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By Fabiana Frayssinet
RÍO DE JANEIRO, Mar 15 2019 (IPS)

“More than 50 countries in the world have discriminatory laws against people affected by Hansen’s disease. There is also a lot of discrimination in the public administration…and in society,” Alice Cruz, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, said in this interview with IPS (in Spanish, with English subtitles).

The Portuguese-born expert is one of the special participants in the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease – another name for leprosy – taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Mar. 12-14.

 

 

Among the many examples of violations of the rights of those affected by the disease, Cruz cited the case of children who are expelled from school.

“People lose their jobs, there is discrimination in the community, they aren’t allowed to enter places of worship, etc, and there is discrimination in the family too,” added the Special Rapporteur in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Cruz pointed out that in 2010, the United Nations adopted “a human rights instrument to guarantee the rights of people affected by Hansen’s disease.”

According to this document, entitled “Draft principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members”, “States should enforce this instrument which covers all areas of affected persons and protects them from the violations mentioned,” she stressed.

This is the first time that a meeting has been held in Latin America dedicated to people affected by a disease that the World Health Organisation defines as infectious and chronic, caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae and which mainly damages the skin, peripheral nerves, the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes.

Brazil, the host country, accounts for 95 percent of all cases in the Americas, with between 25,000 and 30,000 new diagnoses per year.

The regional meeting is an initiative of the Brazilian Movement for the Reintegration of People Affected by Hanseniasis and the Colombian Federation of Organisations of People Affected by Hanseniasis, with support from Brazil’s Health Ministry and the independent Nippon Foundation.

The region’s findings, together with the ones that emerged from similar assemblies in Asia and Africa, will be incorporated into the proposals for the World Congress on Leprosy, to be held in the Philippines in September.

 

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A farmer in Woliyta area of Ethiopia experiences higher yields of taro since adopting disease-resistant and drought tolerant seed varieties. Credit: Ed McKenna/IPS

By Esther Ngumbi
ILLINOIS, United States, Mar 15 2019 (IPS)

The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s annual Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition Report highlighted drought as one of the key factors contributing to the continuing rise in the number of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa. And in South Africa, the Government’s Crop Estimates Committee announced that the country would harvest 20 percent less maize in 2019 because of drought conditions. 

Drought, a period of inadequate rain or no rainfall, is the main cause of crop yield loss in Africa, ultimately causing food insecurity and famines. In early 2018, over 15 million people from countries ranging across the continent — including Somalia, Ethiopia, South Africa and Kenya — were affected by drought.

Drought isn’t uncommon in Africa. It happens somewhere on the continent every year. But weather patterns are becoming more unpredictable, as well as more severe. For example, the droughts of 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 made headlines across the continent and total cost the region an estimated at USD$ 372 billion.

Smallholder farmers are most affected by drought because many don’t have irrigation technology and rely on rainfall for their crops. With the unpredictability of rainfall patterns smallholder farmers are no longer able to plan their planting seasons.

To ultimately become drought resilient, Africa's smallholder farmers must grow drought tolerant crops. Growing drought tolerant crops has many benefits including increasing on farm crop yields

To deal with this, various stakeholders — from national governments to non-governmental organizations — have used different approaches, like food aid and funds, safety net systems ( like water storage) to help cover citizens during droughts and the implementation of irrigation schemes. But to ultimately become drought resilient, Africa’s smallholder farmers must grow drought tolerant crops. Growing drought tolerant crops has many benefits including increasing on farm crop yields.

Drought tolerant crops — like maize, cowpeas and rice — have been bred through conventional plant breeding techniques or biotechnology and continue to grow and produce even when rains fail. They’ve been around since the 20th century, but the last two decades have seen an increase in drought tolerance research that targets staple crops like maize, rice and wheat.

There are some challenges involved, however. Breeding crops for drought tolerance takes time. On average, bringing new drought tolerant crops to market can take an about five years. Testing the seeds to accurately characterize the traits involved can take many years and requires several locations. Another challenge is that significant investment is needed to breed drought tolerant crops and make them available to farmers.

Nonetheless, the uptake of  these crops has been promising. Though the scale with which they are adopted by farmers varies by country, about 40 million smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa benefit are using more than 200 drought tolerant maize varieties, benefits that include increases in crop yields.

But, there are still several hurdles to overcome.

For example, unlike traditional seeds, drought tolerant seeds have to be bought every year. Though drought tolerant crops produce seeds, they lose some of their drought protection capacities so farmers are encouraged to buy new seeds, not save them from the previous harvest. Many farmers are afraid of being locked in this cycle of financial obligation.

Secondly, just like any other new technology, there are several determinants to whether it’s successfully adopted by farmers. For the case of drought tolerant crops, research shows that early adopters to drought tolerant maize are more educated and have better access to agricultural extension personnel.

Nevertheless, research has demonstrated that the pros of adoption, and costs involved, outweigh the cons. And the good news is that drought tolerant crops are available across Africa. For the past decade, institutions like the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, Kenya’s Agricultural Research Institute and private foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested in breeding and strengthening the adoption of drought tolerant crop varieties across the continent.

Importantly, there are benefits of planting drought tolerant crops including producing larger crop yields. According to research, planting climate resilient maize varieties in most environments leads to 25% more crop yield. This is because these crops are still able to grow in periods when the rains fail. In Zimbabwe, for example, farmers earned USD$240 more per hectare when they planted drought-tolerant maize varieties because of larger yields.

Of course, even though there are benefits to planting drought resistant varieties, they aren’t a silver bullet. There are other steps farmers must take to make the most out of planting these tolerant varieties. For example, they must still look after the health of soils and practice mulching — covering soil between plants with a layer of material to keep the soil moist — to keep moisture in during periods of drought.

But they are still a smart strategy and investment for Africa’s smallholder farmers. They offer a buffer to drought, both now and in the future, bringing greater yields, improved incomes and increased food security.

 

Esther Ngumbi is Distinguished Post Doctoral Researcher, Entomology Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Illinois. She was the 2015 Clinton Global University (CGI U) Mentor for Agriculture and 2015 New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

 

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Family photo of part of the 111 participants in the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen's Disease, on the steps of the Morisco Palace, the headquarters of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which hosted the three-day meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 14 2019 (IPS)

With the decision to found a regional coalition to promote rights and greater participation in national and international forums and decisions, the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen’s disease, popularly known – and stigmatised – as leprosy, came to an end.

The final session of the meeting, on Mar. 14, approved 40 of the 58 proposals presented by the 111 participants in three days of debates at the headquarters of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a renowned scientific, medical and epidemiological research centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

José Picanço, 46, separated from his family and taken as a newborn to an orphanage because his parents were diagnosed with the disease in 1972, is one of those affected whose right to reparations remains unfulfilled. His three siblings are in the same situation.

When the family was reunited eight years later, the father turned his back on the children. The mother took them in, but died shortly afterwards. “I only lived with her, a saint, for five months,” Picanço recalled, barely managing to hold in his tears while giving testimony at the meeting.

“Humiliated as the children of lepers, suffering bullying and sexual harassment, many of the other children who were with me at the orphanage fell into drug abuse and alcoholism. It was a holocaust,” he said. “I hit my brother on the head, not knowing he was my own brother.”

“Of the 15,000 to 20,000 children separated from their families, more than 80 percent suffer from depression,” said Picanço in an interview with IPS, detailing some of the damage caused by the old rule of segregating the people then called “lepers”.

Mandatory isolation was widespread around the world, during different historical periods, and continues in some countries, even though it is known that the disease is curable and that patients cease to be contagious shortly after starting treatment.

Officially, Brazil abolished this practice in 1976, although it actually lasted 10 more years. Its direct victims were compensated starting in 2007, but their children were not. The activists gathered in Rio de Janeiro called for working for policies of reparations for children separated from their families.

Their complaints and proposals will be taken to the World Congress of associations of people affected by leprosy in Manila in September, which will also receive contributions from Africa and Asia, approved at recent similar regional assemblies.

“The goal is to form a large network of activists, to strengthen the movement” for the eradication of the disease and for care and reparations for those affected, said Kiyomi Takahashi of the independent Nippon Foundation, which is driving this international process of debate and cooperation.

The meeting in Rio de Janeiro fostered “a high-level dialogue, the result of Morhan and Felehansen’s long history of activities,” the Japanese expert told IPS, referring to the Movement for the Reintegration of People Affected by Hanseniasis (Morhan) in Brazil, and the National Federation of Entities Affected by Leprosy or Hansen’s Disease (Felehansen) in Colombia, the two organisers of the regional meeting.

Brazilian activists José Picanço (front) and Evelyne Leandro testified about how Hansen’s disease affected them during a Latin American and Caribbean meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Picanço was separated from his parents when they were diagnosed with leprosy when he was born in 1972 and was only reunited with them eight years later, shortly before his mother died. Leandro wrote a book about the difficulties of being diagnosed with the disease in Germany, where she lives. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

“Morhan is my safe haven, to preach that separated children should be heard and have opportunities,” said Picanço, who explained that he joined the movement in 1992. Today he gives talks on the direct and indirect effects of the stigma still surrounding the disease, that is suffered by those affected and their families.

A blessing

The disease “was a blessing for me,” Isaias Dussan Weck, 50, the vice-president of the Colombian association Felehansen, told IPS without hesitation.

The diagnosis in 2006 destroyed him, he said. He lost the desire to work or to go out, he let his business of supplying cleaning products to companies go bankrupt, he even contemplated suicide. He ignored the stains on his body that did not prevent him from working and traveling, until they spread to his face, and he noticed that parts of his body were going numb.

He received treatment and was cured, left with only slight numbness in one arm and pains in his left leg.

But everything went badly for him until he was invited to meetings with other people affected by leprosy. “I began to understand, when I heard their testimonies and tears, why a young black girl with severe disabilities said that leprosy was a blessing to her,” Dussan said.

Activism for the benefit of those affected, against the stigma and the damage caused by the disease, in the association of the department of Huila, in southwestern Colombia, allowed him “to gain new meaning for life and to understand and practice love for my neighbour.”

“Helping and seeing a patient’s life improve is a wonderful emotion, and you help other people want to live,” he concluded. That new passion led him to Felehansen, where he took on leadership roles in the federation.

Irma Romero, 42, president of the Nuevo Amanecer Foundation in Barranquilla, on Colombia’s northern coast, had a similar experience. Her lengthy odyssey to a specialist’s diagnosis five years ago reveals the medical system’s shortcomings when it comes to detecting and treating the disease, also known as hanseniasis, which is still viewed by many as “a divine punishment.”

Romero stopped working in the textile industry due to disability and depression. “I couldn’t even walk,” she recalled. “I even denied God,” she told IPS.

Colombian activist Irma Romero, a native of the city of Barranquilla, sitting on the bus that transported the participants of the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease, held Mar. 12-14 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Treatment using medicinal herbs, self-medication, rejection by relatives, attempts to separate her from her two children and abandonment by her husband all formed part of her suffering, which did not end with her treatment and cure.

The only permanent physical effects are numbness in her hands and feet, and sciatic nerve pain. But the discrimination continued.

“My life changed when I joined the association of affected people” four years ago, she said. “There I found people who had things in common with me, and a newfound love of my neighbour that I did not feel before,” said the activist, who became president of the Foundation the following year and reconciled with God.

Her foundation currently has 60 members. In Barranquilla she estimates that there are “about 200 affected people, but many more are hidden.”

The foundation is one of the 10 associations that make up Felehansen, eight of which call the disease hanseniasis or Hansen’s disease, one of which uses the term leprosy, and another of which refers to disabled people and is made up of patients who received a very late diagnosis.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines leprosy – the term it uses – as an infectious and chronic disease “transmitted by air through droplets from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contacts with untreated cases.” It also specifies that leprosy is “one of the least infectious diseases.”

WHO reports that in 2017 there were 211,009 new cases worldwide, according to official data from 159 countries. That amounts to 0.3 cases per 10,000 inhabitants, which means it classifies as having been “eliminated,” according to WHO criteria.

Change of name: another recommendation

Proposing hanseniasis as the official name for the disease is one of the proposals that came out of the Latin American meeting, headed by Brazil, which has already adopted it, even prohibiting the mention of leprosy in the health system since 1995.

They are different concepts, because leprosy and leper have very negative connotations of “dirt, plague, impurities and divine punishment,” strengthened by numerous mentions with that moral burden in the Bible, argued Faustino Pinto, one of Morhan’s national coordinators.

But the activists from Colombia are not convinced. “People only know leprosy, they don’t know it’s Hanseniasis. To explain the issue to the population, you have to mention leprosy,” argued Romero.

“It will be necessary to educate the new generations about the concept of Hansen,” the Norwegian doctor Gerhard Hansen who discovered the bacillus that causes the disease, because adults are not likely to forget the stigma, said Dussan. “It’s harder to unlearn than to learn,” he added.

Another proposal of the Latin American Assembly is to extend the current Committee for Assistance to Brazilian Immigrants Affected by Hanseniasis to all Latin Americans and people from the Caribbean, in addition to extending it to other regions.

The reference point in this is Evelyne Leandro, a 37-year-old Brazilian who has lived in Germany for nine years and had a lot of difficulties getting diagnosed with the disease in a country where it is very rare and where very few doctors are familiar with it.

She was helped by her mother’s suspicion, awakened in Brazil by an outreach campaign on the disease, and by the Institutes of Tropical Medicine in Germany.

Her case and those of other immigrants in Europe are recounted in her book “The Living Death: the struggle with a long forgotten disease”.

Related Articles

• In Latin America, the Term Leprosy Still Carries a Burden from Biblical Times
• People Affected by Leprosy Still Face Stigma in Latin America

The post People Affected by Leprosy in Latin America Unite for Their Rights and Their Voice appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Kenton X. Chance
KINGSTOWN, Mar 14 2019 (IPS)

From an influx of sargassum in near-shore waters, to fish venturing further out to sea to find cooler, more oxygenated water, fishers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are battling the vagaries of climate change. The country is doing what it can to respond.

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The post Helping St. Vincent’s Fishers Maintain an Essential Industry in a Changing Climate appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A cigarette vendor in Manila sells a pack of 20 sticks for less than a dollar. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

By Wendell Balderas and Mary Assunta
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 14 2019 (IPS)

International Women’s Day on 8 March recognized and celebrated the progress women are making globally. The day also acknowledged the risks, exploitation and suffering many continue to endure.

The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) puts the spotlight on the tobacco industry’s marketing tactics targeting women and girls especially in Asia to market its deadly products.

While smoking prevalence among females remains relatively low in Asia, smoking rates among adolescent girls in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand however are higher than the rate among adult women respectively (9.1% vs 5.8%; 2.4% vs 1.4%; 5.2% vs 1.7%). Despite governments’ efforts to protect public health, tobacco use remains at epidemic proportions.

This is no coincidence. The tobacco industry needs “replacement” customers to maintain and increase its profits, and women and girls are an important market segment which represent the largest product-marketing opportunity the tobacco industry exploits.

Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the tobacco industry has been notoriously targeting women and girls through their ads and novel products that promote social desirability, independence, sophistication, glamor, romance, and fun.

Women and girls, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), are smoking in greater numbers than ever before. The tobacco industry has been introducing new products framed as “innovation” by refreshing brand marketing devices and imagery to appeal to women and young girls.

Through these product “innovation”, transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) introduce cigarette brands with new characteristics as flavored capsules and flavored filters and packaged and labelled with glitzy promotion.

These so-called innovations are gimmicks on specific product designs including filters, capsules, flavors, shape, color and perceived product’s strength or mildness.

Credit: Bigstock

Some of the tobacco industry’s deceptive tactics which blur the truth about the hazards of tobacco and instead promote smoking in developing countries among women and girls include the following:

• • In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, some cigarettes brands are in “Lipstick” packs. Female-targeted elegant slims or super slim cigarettes are also packaged in slimmer packs and influences beliefs about smoking and weight control – an important predictor of smoking behavior among women.

 

• • In Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam “Less smoke smell (LSS)” technology has been used to promote cigarettes designed to reduce secondhand smoke odor.

 

• • Kiddie packs (10 to 12 sticks) are also available in Indonesia and the Philippines.

 

• • Flavor capsules in cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular and increase attractiveness of smoking. Some cigarettes sold in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam have capsule filters that can be crushed to release additional menthol or other flavoring.

 

• Colors play an important role to enhance cigarette packaging and labeling to represent flavors and strength within brand families. The brand image is created by attention-grabbing designs and appealing colors to indicate flavors (such as strawberry, orange and apple) and communicate the false impression of lower tar or mild cigarette. Gold and silver convey ‘low-tar’, green for menthol and blue for ‘light’ or icy/cool.

To divert public attention away from the harm and damage caused by the industry, the TTCs have been conducting public relations stunts about employment and gender equity.

Philip Morris International boasted an ‘Equal-Salary certification’ it received, conveniently timed for International Women’s Day. TTCs routinely receive an obscure ‘top employer’ awards while simultaneously fighting smoke-free policies.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “a woman’s risk of dying from smoking has more than tripled and is now equal to men’s risk”. This means that women are also at higher risk for heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, emphysema, and other serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes.

A sudden concern for smoking is the new public rhetoric of the tobacco industry to justify a new range of so-called “less harmful” products such as heated tobacco products, while simultaneously selling regular cigarettes which form the bulk of their profits.

The current sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, (11 – 22 March) is expected address women empowerment and their vital roles as agents of development in making progress across all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets.

It is timely to discuss the tobacco epidemic among women especially in the LMICs and the concerted effort governments must make to curb this scourge.

Preventing an epidemic of tobacco-related diseases among women in the LMICs is one of the greatest public health opportunities for governments of our time. The global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has been explicitly identified as a means to achieve the SDG health goal.

Steps governments should take to prevent this epidemic include banning tobacco advertising and promotions such as pack displays and applying plain packaging which requires cigarette packs to be sold in a standardized size, shape, and drab brown color, free of any logos or images.

In September 2019, Thailand’s legislation on standardized packaging of tobacco will take effect and Singapore will follow soon. Standardized packaging removes the attractiveness of tobacco products and reduces the ability of tobacco packaging to mislead consumers about its harmful effects.

Other equally important actions in the FCTC include increasing tobacco taxes and making public and work places 100% smoke-free.

*SEATCA is a multi-sectoral non-governmental alliance promoting health and saving lives by assisting ASEAN countries to accelerate and effectively implement the evidence-based tobacco control measures contained in the WHO FCTC. Acknowledged by governments, academic institutions, and civil society for its advancement of tobacco control movements in Southeast Asia, the WHO bestowed on SEATCA the World No Tobacco Day Award in 2004 and the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award in 2014.

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Excerpt:

Wendell Balderas is Media & Communications Manager & Mary Assunta is Senior Policy Advisor, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA)*

The post Tobacco Industry Targets Women in Asia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

In the panel on Hanseniasis versus Leprosy, the need to change the name of a disease surrounded by stigma with no scientific basis was debated, during the Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen's Disease, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

By Fabiana Frayssinet
RÍO DE JANEIRO, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

Known scientifically as Hansen’s disease, leprosy carries a symbolic burden from the past that people affected by the disease and experts from around Latin America are fighting, including the terminology used.

The debate took place during a panel called Hanseniasis versus Leprosy, at the First Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease, taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Mar. 12-14.

“People still use the term leprosy as an instrument of prejudice and discrimination, but that causes those affected to be afraid and to refrain from seeking medical attention and early treatment,” Francisco Faustino, a Brazilian who received treatment and was cured, told IPS."We're not going to change Hollywood movie concepts about lepers, nor the biblical stories. What we need to change are attitudes. It's as if we have to create a new concept, work on a new product. No bank would be called a 'bankrupt corporation' because everyone would be afraid to put money in that bank." -- Artur Custodio

The activist is a member of the Movement for the Reintegration of Persons Affected by Hanseniasis (MORHAN), which organised the conference together with the Colombian National Federation of Organisations of People Affected by Leprosy.

The meeting brings together international institutions and representatives from seven Latin American countries along with others from the industrialised North and is being held with the special support of the Brazilian Health Ministry and the independent Nippon Foundation, which is accompanying the process of regional meetings ahead of the World Congress on leprosy, to take place in the Philippines in September.

Brazil is the only country that has replaced the word leprosy in its health campaigns. Hansen’s disease or hanseniasis is often used as official terminology in most countries along with leprosy, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) uses Hansen’s disease as a second name but still mainly uses the term leprosy.

Regardless of what name is used, this country is the only one in the Americas that, according to official data, has failed to eliminate the disease, and is the one that accounts for 95 percent of the roughly 30,000 new diagnoses annually in Latin America.

Organisations such as the Brazilian Society of Hansenology say the number of unregistered cases could be four or five times that.

WHO considers the disease eliminated when there is less than one case detected per 10,000 inhabitants.

Faustino attributes this largely to the “prejudice still surrounding the term.” “We hope that the health community will change its stance and begin to treat it as a disease that has a diagnosis, treatment and a cure,” he said.

He continues to suffer stigma and discrimination even now that he is cured. “People still think it’s a disease that is spread merely by contact, by being near you,” he said.

According to the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), “Leprosy is transmitted via droplets, from the nose and mouth. Prolonged, close contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months is needed to catch the disease. You cannot get leprosy from casual contact with a person who has Hansen’s disease.”

PAHO and WHO explain that leprosy is caused by a bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae, also known as Hansen’s bacillus. It is infectious and chronic, multiplies very slowly and the incubation period is on average about five years, although some people do not show symptoms until 20 years later.

Francisco Faustino, who had leprosy and was completely cured, is a Brazilian activist who advocates replacing that term with hanseniasis, as he explained during a special panel at the Latin American and Caribbean Assembly of Organisations of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Credit: Faiana Frayssinet/IPS

The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes. If left untreated, it can lead to nerve damage, loss of feeling and paralysis of muscles in the hands, feet and face.

Artur Custodio, coordinator of Morhan, recalled that in ancient times leprosy was the name given to a group of diseases such as syphilis, elephantitis, vitiligo, and today’s hanseniasis.

“Biblical leprosy refers to scaly skin, dirtiness and sin, and hanseniasis is nothing like that. We have to give a new meaning to this disease in order to combat the stigma. The word is strong,” he told IPS.

“We’re not going to change Hollywood movie concepts about lepers, nor the biblical stories. What we need to change are attitudes. It’s as if we have to create a new concept, work on a new product. No bank would be called a ‘bankrupt corporation’ because everyone would be afraid to put money in that bank,” he said, by way of comparison.

Custodio said the debate on the name and the burden of its meaning is also occurring in countries such as Colombia, Japan and the United States.

“This is an important movement. Words do carry stigma. The word used for a name is a strategy,” he maintained.

Luciano Curi of the governmental Federal Institute of the Mineiro Triangle in Brazil did research for his doctoral degree on the history of ancient, medieval and modern leprosy that convinced him that the term did not refer to today’s hanseniasis.

“Treating it as a synonym, in addition to lacking a historical and scientific basis, is very dangerous. The leper of the ancient and medieval world was seen from a religious foundation, and was associated with the impure. And hanseniasis is seen from a medical point of view. The first medical works date back to the 19th century, when the disease began to be understood scientifically,” he told IPS.

The figure of the leper, he said, existed in several ancient populations of the region of Mesopotamia or Egypt, and also among the Hebrews, and they were seen as having “some kind of spiritual pollution,” while priests were instructed to expel them.

In Brazil and other Latin American countries, this definition led them from exclusion to isolation, in leper colonies isolated from everyone, including their families, until the mid-twentieth century.

According to Curi the “change of terminology is urgently necessary.” He noted that Brazil was a pioneer in changing other terminologies. “We don’t say ‘madness’ any more, we say ‘mental illness’, we no longer use the word ‘plague’. That effort, at a worldwide level, is important. The name is not a minor issue,” he argued.

Jorge Domínguez, a representative of Peru’s Health Ministry, also told IPS that the name “leprosy” does not help bring patients in for consultations in health clinics.

During his 10 years working as regional coordinator of Hansen’s disease in the province of Alto Amazonas, bordering Ecuador, he witnessed numerous cases of people “hiding” from the health authorities for fear of being sent to the “leprosarium”, as some Latin American countries called these now-abolished institutions, some of which were virtually citadels.

“It was just like during the times of Christ, when lepers were banished and isolated. The same thing happened in the jungle. When I started to work, I went to visit once and there was a person who had leprosy and was shunned by his own family. They had made him a room and passed his food to him under the door,” said Domínguez, a nurse by profession.

“People’s lack of knowledge about the disease was very great,” he said.

Domínguez pointed out that in their health network they began to work on “the issue of stigma and rejection,” training doctors and nurses mainly “because there were even some who hid when they saw a patient with leprosy.”

That campaign reduced the number of reported cases of leprosy in his region from 35 or 45 a year, to between eight and 10 today.

“No matter how much awareness-raising we have done through the media, many people still get scared. Changing the terminology would help people avoid discrimination,” he said.

But above and beyond the question of terminology, Dominguez believes that research on a disease about which very little is known should be strengthened.

“Why does it affect some people more than others? Why are there so many cases in Brazil and we have so few of them, and people living along the border don’t get it?” he wondered.

“It is also important to strengthen communication, and information for the public. The treatment for Hanseniasis, which lasts six months to a year, is free, the disease is curable, and even people who already have suffered damage can mitigate it,” Custodio concluded.

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• People Affected by Leprosy Still Face Stigma in Latin America

The post In Latin America, the Term Leprosy Still Carries a Burden from Biblical Times appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former rebel fighters from South Sudan’s civil war, manually packing improved sorghum seed in Yambio, South Sudan. over 1,900 ex-fighters have been taken through rehabilitation programmes, and have been released to join vocational training and engage in agribusiness, with others being integrated into organised forces. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
YAMBIO, South Sudan, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

Almost a month to go ahead of the traditional rainy season in Gbudue State, 430 kilometres west of South Sudan’s capital, Juba, smallholder farmers are already tilling their land as they prepare to plant purer, drought-tolerant seeds.

“We are preparing our land this early because we are never sure when it is likely going to rain, and yet we cannot afford to miss out on the seed production programme, which is our new source of livelihood,” said Antony Ezekiel Ndukpo, a father of 19 children and a smallholder farmer based in Yambio region.

Africa’s youngest nation does not have reliable weather and climate information services, and this forces farmers to rely on traditional methods of forecasting, which are no longer accurate due to what experts say is climate change. However, the process of multiplying drought-tolerant seed is being taught to local farmers through a new initiative meant to promote peace in the country.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), in collaboration with the Gbudue State and the Netherlands government, is working with a local seed company and local smallholder farmers to produce fast-maturing improved seeds of different, drought-tolerant crop varieties that can be planted in the coming seasons by thousands of young men and women fighters who are returning home from the conflict.

Since 2013, South Sudan has experienced war between the government and opposition chiefs, which has led to deaths of thousands and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. According to the United Nations, since 2013 “more than 2.2 million refugees have fled across the border, famine in some areas, and a devastated economy.”

Antony Ezekiel Ndukpo with a packet of certified maize seed that he and other smallholders like him have produced in Gbudue State. Local smallholder farmers are being taught to produce fast-maturing improved seeds of different drought-tolerant crop varieties. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Farmers are taught how to take the pure versions of breeder’s and foundation seed and produce certified seed.

Breeder’s seed is produced from a pure or nucleus seed. This is further bred under supervised conditions into foundation seed for the sake of producing certified seed.

“As much as we are seeking peace, we must face the reality and use climate-smart techniques so as to make a meaningful change especially for a country that has just been at war,” said Dr Jane Ininda, a plant breeding expert at the AGRA.

“We need to give farmers drought-tolerant seeds because we are never sure of the climatic conditions ahead, and we need fast maturing varieties to escape the drought in case the duration of the rainy season turn out to be too short,” Ininda told IPS.

Over the course of the last six years a number of peace agreements have been signed, and as a result, many young people who had been recruited by rebel groups have begun returning home. In order to reintegrate them into normal life, the government wants them to start engaging in income-generating activities.

Previously “the government could apprehend and imprison all the ex-fighters returning from the bush,” Pia Philip Michael, the Gbudue State Minister for Education, Gender and Social Welfare, told IPS in an exclusive interview. “But we later found that most of them were children aged between 12 and 17 years, and the best way to help them was to draft a re-integration proposal and implement it.”

According to the minister, nearly all the returnees confessed that they joined the rebel groups because they were promised a constant salary of 200 dollars every month, and “this points to a livelihood issue,” he said.

According to the Governor of Gbudue State, Daniel Badagbu, guns cannot be used to win the war. “All we need is to create jobs, especially for the youth by introducing them to agribusiness and giving them livelihood skills through vocational trainings,” he told a United Nations Mission that visited Gbudue State late February.

In Gbudue State alone, over 1,900 ex-fighters have been taken through rehabilitation programmes, and have been released to join vocational training and engage in agribusiness, with others being integrated into organised forces.

“Creating livelihoods and economic empowerment is the only way of creating peace,” reiterated Badagbu.

“It all begins with seed,” said AGRA’s Ininda. “If we have to make a difference, then we need to avail certifiable seed to all famers, and it should be compatible with the prevailing climatic conditions,” she told IPS.

Unfortunately, the country does not have a system for seed certification in place. AGRA and its partners were forced to import breeder’s and foundation seed from the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda.

With this seed, local seed company Global Agriculture Innovation and Solutions (GAIS) has trained 7,200 smallholder farmers in Gbudue and Lakes States on seed multiplication.

To multiply, the seed has to be planted in an isolated place, so that it does not collect pollen grains from other varieties of maize to maintain purity. The farmers are also taught about agronomic practices and what works best to ensure good quality seed, how to irrigate the seed in low rainfall in order to sustain growth. 

“In the two states, we concentrate on improved seeds of fast-maturing maize varieties, groundnuts, sorghum and cowpeas, which are the most appreciated food crops in these two states,” said Rahul Saharan, the Chief  Executive Officer for GAIS.

The farmers have already produced the first season of foundation seed.

While in most countries these processes are supervised by seed certifying agencies, because there are none present in South Sudan, GAIS does this.

The main aim of the project is to have sufficient seed that can be distributed to many farmers to improve their harvests. The country heavily relies on food aid, and that is evident at the Juba Airports, where the number of United Nations cargo and mission planes outnumber commercial jets.

“We are happy that we can now produce improved seed from our own soils. I believe this will yield better than the seeds we’ve been planting, which were grown in different places with different environmental conditions,” said Ndukpo.

According to the Netherlands Director-General for International Cooperation Reina Buijs, it is only by taking action that peace will prevail in South Sudan.

“It is good to see the government, the private sector, the civil society, the clergy, and the people come together for the sake of peace,” Buijs told IPS. “There can be many nice words on paper, or spoken, but if it does not translate in concrete actions, people cannot believe any more.”

“It feels great to see the donor support being translated into future hope for the people and in implementing the peace agreement,” she said, adding that the Netherlands would be proud to continue supporting such initiatives in South Sudan.

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The post Using Climate-Smart Solutions to Promote Peace in South Sudan appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Girls at Galkayo Center in Puntland, Somalia

By Hawa Aden Mohamed
PUNTLAND, Somalia, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

Aisha Elias Adan was abducted on the evening of February 24th at a market in Israc village, Puntland, Somalia.

Her body was carelessly dumped in front of her family home the following morning. A doctor’s report showed that she had been brutally gang-raped.

Her genitals were severely injured and stuffed with plastic bags, apparently to make it more difficult to collect DNA evidence. She had been strangled to death.

Aisha’s heartbroken mother told the police that she had heard some noise in a nearby compound during the night. On storming the house the following morning they found her daughter’s dress close to two suspects who were still sleeping.

A third man managed to escape but was also arrested on his way to nearby Bosaso town.

Sexual violence is sadly not a shocking occurence in Puntland. Many people say that it is simply “not taken seriously”. For years it has been relatively common place and perpetrators have enjoyed impunity.

The Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development, an organisation I set up in 1999, supports dozens of cases of sexual violence every single year.

The situation has gotten even worse lately, with gang rapes committed by not only civil society but also military professionals, marines and even the police themselves – men who are tasked with protecting girls and women rather than causing them harm.

Women in Puntland are exasperated by how difficult it is to get people to care and to get justice after crimes have been committed against us.

For many years I worked with other local activists to push for Somalia’s Sexual Offences Bill, which was finally passed in late 2016. This was the first of its kind in Eastern Africa and banned sexual exploitation, harassment and gang rape.

It took a long time to get it through, but in the end it enjoyed widespread support from religious and community leaders as well as the Justice, Religious Affairs and Women, Development and Family Affairs ministries.

We really saw it as a landmark moment and hoped that it would mean that women and girls in this region would finally be given some form of legal protection against sexual violence.

A little over two years later it seems to have achieved very little. It is close to impossible to get accurate statistics, but although we know the prevalence of rape and murder in the Puntland region is high, Aisha’s case is one of the first reported instances. Her story is only coming to light because of its shocking nature.

Somali women – and men – have coming together in protest over the past two weeks, marching to demand justice for Aisha and all girls like her.

However, we know that since there is only one under-resourced forensic facility in the region (in Garowe), and other limitations on police resources, this may prove to be more difficult than we would like.

In this politically unstable region the police service complain of not only a lack of funding for themselves, but also to pay for meals for suspects while they are in custody. In some cases this means that they are released, as it just costs too much to keep them until their trial is scheduled to be held.

While people in general support the law there continues to be some resistance from many in societies, including – incredibly – from some judges, who would prefer that customary and religious laws are used instead of the formal legal system.

This runs contradictory to what is written in our constitution, but in practice it means that Aisha’s family will now be approached by the perpetrators’ families to negotiate some form of trade off.

Attitudes need to urgently change on this as it means that the female victim is never really considered as men make deals behind closed doors. This International Women’s Day we hope that this does not happen on this occasion and that Aisha’s case is brought through the official courts.

Aisha was buried on February 26th. Hers is a truly tragic case, which has resonated very deeply here in Puntland. I hope that it will shake things up. The seemingly never-ending violence against women and girls, where men can evade any responsibility for what they do, has to end.

The only way we can achieve this is to put rapists and murderers behind bars, using proper legal channels and protecting victims and their families for as long as it takes to ensure justice can take hold.

The post Gang Rape & Murder of 12 Year Old Somali Girl Sparks Fury appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Hawa Aden Mohamed is founder of The Galkayo Centre, an organisation based in Galkayo, Puntland, Somalia, which educates and protects girls from female genital mutilation (FGM) and other forms of violence. It is the local partner of international group Donor Direct Action.

The post Gang Rape & Murder of 12 Year Old Somali Girl Sparks Fury appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Illustration: Manan Morshed

By Khushi Kabir
Mar 13 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(The Daily Star) – I do not usually write very easily. As someone working mostly with people with little or no literacy, my forte, as I would like to call it, is the oral tradition. I speak, I talk, I converse. I write today based on my perceptions from my work with rural women with whom I have lived and learnt from over the last four decades.

Women come from different backgrounds, in terms of class, religion, ethnicity, ability and so on. Yet, where land is considered, we tend to see similarities. What is the relationship between women and land? Is she simply a passive and submissive recipient of the benefits she receives as a family member? Is she an unpaid and unrecognised pair of hands needed for fulfilling family chores? Does she feel the same ownership and entitlement over the land of her family, as the men do? Does ownership have the same connotation as entitlement? These are questions that often come to my mind as I work with both men and women, when I try to promote or introduce the idea of what ownership of land means to women.

Let’s be clear on one front: without confronting existing patriarchal structures, any intervention only serves to continue existing imbalances. In the area of resources too, land rights and a pro-women land redistributive policy are considered too radical or not an option, even as we loudly proclaim our commitment to women’s progress. Excuses of cultural practices, traditions and taboos are conveniently brought up when women’s, and particularly excluded and marginalised women’s, access and rights are in question. The only place where women’s access to land is mentioned is in case of inheritance rights, as determined by religious, traditional or social constructs, but not as an entitlement, not as a right as an equal citizen and not as part of a redistributive policy.

Given the changes in the current agriculture production systems, the peasant no longer produces for the family or for the local market; the system is now a market-led production system, in which the women, too, are being employed or engaged simply as labour. Previously, the woman in the peasant family had a crucial role to play post-harvest, in seed preservation, growing of vegetables, and tending of poultry and cattle for her family. Even though her role as the carer and in many cases the provider was never given the value it deserved, at least it allowed her to demarcate a space of her own.

The commercialisation of production processes which were traditionally the domain of women and the intrusion of a market-led economy even at the lowest household level of production have further exacerbated women’s alienation from the means of production. The process of transforming fertile agriculture land into a barren saline desert through the promotion of a deliberately created global market for shrimp aquaculture industry—forcibly grabbing land from local agriculture producers and fishers dependent on the existing natural resources for their livelihoods—is a prime example of the negative consequences of an export-led market economy where women get demoted to lowly paid insecure labour, from being a main actor in agriculture or related processes. Additionally, since this industry enjoys the protection of the powers that be—within the government, political bigwigs, donors and business interest groups—women living in shrimp cultivation areas face the added fear of violence and rape without having access to any kind of recourse.

Another example of a destructive market-led intervention would be the conversion of indigenous lands for tobacco plantations and other forms of cash crops or pulp forests for profit. These types of exploitation of natural resources in the name of development have most severe impacts on indigenous and rural populations. Yes, women do find employment opportunities as a result of these changes, but at what cost? Low paid employment in which they have no agency, as opposed to what they were in control of, even if it did not provide them with cash. We should learn to calculate and put an economic value to what has been lost, and compare it to the meagre amount she is now forced to work for.

The gendered discrimination so firmly entrenched in our personal laws add even more to women’s vulnerabilities. In Muslim family laws, though the woman does inherit in theory—albeit half of what her male counterpart in the family structure does—in reality, whatever little she receives does not go to her. It is controlled and manipulated in the brothers’ name to keep it within the family. She forgoes her inheritance in the misguided belief that when in distress, she will be looked after by her brothers—a phenomena that seldom happens. If she does keep her inherited property, for the sake of maintaining her marriage, she often gives it to her husband. As is well known, in Muslim law, if a man has no sons and only daughters, the daughters will only inherit a part, while the rest will go to male relations as specified. In Hindu law, a widow or unmarried daughter only gets the right of residence but no inheritance rights.

Previously, women in peasant families had a crucial role to play post-harvest. It allowed her to demarcate a place of her own. PHOTO: STAR

The social norms of the Muslim majority of the country are now penetrating the practices of other religions that are more equal in this matter, seeping even into matrilineal societies such as the Khasis and Garos. A case that I am familiar with, which needed my intervention, involved a childless Catholic couple, where the male partner died. After his demise, many of his relatives insisted on following the Muslim practice of transferring the property to the husband’s family rather than to the wife. They even managed to get a priest from a neighbouring area (not of their own), who stated the same. Luckily, the case was resolved with the widow now living in peace in her own marital home. However, the episode does highlight how religious or customary laws are being bent to suit the status quo.

For the landless with whom I work, government rules state that women headed households, who now constitute over 15.5 percent of Bangladesh’s population, will only receive khas land provided she has an able-bodied son. In all other cases, the Khas land is registered in the name of both the husband and wife. However, as is to be expected, the wife has no say, control or possession of the land in her name. In case of a divorce, the man simply states the land was given to his wife, thus the land is not hers. Even when laws have been enacted and attempts made to implement them, not much progress can be noticed when something as crucial, as central, as land is concerned.

Empowerment is a key factor in ensuring women’s right to development. Empowerment is the process of change through which those who have been denied the ability to articulate their needs, exercise their rights and influence the decision-making processes which shape their lives, are enabled to do so. The dimension that needs to be looked at concurrently when understanding the concept of empowerment is that of resources, both tangible as well as intangible—including the question of power and agency, i.e. the ability to define and articulate needs and priorities and to act upon them. The failure of the poor and disenfranchised, more particularly women, to achieve their valued goals, is a reflection of the underlying asymmetries in their basic capabilities. However, it has to be understood that these underlying asymmetries do not exist due to their just being so, but very clearly due to the structures of power that are reinforced continuously, often in the name of culture and development.

Khushi Kabir is a rights activist and the coordinator of Nijera Kori.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post HER LOST LAND appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Women's relationship with land, within family, religion and culture

The post HER LOST LAND appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Women from the Mishing community in Dhemaji district are shocked by the siltation caused by the floods. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS

By Victor Tsang and Shari Nijman
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

When Mandelena became a mother, she was only 16. During the prolonged dry season in Gwor County, South Sudan, her community saw crops failing and cattle dying. Children stopped going to school because of hunger and women and girls had to walk up to five hours every day to collect water.

When resources for families further dwindled as the drought prolonged, young girls were married off for a dowry as soon as they reached puberty. Mandelena’s situation was no different. Indirectly, the course of her life had been forever changed by the environmental crisis that crippled her country.

All hands on deck

While environmental changes affect everyone, due to existing gender inequalities, women often bear the bulk of the burden. In patriarchal societies, cultural, legal and political restrictions often undermine women’s adaptability and resilience to climate change.

When cyclones and floods, droughts and extreme heat rip through the social fabric, communities need all hands on deck to deal with the repercussions. Lack of access to land and financial credit make it especially hard for women to bounce back from the onslaught.

When the effects of climate change don’t present themselves as emergencies that grab our attention on the evening news, but rather as slow-onset changes in landscapes and livelihoods, the most severe social consequences are for women and girls first.

• Being in charge of domestic fuel and water provision, women and girls have to walk farther to find these threatened resources. More and more unpaid hours are spent, which could otherwise have been spent on remunerative tasks or in school.
• Every year, indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people, most of them women and children, because three billion people rely on inefficient cooking technology, such as wood, charcoal or animal waste.

The struggles of women and girls are only part of the picture, as gender equality concerns both men and women. In Mandelena’s community in South Sudan, cattle raiding is common and intimately linked with men’s needs to pay a good dowry for a young bride. This practice is upheld even as resources are becoming scarcer.

The result is a culture of violence, including sexual violence, to the backdrop of climate change and environmental degradation, which intensifies hunger, reduces water availability and kills cattle.

Holistic approach to a sustainable world

More than ever, the world is realizing that the sustainable development goals we set for ourselves aren’t standalone targets but rather a holistic approach to a more inclusive world. We need to recognize the key role women play in taking care of our communities, as they bear the brunt of environmental changes.

When we empower women – by supporting equal access to land, agricultural extension services, financial inclusion and education – we give them the tools to become true custodians of our biodiversity.

Some of the world’s most passionate environmentalists have shown the world that women could be powerful guardians of our planet and agents of change. We can capitalize on their knowledge and experiences.

As we increasingly become aware of the existential climate risks and repercussions of environmental degradation, governments and the private sector are pledging to take action in order to ensure a livable future for all, it is time to consider the role that women are already playing in the sustainable future of our world.

Who will lead our green revolution? Who will take the green jobs? And where will the science and innovations that facilitate our sustainable future come from?

If we want to make a real difference in our future, we have to empower every woman and man to be custodians of our earth. Because the legacy of our environment is the legacy of Mandelena’s daughters as much as her sons.

• The World Food Programme said in a statement after the crash: “We also mourn the loss of our colleagues at other United Nations agencies and all of those who died in the crash. Among them was Victor Tsang, a former employee of WFP who moved to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). We ask that everyone keep those who lost loved ones in their thoughts and prayers.”

Related Articles

• When Environmental Crises Hit Homes, Women Suffer the Most

The post From 2018: When Environmental Crises Hit Homes, Women Suffer the Most appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

IPS is reissuing this piece that appeared in Mar 5, 2018 in memory of one of the authors, Victor Tsang, who tragically passed away on Sunday in the Ethiopian Airlines crash along with 156 others. There were 21 United Nations officials on board the flight. The fatalities included people from 35 countries, including 32 Kenyan citizens, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight from Italy, China and the US, and seven from the UK and France.

 
 
This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8.

 
 
Victor Tsang is UN Environment gender expert and Shari Nijman, UN Environment communication officer

The post From 2018: When Environmental Crises Hit Homes, Women Suffer the Most appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Mar 13 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(Geneva Centre) – Multilateralism must be people-driven. The current rise of populism around the world is inextricably linked to a feeling of being excluded and kept out of decision-making processes broadly shared by ordinary people. These were the main conclusions of a joint event between the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue and the UNOG Library entitled Leadership in Modern Multilateralism. The debate was held on 12 March 2019 at the United Nations Office in Geneva in the Library Events Room at Palais Des Nations.

At a time when the UN and other international organizations in Geneva are actively celebrating “100 years Anniversary of Multilateral Diplomacy in Geneva” to mark the Centenary of the founding of the League of Nations, multilateralism is under important strain. The effectiveness of global institutions and of global policymaking is constantly questioned whilst alliances are fraying. Against this background, the timely debate co-organized by the UNOG Library and the Geneva Centre discussed multilateralism as the most logical approach to the challenges the world is facing in our time of fast-paced globalisation. The panellists explored the principles and ideas underpinning multilateralism against a complex background of climate change, the rise of technology and the future of the global economy.

Often, in times of transition, drawing lessons from the past is a good way to find solutions and inspiration for the way forward. In this vein, the Geneva Centre and UNOG Library proposed an interactive discussion in light of the legacy of two great figures of multilateralism – Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Maurice F. Strong, as depicted in two publications issued by the European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD) in 2018, entitled Remembering Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Remembering Maurice F. Strong respectively. The panel underscored the role of these eminent persons who shaped international affairs and discussed the changes in the nature of leadership in the 21st century, with the rise of modern multilateralism.

A book signing with Mr Roberto Savio, coordinator of the publications, journalist; President Emeritus of Inter Press Service (IPS) and Chairman of IPS Board of Trustees, was arranged after the debate.

Mr. Michael Møller, Director-General of United Nations Geneva, delivered welcoming remarks, in which he highlighted that, despite enduring grave challenges like climate change, pervasive inequality, health issues and ongoing conflict, the world is however in an overall better situation today than at any time in history.

Mr. Møller underscored that multilateralism was at a crossroad today. According to the Director General of UNOG, it was imperative to address the crisis of confidence affecting international institutions, and to better define the roles of International Organizations, of Nation-States, of the private sector and of Civil Society Organizations in the leadership of multilateralism.

Mr. Møller conclude his welcoming remarks by quoting Kofi Annan: “Whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the spread of disease or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong and the engagement of all.”

The discussion benefited from the participation of the following experts:

• Mr. Roberto Savio, Author; Journalist, President Emeritus of Inter Press Service (IPS) and Chairman of IPS Board of Trustees;

• Prof. Thomas Biersteker, Professor of International Security and Director of Policy Research, Graduate Institute;

• H. E. Ms. Hala Hameed, Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the Republic of Maldives to the United Nations Office and other international organisations in Geneva.

Ms. Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the Division of Conference Management at United Nations Office Geneva moderated the debate.

The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre, Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, delivered introductory remarks. Ambassador Jazairy reviewed the evolution of post-WWII multilateralism, taking the UN as an example. Ambassador Jazairy carried out this review through the prism of his own experience as an Algerian diplomat and Head of a UN specialized agency. In this regard he also paid special tribute to former Executive Director of UNICEF, Jim Grant, who designated his Ambassador Audrey Hepburn to read the outcome document of the World Summit on the Economic Advancement of Rural Women, which Ambassador Jazairy organized as President of IFAD in Geneva, in February 1992 in the presence of Boutros-Ghali, with the involvement of 64 First Ladies and 20 Cabinet Ministers. The Summit was chaired by Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

Ambassador Jazairy emphasized that, whilst the multilateral climate in the 1970s was dominated by a cooperative spirit, the climate changed significantly afterwards. The Director of the Geneva Centre further discussed the concept of “Responsibility to protect” or R2P and the misuses that led to this concept being manipulated into a tool for externally imposed regime change. In this regard, he underlined that the “weaponization of humanitarianism was a wanton outgrowth of the responsibility to protect.”

Finally, Ambassador Jazairy insisted on the importance of understanding that multilateralism had to be people-driven. He noted that the current rise of populism around the world was inextricably linked to a feeling of being excluded of decision-making processes shared by ordinary people. As such, the Director of the Geneva Centre emphasized that the solutions for tomorrow’s multilateralism lay in, on the one hand, “breaking the logjam on Security Council reform”, and on the other hand, in empowering citizens worldwide, by involving credible civil society actors headquartered in the South as well as in the North.

Mr. Roberto Savio echoed Ambassador Jazairy in saluting the three heroes of multilateralism, Jim Grant, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Maurice F Strong, that in the 1980s, multilateralism went into crisis. He spoke of the legacy of Jim Grant who had saved millions of children from death and remained, however, largely unknown. Furthermore, according to Mr. Savio, Maurice Strong had been, throughout his career, mixing his abilities of management of private enterprises and his visionary skills as a UN leader. He saluted his pioneering engagement for the environment and the climate, and his crucial role in the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment, which initiated an inclusive process on environment that continued in Kyoto and Paris.

Furthermore, Mr. Savio reiterated that it was imperative that all countries accepted other countries’ right to an equal voice in international fora. In this sense, he remarked that the multilateral climate had suffered a change of direction that exacerbated inequality and opened the way to nationalist, populist and extremist political movements. He noted that “The two engines of history are greed and fear”.

H. E. Ms. Hala Hameed remarked that for a small country like the Republic of Maldives, multilateralism is an essential tool to ensure cooperation, to work jointly on peace, security, economic partnerships, as well as to promote and to protect human rights. According to Ambassador Hameed, small countries could gain a voice in the international arena only through multilateral cooperation.

In this regard, the Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the Republic of Maldives remarked that the Maldives had been very involved in the work of the UN Human Rights Council and particularly in the creation of the mandate of Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment.

Ambassador Hameed remarked that the Maldives, immediately after obtaining independence in 1965, became a member of the UN. She further emphasized the importance of dialogue for leaders in multilateralism, particularly for small countries, who needed to be persistent and to use diplomatic channels, both formal and increasingly, informal ones, in order to bring to the agenda matters that concern them.

Prof. Thomas Biersteker presented multilateralism today as a crisscross of formal intergovernmental organizations, informal intergovernmental organizations and transnational or trans-governmental institutions, the latter having known an exponential rise over the years. Whilst formal governance was driven by member states, based on international treaties, and grounded in domestic law, the world was witnessing, according to Professor Biersteker, the emergence of a “new governance”.

Professor Biersteker concluded that, whilst the first type of formal multilateral structures remained crucial, as it lies at the very foundation of multilateralism, it was important to acknowledge and work with the emerging informal networks and forms of government.

Professor Biersteker remarked that the world today was not necessarily lacking good leaders. He noted that new leaders were emerging among pioneers such as Malala Yousafzai or the Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. Referring to the characteristics that leaders today should have, he highlighted flexibility, including seeing the possibility of all forms of governance and operating simultaneously in formal and informal initiatives; as well as the capacity of listening to others.

During the ensuing Q&A session, a representative of UN Youth underlined the importance of participatory processes in multilateralism and of understanding the value of collective leadership versus traditional leadership, of connected networks instead of hierarchies, and of collaborative processes instead of top down approaches. Another member of the public underlined the importance of inclusive multilateralism and highlighted the need to bring more women leaders to the forefront of multilateral institutions and processes.

The post The Geneva Centre co-organizes a UN Library Event on Leadership in Modern Multilateralism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Herve Verhoosel
GENEVA, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

The bell rings and the halls erupt with the sounds of chatter and excitement as hundreds of children run to the dusty courtyard for recess. I joined them to play football but the game instead turned into a round of questions.

“What is your name? Do you speak Arabic? Where are you from? Do you support Barcelona or Madrid? Or Manchester? Do you play PokemonGo?”

Where am I from? I’m from Belgium. But I know that if I asked this question to some of these children, their response wouldn’t be so simple.

This Friday marks the ninth anniversary of the start of the Syria crisis and, with an average age of around 9, many of the refugee children I spoke to would have a very limited recollection of life in their home country. Some would have no memory at all of their homeland.

Herve Verhoosel

“I have 693 kids in the morning and 836 in the afternoon” said M. Samia, Director of Abra intermediate school in the governorate of Saida, southern Lebanon. Samia and his team explained that, in Lebanon, the schools have a first session in the morning for Lebanese children, and a second session in the afternoon for Syrian refugees.

“We’re very proud to be one of the schools working with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Education for the school snacks programme,” he said.

Each day, the children receive a healthy snack such as nuts or fruit and some milk. Overall, WFP’s school feeding programme reached nearly 1.5 million children across Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt last year.

For most of us, it is difficult to understand what it must feel like to be uprooted by conflict. To flee bullets and bombs and leave behind a life, a house, a job, a family, friends, school….

It is estimated that more than 11 million Syrians have left their homes since the beginning of the conflict. Some of them have fled to Europe but many of them – more than 5.6 million – are registered with the UN in what is called the Syria + 5 region, which includes Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. More than 6 million people remain internally displaced within Syria.

The Syrian conflict continues to drive the largest refugee crisis in the world, and WFP and partners are committed to supporting them in whichever countries they find themselves.

Within Syria, WFP feeds 3.5 million people every month. In the +5 countries, WFP assists 3.3 million Syrian refugees with a combination of food assistance and cash-based transfers.

Most of the refugees in neighbouring countries do not live in formal refugee camps. Instead, they are interspersed throughout towns and cities. Cash-based transfers, which enable them to make choices about what they eat, have injected more than US $2 billion dollars into the local economies of Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Syria since 2012.

In Turkey – which hosts over 3.7 million Syrian refugees – WFP and partners support refugee families living outside camps with a debit card loaded with cash each month. This is known as the Emergency Social Safety Net or ESSN programme.

The ESSN has reduced by half the number of refugee parents withdrawing their children from school – and it has also led to many fewer parents cutting meals so their children can eat.

After nearly eight years, many Syrian refugees wish to return home and end the cycle of navigating unfamiliar lands, languages, and cultures. In these cases, any return or relocation must be voluntary, safe, dignified and well-informed and in line with minimum protection standards.

For those who do want to go home, most have no houses or jobs to return to – nor do most of them have the means to feed or educate their children.

Syrians returning to their country and communities need support – and they need to work. Unemployment is running at 50 percent overall and is as high as 80 percent among young people.

WFP is helping Syrians produce their own food and generate incomes in areas that are secure where markets are functioning. More, however, needs to be done. The economy needs to be rebuilt.

In the meantime, we need to maintain the vital lifeline of food assistance on which millions of vulnerable Syrians depend. For this to happen, WFP needs an additional US$116 million from now until June 2019.

As for my friends at Abra intermediate school, I hope that they can continue their education so that one day they may realize their potential. I hope they can overcome the all the suffering they have experienced.

I hope that someday soon they can get to know their country so in the future, if someone asks where they are from, they can give a ready answer.

*The third Brussels conference is currently underway, through March 14, on ‘Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region’ , and the 9thanniversary of the Syrian conflict falls on Friday, March 15th.

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Excerpt:

Herve Verhoosel is Senior Spokesperson UN World Food Programme*

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Credit: Kobby Blay.

By Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah and Shari Ankomah Graham
ACCRA, Mar 13 2019 (IPS)

On Saturday 9th March, a small group of activists from Ghana, concerned by the continued incarceration of Ugandan feminist activist Dr Stella Nyanzi, rallied by the symbolic national independence Square to raise awareness on the dangers of remaining quiet to injustice.

Despite living in an era of whistleblowers and pushing to hold our leaders accountable, there has been very little continental efforts to defend the freedom and liberty of activists and human rights defenders from other African countries.

Onlookers appeared puzzled by the “Free Stella! Free Uganda” and “People Power! Our Power” chanted throughout the 30-minute walk from the square to Ghana’s National Theater. Ghanaian police officials who processing the police permit allowing us to march asked, “Why Stella Nyanzi? Don’t you have problems here?”

For some of us with Ugandan ancestry, our relatives were not too sure how to process the Stella Nyanzi case. They are numbed and weary from the daily absurdities of living under Museveni’s regime and disregard of human rights,  but still congratulated us for taking a stand, lifting a bit of the cloak of hopelessness around Stella’s release.

 

Credit: Kobby Blay.

 

When Stella Nyanzi first got arrested in April 2017, legions of her fans, supporters and activists swung into action, demanding that the Ugandan government #FreeStellaNyanzi.

She had been arrested and charged with Cyber Harassment and Offensive Communications under sections 24 and 25 of Uganda’s 2011 Computer Misuse Act. These so called offensive communications included describing Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda as a ‘pair of buttocks’.

We recognise and appreciate the activism of Dr Stella Nyanzi. In spite of being personally vilified and professionally sidelined, she does not give up, and stays firm to her values. She has declared that she is continuing her resistance from prison, the least we can do is amplify her struggle from our own locations.

In May 2017, Stella Nyanzi was granted bail. She didn’t remain free for long. In November she was re-arrested under the same charges, appearing before a Magistrate Court on the 9th where she refused to apply for bail, demanding a speedy trial instead. That speedy trial has not happened, and this time round, there doesn’t seem to be a similar groundswell of civil activism demanding she be freed. The reasons for this may be as complex as the case that Stella faces.

Stella Nyanzi is accused of disturbing the peace of President Museveni, and The First Lady of Uganda, Janet Kataaha Museveni, who also serves as the Minister of Education and Sports.

Clearly, offending the most powerful people in the land of Uganda has dire consequences, but should this be the case? We would argue not, but in repressive countries, speaking up and criticising powerful politicians and the elite is dangerous. Repressive governments ensure that their critics disappear.

Just think of Jamal Khassogi and the numerous journalists, activists, and Women Human Rights Defenders around the world who have been murdered, made to disappear or are behind bars for speaking truth to power. For this is what Stella Nyanzi does. She speaks truth to power. She deliberately invokes rudeness, sarcasm and artistic creativity to point out the failures of the Museveni government. She is perceived as a threat by the regime because we recognise the truth in her words. We won’t dare say what she says – we are too scared of the consequences – but she is fearless, and will not allow herself to be muzzled.

We too should not allow ourselves to be muzzled, and that is why in Ghana we marched demanding that all charges under Stella Nyanzi be dropped, and that she be freed. People should be able to criticize their governments. Governments should be able to listen to what their people say – whether that feedback be cloaked in insults or dressed up in pretty clothing. If we allow Stella Nyanzi to perish because of her cyber activism, we too could be next.

We have seen first hand how solidarity beyond borders can boost and nurture a culture of advocacy and global accountability of African leaders. Only a handful of us had marched in Accra to #FreeBobiWine, Ugandan musician and member of Parliament arrested, tortured and unjustly detained in August 2018 and eventually released on bail a month later – this came by after our first march inspired other global marches and outcry in bigger cities. We know that an African leader’s greatest fears are when his people decide to regain their power by any means necessary and when foreign donors threaten to starve national coffers.

We recognise and appreciate the activism of Dr Stella Nyanzi. In spite of being personally vilified and professionally sidelined, she does not give up, and stays firm to her values. She has declared that she is continuing her resistance from prison, the least we can do is amplify her struggle from our own locations. We urge African activists across the continent and Diaspora to also demand with us, #FreeStellaNyanzi.

 

Nana  Darkoa Sekyiamah is Director of Information, Communications and Media,  Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

Shari Ankomah Graham is an international development consultant currently coordinating the SheTrades in the Commonwealth Program in Ghana.

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Executive Director of the Geneva Centre, Ambassador Idriss Jazairy (left), and IPS Inter Press Service founder Roberto Savio

By Ambassador Idriss Jazairy and Roberto Savio
GENEVA and ROME, Mar 12 2019 (IPS)

For over 70 years, the UN system has been perceived as the guardian of peace and development in the world. However, multilateralism today is undeniably under strain. The effectiveness of global institutions and of global policymaking is questioned, and alliances are fraying.

Often, in times of transition, drawing lessons from the past is a good way to find solutions and inspiration for the way forward. In this regard, it is important to remember the inspired leaders of the UN system who have propelled forward the concept of multilateralism over the years. It is therefore important to evoke the legacy of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Maurice Strong, but also of UNICEF’s Jim Grant, as they all represent visionary UN figures who contributed greatly to the evolution of multilateralism.

The UN started as an alliance of the victors of WWII. Alliances shift. This is a reminder that when war-like situations occur in the real world, power politics of those victors may take over. They may either draw multilateralism to their side as in the Korean War, or go to war without multilateral approval, as in the case of the invasion of Iraq.

In the 1960s, while keeping the structure of a victors’ club, the UN became, for 2 decades, a universal organization defending the goal of self-determination and of the removal of obstacles to development. A significant moment in this regard was the signing of the Principles governing international trade relations and trades policies, which ultimately led to the Final Act of UNCTAD I in 1964. There was a general feeling of « reshaping the international order » and writing history. Indeed Juan Somavia, later Director General of the International labour Organization participated, with one of the co-signatories of this editorial, under the editorship of Nobel Prize winner Jan Tinbergen, in writing an eponymous book for The Club of Rome.

In December 1977, the General Assembly decided to create a Committee of the Whole (COW), to bring back to the fold of the UN the North-South dialogue which had been uneventfully shunted to the CIEC in Paris. Ambassador Idriss Jazairy led the work of the COW as its first chairman COW throughout 1978, with the goal of negotiating on substantial issues and producing action-oriented conclusions on North-South relations. Thorvald Stoltenberg, the Norwegian Minister who passed away recently, succeeded him in this position, and, with his generosity and open-mindedness, successfully pursued the endeavours of the COW towards increased North-South dialogue.

Thus the multilateral climate in the ‘70ies was cooperative. Negotiations were about adjustments to external and international policies. But the situation changed thereafter. Even our solace of a peace dividend after the end of the Cold War as confirmed by the General Assembly Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986, became a chimera.

The UN focus changed later on to respond to the strategic priority of the WWII victors by proclaiming in 1995 an indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), without any counterpart from the nuclear States. The 2005 UN Summit also endorsed the « responsibility to protect » (R2P) leading inter alia to the Security Council Resolution 1973 imposing a no-fly zone on Libya in 2011. States volunteering to implement this resolution exceeded their mandate however, and brought about regime change. Resort to force under Chapter VII, requires henceforth smarter mandates and greater accountability for implementation. Likewise R2P should not be abused, as in Libya, or ignored as in Gaza. Weaponisation of humanitarianism is another wanton outgrowth of R2P.

Both the Millennium and the 2005 Summits concentrated efforts thereafter on domestic reforms of governance including in the field of human rights. Created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006 by resolution 60/251, the UN Human Rights Council intended to be a more cooperative body than its predecessor, the « naming and shaming »-oriented United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Giving the UN a handle on domestic policies is however a fraught issue. The implementation of reforms domestically, in order to be legitimate, must be a people-driven process. As multilateralism includes domestic policy evaluation in its purview, it must also become increasingly people-driven. In fact, the current outburst of populism springs from the feeling that ordinary people are kept out of the search for solutions that concern them to problems « without passports » as Kofi Annan used to call pandemics, environmental degradation, non-proliferation, immigration etc.

So whither the democratisation of multilateralism? Firstly, through breaking the logjam on Security Council reform. Secondly, through the empowerment of citizens worldwide, in compliance with « We, the people… » of the UN Charter. This peoples’ representation will continue to suffer from legitimacy impairment so long as their entities remain predominantly headquartered in advanced countries. Democracy requires the involvement of a much larger number of credible international NGOs actors headquartered in the South as well.

Multilateralism is, in fact, a vision of international relations, based not of force, but on international law; not on short-sighted economic interests, but on a long-term strategy of international cooperation. It is the quite obvious policy: if we reduce conflict and competition, we reduce tensions, and we push for a civilized world. Competition and force have been the fuel for the last two world conflicts. But as the famous etiologist Konrad Lorenz has observed, man is the only element of the Kingdom of animals who never learns from his mistakes. Nowadays, we do not only have the multilateral system in disarray. We do not have an international system, but we have countries that do not recognize their allies, and are ignoring existential threats, like climate change (“a Chinese hoax”), or nuclear resurgence.

But new waves are appearing, and they are not a repetition of the past. Never had we such formidable women mobilization before. Students are following the example of a young Swedish girl who is scolding the elites in Davos and the chairmanship of the European Union, with regard to climate change, to remind them that they are mortgaging her future. All these new actors in international relations, believe deeply in Peace and Cooperation. A new multilateralism is coming, made by citizens and not by governments. In history, humankind has always been looking for a better world. Maybe we headed towards a new salutary turn, which will save us from tensions and wars.

In short, to paraphrase Churchill on democracy, multilateralism may be the worst form of interaction between nations, except for all the others. The UN has got the principles right as now with the 2030 Agenda. But leadership is crucial to achieve success. Those we commemorate today as great leaders, such as Dag Hammarskjold, stood on the outside frontiers of universalism, erring more, as it were, on the side of General than on that of Secretary, in marshalling innovation towards more human justice and wellbeing. One lost his life for it, another, his second term. They were true leaders.

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After discrediting state-owned enterprises, privatization advocates successfully pushed a broad reform agenda under the rubric of privatization from the 1980s, with the support of the Washington-based international financial institutions.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 12 2019 (IPS)

Privatization has been central to the ‘neo-liberal’ counter-revolution from the 1970s against government economic interventions associated with Roosevelt and Keynes as well as post-colonial state-led economic development.

Many developing countries were forced to accept privatization policies as a condition for credit or loan support from the World Bank and other international financial institutions, especially after the fiscal and debt crises of the early 1980s. Other countries voluntarily embraced privatization, often on the pretext of fiscal and debt constraints, in their efforts to mimic new Anglo-American criteria of economic progress.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Demonizing SOEs
Globally, inflation was attributed to excessive government intervention, public sector expansion and state-owned enterprise (SOE) inefficiency. It was claimed, with uneven and dubious evidence, that SOEs were inherently likely to be inefficient, corrupt, subject to abuse, and so on.

In the 1970s, the motives of many involved in the preceding public sector expansion – enabled by high commodity prices and earnings as well as low real interest rates due to easy credit, with the need to ‘recycle petro-dollars’ (invest revenues from petroleum exports) – were developmental and noble.

Regardless of their original rationale or intent, many SOEs become problematic and often inefficient. Yet, privatization is not, and has never been a universal panacea for the myriad problems faced by SOEs.

Only more pragmatic and appropriate approaches — recognizing their origins, roles, functioning, impacts and problems — can realistically expect to address and overcome the burdens they have come to impose on many developing economies.

Various meanings
Privatization usually refers to a change of ownership from public to private hands. Over recent decades, the term has been used more loosely. For example, it may only involve minority private ownership after the corporatization of an SOE, and the sale of a minority share of its stock, or even a majority share with control remaining in state hands by various means such as the use of a ‘golden share’.

It sometimes also refers to contracting out services previously undertaken solely by the government. The definition may include cases where private enterprises are awarded licenses to participate in activities previously reserved for the public sector.

Strictly speaking, however, privatization involves the transfer of at least a majority share of and a controlling interest in a public enterprise or SOE and its assets, or an entity (such as a government department, a statutory body or a government company) previously controlled and typically at least majority-owned by the government, either directly or indirectly.

Mainstreaming privatization
Following the oil price shocks of the mid- and late 1970s, inflation spread through much of the world. US President Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volcker as Chairman of the US Federal Reserve in 1980. The US Fed sharply raised interest rates to stem inflation, which precipitated the fiscal and debt crises of the early 1980s in many parts of the world, especially in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

The unexpected sovereign debt crises forced many countries to seek emergency financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), both headquartered in Washington, DC. The IMF provided emergency credit facilities requiring (price) stabilization programmes to bring down inflation, typically blamed on ‘deficit financing’ due to ‘macroeconomic populism’.

Generally, the WB worked closely to provide medium- and long-term credit to these governments on condition that they adopted structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). The SAPs generally prescribed economic globalization (especially of international trade and finance), national (or domestic) deregulation and privatization.

Since then, these international financial institutions have been more powerful in relation to developing countries than ever before. Soon, privatization became a standard requirement of SAPs. Thus, many governments of developing countries were forced to privatize by the SAPs’ loan conditions.

Many other governments voluntarily adopted such policies which became standard pillars of the emerging ‘Washington Consensus’ associated with the WB, the IMF and the US policy consensus of the 1980s. Privatization in developing countries was preceded by the political ‘counter-revolution’ associated with the rise and election of Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan as the President of the United States of America.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a former economics professor, was United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development, and received the Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

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Excerpt:

After discrediting state-owned enterprises, privatization advocates successfully pushed a broad reform agenda under the rubric of privatization from the 1980s, with the support of the Washington-based international financial institutions.

The post Promoting Privatization appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The Ethiopian Airlines plane was carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members, from 35 countries, when it took a nose dive six minutes after leaving the airport in Addis Ababa. Credit: Alec Wilson/CC by 2.0

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2019 (IPS)

The United Nations headquarters is in mourning – and the UN flag is at half mast.

The deaths of 21 UN staffers March 10, on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight in Addis Ababa, is one of the biggest tragedies in the extended UN family—with a flashback to the deaths of 22 people, mostly UN staffers, who lost their lives in the Canal Hotel bombing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in August 2003.

The tragedy on Sunday had a wider impact because the UN staffers—enroute from Addis Ababa to Nairobi for the Fourth UN Environment Assembly March 11-15—were from 12 UN agencies and peacekeeping missions, plus representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs).

In the annals of UN tragedies, Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-1961), paid the ultimate price for peace when he died in a mysterious plane crash back in September 1961, which still remains unresolved after 58 long years.

Addressing delegates, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said; “A global tragedy has hit close to home—and the United Nations is united in grief.”

Extending his deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims, to the government and people of Ethiopia, and all those affected by the disaster, he said: “Our colleagues were women and men—junior professionals and seasoned officials—hailing from all corners of the globe and with a wide array of expertise.”

They all had one thing in common, he said, “a spirit to serve the people of the world and to make it a better place for us all”.

A breakdown of the number of staffers from each of the agencies and peacekeeping missions, includes the Food and Agriculture Organization(1), the International Telecommunications Union (2), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (3), the World Food Programme (7), UN Assistance Mission in Somalia  (1), the UN Development Programme (1),  the International Organization of Migration (1), the International Labour Organization (1), UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (1), the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (1), UN Support Office for the African Union Mission in Somalia  (1) and the World Meteorological Organization (1).

In a statement released Monday, the World Food Programme, which accounted for the largest number of deaths, said it is in mourning for seven WFP staff members who lost their lives.

“ As we confront this terrible loss, we reflect that all these WFP colleagues were willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place to live in. That was their calling, as it is for the rest of the WFP family.”

• Ekta Adhikari (28) from Nepal, whose duty station was Addis Ababa
• Maria Pilar Buzzetti (30) from Italy, duty station Rome
• Virginia Chimenti (26) from Italy, duty station Rome
• Harina Hafitz (59) from Indonesia, duty station Rome
• Zhen-Zhen Huang (46) from China, duty station Rome
• Michael Ryan (39) from Ireland, duty station Rome
• Djordje Vdovic (53) from Serbia, duty station Bangkok, on assignment to Rome

The WFP said: “We also mourn the loss of our colleagues at other United Nations agencies and all of those who died in the crash. Among them was Victor Tsang, a former employee of WFP who moved to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). We ask that everyone keep those who lost loved ones in their thoughts and prayers.”

FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva said: “My heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families of the #Ethiopian Airlines #ET302 plane crash”

Among the victims, he said, were UN staff members including one from FAO. “We are working to get in touch with family members and assist them in this time of tremendous pain”

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plane was carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members, from 35 countries, when it took a nose dive six minutes after leaving the airport in Addis Ababa.

At last count, the passengers, included 32 Kenyan citizens, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight from Italy, China and the US, and seven from the UK and France.

Ian Richards, President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS: “Our colleagues are devastated by the loss of life in yesterday’s plane crash.”

He said many knew the victims or were familiar with their work.

“With every hour that passes we are learning more about the amazing things they were doing to make this world a better place, whether working on the environment, migration, humanitarian or other areas, and we won’t forget this.”

“Naturally our thoughts are with their families at this time and we will work with administration to make sure they get all the assistance they need,” Richards added.

At the opening of the UN assembly in Nairobi, delegates paid their respects with a moment of silence, according to press reports from the Kenyan capital.

Siim Kiisler, the Estonian environment minister, said: “We have lost fellow delegates, interpreters and UN staff.” “I express my condolences to those who lost loved ones in the crash.”

Inger Andersen, the incoming UN environment chief, said the organisation was “devastated”.

Among those who died were delegates from the African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe, the US-based Save the Children and the Norway-based Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators.

Karanja Quindos, a retired teacher from Bahati, in Kenya’s Nakuru County, lost his wife Anne Wangui, his daughter Caroline Nduta, and his three grandchildren; Ryan Njoroge, 7, Kellie Paul, 4, and nine-month-old Ruby Paul.

Also on the flight was Isabella Beryl Achie, from Homabay county about 300 kilometres west of Nairobi. She had been travelling home from Egypt where had recently facilitated a seminar. 

Meanwhile, the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments are planning to fly family members of the victims to Addis Ababa as plans to identify their remains get underway. In a joint press statement, Kenya’s Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and Ethiopian Airlines’ Kenya country manager Yilma Goshu said that the government has reached out to the families of 25 of the 32 Kenyans who perished in the Sunday morning crash.

Ethiopian Airlines also announced on Monday that the black box of the ill-fated flight had been recovered as efforts to piece together clues as to what may have happened to the plane begin.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

• Additional reporting by Benson Rioba in Nairobi

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Alfred de Zayas at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

By Alfred de Zayas
GENEVA, Mar 12 2019 (IPS)

My mission to Venezuela in November/December 2017 was the first by a UN rapporteur in 21 years. It was intended to open the door to the visit of other rapporteurs and to explore ways how to help the Venezuelan people overcome the protracted economic and institutional crisis.

In preparation of the mission I studied all pertinent reports by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, UN High Commissioner, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Provea, Fundalatin, Grupo Sures, Red Nacional de Derechos Humanos, etc.

During the mission, thanks to the professionalism of UNDP, I was able to meet with members of the opposition, National Assembly, chamber of commerce, churches, professors, students, representatives of OAS, Carter Center, victims of violence, and civil society. Since my mother tongue is Spanish, it was easy to inter-relate with Venezuelans, walk the streets, visit the supermarkets.

I learned about the scarcity of foods and medicines, black markets, smuggling of subsidized petrol, foods and medicines into neighbouring countries. The situation did not reach and still does not reach the threshold of a “humanitarian crisis” as we know from Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Haiti, etc.

A major obstacle to solving the problems was the polarization of the population and the dearth of confidence-building measures. I recognized that the government needed advisory services and technical assistance from UN agencies in order to carry out needed economic and institutional reforms.

I convened a meeting with UN agencies in order to explore concrete strategies. In a 6-page confidential memorandum to the government and in my report to the UN Human Rights Council I formulated constructive recommendations, some of which were quickly put into effect. I had requested the release of 23 detainees, 80 were released on 23 December 2017, more in the course of 2018. UN agencies noticeably intensified their assistance, in particular FAO and UNIDO, especially to manage the impacts of the sanctions.

 

Alfred de Zayas with his team at the seat of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

 

Following my visit I continued to follow developments and study documentation, statistics and arguments from all sides. My diagnosis: The crisis is not caused by the ideological “failure of socialism as an economic model” (socialism has not failed in Norway, Sweden, China), but by concrete and palpable causes, the dramatic fall in the price of crude oil, the over-dependence on exports, the failure to diversify the economy, an excess of ideologues and relative scarcity of technocrats in government.

Most importantly, the crisis is the result of the cumulative impacts of 20 years of internal and external economic war, financial blockade, and sanctions. The mainstream narrative attributes the crisis to incompetence and corruption, but these also plague most Latin American countries. Besides, the level of corruption in Venezuela in the 1980’s and 1990’s was higher and Chavez won the 1998 elections on a wave of disgust at the corruption of the neo-liberal governments. I spent two hours with the current Attorney General in Caracas, from whom I received ample documentation on the government’s vigorous anti-corruption campaign, investigations and on-going prosecutions.

US efforts to topple Chavez started early, and the CIA cooperated with the Venezuelan oligarchy in the failed coup against Chavez on 11/12 April 2002. The 48-hour President Pedro Carmona had promptly issued a decree doing away with 49 pieces of social legislation, suspending the Supreme Court, the Chavez National Assembly, dismissing governors, etc. Although there is nothing more undemocratic than a coup – Carmona and the US media spoke of “restoring democracy” in Venezuela.

Back in 1970, when Allende was democratically elected President of Chile, Nixon called in Kissinger and told him that the US would not tolerate an alternative socio-economic system in Latin America and that the US would make the Chilean economy “scream”. When in spite of sanctions the Allende government proved resilient, it was necessary to use more muscle and General Pinochet carried out the coup that ushered 17 years of “democracy” – and torture – in Chile. As we know from the studies of Stephen Kinzer and William Blum, US Military and CIA interventions in Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Paraguay etc. have cost tens of thousands of lives and brought untold misery to millions of Latin Americans.

“Human Rights” has nothing to do with the US Venezuela policy. As it was in Iraq 2003 and Libya 2011, it is OIL. The US covets the largest oil reserves in the world, as well as the third largest reserves in gold and coltan. If Maduro is toppled, it will be a bonanza for US investors and transnational corporations.

What is sad is that some countries ostensibly committed to democracy, the rule of law and human rights, are supporting the sanctions and the Guaidó coup. We observe a Machiavellian, cynical instrumentalization of human rights and humanitarian aid for purely geopolitical reasons.

A solution of the crisis depends on direct dialogue between the opposition and the government. Such dialogue already took place in 2016-2018. Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hosted these talks and arrived at a reasonable accord. On the day of signature, 6 February 2018, Julio Borges, the leader of the opposition refused to sign. This augurs badly for any kind of international mediation by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet or by Mexico and Uruguay in the context of the Montevideo mechanism.

History shows us that sanctions kill, and when the level of killing reaches a certain threshold, sanctions become a crime against humanity. This is a worthy challenge for the International Criminal Court. What Venezuela needs is an end to sanctions and interference in is internal affairs, an end to the violations of Articles 1-2 of the UN Charter and of articles 3, 19 and 20 of the OAS Charter by the US and its “coalition”. Venezuela needs international solidarity and respect of its sovereignty.

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (USA, Switzerland), Professor of Law, Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Dr. phil. Göttingen) . Former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, former Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee, former Chief of the Petitions Department at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Author of 9 books and numerous scholarly articles.

 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of IPS.

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By Leyla Acaroglu
MELBOURNE, Mar 11 2019 (IPS)

Not too long ago, the term “zero waste” was just one of those boring policy directives or catchphrases thrown around by governments.

But in the last few years, ‘going zero waste’ has taken on a new direction as a lifestyle trend of the insta-famous, who are helping to make zero waste a movement that anyone can get involved in.

A “zero-waste lifestyler” is someone who actively reduces their waste consumption, designing their life to avoid acquiring things that will end up as trash – especially disposable and non-recyclable products and packaging.

They usually plan meals in advance to avoid convenience packaging and ensure they always have a reusable water bottle, coffee cup, straw, and carry bags on hand to actively refuse disposable items.

Actually, a life without waste is nothing new: pre-planning meals and taking your own containers, composting organic waste, proactively purchasing reusable products, and even making essentials like soap and toothpaste at home were a normal part of life before the onset of hyper-convenience encouraged the kind of runaway disposability we have now.

Many of the heroes of the zero waste lifestyle movement have incredible stories to tell of only producing one small jar of actual ‘trash’ a year, all through active lifestyle design and adopting everyday lifestyle changes.

In addition to individuals who take measures at home against waste, larger organizations are getting on board with the lifestyle: dedicated zero waste stores and even entire shopping centers have sprung up in major cities around the globe to accommodate the growing trend of plastic-free, package-free, and zero waste consumption.

Major multinational companies have started to embrace the global trend towards sustainability as well. We are seeing leaders in circular economy emerge in some sectors, such as apparel, consumer goods and furniture.

Loop; a circular delivery service, which is set to launch this year with major brand partners, caters to the growing demand for products and services with a zero-waste philosophy.

Ikea recently announced that they would be 100% circular by 2030, and Lego is working on a plastic-free brick.

But walk down the aisles in any supermarket around the world, and it’s obvious that the vast majority of product providers have yet to catch on to this massive cultural shift.

The last eighteen months have proven particularly important for awareness and action: China stopped taking the world’s plastic trash, which sent ripple effects around the world and effectively broke the recycling industry.

Along with the waves of plastic trash washing up on tourist beaches around the world, China’s bold move has helped bring the destructive nature of hyper-consumption to the forefront of people’s minds, and shown that we can’t recycle our way out of our global trash problems.

One of the big issues that the zero waste movement highlights is that recycling is a flawed solution, one which only works effectively when the flow of used materials is captured and reused in similar or higher value products.

This is often not the case, though, and despite two solid decades of zero waste policies, we are still seeing a global increase in trash generation. The World Bank estimates that at the current rate of increase, we will see 70% increase in waste generation by 2050. This is all by design. Waste, whether it be in trash or recycling, is a design flaw.

At the Fourth UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya March 11-15, the world will gather to discuss the future of global consumption. From government leaders to industry leaders and from activists to innovators – all will be discussing the next phase of sustainable consumption and production.

At the same time, UN Environment is urging people to take a closer look at their own consumption patterns and “think beyond, live within”, through their #solvedifferent campaign. It is a testimony to the momentum of the zero-waste movement and the positive change on the horizon.

In an initiative together with UN Environment, I have been working to develop an “Anatomy of Actions”, showcasing the lifestyle swaps that anyone, anywhere can take to support a more sustainable life.

From the food we eat to what we spend our money on, and from the way we move around to the dreams and aspirations we all have for a better future – there is a suite of actions you can take to support the cultural shifts needed to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Change takes time and is often hard to see whilst we are in the middle of it. But after years of people pushing in all sorts of directions, we are seeing a global tidal wave of action emerge.

The momentum is contagious, and it’s never too late to join the movement. In fact there are five simple actions you can start with today: Swap out meat for plant-based proteins; Ditch everyday disposables such as cups, plates, bags, and take-out containers; Invest in repairable and long-lasting stuff (and make sure to repair it when it needs to be fixed!); Opt for low-carbon mobility options like biking, mass transit, or ridesharing; and move money from high-impact industries to renewables through swapping energy providers, banks, and investment portfolios.

There are many challenges ahead of us when it comes to sustainability, and major corporations are still far behind in the trend of adopting the changes needed to adapt to a circular economy.

But the progress is real, underway and transformative. The question is not if, but when we will see the tipping point where we, as a collective species, start to design goods and services to be a positive influence on the planet.

The post The Rising Trend of Zero Waste Lifestyles appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Leyla Acaroglu is an Australian designer, sustainability innovator, and educator. She is the founder of two design agencies, Disrupt Design and Eco Innovators.

The post The Rising Trend of Zero Waste Lifestyles appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Julio Esquivel and two children in the La Casita de La Virgen soup kitchen in Villa La Cava stand next to the filter that removes 99.9 percent of bacteria, viruses and parasites, with a capacity of up to 12 liters per hour. The purifier became the starting point for raising awareness in this shantytown on the outskirts of the Argentine capital about access to water as a human right. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

By Daniel Gutman
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 11 2019 (IPS)

“Look at this water. Would you drink it?” asks José Pablo Zubieta, as he shows a glass he has just filled from a faucet, where yellow and brown sediment float, in his home in Villa La Cava, a shantytown on the outskirts of Argentina’s capital.

In La Cava, as in all of Argentina’s slums and shantytowns – known here as “villas” – the connections to the water grid are illegal or informal, and it is very common for homes to be left without service. And when the water does flow, it is generally contaminated.

“If we have money, we buy 20-litre jerry cans for drinking and cooking. If we don’t have enough money, we drink the water we have, although there are entire weeks in which it comes out yellow. I’ve already been intoxicated several times,” Zubieta’s wife, Marcela Mansilla, told IPS, with the resignation of someone who has lived with the same situation for as long as she can remember."The water here comes out with sand and dirt, and it stinks. It's been like this for years and that's why it's common to see kids with pimples, gastroenteritis, diarrhea or worse. In recent years we have had more than 10 cases of tuberculosis and outbreaks of hepatitis." -- Julio Esquivel

At the door of the bare brick house where the couple and their four children live there are some old rusty artifacts, which they picked up in their work as “cartoneros”.

This is the term used in Argentina, for garbage pickers – people excluded from the labour market who every night drag their carts through the streets of the cities and scavenge in search of recyclable materials or other objects that may have some commercial value.

A few meters from where the Zubieta family lives, a community soup kitchen has been operating for 25 years in a single-storey building painted white, where 120 children from La Cava are fed every day and which also functions as a recreational center, with activities aimed at keeping them off the streets.

It is called La Casita de la Virgen and in November 2016, a large blue and red plastic device was installed there, which quickly became very important in the lives of the local residents.

It is a microbiological water purifier designed by a Swiss company that can filter up to 12 litres per hour of contaminated water, eliminating 99.9 percent of bacteria, viruses and parasites.

The equipment, which does not use electricity or batteries and has been distributed in humanitarian crises in different parts of the world, was installed by the Safe Water Project, a social enterprise founded in Buenos Aires in 2015, which promotes immediate and replicable solutions to the problem of access to water.

The residents of La Cava also participate in activities promoted by the company, in which they talk about and discuss their experiences and needs in terms of water, learn about its cycles, and acquire healthy habits to prevent illnesses due to misuse, all of which strengthens their access to water as a human right.

José Pablo Zubieta shows one of the hoses with which the different houses of Villa La Cava make their informal connections to the grid to get water. The service is available a few hours a day but provides contaminated water to this shantytown of 10,000 people north of the Argentine capital. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

The purifier helps ensure clean water to the children who eat in the soup kitchen, who often bring empty bottles or jugs, so they can take home clean water.

The Safe Water Project, which is financed with contributions from companies, state agencies and civil society organisations, is actives in 21 of the country’s 23 provinces and in Uruguay.

Through this collaborative formula, 2,000 families and more than 800 schools and community centres now have access to safe drinking water, reaching around 100,000 people.

“The water here comes out with sand and dirt, and it stinks,” Julio Esquivel, founder and head of the Casita de la Virgen, told IPS. “It’s been like this for years and that’s why it’s common to see kids with pimples, gastroenteritis, diarrhea or worse. In recent years we have had more than 10 cases of tuberculosis and outbreaks of hepatitis.”

“Contaminated water influences health. I’m not a doctor, but it’s easy to see,” adds Esquivel. He is wearing a T-shirt with the image of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in whose projects to assist the needy he has worked in different cities around the world.

A boy looks at a makeshift drainage channel that runs through Villa La Cava, a slum located in the north of Greater Buenos Aires, in San Isidro, a municipality that blends extreme poverty with luxurious mansions home to some of Argentina’s wealthiest families. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

Esquivel is what is known in Catholicism as a consecrated layman: he took a vow of poverty and solidarity with the poor and today lives in a small house in La Cava, the same place where he was born 53 years ago.

“Before they brought us the filter, I tried to boil the water, despite the high cost of the cooking gas, or to add a few drops of bleach to purify it. The filter was a big change for us,” he said.

La Cava is located in San Isidro, one of the 24 municipalities making up Greater Buenos Aires, which has a population of around 14 million people, over one-third of the country’s population.

In the poor suburbs surrounding Buenos Aires, Argentina’s most complex and unequal area, there are 419,401 families living in 1,134 slums, according to official data from 2016. This number marks a phenomenal growth in 15 years: there were 385 villas in 2001, the year of an economic collapse that left hundreds of thousands of people out of work.

A visitor to La Cava, home to more than 10,000 people on some 18 hectares, gets a quick x-ray of Argentina’s social reality: to get to the villa you must first cross tree-lined avenues flanked by walls that protect large mansions, where some of the richest families in Argentina live.

They of course have access to clean piped water, just like in the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires proper.

In La Cava, however, local resident Ramona Navarro told IPS that “people got used to washing clothes and dishes at night, because during the day the water almost never runs.”

Outside a house are seen a cart and some of the odd objects found by garbage pickers, the informal work on which many of the people of La Cava, a shantytown on the north side of Buenos Aires, depend. Credit: Daniel Gutman/IPS

She and her neighbour María Elena Arispe said that on the hottest days of this southern hemisphere summer, in response to people’s protests, the government of the Municipality of San Isidro sent several trucks one afternoon, which distributed two jerry cans of water to each house – barely a bandaid solution for a situation that is as serious as it is chronic.

The trucks can only drive down the main streets of La Cava, which is full of narrow passageways where children and skinny dogs play in the mud that is formed by the un-channeled drains from the houses.

The lack of clean water and sanitation is a reality that plagues every villa in the country.

In fact, in January, after residents of Villa 21 in Buenos Aires complained about the stench, professionals from the faculty of Community Engineering at the University of Buenos Aires found bacteriological contamination in the water and warned about serious health risks.

That is what motivated Nicolás Wertheimer, a young doctor, to create the Safe Water Project.

“I started working at a hospital in Greater Buenos Aires and when I saw that diarrhea caused by contaminated water was one of the main causes of death among children under five, I wanted to do something,” Wertheimer told IPS.

According to official data, 84 percent of the population of Argentina has access to piped water, but that is no guarantee that the resource is reliable.

“The homes in the shantytowns have the service thanks to informal connections, which generate interruptions in the flow of the network and then often contaminate it,” Wertheimer said.

“In the city of Buenos Aires, the majority of society does not recognise the lack of access to drinking water as a problem. But anyone who has worked in the area of health knows that it is a very serious problem,” said the doctor.

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