considered at extreme risk from coronavirus — hygiene and social distancing pose a serious challenge in these crammed conditions. On closer inspection, however, the global pandemic, which has infected more than 14,500 people and resulted in 387 deaths in Nigeria, is the least of their worries.

Fishermen and fish sellers who account for most of the 100,000-odd people who live here in poverty — there’s never been a census — have bigger concerns. Hunger and the ever-looming threat of eviction pose a bigger risk to residents’ way of life than disease or infection.

The stay-home message is being widely observed. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

Families who live on the water also depend on it for their livelihoods. “I work between five to six canoe trips in a day,” says Owolabi. “But since the coronavirus came and everyone was told to stay at home, I’ve only been doing about three trips daily.”

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and, with 182 million people, the continent’s most populous country — the food security of millions of people is at stake as coronavirus wreaks havoc with incomes.

Government is ramping up support for some of the most vulnerable groups in the country — the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, for instance, provides food rations to schoolchildren with the technical support of the World Food Programme (WFP)in Abuja and Lagos.

In Mokoko, people must maintain multiple incomes to survive. Sarah Tinsheme is a tailor. The 24-year-old also helps her mother sell basic non-perishable food items such as bottled water, dry pasta and seasoning cubes. Most of her time is taken up in another way, however.

Good fishing nets are a priceless asset in Makoko because fishing is the main source of income. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

“My main occupation is selling fish,” says Sarah. “We smoke the fish beforehand.”

The task of smoking usually falls to women while men are occupied with sewing fishing nets, building and mending their canoes and then wading into the deep parts of the water to cast, as motorists zipping past on Lagos’s Third Mainland Bridge look on.

Everyone here — be they fish sellers, commercial canoe riders, canoe builders or canoe repairmen — relies on daily takings to survive. Mokoko’s fish market, one of the largest in Lagos, is the beating heart of the community. It’s where families buy the food they need to eat, where they earn their living, and where most socialising is done.

With markets shut because of COVID-19, however, life as people knew it has stopped.

‘It’s very difficult to move around if you don’t own a canoe’. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

Jutin Segodo Avlanwhen owns a hair salon. Her customers, market traders, have stopped coming. The 38-year-old mother of five says rationing meals for her children has become her new normal.

Another challenge for people living here is the shortage of canoes for ferrying people around, not to mention social distancing.

“It’s very difficult to move around if you don’t own a canoe,” says Jutin. “It’s one of the biggest difficulties we face here. If the canoe riders don’t come on time, the children are late for school.”

Many children whose families do not have access to canoes or cannot afford canoe-rider fees, simply don’t have access to education.

The Makoko community both sits and floats in the Yaba local government area of Lagos State. Sits because although the area is mostly covered in water, one-third of it is on dry land. It was first inhabited by migrant fishermen from the neighbouring Republic of Benin and Togo, who settled in the area and made it theirs.

A view of Lagos’s Third Mainland Bridge from Makoko. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

The relationship between the Government and the community can be an uneasy one. For locals, attention from the government can often only spell one thing: eviction. Any government presence is given a cold reception, so perhaps unsurprisingly they tend to stay away.

In 2012, the Government forcefully evicted thousands of residents from their homes, with only 72 hours’ notice, rendering them suddenly homeless. The intention was to get rid of what many call ‘Lagos’s Shame’ — Makoko’s sprawl of labyrinthine waterways clearly visible from Third Mainland Bridge which almost 100,000 drive across daily.

Evictions were abruptly suspended after indiscriminate gunshots fired by police officers killed a resident. Since then the residents whose living quarters comprise the ‘dirty linen’ of Lagos State have managed to keep their homes.

It’s not all doom and gloom in Makoko: life floats on via its resilient residents. Photo: Damillola Onafuwa

Today, for Sarah Tinsheme, and many like her, life in Makoko isn’t necessarily all gloom, doom, and dirty black water.

“I like our life here,” she says. “We often have parties here in Makoko. All we need to do is find a venue where there is a lot of sand, like the church. The church is located on the part of Makoko that is on land. But we can’t have too many people at our parties because there isn’t much dry land.”

Despite all the poverty, Owolabi James would not want to live anywhere else. “I like living here on the water,” he says. “When I’m not working and I want to relax, I call my friends so we can hang out and chill and just enjoy each other’s company. I don’t have any plans to leave because I enjoy it here. I have my peace of mind, the cool breeze, and fresh air.”

Even in lockdown, life floats on in the muddy, murky waters of Makoko.

Source: World Food Programme

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‘I am my brother’s keeper’, Philonise Floyd tells UN rights body, in impassioned plea for racial justice. Credit: United Nations

By Kwame Akonor
SOUTH ORANGE, New Jersey, Jun 24 2020 (IPS)

Racism is not only an American problem but a plague that people of African descent have had to endure since time immemorial.

Rather than seizing this historic moment to act decisively, the United Nations, the world’s highest platform for human rights, dithered on the issue when it was called on to establish a full commission of inquiry on race following the outrageous killing of George Floyd on May 25 2020.

That the African countries on the 47-member UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) were cajoled by more powerful UN member states to soften its demand for such a commission should come as no surprise. African states are the largest regional group at the UN, yet it continues to play a peripheral role in global affairs.

In 1945, four African countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and the Union of South Africa) attended the San Francisco Conference and signed the UN Charter. Since then the number of African countries has increased, mainly due to decolonization, to 54 (28% of UN members).

Despite its current representation, Africa remains marginalized and powerless in the world body. As any student of international relations knows, real power in UN lies with the veto wielding five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States).

African countries have a common vision for inclusion and expansion for two permanent and five non-permanent security council seats for Africa. Though it is not wedded to idea of a veto and would prefer its abolition, the African group maintains that for the sake of efficiency and equitable distribution of power all admitted permanent members should possess it.

The collective, however, cannot agree on which countries to recommend for permanent seats let alone those to be assigned veto powers. The three potential candidates mentioned as permanent members with veto rights are South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.

The inability of Africans to agree on the composition and mandate of its reform proposals have made it susceptible to the dictates and influence of western donor countries.

Be that it is, one can make the case that a meaningful structural reform of the Security Council that accords agency to Africa at the UN will not only be a pragmatic reflection of contemporary geopolitical realties but more importantly it will serve as a correction of the historic injustice done to Africa.

The UNHRC urgent debate opened in Geneva on June 15, 2020 and discussion on the Africa resolution began in earnest on June 17, 2020. The original proposal by the Africans specially called for an international investigation into the unarmed killing of blacks in America and the lack of accountability of police violence that results from such crimes, including police brutality against protesters.

In the end, a watered-down version of the resolution was adopted unanimously on June 19, 2020. Mention of the creation of full-fledged commission of inquiry was dropped and the scope of inquiry was broadened to go beyond America.

The final resolution recommended a mere fact-finding report on systemic racism and discrimination against black people to be prepared by the UNHRC chairperson and other experts and delivered in a year’s time.

Though the US withdrew from the UNHRC in 2018, the final resolution passed because the US, the UN’s biggest financial donor, was “the elephant in the room” calling the shots.

The US argued that while it was not above scrutiny, the UNCHR’s attempt to single it out was hypocritical since authoritarian regimes in the world like Cuba, China, and Iran have systemic racial disparities in countries.

The western allies on the UNCHR, including Australia, Germany, Poland, and the European Union, were swayed by the US argument and thwarted the Africa efforts.

The adopted resolution is a disingenuous face-saving outcome: how can the UNHRC back away from its most intrusive scrutiny mechanism, the creation of commission of inquiry, to that of a report.

To make matters worse, the UNHRC assigned itself a full year for the completion of the report. It took just a week (June 22, 2020) for the reputable advocacy group Amnesty International to put together a comprehensive report “USA: End unlawful police violence against Black Lives Matter protests” on police brutality and the protest movement in America following the death of Mr. Floyd.

Credit however must be given to the African states for initiating the “urgent debate” on Mr. Floyd’s murder and racial injustice and police impunity in the United States.

It is only the fifth time in the UNHRC 14-year history that such a debate has been convened: the first one against Israel over the flotilla incident in June 2010; and the other three on Syria, in February 2012, May 2013 and March 2018.

For a moment, it appeared the debate might not happen despite worldwide protests. First, UN activities had been suspended since the Covid-19 pandemic first struck in early March 2020.

Second, senior UN leadership vacillated on how to respond and sent conflicting messages to UN staffers on what role, if any, they could play.

Beyond using tweets, António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General made no media appearance or formal remarks on the subject. Through his surrogates some guidance was provided.

On June 3, the UN effectively banned UN staff from engaging in peaceful protest stating that UN staff regulations makes the “participation in public demonstrations in the current circumstances may not be consistent with the independence and impartiality required of . . . international civil servants.”

The contradiction between the UN ideals for civil rights and the prohibitive guidance that discourage action toward such ideals became evident.

Sensing the civil rights disconnect and dissatisfaction of the UN staff, the UN reversed course. Secretary-General Guterres on June 9, sent a letter to the UN staff and maintained that the earlier guidance was not a prescription for neutrality or impartiality on the matter at hand but rather that “the guidance was meant to emphasize the need to balance [protest] activities with one’s best judgement as international civil servants and our official duties.”

In order words, protest engagements could be carried out but in a solely private capacity. The guidance provided is quite timorous and stands in stark contrast to efforts by UN staffers who participated in protest movements of yesterday.

One such person is Ralph Bunche, a co-drafter of the UN Charter, the first African-American Nobel Peace laureate, in 1950, and an UN Under Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs who joined several civil rights protest marches, sometimes donning the UN flag and publicly pledging the UN support for the movement.

While not a panacea, a formal international investigation would have served as a clarion call to end and repair racial injustice and projected the UN as an agent of change to institutional racism.

It also would have signaled a firm commitment by the world organization to the promotion of fundamental freedoms for all persons as enshrined in the UN charter, the organization’s constitution which was signed some seventy-five ago this month.

 

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The post The UN’s Failure to Act on Race appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kwame Akonor is an associate professor at Seton Hall University, where he teaches international relations and human rights.

The post The UN’s Failure to Act on Race appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

By Manos Antoninis
PARIS, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa get bad press for their progress in providing inclusive education. Just two in three children complete primary school on time, while the number of out-of-school children and youth is 97 million and growing. Less is said, however, about the range of tools many countries in the region are deploying to include some of those furthest behind in mainstream schools: students with disabilities.

These efforts should be celebrated and there seems no better time to think about inclusion than now. Inequalities in education are always blatant, but the new 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report by UNESCO shows that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated exclusion. About 40% of countries in sub-Saharan Africa have not been able to support disadvantaged learners during school closures, notably students with disabilities.

Many of the countries looking to move from segregated towards inclusive systems need to overcome management challenges. They need to think how to better share specialist resources between schools so that all children can benefit

Prior to the pandemic, countries in the region were taking different approaches to inclusion. Data from the continent shows that 23% of countries have laws calling for children with disabilities to be educated in separate settings. Most countries, however, combine mainstreaming with separate arrangements, usually for learners with severe disabilities.

Many of the countries looking to move from segregated towards inclusive systems need to overcome management challenges. They need to think how to better share specialist resources between schools so that all children can benefit. Examples of this can be found across the continent.

Angola and Nigeria, for instance, are looking at transforming special schools into support bases for children with disabilities in mainstream schools, as well as providing training for teachers. Angola set a target in 2017 of including 30,000 children with special education needs in mainstream schools by 2022.

Kenya also recognizes special schools’ pivotal role in the transition towards inclusive education. At present, almost 2,000 primary and secondary mainstream schools provide education for students with special needs.

Malawi tries a twin-track approach. Those with severe disabilities are educated in special schools or special needs centres, while those with mild disabilities are mainstreamed. Special schools at each education level are being transformed into resource centres.

Instead of resource centres, Tanzania is mobilising itinerant teachers offering specialist services. These teachers are trained and managed by Tanzania Society for the Blind and provided with a motorbike. They also perform vision screening, refer children to medical facilities and organize community sensitization and counselling
While the political will for change seems clear, there is often a gap between theory and practice. This is where the emphasis between now and 2030 must lie. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, teachers mention that implementing inclusive education is hard because they lack resources.

Take Malawi for instance. While it is increasingly encouraging learners with special needs to enrol in mainstream schools, a lack of facilities forces many to transfer to special schools. In Namibia, the shortage of resource schools in rural areas, a lack of accessible infrastructure and unfavourable attitudes towards disability are just some of the barriers to successfully implementing its inclusive education policy. Similarly, in the United Republic of Tanzania, only half of children with albinism complete primary school. Because they lack support, they often end up being transferred to special schools.

The same story can be found in South Africa. It has a law from 1996 stating that the right to education of children with special needs is to be fulfilled in mainstream public schools. But recently it reported back to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that it had new segregated schools in basic education and a lack of provisions for children with severe intellectual disabilities.

Ghana is another case. It is the only country in the region to make provisions for all learners in its education law. Its 2015 inclusive education policy framework envisages transforming special schools into resource centres, while maintaining special units, schools and other institutions for students with severe and profound disabilities. But children with intellectual and developmental disabilities must perform the same tasks within the same time frame as their peers without disabilities, occupy desks placed far from teachers and are often physically punished by teachers for behavioural challenges, even in inclusive schools in Accra.

While all these efforts are commendable, simply laying the groundwork for inclusion in education will not suffice. Implementing the ambitions spelled out in education policies will take a new wave of efforts. The 2020 GEM Report looks at the different steps needed to provide disability-inclusive education, providing ten recommendations for policy makers, teachers and civil society over the next ten years. We hope it will prove a useful resource for countries in the region to move to the next stage.

Related Articles

• E-learning Divide Places World’s Disadvantaged Children at Risk of Dropping Out
• COVID-19 has Further Marginalised Persons with Disabilities

The post It is a Challenge to Provide Disability-Inclusive Education. But it is Worth it appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Manos Antoninis is the Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, UNESCO

The post It is a Challenge to Provide Disability-Inclusive Education. But it is Worth it appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A girl in Bhubaneswar slums, India checks her e-learning assignments on a computer tablet. Courtesy: John Marshall/Aveti Learning

By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new layer of challenges to inclusive education. As many as 40 percent of low and lower-middle income countries having not supported disadvantaged learners during temporary school shutdowns, finds United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report  released today, Jun. 23.

Social, income and digital divides have put the most disadvantaged at risk of learning losses and dropping out. Lessons from the past have shown that health crises can leave many behind, in particular the poorest girls, many of whom may never return to school, the report says.

While at the infection’s April peak, over 90 percent of the global student population in 194 countries were affected by related school closures, pushing the world into the throes of the most unprecedented disruption in the history of education. As of Jun. 20, 62 percent of total enrolled students still remain impacted.

In India, according to UNESCO, the countrywide school closure has affected 320 million children enrolled from pre-primary to post-high school levels of education. About 158 million are female students.

India as other countries has decided that its schools will remain shut till the end of July and syllabus must be completed through e-learning, even as the COVID-19 infection curves sharply upwards with 440,215 positive cases.

Not all students and teachers have access to adequate internet connection, equipment, skills and working conditions to take advantage of available platforms. Also, not all available internet connections are strong enough to download data or take part in video calls. Most teachers and school administrators had to switch overnight to new tools to deliver lessons, distribute content, correct homework and communicate with students and their parents, the GEMR says. 

“The key to ensuring no one is falling behind during this crisis – and beyond – is to understand and cater for all the various different needs that students may have. Online learning might be a brilliant solution for some; radio broadcasts (and lessons through television) may be a more appropriate solution for others,” Manos Antoninis, Director of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) 2020, told IPS via email from France.

“But no one single solution is perfect for all and there are some disadvantaged students – those who we are the most concerned about during today’s shut downs – who will not be served well by any current solution on offer. Their learning will suffer. Their attachment to school may weaken. Their families are likely to be plunged into poverty,” he added.

While private schools in India lost no time in providing their students with e-learning from March through Skype, email, power point presentations, YouTube and WhatsApp groups, it helped greatly that these generally better-income families had immediate access to electricity, internet, laptops or smartphones. For them e-learning was just one click away.

G. Lela Reddy, a rag-picker’s eldest daughter got admission and excelled in a mainstream school after she gained access to an e-learning platform. Courtesy: Ratnakar Sahoo/Ashayen.

At the other end are millions like 13-year-old’s like G. Lela Reddy, the eldest child of a single mother, who works as a rag-picker, in Bhubaneswar, in India’s eastern State of Odisha. Six years ago, a substance abuse rehab centre Ashayen (meaning Hopes) for children of rag pickers and beggars spotted Reddy and she began the bridging course that helped children join mainstream schools.

While studying she still works, daily segregating the waste her mother collects and minding her young brother at the centre while her mother goes out.

Before COVID-19 struck, Reddy had made it to 8th grade in a government school, making a mark as a good debater, and a singer and dancer to Bollywood songs.

“In 2016, when we introduced a digital learning platform to these street children in our informal centres, we realised to our surprise that the drop-out rate was reducing exponentially,” Ratnakar Sahoo who heads Ashayen told IPS. “The deep disparity they hitherto had felt about not being able to hold and operate a mobile phone which they saw other better-off kids doing, was the motivation to come to school and to study,” he added.

Reddy mastered digital learning, and was soon helping others log in and guiding them with e-learning.

“What we tried to do is help bridge the digital divide in India,” Biswajit Nayak, California-based founder of the digital platform Aveti Learning, told IPS over phone. The social enterprise develops and provides digital learning content for under-served student communities in villages and urban slums of India.

“The real need for e-learning was never before more apparent than during the COVID-19 lockdowns,” he said.

Worst hit by school lockdowns are children of commercial sex workers who study through informal tutorials like these children in Kolkata city. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Since schools in India lockdown from Mar. 27 till Jun. 16, Aveti’s digital channel analytics shows that during the lockdown they had 2.2 million views, 250,000 hours of streaming, 232,000 unique users from all 30 districts of Odisha, according to Nayak, an IT professional.

“Quickly upgrading technology and synchronising our content to government-announced online weekly curriculum for secondary classes, we lost no time. Even when the lockdown was lifted, we retained flexibility pushing online streaming to 5pm onwards, so that working parents in single-phone households would be back home and share their phone for lessons,” Sibabrata Choudhury, director of Aveti Learning, told IPS.

Among several other e-learning mobile phone apps is Odisha government’s own Madhu App.

Choudhury assesses not only is mobile phones with internet penetration low, 1 in 5 villages, particularly tribal villages lack grid connection while a dependable power supply eludes large rural tracts. This makes access to e-learning difficult.

“Two days after lockdown in March when I visited the Ashayen students, none of them had eaten since two days, let alone keep up with studies,” Sahoo told IPS adding, “ neither could we get them to the centre nor had sufficient computer tablets to provide them at home.”

Reddy’s chances of lifting herself out of a life of poverty has been on pause as it has for millions of adolescent girls marginalised by the growing divide during lockdown. A mid-May 2020 rapid assessment by Delhi-based non-profit Praxis India in three Indian states finds 4 in10 girls could not attend e-learning, while over half spent less time on studies compared to before lockdown, owing to economic demands.

“Indeed, India’s 2017-18 National Sample Survey reported only around a quarter of households had internet access, and this is without looking at rates in rural areas. Once schools reopen after these shutdowns, they must take into account the learning hiatus just experienced, which will have affected the poorest most. Cutting syllabuses shorter is likely to be an inevitable but also appropriate solution,” UNESCO’s Antoninis said.

“India has useful (and replicable) lessons though,” he said. “Odisha introduced multilingual education in 21 languages since the mid-2000s, covering 1,500 primary schools for which online dictionaries have been published, with positive learning outcomes. Maharashtra revised many textbook images in 2019 to promote gender equality. But there is still a long way to go. Tribal people are seldom depicted in curricula, and, when they are, the material often provokes a sense of inferiority among tribal students.”

Antoninis said that COVID-19 has given everyone an “opportunity to think afresh about our education systems”.

“India (too) is presented with a chance for re-imagining syllabuses after this crisis to be more inclusive, less formulaic,” the director of the GEMR added.

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Scene from the racial justice protests in Washington, DC following the death of a Black man named George Floyd during a violent police encounter in Minnesota, USA. Credit: Amnesty International, Alli Jarrar

By Brian Castner
BUFFALO, New York, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)

Police forces across the United States have committed widespread and egregious human rights violations in response to largely peaceful assemblies protesting systemic racism and police violence, including the killing of Black people.

Amnesty International has documented 125 separate incidents of police violence against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia between 26 May and 5 June 2020.

These acts of excessive force were committed by members of state and local police departments, as well as by National Guard troops and security force personnel from several federal agencies.

Among the abuses documented are beatings, the misuse of tear gas and pepper spray, and the inappropriate and, at times, indiscriminate firing of less-lethal projectiles, such as sponge rounds and rubber bullets.

To evaluate these incidents, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab gathered nearly 500 videos of protests from social media platforms. This digital content was then verified, geolocated, and analyzed by investigators with expertise in weapons, police tactics, and international and US law governing the use of force.

In some cases, researchers were also able to interview victims or confirm police conduct using local police department statements.

These human rights violations by US police against peaceful protesters – which were neither proportionate nor necessary to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective – are particularly egregious as they have occurred at demonstrations denouncing just such police behavior.

Most of these protests have been peaceful, but in some a minority of protesters have committed unlawful acts, including acts of violence. In such cases, security forces have routinely used disproportionate and indiscriminate force against entire demonstrations – without distinguishing, as legally required, between peaceful protesters and individuals committing unlawful acts.

Credit: Amnesty International, Alli Jarrar

Besides the severity of the abuses, what is most striking about the incidents Amnesty International documented is their broad geographic scope, indicating the national scale of the problem of police violence.

On 30 May, a joint patrol of Minneapolis police and Minnesota National Guard personnel unlawfully shot 37/40mm impact projectiles at people peacefully standing on the front porches of their homes. The security forces yelled “light them up” before firing.

The attack appears to have been done in retaliation for the people being outside after curfew and videotaping the forces with their smartphones.

On 1 June, Pennsylvania State Police and City of Philadelphia police confronted a group of protesters on a highway that runs through the city center. Even after the protesters left the road bed, police continued to use pepper spray and tear gas to drive the crowd up a steep embankment and against a high fence.

Lizzie Horne, a rabbinical student who was in that group, described the experience:

“Out of the blue, they started breezing pepper spray into the crowd. There was one officer on the median who was spraying as well. Then they started with tear gas. Someone who was right in the front – who had a tear gas canister hit his head – started running back … We were against a big fence that people had to jump over up a steep hill. The fence was maybe 6 feet tall.

People started putting their hands up – but the cops wouldn’t let up … We were drooling and coughing uncontrollably … The police started coming up the hill and continued to harass people who were still on the hill – they were hitting and tackling people. They were dragging people down the hill and forcing them down on their knees, lining them up kneeling on the median on the highway with their hands in zip ties – and pulling down their masks and spraying and gassing them again.”

In Washington, DC, also on 1 June, security personnel from a variety of federal agencies, including National Park Police and the Bureau of Prisons, plus DC National Guardsmen, committed a range of human rights violations against protesters in Lafayette Park.

These included misusing a variety of riot control agents, and tossing “stinger ball” grenades, which contain pepper spray and explode in a concussive flash-bang effect, throwing rubber pellets indiscriminately in all directions.

The violations were not limited to the largest cities, however. Local police inappropriately used tear gas against peaceful protesters in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Conway, Arkansas, among others.

In Iowa City, Iowa, police fired tear gas and threw flash bang grenades at protesters kneeling and chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot.” In Huntington Beach, California, police fired pepper balls at protesters lying prone in the street on their stomachs.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, police used tear gas to trap protesters between two tall buildings, and then shot pepper balls at them from above. During a protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, police held down a homeless man and shot him in the back with a 37/40mm impact projectile.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a local journalist lost his eye when police shot him in the face with a tear gas grenade.

Less-lethal weapons—such as tear gas and pepper spray grenades, and impact projectiles such as sponge rounds, baton rounds, and rubber bullets—should never be shot at close range or aimed at the head, as serious injury or death is possible.

There is no legitimate use for projectiles that cause a blinding flash of light in public order policing operations, such as the policing of a protest.

Such weapons are designed to disorientate their targets, which is antithetical to the purpose of weapons such as tear gas, which are only to be used to disperse crowds where violence is so widespread that no other less harmful means will disperse them.

For this reason, weapons that combine a gas and a flash, such as ‘stinger balls,’ can never be legitimately used in the policing of assemblies.

The US government is obligated under the US Constitution and international human rights law to guarantee the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Law enforcement agencies—at the federal, state, and municipal levels—have a responsibility to respect, protect, and facilitate peaceful assemblies.

As such, law enforcement authorities are only permitted to use force at public assemblies when it is absolutely necessary and in a proportionate manner to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective.

Any restrictions of public assemblies, including the use of force against demonstrators, can never be discriminatory toward any race, ethnicity, political ideology, or other social group.

The enforcement of a curfew is not, in and of itself, reasonable grounds to use force, nor do curfews supersede the human right to peaceful assembly or First Amendment freedom-of-expression protections.

Law enforcement authorities’ main objective in policing demonstrations should always be to effectively facilitate peaceful assemblies.

If it does become necessary for law enforcement to disperse a protest—for example, as a result of individual protesters perpetrating acts of serious violence—law enforcement officials can use force only if non-violent means are unlikely to be effective.

In the use of force, law enforcement officials must seek to minimize harm and injury, and ensure it is proportionate to the level of resistance by the demonstrators. Even then, authorities must strictly distinguish between peaceful demonstrators or bystanders, and any individual who is actively engaged in violence.

The violent acts of an individual never justifies the use of force against peaceful protesters generally, and force is only justified for the minimum duration necessary.

In order to prevent impunity and the repetition of abuses, authorities in the US must investigate, prosecute, and punish the unlawful use of force by police or others, and provide full reparations to the victims of such violence.

To date, there is little indication that these obligations have been taken seriously across the US.

 

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Excerpt:

Brian Castner is Senior Crisis Advisor on Arms and Military Operations, Amnesty International

The post Unlawful Use of Force by Police at Protests Across the US appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)

Over the course of his presidency, US President Donald Trump’s racism has become more evident with more leaks of his private remarks, which he has been generally quick to deny, qualify and explain away.

Despite his thinly disguised contempt for women, ‘non-white’ ethnic minorities, and most foreigners, unsurprisingly, he is respectful of power and privilege, especially when they may help him. Trump’s version of ‘kiss up, kick down’.

Anis Chowdhury

“Least racist person in the world”
Unsurprisingly, Trump has claimed he is the least racist person in the world. Unsurprisingly too, his record suggests otherwise. Trump has frequently created controversies with racially charged comments and actions, and was even sued for racial discrimination by the US Justice Department in the 1970s.

Trump won the 2016 presidential election with an ethno-populist agenda featuring racist elements. He has infamously promised a wall on the US-Mexico border to stop Mexicans, whom he deemed “criminals” and “rapists”, and imposed bans on Muslims entering the US.

Since entering the Oval Office, Trump continued to insist that he is the world’s least racist person, but frequently loses self-restraint, e.g., repeatedly stereotyping non-white reporters and pandering to white supremacists, even cracking jokes in bad taste. Trump has even tweeted that several non-white Members of Congress should go back to the “totally broken and crime infested places” they came from.

Adding insult to injury
Two years ago, Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some other African countries as ‘shitholes’, sparking unprecedented international outrage. The UN human rights spokesperson described the comments as “shocking and shameful”, and simply “racist”, not that Trump cared.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

To be sure, underdevelopment is not the original condition of Africa before European colonialism, but rather, the historical outcome of various forces, most importantly Western imperialism from about half a millennium ago.

From around 1445 to 1870, Africa was the major source of slaves, especially for the New World, both in North and South America. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, France and others in the New World and Europe all benefited, albeit differently over time.

The processes and their effects were undoubtedly uneven, creating wealth for exploiters, often from abroad, while many of the exploited were enslaved, dispossessed and otherwise immiserised.

Neo-colonialism
Thus, contrary to the claims of Niall Ferguson, the most prominent contemporary apologist of British imperialism, that colonialism laid the foundations for post-colonial progress, Africa was ruined, irreversibly maiming its development prospects.

A half-century or so after gaining independence between 1957 and 1975, or 1994, if apartheid South Africa is also included, ‘neo-colonial’ policy conditionalities and advice from donors and the Bretton Woods institutions have privileged foreign investment and export markets.

One major casualty of such policy advice was public investment. African countries were told not to invest in food agriculture and to dismantle supportive arrangements. Thus, with trade liberalization, food security suffered as Africa deindustrialized.

The sagas of Trump’s other shithole countries are not very dissimilar. Former US President Bill Clinton, who headed the United Nations’ effort to rebuild Haiti after the devastating earthquake of 2010, expressed regret for having forced Haiti to open its economy to food imports, effectively destroying domestic rice production, while benefiting American farmers.

‘Shitholes’ in Trump’s world view
Trump’s candid ‘shitholes’ comments presumably reflect his world view, in this case, of poor countries unlikely to provide much benefit and advantage to him or his view of American interests.

Even his ambiguous and ambivalent remarks about police and ‘vigilante’ brutality and killings of African-American and other ‘coloured’ minorities, or his dismissive treatment of ‘minority’ and inquisitive journalists should surprise no one.

Trump’s approval hit an all time high early in the year after securing the US-China trade deal. But having badly managed the Covid-19 pandemic, his poll ratings have declined precipitously since.

Despite lavishly praising China’s constructive cooperative attitude and handling of the virus outbreak in January, within months, he was encouraging to politically driven allegations of a Chinese conspiracy behind the outbreak. To add insult to injury, some African countries (e.g., Ghana, Senegal and Ethiopia) seem to have managed the pandemic better than he has.

Using anti-racist protests for re-election
Meanwhile, worldwide anti-racist demonstrations have revived earlier transnational protests against statues of persons identified with imperialism, slavery and the US Confederacy. The latest round of outrage following Floyd’s videoed murder by policemen is already being used by the Trump camp.

White supremacist and other extremist groups have joined some planned peaceful protests, initiating violence and inciting others to loot. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania police chief has confirmed, with “definite evidence”, suspicions that non-violent anti-racism protests have been infiltrated by such agent provocateurs.

US political observers note how the ‘long, hot summer’ of 1968, including the riots at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago hosted by then Mayor Richard Daley, helped Richard Nixon win the 1968 election. Invoking more racial themes, Trump is already recasting himself as the ‘law and order’ President.

The emperor has no clothes
More recently, the Trump administration has sought to suppress his former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s embarrassing new book, The Room Where It Happened, providing considerable evidence of Trump’s ignorance, incompetence, impulsiveness and pursuit of self-interest; even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly observed “He is full of shit”.

Bolton reports that POTUS asked China to help his re-election prospects by buying more US agricultural exports, which they did. The book’s pre-publication release, widespread dissemination and publicity may nudge Trump to enhance his re-election chances by depicting himself more credibly as a China hawk by becoming even more belligerent in his rhetoric and policy actions.

Trump is likely to paint presidential challenger Joe Biden as too weak and accommodative of China. Democrats may then try to outdo him, or at least not be left too far behind in terms of anti-China rhetoric, by promising to further militarize President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s ‘pivot to Asia’ to ‘contain’ China.

Bolton may help Trump, again
But Trump may also turn Bolton on his head, depicting him as a ‘trigger-happy’, belligerent bully who wanted POTUS to be more aggressive, tying up the US in ‘wars without end’ on many fronts on flimsy pretexts. Most people who know Bolton would testify to this effect, ironically allowing Trump to present himself as a peaceful president carrying a big stick, but refusing to go to war unnecessarily.

The alternative is worse. Just over four months from the early November polls, and anxious about his re-election chances, an increasingly desperate Trump is likely to become more reckless to secure a second mandate.

Trump may even provoke what he intends as a ‘limited’ conflict with China, probably in the South China Sea. Regardless of the original motive, once begun, such conflicts can easily spin out of control, threatening the world and world peace.

George W Bush used fictional ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to start a war with Iraq, famously supported by Tony Blair, at tremendous human and economic cost. Margaret Thatcher also secured re-election by going to war over the Falkland Islands or Malvinas. Trump will be in good company if he resorts to this option.

 

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The Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, arrived at UN Headquarters by helicopter. A view of the helicopter as it approached the North Lawn of the UN campus on 13 November 1974. But Arafat was denied a US visa for a second visit to the UN in 1988. Credit: UN Photo/Michos Tzovaras

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to transform the United Nations into an institution far beyond recognition.

The Secretariat building has been shut down since mid-March, and the UN campus will continue to remain a ghost town through end July– and perhaps beyond– with nearly 3,000 staffers, delegates and journalists working, mostly from home.

And most meetings, including Security Council sessions, are taking place via video teleconferencing (VTC) while “informal consultations” are done “remotely,” along with “virtual:” press briefings.

Last week the UN hosted a “virtual ministerial pledging conference” with hardly a minister in sight.

The deadly pandemic has, most crucially, grounded the upcoming session of the General Assembly, an annual event which usually attracts over 150 world leaders. And it has also upended the “live” commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the world body.

And so, perhaps for the first time in the 75-year history of the UN, most world leaders would be invited to address the General Assembly via pre-recorded video statements.

The message particularly to ostracized world leaders – and those “blacklisted” by the US — is clear: You don’t need a US visa to address the UN, come September.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the Treaty Section in the UN Office of Legal Affairs, told IPS the US has denied entry visas to certain individuals to attend meetings of the world body, including senior officials from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Venezuela, Russia, North Korea and Cuba, among others.

The US will be severely challenged if it seeks to justify its actions as being consistent with its obligations under the Headquarters Agreement with the UN. (HQ Agreement, 11 UNTS 1), he argued.

With the US in the present confrontational mood, and the real risk of an intractable conflict between the UN and the US, COVID-19 provides a convenient way out, with which the UN will be comfortable.

The members of the world body can now opt to address the organisation through video link, he said.

An entry visa will no longer be sine qua non for the purpose of entering the US and addressing the UN, said Dr Kohona, a former chair of the General Assembly’s Legal Committee and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN.

Meanwhile, some key meetings, including those focusing on nuclear disarmament, women’s rights, indigenous peoples and biodiversity – have been postponed, plus the Conference of Parties (COP26) on climate change scheduled to take place late November in Glasgow, Scotland.

The beneficiaries, if they do exercise their right to address the UN, via video conferencing, would include leaders from Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Venezuela, North Korea and Cuba, who are virtually designated persona non grata by the US– even as a growing new political confrontation continues between Washington and Beijing.

Last week Michael Pompeo, US Secretary of State, had an implicit warning: “the United Nations Human Rights Council (in Geneva), now comprised of Venezuela and recently, Cuba and China, has long been and remains a haven for dictators and democracies that indulge them. It is a grave disappointment to those genuinely seeking to advance human dignity.”

Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), told IPS “I’m not an expert on US visa law, but banning foreign leaders from being able to attend the UN General Assembly would seem to violate the spirit of the UN headquarters agreement”.

The US and Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war in 1960, but Khrushchev was still allowed to attend the UN and bang his shoe on the desk, he said.

And Che Guevara, also no friend of the US, was allowed to speak to the UN General Assembly in 1964, although in that case someone tried to fire a bazooka at the UN in retaliation, he noted.

“However, with regard to the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is an independent court and is in a different category. While I think that the United States threatening sanctions against ICC officials is unethical and antithetical to international justice, I guess it is their legal right to do so.”

It just means that the United States has now joined a select club of countries, mostly ruled by dictators and atrocity perpetrators, that threaten ICC officials and their families for doing their jobs and upholding international law, said Dr Adams, who worked with Sinn Féin and former IRA prisoners in support of the Northern Ireland peace process.

In theory, he said, that means even North Korea’s Kim Jung Un could make a speech to the UN General Assembly this year–although given his recent bromance with the US President, he could probably get a visa anyway, he added.

“Personally, I think any leader of a UN member state should always be given the opportunity to address the annual General Assembly, unless they are currently under ICC indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide,” declared Dr Adams, a former member of the international anti-apartheid movement and of the African National Congress in South Africa.

Last week the General Assembly held its elections by secret ballot without a plenary meeting. Elections were held for 75th President of the General Assembly; new non-permanent members of the Security Council; and new members of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Volkan Bozkir from Turkey was elected President of the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly. Credit: UN photo

Iftikhar Ali, a longstanding UN correspondent for the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), who has covered General Assembly sessions since 1971, told IPS the upcoming “virtual high-level debate” with only a small number of diplomats present in the iconic General Assembly hall will be devoid of the excitement, colour and high expectations that has always generated by the physical presence of 100-plus world leaders.

No bilateral meetings between friends or foes, no receptions or dinners where discussions take place in a relaxed atmosphere that help ease tensions in parts of the world, he said.

Also absent will be hundreds of television cameramen and reporters from around the world who push and shove to get closer to action with nervous security men chasing them around, said Ali, who worked for the U.N. in Tehran and Kosovo and is a former President of the UN correspondents’ Association (UNCA) and Chairman of the Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Scholarship Fund from 1984-1993.

“In short, the crucial week-long high-level debate will make very little contribution to advancing the cause of international peace and security,” declared Ali.

In 1988, when Yassir Arafat was denied a US visa for a second visit to New York to address the General Assembly sessions, the United Nations delivered a resounding slap at the United States by temporarily moving the UN’s highest policy making body to Geneva in order to provide a global platform for the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

On his first visit in 1974, he avoided the hundreds of pro and anti-Arafat demonstrators outside the UN building by arriving in a helicopter which landed on the North Lawn of the UN campus adjoining the East River.

But since then several political leaders—mostly antagonistic towards the US or heading regimes under American sanctions– have either been denied visas or implicitly declared persona non grata.

As a result, heads of state from “rogue nations,” including North Korea’s Kim Il Sung and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, never addressed the UN while, more recently, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, have avoided the UN, even though they have a legitimate right to address the General Assembly, as leaders of UN member states.

When former Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accused of war crimes, was refused a US visa to attend the high level segment of the General Assembly sessions back in September 2013, a Sudanese delegate told the UN’s Legal Committee that “the democratically-elected president of Sudan had been deprived of the opportunity to participate in the General Assembly because the host country, the United States, had denied him a visa, in violation of the U.N.-U.S. Headquarters Agreement.”

Asked if world leaders like Bashar al Assad and Kim Jong un could remotely address the General Assembly, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters last week “arrangements are being finalised”.

“We do expect to have a virtual component, but you’ll have seen what the outgoing General Assembly President said in his briefing last week about this issue”.

“As we get closer to the specific arrangements, the General Assembly President and his office, including our spokeswoman, Reem Abaza, could provide you with more details. But we do expect that there will be some virtual component, and that format is still being decided among the Member States,” he noted.

Pressed further, Haq said he does not want to prejudge what is currently being discussed by Member States.

“We’re working for a mix of virtual attendance and then some limited physical attendance, and it’s been very clear that it will have to be limited,” he noted.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

The post Message to Ostracized World Leaders: You Don’t Need a US Visa to Address the UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

For generations, elephants have been inextricably tied to the lands of Mondulkiri in Cambodia.

The people who call this place their home — the indigenous Bunong community — share a unique bond with the gentle giants of the land.

It is a relationship that has been tried and tested over the years and pressure to make ends meet has pushed some villagers to rent out elephants at high prices to companies with a record of mistreating animals.

Some villagers have even sold the elephants to companies. There is also a taboo about elephants giving birth within the community.

However, there are sanctuaries such as Mr Tree’s that attempt to breed, rescue and care for elephants which were either kept in captivity or were sold off.

To know more about the elephants of Mondulkiri and their stories, watch the video.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post A look into the lives of Cambodia’s gentle giants appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photo: AFP

By Nilima Jahan
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The life of sex workers on the streets, hard as it is during normal times, has taken a worse turn after the coronavirus pandemic hit the country.

Many floating sex workers have been pushed into begging, as their regular means of income has almost disappeared.

They are also facing assault and harassment at the hands of local goons, law enforcers and other people, living on the streets.

Mukta, 40, a floating sex worker, shared how she was attacked and wounded while looking for clients near Golap Shah Mazar at Gulistan in the first week of April.

She said three young men availed her service and were about to leave without payment. When she asked for money, they berated her for sex work amidst the shutdown and then beat her mercilessly. One of them hit Mukta on her nose with a shard of blade.

“The wound required six stitches and I think the scar will never heal,” said Mukta, who now begs on the streets.

At least five other sex workers shared similar experiences with this correspondent.

They said they are compelled to come out on the street risking coronavirus infection as many of them have children to feed and families to support.

Mukta said for the last three months she could not pay the monthly fee of Tk 2,000 for her two kids, who live at a private shelter for sex worker’s children.

“The shelter in-charge has been calling and yelling at me for the money. How can I make her understand that I’m in such a condition that I am having to skip most of my meals?”

Aleya Begum Lily, general secretary of Sex Workers’ Network (SWN), a platform for 29 sex workers’ organisations, said, most of the around 1,02,000 sex workers including the 5,000 registered in the 10 brothels of the country are jobless now.

In the capital, there are almost 20,000 sex workers, of whom 8,000 sell sex on the streets, hotels and rented apartments, she added.

Those who lived in hotels or failed to pay house rent are now living on the streets, in the parks, mausoleums, railway stations or under the bridges, Aleya said.

A large number of sex workers, who work under brokers, have also been suffering due to a sharp decline in their clientele.

Nazma, who lived and worked along with five other girls at the capital’s Rayer Bazar area, was facing routine abuse at the hands of their drug addict broker.

“It was his responsibility to manage clients for us. Yet, he would hit me on my head as I couldn’t give him money [due to decline in business],” said Nazma.

“I escaped in April after a physical assault. Currently, I am begging and sleeping at the Gulistan Golap Shah Mazar,” she mentioned.

Drop-in-centres (DICs) for sex workers are also becoming difficult to run because of the pandemic, informed officials of Light House, an NGO funded by the international development agency Save the Children.

Across the country, Light House has 27 DICs, where sex workers usually stay from 9am to 5pm.

Md Zalkad Ali, coordinator of the NGO’s Chankharpul DIC, said, “It has been difficult to continue our work because of constant pressure to shift the office. Many [landlords and neighbourhood people] treat them [sex workers] as suspected Covid-19 positive cases since they have roam the streets and mingle with unknown men.”

“My landlord sent us a notice to vacate the flat immediately, and restricted the access of the sex workers. We disinfect the stairs, maintain social distance and hygiene, yet they have been harassing us in different ways,” he added.

Another DIC coordinator Rina in Gopibagh also mentioned getting an eviction notice during the shutdown.

They, however, managed the landlord by limiting the number of sex workers who can enter and use the facility at a time, she said.

Beforehand, 15-20 sex workers used the DIC per day, but now a maximum of ten people are allowed, she added.

Nazma said she and others like her now use the DICs only to take showers.

Though the registered sex workers living in the brothels received some aid from the government, the floating ones didn’t receive any, said Aleya Begum.

Of the 29 organisations under the Sex Workers’ Network, 19 were provided Tk 3,50,000 during April-May for distribution of food and other essentials among their members, Aleya informed.

“Few may have received some relief as a distressed woman but not as a sex worker,” she added.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

 

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The post Broke and broken, sex workers ending up homeless appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jun 22 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Ed Conway and Sajid Javid talk to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund about the global economic outlook, the level of support it’s providing during the pandemic, how globalisation can help ease inequality and how she sees the shape of economic recovery.

Ascolta “MD of the International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva” su Spreaker.

The post MD of the International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Sonja Davidovic, Delphine Prady and Herve Tourpe
Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

The practical challenge of quickly getting financial support in the hands of people who lost jobs amid the COVID-19 economic crisis has baffled advanced and developing economies alike. Economic lockdowns, physical distancing measures, patchy social protection systems and, especially for low-income countries, the high level of informality, complicate the task. Many governments are leveraging mobile technology to help their citizens.

Togo, a small West African nation of 8 million, was able to quickly distribute emergency financial support to half a million people in less than two weeks using mobile phones. The technology helped deliver benefits to women in particular, and it supported a transparent rollout of the program. Informal workers in Morocco are also receiving government help through their phones quickly and efficiently.

Social assistance and cash transfers

Many emerging and low-income countries are scaling up direct support to households and individuals because they cannot directly protect jobs. Missing data on employment status and blurry lines between corporations and individuals in the informal sector hinder the effectiveness of labor market policies. Therefore, governments bet on cash transfers when trying to boost their social protection systems, while trying to expand their coverage.

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of measures announced since the beginning of the pandemic are in the form of transfers, and only 4 percent were labor market policies. Globally, 30 percent of all the initiatives taken by countries are cash transfers.

Typically, the delivery of income support targeted to the most vulnerable households relies on a robust national identification (PDF) system linked to socioeconomic information, and requires a variety of approaches in distributing cash to those most in need. Missing any one of these components in their immediate response to the crisis can generate difficult challenges (PDF): for instance, if a government cannot target beneficiaries due to the lack of socioeconomic information, it may have to choose between either spending more to cast a wider safety net or keeping the budget in check and excluding households in need of support.

Effective cash transfer mechanisms

Mobile money is as an effective and physical-distancing-friendly option to deliver cash transfers in large scale, given that ownership and use of mobile phones in emerging and developing economies is very high, and globally, there are 228 mobile money agents (the small retailers where customers can deposit or withdraw cash in and out of mobile accounts, buy phone airtime cards, etc.) per 100,000 adults compared to only 11 banks and 33 ATMs. Mobile money can therefore help rural and remote populations gain access to government transfer programs without traveling long distances or waiting in lines, or even having a bank account—a critical advantage in a world where 1.7 billion still don’t have access to formal financial institutions.

The pandemic has led many countries to strengthen their mobile money ecosystems and address specific constraints. Governments with more developed operations were able to react faster.

Ecuador doubled the number of licensed cash agents in two weeks. Malaysia expanded free mobile internet access. Nigeria partnered with mobile network operators to identify vulnerable informal workers in urban areas through airtime purchase patterns. Saudi Arabia reduced mobile usage fees to encourage mobile payments. Some years ago, Peru fostered the creation of a platform that allows transfers across three leading mobile operators and 32 banks.

Mobile money does have risks and limitations. People in rural and remote areas may lack mobile coverage, easy access to money agents, or simply electricity. Exchanging mobile money for cash can still be expensive. And digital and financial illiteracy are known to hinder adoption of digital mobile services.

In many countries, the pandemic has forced policymakers to react quickly to reduce regulatory weaknesses around mobile money issued by telecom or fintech firms, whose customers are often not protected by regulation in the same way as banks’ clients. It’s important to ensure that the risks of accelerating mobile money, including cyber-risks and digital fraud, don’t outweigh the benefits.

A mobile-money framework

Beyond the crisis horizon, many countries have sought to boost mobile payment platforms to reduce corruption, improve efficiency and budget transparency, and broaden financial inclusion, especially for the informal sector and women.

While scaling mobile cash transfers quickly to help alleviate the impact of the pandemic, governments should take a broad approach that goes beyond the technology and consider the whole ecosystem behind a robust and resilient mobile program.

A holistic approach should be considered by policymakers and the industry to integrate all the “building blocks” of a sustainable mobile-money platform, including stakeholders and design and policy elements that help maximize benefits against risks.

As countries move from crisis mode to a new normal, it’s a good time to also take note of the impediments they encountered in expanding support to people suffering the economic consequences of lockdowns. At the same time, they can build on solutions that worked best to make up for income losses, focusing on sustainable solutions instead of workarounds deployed at the height of an emergency. This should be part of broader government strategies to strengthen social protection systems in the medium term through technology.

 

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The post You’ve Got Money: Mobile Payments Help People During the Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

. Credit: Hope And Homes for Children.

By Larisa Abrickaja
LONDON, Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

As the world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in institutions like prisons or care homes has shown how quickly overcrowded facilities can become a breeding ground for an infectious disease. But what about other congregate facilities like residential institutions for children, such as orphanages? What risks do they face? And how should governments be responding during – and after – this pandemic?

How has the pandemic affected orphanages?

The Covid-19 pandemic has had one significant impact on so-called orphanages – or residential homes for children. In the majority of cases, lockdowns and social distancing have meant that there are fewer staff taking care of institutionalised children, as those not living on site are not allowed to return – a measure to avoid the risk of infection. It goes without saying that poorly staffed facilities increases the risk of neglect and abuse.

The vast majority of children living in orphanages worldwide are not orphans - over 80 percent have a living parent. Evidence from different regions shows that many of the children will have been sent to institutions for child protection reasons; though not because of violence or neglect in the home, but because of socio-economic conditions in the family

Understanding that it’s not possible to provide adequate care during the current crisis, numerous institutions have either closed or stopped admitting more children, including in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Kenya and Ukraine. In cases where children have been sent back to their families, proper planning, support and monitoring have been rare. But there’s a glaring question here: if these children have families, what are they doing in orphanages?

 

Not quite orphans

The vast majority of children living in orphanages worldwide are not orphans – over 80 percent have a living parent. Evidence from different regions shows that many of the children will have been sent to institutions for child protection reasons; though not because of violence or neglect in the home, but because of socio-economic conditions in the family, such as low household income or substandard housing conditions – a result of families not receiving enough support to take care of their children. This is especially the case for children with disabilities who often require considerable assistance but for whom local authority support is rare.

The circumstances in which these contexts arise may differ, but they are all linked to financial difficulties. In Ethiopia, India and Guatemala, for example, many rural farmers facing drought and crop failure and with no means to support their family resort to placing their children in orphanages. Meanwhile across Africa and South Asia, the recent wave of privatisation of education often means that poor families cannot afford even the minimum cost of sending children to school, and are lured by so-called orphanages promising an education and better life for their children.

 

Foreseeable dangers made worse

The Covid-19 pandemic risks further entrenching this culture of institutionalisation. Concerns have been raised that many children will be abandoned or separated from their families as a result of increased poverty, poor health, family stress or domestic violence. In many cases, large numbers of children will be orphaned.

A likely global economic recession will also have an impact. Recent history shows us that economic stagnation can actually become the main reason for institutionalisation of children, as occurred in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-1990s, where the number of orphanages increased by more than 300 percent.

And history may repeat itself as a consequence of the current pandemic, even though research amply shows that institutional care is harmful for all individuals, in particular for children, causing long-term effects on their health and psychosocial development.

Particularly for children with disabilities, who are usually overrepresented in residential care, the risks posed by this pandemic are life-threatening, as many have underlying health conditions and weak immune systems, so they are more vulnerable to developing severe complications from contracting Covid-19 or because of neglect, as we’ve seen in recent cases in Belarus and Kazakhstan, respectively.

 

A more optimistic scenario

Notwithstanding these dire situations, the current pandemic also presents opportunities to move away from a culture of putting vulnerable children in institutions. International consensus is that children are better off in a family or a family-type setting, as the institutional nature of care means that even a small, clean and safe care home is still an institution which doesn’t allow children to establish long-term emotional bonds with a significant adult.

As a positive example, some countries where children have been released from orphanages at the start of the pandemic are now trying to avoid readmitting them to institutions after lockdowns end, as is the case in parts of India.

Experts agree that children can be best served through family reintegration, adoption, kinship care, foster care, kafalah, and other family-based care models – not forgetting that families may take different and diverse forms, including married and unmarried couples, single parents, same sex parents and others.

Investing to keep families together or ensuring family-type care is available is therefore crucial, and the current pandemic has already prompted some countries to take the first steps or accelerate ongoing reform. Bulgaria is investing 10 million euros in municipalities to expand their social support services and cover more vulnerable people, including children with disabilities.

Ukraine also announced plans to increase the number of social workers across the country from 3,000 to around 11,000 in order to help vulnerable families cope during the pandemic. In countries with poor social protection systems, national cash transfer programmes have previously shown to preserve families and support relatives caring for children, as we saw during the Ebola outbreak.

 

A call to action

The current public health crisis is a brutal reminder that residential care for children is not only a dated concept, but a dangerous one. More than ever now is the time to fundamentally rethink how to support vulnerable children living or at risk of being placed in an institution. Human rights advocates, for instance, are calling for “emergency deinstitutionalisation” and immediate provision of housing and support in the community for people with disabilities living in institutions.

What’s key is to stop the cycle of institutionalisation because, once established, orphanages are difficult to reform or replace. Governments must recognise that supporting vulnerable families and investing in communities is not only better for children, but cheaper for the governments too. Institutions can never – and should never try to – replace family-based care.

 

Larisa Abrickaja is Policy and Partnerships Manager at the Child Rights International
Network (CRIN).

The post Children in Out-of-Home Care: Lessons from the Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The Ibrahim Malik public hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. Abortion is only legal in Sudan under very specific circumstances. As a result a number of women continue to access unsafe abortions. Courtesy: Abdelgadir Bashir

By Reem Abbas
KHARTOUM, Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

Omnia Nabil*, a Sudanese doctor, who worked in one of the largest hospitals in Khartoum, the country’s capital, was devastated to witness the deaths of 50 young women who had unsafe abortions during a space of just three months.

“I would see 16 cases of failed abortions on a given day. I would insert my hand and pull out syringes or leaves, unsanitary items that were inserted by midwives to induce a miscarriage,” Nabil told IPS.

For Sudanese women, getting an abortion is often a very lonely and dangerous process because it is only allowed in very specific cases.

Article 135 of the Criminal Law of 1991 legalises “miscarriage” only to save the mother’s life, if she is a victim of rape in her first trimester or if the foetus is dead. However, in all cases, women need their husband’s consent for the procedure.

Women who do not meet these requirements generally end up going to traditional midwives. But it places the women’s lives at risk. And if caught, it is an offence punishable with imprisonment of up to six years or a fine.

• This Northeast African nation of some 41 million people was ruled for 30 years by dictator Omar al-Bashir until he was removed from power by the country’s military in April 2019 after mass pro-democracy protests.
• Under Al-Bashir’s rule the country experienced decades of war and repression resulting in the current internal displacement of 2.1 million people. 

Sudan’s transitional government, formed in August 2019, allocated 40 percent of its parliamentary seats to women. This resulted in laws restricting freedom of dress, movement and work being repealed and female genital multination being criminalised. However, there have been no changes to the law on abortion.

Abortion – a dangerous and lonely procedure

But as international organisations working on reproductive health were slowly shut down in years prior to the transitional government being formed, small groups or networks of people have been working together to ensure that women are able to access safe abortions.

Because most women can’t access hospitals or healthcare facilities because they fear arrest, they end up having the abortions alone, or with little help. Sarah Ali* was one of them.

When Ali found out about her pregnancy, she struggled to find a nurse or doctor who would help her obtain an abortion.

“I was running out of options and a midwife working at a private hospital had agreed to help me, but was unable to find the pills. I was entering my 11th week when I received the pills sent in a package by Women on Web,” Ali, who no longer lives in Sudan, told IPS.

The pills, a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, were sent by Women on Web, a Canadian non-profit organisation that “advocates for and facilitates access to contraception and safe abortion services to protect women’s health and lives”, according to its website.

• The organisation provides women with abortion pills within the first 10 weeks of their pregnancy, after an online consultancy, which allows those who have a problem accessing a safe abortion to have a medical abortion in their homes. According to the organisation, a medical abortion in the first 10 weeks is “very low risk of complications and resemble having an early miscarriage”.

“After the procedure, I was able to go back to the midwife for a check-up and make sure I didn’t get an infection,” said Ali.

There are no recent statistics on unsafe abortions in Sudan. However, according to Women Deliver, “An estimated 25.1 million unsafe abortions take place [globally] each year. Every year, approximately, 6.9 million women in developing countries are treated for complications from unsafe abortions, and complications from unsafe abortions cause at least 22,800 deaths each year.”

Nabil watched as women who had unsafe abortions and came to the hospital for help eventually died.

“They would usually die from what we call septic abortion, which is essentially an infected abortion process and even though I was pro-choice from early on, this tragedy inspired me to start the abortion network,” said Nabil, who has since left the country.

Underground networks help women access safe abortions

With a core group of doctors, doctors-in-training and supporters, Nabil created a network to obtain misoprostol for patients and supported them if they had future complications. The network was a small and deeply-secure structure.

“The work was dangerous. At some point, we had a patient in the hospital and the doctor treating her suspected that she was unmarried, she called the police and I had to help her and her partner escape,” said Nabil.

Knowing the risks, Nabil took her precautions. She had a separate phone and always used a fake name with patients seeking abortions.

The core team worked for years without getting caught and recruited younger doctors when those in the team had moved on to other jobs.

“We tried to support girls from lower-income households and offered them the pills at reduced prices relying on our acquaintances in the field. But in the end, we were unofficial and dependent on word of mouth, so you have to know someone to make the initial contact,” said Nabil.

In the last few years, the network’s capacity was reduced as more of its members moved on to other countries seeking better economic situations. Nabil continued to help from a distance and her close friend was the last one in the network, until he also left the country.

Shrinking space for service providers 

The last statistics on the use of misoprostol dates back to 2011, when DKT International, a health charity operating in Sudan and the largest non-government provider of reproductive health products and services at the time, published a report stating that 450,000 units of Misoprostol and 16,000 kits of MVA were used/sold that year.

DKT came under attack in 2012 when radical parliamentarians clashed with the Minister of Health over family planning, abortion equipment and the distribution of condoms.

But things became worse when the government shut down another international organisation working on reproductive health.

“This organisation had provided an important device called vacuum aspirator or NVA for abortion and miscarriage cases and it was registered in Sudan until the government stopped it. It is life-saving and important and now few doctors have it and can only do it under the table,” said Salma Habib* an activist working on SRHR issues here.

In the meantime, there is one doctor in Sudan who is willing to perform medical abortions and support his patients in taking misoprostol, but he has been banned from working here since 2006.

When Dr. Abdelhadi Ibrahim, a young Ob/Gyn specialist moved to Sudan from the UK in the 1997, young women patients started asking him to perform abortions.

Ibrahim estimated that he had provided safe abortions to at least 10,000 women over a period of seven years and helped many others restore their hymens to indicate virginity.

In 2006, Ibrahim was arrested and tried in a high-profile court case and was sentenced to six years in prison and his license was revoked by the Sudan Medical Council.

“Until today, I am fighting to get back my license. I won two law suits and the council continued to stall and now after the revolution, they just made appointments in the council and a committee should be formed to look into it, I must’ve visited the council’s building hundreds of times,” Ibrahim, who he has not worked in 14 years and was forced to sell some of his property to support himself, told IPS.

Abortion pills too costly for most women

In the meantime, prices of medical abortion pills have soared.

“Today, most women can not afford a safe abortion in Sudan. The pills could cost at least $142 to $214 or even more and the quality of the pills and their expiration date could be a problem because you are buying from the black market after all,” said Habib, who added that there are fake pills on the market also.

Most Sudanese women have to use traditional midwives as they can’t access the expensive pills. It places them at risk to unsafe abortions.

The procedures performed by midwives are often dangerous, but in addition the midwives often criminalise the behaviour of their patients.

“I know a girl who was circumcised by a midwife after an abortion and was told that this is to stop her from having sex again, it is clear that midwives could punish you or take advantage of your situation,” said Ali.

But as Nabil’s abortion network closed, parallel networks sprung up. Habib supports her network by accessing pills from Women on Web and from trusted sources inside Sudan.

“There are people working now, I don’t know many of them, but one of my former clients is now leading the same efforts and helping other women,” said Nabil.

*Names changed to protect identity. 

 

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The Providencia Solar company, El Salvador. Latin America counts some of the globe’s most abundant and cost competitive renewable energy resources including hydroelectricity, solar, and wind. Credit: Edgardo Ayala / IPS

By Cecilia Aguillon
LA JOLLA, California, Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic and crisis has led to increasing attention and clamor to redouble efforts toward an energy transition that would help the world reduce C02 emissions. In many countries of the region, how to manage hydrocarbons, but with an eye on the energy transition has only been accentuated. We believe clean hydrogen is part of that broader policy and reconstruction debate.

Clean hydrogen markets can be a key part of the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerate the decarbonization of Latin America’s electricity and transportation sectors, attract investment and create jobs. Indeed, the possibilities for oil and gas companies to produce and deliver hydrogen should facilitate and accelerate its adoption in Latin America particularly when combined with the region’s considerable renewable energy upside.

As the US Energy Information Administration notes, hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet and the simplest. Furthermore, the EIA underscores that “hydrogen, like electricity, is an energy carrier that must be produced from another substance.”

Clean energy policies with clear objectives and successful implementation have resulted in renewable auctions that were over-subscribed throughout the region. The policies also engendered competition and electricity prices among the lowest in the world all the while injecting billions of dollars of direct investment into their economies

According to the US Department of Energy, most hydrogen today is produced from fossil fuels, specifically natural gas, but there is also increasing production from electricity including renewable sources such as biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind.

With regards to technology, most hydrogen is produced through steam methane reforming, a high-temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce hydrogen. Electrolysis is also commonly used to produce hydrogen by separating H2O into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen can be compressed, liquefied, transported and used at gasoline stations to fuel vehicles.

Latin America counts some of the globe’s most abundant and cost competitive renewable energy resources including hydroelectricity, solar, and wind. The elements that make the region a world-leader in renewables can facilitate a similar ascension for clean hydrogen production this decade. But it is important to note that in order to spur investment, economies of scale must be supported and enhanced through policy and market incentive programs.

Take the photovoltaic (PV) industry. PV has demonstrated that policies with a well-conceived implementation strategy greatly incentivizes the market and leverages steep cost reductions. Average PV prices in the United States dropped 89% from $359 USD per MWH in 2009 to $40 USD per MWH in 2019.

Over the last ten years, most countries in Latin America enacted clean energy targets and laws that include fiscal incentives and goals to achieve a determined percentage of their electricity mix from clean energy sources by specific timeframes. Using a reverse auction mechanism, solicitations were announced attracting bids from mostly wind and solar developers. A major energy auction in Mexico in 2017 delivered prices in the $20´s USD per MWH.

Clean energy policies with clear objectives and successful implementation have resulted in renewable auctions that were over-subscribed throughout the region. The policies also engendered competition and electricity prices among the lowest in the world all the while injecting billions of dollars of direct investment into their economies.

Latin America’s power sector is well-positioned to be the main driver for a clean hydrogen boom as the pace of solar and wind energy projects continues to accelerate. In some cases, their intermittent nature, however, creates mismatches in the supply and demand of electricity in the system which prompts grid operators to temporarily shut down generation when it exceeds demand.

This reduces return on investments. Reliable and cost-effective batteries are needed to address the problem. Hydrogen-based storage is emerging as a technically viable and effective solution, but more has to be done to foster a competitive industry.

According to IRENA´s latest report on hydrogen and renewables, the lowest average cost of producing hydrogen from wind is $23 USD per MWH. There is consensus that reducing the cost of storage will help maximize the use of renewable energy generation, reduce energy imports, and contribute to economic prosperity.

There are natural allies in this effort. Policymakers and regulators together with power companies and renewable energy investors are increasingly aligned with similar objectives and goals. Latin America does not have to start from scratch; there are important lessons from around the globe.

Clean hydrogen projects being developed in Asia, Europe, and the United States could lead to policies, programs, and robust industries. Lessons learned and best practices from early adopters can be harvested and adapted to develop successful hydrogen markets.

In Latin America, Chile could emerge as the clean hydrogen market leader since the country has surplus production of solar and wind electricity that could be leveraged for producing hydrogen. The government is already developing its post-pandemic stimulus package with a heavy focus on energy decarbonization by 2040 backed by aggressive policies targeting growth and further deployment of renewable energy and electric mobility.

The Energy Ministry is even working on a specific plan to develop a hydrogen market. In addition, the Chilean government is enlisting the participation of its power and energy sectors to join the effort. Chile´s success with solar and wind deployment along with its new decarbonization strategy can be a template for developing sustainable and robust hydrogen markets throughout the region.

For many countries in Latin America, one of the thorniest challenges to reduce emissions is in their transportation sector. Even highly-touted renewable energy markets such as Costa Rica have struggled to reduce fossil fuel consumption for transport. Hydrogen offers an important possible solution. Indeed, hydrogen can help decarbonize the fuel sector, most likely as a source for heavy duty transportation such as long-haul buses and trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes.

The current environment of low oil prices is providing many countries relief from onerous fuel subsidies. Indeed, in some markets such as Ecuador have begun to remove them entirely. It could be wise to consider applying some of these savings to promote the modernization of their public transportation infrastructure to accommodate the use of clean fuels and by extension, support economic development and reduction of CO2 emissions.

Moreover, national oil companies have had to shut down refineries due to the recent drop in fuel demand caused by the lockdowns in the fight to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. This forced shutdown could provide an opportunity to use the time to retrofit equipment and train workers on hydrogen fuel production.

Taking such measures in the near-term would allow for an important step towards diversification while transitioning to clean fuels. In some cases, oil and gas companies are able to obtain low-cost financing in addition to having the infrastructure, distribution channels, and know-how to produce fuels. As countries emerge from the pandemic and review policies and stimulus packages to reactivate their economies, governments should further consider designing road maps that include the promotion of clean hydrogen to decarbonize their power and transportation sectors.

Uruguay provides an example that public-private partnerships can work towards developing a local hydrogen market and one that can inform neighboring countries. The national oil company, ANCAP, together with the government, the national electricity company UTE, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and private investors are developing a pilot project to produce hydrogen using renewable energy to power trucks and buses, and to support green electricity through storage. This is to comply with the government´s goal of achieving 100% renewables by 2030.

In Uruguay, a comprehensive roadmap was enacted in 2010 with clear objectives and specific milestones that includes active collaboration of the various public agencies with specific roles to play to achieve the target. The policy also calls for regulations and standards that promotes the use of renewables throughout every sector of the economy making Uruguay a renewable energy leader in the southern cone. The inclusion of traditional energy sectors in the hydrogen pilot project could help the country achieve its decarbonization goal ahead of schedule.

As the example from Uruguay underscores, well-crafted policies and successful implementation of regulations are essential to attract foreign and domestic investments. The technology and resources to produce clean hydrogen are available. Scaling manufacturing to achieve cost-effectiveness is already taking place thanks to programs to promote hydrogen throughout the world.

The current investment profile and soaring amounts for renewable energy has shown the myriad actors and players – from Wall Street and private equity to multilateral agencies to local and international banks – willing to invest in renewable technologies particularly shown by the scale of deployment levels of wind and solar. Furthermore, the potential ability of oil and gas companies to produce and deliver hydrogen should facilitate and accelerate its adoption in Latin America.

Governments throughout the region should also consider direct participation in the clean hydrogen market. By serving as customers, governments can further support and develop critical mass for fast adoption through investment and modernization of state-own transportation infrastructure. Moreover, governments should consider fiscal incentives for heavy industry and traditional fuel suppliers to adopt the technology. Lessons learned from developing successful renewable energy programs should inspire political will to make clean hydrogen the next link in the chain to achieve zero carbon economies for this generation across Latin America.

Navigating the path forward from the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the persistent threat of climate change makes clean hydrogen a possible solution for the day after and the region’s energy and economic recovery.

The post Latin America’s Potential Green Hydrogen Economy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Cecilia Aguillon is Director of the Energy Transition Initiative at the Institute of the Americas in La Jolla, California

The post Latin America’s Potential Green Hydrogen Economy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Heifer International

By Pierre Ferrari and Cory Gilman
Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

There has been far less social progress in the United States in the last 155 years than many people would like to believe. In 2020, racism still seeps its way into every aspect of life; from unconscious bias and micro-aggressions in everyday interactions to domestic and international policy and enforcement.

As an organization with 76 years of history supporting smallholder producers, we have a responsibility to use our experience to name and break the barriers that have plagued Black, Indigenous and People of Color farmers. Fighting injustice in all its forms – hunger, malnutrition, poverty, income inequality, climate change and gender inequity – has long been a tenet of our work.

A farmer who participated in the Heifer International and Prentiss Institute 30-year partnership in Mississippi. Credit: Heifer International

We have worked to break down barriers that prevent the inclusion and success of marginalized groups in agriculture. Heifer International has assisted with land rights, helped farmers organize, provided technical assistance to increase their production and productivity, and improved access to capital and to markets. But good intentions do not equal positive impact. It is not enough to mean well. We have to do well.

Our mission cannot be fulfilled without recognizing how deeply agriculture is rooted in racism. It’s imperative to address how synonymous the origins of our food system are with the battle currently being fought – how the success of global agriculture has been sown with the blood and sweat of people of color.

In the United States, modern agriculture was built on the backs of enslaved people who were used as property and valued only as production units. They produced cotton, tobacco, sugar, indigo, rice, sweet potato, peanuts, watermelon and okra. This unrelenting free labor, coupled with simultaneous extraction of farming knowledge, directly led to America’s economic domination of the 18th century and pervasive industrialized agricultural ascendancy that remains today — facilitating an empire of production, processing and trade. When slavery finally became illegal, the tradition of Black exploitation for food-flow gain continued in the form of tenant farming, sharecropping and land grabbing.

In the 1930s, as minimum wage and other legislation was enacted to protect labor rights, the agricultural industry remained exempt and farmworkers (at the time, predominately African American) were excluded; this loophole was not modified until the 1980s. Simply put, our country’s designation as the ‘crop basket of the world’ would not have been possible without the unwilling sacrifice of Africans and African Americans.

But today, the Black community is disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, malnutrition, diet-related disease, lack of land ownership and largely exclusion from agriculture as a whole.

Farmer works in her peanut field in Zambia. Credit: Heifer International

The U.S.’s agricultural foundation follows a tradition of forced labor spanning huge expanses of time and place. Most of our favorite grocery items are a product of colonialism, widely available thanks to the almost standardized practice of one powerful predominantly white nation dropping anchor onto a foreign land, conquering and brutally subjugating its indigenous people, ravaging the soil with the compulsory workforce of human ‘property,’ and sending resulting agricultural goods back to its own and other wealthy countries at an enormous profit.

Farmer works in her familys sweet potato field in Malawi. Credit: Heifer International

The Dutch East Indies brought Arabica and sugar, British India produced tea and spices, German East Africa ushered in sesame and Robusta, French West Africa brought chocolate and peanuts and the Belgian Congo palm oil and sugar. When slavery was no longer condoned, oppressive conditions on stolen land remained. While each wave of colonialism has its own nuanced narrative, they all propagated from the same seed – racism.

This subjugation continues to play out, under new names but similar practices, all over the world. In many countries, racial, indigenous, ethnic or caste groups are deemed ‘less than’ – less worthy of basic safety and human rights, of fair pay and equal opportunity and of dignity. Considering 70% of the world’s hungry are or used as food producers, it’s a statistical certainty that what is on our plates stems from one of these groups.

Poverty is not an accident. When entire groups of people experience similar forms of socio-economic marginalization, that is by design. It is intergenerational. It is systemic, born of racially and ethnically driven oppression. It is intolerable.

Farmer and farm worker Sevia Matinanga (right) harvest sugar cane in Zambia. Credit: Heifer International

We cannot change the past, but we can actively acknowledge it. We must begin the more critical work of changing the course of the future, which means actively supporting communities of color in our local and global food system. There’s much to be done. Governments must enact policies to ensure full, inclusive and healthy participation in agricultural livelihoods and access. Organizations like Heifer International need even deeper commitment to social, economic and environmental justice on every level of our work, saying “no” to complicit systems and “absolutely” to accelerating the visions marginalized smallholder farmers have for their futures. Consumers can seek out black-owned agri-businesses and take a stand against corporations that source ingredients for unethical prices and in many cases, via actual forced and/or child labor. The world is ripe for real change, and we are ready for it.

The post Agriculture: Rooted in Racism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Systemic racism in agriculture is painfully obvious. Why has it taken a new Civil Rights movement to clearly expose the sordid roots and present-day inequalities in food and farming?

The post Agriculture: Rooted in Racism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Yasmine Sherif is Director, Education Cannot Wait

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

To realize the concept of ‘build back better,’ we need a foundation. That foundation is education. This is an incontestable truth.

It has now been three months since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The coronavirus has both exposed and exacerbated the global inequities that lay at the core of our frail social fabric as a human family. The World Bank estimates that 40-60 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty as a result of COVID-19. The World Food Programme cautions that the number of acutely hungry people could double globally from 135 million to 265 million. UNDP forecasts human development is set to decline this year for the first time since 1990. Meanwhile, the number of displaced populations has continued to rise to an unprecedented 79.5 million by the end of 2019, according to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, released on World Refugee Day today.

Yasmine Sherif

The most effective way of forcing children and youth into a life in extreme poverty and acute hunger, while also dismissing all their human rights is to deny them an education. Conversely, a quality education is one of the few absolutes that raises development indicators, strengthens the protection of human rights and enables the young generation to live a life of dignity, productivity and opportunity. As UN Deputy-Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed states in her interview in this month’s ECW Newsletter: “Indeed, a quality education and lifelong learning is foundational to all other aspects of human development and sustainable development.”

As long as education is considered a ‘lesser priority’ in crises, the vicious cycle of global inequity and its brutal consequences will continue to haunt humankind. We can no longer merely stitch together a shredded social fabric. We must lay a solid foundation to build back better, or as Desmond Tutu says: “Inclusive, good, quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.”

We know that COVID-19 is further deepening the already existing inequalities across the globe. We know that the consequences are most severe for children and youth left furthest behind in conflicts and forced displacement. We know that those with disabilities and girls who are already disadvantaged because of their gender are the most vulnerable and will likely bear the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that they now risk plunging further down a precipice from where they may never have the ability to climb back. With this knowledge, education clearly must be a top priority in the COVID-19 response and recovery.

Before COVID-19, an estimated 75 million children and adolescents, of whom 39 million are girls, living in armed conflict and forced displacement contexts, were deprived a quality education. These numbers are now increasing, while funding is decreasing! A recent report by the Malala Fund estimates that 10 million secondary school-aged girls could drop out of school as a result of the pandemic. Meanwhile, a separate study, carried out by the Centre for Global Development, reinforced this concern, while noting that one third of NGOs fighting to prevent school-drop outs are facing the threat of layoffs because of funding cuts.

Yes, we are facing an unprecedented economic recession. Yet, the consequences of not investing in a foundation for those left furthest behind will eventually be even more severe. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated in his message on the International Day of Family Remittance, referring to World Bank projections, global remittances – a funding flow three times that of international aid – could plummet by $110 billion this year, limiting for millions a vital source of funding for health, education and livelihoods. In the same vein, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of Education Cannot Wait’s High-Level Steering Group, Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, warns that: “Failure by the G20 group of leading developed and developing nations to organize a global COVID-19 recovery plan is a potential death sentence for the world’s poor.”

COVID-19 and its consequences are stark reminders that we must now recognize that children and youth who are conflict- and disaster-affected, who are internally displaced or are refugees, can no longer wait until the crisis is over. At worse, we will be accomplices to reducing their humanity; at best, we will keep patching up a shredded social fabric – but we will not rebuild.

To end the spiral of global inequity, gender-inequality, racism and discrimination in all its ugly forms, especially towards girls, we must recognize that those left furthest behind are entitled to a solid foundation to build back better. Like the rest of us, that foundation starts with inclusive and equitable, quality education, from the first 1,000 days of a child’s life onwards.

The post The Foundation to Build Back Better: Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif is Director, Education Cannot Wait

The post The Foundation to Build Back Better: Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A municipal truck sanitizes the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh in order to prevent COVID-19.

By External Source
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jun 22 2020 (IPS)

One of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh exemplifies the triple blow that many emerging market countries have suffered from COVID-19: domestic slowdown caused by the disease and the efforts to contain its spread; a sharp decline in exports, particularly in the ready-made garment sector, and a drop in remittances. Its once robust economy has dramatically slowed in recent months.

To help Bangladesh during this crisis, the IMF has approved emergency loans totaling around $732 million. IMF Country Focus spoke with the IMF’s resident representative for Bangladesh Ragnar Gudmundsson about some of the specific challenges facing the country.

How has Bangladesh been affected by COVID-19?

Bangladesh has been severely impacted. Up until the crisis, the economy had been growing close to 7 percent a year on average over the past decade. We now project 2 percent for 2020—a drop of 6 percentage points from 2019.

The economic impact has been felt in three main avenues: first, a drop in domestic economic activity, after the shutdown announced on March 26 (now gradually being lifted); the second is a decline in exports of ready-made garments, which represent more than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports and have been strongly impacted (overall exports fell by 83 percent year-on-year in April).

Finally, there has been a fall in remittances from Bangladeshis living mostly in Middle Eastern countries, affected not just by the pandemic but also by the decline in oil prices.

What is the outlook for the future?

We are still expecting a pick-up in activity toward the end of 2020 and in 2021, with growth climbing back to around 6 percent.

Of course, that depends on the domestic economy starting to recover. But there is so much uncertainty and it is very difficult to ascertain with precision the recovery’s speed or extent. We still expect that the country would quickly come back to previous growth rates, if global economic conditions are supportive.

Credit: UNDP Bangladesh/Fahad Kaizer

The UN Development Programme with the support of UK Aid, is rolling out emergency support for 50,000 poor urban families in Bangladesh in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

What particular challenges has Bangladesh faced during this crisis?

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and this is a huge challenge when you are trying to contain the impact of a pandemic like COVID-19. Another challenge is limited health infrastructure.

The capacity of the health system is really being put to the test, and requires considerable support from development partners. It is estimated that the country needs about $250 million for clinical equipment, testing, and contact tracing, just to respond to the initial impact. This amount will need to be mobilized with external support.

How are IMF resources expected to be used?

IMF resources, in the form of loans under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), will be channeled through the budget to help the government meet its new spending needs in health and social protection; to meet balance of payments needs; and to catalyze additional donor support. Financing from other international institutions and donors has been approved.

How can it be ensured that the money is used transparently?

Bangladesh recognizes the importance of transparency, accountability, and good governance. The government is committed to using the crisis resources transparently and effectively, and to carry out an audit of COVID-19 related expenditures within 12 months of the end of the crisis.

The country has also committed to amending existing rules so as to provide information on the beneficial ownership of companies that are awarded procurement contracts.

What will be the effect on Bangladesh’s debt?

Before the crisis, Bangladesh was in a very good position, with a low risk of overall and external debt distress. We anticipate that all the crisis-related borrowing will raise the public debt-to-GDP ratio to about 41 percent of GDP over the coming years, from 36 percent at the end of 2019

Even so, debt should remain sustainable. In a way, this is a testament to the sound economic and fiscal policies implemented in recent years, with limited aid dependency, prudent borrowing and, up until the crisis, adherence to a deficit ceiling of 5 percent of GDP.

Over the medium term, the government needs to mobilize more resources domestically to fund additional spending for health, education, infrastructure, and social protection.

What is being done to protect the country’s large vulnerable population?

Since March, several stimulus measures were deployed to sustain economic activity and protect the most vulnerable. There is a package of about $600 million to support the wages of workers in the ready-made garment sector, provided in the form of subsidized loans to companies so that they can pay wages for three months.

This is very important because the ready-made garment sector is responsible for much of the recent progress in incorporating women into formal economic activity.

Additionally, takas totaling about $150 million will be provided as cash assistance to about five million families displaced by the pandemic. There are also measures to protect the homeless and for food distribution. Cash allowances for the elderly, widows, and disabled individuals are also being expanded.

Amid the crisis, how can the country continue to address climate change concerns?

Climate change is a priority for Bangladesh’s development objectives, as it is one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather events. Increased investments in adaptation have made the country more resilient to natural disasters.

Cyclone Amphan, a few weeks ago, was perhaps less devastating than initially feared because of better early warning systems and more investments in embankment infrastructure and shelters.

As efforts to promote a green recovery take hold, Bangladesh is also well placed to attract foreign investment that will contribute to climate change mitigation.

The post Helping Bangladesh Recover from COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jun 19 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Ms. Amina J. Mohammed is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Mohammed served as Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where she steered the country’s efforts on climate action and efforts to protect the natural environment. Ms. Mohammed first joined the United Nations in 2012 as Special Adviser to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with the responsibility for post-2015 development planning. She led the process that resulted in global agreement around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Mohammed began her career working on the design of schools and clinics in Nigeria. She served as an advocate focused on increasing access to education and other social services, before moving into the public sector, where she rose to the position of adviser to three successive Presidents on poverty, public sector reform, and sustainable development. Ms. Mohammed has been conferred several honorary doctorates and has served as an adjunct professor, lecturing on international development. The recipient of various global awards, Ms Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels. She is the mother of six children and has one grandchild.

ECW. As an inspirational global women leader who has dedicated your life to service, how do you see the progress and challenges we face in advancing gender equality and empowering the next generation of women leaders through girls and adolescent girls’ right to a quality education?

Amina J. Mohammed. I am inspired by the upcoming generation of women leaders who in the face of disasters, conflicts, and health emergencies prioritize their education and use their platforms to advocate for the right of all girls and young women to a quality education. Advancing gender equality and amplifying the voices of these young women needs to be at the center of all our work.

The great progress we have made globally to advance gender equality cannot be underscored enough – more girls are going to and staying in school than ever before and the number of out-of-school girls has dropped by 79 million in the last two decades. Yet, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 132 million girls were still out of school.

Girls – particularly adolescent girls – face significant barriers to a quality education in many contexts. There are risks of sexual harassment, exploitation, abuse and violence – both on the way to and at school. Many girls have competing demands on their time due to care and household responsibilities. Many families face the difficult choice of which of their children will get an education due to financial constraints – and many times, boys are chosen over girls. Girls’ education is particularly under threat in emergencies and for children on the move and we need to continue to empower this next generation of women leaders through a quality education.

All these issues have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Lockdowns and the socio-economic crisis have brought dramatic increases in domestic violence, including for girls and adolescent girls. Furthermore, rates of child marriages have increased, and it is not clear what effects that would have if schools remain closed for a long period.

To tackle the challenges exacerbated by the current pandemic, we need strengthened efforts to not only ensure gender equality dimensions are prioritized in all our work, but also apply targeted measures to ensure girls, and the most vulnerable, do not bear the heaviest burden and are protected.

ECW. There is a global education crisis in the world, and it is increasingly clear that education, or Sustainable Development Goal 4, is foundational to realising the full spectrum of the Sustainable Development Goals. How do you see the interrelation and why is it so important to connect those dots in advancing all of the Sustainable Development Goals?

Amina J. Mohammed. Education is a human right and is central for building sustainable and resilient societies, as well as for achieving personal aspirations and all the other Sustainable Development Goals. There is no doubt that equipping children and youth with relevant knowledge and skills has a catalytic impact on eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, improving health, driving economic growth and achieving gender equality.

Without investing in youth to create an enabling environment for them to learn and acquire skills for decent work, sustainability, climate change awareness and global citizenship, we will not deliver on our promise for the future we want.

Without ensuring quality and inclusive education for all, we will not be able to advance our efforts for more peaceful and inclusive societies and for promoting respect for human rights. Yet, we have seen warning signs that on current trends, the world is not on track to achieve the SDG4 goal and targets.

Before COVID-19, more than 260 million children, adolescents and youth were out of school. while more than 617 million were not learning, achieving only minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Now COVID-19 has exacerbated the global education crisis with more than 1.5 billion children who face disrupted education while too many children are still at risk of not returning to school, especially those most marginalized – including girls, children with disabilities, and children on the move. Violence against children is increasing. COVID-19 is not just a health crisis – it is a human crisis and an education crisis.

Indeed, a quality education and lifelong learning is foundational to all other aspects of human development and sustainable development. The foundations for learning start in the womb – maternal health and nutrition is vital for brain development. We know that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical and set the stage for learning throughout the lifecycle. We know that children who experience stunting also experience difficulties with learning. When children do not have access to clean water and sanitation or life-saving vaccines for preventable diseases, their lives are at risk. Without access to quality and relevant education, young people cannot build the skills needed to succeed in life and work, and consequently they and their communities suffer.

We need to make sure that all children and youth have an equal chance – girls and boys, children and youth with disabilities, children and youth from marginalized communities. In order to achieve real progress on any of the SDGs, our approaches need to put education at the center.

ECW. The UN General Assembly President recently stressed the need to continue to invest in education during the current COVID-19 crisis and pointed out that many governments in the South do not have the infrastructure to provide adequate remote learning through technology, and this risks deepening the already existing global education divide. How do we translate global cooperation into a concrete bridge that reduces the divides, starting with financing, economic cooperation, and socio-economic development and equity?

Amina J. Mohammed. The COVID-19 crisis in combination with the existing global digital divide has posed considerable challenges for addressing the learning crisis. The pandemic has presented an additional risk of deepening the global education divide and losing the gains that have been made so far. With nearly three quarters of learners being affected by the school closures globally, many countries are facing unprecedented economic challenges including how they can ensure the equity and inclusion of their education systems. Reliance on new technologies for the provision of education during the crisis has highlighted the importance of investing more into making all education systems more resilient, open, inclusive and flexible.

The lack of access to technological readiness and connectivity in some developing countries, but also the overall level of their preparedness to adapt the curricula, prepare learners, educators and families, as well ensure efficient assessment and certification processes, would need to be addressed at scale if we are to learn from the COVID-19 crisis.

To address this complex situation, we all need to work together in partnership to ensure that all children and youth continue to learn, maintaining a focus on the those most in need.

The technology to reach everyone everywhere is available. It’s up to all of us to make sure that at all levels we can scale up these solutions empowering teachers to meet every child and young person’s learning needs in every context. Of course, this should be complemented with improving education systems’ preparedness to face global challenges while advancing on the achievement of the sustainable development for all.

ECW. The UN Secretary-General’s Reform places strong emphasis on ‘The New Way of Working,’ the ‘humanitarian-development coherence’ and the principles of ‘less bureaucracy and more accountability.’ These approaches and principles are also embedded in the strategy and work of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), which is hosted by the UN (UNICEF). Having followed ECW’s work closely since its inception, how do you see ECW contributing to UN reform and the SDGs, especially as we accelerate during the Decade of Action, through concrete measures and results.

Amina J. Mohammed. Despite progress on education provision in crisis-affected situations, the persisting barriers to education have worsened due to the pandemic. ECW’s response during COVID-19 has exemplified the ways in which it implements the new way of working with humanitarian speed and development depth. During the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, ECW and partners mobilized to provide education support at record speed. The quick release and flexibility of funding allowed UN country teams to respond quickly and to implement education interventions in the ways most appropriate for each context.

At the onset of COVID-19, utilizing the in-country education coordination mechanisms, a total of US$23 million was rapidly disbursed to 55 grantees across 26 countries within a period of 9 days between the receipt of initial applications and the first disbursements of funds. This collaborative approach ensures transparency, and promotes coordinated response and efficiency and effectiveness within the sector.

As an example, in Cameroon, the COVID-19 education response was developed by the education cluster members in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and key stakeholders. UNESCO and UNICEF were identified by the education cluster in country to receive the ECW first emergency response funds. The grantees are implementing with the support of the Education Cluster, the Government of Cameroon and civil society organizations. The US$1.5 million allocation in Cameroon for the COVID-19 response will ensure access and continuity of children’s learning, reaching 3.9 million children, of whom 2.2 million are girls, as well as 8,600 teachers, 60 per cent of whom are women.

ECW. With COVID-19, we have all had to adjust and reassess how we operate in the current environment to continue to deliver on the SDGs and will also need to look ahead as this crisis will stay with us for some time. What do you see as the priorities, both in terms of development sectors and strategic approach in mitigating the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis and the people we serve, especially those left furthest behind, such as low-income countries affected by conflict and refugee-hosting countries?

Amina J. Mohammed. Our first and foremost priority really is to address the human face of this global crisis and do it with a global response, which really does need solidarity. Therefore, in the UN, we see the emergency response as threefold. The health response in suppressing transmission of the virus. The Humanitarian response which we have to keep fueling to ensure people are safe in this crisis situation; and an urgent socio-economic response to stem the impact of the pandemic, by helping Governments and people act in a way that builds a better and greener future.

A UN socio-economic response framework was developed to protect the needs and rights of people living under the duress of the pandemic, with particular focus on the most vulnerable countries, groups, and people who risk being left behind.

The five streams of work that constitute this framework include: 1. ensuring that essential health services are still available and protecting health systems; 2. helping people cope with adversity, through social protection and basic services; 3. protecting jobs, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and informal sector workers through economic response and recovery programmes; 4. guiding the necessary surge in fiscal and financial stimulus to make macroeconomic policies work for the most vulnerable and strengthening multilateral and regional responses; and 5. promoting social cohesion and investing in community-led resilience and response systems. These five streams are connected by a strong environmental sustainability and gender equality imperative to build back better.

The UN´s response in the field of social protection and basic services includes supporting governments to adapt, extend and scale-up services to secure sustained learning for all children, and adolescents, preferably in schools. As such, the UN is working with national education authorities and private sector education service providers to support preschools and schools that can safely remain open, while assisting governments to scale up digital and other forms of remote learning. All efforts need to be put in place to make sure all children and youth remain engaged in remote learning if available and return to school once these reopen. The UN is also supporting teachers through professional training programmes on alternative learning methods.

The UN recognizes a multilateral response like none ever before is required. One that needs the courage to flip the current orthodoxies because we need new tools, new measures and we need to lift the policy barriers that we often find as an excuse as to why we can’t do things at the speed that it needs to be done.

We are presented with a once in a generation opportunity to reach all children and deliver on the SDGs. To do so, we need to work together and leverage partnerships. Our priority is to ensure that all children are learning – whether that’s returning to school, accessing education for the first time, utilizing digital technologies or sitting in a classroom. We need to reach those that are furthest behind, we need to innovate how we do business, and we need to provide real-time response. Children in emergencies and children on the move are in greatest need of support and must be included in any approach.

ECW. In the face of the global COVID-19 crisis unprecedented to our generation, it is also a time for reflection and a real resolve to building back better. Considering that an inclusive quality education for every child and adolescent is one essential part of the solution, how can all of the UN’s constituencies pro-actively and concretely provide unwavering support to realize the values and commitments made 75 years ago?

Amina J. Mohammed. COVID-19 presents us with an opportunity for countries to build back better with equity and inclusion at the center, anchored in the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on climate change. We have an opportunity to reimagine the overall purpose, content and delivery of education in the long term and importantly how the UN system could best support countries in making their education systems more resilient with current and future crises. It is important that we utilize the comparative advantages of each UN entity and other partners for a strengthened, efficient, and comprehensive global response. With UNICEF’s global field presence and education programming in 145 countries, and UNESCO’s network of specialized institutes and mandate to lead the global coordination of the achievement of the education related targets, the UN can utilize inter-sectoral approaches and tap into collective experience and practices from our expertise around the world.

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About Education Cannot Wait: ECW is the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies. It was launched by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with public and private donors, to address the urgent education needs of 75 million children and youth in conflict and crisis settings. ECW’s investment modalities are designed to usher in a more collaborative approach among actors on the ground, ensuring relief and development organizations join forces to achieve education outcomes. Education Cannot Wait is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

Please follow on Twitter: @EduCannotWait @YasmineSherif1 @KentPage
Additional information at: www.educationcannotwait.org

 

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