Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Coconut farmers in Mafia Island, Tanzania, rely solely on donkeys as the mode of transporting their products from farms to markets. Credit: Alexander Makotta/IPS

By Mike Baker and Roly Owners
NEW YORK, Oct 14 2020 (IPS)

As we prepare to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it is time to recognise the role of working animals in livelihood systems, addressing climate change and in human health, which has been overlooked for too long. The Working Animal Alliance seeks to change this. 

As we seek cost-effective and innovative solutions to help achieve the SDG’s, we would do well to recognise that working horses, donkeys and mules have been instrumental in the development and maintenance of civilization for millennia.

While they may be considered ‘old technology’ by some, they remain a versatile green power source. Not many people know that more than 100 million working animals continue to sustain the livelihoods of more than 600 million people, many of them at most risk of being left behind.  

Environmentally-conscious forestry already uses working animals in logging as their impact on sensitive woodland is much lighter than mechanised machinery.  Working animals are able to take the most direct route to a destination so there is little need to build new roads

For communities where motorised transport is either unavailable, unaffordable or impractical, working animals can be the difference between life and death.  They enable people to fulfil their basic needs, providing access to water, food, firewood and medical care.  They can also alleviate poverty, as they enable people to generate an income. 

For instance, from Cambodia to Romania, horses are used as draught power to plough fields. In Central America, they are integral to rural and urban economies, pulling carts full of goods to and from market or used in refuse collection to keep city spaces hygienic.

In Colombia, they carry coffee beans from plantations and across Africa, horses, donkeys and mules carry food for other livestock as well as serving as taxis, people carriers and moving vans. Working animals are used to transport medical tests in Lesotho, children to school in Honduras and water to villages in Mexico. They allow people to participate in community saving schemes in Ethiopia, and provide families with the income to pay for their children’s education.  

In fact, these roles are undertaken by working animals across all continents, to some degree, yet their relevance to livelihoods has been largely invisible to policy makers and governments. Development organisations and institutions such as FAO acknowledge the importance of livestock such as cattle, goats and pigs to food security, but the working animals which help supply their feed and water – and support the lives of livestock owners – are still largely under the radar.  

There are many reasons for this.  One may be that working animals are ‘part of the furniture’ of civilisation – always present and therefore invisible.  People living in communities where working animals are common admit to not even noticing them. 

Conversely, in many industrialised nations, working animals may be considered old fashioned and niche, even though they still play roles in transportation, tourism and livestock raising.  Another reason may be that the people who rely on working animals tend to be the poor and marginalised due to geography or socio-economics, so they do not have a strong voice. 

Yet another reason may be that some nations do not want to acknowledge many of their citizens still rely on working animals in their economies, focusing instead on their progress towards mechanisation.  Why support an apparently outdated way of doing things when the march is on to modernise?

There are three factors that should cause us to embrace the use of working animals. The first is the SDGs themselves, which working animals already help to achieve. Were there policies supporting them and ensuring they were healthy and productive, the benefits of using them would increase.

For instance, a working horse in Senegal costs around $400. If owners were supported with knowledge to provide better basic care to that horse or donkey, and if there were skilled affordable local service providers available to provide vital hoof and veterinary care, they could use their asset for more than ten or 15 years. 

However, without this, that horse could quickly become lame or die, and so unproductive, leading to hardship for the family– so requiring the already struggling owner to invest another $400 to get back to square one. 

The second factor that should awaken us to the relevance of working animals is climate change.  Working animals as mentioned above are a tried and tested green power source. Not only can they survive happily on grasses and plants, but they emit less methane than livestock – and horse manure is an effective and widely used organic fertiliser. 

Environmentally-conscious forestry already uses working animals in logging as their impact on sensitive woodland is much lighter than mechanised machinery.  Working animals are able to take the most direct route to a destination so there is little need to build new roads. Working animals do not require parts made of scarce metals nor are they dependent upon the price of fossil fuels. And when a working animal dies, it can be absorbed back into the earth. 

Thirdly, it has long been understood that human and animal health are closely intertwined, and we ignore this at our peril – as we have seen with COVID 19. The UNEP has recently pointed out that 75% of all emerging infectious diseases are from animals and they do not exclusively emanate from wildlife.

Domesticated animals and livestock can be carriers too, as seen in other previous epidemics such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and Avian Influenza Virus H7N9 epidemic in 2013, and now with the current pandemic. Safeguarding the health and welfare of vital working animals is therefore of utmost importance in protecting the health of people. 

Some are awakening to the importance of working animals – for instance the OIE has worked with the International Coalition for Working Equids (ICWE) to develop basic guides to equine welfare and the World Bank is seeking to implement these in their programmes.

However, the fitness and health of working animals has relevance far wider than the realms of veterinary medicine and agriculture. This is why we have established the Working Animal Alliance – an informal network of NGOs, countries, development agencies and organisations to help raise awareness of the role of working equids in achieving the SDGs and the need to provide systems of support for owners to better care for their most important asset. 

If you agree it is time to respect our working animals and appreciate the contribution they make right now, as well as in the future preservation of our sustainable planet, then please join us.

 

Mike Baker is CEO of The Donkey Sanctuary and Roly Owers is CEO of World Horse Welfare

The post Working Animals’ Role in SDGs and Addressing Climate Change, Pandemic Crises appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Oct 14 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world.

More than 820 million people were classified as chronically food insecure before the virus hit.

Unless immediate action is taken, we are facing an unprecedented global food emergency.

The food security of 135 million people was already categorised as crisis level or worse.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, that number could rise to 265 million by the end of the year.

The number of children under the age of five years who are stunted now stands at 144 million. That is more than one in five children worldwide.

As of late May, 368 million school children missed out on daily school meals on which they depend.
47 million kids are now classified as wasting, and these numbers will grow rapidly.

The pandemic could push about 49 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2020.

But the economic repercussions of the virus are not the only factors giving rise to the global food crisis.

In many parts of the world, food security has been threatened by protracted conflict, recurrent droughts due to climate change, and rapid industrialization, as well as the worst locust infestation in decades.

On October 16, the annual celebration of World Food Day is calling for global solidarity to help recover from this crisis.

This year’s theme is: Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together.

It aims to make food systems more resilient to withstand global volatility and deliver affordable and sustainable diets for all.

It is more important than ever to ensure food makes its way to those in need even amidst the current COVID-19 crisis.

 

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Nila Kispotta (centre) poses for a photo with family members. Kispotta comes from a family of daily wage earners. Like many young, rural girls, pursuing a tertiary education would have been impossible without the financial support she receives from her school, the Moimuna Nursing Institute. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

By Farid Ahmed
THAKURGAON, Bangladesh , Oct 14 2020 (IPS)

Nila Kispotta, a 19-year-old rural girl from the Oraon ethnic community, has become a figure of exceptional achievement to the small, poverty-stricken village in Thakurgaon in northwest Bangladesh that she grew up in. Born into a family of daily wage earners, Kispotta dreamt of a different life. So when she enrolled in tertiary education to pursue a diploma in Nursing Science and Midwifery — she achieved something her family and community hadn’t even dreamed was possible.

“Girl children are mostly bearing the brunt of poverty in our society, but I continued my fight against all odds. Only a little help can change the life of many girls,” Kispotta told IPS.

It would have been impossible for Kispotta to pursue a tertiary education without financial support.

But after matriculating from a Christian missionary school, she went to a local college for two years before enrolling in the Moimuna Nursing Institute in Thakurgaon, 460 kilometres away from capital Dhaka. It is a non-profit approved by the Bangladesh Council of Nursing and Midwifery, and offers a three-year diploma in nursing for Taka 110,000 or $1,500, which includes tuition fees, accommodation, uniforms and books.

According to the institute’s chair of the board of directors, Dr. Saifullah Syed, it was designed to ensure that rural girls are given an opportunity to receive an education, despite their financial backgrounds.

“We offer needs-based scholarship and we are creating a scholarship fund so that poor girls can receive support,” Syed told IPS, adding that scholarships were funded by voluntary contributions and that the fund was managed by a board of trustees. He added that individual donors could even directly support specific students.

“It is the lowest cost institute in the country, and the fees cover only the running cost of the courses and it has become difficult to run the courses as many poor students are enrolled here because of the scholarship facilities,” Syed told IPS.

Kispotta, who is in her first year, is grateful for the waiver of fees.

“Now it’s easy for me to continue the diploma in nursing at a private institute as the tuition fees have been waived,” she said. Kispotta added that upon completion of the diploma, she plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

“She is our pride,” the elderly Gabriel Kispotta, a distant relative of Kispotta who lives in Thakurgaon, told IPS. “None of us have even passed high school,” he said, adding that around 15 Oraon families lived in the area.

Thakurgaon and its adjoining districts has a population of just over 1.2 million — of which one million live in rural areas — and a literacy rate of just under 42 percent.  

The institute, housed on its own campus, opened early this year with a first group of 20 underprivileged, students, mostly rural girls.

It houses modern labs, a library, a hostel and a large, lush green sports field overlooking the institute where students and faculty participate in athletics, football, handball and cricket. There is also a hospital onsite — the Moimuna Mata Shishu Hospital — that provides free healthcare services and free medicine to poverty-stricken villagers.

“It’s a specialised hospital for women and children, but we run like a general hospital as all kinds of patients come here as they get services almost free of cost,” Director of the Moimuna Mata Shishu Hospital, Dr. M.A. Momin, told IPS.

Momin, a retired civil surgeon from a government hospital who also teaches at the institute, said both the hospital and institute were staffed by capable medical staff who were able to effectively train the student nurses.

The institute’s curriculum offers a variety of courses that include; English, computer literacy, basic nursing, anatomy and physiology. The aim is to train students to a higher standard that would allow them to access further training in facilities in urban areas. 

“There is a huge shortage of qualified nurses in the country and we’re trying our best to produce quality nurses making opportunities for poor eligible students, especially for rural girls,” said the institute’s principal Lucy Biswas.

Students attend anatomy class at the Moimuna Nursing Institute. The first group of students comprises 20 underprivileged, rural students, mostly rural girls. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

Most of Kispotta’s peers have a similar financial background.

Joya Rani, who enrolled at the institute from neighbouring Panchagar district, told IPS that she badly needed financial support as she had no way of funding her education.

“Getting a chance to study here without any cost is a watershed in my life… I’ve struggled all through my life and I don’t want to lose the fight,” she told IPS. “Certainly I’ll try to become a good nurse and find a job at a big hospital in the capital,” Rani said.

Another student, Sweety Akter, said before enrolling in the Moimuna Nursing Institute she had been able to earn a small amount of money working as a private tutor. The funds went to support her family. “Now it has stopped and sometimes it becomes difficult for me to manage the money for food at the hostel,” Akter told IPS.

Only a handful of students receive full financial support because of funding constraints, management says.

Biswas, who formerly headed a number of government nursing institutes before taking on the post at Moimuna Nursing Institute, told IPS: “Had there been no financial support, many of the students would have dropped out as they come from very poor families.”

Biswas said that even though tuition fees and hostel expenses were cheaper here than any other private nursing institutes in the country, it was still difficult for many of the rural girls to pay their education expenses as their families were locked in poverty and the struggle for daily survival.

“The students are so poor that they [could not afford] smart phones and internet charges at home for online classes during the coronavirus pandemic [lockdown],” Biswas explained. The country went into a nationwide lockdown at the end of March, partially easing some of these restrictions two months later, but continuing with a restriction on travel until early August.

“So they returned to the hostels to pursue their studies [while] maintaining social distancing.”

 

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The post Changing the Lives of Bangladesh’s Rural Girls by Giving them a Tertiary Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

October 15th is Rural Women's Day. IPS travelled some 460 kms from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, to the rural area of Thakurgaon District. Here we found a nursing school largely geared towards educating and training young, rural girls in a profession.

The post Changing the Lives of Bangladesh’s Rural Girls by Giving them a Tertiary Education appeared first on Inter Press Service.

In countries like Malawi, there are simply not enough mental health professionals to go around. The local faith community can help fill this void. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.

By Chiwoza Bandawe
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Oct 14 2020 (IPS)

The world is actually in the throes of two pandemics. The first is COVID-19. The second is the wave of stress and anxiety, depression and substance use it has unleashed around the world. Most mental health disorders are treatable.

This so called “second pandemic” is raging in poor and wealthy countries alike. But across Africa, and in much of the Global South, people facing mental health crises have nowhere to turn.

The reason is that governments and aid agencies are not making the investments needed to provide these services. In the lead up to “World Mental Health Day,” the World Federation for Mental Health recently released new statistics on the share of health budgets that nations and international donors devote to mental health.

Fear, and the loss of the livelihoods, loved ones, and companionship, that give life meaning and purpose, are leaving people bereft. The need for mental health counseling and care far exceeds what we are equipped to give. The question is what is to be done?

It is miniscule – between one and two percent – even though the WHO calculates that every US$ 1 invested in scaled-up treatment for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety returns US$ 5 in improved health and productivity.

On the African continent, the consequences of underinvestment are especially glaring. Here, at least 90% of those with mental health problems are not getting the necessary treatment. My own country, Malawi, illustrates the chasm between what is needed and what we are able to provide. I am one of four registered clinical psychologists here and there are just three psychiatrists.

Malawi has a population of 18 million.

The consequences of untreated mental health problems are serious. According to the latest figures released for World Mental Health Day, one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. And in Malawi, the police have just released new statistics showing suicides between January and August of this year have shot up by 57% compared with the same period last year.

Fear, and the loss of the livelihoods, loved ones, and companionship, that give life meaning and purpose, are leaving people bereft. The need for mental health counseling and care far exceeds what we are equipped to give. The question is what is to be done?

I believe the best, and perhaps only, viable option is to invest in the networks and social support systems that already help troubled people endure suffering and make sense of their lives.

In countries like mine, it is faith leaders that they turn to.

This safety net is already firmly in place. Here, and in many other parts of Africa, faith is woven into everything. Churches or mosques can be found in every village and often on every street corner. Public meetings begin with prayers.

When they encounter personal problems, including depression, anxiety or substance use, people ask faith leaders to help them cope. Faith can often offer strength and solace. Indeed, the link between faith and mental health is well established. Researchers have found correlations between religious faith, and hope, optimism, satisfaction, self-esteem, and a sense of meaning in life.

But bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and many other ailments require a level of care and intervention that faith leaders are not prepared to offer. Many tell me they are grappling with complex and frightening problems that worry them. One lamented, “all I can do is pray for them and I don’t know what else to do.”

Others perform exorcisms for mental illnesses, trying to get rid of the demons they believe are to blame. The idea that people with psychological or neurological disorders are possessed by demons stigmatizes them further. In these cases, faith traditions can deepen people’s suffering, force them to endure in secret, or be cast out of their communities, and denied access to treatments that could change or even save their lives.

Faith leaders are already on front lines in countries like mine and this is not about to change. So why not give them the tools to navigate this treacherous terrain? With basic mental health literacy they could learn to recognize, understand, manage, and even prevent mental health disorders. They would know the symptoms of anxiety, depression, or psychosis, the resources available, and where people can go for treatment.

Would African clerics, steeped in religious doctrine and faith, be amenable to this? Those who talk with me not only need, but want this knowledge. Elsewhere, programs like this are already proving effective. Studies show that faith leaders have welcomed and benefitted from this kind of training, and that it has influenced the kind of advice they give.

Mental health literacy training already empowers primary care providers to provide patients with the care, information, support, skills, and resources needed to face mental health challenges. Governments, aid agencies, and NGOs should create and fund these trainings. Umbrella religious councils and associations should work with them to ensure that the trainings are as useful, relevant, and widely accessible as possible.

The need is overwhelming. In countries like Malawi, there are simply not enough mental health professionals to go around. The local faith community can help fill this void. Armed with more knowledge, faith leaders can play a pivotal role in promoting global mental health and reaching those who desperately need mental health services. The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, is “Mental Health for All: Greater Investment – Greater Access.”

We do need to invest much more, and training faith leaders in mental health literacy is one way we can do it now.

Chiwoza Bandawe is a clinical psychologist with the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. He has several publications in international journals and has published three mental health education books.

The post Train Faith Leaders to Tackle Africa’s Mental Health Needs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Maria 5, and Tendo, 4, have learnt the habit of regularly washing their hands whenever they arrive back home from playing with their friends, Kamwokya II Ward, Central Division, Kampala City, Uganda. April 2020. Credit: WaterAid/ James Kiyimba

By Mbaye Mbeguere
DAKAR, Senegal, Oct 14 2020 (IPS)

For those who live in slums and informal settlements, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront their greatest vulnerabilities. But they are fighting back; organising, and coming up with creative ways to protect their communities.

Regular handwashing with soap and water is a first line of defence in protecting from deadly diseases, but in sub-Saharan Africa, 63 per cent of people in urban areas – that’s 258 million people – lack access to decent handwashing facilities.

Globally, there are 3 billion people who do not have access to soap and water to wash their hands at home.

Other preventative measures employed by governments such as lockdowns and curfews are equally implausible for those living in slums and informal settlements.

It’s often so crowded that there is often no space for physical distancing, especially for those who need to leave their homes to collect water or use communal toilets.

When businesses are informal and your economy functions on a day-to-day basis, advice to work from home, or close your business is unworkable. In many places informal markets have been cleared and people evicted in response to COVID-19, ignoring the rights of the urban poor and the role they play in the rest of the city.

Despite all these barriers, those living in informal settlements are organising to fight back against COVID-19.

Some of the most inspiring responses to the pandemic we are seeing have been led by residents of informal settlements. They are installing handwashing stations, producing maps and situation reports, and even highlighting isolation areas.

We must learn from, and scale up, these community-led activities, and empower people to protect themselves.

At WaterAid, supported by partners such as H&M Foundation, we have been working with groups within informal settlement in their work to bring handwashing facilities, clean water and decent toilets to everyone in their community.

Credit: WaterAid/ James Kiyimba

In Kamwokya II, in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city, which is home to more than 6,000 people in less than half a square kilometre of land, Christopher Tumwine leads a community action group called ‘Weyonje’ (clean yourself’), supported by WaterAid and the Kampala Capital City Authority.

For Chris, clean water, good hygiene and decent toilets are always front of mind. Weyonje goes house to house talking to people about how to use toilets properly and dispose of the waste safely.

Worried that advice and programmes aimed to protect the population against COVID-19 are leaving informal settlements behind, they are now also teaching people about the importance of hygiene and handwashing.

To create long term change, Chris needs the support of government, business and his neighbours, and in recent years, he has spent his time campaigning for a sustainable solution to protect his community’s health, safety and dignity from overflowing sewers, filthy water and disease.

Chris said: “Our settlement is densely populated, and houses are near each other. Social distancing is a myth in the slums, it is something designed for people living in affluent places of the city. We have shared toilets, bathrooms and public water taps, and our children always get out of the houses to play with other kids in the neighbourhood. We are just lucky that Coronavirus has not reached the slum.”

Chris believes community groups like Weyonje are crucial to stopping the spread of diseases such as COVID-19 in the area:

“In Kamwokya, we have created a Weyonje WhatsApp group during the lockdown where group members share information on how best we can help the community. This is a good platform that we can use to counter misinformation about COVID-19 that is circulating on social media. Using megaphones, we carry out house to house community education; teaching the community residents that proper and regular handwashing with water and soap is a defence against the spread of coronavirus.”

As many in the community don’t have a water source close to home, they create makeshift handwashing stations, filling a plastic bottle with soap and water and tying it to their front door with string, so they can wash their hands before entering their homes.

Across the world there are groups and organisations just like Weyonje, working tirelessly to protect their communities from the spread of illness and convince the public and government alike that clean water and decent toilets must be a priority.

In Kenya, for example, Muungano wa Wanavijiji – which means ‘united slum dwellers’ – are using their knowledge of the country’s informal settlement to help track cases of COVID-19 and communicate government messages about preventing the spread of the disease to those who are the most vulnerable.

In 2019, and before the Covid-19 pandemic started, WaterAid followed Weyonje and its leader Chris to film their work and witness an exciting moment for Kamwokya. Watch the film, supported by H&M Foundation, to see what the team achieved here.

*WaterAid and H&M Foundation are working with communities, governments and partners, to create long lasting change, and bring clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene to communities around the world.

 

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The post The Urban Poor are Fighting Back Against COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Mbaye Mbeguere is Senior Wash Manager (Urban) at WaterAid*

The post The Urban Poor are Fighting Back Against COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw 3.5 billion people without access to digital technology and services and more than one billion children unable to continue their education. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 14 2020 (IPS)

Digital technology has been crucial in ensuring community and connection during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. And its shown that collaboration between the private and public sector can ensure that digital technology continues to advance in a way that improves people’s lives under crises, experts said on Tuesday, Oct. 13. 

The COVID-19 pandemic saw 3.5 billion people without access to digital services and more than one billion children unable to continue their education, Dr. Julia Glidden, corporate vice president at Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector, said at the webinar.

“As digital services became lifelines, empowering responders, [the] crisis also highlighted the need for greater connectivity,” she said.

Speakers from Denmark, South Korea, China and Bangladesh were among those who shared their insights at the webinar “Accelerating Digital Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from COVID-19”. It was organised by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG), and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) of South Korea.

The webinar focused largely on the importance of bringing together public and private sector partnerships and highlighted the need for civic engagement.

Particularly outspoken on this issue was Kyong-yul Lee, Secretary-General of the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organisation (WeGO), an international association of cities, and local and national governments.

Echoing the thoughts of other speakers about the importance of collaboration of public and private institutions, Lee added the importance of including citizens in the equations.

“If civic participation is active, PPP (referring to public-private partnership) becomes PPPP —  public private people participation,” he said. “Citizens are not simple participants but active data collectors and problem solvers.”

In order to make sure these measures are effective, there is also the need for a change in mindset, Lee said.

“City officials should change their minds – they are not the owner of the city, and city administrators should be open minded and kept abreast of the times,” Lee added. “As it was the technology that changed the stone change, it’s technology that [will] usher in the smart age, so cities should awaken to it and invest in it for the future.” 

In some places, such as the digital technology landscape in Bangladesh, a change in mindset is already happening, according to Anir Chowdhury, policy advisor of the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme under the ICT division in Bangladesh.

Chowdhury said amid the COVID-19 outbreak, officials in the government have adopted measures that are helping accelerate their work, with many “major decisions” taking place via Whatsapp.

This means they are able to hold high-level meetings on 12-16 hours notice.

“This has really given a radical change in mindset that leapfrogging is possible and we can eliminate a lot of steps in our bureaucracy,” Chowdhury said. “A lot of things that were thought to be impossible are now possible.”

Xufeng Zhu, Professor and Associate Dean at the School of Public Policy and Management in China’s Tsinghua University, discussed the digital technology measures the Chinese government used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The Chinese government was able to use the internet for processes such as online diagnoses and the release of information , among other services. The latter was helpful in aiding government authorities to curb the spread of misinformation spread.

Digital technology was also crucial for delivery services during the lockdown, and the delivery system fixing the blind spots in the cities, Zhu said.

Tech companies also have a big role to play, he added.

It was noted that while the alliance between governments and tech companies is important to note, the citizens have a crucial role to play in ensuring that these measures are effective.

“Citizens must play a more active role and participate in helping create smart cities,” said Lee of WeGO. “Citizens should change their mind too, they shouldn’t be passive bystanders, they are real owners of the city and they are asked to actively create the ideal smart city. A sense of ownership is critical and civil participation makes a big difference.”

Glidden offered a call to action.

“In the face of unprecedented global challenges, there’s also opportunities,” Glidden said. “I believe the need to catalyse collaborative partnerships and innovation of a global level has never been greater.”

She said a model that involves a vibrant mix of small and mid-size enterprises, and the public and private sector would be the ideal model to addresses “challenges of access and inclusion, which COVID-19 so dramatically showcased”.

She called for a model that “ultimately shows digital is a force for social good rather than disruption and division”.

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The post Improving People’s Lives with Digital Technology during COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Coastal fisheries provide vital food security and household incomes throughout the Pacific Islands. The fish market, Auki, Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, Oct 13 2020 (IPS)

Coastal fisheries in the Pacific Islands have become a food and livelihood lifeline to many people who have lost jobs, especially in urban centres and tourism, following COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures. Now governments and development organisations are trying to meet the crisis-driven survival needs of here and now, while also considering the long-term consequences on near shore marine resources and habitats.

“In Vanuatu, we don’t have any cases of COVID-19. But around us the world is in lockdown and the incomes indigenous people usually get from tourism have all gone, they have completely come to a halt,” Leias Cullwick, Executive Director of the Vanuatu National Council of Women in Port Vila, told IPS.  Tourism accounts for an estimated 40 percent of Vanuatu’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“But we still have our own land to plant crops and we can get fish from the sea,” she continued.

Subsistence and small-scale commercial fisheries in coastal areas are a crucial source of nutrition and incomes to communities throughout the Pacific Islands. Fifty percent of coastal households in the region gain a primary or secondary income from fishing, while 89 percent of households generally consume seafood on a weekly basis, according to the regional development organisation, the Pacific Community (SPC).

The COVID-19 induced economic downturn has only increased the importance of traditional livelihoods and sources of food. At a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency in August, the Director General, Dr. Manu Tupou-Roosen emphasised that “it is crucial for fisheries to continue operating at this time, providing much needed income to support the economic recovery, as well as to enhance contribution to the food security of our people”.

However, the increased movement of urban residents back to rural villages and to their extended family networks has, in some areas, had consequences. Dr Andrew Smith, Deputy Director (Coastal Fisheries) at the SPC in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS of some of the impacts, .

“What we have been seeing are cases where people who are not familiar with the areas, or not familiar with fishing methods, are either harvesting protected species or under-sized species or the wrong species. There have been reports of fishers going into marine managed areas or into other people’s traditional fishing zones,” he said, adding that: “There is also, in some cases, increased conflicts occurring because people are fishing in the wrong places and catching the wrong fish, both from a national fisheries perspective and the laws, but also from traditional cultural perspectives.”

In surveys conducted in 43 rural villages in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu prior to July by WorldFish, national fisheries agencies in the Pacific Islands and the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, 46 percent and 55 percent of people respectively claimed that there was a shortage of food in communities.

Neither Pacific Island country has recorded any COVID-19 cases to date. However, restrictions on large gatherings and border closures across the region, to prevent any spread of the virus, have diminished shipping and trade. Vanuatu, for example, is under an extended State of Emergency until the 31 December and the government promotes social distancing and enhanced hygiene practices. 

“When COVID-19 first emerged, our country went into stopping main markets, they were stopped for a couple of months. It has now been lifted. People can go out fishing, but it is very difficult for people to sell fish because people are on lower incomes,” Cullwick said.

Coastal fishing, in the zone between the shore and outer reefs, includes species, such as finfish, trochus, lobsters and crabs. The vast majority of the coastal catch is for subsistence. In Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, subsistence fishing makes up 71 percent and 75 percent respectively of the total coastal catch each year. And there is evidence this year that greater hardship has led to increased fishing for food.

This is an additional pressure on coastal resources in the Pacific, which are already being affected by climate change, greater exploitation due to growing populations and the environmental degradation of marine habitats by factors, including pollution, urbanisation and natural disasters.

“The region is a little bit more used to dealing with tropical cyclones, that are always devastating, but are disasters that happen relatively frequently, but they are usually more localised, and the initial impact shorter. Whereas COVID-19 has had an immediate impact, but will have a very long term effect across the region, more of a slow burn disaster, and then you’ve got climate change, which is impacting now, but it is an even slower burn. So you’ve got these multiple stressors on both the resources and the habitats,” Smith told IPS.

According to the development organisation, which is consulting extensively with national governments throughout the region on responding to the present crisis, but a major challenge is achieving a balance between meeting short-term survival needs and managing the long-term repercussions.

One strategy to address immediate food security is encouraging more households to take up aquaculture and establish fish farms.  The Vanuatu Government is supporting this initiative by providing free tilapia fingerlings and feed to families who have taken the first step in building a fish pond.  This is a way of both boosting nutrition and alleviating further over-fishing near to shore. The Pacific Community is also assisting countries to set up near shore fish aggregating devices, which are easily accessible by local fishers.

One positive outcome is that the COVID-19 crisis has driven more discussion at the national and regional levels about the key role of community-based fisheries management. Smith says that there is “clear recognition by the heads of fisheries, as well as at the ministerial level, of how important having effectively managed community-based fisheries are.”

The cornerstone of this approach is increasing the capacity of coastal communities to manage their fishing practices and take the lead on ensuring the future of their marine resources, supported by governments and development organisations. It’s an important element of the 2015 Noumea Strategy, also known as ‘A New Song for Coastal Fisheries,’ a regional vision of sustainably managing fisheries for the future.

 

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Alianza Ceibo, a 2020 Equator Prize winner, unites four indigenous peoples in their struggle to counter environmental degradation to protect over 20,000 square kilometers of primary rainforest across four provinces and 70 communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Credit: Mitch Anderson

By Yoko Watanabe and Nina Kantcheva
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 13 2020 (IPS)

Indigenous peoples and local communities offer the best hope for solutions to our planetary emergency. These solutions are grounded in traditional, time-tested practices and knowledge.

Indigenous peoples already steward 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, as well as nearly one-fifth of the total carbon sequestered by tropical and subtropical forests. Moreover, indigenous territories encompass 40 percent of protected areas globally.

Yet the voices of indigenous peoples and local communities are barely heard and are often excluded from decision-making. Their rights over land, territories, and resources are routinely overlooked, and they are frequently threatened and often subject of murder, assault, intimidation and detention.

Similarly, our planetary emergency puts the rights of today’s youth, rights to a healthy, viable and livable planet, at risk. Although they will feel the brunt of biodiversity loss and climate change in their lifetimes, they do not have a regular seat at the table.

UNDP, together with more than 40 partner organizations, has joined forces to create a virtual Nature for Life Hub where the voices of indigenous peoples, local communities, environmental defenders and youth can be heard.

Listening to youth voices on nature

One example of a group leading the way on youth action on nature is Youth4Nature. Their goals including mobilizing youth advocates to encourage political leaders to recognize that nature can provide up to 30 percent of our climate solutions needed by 2030; elevating the voices of youth by providing a platform to share their stories and have them be heard; and building the capacity of youth as stewards for a nature for climate movement.

Yoko Watanabe

They, and thousands of youth groups around the world, are leading a new generation in the movement to hold leaders accountable for action on nature.

The UNDP-led Equator Initiative hosted this year’s Equator Prize 2020 Award Ceremony in a live-streamed virtual event. Chosen from among hundreds of nominations, this year’s Equator Prize winners, the indigenous and local communities who protect, restore and sustainably manage nature, are the stars.

They showcase a new normal, standing in contrast to the unsustainable business-as-usual model of how we produce and consume virtually everything. The themes of this year’s winners, “Nature for Climate,” “Nature for Water,” and “Nature for Prosperity,” offer a powerful, local response to our global, planetary emergency.

Reimagining conservation: Aligning nature conservation and human rights

Over the last decades, conservation organizations have been repeatedly challenged to confront allegations of a fortress mentality and embrace a more inclusive paradigm, recognizing that we can only truly conserve nature with the full support of Indigenous peoples and local communities who live in and around protected and conserved areas.

Nina Kantcheva

While numerous examples of successful integrated conservation-development projects exist across the world, widely divergent views persist on what exactly ‘nature conservation’ is and should be. A reset is needed, one that includes communities, policymakers, and scientists, to reimagine how nature conversation and human rights can lead us toward a new era of a rights-based approach to conservation.

Local action and efforts at the community level are often seen as too small to address the global crisis of biodiversity loss. However, local action on nature is essential and should be at the core of our efforts if we are to bend the curve on nature loss, recognizing that Indigenous peoples and local communities have long acted as the stewards of nature, with deep traditional knowledge and nature-based solutions.

We must find ways to accelerate and magnify local action, and to scale up impact. Various pathways already exist, including through policy, advocacy, finance and technology.

There are many exciting initiatives that support local action including the GEF Small Grants Programme at UNDP that has supported more than 25,000 projects in 125 countries, Inclusive Conservation Initiative, Dedicated Grant Mechanism, Community-Based REDD+ initiative, and others that provide financial and technical support to civil society and community-based organizations, including indigenous peoples, women, youth, persons with disabilities, in their continuing efforts to safeguard the global environment while improving their well-being and livelihood.

Defending environmental defenders

In 2019, more than 200 environmental defenders were killed, and many more were tortured, beaten or intimidated. Environmental defenders are on the front line in protecting the nature that sustains us all.

If we are to make gains in protecting 30 percent of the planet, and ending and even reversing the loss of biodiversity, then we must consider that these gains will largely need to take place on the remaining world’s intact areas, a large portion of which are owned by indigenous peoples and local communities.

We must start by standing with those environmental defenders who are safeguarding their lands and territories, and we must secure a future for the planet by securing their rights, tenure, and governance.

There is something you can also do to make the change. UNDP with partners is coordinating a global campaign on the importance of nature for life and for sustainable development, and on the need to stand for nature.

Next time you are tweeting, sharing, liking or posting on social media about nature, consider adding the hashtags #NatureForLife and #StandForNature. Together with local action, they can have a big impact!

 

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Excerpt:

Yoko Watanabe is Global Manager of the GEF Small Grants Programme at UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Nina Kantcheva is Senior Policy Adviser, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Engagement

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct 13 2020 (IPS)

Milton Friedman was arguably the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century, associated with promoting ‘neo-liberal’, free-market, shareholder capitalism.

Friedman’s monetarist economics is now widely considered irrelevant, if not wrong, especially with the low inflation associated with ‘unconventional’ monetary policies following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Friedman’s doctrine challenged
Nevertheless, Friedman’s ‘shareholder capitalism’ doctrine remains influential in most financial markets, especially emerging ones in the developing world.

His doctrine, prioritizing short-term profit maximization, has long dominated Anglo-American corporate governance despite chatter about ‘stakeholder capitalism’ and ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR).

Chicago University’s Raghuram Rajan claims that long-term share value maximization can advance almost everybody’s long-term interests.

But even Glenn Hubbard acknowledges that long-term shareholder-value maximization cannot address many problems faced by firms, let alone societies. Having served George W. Bush’s conservative administration, he recognizes the need for public policy interventions.

Friedman’s shareholder primacy principle can also become absurd. Rajan’s former co-author Luigi Zingales argues, “if you take Friedman to an extreme, I should sue a CEO who doesn’t buy off all the members of Congress”.

More importantly, Zingales points out that corporations have duties as public institutions with special privileges granted by the state such as “limited liability, especially with respect to tort claims, is an extraordinary privilege granted by the state”, implying reciprocal obligations.

Friedman’s manifesto insisted that companies focus on making money, leaving ethical matters to individuals and government. US law enshrines shareholder rights as owners able to challenge or replace boards whose members stray from their fiduciary duty.

Stakeholder capitalism?
Friedman vehemently opposed stakeholder capitalism, whose proponents argue that companies have responsibilities to all stakeholders, not only shareholders, but also employees, customers, society and even nature.

He argued that ‘stakeholders’, typically ill-defined, will insulate directors from shareholders, reduce their accountability, and compromise corporate performance. This would allow executives to pursue their personal priorities or cover up their own failures.

Straying from Friedman’s singular focus on profit maximization would mean that corporate executives are no longer loyally and exclusively serving shareholders, worsening the ‘principal-agent’ problem.

For Friedman, government and other stakeholders should not be allowed to interfere with shareholder corporate governance in any way, or worse, undermine incentives for investors to risk their capital. In his doctrine, profit alone should be corporations’ sole motive.

Joseph Stiglitz has noted that US courts have ruled that firms are obliged to maximize profits and shareholder value, excluding all other objectives. Hence, ‘stakeholder capitalism’ is not rooted in US law as corporate executives are not accountable by law to the communities in which they operate, or even to society at large, let alone to nature.

What a wonderful world?
Friedman also presumed market imperfections did not exist, or would be fully taken care of by regulation. However, the rule of law has never really been adequate to such challenges.

Thus, he effectively gave companies ‘moral cover’ to be ruthless, free and unregulated to pursue their own interests, at the expense of the public good, while not worrying about society’s larger interests.

Friedman also criticized business leaders for straying from maximizing profits and worrying about their public image, the social good and public welfare.

While dismissing talk of stakeholders as attempts by company directors to be free to run companies as they like, and for public relations, Friedman approved of companies that “generate good will as a by-product of expenditures that are entirely justified in its own self-interest”.

But he was conspicuously silent about business interests lobbying, rigging elections, making campaign contributions, compromising research and public discourse, while reputation laundering with philanthropy and public relations.

Friedman’s world view is remarkably simplistic, typically ignoring broader, ‘longer term’ consequences. For him, business efficiency — due to shareholder primacy, not undermined by company directors, managers, government taxes and regulations — can and will solve all problems.

Stakeholderism challenged
Friedman’s neoliberal ‘doctrine’ shaped major economic reforms the world over from the 1980s until the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Lacklustre growth since then has given rise to various new challenges to shareholder capitalism, not least in the name of other stakeholders, and appeals for corporate governance reform and CSR.

Multi-millionaires, even some billionaires and chief executive officers (CEOs), have joined the dissent, whom influential businessman writer Andrew Ross Sorkin would have us believe represent the future.

To be sure, many have undoubtedly turned away from Friedman’s thinking in recent years.

In 2019, the influential Business Roundtable, which had long advocated shareholder primacy, issued a pro-stakeholder statement. It replaced its Friedmanite Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation with “a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders”.

A few months later, the World Economic Forum issued a similar 2020 Davos Manifesto, embracing stakeholder as well as environment, social and governance (ESG) principles.

Nevertheless, legendary investor Warren Buffett remains sceptical of ‘purpose-over-profit’ stakeholder advocacy. “In representing your interests, business-savvy directors [will] seek managers whose goals include delighting their customers, cherishing their associates and acting as good citizens of both their communities and our country.”

Meanwhile, most advocating a stakeholder approach to corporate governance argue that considering the interests of employees or other stakeholders is good for company profits and shareholders. Yet, they privately acknowledge that profits must come first, even if they feel constrained to say so in public.

Corporate social responsibility?
Some argue they are defending capitalist free enterprise in the long term by having a ‘social conscience’ and taking responsibility for providing employment, avoiding pollution and pursuing other trendy CSR reforms, ostensibly in companies’ ‘enlightened self-interest’.

Others insist that many contemporary problems are too urgent for slowly meandering political processes. Instead, they argue, CSR “is a quicker and surer way to solve pressing current problems”.

CSR is said to be a useful, if not necessary complement to government policy and regulation. Friedmanite critics object that CSR involves spending shareholder money for a typically vague public interest, reducing company returns and spending ‘other people’s money’.

Friedman warned that the doctrine of ‘social responsibility’ would take over if not checked. But the converse is more true today as ‘greed is good’ and the ‘short-termist’ shareholder mentality is clearly hegemonic.

Others object that CSR involves the ‘socialist’ view that political, not market mechanisms are better for allocating scarce resources to alternative uses. But CSR has also been invoked to justify wage curbs against trade union demands, ostensibly for some higher public purpose.

CSR has also been invoked when philanthropy and charity have been abused to minimize tax liability, and for public relations and marketing, e.g., by ‘greenwashing’ products and services.

W(h)ither capitalism?
Embarrassingly, US corporations that signed the ‘stakeholder capitalism’ statement have been more likely to lay off workers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and less likely to donate to relief efforts.

With growing opposition to neoliberal capitalism, ‘stakeholderism’ and CSR have been invoked to save capitalism by offering a more sensitive ‘human’ face.

As capitalism may well be the only ‘show in town’ for some time to come, popular demands for more thoroughgoing reforms, checks and balances are likely to grow as the realities of stakeholder capitalism and CSR become increasingly apparent.

 

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Credit: Giulio Piscitelli for Emergency

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Oct 12 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Distant and blurred, as if it belongs to the past, the war in Afghanistan has never been so fierce and forgotten. On the 7th of October, the country entered the twentieth year since the United States announced the first airstrikes against the Taliban, adding a new chapter to the endless bleeding of this corner of Asia, where more than four decades without peace have left entire generations hopeless.

‘I believe that the [Afghan] people do not remember why we started this war.’

The voice of Giorgia Novello, medical coordinator of the NGO Emergency in Kabul, bursts onto the screen of the theatre where the documentary A hospital in war – Emergency in Afghanistan was premiered last week in Rome. Filmed and produced by Nico Piro, special correspondent of the Italian Rai 3, it is one of the few recently released first-hand reports on the Afghan war. It recounts both the spiral of violence in which the country is still trapped and the tireless efforts of those trying to ease the pain of a jaded population.

International media attention withdrew from Afghanistan with the US and NATO troops in 2014, dooming to oblivion an already underreported conflict, where, in 2019, civilian casualties have reached an unprecedented level.

Hidden victims of an invisible war, civilians are paying the highest price: injured while playing, driving, going to school, providing livelihoods to their families; wounded by bullets, and landmines; victims of explosions and airstrikes.

‘The biggest lie ever told about contemporary wars is that they are fought by armies on battlefields. Indeed, they are fought among people in the middle of villages and in the hearts of cities. That lie pushes people to think that conflicts, being a matter of warriors and soldiers, leaves only them killed and injured, not civilians, which are instead the main victims’, Piro told us at the sidelines of the premiere in Italy.

Never so fierce

Three young male patients are seen in the ICU after surgery. All the boys were injured in a mine blast. October 1st 2017, Emergency Surgical Center for War Victims in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: Mathieu Willcocks for Emergency

The Italian NGO Emergency has operated in Afghanistan since 1999. It runs two hospitals for war victims in Kabul and Lashkar Gah, a network of first aid posts in eleven provinces and a medical-surgical centre in Panjshir. Over the past few years, notably from 2017, the number of patients receiving care at its health facilities has significantly and consistently increased.

‘The majority come from the provinces, but they also come from Kabul where explosions are extremely frequent’, Marco Puntin, Emergency’s program coordinator in Afghanistan, reached in the Afghan capital, told us. Fifteen percent of those treated are women and thirty percent are children. The large majority of the patients, many of which civilians, are treated for bullet injuries — 55 percent — or for wounds caused by foreign bodies — 30 percent.

‘The security situation has deteriorated, especially in [the capital]. Our local staff do not leave home at night, travelling after dark is dangerous. If they can, they avoid running that risk. The same for us, internationals’, Puntin said.

Fighting continues in all the provinces, too. Fifteen percent of the patientes admitted at Emergency hospital in Panjshir – the safest place in Afghanistan – are still victims of war coming from neighbouring areas.

After the agreement signed in February between the United States and the Taliban, something has changed. ‘We noticed a reduction in large-scale attacks, but a severe surge in small explosions’, he said. ‘In Kabul, even if small, there are explosions every single day, no day excluded’.

In September, a new spike of violence throughout the country marked the stalling negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Since Sunday, a Taliban military offensive against Afghan security forces has been underway in the Helmand province. Yesterday Emergency’s Surgical Centre for War Victims in Lashkar-Gah received forty-eight patients with war injuries, four of whom had already died upon arrival. “This morning, a rocket flew into the city, and we immediately received six patients due to the explosion. Today, we have received one person who was dead on arrival and another eleven seriously injured patients have been hospitalised. Six have already been treated and discharged,” Puntin said in a note to the press.

“Whilst in Doha there is talk of peace, the violence here in Afghanistan doesn’t stop. Civilians are already paying the price for this new wave of fighting in Helmand, ” Puntin added.

Finghtings are raging while COVID-19 outbreak continues to challenge the fragile national healthcare system. Between May and June, the spread of the virus forced some hospitals to shut down: ‘That stressed a health system already brought to its knees by forty years of conflict’, Puntin said. Cases are on the rise again, especially along the border with Iran.

Emergency is implementing preventive measures in all its facilities, which include the use of personal protection equipment, the reduction of bed capacity to ensure adequate space between beds and specific protocols to minimise the risk of virus transmission.

However, the pandemic was not perceived as a major threat by the Afghan people: ‘Most of them didn’t believe in COVID very much because they have a greater problem: the war. Their priority is to stay alive in the areas where they live, hit more by war than by coronavirus’, he explained.

Staying alive, surviving. And to survive, ‘the only thing to do is not to think . . . You have to try to live normally if you want to preserve your mental health’, Puntin said.

But Afghans know that every day can be their last.

‘Recently, a friend in Kabul, a well-educated young man, who has a good job and a healthy family, told me something which I hold dear. “When I leave home in the morning, I kiss my kids many and many times because it can be the last time I see them.” This describes very well what living in Afghanistan means today’, Piro told us.

Living hopelessly, dying in silence

Life has changed dramatically since the end of the Isaf mission, according to Piro, who has been covering the conflict since 2006. ‘Conflict-related violence has increased, and criminality is on the rise with robbery and kidnapping on a daily basis’, he said.

Nonetheless, it is not just a matter of violence and criminality.

‘After 2001, people really believed in a new and greater Afghanistan, a new phase of peace and prosperity. Now they are completely hopeless waiting for the worst yet to come’, he added.

Fragile signs of hope are seen in the response of the people: ‘From what we see, from our patients and from our local staff, there aren’t many positive elements. I saw a few. The positive thing is that since a couple of years, rallies for peace are proliferating. People can’t stand it anymore. Forty years of constant war: They can’t stand it anymore’, Puntin stressed.

Peace would not only mean ceasing the Afghan people’s suffering, it could also impact well beyond the country’s borders — according to Piro — stopping opium, heroin and methamphetamine production; weakening the Islamists movements in the bordering ex-soviet republics; halting migrations; downsizing Pakistan’s power in the area and so its impact on the Kashmir tensions, possibly bringing stability and prosperity to that entire sector of Asia.

‘Peace is closer than ever’, Piro said. However, the Italian journalist believes that the Afghan people are not giving peace a chance: allowing the Taliban to return to power could mean a peace ‘potentially worse than war’ for many Afghans, forcing ‘the best part of the country — people who fought for and built freedom of press, women’s right, civil and human rights, democracy’ — to flee the country to avoid retaliation.

In 2018, when the documentary, which will be realised in English, was filmed, Piro was almost the only foreign journalist in Afghanistan during the Parliamentary elections. ‘Since 2014, Afghanistan has been forgotten by the international media. Why? Security, the rising Syria topic, budget cuts and so on. All of those reasons are true, but we have to admit that the media made a big mistake because in leaving Afghanistan behind, we, as reporters, did what the politicians wanted us to do. Forgetting Afghanistan meant giving impunity to politicians and their decision to begin and expand an impossible war’, he said.

In silence, hope is fading as in silence Afghans continue to die.

“In this country, divided on everything … just death seems left to unify everyone ’. The voice from the screen chills the audience, dazed by realizing that the conflict in Afghanistan has never come to an end.

This article was first published by Degrees of Latitude

 

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The issue of women and peacekeeping has been especially crucial during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. But the COVID-19 pandemic has has had a great negative impact on women in Mali in their peace building efforts. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 12 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the safety and sense of community for many women in Mali given the travel restrictions and lockdowns in place, Bassirou Gaye, an assistant researcher for a 2019 report on the role of Mali women in peacekeeping, told IPS this weekend.

“This pandemic has undermined peace building initiatives such as training sessions, exchange meetings, trips to share ideas and good practices among women,” Gaye said. “Barrier measures meant that women could no longer meet in large numbers.”

Gaye spoke with IPS following a roundtable meeting last week where the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres discussed, with women leaders from the Central African Republic, Cyprus, Darfur and Mali, the role of women’s leadership in taking forward the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda for the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative.

He highlighted how the issue of women and peacekeeping has been especially crucial during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

“In the COVID-19 crisis, it has been women who have had the trust of divided communities to credibly disseminate public health messaging,” Guterres said. “Yet, it is women who are under siege, bearing disproportionate care and economic burdens and facing an alarming surge of violence in the home.”

At the roundtable, representatives from the four countries shared their views: Bintou Founé Samaké, president of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) and Minister of Women Children and Family Affairs in Mali; Magda Zenon, Cypriot peace and human rights and civil society activist; Lena Ekomo, who leads the network for women’s leadership in the Central African Republic; and Nawal Hassan Osman, a Gender Darfur State’s Advisor in Sudan, and a member of the Darfur Women’s Platform.

At the talk, Osman lauded the women who were on the frontlines of Sudan’s 2019 revolution, “bearing all the acts of the human rights violation and atrocities from the security force of the former regime”.

She added that the current pandemic has also affected rule of law and accountability in cases of conflict-related sexual violence.

Her concerns are similar to the ones voiced by others at the roundtable.

“Day after day, year after year,  we are paying a price because of our own biases and because of discrimination that exists — we need to be able to do better,” Guterres said at the roundtable.

In his call to ensure the implementation of shared commitments about women’s role in peace building, the Secretary-General reiterated the crucial and urgent need to recognise women’s participation.

“Today, women’s participation is a cause, we must make it a norm,” he said. “That is how we will transform international peace and security. That is how we will build a peaceful future.”

Excerpts of the interview with Gaye follow. It has been edited for clarity purposes.

Inter Press Service (IPS): How has COVID-19 pandemic affected women in peacebuilding in Mali?

Bassirou Gaye (BG): COVID-19 has had a great negative impact on women in Mali in their peace building efforts [such as those mentioned above: training sessions, exchange meetings, trips to share ideas and good practices]. These unique conditions which create a safe space for women cannot be replicated via videoconferences.

The health crisis has also affected the economic activities (small businesses) that allow some women to ensure the functioning of their associations through membership fees. It is also important to note that many international structures that support women’s organisations have stopped their activities because of the pandemic.

IPS: In 2012, Mali faced a huge crisis following an Islamist insurgency in the country that led to an exodus of tens of thousands of Malians. Your report discusses at length the 2012 conflict. In what ways has that  informed women’s participation in peace and security efforts?

BG: In my opinion, the 2012 crisis has been a trigger for women to take a greater interest in governance and, more specifically, in peace and security issues despite political and cultural obstacles. They have started to better organise themselves and join forces to develop ideas, projects and initiatives for peace building. Before 2012, there was no such thing. Women’s organisations are now multiplying training and sensitisation activities on issues of conflict, security, peace and reconciliation in favour of women. In addition, many international organisations have multiplied their accompaniment of women in their peace building efforts. For example, they offer funding and capacity building activities to women.

IPS: What role do women currently play in the peace process in Mali?

BG: For several reasons, the place of women is very important in peace building initiatives in Mali. Women are at the heart of the conflict and they are the first victims: forced marriages, sexual violence, forced displacement in refugee camps, restrictions on freedom, imposition of the veil, difficulty in accessing health care, etc. Women can therefore better explain the multiple forms of insecurity than men and make proposals for concrete solutions.

In addition, women are better able to raise awareness and conduct training sessions for the many women who are not familiar with national and international legal and political texts and frameworks relating to women’s rights and their participation in conflict resolution and management.

IPS: What challenges do women in Mali face in peace building efforts in the country?

BG: Malian women face many challenges to their participation in peace building. These

challenges can be categorised on several levels:

• Social challenges: According to Malian customary and religious beliefs, women belong in the home, not in public life. Therefore, they should not be involved in the management of public affairs or in activities outside the home. If a woman, especially if she is married, engages in such activities, her family (her husband, father or brother) must first give their consent, which is often unlikely. Thus, these beliefs confine them to a background role and mean that the use of women’s expertise and potential is generally not systematic. In Mali, many women who work in organisations (associations, think tanks) for peace building, conflict resolution or women’s rights advocacy [tend to have] marital problems with husbands or their families. They are poorly appreciated by society, especially if they spend more time at work.

• There is also a lack of accessible training and information on peace and security issues. Numerous studies show that they are among the least informed segments of society.

• There is also a lack of willingness on the part of political decision-makers to involve women more in the management of political affairs so that they have the opportunity to influence decision-making processes. In December 2015, Law 052 was passed in Mali, establishing a 30 percent quota for women’s appointments to national institutions and legislative bodies. This initiative was welcomed as a victory. However, this law has not been respected by the current government, which includes only 16 percent women.

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COVID-19: UNESCO-- Solutions for Distance Learning
The contribution of voluntary social distancing was larger in advanced economies where people can work from home more easily or can even afford to stop working thanks to personal savings and social security benefits.

By Francesco Grigoli and Damiano Sandri
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 12 2020 (IPS)

One enduring lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is that any lasting economic recovery will depend on resolving the health crisis.

Our research in the latest World Economic Outlook shows that government lockdowns—while succeeding in their intended goal of lowering infections—contributed considerably to the recession and had disproportional effects on vulnerable groups, such as women and young people.

But the recession was also largely driven by people voluntarily refraining from social interactions as they feared contracting the virus. Therefore, lifting lockdowns is unlikely to lead to a decisive and sustained economic boost if infections are still elevated, as voluntary social distancing will likely persist.

Yet the analysis finds that a balance can be achieved in protecting public health while preventing a protracted economic decline. Lockdowns impose short-term costs but may lead to a faster economic recovery as they lower infections and thus the extent of voluntary social distancing.

Examining the medium-term effects of lockdowns as well as the robustness of our findings is an important area for future research as the pandemic evolves and more data become available.

The economic and health crisis through the lens of real-time data

We analyze the economic effects of lockdowns and voluntary social distancing using two high-frequency proxies for economic activity: mobility data from Google and job openings posted on the website Indeed.

As illustrated in the top chart below, over the entire sample of 128 countries used in the analysis, lockdowns and voluntary social distancing contributed equally to the drop in mobility during the first 3 months of a country’s epidemic.

The contribution of voluntary social distancing was larger in advanced economies where people can work from home more easily or can even afford to stop working thanks to personal savings and social security benefits.

Conversely, people in low-income countries are often unable to opt for voluntary social distancing as they do not have the financial means to cope with a temporary income loss. The analysis of job posting data provides similar insights, showing that both lockdowns and voluntary social distancing contributed substantially to the drop in labor demand.

The large contribution of voluntary social distancing in reducing mobility and job postings should warn policymakers against lifting lockdowns when infections are still elevated in the hope of jumpstarting economic activity. Addressing the health risks appears to be a pre-condition to allow for a strong and sustained economic recovery.

In this regard, the analysis reveals that lockdowns can substantially reduce infections. The effects are particularly strong if lockdowns are adopted early in a country’s epidemic.

The bottom chart below shows that countries that adopted lockdowns when COVID-19 cases were still low experienced much better epidemiological outcomes relative to countries that intervened when cases were already high. The chapter also documents that lockdowns must be sufficiently strict to curb infections, thus suggesting that stringent and short-lived lockdowns could be preferable to mild and prolonged measures.

The effectiveness of lockdowns in reducing infections, coupled with the finding that infections can considerably harm economic activity because of voluntary social distancing, calls for re-considering the prevailing narrative about lockdowns involving a trade-off between saving lives and supporting the economy.

This characterization of lives vs. livelihoods neglects that effective lockdown measures taken early during an epidemic may lead to a faster economic recovery by containing the virus and reducing voluntary social distancing.

These medium-term gains may offset the short-term costs of lockdowns, possibly even leading to positive overall effects on the economy. More research is warranted on this important aspect as the crisis evolves and more data become available.

The impact of lockdowns on vulnerable groups

The chapter also contributes to the growing evidence that the crisis is having disproportionate effects on more vulnerable groups. Anonymized and aggregated mobility data provided by telecommunications company Vodafone for Italy, Portugal, and Spain, show that stay-at-home orders and the associated school closures led to a larger drop in the mobility of women relative to men.

This effect is largely due to the disproportionate burden that women face in caring for children, which may prevent them from going to work, thus jeopardizing their employment opportunities.

The Vodafone data also reveal that lockdowns tend to impact the mobility of younger people more strongly. The bottom chart below shows that stay-at-home orders led to a sharper decline in the mobility of people aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 44 who tend to have younger children to care for when schools are closed and often have temporary job contracts that are more likely to be terminated during a crisis.

The larger impact on these populations threatens to increase inter-generational inequality.

Targeted policy intervention—such as strengthening unemployment benefits and supporting paid leave for parents—is thus needed to protect more vulnerable people and ensure that the crisis does not lead to a long-lasting widening of inequality.

Source: IMF Blog

*IMF Blog is a forum for the views of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff and officials on pressing economic and policy issues of the day.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF and its Executive Board.

 

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Rhoda Tumusiime, IITA Board Member, Former African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, and Chairperson, HOPE
 
Steven Cole, Senior Scientist and Gender Research Coordinator, IITA

By Rhoda Tumusiime and Steven Cole
IBADAN, Nigeria, Oct 12 2020 (IPS)

Africa’s hopes of feeding a population projected to double by 2050 amidst a worsening climate crisis rest on huge investments in agriculture, including creating the conditions so that women can empower themselves and lead efforts to transform the continent’s farming landscape.

Rhoda Tumusiime

As we celebrate the 2020 International Day of Rural Women, Africa needs to reflect more on the role women play in food and nutrition security, land and water management.

Also, the impact of COVID-19 on women’s capacity to provide food for their families and care for their loved ones underscores the importance of strengthening their capacities by designing gender responsive actions.

We know the world has the technology and resources to eradicate hunger but finding the right policies and the will to implement them often elude us.

Fortunately, young women and men carrying out evidence-based research in sub-Saharan Africa are coming up with some possible answers on how to tackle these pressing issues.

Working with the support and guidance of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a research-for-development non-profit, these researchers are aiming to facilitate agricultural solutions to hunger, poverty and natural resource degradation in line with IITA’s goals and particularly its gender research strategy.

Bear in mind that over 60% of all employed women in sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture, and that women produce up to 80% of foodstuffs for household consumption and sale in local markets. But these women farmers are disadvantaged by a range of factors, such as laws, policies, gender-blind development programs, and entrenched norms and power imbalances within and outside their homes and communities.

Fundamental gender constraints clearly shape how women and men are involved in and benefit from agricultural food systems. Manifested as harmful gender norms, attitudes and power relations, they have a particular impact on how young women participate in value chains or have access to resources such as land, as well as their decision-making powers and how money earned from their labor is spent.

Steven Cole

Gender-blind policies and development interventions do not take into account the different roles and diverse needs of men and women, while gender-accommodative policies confirm that gender constraints exist but can propose ways to work around them for the benefit of women.

IITA’s gender research strategy brings to the surface the underlying causes of gender inequalities to inform and guide policies to address these causes with interventions that reduce poverty and increase gender equality in low-income countries with boosts to job opportunities and economic, food and nutrition security.

In the months before the coronavirus surfaced and with funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), IITA launched 80 research fellowships for young African scholars, with an emphasis on young female professionals and students aiming to acquire a master’s or doctoral degree. Grantees are offered training on research methodology, data management, scientific writing, and the production of research evidence for policymaking.

Known as CARE (Enhancing Capacity to Apply Research Evidence), the three-year project aims to build our understanding of poverty reduction, employment impact, and factors influencing youth engagement in agribusiness, and rural farm and non-farm economies.

Achieving these development outcomes requires working with multi-stakeholder groups at multiple levels to transform unequal power relations between female and male youth in various social institutions, including in the household, community, market, and the state.

For example, in southern Benin, graduate student Grace Chabi looked at why young agricultural entrepreneurs are predominately male. Among her policy recommendations are a call to remove gender biases from land ownership, credit, and employment practices. Policies should also facilitate female agripreneurship networks and target funding to agribusinesses owned by women.

Research by Akinyi Sassi in Tanzania found how stereotypes can negatively affect women’s intentions to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to access agricultural market information, but that contrary to such stereotyping, female farmers were more strongly influenced than male farmers by their perception of the value of using phones to find such information. Such gender factors can be considered when promoting ICT use.

Cynthia Mkong of Cameroon has examined the issue of role models, social status, and previous experience in determining why some students are more likely to choose agriculture as their university major. Almost a quarter of young women in Cameroon are unemployed, compared with 11% of young men. Building effective policies to improve the education of girls and household income at all levels could reverse declining youth interest in agriculture.

Adedotun Seyingbo examined employment among Nigerian youth and how gender and other issues, including land access, influence how more young people remain in non-farm employment rather than staying in farm jobs.

Also in Nigeria, Oluwaseun Oginni looked at rural-urban migration and found that 43% of youth migrants are female. A better future, educational opportunities, and marriage are among the reasons young women are leaving rural areas.

Adella Ng’atigwa examined how to empower youth to reduce horticulture postharvest losses in Tanzania and found that women have fewer losses as they are more involved in vegetable production and marketing and are more able to handle perishable crops.

All these research projects also illustrate IITA’s gender research strategy using what is known as an ‘intersectional lens’. This means an examination of deep inequities, sometimes violent and systematic, that intersect with each other: such as poverty, racism, sexism, denial of rights and opportunities, and generational differences. In this way the connections between all struggles for justice and equal opportunities are illuminated.

A gender transformative approach adopted by IITA aims to address the root causes of gender inequalities for more sustained and meaningful change for female and male youth. With such changes, Africa, with the world’s youngest and fastest growing population, will be better equipped to handle its future challenges with women at the forefront.

 

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Excerpt:

Rhoda Tumusiime, IITA Board Member, Former African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, and Chairperson, HOPE

 
Steven Cole, Senior Scientist and Gender Research Coordinator, IITA

The post Gendering Agriculture so Women Take the Lead in Feeding Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Women in Nigeria collect food vouchers as part of a programme to support families struggling under the COVID-19 lockdown. Credit: WFP/Damilola Onafuwa

By External Source
Oct 11 2020 (IPS)

As the threat of a COVID-19 pandemic emerged earlier this year, many felt a sense of apprehension about what would happen when it reached Africa. Concerns over the combination of overstretched and underfunded health systems and the existing load of infectious and non-infectious diseases often led to it being talked about in apocalyptic terms.

However, it has not turned out quite that way. On September 29th, the world passed the one million reported deaths mark (the true figure will of course be higher). On the same day, the count for Africa was a cumulative total of 35,954.

Africa accounts for 17% of the global population but only 3.5% of the reported global COVID-19 deaths. All deaths are important, we should not discount apparently low numbers, and of course data collected over such a wide range of countries will be of variable quality, but the gap between predictions and what has actually happened is staggering. There has been much discussion on what accounts for this.

We argue that Africa’s much younger population explains a very large part of the apparent difference. Some of the remaining gap is probably due to under reporting of events but there are a number of other plausible explanations. These range from climatic differences, pre-existing immunity, genetic factors and behavioural differences

As leads of the COVID-19 team in the African Academy of Sciences, we have followed the unfolding events and various explanations put forward. The emerging picture is that in many African countries, transmission has been higher but severity and mortality much lower than originally predicted based on experience in China and Europe.

We argue that Africa’s much younger population explains a very large part of the apparent difference. Some of the remaining gap is probably due to under reporting of events but there are a number of other plausible explanations. These range from climatic differences, pre-existing immunity, genetic factors and behavioural differences.

Given the enormous variability in conditions across a continent – with 55 member states – the exact contribution of any one factor in a particular environment is likely to vary. But the bottom line is that what appeared at first to be a mystery looks less puzzling as more and more research evidence emerges.

 

The importance of age

The most obvious factor for the low death rates is the population age structure. Across multiple countries the risk of dying of COVID-19 for those aged 80 years or more is around a hundred times that of people in their twenties.

This can best be appreciated with a specific example. As of September 30th, the UK had reported 41,980 COVID-19 specific deaths while Kenya, by contrast, had reported 691. The population of the UK is around 66 million with a median age of 40 compared with Kenya’s population of 51 million with a median age of 20 years.

Corrected for population size the death toll in Kenya would have been expected to be around 32,000. However if one also corrects for population structure (assumes that the age specific death rates in the UK apply to the population structure of Kenya), we would expect around 5,000 deaths. There is still a big difference between 700 and 5,000; what might account for the remaining gap?

 

Other possible contributors

One possibility is the failure to identify and record deaths.

Kenya, as with most countries, initially had little testing capacity and specific death registration is challenging. However, Kenya quickly built up its testing capacity and the extra attention to finding deaths makes it unlikely that a gap of this size can be fully accounted for by missing information.

There has been no shortage of ideas for other factors that may be contributing.

A recent large multi-country study in Europe reported significant declines in mortality related to higher temperature and humidity. The authors hypothesised that this may be because the mechanisms by which our respiratory tracts clear virus work better in warmer more humid conditions. This means that people may be getting less virus particles into their system.

It should be noted however that a systematic review of global data – while confirming that warm and wet climates seemed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 – indicated that these variables alone could not explain most of the variability in disease transmission. It’s important to remember that there’s considerable weather variability throughout Africa. Not all climates are warm or wet and, if they are, they may not stay that way throughout the year.

Other suggestions include the possibility of pre-existing protective immune responses due either to previous exposure to other pathogens or to BCG vaccination, a vaccine against tuberculosis provided at birth in most African countries. A large analysis – which involved 55 countries, representing 63% of the world’s population – showed significant correlations between increasing BCG coverage at a young age and better outcomes of COVID-19.

Genetic factors may also be important. A recently described haplotype (group of genes) associated with increased risk of severity and present in 30% of south Asian genomes and 8% of Europeans is almost absent in Africa.

The role of these and other factors – such as potential differences in social structures or mobility – are subject to ongoing investigation.

 

More effective response

An important possibility is that public health response of African countries, prepared by previous experiences (such as outbreaks or epidemics) was simply more effective in limiting transmission than in other parts of the world.

However, in Kenya it’s estimated that the epidemic actually peaked in July with around 40% of the population in urban areas having been infected. A similar picture is emerging in other countries. This implies that measures put in place had little effect on viral transmission per se, though it does raise the possibility that herd immunity is now playing a role in limiting further transmission.

At the same time there is another important possibility: the idea that viral load (the number of virus particles transmitted to a person) is a key determinant of severity. It has been suggested that masks reduce viral load and that their widespread wearing may limit the chances of developing severe disease. While WHO recommends mask wearing, uptake has been variable and has been lower in many European countries, compared with many parts of Africa.

So is Africa in the clear? Well, obviously not. There is still plenty of virus around and we do not know what may happen as the interaction between the virus and humans evolves.

However, one thing that does seem clear is that the secondary effects of the pandemic will be Africa’s real COVID-19 challenge. These stem from the severe interruptions of social and economic activities as well as the potentially devastating effects of reduced delivery of services which protect millions of people, including routine vaccination as well as malaria, TB and HIV control programmes.

 

Research agendas

Major implications of the emerging picture include the need to re-evaluate African COVID-19 research agendas. While many of the priorities originally identified may still hold, their relative importance is likely to have changed. The key point is to deal with the problems as they are now rather than as they were imagined to be six months ago.

The same thing applies for public health policy. Of course, basic measures such as hand washing remain essential (regardless of COVID-19) and wearing masks should be continued while there is any level of COVID-19 transmission. However, other measures with broader effects on society, especially restrictions on educational and economic activity, should be under continuous review.

A key point now is to increase surveillance and ensure that flexible responses are driven by high quality real time data.

Kevin Marsh, Professor of Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford and Moses Alobo, Programme Manager for Grand Challenges Africa, African Academy of Sciences

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

The post COVID-19: Examining Theories for Africa’s Low Death Rates appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Oct 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 declaring October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights. This year, on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, IPS released the video ‘Building Back Better: Education Cannot Wait’.

 

 

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Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Oct 9 2020 (IPS)

Out of global crises spring opportunities for change. In crisis, change is not an option. It is a necessity. And, as Plato famously noted: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is an invention that sprang out of crisis and was borne of necessity.

Yasmine Sherif

Education Cannot Wait was conceived as a direct response to the lack of financial resources and crisis-sensitive approaches needed to address the learning crisis for 75 million vulnerable children and adolescents impacted by armed conflicts, forced displacement and climate-induced disasters. Today, three years into its operations, the growing number of already crisis-affected children and youth are now doubly hit by another crisis, COVID-19, while under the threat of being hit again by the global financial crisis.

How many crises can they withstand without succumbing? How many hits can they take without losing hope?

This burning question was at the centre of the UNGA week event: “The Future of Education is Here for Those Left Furthest Behind.” On 17 September 2020, ECW brought together an impressive, diverse line-up of political leaders, policymakers, influencers and youth advocates, who unanimously spoke to the need of scaling up investments in inclusive quality education for those left furthest behind: refugees, internally displaced, girls and children with disabilities – all already affected by brutal conflicts and climate-induced disasters.

Their statements were strong, powerful and driven by determination (see the collection of speaker’s quotes in this month’s Newsletter). This impressive gathering recognized Education Cannot Wait’s innovative design and modus operandi, specifically tailored to reach those left furthest behind in emergencies and protracted crises.

Education Cannot Wait translates innovation into action. When a climate-induced disaster hits Mozambique, Nepal or Peru, or when hostilities escalate in Mali, South Sudan or Syria, ECW immediately sets in motion a coordinated response that delivers on the ground within weeks. Where protracted conflicts and forced displacement keep children and adolescents out of school, leaving crisis-affected governments to fend for themselves, multi-year joint programming brings together humanitarian and development actors to jointly respond to the crisis and empower governments to deliver on SDG4 in Afghanistan, Chad and Somalia, and many others.

Between 2017 to 2019, 3.62 million girls and boys previously left behind benefited from Education Cannot Wait’s investments. In Uganda alone, enrollment and access to quality education for refugees rose from 53% to 75%, while girls’ education in ECW investments climbed to 60% in Afghanistan and Nigeria. When schools shut down in April 2020 due to COVID-19, ECW unleashed its emergency reserves and dispersed funding to over 50 grantees across 33 already crisis-affected countries the very same month. When a devastating explosion took place in Beirut in August, ECW moved swiftly and invested in the rehabilitation of damaged schools.

This response to crisis is possible because ECW optimizes other reform efforts geared at innovation and improvement of the multilateral crisis response, such as The New Way of Working, the Grand Bargain and Humanitarian-Development Coherence. It empowers and reinforce existing capacities and coordination structures designed especially for crisis coordination and steers it to prioritize education in the collective response. By doing so, ECW facilitates the multilateral system’s ability to work with greater speed and more sustainability in achieving SDG4 in emergencies and protracted crisis – there, where we find those left furthest behind.

Education Cannot Wait is about systemic change. As a pooled funding mechanism exclusively dedicated to education in emergencies and protracted crises, ECW is designed to leverage financial resources to change the way we deliver inclusive and equitable quality education to those left furthest behind. We know from our growing evidence base that this innovation works.

“Education Cannot Wait is an example of how the United Nations system delivers quality with speed to advance SDG4 leveraging the best from across the UN family. Now is the time to take our work to the next level,” affirmed the UN Deputy-Secretary General, Amina J. Mohammed, in her opening statement at ECW’s most recent High-Level Steering Group, held during the UN General Assembly Week in September.

Working closely with host governments and local communities, UN agencies and civil society are the ones delivering on the ground. When working together through joint programming and coordination, they have the capacity to empower and support governments in crisis to act with speed and deliver at scale to advance SDG4 amidst the largest crisis-affected areas on the globe. Their challenge is not a lack of capacity, coordination or commitment. Their most significant challenge is the lack of funding to allow them to scale up in delivering on SDG4 in crises.

Today, we cannot say that we do not know how to deliver quality education in emergencies or protracted crises. Nor can we continue to ponder what the humanitarian-development nexus might look like in real life, nor assert that in-country host governments, UN agencies and civil society do not coordinate. As ECW’s Annual Results Report of 2019 illustrates, those who work on the emergency frontlines are already doing so – they model cooperation, coordination, speed and quality.

Still, they could do so much more if the required funding was available. To scale up, they need an additional $1.2 billion to reach an additional 5 million children and adolescents. ECW’s immediate ask on their behalf is that of $300 million through 2021.

While the pandemic is pushing the world into a global recession, the need for education funding for those left furthest behind has never been greater. As Baroness Liz Sugg, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Foreign and Development Affairs, stated during the ECW convened event at UNGA: “Every single country around the work is under huge economic pressure at the moment as a result of COVID-19, but that is not a reason for inaction on education and investing in communities ravished by conflict and crises.”

In the same spirit, EU Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen stated: “We must come together to coordinate further our investments to our purpose of leaving no children behind. ECW mobilizes a collective response to urgent needs in education in emergencies. I am proud that that European Union was part of its inception. We have a once in a generation opportunity to reopen schools better than they were before. Now more than ever, Education Cannot Wait.”

When crisis hits, we invent out of necessity. When an invention works, we scale up. When we scale up that which works, we build back better. Now, we need to fund it at scale.

 

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Excerpt:

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

The post Scaling Up SDG4 in Crises appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: WFP

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2020 (IPS)

With the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize bestowed on the Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations and its affiliated agencies continue to hold a monopoly of one of the world’s most prestigious annual awards.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the WFP as the “world’s first responder on the frontlines of food insecurity.”

In a world of plenty, he pointed out, it is unconscionable that hundreds of millions go to bed each night hungry. Millions more are now on the precipice of famine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The women and men of the WFP brave danger and distance to deliver life-saving sustenance to those devastated by conflict, to people suffering because of disaster, to children and families uncertain about their next meal,” Guterres declared.

He also singled out David Beasley, WFP Executive Director, and the entire staff of the World Food Programme, for advancing the values of the United Nations every day and serving the cause of “we the peoples” as the Organization marks its 75th anniversary year.

In a video statement on social media, Beasley said: “It’s because of the WFP family: they are out there in the most difficult, complex places in the world, where there’s war, conflict, climate extremes – it doesn’t matter. They are out there and they deserve this award …

“This is the first time I’ve been speechless … This is unbelievable. And Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!”, an exhilarated Beasley, a former Governor of the US state of South Carolina (1995-1999), said Friday.

Beginning with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1954 and 1981), the UN recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize also include Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (1961), the UN children’s agency UNICEF (1965), the International Labour Organization (1969), the UN Peacekeeping Forces (1988), the United Nations & Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2001), the International Atomic Energy Agency (2005), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013).

The award also went to the predecessor to the United Nations: League of Nations (1938) for its work on aiding refugees, and to Ralph Bunche (1950), Director of the UN Division of Trusteeship, and Acting Mediator in Palestine.

Gernot Laganda, Chief / Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes at WFP told IPS: “As WFP staff, we are humbled and moved by this honor. Many colleagues have spent years – some decades – working to increase food security for hungry people who have had their lives torn apart by conflict, climatic extremes or economic shocks”

He said some of his colleagues have lost their lives in the line of duty.

“Every WFP staff, from Executive Director David Beasley to our local colleagues working in the most difficult conditions in the deep field, sees the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s vote as a recognition that the 690 million hungry people in the world have the right to live an active and healthy life, free from conflict and with safety nets against increasing climate extremes and disasters”.

“This recognition will inspire all of us to work even harder, to save lives and change lives on the pathway to Zero Hunger,” said Laganda, who joined WFP from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he managed the world’s largest climate change adaptation program for smallholder farmers.

Dr John Coonrod, Executive Vice President of the Washington-based Hunger Project, told IPS: “An excellent choice”

“In a world where conflict has forced millions to go hungry, the World Food Programme brings relief and dignity. UN agencies like WFP take on the toughest challenges in the world and deserve everyone’s support,” said Dr Coonrod, who is also Coordinator and co-founder of the Movement for Community-led Development.

Danielle Nierenberg, President of the US-based Food Tank, told IPS there are few organizations in the world poised to confront the multiple challenges of the pandemic, the climate crisis, inequality, and food and nutrition insecurity, like the World Food Programme.

“During COVID-19, they have continued to be on the frontlines confronting all of these challenges. Their work has never been more important or necessary.

“I’m grateful that the Nobel Commission decided to make a statement this year commending and organization that has as its mission to nourish the world,” said Nierenberg.

Congratulating WFP, Oxfam International’s interim Executive Director, Chema Vera told IPS it is a timely and urgent recognition to the work that WFP does in fighting the scourge of global hunger.

At a time when more than 135 million people in 55 countries around the world are facing severe to crisis levels of food insecurity, this recognition must also be a clarion call for wider and immediate action.

The UN’s $10.3 billion humanitarian appeal is today barely 40% funded – and within that, the money needed for global food security and nutrition are the most under-funded parts of the entire appeal.

The international community should fully fund the UN appeal now and accompany that with the strongest political action to support the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire.

“We must break the bond between conflict and hunger and work collectively towards peace,” said Vera.

Laganda of WFP told IPS that “a message that is important from my own role in the organization working on climate and disaster risk reduction programs is that WFP and its partners are facing an uphill battle”.

He pointed out that climate disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, “and we see a growing interplay between climate and conflict”.

Hunger is on the rise, and there is not enough humanitarian financing to go around to catch up with these growing needs.

“This is why we need to complement our ever-present readiness to respond with longer-term programs which strengthen capacities for risk reduction, prevention and resilience-building, said Laganda, who formerly served as Humanitarian Program Specialist with the Austrian Development Agency and managed climate and environmental programs with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in South Africa and the Asia/Pacific region.

He said not many people are aware of this, but apart from being a cutting-edge operational agency for emergency response, WFP is also an excellent partner for governments who are working to strengthen systems for risk management – from climate information and early warning systems to social protection and climate insurance solutions.

To manage the growing humanitarian impacts of climate change over the next few years and decades, he noted, “we will not only need to prepare for more costly responses to more frequent and intense climate disasters – we also need to frontload investments into forward-looking programs that can help us mitigate and prevent predictable emergencies”.

“The time for such investments is now, and I am hoping that the honor of this year’s Nobel peace prize can increase global visibility for this type of work,” said Laganda.

Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute, told IPS “this Peace prize is well deserved given the incredible role played by WFP in bringing essential food relief in war situations such as Yemen, Afghanistan, or Somalia, in often highly dangerous and challenging conditions for its staff”.

This said, global hunger is a problem, he argued, that can’t be solved by delivering food, especially when it is procured in the US, WFP’s primary donor by far, which has for decades prioritized sending in-kind food aid as a way to support its own agriculture, undermining farmers in the Global South as a result.

To address global hunger in a decisive way, rich countries should provide financial assistance and policy space to countries so they can promote their own agriculture and industries. Unfortunately, the reality is that rich nations -also the main food exporters- don’t do that and continue to export their own agricultural products and finance emergency food aid when famines arise, said Mousseau.

The post Nobel Peace Prize to World Food Programme Delivering Life-Saving Sustenance to Millions Worldwide appeared first on Inter Press Service.

US President Donald Trump (right) and Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the White House July 2020. Credit: Toa Dufour/White House

By Falko Ernst
MEXICO CITY, Oct 9 2020 (IPS)

Sporadic but spectacular acts of violence remind the global public of how deeply parts of Mexico have slid into lethal conflict over recent years.

The criminal groups that are the public face of this violence are hardly circumspect about their power. In a video dated 17 July, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation – one of the “five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations” worldwide, according to the U.S. Justice Department – showed off some of its better-equipped and trained foot soldiers and their state-of-the-art weaponry.

If the video seemed intended to broadcast the group’s paramilitary capabilities, that’s because it was. The display of force was a message to the government, a Jalisco Cartel operator told Crisis Group, “to take it easy” after the Mexican courts extradited the group’s leader’s son to the U.S. while freezing a number of its bank accounts. It was a way for the group to remind the authorities that “damage can be inflicted when arrangements aren’t being respected”, he said.

The failure of the “war on drugs” – now a welter of spreading conflicts – is a U.S.-Mexican co-production. Washington should stop pushing Mexico City to throw ever more military force at organised crime. Instead, it should help its southern neighbour find solutions tailored to each locale

Whether or not because of the video, tensions did in fact ease in the aftermath of its release, with the threat of further escalation receding and conditions returning to “normal”. In Mexico, however, normal has come to mean a state of perpetual conflict, which accounts for a large portion of the country’s steady death toll of more than 35,000 homicides per year.

 

Criminal Predation in a Pandemic

Unfortunately, north of the border, there is little public discussion of what is driving these levels of violence in Mexico. Instead, U.S. political dialogue tends to focus on one consequence of the violence – immigration.

President Donald Trump, who is now standing for re-election, first ran for office in 2016 on a mix of fearmongering about ostensible criminals, drug dealers and rapists coming over the Mexican border and promises that he would build a wall to keep them out.

Yet that campaign featured no meaningful discussion about how Mexico’s stubborn rates of lethal conflict are in reality a U.S.-Mexican co-production, fuelled by the very tactics that the U.S. has exported to fight the “war on drugs”. Nor, to date, has the 2020 presidential contest between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Nothing is likely to change for the balance of the election season, but once it is over it will be past time for whoever occupies the Oval Office to face these questions squarely – if nothing else out of self-interest. Having a neighbour affected by conflict and instability entails major consequences for the U.S, with the biggest being Mexico’s growing displacement crisis.

Mexican authorities are simply unable to protect citizens from criminal predation in an increasing number of regions, leading an estimated 1.7 million to abandon their homes due to insecurity in 2018 alone, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Geography and Statistics. Most of those forced to flee resettle within Mexico’s borders, but already in 2020 Mexican nationals have replaced Central Americans as the largest group apprehended while aiming to cross into the U.S.

The COVID-19 pandemic is only making the situation worse. Having killed approximately 80,000 Mexicans (a figure that could represent significant underreporting), the coronavirus has exacerbated the humanitarian situation and plunged the country into the worst economic crisis ever recorded, with GDP expected to fall by at least 8 per cent in 2020.

It has also seen armed groups try to consolidate their hold on communities, where they have taken on self-appointed roles from quarantine enforcement to distribution of goods and services. As desperation mounts, so will the drive of highly vulnerable people to seek a safer and more prosperous life elsewhere.

Washington and Mexico City can try to manage the flow of people by locking the border down even more tightly, but that is hardly an acceptable solution from a humanitarian perspective. It could also be difficult for both governments to sustain as the scale of the crisis grows and public pressure to address it increases.

 

Policymaking Inertia

Nevertheless, U.S. policymakers have thus far met the prospect of deepening disquiet in Mexico with inertia. They continue to support the militarised “war on drugs” that has been the anchor of bilateral security cooperation.

Recurrent threats by President Trump and other high-level U.S. government officials to sanction Mexico economically if it does not “demonstrate its commitment to dismantle the cartels” push Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to further increase the country’s dependence on the armed forces in public security matters, in spite of campaign promises to do just the opposite.

The problem is that, for the most part, militarisation has proven to be anything but a remedy. Since 2006, when the Mexican government – urged on by Washington – unleashed the military to deliver what it promised would be a swift, definitive blow to organised crime, the situation has by many measures only gotten worse: more than 80,000 Mexicans have been disappeared and annual murders have quadrupled.

The overall number of those who have met a violent death in this period, which is north of 330,000, is more than twice the number of conflict-related fatalities recorded in Afghanistan since the U.S. invaded in 2001.

Compounding the problem is pervasive impunity. Fewer than one in ten murders get resolved in the justice system – and the line between state officials and the criminals they are supposed to rein in is not only thin but occasionally non-existent.

To offer just one prominent example, a chief architect of the latest iteration of the war on drugs, former federal Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, is being tried in a U.S. court for alleged collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel. (He denies the charges.)

 

A Series of “Stupid Wars”

The lack of accountability has allowed the armed groups to expand their businesses far beyond the illicit drugs that were once their primary domain. With their predatory “thiefdoms” spreading out over Mexico, groups use territorial control as a means of squeezing revenue out of whatever commodity is locally available, chiefly through extortion.

The story repeats itself across the country. In Guerrero, gold mining has come to supplement heroin smuggling. In Michoacán, limes and avocados are add-ons to methamphetamine. In Chihuahua, illegal logging has come to accompany marijuana cultivation. The expansion of their business portfolio into licit commodities and crops increases the criminals’ power over people and politics – and bolsters their ability to fend off crackdowns.

Blame for this deteriorating situation falls at least in part on the war on drugs’ flawed kingpin strategy, which is based on the belief that arresting or killing criminal leaders makes criminal organisations implode. These groups do indeed die, but their parts live on, very often pitted against one another in countless feuds over parcels of land.

Michoacán is emblematic. This state was dominated by a single criminal organisation until, in 2014, the federal government sent in its troops. With help from other illegal armed groups, the army succeeded in breaking up the once dominant organisation, arresting one of its top leaders and killing the other.

But after authorities failed to follow through with sustained institution- and peacebuilding measures – for example, to free law enforcement from corruption, provide youngsters with ways out of criminal groups and offer local populations licit economic alternatives – armed conflict bounced back.

Today, the number of armed groups operating in the state has risen from one to twenty. Most are splinters of the once dominant group, and none has been able to impose itself fully on the others. The fighting has become perpetual.

Moreover, Michoacán mirrors the nationwide trend. In 2006, there were six criminal conglomerates fighting it out in a handful of regions. In 2019, the number reached 198, according to a Crisis Group analysis of online citizen journalists’ websites called “narco-blogs”.

The result of this hyper-fragmentation of armed conflict has been the birth of a series of “stupid wars that nobody has control over and that don’t end”, as one criminal lieutenant allied with the Jalisco Cartel said. Yet he – and hundreds of others – keep at it, killing, disappearing and displacing enemy operatives and those perceived to have ties to them.

Children and women are no longer excluded as targets. In Guerrero’s highlands, for instance, as part of a string of forced displacements, one armed group has driven hundreds of civilians out of their communities out of suspicion that they could in some fashion be tied socially or economically to its competitor.

A former cocaine trafficker, active until the mid-1990s, reflected upon the changing logic of violence by saying “today’s narcos aren’t even narcos anymore”. He suggested that today’s criminal actors no longer adhere to the informal norms of conduct that his contemporaries once followed.

While trying to gain the upper hand in fights over territories and markets, criminal groups also try to draw state actors onto their side. All too often they are successful, with devastating effects on law enforcement. “Whoever is supported by the state grows”, as the Jalisco Cartel lieutenant summed up the situation.

The alleged collusion between top narco-warrior García Luna and the Sinaloa Cartel is but the tip of the iceberg; similarly troubling arrangements can be found in the government’s lower echelons.

 

One Size Does Not Fit All

Given the overlap between the state and the criminals it is fighting, there are no meaningful enemies or front lines in this war. The war is not winnable. There are, however, clear and feasible steps Mexico can take to mitigate and eventually end its armed conflicts, with support from its partners in Washington.

Most critically, the government should pivot away from a one-size-fits-all approach that treats the use of force as the primary solution to every crisis and ignores who and what drives lethal violence at the local level. In what has become a mosaic of regional conflicts, circumstances matter and have to form the basis for effective policy.

Officials will thus need to understand not just the armed groups that are fighting but also the politicians and businesspeople who are aligned with them and the resources they are all fighting over. They will also need to get a handle on how to make control of these resources less profitable by alerting consumers about goods that come from criminally tainted supply chains, whether gold being purchased in Canada or avocados in the U.S.

Mexico’s government also has to invest more, with the support of the U.S. and other international partners, in social and economic programs that can divert vulnerable young people who might be drawn into the armed groups.

Likewise, it should step up efforts to provide youngsters with ways out of armed groups through demobilisation programs. Transitional justice mechanisms could also help communities come to terms with their fraught pasts and interrupt years-long cycles of revenge killings.

The focus for these efforts should be those regions where conflict is most intense, and that account for the bulk of Mexico’s violent deaths and displacement. Bold policies introduced by past and current administrations have often foundered as a result of indiscriminate application of one reform model to many different settings.

Concentrating resources and efforts on regional intervention plans that have been devised on the basis of close study of local conflict dynamics would be a better way to make progress, even if the gains appear on the surface more limited.

Even with these changes, there will still be a role for the use of force in managing these conflicts, but that role will be different than it is today. Security forces might be used to support the foregoing initiatives and their beneficiaries, who would likely be targets of violent attacks and criminal co-optation.

They might also be deployed to deter brazen criminal aggression against those local populations whom data show to be most vulnerable to displacement and other abuses. But while the state would continue to employ force where needed, it would no longer be the primary and only tool for rooting out insecurity.

Finally, key to the success of any new initiative to staunch lethal violence in Mexico will be a push to clean up the institutions charged with protecting the public from crime, and that for decades have been riddled with collusion and corruption. Various criminal operators have told Crisis Group that “reaching agreements” with police and armed forces commanders is routine.

These understandings depend on security institutions such as the armed forces remaining largely self-governing and impervious to oversight. To develop a more reliable group of officials to carry out the policies described above, the government will need to introduce transparency and accountability mechanisms throughout the security forces and to give them teeth through external watchdogs.

Which brings us back to Washington. To be successful, any solution to Mexico’s conflicts will require backing from the U.S., which would be well advised to rethink, and ultimately overhaul, the militarised approach to law enforcement it has exported to Mexico.

The U.S. government, in championing, designing, financing and, in effect, imposing the war on drugs on its neighbour, hoped it could purge the country of the corrosive social, political and economic impact of the narcotics trade and bring greater stability to the region.

Since the late 1960s, it has invested in this vision, pouring wave after wave of U.S. taxpayer dollars – billions all told – into the effort. But while U.S. resolve was enough to persuade Mexican leaders to go along with this scheme, reliance on iron-fist militarisation has proven a failure.  It is time for Washington to grasp this hard truth and change its course. If it wants to see peace across its southern border, it must support Mexico in moving away from the war footing that has spawned so much conflict.

 

This story was originally published by International Crisis Group, You can find the full report here.

The post Time to End the Lethal Limbo of the U.S.-Mexican Drug Wars appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

By Jemimah Njuki
NAIROBI, Oct 9 2020 (IPS)

“We need to build back better.”  This has been the rallying call on the COVID-19 response by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to leaders and communities around the world. It has been echoed in conference rooms and in the numerous Zoom meetings organized to discuss the pandemic. It will be especially important to apply the idea to women working in the agriculture and food sector. 

Women farmers often have lower access to productive resources than men—so in times of crisis, like COVID-19, their farm productivity and food security will likely be hit harder. The pandemic is affecting input availability and use. In a survey by Precision Agriculture for Development in Kenya, 8 in 10 agri-dealers reported a decrease in farmer footfall, and 76% reported lower sales compared to a month earlier.  

Women play a critical role in entrepreneurship in the food sector, from small scale processing to high growth companies that employ thousands of workers. In Sub-Saharan Africa, female entrepreneurs are more prevalent than male entrepreneurs, although their businesses are typically smaller and with less capital and many are in the informal sector.

The current recovery efforts, and support to the agriculture sector have remained gender blind, and when they have focused on women, they have tended to make assumptions about women’s roles in the food system

The Future of Business survey found that female led businesses were 7 percentage points more likely to be closed compared to male-led small businesses. They are also likely to take longer to recover from the impacts of the pandemic due to their lower access to formal credit and reliance on the family network for investment finance. 

A report by UN Women and the UNDP found that a total of 247 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day in 2021. And of this number, 132 million are in sub-Saharan Africa. 

And while there has been extensive discussion of gendered impacts of Covid-19, particularly the care burdens on women, and on building back better after the pandemic, what that looks like for many women engaged in stallholder agriculture is not clear to many. 

The current recovery efforts, and support to the agriculture sector have remained gender blind, and when they have focused on women, they have tended to make assumptions about women’s roles in the food system.  For example, women farmers have been targeted with interventions focused on home gardens and homestead food production and while this is important, it is not enough.

Evidence shows that women play a pivotal role in all three key components of food security: food availability (production), food access (distribution), and food utilization as well as in activities that support agricultural development. 

Leaving them out in the short and long-term recovery process is not an option and any efforts to build back better must focus on and include women.

So, how do we “build back better” for women in the food sectors? Initiatives must include two broad strategies to succeed; increased access to social protection, appropriate seeds, markets and finance; and enhanced and amplified leadership of women. This is how it can be achieved. 

First, governments can increase access to markets for women smallholder farmers by providing short term access to markets through procuring Covid19 food relief and school meal supplies. A study in India showed that public procurement institutions helped the state government implement a timely and sound procurement process during the lockdown, preventing widespread losses in crop income.

In the longer term, developing improved local markets with infrastructure that supports women such as child care facilities, encouraging shorter value chains and crop diversification has been shown to enable women access markets. 

Second, allocation of inputs must target women who are the majority smallholder farmers in the continent. Most governments are allocating funds for inputs, through digital voucher systems. For example, Kenya is spending a 500 million USD loan from the World Bank on inputs through a voucher system that has no specific targets for women despite another program with IFAD showing that targeting women has led to increases in their production. These voucher systems are however likely to leave women out due to their lower access to mobile phones.  

Third, target cash transfers directly to women as a social safety net. Cash transfers targeted at women have potential to help them rebuild their businesses, secure their food security and that of their households. In Nigeria, women who received cash transfers increased investment in their own business activities, were more likely to be involved in their own non-farm businesses and increased their profits.

Fourth, support women entrepreneurs, traders and processors engaged in the food business. Women have however always faced barriers to financial inclusion. Reforming the financial system so that it works for women must be a critical part of building back better.

For example in Zambia, the implementation of a self-check tool for commercial banks to ensure their financial products and services address women’s needs in the same way as those of men led to some banks adjusting their products to better meet the needs of women.

And finally, women who are in smallholder agriculture and agribusiness must be part of building back better. In the political space, countries with female leadership have been very successful in dealing with the pandemic. This leadership has however not cascaded to other sectors. The participation and influence of women is needed in the design, implementation and monitoring of policies and programs for building back better in the sector.  Building back better must be defined by those most affected by the pandemic. 

 

Dr Jemimah Njuki is an Aspen News Voices Fellow and a UN food systems champion. She writes on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The post What Does Building Back Better Look Like for African Women Engaged in Smallholder Agriculture and Food Businesses? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN Women/Ryan Brown

By Winnie Byanyima, Audrey Azoulay, Natalia Kanem, Henrietta Fore and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
GENEVA/ PARIS/ NEW YORK, Oct 9 2020 (IPS)

The International Day of the Girl Child on 11th October is a call for us to reflect on our responsibilities. Twenty-five years ago, governments adopted the historic Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.

Seventeen years ago, African governments committed to the Maputo Protocol affirming the rights of women and girls. Adolescent girls are leading change around the world. They are a tremendous engine of progress. They drive economies. They transform communities. Yet many girls born after these agreements were made are still denied their most basic human rights.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS epidemic, HIV continues to disproportionately impact adolescent girls. Today, five in six newly infected adolescents aged between 15 and 19 in this region are girls.

Over 600 adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa are newly infected every day. AIDS is still the second leading cause of death among young women aged 15-24 in the region. Yet the majority of adolescent girls do not have comprehensive knowledge about prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Now, the COVID-19 crisis threatens to worsen these vulnerabilities. Evidence from past crises – such as the Ebola outbreak in conflict-affected areas of DRC – show that school closures worsen gender inequality since girls are less likely to return to school than boys.

Girls are forced to enter the informal job market or shoulder unpaid care work at home, leading to increased experiences of violence and spikes in adolescent pregnancies and harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation.

As women executive leaders for UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, we are joining forces to confront the injustices faced by adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

Together we are working to advance a package dubbed “Education Plus”: completion of quality secondary education; universal access to comprehensive sexuality education; access to sexual and reproductive health services and education; freedom from sexual and gender-based violence; and school-to-work transitions, economic security and empowerment.

We are championing removal of discriminatory laws and promoting the voice and engagement of young women and adolescent girls as advocates and leaders.

Africa’s adolescent girls and young women themselves have risen to speak out, together, to demand these rights. Here are just some of the things they have been telling us:

“A safe learning environment for girls must be prioritized as a lot of them fall prey to those who are meant to protect them. Girls must be able to learn in an environment that is safe and healthy,” says Brenda of Cameroon

“COVID-19 has exposed our vulnerabilities and the glaring leadership and developmental gaps that exist in my country. It has revealed the need for young people with a heart for service,” says Wanjuhi of Kenya

“Resources to disseminate information must be put in place and the media must also be involved to combat associated taboos,” says Bibiche of DRC

Learning from adolescent girls and young women has reminded us as leaders that legal, cultural, social and economic obstacles are intertwined and need to be taken on together; that at the heart of transforming girls lives is shifting unequal power dynamics; and that they do not seek to be “rescued” but seek to be supported in their own right to participate.

A South African study has shown that HIV prevalence among girls who had finished high school was about half that among girls who had not (8.6% versus 16.9%). Research shows too that including discussions about gender and power dynamics in comprehensive sexuality education makes it five times more effective in preventing sexually transmitted infections.

It is vital too that young women are supported to develop the necessary skills as they transition into adulthood to secure decently paid employment. With our united collaboration and support, this generation can truly be Generation Equality and Generation Unlimited.

It is Africa’s adolescent girls’ and young women’s own activism and organising that will drive progress. Our role as leaders is to unite behind their energy, bringing together governments, communities, civil society, business, and others.

Together we can ensure vital investments and transformational policy shifts are made so that all of Africa’s girls can enjoy all of their rights to education and empowerment. We do this not “for” Africa’s adolescent girls and young women but with them; this generation of feminist leaders is the fighting chance to beat AIDS, achieve gender equality, and secure the human rights of all girls.

 

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The post Why We’re Uniting in Support of African Girl Leaders to beat AIDS & Shift Power appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The authors are executive leaders of UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, respectively.

The post Why We’re Uniting in Support of African Girl Leaders to beat AIDS & Shift Power appeared first on Inter Press Service.