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Change Financing Priorities to Address COVID-19, Conference Hears

Thu, 01/21/2021 - 09:58

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan 21 2021 (IPS)

Innovative financing to resolve COVID-19 crisis was needed, a joint African and Asian parliamentarians’ webinar heard this week.

The webinar, facilitated by Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), was aimed at enhancing support for the implementation of International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)commitments in the face of the pandemic.

Most of the delegates from Africa and Asia agreed that implementing the programme of action to provide universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) by 2030, had suffered severe setbacks.

Vulnerable and developing nations could be left behind in the programmes to implement COVID-19 prevention, containment, and treatment solutions including vaccines, should funding shortfalls continue, the conference heard.

Masaki Inaba, program director for Global Health, Africa Japan Forum, told the webinar that the coronavirus pandemic was an unprecedented event and needed innovative funding solutions.

Masaki Inaba, program director for Global Health, Africa Japan Forum

Japan had been a leading nation in the two major international initiatives – it had co-established ACT-Accelerator (ACT-A). It was once the 2nd largest donor for the partnership to support developing tools to fight the disease.

It also funded the COVAX-facility to ensure COVID-19 vaccines reach those in greatest need, whoever they are and wherever they live.

The funding for the COVID-19 health crisis had reached USD 23.7 billion, Inaba said.

“This is huge in the context of health, but not when compared to the annual USD 2 trillion spent on military across the world,” he said.

Inaba said there was a need for the full funding of ACT-A and COVAX, and he called for innovative financing ideas including “international solidarity taxes (currency/financial transaction taxes) or re-allocation of military expenses for health.”

Recent reports have noted that developing countries were competing with high- and middle-income countries for vaccine supplies. This could result in a shortage of vaccines for the COVAX project, aiming to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of the year. Earlier this month director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern that people in the lowest-income countries might need to wait until 2022 to get their vaccines.

Inaba said there was growing support in Africa for South Africa and India’s submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a waiver for intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 prevention, containment, and treatment. The waiver will come up for discussion in February.

Justine Coulson, deputy regional director, UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office said it was likely that the widespread disruption of programmes would continue in 2021. The programmes include improving sexual and reproductive health rights, HIV, gender-based violence (GBV), preventing child marriages, and ending the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Coulson said parliamentarians acted as a critical bridge between people and their governments and were instrumental in advocating for rights. She encouraged them to continue to play their crucial role in supporting policies, legislative and accountability frameworks of governments, to advocate and mobilise around the ICPD agenda on sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality.

Dr Ademola Olajide, country representative, UNFPA Kenya Office, gave first-hand evidence of the disruption in services and the growth of GBV during lockdowns in Kenya.

“The onset of COVID-19 pandemic affected the implementation of the ICPD 25 programme of action on several fronts. First, there was a significant diversion and stretching of limited human, material, and financial resources to respond to the pandemic,” he said.

Simultaneously, ‘mixed messaging’ resulted in communities not fully understanding the pandemic, and as a result, many avoided utilising facilities.

Curfews and lockdowns significantly impacted essential maternal and child health services, family planning, HIV and GBV wellness services. There were also livelihood challenges with people losing their jobs and income. Adequate protection measures within school systems to monitor teenage pregnancies, FGM, GBV was significantly disrupted.

Vulnerable populations began to be pushed further to the back in terms of development, he said.

Olajide shared two graphs from Kenya, indicating the pandemic’s impact on antenatal services and skilled attendants at birth. It also showed that GBV became a significant challenge because incidences spiked considerably. A helpline, which in February took about 86 calls, by June received over 700 calls, given the fact that people were now locked into circumstances where they could not escape their abusers.

Older people were disproportionately affected with regards to the pandemic. They were more vulnerable to morbidity and mortality. They also became more vulnerable in some of the African states which had locked down communities. Some of them dependent on their relatives for income, some lost their jobs, Olajide said.

Olajide added that the pandemic motivated new thinking and innovative solutions that were efficient and effective in transport, data, telemedicine, and movement of commodities security and safety.

It was time rethink national planning processes, including preparedness planning.

“It was also necessary to rethink how we fund, national, and global development objectives and policy,” he said, adding that the innovation that emerged the African continent should be explored and developed.

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Categories: Africa

A BASIC TRUTH: Facing an Existential Threat, Humanity Must Work Together

Wed, 01/20/2021 - 20:29

Scoping out development opportunities in frontier communities. UN Kenya Resident Coordinator Siddharth Chatterjee, Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, UN heads of missions, and other development partners in Kenya. Credit: Nicholas Wilson / UNDP

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 20 2021 (IPS)

COVID-19 is like a rainstorm, a thunderous and powerful rainstorm all over the world. If we didn’t know before, we certainly know now just where the holes are in our roofs, or where there are no roofs. We see ever more clearly who is getting drenched and who is dying, and who remains dry.

But ultimately, no one is untouched. This fact alone must wake us to a basic truth: Humanity will survive and thrive only if all countries work together. We must improve global governance on health and embrace multilateralism.

This is good for all people, it’s good for governments, and it’s good for business.

The United Nations is the institution best positioned to lead the way on this call. I believe with all my heart that global cooperation is possible.

I am privileged to have spent the last nearly five years serving as the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) in Kenya, and now to have been designated as the RC in China, a post which I will assume this month.

In Kenya, I learned a vital lesson that I will carry with me to China. Before I became the RC, I was the Representative of UNFPA in Kenya. At that time, in 2014, Kenya was among the ten most dangerous places on earth to become a mother. The maternal mortality rate was a shocking 500 deaths per 100,000 live births—nearly triple the target of the Millennium Development Goal of a maximum of 170 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

Siddharth Chatterjee. Credit: Newton Kanhema

In response, under the leadership of the government, I helped secure $15 million in 2014 to reverse this trend. Together with colleagues around the UN system, I mobilized 6 private sector companies from China, Kenya, USA, Netherlands and the UK to focus our efforts on the six counties in Kenya where maternal mortality rates were highest. Within just 2.5 years, the rates in those counties had dropped by one-third.

More recently, during my tenure as the RC in Kenya, I was privileged to meet with Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, to discuss female genital mutilation (FGM). He said in the strongest terms that he wanted to end the practice of FGM once and for all in Kenya, and that he wanted the UN’s partnership on this effort. Thanks to his leadership, Kenya is making remarkable strides.

Time and again in Kenya, my experience showed me the importance of political will, as was the case in my previous postings in Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan (Darfur), Indonesia, and with UN Peacekeeping Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraqi Kurdistan.

With committed political leadership, good public policy, and strong partnerships — we can achieve the impossible. With those “three P’s,” we can minimize the number of mothers who die in childbirth. We can end the practice of FGM. We can create a world where girls and boys everywhere can dream big and fulfill those dreams. And we can create a stronger UN to address challenges that cross borders freely, such as this pandemic.

I could not be happier than to take this lesson to my new post as the UN Resident Coordinator in China, a country which has the commitment and the resources to support global cooperation and development. China can share important lessons with the developing world, having lifted over 890 million people out of poverty within 30 years.

China is dedicated to multilateralism. It is the third largest donor to the UN, the second largest donor to UN Peacekeeping, and one of the biggest contributors of troops to UN Peacekeeping. It is a leader in South-South Cooperation, supporting peace and development work in other countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

China has the resources to support multilateralism. With nearly 1.4 billion people, and a powerhouse economy that has perhaps the greatest purchasing power in the world, China is making strides in development and is a major source of global wealth generation in the past 11 years. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is creating infrastructure that will benefit the people of the many countries it touches in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

We need all the countries of the world to give their best to the global community and to the UN, which works so hard to foster it.

Doing so actually serves the self-interests of countries. Many global challenges ignore national boundaries. Disease. Violent conflict. Refugees. Climate change. A country becomes safer when it helps stop these crises across a border or across an ocean. The challenges cross borders, but so, too, do the benefits of solving them.

Multilateralism is also an act of basic humanity. It is compassionate to answer the cry of suffering of other people. Don’t we all want people to get a fair shake, no matter where they are? Don’t we want children the world over to be free and safe and happy? We are enlarged and enlightened when our siblings in the human family prosper.

We have less than 10 years left now to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. We are well past the first blush of celebration of the SDGs, and we are far from the last mad dash. We are wounded by this pandemic, all of us, though some more than others.

But we cannot give up now. We cannot slow down. We must keep our vision focused. We must take heart in ourselves and each other. And we must work together.

This article was originally published by the United Nations.

The post A BASIC TRUTH: Facing an Existential Threat, Humanity Must Work Together appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Siddharth Chatterjee, is UN Resident Coordinator (RC) in Kenya, and RC designate to China

The post A BASIC TRUTH: Facing an Existential Threat, Humanity Must Work Together appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Jamaica Failing to Cope with Plastic Waste

Wed, 01/20/2021 - 20:01

A man walks by a storm drain piled high with plastic bottles and other garbage in Kingston, Jamaica. Credit: Kate Chappell

By Kate Chappell
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jan 20 2021 (IPS)

For decades, every time it rains heavily in Jamaica, a daunting deluge of plastic bottles and bags, styrofoam and other garbage trundles its way down a network of countless gullies and streams. If they don’t get snagged somewhere, they end up in the Kingston Harbour or close to the beaches ringing the tourist-heavy North coast.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Jamaica, occurring regularly across the Caribbean and Latin America. It represents the burden of how the world is failing to cope with so much plastic waste. Its effect on the region, however, is relatively unique and compounded by several realities: budget and infrastructure challenges, geography and the lack an effective waste management strategy. In the past several years, more than a third of Caribbean countries have banned single use plastics, which may have reduced some waste, but the plague remains.

One study found that beaches and coastal areas across the region could contain triple the amount of plastic waste compared to the rest of the world.

According to a paper summarizing waste management in the region, only 54% of single use plastic waste ends up in a sanitary landfill, with much of the remainder landing in storm drains and the ocean.

The disposal of single use plastic in this region and around the world is increasingly coming under the spotlight as countries attempt to tackle global heating and adhere to the Paris Agreement. If countries do not reduce their consumption of single use plastics, emissions from plastics are due to increase threefold by 2050, which would thwart the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, according to the global think tank ODI.

Andrea Clayton is one of four authors of a study on the Latin American and Caribbean region, and she says there are many problems surrounding the use of plastic and its disposal.

“Plastics have been deemed as carcinogenic. There are health implications. And we are an island state with very finite resources, so it’s very important that we put in place sustainable environmental practices,” she says. “We are privileged to experienced sandy beaches and water, but we want that to carry on to the younger generations. We must be preserving island from a sustainable position,” she says. Clayton is a lecturer for sustainable development and Caribbean Maritime University in Kingston, Jamaica.

On a daily basis in the Latin American and Caribbean region, 145,000 tons of waste are disposed of in open dumpsites, including 17,000 tons of plastic. In total, roughly 300,000 tons of plastic is not processed or collected, so it ends up in illegal dumps or waterways.

Part of the root of the problem can be traced to the region’s lack of manufacturing and agricultural capacity, which leads to heavy dependence on the importation of goods, which, of course, means more plastic waste.

In the region, plastic accounts for 35% of marine waste, according to Clayton’s paper, which is called “Policy responses to reduce single-use plastic in the Caribbean”. For one of the most tourism dependent regions in the world, this represents not just a threat to the environment, but to the livelihoods of its residents as well.

“Marine pollution is therefore a particular problem for the Caribbean These states are major contributors to marine pollution but are also more dependent on the environmental quality of the Caribbean Sea, which is the base for the regions ‘sand, sun, and sea’ tourism package. Tourism directly contributes 15.5% of the regions gross domestic product and employs 14% of the labour force,” according to Clayton’s paper.

Credit: Kate Chappell

In Jamaica, there is a lack of a sense of urgency amongst legislators, as well as the existence of alternative ways of disposing of garbage, says Diana McCaulay, director of the Jamaica Environment Trust. “People just don’t have alternatives. We have inculcated certain habits and attitudes that garbage is a state responsibility. If I don’t see a garbage bin within three feet of me, I can throw it on the road,” she says. Unless there is a holistic approach to overhauling the entire system that is accompanied by public education, nothing will change, she adds. “We need proper garbage collection, recycling programs, unless all of those other things go along with education, nothing will change.”

For its part, governments across the region have adopted several tactics, through legislation, policies, public education and incentive programs, to mixed results. “Across the region, we tend to have the legislative approach, and what has happened in most jurisdictions is a top down government policy with very little lead time,” says Clayton. In Jamaica, the bans on plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam were all rolled out to the surprise of a lot of citizens.

McCaulay says some of these policies have had success. Jamaica announced a series of new legislation in Sept. 2018, with a plastic bag ban implemented on Jan. 1, 2019. This has gone relatively well, with most people now toting reusable bags to do their shopping. The ban on the distribution and manufacture of Styrofoam and plastic straws, enacted a year later, however, has been less successful. For food containers, merchants have simply switched to plastic containers that claim to be recyclable, but in actuality are not, McCaulay says. Most business owners, however, have adhered to the plastic straw ban.

One of the main sources of pollution is single use plastic bottles, which account for an average 21% of the trash collected during beach and coastal clean ups in the Caribbean. This problem demands a deposit return scheme, McCaulay says.

In Jamaica, this is being spearheaded by the private sector, but has yet to translate to a widespread effort.

Ollyvia Anderson, director of public relations and corporate communications for the National Environment and Planning Agency in Jamaica, says that overall, citizens were slow to adopt the new regulations due to a lack of knowledge. “We were a little slow out of the blocks in terms of the uptakes,” she says. “For a lot of Jamaicans, they were concerned about the alternatives, and a lot of persons were not aware of alternatives, so we used public educations to bring them up to speed.

We are now seeing conversions where that has occurred with bags and straws. In terms of the foam food containers, we are seeing less and less of those on the market. People are adjusting but hasn’t been without challenges.”

With this in mind, enforcement has been by the government as a tool to encourage behavior change. To date, 41 businesses and individuals have been charged under the National Resources Conservation Act, with 27 of those convicted. The maximum fine is JMD$2 million, which is almost US$14,000.

It’s not enough, says McCaulay. If she were to assign a grade to the government’s efforts, she would give them a ‘D+.’ “It’s the usual lots of rhetoric with a very wide implementation gap.”

The post Jamaica Failing to Cope with Plastic Waste appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

COVID-19 Vaccines: How and When Will Lower-Income Countries Get Access?

Wed, 01/20/2021 - 11:46

The first two COVID-19 vaccines authorised in Europe and the United States – made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna – aren’t well-suited to lower-income countries. Availability is also a problem, since most of these vaccines have been purchased by high-income countries. Credit: United Nations.

By External Source
Jan 20 2021 (IPS)

COVID-19 vaccination programmes are gathering pace in high-income countries, but for much of the world, the future looks bleaker. Although a number of middle-income countries have started rolling out vaccines, widespread vaccination could still be years away.

The first two COVID-19 vaccines authorised in Europe and the United States – made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna – aren’t well-suited to lower-income countries. Pfizer’s has to be stored at -70°C, requiring costly equipment and infrastructure, and is expensive at roughly US$20 (£14.50) a dose. Moderna’s can be kept in a standard refrigerator for up to 30 days, but is even more expensive. Low- and middle-income countries have consequently struck few direct deals to buy these vaccines.

Availability is also a problem. Most of these vaccines have been purchased by high-income countries. Pfizer has offered to provide only 50 million doses of its vaccine to Africa’s 1.3 billion people between March and December 2021, while Moderna has none allocated for Africa this year. Fears abound that, for a while at least, the majority of the world will go without.

COVAX: not enough and too slow

Not wanting to wait, higher-income countries have bypassed COVAX by cutting direct deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers instead. Increasingly they are being joined by middle-income countries, such as Argentina, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey, but these nations are turning to different products: vaccines made in India, China and Russia

Backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the COVAX initiative was created to share COVID-19 vaccines around the world, especially with lower-income countries. In 2020, $2.4 billion was raised, with agreements made to give low- and middle-income countries access to 1.3 billion vaccine doses.

However, the Pfizer vaccine is still the only one that has received WHO emergency use listing, a minimum regulatory requirement for distribution through COVAX. A third western vaccine – developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca – is substantially lower priced, more easily stored and has large-scale manufacturing partnerships in place, as well as an agreement to supply COVAX, but is still awaiting approval from the WHO.

The WHO has stated COVAX will deliver its first vaccines by the end of January at the earliest. By the end of 2021 it aims to have supplied 2 billion doses globally.

But even if this promise is met, it will be insufficient. Speaking on behalf of the African Union, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa expressed concern that “the COVAX volumes to be released between February and June may not extend beyond the needs of frontline healthcare workers, and may thus not be enough to contain the ever-increasing toll of the pandemic in Africa”.

The total doses pledged by COVAX to Africa, he noted, will only cover 300 million people, or 20% of the continent’s population.

India, China and Russia to the rescue?

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has a licence to produce the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, while Bharat Biotech has developed its own. India approved both products on January 3, and the domestic roll-out began on January 16.

India is also making its vaccine output available to other countries. Bangladesh has approved SII’s Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and has a deal for 30 million doses, while South Africa has announced it will procure 1 million by the end of January and another half a million in February.

The SII is one of three suppliers providing the African Union with 270 million vaccine doses, with 50 million due to arrive by June 2021. It will also supply COVAX, but the SII Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is still waiting for regulatory approval from the WHO.

Following its earlier ventures in mask diplomacy, China has been extremely active in using vaccines to build political bridges as well. President Xi Jinping has promised China’s vaccines will be available as a global public good, and has also offered financial support to help Latin America and Africa acquire COVID-19 vaccines.

On December 31, China approved a vaccine developed by state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm for general use. The company projects it will produce 1 billion doses in 2021, and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco have all begun rolling out the vaccine. Egypt and Pakistan have announced deals for 10 million and 1.2 million doses respectively.

Both Turkey and Indonesia have begun vaccination programmes with another Sinovac vaccine, CoronaVac. Thailand and the Philippines will also soon start rolling out this vaccine. Further afield, the state of São Paolo in Brazil has agreed a deal for 46 million doses of CoronaVac and has administered the country’s first COVID-19 inoculations with it.

Russia, the first country in the world to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, is also active on vaccine diplomacy. Its Sputnik V jab received initial approval on August 11. Argentina began rolling out Sputnik V on December 24, and the vaccine is one of the first for COVID-19 to be administered anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, in Guinea. Manufacturing partnerships are in place with Hetero Drugs and other Indian firms, as well as for production in Turkey. The Brazilian state of Bahia has agreed to host further trials of Sputnik V in exchange for getting priority access to 50 million doses.

When will the world be vaccinated?

Increasingly, middle-income countries are accessing and beginning COVID-19 vaccination programmes, but are doing so outside of the WHO’s procurement and regulatory mechanisms. While this is allaying fears that they would go completely without, there is some mistrust arising around the testing and reported efficacy of vaccines that haven’t yet had WHO approval.

If the world is to reach sufficient vaccine coverage to halt COVID-19, existing vaccines – including those from India, China and Russia – need to prove effective. Accessibility must also increase in low-income countries, not just in middle-income ones. Fears that the virus will mutate beyond these current vaccines must also remain unrealised.

It can’t be overstated how enormous the vaccination task is. Although possessing huge manufacturing capacity, India’s aim to vaccinate 300 million of its people by August 2021 still means less than a quarter of its population will have had the vaccine. “For everyone on this planet – or at least 90% – to get it, it’s going to be at least 2024,” says Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the SII.

Rory Horner, Senior Lecturer, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester

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

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Categories: Africa

Afghanistan Threatened With Rising Violence Once Again

Wed, 01/20/2021 - 10:15

Humanitarians seek $1.3 billion to help millions in war-weary Afghanistan. Homes for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. January 2021. Credit: OCHA Afghanistan/Fariba Housaini

By Magdalena Kirchner
NEW DELHI, India, Jan 20 2021 (IPS)

When the Doha talks were launched in September, the Afghan people’s hopes for an end of war and violence were high. So far, many have been disappointed as the negotiations have not done much to improve the security situation.

The Taliban continue to reject any ceasefire before the talks’ conclusion, and the ongoing troop withdrawals have only encouraged them to step up the military pressure. In the first four weeks after talks began, the Taliban carried out attacks in 24 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces on both security forces and civilians. In October, the United Nations counted more incidents in a month than at any time since 2007.

The increasingly confusing conflict situation is also afflicting Kabul, the capital city, as brutal and complex attacks, including those claimed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State, have occurred regularly in recent months.

Civilian targets included a Sikh shrine, a maternity clinic, Kabul University and other educational institutions. In 2020, at least 10 Afghan journalists lost their lives and reports of attacks and assassination attempts on officials, representatives of civil society, clerics, and opposition figures, many of them by unknown gunmen and assailants, surface almost daily.

Some observers compare the situation with the civil war in the 1990s; others point out that the lines between political violence and organised crime are becoming increasingly blurred.

And while the government is keen to present itself as the guarantor of the progress Afghanistan made since 2001, these developments undermine its legitimacy and weaken much-needed cohesion among critical constituents of the Republic. It appears that, for Kabul’s international partners, to prevent a total collapse of political order, there is hence no alternative to maintaining support for the Doha process.

Magdalena Kirchner

After years of heated discussions, the understanding that the Taliban’s exclusion from the Bonn negotiations on Afghanistan’s future in 2001 was a principal defect of the intervention and subsequent state-building efforts, is widely acknowledged.

Although 85 per cent of participants in the 2019 Asia Foundation Survey on Afghanistan expressed no empathy for the Taliban’s resort to violence, more than half of them supported their inclusion into the government.

A similar pragmatism can be observed amid critical regional players. Moscow, Beijing, and Teheran have publicly opened their ears and doors to the Taliban. Even in New Delhi, the previous taboo on direct communication channels is openly questioned.

Amid the current domestic climate in most contributing states and realities on the ground, military measures to pressure the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire or even into a credible commitment to democracy and equal rights are obviously exhausted.

Even though the Taliban have not yet managed to rid themselves of international sanctions, meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and high-level EU, UN and NATO representatives signal entrenched normalisation and active exchange instead of isolation and cold-shoulders.

To advance the political process, US officials repeatedly risked alienating President Ashraf Ghani’s government to get the Taliban to de facto recognise Kabul as a negotiating partner.

Critics of this dynamic argue that the Taliban’s political recognition might be tantamount to selling out hopes for democracy and equal rights in Afghanistan for the sake of a graveyard peace.

Even without invoking the many setbacks on making them a permanent reality of Afghans in the past decades, the uncomfortable truth is that democracy and equality will remain out of reach also in the future if Afghanistan continues to be forced to spend ten times as much as other low-income countries on national security.

Continuing war prevents real progress in virtually every area of social and state development. At the same time, it is also true that external recognition, especially when tangible support is attached to it, represents real political power in a state so dependent on international aid.

Therefore, it will be of utmost importance how Afghanistan’s international partners will use this leverage when shaping their relations with the group.

A withdrawal in the making

After the February 2019 Doha Agreement between the Taliban and the US, then-secretary of defence Mark Esper had hinted that withdrawal might be reconsidered, if conditions weren’t met. Accelerated troop reductions repeatedly undermined the credibility of such assurances.

The US Congress has taken action to slow down further withdrawals in its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2021. However, many lawmakers see the need to act to ensure enhanced transatlantic cooperation and to prevent a rerun of what happened in Iraq in 2014, where terrorist organisations exploited a breakdown of state structures to harm US-interests.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan itself is hardly called into question, especially not by the President-elect and his incoming administration. In August 2020, Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan named a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan a goal for the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency.

This stance is reinforced by concerns that the Taliban could consider a politically motivated delay or reinterpretation of the Doha Agreement, for example, by maintaining a counterterrorism presence, as a breach of the deal and abandon the negotiations. Also, the much-needed support of neighbouring states such as Iran, China and Russia might falter if they got the impression that the US presence would be permanent.

Europe’s foreign and security-policy interests will remain closely linked to the country’s future, even when the military mission comes to an end.

On the other hand, experts and representatives of the same regional actors caution against ignoring dynamics on the ground and sticking rigidly to the deadlines established almost a year ago.

A hasty withdrawal could result in further escalation or even outright civil war. Amid all this uncertainty and Gordian knots ahead, a (cautious) extension or even further transformation of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in February 2021 should not be prematurely ruled out.

Can development carrots achieve more than military sticks?

Notably, the US–Taliban agreement featured a shared interest in future economic cooperation after a military withdrawal. Over the past year, European officials, too, have begun to nurture hopes that the Taliban might agree to a ceasefire and even look more favourably on democracy and women’s and minority rights to ensure international support after a political settlement and power-sharing agreement.

In this context, even participation of Taliban representatives in the November 2020 Geneva donor conference had been discussed to familiarise them with international expectations. At the same time, a declaration by Afghanistan’s largest donors clearly addressed an Afghan government whose composition could change in the next years when making, for example, the adherence to the country’s international obligations a condition for ongoing support.

Could financial and development-policy incentives prevail where military force has failed? Can a transactional approach yield transformative results?

Bearing in mind the consequences of further destabilisation and its effects on Afghanistan’s fragile neighbourhood, would the EU take a clear stance if a return of the Taliban to power was accompanied by the systematic human rights violations?

And if the Taliban would prove unwilling to compromise, how to mitigate the risk that the Afghan people would eventually pay the price of aid cuts, isolation or even the exodus of international organisations? In turn, what promises and assurances can be given to the conflict parties amid uncertainty about the future of international engagement?

While remaining committed to the fragile but indispensable Doha process, Europe needs to develop and formulate a new strategy for its stabilisation efforts in Afghanistan that addresses these questions.

Europe’s foreign and security-policy interests will remain closely linked to the country’s future, even when the military mission comes to an end. To coherently support the process of intra-Afghan deliberations on how to achieve a peaceful future beyond 2021, European partners should use coordinating mechanisms like the recently initiated EU Strategic Compass, regional platforms shaped in Afghanistan’s neighborhood in the past years and transatlantic initiatives likely to be revived after 20 January.

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Excerpt:

Dr Magdalena Kirchner heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Afghanistan.

The post Afghanistan Threatened With Rising Violence Once Again appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

“In Zimbabwe there is Freedom of Speech, but no Freedom After the Speech”

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 12:30

Working as a journalist in Zimbabwe has been particularly hazardous for investigative journalists in a country that makes regular appearances in global top rankings of corruption. Zimbabwe’s press freedom remains fragile. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jan 19 2021 (IPS)

A long-running gag says “in Zimbabwe there is freedom of speech, but no freedom after the speech”. But for journalists and activists who have been forced to endure nights in the country’s overcrowded and filthy holding cells, this is no laughing matter as prison inmates have no personal protective equipment to guard against COVID-19.

And when government spokesperson Nick Mangwana warned ominously last year that, “No one is above the law,” it only confirmed what many here have always feared: that the ruling Zanu PF party will not hesitate to arbitrary apply the law to silence critics.

Mangwana’s comments had come after the arrest of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, who was accused of using social media to foment public violence.

Chin’ono was back behind bars on Jan. 8 on charges of posting “fake news” on Twitter.

Soon after Chin’ono’s arrest, opposition Movement for Democratic Change – Alliance (MDC-A) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere and Job Sikhala, an opposition legislator who also serves as a MDC-A vice chairperson, were also detained by the police for posting the same story Chin’ono had shared on social media.

The widely-shared story alleged that a police officer attempting to enforce COVID-19 restrictions had aimed his baton stick at a woman carrying a child, but fatally struck the child instead.

According to reports, the child died on the spot. Police, however, dismissed the story as fake news despite video footage of the mother wailing that the police officer had killed her child.

The arrests were immediately condemned by rights defenders with Amnesty International, which demanded their release.

“The latest arrests are part of a growing crackdown on opposition leaders, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and other critical voices,” said Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s deputy director for southern Africa said in a statement dated Jan. 13.

“Zimbabwean authorities must immediately and unconditionally release and drop the malicious charges against them,” Mwananyanda said.

However, it is the arrest of Chin’ono – for the third time in six months – that has placed the spotlight back on Zimbabwe’s fragile press freedom, where critics say journalism has for years remained a dangerous occupation for a country not in a warzone.

It has been particularly hazardous for investigative journalists in a country that makes regular appearances in global top rankings of corruption.

“I was jailed after exposing corruption,” Chin’ono wrote last year after his first arrest, which came after the authorities criticised the media for allegedly reporting falsehoods about members of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s family being involved in shady COVID-19 equipment procurement deals which prejudiced the country of millions of United States dollars.

Chin’ono’s exposé reportedly led to the firing of Zimbabwe’s health minister, yet it was to prove to be just the beginning of the investigative journalist’s brushes with the law for his work reporting corruption in high places.

“The onslaught on investigative journalists is part of the administration’s hostile campaign against human rights defenders,” Tawanda Majoni, an investigative journalist and National Coordinator of the Information for Development Trust, a local media NGO, told IPS.

“Media freedom campaigners have done a spirited job, but what they can achieve will always be severely limited in a repressive regime,” he told IPS.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index of 2019, Zimbabwe ranked 158 out of 180 countries making it one of the most corrupt in the world.

“In Southern Africa, journalists and others working to expose corruption face an unacceptable level of risk,” Transparency International said in a statement last year.

The international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked Zimbabwe number 126 out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, making the southern African country one of the worst places to work as a journalist.

“Zimbabwe’s serious abuses of press freedom, free expression and the rights of government critics are worsening as the year begins,” Dewa Mavhinga, Human Rights Watch southern Africa director, told IPS.

“It seems there are some within government who wish to undermine Zimbabwe’s re-engagement efforts through their reckless abuses that entrench the pariah state image,” Dewa told IPS.

The European Union in Zimbabwe also added its condemnation of the arrest of Chin’ono, Sikhala and Mahere, posting on Twitter on Jan. 13 that “the current pre-trial detentions, delays of proceeding without serious charges are questionable”, while the Dutch Embassy in Harare reminded the country’s minister of foreign affairs Sibusiso Moyo the commitments Zimbabwe made on Dec. 9 at the World Press Freedom Conference to increase the safety of journalists.

The crackdown continues almost six years after the disappearance of journalist and activist Itai Dzamara whose whereabouts remain unknown but is widely feared dead.

“We have a government that is driven by paranoia and doesn’t want to be held accountable,” Nqaba Matshazi, of the Media Institute for Southern African (MISA) – Zimbabwe chapter, told IPS.

While police say Chin’ono faces up to 20 years in prison, his lawyers are challenging the constitutionality of the charges and the journalist remains defiant in a country where media activists say journalists are shying away from probing investigative journalism for fear of arrests.

“The persecution of investigative and other journalists routinely face has several retrogressive effects, among them fear, self-censorship and capture. When you see a journalist being brought to court in leg irons for posting a Tweet, you naturally wonder whether if your next story is worth dying for,” said Majoni.

Human rights attorneys say it has been particularly frustrating defending journalists.

“Journalists are being arrested for doing their job and our real challenge is that the arrests show an increase in the monitoring of journalists’ social media activity,” Roselyn Hanzi, executive director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who are representing Chin’ono and other journalists and citizens arrested under questionable charges, told IPS.

“Despite constitutional provisions, what is required are administrative reforms to weed out bad apples in the system and also human rights training for institutions that have become very partisan,” Hanzi told IPS.

There are concerns however that there still are no critical voices emerging from regional bodies, which analysts say could be emboldening impunity and continued human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

“The silence and indifference of Zimbabwe’s neighbours like South Africa, SADC and the African Union has emboldened rogue elements with the Zimbabwe regime to go for broke,” Mavhinga told IPS.

“But tyranny has a witness and one day there will be justice and accountability for all the abuses,” Mavhinga said.

The post “In Zimbabwe there is Freedom of Speech, but no Freedom After the Speech” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Welcome Recognition of Bangladeshi as First-Ever ‘Pollution’ Refugee

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 12:18

French court’s landmark decision is a new milestone in fighting environmental disasters

By Kamal Ahmed
Jan 19 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The recent verdict by a French court stopping the deportation of an unnamed Bangladeshi on the grounds of deadly air pollution in Dhaka has raised eyebrows among many of us. In some of our newspapers and portals, an undertone of ridicule and aspersion against the assumed lack of patriotism in him was evident. Environmentalists, however, celebrated it as a landmark ruling as governments will now have to take tackling air pollution as a matter of urgency to prevent mass migration. For the last few decades, we have heard a lot about climate refugees, mostly as a result of forced displacements following extreme natural events or disasters caused by climate change. However, the person in question is probably the first legally recognised “pollution” refugee of the world.

This verdict also has special significance as it comes after a ruling by the United Nations Human Rights Committee from a year ago, stating that it would be unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis. The UN decision was largely a symbolic one as it did not have any legal binding on any country, which the French court’s ruling has on its national government. It has special significance due to the fact that the appeals court not only upheld the man’s plea on the increased risks of premature death, it further observed that the drugs that the man was receiving in France were not available in Bangladesh.

There is no question about the lethal danger in the quality of air in Dhaka. Its deterioration during winter is particularly noticeable. According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) BreathLife campaign, Dhaka’s air quality is 5.7 times over the safe level recommended by the World Health Organization. It is well-known that many elderly people with breathing problems, in recent years, have been forced to leave Dhaka to other parts of the country in search of fresher air. But, shockingly, air quality in many other cities are even worse, as the BreathLife data shows—Khulna and Barishal both have over eight times the safe level. It puts the number of deaths annually in Bangladesh from air pollution at 166,598 and worryingly enough, the quality of air indoors is not less harmful than outdoor air quality.

The reasons behind air pollution are not unknown—it mostly comes from brick kilns, the fumes coming out of automobiles and industrial chimneys and dust generated from the construction work of various infrastructure projects and ever expanding urbanisation. Environmentalists allege that the government response to combatting air pollution is at best a feeble one. It is true that the government has taken some actions against the polluting brick kilns. However, it has failed to take any meaningful steps to ensure setting up Air Treatment Plants at large industrial units and reduce emissions from traffic. Banning older polluting vehicles from plying the roads to restricting imports of such automobiles have been deferred repeatedly due to political pressure from some vested groups. The irony, however, is that while French automobiles are rarest of the rare on Dhaka’s streets, the largest beneficiaries of exporting the worst polluting vehicles, including diesel run and used or refurbished ones to Bangladesh, are the countries in Asia—namely India, Japan and China.

A few years ago, there was quite a global stir when it emerged that some companies were selling fresh air in bags or cans. Soaring air pollution in world cities created demands for fresh air and some innovative entrepreneurs came up with a solution that was as unthinkable as it was expensive. And the obvious market was China, which at that time had the worst ranking of urban air pollution in the world. A BBC report then quoted the price of a bottle of fresh air at USD 24, which holds around 160 breaths—15 pence or about Tk 12 for one breath. A Canadian company named Vitality used to collect air from the Canadian Rockies and compress it into containers. Later, they entered the Indian market too. A few other companies, including some British ones, also joined to exploit this opportunity, reported The Guardian a year later. I wonder whether it would shock anyone if we discover that those fresh air bottles have a market in Dhaka too.

In this context, the court victory by one of our fellow countryman in France should be welcomed. There is more than one reason to see it as a positive development. It will certainly make government leaders in Western countries look at the issue of climate migration in urgency and assist developing and vulnerable nations with more resources to tackle pollution. Until they do, rights groups will be able to explore legal recourse to help migrants with health conditions linked to pollution. Big corporations will also face closer scrutiny in relocating polluting industries to developing countries.

Besides, governments in the worst affected countries will face increased domestic pressure to act sooner and more decisively as pollution becomes an important factor in hurting the image of the country. However, there is nothing more effective than resistance from within.

Kamal Ahmed is an independent journalist based in London.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Excerpt:

French court’s landmark decision is a new milestone in fighting environmental disasters

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Categories: Africa

Imprisoned Saudi Activist and Other Rights Defenders Seek Justice in 2021

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 11:04

By Mandeep Tiwana
NEW YORK, Jan 19 2021 (IPS)

Two events generated significant interest and global solidarity in the final days of December 2020. A court in Saudi Arabia handed down a five years and eight months sentence to activist Loujain Al-Hathloul for publicly supporting women’s right to drive. Nicholas Opiyo, Ugandan human rights lawyer and defender of persecuted members of the LGBTQI community and political opponents of the president was arbitrarily detained on trumped up charges of ‘money laundering.’ Nicholas Opiyo was granted bail on 30 December following an outpouring of global support for his activism for justice. In handing out the verdict to Loujain Al-Hathloul, the court partly suspended her sentence raising hope that she might be released from prison in a couple of months due to time already served.

As we await the release of Loujain Al-Hathloul and an end to judicial harassment of Nicholas Opiyo it’s notable that their struggles for justice are not unlike those of Sudha Bharadwaj, general secretary and voice of conscience of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties in Chhattisgarh, India or that of Teresita Naul, sixty-three year old committed advocate for health and social services in the Philippines. In Honduras, the Guapinol Water Defenders exposing harmful mining activities should have been receiving a national award. Instead, like Nicaraguan economic justice activist Maria Esperanza Sanchez Garcia and their fellow human rights defenders above, they’re languishing in prison.

It’s an anathema that in the 21st century when humanity claims to have made great progress in cultural and technological spheres that we should still have prisoners of conscience. The right to a fair trial and due process under the law are part of customary international law. Yet, around the world, thousands of rights defenders are wrongfully imprisoned following flawed trials for their peaceful efforts to create just, equal and sustainable societies. It’s no secret that public spirited work that exposes wrongdoing by the powerful or seeks justice for the excluded has become exceedingly dangerous in the past few years. This trend bears out in democracies, dictatorships and in countries with hybrid regimes.

In December last year, the CIVICUS Monitor – a participatory research platform that tracks enabling conditions for the work of human rights defenders globally – released its annual People Power Under Attack report. The findings reveal that 87 percent of the world’s population live in countries with poor civic space conditions. Civic space is the bedrock of open and democratic societies. It’s predicated on the ability of concerned individuals and civil society groups to organise, participate and communicate without hindrance to actively shape the social, political and economic structures around them.

Struggles for justice and rights hinge on the free exercise of civic freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression recognised by international law and are included in the bill of rights of almost every country. Nonetheless, over a quarter of people live in countries that have completely ‘closed’ civic space where conditions are so terrible that those who express dissent and defend rights are routinely imprisoned, injured or killed. The list of such countries is long and forbidding, stretching from China to Cuba.

One might expect a momentous event like a pandemic which has caused huge amounts of suffering to open the doors for more compassionate governance. But the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated negative civic space trends. Our research shows that several governments have ramped up censorship and surveillance of human rights defenders to suppress criticism when they should have been prioritising access to information and making space for open and constructive dialogue with civil society.

In too many places, activists fighting for things as basic as equality before the law or women’s rights over their bodies or free and fair elections are being arbitrary imprisoned and subjected to the full force of the law and more for peaceful acts of civil disobedience. In the past few years, people’s mobilisations against leaders with authoritarian tendencies in places as diverse as Belarus and Uganda have been met with unusual cruelty.

Yet, people power managed to force a constitutional referendum in 2020 to make Chile an economically fairer place, and made futile a president’s attempt to unconstitutionally hold on to power in Malawi. In the United States, a historical reckoning with racist law enforcement through the Black Lives Matter protests helped bring out the vote in record numbers and defeat a delinquent president in the elections. In the final days of 2020, Argentina passed legislation to legalise abortion following years of determined activism by advocates for women’s sexual and reproductive rights.

Presently, a huge peaceful mobilisation is taking place by farmers and their supporters on the outskirts of India’s capital, Delhi against hurriedly drawn up legislation that supports big business interests and was pushed through parliament without adequate consultation and debate. Illustratively, the country’s present government which has shown scant respect for democratic norms is already trying to paint the protestors as ‘misguided’ or acting at the behest of outside forces.

In the end people power needs public support to counter vilification and criminalisation of rights defenders. The cost of repression is enormous for both the persecuted individuals and their loved ones. It took 27 years of people’s mobilisations and international pressure to secure Nelson Mandela’s release from apartheid prisons. It doesn’t have to be the same for Buzurgmeher Yoruv, a Tajik human rights lawyer who’s presently serving a 22 year sentence for defending members of the political opposition in his country.

Global solidarity did help secure the release of intrepid rights defender and advocate for the democratic rights of the Bahraini people, Nabeel Rajab in June last year. Just before Christmas, the IWACU4 Burundian journalists who were imprisoned merely for their investigative reporting on security matters following a flawed trial were granted a pardon. Nevertheless, the struggle for the release of other prisoners of conscience continues.

Even if the cascading impact of civic space restrictions seems heavy today, history shows us that another way is possible through the manifestation of people power. It’s vital not to forget the sacrifices of those who fight for our rights and are persecuted for their pursuit of justice. Let’s hope 2021 will be a better year for them. We all have a responsibility to act in the spirit of global solidarity to remove this collective blot on our humanity.

Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. To learn more about CIVICUS’s #StandAsMyWitness campaign to free imprisoned human rights defenders, click here. The People Power Under Attack 2020 report can be accessed here.

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Categories: Africa

Capitol Hill ‘Insurrection’

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 10:29

Secretary-General António Guterres and Donald Trump, at a UN briefing. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

By Asoka Bandarage
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan 19 2021 (IPS)

According to the mainstream narrative, President Trump’s incitement of his supporters during the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory led to the ‘insurrection’ at the US Capitol on January 6, resulting in the banning of Trump’s social media accounts and his second impeachment by Congress.

According to so-called ‘conspiracy theories,’ however, the victory of the November Presidential elections was ‘stolen’ from Trump through electoral fraud and the storming of the Capitol was staged or allowed to happen in order to impeach Trump and prevent him from coming back to power in 2024.

It may be even more complicated; a report by the Swiss Policy Research website, for example, suggests that the right-wing QAnon movement, heavily supportive of Trump and prominent at the event, like Russiagate, is the product of an FBI psyop (psychological operation) launched to discredit Trump.

The public may never know the truth behind the January 6 events, the mysterious ‘Deep State’ or the growing polarization between so-called pro-Trump white supremacist, ‘domestic terrorists’ and the anti-Trump multicultural, progressive liberals.

However, the search for peace, justice and democracy at this critical time requires transcending simplistic polarizations and understanding the systemic roots of the conflict that is tearing America apart.

Polarization

Donald Trump is a member of the ruling elite representing its own interests. His assaults on the environment and mismanagement of the Covid pandemic has put the entire country at risk. While claiming to represent the interests of the alienated and underprivileged white population, he introduced massive tax cuts and corporate deregulation worsening their social and economic position.

His rhetoric against minorities and immigrants has exacerbated racial and ethnic tensions and political extremism.

Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, heavily funded by the billionaire class, also represent elite interests at the expense of the general population. Under the Obama administration, economic inequality increased and Black poverty, mass unemployment and police brutality persisted.

The identity-focused rhetoric of liberals has stimulated racial and ethnic politics, and the rise of groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM). Often portrayed as progressive and “radical,” BLM has been significantly co-opted by corporate liberal interest and has received extensive funding from leading corporations including Amazon and Microsoft.

The corporate media has aided and abetted disunity and violence by silencing moderate and alternative voices that seek to understand and question the motives and strategies of both pro and anti -Trump extremists.

The polarization of politics and media hinder and mask an understanding and dialogue needed to move forward. For example, is there an equal risk of fascism, albeit more insidious, arising from the corporate liberals opposing Trump?

Reclaiming Perspective

A handful of corporations led by big tech and finance control the US political process and practically all aspects of society. The overwhelming focus on identity politics deflects attention from the dangers of deepening techno-corporate control and the destruction of freedom of speech.

The events of January 6 have already contributed to plans for a federal law against ‘domestic terrorism’ and the criminalization of dissent, which would likely be based on the 2019 Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act introduced by California Representative Adam Schiff. Anti-terrorism acts, such as the Patriot Act, are notorious for their use in crushing dissent and marginalized groups.

Systemic violence and repression are not new to the United States. The noble ideals of democracy, freedom and human rights aside, the United States was founded on plunder of the land and exploitation of people ¬– Native Americans, Blacks, Asians as well as underprivileged whites.

Likewise, the American Empire was established and maintained with systematic plunder and exploitation and massive military and political interventions around the world that continue today.

The costly military adventures (now up to 2021’s approved $740 billion military budget), along with global economic shifts such as manufacturing and job outsourcing and displacement by technology, impoverished large segments of the US population, both white and people of color.

Corporate deregulation and the decimation of labor unions weakened the working class and strengthened corporate authoritarianism. In recent decades, Republican and Democratic parties have differed little in their pursuit of corporate and imperial interests.

While the United States has had a history of social movements for people’s rights including labor and civil rights, recent initiatives for systemic change have experienced serious setbacks. The anti-globalization movement that came to prominence during the WTO (World Trade Organization) meetings in Seattle in 1999 was undermined by the Patriot Act (with Joe Biden being a key architect) and other policies introduced soon after the 9/11 terror attacks.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that emerged following the 2008 financial crisis and its slogan ‘We are the 99%’ brought attention to the excesses of the financial sector and growing economic inequality. But this movement also dissipated, largely due to state and corporate tactics of division, repression and propaganda to reinstate the narrative.

In the electoral realm, despite an unprecedented grass roots movement backing him, Bernie Sanders was blocked from winning the Democratic presidential nomination by the party elite in both 2016 and 2020.

The ideals of true socioeconomic reform have been squashed and subverted by the liberal establishment adopting the language of the progressive left but equating justice with racial and gender diversity and downplaying economic equality. This reframing channels the progressive energy away from threatening corporate control and profit, into a safe zone of identity politics, which only further divides and disempowers the general population.

Techno-oligarchy

Just as unemployed and uninsured Americans are pleading for support during the Covid crisis, the combined wealth of US billionaires ‘surpassed $1 trillion in gains since March 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic,’ according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies.

The top five US billionaires – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison – saw their wealth grow by a total of $101.7 billion, or 26%, during this short period. The increasing digitalization of life during this period represent an enormous augmentation of the political and ideological power of the technocratic oligarchs.

Silicon Valley tech firms, financial supporters of Joe Biden, withdrew attention from issues potentially harmful to his campaign. Even some left-leaning media platforms like the Intercept refused to publish an article critical of Biden just before the election. It led its co-founder, investigative journalist, Glen Greenwald to resign from the Intercept.

Social media companies swiftly deleted the accounts of President Trump and thousands of others following the January 6 event in Capitol Hill on grounds that they incite violence and extremism.

While hate speech and incitement of violence should not be allowed, should a handful of unrepresentative, unregulated tech corporations, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube exercise social and political control that exceed that of the state elected to represent people’s interests? Who decides what is appropriate and inappropriate and on what grounds?

Clearly, democratic policies and institutions are needed to oversee the First Amendment right of free speech. Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, called for corporate accountability and planned to introduce policies for deregulation including the break-up of monopolistic companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google.

However, given lack of support from the dominant corporate wing of the Democratic party, Warren was not able to secure even the Vice-Presidential nomination over Kamala Harris, the choice of the liberal corporate establishment.

System Change

The mainstream narrative propagated around the world paints a rosy picture of a return to a post-Trump era of freedom and democracy with the Biden-Harris inauguration on January 20. However, even if Trump is debarred from running for office in 2024, the attitudes and grievances of 70 million or more Americans who voted for him are unlikely to dissipate without serious efforts for change from those in power, and not just a return to corporate-dominated gesture-liberalism.

Indeed, all the issues of polarization and the inherent racism of society cannot be reduced to economic inequality and corporate dominance. Yet there has to be a recognition of the suffering and despair of ordinary people on both sides, be they incarcerated Blacks or unemployed whites.

As economic inequality deepens and the middle class disappears, vast segments of people of color as well as whites have become economically desperate and politically alienated from the status quo.

In the absence of genuine leaders to unite people and bring fundamental change, self-interested parties exploit and fuel discontent, anger and hatred by directing it towards each other. Use of epithets such as, ‘criminals and rapists’ against Latino immigrants by Trump and ‘basket of deplorables’ against Trump supporters by Hillary Clinton, have only fueled division and animosity.

Political ‘street warfare’ between the extreme right Trump supporters and extreme left antifascist groups is now a common occurrence across the US.

It is urgent that more and more people speak up and help move society beyond the polarization that is helping solidify techno-corporate totalitarianism and the police state. The us vs. them, good vs. bad dualism needs to be overcome with an appreciation of inherent human and planetary interdependence and the need for freedom and justice for all.

To quote the words of Robert F. Kennedy on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on June 6, 1968:

“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. [Y]ou can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization…filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort … to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love… What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.”

The post Capitol Hill ‘Insurrection’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Asoka Bandarage, a scholar and practitioner, has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, American and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad. Her research interests include social philosophy and consciousness; environmental sustainability, human well-being and health, global political-economy, ethnicity, gender, population, social movements and South Asia.

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Categories: Africa

Nothing to Learn from East Asia?

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 10:06

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 19 2021 (IPS)

Covid-19 infection and death rates in the Western world and many developing countries in Asia and Latin America have long overtaken East Asia since the second quarter of 2020. Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering prevailing Western accounts of the Asian financial crises, there have been no serious efforts to draw policy lessons from East Asian contagion containment.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Lockdowns necessary?
Although most East Asian economies have successfully contained the pandemic without nationwide ‘stay in shelter lockdowns’, many governments have seen such measures as necessary. But lockdowns are blunt measures, with inevitable adverse consequences, especially for businesses and employment.

Many countries have thus imposed lockdowns, citing China’s response in Wuhan. But as the first WHO fact-finding mission to China noted, “The majority of the response in China, in 30 provinces, was about case finding, contact tracing, and suspension of public gatherings—all common measures used anywhere in the world to manage [infectious] diseases.

Lockdowns were limited to a few cities where contagion went “out of control in the beginning”. The key lesson from China was “all about…speed. The faster you can find the cases, isolate the cases, and track their close contacts, the more successful you’re going to be.”

To be sure, lockdowns ‘flatten the curve’ by temporarily preventing further contagion. But unless accompanied by appropriate complementary measures, undetected infectious individuals may cause silent community transmission that becomes evident only too late. Instead of lockdowns, it is far more prudent to find and isolate cases before numbers become unmanageable.

South Korean lessons
The Republic of Korea was the first country to dramatically reduce the number of Covid-19 cases and related deaths without nationwide movement restrictions. It checked the spread of Covid-19 infections without imposing lockdowns, even in Daegu its most infected city.

Mass testing has been key to its response, doing the most by mid-March. By late March, Korea’s newly confirmed cases had fallen from second to eighth place in the world. Meanwhile, Korean authorities urged physical distancing, personal hygiene and remote work while discouraging mass gatherings.

The government also had legal authority to collect phone, credit card and other data to expedite contact tracing, and initially only restricted incoming travellers from Hubei province, where Wuhan is, for precautionary reasons, and from Japan in political retaliation.

Just as China had rapidly identified pathogen characteristics using artificial intelligence and big data access, Korea innovatively deployed new technologies to expedite rapid responses to trace, test, treat and isolate those infected.

Lessons from Vietnam
Three months ago, a Vietnamese official described how “Vietnam is fighting Covid without pitting economic growth against public health”. Besides testing and contact-tracing, “the government has depoliticised the pandemic, treating it purely as a health crisis, allowing for effective governance”.

Hence, there is “no political motive for government officials to hide information, as they don’t face being reprimanded if there are positive cases in their authority area that are not due to their mistakes”.

He noted that “With the head of the Hanoi centre for disease control being arrested for suspected corruption in relation to the purchase of testing kits, and small traders getting fines for price-gouging face-masks, the government has also been clear that public health cannot be entangled with commercial interests”.

After China announced its first infections and deaths in January 2020, “Vietnam tightened its border and airport control of Chinese visitors. This wasn’t an easy decision, given that cross-border trade with China accounts for a significant part of the Vietnamese economy”.

Vietnam also “took precautionary measures above and beyond World Health Organization recommendations”. Preparations started “a week before the outbreak was officially declared a public health emergency of international concern, and more than a month before WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic”.

The communist-led government also ensured “freedom of information on Covid-related matters”. “Lockdown and isolation are more selective” from the outset, without resorting to nationwide lockdowns, as has happened elsewhere without much benefit.

Vietnam is one of the few countries with “positive GDP growth” in 2020; “the supposed trade-off between the economy and public health… looks to be something of a false choice”.

In their war, Vietnam is believed to have lost over three million people compared to 58,209 US lives. In fighting the virus, Vietnam, with 97 million people, has lost 35 lives so far, while the US, with a 332 million population, has lost almost four hundred thousand.

Mass testing crucial
After a year of living with Covid-19, all governments can learn a great deal from critical evaluation of their own country experiences, other experiences as well as accumulated, especially new knowledge relevant to feasible policy options.

Thus far, appropriate East Asian policy measures for rapid early detection, isolation and contact tracing, while protecting the most vulnerable and treating the infected, have succeeded in flattening the curve.

More reliable, cheaper methods (e.g., ‘lateral-flow’ antigen tests) allow more frequent mass testing. As undetected cases are more likely to spread infection, such tests enable more frequent, faster and easier testing and quicker results, and facilitate faster, more efficacious actions.

This can help check contagion by identifying more of those infected earlier, thus reducing transmission. Even though less accurate than supposed ‘gold standards’, lower costs allow more widespread and frequent testing to identify many more of those infected.

Easier to administer and delivering results more rapidly, such cheaper, simpler and quicker tests more speedily detect the infected, especially among the asymptomatic, in time for appropriate and timely action.

As SARS-CoV-2 transmission peaks several days after infection, together with the viral load, more frequent testing is necessary to check contagion. More frequent mass testing is probably going to detect many more of those infected much earlier, while they are still infectious.

Look East
In the early 20th century, a young Cambridge-trained doctor, Wu Lien Teh returned to practice in the British colony of Penang where he mobilised thousands against the opium trade. The authorities arrested him, forcing him to seek employment outside the British empire.

He eventually found work with China’s Ching emperor in Manchuria where a plague was raging, eventually claiming 60,000 lives. Recognising it as pneumonic, Wu recommended use of multi-layered masks he designed to protect users against airborne infection, now recognised as forerunner of the N95 mask.

His later analysis of the socio-behavioural determinants of zoonotic transmission of the epidemic was also pioneering. Sadly, a famous French doctor Gerald Mesny, who rejected Wu’s mask advice as diagnostically wrong, died of the plague soon after arrival.

Over a century later, and over two decades after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis exposed the systemic financial fragility creating conditions for the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the reluctance to learn from the East continues, ignoring Prophet Muhammad’s advice to ‘seek knowledge, even unto China’.

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Categories: Africa

Punch Like A Muslim Woman: An Egyptian-Danish Boxer Breaking Many Stereotypes

Mon, 01/18/2021 - 13:55

Nadia Helmy Ahmed

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, Jan 18 2021 (IPS)

As a Muslim woman born and brought up in Denmark, Nadia Helmy Ahmed broke many stereotypes when she started boxing at the age of 15. “Back then it was not common for girls to take up elite boxing, let alone common for Muslim girls, I used to be the only girl in my gym, along with ten others boys,” said Nadia to IPS News.

Elite boxing is defined by who the boxers fight, how they fight and how they handle top ranked competition on a consistent basis. Nadia has been an elite boxer for over 15 years, and is one of the only ten Danish women in the sport, representing Denmark in world championships.

“Being a girl in a male dominated sport means that you have to learn to deal with all the obstacles that come with it, sometimes you are treated differently, both from inside the community of the sport and outside from the Muslim community as well. Sometimes the tone in the gym can be a bit harsh, but I quickly learnt to turn that direct language into positive fuel.

“Boxing happened by chance in my life and I fell in love with the sport and it has stayed on with me. I am lucky to say my family has always been very supportive, and that’s why I have been able to pursue my passion,” said Nadia.

As a boxer, Nadia continues to challenge various gender stereotypes and cultural discourses. Nadia says, “by living my life the way that I have chosen to live, I have challenged many norms and expectations of what a Muslim woman should look like, what she should do, what her goals and ambitions should be. I have chosen another way for myself, a different path and I feel at home when I am training.”

Nadia is part Egyptian and part Danish and she says she no longer wants to be caught between the discourse of identity and nationality, between her parents’ countries of origin, and her own country of residence.

Denmark is home to almost 320,000 Muslims, which is about 5.5 percent of the population, putting the country in a slightly higher proportion than in the rest of Europe. According to a report published in Reuters, a growing number of Danish Muslims say that they have faced verbal abuse, exclusion and hate crimes since mainstream political parties began adopting anti-immigrant policies. Immigration in Denmark has become a strong issue especially during elections.

In December 2020, Denmark’s government decided to separately classify people from or with heritage in primarily Muslim countries and regions in their official crime statistics. A move which was deeply criticized by many. Immigration and integration minister Mattias Tesfaye supported the differentiation of people in Denmark with Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

“Pluralism is based on trust, and the recognition between people, whether they want it or not, said Nadia. Religion plays an important role in cultural encounters, partly because it highlights differences and opens up new understandings of plurality and community. We as Muslim women have to use our understanding of liberal European politics to protest against the exclusion of immigrants from the public sphere.

“I crave to find a stance of cultural dignity, to find a moral community of mutual acceptance and purpose. The crucial issue for us has been to achieve a status in which is is legitimate and acceptable to be both Muslim woman and Danish at the same time,” said Nadia.

Over the past few years, Nadia has taken her passion for boxing to Muslim girls in local communities living in Braband in Gellerup, an area of western Aarhus, which holds the biggest housing associations in Denmark. Nadia encourages women to empower themselves by teaching them how to tap in and use their physical and mental strengths.

“When I started coaching young girls from the community, I wanted to transfer my passion for boxing to them. My mission was to enable them, to empower them, to give them a space where they could be themselves, at the same time have fun using their bodies to do so”, said Nadia.

“Boxing is a way of life. The combination of the mind and the body in sports gives a smaller picture of life in itself. When you think you can’t give anymore, there is always a little more to give in sports. Without individual strength and power, it is impossible to fight for your rights, for a better society,” said Nadia.

Integration remains a debate and challenge for those who come to Denmark, especially from Muslim countries. Human Rights organizations have reported numerous violations against refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers and have often described Danish policies towards immigrants as some of the most aggressive in the western world. In the current climate where European countries have been opening their doors towards immigrants and refugees, it is important for Denmark to re-think it’s value-based policies which has become one of the biggest reasons for countries’ polarizations especially towards its immigrants, religion, identity and culture.

According to Nadia, the way forward for Denmark is to identify the challenge of integration, without politicization, and interpret differences and similarities in real contexts, defining common goals and interests.

Sania Farooqui is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where Muslim women from around the world are invited to share their views.

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Categories: Africa

UPDATE** Conspicuous Silence as Ugandan President Wins Sixth Term against Bobi Wine

Mon, 01/18/2021 - 12:19

While the opposition leader Bobi Wine is under house arrest, analysts say Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni must make concessions to those who voted against him. Courtesy: UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

By Jonathan Irumba
KAMPALA, Jan 18 2021 (IPS)

Thirty-five years ago when President Yoweri Museveni talked, a majority of citizens listened. But now, as he approaches almost four decades in power, his message is not resonating well — particularly with the country’s youth who constitute about 70 percent of the voting population in Uganda.

On Saturday the Electoral Commission of Uganda declared the incumbent president winner of the vote. While the opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, remains under house arrest it is unclear how and when he will dispute the election results, as he’s vowed to do. But one thing is clear as analysts say Museveni must make concessions to those who voted against him.

In an election notable because of the nationwide internet shutdown that began on the evening before the elections, and is yet to be restored, Museveni secured 58% of the vote compared to 35% of the vote cast for opposition candidate, musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine.

Bob Wine has rejected the results as rigged. And has indicated that his party will challenge the result through all legal recourses available — this includes filling a case challenging the result within the next 14 days with the Electoral Commission of Uganda; going to court to challenge the results; as well as peaceful demonstrations, which are legal according to the country’s constitution.

Joseph Kalema, 38, resident of Kakindu Village near Kampala is convinced his candidate, Bobi Wine, won against Museveni in the Jan. 15 election but was simply “rigged out”.

“We are waiting for our generation president to tell us the next course of action,” Kalema told IPS, referring to Bobi Wine who is president of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP).

Bobi Wine shut off from party officials and the world

However, it may take sometime before 38-year-old Bobi Wine can make that call as he has been under house arrest since the elections, with his residence surrounded by state forces, and his mobile phones reportedly disconnected.

The media have been denied access to his residence as well as his close colleagues.

In a tweet from Bobi Wine’s account but with ADMIN written in brackets— and presumably sent from outside Uganda’s borders as at the time of filing in the morning of Monday Jan. 18 the internet still remained shutdown — it was claimed that Member of Parliament Francis Zaake was beaten after he allegedly attempted to enter the residence. He is reportedly still in hospital.

Everyone including media and my party officials are restricted from accessing me. @ZaakeFrancis was arrested outside my gate as he made his way to my house, he was badly beaten by soldiers. He is now in Rubaga hospital.
(ADMIN)

— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) January 17, 2021

In another tweet yesterday, again from Bobi Wine’s account but with ADMIN written in brackets, it was claimed that the opposition leader and his wife had run out of food and when his wife attempted to pick food from the garden she had been “blocked and assaulted by soldiers”.

It’s now four days since the military surrounded our home and placed my wife and I under house arrest. We have run out of food supplies and when my wife tried to pick food from the garden yesterday, she was blocked and assaulted by the soldiers staged in our compound. (ADMIN) pic.twitter.com/MLEtSbyCcW

— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) January 17, 2021

Today, Jan. 18, elected members of the NUP called a press conference, demanding Bobi Wine’s immediate release, saying despite claims that the state forces surrounding him were there for his own protection, the current conditions under which their presidential candidate is living can be classified as house arrest.

Mathias Mpuuga the vice president of the NUP, and a newly-elected member of the party, said party officials had attempted to meet Bobi Wine were blocked by security. NUP demanded the immediate release of Bobi Wine, adding that he should be allowed to have access to his party leadership and lawyers to guide the next course of action.

Museveni blames ‘foreign forces’

When this will happen remains unclear. After being declared the winner in the election, Museveni said his main challenger Bobi Wine was an agent of foreign forces who wanted to push for their interests and were using him as their vessel to achieve their agenda.

Who the foreign forces are, was not clarified but Museveni alluded to “promoters of homosexuals” and a neighbouring country which was not named, and those intent on frustrating Uganda from reaping the benefits of its oil discovery

With the internet, a key mobilisation tool for the NUP, still shut down any large scale demonstrations would be difficult to organise.

Heightened security across the country

A few weeks ago when Bobi Wine, the main challenger to Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), was arrested after being accused of flaunting COVID-19 guidelines during campaigning, there were spontaneous riots in urban centres across the country by his supporters.

The national security apparatus swung into action to quash the riots. Over 50 people died.

But Kalema, like many of his peers, simply do not care about the risk of being arrested or killed in confrontations with security.

“Many of our colleagues are languishing in jail, many have been killed, including innocent citizens. Should we just look on?” wondered Kalema.

Security is not taking matters lightly and are armed to the teeth to quail any violence.

“Last time they took us by surprise. Now we are more than ready for any riots,” Lieutenant Colonel Deo Akiiki, the deputy spokesperson of Uganda People’s Defence Forces told IPS.

The army and the police had deployed heavily on the streets of Kampala and other major towns across the country ahead of the election. They are still patrolling the streets days after the election for fear of a repeat of riots, following the declaration of the election results that announced Museveni victorious.

Museveni must make concessions

Museveni is credited for ushering in peace and security to a country that had descended into anarchy following the overthrow of Idid Amin that subsequent short-lived governments.

The biggest challenge to Museveni is that the majority of voters in this election were not born when he took power. Many were born during Museveni’s reign and did not experience that difficult period in the country’s history.

What they understand are the issues the of unemployment and poverty, which they have to deal with now, with many blaming this on Museveni’s continued stay in power.

Political analyst Dr Samuel Kazidwe says that situation is very fluid and a lot will depend on how the parties react.

“It is not over yet because Preside Museveni must find a way to reach out to Bobi Wine and his supporters and be able to make some concessions. Otherwise we could be headed for trouble,” Kazidwe told IPS.

Kazidwe said Museveni could learn from the Kenya experience and the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was agreed between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga following a disputed 2017 election.

Kazidwe said that when looking at the election results, it was clear that the whole of the central region had rejectedMuseveni and his party as evidenced by the numbers of votes for the opposition.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the ruling NRM, Justine Kasule Lumumba said on Saturday that were looking for evidence of foreign interference in the country’s election.

Some see this as an attempt to justify the earlier shutdown of Facebook after it to blocked NRM activists’ accounts over allegations of impersonating other users and unethical conduct. However, the NRM has taken this as evidence of foreign interference in the election.

** The story notes that internet was not restored at time of publication of this piece. It was later restored around 14.30 Ugandan time.

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Categories: Africa

‘Please save us’

Mon, 01/18/2021 - 11:18

Stuck in Bosnia amid rough winter, Bangladeshi migrant pleads for help

By External Source
Jan 18 2021 (IPS-Partners)

Temperatures have plummeted way below zero in Bosnia, making life even more miserable for hundreds of migrants and refugees — including entire families with small children — sleeping rough while trying to reach Western Europe.

After days of snow earlier this month, a spell of extreme cold that hit the region this week has brought freezing days and nights for the people stranded in northwest Bosnia, near the border with European Union member Croatia.

Meteorologists in Bosnia and Croatia have warned their citizens not to stay out long during the cold spell, predicting that temperatures could drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 Fahrenheit).

While Bosnian authorities, under international pressure, have improved conditions for several hundred people stuck in a burned-out camp, hundreds more are in makeshift tent camps and abandoned houses without heating or any facilities.

“Last night was very cold. We are suffering very much,” said Shahin, a mechanic from Bangladesh, who is staying in a small tent in a forest near the town of Velika Kladusa. “I (didn’t) sleep last night.”

Migrants like Shahin have been sleeping rough for months while hoping to cross illegally into Croatia, sometimes making dozens of attempts while allegedly facing violence and pushbacks at the hands of Croatian border police.

The makeshift camp near Velika Kladusa consists of several small tents on frozen, uneven ground among trees. Some migrants wash outside in the cold in freezing temperatures, they light fires for warmth and have no toilets or electricity.

Shahin said there’s no clean drinking water. “It is not safe, it is a very big risk for our health. … Please save us,” he told an Associated Press reporter.

Bosnia’s often-chaotic response to Europe’s migration crisis has drawn international criticism and warnings from humanitarian groups that both the Balkan country and the EU must find a durable solution.

Twenty-year-old journalism student Mohammad Khan from Afghanistan, who is staying with several dozen other migrants at a garbage-strewn abandoned factory near the town of Bihac, said he just wants a “safe” and “clean” life in Europe.

Inside the crumbling, communist-era factory, migrants could be seen lying wrapped tight in blankets or sleeping inside small tents. The windowless building offers little protection from the cold.

A couple from Afghanistan with their four children aged between 18 months and 10 years, have found temporary shelter in an abandoned house in a village near the Croatian border.

The family cook on a wood-fueled stove, light candles after dark and use old furniture left behind in the house while waiting for a chance to cross the border. They told the AP they have tried 40 times to enter Croatia but have been sent back each time.

Mustafa, the father of the family who refused to give his surname for fear of reprisals, said it’s been hard after failing so many times and having no help except occasional aid packages from humanitarian groups.

“Too (much) hard here, too much game,” Mustafa said, using a migrant term for attempts to illegally cross borders.

According to Reuters, Bosnia has since early 2018 become part of a transit route for thousands of migrants from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa aiming to reach Europe’s wealthier countries.

There are about 8,000 migrants in Bosnia.

Most migrants in Bosnia flock to the northwestern corner of the country because it borders Croatia. Local authorities have said they are overwhelmed but most other Bosnian regions have refused to accept the migrants amid protests from residents.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post ‘Please save us’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Stuck in Bosnia amid rough winter, Bangladeshi migrant pleads for help

The post ‘Please save us’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Targeting Journalists Takes a Toll on ‘societies as a Whole’ – UN Chief

Mon, 01/18/2021 - 10:57

Stop killing journalists. Credit: UNESCO

By External Source
Jan 18 2021 (IPS-Partners)

When journalists are targeted, “societies as a whole pay a price”, the UN chief said on November 2, 2020, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

“If we do not protect journalists, our ability to remain informed and make evidence-based decisions is severely hampered”, Secretary-General António Guterres spelled out in his message for the day.  

And when they cannot safely do their jobs, “we lose an important defense against the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that has spread online”, he added.

Free press ‘essential’

There were at least 21 attacks on journalists covering protests in the first half of 2020 – equal to the number of such attacks in the whole of 2017, Mr. Guterres said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted new perils for journalists and media workers, the UN chief reiterated his call for a “free press that can play its essential role in peace, justice, sustainable development and human rights”.

“Fact-based news and analysis depend on the protection and safety of journalists conducting independent reporting, rooted in the fundamental tenet: ‘journalism without fear or favour’”, he concluded.

Adverse consequences

In her message, Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), maintained that through accurate reporting, journalists “bring truth to light”.

However, she noted that for too many “telling the truth comes at a price”.

While journalists are in “a unique and compelling position” to “speak truth to power”, the UNESCO chief observed that the two “do not always see eye to eye”.

Between 2010 and 2019, close to 900 journalists were killed while doing their job, according Ms. Azoulay – more than 150 in the last two years alone.

Journalists in crosshairs

Although many have lost their lives covering conflicts, far more are being killed for investigating issues such as corruption, trafficking, political wrongdoing, human rights violations and environmental issues.

And death is not the only risk journalists are facing.

“Attacks on the press can take the form of threats, kidnappings, arrests, imprisonments or offline and online harassment with women being targeted in particular”, the UNESCO chief elaborated.

Preserving freedom

Even though the 2019 death toll for journalists was the lowest in a decade, the UN official pointed out that wider attacks are continuing “at an alarming rate”.

States have an obligation to protect journalists — UNESCO chief

She noted that in seven-out-of-eight killings, the perpetrators go unpunished, and asserted: “We can and should do more”.

“Journalists are essential in preserving the fundamental right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, she explained. “When journalists are attacked with impunity, there is a breakdown in security and judicial systems for all”.

End impunity

UNESCO commemorates the day annually on 2 November to raise awareness and highlight some of the specific risks that journalists face in their quest to uncover the truth.

“On this day, I call on…all Member States and international and non-governmental organizations to join forces to guarantee the safety of journalists and root out impunity”, said the UNESCO chief.

“Only by investigating and prosecuting crimes against media professionals can we guarantee access to information and freedom of expression”.

Unleashing information

UNESCO also marked the day by releasing the brochure Protect Journalists, Protect the Truth.

Among other things, it revealed that most journalists were killed in countries with no armed conflict.

And while impunity for crimes against journalists continues to prevail, in 2020, 13 per cent of cases worldwide were reported as resolved in comparison to 12 per cent in 2019, and 11 per cent in 2018.

The findings also showed that in 2019, Latin America and the Caribbean region represented 40 per cent of all killings registered worldwide, followed by the Asia and Pacific region, with 26 per cent.

“States have an obligation to protect journalists”, and judges and prosecutors must promote “swift and effective criminal proceedings” to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against them are held accountable, upheld Ms. Azoulay.

A mural on a blast wall in downtown Kabul commemorates journalists killed in Afghanistan in 2016. Credit: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi

Source: UN News

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Categories: Africa

We Need a Global Coordinated Effort to Secure Equal Access to Safe & Effective Vaccines

Mon, 01/18/2021 - 09:51

A healthcare worker at a testing facility collects samples for the coronavirus at Mimar Sinan State Hospital, Buyukcekmece district in Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: UNDP Turkey/Levent Kulu

By Ilze Brands Kehris
GENEVA, Jan 18 2021 (IPS)

A year into the COVID-19 crisis, countries across the globe continue to face alarming levels of pressure on their health and social services. Education and other essential rights, such as water and sanitation, have been severely compromised.

Inequalities and poverty have further deepened with devastating impact on the most vulnerable and marginalised individuals and communities. Many other rights have come under further pressure.

The crisis has required taking necessary and proportionate measures to contain the pandemic, but we have also seen the imposition of opportunistic or unintended restrictions on public freedoms, threats on privacy, curtailment of free speech, overreach of emergency powers and heavy-handed security responses.

It is essential that the pandemic is defeated with a sense of humanity that respects human dignity and human rights for all.

Importantly, going forward in the recovery process, we have a unique if not historic opportunity to change course and rebuild more sustainable, human rights based, socially just and equitable economies and societies as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This is also what the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights asks from all of us – stepped up and joint efforts to squarely place rights at the core of sustainable development.

Recovering better will require a new social contract that reduces inequalities and prioritises the realization of economic, social and cultural rights for all. Among the first steps to be taken by States should be to reverse the chronic underinvestment in public services.

Prioritizing resources to social protection, health, and education systems is an investment in the future sustainability of our societies.

Food, healthcare, education and social security cannot remain privileges only for those who can afford them; they are, and must be seen, as basic human rights to which all entitled, without discrimination.

This is a defining moment to see economic, social and cultural rights as legally binding commitments, as essential benchmarks for social policy, that are directly related to achieving a speedy and sustainable recovery.

To recover better, we will also need a global coordinated effort to secure equal access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that can be distributed to all those who need it.

In this context, we must strengthen international cooperation and ensure development assistance and debt relief to reduce inequalities within and between countries and facilitate equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.

In building forward better, we need to reset our economies, as well as the global financial and debt architecture, to put the protection of human rights, including the right to development, at the heart of economic policies and choices.

The international financial institutions should be encouraged to promote fiscal and policy space for economic, social and cultural rights as an essential part of economic recovery and economic sustainability.

Our Office, OHCHR, has stepped up its work on economic and social rights and in support of the implementation of the SDGs, through its Surge Initiative. This initiative further strengthened the Office’s ability to work on human rights-based economics in support of State’s efforts to ‘build back better.’

The Surge team has worked with States to encourage transformative economies, providing advice on the human rights impact of economic reforms and austerity policies as well as strategies to secure ‘minimum core obligations’ on economic and social rights and link them up to national SDG and development plans.

In this context, OHCHR has provided seed funding to 20 field presences to reinforce sectoral analysis and interventions in the context of the UN COVID-19 response and recovery with the view to assessing those most vulnerably and ensuring that no one is left behind.

Disaggregated data is crucial to the realization of the international community’s promise to ‘leave no one behind’. It helps States, civil society and other partners to better understand and monitor progress for all groups and to develop evidence-based responses that considers, incorporates and benefits equitably all segments of society. National human rights institutions are a critical partner in these efforts.

We have also revamped the Universal Human Rights Index in a way to make it easier for States to see the linkages and synergies between specific human rights obligations and SDG commitments. This is aimed to facilitate efforts of States to work comprehensively toward achieving both agendas, keeping in view the current COVID-19 challenges.

In this context, OHCHR is also continuing its work on human rights indicators and promoting a human rights-based approach to data that expands disaggregation and strengthening collaboration between NHRIs and National Statistics Offices, including in Albania, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, Mexico, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Philippines and Uganda.

The Office is also continuing its work on human rights indicators, including for SDG 16 indicators, and to guide the UN’s socio-economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also high on the Office’s agenda is our work on civic space, providing technical assistance to Member States and stepping up cooperation with National Human Rights Institutions, civil society organisations and grassroots movements, including human rights-based COVID-19 response and recovery and implementation of the SDGs.

The recently launched first-ever UN System wide Guidance Note on Protection and Promotion of Civic Space will be a critical tool for UN Country Teams to support and strengthen civil society.

Furthermore, reports and COVID-19 guidance prepared by OHCHR, international human rights mechanisms and other partners such as the Danish Institute carry a wealth of information relevant to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and COVID-19 recovery.

Similarly, the Office will continue to support efforts to strengthen the engagement of National Human Rights Institutions in implementation and reporting on the 2030 Agenda as well as responding to the challenges of the pandemic through human rights approaches.

Recovering better will require concerted efforts to rebuild trust in the institutions of governance, with a renewed commitment to eliminating discrimination, promoting meaningful participation and accountability, and protecting fundamental freedoms. We need to reverse the worrying trend of shrinking civic space, and create platforms – including through the use of online platforms – for meaningful participation of those affected that will help us to draw on people’s unique experiences, resilience, insights, ideas and visions.

I look forward to listening to your views and practical experiences on how we can make this a reality – achieve the 17 sustainable development goals by 2030 on the basis of international human rights standards.

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Excerpt:

Ilze Brands Kehris is Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights heading the UN Human Rights Office in New York

Addressing an online event organized by the Danish Institute for Human Rights in conjunction with the Human Rights Council’s third inter-sessional meeting on Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

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Categories: Africa

Advisors Propose New System To Regulate China’s Overseas Investments

Fri, 01/15/2021 - 20:14

A Chinese backed solar plant in Cafayate, northern Argentina. Such projects would be given the green light by regulators under new proposals for Chinese overseas investment Credit: Alamy/ChineseDialogue

By Ma Tianjie
BEIJING, Jan 15 2021 (IPS)

A government-backed coalition of international advisors to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has recommended that China apply more stringent environmental controls over its overseas investments. If adopted, this would be a major departure from China’s usual approach of deferring to host country rules, many of them inadequate, for regulating its overseas investments.

High-level advisors, including former UNEP chief Erik Solheim and green finance heavyweight Ma Jun, propose a system to categorise Chinese overseas investments based on their polluting, climate and biodiversity impacts.

The classification methodology was published on 1 December at a press conference organised by the BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) in Beijing. It would see coal-fired power plants given a firm red light, while other types of Chinese overseas investments, such as hydropower and railways would need to implement internationally recognised mitigation measures to earn “green” status. On the other hand, solar and wind power are considered green projects that advance the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.

Higher standards in China’s overseas investments

Christoph Nedopil Wang, founding director of the Green BRI Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics and one of the lead authors of the classification methodology, told China Dialogue that the system combines multiple international approaches to green finance.

The categorisation system and an ensuing taxonomy of green, yellow and red projects take inspiration from international standards such as the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, the Equator Principles and performance standards issued by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. It also uses China’s own guidelines for green credit and green bond issuance as references.

For years Chinese companies and financial institutions working abroad have primarily adhered to the “host country principle” which emphasises compliance with host countries’ environmental and social regulations. The inadequacy of the safeguards in many Global South countries, which make up the majority of BRI participant countries, means that the principle is often used as an excuse to lower standards for China’s overseas investments.

This creates a stark contrast between China’s domestic green transition and its footprints across the rest of the world. While clean energy is growing at a breathtaking speed inside China, a large portion of the energy infrastructure Chinese companies are building overseas is coal-based. Many such projects are of the low-efficiency type that China itself has gradually phased out.

Biodiversity threats are also a main concern of many of the BRI’s linear infrastructure projects such as railways and roads that intersect with key protection areas. Domestically, China has implemented an ecological redlining system hailed as a model for reconciling development with the conservation of nature.

There are calls on Chinese actors to follow higher standards in their overseas investments, but so far the response has been limited. None of the major Chinese financial institutions involved in overseas lending, for example, has signed on to the Equator Principles, which requires international standards (such as the IFC’s performance standards) to be applied in low-income countries with underdeveloped safeguards.

In 2019, major Chinese banks such as China Development Bank and ICBC signed on to the Green Investment Principles (GIP) which call for “acute awareness of potential impacts of investments and operations on climate, environment and society in the Belt and Road region”. But mechanisms to translate such awareness into action are yet to be developed.

“The GIP is more market driven”, comments Nedopil Wang, “while our [proposed system] is much more targeted at the regulators.”

How the ratings system works

Red projects require stricter supervision and regulation.These are regarded as creating “significant and irreversible environmental harm” in at least one of the areas of climate change, pollution and biodiversity, or the risk of such harm.

Yellow projects are environmental neutral with moderate impacts. These cause no significant harm, and remaining harms can be mitigated by affordable and practical measures, on a reasonable scale, within the project itself.

Green projects are encouraged. These have no significant negative impact on pollution, climate change or biodiversity, and contribute positively to at least one of these, particularly if they benefit the aims of international environmental treaties and conventions.The system considers three dimensions of a project’s potential environmental footprint: pollution, climate change and biodiversity. Projects that are contrary to the Paris Agreement objectives, such as those which increase emissions or undermine climate mitigation measures, are considered to cause “significant harm”. Similarly, projects that encroach on key biodiversity areas are given a red rating.

The system has some flexibility built in to allow contextual considerations of a project’s environmental merits. Some projects types, such as railways, may initially raise a red flag for their potential high risks to biodiversity.

But if developers can credibly demonstrate that mitigation measures are taken to prevent or reduce environmental harms, following international standards, they may get a green classification. However, the original red rating will remain as a reminder of the project’s intrinsic high risk.

The creators believe the two-step classification will better equip the system to respond to complex situations on the ground in most countries along the Belt and Road. “The idea is to make the system adaptive,” says Nedopil Wang, who believes that a black-and-white taxonomy may be too rigid in some circumstances. Therefore, “process standards” which detail how a risk should be managed, are also included.

Risky projects

According to the system, the construction and operation of coal-fired power plants will be given a red rating with no mitigation or compensation measures available to upgrade it. The same applies to the retrofit of coal-fired power plants designed to extend their operating life.

On the other hand, a hydropower station will be given an initial red rating but could earn a green rating if it applies “internationally relevant” hydropower standards for mitigating environmental damage, such as the IFC’s 2015 Hydroelectric Power Standard.

The research team provided an initial classification of 38 project types under 20 sectors, ranging from renewable energy to passenger transport and livestock farming. The grouping of the project types into positive (green), neutral (yellow) and negative (red) lists for the first time creates a simple taxonomy for BRI projects based on their environmental impacts.

“I can see the value of a taxonomy [for BRI projects] which raises environmental awareness for investors,” a Chinese expert familiar with international green finance safeguards, who is not authorised to take interviews, told China Dialogue. “At the very early stage of a project, when you have a project concept note in front of you, a taxonomy may help you make a snap judgment about whether a sector is in line with your strategy or should be excluded in the first place.”

But she cautioned that Chinese overseas projects are often large-scale and such a taxonomy may be too simplistic to capture their complex impacts, particularly social impacts.

Architects of the new system respond that the taxonomy is for demonstration purposes at this stage, created to illustrate how the classification system can be run. They are planning to refine the list with more technical details and application guidelines as a next step. One key recommendation from the advisors is to link the system with more comprehensive environmental impact assessments for red and yellow projects.

Adoption is key

The international team proposing the system also recommends it be embedded into China’s decision-making processes on Belt and Road projects. According to their analysis, China’s central government agencies such as the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) all have power to regulate overseas investment, but currently environmental considerations are not reflected in their approval processes.

“The positive and negative list will provide a foundation for governmental bodies to make sure overseas investment is in line with climate and environmental goals,” says Wang Ye, a green finance analyst with the World Resources Institute (WRI), who co-created the system. One key recommendation from the team is to develop an “exclusion list” of projects irreversibly harming the environment.

Yuan Feng, deputy director general of the NDRC’s Department for Regional Openness, which oversees the development of the BRI, offered his blessing at the press conference where the system was presented.

But Nedopil Wang admits that the appetite of regulators to adopt such a system is hard to gauge. It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) which hosts the BRIGC, does not have formal regulatory power over project development outside China’s borders.

Experts have also opined that green catalogues, which encourage certain types of investments, are easier for regulators to consider than exclusion lists, which often go beyond their legal authority. China’s own environmental laws have yet to regulate greenhouse gas emissions with binding force, they noted. Positive lists such as the green bond catalogue have so far been the mainstay of domestic actions to steer finance toward greener projects.

There are signs that some regulators might be more receptive of the recommendations. On 25 October, five central government agencies, including the central bank, the MEE and the banking regulator, issued a joint guidance for the country’s financing system to better serve China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal. It specifically encourages financial institutions to support low-carbon development along the Belt and Road.

There is hope that China’s financial sector may adopt the classification system and apply differential treatment to overseas projects: favourable financing conditions for “good practice” projects and stringent conditions for risky ones.

“The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has been involved in designing the system, so that’s a good sign,” Nedopil Wang told China Dialogue. “The de facto application [of the system] really depends on the specific champions within the different regulators.”

“Incorporating environmental risks into policy and finance practices requires these champions to push it relentlessly inside the system, like woodpeckers that always hit the same spot without getting a headache,” he said. “[Adopting the classification system] makes reputational sense and environmental sense for China today. But it requires a really different approach to some of the decision making.”

This article was originally published by ChinaDialogue

The post Advisors Propose New System To Regulate China’s Overseas Investments appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Twitter, Donald Trump, and Incitement to Violence

Fri, 01/15/2021 - 16:08

The @realDonaldTrump account on Twitter, the outgoing president of the United States' preferred platform for communication, and which was permanently suspended by the company on January 8, as was the official account as president, @POTUS. Image: Twitter

By Andrés Cañizález
CARACAS, Jan 15 2021 (IPS)

Over the last four years, United States President Donald Trump has had in Twitter his main political communication tool. On this technological platform, he spread messages that were not entirely true, insulted and disqualified people, fired, or mocked his collaborators. Twitter was a stage for his sort of presidential reality show.

Twitter’s business decisions, initially to temporarily suspend Trump’s account, and then permanently, have ignited a heated debate, which like all those involving the United States (US), in these days of January, seems to be wrapped around extreme positions. It would be a good idea for another piece to look into how Trump precisely fueled polarization, the fruits of which are now for all to see, and how Twitter was his tool in such a strategy.

Trump and Twitter already had a love-hate relationship before the events of January 6, with the assault on the Capitol in Washington. With almost 89 million followers, Trump is the most influential head of state or government in office on this social media worldwide. Barack Obama, US president for two terms (2009-2016), is the person with the greatest number of followers worldwide, over 127 million.

Remarkably, Trump favored to communicate through Twitter. With succinct publications and by smartly using the impact of his messages among his many followers, the outgoing president not only skipped over engaging with mainstream media, but he himself had a far greater impact on Twitter than any press or TV company could have. From Twitter, he denigrated American journalism.

Andrés Cañizález

For Twitter, it was also a good business to be used intensively for four years by the most powerful man in the world, who sent out tweets at any time of the day or night, messages that were not filtered by the White House communications team. His Twitter account was a way of finding out what Trump was concerned about or up to, and thousands of news stories ended up being written based on the president’s tweets, not from the official president’s office account but from his personal account.

It should not be overlooked that this corporate decision, unprecedented in the case of a political figure with such a large following, was preceded by “misleading content” labels that Twitter decided to place on some of Trump’s messages in November 2020, in the heat of the election and counting of votes.

On claims that Trump was generating false content, which was subsequently proven to be the case, Twitter not only labeled but also even removed some tweets from the president. In my view, that seemed to be a mistake.

Then I argued that 1) a company should not restrict a discussion that was purely political; 2) politicians in the midst of a debate are not under the obligation to tell only truths; 3) without being media outlets themselves, social media are today a substantial part of the public forum; and 4) if Trump or any politician told lies, journalism was obliged to fact-check or prove it.

After the disgraceful and unfortunate events that took place in Washington on January 6, Twitter decided to suppress Trump’s account because with his messages the president would have “incited violence”.

Donald Trump’s last two tweets before his Twitter account was permanently suspended, after more than 57,000 tweets generated by the outgoing US president, who had about 89 million followers. Photo: Twitter

It is quite accepted that limits can be placed on freedom of expression when messages go from being, for example, a mere insult, to proposing actions that end up unleashing violence. It was only when the crisis became a major scandal and the possibility of an impeachment on grounds of these events began to be floated that Trump finally condemned violence.

It was not the messages of just a random agitated person with a few tens or hundreds of followers. We are dealing with messages from someone who has held the main office in the world’s leading power – and will continue to do so for a few more days, with millions of followers on Twitter. This left the door open for his followers to sabotage the legislative ratification act on Democrat candidate Joe Biden’s victory, scheduled for January 6.

While some of Trump’s messages – or even silence at crucial moments – could be considered an implicit incitement or blessing of violence, the next question is whether a company alone can establish this.

I wonder if it should be Twitter, with a decision based on its corporate policies, that effectively closed Trump’s account or was this a decision that, as it was regarding freedom of expression, had to be settled in the US justice system.

I am afraid that we are facing a case in which we have irresponsible positions both from Trump, with his virulent or deceitful messages, and from Twitter by taking for itself the role of arbiter of what US and global society should read or not.

It is possible that this case will end up spurring a debate that should be urgent, but which has unfortunately been postponed given the immense economic power and political influence that such social media as Twitter and Facebook have gained.

The public defense of these platforms, in order to avoid any public debate or possibility of legislation, was precisely to hide behind the premise that their role was technological. They defined themselves as providers of technological applications to connect people, with no intervention on content. The case of Twitter and Trump proves the opposite.

The post Twitter, Donald Trump, and Incitement to Violence appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Andrés Cañizález is a Venezuelan journalist and Ph.D. in Political Science

The post Twitter, Donald Trump, and Incitement to Violence appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Dengue—an Epidemic Within a Pandemic in Peru

Fri, 01/15/2021 - 14:41

International Year of Volunteers: A volunteer ombudsman in Peru helps a local woman with her problem, 2001. Credit: UN Photo

By Carmen Arroyo
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 15 2021 (IPS)

While the world is grappling with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peru is still dealing with an epidemic that it has not been able to control—the mosquito-borne viral disease known as dengue.

With almost 56,400 confirmed cases as of December, Peru is suffering the worst dengue epidemic since 2017, when the virus infected over 68,000 people. The illness, coupled with the novel coronavirus crisis, has left thousands of people exposed to malnutrition and water-borne diseases.

Although mortality rates are low for dengue cases, nutritious diets and immediate sanitary responses are needed to battle the condition. And, above all, prevention is key to handling future epidemics, given that the mosquito responsible for dengue, Aedes aegypti, is expanding to new territories in Peru. As informal settlements and urbanization increase, so do Aedes larvae, which grow in stagnant water accumulated in cans or pots.

“Dengue has become endemic to many regions in Peru whereas before it was mostly found in the tropical ecosystem areas,” says a researcher for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington DC, pointing at the regions of Madre de Dios, Loreto, Ucayali, and San Martin, among others. “It’s normal to find dengue near the Amazon, but now we can find it in desert-type areas. It should be easier to control dengue, but it’s difficult to control urbanization.”

The epidemic

The Peru dengue crisis began in October of 2019 when the cases increased in the Madre de Dios region in the country’s southeast. The government soon sent the armed forces to fumigate people’s houses and kill the larvae while issuing recommendations to avoid the virus.

As a result, the spread of the virus slowed down in November, with the Minister of Health Elizabeth Hinostroza saying that dengue cases in Madre de Dios had decreased by 30%, as reported by local outlets.

But the respite was short-lived. In February, the government declared dengue a health emergency, ramping up the resources dedicated to fighting off the virus. By the time the coronavirus pandemic hit Peru, dengue had spread to 17 regions, including Junin and Ica.

Still, the country lacked the resources to face a pandemic and an epidemic simultaneously.

Protests broke out in early March in the region of Loreto, northeast Peru, due to a lack of medical attention to those infected. With air-borne COVID-19 assailing the country and mandatory lockdowns in place, fumigations became difficult if not impossible to conduct. Besides, some of the coronavirus symptoms, like headaches, were similar to those generated by dengue.

In October of 2020, Peru raised the alarm again by “reinforcing the sanitary response to dengue’s control and prevention […].” By the end of the year, the COVID-19 pandemic had left almost 38,400 casualties, high unemployment levels, and a growing informal economy. (The underground economy may have increased from 70% to 80% or 90% since the pandemic hit Peru, say local outlets.)

In the background, dengue kept spreading.

On December 9, The National Center of Epidemiology, Prevention, and Disease Control, tied to the Ministry of Health, sent out an alert, warning that Peru was the third country in the Americas region with the highest mortality rate due to dengue. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela came in first.

But what does dengue do?

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease, widespread through the tropics as it is “influenced by rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, and unplanned rapid urbanization,” explains the World Health Organization (WHO). The species Aedes aegypti is also the vector for other viruses such as chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika.

As climate changes and urbanization increases, the mosquito is finding new places to hatch. “If new areas get warmer, the vector Aedes will expand,” explains the PAHO researcher to IPS. “We can now find it in higher altitudes than before.”

The consequences of the disease vary, notes the WHO in a note on June 23, 2020. The symptoms may range from those similar to the flu to “severe bleedings, organ impairment and/or plasma leakage.” In either case, the virus can also affect women and anemics disproportionately.

“Dengue impacts on an individual’s iron levels, which can be especially crucial for pregnant women,” says Angel Muñoz, climate variability researcher at the International Research Institute, which is part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. “Anemics are more likely to get the disease.”

Malnutrition

Dengue patients usually experience high levels of dehydration and lack of nutrients, so the intake of water and nutrients is essential.

Recommended diets are rich in vegetables with vitamin A, C, and K, such as spinach and beetroot, fruits with the latter two vitamins, such as citrus, and nuts with proteins.

However, in Peru access to clean water can be tricky in certain regions and marginal areas, where stagnant water abounds. For instance, in the region of Loreto, only 45.4% of the population consumed drinking water through the public infrastructure in 2019, notes the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) in a 2020 report.

This lack of access to drinking water heightens the impact of dengue and results in other malnutrition problems. The Food Sustainability Index, developed by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition and the Economist Intelligence Unit, notes “poor sanitation and a lack of clean water contribute to malnutrition resulting from diarrhea.” In contrast, the index says that “improved sanitation and better water services also help tackle world hunger.”

On top of these infrastructural problems, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns in its latest report that malnutrition increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, deepening the pervasiveness of dengue. “During the last five years, the situation has worsened with an increase of 13.2 million people with undernutrition,” says the FAO.

How to prevent dengue

Prevention is essential to control dengue, both through forecasts and awareness campaigns conducted by public institutions.

Research has shown a relationship between climate patterns and the mosquito’s life cycle, as explained in the paper AeDES: a next-generation monitoring and forecasting system for environmental suitability of Aedes-borne disease transmission, authored by Muñoz and other researchers.

“There’s a relationship between environmental conditions such as temperature, rainfall and humidity, and the mosquito’s life cycle,” he explains to IPS. “It is possible to do reliable climate forecasts and predict the likelihood of the disease spreading.”

As a result of the paper, the team at IRI has designed a tool to monitor and forecast Aedes-borne environmental suitability, which could be used by policymakers to predict the potential impact of dengue.

However, predicting dengue’s probability is not enough, as the information must reach the population. Muñoz notes that awareness campaigns are essential to ensuring the public knows how the disease spreads. “Recipients with stagnant water or large landfills create the perfect habitat for the mosquito.”

Through the Ministry of Health, the Peruvian government has launched awareness campaigns in the past, its latest being “Dengue kills. Kill the mosquito!”

This campaign emphasized getting rid of breeding grounds for the species, both through preventive measures and fumigation. Some of its recommendations include:

But fumigations and awareness campaigns require vast amounts of resources. While the regions have exclusive budgets to fight mosquito-borne diseases, in the past months a portion of that money has been used to face the pandemic, report Jorge Carrillo and Alicia Tovar for Peru’s investigative outlet Ojo Público.

As a result, populations with less access to information, healthcare, and lower socioeconomic conditions remain more at risk because they are more likely to preserve cans or planters to conserve water.

“We need tools to understand the impact of environmental factors on dengue’s seasonality. If we have a detailed system of who could be more at risk and where and when dengue could spread, we could reinforce prevention strategies,” concludes Muñoz.

The post Dengue—an Epidemic Within a Pandemic in Peru appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Tuberculosis Kills As Many People Each Year As COVID-19. It’s Time We Found a Better Vaccine

Fri, 01/15/2021 - 12:06

A TB patient at the Srinagar-based Chest Diseases Hospital in the Indian state of Kashmir. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS

By External Source
Jan 15 2021 (IPS)

In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is the same one still used today.

This first dose of BCG was the culmination of 13 years of research and development.

BCG remains the only licensed vaccine against TB and 2021 marks its 100th anniversary.

Today, all eyes are on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. But while the number of people who died from COVID-19 in the last year is shocking, TB kills about the same number of people — about 1.5-2 million — each year, and has done so for many decades.

In fact, it’s estimated that over the last 200 years, more than 1 billion people have died from TB, far more than from any other infectious disease.

If we have a vaccine, why do so many people still die from TB?

Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It’s transmitted when a person with active TB coughs up aerosol droplets, which are then inhaled by someone else.

There are about 10 million cases of active TB annually, and it’s estimated up to 2 billion people are what’s known as “latently infected”. That means they are not sick and do not transmit the disease, but in about 10% of these people the disease reactivates.

In most TB endemic regions of the world, BCG is given to infants shortly after birth. The vaccination prevents childhood versions of TB and saves thousands of children’s lives annually.

However, the efficacy of BCG wanes over time. In other words, it stops working. Protection against TB is often lost by adolescence or early adulthood.

Importantly, BCG doesn’t prevent active lung TB in adults, the most important driver of ongoing transmission and cause of death.

The World Health Organization has a goal of TB elimination. To do that, we need to find a TB vaccine that also works in adults.

Why hasn’t BCG been replaced with a more effective TB vaccine?

Over the last decades only about 15 new TB vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials (versus 63 for COVID-19 in one year).

Worryingly, many of the most advanced TB vaccine candidates work no better than BCG.

Because the current TB vaccine candidate pipeline is relatively small, these setbacks and trial “failures” mean BCG may remain the gold standard for many years to come.

Despite being 100 years old, exactly how BCG vaccine works is largely unknown. It’s unclear why BCG usually only confers protection against childhood versions of TB or why protection wanes in adolescence.

Given those uncertainties, we can count ourselves lucky the bureaucratic hurdles for vaccine development were significantly lower in the 1920s.

If BCG were developed today, it would probably never be used; the current complex regulatory framework for vaccine development and licensing would likely not allow the use of a vaccine for which nothing or little is known about how it works.

The reasons BCG hasn’t been replaced with a more effective TB vaccine include:

the decline of TB in many Western countries in the 20th century
limited interest from pharmaceutical companies to invest in TB vaccine development
the fact TB research and pre-clinical vaccine development is logistically challenging and requires special biological containment facilities
the short-term and fiercely competitive environment for government and philanthropic research funding makes it difficult for academics to commit to TB vaccine research as a career path.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

The pace of COVID-19 vaccine development shows what’s possible when the political will, pharmaceutical interest and funding is there.

While TB is no longer widespread in Australia, it is an issue in remote Indigenous communities.

Papua New Guinea, Australia’s closest neighbour, has high rates of multi-drug resistant TB and low BCG coverage rates. TB has been introduced into Australia via the Torres Strait, with a high proportion of cross-border diagnoses in North Queensland and over-representation of Indigenous children.

Resistance to current TB treatments increases steadily. Treatment of multi drug-resistant TB is hugely expensive and can take up to two years, requiring multiple antibiotics and close monitoring.

Now is the time to put financial and political will into finding a more effective TB vaccine.

2020 taught us pathogens can cause enormous harm to societies and economies. Investment into infectious disease research and vaccine development represents a fraction of the economic cost of a pandemic.

Tuberculosis is a global threat and a public health concern on a scale similar to COVID-19. The development of a new and effective TB vaccine is crucial if TB is to be significantly reduced, let alone eradicated.

Although the anniversary of BCG is cause for celebration, it should also serve as a reminder more needs to be done to combat this deadly disease.

Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University

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

The post Tuberculosis Kills As Many People Each Year As COVID-19. It’s Time We Found a Better Vaccine appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Legally Speaking, Is Digital Money Really Money?

Fri, 01/15/2021 - 10:22

Can mobile money be categorized as digital money? IOM helped Mohammed Ahmed to set up a shop in Omduram market, near Khartoum, Sudan. The initiative involves the use of mobile money to buy goods. Credit: International Organization for Migration / Yasir Elbakri

By Catalina Margulis and Arthur Rossi
WASHINGTON DC, Jan 15 2021 (IPS)

Countries are moving fast toward creating digital currencies. Or, so we hear from various surveys showing an increasing number of central banks making substantial progress towards having an official digital currency.

But, in fact, close to 80 percent of the world’s central banks are either not allowed to issue a digital currency under their existing laws, or the legal framework is not clear.

To help countries make this assessment, we reviewed the central bank laws of 174 IMF members in a new IMF staff paper, and found out that only about 40 are legally allowed to issue digital currencies.

Not just a legal technicality

Any money issuance is a form of debt for the central bank, so it must have a solid basis to avoid legal, financial and reputational risks for the institutions. Ultimately, it is about ensuring that a significant and potentially contentious innovation is in line with a central bank’s mandate. Otherwise, the door is opened to potential political and legal challenges.

Now, readers may be asking themselves: if issuing money is the most basic function for any central bank, why then is a digital form of money so different? The answer requires a detailed analysis of the functions and powers of each central bank, as well as the implications of different designs of digital instruments.

Building a case for digital currencies

To legally qualify as currency, a means of payment must be considered as such by the country’s laws and be denominated in its official monetary unit. A currency typically enjoys legal tender status, meaning debtors can pay their obligations by transferring it to creditors.

Therefore, legal tender status is usually only given to means of payment that can be easily received and used by the majority of the population. That is why banknotes and coins are the most common form of currency.

To use digital currencies, digital infrastructure—laptops, smartphones, connectivity—must first be in place. But governments cannot impose on their citizens to have it, so granting legal tender status to a central bank digital instrument might be challenging. Without the legal tender designation, achieving full currency status could be equally challenging. Still, many means of payments widely used in advanced economies are neither legal tender nor currency (e.g. commercial book money).

Uncharted waters?

Digital currencies can take different forms. Our analysis focuses on the legal implications of the main concepts being considered by various central banks. For instance, where it would be “account-based” or “token-based”. The first means digitalizing the balances currently held on accounts in a central banks’ books; while the second refers to designing a new digital token not connected to the existing accounts that commercial banks hold with a central bank.

From a legal perspective, the difference is between centuries-old traditions and uncharted waters. The first model is as old as central banking itself, having been developed in the early 17th century by the Exchange Bank of Amsterdam, considered the precursor of modern central banks. Its legal status under public and private law in most countries is well developed and understood.

Digital tokens, in contrast, have a very short history and unclear legal status. Some central banks are allowed to issue any type of currency (which could include digital forms), while most (61 percent) are limited to only banknotes and coins.

Another important design feature is whether the digital currency is to be used only at the “wholesale” level, by financial institutions, or could be accessible to the general public (“retail”). Commercial banks hold accounts with their central bank, being therefore their traditional “clients.”

Allowing private citizens’ accounts, as in retail banking, would be a tectonic shift to how central banks are organized and would require significant legal changes. Only 10 central banks in our sample would currently be allowed to do so.

A challenging endeavor

The overlapping of these and other design features can create very complex legal challenges—and could well influence the decisions made by each monetary authority.

The creation of central bank digital currencies will also raise legal issues in many other areas, including tax, property, contracts, and insolvency laws; payments systems; privacy and data protection; most fundamentally, preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.

If they are to be “the next milestone in the evolution of money,” central bank digital currencies need robust legal foundations that ensure smooth integration to the financial system, credibility and broad acceptance by countries’ citizens and economic agents.

The post Legally Speaking, Is Digital Money Really Money? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Catalina Margulis is a Consulting Counsel in the IMF Legal Department’s Financial and Fiscal Law unit, seconded from the Central Bank of Chile.

Arthur Rossi is a Research Officer in the IMF Legal Department’s Financial and Fiscal Law unit.

The post Legally Speaking, Is Digital Money Really Money? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

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