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

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 26 2020 (IPS)

This year, the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary – a milestone of extraordinary economic and social progress in Asia and the Pacific. While the Organization enjoys a lifespan almost equal to the world’s improved average life expectancy, the future lies with those who have recently embarked on theirs: our young people.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

As they continue breaking ground with entrepreneurial spirit to address defining issues of our time like climate change, technology and inequality, our investments in them will win the battle for sustainability.

Young entrepreneurs have been a source of innovation and economic dynamism, creating jobs and providing livelihoods to millions. To achieve and accelerate action on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we urgently need their expertise and voices on creating solutions to social and environmental challenges, as well as economic opportunities.

Yet, they have needed no prompting: the social entrepreneurship movement has emerged in Asia and the Pacific in response to pressing issues, including COVID-19. Spearheaded by the region’s young people with a strong sense of social justice, social entrepreneurs are providing innovative, market-based solutions that break the mold of traditional models focused on economic growth. But we must do more to truly realize the transformative potential of young social entrepreneurs.

First, we need to ensure that the next generation of business leaders think about social purpose as well as profit. To achieve this, education will be critical. Governments play a key role, like the Government of Pakistan’s Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. The Centre’s mission is to support students and young entrepreneurs identify innovative business solutions to urgent problems related to the SDGs.

Second, we need to scale up innovative financing solutions. It is encouraging to see governments embracing impact investing as a policy tool to provide much-needed finance to young social entrepreneurs. As an example, ESCAP supported the Government of Malaysia to launch the Social Impact Exchange. The Exchange mirrors a traditional stock exchange and links social purpose organisations to impact investors.

ESCAP and its partner the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) are also supporting organizations like iFarmer in Bangladesh. The joint effort has supported iFarmer in creating a digital app to establish a profit-sharing model between urban investors and rural women farm entrepreneurs that involves the purchase and management of livestock. After successful livestock management (raising and selling cattle), the investor and woman entrepreneur share the profits, while iFarmer receives support through a management fee.

Third, as we are living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digitally savvy young social entrepreneurs hold much promise. While Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies pose challenges to the economy – most notably relating to jobs and the future of work – they also have the potential to spur mass entrepreneurship and new ways of doing business. ESCAP is currently supporting FinTech start-ups like Aeloi Technologies to develop digital finance and green solutions for women entrepreneurs. Aeloi’s goal is to make impact funding for women microentrepreneurs accountable and accessible using digital tokens, providing an assured digital link between funders and carbon offset providers. They work specifically with the electric minibus sector in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their system helps ensure that each $1 of investment is used towards building renewable energy powered transportation by providing real-time climate and social impact tracking.

The United Nation’s 75th anniversary comes at the critical juncture of a new decade to accelerate the SDGs and recover from an unprecedented crisis. The need for innovative solutions and stronger cooperation across all stakeholders, particularly the youth, is clear.

In this context, the UN family’s anniversary event in Asia and the Pacific will bring together young social innovators and entrepreneurs from across the region whose ideas, platforms and businesses have made an impact. These innovators will discuss how technology and innovative solutions of today can be scaled up to build back better towards more inclusive, resilience and green economies and societies.

We stand ready to support these young people and their innovative solutions for tackling inequality and promoting inclusion, economic empowerment of women and girls and moving towards decarbonization and tackling air pollution. In many ways, it is they who are carrying the mantle of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 

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The post The United Nations, 75 Years Young: Engaging Youth Social Entrepreneurs to Accelerate the SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

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

The post The United Nations, 75 Years Young: Engaging Youth Social Entrepreneurs to Accelerate the SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Stuart Minchin
Oct 26 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Good data and statistics make essential contributions to building resilient and strong democratic societies. Decisions based on empirical data rather than anecdote or opinion are the foundation for good policy and planning. A focus on science and evidence-based data has been the cornerstone of SPC’s work for over 70 years. And as our understanding of the complexities and interconnected nature of our world increases, the need for good data has become ever more critical.

To get a sense of the kind of positive impact good data can have on our region, look no further than the field of education. Despite the clear need, good quality data on education systems has not always been readily available in the Pacific. This gap has had significant implications for the development and monitoring of education throughout the region. To address this challenge, SPC’s Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP) has focused its efforts on re-developing and enhancing education management information systems.

This has been no small task. Our Pacific nations rich traditions and culture also mean that each approaches education in a slightly different way. And yet, for data to be meaningful it must be consistent and measurable against a common baseline.

A key strategy for EQAP, therefore, has been to assist Pacific Island countries and territories by supporting the coordination and development of their unique national education targets, while ensuring that national education databases can collect data on common themes in order to provide a more complete picture of the trends, struggles and opportunities for the region.

SPC puts a strong emphasis on the importance of partnerships and this publication is no exception to that tradition. The EQAP team has worked with stakeholders across the region to gather and sort the critical information it contains. However even the best regional data cannot be fully utilized unless it is widely used and shared, not only in the Pacific, but as a part of the global knowledge base of education data. EQAP, with the support of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), has therefore partnered with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to ensure that Pacific educational data becomes part of the international conversation.

The culmination of all this work will come with the soon to be released, 2020 Status of Pacific Education Report that will allow Pacific nations to see their progress, find areas of common challenges and inspire innovative ways to reach both national and regional ambitions for education.

Data is about more than just numbers and statistics. Its’ collection, organisation and analysis provide insights and information, but it also inspires cooperation and better communication. These tools will be essential for the Pacific to reach its sustainable development goals, whether in geosciences, oceans, land resources, health or education.

Stuart Minchin

Stuart Minchin
Director-General
Before he joined the Pacific Community (SPC) on 23 January 2020, Dr Minchin previously served as Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division of Geoscience Australia, a centre of expertise in the Australian Government for environmental earth science issues and the custodian of national environmental geoscience data, information and knowledge. He has represented Australia in key international forums and has been the Principal Delegate to both the UN Global Geospatial Information Management Group of Experts (UNGGIM) and the Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

The post Good data is the key to a sustainable post-COVID Pacific appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Stuart Minchin, is Director-General Pacific Community (SPC)

The post Good data is the key to a sustainable post-COVID Pacific appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Reaching remote communities. Credit: UnSplash / Ashwini C.

By Fairuz Ahmed
NEW YORK, Oct 26 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the way people value working from home, career building, and their overall approach to utilising downtime.

It has blurred out the lines between hobby, casual reading, and how time is spent away from work.

Despite a myriad of negative impacts, it has opened doors to career reboots and gaining skills for people who otherwise would have been left out.

COVID19 has made work from home the ‘new normal’, and around the globe, people are adapting to a life where a significant portion is spent online.

About two-thirds of businesses that have adopted remote work policies and plan to keep at least some of those policies in place long-term or permanently.

Research published in Business Insider in June 2020 stated that about 67% of companies polled in and work from home is expected to be permanent or long-lasting.

The report also noted that where offices that do remain will probably shrink: 47% of respondents said their organisations were likely to reduce their physical office footprint.

While this creates opportunities online, rural and poor communities, the technology gap exists could be locked out.

Companies that were already working in the career growth sector like Udemy and Coursera have gained incredible traction and growth during the pandemic.

The San Francisco-based company, Udemy.co which one of the prominent platforms in the “massively open online course” (MOOC) movement, released its data highlights that it saw a more than 400% spike in course enrolments for individuals between February and March.

Business and government use increased by 80%, while instructors created 55% more new courses.

Coursera Blog mentions similar proceedings as well. They have already activated more than 220 programs for governments across 70+ countries and 25 US states, and these programs have benefited more than 200,000 learners.

Another similar platform, Fuzia also delivers value-added methods to boost and empower creative women through the fusion of cultures and ideas.

Creating inclusive technology. Credit: UnSplash / Pongsawat P.

They are working to provide people from all walks of life a means to gain essential knowledge to ramp up their careers and find new alternatives to traditional options.

Anyone with access to the internet can have access to training facilities for free from this platform. Besides career development training, this platform also helps with hobby building, turn a passion into a side business, and entrepreneurs to launch their dream initiatives.

A teacher, artist, and calligrapher Fuziaite, Ravleen Kaur from Delhi, India, who participated during the lockdown comments: “Fuzia is a significant platform in my life. It helped me in promoting my work. Being the winner, in one of the contests, is a dream come true.”

Due to the switch to internet-based education, business and work, a study carried out by Statista on Digital users Worldwide shows that almost 4.57 billion people were active internet users as of July 2020, encompassing 59 percent of the global population.

In the case of Fuzia, users come from South Asian countries. For example, in India alone, there are over 560 million internet users. India is the second-largest online market in the world, ranked only behind China. It is estimated that by 2023, there would be over 650 million internet users in the country.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimated that about 60% of Indian internet users viewed vernacular content, and only about a quarter of internet users were over the age of 35 years in 2019.

The WEF also estimated that 1.1 billion Indians would have access to the internet by 2030, with 80% of the subscriber base primarily accessing the internet on mobile devices. The profile of India’s internet user base was predicted to diversify by 2030 with 80% of users accessing vernacular content and with users over 25 years, making up 45% of the total subscriber base.

Fuzia (https://www.fuzia.com), a platform founded by Riya Sinha and Shraddha Varma, has created a space where users can network, have a conversation, share their creativity, find work opportunities and study online provides a safe space for their community.

They ensure that profanity and hate speech is eliminated and so the engagement, which includes pre-teens to seniors, is affirming and positive.

They too provide an opportunity for people wishing to develop skills in various ways. Their English courses are popular, including short courses on spoken English, 70 common English phrases, daily vocabulary, common mistakes, and ways to improve with online English courses. All are fully supported by video content.

Those who do the courses find it fun and engaging. Sanna Sher (21) from Pakistan who is a native Urdu speaker, living in the United States comments that: “Learning to speak English confidently and fluently has been my goal for a long time. I found Fuzia, and this has made my learning much easier. The video clips and instructions are easy to understand, and I can access these anytime I wish, from the comfort of my home.”

There are speakers from various nations and various dialects who use the Fuzia platform. Under the discussion topics and threads, the users also help each other with tips to learn a lesson well.

The courses are also supported by video clips, provided by trained teachers and instructors.

“I was hesitant and worried that I might be judged for not understanding English well. But I see that there are many, in similar situations like me. This has given me the courage to reach out for help and engage in discussion. During COVID19 lockdown, I have made multiple friends, and together with Fuzia, we have learned to speak better,” Sher says.

As the majority of users use mobile phones the content has been designed to be short and practical. In fact, a mobile phone with a basic connection and a pair of headphones is enough to study, work, or learn from any location even while travelling, working at home, or carrying on with daily activities.

They have teamed up with industry leaders to provide free, state-of-the-art courses including practical skills like writing and others which can assist with societal issues like identifying and managing domestic abuse and violence, LGBTQI issues and others.

 

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UN Secretary-General António Guterres meets religious leaders April 2020 at Gurdwara Kartapur Sahib in Punjab province in Pakistan. Religious leaders of all faiths are being urged by the Secretary-General to join forces and work for peace around the world and focus on the common battle to defeat COVID-19. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Professor Azza Karam
NEW YORK, Oct 26 2020 (IPS)

As the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb said on October 20: “As a Muslim and being the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, I declare before Almighty God that I disassociate myself, the rulings of the religion of Islam, and the teachings of the Prophet of Mercy, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), from such heinous terrorist act and from whoever would embrace such deviant, false thought.

At the same time, I reiterate that insulting religions and abusing sacred religious symbols under the slogan of the freedom of expression, are forms of intellectual terrorism and a blatant call for hatred. Such a terrorist and his likes do not represent the true religion of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Likewise, the terrorist of New Zealand, who killed the Muslims while praying in the mosque, does not represent the religion of Jesus, peace be upon him. Indeed, all religions prohibit the killing of innocent lives”

The above words of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif — Sunni Islam’s intellectual headquarters, long standing knowledge base and one of its political epicenters — were shared at an ongoing conference hosted by the St Egidio Community, entitled “No One is Saved Alone Peace and Fraternity”.

In turn, these words were read out at this meeting, by Judge Mohammed Abdel Salam, the first Muslim to ever present a Papal Encyclical (in October 2020), and the first Muslim ever to be decorated as Commander with a star medal (Commenda con Placca dell’ordine Piano), by the Pope, for his great role and efforts in promoting interreligious dialogue and the relationships between Al-Azhar and the Catholic Church (in March 2019).

Judge Mohammed Abdel Salam is the Secretary General of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, and represents the Grand Imam on the World Council (governing board) of Religions for Peace, a 50 year-old multi-religious organization representing all the world’s religious institutions and faith communities – in effect, a “UN of religions”.

And yet these words seem to have to be repeated again and again. Many Muslims live in fear that each and every day’s news potentially bears yet another heinous act of violence whose mad perpetrator(s) claim(s) is done for or inspired by “Islam”.

Many Muslims still hear two comments again and again from within the western hemisphere: “where is the condemnation?”, and even more insidiously, an assertion that “there must be something in the religion that makes these repeated acts of violence …possible”.

Some western government-sanctioned narratives go so far as to describe “Islamic extremism”, further compounding a sense of victimisation by many Muslims, and adding to the ‘spin’ that the religion itself is capable of extremism.

No religion is itself intrinsically capable of anything. People live religion. In his latest Encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”( in Chapter 8 “religion and fraternity”), the Pontiff focuses on “Religions at the service of fraternity in our world” and emphasizes that terrorism is not due to religion but to erroneous interpretations of religious texts, as well as “policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression” (paragraphs 282-283).

The Encyclical maintains that a journey of peace among religions is possible and that it is therefore necessary to guarantee religious freedom, a fundamental human right for all believers (paragraph 279).

Muslims – leaders, laypeople, communities, and multiple institutions – have condemned, continue to condemn and will always condemn violence in the name of their faith.

Imam Sayyed Razawi, the Secretary General of the Scottish Ahl al-Bayt Society, and a Trustee of Religions for Peace, notes that “since Islam does not teach harming others, a question that arises is what was the motivation of an individual who had a claim to being Muslim, to violate the parameters of the laws of his faith and country in committing such an act?

There is no doubt Muslims, be they in France or across the world, hurt, when their Prophet is seemingly insulted. However, it does not justify breaking the very principles laid down in Islam to prevent such acts”.

Both Judge Abdel Salam and Imam Razawi, are of similar age. The former, living in the Arab world, the latter, living in the West. Both are Muslim leaders, and both are well versed in Islamic Jurisprudence, and learned about Islamic traditions. Both continue to iterate, in multiple speeches, conferences and contexts, that what inspires them, is to serve humanity.

Imam Sayed Razawi continues to note that serving humanity leads us down a pathway which has various labels, though amounting to roughly the same thing: interfaith, inter religious dialogue, and/or multi faith collaboration. The ultimate aim and purpose have always been, and remains, how best to live harmoniously with others.

For both these Muslim leaders, and millions of other Muslims, the inspiration to maintain that such atrocities are not in our name, comes from the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). A man who even before prophecy was working with peoples of various faiths and backgrounds. A merchant, whose employer was a woman – later to become his wife when she proposed to him- and who believed passionately in being truthful and trustworthy.

“So much so” Razawi maintains, “that Jews, Christians, and pagans alike would entrust him with that which they held valuable to themselves, with the belief it would be safe. As a Prophet, Muhammad developed a city where Muslims lived side by side with Jews, Christians, Sabians and pagans. These lessons lead to the formation of a civilisation on the very same principles: coexistence and peace.”

Both the Imam and the Judge speak of their hurt when evil acts such as what has been witnessed in Paris take place. Both maintain, again, alongside countless others, that “it is important to repeat and continue to repeat that these are not the teachings of Islam, nor its Prophet or the interpretations of core Islamic principles”.

These atrocities are against what they believe, what they live, and what they preach, which is: peaceful coexistence, reconciliation and obeying the laws of the land one lives in, not to mention the need to uphold virtues such as compassion, love and forgiveness.

Both maintain that acts of violence are not reflective of a religion whose leaders have categorically emphasised the need for “loving thy neighbour”, because, as Imam Razawi states “either a person is your brother in faith, or your equal in your humanity.”

So why would an act be committed which is contrary to the very faith the actor confesses to be?

This is the question secular policy-makers may not ask. Or perhaps they do ask behind closed doors in rooms bursting with indifference to religion and religious sentiments.

Or yet again, maybe this is a question asked by religious ‘technocrats’ (those working on religion in secular spaces) and/or secular bureaucrats keen on instrumentalizing religious sentiments for ‘national security’ concerns.

But this is the question that every faith leader asks – and asks repeatedly. The answers lie, again, in what the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”, calls for, which the Catholic Pontiff also concludes his Encyclical with: “we were made for love” (Paragraph 88), and love builds bridges.

But how can we build bridges with love? Religions for Peace has been doing this work through 96 national and regional Inter-Religious Councils, with representatives of all faith traditions, for five decades.

In 2019, 250 religious leaders committed to building these bridges with and through service to the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.

When Covid-19 hit, Religions for Peace set up a Multi-Religious Humanitarian Fund dedicated to supporting faith communities work to serve all, together. The religious leaders understood that there is no point to working to realise the SDGs, without a mechanism to collate and coordinate their efforts, geared towards serving social cohesion (in a world gone awry), within our new normal: humanitarian crisis.

Confronting Covid is an opportunity to work together across religious and institutional differences to build bridges of love. The humanitarian call is being heeded today like never before, by the first responders in crisis situations – i.e. religious institutions and NGOs. But few of these religious NGOs are actually collaborating, meaning jointly investing their resources, to serve together.

We can keep on having meetings to speak to building back better, and the uniqueness of faith (or business or civil society actors), and still face countless acts of violence (attributed to religion) from those whose sense of marginalization is intensifying.

We can choose to continue to serve our own organizational and territorial visibility and interests, while hundreds of thousands continue to die, and millions suffer, from a shared ecosystem of planetary degradation.

Or we can serve the multi-religious call – the multi-religious imperative – and actually pool our financial, human and spiritual resources together – to build bridges with love. The choice is ours.

 

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The post Not in Our Name, Never in Our Name: A Conversation with Muslim Faith Leaders Echoing the Wisdom of a Pontiff appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Azza Karam serves as the Secretary-General of Religions for Peace (#Religions4Peace – www.rfp.org) and is a Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The post Not in Our Name, Never in Our Name: A Conversation with Muslim Faith Leaders Echoing the Wisdom of a Pontiff appeared first on Inter Press Service.

There are nearly two million stillbirths every year. Credit: UNSPLASH/Claudia Wolff

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 26 2020 (IPS)

Societal taboo and a lack of understanding about stillbirth  can cause the issue to be neglected among health practitioners, according to Dr. Danzhen You, a senior adviser on Data and Analytics at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

She shared her insight with IPS after a U.N. high-level meeting organised to raise awareness and to end preventable stillbirths last week.

There are nearly two million stillbirths every year, according to a joint statement released ahead of the event by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the World Bank Group and the Population Division of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

At the talk, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for an end to the stigma surrounding stillbirths and for higher investments to prevent them. In the last 20 years, he said, 14 countries, including Cambodia, India and Mongolia have been able to reduce their stillbirth rate by more than half.

But this growth regressed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

With reference to the mothers who suffer from stillbirth, he said: “They need support, not shame.”

Christine Wangechi from Kenya, who suffered a stillbirth last year, said during her trauma, she was not aware that there are other women who had similar experiences.

She said her experience was very “silent” and that she hopes that in speaking publicly, she can help other grieving mothers feel less alone.

Istiyani Purbaabsari, a midwife from Indonesia who spoke at the event, also added that a lack of awareness may be impeding the progress on lowering stillbirths.

The stigma, combined with the lack of awareness or communication about the issue, means it remains left out of conversations, according to You of UNICEF, who is also the Coordinator of the U.N. Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

Excerpts of the interview with You follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): According to UNICEF, the issue of stillbirths remains low as a priority on the global public health agenda. Why has it not been a priority in these conversations?

Dr. Danzhen You (DY): With two million babies stillborn every year, the burden of stillbirths is enormous. They are invisible in policies and programmes and under-financed as an area requiring intervention.

Most people (including some clinicians) do not have a common understanding of what a stillbirth is; definitions vary across and within countries and cultures. The death of an unborn baby remains a taboo topic in many cultures. Communications work has been insufficient in raising awareness among communities, health professionals, and policy makers about the burden of stillbirth, including numbers, preventability, and the pain and grief it causes to women and families

There is also a lack of understanding of stillbirths, leading to fatalism, guilt and blame. Many clinicians are not aware that most stillbirths are preventable with known interventions; many families and communities also do not realise this, meaning it is often the woman who is blamed or feels responsible for the loss.

IPS: How do the stigma and misconceptions surrounding stillbirth hamper the efforts to end stillbirths?

DY: Stillbirths are often regarded as inevitable events and may be grouped with miscarriages for reporting. In some cultures, stillbirths are perceived as the mother’s fault, resulting in public shaming or individual feelings of guilt or shame that prevent public mourning of their loss.

Moreover, the lack of opportunity to publicly grieve can cause stillbirths to be considered “non-events”. In some countries, stillbirths are perceived as rare, accounting for a negligible fraction of the burden of disease in countries or at global level.

These social taboos, stigmas and misconceptions often silence families or impact the recognition and grieving of stillbirths, contributing to their continuing invisibility.

IPS: How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the issue of stillbirths?

DY: The world is currently scrambling to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic might be leading to disruptions in health services. Our analysis shows that the response to the pandemic could worsen the situation by potentially adding nearly 200,000 stillbirths to the global tally over a 12-month period in 117 low and middle-income countries in a scenario with severe health service disruptions (around 50 percent) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This number may underestimate the additional stillbirth burden that could occur.

However, we were missing opportunities to prevent families from experiencing the pain of stillbirths even before the pandemic. Few women received timely and high-quality care to prevent stillbirths. In half of the 117 low and middle-income countries analysed, less than two to 50 percent of pregnant women received key interventions that could prevent stillbirths. For example, coverage for assisted vaginal delivery – a critical intervention for preventing intrapartum stillbirths – is estimated to reach less than half of pregnant women in low-and middle-income countries.

IPS: What are some challenges that remain with  gathering statistics on the issue?

DY: The targets specific to stillbirths were absent from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are still missing in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Many countries do not have a defined stillbirth target. Among the 93 countries that have reported on their progress using the Every Newborn Action Plan tracking tool, only 30 have a defined stillbirth target, compared to 78 countries with a neonatal mortality target.

Stillbirths are largely absent in worldwide data tracking, rendering the true extent of the problem hidden. Sixty two countries had either no stillbirth data or insufficient quality data. While the causes of neonatal death are tracked globally by WHO, there are no such data for stillbirth.

IPS: What do you think is the way ahead?

DY: Progress is possible with sound policy, investment and programmes. For example, Southern Asia, which has the second highest stillbirth rate of all regions in the world, has reduced the stillbirth rate by 44 percent since 2000.

We must do better, faster, or 20 million babies will be stillborn by 2030. There is hope, but only if we act now, collectively, by raising voices, increasing awareness, reducing stigma, taboo and misconception.

Related Articles

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• Preventable Child Deaths Not Always Linked to Poorest Countries: UNICEF

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Credit: KMP in the Philippines, supported by the Agroecology Fund

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Oct 23 2020 (IPS)

Producing food and ensuring nutrition security, protecting the environment and restoring biodiversity, building sustainable and fair food systems: That’s the promise of agroecology.

It is a dream? Or an economically feasible model that can feed a growing world population, expected to increase by 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, reaching 9.7 billion in 2050?

“Some people have been saying: Maybe it is more sustainable or it’s more resilient, but it’s not as productive and not as economically viable. This has been [shown] to be untrue, even in Europe,” Emile Frison, member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, told Degrees of Latitude.

“There are many examples throughout the world now, either at individual farms or at [the] community level or even at [the] regional level, where agroecological practices have been implemented and are showing their potential from … different points of view, including the economic point of view,” he said.

Since 2016, the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has been the largest-scale example of how agroecology can be applied to increase yields and improve the economic condition of farmers. Zero Budget Natural Farming involves 500,000 peasants in the practice of community-based natural farming: no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, preservation of the health of the soil, landscape regeneration, biodiverse productions, intense training of farmers, and the involvement of communities.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh aims to cover 6 million farmers by 2024 and the entire cultivable area of 8 million hectares by 2026. The programme was implemented because of the high rate of farmers’ debt, which has been linked to high suicide rates. More than a quarter of a million farmers have committed suicide in India in the last two decades. The strict measures adopted to prevent the spread of the coronavirus are exacerbating the suffering of farmers crippled by debt.

“India as a whole is a place where there have been hundreds of thousands of farmer suicides, farmers’ deaths … In the circle of purchasing expensive inputs and having crop failure, many hundreds of thousands of farmers have committed suicide over the years: there [has] been a lot of migration from the rural areas into the urban areas,” Daniel Moss, Executive Director of the Agroecology Fund, told Degrees of Latitude.

In an attempt to find solutions for sustaining their land and growing food more safely, thereby promoting their own good and that of consumers, “constituency organizations, primarily of women that have been very concerned about health and nutrition and farming issues” have pressured the Andhra Pradesh government to find a solution, Moss explained.

The ambition of “Zero Budget” is to end farmers’ heavy indebtment by dramatically reducing production costs, as well as not relying on credit and purchased chemical inputs. According to Frison, a study of the initiative has shown that productivity was 20 percent higher in agroecological farms than in farms using conventional agriculture techniques, industrial synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides. The agroecological farms also economically performed 50 percent better because of the lower costs of production and the capacity to sell at higher prices on the market, due to consumers’ recognition of the better quality of the products. A survey of 97 Zero Budget farmers reported increased yield, seed diversity, product quality, household food autonomy, income, and health, along with reduced farm expenses and credit needs.

However, India is not the only example of agroecology scalability. The Association of Organic Movement Federation of Kyrgyzstan – BiokG – is developing a network of organic “aymaks,” or groups of farmers. The project, supported by the Agroecology Fund, is based on collaboration among farmers to “develop a system of self-assessment of organic farms production quality, productivity and income generation, as well as their development related to organic agriculture technologies introducing, with respect to national traditions and heritage,” AGF explained. It started locally, at the village level, but expanded into a nation-wide network and could potentially spread to neighbouring countries. “That’s the idea of what we call [the] agroecology movement: there’s a lot of evidence and learning that may happen in one place [that can ripple…],” Moss said.

The lock-down has shown that supplying the urban population is also a challenge, particularly in times of crisis. Providing food from local producers, however, proved to have worked during the harsh months of the pandemic, even in a country where the confinement measures have been very strict, like the Philippines. However, also in the ordinary life of a city, agroecology seems to be able to reach consumers, thereby offering an alternative. In Nairobi, for example, there has been a whole re-introduction of traditional green leafy vegetables that were lacking in the supermarkets.

Mexico and West Africa – namely, Senegal – are among those places that seem encouraging for the advancement of agroecological practices. What’s key is to support civil society organizations in working together and putting pressure on the government, as there are often good practices that are not implemented, according to the director of the Agroecology Fund, which undertook a workshop specifically in Andhra Pradesh to understand how the government implemented the model investing hundreds of millions in training programmes to support agroecology.

“We believe very strongly in the power of the co-generation and possibly of moving things forward together,” Moss said. “We fund coalitions of organizations because we know that agroecology is that kind of field that really requires interdisciplinary solutions.” From nutritional aspects to farmers’ income, from the involvement of consumer organizations and policymakers, to power decentralization and the engagement of local decision-makers, agroecology is a model that requires collaboration and knowledge sharing.

The capacity of agroecology to feed a growing population remains in question but, according to Frison, is a mere matter of profit: “The fact that we need more fertilizers and pesticides to meet the demand is misinformation being circulated by vested interests that want to continue to sell pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.”

“If we are really trying to advance agroecology as the new food system, or the way the food has to be produced, it’s our responsibility to show that it could actually feed the world population, which is growing quite quickly,” Moss added.

 

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By PRESS RELEASE
SEOUL, Republic of Korea, Oct 23 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Following the cooperation agreement signed in December last year for the Mobilizing Article 6 Trading Structure (MATS) Program, the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) have agreed to further develop four mitigation activities with the goal of completing transactions of internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs). 75% of these activities will come from GGGI’s pipeline of bankable projects across its Members and partners. Out of the four proposed activities, two will target the energy sector in Ethiopia, one will be focused on the waste sector in Nepal, and one will focus on the manufacturing sector in Cambodia.

“GGGI is excited about this important program milestone. The MATS program will support our Member and partner countries to access international carbon finance, build regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity to increase their ambition and go beyond the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs),” explained Ms. Fenella Aouane, GGGI’s Head of Carbon Pricing Unit.

“Successful implementation of the cooperative approaches under Article 6 is a new area of focus that allows for scalable and transformative changes needed to meet the global ambitions of the Paris Agreement.”

“We are thrilled to have been able to green-light development of the first batch of Article 6 Pilot activities under the MATS program, less than one year since the program was first conceived. We hope that these pilot activities will deliver concrete results for the host countries in achieving their NDC targets, while also providing lessons for various stakeholders as the Article 6 rulemaking process continues,” said Mr. Christopher Zink, Senior Advisor at the Swedish Energy Agency. “Environmental integrity is the key focus area for Sweden when it comes to testing Article 6, including scalability, additionality, conservative baselines, attribution and the avoidance of double counting.”

Through joint collaboration, GGGI and SEA will help countries to gain access to international finance, enabling them to unlock projects, which will not only contribute to reducing additional carbon emissions but will also enhance ambition in NDCs. Furthermore, both organizations will play a key role in supporting governments in establishing frameworks, that will create the enabling environment for international trading of mitigation outcomes under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The SEA-GGGI MATS Program is a pilot project aimed at catalyzing international trading of mitigation outcomes to support increasing climate ambitions. This month’s recent agreement – as part of the project progression, selecting specific mitigation activities, will aim to enable host countries to gain access to international carbon finance, unlocking projects which will generate additional emissions reductions, ultimately enabling greater ambition in NDCs. This work will add onto the $1.6 billion USD of green investment already mobilized by GGGI since 2015. Importantly, the program will also help to establish the enabling environments with the host countries to ensure sustainable transformational change by supporting them to put in place the governance frameworks required to engage in international trading, including systems and procedures to help avoid double counting and ensure environmental integrity.

About SEA
SEA supports the Swedish Government and Society as well as external actors with facts, knowledge, and analysis of supply and use of energy in Sweden. SEA provides funding for research on new and renewable energy technologies, smart grids, as well as vehicles and transport fuels. SEA also supports business development that promotes commercialisation of energy related innovations and ensures that promising cleantech solutions can be exported. Official energy statistics, and the management of instruments such as the Electricity Certificate System and the EU Emission Trading System, are part of SEA’s responsibility.

Furthermore, SEA has long been the home of Sweden’s CDM and JI program; and is now actively participating in international climate collaborations under the Paris Agreement.

About GGGI
GGGI was established as an international intergovernmental organization in 2012 at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Its vision is “a low-carbon, resilient world of strong, inclusive, and sustainable growth” and its mission “to support Members in the transformation of their economies into a green growth economic model”. GGGI does this through technical assistance to: reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement; create green jobs; increase access to sustainable services (such as clean affordable energy, sustainable waste management); improve air quality; sustain natural capital for adequate supply of ecosystem services; and enhance adaptation to climate change.

To learn more about GGGI, see https://www.gggi.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, and Instagram.

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Indian member of parliament and actor, Nusrat Jahan has also been targeted.

By Mariya Salim
NEW DELHI, India, Oct 23 2020 (IPS)

When a minority woman with an opinion doesn’t comply with stereotypes, she is targeted with online hate, says award-winning journalist and senior editor at The Wire, Arfa Khanum Sherwani in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service.

Sherwani has been at the receiving end of online violence and hate, including rape and death threats, like her other women journalist counterparts, because she questions policies and performance of the present Indian government. What makes her experience of facing gendered and sexist online abuse different is the added layer of her identity: that of being a Muslim.

“The right-wing in India, like everywhere else in the world, likes to put certain communities in boxes. Muslim women are supposed to dress a certain way, speak a certain language or perhaps not speak at all. As a Muslim woman, with an opinion who does not fit their imaginary stereotypes, they use violence against me online,” Sherwani says. “When the trolls question my journalism, they make sure to question my religion and make the majority community look at my work through the lens of my religion alone to discredit my work.”

Arfa Khanum Sherwani, award-winning journalist and editor, finds her religion highlighted in online hate campaigns.

In 2018, five Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations urged India to urgently provide protection to author and journalist Rana Ayyub, who had been a target of an online hate campaign which included calls for her to be “gang-raped and murdered”. During the online assault, her contact details were made public, and there were references to her “Muslim faith”.

India has an ever-growing percentage of internet users and the various social media platforms act as a window for India’s marginalised communities to be able to express their opinions, seek an audience and build community.

Where on the one hand the internet has enabled participation in the public sphere with greater ease for marginalised groups, the increasing amount of online hate and violence, especially against women from these communities, has left them feeling vulnerable and, in many situations, threatened with physical harm.

The violence exacerbates when those with an opinion online identify themselves as women from a religious, racial or ethnic minority, or the LGBTQIA community.

In India, the increasing Islamophobia and violence against its largest religious minority, Muslims, is mirrored in the virtual spaces as well. Women from the Muslim community are targeted explicitly with slurs and sexist abuse, directed towards their religious identity.

Nabiya Khan, a 24-year-old Muslim poet and activist, is threatened online for her headscarf and Muslim identity than for her activism.

Nabiya Khan, a 24-year-old Muslim poet and activist, endured threats online.

“Some call me Jahil Jihadan (meaning illiterate terrorist, with the word terrorist here having an Islamic connotation), others ask me to remove my headscarf and then speak up against any kind of social injustice. I am often asked to go to Pakistan accompanied by rape threats of the most vile kind.”

It is not only those who are on the platforms who are targets. The spreading of false news narratives against minorities, mostly religious and caste oppressed minorities like Muslims, Christians and Dalits has often led to women from these communities, even if far removed from these platforms, at the receiving end of real-life harm.

Sexual violence against women is a tool to humiliate and punish the broader community and strip it of its honour and integrity.

In 2013, for instance, a fake video depicting Hindu boys being brutally killed by a Muslim mob, posted on the Facebook page of a Minister from a right-wing party, went viral. The post led to massive communal riots in Muzaffarnagar, in Uttar Pradesh during which scores of women from the Muslim community were raped.

Seven years later there has not been a single conviction in any of the reported cases.

The video was removed. However, it had stayed on the platform long enough for Muslim women in a village in rural India to experience irreparable harm.

A post written by Nabiya after she received rape and death threats on Facebook.

International human rights organisations, like the United Nations, have also taken cognisance of the growing vitriol online, with the office of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes having made “hate speech, social media and minorities” a thematic priority at the start of his mandate.

De Varennes, in an interview with IPS, was particularly concerned about the effect of hate speech on minority women.

“To reduce what is occurring online as strictly only a matter of gender, exacerbated and normalised by hate speech in social media, is to hide the significant role of religion and caste which contribute to the specific continuing and even increasing stigmatisation of minority women,” he said.

He added that raising awareness of the extent to which hate speech had become a mainly minority issue had become one of his main tasks for this year.

The “disease of the mind”, he says, that constitutes hate speech may pile up, with misogynist attacks against minority women finding fertile grounds to propagate, since it becomes “more acceptable” for some to spew hatred against women who belong to supposedly “despised minorities”.

The intersectionality of online violence against women needs, therefore, to be acknowledged.

Nusrat Jehan, an actor and Indian Member of Parliament, has received online threats and violence for her career and personal choices both from within and outside the community.

“I keep on getting judgements, fatwas, death threats, etc. from religious extremist groups,” says Nusrat, a public representative. She had to seek additional personal security while in the UK after receiving online threats for posing as a Hindu Goddess on her Instagram page in September this year.

“I do not pay heed to the trolls and their judgments. Yes, there need to be stricter laws for account creation etc. on these platforms, but whatever be the rules and laws, things won’t change until mindsets change,” she adds.

Social media companies need to take the violence faced by women on their platforms more seriously and proactively block and take down harmful content.

Reports by some CSOs have brought to light how “Facebook lacks clear user hate speech reporting mechanisms for Indian caste-oppressed minorities” and how despite a year-long advocacy with the company, nothing changed at their front.

The experience of many women, from marginalised communities, concerning the reporting of hate online on these platforms, whether Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, has been far from satisfactory. Many of the women have had their accounts taken down for revealing the identities of their abusers.

India does not have laws specifically dedicated to dealing with online violence against women, let alone those that are specific to women from religious and caste oppressed minorities.

Experts point out that what is needed is the implementation of existing cyber laws in India rather than the introduction of new ones.

Khanum points out that she has little trust in the law enforcement mechanisms and therefore refrains from reporting it to the authorities. One of the factors of this mistrust is her fear that, because she is Muslim, her concerns will not be treated seriously. What concerns her is the impunity – where a great deal of hate directed towards her comes from the verified social media handles of people in positions of power, political and otherwise.

The writer is a Fellow at IPS UN Bureau

 

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A child is weighed at a 'posyandu' (community-level health post) in Sidorejo village, Central Java province, Indonesia. Credit: UNICEF/UNI350112/Ijazah

By Joanne Bosworth and Jennifer Asman
NEW YORK, Oct 23 2020 (IPS)

2020 has not turned out as planned. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact populations around the world, governments have been forced to take a fresh look at their spending and how to meet additional costs of pandemic response as they expect a fall in revenue. Budget information has become even more critical.

Critical knowledge

When it comes to children, it is important to have a detailed view of spending in key areas like health, education, social protection and water and sanitation. Without this, it is difficult to know what services are supported or how money has been spent.

Although total spending on health has increased in many countries as part of the COVID-19 response, in many cases, funding for essential basic services like routine immunization has been cut, increasing the risk to children’s lives.

Access to quality budget information has enabled UNICEF to keep advocating for and supporting governments by avoiding cuts to essential investments in children’s futures. Here are a few examples:

Myanmar: When the Government of Myanmar was developing a supplementary budget for its COVID-19 response, UNICEF used the budget information on health, education and social protection presented to parliament, to make the case for protecting and expanding spending on critical programmes.

By reviewing proposed allocations and prioritizing immunization, social welfare and safe and healthy school environments, we developed an analysis that was instrumental in increasing the government’s budget in all three sectors by $176 million by mid-year.

Tunisia: After the collapse of global oil prices, the Tunisian government reduced fuel subsidies. Using information on funding for these subsidies, UNICEF demonstrated that child grants would bring greater benefit to poor children. In line with this analysis, the government also launched temporary cash transfers for at least 623,000 families with children.

Somaliland: Through the UN Joint Programme on Local Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery, UNICEF supports the use of “community scorecards” in Somaliland to monitor decentralized services such as water and sanitation, and the maintenance of community health and education infrastructure.

Communities provide real time SMS feedback to elected officials, strengthening oversight, which in turn can help inform better budget planning.

Suaafi Mahamed Abdi, 15, cleans his hands at an EU-funded, UNICEF-supported water point in Tog-wajaale, Somaliland. The clean and sustainable water system is the town’s first ever and provides clean water for 70,000 people. Credit: UNICEF/UN0300832/Knowles-Coursin

The economic fallout of COVID-19

As the pandemic continues, the impact on children is increasingly evident. As a result of disrupted schooling, according to the World Bank, children stand to lose the equivalent of $872 of their future earnings per year— a global loss of over $10 trillion.

Progress on infant mortality will be set back by between five and 15 years; and deaths from malaria are predicted to go back to pre-2000 levels with children-under-5 accounting for 70% of them. An additional 150 million children could be pushed into poverty.

We need urgent efforts to ensure children are protected from this long-term economic impact. This means ensuring vital social spending, and that funds are used effectively to help children and their families cope with and adapt to these new economic conditions.

Challenges in budget transparency have existed since before the pandemic. The 2019 Open Budget Survey examined sector budget transparency in education and health budgets in 28 countries.

While almost half of those countries provided complete information on spending objectives and how much funding was allocated to specific programmes, most provided partial information. A majority provided no information on how spending was distributed across different districts or provinces.

Essential to recovery

As the Myanmar, Tunisia and Somaliland examples show, improved budget transparency is not only central to an inclusive recovery but also encourages governments and partners to come together to identify more effective ways to achieve policy outcomes.

It is vital to monitoring spending, improving efficiency and ensuring resources are used effectively. This is particularly important now that many governments are making adjustments to spending plans or using emergency provisions where new programmes need not go through normal budget processes or controls. Making detailed, accurate and easy-to-understand spending plans transparent means citizens can monitor progress and highlight problems early on.

Building a resilient future

We are living in unprecedented times where every national and local government is forced to adapt and learn. Clear data on budgets, reprioritization and implementation of budgets will help us understand the impact of spending decisions on children’s lives.

UNICEF continues to work with governments and partners including the International Budget Partnership: to promote more open and transparent budgets, build this knowledge into longer term recovery programmes and improve the resilience of systems and services for the future.

 

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Excerpt:

Joanne Bosworth is Chief of Public Finance and Local Governance at UNICEF.

Jennifer Asman is Public Finance Policy Specialist at UNICEF.

The post Budgeting for a Better Future, for Every Child appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A photo-collage. Credit: Peter Costantini.

By Peter Costantini
SEATTLE, Oct 23 2020 (IPS)

By late September, the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States had claimed 200,000 lives. That’s equivalent to a slightly higher toll than the 418,500 United States deaths in World War II, adjusted for relative population and duration. [See note below.]

With four percent of the world’s population, the U.S. has suffered 20 percent of global COVID-19 deaths.

Tragically, most of these deaths need never have happened. They were caused primarily by the public-health equivalent of friendly fire: massive malpractice and deception by the Donald Trump administration. A Columbia University study in May estimated that over four-fifths of those deaths could have been avoided if emergency measures had been invoked nationally just two weeks earlier in March.

With four percent of the world’s population, the U.S. has suffered 20 percent of global COVID-19 deaths. Tragically, most of these deaths need never have happened. They were caused primarily by the public-health equivalent of friendly fire: massive malpractice and deception by the Donald Trump administration

Contrary to political posturing, there was never a trade-off between saving lives and saving the economy. Passively accepting mass deaths has not worked to restart economic activity. Instead, opening up too much too fast has fanned the viral flames in many areas, forcing the re-shuttering of businesses and stalling incipient recoveries.

As much of the world recognized months ago, the fastest and most effective way to restart the economy is to aggressively control the pandemic. As Federal Reserve Bank chairman Jerome Powell, a Trump appointee, told Congress: “’The path forward for the economy is extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in containing the virus.”

The problem was not that Trump failed to lead. Had he simply left the management of the crisis to competent public health authorities, the country would be in a much better place. Instead, despite his awareness of the dangers of COVID-19, his demagogic helmsmanship steered the country 180 degrees off course on a perilous bearing.

The President’s white nationalism and “America First” rhetoric have mutated into an exceptionally dimwitted strain of American exceptionalism. Call it the Sinatra Doctrine: Trump did it his way. Consequently, many borders are closed to U.S. travelers. His Republican régime is now scorned by much of the world as a rabble of incompetent, racist, corrupt bullies whose hubris has turned the richest and most powerful empire in history into a rogue government stewing in its own juices. Many in Trump’s flock have elevated the freedom to not wear facemasks into a cause nearly as sacred as their right to open-carry assault rifles into legislative chambers.

As Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer of a Texas hospital, put it: “I’m pretty much fighting two wars: a war against COVID and a war against stupidity. And the problem is that the first I have some hope about winning. But the second one is becoming more and more difficult to treat.”

With minimally competent leadership and international cooperation, however, the U.S. could have dramatically diminished the catastrophe. But it would have required the Trump administration and Senate Republican leadership to learn from countries that have taken the most effective public health and economic paths, and to share the advances made here. The U.S. government would have had to join the global fight to protect vulnerable communities and economies, rather than C-suites and share prices.

A tentative consensus is emerging in much of the world that the best way to keep families and firms safe and solvent and to rekindle economic growth is to confront the pandemic early and systematically with all the resources and resolve that would be mustered for a military conflict.

This approach requires complementary policies: a comprehensive public health model that integrates massive testing and contact tracing, combined with an approach to economic relief and recovery that marshals the fiscal resources necessary to preempt mass unemployment by covering payrolls before workers are laid off. These measures mutually reinforce each other: strong early health interventions make it possible to quash the pandemic rapidly and allow the economy to begin reopening sooner, while effective economic relief for afflicted families relieves the desperation to get back to work that has led to premature restarts, resulting in renewed outbreaks.

These models, however, are based on multilateralism in the world and inclusivity within the country, both alien to Trumpism. Excluding millions of “essential workers” and vulnerable families in marginalized communities at home, and billions of people in poorer countries with underfunded public health systems, risks undercutting those remedies and allowing the pandemic to continue ravaging humanity.

 

Public health

The public-health piece of this global model has been crystalized by former World Bank president Jim Young Kim, a veteran of campaigns against cholera in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa.

Kim argued that stopping COVID-19 requires orchestrating “[f]ive elements, five weapons: social distancing, contact tracing, testing, isolation, and treatment.” With this model, countries including South Korea, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and Germany have “gained control over the virus.” These countries have recognized that the novel coronavirus “is sneaky, nasty and durable – and that it has to be hunted down” using “large teams of public-health workers … on a war footing.”

This approach incorporates the insights of the battles against SARS, MERS and other previous epidemics.

While China initially tried to cover up the epidemic, it soon made an about-face and contributed significantly to global efforts. The WHO made some questionable judgements, but has continued to play a key role, providing international coordination and assistance to countries that need it.

The Trump administration, for its part, failed to learn from China’s early denials, which it praised. Many months later, it continues to deny the seriousness of the pandemic, with fatal consequences.

Trump has initiated U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, which would deprive the organization of its biggest source of financing. He has rejected international cooperation on developing vaccines, and pressured government agencies to approve a U.S. vaccine before the U.S. presidential election.

Prior to the crisis, the Trump administration had cut two-thirds of U.S. public health staff based in China, and disbanded the National Security Council directorate charged with pandemic response.

When the pandemic hit, Trump failed to scale up testing and contact tracing to track down recently exposed people. He abdicated his powers to accelerate and coordinate production of tests, personal protective equipment, and medical equipment. Instead, his boondoggles such as Project Airbridge enriched medical supply companies while failing to deliver supplies to hard-hit states.

Trump’s political gyrations have produced a CT scan of the internal weaknesses of U.S. health and social services. The absence of federal standards have fragmented requirements for mask-wearing and social distancing into a patchwork of disparate state regulations. Reflecting the deep inequalities in American society, low-wage workers in “essential” industries, communities of color, immigrants and prisoners have suffered disproportionately.

Inclusivity, though, is not simply an imperative of a just society, but also a necessity for defeating a pandemic: the more groups excluded, the larger the sacrificial population in which the virus can regenerate itself.

Unpayable bills for tens of thousands of dollars that some patients have received for their treatment highlight the country’s lack of universal health insurance and affordable medical care, shortcomings almost unknown in other wealthy countries. Containing COVID-19 is much harder when many working and unemployed people can’t afford to pay for testing and treatment.

Nevertheless, the Republican machine has continued trashing protections for all these groups. It is poised to extirpate what’s left of the Affordable Care Act, and has hamstrung occupational safety and health agencies. It has turned the process for developing a vaccine into a private-sector, America Only horse race.

Yet most developing countries don’t have the capacity to produce vaccines. No less a competitive capitalist than Bill Gates, Jr. argued: “We need to get most of the world vaccinated to bring the pandemic to an end. … [T]he disease will keep coming back into the developed countries if we don’t end it in the entire world.” The process of vaccine development and production, he said, involves many countries. “[T]here’s no doubt that only cooperation will get us out of this thing.”

Inclusivity, then, is indispensable domestically and internationally. And the “war footing” essential to implementing Kim’s response model requires public solidarity to override private profit.

 

Economic relief and recovery

The economic-recovery component of the global model is not just a matter of deploying better social safety nets: it’s about preventing people from falling out of the economy into those nets in the first place. And it requires scaling up responses to the magnitude of the moment.

“The coronavirus pandemic is a human tragedy of potentially biblical proportions,” emphasized former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, and the response must be to mobilize as for a war. “The key question is not whether but how the state should put its balance sheet to good use. The priority must not only be providing basic income for those who lose their jobs. We must protect people from losing their jobs in the first place. If we do not, we will emerge from this crisis with permanently lower employment and capacity, as families and companies struggle to repair their balance sheets and rebuild net assets.”

Several European and Asian countries have adopted corresponding policies. Denmark’s approach provides a clear example. The Danish government took over the payrolls of companies harmed by the pandemic, preventing workers from being laid off, and guaranteed at least three-quarters of their salaries up to a living-wage level. For those already out of work, the plan improved and extended benefits. For businesses, the plan covered some fixed expenses and deferred taxes. The economic measures accompanied a strict public-health lockdown.

The three-month program cost slightly more per capita than the first U.S. relief package. Yet it had strong support across the whole Danish political spectrum, including from labor unions and employer associations.

Thanks to the interaction of the public health and economic measures, the country was able to reopen its economy more quickly than most of Europe and keep monthly joblessness no higher than six percent, while in the U.S. it reached 14.7 percent. The pandemic-induced drop in economic output is predicted to be a little more than half that of the whole Eurozone.

Many other European nations, including Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France and Spain, have also implemented similar programs to keep workers on payrolls of distressed firms, as have Asian countries including South Korea and Singapore.

The U.S. economic response, by contrast, foundered on the weaknesses and fragmentation of existing safeguards, and was later dragged down by Republican stonewalling.

U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell called the economic hit from the pandemic “without modern precedent” and cautioned that that the recovery might be slow. “Additional fiscal support could be costly,” he said in a speech, “but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery.” Former Fed Chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke have also vocally advocated for aggressive fiscal and monetary policies to revive the economy, and downplayed concerns about the deficit and debt.

Economic relief packages pumped over $3 trillion dollars into the economy and initially helped to stabilize households and firms. But rather than keeping workers employed, most of the funding went to augmenting unemployment insurance for those laid off. In the U.S., this program is administered by the states, however, resulting in a fragmented bureaucracy. Average benefits are smaller amounts and of shorter duration than in most other wealthy countries.

In the face of the pandemic, some states’ administrative machinery has been unable to handle the surge in unemployment claims. An estimated forty percent of people who applied for benefits were not receiving them in late September.

A particularly acute consequence of much unemployment in the U.S. is the loss of health insurance. Coverage is typically tied to employment, so when workers are laid off, they lose their access to health care in the middle of a pandemic.

Although Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed two versions of another major relief bill, the White House and Senate Republicans have stalemated negotiations with demands for substantial benefit cuts.

As a result, millions of low-wage workers are confronting debilitating crises: hungry children, unpayable medical bills, and looming eviction or foreclosure, sometimes leading to homelessness. Long-term unemployment is reportedly rising for those laid off or furloughed because of the pandemic. As usual in the U.S., these setbacks have hurt families of color and mothers of school-age children disproportionately.

Although by now most of the economy is functioning again at some level, legislation has been proposed in Congress to create robust paycheck protections. In future downturns, its proponents say, it could serve as an “automatic stabilizer” to take the load off of unemployment insurance systems.

Facing the current resurgence of COVID-19 and the threat of future pandemics, the next U.S. administration should explore ways to implement global-consensus public health and economic measures as soon as possible. It will also have to address long-standing demands for universal health insurance, mandatory sick days, and more functional unemployment relief.

Internationally, the U.S. should quickly rejoin the World Health Organization and double its old contribution. To provide financial support for restarting the economies of developing countries, restructuring of debt could help free resources for the desperate needs left in the wake of the pandemic. Another avenue worth exploring to provide sustainable non-debt financing is the creation of Special Drawing Rights through the International Monetary Fund.

The next U.S. administration could restore faith in its ability to learn from its mistakes if, in cooperation with the global community, it can create robust new systems of public health protection and economic regeneration inclusive of all its communities and all nations.

Note: World War II lasted 45 months; the COVID-19 pandemic death toll reached 200,000 after eight months. The U.S. population in 1942 was 134,900,000; in 2020 it is 331,000,000.The average monthly toll for the U.S. in World War II was equivalent to 22,822 deaths, in proportion to the 2020 U.S. population; the pandemic monthly toll for the U.S. as of September 2020 has been 25,000 deaths.

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By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 23 2020 (IPS)

No one died of hunger during the worst drought in Brazil’s semiarid ecoregion, between 2011 and 2018, in sharp contrast to the past when scarce rainfall caused deaths, looting, a mass exodus to the South and bloody conflicts.

Social programmes such as Bolsa Familia (family grant), an expansion of pensions for retired peasant farmers and assistance to low-income disabled and elderly people helped the poor overcome their vulnerability in the semiarid region, where more than 27 million people live in 1,127,953 square kilometres, slightly larger than the size of Bolivia.

But without the water supply solution represented by tanks and other devices to collect the scant rainwater, the tragedies of the past would certainly be repeated in the semiarid region, which occupies most of the Brazilian Northeast and northern strips of the Southeast.

 

 

More than 1.1 million tanks that harvest rainwater from rooftops ensured human consumption. The 16,000 litres held by each tank were used up during the unusually long dry periods, but the system made the distribution of water by tanker trunks, generally carried out by the military, more efficient.

In addition, the “technologies” or different ways of storing water were disseminated to more than 200,000 families in order to ensure food production on family farms, which total 1.7 million in the semiarid region.

The distributed water infrastructure guarantees better quality food for the farmers themselves, supplies towns and cities in the country’s interior and boosts the local economy.

According to the Articulação Semiárido Brasileiro (ASA), a network of more than 3,000 organisations, including trade unions and farmers’ associations, cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and social movements, some 800,000 small farms are still in need of tanks that collect water for agricultural production in order to universalise this technology.

ASA, created in 1999, promoted the One Million Rural Water Tanks programme, which was made a public policy by the government in 2003. It then expanded the initiative into the One Land, Two Waters Programme, which incorporated rainwater harvesting for crops and livestock.

The basic principle is “coexisting with the semiarid”, instead of insisting on the old failed strategies of “combating drought”, based on the construction of large structures that do not serve the scattered rural population, who are the most affected, but rather favour the large landowners.

Coexistence is not limited to the water question, but extends to education, knowledge of local conditions, ecological forms of production, and clean sources of energy.

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During the lockdown, the plight of migrant children, who walked hundreds of miles to reach home, aroused national consciousness. But what happened after that? | Picture courtesy: Needpix.com

By Shantha Sinha
Oct 22 2020 (IPS)

A right is an entitlement and it has three basic principles, without which rights cannot be enjoyed. The first principle is that of universality: A right has to be enjoyed by all citizens, including all children. There cannot be a distinction between a Dalit or an Adivasi child and a child who is better endowed.

The second principle is that of equality: Rights have to be equally available to all. For example, there cannot be different types of schools for different children. In order to adhere to the principle of equality, you have to also link it to the principle of social justice and commit additional resources, support, and attention to those children who have been left behind for them to enjoy their rights equally.

Third, and the most important aspect of a right, is that it is a state obligation; only the state can protect rights as it is a transaction between the state and the citizen. We have to ensure that the rights of all children are equally protected, and the state fulfils its functions and duties towards the protection of children’s rights.

If a tradition comes in the way of child rights, then we should eliminate that tradition. Every society requires tradition and culture, but let’s create new traditions and a culture that respects children and allows society to move forward

When we talk about child rights, we are talking about all age groups. If rights are denied to one age group, it will have an impact on another age group. For example, if the rights of a 15-year-old are denied and she gets married early and is not provided sufficient food, this will impact both her health and that of her future children. All age groups are important, all rights are equally important. You cannot, for example, prioritise hunger and then move onto education. There is an interdependency of rights and there is an interdependency of ages that needs to be understood.

And finally, it is my opinion that you cannot deprive a child their rights in the name of tradition and culture. They are used as an argument to justify failure to guarantee rights to children. In my view, if a tradition comes in the way of child rights, then we should eliminate that tradition. Every society requires tradition and culture, but let’s create new traditions and a culture that respects children and allows society to move forward.

 

How do you plan for each child?

We have forgotten the real issues

After the lockdown was imposed, we saw the plight of migrant children who marched hundreds of miles to reach their homes. This aroused the national consciousness. But what happened after they came back home? We know that they were locked in sweatshops and abandoned by middlemen during the lockdown. But where are they now? What is happening to them? They have been rendered invisible along with their anxieties and concerns.

Debates about online education have since captured the headlines. But what about the issues of hunger, poverty, disempowerment, and humiliation? Are children responsible for their poverty or for being trafficked? Who is responsible for these children? Why are we making excuses and saying that they have to work because they are hungry? Why are we justifying what children are going through? Is it not the state’s responsibility to protect these children and ensure them their rights?

There are a dozen acts in place, and people will have to be energised to reach out to these children to see that they are taken care of. The money that is allocated to these efforts is just not enough. The state must put in more resources into each and every one of the institutions they have created to protect children. This should be the discourse, but we have diverted our attention away from the real issues.

 

The pandemic has caused the child protection system to collapse

The decade from 2006 to 2016 was an important one for child rights. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) was established, the Right to Education Act (RTE) made education a fundamental right for all children, the Juvenile Justice Act and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act were amended. There was a process of social mobilisation that engaged with the system, from the grassroots to the centre and brought together politicians, bureaucrats, activists, academia, judiciary, and so on. There were flaws but some phenomenal gains were also made in this decade.

But since the pandemic hit, these gains seem to have vanished. It is almost as though there is amnesia—no laws, no systems, and the children who need protection are not being talked about. The entire system has collapsed. We need to preserve the gains that we made and move forward.

 

Shantha Sinha is a leading child rights activist and the founder-secretary of the MV Foundation

 

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

The post Child Protection: the Pandemic has Left the Most Vulnerable Children Invisible appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The crisis in the Sahel has been further exacerbated by both climate change, as well as the current coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22 2020 (IPS)

The European Commission this week pledged $27.8 million in humanitarian support to the Sahel region as floods and the coronavirus pandemic exacerbate the stability in a region deeply in conflict.

While the figure is less than 2 percent of the $2.4 billion that the United Nations has appealed for, Amnesty International researcher Ousmane Diallo told IPS that despite past donations from international development partners to Sahelian countries, the situation hasn’t improved over the years.

Diallo, a Sahel specialist at the human rights organisation, spoke to IPS a day after European leaders gathered to discuss the fast deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Central Sahel.

In June, Amnesty International released a report that pointed out a range of concerns in the region that have been exacerbated by the pandemic: human rights violations, food insecurity, and enforced disappearances among other concerns.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20, the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for $2.4 billion for the remaining months of 2020 and for providing emergency assistance in the region throughout next year.

“The Sahel is a microcosm of cascading global risks converging in one region. It is a warning sign for us all requiring urgent attention and resolution,” the Secretary-General said.

To highlight the extent of the crisis, he shared that in the less than two years, internal displacement in the region has increased 20 times.

Diallo of Amnesty International echoed similar concerns and added that a “a plethora of armed groups acting in the Sahel have increased over the years.”

“This is because the structural issues have not been challenged,” Diallo told IPS. “Because there have been a lot of donations given to Sahelian countries, many activities done by international development partners, but the situations on the ground haven’t improved. There are more internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the ground, and more refugees.”

“This is a crisis on multiple fronts, [and] next to its growing complexity, it’s also a crisis which remains seriously underfunded,” Janez Lenarcic, Commissioner for Crisis Management at the European Commission, said while announcing the pledge. “As such, the need to protect the most vulnerable from these pressing plights has never been greater.” 

The crisis in the region has been further exacerbated by both climate change, as well as the current coronavirus pandemic, according to both Diallo and the speakers at the high-level meeting.

Mark Lowcock, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said climate change in the Sahel region is accelerating faster than anywhere else in the world.One key concern, he said, is that the “root causes that drive humanitarian needs” — such as chronic poverty, underdevelopment, impact of dramatic development growth, and climate change among other issues — are not being properly addressed

Diallo told IPS that on top of climate change posing a security and development challenge in the region, another concern is that of resources: despite an increasing population, resources remain limited.

With massive floods leading to thousands of casualties in cities across the Sahel region this year, one must consider issues beyond the scope of human rights and humanitarian [needs], and consider links to governance, urbanisation and city planning, Diallo added.

“Over the last 30 years, we’ve had more cities, more urbanisation, and more people living in the cities in the Sahelian countries than they used to 20-30 years ago, but the adaptability of cities to climatic [changes] is very limited,” Diallo told IPS.   

Speakers at the high-level meeting highlighted the need for a comprehensive and holistic approach to resolving the crisis.

Giovanie Biha, Deputy Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, said the August coup in Mali is “testament to the fragility of newly-acquired democratic gains”.

“There is a need for a paradigm shift beyond a largely military approach to the fight against terrorists,” Biha said at the meeting. “Successfully addressing the multi-dimensional challenges facing the Sahel will require a whole-of-society approach.”

“We need to redouble efforts in supporting national governments and recognise that development is never a linear process, especially when faced with interlinked challenges compounded by the pandemic,” she added, further calling for innovating solutions to address the crisis.

Lowcock highlighted the need for a higher investment in concerns such as women’s rights, and safe water, among others.

“It’s important that we have a comprehensive response to this: there needs to be a security response but it has to be done in a way that protects and supports the local communities,” he said.

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
HONOLULU, Hawaii, Oct 22 2020 (IPS)

I will begin by presenting to you excerpts from the message from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the International Day of Non-Violence.

I quote: “In marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, this International Day highlights the remarkable power of non-violence and peaceful protest. It is also a timely reminder to strive to uphold values that Gandhi lived by: the promotion of dignity; equal protection for all; and communities living together in peace.

On this year’s observance, we have a special duty: stop the fighting to focus on our common enemy: COVID-19. There is only one winner of conflict during a pandemic: the virus itself. As the pandemic took hold, I called for a global ceasefire. Now is the time to intensify our efforts. Let us be inspired by the spirit of Gandhi and the enduring principles of the UN Charter.” End of quote

At the outset, let me thank the Gandhi International Institute for Peace (GIIP) and its dynamic President Mr. Raj Kumar for organizing the observance of the International Day of Non-Violence and of the 15th Mahatma Gandhi Day Celebration by the Institute.

The theme of my keynote speech today is “Mahatma’s Non-Violence: Essence of The Culture of Peace for New Humanity”

The Mahatma affirmed that he was not a visionary but a practical idealist. He affirmed that “Non- violence is the law of our species, as violence is the law of the brute. The spirit lies dormant in the brute and he knows no law but that of physical might. The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law – to the strength of the spirit.”

It is said that “he was the first in human history to extend the principle of non-violence from the individual to the social and political plane.” He entered politics for the purpose of experimenting with non-violence and establishing its validity.

Ambassador Chowdhury

The Mahatma had said that “Nonviolence is the greatest and most active force in the world. One cannot be passively nonviolent … One person who can express ahimsa in life exercises a force superior to all the force of brutality.” I believe whole-heartedly that Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of nonviolence or Ahimsa has found true reflection in the life of a great son of the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s own struggle for equality and justice.

Dr. King considered his Nobel Peace Prize as “a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the critical political and racial questions of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression without resorting to violence“. I reiterate this mainly to highlight the need for revisiting those words in view of what is happening in many parts of our world, including in this country.

As I have stated on many occasions, my life’s experience has taught me to value peace and non-violence as the essential components of our existence. Those unleash the positive forces of good that are so needed for human progress. Peace is integral to human existence — in everything we do, in everything we say and in every thought we have, there is a place for peace.

It is important to realize that the absence of peace takes away the opportunities that we need to prepare ourselves, to empower ourselves to face the challenges of our lives, individually and collectively. This intellectual and spiritual inspiration is implanted in me through the Mahatma’s life and his words.

The United Nations Charter emerged in 1945 out of the ashes of the Second World War. The UN Declaration and Programme of Action on Culture of Peace was born in 1999 in the aftermath of the Cold War. I was the chair of the nine-month-long negotiations from 1998 to 1999 that produced the Programme of Action on Culture of Peace.

For more than two decades, I have continued to devote considerable time, energy and effort to realizing the implementation of this landmark, norm-setting decision of the UN. For me, this has been a realization of my personal commitment to peace inspired by the Mahatma and my humble contribution to humanity.

My work took me to the farthest corners of the world and I have seen time and again how people – even the humblest and the weakest – have contributed to building the culture of peace in their personal lives, in their families, in their communities and in their countries – all these contributing to global peace one way or the other.

The focus of my work and advocacy has been on advancing the culture of peace which aims at making peace and non-violence a part of our own self, our own personality – a part of our existence as human beings. I believe this will empower ourselves to contribute more effectively to bring inner as well as outer peace.

In simple terms, the Culture of Peace as a concept means that every one of us needs to consciously make peace and nonviolence a part of our daily existence. We should know how to relate to one another without being aggressive, without being violent, without being disrespectful, without neglect, without prejudice.

We should not isolate peace as something separate or distant. More so, in today’s world so full of negativity, tension, poverty and suffering, the culture of peace should be seen as the essence of a new humanity, a new global civilization based on inner oneness and outer diversity.

In my keynote address on “Human Security – an Essential Element for Creating the Culture of Peace” at the Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, in August 2007, inspired by Mahatma’s eternal words “Be the change that you want to see in the world,” I underscored that “Peace is a prerequisite for human development.… We all must undertake efforts to inculcate the culture of peace in ourselves. We cannot expect the world to change if we do not start first and foremost with changing ourselves – at the individual levels.”

The objective of the culture of peace is the empowerment of people, as has been underscored by the global leader for peace and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda. As we say “Peace does not mean just to stop wars, but also to stop oppression, injustice and neglect”. The culture of peace can be a powerful tool in promoting a global consciousness that serves the best interests of a just and sustainable peace.

I am encouraged that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN in 2015 includes, among others, the culture of peace and non-violence as well as global citizenship as essential components of today’s education.

This realization has now become more pertinent in the midst of the ever-increasing militarism and militarization that is destroying both our planet and our people. The Mahatma asserted that “One thing is certain. If the mad race for armaments continues, it is bound to result in a slaughter such as has never occurred in history. If there is a victor left, the very victory will be a living death for the nation that emerges victorious. There is no escape from the impending doom save through a bold and unconditional acceptance of the nonviolent method with all its glorious implications.”

Dr. King had advised us rightly, “… I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject for study and for serious experimentation in every field of human conflict, by no means excluding the relations between nations.”

The last decades of violence and human insecurity should lead to a growing realization in the world of education today that children should be educated in the art of peaceful, non-violent, non-aggressive living.

Never has it been more important for the next generation to learn about the world and understand and respect its diversity. I want to underscore one particular aspect in this context. In the culture of peace movement, we are focusing more attention on children because that contributes in a major way to the sustainable and long-lasting impact on our societies. As the Mahatma’s words highlight, “Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself.”

An essential message that I have experienced from my work for the culture of peace is that we should never forget that when women – half of world’s seven plus billion people – are marginalized, there is no chance for our world to get sustainable peace in the real sense.

Women bring a new breadth, quality and balance of vision to a common effort of moving away from the cult of war towards the culture of peace. “Without peace, development cannot be realized, without development, peace is not achievable, but without women, neither peace nor development is possible.”

I believe the culture of peace is not a quick-fix. It is a movement, not a revolution.

Let us remember that the work for peace is a continuous process. Each one of us can make a difference in that process. The culture of peace cannot be imposed from outside; it must be realized from within.

 

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Excerpt:

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations and Founder of The Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), was the keynote speaker at the observance of the International Day of Non-Violence on the 15th Mahatma Gandhi Day Celebration, organized virtually by the Gandhi International Institute for Peace (GIIP)

The post Mahatma’s Non-Violence: Essence of Culture of Peace for New Humanity appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Water tanks installed in homes in a Bulawayo suburb. The city has been facing a decades long water crisis. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Oct 21 2020 (IPS)

Dotted across the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo, the water tanks installed in private residences is evidence that years of a water crisis, that has seen some suburbs here going for months without running water, has not spared anyone. The large plastic drums, locally called Jojo tanks after the company that manufacturers them, and which have a storage range of up to 10,000 litres, have assumed a class status of sorts in Bulawayo.

Desperate residents, like Philemon Hadebe, who can afford to have responded to the water crises by installing the giant tanks in their residences.

Such tanks are traditionally used to harvest rain water and also store groundwater, but in COVID—19’s new normal, everything has been upended.

“This is about survival,” Hadebe told IPS.

“You cannot go for weeks without water in a house where you have kids that’s why I bought this thing,” he said pointing to the 2,500 litre water tank in his yard.

“I let the water run whenever it is made available (in the taps) and it has helped a lot to stock up for when the taps run dry for days and even weeks,” he said.

Is he is not concerned about the water bill?

“You have no time to worry about the water bill. These are desperate times,” Hadebe said. It’s despite the fact that the local municipality has lamented the failure of residents to settle their bills, which the council says has crippled service delivery.

Those residents who cannot afford bulk storage use any container available, including 2-litre plastic containers. But when these  run out, they turn to unprotected water sources, a practice city health officials say has resulted in a spike of waterborne diseases such as typhoid and dysentery.

Last week, the city’s health department reported an increase in diarrhoea cases, with residents saying the municipality has done little to solve the decades old water crisis.

The local authority blames water shortages on a range of factors that include low levels in supply dams, breakdown of infrastructure installed before the country’s independence in 1980 and also constant power outages said to cripple pumping water from dams.

“The water crisis is man made,” said Emmanuel Ndlovu, coordinator of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BUPRA).

“Bulawayo has always faced a perennial water problem which has been met with a tepid preparedness by council. Every year the city is plunged into a crisis. The last such crisis was in 2007 but the current one has been the worst ever,” Ndlovu told IPS.

While some residents are installing water tanks, this comes at a steep cost.

Prices of water tanks range from about $1,000 for a 10,000 litre tank to $280 for 2,500 litres and $460 for 5,000 litres.

Business has been brisk for the manufacturers, but this has come at a huge cost for the city’s efforts to save the little water left in supply dams.

Early this month, the city’s town clerk Christopher Dube highlighted the extent of the water crisis, telling local media that the city had run out ideas.

“We no longer have water in the city while consumption has increased. Residents have also resorted to buying Jojo tanks (bulk water containers) and whenever we shut supplies we do so because our reservoirs would have run dry,” Dube said.

The municipality says stocking water by residents has led to a citywide increase of water consumption, and fines imposed on excessive water used have not deterred residents such as Hadebe.

Other residents have resorted to sinking boreholes in their homes, and selling the water. But concerns have previously been raised by municipality about the haphazard and unregulated groundwater.

As part of long-term efforts to address the water crisis, and which might render domestic bowsers redundant, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is supporting the city with a $33 million grant under the Bulawayo Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (BWSSIP).

According to the AfDB, the grant will “rehabilitate and upgrade water production treatment facilities, water distribution, sewer drainage networks and wastewater treatment disposal facilities in the southwestern part of the city”.

City mayor Solomon Mguni told IPS he could not discuss the issue, but in a council report last month he blamed the crisis on “vandalism of infrastructure and power outages which interrupt pumping”.

For now, residents with the financial clout are creating their own domestic solutions albeit at a cost for the long term sustainability of already strained water sources.

Pressure groups however insist the city could have done better.

“Despite the fact that water account is a the cash cow for the Bulawayo City Council, there is less investment in water resources,” Ndlovu said.

Meanwhile, the country’s meteorological services department has forecast above normal rains this season, which could provide not only relief to the parched city, but could also be bad news to Jojo tank retailers.

 

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On 31 January 2018, the Government of Brazil deposited the formal instrument of ratification with the International Labour Office for ratification of the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, 2011 (No. 189) . Accordingly, Brazil became the twenty-fifth member State of the ILO and the fourteenth member State in the Americas region to ratify this Convention. It is estimated that there are about seven million domestic workers in Brazil, six million of them women, and more than in any other country in the world. Moreover, the majority of domestic workers are women, with indigenous peoples and persons of African descent being over-represented in the domestic work sector. But how has the Convention been implemented?. Credit: International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva

By Waldeli Melleiro and Christoph Heuser
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Oct 21 2020 (IPS)

The inclusivity of Brazilian society is put to the test as the coronavirus pandemic highlights a labour sector ripe with historical and structural inequality: domestic work.

The first death of COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro was emblematic of the country’s inequities: a domestic worker who caught the new coronavirus from her employer. Much has since been written about the Brazilian government and its catastrophic inaction during the pandemic.

But the new normal also highlights a sector that has always been present in Brazil but with little public attention. A sector, in which the historical and structural inequality in Brazil is very much represented: domestic work.

With about 6 million female workers, domestic work is the second-largest occupation for women in Brazil. They are mostly black (about 65 per cent) and many are over 45 years old (46.5 per cent).

They start working sometimes as teenagers or even children, and because they lack access to most labour rights and social protection, even after 50 years or more of continuous work they still do not have the right to retirement and well-deserved rest.

They live far from their workplaces, often earn less than the legal minimum wage of around 200 USD per month, and are nonetheless often responsible (45 per cent of them) for the income of their families.

Among the poorest of these workers (less than 1,5 USD/day), 58.1 percent are heads of household, which gives an indication of the extreme poverty in which their families live.

The lack of labour protection

Domestic workers have long been fighting for recognition of the value of their work and for labour rights. The struggle in Brazil goes back to the 1930s, with the founding of the Professional Association of Domestic Employees of Santos.

In 1988 the new Constitution guaranteed paid leave and a 13th month of salary, among others. But domestic workers continued to have fewer rights than those in other professions.

Several further rights were only obtained in 2013 under the former administration of Dilma Rousseff, including the limiting of working hours to eight per day and 44 per week, the right to recognition of overtime, and paid retirement.

Despite these advances, many female workers are still excluded from many of those rights, which are guaranteed only to those who work at least three days a week in the same job. And even where the conditions are met, many employers persistently fail to respect workers’ rights, while monitoring compliance is difficult.

Those who work for the same employer for one or two days a week, known as day workers, remain completely unassisted by the law and social protection.

Furthermore, the degree of informality in domestic work is very high: In 2018, only 27 percent of women workers had a formal contract, if we are adding those paying individually even without having a formal contract, only 39 percent contributed to social security.

Thus, the vast majority of female domestic workers are not entitled to unemployment insurance, sickness benefit and retirement.

The new normal of work during and after the pandemic

Domestic work is one of the occupations most affected by the pandemic.

Many workers are in high-risk age groups; their working conditions expose them to more possibilities of contamination; they use public transportation over long distances; they care for elderly people or children with unavoidable physical proximity; and they often have to work without proper protective masks, gloves, or alcohol gel.

Or even worse: in order to keep their jobs and limit contamination, some stay for days and weeks on end in the homes where they work, away from their families.

As the pandemic took hold, the government allowed employers of domestic workers to suspend the contract for up to two months, with two months of secure employment after the suspension. It also allowed partial employment.

But this only helped the minority of domestic workers with such a contract. Most have precarious positions and many of those, especially day workers, have been dismissed and left without income and vulnerable.

The government also started paying 600 reals (around 109 USD) per month for those in need, for example informal workers, rising to 1,200 reals (218 USD) per month for some cases, for example single mothers. However, many women had difficulty in registering and accessing this aid.

Despite the pandemic, domestic workers are standing firm in the fight for labour rights. In March 2020 Fenatrad (National Federation of Domestic Workers) launched a campaign under the slogan “Take care of those who take care of you, leave your domestic worker at home, with paid wages.”

According to Luiza Batista, president of Fenatrad, there was good coverage in social networks, but in practice there was little adhesion by employers. Fenatrad has been carrying out an intense programme of denunciation and negotiation.

The group has also campaigned against a controversial measure by some state governments, for example Pará, to declare domestic work as an essential service during lockdown, forcing workers to continue working.

This measure was reversed after pressure from Fenatrad to specify what functions within domestic work are essential. The category was refined to include only nannies, careers for the elderly, and those caring for people with special needs and whose employers are keyworkers, e.g. in the health or security sectors.

Still the question remains: if domestic work is essential why it is not valued? It is fundamental work, but it is marginalized and carries the prejudices of a society in which social rights are not within reach for everyone.

The pandemic stresses the importance of domestic work and at the same time showed its precariousness as well as the inequality within the Brazilian society. It is time to reflect on the need for change in paid domestic work, aiming at a fair and inclusive society.

The new normal should recognize and value domestic work, including adequate labour rights as an important step on the long way to a more just society.

Source: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Brazil

 

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Excerpt:

Waldeli Melleiro is a project manager at the Brazil Office of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and Christoph Heuser is the resident representative at the FES Brazil Office.

The post The Plight of Domestic Workers in Brazil appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anna Shen
NEW YORK, Oct 21 2020 (IPS)

The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic continues: as more people around the world lose their livelihoods, human trafficking is on the rise. Support services for survivors have been shut, and past gains to combat it have been reversed. Funding has dried up.

Harold D’Souza

Consider the following: Human trafficking is global — according to the UN, there are now 40 million victims globally. The United States has also been ranked as one of the top three nations of origin for human trafficking, according to a US State Department Report.

Human trafficking survivor Harold D’Souza is no stranger to the perils of modern-day slavery, much of it invisible, right in front of our eyes. In 2003, Harald left his job in India as a manager for a tech company and was promised a $75,000 business development job at his friend’s factory. When he arrived in the US, there was no job. What began was an 11-year journey, “pure hell,” as he described it.

He and his wife were forced to work in a restaurant seven days a week for as much as 16 hours a day. Eventually his employer took his legal documents and forced him to take a six-figure loan from a bank and kept the money. During their ordeal, they were verbally and physically abused, his wife was sexually assaulted, and eventually, the employer hired a hitman to kill Harald. Today, the perpetrator is still free, as US laws fall short.

The D’Souzas were one of a few lucky ones to beat the odds. After a four-year ordeal, the D’Souza’s escaped their situation and started a new life. It was not easy to overcome the trauma and scars.

D’Souza committed to help victims, founding Eyes Open International, which focuses on combating modern-day slavery. He was appointed by President Obama to the US Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, and lectures globally on the topic.

He spoke to Anna Shen about the state of human trafficking, his 10-day trip across parts of the US meeting survivors, a film about his life, and more.

Q. What is the current state of affairs with human trafficking in the US?

With the pandemic, it has increased. The perpetrators are more aggressive, and law enforcement has so much on their hands, and governments are busy. Victims are more economically unstable and they become victims of labor and sex trafficking. I am so shocked – I tell Indians not to come to the US, and they are willing to pay money to an agent. There are so many agents manipulating them. The agents are charging anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 and people are paying.

Q. What happens once to a person once they pay a trafficker?

Once they get to the US, out of ten, two do not reach the US – eight die on the way, they are caught or deported. This year, 311 Indians were deported from the Mexican borders. It is horrific. A lot of people in India got deported – that is why I am going to India in a few days, to educate people. America is the destination, but India is the source. India, Pakistan, Nepal and Mexico are the origins of the trafficking. There is a saying in India, “Going to America is like going to heaven.” Nobody is sharing the actual facts about what happens here.

Q. You just took a 10-day road trip to meet with the survivors of human trafficking. What did you learn?

A. Over ten days, I drove through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Indianapolis and Chicago. What I learned was that during the pandemic nobody goes to meet the victims, so they cannot get help and are more isolated than ever. Pantries and churches are closed. Most of them are undocumented and do not get the stimulus package. Many are suicidal and live in constant fear.

Perpetrators are getting smarter and are one step ahead of the enforcement agencies. Victims are out of the house looking for any odd jobs or help, so perpetrators driving around can find them more easily and exploit them. They might be standing on a street corner, asking for work or donations. There is a statistic that if a girl is out on the street looking for help, within 24 hours she will be picked up and become a victim of sex trafficking.

Q. Your perpetrator never came to justice. What can be done to prevent that in the future?

Our focus has always been on victims – most perpetrators are very affluent and high status. When you prosecute one perpetrator you save 100 victims. There are very few laws to protect the victims, and very few successful laws to prosecute perpetrators, who also know how to successfully fight their cases.

Laws have to be changed and penalties have to be stiffer. Media plays a very big role, as coverage will intimidate perpetrators. Also, victims need to talk, but this requires courage.

Q. There is so much focus on the police these days, how should they be trained?

A. Law enforcement are overwhelmed these days with so many issues. However, they need to be trained to recognize trafficking in front of them. At the moment, the governor of Ohio is training police officers to recognize human trafficking in front of them. For example, recently an officer stopped someone for speeding and sees five people in the car, he questioned them where they were going. They found one passenger in the car was a sex trafficking victim and they rescued her. The training needs to be global, but it has to come from the top leadership. Police also need to be “trauma informed,” which means recognizing when they are speaking to a victim who may be in the car with their perpetrator, and may speak in a certain way to the police officer.

Q. Focusing on the human side, can you tell me what you’ve learned about victims in general?

A. There is so much focus on getting them free, but going a step further, who is the person underneath all of this? Nobody asks them what their dreams are. Every individual on this planet has dreams, talents. No NGO or counselor or law enforcement agency asks about their dreams – this person once wanted to be a doctor, or an actor. Once society knows they are a victim or survivor, they are stigmatized. So many people won’t say a word because they are afraid they won’t move ahead or be able to live a normal life.

I still cry at night and feel I failed and as a grown-up man I still faced it and ask myself, “What did I do to get in that place?” I still struggle and go to counseling. Trauma has no expiration date. But with God’s blessing, I am still here to tell the story. My focus is on prevention, education, protection and empowerment of community members, especially vulnerable populations globally.

When I’m honest, no one can stop me. I will help, and no perpetrator will stand in my way. I don’t know where I got it. I thank God every day.

 

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Women farmers irrigate crops of onions and other vegetables. They participate in a special programme to improve Senegal's food security. Credit: FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
ROME, Oct 21 2020 (IPS)

The month of October 2020 will be recalled as one of the most important moments in raising awareness about world food security, whether in the global debate or in the search for possible concrete solutions.

On October 9, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP), and a few days later, on 16 October, during FAO’s World Food Day, prominent world personalities and leaders, including Pope Francis, called for effective and sustainable solutions to hunger problems.

The world produces enough food for everyone, so it is unacceptable that 690 million people are undernourished, 2000 million do not have regular access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food, and 3000 million cannot afford a healthy diet
Maximo Torero, FAO’s Chief Economist

Meanwhile, in parallel, leading experts released a series of studies that indicate ways to move towards the resolution of this fundamental issue for the future of humanity.

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, acknowledged that these declarations make “the eye of the international community turn to millions of people who suffer from food insecurity or who are at risk of suffering from it.”

According to QU, what is needed now is “intelligent and systematic action” that provides “food to those who need it and improves what they already have”, taking measures to “prevent crops from rotting in the fields due to lack of efficient supplies”, promoting the use “of digital tools and artificial intelligence in order to predict dangers to production, automatically activate harvest insurance and reduce climate risk.” 

In addition, we should act to “save biodiversity from continuous erosion”, turn “cities into the farms of tomorrow” and governments should implement policies to make healthy diets more accessible.

David Beasley, WFP Executive Director, reflected on the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to the Organization and stressed that it “has focused global attention on the hungry and the consequences of conflict.”

Meanwhile, he added, “the climate shock and economic pressures have further aggravated the situation”, and currently “the global pandemic and its impact on economies and communities is pushing millions of people to the brink of starvation.”

According to a recent FAO report, 690 million people (about 8.9 percent of the world’s population) suffer from hunger and the effects of COVID-19 may increase this figure by 130 million people before the end of 2020.

Pope Francis recalled that “it is not enough to produce food, but it is also important to ensure that food systems are sustainable and provide healthy and affordable diets for all”, seeking “innovative solutions that can transform the way we produce food for the well-being of our communities and our planet, strengthening recovery capacity and long-term sustainability.”

The Catholic pontiff described hunger “not only as a tragedy but a shame,” calling for concrete policies and actions.

He suggested that “a brave decision would be to establish, with the money used for arms and other military expenses, a world fund to be able to definitively defeat hunger and help the development of the poorest countries” and, in this way, avoid “many wars and the emigration of so many of our brothers and their families who are forced to abandon their homes and countries in search of a more dignified life.”

In October, a group of renowned international organizations and think tanks, including FAO, called on donor countries to double investments to eradicate hunger by 2030. In 2015, the international community at the United Nations headquarters in New York set 2030 as the year in which to reach the global goal of eliminating hunger and poverty, as well as to achieve other major Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

According to the study, donors must spend an additional $ 14 billion on average a year by 2030, which is equivalent to doubling current spending for food security and nutrition.

According to FAO’s Chief Economist, Maximo Torero, “the world produces enough food for everyone, so it is unacceptable that 690 million people are undernourished, 2000 million do not have regular access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food, and 3000 million cannot afford a healthy diet.”

If the contributions of the richest countries are doubled as requested, “with technology, innovation, education, social protection and trade facilitation” hunger can be overcome within the deadlines set by the international community, said the expert.

David Laborde, a scholar at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), argued that in addition to the contribution of donor countries, the poorest countries must increase spending from their own budgets to achieve the SDGs “and double the income of 545 million of small-scale farmers and limit agricultural emissions in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement.”

In order to advance on these reflections that allow more concrete solutions, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, proposed the holding of a Summit on food systems, whose preparatory meeting will be held in Rome before the boreal summer of 2021, and the final meeting of Heads of State and Government or their high representatives will take place in September of next year in New York.

According to Queen Letizia of Spain, it is necessary to reconsider “current food production models from the perspective of social, economic and environmental sustainability.” In her opinion, it is also a “public health priority linked to the degradation of the environment in its broadest sense, to the loss of agro-biological diversity, to food waste and to the duty to ensure decent livelihoods for the workers in the food system,” recalling the growth trends of malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight and obesity.

In the search for ways to build synergies between countries, in order to face the effects of COVID-19 on food security and its possible future solutions, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, recalled the initiative that his country presented to the FAO.

It is a proposal aimed at creating a coalition of nations on food, which has already been welcomed by about 40 countries from all regions, to exchange experiences of what is happening, identify where the areas of greatest risk are, explore the best ways to face these effects and prepare for the post-COVID-19 phase in this sector.

“An adequate and balanced diet must be within the reach of everyone, together with the old connection with culture, tradition and land,” fighting “the hateful action of food waste”, calling on the international community to assume protection” of the precious goods that Earth offers us” to safeguard it “for future generations.”

The post Food Security Bursts Onto the Global Agenda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is Assistant Director General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The post Food Security Bursts Onto the Global Agenda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Thailand’s COVID-19 response cited as an example of resilience and solidarity. Credit: UNDP

By Gita Gopinath
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 20 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread with over 1 million lives tragically lost so far. Living with the novel coronavirus has been a challenge like no other, but the world is adapting.

As a result of eased lockdowns and the rapid deployment of policy support at an unprecedented scale by central banks and governments around the world, the global economy is coming back from the depths of its collapse in the first half of this year. Employment has partially rebounded after having plummeted during the peak of the crisis.

This crisis is however far from over. Employment remains well below pre-pandemic levels and the labor market has become more polarized with low-income workers, youth, and women being harder hit.

The poor are getting poorer with close to 90 million people expected to fall into extreme deprivation this year. The ascent out of this calamity is likely to be long, uneven, and highly uncertain. It is essential that fiscal and monetary policy support are not prematurely withdrawn, as best possible.

In our latest World Economic Outlook, we continue to project a deep recession in 2020. Global growth is projected to be -4.4 percent, an upward revision of 0.8 percentage points compared to our June update.

This upgrade owes to somewhat less dire outcomes in the second quarter, as well as signs of a stronger recovery in the third quarter, offset partly by downgrades in some emerging and developing economies. In 2021 growth is projected to rebound to 5.2 percent, -0.2 percentage points below our June projection.

Except for China, where output is expected to exceed 2019 levels this year, output in both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies is projected to remain below 2019 levels even next year. Countries that rely more on contact-intensive services and oil exporters face weaker recoveries compared to manufacturing-led economies.

The divergence in income prospects between advanced economies and emerging and developing economies (excluding China) triggered by this pandemic is projected to worsen.

We are upgrading our forecast for advanced economies for 2020 to -5.8 percent, followed by a rebound in growth to 3.9 percent in 2021. For emerging market and developing countries (excluding China) we have a downgrade with growth projected to be – 5.7 percent in 2020 and then a recovery to 5 percent in 2021.

With this, the cumulative growth in per capita income for emerging-market and developing economies (excluding China) over 2020-21 is projected to be lower than that for advanced economies.

This crisis will likely leave scars well into the medium term as labor markets take time to heal, investment is held back by uncertainty and balance sheet problems, and lost schooling impairs human capital.

After the rebound in 2021, global growth is expected to gradually slow to about 3.5 percent into the medium term. The cumulative loss in output relative to the pre-pandemic projected path is projected to grow from 11 trillion over 2020-21 to 28 trillion over 2020-25.

This represents a severe setback to the improvement in average living standards across all country groups.

There remains tremendous uncertainty around the outlook with both downside and upside risks. The virus is resurging with localized lockdowns being re-instituted. If this worsens and prospects for treatments and vaccines deteriorate, the toll on economic activity would be severe, and likely amplified by severe financial market turmoil.

Growing restrictions on trade and investment and rising geopolitical uncertainty could harm the recovery. On the upside, faster and more widespread availability of tests, treatments, vaccines, and additional policy stimulus can significantly improve outcomes.

More Action is Needed

The considerable global fiscal support of close to $12 trillion and the extensive rate cuts, liquidity injections, and asset purchases by central banks helped saved lives and livelihoods and prevented a financial catastrophe.

There is still much that needs to be done to ensure a sustained recovery. First, greater international collaboration is needed to end this health crisis. Tremendous progress is being made in developing tests, treatments and vaccines, but only if countries work closely together will there be enough production and widespread distribution to all parts of the world.

We estimate that if medical solutions can be made available faster and more widely relative to our baseline, it could lead to a cumulative increase in global income of almost $9 trillion by end 2025, raising incomes in all countries and reducing income divergence.

Second, to the extent possible, policies must aggressively focus on limiting persistent economic damage from this crisis. Governments should continue to provide income support through well targeted cash transfers, wage subsidies, and unemployment insurance.

To prevent large scale bankruptcies and ensure workers can return to productive jobs, vulnerable but viable firms should continue to receive support—wherever possible—through tax deferrals, moratoria on debt service, and equity-like injections.

Over time, as the recovery strengthens, policies should shift to facilitating reallocation of workers from sectors likely to shrink on a long-term basis (travel) to growing sectors (e-commerce). Workers should be supported through this adjustment with income transfers, retraining, and reskilling.

Supporting reallocation will also require steps to speed up bankruptcy procedures and resolution mechanisms to efficiently tackle firm insolvencies. A public green infrastructure investment push in times of low interest rates and high uncertainty can significantly increase jobs and accelerate the recovery, while also serving as an initial big step towards reducing carbon emissions.

Emerging market and developing economies are having to manage this crisis with fewer resources, as many are constrained by elevated debt and higher borrowing costs. These economies will need to prioritize critical spending for health and transfers to the poor and ensure maximum efficiency.

They will also need continued support in the form of international grants and concessional financing, and debt relief in some cases. Where debt is unsustainable it should be restructured sooner than later to free up finances to deal with this crisis.

Lastly, policies should be designed with an eye toward placing economies on paths of stronger, equitable, and sustainable growth. The global easing of monetary policy while essential for the recovery should be complemented with measures to prevent build-up of financial risks over the medium term, and central bank independence should be safeguarded at all costs.

Needed fiscal spending and the output collapse have driven global sovereign debt levels to a record 100 percent of global GDP. While low interest rates alongside the projected rebound in growth in 2021 will stabilize debt levels in many countries, all will benefit from a medium-term fiscal framework to give confidence that debt remains sustainable.

In the future, governments will likely need to raise the progressivity of their taxes while ensuring that corporations pay their fair share of taxes, alongside eliminating wasteful spending.

Investments in health, digital infrastructure, green infrastructure and education can help achieve productive, inclusive, and sustainable growth. And expanding the safety net where gaps exist can ensure the most vulnerable are protected while supporting near-term activity.

This is the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and it will take significant innovation on the policy front, at both the national and international levels to recover from this calamity. The challenges are daunting. But there are reasons to be hopeful.

The exceptional policy response, including the establishment of the European Union pandemic recovery package fund and the use of digital technologies to deliver social assistance is a powerful reminder that well-designed policies protect people and collective economic wellbeing.

At the IMF we have provided funding at record speed to 81 members since the start of the pandemic, granted debt relief, and called for extended debt service suspension for low-income countries and for reform of the international debt architecture. Building on these actions, policies for the next stage of the crisis must seek lasting improvements in the global economy that create prosperous futures for all.

Source: IMF Blog

 

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The post A Long, Uneven and Uncertain Ascent appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The IMF says poor are getting poorer with close to 90 million people expected to fall into extreme deprivation this year

 
Gita Gopinath is the Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The post A Long, Uneven and Uncertain Ascent appeared first on Inter Press Service.