Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By David Nabarro and Joe Colombano
GENEVA, May 19 2020 (IPS)

When the COVID-19 virus travelled from Wuhan, China halfway across the world through Europe, the Americas and beyond in the space of a few weeks, it gave us proof, if one was ever needed, of how tightly interconnected we all are. Not only are our globalized economies interdepended, but also we ourselves are one with the environment around us, and with one another. We are one humankind sharing one planet. And yet, all too often we seem to forget it, as we carelessly revert to misguiding differences between “us” and “them.” Take, for example, the distinction between rich and poor countries, or as economists put it, between advanced economies and least developed countries. In the face of COVID-19, the only difference that matters is if we are sick or healthy. Other than that, we are all the same, regardless of economic status or geographic location.

Or are we really? Clearly we do not mean to say that differences do not exist. Indeed, the virus has shown us that, far from being the great leveler and equalizer that it was initially purported to be, it matters who you are and where you are. It matters if you are an African American in Chicago, a member of the First Nations in Northern Canada, a Rohingya refugee in Myanmar, a Dharavidweller in Mumbai, an informal worker in Nigeria, an older person in a residential home in the UK, an inmate in a South American prison, a meat processor in America, an immigrant labourer in a dormitory in Singapore, a female healthcare professional in any hospital around the world, or someone on a low income just about anywhere. It matters a lot. It makes the difference between being infected or not; between having access to testing or not; between health and illness, life and death. COVID-19 may be a challenge we all face, but it is our ability to respond to it that differswhether within or between countries.

David Nabarro

People in the developing world are most at risk. Take, for example, the first line of defense against the virus, as recommended by the WHO: frequent hand-washing. While this is part of daily life for all of us in the North, the latest UN SDGs Progress Report reminds us that 2 out of 5 people worldwide do not have a basic hand-washing facility with soap and water at home. In the least developed countries, it is less than one out of three people (28 per cent). This means that, globally, an estimated 3 billion people are still unable to properly wash their hands at home, and are therefore deprived of the most basic and effective prevention measure against COVID-19.

Or look at extreme poverty, a scourge that burdens the developing world most. According to the World Bank, COVID-19 has the potential of pushing an additional 40-60 million people back into extreme poverty. This would be an unfortunate reverse in decades of progress against global poverty. To make things worse, developing countries risk being hit by COVID-19 at the time when their economies are already weakened by the effects of low commodity prices, fleeing foreign capital and weakening currencies. In some instances, this volatility impacts the prices of food, with potential deleterious effects on the nutrition of the most vulnerable.

In the face of COVID-19, the advanced economies cannot afford to leave the developing world to fend for itself. After all, developing nations now suffer the impact of the pandemic through no faults of their own, the virus having reached their shores from the North, in the form of international travel. There is a real possibility, even likelihood, of major fiscal and financial crises in several large emerging economies and perhaps dozens of smaller ones. This would hamper our efforts to bring the pandemic under control. It would trigger social instability that is hard to reverse, and compound existing humanitarian crises. Even without invoking the moral imperatives dictated by our common humanity, it is in the political and economic interest of every country that the developing world is protected and spared the worst of this crisis.

Joe Colombano

The good news is that we know how to do this. Our multilateral system is designed to face multidimensional challenges and has decades of experience: the WHO to help keep the pandemics under control, the FAO to help identify the food import needs and food supply bottlenecks, the IMF to promptly fund what is needed, the World Bank to help rebuild, etc. What is now needed is adequate urgent international financing coupled with unequivocal political support. We need a “pandemic Marshall plan” for the developing countries, possibly in the form of a massive open spigot from the IMF, to do what the Fed did in the U.S., or the ECB in Europe, to inject liquidity, help orchestrate a rollover of sovereign debts and avoid the risk of a financial crisis.

It is true that COVID-19 knows no borders and makes no distinctions when it strikes. In that sense it is the ultimate global challenge. But countries are not equally equipped to deal with it, and it would be bad for the world if differences between nations blunt the collective response. The world needs the multilateral system like never before: budgets should be increased and not cut, and political support should be undivided. Our world is tightly interconnected: we are only as strong as the weakest amongst us.

David Nabarro, WHO Special Envoy on COVID-19, and Joe Colombano, economist

Read COVID-19 narratives of David Nabarro : https://www.4sd.info/covid-19-narratives/
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The post EXCLUSIVE: In the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic We Are Only as Strong as the Weakest of Us appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee, pictured in Kuala Lumpur on 18 July, 2019. Photo: AFP

By C R Abrar
May 19 2020 (IPS-Partners)

“We all knew that [Aung San Suu Kyi] was put on a pedestal or portrayed as the icon of democracy and human rights, but ever since [her party] has taken office [after the 2015 election] and ever since she took the office of the State Councillor, all of her actions and her words, statements point otherwise”, noted Professor Yanghee Lee, in one of her last conversations with Al Jazeera as the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Burma. “Perhaps the world didn’t really know who she was”, she said.

At a time when the world, including neighbouring Malaysia and Thailand, have shunned the Rohingya (acknowledged as the most persecuted minority in the world), at a time when the Burmese state audaciously tramples the whole corpus of international human rights instruments being aided and abetted by major powers; at a time when those who stand for reason, rule of law and justice feel betrayed by the high and mighty of the world, Yanghee Lee stood firm as a beacon of hope.

A developmental psychologist and professor with decades of involvement in the UN’s rights bodies, Lee held the mandate of the Special Rapporteur from 2014 until end of April this year. Over the years, she made extensive visits to the region, including Burma. Her objective reporting on the human rights situation in Rakhine and the rest of Burma did not augur well and during their last one-to-one meeting, the de facto head of Burmese government Suu Kyi threatened visa denial if the UN Special Rapporteur kept pushing the “UN line”. Lee refused to be cowed by the former human rights icon’s interference and Suu Kyi delivered on her threat—she has been denied entry to the country since 2017. Lee viewed the Burmese decision “as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country”. While holding office, she was one of the very few global public figures who unwaveringly championed the Rohingyas’ quest for dignity, justice and protected return to their homeland.

Yanghee Lee’s tenure came to be largely dominated by the Burmese state’s attempt to complete the “unfinished business” of Rohingyas’ physical and historical existence, the Burmese equivalent of the Final Solution, in the early fall of 2017. The genocidal terror that was unleashed resulted in the exodus of at least 750,000 people into neighbouring Bangladesh. It was presented as a clearance operation of “ARSA terrorists”, a pretext enthusiastically accepted by Islamophobic western governments, world media and “security experts”. Choosing to ignore the genocidal nature of these “security clearance operations”, the emerging chorus of policy and media discourses faulted the Burmese military for “disproportionate and excessive use of force”, despite Lee calling out the “the hallmarks of a genocide” by Burma. As a matter of fact, on August 10, 2017, at least two weeks prior to the alleged ARSA attack on Burmese police outposts, Lee warned of the buildup and ominous movement of security forces in northern Arakan and appealed for restraint and respecting human rights.

In her parting statement to the Human Rights Council, Lee noted, “(w)hen I took up my mandate in 2014, I had thought that by 2020 a rights-respecting democracy would have been firmly established in Myanmar… Rather than a nation that protects human rights, I observe rights violations that continue to routinely occur and a country that stands accused of the most serious crimes under international law.”

Lee proposed ways to move towards an equal, tolerant and pluralistic society, including through victim-centered transitional justice mechanisms. Among other things, the UN expert underscored the need to bring the entire government and security forces under civilian control and initiate extensive legal reforms—including of the Constitution, land laws, the Citizenship Law and laws that violate fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, assembly and religion. “An end to impunity is the lynchpin for Myanmar to succeed in its transition to democracy. Perpetrators of human rights violations and international crimes must be held accountable,” she argued.

Yanghee Lee was appalled at the world’s reaction to the Rohingya plight—particularly that of the Security Council, which could not manage to agree on a single unified stance on an unfolding genocide in real time. She made her feelings loud and clear. Lee felt it was “shameful” that China and Russia, being UN security council members, have not taken any action against Burma. “China cannot be a global leader if it ignores such atrocities,” she noted. The Special Rapporteur also said the US decision to impose sanctions against senior military leaders in Burma did not go “far enough” and recommended these be tougher and applied to more generals.

She was disappointed at the response of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the developments in northern Arakan. The situation posed an increasing risk to the peace and security of countries of the region, she warned, urging them to prioritise human rights in its dealings with Burma. She expressed regret at the lack of response from the Government of India on her request to visit the country to meet refugees there. She reminded them that it is incumbent on member states to respect mandates established by the Human Rights Council and provide timely and reasonable answers to such requests.

The UN’s role in addressing the Rohingya plight has been palpable. Lee personally appealed to Secretary General Antonio Guterres for an international investigation, to no avail. In October 2017, when The Guardian reported the scandalous news of Renata Lok-Dessalien, UN Resident Coordinator in Burma, compromising UN Human Rights Up Front policy by prioritising a cozy relationship with Burma’s rulers, Guterres relented and commissioned former Guatemalan foreign minister Gert Rosenthal to do an internal assessment of the UN’s performance in Burma. The Rosenthal Report condemned the organisation’s “obviously dysfunctional performance” over the past decade and noted “the overall responsibility was of a collective nature; in other words it can truly be characterised as a systemic failure of the United Nations.” Accordingly, no UN official was held accountable, and Lok-Dessallien was even rewarded with a larger portfolio when she was appointed head of the UN in India!

Yanghee Lee was unequivocal in expressing her disappointment of the UN system in dealing with the Rohingya issue, particularly the UN’s technical agencies in the New York headquarters and in Burma. She was brutally honest about how she felt about the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by the Burmese government, UNHCR and UNDP in early June 2018 purportedly “to assist the process of repatriation from Bangladesh”. The document was not made publicly available, nor was there any transparency about its terms. UN’s failure to defend the self-identity of the Rohingya and their refugee status appalled her. “I am dismayed about the fact that the parties to the MoU, including the United Nations agencies involved in this process, have apparently failed to recognise Rohingya living in Bangladesh as refugees and as Rohingya”.

The tendency of concerned states, including Burma and Bangladesh, to deny any role to Rohingya refugees was of grave concern for her. “Most frightful … is the fact that the Rohingya refugees have not been included in any of the discussions … around this MoU nor consulted in relation to the repatriation process as a whole”, she noted, posing the uncomfortable but pointed question to the Council—”how can the process of repatriation be voluntary with the people who the process is for excluded from it? How can you be sure that any return is based on individual informed consent?”

Conveying the common view among Rohingya refugees to the Council, Lee said “it is futile to speak about their safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable return unless the root causes of their exodus are properly addressed”. She argued that to ensure such repatriation, the international community must ensure that Burma dismantles the system of discrimination against the Rohingya by law, policy and practices that continue to exist, and guarantee fundamental human rights to them, including by restoring their citizenship rights and property.

Helping lay the foundation for global justice for both Rohingyas and other victims within the UN’s system of accountability has been the single most important contribution of Professor Lee to Burma’s oppressed communities (not just the Rohingya), especially given that the country does not have national or domestic justice and accountability mechanisms that recognise and are capable of processing the gravest crimes in international law, such as crimes against humanity and genocide. Her persistent demand for an independent investigation into Burma’s state crimes against the Rohingya led to setting up of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFMM) by the UN that was succeeded by the creation of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) by the Human Rights Council in September 2018. The IIMM became operational on August 30, 2019—it is mandated to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law and prepare files for criminal prosecution.

Despite widespread skepticism, it was the relentless effort of Lee that led to the huge success in setting up of an accountability mechanism. She even wrote the TOR of the personnel of IIMM and prepared its budget. All these were achieved with the meagre support of a desk officer and a research assistant. Acknowledging her significant role, Rohingya genocide scholar Maung Zarni succinctly noted “No Yanghee Lee, no Fact Finding Mission and The Gambia-vs-Myanmar case at the International Court of Justice”.

In our meeting during her last visit to Bangladesh, she underscored the need for sustained engagement of civil society against all odds. Brushing aside my shyness, I told her that we celebrate her good fight against a system that stands for the status quo and the powerful, and has repeatedly failed to deliver justice. I added, she was the role model for those who stand for justice for the wretched of the earth. Maintaining her graceful composure, she smiled. Gracias, Professor Yanghee Lee.

C R Abrar is an academic. He is the Coordinator of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Credit: UNICEF/Andrew Esiebo

By Danny Bradlow
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, May 19 2020 (IPS)

Sub-Saharan Africa has a debt problem. According to the most recent World Bank debt statistics, in 2018 the region had about $493 billion in long term external debt.

About one third, $117 billion, was in the form of tradeable bonds. About half of the $17 billion in interest payments Africa made in 2018 was to these bondholders.

To put this debt in perspective: In 2018, the region’s total external debt was equal to 36% of its gross national income. Debt service payments that year contributed to the region’s 3.6% of GDP budget deficit.

A year later, in 2019, many African countries spent more money servicing their debts than they did on health.

Needless to say, Africa’s debt problem is complicating its efforts to deal with the profound social, health, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The international community has taken some steps to help Africa deal with this issue. The G-20 countries have agreed to a debt payment standstill on all debts owed to official creditors based in their countries.

Some of these countries are also contributing to a fund to help the poorest countries meet their obligations to the IMF. Unfortunately, the international community has not convinced bondholders to contribute to this effort.

There are several reasons for this failure. First, the bondholders are a large and diverse group. They each have their own investment strategies and view of their responsibilities to their clients, which include both individuals and companies.

Second, there is variation in the terms and conditions of the different bonds that need to be reconciled and incorporated into one regional relief package.

Third, different African countries have different views on what they need to deal with the crisis in their country. Some want maximum debt relief. Others, more confident in their ability to service their debts and weather the crisis, want to avoid the “guilt by association” that would attach if they are too closely associated with those countries seeking debt relief.

Finally, there is a risk that speculators will buy these bonds, which trade on an open market, at their current discounted prices and seek to enforce their original terms against the debtor countries.

World Health Organization, Burundi

History teaches that this last risk is very real. In the 1990 many African countries had unsustainable debts. They owed $255 billion to their official creditors and $28 billion (17% of the total) to private creditors.

Bilateral and multilateral creditors launched the HIPC initiative in 1996 to help highly indebted poor countries. Thirty-one African countries benefited from this debt forgiveness. Private creditors did not participate.

Unfortunately, this created an opportunity for speculators, now more accurately called vulture funds. They bought the debts of countries like Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda very cheaply.

They demanded that the countries meet their contractual obligations and pay them in full. They sued any country that refused. This strategy earned them returns of between 300% and 2,000%.

To date, they have used this strategy – or are using it – against approximately 15 African countries.

Any effort to help Africa deal with its bondholder problem must satisfy three objectives. First, it must offer immediate debt relief to those African countries that need it in order to deal with the COVID induced crisis that they are currently experiencing.

This means that Africa cannot wait for the inevitably time-consuming and laborious negotiating process with a reluctant group of bondholders to produce a result.

Second, it should mitigate the risk that the benefits of the debt relief will be captured by the vulture funds.

Third, it needs to ensure that after the crisis abates African states will not either be saddled with undue debt burdens or denied access to the financing they need to restart their economies and promote the sustainable development of their populations.

Fortunately, there is a way for Africa to meet all three objectives. It should create a special purpose vehicle –the DOVE (Debts of Vulnerable Economies) fund — that will demonstrate to the financial markets how a responsible creditor treats African debtors in crisis.

The DOVE fund will do three things.

First, it will buy African bonds on the open market at the prevailing discounted prices. It will then notify all other bondholders that it expects to participate in all future bondholder discussions about the management of African bonds.

Second, it will inform both the debtor country and the financial markets that it commits to hold its bonds and to implement a standstill on any payments due on them until the global health crisis abates. The fund will also pledge that once the global economy begins to grow again it will work with African debtors to ensure that the debt does not become an unreasonable burden on their efforts to rebuild their economies.

It will stipulate that any future debt renegotiations will be consistent with all applicable international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Principles on Responsible Investment, and the UNCTAD Principles on Promoting Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing.

Third, the DOVE fund will advocate that all private sector creditors should participate in a comparable standstill, both on debt payments and bond trading, and should applying the same principles as the DOVE fund in determining what to do with the debt of the participating countries after the crisis ends.

It can remind them that most of the leading financial institutions in the world are signatories to the Principles on Responsible Investment, and many of them have policies that require them to be socially and environmentally responsible in all their operations. Many of them also have human rights policies that confirm that they respect international human rights.

In addition, many of them have acknowledged that their companies should serve the interests of all their stakeholders and should not prioritize the interests of their shareholders. Their stakeholders include their borrowers and those innocent third parties – such as citizens – affected by their actions and decisions.

The DOVE fund should also have the following characteristics so that it can function effectively.

First, it must be independent of both creditors and debtors. To demonstrate its independence the fund should be managed by an independent board representing all stakeholders. These include the debtor states and their citizens, the creditors and the investors in the DOVE fund.

This board would hire a manager to implement its strategy for assisting the debtor countries and advocating for a new approach to all other bondholders.

Second, the fund can be established in a neutral jurisdiction but it should be based at an African institution such as the African Development Bank.

Third, the fund should only buy the bonds of African countries that choose to participate in its operations. Some countries, given the terms of their bonds and their ability to meet their contractual obligations, might be wary of participating in these operations. They may fear that it will complicate their future access to financing.

Fourth, the fund needs to be large enough to be an influential voice in any discussion among bondholders about the treatment of the participating African countries’ debts. It should raise its resources from a range of sources including governments, international organizations, foundations, financial institutions, companies and individuals.

The purpose of raising funds from foundations, companies and individuals is both political and financial. Their involvement will increase the pressure on other bondholders to comply with the DOVE fund’s objectives.

The DOVE fund could encourage these groups to participate by issuing a social impact bond which would only offer holders a return that is linked to the post-crisis growth rate of sub-Saharan Africa and/or to the level of debt payments actually received by the DOVE fund after the crisis.

Such bonds are likely to appeal to African individuals and companies, members of the African diaspora and Africa’s friends who are interested in contributing to its efforts to deal with the profound COVID-19 induced crisis that the continent is facing.

Financial institutions could contribute “in kind” by making a binding commitment to participate in any debt payment and to comply with the objectives of the DOVE fund.

Clearly, the biggest portion would need to come from governments and international organizations.

One way governments could contribute is by donating a portion of their current holdings of special drawing rights, the International Monetary Fund’s reserve asset, to be used by the DOVE fund.

The IMF could contribute through a sale of a portion of its gold holdings, which are currently valued at about $138 billion at current market prices and at about $4.5 billion at historical cost.

Africa is facing a profound crisis that could set its development back a generation. It needs a solution to its debt problems that makes sure that no future African leader is forced to ask, as did former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere: Should we really let our people starve so we can pay our debts?

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Excerpt:

Danny Bradlow is SARCHI Professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Email: danny.bradlow@up.ac.za

The post Africa Needs a DOVE Fund: Or Should We Starve So We Can Pay our Debts? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 19 2020 (IPS)

Economic growth is supposed to be the tide that lifts all boats. According to the conventional wisdom until recently, growth in China, India and East Asian countries took off thanks to opening up to international trade and investment.

Such growth is said to have greatly reduced poverty despite growing inequality in both sub-continental economies and many other countries. Other developing countries have been urged to do the same, i.e., liberalize trade and attract foreign investments.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Doha Round ‘dead in water’
However, multilateral trade negotiations under World Trade Organization (WTO) auspices have gone nowhere since the late 1990s, even with the so-called Doha Development Round begun in 2001 as developing countries rallied to support the US after 9/11.

After the North continued to push their interests despite their ostensible commitment to a developmental outcome, the Obama administration was never interested in completing the Round, and undermined the WTO’s functioning, e.g., its dispute settlement arrangements, even before Trump was elected.

To be sure, the Doha Round proposals were hardly ‘developmental’ by any standards, with most developing countries barely benefitting, if not actually worse off following the measures envisaged, even according to World Bank and other studies.

GVC miracle?
According to the World Bank’s annual flagship World Development Report (WDR) 2020 on Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains, GVCs have been mainly responsible for the growth of international trade for two decades from the 1990s.

GVCs now account for almost half of all cross-border commerce due to ‘multiple counting’, as products cross more borders than ever. Firms’ creative book-keeping may also overstate actual value added in some tax jurisdictions to minimize overall tax liability.

WDR 2020 claims that GVCs have thus accelerated economic development and even convergence between North and South as fast-growing poor countries have grown more rapidly, closing the economic gap with rich countries.

Automation, innovative management, e.g., ‘just-in-time’ (JIT), outsourcing, offshoring and logistics have dramatically transformed production. Labour processes are subject to greater surveillance, while piecework at home means self-policing and use of unpaid household labour.

WDR 2020 out of touch
WDR 2020 presumes trends that no longer exist. Trade expansion has been sluggish for more than a decade, at least since the 2008 global financial crisis when the G20 of the world’s largest economies and others adopted protective measures in response.

GVC growth has slowed since, as economies of the North insisted on trade liberalization for the South, while abandoning their own earlier commitments as the varied consequences of economic globalization fostered reactionary jingoist populist backlashes.

Meanwhile, new technologies involving mechanization, automation and other digital applications have further reduced overall demand for labour even as jobs were ‘off-shored’. Trump-initiated trade policies and conflicts have pressured US and other transnational corporations to ‘on-shore’ jobs after decades of ‘off-shoring’.

Nonetheless, WDR 2020 urges developing countries to bank on GVCs for growth and better jobs. Success of this strategy depends crucially on developed countries encouraging ‘offshoring’, a policy hardly evident for well over a decade!

As the last World Bank chief economist, albeit for barely 15 months, Yale Professor Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg recently agreed, “the world is … retreating from globalization”. “Protectionism is on the rise — industrialized countries are less open to imports from developing countries. In addition, there is by now a lot of competition”.

The Covid-19 crisis has further encouraged ‘on-shoring’ and ‘chain shortening’, especially for food, medical products and energy. Although the Japanese and other governments have announced such policies, ostensibly for ‘national security’ and other such reasons, Goldberg has nonetheless reiterated the case for GVCs in Covid-19’s wake.

Trade does not lift all boats
After claiming that “economists have argued for centuries that trade is good for the economy as a whole”, Goldberg has also noted that “trade generates winners and losers”, with many losing out, and urges acknowledging “the evidence rather than trying to discredit it, as some do.”

Following Samuelson and others, she recommends compensating those negatively effected by trade liberalization, claiming “sufficient gains generated by open trade that the winners can compensate the losers and still be better off” without indicating how this is to be done fairly.

Compensation and redistribution require transfers which are typically difficult to negotiate and deliver at low cost. Tellingly, like others, she makes no mention of international transfers, especially for fairly redistributing the unequal gains from trade among trading partners.

Interestingly, she also observes, “There are plenty of examples, especially in African countries, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few… even when the tide rises, only very few boats rise. Growth doesn’t trickle down and doesn’t improve the lot of the poor.”

Unlikely Pan-Africanist
After decades of World Bank promotion of the ‘East Asian miracle’ for emulation by other developing countries, especially in Africa, Greek-born American Goldberg insists that what worked for growth and poverty reduction in China will not work in Africa today.

Echoing long time Bank critics, she argues, “If trade with rich countries is no longer the engine of growth, it will be more important than ever to rely on domestic resources…to generate growth that does trickle down and translates to poverty reduction.”

Instead, as if supporting some contemporary pan-Africanists, she argues, “Africa needs to rely on itself more than ever. The idea that export-led industrialization as it happened in China or East Asia is going to lead growth in Africa becomes less and less plausible”.

She argues that “the African market is a very large market with incredible potential. It has not been developed yet. So, regional integration might be one path forward. Rather than opting for global integration, which may be very hard to achieve these days when countries are retreating from multilateralism, it might be more feasible to push for regional trade agreements and create bigger regional markets for countries’ goods and services”.

Acknowledging “We are still a very long way from there because most countries are averse to this idea — they see their neighbors as competitors rather than countries they can cooperate with”, not seeming to recognize the historical role of the Bank and mainstream trade economists in promoting the ‘free trade illusion’ and discrediting pan-Africanism.

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By Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Singapore, May 18 2020 (IPS)

When the United States and China signed the First-Phase of their Trade Agreement in January this year, President Donald Trump called it a “momentous step”, and the world believed they had stepped back from a dangerous brink. But, alas, to cite an idiom that is so current today, it was but a ‘false positive’. As the globe reels from the surgoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is possible that the rapid deterioration of US-China relationship can become one of the worst side-effects of this raging virus.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

In this election year, things had looked good for Trump in January. His domestic support base was solid. The economy was doing well, The Democrats were on a bit of a disarray. Trump had lowered the temperature in relations with North Korea. Now, with the deal with China, his re-election seemed a shoo-in. Then came the pandemic. The US economy took a nose-dive. Unemployment soared, Anxious to return to early normalcy, the While House took measures that deepened confusion. One way out for Trumps was to assume the role of a wartime-President. An enemy was needed. Initially, it was the ‘virus’, but it was too invisible’ to be useful. Something more tangible was required, China fitted the bill.

What made it easier was that as the pandemic spread many in the world did not see China as quite the Caesar’s wife. It was accused of concealing some critical early developments with regard to it. The pathogen first spread from Wuhan in China. The prevalent political system aided suppression of some facts. This was a cause for umbrage to many, including the Europeans who suffered greatly. But the Europeans had no reason to politicize it. To many analysts, Trump and his team did. It would help rally their cohorts. Furthermore, for a variety of reasons, China’s popularity in the US was low. And, of course, there could be nothing unfair in love and war.

So, Trump and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led a chorus of anti-Chinese tirade. They accused China of hiding the enormity of the virus threat. They also alleged, without seeing the need to produce evidence. that the pathogen originated in a Wuhan laboratory. The Chinese originally responded that these things were better left to scientists than to “Politicians who lie for their own domestic political ends”. Later they issued a lengthy rebuttal of what they said were “ preposterous allegations” by some leading US politicians. To make it appealing to ordinary Americans, the Chinese, rather adroitly began their briefings on the 30-page 11000-word article by invoking the American Republican hero, President Abraham Lincoln.

Lashing out at the World Health Organization which had been generous in its praise of China’s handling of the Corona crisis. Trump withdrew its funding calling it a “Puppet of China”. Thereafter, the US sent a missive to 60 countries asking for support for Taiwan’s participation in the organization, to broaden all efforts to fight the pandemic (Taiwan is being praised as a success-story in this regard). At the same time, the US stopped a draft-text from being voted upon in the United Nations Secretary Council calling for a ‘cease-fire’’ in various global conflicts to help troubled countries to better combat the COVID.

Because of the situation, China was running far behind the pace needed to meet the first year’s goal of purchase of American goods, which was to have been a US$ 77 billion increase over 2017 levels according to the January phase One deal. The Chinese asked for renegotiation. Trump has declared he was ‘not interested’. He accused his predecessors in the White House for alluring China to ‘take advantage of the US for many many years doubtless in livid rage at former President Barrack Obama’s recent criticism of his handling the current crisis. Not only that. There are now hints that Trump may default paying the US$ 1.08 trillion debt owed to China, and even seize the latter’s assets! Thus would have a huge impact on the global market economy and the US-China economic relations would lie in tatters!

On the military front the clouds are also darkening. A guided-missile American destroyer “USS Barry” passed through the Taiwan strait twice in April, Another US naval vessel, the “USS America recently conducted exercise in the East China Seas and the South China sea. In March, Trump signed into law the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act, following which the Chinese Media warned Taiwan against its allowing the US to town the island into a powder keg.

China has its own legislation about Taiwan. The anti-secession law passed by China’s Parliament in 2005 mandates Beijing to declare war if Taiwan formally declares independence. Taiwan therefore, maintains the most studious “red-line” on China’s foreign and security policy.

In all fairness, the US security establishment recognizes that. Hopefully, the US institutional mechanism can restrain the onslaught of a war for overt political gains of one segment of the polity that could devastate the entire nation. At the same time the Chinese would. it is assumed, have the good sense not to self-destruct themselves by initiating something drastic and foolish like seeking to attack Taiwan with the US engrossed in battling the virus. Both sides, the Americans and the Chinese, have recently been relentlessly citing the Greek historian Thucydides, who warned against miscalculations leading to when he observed “when Athens grew strong, there was great fear in Sparta”. Let us hope both sides, the Americans and the Chinese, pay heed to their own perceived forebodings!

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is Principal Research Fellow at ISAS, National University of Singapore, former Foreign Advisor and President of Cosmos Foundation Bangladesh.

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

The post The Hotting-Up of the Sino-American Spat: Most Dangerous Side-Effect of Covid-19? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Remittances now account for an important portion of GDP in Latin America and the Caribbean and support millions of families, so the drop in this source of income is shaking the economies of many countries and deepening poverty in the region. CREDIT: World Bank

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, May 18 2020 (IPS)

Remittances that support millions of households in Latin America and the Caribbean have plunged as family members lose jobs and income in their host countries, with entire families sliding back into poverty, as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis and global economic recession.

The region will receive a projected 77.5 billion dollars in remittances this year, 19.3 percent less than the 96 billion dollars it received in 2019, according to provisional forecasts by the World Bank.

The damage “can be understood from the angle of consumption. Six million households, of the 30 million that receive remittances, will not have them this year, and another eight million will lose at least one month of that income,” expert Manuel Orozco told IPS from Washington, D.C.

Remittances in the region average 212 dollars per month, according to studies by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Remittances “represent 50 percent of the total income of the households that receive money from family members abroad, and increase their savings capacity to more than double that of the average population,” said Orozco, who heads the migration, remittances and development programme at the Inter-American Dialogue organisation.

“The projected fall, which would be the sharpest decline in recent history, is largely due to a fall in the wages and employment of migrant workers, who tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country,” the World Bank stated in a report.

The cause of this was the shutdown of entire segments of economic activity in an attempt to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which deprived migrants of their sources of employment and income, thus undermining their ability to send money back home to their families.

This is a global phenomenon, with remittances falling by at least 19.7 percent to 445 billion dollars in low- and middle-income countries as a whole: dropping by 23 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, 22 percent in South Asia, 19.6 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 13 percent in East Asia and the Pacific.

Remittances “are a vital source of income for developing countries,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said Apr. 22, noting their role in alleviating poverty, improving nutrition, increasing spending on education and reducing child labour in disadvantaged households.

Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), listed the drop in remittances among the factors that will depress the region’s economy to an unprecedented level, -5.3 percent, with the risk of poverty climbing from 186 million to 214 million inhabitants: 33 percent of the total population.

An empty money transfer office in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is usually packed with migrants sending remittances home from the U.S. to their families in Central America. The city, dedicated to leisure and tourism, has been paralysed by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving thousands of migrant workers without employment or income. CREDIT: Western Union

Anxiety from the north

The countries that will be hardest hit are those of Central America and Haiti, according to Bárcena. Remittances make up between 30 and 39 percent of Haiti’s gross domestic product (GDP), and last year accounted for 21.8 percent of Honduras’ GDP, 21.2 percent of El Salvador’s and 13.8 percent of Guatemala’s.

“We’re talking about fragile states, with collapsed health systems, weak or corrupt governments, and budgets that were already insufficient to meet people’s needs and are worse off now,” Victoria Gass of the U.S. division of Oxfam’s anti-poverty coalition told IPS from New York.

Orozco stressed that it will affect the consumption capacity of 20 percent of Central Americans, who will be forced to use their savings, on average a quarter of all remittances, for immediate expenses such as buying food and medicine.

In El Salvador, for example, Gabriela Pleitez, 35, who lives in the capital, no longer receives the 200 dollars a month sent to her by her mother, a dental assistant, and her brother, a taxi driver, who live in Los Angeles, California and found themselves suddenly unemployed.

Gabriela completed the 400 dollars she needed to get by with unsteady work as a real estate agent or by selling clothes and beauty products. Now she takes in some money as an assistant at a stand that sells traditional foods.

“I don’t buy bread anymore, and I’m eating less. If you manage to get 10 dollars you have to think carefully what to spend it on. If I don’t pay the water bill, they will cut it off. My landlord won’t charge me rent for three months, in accordance with a government decree, but then he will want me to leave,” she told IPS.

Another Salvadoran, Rosa Ramírez, a 56-year-old mother and grandmother still in charge of an adult daughter and four children, said the pandemic dealt her small flower arrangement business a death blow. “The situation was difficult before, and now, with homes and businesses closed, I’m out of work,” the resident of Zacatecoluca, in the central department of La Paz, told IPS.

Young Latin Americans migrate in search of opportunities and older family members are dependent on their support through remittances to cover essential expenses such as food and medicine. CREDIT: IFAD

Her lifeline is her son Luis, 27, who found a job in 2018 as a carpenter in Stafford, Virginia, in the U.S. southeast, after fleeing from gangs who demanded he make payments to keep them from attacking his then three-year-old daughter.

Luis used to send her between 350 and 400 dollars a month “to pay bills, the rent, and medicine, because I’ve had high blood pressure for years and I can’t go without my medicine,” Rosa said. But now her son has only sent her half that because “he is working fewer hours, one day he gets a job and the next he doesn’t.”

Rosa’s daughter received a temporary 300 dollar aid package provided by the government for the most vulnerable, and was able to cover basic expenses. But Rosa is now anxious about how she will make ends meet. Her daughter, Gabriela, would like to emigrate to the United States, but she has been told that the legal process could take eight years.

Another hard-hit country is Mexico, where 42 percent of the population of 130 million lives in poverty. In 2019, 36 billion dollars in remittances came in, mostly from the 37 million people of Mexican origin living in the United States.

Seven million households received remittances in 2019, but this year 1.7 million of those households will not receive them, Orozco calculated, due to the wave of unemployment that is hitting the U.S.

Intra-regional migration in the South

South America has a more even spread of migration that provides it with remittances, between North America, Spain and other European countries, and the sub-region itself, greatly increased by the millions of Venezuelans who fled to neighbouring countries in the last six years due to the economic, political and humanitarian calamity in their country.

This is the case, for example, of 26-year-old Laura (who preferred not to give her last name), who works in a veterinary clinic in Lima, “which has practically been left without clients due to the lockdown ordered by the Peruvian government. My husband, who used to do various jobs, is not bringing in an income either,” she told IPS from the Peruvian capital.

Poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean will rise with the fall in economic activity, the largest seen in the region in almost a century, and this time there will be little relief from remittances because the COVID-19 pandemic has also sunk the economies of host countries. CREDIT: UNDP

Laura regularly sent 100 dollars a month to her mother, a widow raising two teenage children on the meager salary (equivalent to five dollars a month) of a school teacher in Barquisimeto, a city in central-western Venezuela.

With each remittance, her mother “could buy some medicine, some meat, milk and eggs to complete the CLAP (the acronym for the bag of basic foodstuffs that the government delivers monthly at subsidised prices to poor families), but now I can’t send her almost anything, we’re just trying to scrape by in Lima,” said Laura.

Of the Venezuelans working in Peru, 46 percent were street vendors, 15 percent were employed in shops and six percent worked in restaurants – activities that have all faced restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research by Cécile Blouin of the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima.

In the last five years, 1.6 million Venezuelans have migrated to Colombia, 880,000 to Peru, 385,000 to Ecuador, 370,000 to Chile, 250,000 to Brazil and 145,000 to Argentina, according to a platform of United Nations agencies and NGOs monitoring the phenomenon.

The Venezuelan diaspora was added to more traditional migration flows, such as that of Paraguayans in Argentina: 550,000 migrants who sent home some 70 million dollars in 2019, a figure that was already declining due to exchange controls in Buenos Aires.

One third of the 1.3 billion dollars that Bolivia received in remittances in 2019 came from Bolivian migrants in Argentina, Brazil and Chile, but the figure has dropped since March with the measures put in place in the attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19.

In Peru, which has three million citizens living abroad, a quarter of the 3.3 billion dollars the country received in remittances in 2019 came from the 350,000 Peruvians living in Argentina and the 250,000 in Chile.

Until this global upheaval, remittances were counter-cyclical: workers sent more money to their families when their home countries were experiencing crisis and hardship, which this time they have not been able to do because the pandemic and recession have affected all countries.

But there is some hope for the future. According to the International Monetary Fund, after falling -3.0 percent in 2020, the world economy will grow 5.8 percent in 2021 (Latin America 3.4 percent) and remittances will also increase at a similar rate. In low- and middle-income countries they will total 470 billion dollars.

But for millions of Latin American families, like those of Gabriela and Rosa in El Salvador or Laura in Venezuela, that’s too long a wait.

With reporting from Edgardo Ayala in San Salvador.

The post Coronavirus Leads to Nosedive in Remittances in Latin America appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A trafficked survivor reunites with family in Vietnam. Courtesy: Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, May 18 2020 (IPS)

A single mother, Mai (name changed) had the responsibility of providing for her young son and grandparents, who had brought her up in a poor rural province in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. While she was looking for employment, somebody approached her on social media with an offer of a high-paying job in China. When she arrived in China, she was sold into a forced marriage.

For two months, Mai suffered violence and beatings from her ‘husband’, who kept her locked in the house. When she tried to fight back, the ‘husband’ sold her to another man seeking a wife. She was forced to have sex as the family wanted a child. When she became pregnant, she was given some freedom and allowed to work in a nearby shoe factory. Desperate to escape this forced marriage and modern slavery, she managed to connect online with a Vietnamese man, who referred her to Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, an Australian charity working in Vietnam.

• A forced marriage is when a person is married without freely and fully consenting because of either coercion, threat or deception.
• The Asia Pacific region predominates in the numbers of victims of modern slavery. The region had 55 percent of the victims of forced marriage worldwide.
• Sexual exploitation was also rife in the region with more than seven in 10 victims worldwide, according to the 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery.

Mai is amongst a small number of fortunate women, who were able to seek help and be rescued. She returned to Vietnam in December 2018, and after the police were able to arrest her trafficker, she was reunited with her family.

“I have been able to rebuild my life with Blue Dragon’s support. Recently, I have completed hospitality training and have a part-time job in a city café. I can save some money to send to my grandparents, who are nurturing my children,” Mai told IPS through a social worker. 

Her experience resonates with many young Vietnamese women, who are tricked and trafficked into sexual slavery. Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation rescues 110 to 130 women each year. Its co-CEO Skye Maconachie told IPS, “Once rescued and returned to Vietnam, their family situation usually hasn’t changed and they are still impoverished and vulnerable to being re-trafficked or exploited. Our teams provide emotional, psychological, basic living and legal support as they work with each survivor to help them learn skills and get employment.”

While survivors seek normalcy on first returning home, Maconachie said, “It is not until later in their recovery that the trauma they have experienced emerges and impacts them with flashbacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, low self-esteem, fear and distrust.”

Nepali girls dancing. The Asia and Pacific region predominates in the numbers of victims of modern slavery. The region had 55 percent of the victims of forced marriage worldwide. Credit Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

• Women and girls are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, accounting almost 29 million or 71 percent of the overall total.
• On any given day in 2016, an estimated 15 million people were living in a forced marriage.
• More than one third of all victims of forced marriage were children at the time of the marriage, and almost all child victims were girls, according to joint research by the International Labour Organization, and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration.

Walk Free’s Senior Research Analyst, Elise Gordon told IPS, “Our research has indicated that traditional views of the role of women, girls and children could be contributing to increased vulnerability to forced and underage marriage, forced sexual exploitation, and commercial sexual exploitation of children in the Asia Pacific region.”

Trafficking contravenes fundamental human rights and freedoms. As Australian Red Cross’ National Coordinator for Trafficked People Program, Sally Chapman told IPS, “We are concerned that people who have been trafficked may be subject to various forms of physical, sexual and emotional violence. They are often afraid of arrest, detention and deportation; don’t trust authorities, and can also be discriminated against throughout any referral and support processes. The impact can be significant and include permanent control and/or monitoring of their movement, fear of physical retaliation, death, or reprisal against or harm to their loved ones.”

The Australian Red Cross last year provided assistance with essential items, such as food, toiletries and clothes while addressing accommodation, health and wellbeing needs to individuals identifying as being from 48 different countries.

Chapman cautioned, “During disasters and crises, people can be displaced from their homes, separated from their family members, school and employment can be interrupted, and systems of social support and law and order can break down. These factors can exacerbate the risk of trafficking, particularly for women and girls. The humanitarian impact of climate change and extreme weather events is likely to increase trafficking and forms of exploitation and slavery.”

The Australian Red Cross works to raise awareness in communities so that the general public, service providers and authorities can reduce risks; recognise the signs of exploitation, trafficking, slavery; be able to respond safely; and refer someone for help and support.  

• The hidden nature of exploitation makes it difficult to ascertain the extent of victimisation in Australia, which is primarily a destination country for people trafficked from Asia, particularly Thailand, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Pacific Island countries.
• Recent research by the Australian Institute of Criminology (2019) estimated that only one in four victims are detected. This means that human trafficking and modern slavery victims in Australia ranged between 1,300 and 1,900 in 2015–2017.
• Modern Slavery trends vary widely across the Asia Pacific region and men, women and children are exploited for various reasons – slavery, human trafficking, slavery-like practices such as servitude, forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage or organ harvesting.

As Jenny Stanger, Executive Manager of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney’s Anti-Slavery Taskforce told IPS, “Awareness about trafficking and slavery outside the sex industry has grown only in the last decade. Human trafficking for organ removal poses new challenges. There is a global shortage of organs and there are a lot of vulnerable people who might be willing to sell their organs. There is also mounting evidence that prisoners in China are forcibly having their organs harvested for profit”.

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates that 10 percent of all organ transplants including lungs, heart and liver, are done via trafficked organs. The most prominent organ traded illicitly is the kidney. The World Health Organisation estimated that 10,000 kidneys are traded on the black market worldwide annually, or more than one every hour.

Stanger, who has worked as a case manager and advocate for survivors of trafficking and slavery for over two decades, relates the story of a Filipino woman, who was approached by an Australian couple visiting the Philippines. They were looking for a kidney donor and they offered the woman money and permanent residency in Australia if she were to donate a kidney to their dying family member. The woman was advised by her own community that this was a good opportunity for her, so she agreed.

After arriving in Australia, she was treated poorly and forced to clean and cook for the dying recipient and her husband. By chance the woman disclosed the complete nature of the arrangement to a health worker in the hospital where the transplant was to take place and that person contacted Stanger for assistance. The kidney transplant did not take place and the recipient eventually died.

“In the end, the government response to human trafficking recognised the Filipino woman as a human trafficking victim. She was able to stay in Australia after she chose to cooperate with the Australian Federal Police in an investigation that was unable to be prosecuted. This failure changed Australian law forever because, at the time, the Commonwealth Criminal Code did have an offence to adequately address organ trafficking.  A new ‘organ trafficking’ offence was enacted in 2013,” Stanger explained.

• It is estimated that the illegal organ trade conservatively generates approximately $840 million to $1.7 billion annually, according to GFI, a Washington DC-based think tank, that provides analyses of illicit financial flows.
• In 2015, Australia legislated to make clear that that slavery offences have universal jurisdiction; it amended the Criminal Code to increase the penalties for forced marriage from four years to seven years’ imprisonment for a base offence, and from seven to nine years’ imprisonment for an aggravated offence.
• The ASEAN-Australia Counter-Trafficking Initiative, launched in August 2019 to fight human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour, is a 10-year programme that will work to strengthen criminal justice responses and protect victim rights in the region.
• The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ), which actively supports the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 8 of decent work and economic growth, has focused much of its work on eliminating modern slavery.

“COVID 19 has demonstrated that when the whole world decides to take action to address a critical issue, change is possible. I hope that one day our leaders will truly recognise the tragedy of modern slavery and find the political will to make freedom from modern slavery a reality for everyone, ” Stanger added.

 

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

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• Modern Slavery in Asia Pacific Fuelled by Widespread Poverty, Migration & Weak Governance – Part 1
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The post Forced Marriage, Organ Trafficking Rife in Asia Pacific – Part 2 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The Asia Pacific region predominates in the numbers of victims of modern slavery. The region had 55 percent of the victims of forced marriage worldwide.This is the second of a 2-part series on trafficking and modern slavery in the Asia Pacific region.

The post Forced Marriage, Organ Trafficking Rife in Asia Pacific – Part 2 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Joseph Chamie
NEW YORK, May 18 2020 (IPS)

It’s an indisputable fact: the United States leads the world in the number of Covid-19 deaths. As of 15 May, three months after the country’s first confirmed coronavirus death, the US death toll from the pandemic has reached a remarkable 88,000 deaths. That rising figure is more than double the number of coronavirus deaths of the next highest country, the United Kingdom at 34,000 deaths.

The pandemic is still in its early stages and many fear the worst is yet to come. Today’s coronavirus mortality picture will no doubt change over time, continuing to evolve and remaining a long-term threat, as the coronavirus spreads death and suffering to populations across the planet.

Among the world’s ten most populous countries, representing 58 per cent of the world’s population, a strong correlation exists between population size and the total number of annual deaths from all causes.

China and India, for example, represent 18 percent of the world’s population and about 18 percent of the world’s total number of annual deaths. Similarly, the United States population is 4 percent of the world’s population and has about 5 percent of the world’s annual number of deaths

However, the distribution of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic differs greatly from the distribution of the world’s total annual deaths. Whereas the US accounts for 5 percent of the world’s number of annual deaths, the country now has 29 percent of the world’s total Covid-19 deaths. In contrast, China, which accounts for 18 percent of the world’s total number of annual deaths, now has about 2 percent of the world’s total Covid-19 deaths (Figure 1).

 

Source: United Nations Population Division for population size and annual numbers of deaths; Worldometer for Covid-19 deaths as of 15 May 2020.

 

If Covid-19 deaths were distributed proportionate to a country’s share of world total annual deaths, a very different picture would emerge. The United States death toll from the pandemic would plummet to a fraction of its current level, from 88,000 to 15,000 and China’s coronavirus deaths would be many times larger than its current level, from 4,600 to 55,000.

If the coronavirus had first emerged in New York City rather than Wuhan, then perhaps one might expect the United States to have experienced a disproportionate share of all pandemic deaths. However, the virus first appeared in China and that country has a comparatively low number of Covid-19 deaths.

So what then is the likely explanation for why America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths?

The high numbers of American Covid-19 deaths appear basically to be the result of Washington’s peculiar response to the pandemic. That response differs markedly from those of countries that have achieved relatively low numbers and rates of coronavirus deaths

Some observers have chosen to dismiss this question at the outset by discrediting and denying the statistics relating to the pandemic. Those data, they maintain, are unreliable and should be ignored.

Cause of death data, they contend, are flawed with deaths, especially of the elderly, coming from other causes that are often attributed to Covid-19 and at other times Covid-19 deaths are mistakenly attributed to other deaths or missed entirely. Also, they believe that political considerations are greatly influencing the reported numbers of Covid-19 deaths.

Most observers recognize the statistical shortcomings of pandemic mortality data and believe that the reported numbers are likely to be undercounts of coronavirus deaths. However, they do not find the statistical limitations sufficiently compelling to explain away why the United States leads the world in coronavirus deaths.

The high numbers of American Covid-19 deaths appear basically to be the result of Washington’s peculiar response to the pandemic. That response differs markedly from those of countries that have achieved relatively low numbers and rates of coronavirus deaths.

At the start of the year, the Washington response began by dismissing early warnings, denials of likely trends and eschewing expert advice regarding the expected staggering consequences of a pandemic. It was followed by assurances by the American president that every thing was under control, the country was in far better shape than other countries, claims minimizing the impact of the coronavirus, including it is not as perilous as seasonal flu, predictions of an early resolution and a vaccine by the year’s end.

This initial phase of the White House response was later followed by the politicization of the pandemic and its reported consequences. Health, medical and mortality concerns and recommendations to address the pandemic became highly divisive partisan issues.

The pandemic turned to a political battle of “us vs. them”. Some declared that the pandemic was being used as a new hoax to bludgeon the president.

Angry protests, some armed military-style, and threats of violence erupted across the country against recommended pandemic mitigation guidelines, including shutdowns, shelter-in-place, quarantines, testing, social distancing and face masking. This was further complicated by rising distrust and growing resentment that were worsened by conflicting messages coming out of Washington and many state capitals.

When the global pandemic was declared on 11 March 2020, the number of American deaths was relatively small, slightly below 40. However, the number of Covid-19 deaths grew rapidly, reaching 4,000 by 30 March, 40,000 by 19 April and 80,000 by 9 May (Figure 2).

 

Source: Estimates from Worldometer and projections by author.

 

Further complicating matters, the 88,000 coronavirus deaths have been unevenly distributed across the American population. Covid-19 has disproportionately hit the poor, low-income workers, minority communities and elderly men.

Many have called for dramatic and speedy changes in the government’s strategies, programs, health infrastructure, finances, testing, contact tracing, case isolation and surveillance to confront the continuing spread of the coronavirus. In their view, the government’s policies and programs to confront the pandemic, which is considered far from contained, have been plagued by incompetence, callousness, duplicity, disorganization and unpreparedness.

Others consider the calls for changes in strategies and programs as unjustified attacks aimed at undermining the current Administration for purposes of political gain, especially with the presidential election on the horizon. Media and other inquiries questioning the merits of Washington’s response to the pandemic and challenging the president’s claims of achievements and successes are often viewed as nasty and reflections of personal contempt for the country’s head of state.

While America leads the world with Covid-19 deaths, it does not lead the world in the Covid-19 death rate. To date, approximately eight European countries have higher rates than the United States. For example, the coronavirus death rate of Italy and Spain is double the rate of the United States.

However, many countries have achieved Covid-19 fatality rates that are a fraction of America’s rate. In Germany and Japan, for example, the Covid-19 death rates per million population are 96 and 6, respectively, versus 268 in the United States. Other countries with low coronavirus death rates include: Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Hungary, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Singapore and South Korea.

The total number of coronavirus deaths in the United States will soon hit 100,000, eventually exceeding 200,000 and is projected to reach more than 3,000 deaths each day by early June 2020. The American president has said that those numbers of death indicate that the government’s response to the pandemic has been successful and he’s done a good job.

As stated at the outset: America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths. Before continuing to advance unfounded, self-congratulatory claims, especially well before the pandemic’s spread is contained, the government in Washington may wish to review and consider adopting, as appropriate, some of the policies and programs of countries that have been considerably more successful than the United States in reducing the pandemic’s deadly toll.

In doing so, the Administration should rely more heavily on scientific advice and knowledge-based guidance from medical and public health experts as a foundation for the government’s overall pandemic policies. That reliance would greatly contribute to developing a vital strategy needed to avoid a feared calamitous resurgence of coronavirus deaths, suffering and grief in the coming months that would also in turn set back efforts for social and economic recovery.

 

Joseph Chamie is an independent consulting demographer and a former director of the United Nations Population Division.

 

The post United States Leads the World in Covid-19 Deaths appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Secretary-General António Guterres poses for a group photo with the members of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. Credit: Mark Garten / United Nations

By Leila Fourie and Fani Titi
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, May 18 2020 (IPS)

Sitting on the southern tip of Africa during a time of social distancing, while the entire planet fights Covid-19, we cannot help but reflect on how vulnerable our country is to this scourge.

The pandemic has highlighted the underlying inequalities in our society. More than half of South Africa’s population lack access to piped water in their homes – never mind electricity or safe sanitation. We lack adequate medical facilities and the basics required to fight a contagious disease of this magnitude.

Never has the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development been more relevant, more critical or more urgent.

The 2030 Agenda sets out a vision for a future for the planet and its people in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It matters to all spheres of society and requires inclusive and sustainable economic development.

This is vital for South Africa, which has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world, severe poverty and rising unemployment. The COVID-19 lockdown exposes the deeply unequal nature of our society. A person from the affluent suburb of Sandton has very different health and livelihood challenges from one in the neighbouring, densely populated Alexandra township.

In this, we are not unique. Frankly, if the world had had a higher level of commitment to achieving the SDGs, this pandemic’s impact would not have been so severe. Investments in better health systems and reducing inequality would have helped tremendously in dealing with the pandemic and its socioeconomic consequences.

But there is hope. We see in public and private sector alike a renewed consciousness and a willingness to respond. This is the time for leaders to step up and take bold action.

South Africa is vulnerable as an emerging market with severe economic challenges, but is uniquely positioned to implement a sustainability-focused strategy, in a way that respects the dynamics and population demographics of the continent. We have deep and liquid capital markets that serve the domestic economy and the wider continent, as well as a strong and sophisticated financial services sector.

The government of South Africa has limited fiscal space so the financial and corporate sector have rallied to assist in putting together a responsive economic package. The urgency of the crisis has eliminated previous procedural hurdles and opened the way for strong collaborative approaches. This gives us hope for even greater partnerships post Covid-19.

We are proud of the leadership shown by South Africa’s President in responding to the pandemic. This is why we have both chosen to join the President in donating 30% of our salaries for three months to COVID-19 relief efforts.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is the largest exchange in Africa and is critical in facilitating the functioning of the South African economy. Particularly in a crisis, the financial services industry and the exchanges are vital in directing financial flows to where they are needed most.

Investec plays an important role in funding a sustainable economy that is sensitive to the world’s limited natural resources, promotes carbon reduction and contributes positively to economic growth and social upliftment.

While we respond to COVID-19, we believe we also need to ensure that recovery in South Africa is lasting and resilient. That means major reorientation of investments and the global financial system to align with the SDGs. And the pace must greatly accelerate in order to deliver during the Decade of Action.
More than anything, South Africa needs a sustainable reset – one that takes into consideration the natural resources required to support a competitive economy, but also meets the short and long-term needs of society. Development must be economically, socially and environmentally responsive, ensuring that we leave a healthier planet for future generations.

For JSE and Investec, we believe a major shift in mind-set is required. Investment strategies and expectation of returns need to include sustainability-linked metrics.

Yes, the idea of sustainability has risen in importance, however it needs to move from a values-based metric to an outcomes-based imperative. In order to help achieve the 2030 goals, policy makers need to set up an enabling framework for related investment in the pressing issues covered by the SDGs.

The will is there. We have seen a steadily increasing demand for financial products and initiatives that prioritise transparency, good governance and ultimately, action. Investors not only want to see greater sophistication and flexibility from their investments, but they also want those investments to have an impact on creating a better world.

It is important for them that our actions and products align with our commitment to support the SDGs. To this end, the JSE, which pioneered the world’s first sustainability index in 2004, has been driving a number of projects which directly underpin responsible investment.

Instruments such as social bonds, aimed at improving social outcomes and based on partnerships, are critical in making the finances available to meet the many challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is one of the reasons we joined the UN’s Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance – tasked with catalysing capital and skills to urgently fill the SDG financing gap. Traditional models will not meet the estimated $2.5 trillion investment needed over the next 10 years.

The coronavirus pandemic has not only demonstrated that cooperation is possible on a previously unimagined scale, but also highlighted the need for connection, even in a time of social distancing.

As part of the GISD Alliance, we are working with leaders across the world to help unlock capital flows that will explicitly support sustainable development.

Both Investec and the JSE have a long history of caring for the people of South Africa, supporting our communities and driving economic growth.

As CEOs – and as leaders, parents and grandparents – we are both personally committed to accelerating action on sustainable development and creating a better world for our grandchildren and their grandchildren.

We believe this kind of collaborative approach is needed around the world, to enable all citizens to live in society in a mutually beneficial way.

If we do not invest in the world that we want, the one we get will be worth infinitely less.

The post South Africa Must Respond – & Lead– on COVID-19 & SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Leila Fourie, Group CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Fani Titi, CEO of Investec, are members of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance.

The post South Africa Must Respond – & Lead– on COVID-19 & SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, May 18 2020 (IPS)

The World Health Organization (2019) states that every 40 seconds someone dies by suicide. Annually, this represents over 800,000 people, more than the number of people who die in conflict and by homicide put together. Every suicide is a tragedy that has long-lasting effects on the people left behind and most cases stem from prolonged mental health issues and abuses that are not reported.

This is the story of Maria Gomez (56), an American citizen, born in Bangladesh, and of her daughter Mila Gomez (25), a mother and daughter duo, who work to raise awareness about mental health amongst young people and teens. Both are survivors of domestic abuse. Mila has also survived attempted suicide.

A PhD from an affluent family, Maria is a distinguished member of her community, having raised mental health awareness in underdeveloped areas of South Asia for the past 14 years. She shared her reasons for stepping into the philanthropic world of empowering women and youth.

Maria completed her education from Toronto, Canada, and after marriage moved back to Asia. She had bases in three different countries due to her work and for running the family business that she and her former husband inherited. She had to travel frequently for work and when she got pregnant her mother in law assured her that she will bear all responsibility for child care and she could go back to work as soon as she feels like. Maria went back to work after three months of childbirth and since then Mila was under the care of her mother in law and sister in law.

They used to live in a joint family of 15 members. Mila was the third child of the family and the first daughter. Maria became pregnant for the second time when Mila was 3 years old but she had a miscarriage and lost the child. The doctors told her that it will be difficult for her to bear any children further. Maria started to notice hostility towards her and verbal abuse from her husband and his family since the miscarriage. It grew worse day by day. As she travelled and spent most of her time in office she tried to cope by finding solace in her work.

For Mila things went from bad to worse. Her health started to deteriorate when she was 6 years old. Malnutrition, anxiety and constantly being sick were common factors. Maria explains to the IPS : “ I was going through the motions and was under the impression that she is a problem child and physically weak. Everyone around me told me that with age, things will get better. She is my first born and my family said that as a mother I am incompetent, and I should invest my time only in my career. As I was always tied up with work, I failed to see how things were at home, and how trauma bonded or bound Mila was at home.”

Maria went on to explain that since her childhood, Mila was shy in public and generally kept to herself. Her only form of expression was through drawings. She used to spend hours in her room scribbling and painting and used to have created vivid drawings of people and occurrences or events. Mila was 13 years old when her distress started to become visible. During her seventh grade, her classroom teacher reached out to Maria expressing concerns about her well-being. She showed Maria some pictures that Mila drew which depicted abuse and scenes where a child is being tortured. After that episode, Maria started to give more attention to Mila and took her to a few doctors and therapists to find the root cause of her stress.

Picture Courtesy: The UN

The family did not take her initiative well. Maria and Mila both had to face abuse at home and were threatened. They were forbidden from going to the doctors or for therapy accusing that will ruin the family reputation and that Mila had no mental issues. There have been periods where Mila was denied food if she behaved badly and was locked in her room for days. Maria later found out that Mila was abused verbally and physically on a regular basis by a some members of the family and all they wanted was to keep it a secret. A year later Mila tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists and was admitted to the hospital. That incident made Maria evaluate her situation and compelled her to take a strong step for ensuring security for herself and for her daughter. She left the family home and traveled back to Canada and filed for divorce.

It has been 16 years since the divorce and Maria and Mila have been living happily away from all negativity. Mila’s health has gotten better with therapy and medication and since the last episodes of slashing her wrists, she did not have any relapse of suicide attempts.

Having faced the ordeal of dealing with an unsympathetic, abusive family, a child who needed support and care, and, dealing with societal pressure, Maria made it her motto of life to spread the word and mission to help others who go through similar situations. Maria founded an organization, working from grass root level to raise awareness of domestic abuse, mental health issues, and for providing youth with a safe space. So far her organization has helped many suicide attempt victims to get back on their feet. They have aided training for job readiness for youth who left their homes because of abuse and cruelty. (Due to the personal nature of the information, the name and location of the organization are being kept anonymous as per request of the interviewee).

Almost one million people die by suicide every year, and it is the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 24. For Mila, extended abuse and subsequent anxiety and depression drove her to attempt suicide on multiple occasions. Sadly, reaching out for help, therapy or proper medical support is still taboo in many countries and societies.

Whilst a link between mental health and suicide is well-established in developed countries, as is the idea of traumatic life experiences, this awareness is still lacking in developing countries. The United Nations and its partners have often drawn attention to different aspects of mental health on the World Mental Health Day (celebrated annually on October 10), but it remains an exceptionally unexplored issue in parts of the world where gender, sexual-orientation and simply being a child, are part of a complex and rigid socio-cultural system that is often unshakeable.

Measures can be taken by individuals and society at large to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. But, without extensive education, resources to lift people out of social preconceptions, and the will of a society to help its constituents, stories like Maria’s and Mila’s will continue to emerge.

The post My Adherence My Fallacy: Stigma and Mental Health appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Satyajeet Mazumdar
MUMBAI, India, May 15 2020 (IPS)

Children residing in Child Care Institutions (CCIs, commonly known as orphanages) in India have often found themselves to be the forgotten lot, when it comes to support and development initiatives by the government. This has also been the case during the current lockdown.

This is partly because, according to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), children in need of care and protection, or CNCP, are supposed to be placed in CCIs temporarily, until suitable means of rehabilitation, such as adoption, placement in foster care, or restoration with family, can be found for them by the authorities.

The reality in most cases, however, is quite different. There are about 370,000 children in more than 9,500 CCIs in India. The number of adoptions and placements in foster care have been dismal—only 4,027 children (0.01 percent) were adopted through the Central Adoption Resource Authority in 2018-19, and official foster care figures are not available.

About 50 percent of the children in CCIs come from families that are unable to take care of them due to their financial situation. The ongoing pandemic is expected to push many families deeper into poverty, which would lead to a rise in this number

Moreover, the circumstances from which most children are rescued to be placed in CCIs make it difficult for them to be restored with their families. Hence, most children continue to reside in these institutions, which provide them a safe space, care, and basic facilities till they are 18—when they are required to be deinstitutionalised.

The COVID-19 crisis will not only add to the number of children residing in CCIs, but also negatively affect the ability of CCIs to take care of the children already there. Here’s how:

CCIs are expecting to see a jump in new admissions

About 50 percent of the children in CCIs come from families that are unable to take care of them due to their financial situation. The ongoing pandemic is expected to push many families deeper into poverty, which would lead to a rise in this number.

Globally, the United Nations estimates that 42-66 million children could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis this year, adding to the estimated 386 million children who were already in extreme poverty in 2019. Besides, the pandemic will lead to more children dropping out of school and being exposed to child labour, trafficking, and abuse.

Anticipating these risks, on March 29th, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued an advisory regarding the care and protection of children moving with migrant families, children living on the streets, and those in CCIs.

It assigns responsibility to Childline, the Child Welfare Protection Officer (CWPO), and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to identify abandoned, orphaned, or lost children, and children found living or begging on the streets, and place them in CCIs or ‘fit facilities’ (childcare institutions run by voluntary groups or nonprofits and deemed suitable by the government).

While CCIs are likely to see a jump in the number of new admissions, authorities will also find it difficult to rehabilitate children who are already in CCIs, because the financial capability of families is likely to worsen in the coming months.

The lockdown will affect the well-being of children living in CCIs

As the nation went on lockdown on March 24th, CCIs were advised to shut their gates to visitors from outside, to protect the children. This included staff who do not reside in the CCI premises, and external volunteers and organisations working with CCIs to implement programmes on health, education, and so on. They have now limited, if not entirely paused, their engagement with children.

With schools shut as well, children are restricted within CCIs. Caretakers within CCIs are trying their best to keep the children engaged with games, artwork, and other activities. Few have also sent back the children who have had contact with their parents or guardians, on the basis of orders from state authorities. Whether this is the right thing to do, given the current situation, is unclear.

Moreover, restrictions on the entry of visitors is very likely to affect fundraising prospects in the near future as well. CCIs depend heavily on local donors for their daily essentials; only 42 percent of all CCIs receive funds through government grants. Preliminary information from the field indicates that while CCIs currently have enough foodgrains, other groceries, and essentials to last a couple of months, they may face a shortage thereafter.

There is a need for greater support from the government and donors

Long standing government policies and priorities of private donors may need to be revisited with a realistic and empathetic lens to respond to the current crisis, at the very least until the situation stabilises.

Here are some steps that can be taken:

Recognising the role of CCIs in child protection

The state must recognise the role of CCIs, especially in these trying times, and offer support to help them fulfill their duties. Even though the law considers institutionalisation to be the last resort, it is actually in the best interest of the child for the majority of children in CCIs, given their surrounding realities. While there have been cases of exploitation of children in the recent past, there are far more examples of CCIs that are able to provide family-like care to children with adequate support and monitoring.

 

Supporting CCIs for COVID-19 specific

District Child Protection Units and Child Welfare Committees, along with other stakeholders and nonprofits, need to work closely with the CCI management to ensure:

• Children within CCIs are safe, and have adequate supplies of food and hygiene products; and
• CCIs have the necessary provisions and guidance to place children who show symptoms of COVID-19, and those who have been newly admitted, in quarantine. (Thus far, in terms of guidance, only preliminary information regarding symptoms and preventive measures have been made available to CCIs, mostly through online messaging platforms.)

In some states, this coordination is happening, but we need a more uniform response. For instance, while Odisha has been proactive in releasing funds and supportingCCIs with essentials, no support has been provided to CCIs in Goa. This is likely the result of a lack of coordination between departments, and how states have traditionally dealt with CCIs.

 

Enabling them to get funding

To prevent shortage of food and essentials, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) funding by the government should be extended to all registered CCIs, at least for the next two years. At present, ICPS funding is available to less than half of them, given low budgetary allocations towards child protection services, and lower disbursement.

As per an Accountability Initiative report, in FY 2018-19, only 79 percent of the amount allocated towards ICPS was released, whereas in FY 2019-20 (till December 16th, 2019) only 44 percent of the revised estimates had been released by the government.

Additionally, the law does not make it mandatory for the government to fund CCIs even if they are registered. CCIs are required to apply for funding, and the process is lengthy and cumbersome. For instance, the process to avail funding under ICPS requires CCIs to submit a proposal in a specified format along with expense reports and other documents.

The proposal goes through several rounds of scrutiny at the district, state, and central government levels. The amount of funding, which is the cost per child, differs by state and is released on a reimbursement basis. CCIs sometimes get reimbursed for a fewer number of children than they actually provide for.

The government should consider relaxing the eligibility criteria and simplifying the process to avail ICPS funding, especially during this period. While this would take care of the basic necessities, healthcare, education, life skills, and livelihoods training can be funded through CSR.

 

Providing learning opportunities to children

Several nonprofits and volunteer groups have released online resources to help children continue learning during the lockdown, but most children in CCIs cannot access them due to lack of equipment. While it is not ideal for children to have mobile phones, an internet connection, and a smart TV (which a lot of CCIs may lack currently), they could bridge the gap and keep children productively engaged.

Children in CCIs are losing out on learning, because unlike their peers outside CCIs, many do not have mobile phones and other tools that enable access to online learning. Post lockdown, the set-up can be used to supplement their learning in school, for mentoring, counselling, and a host of other development activities.

 

Assessing suitability before deinstitutionalisation

Given the financial and health effects of COVID-19 on communities, the decision to deinstitutionalise children and restore them with their families should be carefully assessed by CWCs. The procedure laid out in the JJ Act for restoration of a child with the family involves several steps, including assessment of the family’s capability to provide for the child, preparing a care plan for the child, and following up on how the child is doing post-deinstitutionalisation.

In many cases we have observed that these are hardly followed. Children are deinstitutionalised mainly on the basis of the willingness of the child and the family, without a proper home study and a care plan. Follow up on the situation of the child post-restoration is also hardly carried out.

Not only should the CWCs follow the process diligently, but they also need to consider other factors, such as whether the locality the child goes to has been affected, if the family is in a position to take care of the child, and so on.

There have been few widespread systemic efforts in the past to support and enable CCIs to provide quality services to children, even though the state has a clear set of expectations from them. In addition to meeting the basic requirement of food, shelter, clothing, and medical attention, these services must include appropriate education, skill development courses, counselling support, and recreational activities.

Given that many children would be at risk as the crisis deepens, perhaps this is an opportunity to do more. The best way forward in the current crisis, hence, is to address the gap between the capacities of CCIs and expectations of the government, and develop capacities of CCIs. This will enable them to offer better outcomes in terms of health, mental and emotional well-being, education, and preparing children for livelihood opportunities in the future, thus providing family-like care within the institution, as far as possible.

 

Satyajeet Mazumdar leads advocacy at Catalysts for Social Action, an organisation working with child care institutions to help them provide better care to children

 

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

The post Forgotten Children appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By PRESS RELEASE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 15 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Hon. Joseph Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Innovation and Youth, (CS) and Kenya’s representative in the Generation Unlimited (GenU) Global Board convened today the UN Kenya Country team to identify opportunities on how to swiftly expand education, training and employment opportunities for young people, on an unprecedented scale.

Credit: UNDP Kenya

The meeting was graced by Ms. Ruth Kagia, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the President, and Co-Chair of the National Generation Unlimited Steering Committee. Others in attendance at this meeting included the CAS Nadia Ahmed Abdalla and PS for Youth Affairs, Julius Korir and Heads of the UN Kenya Country Team.

Kenya is a very youthful country. The median age is estimated at 19 years, and about 80 percent of Kenya’s population is below 35 years. This demographic boom happening brings potential to transform economic and social outcomes, raise global productivity, and reduce inequality, but only if enough opportunity is created.

Preparing young people for the world of work will benefit Kenya’s economy, increase security, advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and improve the well-being of millions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is being curbed, young people more than ever require a new inclusive approach, given the extraordinary economic, social and cultural challenges they face.

H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta has been recognized and lauded by the UN and partners as a GenU Leader underscoring Kenya’s commitment to drive the youth agenda forward and leave-no-one-behind.

Among the issues discussed and agreed upon at the meeting were the commitments to ensure that young persons are engaged in current COVID-19 response related job opportunities across the counties; that they will be encouraged to engage in on the digital and innovation front, whether it be in direct relation to the COVID-19 response, or in other areas, such as developing apps for Government to utilize in their business continuity; on issues of governance and policy that affect them; on different ways to take advantage of the partial lock down to reach young persons so they can receive distance learning, and /or other out-of-school methods of learning, study and excel in school, and vocational training and skills development, to prepare the young persons to take on decent work.

Speaking during the meeting, CS Mucheru reiterated that the government is commited to ensuring that their livelihoods are safeguarded, they are offered wholistic protection against vulnerabilities, that emerging opportunities are sourced together with them and that they are included, as active players, in governance and decision making at all levels.

Hon Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Youth and Innovation concluded: “On behalf of the GenU board and most importantly my own Government, I would like to applaud the United Nations family in Kenya for its support to our young people. H.E President Kenyatta has put our youth at the center of the Country’s development agenda. Kenya being a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurism – we will deploy our best to swiftly expand education, training and employment opportunities for young people, on an unprecedented scale.

On their part, the UN country teams, through the Resident Coordinator – Siddharth Chatterjee, committed to ensuring that Kenyan youth are part and parcel of all UN programs and undertakings in the country. He further committed to providing a monthly Generation Unlimited situation report and update on all UN initiatives and programs, clearly indicating how Youth have been integrated in the executional elements.

Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator stated: “As Kenya is confronted by the corona virus, the locust invasion, and floods, which are all impacting the country’s socio-economic development, Kenya’s young people, now more than ever, can prove to be its promise or peril. The UN Kenya Country team stands in full solidarity with Kenya and will deliver as one, our best support aiming for all young Kenyans to realize their full potential. We will ensure we heed the President’s call of ensuring young people are given education and employment opportunities so that our society can live up to its full promise.” He further noted that UN agencies have already started integrating youth by ensuring a percentage of the program jobs are set aside for youth in the localities where the programs are being executed.

The post The Government of Kenya and UN commit to expanding education, training and employment opportunities for young people, on an unprecedented scale appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The post Change is Coming for Youth-led Ocean Activism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Youth ocean activists say that the current pandemic “has provided peace for the world’s oceans,” because turtles that usually wait for the dark to come to the shore are now coming out of the water in the daytime because humans are in lockdown.

The post Change is Coming for Youth-led Ocean Activism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
JOHANNESBURG, May 15 2020 (IPS)

One of the planet’s – and Africa’s – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19. 

For as long as any of us remember, everyone “knew” that “First World” countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor and incapable states of the “Third World”. “First World” has become shorthand for competence, sophistication and the highest political and economic standards.

So deep-rooted is this that even critics of the “First World” usually accept it. They might argue that it became that way by exploiting the rest of the world or that it is not morally or culturally superior. But they never question that it knows how to offer (some) people a better material life. Africans and others in the “Third World” often aspire to become like the “First World” – and to live in it, because that means living better.

For Anglophone Africans, it is doubly interesting that two of the greatest failures in handling COVID-19 are the former coloniser, Britain, and the English-speaking superpower, the United States of America

So we should have expected the state-of-the-art health systems of the “First World”, spurred on by their aware and empowered citizens, to handle COVID-19 with relative ease, leaving the rest of the planet to endure the horror of buckling health systems and mass graves.

We have seen precisely the opposite.

 

Fatal errors

“First World” is often code for countries run by Europeans or people of European descent; some of the worst health performers on the globe in recent weeks have been “First World”. For Anglophone Africans, it is doubly interesting that two of the greatest failures in handling COVID-19 are the former coloniser, Britain, and the English-speaking superpower, the United States of America.

Both countries’ national governments have made just about every possible mistake in tackling COVID-19.

They ignored the threat. When they were forced to act, they sent mixed signals to citizens which encouraged many to act in ways which spread the infection. Neither did anything like the testing needed to control the virus. Both failed to equip their hospitals and health workers with the equipment they needed, triggering many avoidable deaths.

The failure was political. The US is the only rich country with no national health system. An attempt by former president Barack Obama to extend affordable care was watered down by right-wing resistance, then further gutted by the current president and his party. Britain’s much-loved National Health Service has been weakened by spending cuts. Both governments failed to fight the virus in time because they had other priorities.

And yet, in Britain, the government’s popularity ratings are sky high and it is expected to win the next election comfortably. The US president is behind in the polls but the contest is close enough to make his re-election a real possibility. Can there be anything more typically “Third World” than citizens supporting a government whose actions cost thousands of lives?

Western European countries such as Spain, Italy and Africa’s other wholesale coloniser, France, also battled to contain the virus. Some European countries have coped reasonably well, as have some run by the descendants of Europeans such as New Zealand and Australia. But the star performers are not in the historical “First World”.

 

Effective responses

The most effective response was probably South Korea’s, followed by other East Asian states and territories. This is partly because they are used to dealing with coronavirus outbreaks. But it is also because they learned from experience: South Korea’s success is due to very effective testing and tracing of infected people. Whatever the reason, it is East Asia, not “the West”, which has done what the “First World” is expected to do.

Some would reply that East Asia is now “First World”. So, it is still superior; it has simply changed its address. This is debatable. But, even if it is accepted, some places have contained the virus in distinctly “Third World” conditions.

Kerala was the first Indian state to encounter the virus but has kept deaths down to three. It had largely curbed COVID-19 but is now dealing with nearly 200 cases, all people arriving from other parts of India. Judging by its record so far, it will contain this outbreak too.

Kerala, too, has learnt from handling previous epidemics. It also has a strong health system. But one of its key tools is citizen participation: it has worked with neighbourhood watches and citizen volunteers to track the contacts of infected people. Students were recruited to build kiosks at which citizens were tested. Kerala also had the capacity to ensure that all children entitled to school meals received them after schools were closed: non-governmental organisations were mostly responsible, emphasising the partnership between the government and citizens.

Kerala’s performance is not a fluke: it has, for years, produced better health outcomes and literacy rates than the rest of India.

Nor has Africa’s response to the virus confirmed prejudices. When COVID-19 began spreading, it became almost routine for reports, commentaries – and Melinda Gates, who, with her husband Bill, heads the couple’s development foundation – to predict that Africa would be engulfed in death as the virus ripped through its weak health systems. This is, after all, what is meant to happen in the “Third World” and particularly in Africa, which is always considered the least capable continent on the planet.

So far, it has not happened. It still might but, even if it does, some countries are coping better than the dire predictions claimed (and, perhaps, better than the “First World”). One stand-out is Senegal, which has devised a cheap test for the virus and has used 3-D printing to produce ventilators at a fraction of the going price. Africa, too, has experienced recent outbreaks, notably of Ebola, and seems to have learned valuable lessons from them.

 

Inspiring

The “First World” is still far richer than the rest of the planet and may well remain so. So its politicians, academics and journalists will probably still believe they are better than the rest.

But the COVID-19 experience may just trigger new thinking in the “Third World”. The most basic function of a government is to protect the safety of its citizens. Ensuring that people remain healthy is at least as important a guarantee of safety as protecting them from violence.

Reasonable people would surely much rather be living in Kerala or Senegal (or East Asia) right now than in Europe and North America, raising obvious questions about who really does offer a better life.

That should inspire Africans and others in the “Third World” to ask themselves whether it makes sense to want to be America, Britain or France. COVID-19 has made a strong argument for wanting to be East Asia – or, given Africa’s circumstances, Kerala.

 

Steven Friedman, Professor of Political Studies, University of Johannesburg

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

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A Pakistani child domestic worker in this dated photo. The Asia Pacific region has one of the highest number of people in modern slavery, but the growing awareness of modern slavery in the region has led to the implementation of legislations to combat it.Credit: Fahim Siddiqi /IPS

By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Australia, May 15 2020 (IPS)

Aged 17, Moe Turaga was saddled with the responsibility of providing for his mother and young siblings when a family member approached him with the promise of a job and education in Australia. Dreaming of a bright future for himself and his family, he seized the opportunity and left the protective confines of his home in Fiji, only to find himself trapped in modern slavery on a remote agriculture farm in the state of Victoria.

Turaga was one of 12 cousins, forced to work long hours in abysmal conditions. He told IPS, “We had implicit faith in this man as he was family and a church minister. We kept loyal for years because we were told that our wages were being used to feed our family and send our siblings to school. It was 1988, we didn’t have mobiles or access to social media. All our identity documents had been confiscated by this man so we were completely isolated.”

He learnt that none of his wages had been sent home after two years of forced labour. Eventually, a farmer employed him and helped him escape. “This gut-wrenching experience of being exploited to the hilt will always be a part of my life. I want to encourage more people to tell their stories, so somebody can see the light and be freed. I am now an advocate for modern slavery, which is rife in Australia,” said Turaga from his home in central Queensland, where he now lives with his family.

Moe Turaga found himself trapped in modern slavery on a remote agriculture farm in the state of Victoria, Australia at the age of 17. Courtesy: Moe Turaga

Joint research by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Walk Free Foundation, and the International Organisation for Migration shows that more than 40 million people around the world were victims of modern slavery in 2016, out of which 24.9 million were in forced labour.

In Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island countries, new research has revealed alarming evidence of modern slavery fuelled by widespread poverty, migration, weak governance, and the abuse of cultural practices.

“These vulnerabilities are likely to increase as climate change exacerbates poverty and migration. Sectors most at-risk of modern slavery include logging, fishing, agriculture, horticulture, meat packing, construction, domestic work, cleaning and hospitality, and the sex industry,” Walk Free’s Senior Research Analyst, Elise Gordon, told IPS.

On any given day in 2016, 15,000 people in Australia and 3,000 people in New Zealand were in situations of modern slavery, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, Walk Free’s flagship dataset which is the only country-by-country estimate of the extent and risk of global slavery.

Australia is primarily a destination country for people trafficking and modern slavery. “Traditionally, Australia has offered higher minimum wages and greater employment opportunities than some other countries in the Asia-Pacific so there is a sense that there is greater opportunity to make a living here,” Justine Nolan, Professor in the Faculty of Law at University of New South Wales in Sydney, told IPS.

“Modern slavery may take the form of forced labour – where workers have paid high recruitment fees for the job, or they may be forced to work excess hours, be underpaid or not paid for that work,” Nolan added.

In most cases, the trafficked people know their trafficker and the latter is able to exploit their trust to deceive them. Ashish Kumar, who hails from the poor Manjhi community in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, was 14 years old when an agent from a nearby village approached him and six other boys, aged between 10 and 14 years, with an offer of a good job and schooling in a city. The agent paid 2000 Rupees (about $26) to each boy’s parent. He brought them to Jaipur in Rajasthan and locked them in a small room with six other children, who were already there.

“For six months, 13 of us lived and worked from early morning till midnight in that room. The windows and doors were shut at all times and we were allowed only short toilet breaks and given limited food twice a day. We were made to grind glass stones and then stick the stone embellishments and beads on lac bangles. The dust from stone grinding made it difficult to breathe and we are still suffering from respiratory illnesses,” Ashish told IPS via Whats App from Samod Bigha village in Gaya district.

Ashish Kumar, who hails from the poor Manjhi community in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, was 14 years old when an agent from a nearby village approached him and six other boys, aged between 10 and 14 years, with an offer of a good job and schooling in a city. It turned out to be modern slavery. Courtesy: Ashish Kumar

“If we protested or asked to go home, we were thrashed and threatened with death. One day the trafficker sent one of his village boys, whom he trusted, to buy ration. The boy instead went to the nearby police station and complained. The cops raided our room and rescued us,” added Ashish, who is amongst a small number of children who are fortunate to be freed from bonded labour.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ), which actively supports the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 8 of decent work and economic growth, has focused much of its work on eliminating modern slavery and child labour.

The ILO estimates that about 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, were subject to child labour in 2016, out of which 62 million were in Asia and the Pacific. According to 2011 Census data, there are over 8.2 million child labourers (aged between 5 – 14 years) in India. 

Ashish’s trafficker was last year awarded life imprisonment for exploiting child labour in a landmark judgment by a Jaipur court. The boys still have nightmares and fear for their safety as only three months ago, their families were threatened by the trafficker’s extended family, demanding that the boys change their testimony in court.

These boys are being supported and rehabilitated by The Freedom Fund, a global charity dedicated to end trafficking. The fund, along with its grassroots partner Centre DIRECT, has helped set up the Vijeta Survivors Group of rescued children in Bihar, one of the collectives in the Indian Leaders Forum against Trafficking (ILFAT).

Ashish, who is the leader of the group which currently has 50 survivors told IPS, “We are very concerned about children still being exploited in workshops. Their misery has been compounded by the COVID-19 lockdown.”

The Asia Pacific region has one of the highest number of people in modern slavery, but the growing awareness of this practise in the region has led to the implementation of legislations to combat it. For example, Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 requires entities based, or operating, in Australia, which have an annual consolidated revenue of more than AU$100 million, to report annually on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and actions taken to address those risks.

As Executive Manager of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney’s Anti-Slavery Taskforce, Jenny Stanger told IPS, “The supply chains of Australian businesses are spread across the Asia Pacific region. So Australia has an opportunity here to be a leader in advocating for and bringing visibility to workers’ rights in the region, where workers’ rights and justice for workers is a real challenge, and to drive the human rights agenda through business. This includes improving rights and access to justice for migrant workers right here in Australia.”

The new Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network (ACAN) is a collaboration of 45 large Catholic health, education, financial and community service entities implementing a Modern Slavery Risk Management Programme within the supply chains and operations of their organisations.  

“In Australia, Temporary Visa holders and undocumented people are the most vulnerable. Fruit picking and packing are jobs that many Australians don’t want to do. Those jobs are in rural, regional and remote areas and it is really hard work.

“Most farmers are reliant on temporary and seasonal labour to get their products to the market. There are 60,000 to 100,000 people in agriculture alone, who don’t have permission to be in Australia or those whose visa has expired are very much at risk of exploitation or becoming trapped in slavery like conditions,” Stanger added.

Modern slavery is a lucrative business, generating more than $150 billion a year, according to ILO. Legislation alone is no silver bullet. Research shows significant legal loopholes and gaps in enforcement remain. Technology, such as Apps, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain, is coming to the aid in combatting human trafficking and modern day slavery.

“The gathering of global data can help authorities to identify causes and patterns. As many as 147 nations having agreed to map practices and count the victims of modern slavery. Even satellite images can be used to identify modern slavery hotspots in industries, such as brick kilns, illegal mining and fish processing.

“The World Wildlife Fund is working with technology partners and a tuna fishing company to use blockchain technology to track tuna from “bait to plate”. Digital tools, including SMS and social media can be used to better engage workers in supply chains and enable them to provide anonymous input on their working conditions,” Nolan told IPS.

 

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

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The post Modern Slavery in Asia Pacific Fuelled by Widespread Poverty, Migration & Weak Governance – Part 1 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The Asia Pacific region has one of the highest number of people in modern slavery, but the growing awareness of modern slavery in the region has led to the implementation of legislations to combat it. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that about 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, were subject to child labour in 2016, out of which 62 million were in Asia and the Pacific. This is the first of a 2-part series on trafficking and modern slavery in the region.

The post Modern Slavery in Asia Pacific Fuelled by Widespread Poverty, Migration & Weak Governance – Part 1 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

One of the main Leopard Conservation Centers in Mongolia is located in Tost Tosonbum mountain, 45 km northwest of the Gurvan Tes district in the province of South Gobi. The mountain is located 2,517 meters above sea level and has steep peaks and ridges. In 2012, Gurvan Tes local representatives passed a resolution to put the mountain and its surrounding areas under special state protection. The resolution was approved by the provincial authorities during the first discussion and was supported by 81.2 percent of the district inhabitants. Credit: Department of Nature, Environment and Tourism, South Gobi Aimag/Province.

By Ariunmunkh Munkhjargal, Arushi Sharma, Avimukt Verma, Sarah Whatnall & Undarmaa Ulziibat
Ulaanbaatar/ New Delhi/ Sydney/ London, May 15 2020 (IPS)

Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Yet, more than 70 percent of its surface is affected by land degradation. Mining activities in several parts of the country have been a source of humanitarian and environmental concern. However, different stakeholders are coming together to work towards restoration and rehabilitation.

The Mongolian economy has been dependent on the mining sector for many decades. Seven percent of the Mongolian territory is licensed for mining exploration and exploitation.

The operations of mining companies in Mongolia have negatively affected herder communities’ livelihoods, cultural traditions and access to fertile land and clean water. Increasing development of roads, railways and other infrastructures that support the mining industry in Mongolia is becoming another threat.

These constructions also infringe on the snow leopard’s habitat, an animal native to the western and southern parts of the country.

Dwindling Habitats and Pasturelands
Mongolia is home to the second largest population of snow leopards in the world, after China. According to the World Bank, there are between 3,900 and 6,400 snow leopards left in the wilds of twelve countries today.

Of these, about 1,000 live across the Gobi Desert and Altai regions of Mongolia. In 2009, the entire mountainous landscape of the Tost Tosonbumba region was given away to mining licenses. The mining activities have begun to encroach upon the 1,500 sq. km where the snow leopards reside in the protected areas and national parks.

At the same time, the mining has also started to have adverse effects on pasturelands. About 40 percent of the population is rural, made up of traditional herders who still follow nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles.

Bayara Agvaantseren, Mongolia Program Director and founder of the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (SLCF), recalled how the local people felt when the mining first started in the Tost region.

Elusive and enigmatic, the endangered snow leopard inhabits some of the world’s most rugged and remote terrains, like those in Mongolia, where about 1,000 live across the fragmented mountains of the Gobi Desert and Altai regions.
Credit: The World Bank Group/Saving the ‘Mountain Ghosts’ in Mongolia.

They were confused and felt that their way of life was being disrupted: “By the law, the mining companies have to get their proposal to be discussed at the first level of community meetings. Then, if the community approves that company’s proposal to work in the area, they would go to higher levels of decision-making. But we saw that in the actual on-the-ground decision-making process, the discussions with the local communities are not really happening, as they are mainly being done by higher levels.”

Herders have a deep relationship with their land and the critical resources it provides—water and grazing—to support the animals that are their primary source of food and cash income.

Rapidly intensifying land degradation and desertification are placing the future of traditional herders—and the integrity of the steppe ecosystems that support them—at risk. Mining exploration and exploitation is increasing rapidly in these steppes, restricting the amount of land available for herders and affecting water supplies.

Working to Retain Ecosystem Integrity
Over the last decade, the SLCF, with the Snow Leopard Trust, have been working to revoke some mining licenses within the protected areas. In 2016, a nature reserve was set up between the Great Gobi National Park and the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. The two national parks are now in a row, providing a much larger space for the endangered cats to roam around.

Local people were actively involved in campaigning and lobbying to make Tost a nature reserve. The foundation worked with local people to spread knowledge and make them aware of their rights to make decisions on land use. Moreover, the local people realized that their voice could be heard if they worked collectively.

Initially, citizens created several petitions and addressed high-level decision makers to voice their concerns over the mining industry. But on many occasions, the government had already granted licenses, leaving local communities feeling powerless.

Because of this, the SLCF stepped in to defend community rights: “From these cases and campaigns I see that local people have learned how to defend their rights. They had been campaigning with us for the last 7 years to make Tost a nature reserve.”

After securing Tost as a nature reserve, the herders continued campaigning to revoke the mining licenses for a smaller area outside of Tost, which was used by vegetable growers. The government consented to their demands and included the land in the protected area of the nature reserve.

With the setting up of the reserve, there are additional opportunities to develop ecotourism in the area to benefit the local people. The Ministry of Nature and Environment has signed a contract with the government of the province to run the national park, but the process is still underway: “Stakeholders of this park are local people, a local government team. Also, SLCF has expressed that we are willing to help them build capacity to run the national park. In creating this management mechanism and management planning, we have been doing lots of workshops with these stakeholders and are now coming to the conclusive stage of finalizing management planning.”

The Power of Environmental Activism
SLCF also helps local people to advocate their concerns to key decision makers. It runs a long-term ecological research programme in Tost Tosonbumba. Under the programme, the local people learn how to use scientific data, which is made available from international bodies and local conservation organizations.

Alongside this, they run educational programmes for school children aged 11–13 years. The programme intends to develop responsible representatives who are aware of how irresponsible mining poses risks to land, soil, water and biodiversity.

Local people, when empowered with the right information and resources, can emerge as great advocates and activists to protect community land. Batmunkh is a 75-year-old activist born in the Dornogovi province, and he has successfully protected 19 places under the “Locally Special Protected Areas.”

He says: “I am not against mining developments, but I believe that mining should operate hand in hand with rehabilitation work. I think it should be done in a fair and regular fifty-fifty manner.” Watch the full video interview with Batmunkh on YouTube.

Another important community player is Surenkhuu.L, a 59-year-old herder woman who lives in Tost Mountain, Gurvantes Soum, in the South Gobi Province of Mongolia. In 2009, she was selected as the Tost community leader by her fellow herders.

Since then, she has been managing a community group of 25 households as a part of the Snow Leopard Enterprise (SLE) program. Surenkhuu played a leading role in representing her community members when petitioning for protection of the snow leopard population.

In 2015, she gave a rousing speech at the Presidential Civil Hall Meeting, which received nationwide media coverage. The collective mission to turn Tost into a nature reserve took six years to come to fruition, but the efforts of community players like Surenkhuu were central to securing its success.

These stories are proof that the mining sector needs to take into consideration various social, environmental and humanitarian concerns. Backed by the right tools, the community has the power to come together to protect their rights and the environment.

Disclaimer: the views expressed in this story are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP or the UN Member States.

Young Environmental Journalist pilot initiative is aimed at raising awareness and fostering youth engagement in environmental and human rights protection in the mining sector in four resource-rich countries: Colombia, Kenya, Mongolia and Mozambique.

This initiative was organized by the joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers’ online volunteering service.

The post Curbing Land Degradation & Protecting the Environment in Mongolia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ariunmunkh Munkhjargal, Arushi Sharma, Avimukt Verma, Sarah Whatnall and Undarmaa Ulziibat are part of a team of Young Environmentalist Journalists*

The post Curbing Land Degradation & Protecting the Environment in Mongolia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
May 14 2020 (IPS-Partners)

 

A conversation with SPC’s Director-General on how the Pacific Community (SPC) helps Pacific countries respond to the COVID-19 crisis.

The post Dr Stuart Minchin, Director-General of SPC: With the crisis, we’re learning new ways of working appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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

The relentless battle against the devastating coronavirus pandemic has been underlined by several widespread advisories from health experts – STAY HOME. WASH YOUR HANDS. WEAR MASK. KEEP SOCIAL DISTANCE.

But the UK-based WaterAid and UN Habitat in Nairobi point out the paradox in at least two of the warnings: a staggering 3.0 billion people worldwide have no water to wash their hands and over 1.8 billion people have no adequate shelter—or homes to go to.

The deadly coronavirus pandemic has undermined the UN’s battle against extreme poverty and hunger, and upended its longstanding campaign for “water and sanitation for all” and shelter for the homeless -– all of which are an integral part of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The poorest people in the world are being left to face the COVID-19 pandemic alone,” says WaterAid, “with not even the most basic defence — clean water and a bar of soap”, one way to prevent the spread of the disease.

And worse still, in over 50 recent financial commitments made by donor agencies to developing countries, only 6 of them have any mention of hygiene, complains WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation, focused on water, sanitation and hygiene.

Meanwhile, in terms of homelessness, even the world’s rich nations have not been spared.

In 2018, says Habitat, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless reported that homelessness had skyrocketed across the continent.

And in the United States, 500,000 people are currently homeless, 40 per cent of whom are unsheltered.

In a locked-down New York city, the homeless have virtually taking over empty subway cars while turning subway stations into homeless shelters – even as City authorities are physically driving them out to the streets, with no homes to go to.

Kathryn Tobin, Advocacy Coordinator at WaterAid, told IPS the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail the focus of the international community away from the SDGs, especially with crises at home that may fuel anti-aid sentiment in industrialised countries.

But what should actually happen is the opposite: COVID-19 should be a wake-up call to the world that our current trajectory is not only unsustainable but destructive, especially for those already living in poverty and facing discrimination, she added.

“The pandemic should inspire a global turning point, towards a massive increase in public spending for health, water and sanitation, housing and infrastructure required to tamp the flow of the virus, but also for social protection, education, living wages, and the rest of the SDGs, to address the economic impact of the pandemic through major economic stimulus as we’ve seen in the richer countries,” Tobin argued.

Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP, told IPS that UNDP recently published two dashboards with data for 189 countries and territories that revealed significant disparities on countries’ abilities to cope with and recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

And these differences, he pointed out, include but also go beyond the capacity of their health systems.

He pointed out that more than 40 percent of the global population does not have any social protection and more than 6.5 billion people around the globe – 85 percent of the global population – still don’t have access to reliable broadband internet, which limits their ability to work and continue their education.

”It is important to ensure the response to COVID-19 comes with an equity lens. Countries, communities and groups that were already lagging behind will be particularly affected by the fallout from COVID-19.”

If they are left further behind, he warned, the consequences could have long-term impacts in advancing human development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

According to the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) mid-2020 report, released May 13, the pandemic will likely cause an estimated 34.3 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020, with 56% of this increase occurring in African countries,

An additional 130 million people may join to the ranks of people living in extreme poverty by 2030, dealing a huge blow to global efforts for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The pandemic, which is disproportionately hurting low-skilled, low-wage jobs, while leaving higher-skilled jobs less affected – will further widen income inequality within and between countries, the report noted.

In an joint op-ed piece for IPS, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat & Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, call on governments “to take steps to protect people who are the most vulnerable to the pandemic by providing adequate shelter where it is lacking and ensuring the housed do not become homeless because of the economic consequences of the pandemic.”

These crucial measures include stopping all evictions, postponing eviction court proceedings, prohibiting utility shut-offs and ensuring renters and mortgage payers do not accrue insurmountable debt during lockdowns.

“In addition, vacant housing and hotel rooms should be allocated to people experiencing homelessness or fleeing domestic violence. Basic health care should be provided to people living in homelessness regardless of citizenship status and cash transfers should be established for people in urgent need.”

WaterAid’s Tobin said for those with historical obligations to provide development assistance and climate finance, COVID-19 should inject an urgency to provide unconditional and immediate financing (through debt cancellation, a new allocation of SDRs, global taxation, all the measures we outline in our blog) to enable developing countries to fund their COVID-19 response.

But these should not be temporary relief measures.

COVID, she said, should inspire a new social contract between states and their people (regardless of citizenship), and reignite multilateralism to redirect the world towards climate justice, economic justice, gender justice, etc.

“The pandemic should not be used as an excuse to postpone the fulfilment of the SDGs (kicking the can down the road and leaving the world even less prepared for the next pandemic or manifestation of climate crisis) but should be the moment in which governments band together to fulfil their duty of care for both people and the planet,” she declared.

Meanwhile, the World Health Assembly is scheduled to meet next week, but current drafts of the resolution have failed to put any emphasis on how vital hygiene is and there is no plan as to how to close the huge access gap.

Vaccines and therapeutics are obviously vital, but equal emphasis needs to be put on prevention, especially in countries with such weak health systems, a statement from WaterAid.

The draft World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on COVID-19, which will be discussed at a virtual WHA next week, has no mention of water and hygiene access as fundamental preventative and protective measures, and fails to put in a place any sort of plan to tackle the huge gaps in access to this first line of defence. 

WaterAid believes this is a dereliction of duty from both donor countries and national governments of countries where access is low, and flies in the face of WHO’s advice to Member States which calls for urgent provision of hygiene services in communities and health centres.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post Stay Home? Wash Hands? But 1.8 Billion Remain Homeless & 3.0 Billion Have No Access to Water appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The usually busy UN Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya where traffic is bumper to bumper on the best of days, is almost empty as people stay at home to avoid spreading the coronavirus. Credit: UN Kenya/Newton Kanhema

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 14 2020 (IPS)

We live in a different world to the one we inhabited six short months ago.

With more than 4 million people infected and over 280,000 dead globally by mid May 2020, Covid-19 has ruthlessly exposed the vulnerability of a globalised world to pandemic disease. People are slowly coming to terms with the frightening and heartbreaking death toll, and we are still not out of the danger.

The Greek philosopher Herophilus said, “When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.”

The bio-threat has already upended our notions of community interaction, with face masks, latex gloves and physical distancing becoming the new normal. Science has been challenged and experts in various fields struggle to understand the short and long-term consequences of the pandemic.

Lack of robust global public health systems has proven to be a chink in the world’s armour. It has also revealed a truth that we ignore at our peril: healthcare systems around the world have been sorely tested in managing this outbreak, and without substantial reprioritisation of investment in health and research globally, we will be no better equipped when the next pandemic strikes.

Describing COVID 19 as a threat multiplier, the UN Deputy Secretary General, Ms Amina Mohammed said, “We have a health emergency, a humanitarian emergency and now a development emergency. These emergencies are compounding existing inequalities”.

While no country has been spared, the impact upon families and individuals has varied around the world, exposing huge global and local inequalities.

The consequences of high uninsured rates and high out-of-pocket health costs are being revealed. Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, more than 100 million people per year risked being plunged into poverty by a ‘shock’ in terms of unanticipated expenditure on medical treatment.

World Food Programme analysis shows that, due to the Coronavirus, an additional 265 million people are marching towards the brink of starvation by the year end because of the virus’s effects on jobs and family finances.

Leading UN reforms & ensuring the UN is fit for purpose in the countries they serve, the Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (centre), at the first-ever high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left), Director- General of World Health Organization (WHO) and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés(right), President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly. September 2018, New York, USA. Credit: UN / Eskinder Debebe

The social and economic upheaval we face today has changed the world and will go on changing it for many years. Behind the headlines of an economic decline that might rival the Great Depression of the 1930s are families separated by closed international borders, some mourning relatives they never managed to see and comfort, and millions who no longer have jobs.

What must we do to prevent the next pandemic striking the world.

Like rain that exposes a leaking roof, the coronavirus crisis has revealed unanticipated problems inherent in our dependence on global supply chains and amplified longstanding structural deficiencies in health systems around the world. We can see now that under-investment in public health in one country is a threat to global health security everywhere. Responses to health emergencies cannot succeed if any part of the world is left behind.

The central importance of universal health coverage and ensuring healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, as manifested in Sustainable Development Goal 3, (SDG3) by 2030, is clear.

With Africa’s population expected to grow to 2.3 billion by 2050, for Africa to reap a demographic dividend, as well as prevent disease outbreaks, Governments should:

1. Reassess policy priorities and direct greater funding to health.
2. Invest more in disease prevention.
3. Improved working conditions for medical staff.
4. Offer fit-for-purpose health insurance to their people.
5. Harness big data, technology, and innovation to leapfrog universal health coverage.
6. Forge public private partnerships to address the gaps to attain SDG 3.
7. Create an army of community health workers.

The WHO Chief, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a public health champion, who as Minster of Health in Ethiopia, a country once notorious for the highest maternal and child mortality in Africa, ensured the country achieved the health related Millennium Development Goals, by unleashing the full potential of community health workers. He said that, “By fully harnessing the potential of community health workers, including by dramatically improving their working and living conditions, we can make progress together towards universal health coverage and achieving the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities. The heroism, dedication and selflessness of medical staff allow the rest of us a degree of reassurance. In fact health workers are the frontline soldiers battling the pandemic. They deserve the same recognition and respect as women and men from the Armed Forces who are sent into battle in service of their country.

Additionally, the creation of robust health surveillance infrastructure in low-income countries will benefit the whole world in terms of early warning of disease outbreaks, and the ability to focus resources where and when they are needed.

To achieve this, new models of multilateral and public private partnerships must develop, as well reform, invest and give greater power to the World Health Organisation to protect the world from disease.

As citizens of the world we depend on one another. We are linked by trade and migration and the fact of our humanity as much as we are sometimes divided by politics and faith.

Consider this. Maria Branyas is a 113 year old COVID 19 survivor from Spain. It means she has lived through the flu pandemic of 1918-19, the two World Wars, the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and now the coronavirus. When asked what was the secret of her long life, she said, “good health”.

In a post-Covid-19 world, global health must be seen as a key component of national and global security as well as of the global economy.

SDG 3 must become pivotal in our post COVID 19 response or we may be sitting ducks, when another pandemic strikes, whose velocity and virulence could surpass what we are witnessing now.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya. He has served in various parts of the world with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNOPS, UN Peacekeeping and the Red Cross Movement. Follow him on twitter-@sidchat1

This OPED was originally published in Forbes Africa.

The post Without Universal Health Coverage We Are Sitting Ducks When the next Pandemic Strikes appeared first on Inter Press Service.

what is the BCG vaccine and what might its place be in the fight against coronavirus?

By External Source
May 14 2020 (IPS)

This week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced it will donate A$10 million to help fund an Australian trial testing whether a very old vaccine, BCG, can be used against a new threat, COVID-19. So what is the BCG vaccine and what might its place be in the fight against coronavirus?

 

The ABCs of BCG

The BCG vaccine has been used for nearly a century to protect against tuberculosis, a bacterial disease that affects the lungs. Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

BCG is short for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, as it was created by Léon Charles Albert Calmette and Jean-Marie Camille Guérin in the early 1900s.

To make the vaccine, they used Mycobacterium bovis, a bacterium found in cows and closely related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. They grew it on a nutrient-rich jelly in the lab for nearly 13 years. The bacterium adapted to this comfortable lifestyle by losing elements in its DNA it no longer needed, including elements that cause disease.

This process is called attenuation and it results in a live but weakened microbe that can be given to humans as a vaccine.

BCG is offered to infants in some parts of the world where there are still high rates of tuberculosis. It protects 86% of the time against some rarer forms of tuberculosis more common in children.

But it only protects about 50% of the time in adults.

Scientists and clinicians generally feel we need a better vaccine for tuberculosis. However, epidemiologists have noticed children who received BCG had significantly better overall health, with fewer respiratory infections and fewer deaths.

Immunologists suspect this is caused by a type of immune response called “trained immunity”.

Trained immunity is distinct from how we traditionally think of immunity, or “immune memory”, because it engages different types of immune cells.

 

Immune memory vs trained immunity

There are two main types of cells within our immune system: innate cells, which respond rapidly to microbes that cause disease, and adaptive cells, which initially respond quite slowly.

Adaptive cells include B cells, which make antibodies to block infection, and T cells, which can kill infected cells. Importantly, adaptive cells can remember particular microbes for years, or even decades, after we first encounter them.

This phenomenon is called “immune memory”.

When adaptive immune cells encounter the same microbe a second or subsequent time, they respond much more quickly, and the immune system can effectively clear an infection before it causes disease. Immune memory is why often we don’t get infected with a specific microbe, like chickenpox, more than once.

Most of our current vaccines exploit immune memory to protect us from infection.

For decades, scientists believed innate cells lacked the ability to remember previous encounters with microbes. However, we’ve recently learnt some innate cells, such as monocytes, can be “trained” during an encounter with a microbe. Training can program innate cells to activate more quickly when they next encounter a microbe – any microbe.

Some live attenuated vaccines, such as BCG, can trigger trained immunity, which can enhance early control of other infections. This raises the tantalising possibility that BCG could train innate cells to improve early control of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to reduce COVID-19 disease or even prevent infection.

And as a bonus, BCG could potentially protect us against other pathogens too.

 

The BCG vaccine targets trained immunity, whereas most other vaccines target immune memory. Kylie Quinn, Author provided .

 

Could BCG protect against COVID-19?

We don’t know yet whether BCG will reduce the severity of COVID-19, but the vaccine has some interesting features.

First, BCG is a potent stimulator of the immune system. Currently, it’s used alongside other therapies to treat bladder cancer and melanoma, because it can stimulate immune cells to attack the tumour.

BCG also seems to benefit lung immunity. As we mentioned, children who have had the vaccine appear to get fewer respiratory infections.

There’s a study underway in Melbourne looking at whether BCG can reduce symptoms of asthma in children.

And finally, BCG has been shown to limit viral infection. In one study, human volunteers were given BCG or a placebo one month before being infected with a virus. Volunteers who received BCG had a modest reduction in the amount of virus produced during infection compared to those who received the placebo.

However, BCG can cause side-effects to be mindful of. It usually causes a small raised blister on the skin at the vaccine site and it can cause painful swelling in the surrounding lymph nodes.

Importantly, because it’s a live bacterium, it can spread from the vaccine site and cause disease, called disseminated BCG, in people who are immunodeficient, like people with HIV. This means BCG can’t be given to everyone.

 

Current clinical trials

The ultimate test of BCG as a preventative measure for COVID-19 is to run randomised clinical trials, which are now underway.

Researchers across Australia and the Netherlands are preparing to give BCG to the people who have arguably the highest risk of COVID-19: frontline health-care workers.

These phase III trials will collect data on whether workers vaccinated with BCG have fewer or less severe COVID-19 infections.

If BCG is shown to be effective, we’ll face other challenges. For example, supply of the vaccine is currently limited. Further, there are many different strains of BCG and they might not all provide the same protection against COVID-19.

Protection would likely start to wane relatively quickly. When trained immunity was tracked in humans after BCG, it started waning from three to 12 months after vaccination.

Protection would also not be as strong as what we see with many traditional vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine which protects against measles 94.1% of the time.

So BCG would be most helpful for people at high risk of exposure, but it wouldn’t replace a traditional vaccine based on immune memory.

These studies are important to give us options. We need a complete toolkit for control of COVID-19, consisting of anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drugs and vaccines. But an effective COVID-19 vaccine is likely still many months, even years, away.

By repurposing an old, well-characterised vaccine, we could bridge this gap and provide some protection to our health-care workers as they confront COVID-19.

 

Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University; Joanna Kirman, Associate Professor, University of Otago; Katie Louise Flanagan, Infectious Diseases Specialist and Clinical Professor, University of Tasmania, and Magdalena Plebanski, Professor of Immunology, RMIT University

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

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