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During Yasmine Sherif’s visit to UNRWA schools in Ein El Hilweh, Lebanon, she told children, “I believe in you, and I believe in your strength.” ECW continues to support Palestine refugee children in Lebanon to overcome the impact of COVID-19 on their education. Credit: ECW/Fouad Choufany

By Maria Aoun
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec 15 2020 (IPS)

Education and health care were high on the agenda when the United Nations vowed to work toward a better future by setting 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met by 2030.

The global COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with harsh socio-economic challenges over the past few years, have led to several countries being off track to meet the SDGs. Lebanon is one such country: Lebanon hosts the largest proportion of refugees per capita of the local population in the world, and since 1948, it has been home to a large Palestine refugee community. Since 2011, it has seen more than one million Syrians – many of them children – cross the border into an already over-stretched and under-funded society with pre-existing and continuing education challenges for refugee, host-community and Lebanese children. Most of these refugees live in harsh conditions with children having limited or no access to education whatsoever. According to a 2018 assessment conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 58% of refugees between the ages of 5 to 18 were out of school and living in extreme poverty.

Unabated political conflicts along with an escalation in corruption in late 2019, combined with forced pandemic lockdown in 2020, the Lebanese currency devalued by 80% devaluation. Soon enough, school tuitions became unaffordable with 55% of the Lebanese population living under the poverty line according to the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA). Additionally, the pandemic forced the shifting of in-class school lessons to online classes; yet, many students did not have access to appropriate educational materials nor internet connections to follow through with their regular studies.

These hurdles to achieving progress towards SDG 4 (inclusive and equitable quality education for all), worsened after the devastating Beirut blast in August 2020, that devastated almost the entire city, causing the mass destruction of at least 163 schools in the capital of Lebanon. Over 85 thousand students were affected as a result, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The country has received substantial external aid to help rebuild Beirut and bring it back on its feet. Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, which is helping transform the delivery of education in emergencies, in close coordination with UNESCO Beirut and the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education, quickly provided US$1.5 million as a first emergency response to rehabilitate 40 heavily damaged schools in Beirut and to provide new school equipment for 94 public schools to replace those damaged in the blast.

This came on the heels of an initial grant by ECW for education in Lebanon that ran for a year and half from August 2018 to help refugee and host community children’s access to quality education. The Director of ECW, Yasmine Sherif was on the ground in Lebanon over the past week, along with a team of experts, to meet government, UN and civil society partners in Lebanon and to assess first-hand and strategize the roll-out of a new multi-year education resilience programme, especially as COVID-19 challenges continue.

Refugee children at Al Abrar ITS, Lebanon, where ECW is supporting NGO partner AVSI to increase learning for thousands of Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: ECW/Fouad Choufany

IPS sat down with Yasmine Sherif and the ECW team including Nasser Faqih, Chief of Strategic Partnerships and Maarten Barends, Chief of Humanitarian Liaison, to discuss the current state of children and education in Lebanon and what their mission to the country has discovered so far.

IPS: What do you see as most lacking at the moment for Lebanese students, especially after the multiple disasters for Lebanon in 2020?

Sherif: The biggest barrier to deliver quality and inclusive education to marginalized and crisis-affected Lebanese children and they are many, Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees, and anyone else who is marginalized, is financial resources. Lebanon is facing the severe impact of multiple crises on the lives and education of the country’s children and youth – socio-economic challenges, COVID-19, a large refugee population, and most recently, the devastating Beirut explosion. This is why I urgently appeal for additional funding to support these children. We must all invest in education in Lebanon today; if not now, it may soon be too late. I am calling on public and private sector donors around the world to support Lebanon’s education system with the fierce urgency of now.

IPS: While funds have been allocated to the rehabilitation of damaged schools and to deal with COVID-19, what is a sustainable plan for Lebanese students in terms of access to quality education for the years to come?

Faqih: Because of the crisis that happened with Syrian refugees there has been a lot of pressure on the public [schooling] system and there has also been a challenge in the quality of education in English language of instruction schools and francophone schools. Now with the economic crisis, many Lebanese children are shifting away from private education back to public education, so this putting more pressure on the public education system and it needs urgent funding support. To achieve long-term changes, I think eventually we need to look at the quality of education in terms of curriculum; enhancing the capacity of teachers; and, ensuring that Universal Education, which has always been the motto in Lebanon, is continued and public schools retake their place again.

IPS: What did you see in terms of school lessons taking place in the face of COVID-19 challenges and measures?

Sherif: Due to the pandemic lockdowns, much of the learning now is done online, through remote learning, often via Smartphone. But if you only have one Smartphone in the family but several children, it obviously impacts access to learning. But people in Lebanon are resilient and they know the importance of education for their children. I was inspired by those who, even if there are four children in a family, that Smartphone is being shared between all. Yesterday in the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) camp they showed us how they abide by the blended approach [hybrid system] which is applied all over Lebanon now. It’s a double shift of dividing the students in half, one week one group comes to school with social distancing and the other week[it’s] the other group’s turn.

Refugee children and their families meet Yasmine Sherif along with NGO partners Save the Children and Mouvement Social in Halba, north Lebanon. With ECW-funded education programs, children’s educational futures are being transformed for the better. Credit: ECW/Fouad Choufany

Sherif told IPS that the main purpose of the team being in Lebanon was to review the education crises the country is facing and to advocate globally for more funds to facilitate access to education for all. She especially emphasized the importance of creating education opportunities for marginalized communities and refugees during the global pandemic. ECW is now working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education on a multi-year education resilience program for the next three years in Lebanon.

During their visit, the ECW team met with multiple Lebanese organizations to layout plans to execute the new multi-year resilience program investment to support the education of refugees, host-communities and Lebanese children. ECW has already invested $6 million and is planning an additional $11 million in 2021, for a total of least $17 million. The multi-year program focuses on capacity and access to education, amongst other factors and is renewable every three years. Sherif explained that long term commitment to education is only possible if governments take “concessional loans with a very low interest rate” and reiterated that ”grants alone will not help Lebanon get its education system back”. Sherif told IPS that if the world recognized the several different crises being experienced right now by Lebanon and stood in solidarity by increasing financial aid to its educational sector, Lebanon could still achieve SDG4 by the year 2030. “It is simply a matter of taking action now,” she emphasized.

One other active partner on the ground, Jennifer Moorehead, Country Director of Save the Children told IPS that they are providing each child with a learning kit including basic stationary, learning aids, etc., as well as mobile data recharge cards so that children are able to engage in activities through online support. This learning kit is crucial, given the difficult socio-economic situation of many families.

During her six-day mission in the country, Sherif met with: Lebanon government representatives, including the Minister of Education and Higher Education; the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator; UN agencies, including UNRWA, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNHCR; civil society and bilateral partners, including Save the Children, AVSI, NRC, IRC and World Vision; and in-country donors.

 

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The post Getting Children in Lebanon Back to School Amongst Multiple Crises appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Protests in New York City against racism and police violence, following the death of George Floyd. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By Débora Leão and Suraj K. Sazawal
São Paulo/ Washington DC, Dec 15 2020 (IPS)

Few images better illustrate the recent decline in civil liberties in the United States than that of peaceful protesters near the White House being violently dispersed so Donald Trump could stage a photo-op.

Moments before the president emerged from his bunker on June 1 to hold a bible outside a boarded-up church, federal officers indiscriminately fired tear gas at people who had gathered in Lafayette Park to protest about the police killing of George Floyd. This was far from an isolated incident: nationwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality have been met with widespread police violence.

Since May, the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks fundamental freedoms across 196 countries, documented dozens of incidents where law enforcement officers, dressed in riot gear and armed with military grade-equipment, responded to Black Lives Matter protests with excessive force. These include officers driving vehicles at crowds of protesters and firing tear gas canisters and other projectiles at unarmed people, leaving at least 20 people partially blinded.

Throughout the year, journalists and health workers, clearly marked as such while covering the protests, have been harassed and assaulted. In one incident caught on live TV, a news reporter and camera operator from Louisville, Kentucky were shot by police with pepper balls while covering protests over the police killing of Breona Taylor.

This sustained repression of protests and an increased crackdown on fundamental freedoms led to the USA’s civic space rating being downgraded from ‘narrowed’ to ‘obstructed’ in our new report, People Power Under Attack 2020.

This disproportionate response by law enforcement officers to protesters goes beyond what is acceptable practice when policing protests, even during an emergency. Under international law, people have a right to assemble freely. Any restrictions to this right must be proportionate and necessary to address an emergency or reestablish public order.

The systematic use of excessive force and tactics such as kettling and mass arrests to enforce curfews raise troubling questions about the role of law enforcement agencies in responding to mass protests. The use of such tactics is contradictory to the alleged goal of maintaining public safety and health as they escalated tensions and prevented people from dispersing in a peaceful manner.

Even more concerning, they relocated protesters from open, outdoor spaces to police stations and other indoor facilities that often lack adequate space to allow for distancing, placing people at heightened risk for exposure to COVID-19.

Black Lives Matter Protest June 2020 Washington, DC. Credit: Geoff Livingston // creative commons

While recent brutality against protests for racial justice is concerning, the decline in basic freedoms in the USA began before this crackdown. The repression seen in 2020 was preceded by a wave of legislation limiting people’s rights to protest.

In recent years, several states enacted restrictive laws which, for example, criminalise protests near so-called critical infrastructure like oil pipelines, or limit demonstrations on school and university campuses. Increased penalties for trespassing and property damage are designed to intimidate and punish climate justice activists and organisations that speak out against fossil fuels.

In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, some of the ‘anti-protest’ bills introduced this year seem particularly cruel, for instance, by proposing to make people convicted of minor federal offences during protests ineligible for pandemic-related unemployment benefits.

Growing disregard for protest rights underscores wider intolerance for dissent. In parallel with restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly, the USA also saw an increase in attacks against the media, even before Black Lives Matter demonstrations erupted. Over the past three years, the CIVICUS Monitor has documented the frequent harassment of journalists by the authorities and civilians while covering political rallies or when conducting interviews.

Correspondents critical of the Trump administration or reporting on the humanitarian crisis in the USA/Mexico border region sometimes faced retaliation; documents obtained by ‘NBC 7 Investigates’ in 2019 showed the US government created a database of journalists who covered the migrant caravan and activists who were part of it, in some cases placing alerts on their passports.

In January 2020 a journalist was barred from accompanying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an official trip to Europe after Pompeo objected to the questions by another reporter from the same outlet.

The harsh treatment of people wanting to express themselves and the decline of civil liberties is part of a broader global decline in fundamental freedoms. Our new report shows less than four percent of the world’s population live in countries that respect the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.

Each country’s civic space is rated in one of five categories: ‘open, ‘narrowed, ‘obstructed,’ ‘restricted,’ or ‘closed’. The USA was one of 11 countries downgraded from its previous rating.

In the Americas, three other countries showed significant declines: Chile and Ecuador were downgraded to ‘obstructed’ and Costa Rica’s rating changed to ‘narrowed’. In the first two countries, as with the USA, rating changes reflected unnecessary and disproportionate crackdowns on mass protest movements.

Violations of protest rights were common across the region, with detention of protesters and excessive use of force among the top five violations of civic freedoms recorded this year. In addition, the Americas continue to be a dangerous place for those who dare to stand up for fundamental rights: across the world, 60 percent of human rights defenders killed in 2020 came from this region.

Stopping the erosion of fundamental freedoms requires a robust response. Governments must take steps to repeal legislation restricting the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression and make sure those who violate these freedoms are held accountable.

In the USA, the incoming Biden administration must actively work to reverse the narrowing of civic space. To rebuild trust between people and law enforcement, for instance, the Department of Justice should investigate misconduct and discriminatory practices at local police departments.

The authorities must engage with civil society and human rights defenders to create an environment where they are able to fulfil their vital roles and hold officials accountable.

 

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The post USA Downgraded as Civil Liberties Deteriorate Across the Americas appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Débora Leão is a Civic Space Researcher at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. She has a Master of Public Policy degree. Prior to joining CIVICUS, Débora worked on advocacy and research related to civic participation, urban development and climate justice.

 
Suraj K. Sazawal serves on the board to Defending Rights & Dissent and is co-author of ‘Civil Society Under Strain’, the first book to explore how the War on Terror impacted civil society and hurt humanitarian aid.

The post USA Downgraded as Civil Liberties Deteriorate Across the Americas appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Though these proposed changes have a potential to transform early learning in India, a lot will depend on how we actually implement them. | Picture courtesy: Nilesh Nimkar

By Nilesh Nimkar
THANE, MAHARASHTRA, India, Dec 15 2020 (IPS)

It is after almost 34 years that the central government approved the new National Education Policy 2020 on July 29, 2020. This document contains comments on the entire education system and its various recommendations are being heavily debated.

Some believe it to be a revolutionary policy, while others see it as a step towards the dilution of children’s fundamental right to education.

Many educators and practitioners in the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE) have welcomed this policy because it prominently mentions ECE, which has remained a relatively neglected field in previous policy documents.

However, merely highlighting the importance of ECE in the document is not enough. Creating a well-thought-out plan for the universalisation of ECE and its effective implementation would require a dedicated public budget for it, and the policy is silent about this.

The term Early Childhood Education (also known as pre-primary or pre-school education) traditionally refers to the education of children aged three to six years. In India, the current condition of education for this age group lies at two extremes.

In urban areas, pre-schools cover certain topics (such as letters from the alphabet and numbers up to 100) from the curricula of Grades 1 and 2. On the other hand, in rural areas, education in the anganwadis does not go beyond storytelling and teaching some songs and poems.

In fact, as a society, we are unclear about what should be taught to this age group, and how it should be taught. This lack of clarity reflects in our pre-schools.

 

ECE in the NEP 2020

Historically, ECE in India has remained relatively neglected. This started with the Kothari Commission Report of 1965-66, and continued with the Right to Education Act of 2009, which did not recognise education as a fundamental right for children between three to six years.

In contrast, the NEP 2020 envisages a five-year foundational stage of education: Three years of ECE and the first two years of primary school. In other words, ECE is now supposed to extend from ages three to eight. An important point to note here is that the changes proposed in NEP 2020 are necessarily curricular in nature and not at the level of the physical facilities for ECE.

The existing infrastructure of anganwadis, pre-primary sections attached to schools, and independent pre-school centres are expected to be strengthened for ECE and this can be done only if the government works out a clear roadmap. It also suggests that there should be continuity between the ECE curriculum and Grade 1 and 2 curricula. Though these proposed changes have a potential to transform early learning in India, a lot will depend on how we actually implement them.

 

Implementing the recommendations

The English saying, ‘the devil lies in the details’, implies that a seemingly easy task can become quite complicated once we get into the details. It is likely that a similar situation will present itself while implementing the recommendations of NEP 2020.

Closely connected with ECE, there is a section on the development of foundational literacy and numeracy in the policy. In this section, NEP 2020 recommends introducing three Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) into ECE. This is in spite of the fact that previous policies speak out against their inclusion.

This, combined with the fact that the education department has been entrusted with curriculum development, has become a cause for worry among many people working in ECE. They think that the currently informal nature of ECE may give way to education that revolves around reading, writing, and arithmetic.

 

Why are the three Rs given so much importance?

One of the reasons why reading, writing, and arithmetic have been given so much importance in the NEP 2020 is most likely influenced by the following targets India has set under the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which pertains to quality education:

1. By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.
2. By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.

Given this, the focus on these areas in the NEP 2020 seems unavoidable. But the larger question here becomes: is it correct to stress on reading-writing-arithmetic at a very young age?

 

Literacy education: Theory versus perceptions

One of the factors that plays a role in the growing focus on early literacy is society’s perception of it (which does not necessarily align with theoretical evidence).

In India, there is hardly any discussion or research about how to teach reading-writing to young children. One finds diverse beliefs about the concept of early literacy not only in the general public, but also among educators. Some prominent ones include:

1. Any literate individual can teach children to read and write, with little or no training.
2. Children cannot read and write without a thorough command on the letters of the alphabet.
3. It is necessary to teach the entire alphabet properly in pre-school (ABCD for English, Varnamala and Matras for Hindi or Marathi, and so on), so that children can pick up reading-writing quickly in Grade 1.
4. Children should be taught reading first, followed by writing.
5. Once the children know the alphabet, they become literate and start reading and writing almost automatically.

All these beliefs reflect the traditional perspective on literacy education, which considers reading-writing as skills, albeit slightly complex ones. Therefore, the approach to teaching these skills involves breaking up each skill into small parts and learning them one by one.

As a result, the classroom interaction revolves around tasks like repeated practice of standing and sleeping lines or curves as parts of letters or learning individual letters of the alphabet one by one. In pre-schools, it is common to see children practicing a letter or number through repeated copy-writing.

This approach ignores some salient aspects of reading and writing. The primary objective of reading is meaning-making. Through the construction of meaning, it is also expected that the reader should think critically about the thoughts and information expressed in the text. Both these aspects are completely neglected in the prevalent skill-based literacy instruction.

In the western world, an alternative approach to teaching literacy called the Emergent Literacy Approach was proposed in the 1960s. This approach considers literacy development as an integral part of children’s overall development.

It proposes that children need to develop some critical ideas related to printed language and the process of reading and writing much before the formal introduction of the letters of the alphabet. Some of these ideas are as follows:

1. Written language is just another form of the spoken language. What we speak can be written and can be read later.
2. Somebody writes a book and when we read it, we try to understand what the person has written.
3. Writing has many uses. For example, to make lists, to write letters, to label objects, etc.
4. Spoken language contains sentences. Sentences contain words. Words contain sounds.
5. It is possible to manipulate the sounds in words. It is possible to link them with a symbol.

Researchers in the field argue that children from literate homes already have an understanding of some of these ideas, and they learn the remaining when they come to pre-school.

However, children who come from homes which are not literate, such as first-generation school-goers, have to depend solely on the pre-school to learn these ideas.

In such cases, the pre-school plays a very important role. Many techniques have been developed all over the world to teach these ideas to pre-schoolers. Any good quality literacy instruction programme cannot afford to miss these well-established insights.

 

Learnings from an ECE intervention

Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST), where I work, has been working in the field of ECE for the last few years. We have implemented a literacy programme based on the Emergent Literacy Approach in more than 1,700 anganwadis across Maharashtra.

The data collected so far has shown extremely positive results. We tracked the achievement of anganwadi children during the intervention years and continued to track the same children even after they had moved to primary school; and compared the same with a control group.

After three years of intervention we saw a significant difference of about 19 percentage points on school-readiness test between the control and intervention groups in 2016. This gap persisted even after the intervention ended and the children moved to primary school, when they were tested using a grade-appropriate test.

The decline in the mean scores of both the groups in the year 2019 could probably be attributed to the weak inputs in the primary grades. This shows that early intervention has a long-term impact on children’s learning. However, it is necessary to continue this input in the primary grades.

This aligns very well with the recommendation of NEP to consider the three years of pre-school and first two years of primary schools as one curricular stage.

The number 1,700 may sound very small if we consider the total number of anganwadis in Maharashtra (about 1,08,005), but it highlights the need for continuing the input from pre-school to the first two years of primary school. These types of insights from small-scale experiments need to be taken into account while evolving a large-scale implementation plan for the foundational stage proposed in NEP.

 

So how do we go ahead?

From this discussion, it is apparent that there is a huge difference between society’s perception of literacy education and the picture that emerges from the theoretical framework and from small-scale experiments. To make foundational literacy a success, it is critical to define early literacy in the light of the theoretical framework.

The proposed ‘National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission’ is expected to lay down such a framework. At this juncture, it is also necessary to have clarity and consensus on the objectives of foundational literacy. Further, it is important to recognise literacy as a means to understand and express thoughts.

Literacy development is a continuous process, and is an important aspect of children’s development. Without this understanding, it would be risky to bring together pre-school centres and early grades of primary school. To put it simply, it would be a welcome change to extend the informality of preschool to Grades 1 and 2. However, it would be detrimental for children if the prevalent skill-based literacy education and evaluation of primary schools is brought down to pre-schools.

To bring this change on a massive scale in a country like India, we need to not only provide appropriate inputs to teachers, but also to create awareness in the community at large. During implementation, if the prevalent popular perception of literacy is taken as a base—instead of the theoretical framework and the insights from empirical work—it is likely to prove harmful.

 

Nilesh Nimkar has over 20 years’ experience in the field of early childhood education, elementary education, teacher education and curriculum development. He has initiated several innovative programs for teachers and children, specially in the rural and tribal areas. He has received the Maharashtra Foundation Award for ‘Outstanding social work in the field of education’.

 

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

The post India: National Education Policy 2020 Could Transform Early Childhood Education If Implemented Effectively appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Local environmental experts stress that conservation is crucial to sustain the ecological services provided by forests in Sri Lanka. Courtesy: CC by 2.0/charlieontravel.com

By Devana Senanayake and Janik Sittampalam
COLOMBO , Dec 15 2020 (IPS)

The Sri Lankan government recently cancelled three circulars that protected 700,000 hectares of forests, labelled Other State Forests (OSFs), which are not classified as protected areas but account for five percent of the island nation’s remaining 16.5 percent of forest cover.

Sri Lanka’s OSFs are areas managed by the Department of Forest Conservation (DFC), but are not a part of areas such as National Parks, Wildlife Reserves or Elephant Sanctuaries.

With the removal of three circulars, particularly 05/2001, control over OSFs have been handed back to Sri Lanka’s local authorities: District and Divisional Secretariats.

Even before the removal of the circulars, land had been allocated to families to construct temporary buildings. The removal of the circulars legitimised this practice and expedited the process.

Local newspapers have reported that the removal of the three circulars was pushed by corporate interests under the facade of protection for smallholder farmers. While the veracity of these claims are unclear, deforestation has occurred at rapid rates in Sri Lanka over the last 54 years.

• Convenor for the Center for Environment and Nature Studies, Dr Ravindra Kariyawasam, estimated that in 1882, Sri Lanka had a forest density of 82 percent but this reduced to 16.5 percent by 2019. 

Like other developing nations such as Brazil, India and Indonesia, deforestation for a variety of development purposes has been pursued at the cost of the country’s natural resources.

But local environmental experts stress that conservation is crucial to sustain the ecological services provided by forests. As a result, some have called for sustainable mechanisms that consider conservation and agricultural production should be adopted in the bid to develop the country.

Unpacking the obstacles to conservation in Sri Lanka

Conservation has been complicated in Sri Lanka. One of the primary obstacles to the implementation of a successful conservation strategy has been the lack of coordination by the DFC and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), according to executive director of Center for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Hemantha Withanage.

Recently, there have been reports of land grabbing in Nilgala Forest in Sri Lanka’s Uva and Eastern provinces. While Nilgala Forest’s Eastern section of 9,000 ha is under the DWC, another 15,000 ha are under the DFC. As forest areas are allocated to separate departments, it is unclear how issues such as land management and land acquisition are managed.

While Sri Lanka has several environmental conservation laws such as National Environmental Act No. 47 of 1980 and the National Environmental Act of 1988, conservation is rarely favoured over human interests.

For example, in October 2017, Forest Department officers arrested 17 persons who attempted to cultivate land in the Radalla Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka’s Eastern province. The Pottuvil Magistrate issued an order for the continuance of cultivation until the case’s conclusion. The order blocked the DFC, agriculture department, DWC and the police from taking action against people cultivating on protected land. Moreover, the order threatened legal action against any officer who interrupted cultivation activities. This order alone resulted in the deforestation of almost some 200 acres of the reserve.

There are also limited personnel to parole the areas. Recent reports of deforestation from Ampara, in Sri Lanka’s Eastern province revealed that only 22 Forest Officers were available to protect the Pottuvil and Lahugala areas.

“They also do not have enough staff members in the field. One Forest Officer might have 17,000  to 18,000 ha of forest area so you cannot manage such a forest area with one person,” Withanage, executive director of CEJ, told IPS.

Forests have ecological services

Despite the challenges of conservation, deeply forested areas in the dry zone have endemic biodiversity (such as the Sri Lankan leopard, sloth bear and elephants) and ecological services that are far too important to fully compromise.

“A study done by the World Bank looked at the value of the ecosystems on the planet and estimated it to be valued at $24 trillion annually,” systems ecologist and founder of Analog Forestry, Dr. Ranil Senanayake, told IPS.

Sri Lanka has a series of cloud forests—a unique alpine forest type that absorbs moisture for the air. Water is captured and released continuously by the trees in OSF forests. Many major rivers such as the Mahaweli River and Welawe River are fed by this water release, particularly in the dry season. Limited soil erosion prevents desertification and nutrient cycling reduces the farmers’ dependence on artificial fertilisers.

Trees reduce air pollution and improve air quality in urban areas. A study by the Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering revealed that green zones in urban areas decreased the lead percentage by 85 percent. Moreover, carbon sequestration absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere and reduced the risk of climate change.

These services are invaluable and perhaps even more expensive to retain or replicate artificially. A study by K. Ninan and M. Inoue analysed the total value of  Japan’s Oku Aizu Forest Ecosystem Reserve calculated ecosystem services such as: Water Conservation (valued at $1,385,430), Water Purification (valued at $46,725) and Air Pollutant Absorption (valued at $27, 039).

Can conservation and development be balanced?

There should be an evaluation of forests so that land can be released for development but the ecological services can be retained and the natural equilibrium of the environment is still kept intact, according to Senanayake.

Senanayake proposed a national system to evaluate the units released for development: “Certain pieces of land have limited ecological, biodiversity and biomass value. Those are the first lands that the government can think of giving out. Then there are lands of extreme value and therefore, these lands cannot be alienated. You may have the same endangered ecosystem in a local area. These ten pieces might be the only pieces in the entire planet. That’s the danger!”

When forests are released another solution is to provide incentives for conservation so that a proportion of the benefits of these ‘services’ can be reaped.

In Costa Rica, landholders are compensated for conservation of forests through tax certificates and direct payments. Pago de Servicios Ambientales (PSAs) are provided in different amounts for reforestation, forest management and natural regeneration.

Funding for these payments came from various sources such as fossil fuel tax and international donations, or by selling carbon credit bonds. By 1997, $14 million was paid for environmental services. These payments supported the reforestation of 6,500 ha, the management of 10,000 ha of natural forests and the protection of another 79,000 ha of forest.

A study by Conservation Biology in Costa Rica confirmed that agricultural areas with abundant tree cover provided services such as natural pest management, carbon sequestration and soil conservation.

According to Senanayake, perhaps the best scenario for local developers is to pursue methods such as analog forestry—an ecosystem restoration practice which considers forest formation and forest services to set up a system characterised by a high biodiversity to biomass ratio.

Senanayake implemented the practice on an abandoned rubber farm in Sri Lanka as an alternative to monoculture plantations. It has spread to several countries such as India, Costa Rica and Kenya.

“Analog forestry encourages you to mature your farm ecosystem which gives you stability and sustainability,” said Senanayake. “None of our agriculture considers our native biodiversity. Analog forestry demands that you also attend to that.”

“It pushes optimal production as opposed to maximum production. Maximum production pushes you to monocultures and depending on the market vagaries of one crop. Analog forestry helps you spread the risk. If the market for one thing decreases, there is a market for something else. So it’s optimal production.”

Senanayake currently plans to set up  a state recognised course on analog forestry with the Vocational Training Institute of Forestry. With this minimum qualification he hopes that local people can then provide for themselves while still conserving their environment.

 

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 2020 (IPS)

Just before the World Health Assembly (WHA), an 18 May open letter by world leaders and experts urged governments to ensure that all COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests are patent-free, fairly distributed and available to all, free of charge.

Pious promises
Leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Norway and the European Commission called for the vaccine to be “produced by the world, for the whole world” as a “global public good of the 21st century”, while China’s President Xi promised a vaccine developed by China would be a “global public good”.

Anis Chowdhury

The United Nations Secretary-General also insisted on access to all when available. The WHA unanimously agreed that vaccines, treatments and tests are global public goods, but was vague on the implications.

As COVID vaccines have become available, nearly 70 poor countries are left out. Many more people will be infected and may die without vaccinations, warns the People’s Vaccine Alliance, advocating equitable and low-cost access.

As the rich and powerful secure access, poor countries will leave out most people as only one in ten can be vaccinated in 2021, making a mockery of the Sustainable Development Goals’ over-arching principle of ‘leaving no one behind’.

Waiving WTO rules
The authors of “Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) argue that IPR are the main stumbling block. Meanwhile, South Africa and India have proposed that the World Trade Organization (WTO) temporarily waive its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules limiting access to COVID-19 medicines, tools, equipment and vaccines.

The proposal – welcomed by the WHO Director-General and supported by nearly 100 governments and many civil society organisations around the world – goes beyond the Doha Declaration’s limited flexibilities for national emergencies and circumstances of extreme urgency.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

But Brazil, one of the worst hit countries, opposes the proposal, together with the US, the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Australia and Japan, insisting the Doha Declaration is sufficient.

The empire fights back
The US insists that IP protection is best to ensure “swift delivery” while the EU claims there is “no indication that IPR issues have been a genuine barrier … to COVID-19-related medicines and technologies” as the UK dismisses the proposal as “an extreme measure to address an unproven problem”.

The Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations Director-General claims it “would jeopardize future medical innovation, making us more vulnerable to other diseases”, while The Wall Street Journal denounced it as “A Global Covid Vaccine Heist”, warning “their effort would harm everyone, including the poor”.

Citing AstraZeneca’s agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Brazilian companies, other opponents assert that voluntary mechanisms should suffice, insisting the public-private COVAX initiative ensures fair and equitable access.

But the US has refused to join COVAX, part of the WHO-blessed, donor-funded Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), ostensibly committed to “equitable global access to innovative tools for COVID-19 for all”.

Intellectual property fraud
The Doha Declaration only covers patents, ignoring proprietary technology to safely manufacture vaccines. Meanwhile, there is not enough interest, let alone capacity among leading pharmaceutical companies to produce enough vaccines, safely and affordably, for everyone before 2024.

Despite the Doha Declaration, developing countries are still under great pressure from the EU and the US. The rules allowing ‘compulsory licensing’ are very restrictive, with countries required to separately negotiate contracts with companies for specific amounts, periods and purposes, deterring and thus often bypassing those with limited financial and legal capacities.

South Africa cited the examples of Regeneron and Eli Lilly, which have already committed most of their COVID-19 antibody cocktail drugs to the US. In India, Pfizer has legally blocked alternative pneumococcal vaccines from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In South Korea, Pfizer has forced SK Bioscience to stop producing its pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).

To be sure, patents are not necessary for innovation, with the Harvard Business Review showing IPR law actually stifling it. Meanwhile, The Economist has condemned patent trolling, which has reduced venture capital investment in start-ups and R&D spending, especially by small firms.

Public subsidies
Like most other life-saving drugs and vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines and treatment technologies owe much to public investment. Even the Trump administration provided US$10.5 billion to vaccine development companies.

Moderna’s vaccine emerged from a partnership with the National Institute of Health (NIH). Research at the NIH, Defence Department and federally funded university laboratories have been crucial for rapid US vaccine development.

Pfizer has received a US$455 million German government grant and nearly US$6 billion in US and EU purchase commitments. AstraZeneca received more than £84 million (US$111 million) from the UK government, and more than US$2 billion from the US and EU for research and via purchase orders.

But although public funding for most medicine and vaccine development is the norm, Big Pharma typically keeps the monopoly profits they enjoy from the IPR they retain.

Voluntary mechanisms inadequate
COVAX seeks to procure two billion vaccine doses, to be shared “equally” between rich and poor countries, but has only reserved 700,000 vaccine doses so far, while the poorest countries, with 1.7 billion people, cannot afford a single deal. Meanwhile, rich countries have secured six billion doses for themselves.

Thus, even if and when COVAX procures its targeted two billion vaccine doses, less than a billion will go to poor countries. If the vaccine requires two doses, as many – including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – assume, this will only be enough for less than half a billion people.

Meanwhile, ACT-A’s diagnostics work seeks to procure 500 million tests, only a small fraction of what is required. Even if fully financed, which is not the case, this is only a partial solution at best.

But with the massive funding shortfall, even these modest targets will not be reached. To date, only US$5 billion of the US$43 billion needed for poor countries in 2021 has been raised.

Profitable philanthropy
As of mid-October, while 18 generic pharmaceutical companies had signed up, not a single major drug company had joined WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) to encourage industry contributions of IP, technologies and data to scale up worldwide sharing and production of all such needs.

Meanwhile, a few companies have ‘voluntarily’ given up some IPR, if only temporarily. Moderna has promised to license its COVID-19 related patents to other vaccine manufacturers, and not enforce its own patents. But their pledge is limited, allowing it to enforce its patents “post pandemic”, as defined by Moderna.

Besides profiting from licensing in the longer term, Moderna’s pledge will enable it to grow the new mRNA market its business is based on, by establishing and promoting a transformational drug therapy platform, yielding gains for years to come.

AstraZeneca has announced that its vaccine, researched at Oxford University, will be available at cost in some locations, but only until July 2021. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly has agreed, with the Gates Foundation, to supply – without demanding royalties from low- and middle-income countries – its (still experimental) COVID-19 antibody treatment, but did not specify how many doses.

Indeed, as Proudhon warned almost two centuries ago, ‘property is theft’.

 

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The post Intellectual Property Monopolies Block Vaccine Access appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

The United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign marked the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence (25 November to 10 December 2020) at a time when COVID-19 exacerbated the conditions women operate under.

The theme, Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!, was aimed at amplifying the global call to action to bridge funding gaps, ensure essential services for the survivors of violence during the pandemic, prevent abuse and collect data that could lead to life-saving services for women and girls.

While the campaign rippled across social media, women’snetworking platform Fuzia www.fuzia.com) responded with several initiatives aimed at their 4 million followers.

Globally as countries implemented lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, violence against women, especially domestic violence, intensified. School closures and economic strains left women and girls poorer.

UN Women call the abuse against women during COVID-19 the “shadow pandemic” and in recent studies outlined shocking statistics. They estimate 243 million women and girls were abused by an intimate partner in the past year. Meanwhile, less than 40 percent of women who experience violence report it or seek help.

Recognising the dire need for help Fuzia hosted a live session with a licensed clinical psychologist, Aastha Kapoor, talking about how to survive an abusive relationship. Kapoor, in conversation with Fuzia’s project manager Anjali Joshi, spoke about how difficult it is for abused women to confront their reality.

Kapoor said that her patients often take three or four sessions before talking about the abuse, and even then, it is often difficult to break ties with the abuser.

The women “have to communicate with themselves” to end these relationships and understand that while there is hope that people will change, this is seldom the case, she warned.

Joshi spoke about how abused women are often not believed, a phenomenon she termed ‘gaslighting’ and persuaded by family and others to return to abusive relationships.

Taboo topics like triggers of suicide, openly seeking mental health counselling, therapy, interpersonal relationship issues, dos and don’ts, manipulation, adolescence, and the boundaries of parent-child relationships formed part of the interview, with viewers getting their questions answered immediately.

“Abuse is not necessarily always physical abuse. Abuse also comes as manipulation, gaslighting, which might happen with friends, workplace, partners, and family,” Kapoor said. “So, it is important to have a safe space to come out and speak. A conversation and judgment-free platform can make the victim open up and seek guidance.”

Joshi remarked that people need to talk about these sensitive topics because these are evident in real life. Identifying and learning that the problem is here is the first step to cure the issue.

Fuzia works entirely on digital platforms and uses other exciting and innovative techniques to support its online community.

Its editorial philosophy includes supporting women as they handle matters at home, bringing up children, as workers – especially in healthcare fields.

Without support, it recognises that women could suffer from mental health issues and identity crises. This nurturing and societal support varies significantly from one country to another, and regional norms tend to have a strong influence.

Fuzia has understood and pinpointed these needs and came up with innovative ways to lend a supporting hand to females across the globe.

With a variety of followers and creative thinkers under one umbrella, they have created a space that is judgment free and nurturing. Any age, race, colour, ethnicity, and gender orientation are welcome on their platform.

Apart from domestic violence and abuse, their forums provide support for people experiencing workplace neglect, healthy and unhealthy relationship spectrums. It also tackles LGBTQ issues, teen and tween issues, self-care, healing a trauma and suicide prevention among others are discussed here, and guidance, along with region-specific information is provided.

In many countries where religion and societal stigmas play a central role, women are often side-lined. Their saying “NO” can be taken as a form of “YES” and personal opinions and choices are virtually ignored. Selfcare, matters of body and sexuality are highly negated and considered taboo topics.

Megs Shah, CEO of The Parasol Cooperative, in an exclusive interview with IPS, said that women often live in these abusive relationships because of societal pressure.

Thoughts like: “What will people say?”; “I am a helpless woman”; “My children will suffer if I leave a relationship”; “I will be financially constrained,” keep the abused women from asking for help.

Often these beliefs are articulated when she speaks to survivors and single mothers on a Facebook group.

Another, recently launched, Fuzia campaign, “Write out Loud”, encourages writers were to creatively express their views on women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Fuzia also has a blogger and podcaster who writes under the pseudonym “Zia”. She tackles women empowerment, gender equality, and activism.

Zia comments during the 16 days: “Compromises are required in all relationships, but women no longer need to be self-sacrificing. We now have to put our foot down. We now have to break the cycle of patriarchy. For that, we now have to raise the voices we were born with. The new norm in society should be EQUALITY. All relationships should strive for it. When we decide to break the norms when we stand up for ourselves, and that’s when we decide what’s right and what’s wrong.”

This article is a sponsored feature.

 

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The post Helping Women to Step out of the ‘Shadow Pandemic’ of Women Abuse appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

Decades of aggressive efforts to create equal opportunities for women, shatter the glass ceiling and build a more inclusive society only ends up in failure, when the key stake holders refuse to acknowledge discriminatory laws, socio-cultural and religious set ups that continue to threaten progress made by the female work force.

Yousra Imran

British Egyptian writer Yousra Imran’s book ‘Hijab and Red Lipstick’ gives a sharp insight into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sara, the protagonist in the book is torn between her father’s conservative interpretation of Islam, his need to control and protect her from everything he calls “haram”, a term used for ‘forbidden’ in Islam and her desperate bid for freedom from life under the guardianship system.

“The current challenges for women in the Gulf and some Middle Eastern countries is that despite modernization the law still sees women as minors when they are unmarried women, and if they do get married, legally they move from being under the guardianship of a father or brother to the guardianship of their husband.

“Women just want their own agency – the ability to make decisions without needing a written letter of permission or no objection letter from a male guardian”, says Yousra Imran to IPS. She is the author of the book Hijab and Red Lipstick.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG) that aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls still remains a challenge in many parts of the world.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), “In Arab region, women face high barriers to entry into the labor market and are at the risk of unemployment than men.”

The latest policy brief from the UN on The Impact of Covid-19 on Women, states that “The coronavirus outbreak exacerbates existing inequalities for women and girls across every sphere – from health and the economy, to security and social protection. The pandemic has also led to an increase in violence against women and girls – particularly domestic violence which has intensified.”

Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls, are crucial accelerators for sustainable development goals. Sexual violence and exploitation, division of unpaid care, local domestic work and discrimination in public offices, all remain huge barriers in the progress of SDGs, according to the UNDP.

It is important for the Middle East region to acknowledge women’s right as a human right and build an eco system that doesn’t lead to intensification of the authorities crackdown against women and women’s right defenders in the country.

In 2016, a historical attempt was made by 14,000 Saudi women when they handed over a petition to the government, calling for an end to the country’s male guardianship system. The women in Saudi Arabia refused to be treated as “second class-citizens” and demanded to be treated as “full citizens”.

It took almost three years for Saudi authorities to announce reforms to the discriminatory male guardianship system.

Among other things, women could travel without the permission of a male guardian, apply for and obtain passport over the age of 21, register a marriage, divorce or a child’s birth. While these efforts were welcomed, they were far from the abolishment of the guardianship system. Women still can’t marry without the permission of a guardian, or provide consent for their children to marry. Women can’t leave prison, exit domestic violence shelter or pass on citizenship to their children without permission from their guardian.

“There have been a few improvements in recent years “, says Yousra. Women in Saudi Arabia getting the right to drive, and greater emancipation of women into leadership roles and into the workforce across the Gulf, however, the legal system itself still needs addressing and laws need to be changed, she says.

The move towards greater freedom for women in Saudi Arabia were undermined and lost, when right after the driving ban was lifted, an apparent crackdown on women got dozens of activists detained and arrested, ironically partly for calling for these very reforms. A few who are still in jails fighting for their freedom.

All of these factors will perhaps remain in violation of Saudi Arabia’s human rights obligation and its inability to realize its Vision 2030, that declares women—half of the country’s population—to be a “great asset”.

While the UAE has made several moves to overhaul some of its strictest Islamic laws and bolster women’s rights, there are still questions in regards to its obligations under international human rights law and equality of women.

Qatar too has faced questions on obligations towards women’s rights, as family laws still continue to discriminate against women, including making it much more difficult for women to seek divorce, protection against violence, including within the family. Human rights organizations have continuously called on Qatar to stop criminalizing sex outside marriage and ends its agressive enforcement of “love crimes”.

The failure to continuously acknowledge regions heavily restricted freedom of expression and civil society activities, violations by security forces continue in the context of the criminal justice systems, including torture and other ill-treatment, especially towards its women.

Despite significant progress through reforms on paper towards the lives of Arab women that has been achieved over the years, the journey ahead is still long, complex and far from meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 5 and Vision 2030.

Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where she regularly interviews Muslim women from across the world on various topics.

 

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The post Discriminatory Laws Still Holding Women Back in the Middle East appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Women collecting water from a deep tube well in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh. Credit: A.S.M. Shafiqur Rahman/IPS

By External Source
Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

Globally, millions of people don’t have access to water in their home. They collect water from shared water supply points or surface water sources and physically carry water containers back home for household use.

The importance of accessing water that’s safe to drink and enough water for washing, cleaning and cooking is clear. But little attention has been given to the safety of water collection away from home, or to the health and safety of the people who typically do this work. It’s most often women and girls from low income households who must queue for, collect and carry water home.

Little attention has been given to the safety of water collection away from home, or to the health and safety of the people who typically do this work. It’s most often women and girls from low income households who must queue for, collect and carry water home

Three key pieces of research that we’ve done recently highlight the dangers of collecting water. The studies include many African countries and each report cites specific country level data.

The research included a systematic review of published studies, analysis of data from surveys in 41 countries and a survey of 6,291 people across 24 sites in 21 low and middle income countries. These respondents were asked whether they had ever been injured while collecting water.

First we looked for evidence that carrying water is associated with health problems. The literature review found evidence that water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, problems accessing perinatal health care and violence against vulnerable people. We found strong evidence that water carriage is associated with stress.

Another analysis focused on the link with maternal and child health. An analysis of surveys found that compared to households with water access on premises, fetching water is associated with poorer maternal and child health outcomes. Water access on premises is associated with improvements to maternal and child health.

We also did a survey to find out who was getting injured while fetching water. The mean age of those surveyed was 37 years. Just over 72% were female and 43% lived in rural settings. Of our respondents, 845 (13%) reported one or more water-fetching injuries (879 injuries).

In estimating the global burden of disease from lack of access to safe drinking water, injuries from collecting water are often ignored. This means that problems associated with a lack of safely managed drinking water are likely to be underestimated.

Understanding why and how injuries occur can motivate action to provide water access on premises for more people. Where water collection away from home must continue, understanding how injuries occur can help find ways to make water collection safer.

 

Who’s getting injured and how

We found that the odds of injury were 50% greater for women compared to men, nearly five times higher for rural dwellers and 2.75 times higher for peri-urban dwellers compared to urban dwellers. Greater household water insecurity increased the likelihood of a water-fetching injury.

Each additional hour spent collecting water per week was associated with a 2% increase in the odds of injury. Off-premise water sources requiring queuing and surface waters almost doubled the odds of injury compared to on-premise sources.

In our survey, 554 people who talked about how their injury occurred revealed some of the dangers of water collection. Falls were most common (76.4%); people described slipping or falling while queuing or carrying water. Women were nearly twice as likely to fall as men (61.4% vs 33.7%). Nearly all “traffic accidents” – motorised vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents or while riding an animal during water fetching – occurred in Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya. These were more likely to be reported by men.

Injuries which occurred directly from carrying water containers or collecting water from wells accounted for 6.5% of injury mechanisms.

Physical confrontation (6.9%) also caused injury, and men were more likely than women to report this (10.7% vs 3.5%). There were intimations of sexual assault, for example a woman from Kampala said:

The caretaker of the pre-paid meter wanted to fall in love with me, but I told him that I am married and have children which led him to hate me, and he has hit me before.

Other researchers have reported that gender based violence occurs when people access water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. We expect that interpersonal violence was under reported in our study. Respondents may not discuss it because of feelings of distress or shame, fear of punishment from attackers or family members, or the absence of support for victims.

 

Women are responsible for providing water for their families. Many spend hours travelling to the wells and back home every day, carrying heavy clay pots on their heads. Credit: Irfan Ahmed/IPS

 

Changes needed

There’s a clear need for water supply systems that prioritise personal safety alongside the traditional goals of improving water quality and quantity.

Our findings suggest several ways to manage and reduce the risk of water-fetching injuries through existing programmes. These include:

• Collecting additional data on physical safety and accessibility.
• Supplying water on premises, which can include schools and work places.
• Maintaining numerous shared water points and supporting affordable delivery systems to reduce trip distance and time spent in queues.
• Providing equipment such as wheelbarrows, to reduce pain and fatigue from carrying water containers.
• Maintaining clear pathways along water collection routes. This would reduce the risk of injury due to slips, falls and traffic hazards.
• Encouraging men to help with water carriage through public health campaigns, to reduce women’s injury risk and other adverse maternal and child health outcomes associated with water fetching.
• Locating water points in visible, open, public places alongside campaigns to reduce gender-based violence and abuse.

Dr Jo-Anne Geere, Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia

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

The post Safe Drinking Water Should Mean Safe Collection Too: How to Reduce the Risks appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Raghbendra Jha, Professor of Economics and Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre, Australian National University

By Raghbendra Jha
CANBERRA, Australia, Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

Economic growth is the time-tested method of raising living standards and, if not accompanied by large increases in inequality, lowering poverty. Since World War II, economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, including in South Asia.

Raghbendra Jha

Now, economic growth is largely the result of three factors: physical and human capital accumulation, labour force growth and productivity growth. Clearly, the faster the rate of productivity growth the higher the rate of economic growth and the greater the reduction in poverty and improvement in living standards.

One of the surest ways of improving productivity growth is through Research and Development (R&D expenditure). The above table contrasts the 2018 experience of two major Asian countries in this regard: India and South Korea. Both countries had comparable per capita incomes in 1950. Now South Korea has attained high-income country status whereas India is a low middle-income country.

One of the reasons for this is the difference in the R&D expenditure of the two countries. As the above table shows, Korea spends more than 6 times India on R&D as percentage of individual GDPs. The absolute value of R&D expenditure is higher in Korea and this country has many more researchers per million population. Also interesting is the pattern of R&D expenditure in the two countries. The bulk of R&D expenditure in Korea is carried out by businesses whereas in India more than half of R&D expenditure is by government, through tax receipts.

This implies that when government finances are tight, as they will be during the current pandemic, R&D expenditure will be reduced. Also, government administered funds may not be as efficiently allocated as those in private business enterprises. Thus, in low-income countries there is a need to raise tax revenues for the purpose of subsidising R&D.

Also, agricultural productivity is not keeping pace with the speed of urbanization and growth in food demand and the demand for food is highly skewed making for an inordinate amount of food going for non-human consumption and wastage.

By 2050 more than two-thirds of the world’ population will be living in metropolitan centres. Concurrently, the population of the world is expected to rise from 7.7 billion in 2019–20 to around 9.8 billion in 2050. This growth is expected to be largely concentrated in Africa and Asia with stagnant, even declining, populations in many OECD countries.

Source: http://uis.unesco.org/apps/visualisations/research-and-development-spending/

Global urban population has grown by a staggering 411 per cent between 1960 and 2018—much higher than the growth of the total population. In Sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries urban population has grown more than ten-fold.

At the global level, cereal yield per hectare has grown by 285 per cent over the period 1961 to 2017 with much smaller increases in less well-off regions.

In many developing countries the total population has grown at a much faster rate than agricultural yield. These are some of the very countries that will experience the fastest pace of urbanization. Hence, there are genuine concerns for prospects for food security in these countries.

Although cereal yield has gone up, there is a substantial diversion of cereals for purposes other than human consumption, e.g. livestock. In the US, in 2015, 36 percent of corn was being used for feeding animals and 75 percent of global soya output was used to feed animals. Almost one third of the world’s arable land is being used to grow crops to feed animals.

In 2015, 70 billion farm animals were raised for the purposes of food. Over time, as world incomes grow, there is likely to be a further shift towards the consumption of meat and other animal products.

Trend rate of agricultural productivity growth is about 1.5 percent per annum whereas the rate of growth required to ensure food security for all by 2050 is about 1.75 percent. This significant gap needs to be closed. It is, therefore, imperative to boost agricultural R&D across the world, particularly in developing countries.

The diversion of grain to feed farm animals should be curtailed significantly. The consumption of crops by farm animals is creating an externality, i.e., reducing access to food for several millions. The market is unable to price this externality. A consumption tax on meat would serve this purpose. This is a market-based solution.

The diversion of crops to the production of biomass, ethanol and other products should be restricted by taxing such products. The revenue raised from both these taxes could be used for subsidising R&D in general and agriculture in particular to stimulate economic and food growth.

 

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The post R & D Expenditure: How to Raise It and Why appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Raghbendra Jha, Professor of Economics and Executive Director, Australia South Asia Research Centre, Australian National University

The post R & D Expenditure: How to Raise It and Why appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Accra-based coffee and cocoa trader Meron Dagnew at the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Credit: Africa Renewal

By Kingsley Ighobor
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 2020 (IPS)

One day in February 2020, Accra-based coffee and cocoa trader Meron Dagnew visited the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to introduce herself, even before the Secretariat was fully operational.

“I couldn’t wait,” she told Africa Renewal in a recent interview “I need free trading in Africa to begin as quickly as possible; it will be so good for my business.”

The AfCFTA Secretariat officially opened in Accra on 17 August 2020, although, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, free trading will now begin on 1st January 2021 instead of the originally scheduled date of 1 July 2020.

Ms. Dagnew is eager to take advantage of reduced tariffs and a consolidated market — potential spinoffs from AfCFTA — to expand the operations of her company, BE Kollective that imports Ethiopian coffee to Ghana and exports Ghanaian cocoa to Ethiopia.

“I am hoping to not pay as much as 35 per cent tariffs on my goods; I am hoping that soon I can take my value-added cocoa and coffee to African countries without problems of rules of origin. I could then make more profit, expand my business and hire more people,” she says.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest coffee producers and Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, after Côte d’Ivoire. Ms. Dagnew is particularly attracted to West Africa’s market of 380 million people.

High tariffs and non-tariff barriers such as customs delays and administrative bottlenecks at border posts underscore the challenges facing African traders and at the same time accentuate a strong desire by traders for a free trade zone.

Kingsley Ighobor

The AfCFTA eliminates tariffs on 90 per cent of goods produced on the continent, tackles non-tariff barriers to trade and guarantees the free movement of persons.

Ms. Dagnew’s business slowed down in March 2020 just as the pandemic began to rage. As African economies start to slowly open while adjusting to the realities of the pandemic, Ms. Dagnew intends to restart trading soon.

Yet, she frets about other structural challenges to intra-African trade, such as the competition with big global brands that compete on an uneven playing field. For example, BE Kollective, according to Ms. Dagnew, competes with Nescafé, which is imported into Ghana by retailers.

“The problem is that importers of Nescafé from countries in Europe or Asia pay much less tariff than I pay because those countries have favourable trade agreements with African countries,” she stresses. “Therefore, the odds are currently stacked against us intra-African traders.”

Ms. Dagnew is also concerned that countries’ customs services lack adequate information about the AfCFTA.

“Not long ago, I went to the customs service in Ghana and told them I wouldn’t need to pay tariffs at some point because of AfCFTA. They didn’t understand what I was talking about,” she recalls. “There are many traders who have no idea what AfCFTA is all about.”

She recommends a massive information campaign to raise awareness of AfCFTA among customs services, traders and other key actors in countries participating in the free trade area.

Lack of infrastructure

A lack of adequate modern transport infrastructure also impedes traders’ desire to reap the full benefits of free trade, studies show. With the right transport infrastructure and high integration, manufacturers of consumer goods could earn up to $326 billion per year, according to McKinsey & Company, a US-based management consulting firm.

And according to the World Bank, it takes about three and a half weeks for a container of car parts to be cleared by Congolese customs. While East African countries Tanzania and Uganda have established a one-stop border post to slash time for cargo movement between them, new delays in the form of divergent standards for goods have quickly emerged, underscoring the mutating nature of non-tariff barriers.

African countries could rake in $20 billion yearly by simply tackling non-tariff barriers that slow the movement of goods, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the UN entity that deals with trade investment and development issues.

The African Union (AU)’s efforts at boosting infrastructure through its Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) are expected to yield the Lagos-Abidjan transport corridor, the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya power transmission line, the Lagos-Algiers highway and the Brazzaville-Kinshasa bridge, among others.

But experts encourage individual countries to invest in modern port, airport and rail line infrastructure.

Women traders

Widely spoken about in intra-African trade conversations are the challenges that women traders face.

Women constitute 70 per cent of Africa’s informal cross-border traders, and according to a 2019 study by UN Women titled Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in the Context of the AfCFTA, African women traders often confront corruption, insecurity and sexual harassment.

The AfCFTA agreement itself requires countries to protect the vulnerable, including women traders, and to address corruption.

African states with bilateral trade agreements with foreign countries or other regions such as the European Union will need to walk a tightrope in meeting prior commitments while implementing the AfCFTA.

In February 2020, for instance, East Africa’s economic giant Kenya began bilateral trade talks with the US, a move seemingly at odds with the country’s commitment to Africa’s free trade area.

Optimistic projections of the benefits of Africa’s free trade are, in theory, based on orthodox economic calculations — a linear demand and supply correlation that may not fully encompass externalities such as the availability of countries’ implementation capacity, requisite infrastructure, policy coherence and so on.

The World Economic Forum signals that AfCFTA’s full and effective implementation is what will lead to its transformative impacts, meaning that its touted benefits are by no means guaranteed.

The Secretary-General of AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene, acknowledges the enormous tasks ahead. “We have to roll up our sleeves and work,” he told Africa Renewal in an earlier interview.

Yet there is much to celebrate regarding the free trade agreement. The pact consolidates a market of 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion. It would represent the world’s largest trading block by the number of participating countries if all AU member states were to ratify the agreement.

While some 30 countries have so far ratified the agreement, more countries are expected to join the bandwagon when free trading begins and its benefits become tangible.

Mr. Mene estimates that intra-African trade could increase from its current 18 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030.

It will boost earnings for traders, strengthen Africa’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, foster export diversification and enhance value addition to produce and transform natural resources.

Because of the AfCFTA, Africa’s manufacturing output is expected to double to $1 trillion, creating 14 million jobs by 2025, writes Landry Signé for Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

An industrializing continent will catalyze the agricultural sector. In the coming years, Mr. Signé anticipates, manufacturing will complement “agricultural production and agro-processing plants, which provide the food and energy to meet growing African and global demand.”

He adds that African youth engaged in computer software and apps development will seize the opportunity to produce “leapfrog” technologies to meet increasing domestic demand. In other words, good paying jobs will be created for the continent’s bulging youth population.

“Across all subsectors and countries, Africa’s industrial revolution appears imminent,” Mr. Signé declares, optimistically.

Meanwhile, African traders envisage the end of the COVID-19 pandemic or at least its receding soon. They hope the teething problems that arise will be tackled and that AfCFTA will be a shot in the arm for Africa’s development.

“It will be a dream come true for traders like me,” enthuses Ms. Dagnew.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

*The Africa Renewal information programme provides up-to-date information and analysis of the major economic and development challenges facing Africa today. It examines the many issues confronting the people of Africa, its leaders and its international partners: economic reform, debt, education, health, women’s advancement, conflict and civil strife, democratization, aid, investment, trade, regional integration, rural development and many other topics. It works with the media in Africa and beyond to promote the work of the United Nations, Africa and the international community to bring peace and development to Africa.

 

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Excerpt:

Kingsley Ighobor, Africa Renewal*

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By Quamrul Haider
Dec 11 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Paris Accord hammered out by more than 190 countries at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21). The core objective of the accord is to save humanity from the existential threat posed by climate change. To that end, the participating nations agreed to keep the increase in the average global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius while endeavouring to limit it to 1.5 degrees by the year 2100. Besides pledging to temper the rise in temperature, they agreed to restructure the global economy, phase out fossil fuels over the coming decades, switch to renewable sources of energy, embrace clean technology, and most importantly, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

The accord gives every country the ability to set its own goals to confront the climate crisis, in line with their specific situation. Moreover, instead of demanding expeditious and deep cuts in fossil fuel usage, it allows parties to peak greenhouse gas emissions “as soon as possible” followed by a gradual decrease in order to reach the zero emissions goal. It is patently evident that such a vague timetable fits the interests of the major polluters, including the United States, China and India. Nevertheless, beginning this year, each nation is required to reassess its own reduction plans once every five years. However, there is no consequence or penalty if a country fails to reassess or falls short of the pledged reductions.

The accord also requires nations to address “loss and damage” caused by climate impacts. Since the wealthy, industrialised nations are largely responsible for the backlog of climate changing emissions lingering in the atmosphere, they should compensate poorer nations for unavoidable loss and damage. But even after COP25 held in Madrid last year, wealthy nations are playing Jekyll and Hyde roles—promising to cover losses while dragging their feet on providing new finance.

We are now a full five years into the Paris Accord which, according to the former US President Barack Obama, is supposed to make the “world safer and more secure, more prosperous and more free.” Are we really on course to transform our planet into one as envisioned by Obama? Are we winning the race against climate change? Did we succeed in slowing down the carnage resulting from climate change? By all accounts, the accord did not make an iota of difference in decelerating the progression of our planet, and subsequently our civilisation, toward climatological meltdown. On the contrary, climate change and its deleterious effects are accelerating, with climate-related catastrophes piling up, year after year.

Our planet is now almost at the breaking point. The environmental changes sweeping across the world are occurring at a much quicker pace than five years ago. As the Earth warms, we are witnessing more cataclysmic wildfires turning forests into carbon dioxide emitters, not to mention calamitous floods inundating nearly half of countries like Bangladesh and Thailand. Persistent droughts, ferocious storms and an increase in extreme weather phenomena—derecho, microburst, bombogenesis, Frankenstorm and many more—are on the rise. The fingerprints of climate change since 2015 can also be seen in the exacerbation of internal and international migration patterns of climate refugees.

Scorching heat waves, of all places, in the Arctic region, are now more frequent and long-lasting. With only a few weeks left in this year, it is more likely than not that 2020 will be among the hottest years ever, even with the cooling effect of this year’s La Niña. Seas are warming and rising faster, putting more coastal cities at risk of going under acidic water. Warmer waters are wreaking havoc on marine organisms forcing them to migrate away from their familiar habitats. Glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, thus disrupting availability of freshwater.

Climate-induced mayhem is taking a heavy toll on the Arctic region. The amount of Arctic sea ice whose whiteness normally acts as a natural reflector of heat back out of the atmosphere is dwindling so rapidly that the region may soon become ice-free. Loss of ice is also changing the Arctic terrain—making it greener and prettier, but at the expense of releasing copious amounts of carbon dioxide and methane trapped in the frozen soil, which in turn is making global warming even worse. Additionally, scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean, worrisomely called the “sleeping giant of the carbon cycle,” are escaping into the atmosphere. In fact, northern landscapes are undergoing massive change, with potential ramifications not just for the Arctic itself, but the world as a whole.

Permafrost in cold climate countries is thawing at breakneck speed, releasing, just like Arctic ice, large amounts of long-stored carbon dioxide and methane. In addition, viruses and bacteria that had been buried under the permafrost for thousands of years are being released into the environment, posing health risks to humans and other forms of life. Also, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, a vital carbon sink that retards the momentum of global warming, has surged to its highest level since 2008.

As for peaking of emissions, there is a cavernous gap between the sharp cuts in emissions required to meet the goals of the Paris Accord and current projections. In a recent report, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations, states, “There is no sign of slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere despite all the commitments under the Paris agreement.” Rather, emissions from just about every country are still on the rise, thereby making it difficult to close the gap so as to achieve zero emissions by 2050.

The report further notes that even the coronavirus-related drop in emissions failed to make much of a dent in the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. Consequently, WMO warns that the world risks becoming an “uninhabitable hell” for millions unless we drastically cut emissions—by at least 7.2 percent every 10 years if we want to keep the rise in temperature to 1.5 degree. Otherwise, we will soon be north of 3 degrees.

The warning from WMO is corroborated by a study published last month in the British journal Scientific Reports, in which the authors assert that we have already passed the “point of no return for global warming.” The only way we can stop the warming, the authors say, is by extracting “enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

Notwithstanding the warning, Earth’s average temperature already rose by roughly one degree since the advent of modern record keeping in 1880. The devastation caused by one degree rise clearly indicates that an additional 1.5–2 degrees rise before the end of this century will lock in the changes to the Earth’s climate system that will be beyond our adaptive capacity.

Five years ago, the then UN chief lauded the Paris Accord as a landmark agreement, a potent message from world leaders who had finally decided to take on climate change in earnest. Five years later, in a complete about-face, the present UN chief, in a speech at Columbia University in New York, issued a searing indictment of our utter disregard for the pledges made in Paris. He said, “The state of the planet is broken. Humanity is waging a suicidal war on nature, facing new heights of global heating, new lows of ecological degradation….”

So much for the Paris Accord! No wonder environmentalists believe that the accord is meaningless, and with good reason. Indeed, the toothless, nonbinding, non-enforceable accord is an oversold empty promise—a gentleman’s handshake applauding the imposition of a global climate regime on humankind that is harming the planet in the name of saving it.

Finally, world leaders should realise that fixing the climate is not about making pretty promises at grandiose conferences held at glamorous cities. And if we rely on grandstanding and farcical accords that give us false hopes, we will lose the race to keep our planet cool and inhabitable.

Quamrul Haider is a Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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By External Source
Hanoi and Ouagadougou, Dec 11 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), a philanthropic collaboration, has selected the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) as technical assistance providers to improve access to and the efficiency of cooling in Burkina Faso and Viet Nam.

K-CEP was launched in 2017 to support the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol and the transition to efficient, clean cooling solutions for all.

In Burkina Faso, GGGI will work closely with the government and a network of local partners to reduce energy demand and enhance energy efficiency in the housing sector and deliver a replicable and scalable program on sustainable cooling. Through this two-year project, titled “The Social Housing Energy Efficiency Cooling Program,” which will receive a total grant of USD 617,000, GGGI will support the government to reduce GHG emissions from cooling and while simultaneously increasing access to cooling in the residential housing sector. The project will commence on January 1, 2021 and continue until December 31, 2023.

“We plan to collaborate with the Government of Burkina Faso to implement and develop architectural and structural solutions in the National Housing Program, which will bring benefits for 40,000 housing units. We hope to scale up the solutions in the housing and raise the cooling NDC’s ambitions. I am confident that the project will serve as a reference point for the Sahel region,” explained Malle Fofana, GGGI’s Country Representative for Burkina Faso.

In Viet Nam, the government recognizes the role of efficient and clean cooling as part of the country’s climate change policies. HE. Tran Hong Ha, Minister of Natural Resources & Environment, emphasized that “The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will cooperate with line ministries and stakeholders to mainstream climate-friendly cooling in relevant national legislation and policies, and its application in relevant sectors.”

To support this vision, UNEP and GGGI will collaborate with Viet Nam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) on a project entitled “Sustainable Urban Cooling in Viet Nam cities” which will be funded by K-CEP a total grant of USD 1 million. The project, which will start in 2021 for a period of 3 years, aims to contribute to improving urban cooling design through hands-on policy support, capacity building as well as piloting various business models and engaging with the private sector.

“We expect to link this project into enhanced NDC implementation and its results into future iterations of Viet Nam’s NDC”, affirmed Mr. Tang The Cuong, Director-General, Department of Climate Change (MONRE).

Hanh Le, GGGI’s Country Representative for Viet Nam emphasized that “With K-CEP funding, this project will bring sustainable cooling to the forefront of the country’s climate agenda. We are committed to working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and supporting the local governments to enhance access to green investments for urban cooling.”

“Urban populations globally face severe risks from extreme heat and, at the same time, it is in cities that we see strongest growth in demand for cooling. Local governments can take a far stronger role in protecting populations from extreme heat and delivering sustainable cooling solutions. However, they need to be enabled and have the finance and capacity to act. This financial support from K-CEP and political commitment from MoNRE is highly welcomed and timely and will allow us to prepare a replicable, sustainable model for cities to take concerted action on cooling and extreme heat,” said Lily Riahi, Programme Manager, Cities Unit, Energy & Climate Branch, UNEP.

Ultimately, the project will support replication in other cities of Viet Nam and contribute to national-level commitments and policies on sustainable urban cooling.

On a final note, Lily Riahi added that “By joining the Cool Coalition, Viet Nam is now part of a unified global front, aiming to seize the opportunity of efficient and climate friendly cooling. Through the Cool Coalition, the lessons from Viet Nam on urban cooling and extreme heat can be shared globally and benefit from learnings from other countries.”

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Adaora Okoli
NEW ORLEANS, US, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

When I contracted Ebola virus disease in August 2014 while working as a medical doctor in a well-known private hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, I was denied access to a potential cure.

For 15 days, I battled for my life in a debilitated isolation ward, not knowing if I would survive. But American aid workers who contracted Ebola were administered Zmapp, a monoclonal antibody treatment, which reduces the relative risk of death from Ebola by 40% as well as shorten the duration of stay in the Ebola treatment units. They survived.

We were told that Zmapp was expensive, in limited supply and only reserved for a few people. Although Zmapp missed the mark of effectiveness as a cure, its benefits could not be denied when compared to the standard of care alone at the time.

Imagine fighting the same disease but not having equal access to the available tools.

This is what universal health coverage is about: That quality health should not be sold to the highest bidder. It means that we must do all we can to prevent vaccine monopoly and have global collaborations to ensure that these vaccines get to the poorest of people so we can put an end to this pandemic

Imagine the psychological trauma of knowing that there might be a cure and not having access to it. Now, I see history about to repeat itself at a large scale- millions of people around the world, especially in impoverished communities may not have access to COVID-19 vaccines.

There has been excitement within the medical and public health community this month over early results of phase 3 clinical trials of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines which showed them to be over 90% and 94% effective in preventing COVID-19 respectively. This is comparable to the efficacy of measles vaccines which has led to a 99% reduction in its incidence compared to the pre-measles vaccine era. To date, there are over 50 COVID-19 vaccines at different stages of development.

An effective vaccine against COVID-19 is one of the many measures (in addition to testing, tracing, isolating, social distancing and providing health care workers with personal protective equipment) that we can use to combat this pandemic and stem future ones. And as exciting as the news of a potential effective vaccine is, the question, however, is how do we ensure that we all get access to it, including people living in impoverished communities, work multiple jobs and have no primary health care provider? Will it get to people of color who continue to be disproportionately affected?

Data shows that Black, Latinx and other people of color are more adversely affected by COVID-19 as is it the case in cities like New Orleans where I currently live and work as a medical doctor. Will it get to illegal immigrants in the U.S. who try to hide from the system because they do not want to risk being deported? What about the poor in Nigeria, where I am from, who have not seen a doctor in years and have no access to essential health services?

This inequitable access to health is not new. Gardasil, the first vaccine to be approved by the US food and drug administration in 2006 against Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes gential warts and cervical cancer, is effective in preventing cervical cancer and is administered to girls and boys at the age of 11 in the U.S. However, in Nigeria, a country that contributes 10% of the global burden of cervical cancer, a national HPV screening and vaccination program is non-existent. HPV vaccine is available in the private health sector but cost and weak health infrastructure remain a significant barrier to access.

A study in 2016 showed that Eastern Nigerian women were willing to pay about $11.68 dollars out-of-pocket to get their daughters vaccinated, in a country where more than half of the population earn less than $1.25 a day.

The last thing we need in the global fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic is vaccine capitalism which we are already seeing unfold. High-income countries have bought over 80% of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine stock leaving the poor with little or no access to it. In May 2020, Politico reported that President Donald Trump had offered German vaccine company, CureVac, large sums of money to move their research site to the U.S. and develop the vaccine for the U.S. only.

We cannot end a pandemic without collaborations and empathy for humanity and the millions of lives that have been lost since December 2019. If the COVID-19 vaccines are equitably distributed globally, it would cut down death by over 60%. But, a recent modelling study showed, it would reduce death by only 33% of wealthy countries buy them all up.

Thankfully, the World Health Organization (WHO), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi- the Vaccine Alliance, European Commission and France came together in April 2020 to launch an initiative called COVAX with the goal of ensuring a fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally.

COVAX aims to distribute 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses fairly by the end of 2021 so that people – regardless of their socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, gender, political affiliations – can have equal access to a promising vaccine.

This is what universal health coverage is about: That quality health should not be sold to the highest bidder. It means that we must do all we can to prevent vaccine monopoly and have global collaborations to ensure that these vaccines get to the poorest of people so we can put an end to this pandemic.

On December 12, 2020, as we mark the international Universal Health Coverage day, let us hold our leaders accountable to their commitment to achieve UHC. If Zmapp was the only proven cure for Ebola virus disease, I would not be here now writing this, because I did not have access to it.

May my dreams of a world with health for all come true.

Dr Adaora Okoli is a medical doctor who survived the Ebola virus disease, working to strengthen health systems in order to reduce the burden of infectious diseases in low-income communities and achieve equitable access for health to all. She is also an Aspen New Voices Fellow. Follow her on Twitter @DrAdaora.

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Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer was illuminated in the names of victims lost to COVID-19 in an online ceremony called “For Every Life” that paid tribute to the 60,000 victims lost in Brazil and 500,000 lost worldwide. About 87,000 Brazilians heard messages of hope and solidarity combined with music and prayer in a live broadcast over social media. It recognized the losses of families and selfless work of healthcare workers and others helping the country through the pandemic. July 2020. Credit: UNIC Rio

By Branko Milanović
NEW YORK, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

The current pandemic is probably the first global event in the history of the human race. By ‘global’ I mean it has affected almost everybody, regardless of country of residence or social class.

If, in a couple of years — when hopefully it is over and we are alive — we meet friends from any corner of the world, we shall all have the same stories to share: fear, tedium, isolation, lost jobs and wages, lockdowns, government restrictions and face masks. No other event comes close.

Wars, even world wars, were limited: people in Switzerland, let alone in New Zealand, did not have meaningful war stories to share with those from Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany or Japan. And in the past 75 years wars were local.

Many young people might have protested against the Vietnam war but most experienced none of its effects. People were outraged at the siege of Sarajevo, bombardment of Gaza or Iraq ‘shock and awe’.

But for 99.9 per cent of mankind that outrage did not change their daily routine one bit: they still got up early to go to school or work, laughed with colleagues, maybe went out for a drink and ended up at a karaoke bar. They had no stories to share with the residents of Sarajevo, Gaza or Baghdad — nothing in common.

Even football — and its fanatical supporters tell themselves world events mimic football — cannot compete. The last World Cup final was watched by 1.1 billion people, about one out of every six people in the world. There were still many who ignored its existence and could not care less which team won or lost.

Into the history books

Covid-19 will enter the history books as the first truly global event also thanks to our technological development: not only are we able to communicate across the globe but we can follow, in real time, what is happening practically everywhere.

Since infection, disease and possible incapacitation and death threaten all of us, even people who otherwise have not had much interest in news check their smartphones for updates on deaths, infection rates, vaccines or new therapies.

Covid-19 seems itself to have been designed for that role. Although its deadliness increases with age, its effects are sufficiently uncertain that even much younger and healthier populations are not left entirely carefree. Had Covid-19 been less random, it would have been less feared.

This global event is however also an odd event. It requires that people do not interact physically with each other. It thus brings out another, new dimension. Our first global event will have been the one where we never met face-to-face in real time with other people who lived through it.

Covid-19 probably made us leapfrog about a decade in realising the possibilities of decoupling work from physical presence in the workplace.

On reflection, however, this makes perfect sense. To be global, the event has to be experienced more or less equally by everyone at the same time. Limited by physical contact or presence, however, we cannot reach many people, simply because there is no possibility for each of us to meet thousands, still less hundreds of thousands, of others.

So, the first global human event, ironically, had to be an event devoid of human contact and physical touch — it had to be experienced virtually.

This is also why this pandemic is different from that of a century ago. Information could not then be easily transmitted nor shared. By the time people in India were dying of Spanish flu, Europe was recovering and was ignorant of, or indifferent to, deaths in India. But India too hardly heard of the deaths in Europe until the pandemic invaded it.

Globalising labour

What will remain, other than people’s reminiscences, of this global event? There are only a few things that we can say with any certainty.

The pandemic will have accelerated globalisation in the second factor of production—labour. (The first factor, capital, is already globalised, thanks to the opening of national capital accounts and the technical ability to move vast amounts of money around the world and to build factories and offices anywhere.)

Covid-19 probably made us leapfrog about a decade in realising the possibilities of decoupling work from physical presence in the workplace. Although in many activities we may, after the pandemic is over, go back to sharing physical offices, working in factory halls and so on, in many others we shall not.

This will not have an effect only on people working from home—the change will be much more profound. A global labour market will come into existence without the need for migration.

In some segments of the world economy (such as call centres or software design), that market already exists. But it will become much more common. The pandemic will be a giant leap forward for ‘mobility’ of labour — a peculiar mobility, that is, where individual workers will stay put at their places of residence but work in ‘offices’ or ‘factories’ miles away.

People who worry that globalisation might go backwards will be surprised. Due to the trade war between the United States and China, global value chains and trade might suffer a temporary setback. But in terms of labour mobility or, more exactly, labour competition — which is extraordinarily important — it will move forward.

Source: This article is a joint publication by Social Europe and International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin

 

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Excerpt:

Branko Milanović is a visiting professor at the City University of New York. Prior to that, he was, among other things, senior economist of the research department at the World Bank. For his book Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization he won the Hans-Matthöfer-Prize awarded by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Most recently he published Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World.

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has in some nations been converted into a noxious, political issue. One of many worrying examples is the rhetoric of Brazil´s president. On 10 November, when Brazil´s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 162,000 victims – the numbers have continued to raise and are now 179,032 second only to USA´s 296,745 – Jair Bolsonaro minimized the effects of COVID-19 by stating: ”All of us are going to die one day. There is no point in escaping from that, in escaping from reality. We have to cease being a country of sissies.” Bolsonaro actually said maricas, which like sissies is slang for gay people. Both expressions originally indicated ”small girls” – marica is a diminutive of Maria and sissy of “kid sister”. Bolsonaro thus defined homosexuality as effeminacy by associating gay men with affectation and cowardice. By connecting disease, fear, and femininity the Brazilian president not only ignored the strength and courage women throughout history have demonstrated by enduring childbirths and caring for others, it also shows a strong disregard for gender equality and the rights of women and gay people.

In several countries, gender equality has made progress in areas as education and labour force participation, though health inequality between women and men continues to plague several societies, where girls and women remain victims to ideologies and practices that make them more vulnerable than men to diseases originating from neglect, abuse, and mistreatment. Furthermore, women and girls are often subjected to physicians´ bias in diagnosis and treatment, while restricted access to education and remunerated work may hinder them from accessing adequate health services.

In most societies, women have been considered as subordinate to men. In both art and medicine, women have been viewed and interpreted from a “male point of view”. That a “male gaze” applies to how women’s bodies are perceived became evident to me when I sometime in the eighties read Edward Shorter’s A History of Women’s Bodies. Shorter described how religion and medicine have discriminated against women, primarily by disregarding their physical and mental health.

I had Shorter’s book in memory when I several years ago visited the Andean highlands and interviewed women about their life situation. What then upset me was the deplorable state of health of the women I met, assuming that it was my collaboration with a midwife that made them reveal physical pain and problems. Several diseases originated in difficulties during pregnancies, often experienced too early in life, and after that being far too frequent. Ailments related to the female body was burdened by prejudice, chauvinism, and religious bigotry and thus considered as shameful and concealed. My encounter with these women made me realize that gender equality is not exclusively a matter of relations between men and women – physical differences between the sexes must also be taken into account and addressed.

Through its intent to connect fear of COVID-19 infection with cowardice and effeminacy, Bolsonaro´s rhetoric not only reveals an inclination towards homophobia and misogyny, but furthermore demonstrates a lack of knowledge about the crucial role women have had in medical development. While being professionally engaged with gender issues, I have quite often been confronted with a view that almost exclusively emphasizes social injustices caused by male chauvinism. Of course, this is a serious problem that cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, this should not allow forgetting the fact that women’s bodies are distinctive from men’s. Neglect of women’s unique physical constitution has during centuries caused unnecessary suffering and limited
women´s well-being.

Childbirth is a unique female experience that excludes men, who cannot experience the pains and dangers it may bring about. Since time immemorial, childbirth has almost exclusively affected women – the expectant mother, the midwife, women friends and relatives. Men were generally excluded from the process. What midwives lacked in formal, academic learning, they compensated through experience and ancient traditions,

With the emergence of an academically founded medical profession and with it an increased interest in the income-generating business of midwifery, male doctors became during the 19th century increasingly interested in obstetrics and generally opposed to midwifery. Before male interventions, women generally gave birth in partially upright positions, being supported by other women. One reason for this was that giving birth was considered to be a social concern, as well as the technique facilitated the process for both mother and midwife since they could make use of gravity. However, male obstetricians preferred that women, while giving birth, remained in bed. Accordingly, obstetricians were in France, and the rest of Europe, called accouchers, from the French á coucher, go to bed.

It was claimed that surgeons were better trained in scientific medicine than midwives, who relied on popular medical traditions. In several countries, midwives were gradually legislated against in favour of male doctors. In his book, Shorter argued that increasingly male-dominated obstetrics initially were detrimental, causing unnecessary inconvenience and suffering. Furthermore, apart from facilitating the actual birth procedure, midwives also offered support and help during pregnancy and aftercare. They were generally, unlike men, mothers themselves and could thus consider ailments and dangers from a female perspective. Several of them were also knowledgeable about how to alleviate labour pains and how to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and in some cases, even experienced in abortions. The midwives were thus through their own and collective experiences well acquainted with how a female body functioned and reacted to various types of interventions.

The suppression of women midwifery is just one of many examples of how women systematically have been marginalized while healing and caring for the sick and injured. This does not mean that their care-giving has not been decisive. On the contrary, to take care of others has rather been considered as a female duty, even part of a feminine nature. A perception that meant women’s role in healthcare was taken for granted and they were offered neither education, nor payment. In Catholic Europe it was until quite recently, nonsalaried nuns who took care of the sick and were assumed to gain their knowledge through practice.

Well into the twentieth century, doctors were almost exclusively men and nurses were subordinate to them in everything (up to 1955 men were not allowed to serve as nurses in the US Army). In addition, nurses were paid significantly less than a medical doctor. Men in white were, and generally still are, considered as hospital royalty. Something still manifested through several hospitals’ big rounds when the chief physician, accompanied by doctors-in-training, visit bedridden patients, while female nurses discreetly remain in the background.

It was not until the bloody massacres of 19th century warfare that female nurses gained a greater role and nursing schools were established to train them in health care. However, education was mostly hospital-based and had well into the twentieth century an emphasis on practical experience. During the last century, wars continued to improve women´s position in healthcare. During World War I, nurses were integrated into the war effort, and during World War II warring nations established units with trained nurses. For example, the Nazis, who otherwise were reluctant to engage women in the war industry, recruited more than 40,000 nurses for their armies.

The recent rapid development of medical science is probably the most impressive human success story ever. It has not only been beneficial to human well-being, it has also contributed to increased compassion and reduced the brutality of everyday life. This development would probably not have been initiated without attention to women’s health. Due to immense pain and risk of fatal infections, surgical procedures were during millennia limited to superficial interventions, as well as amputations and trepanning. It was through male obstetric care that breakthroughs in concern for sterility took place. The first steps towards the discovery of the role of bacteria and viruses in infections occurred in 1846 when the Austrian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweiss discovered that more women died in maternity wards staffed with male surgeons, than those cared for by female midwives. Semmelweiss traced the cause to increased mortality to male medical students not washing their hands after dissecting corpses. Although Semmelweis’ sanitary recommendations were largely ignored and he himself was driven to madness, he is now recognized as a pioneer in aseptics and the prevention of hospital-acquired infections.

The presence of male doctors at birth made them realize the immense pain caused by disturbed nerve pathways and made them pursue more effective anesthetics. Advances that, together with aseptics, finally enabled surgical interventions inside the body. It was during a birth in Edinburgh in 1847 that James Young Simpson used chloroform anesthesia and, after the same method in 1853 had been used when Queen Victoria gave birth to Prince Leopold, anesthesia spread around the world. After Robert Koch in 1879 beyond any doubt had established that infections are spread by bacteria, and in 1881 introduced heat sterilization of all surgical instruments, medical science would never be the same again.

Accordingly, to label general health as a concern for “maricas” is not only a sign of ridiculous machismo, but also a manifestation of profound ignorance. When Jair Bolsonaro equaled “fear of COVID-19” with effeminacy he demonstrated contempt for the bravery and professionalism homosexual men have demonstrated as physicians and nurses, as well as he demeaned women who through centuries have combated sickness and fatal injuries, as well as caring for home and family and enduring painful births. On top of that, Bolsonaro revealed a profound ignorance of the fundamentals of modern, medical science and its foundations on women´s well-being.

Sources: https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-54902608 and Shorter, Edward (1984) A History of Women’s Bodies. London: Pelican Books.

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

 

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A health worker fills a syringe with vaccine at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNICEF/Patrick Brown.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2020 (IPS)

There is a longstanding belief that virtually everything in this world is stacked up against the poor and the downtrodden.

The Covid-19 vaccine is no exception because some of world’s richest nations, including the US, Canada and UK, seem to have cornered most of the supplies — whilst marginalizing the world’s poorer nations.

The move towards hijacking the newly-found remedy has triggered a new brand of misguided patriotism: vaccine nationalism.

According to a report on Cable News Network (CNN) December 9, the histrionics from American and British leaders point to growing vaccine nationalism in wealthier nations.

Rich countries with 14% of the world’s population have bought more than half of all the most promising vaccines, according to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an international coalition of health and humanitarian organizations.

Nine out of 10 people living in 67 poor countries will miss out on the vaccine in 2021, the Alliance said, pointing out the deals made by rich countries mean they have “hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly 3 times over.” Canada has reportedly bought enough doses to immunize its citizens five times over.

“Unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19 for years to come,” according to Anna Marriott, health policy manager for Oxfam, a member of the coalition.

Vaccine nationalism is also one facet of the widening economic inequalities between the developing and the developed world.

Ben Phillips, author of ‘How to Fight Inequality’, told IPS the scandal is not just that rich nations are marginalizing poor nations from scarce supplies but the bigger scandal is that there is only such scarcity of supplies because companies are being allowed to hoard licenses and know-how.

Between 1996 and 2001, the prioritization of companies’ intellectual property over people’s health meant millions of people in poor countries died from AIDS when the treatment to HIV was known, and producible cheaply, but was kept by profit-driven policy deliberately too costly and too rare, said Phillips.

He said: “it’s astonishingly mean-spirited, and utterly short-sighted, that the same approach is being pursued now with Covid-19”.

The drug company shareholders would still grow their riches – just a little more slowly – if licensing and know-how were shared so that international mass production at scale could begin, he noted.

“We can still change course. That way, lives can be saved and the global economy restarted. No one is safe until everyone is safe, and the world can’t recover till all countries can,” said Phillips.

“But none of this will be given freely by leaders – it will only happen if enough people push them to do so. Covid-19 survivors, backed by HIV survivors who know the stakes, are leading an inspiring fight for just that,” he added.

The United Nations says the widespread pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 1.6 million people worldwide since early this year, “is not only the greatest global health crisis since the creation of the United Nations 75 years ago but it is also a humanitarian, socio-economic, security and human rights crisis.”

Source: CNN, December 10

Addressing a two-day Special Session on Covid-19 on December 3-4, the President of the General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said: “The world is looking to the UN for leadership, to step up and take demonstrable action to address the greatest challenge our world is facing today. This crisis compels us to shake up how things are done, to be bold, and to restore confidence and trust in the United Nations.”

Professor Kunal Sen, Director at the Helsinki-based UN University– World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), told IPS while it is understandable that rich country governments want to immunize their own citizens, especially those in vulnerable categories, vaccine nationalism may deprive citizens of low-income countries of COVID-19 vaccines for many months to come.

“The world needs a people’s vaccine which can be provided universally, and it is important for the international community to develop a vaccine which is compatible with universal access,” he declared.

The New York Times reported December 10 that three of Trump’s close political allies, who were infected with the virus and recovered fast, were given medications that were unavailable to the rest of the Americans. As a result, Covid-19 is being described as a disease of the haves and the have-nots.

Asked about the “lip service” by rich countries on equitable access to vaccine while glaring inequalities persist in the distribution to Africa and other developing countries, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters December 9: “It’s true we are seeing vaccine nationalism moving with full speed. But the vaccines the African continent needs, and we all need… has to be properly supported. Or we will not be able to fight the pandemic anywhere effectively”.

The only way, of course, is to make sure that the COVAX initiative –a coalition of more than 150 countries, plus the World Health Organization, Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) — is fully financed.

The initiative, he said, needs $4.2 million in the next few months, and then additional funding afterwards, to make sure that vaccines approved by the WHO can be distributed in Africa sooner rather than later.

Guterres said: “It is my hope that we’ll be able to do it before the second quarter, but it is true that what we are seeing today is an enormous effort by several countries in order to ensure vaccines for their own populations. And until now, it has not been fully met, the requirements of COVAX in relation to the financing that is needed”.

But COVAX is working hard, he said, and there are several vaccines in the pipeline for COVAX, and it is perfectly possible to deliver if the financing is guaranteed.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reported December 9 that a Chinese vaccine, which will be accessible mostly to developing countries, has shown to be 86% effective in protecting people against Covid-19 in late-stage trials. The trials were conducted last week in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

  

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Excerpt:

“Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 will be one of the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as quickly as the vaccines can be produced,” says Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director.

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By External Source
Dec 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro became the Minister of National Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso in February 2018 after a long academic career. Between 2012 and 2018, Mr. Ouaro was the President of the Université Ouaga II. Prior to that, the eminent mathematician held several teaching and administrative posts with Ouagadougou University. Mr. Ouaro is widely published, and has also served as the President of the Réseau pour l’Excellence de l’Enseignement Supérieur en Afrique de l’Ouest (Network for Excellence in Higher Education in West Africa). A leading advocate for education and equality, Mr. Ouaro has been awarded several academic awards in Burkina Faso and elsewhere.

In this incisive interview, the minister explores the upcoming Education Cannot Wait-financed multi-year resilience programme and the triple threat of Conflict, COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis, which have come together to displace over 1 million people in Burkina Faso. Learn more about ECW-financed programmes in the Sahel and Burkina Faso.

ECW: Please tell us about the situation in the education sector in Burkina Faso. What are the key challenges and priorities?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: In Burkina Faso, the education sector is suffering the negative effects of the security and health crises. The security crisis is characterized by terrorist attacks resulting in the deaths of students and teachers, as well as the destruction of education infrastructure. This has resulted in the closure of more than 2,300 schools and a massive displacement of populations estimated at more than one million people, including school-age children and youth. As for the COVID-19 health crisis, this resulted in the closure of all schools in Burkina Faso for several months. The education system is therefore faced with many challenges, including the reopening of closed schools, the schooling of displaced children and maintaining the continuity of education for all learners.

To meet these challenges, a certain number of priority actions are envisaged within our department through the National Strategy for Education in Emergency Situations, which is our reference framework for education in emergencies (EiE). This involves promoting access and retention through (i) the reopening of closed schools, (ii) increasing the capacity of schools in areas hosting displaced communities, (iii) the rehabilitation of damaged buildings, (iv) the establishment of temporary learning spaces, (v) relevant supplies to school canteens to take into account internally displaced students, (vi) the provision of textbooks and school kits for schools hosting displaced children, (vii) increasing coordination and steering capacities of the education sector, (viii) training teachers on the EiE/INEE standards approach and on education curricula in emergency.

In addition, the operationalization of “Educational Radio and Television” will ensure the continuity of education in areas that are hard to reach or with poor infrastructural coverage. In addition to this, the creation of an emergency fund for EiE will increase the resilience of the education sector in the face of these crises.

ECW: Your partnership with Education Cannot Wait has been instrumental in delivering emergency responses in the education sector. As we now move forward with a multi-year education investment that addresses both humanitarian and development needs in the education sector, what are your expectations on the ECW Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP) which will be launched soon and why is it so crucial today.

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Education Cannot Wait for their unwavering support in our efforts to support education in emergencies. As for our expectations, we would like the multi-year programme to help improve access, quality, and the management and resilience capacities of communities. Regarding access, we hope this programme can help to diversify learning opportunities in areas affected by insecurity through the creation of temporary learning spaces and the promotion of education alternatives. These interventions should also facilitate access to school for many children from vulnerable households, minority groups, children living with disabilities, girls, etc. In addition, through interventions adapted to the emergency context, we would like to improve the quality of learning, protection and retention of students. Strengthening the technical and logistical capacities of state actors responsible for coordinating EiE activities is also a key expectation. Finally, the multi-year programme should help strengthen the resilience capacities of local communities. Indeed, due to the scarcity of resources and the recurrence of humanitarian crises, it is important to equip beneficiary communities with essential skills to prevent the occurrence of crises or to respond to them effectively.

ECW: Burkina Faso is facing the terrible triple threat of Conflict, COVID-19 and Climate Crisis. There are now over 1 million internally displaced persons and 20,000 refugees in Burkina Faso. Knowing what you know now, what is your message to children and youth in Burkina Faso?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: My message to children and young people in this context of both security and health crises is to have faith in the future. It may seem difficult, if not impossible, to hold on to hope in a context as complex as that of insecurity, but I would like to point out that faith is a powerful springboard for overcoming the trials that life places on us at times. While protecting us from relinquishing, it pushes us to cling to life, to dream of the world we aspire to and to fight to make our dream come true: a world where everyone occupies their rightful place in terms of the education they have received. Moreover, education can equip individuals with the knowledge essential to their permanent adaptation to an increasingly changing living environment. Conversely, the lack of education can plunge many children and young people into a certain vulnerability that could benefit terrorist groups who dream of embroiling them in their murderous madness. It is in this perspective that the State, together with its technical and financial partners, is doing everything to ensure quality education for all despite the specific circumstances of the emergency situation.

However, this dream cannot be realized without taking responsibility at the individual and collective level; that’s why I invite everyone to fully play their part. Moreover, our steadfast determination is to fight to guarantee them a quality education because it is the most powerful weapon to overcome ignorance. I firmly believe that by increasing the level of knowledge of individuals through education, we can bend the curve towards violence and hatred into the direction of a world of peace. Of course, it is a long-term struggle that requires us to dig deep within ourselves for the necessary resources to move forward, but together we will achieve it. We will certainly stumble, sometimes even fall, but we will always stand back up stronger, more determined and more convinced because we are fighting a fair fight.

ECW: During the Central Sahel Ministerial Roundtable convened in October, ECW pledged important seed funding to cover one-third of the total budget of the upcoming Multi-Year Resilience Education Programme in Burkina Faso (and Mali and Niger). What message would you like to share with donors in relation to the remaining $94 million funding gap and why is it urgent to fill the gap?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: Education cannot wait, as the name of your organization says. This is even more true in areas affected by crises such as in the Sahel, which is facing a gradual deterioration of the security situation. This has caused an increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and also refugees, and created huge gaps in terms of access to basic social services such as education and health.

In Burkina Faso, the number of IDPs increased from 779,741 in March 2020 to 1,049,767 in November 2020, an increase of approximately 34 percent. Children, who should benefit from basic social services in order to grow up in optimal conditions, constitute nearly 60 percent of IDPs. Unfortunately, resource mobilization does not keep pace with increasing needs. According to an overview of humanitarian needs published by OCHA, as of 30 July 2020, out of a total requirement of US$424.4 million, approximately 32.4 percent of resources have been mobilized, i.e. a funding gap of US$287 million needs to be filled.

When we compare the proportion of children in urgent need of education with the resources available, it seems imperative to once again seek support from donors. The need to fill this gap stems from the fact that if nothing is done urgently, more than 600,000 children will be deprived of education, protection and health. And, there is no need to explain how this could negatively impact the social equilibrium in this region and in the world in a few years. If we fail to create the conditions for the optimal and equitable development of children today, especially those who suffer the brunt of insecurity on a daily basis, it is the society of tomorrow that we are jeopardizing.

ECW: From your unique vantage point as Burkina Faso’s Minister of National Education and Literacy, do you have any words of advice for our readers around the world, who are committed to education for countries affected by crisis, like Burkina Faso.

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: We are delighted to know that there are people around the world who are committed to the education of children and youth in areas affected by crisis situations, such as those in certain regions of Burkina Faso. It seems very easy to destroy; but building, and above all, educating girls and boys to become productive, responsible adults, is a long-term endeavor which requires a lot of love, patience, selflessness, self-sacrifice, etc. We would like to assure ECW’s readers that we are doing everything we can to ensure that children and youth in areas affected by crises and other natural disasters in our country can benefit from an accessible, safe, inclusive, protective quality education. We would like to point out that taking an interest in, and learning about, the education situation in areas affected by the security crisis in Burkina Faso is already a significant step. This is support that we appreciate, applaud and encourage! Talking about it with friends and relatives is already taking a form of action. This is how we will establish a chain of solidarity on an international scale to overcome the destructive forces which try to destroy what is the best in humanity: brotherhood and sisterhood. Together, we are never alone.

ECW: In conclusion, we would like to learn a bit more about you on a personal level. We know that you are a mathematician and graduated with your doctorate based upon your thesis, ‘Etude de problèmes elliptiques-paraboliques nonlinéaires en une dimension d’espace’. Could you tell us about the three books that have influenced you the most, and why?

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro: I will cite two books that have really influenced me in my life. These are the books “A quand l’Afrique” by Joseph Ki-Zerbo, and “Il s’appelait Sankara” by Sennen Andriamirado. For me these two books mainly have two things in common. First, they talk about two illustrious African politicians, President Thomas Sankara and the historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo. These two characters constitute benchmarks for the youth of our countries through the journey of their careers – and for their love of the African continent in general and for their country Burkina Faso in particular. Secondly, these two works tell us that Africa cannot be developed by people other than by Africans themselves, hence the famous statement of Joseph Ki-Zerbo: “One does not develop X or Y, one develops oneself.” According to both of them, Africa must conquer its identity and be proud of its contribution to the human adventure.

 

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By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

The Pacific Island Developing State of Vanuatu has emerged as one of the region’s great success stories. Vanuatu has joined the ranks of Samoa and the Maldives as one of only six countries to graduate from being a least developed country, since the category was introduced by the United Nations in 1971.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

This historic achievement is the result of major development gains and strategic planning. It shows that the country has successfully raised levels of income and improved social development indicators, with marked declines in mortality rates and significant progress in education. All of these are among the factors the UN regards as critical in determining whether a country is considered as a least developed country or not.

Yet despite these development successes, accelerated actions are urgently needed to ensure Vanuatu can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Upon graduation, Vanuatu will no longer be eligible for international support measures granted to least developed countries. Unilateral and non-reciprocal trade preferences under Duty-Free Quota-Free schemes from various developed and developing trading partners will be off the table.

Fortunately, based on current trading patterns, the overall impact of losing preferential market access will be minimal, as more than half of Vanuatu’s main exports are being traded under negotiated duty-free market access arrangements, rather than afforded under least developed country concessional measures. Vanuatu will also remain eligible for financing on concessional terms under the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) as it is afforded a special status as a ‘small island economy’.

Importantly, Vanuatu will benefit from an improved country-image after graduation, which may attract larger flows of foreign direct investment as several other graduated countries have experienced.

Graduation is however taking place at a time of significant risks to the global economic situation. Unexpected shocks such as the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic are posing grave challenges to development.

Despite acting swiftly when confronted with the rapid spread of COVID-19, taking steps such as banning travel among islands, closing international borders and imposing curfews on businesses – the impact on Vanuatu has been severe. The resulting collapse of tourism has had widespread repercussions on the economy, with arrivals declining by 65 per cent in the year to July compared to the previous year. This contributed to an estimated 70 per cent job or income loss in the first six weeks after borders were closed and is an important factor in the decline in output of 8.3 per cent expected in Vanuatu for this year. The country also recorded its first official case of COVID-19 in November, having successfully warded off the virus for many months.

As a developing country, Vanuatu still remains vulnerable to other external shocks. The threats of climate change are very real. The first category 5 tropical cyclone of 2020, Tropical Cyclone Harold, demonstrated this as it passed over Espiritu Santo, Pentecost Island and Ambrym earlier this year, displacing an estimated 80,000 Ni-Vanuatu people, equivalent to over 27 percent of the nation’s population. This was the second strongest cyclone to affect Vanuatu, following Tropical Cyclone Pam of 2015, which suggests such storms are becoming more frequent as our climate changes.

The UN family has supported Vanuatu in its independence since 1980. Its regional development arm, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), has been providing development assistance to Vanuatu since it became a member in 1984. More recently, this support has included identifying avenues to mobilize financial resources domestically in recognition that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require significant resources, especially in such a vulnerable environment.

Dedicated technical support has been provided since 2017 to assist Vanuatu produce its smooth transition strategy (STS), built upon Vanuatu 2030 The Peoples Plan – the National Sustainable Development Plan for 2016 to 2030 – that reflects the unique identity of the Ni-Vanuatu people. At the same time, ESCAP has provided advisory services to the National Coordinating Committee on Least Developing Countries Graduation, which oversaw the formulation of the STS and decided on its associated follow-up actions.

As we focus on building back better in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESCAP stands ready, along with the UN family, to continue supporting Vanuatu in its development aspirations and in implementing the STS. This includes support to link the STS with budgets, offering specialized technical assistance to strengthen capacities in trade negotiations and developing productive capacities in Vanuatu, thereby enabling better structural transformation and diversification of the economy.

This year, Vanuatu celebrates 40 years since its independence. By working together, we can build resilience to external shocks in the Pacific region to ensure the next stage in Vanuatu’s development journey will continue to be a success story in the decades to come.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

 

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In the background can be seen the gigantic Cauchari Solar Park and in the foreground are tolas, typical drought-resistant shrubs of the Puna highland plateau. The largest plant of its kind in operation in South America is in the middle of nowhere, a few kilometres from the Kolla community of Puesto Sey, where there are now 962,496 solar panels. CREDIT: Cauchari Solar

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

The unprecedented growth of renewable energies in Argentina over the last three years has borne its greatest fruit: the Cauchari solar park, with nearly one million photovoltaic panels and 300 MW of installed power, which was connected to the national power grid on Sept. 26.

The solar park is located in the extreme northwest province of Jujuy some 1,700 km from Buenos Aires, near the borders with Chile and Bolivia, with whom it shares the Puna ecoregion of high Andean plains covered by grasses and shrubs.

The initiative cost 390 million dollars and is the latest reflection of China’s involvement in the Latin American economy: not only the two construction companies but also most of the financing came from the Asian giant."It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region…It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world." -- Guillermo Hoerth

An indigenous shepherd tending his llamas or a herd of wild vicuñas that flee as soon as they see a vehicle approaching are the only sights that attract the visitor’s attention – as IPS found on a recent visit to the area – in the solitude of the arid Cauchari environment, which covers some 800 hectares in the Argentine Puna, at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres.

Between September 2018 and October 2019, 2,664 trucks with containers loaded with Chinese components and technology arrived at this remote spot so far from the large centres of electricity consumption, where water is scarce and it is hard to breathe because of the altitude.

Previously they had disembarked in the Chilean port of Antofagasta, on the Pacific Ocean, or in the Argentinean port of Zarate, on the Atlantic.

“It is the largest operating solar park in South America and we consider it a great boost for changing the energy mix in the entire region,” Guillermo Hoerth, president of Cauchari Solar, a company owned by Jujuy province, told IPS by phone.

“It is still too early to say, because we are in a stage of adjustment and depend on natural phenomena, but it is likely to be one of the most efficient solar parks in the world,” Hoerth added.

The president of the plant explained that the intense solar radiation throughout the year is combined with low temperatures, which help the panels retain heat and make the Puna an extraordinary place for this type of renewable energy.

Cauchari is the greatest success story of the Law of National Promotion of the use of Renewable Energies for the Production of Electric Power, passed by Congress in September 2015.

The new law modified the electric mix of this Southern Cone country, which is the third-largest economy in Latin America, built until then almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, large hydroelectric dams and, to a much lesser extent, nuclear energy.

According to official data, 135 new renewable energy projects, mostly solar and wind, have been launched in Argentina since 2016. The ones already in operation and those that are still under construction represent a combined total of 4,776 MW of installed power, with an estimated investment of close to 7.2 billion dollars.

The entrance to Cauchari Solar Park is reached by a desolate dirt road about 40 kilometres long that connects to paved highway 52, which in the northern province of Jujuy leads to the Chilean border. Technically there are three solar parks, to get around the 100 MW limit set by the tender. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

The most graphic reflection of the rise in renewable sources, which under the law have priority over conventional sources, is that they accounted for 9.1 percent of the electricity consumed in Argentina in the first 10 months of 2020 and climbed to a record 11.9 percent in October. Although it must be kept in mind that this occurred in a context of falling electricity consumption due to the drop in economic activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, renewable sources, which until three years ago represented less than two percent of electricity generation in Argentina, reached – with a slight delay – the goal of contributing eight percent of electric power, which Law 27191 of 2015 had set for Dec. 31, 2017.

The law outlines a second stage of the plan, with a goal of reaching 20 percent by 2025. But experts believe this will be virtually impossible to achieve.

The global economic crisis and Argentina’s financing problems – this year the country restructured almost 66 billion dollars of debt with private creditors and still owes some 52 billion dollars to the IMF – are major obstacles.

But they are not the only ones.

“Argentina is a large country, with great potential for solar energy in the north and wind energy in the south,” economist Julián Rojo of the General Mosconi Argentine Institute of Energy, a non-governmental research organisation, told IPS.

But “the problem is that for transporting electricity to the centres of consumption there is a lack of high voltage lines, which today are close to saturation. And there is no intention of investing in new ones,” he said in a telephone conversation.

An engineer oversees the installation of the panels during the construction of the solar park, which involved the arrival of more than 2,600 trucks carrying Chinese technology to a remote area in the Puna high mountain plateau in the northwest of Argentina. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

In Rojo’s view, Argentina does not currently need additional electricity generation, because peak demand was reached in 2017 and, if necessary, the country has an important gas pipeline network that makes it more convenient to build thermal power plants near the centres of consumption.

Making an offering to Pacha Mama for the expansion of the solar park

Marcelo Nieder, director of renewable energy in Jujuy province, told IPS that such a remote location was chosen to build the Cauchari solar park not only because of the excellent solar radiation in the Puna ecoregion, but also because a high-voltage line built in 1999 to export electricity to Chile passes through the area.

“Chile used it to supply its mining industry, but since 2006 Argentina stopped selling to Chile, so there was a possibility to take advantage of the power line,” he explained by phone from Jujuy, also the name of the provincial capital.

Because this high voltage line still has transport capacity the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, visited Cauchari in October to make an offering to the Pacha Mama – Mother Earth for the indigenous people of the Andean region – and to ask for an expansion of the solar park, up to 500 MW of power.

“We have already designed the expansion and we are betting that China will finance it, as in the case of the park that was already inaugurated,” Felipe Albornoz, president of Jujuy Energía y Minería Sociedad del Estado (JEMSE), the state-run energy and mining company that manages Cauchari, told IPS by phone from the provincial capital.

China’s state-owned Eximbank financed most of the construction, with a 330 million dollar loan that the province of Jujuy must pay back over 30 years, at an annual interest rate of 2.9 percent.

The remaining 60 million dollars were obtained through a green bond issued in the United States, for which the province of Jujuy is trying to postpone the maturity date, according to Albornoz.

Signs in Spanish and Chinese are an unexpected sight in the middle of the untamed landscape of Argentina’s Puna high mountain plateau and are a reflection of China’s heavy involvement in the development of solar power in Latin America. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS

The president of JEMSE explained that Jujuy expects to sell power to the national electricity market for about 25 million dollars a year. The company projects that Cauchari will produce 840,000 MW/hour per year, which would save the emission of 325,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent into the atmosphere, thanks to the reduction in the use of fossil fuels.

Two percent of the net profits will go to Puesto Sey, a Kolla indigenous community that has collective rights over the land where there is now an endless expanse of solar panels.

The irony is that Puesto Sey, like the other communities in the area, do not receive electricity from Cauchari because they are not connected to the national grid.

Most of the villages and small towns in the Puna, mainly inhabited by Kolla indigenous people, are supplied with electricity from diesel-fueled generators, although in recent years some small local solar parks have been built.

Nor does Cauchari make a difference today in terms of local employment, because although the two-year construction process employed more than 1,500 people, the plant itself only needs 60 to 70 highly specialised technicians.

And perhaps the most difficult question to answer is whether Argentina or any other Latin American country will ever be able to supply such large renewable energy projects with local technology.

Hoerth told IPS that the construction process brought about 100 million dollars to Jujuy’s domestic market, since 22.7 percent of the plant’s electromechanical components were domestically made.

However, the president of Cauchari said the local manufacture of technology for renewable energy sources is still a distant dream.

“I wish we could develop a national industry. But it is very complicated because China has reached such cheap costs that it has flooded the European market,” he said.

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The post Solar Power from Argentina’s Puna Highlands Reaches Entire Country appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Farmers in Indonesia’s West Java province. Indonesia’s agriculture sector is facing two major issues – decreases in both the number of farmers and irrigated rice fields. Credit: Kanis Dursin/IPS

By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Dec 10 2020 (IPS)

When his friends prodded him to use an agricultural app in July, rice farmer Mustafa reluctantly downloaded RiTx Bertani into his smart phone. Four months later, he feels happy to have given the technology a try.

“I started using the application in early September when I planted rice on 0.7 hectare of irrigated land,” the 41-year-old told IPS last month in a phone interview from Bondowoso regency in East Java, a one-hour flight east of the capital Jakarta.

“I cannot tell yet if it helps boost production or not, but I am very happy with the technology. It helped me detect and identify a rice disease in late September. We had always called rice diseases brown planthopper before and used the same medicines to control the disease. Thanks to the technology, we now know different rice diseases and can use appropriate insecticides to deal with them,” said the father of two.

Developed by start-up tech company PT Mitra Sejahtera Membangun Bangsa (MSMB), RiTx Bertani is designed to help farmers deal with climate change and other problems they may have through digital technology. RiTx comes from the words agriculture technology, while Bertani literally means farming.

Another farmer, Kurlufi, meanwhile, said he downloaded the application in 2018 but uninstalled it shortly after as he found it less helpful for his chilli crop. Earlier this year, he decided to reinstall it as the price of chilli suddenly dropped.

“The price of chilli has dropped sharply since the coronavirus hit the country in March. I looked for alternative crops when the application suggested that my field was suitable for cucumber,” the 42-year-old father of two told IPS from Banyuwangi regency, also in East Java.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 18,366 people as of today (Dec.10) has forced people to work from home and plant vegetables at their backyards, driving down the price of food crops due to low demand.

Kurlufi owns 0.95 hectares of farm land. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, he has planted cucumber on 0.6 hectares of his field for two successive seasons, harvesting eight kilograms of cucumber seeds in the first season and 18 kilograms in the second. Each season last for almost three months.

“I sold the seeds for Rp450,000 (US$32) per kilogram to a local company,” he said.

“I find the technology very useful for people who have no prior or little experience in farming. In my case, it helps me decide what crops to plant and when to hire workers to do the pollination as it provides weather forecasts for the next six to seven days,” Kurlufi added.

Mustafa and Kurlufi are two of 11,000 farmers in eight provinces in Indonesia using RiTx Bertani, one of dozens of agricultural apps currently available as the government promotes Smart Farming 4.0 or digitised agriculture.

MSMB project manager Rizal Dwi Prastyo said they have both hardware — in the form of on-field sensors, which are connected to the internet — and software — in the form of the RiTx Bertani app.

“Users have to submit detailed information about their fields, including the size, borders, latitude, and longitude for the sensors to locate. Once the sensors detect the fields, they immediately measure the soil’s moisture and air temperature and feeds those information to the internet,” Prastyo told IPS from Yogyakarta, a 50-minute flight east of Jakarta.

One sensor, which costs approximately $2,700, covers an area of 10 hectares of land.

Based on the soil’s current moisture, Prastyo said, agriculture experts at the company provide suggestions to farmers through the app on what crops suit their land best for the next planting season.

“Throughout the season, the sensors measure soil moisture and air humidity every 10 minutes and upload them into the internet. Users can read the feeds through the app under the sensor menu. Farmers need this kind of information to apply fertiliser or spray pesticides, if needed,” he continued.

The application, Prastyo said, also allows farmers to record all farming activity and save them under a record menu so they know exactly when next to apply fertiliser or spray pesticides or insecticides. Farmers can also ask for additional assistance through the online forum.

Activist Said Iqbal of non-governmental organisation People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty welcomed the use of apps in farming but said he doubted that digitised agriculture would improve the welfare of farmers and help the country achieve food sovereignty in the immediate future.

“Digitising the agriculture sector is unavoidable now but the root of the matter is farmers find no incentive to boost production. Why? Because they control on-farm activities only, while upstream and downstream activities are controlled by big businesses. It has become a public knowledge that intermediaries or traders earn more than twice of farmers’ earnings,” he said.

He also said most farmers in Indonesia were small holders, with each owning an average of 0.2 hectares of irrigated land. “Because of that condition, many farmers choose to sell their productive land and work as cheap labour, further reducing irrigated fields, especially on Java Island,” Iqbal said.

Another activist, Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko of the Alliance for Prosperous Village, agreed with Iqbal, saying that Indonesia’s agriculture sector was facing two major issues – decreases in both the number of farmers and irrigated rice fields.

Quoting a report by the Central Statistics Agency or BPS, Jatmiko told a webinar in Jakarta that the country had only 33.4 million farmers in 2019, down from 35.6 million in 2015, while irrigated fields stood at 10.68 million hectares in 2019, down by 700 hectares from 2018.

These conditions have resulted in fluctuations in rice production, forcing the government to import rice to meet the needs of over 270 million people. BPS reports show that the country imported 444,508 tons of rice in 2019, down from 2.25 million tons in 2018, 305,270 tons in 2017, and 1.28 million tons in 2016.

However, in terms of sustainable agriculture, Indonesia has a score of 61.1 out of 100,where 100 is the highest sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic Key Performance Indicators. This is according to the Food Sustainability Index, developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition. 

In a bid to increase farmers’ welfare, since 2017 President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has promoted farmer corporation, where farmers are organised into business ventures, founded and financed by farmers themselves, with the aim of controlling both on-farm and off-farm activities in the agricultural sector.

Dr. Syahyuti, a researcher with the Indonesian Center of Socio-Economic and Agricultural Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture, said under the corporation concept, farmers are also involved in the provision of seeds, fertiliser, agricultural machines, and capital with on-farm activities, and buying, milling, and selling rice in off-farm activities.

Based on experiences in some sub-districts, Syahyuti said farmers corporations increased farmers’ income by 72 percent.

While the government is working to organise farmers into business groups, Mustafa is upbeat that digitised agriculture will help increase the number of farmers in Indonesia.

“I notice the number of people tilling land in the district has increased since [using] the RiTx Bertani [app]. Many of them are young and unexperienced. I get the impression that with the technology arming is no longer a dirty job, but a lifestyle that more and more people embrace,” Mustafa said.

 

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