Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Security Council Members Hold Open videoconference meeting in a locked down UN building. Credit: United Nations

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
NEW YORK, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The current financial crisis, triggered as a result of withholding or delaying payment of assessed contributions by Member States, is nothing new to the United Nations.

We have travelled that road quite a few times in recent decades. No reason to panic. The past crises have been somehow resolved in a manner that UN soon went back to business as usual mode.

The discussions and suggestions for avoiding such situations in the future were forgotten very quickly. This is true for the Member States as well as the UN Secretariat leadership. Such forgetfulness and lack of serious attention to lessons learned actually serve narrow parochial interests of both sides.

Tough decisions needed for avoiding future financial and liquidity crises needed genuine engagement of all sides, yes, ALL sides, in particular the major “assessed” contributors.

Today’s financial and liquidity crisis is not caused by recent withholding of payments by a few major contributors for political reasons. Outstanding contributions for UN’s regular budget have reached $2.27 billion this month.

Peacekeeping operations also face increasing liquidity pressure as the outstanding contributions for that area are approximately $3.16 billion. These accumulations have been building up for some years.

Why no extra effort was made by all sides well ahead of time to avoid the current panic? The situation has now got complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

Inherent parochial approaches prevalent in any reform exercise for financial, budgetary and administrative areas ensured that no meaningful efforts were possible.

For a forward movement in this regard we need to duly and urgently address much-needed reforms necessary in both intergovernmental decision-making processes as well as mandatory streamlining measures for the UN Secretariat.

The intergovernmental process of UN always reflects the positions and attitude of the governments in power towards the UN system as a whole in general and how they undertake their respective UN Charter obligations in particular.

One of those includes payment of all assessed UN contributions “on time, in full and without any condition”.

Since 1980s, another emerging political dimension of the liquidity crisis has been manifested in paying a big price by UN agreeing to the undue and unrelated conditions whenever the part(s) of withheld contributions were released by the Member State(s) concerned.

This has the debilitating effect of undermining the independent and universal mandate of UN. As in the past, this time the UN management is warning about possible cutting of programmes of work only.

That is supposed to be an area of concern for the Member States because those programmes were decided by them in the UN General Assembly by consensus – with the support of all 193 Members States.

Such cutback of programmes of work would particularly setback the UN activities in the most vulnerable countries, like the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, which are appropriately the main focus of UN’s support to these target nations.

In his letter to Member States on 28 January 2020, UN Secretary-General “drew attention to the risk of insufficient cash to implement the programme of work for 2020”.

He reiterated the same point in his recent-most letter of 1 April 2020 “to Member States to raise the alarm about the deteriorating liquidity situation and inform them that he is once again compelled to implement additional measures that may hinder mandate delivery”.

Also, it needs to be remembered that in facing the past financial crises as the one is being faced now, the regular staff salary has never been affected negatively.

In view of its mission and mandate, unlike the private sector, UN staff has not lost any part of their salary and other benefits, like medical insurance and pension contributions.

That means whether the programme of work and mandate delivery is negatively affected by the financial crisis, the staff salary and other entitlements would continue unaffected.

That point is underlined by the UN management in its internal advisory of 1 April conveying a series of measures to manage expenditures and liquidity “to ensure that all Secretariat operations in headquarters and the field can continue, that salaries and entitlements can be paid on time, and other financial obligations met without delays”.

If the liquidity crisis keeps on affecting the work of the UN and its mandate delivery, the UN staff as a privileged part of the humanity should join in making creative efforts placing interest of the world body ahead of their sacrifice.

One such measure could be for UN staff to allow UN to withhold 20% of their monthly salary to offset the impact of the current liquidity crisis in the coming months.

When the liquidity situation gets better, say in six months time, the 20% would be paid back. UN Secretary-General and his Senior Management Team should lead by example by announcing that they would so voluntarily.

It was so energizing to learn that on 14 April, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, ministers in her government and public service chief executives agreed to take a 20% pay cut for the next six months amid the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The global pandemic, in addition to the health aspects of the virus, has financial, socio-economic and developmental consequences.

UN management mentioned on 1 April in its advisory that “although the immediate impact of the move to alternate working conditions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to reductions in travel, contractual services and general operating expenses across all budgets, we also anticipate new demands upon our operations and services as we respond to the global health crisis.”

UN Secretariat should brace itself to perform its global responsibilities in a high-spirited way and in an effective and efficient manner. No more business as usual.

The humanity is trying to cope with the threat and its multidimensional impact as best it can.

Why not a new UN should emerge out of the crisis inspired by the full and true internalization of its mission to transform our planet and its people to create a better world for all in a positive and meaningful way?

The post UN Faces Financial & Liquidity Crisis as Global Pandemic Rages appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN (2002-2007), Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN (1996-2001) and Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee (1997-1998)

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Kenyan nurses wear protective gear during a demonstration of preparations for any potential coronavirus cases at the Mbagathi Hospital, isolation centre for the disease, in Nairobi. Credit: Quartz Africa March 2020

By Paul Polman, Myriam Sidibe and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is “a defining moment for modern society. History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family.”

Governments, the private sector, and development institutions need to come together in innovative ways not just to flatten the curve of infection and mitigate the economic disruption, but also to prepare for the new normal of the post-Covid world in Africa and the rest of the world.Greater partnership between the public and private sectors is going to be critical. The fight to flatten the coronavirus curve is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism and especially for multilateralism.

As Covid-19 continues to spread sickness and death, Africa has so far escaped the worst effects. The continent’s lagging health care infrastructure, however, makes it highly vulnerable if the virus reachesthe high-velocity community transmission we have seen in Italy, Spainand New York.Not only are health systems delicate,but crucial medical supplies are far from sufficient, and social protections as a whole are weak.

With the health crisis also becoming an economic and soon a social crisis, the continent is under siege.Many companies are struggling through the economic slowdown, with tourism and smaller enterprises the most challenged. With bankruptcy and job losses looming, many families are already reducing spending and consumption. In the absence of significant fiscal stimulus – which few African countries can afford anyway – some projections are cutting the continent’s GDP growth in 2020 by as much as eight percentage points.

L to R: The co-authors Myriam Sidibe, Siddharth Chatterjee, Paul Polman join the First Lady of Kenya, Ms Margaret Kenyatta, in Nairobi, Kenya at an event. Credit: UNFPA Kenya, 24 Jun 2016

No one knows for sure what is ahead, with scenarios changing daily as new information comes through. Many firms are focused on business continuity, employee safety and simply survival and lack the luxury of assisting external stakeholders. But it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck response, both to flatten the curve of infections and keep businesses resilient, and to be ready to restart as physical distancing ends. More than ever before, the private sector needs to deploy its full capabilities to innovate and bring positive, sustainable change – to help secure strong markets in the future.

There are several areas where private sector support is essential. Current priorities include unified communication platforms to enable populations to practice the needed preventative behaviours (washing hands, wearing masks, and practicing physical distancing), as well as managing stocks of essential materials, test kits, ventilators and oxygen and PPE. Support would also include protecting the most vulnerable people from the economic effects of the pandemic, especially where curfews are enforced.

This is also a unique opportunity to challenge sceptics, in both the not-for-profits and for-profit sectors, with a new blueprint of collaboration. The World Health Organisation has issued guidelines on engaging the private sector as part of a whole-of-society response to the pandemic and has signed an iconic partnership with the International Chamber of Commerce. The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have also launched a public-private partnership known as the Africa Covid-19 Response Fund, which raises resources to prevent transmission and support sustainable medical responses.

In Kenya the national government has led the charge in fighting Covid-19 by rapidly scaling up a large array of public health interventions and putting into force social interaction rules. To complement the government’s preparedness and response efforts for the next six months, the United Nations, together with humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisationslaunched a flash appeal seeking over US$267 million to respond to the critical needs of 10 million of the country’s most vulnerable people.

So far the pandemic has not been the finest hour for international cooperation. But the role of the UN and the private sector has never been more critical as an enabler of multisectoral partnerships for deliveries, and also to keep the focus on the most vulnerable that these partnerships need to reach.

In Kenya, and under the leadership of the Government, the UN has built a model to catalyse public private action: the SDG Partnership Platform. It is a tested instrument for engagement that has brought together a variety of private players in previous initiatives to co-create and rapidly deploy with government large-scale shared-value solutions to address the challenges our societies and planet are facing. It is through such a mechanism,for example,that the UN mobilized the private sector to carry out a maternal mortality reduction campaign in Kenya’s north-eastern counties, one that was recognised as a global best practice.

Kenya’s National Business Compact on Coronavirus, a gathering of companies aimedat accelerating local action and supporting governmental efforts against the pandemic, got successfully off the ground with the help of the UN SDG Partnership Platform, and champions from private sector and civil society.

The Kenyan model of cooperation could take shape all over Africa. Such models allow governments to foster an ecosystem of purposeful partnerships; to amplify private-sector philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and policy advocacy for national mitigation; and to accelerateshared-value partnerships. It also allows the UN to play its role as a neutral broker, and steer a much-needed balance between lethargic action on one hand and misdirected reactions on the other.

This may well be the blueprint needed to fight the next global pandemic,whose speed and fury could surpass what we are witnessing now.

Paul Polman is co-founder of IMAGINE, Chair of the International Chambers of Commerce and former CEO of Unilever

Myriam Sidibe is a Senior Fellow at Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School

Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator of Kenya

 

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.

Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. I think, some experts have said, it’s the virus that will decide.”

Still, there are several other lingering questions which remain unanswered– specifically against the backdrop of a severe new cash crisis threatening the survival of the UN and aggravated by a global economic meltdown.

If the crisis continues, will there be staff layoffs in a country where more than 22 million people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.?

In New York city alone – host to the United Nations – it is estimated that 475,000 jobs will be lost by March 2021, and nearly 60,000 workers in the New York’s five boroughs will be out of work before July this year, according to a report last week from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Among some of the questions raised by staffers: how long can the UN keep its staff on its payroll while the Organization is fast running out of cash– and is on an austerity drive freezing new recruitment?

If there are salary cuts, will they start at the top with senior management (as is done in several private sector firms in the US). Or will it start at the bottom?

And, equally important question by staffers: will medical coverage be affected?

As things stand, if UN staffers are laid off, they are unlikely to qualify for unemployment benefits from New York State because the UN is an international organization with its own independent status.

Meanwhile, will the global economic recession have a direct or an indirect impact on the estimated $53 billion UN Pension Fund on which UN retirees survive? What was the reason, for the sudden resignation of a senior official, which is being kept under wraps?

And what is the future of educational grants staffers are entitled to?

Credit: United Nations

Guy Candusso, a former First Vice President of the UN Staff Union, told IPS the UN was in bad shape financially long before this pandemic hit the Organization.

“We know member states are now under tremendous pressure but they still must step up and fulfill their obligations.”

If there are to be furloughs of staff, it should be the very last step taken by the organization, and done across all levels of staff and management, he argued.

“In any case, the Organization must continue to pay their medical insurance. It should not be cut as it is more necessary now than ever.”

Candusso also pointed out that UN staff in New York were never eligible for unemployment insurance.

“I don’t know if the current law passed by the US Congress makes UN staff eligible for any benefits,” he said.

In a letter to 92 heads of departments, regional commissions, special political missions and peacekeeping operations, Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, says contributions for regular budget assessments have “sharply declined” in the first quarter of 2020 relative to earlier years, and the payment of assessments by the 193 member states currently stands at 42 percent compared to 50 percent by this time in earlier years.

This has resulted in a collection gap of more than $220 million while outstanding contributions for regular budget have reached $2.27 billion, said Pollard.

As a result, the UN has decided to temporarily suspend all hiring for regular budget vacancies and limit all non-post expenses while postponing all discretionary spending unless it is directly and immediately linked to ongoing mandated activities—activities approved by the General Assembly, the UN’s highest policy making body.

Pollard also said that even peacekeeping operations face increasing liquidity pressure with outstanding contributions amounting to $3.16 billion.

Ian Richards, a UN Staff representative and former President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS there are a number of factors at play, and for this reason, it is too early to draw hard conclusions.

“Yes, governments have had to devote a lot of resources to trying to mitigate the impact of the crisis within their borders, and for some countries, money is limited.”

“But many also realise that efforts to fight this global pandemic at home and abroad are only as strong as the world’s weakest health systems and economies –and the world’s most vulnerable populations”.

“So. we are seeing aid budgets being redirected to this area,” he noted.

The UN’s ability to position itself in this area and demonstrate the importance of international coordination, is key to securing funding stability.

“Staff are certainly worried, but we all have a role to play here”, said Richards .

“At the same time, we need to be vigilant about vulnerable staff, such as those on temporary or uber-style contracts, falling through the gaps”.

“The Secretary-General has made assurances to protect a great many of them, but they are also the most impacted by the postponement of conferences and other activities,” he said.

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Department of Public Information (now re-christened Department of Global Communications) told IPS “unprecedented times require unprecedented creative handling”.

Focus on essential staff is crucial for the U.N. to survive when member states, particularly those unabashedly failing to pay their assessed dues, avert minimum required action.

He pointed out that many U.N. programmes and Funds, like UNDP, UNICEF,UNHCR and UNRWA depend on voluntary contributions.

Certain governments which are not even paying their mandatory dues may use the global virus as a pretext to avoid or delay payments.

The Secretary General who is trying his best called for ceasefire in conflicts but with limited results. And peacekeeping operations are increasingly vulnerable, said Sanbar.

Staff face risk of catching the virus working in close proximity while not getting adequate payment– let alone required per diem, he said.

Sanbar said countries contributing troops are more likely to focus on their internal needs while staff representatives who would normally meet to co-ordinate and propose action are limited by home confinement.

“Let us hope the obvious threat in varied forms inspires unity of thought and action among leadership and staff of all the U.N. system,” he declared.

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS the liquidity crisis has been lingering for more than a year and major contributors should not be allowed to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to continue withholding their dues.

A strong and functional UN is in the best interest of all member states and the world community, he said.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post As US Unemployment Hits a Staggering 22 Million, Will UN Layoffs Be Far Behind? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

By David Lewis
LONDON, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)

Contagion is a 2011 film by US director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Che) that has proved very popular viewing during the first few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis. Set in a fictional global pandemic – modelled on the outbreak of a bat-borne Nipah virus identified in 1999 that killed around 100 people in Malaysia – the film is a tightly-written topical drama with a great castthat includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle.

David Lewis

In the film, the Paltrow character returns to the US from a business trip from Hong Kong, and begins the spread of a deadly infection. The authorities are slow to understand the implications of the virus. As it spreads across the world scientists try to find a vaccine and societies struggle to contain the social and economic consequences.

When it was originally released, Contagion drew praise for the unusual efforts made by its writers and director to ‘get the science right’. More recently, with the filmmade available on Netflix and shown on ITV, it has attracted further attention for its uncanny parallels with the current crisis.

We argued in our book Popular Representations of Development: Insights from Novels, Films,Television and Social Media, co-edited with Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock, that popular culture provides useful insights into social change and may offer social scientists representations of social reality that can be productive.

I enjoyed the film. It’s well-made and prescient, but perhaps not engaging enough that I’d watch it again. I learned things from it – that ‘social distancing’ has a history, and appreciated the ‘explainer’ that told me what is meant by the ‘R-nought’ of a virus. But what mostly struck me after watching Contagion was how old-fashioned the world it portrayed felt today, and how different the world seemsnow, despite the film being released less than a decade ago.

The movie depicts a post-Cold War international order that is still largely intact. The Global North is in charge, working with the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Geneva, to fight the virus and solve the crisis. US authorities and scientistsare at the forefront of international efforts,in the form of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.If they can’t solve the problem, it seems no one can. Villagers in Hong Kong have to kidnap and hold a WHO scientist hostage to ensure they get access to the vaccine.

Today’s world looks different. Countries like China, Singapore and South Korea have deployed their own scientific expertise, mobilised their publics and adapted governance arrangementsin the face of the pandemic – in apparently effective ways. By comparison, the responses ofBritain, US, Italy and Spain have appeared disorganised and fragile. President Trump has suspended WHO funding.

UNDP’s 2013 report The Rise of the South: Human Progress In a Diverse World drew attention to the changing balance of global power, where it was no longer useful to understand ‘development’ throughits traditional framing as the Global North trying to influence the Global South. ‘Increasingly the North needs the South’, the report pointed out.The coronavirus crisis has made this decentred, multipolar world of even more apparent and highlights the urgency with which all countries need to cooperate, share ideas, and learn from each other in ways that transcend the old binaries.

The Covid-19 crisis has dramatically highlighted the extent of inequality and poverty within and between countries that has been allowed to increase under neoliberalism. It also shows us the catastrophic consequences of the extreme pressures that we have placed on the natural environment through our unsustainable food systems and consumption practices.

The world is more interconnected, and many commentators on the current crisis emphasise the need for multilateral action. Recent trends towards populist isolation and protectionism have not only made international cooperation to deal effectively with borderless pandemics more difficult, but have also led to an increased questioning of the value of science, the austerity driven decline of public research capacity, and the rise of a populist distrust in experts.‘One thrill of the movie is its belief in solution-driven competence’, wrote Wesley Morris in the The New York Times, highlighting another way in which the movie highlights how far things have changed.

The crisis may, as some have claimed, reinforce the trend towards isolationism and a retreat from globalization. Yet the coronavirusresponse has also promoted a resurgence of community solidarity, volunteering and mutual support. The challenge now is to press national governments into forms of international cooperation that can support this new localism and build a better future.

There are some who see the chance for the sort of reconfiguration of priorities and institutions that came in Britain after World War 2, with a new progressive domestic role for state intervention and an appetite for rebuilding global institutions. As UN Secretary General António Guterres has said: ‘we must act together to slow the spread of the virus and look after each other.This is a time for prudence, not panic. Science, not stigma. Facts, not fear.’

Contagion is a film that entertains, informs and helps to bring these urgent new priorities into even sharper focus.

This story was first published on the London School of Economics (LSE) blog.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. Experts are concerned about the spread of coronavirus if these refugees are housed in the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. 

Bangladesh coast guards reported rescuing 382 Rohingyas, including many women and children, who were starving and stuck on a boat as they were trying to reach Malaysia, the BBC reported on Thursday. 

Coast guard spokesman Lt Shah Zia Rahman told AFP news agency that they were on “a big overcrowded fishing trawler” and were brought to a beach near Teknaf. 

In the midst of the current coronavirus pandemic — on Mar. 26 Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus — this rescue effort poses particular concerns about potential coronavirus cases and/or it being spread in the camps, where people remain at extremely high risk of contracting and spreading the disease. 

The Bangladesh government also closed the 34 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district on Apr. 8, allowing only medical aid and essential food into the camps.

Latest figures show that the country has just over 1,500 reported cases of the coronavirus and 60 deaths.

“They have not been moved to any refugee camps, they’re getting the medical attention that they need,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, told IPS on Thursday.

“The survivors, who include a large number of women and children are all in weak physical condition, many dehydrated and malnourished and in need of immediate medical attention,” Dujarric said at a press briefing on Thursday. 

A photo shared on social media by the Rohingya Women’s Education Initiative showed a large group of people, all sitting extremely closely. IPS was not able to independently verify if this photo was of the rescued refugees. 

Dujarric also added that according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), those on board said about 30 more refugees may have died while on the ship because of lack of food, water, and fuel. 

Citing reports and rumours where people have reportedly said the refugees have tested positive for coronavirus, he said there is currently no evidence to substantiate these claims. 

Even though there are currently no positive cases of coronavirus among the rescued refugees, he said they’re “being watched medically”. 

Other advocates have also raised concerns about the refugees being rescued especially under current circumstances. 

Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, lauded the Bangladeshi government for taking the refugees into the country, but called for authorities to ensure proper care for those rescued. 

“Given the ordeal they have passed through, adrift on the sea for two months, they need to be provided with immediate medical attention and adequate food and shelter,” he said in a statement.

“At a time when there are fears that COVID-19 could strike the densely populated and poorly resourced Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar,” he added, “there’s also a need for the authorities to ensure that the rescued refugees are protected from the spread of the virus and will receive medical attention if they need it.”

Advocates have been sounding the alarm for how the coronavirus crisis will affect South Asian countries, given living situations where many often live together in close quarters. 

Currently, about more than one million refugees are living in the camps in Bangladesh, a large number of whom arrived during the latest exodus in 2017, fleeing the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown on the community. 

On Thursday, in response to the Associated Press’ query about whether the U.N. will call on the Myanmar government to respond, Dujarric further reiterated Guterres’ recent plea for a ceasefire on all areas of conflict under the current coronavirus threat, given that can further exacerbate the current situation especially for vulnerable communities, putting them further at risk of contracting the disease.  

 

Related Articles

• No Space for Social Distancing in Rohingya Refugee Camps
• Asia-Pacific Response to COVID-19 and Climate Emergency Must Build a Resilient and Sustainable Future

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By Paul S. Teng
SINGAPORE, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains that are essential to assure food security in the Asia Pacific region, yet countries overall seem to have managed, so far, to keep supermarkets stocked with food and feed those who can afford it.

The Asia Pacific region is home to over 60% of humanity and also contains sub-regions with among the highest frequencies of severe weather events and some of the most challenging environments for agriculture. As a region it is characterized by diverse food systems and a multiplex of supply chains. Under normal circumstances, food security is already threatened by a multitude of factors.

Paul S. Teng

The COVID-19 pandemic has now become another factor with generalized impact across a swathe of countries. Ironically, it is fortunate that countries have not all been infected nor are they showing peak infections at the same time. This has thankfully provided windows of opportunity to tackle disrupted supply chains. It has also provided opportunities for later-infected countries to learn from the mitigation actions taken by countries affected earlier.

China has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 battle and the earliest to have taken broad action. Its total movement control or “lockdown” has been successful in containing the spread of the virus, although admittedly at some inconvenience. This “lockdown” approach has been adopted by other countries subsequent to the Chinese action but in most countries this has disrupted parts of the supply chain, in particular the food processing and transport sectors.

This is important as “physical access to food”, i.e. consumers being able to access food, and farmers being able to get their produce to the consumer, is an important part of food security. Physical access has been seriously affected in many countries.

In India and elsewhere, agricultural produce are either being dumped, fed to livestock or left to rot. All because farmers cannot harvest their produce or transport them to market. In China and Malaysia, restrictions have been put in place to limit consumer access to supermarkets and other food retail outlets.

Capacity to transport food items between countries, either by land, sea or air has reduced further. This particularly affects countries which depend on imports as the key means of making food available, like the small island states.

Of greater concern in the Asia Pacific region is the disruption of crop planting, which in many countries and for important food crops like rice, is closely tied to seasons. The April-May period is critical for planting rice to replenish stocks. And several rice exporting countries, perhaps in anticipation of reduced future production, have already started putting restrictions on the timing and quantum of their exports.

Rice is important for food security in the Asia Pacific region and it behooves governments to remember the learnings from the 2007-08 crisis and not indulge in panic reactions such as restricting exports or hoarding. Both the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) have projected sufficient rice stocks for the rest of 2020 even though the new rice season has been forecasted to produce slightly lower due to weather conditions.

In this regard, it is also important that governments view agricultural activities and farm workers as providing “essential” services and be exempted from some of the total lockdown measures. The example of China is worth noting, where special “green channels” at lockdown checkpoints allowed the passage of vehicles and people transporting agricultural inputs to grow new crops.

Another metric of food security is food affordability as measured by food prices. Overall, although there have been reports of price increases, governments appear to have been effective in preventing the price spiking seen during the 2008-08 crisis which led to civil unrest in over 47 countries. The increases mainly reflect supply chain delays rather than real shortages. At the macro level, the FAO Food Price Index for March 2020 has not shown increases except for rice.

The COVID-19 pandemic if allowed to run longer has potential to affect the nutrition aspect of food security. Asia is already home to the largest number of poor and hungry people in the world, according to FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Scenes of thousands of daily-paid workers in cities currently deprived of work in South and Southeast Asia, and not have the means to buy food portend the threat that hunger and under-nutrition may become more prevalent. In the rush to implement movement control, governments need to have ready safety nets to help this sector avoid food insecurity.

In January 2013, I attended an ASEAN High-Level Cross-Sectoral Consultation titled “Pandemics as Threats to Regional and National Security” in Manila and spoke on the “Impacts of Pandemic Disasters on Food Security.” I shared a framework that showed that the longer a pandemic lasted, the more players in a food supply chain would be affected, leading eventually to total paralysis.

Some of the interventions discussed in 2013 are currently being implemented, e.g. movement control, release from stockpiles, food price control. Warnings were also given to avoid export restrictions, hoarding or panic buying.

Some countries have learnt better than others in formulating responses, after having gone through the SARS and the 2007-08 food crisis. The sense of déjà vu reminds one of Santayana’s advice that those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

Paul S. Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow, Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and concurrently Managing Director of NIE International Pte. Ltd. Singapore. He has worked in the Asia Pacific region on agri-food issues for over thirty years, with international organizations, academia and the private sector.

 

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Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

By Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Erna Solberg
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 2020 (IPS)

Our world today is dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions. The vicious, novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the globe, destroying lives and ruining livelihoods.

The primary cost of the pandemic as seen in the loss of human lives is distressing, but the secondary effects on the global economy, on livelihoods and on sustainable development prospects are even more alarming.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that our world has entered into a recession, and while the full economic impact of the crisis is difficult to predict, the costs of the pandemic will no doubt be astronomical, with preliminary estimates placing it at a whopping US$2 trillion.

The pandemic has utterly exposed fundamental weaknesses in our global system. It has shown beyond doubt how the prevalence of poverty, weak health systems, lack of education, and above all sub-optimal global cooperation, is exacerbating the crisis.

If there was ever any doubt that our world faces common challenges, this pandemic should categorically put to rest that doubt.

The on-going crisis has re-enforced the interdependence of our world. It has brought to the fore the urgent need for global action to meet people’s basic needs, to save our planet and to build a fairer and more secure world.

We are faced with common, global challenges that can only be solved through common, global solutions. After all, in a crisis like this we are only as strong as the weakest link. This is what the SDGs, the global blueprint to end poverty, protect our planet and ensure prosperity, are all about.

Sadly, this ferocious, sudden on-set pandemic has come at a time when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were getting good traction and a significant number of countries were making good progress in their implementation.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana. Credit: @GhanaPresidency

As the world is seized with containing the spread of the virus and addressing its negative and debilitating impacts, the reality is that countries are resetting their priorities, and reallocating resources to deal with the pandemic.

This certainly is the right thing to do because the priority now is to save lives, and we must do so at all costs.

That is why we must all support the call by the United Nations for scaling up the immediate health response to suppress the transmission of the virus, to end the pandemic and to focus on people particularly, women, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups who are already at risk.

Working together we can save lives, restore livelihood and bring the global economy back on track.

But what we cannot afford to do even at these crucial times is to shift resources away from priority SDGs actions. The response to the pandemic cannot be de-linked from actions on the SDGs.

Indeed, achieving the SDGs will put us on a solid foundation and a firm path to dealing with global health risks and emerging infectious diseases.

Achieving SDGs Goal 3 will mean strengthening the capacity of countries for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.

This pandemic has manifestly exposed the crisis in global health systems. And while it is severely undermining prospects for achieving global health by 2030, critically it is having direct far-reaching effects on all the other SDGs.

The emerging evidence of the broader impact of the crisis on our quest to achieve the SDGs must be troubling for all. UNESCO estimates that some 1.25 billion students are affected by this pandemic, posing a serious challenge to the attainment of SDGs Goal 4; and according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) some 25 million people could lose their jobs with those in informal employment suffering most from lack of social protection during this pandemic.

Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway. Credit: @Thomas Haugersveen/Statsministerenskontor

Unfortunately, these might just be the tip of the iceberg.

Crucially, in many parts of the world, the pandemic and its effects are being exacerbated by the crisis in delivering on clean water and sanitation targets (SDG Goal 6), weak economic growth and the absence of decent work (SDGs Goal 8), pervasive inequalities (SDGs Goal 10), and above all, a crisis in poverty (SDGs Goal 1) and food security (Goal 2).

The World Bank estimates that the crisis will push some 11 million people into poverty.

Even at this stage in this deadly pandemic, we cannot deny the fact that the crisis is fast teaching us, as global citizens, the utmost value in being each other’s keeper, in working to leave no one behind, and in prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable in society.

As our world strives to deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic, we ultimately must seek to turn the crisis into an opportunity and ramp up actions necessary to achieve the SDGs.

The spirit of solidarity, quick and robust action to defeat the virus that we are witnessing must be brought to bear on the implementation of the Goals.

The quantum of stimulus and pecuniary compensation packages that is being made available to deal with the pandemic make it clear that, when it truly matters, the world has the resources to deal with pressing and existential challenges. The SDGs are one such challenge.

What is acutely needed is enhanced political will and commitment. Our world has the knowledge, capacity and innovation, and if we are ambitious enough, we can muster the full complement of resources needed to implement successfully the Goals.

Buoyed by the spirit of solidarity, Governments, businesses, multi-lateral organisations and civil society have in the shortest possible time been able to raise billions, and in some cases, trillions to support efforts to combat this pandemic.

If we attach the same level of importance and urgency to the fight against poverty, hunger, climate change and towards all the other goals, we will be well poised for success in this Decade of Action on the SDGs.

As the world responds to the effects of this brutal pandemic, and seeks to restore global prosperity, we must focus on addressing underlying factors in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

We must not, and cannot relent in our efforts, even amid this painful pandemic. While some of the gains on the SDGs have been eroded, this should not deflate our efforts.

They should rather spur us to accelerate and deepen our efforts during this Decade of Action to ‘recover better’, and build a healthier, safer, fairer and a more prosperous world, so necessary in avoiding future pandemics.

The post Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, SDGs are Even More Relevant Today Than Ever Before appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is President of the Republic of Ghana and Co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Eminent Group of Advocates for the SDGs and Erna Solberg is Prime Minister of Norway and Co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Eminent Group of Advocates for the SDGs

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Mohammad Rafique (right) and other refugee children gathered at the Rohingya market in Kutupalong camp to sell vegetables he brought earlier from a local market in this photo dated Mar. 11, 2020. This was two weeks before Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Apr 15 2020 (IPS)

Nine-year-old Mohammad Rafique used to collect vegetables from Kutupalong Bazaar and sell them at a market inside Kutupalong camp, a camp of some 600,000 Rohingyas, in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

But nowadays he has to stay home with his parents inside their makeshift home built on the slopes of a hill in the sprawling refugee settlement because of the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

On Mar. 26 Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Latest figures show that the country has just over 1,200 reported cases of the coronavirus and 50 deaths.

The Bangladesh government later followed with a lockdown of the 34 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar district on Apr. 8 and, aside from essential food and medical aid, people are not allowed to leave or enter the district.

Cox’s Bazar is the world’s largest refugee camp. Fleeing persecution in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, over one million Rohingyas have been living in the overcrowded camps in the southeastern Bangladeshi district.

“My parents have strongly asked me to stay at home after they are informed that people are getting infected with a lethal virus around the world and it started infecting people nearby the camps too,” Rafique told IPS.

“Not only me and my parents, the Rohingya population living in the camp are very concern about the infectious virus as they have heard that many people are dying around the world after getting infected with the virus,” he said.

Although no coronavirus case have been recorded in the Rohingya camps as yet, one person in an area nearby has tested positive for COVID-19. And this created a wave of panic among the refugees.

“It is true that panic grips Rohingyas in the camps. But, along with the local administration, we are conducting awareness campaign among the refugees so that they can be aware of the infectious coronavirus,” Rohingya community leader Hafez Jalal told IPS over phone.

He said the refugees have been advised to stay in their homes and follow health guidelines to keep safe from infection. 

Social distancing is the main way to prevent coronavirus but this is very hard to maintain in the overcrowded camps where makeshift homes are built alongside each other, with only narrow lanes and paths bisecting areas. There are few water points in the camp, and while it is not known exactly how many there are, one water point is believed to serve the needs several thousand people.

Experts are concerned that if the coronavirus emerges in the camp, it could spread rapidly in the crowded conditions.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Louise Donovan said the overcrowded conditions in the camps pose a greater risk for the virus spreading rapidly in the event of an outbreak as currently around 40,000 people are living in one square kilometre.

Social distancing is particularly challenging in such an environment, despite measures which have been put in place at distribution points throughout the camps to maintain this.

“At the moment, it is a race against time to establish isolation and treatment facilities in order to cater for patients if there is any outbreak in the camps,” Donovan told IPS.

She said all humanitarian partners, in support of the Bangladesh government, were working round-the-clock to ensure a minimum response capacity in the case of an outbreak since the situation was very concerning.

Rohingya refugee traders selling chickens at market inside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar in this photo dated Mar. 11, 2020. This was two weeks before Bangladesh went into a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

Sharing information about the coronavirus has also been key.

According to one aid worker, communication about COVID-19 is ongoing in the refugee camps through radio spots, videos, posters, and messages, in Rohingya, Burmese and Bengali languages. The messages are also passed on by Imams and other community leaders and volunteers, who explain how the coronavirus spreads, how people can protect themselves and their families, what the symptoms are and how they can seek care. 

The government is also disseminating awareness messages through multiple channels, including mobile phone networks and over loudspeakers.

Locals have told IPS that law enforcement agencies and army personnel have installed roadblocks on the main roads of the district and are carrying out patrols inside and around the refugee camps to prevent people moving about.

In a recent Facebook post, Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar Kamal Hossain said 34 Rohingya camps were under lockdown, which includes prohibiting mass gatherings and rallies.

“Refugees of one camp would not be to go to another camp and they are not allowed to set up markets haphazardly inside the camps. But, steps have been taken to keep the refugees at homes and ensure supply of essential commodities for them. The law enforcing agencies have intensified their surveillance there,” he said.      

Hossain warned that legal actions would be taken against those who violate the order.

Yet despite knowing the risks, many have had no choice but to leave their homes for food and water.

“Many refugees are going out of their homes for daily needs, ignoring the directives of the authorities concerned, which is a matter of concern,” Jalal added. 

The Bangladesh government has extended the nationwide shutdown till Apr. 25.

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation dashboard. This interactive dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis. Credit: WHO

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 15 2020 (IPS)

President Donald Trump’s threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as ‘reckless and deadly”—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.

The US president, who has dismissed WHO as “China-centric”, has also been accused of playing politics with human lives—while he, in turn, blames the agency for mishandling the coronavirus outbreak and not supporting his earlier decision to bar Chinese from entering the US.

“The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable,” he told reporters at a White House briefing April 14, “So much death has been caused by their mistakes”, he said, as he continues to exaggerate his charges, as he is usually prone to in his daily life.

In a six-column spread, the New York Times said April 15 that Trump, seeing his popularity poll numbers drop, is blaming WHO for his virus mistakes.

“Recent polls show that more Americans disapprove of Mr Trump’s handling of the virus, than approve,” the Times said.

Asked if Trump was playing politics with human lives during a global health emergency, Abby Maxman, President & CEO of Oxfam America, told IPS: “Now more than ever, the Trump administration should prioritize the health and well-being of the American people, and the most vulnerable people around the globe, over politics.”

“This is a time when we need to put politics and blame aside and work together to save lives and recover from this global pandemic together”.

Asked if other donors will step in to fill the shortfall, if and when US cuts funding, Maxman said that WHO and other crucial agencies leading the response to this global health crisis must have the proper resources.

“We hope to see donors step up, and do whatever they can to ensure that WHO can continue its vital work.”

Asked how feasible is this considering the global economic meltdown triggered by the coronavirus crisis, she said the global economy has taken an historically devastating blow, but nations must prioritize funding core agencies and measures, which include the World Health Organization.

“This is something we simply must find the funds for,” she declared.

Donna McKay, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights warned that by halting funding to the WHO, President Trump is endangering the lives of millions of people around the world, particularly those most at risk during this historic pandemic.

“A global health emergency demands a global response,” she said.

The World Health Organization provides vital international assistance and coordination. That President Trump would halt funding to WHO in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic is reckless and risks contributing to widespread death and suffering, McKay said.

“This move comes at precisely the wrong time. The pandemic is beginning to spread from high-income countries to countries with weak health systems. We urgently need more concerted, coordinated, and effective action from the global community, not less. And we need global leadership that understands and embraces coordination and collaboration,” she declared.

When Trump first singled out WHO for criticism, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was blunt in his response, (even though he did not mention the US president by name): “If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it.”

Credit: WHO

Hitting back at Trump, without naming him, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the WHO, with thousands of its staff, is on the front lines, supporting Member States and their societies, especially the most vulnerable among them, with guidance, training, equipment and concrete life-saving services as they fight the virus.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19.”

This virus, he pointed out,“is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response.”

“Obviously, in such conditions, it is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities. Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis”.

The lessons learned will be essential to effectively address similar challenges, as they may arise in the future.

But now is not that time, he cautioned.

And it is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus, said Guterres.

In statement released April 14, Maxmansaid picking a fight with the World Health Organization during a pandemic is shortsighted, to say the least.

“Instead of bringing us together through this global crisis, President Trump has attacked leaders and agencies around the world, seeking to deflect blame for his own administration’s failings.”

“With this latest move to hold back funding from the WHO, President Trump is crippling any hopes for the responsible international cooperation and solidarity that is critical to save lives and restore the global economy,” warned Maxman.

“Withholding funding and blame-shifting means wasted time and needless death, misery, and poverty. And it gets the US and the world no closer to an end to this disaster.

“As we at Oxfam scale up efforts to respond to the crisis in more than 50 countries around the world, we see firsthand that strong coordination and funding is vital to save lives on the ground.

“No one individual, community, or country can deal with this crisis alone. We must work together, in our communities and across borders, with dignity and compassion. No one is safe until everyone is safe. President Trump must immediately reverse course and act like the global leader the world expects.”

The WHO’s total programme budget for 2018-2019 was $4.4 billion, increasing to $4.8 billion for 2020-2021.

WHO has two primary sources of revenue: assessed contributions (paid by member states and based on each country’s income and population) and voluntary contributions (additional funds provided by member states, private organizations and individuals.)

The US pays 22 percent of the budget, as it does with the United Nations.

McKay said while the WHO’s COVID-19 response has been imperfect, the idea of ending U.S. funding for this vital UN body defies logic and imperils millions.

For one, leading U.S. and international researchers are collaborating on global vaccine trials through WHO, which is a hub of such essential research.

“President Trump appears to be looking for a scapegoat for the pandemic. He is trying to deflect attention from the devastating U.S. death toll and his own repeated failures to respond promptly and coherently to the pandemic,” she noted.

McKay said: “Rather than attack the professionals at the WHO, President Trump should get health workers the personal protective equipment that they are dying without. He should collaborate with states and cities on a coordinated national response guided by science and human rights, not ideology and xenophobia. He must listen to medical experts at this time of great national and global peril.”

“All institutions responding to COVID-19, be it at a local, national, or global level, should be transparent and accountable. But eviscerating the capacity of the world’s essential health institution at a time like this is a profound mistake,” she declared.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post In His Fight Against WHO, Trump Plays Politics with Human Lives appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Elena L. Pasquini
ROME, Apr 15 2020 (IPS-Partners)

For millions of children around the world, the COVID-19 outbreak means not getting the most important, if not the only, meal of the day.

‘We estimated that around 360 million children [out of 380 million] do not have access to those meals … Of those children, about half of them are in low and lower-middle-income countries’, Carmen Burbano, director of the World Food Programme’s School Feeding division, told Degrees of Latitude.

The most affected are the poorest, those kids already struggling because of war, hunger, food insecurity and poverty, being refugees or internally displaced. Of great concern, there are countries, especially in the Horn of Africa, that have been impacted already by the desert locusts, those who are dependent on food and fuel import, on tourism or remittances.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 85 million participate in school feeding programmes – mainly carried out by governments -, about 10–12 million coming from the most vulnerable families: ‘In our region there are different situations. Argentina or Brazil, [for instance], have strong safety nets … Our concerns are more for countries with very weak institutions … Haiti, which is very fragile, countries in the North part of Central America where the numbers of food insecurity and poverty are still very high … Venezuela …’, Ricardo Rapallo, food security officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, told Degrees of Latitude.

It is not just feeding kids’ bellies

On a typical day at school, children eat a combination of non-perishable and fresh food, often locally procured. World Food Program – which is operating in 51 countries and supporting more than 12 million kids, the poorest in the poorest and most critical areas of the world – is looking for alternatives: take-home rations, vouchers, or cash that families can spend in stores.

‘These kids were receiving crucial nutritional support through those meals. It wasn’t just about feeding their bellies; it was about giving them essential nutrition … Through the meals they were receiving nutritious food, fortified rice or supplements, or things that were preventing anaemia, that were preventing hunger’, Burbano said.

The challenge for the UN Food agency is making sure children continue receiving what they need even if COVID-19 prevention measures affect the food chain. Take-home rations ‘have to be about non-perishable food only. We can’t include things that will go bad in transport, etc.’, Burbano added. Options could include fortified foods or supplementation.

However, packaging, delivery of rations, and even scaling up cash and voucher programmes where these food programmes are already in place is not as easy as it might seem when in critical environments: ‘It’s about being creative about the solutions’, Burbano said. ‘We are trying to use digital technologies as much as possible. We can transfer funds or cash into cell phones or into bank accounts without having contact with the beneficiaries. We are trying to expand our capabilities in that sense’, she said.

“Governments with more capacity are already implementing some of those measures. In Latin America, Rapallo explained, some of them are providing meals to families through army, police, and civil society organizations. Compared to the financial crisis of 2008, many have developed stronger safety nets. In Argentina, for instance, there’s already a programme in place to support mothers with children under five with cash, which is now being increased with the equivalent to the cost of the missed school meals.

When families have to buy food, however, their grocery shopping is changing: less fresh, more non-perishable items such as pasta or rice, easier to find, easier to keep and to store for longer periods. ‘The other face of the coin is that their diet or the food patterns are going to change’, Rapallo said. That’s the concern of FAO, which is providing advice, guidance and recipes ‘to prepare the food to maintain at least some equilibrium and diversify the diet … It is also an opportunity to eat at home, to prepare the food with the children, to make what you are eating more important …’, Rapallo explained.

In the long-term, school closures can also have another impact: ‘Our concern is that not all children are likely to come back to school. [Those] from poor families normally have other responsibilities, they take care of their siblings, they work, etc., and with pulling them out of school, not all families will bring them back, will enrol them back’, Burbano said. But school meals can be an incentive in a ‘Back-to-school’ campaign, for which the World Food Programme and UNICEF are trying to join forces.

Impact on families and communities

Lost access to school meals is not only threatening children’s health, but it is also impacting the most vulnerable families by reducing their income and the rural communities where small-scale farmers represent an important ring in the schools’ supply chain.

“Meals in schools act as a safety net, representing the 10% of the monthly income of those households. ‘If you take away that indirect income, compounded with possible unemployment … loss of livelihoods … this is really catastrophic for families’, Burbano said.

Moreover, a lot of farmers, which are making a living selling food to the schools and many of which are women, are also being affected.

The role of family farming varies from country to country, according to Rapallo. However, in the case of the COVID-19 lockdown’s impact on food distribution, procurement from local markets can be an opportunity: ‘Chains are shorter and … it is more difficult to be closed or to be affected. It seems it can be part of the solution ….’, Rapallo said. In Latin America, supplies from family farmers are a key aspect of the school feeding programmes, particularly in Brazil.

Whatever solutions will be put in place must ensure children are fed and that families and farmers supported. Reflecting on the importance of these programmes, Burbano said, ‘What this crisis has evidenced is the crucial role that social programs, safety netsz programmes, like school feeding, play in the community’.

Photo Credits: WFP/Photolibrary

This story was originally published by Degrees of Latitude

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Credit: United Nations

By James A. Paul
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2020 (IPS)

The coronavirus pandemic has set off an unprecedented institutional crisis at the United Nations – funds are drying up, key meetings are cancelled and the world body is fighting for its future.

The chief management officer of the world body, Catherine Pollard, wrote a dire memo on 1 April, setting out the breadth of the crisis, the depth of the financial shortfall, and the emergency steps to be taken immediately to head off ruin.

This UN emergency comes as no surprise, since the pandemic has brought so many governments and institutions to the brink of collapse.

As of the end of March, the UN faced arrears in its dues for regular operations and peacekeeping of $5.43 billion. Worse still, future payments during the course of the year may not arrive as planned, erasing the UN’s scant reserves.

So, the organization faces what Pollard described in her memo as a “liquidity crisis” – that is, the UN may simply run out of money at some point and be unable to pay for its operations and staff. Will the doors be shut and the UN cease to exist?

Depending as it does on government dues and grants, and by statute unable to borrow money, the UN is in an especially difficult position. Can its squeeze through the crisis and return to normalcy?

This is the question that is preoccupying Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his team. But their prognostications are clouded by the fact that UN budgets have already been cut repeatedly in recent years and a hostile president sits in the White House.

Further, UN activities focus so heavily on meetings, negotiations and other settings in which virus transmission is especially likely. The critically important climate conference, scheduled for November 2020, has already been cancelled. Other cancellations have been announced and more are sure to come.

What cards does Guterres have to play? He must, of course, emphasize the need for common global action, both now and in the future. Narrow nationalism, however in vogue in certain countries, clearly cannot protect the world from corona, climate melt-down, species extinction and other existential crises.

The UN and its system of specialized agencies can and must be at the forefront of any reasonable program for a viable planetary future.Another card in Guterres’ hand is the extraordinarily small cost of the UN in comparative terms.

The UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets are together less than $10 billion. The regular budget of $3 billion, covering all the UN’s global activities except peacekeeping, is about a thirtieth of the budget of the city of New York!

Any needed assistance for the UN would be very small indeed in comparison to the massive bailouts, some well over a trillion dollars, being announced by major governments, the European Union, and the IMF.

A rescue package for the UN is easy to imagine in that context, but would there be the necessary political support? That would depend on leadership from supportive governments, media and, of course, civil society groups, at a time when many other concerns beckon.

It will not be easy, but neither was the rescue of the UN from its financial crisis in the 1990s.

The hardest part of a bid for special consideration will be to envision the UN in an inventive way in the new world that will emerge post-corona. What can the UN bring to that future world that will be unique and indispensable?
How might it offer a way forward that would win the backing of a broad coalition of thinkers and organizers and ordinary people? Bold moves will be called for, not mere survivalist strategies.

Obviously, much depends on how long the shutdowns last and how different the post-corona world proves to be. If the virus is in substantial retreat by the summer and economies open up “normally” again, the flow of funds to the UN might resume relatively swiftly.

Then a shaky status quo for the UN would be most likely. But if governments open their economies prematurely and those moves are followed by renewed outbreaks and then a broad political crisis, all bets will be off.

That would be the time of greatest danger for the UN but also its greatest opportunity. We can hope that the virus would eventually succumb to human ingenuity and that in its wake a new era of solidarity and internationalism, nurtured by a stronger UN, would eventually prevail.

The post The COVID-19 Cash Crisis: Will the UN Cease to Exist? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

James A. Paul, a writer and consultant, was Executive Director of Global Policy Forum (1993-2012), an NGO monitoring the work of the United Nations, and author of the book “Of Foxes and Chickens: Oligarchy & Global Power in the UN Security Council.” He was also for many years an editor of the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World.

The post The COVID-19 Cash Crisis: Will the UN Cease to Exist? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Sex workers in Chennai give a thumps up to India's liberalised abortion law. Many sex workers are living with HIV and face discrimination and stigma in accessing safe abortions. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
NEW DEHLI, Apr 14 2020 (IPS)

Arti Zodpe is from the Tamasha (folk dance-drama) theatre in Sangli, in India’s Maharashtra state. After evening performances, some of the singers and dancers offer sex work services to the audience.

“We [Tamasha sex workers] live outside of the city as people feel disturbed by the sound of our ghunghroo [anklet bracelets with bells] and music. When we go to the city, especially to a sex health clinic, the staff say, ‘so you have come to spread your filth here’. If we get an abortion, they make us clean the floor afterwards,” she had said at a recent gathering of doctors and abortion rights experts.

Zodpe’s life narrates the difficulties vulnerable women like her face to get an abortion, and explains in painful detail the layers of social discrimination and stigma marginalised women face in orthodox Indian society.

Safe abortion still a dream for many

Abortion has been free in India since 1971, yet millions of women still fail to access safe abortions.

According to the Lancet Global Health report 2019, 15.6 million abortions occurred here in 2015, of which 78 percent were conducted outside of health facilities. Most of these abortions were also by women obtaining medical abortion drugs from chemists and informal vendors without prescriptions.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), unsafe abortions are estimated to account for 9 to 20 percent of all maternal deaths in the country. 

A more recent study by Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsh Mandal (MASUM), a Pune-based NGO, and Asia Safe Abortion Partnership (ASAP) conducted in seven of India’s 29 states revealed that 80 percent of women were unaware of the existing law and, as a result, feared seeking safe abortion services.

The study, released last month, interviewed 200 participants and found that all had had an abortion at some point, while some had as many as six. Yet none of the women had revealed this to their family or friends, primarily for fear of social stigma.

According to Hemlata Pisal, the project coordinator at MASUM, there were various gaps and discrepancies when it came to abortion services in public health centres (PHC):

• Medical abortion pills were largely unavailable, and even when they were available (through private clinics or mostly pharmacies), there was a variation in the dosages and types of pills prescribed.
• The out-dated D & C (dilation and curettage) method was still being used in many health centres across India and there was no standard protocol followed for both surgical and non-surgical methods.
• But above all there was a high level of stigma practiced by the staff.

“Women we interviewed reported that when they approached PHC for abortion they were often refused or subjected to extreme humiliation and abuse,” Pisal told IPS.

Liberalising the law

On Mar. 17, a week before the country went into a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease or COVID-19, the Indian parliament voted for an amended version of the old abortion law, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, making it more liberal and accommodative.  

• One of the salient features of the amended MTP law was increasing the upper limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks. However, the new law will only favour “special categories of women”, which include rape survivors, victims of incest, those who are differently-abled and minors.
• It also gives a woman the opportunity to terminate her pregnancy if foetal abnormalities are detected within 24 weeks of her pregnancy. In recent years, several law suits were filed that demanded a raise in the upper limit for foetal abnormalities.

Speaking at parliament on the occasion, the India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan said that the new law was very progressive and it promised to ensure the safety of women. 

Medical practitioners and health exerts also welcomed the amendment.

Dr. Noor Fathima, a senior public health official and Bangalore-based gynaecologist, told IPS that it would make abortion “less cumbersome to service providers”.

“The [amended] MTP Act is particularly a boon to women who are facing emotionally draining and stigmatising pregnancy conditions,” Fathima told IPS.

Lack of accountability fuels discrimination

However, many said that continued social stigma posed a serious threat to the effectiveness of the new law, which also grants a woman the right to complete privacy.

But vulnerable groups of women rarely enjoy this right to privacy, said Kousalya Periasamy, the head of Positive Women’s Network (PWN), a Chennai-based group advocating equal rights for HIV positive women across India.

“Staff at any abortion centre would frequently ask us ‘why were you sleeping with your partner when you have HIV’?  We are also asked to submit identity documents and consent letters from male family members. Often we are denied an abortion even without a reason. And after the abortion, we must clean up the room,” Periasamy told IPS.

The reason behind such humiliation, says Mumbai-based gynaecologist and coordinator at ASAP, Dr. Suchitra Dalvie, is that presently there is no accountability for quality of abortion care or for refusals.

“Women are still dying of septic abortions and/or enduring immense pain, public-shaming and judgemental-abusive attitudes. Unless we are plugging these holes, the situation will not change dramatically because 80 percent of women are unaware on the law to begin with,” she told IPS.

Stigma – a global challenge

Katja Iversen, chief executive officer of Women Deliver — the New York-based global advocacy group — agrees that stigma is a serious obstacle to availing abortion services worldwide.

“Abortion is a basic healthcare need for millions of girls and women, and safe, legal pregnancy termination saves women’s lives every day. Unfortunately, abortion has been stigmatised to keep people from talking about it and to maintain control over women’s bodies, and that silence leads to political pushback and dangerous myths,” Iversen told IPS.

The study by MASUM also found some of these myths and unfounded beliefs which existed among women across the country. Some of these are:

• The medical termination of a pregnancy is illegal. 
• Abortion is legal only up to 12 weeks.
• Abortion is not allowed for first pregnancy.
• Abortion causes permanent infertility.
• One’s husband’s signature is mandatory for an abortion.

“These beliefs ultimately block the ways of society to view and discuss abortion as a normal health issue and discuss in a transparent manner,” says Pisal.

Safe abortion for a better life

According to Iversen, free and regular access to reproductive health, including abortion care, can lead to overall improved living conditions of women and a more gender-equal world.

“When girls and women have access to reproductive health services, including abortion, they are more likely to stay in school, join and stay in the workforce, become economically independent, and live their full potential. It is a virtuous cycle and benefits individuals, communities, and countries,” she said.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote the well-being of all also confirms this. Target 3.7 of SDG 3 specifically aims to ensure “universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services”.

In India, however, achieving this target might need more than a change in the law.

Dr. Ravi Duggal, a senior health consultant based in Mumbai, suggests strengthening the public health system, which he believes will ensure cost regulation and access to services as a matter of right; timely and regular stocking of medicine; and sensitisation of service providers, including doctors and nurses.

Fathima agrees.

“A stronger public health system is a need of the hour. If the staff is non-judgemental, confidential, respecting privacy and (generate) prompt response will go a long way to shift women from seeking abortion care at unqualified facilities to approved facilities.”

But as India extended its three-week COVID-19 lockdown until May 3 with just over 10,000 cases recorded, it’s the poor who have been the hardest hit by the countrywide closures.

This includes women in need of abortions as all hospitals and clinics have closed their free, outdoor, non-coronavirus treatment services.

And in Sangli, Zodpe’s home district, the area has been declared a COVID-19 hotspot. For poor, marginalised women like herself this means a great struggle for survival as they are unable to work and earn a living and also remain unable to access sexual and reproductive health care.

Related Articles

• How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Affecting Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health
• U.N. Releases Report on Socio-economic Effects of Coronavirus
• A Gender-equal Ethiopian Parliament can Improve the Lives of all Women

The post India’s Liberal Abortion Law, Nullified by Social Stigma appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A cart filled with fresh, surplus produce donated to feed the hungry. Credit: Rescuing Leftover Cuisine

By Seema Sanghavi
NEW DELHI, Apr 14 2020 (IPS)

On March 12, the first email came in. An email from a boutique hotel that said they needed to postpone their apron order. The hotel had decided to put a hold on all non-essential spending until everything was, according to them, back to normal.

This email was followed by a similar email, and then another. Within a few days, all our wholesale orders were either postponed or canceled.

At the time, I realized I needed to be extremely resilient as Covid-19 was going to take a hard hit on my business. As the virus took over the news and seemed to be impacting everyone on the planet, I realized a lot more was at stake.

I started ‘Cooks Who Feed’ because I wanted to bridge the gap between hunger and food waste. Not only was the virus impacting my ability to combat this problem, but it was making the problem worse on a global scale.

Hunger is not a new problem and definitely not one relegated to developing countries. In fact, most countries have some level of food insecurity. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), over 800 million people, that’s one in nine, go to bed hungry. On top of that, one in three suffer from some form of malnutrition.

The irony here is that in a world with so much hunger, so much food is wasted. The WFP states that hunger is not about a lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough food to nourish every man, woman, and child on the planet. However, about $1 trillion of food is lost or wasted each year.

This amount is roughly one-third of all food produced worldwide. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, reversing this trend would save enough food to feed 2 billion people .

I started my company to address this hunger and food waste paradox. At Cooks Who Feed, our mission is to empower food lovers to take action for a hunger-free world. Our company produces beautifully designed handcrafted aprons.

When someone buys an apron, food waste is rescued and used to provide 100 nutritious meals. To fulfill our 1 apron = 100 meals promise, we share the profits from every apron sold with our charity partners who rescue fresh, surplus food and distribute it to those in need of a meal.

Feeding India volunteers and Hunger Heroes serving meals to school children. Credit: Zomato Feeding India

We currently have a charity partner in Canada, the USA, and India. To increase our impact, we sell our apron via our website and create co-branded aprons for businesses focusing on sustainability.

So, what prompted me to start Cooks Who Feed? It was my passion for food.

I love to cook and believe that sharing a good meal not only feeds our body; it feeds our soul. Many of my fondest memories revolve around sharing a meal. But, as much as food gives me joy, I’ve always been bothered by the number of people who go hungry and do not get to experience food the way I do.

I struggle to live in a world of feast or famine. Why do so many go hungry when so much food is thrown out?

It was this question that led me to learn about nonprofit organizations that focused on redirecting food destined for the landfill. This is when I started connecting the dots and the idea for Cooks Who Feed was born.

The backbone of the company is our production team in India. All our aprons are handmade by a group of marginalized women. The ladies are provided with safe and fair work with the goal of getting them out of poverty.

Prior to March 12, if you would have asked me about my business, I would have told you that it was positioned for growth and things were going well. The virus changed that. Businesses that purchased my aprons were predominantly in the hospitality industry, an industry that was drastically impacted by the virus.

With many of these businesses reducing their operations or closing their doors during the pandemic, it’s no surprise that my business was hurt as well.

Although my business, and many others, are facing challenging times, the very issue I set out to address is being magnified at so many levels. Take food waste for example. Although there are many charities whose mission is to rescue food waste, these organizations rely heavily on donations.

Many charities are saying they fear collapse as COVID-19 wreaks economic havoc on their donors. Much like private sector businesses, charities have also had to lay off employees as grant programs are canceled and donations dwindle. To add to this, much of the work carried out by charities is done by volunteers. With social distancing in place and many worried about their health, finding volunteers has been very difficult.

Aside from these charities, the pandemic has shaken the food supply chain. As the hospitality sector shuts down and panic over the virus causes many to hoard food, food supply chains that rely on stability have been disrupted. This has led to a surge in food waste.

Unfortunately, hunger has also been negatively affected by the virus. In the western world, many families rely on school meals and meals donated by charities. The number of people dependent on such donations has also increased with the pandemic as many have lost their jobs. In developing countries, the toll on hunger is much greater. Look at India for example.

Migrants workers from rural areas who rely on their daily wages have now lost their jobs in the big cities. With the country on lockdown, unable to return to their village, these workers are now homeless and hungry.

Although humbled by the realization that many people are and will continue to suffer much more than I can ever imagine, I find myself even more compassionate as problems I care so deeply about become heightened. So I do what every true entrepreneur does….hang tight and focus on what one can control. This too shall pass – I know it will – and when it does, I’ll be ready.

The post Bridging the Gap between Hunger & Food Waste During a Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Seema Sanghavi is Founder Cooks Who Feed

The post Bridging the Gap between Hunger & Food Waste During a Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 14 2020 (IPS)

Vietnam, just south of coastal China, is the 15th most populous country in the world with 97 million people.According to its Ministry of Health (MoH), as of 13 April, there were 262 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 144 recovering or discharged from hospitals, and no deaths.

Poor country, early action
With officials acting quickly to trace and test contacts, as well as quarantine and treat the infected, Vietnam contained the first wave of infections in January. Following a second wave of 41 new cases, Vietnam imposed a national isolation order on 31 March.The country has already conducted more than 121,000 tests, with more than 75,000 people in quarantine or isolation.

Anis Chowdhury

After more than a dozen people, linked to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, tested positive, authorities have been tracing contacts, advised more than 10,000 people who were at the hospital since March 12 to get tested, and locked down a nearby rural hamlet for 14 days.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute noted “Vietnam’s experience demonstrates how, by focusing on early risk assessment, effective communication and government-citizen cooperation, an under-resourced country with a precarious healthcare system can manage the pandemic. In facing an indefinite unknown, decisive leadership, accurate information and community solidarity empower people to protect themselves—and each other.”

The influential World Economic Forum,the Financial Times and others laud Vietnam as a low cost Covid-19 success story to be emulated by poor countries with limited resources.

Containing infection, Vietnam-style
While much more resource constrained, some key features of Vietnam’s responseare similar to othermuch lauded East Asian responses, with its infection rates significantly lower than even Taiwan’s. For many other developing countries struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, key aspects of its response are very relevant.

Early action
Having experiencedthe SARS1, avian flu and otherrecent epidemics, Vietnam acted early and pro-actively in response to the COVID-19 threat. When only 27 Covid-19 caseshad been detected in Wuhan City in mid-December 2019, Vietnam’s MoH issued prevention guidelines, including close monitoring of border areas and other steps to prevent infection of its population.

When China officially confirmed the first death due to the novel coronavirus on 11 January, Vietnam quickly tightened health checks at all borders and airports. Visitors’ body temperaturesare checked on arrival; anyone with symptoms,such as cough, fever, chest pain or breathing difficulties,isquickly isolated for testing, and strictly monitored at medical facilities, while recent contacts are traced for follow up action.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Other tough measures followed, including closing schools, rationing surgical masks, cancelling some flights, and restricting entry to most foreigners. They have been imposed unevenly, as needed, rather than as blanket, across-the-board measures. The government has asked all citizens to makeonline healthdeclarations, and regularly texts updates nationwide.

Selective quarantine
Vietnam was the first country after China to seal off a largeresidential area. After cases were traced to workers returning from Wuhan, it imposed a 21-day quarantine on 13 February in part of Vinh Phuc province, north of Hanoi, where more than 10,000 people live.

The government also ordered that all arrivals in the country be quarantined, while those who arrived after 8 March are required to undergo medical evaluation. Two communes were put under lockdown on 9 Marchafter a British tourist with the virus visited them.

Affordable effective testing
Vietnam developed a fast, efficient and affordable test kit within a month. Many countries have already shown interest in the kitwhich uses a WHO-approved technique. Rapid development of the kitfollowed extensive urgent consultations with a wide range of scientists coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Rather than mass testing, key to wealthier South Korea’s response, Vietnam has focused on isolating the infected, and tracking down their ‘primary’ (direct) and ‘secondary’ (next-level indirect) contactsin order to trace and test thosemore likely to be infected.

Concerned about stigmatization, Vietnam refers to infected persons bytheir case numbers. Exceptionally, the communist party government published the identity and itinerary of a prominent figure who had tested positive. When local businesses were reportedly ostracizing foreigners, the prime minister spoke out against such discrimination.

Social mobilization
Medical students as well as retired doctors and nurses have been mobilized. According to Tran DacPhu, a senior adviser to Vietnam’s Emergency Operation Centre, “We have to mobilise all of society to the best of our capability to fight the outbreak together, and it’s important to find the cases early and isolate them”.

A fund-raising campaign to buy medical and protective equipment for doctors, nurses, police and soldiers in close contact with patients, and for those quarantined, was launched on 19 March.By 5 April, more than 2.1 millionappealshad been texted, with a considerable sumraisedforthe relatively poor society.

Transparency
The MoH’s online portal immediately publicizes each new case to all major news outlets and the general public, with details including location, mode of infectionand action taken. Information is broadcast by television and via social media, including texts to all handphones.

Different ministries have jointlydeveloped an‘app’, reputedly very easy to use, allowingusers to: submit health and travel information to get tested; know‘hotspots’ where new cases have recently been detected; and get up-to-date information regarding ‘best practices’ in Vietnam and the world.

Vietnam’s response has earned a highlevel of trust among its citizens. About 62% of Vietnamese surveyed, in the single largest global public opinion study on COVID-19, think the Government is doing ‘right’, compared to the global average of around 40%.

Solidarity
While some rich countries act selfishly, Vietnam is following in the steps of Cuba and China in demonstrating humanitarian solidarity in the face of the Covid-19 threat to humanity.

It has shipped 450,000 protective suits to the US for healthcare professionals, and donated 550,000 masks to five European countries. Vietnam has also donated protective clothing, medical masks, testing equipment and kits – worth over US$300,000 – to Cambodia and Laos, and testing kits to Indonesia.

Emphasizing the importance of social solidarity, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has described Vietnam’s efforts to contain the virus as the “spring general offensive of 2020”, referring to the crucial 1968 Tet Offensive by ‘Viet Cong’ guerrillas during its lastwar.

The post Vietnam Winning New War Against Invisible Enemy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach Division at the United Nations Department of Global Communications, says that its important for people to remain active during the coronavirus lockdown, not only physically, but mentally also. Courtesy: Maher Nasser

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 13 2020 (IPS)

Growing up in Ramallah in Palestine, Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach Division at the United Nations Department of Global Communications, never really liked running. “I only ran when I needed to: to catch a bus or to run from soldiers,” he tells IPS. But now with three marathons under his belt — which raised thousands for scholarships for Palestinian women’s education — Nasser is still running, albeit on his balcony.

He hasn’t left the house in over two weeks since the coronavirus lockdown. “That’s why I ran on the balcony and went around maybe a thousand times,” he says, explaining that he’s run about 5km. And he’s seen colleagues skipping rope and jumping to keep fit.

Growing up under curfews in Palestine, Nasser knows the toll that staying home can take on ones body and mind.

Apr. 6 marked the United Nations International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. But this year, it was observed under a significantly different reality as most people are locked in their own homes, either self-isolating or under quarantine, because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The World Health Organization, U.N. and FIFA came together for the #BeActive campaign urging people to share stories about how they’re staying active within the confines of their home. 

WHO recommends for an adult to be engaging in 30-minute physical activities daily, and has suggested a variety of activities people can build into their schedule. 

This year, the day was scheduled to have people from the sports field coming to the U.N. to speak about their own experience.

But since the coronavirus outbreak, the U.N. created the #BeActive and #HealthyAtHome campaign. 

IPS caught up with Nasser on what sports and being active means at a time we’re locked in our homes.

Inter Press Service (IPS): What is the mission of the #BeActive and #StayAtHome activity?

Maher Nasser (MN): Every year, we choose a different focus. This year, we were looking at 75 years  of multilaterals in the U.N. and how we can talk about conversations in the future. How can sports play a role in getting us to a future where the people expect not only the 2030 agenda being implemented but also what else by the age of 2040 and 2050? But everything needs to be put in the context of today’s reality and that’s where #BeActive came from.

#BeActive is not just about the international day of sports. This is something that we want to make clear: the need to be active needs to be done on a regular basis. People are sitting at home, many people are working from home, other people have been laid off. When you’re confronting a pandemic, we don’t know whether that’s going to be a few weeks, or few more months — and we pay a price for not being active. And [we mean], not only active physically but also active mentally to enable people to go through this with the least amount of long term damage to their health. 

IPS: How can sports play a role in times of a crisis situation as we are in now?

MN: The whole notion of the international day of sports was looking back on moments of crisis. In the early days when the olympics used to take place in Greece, warring used to stop [during that time]. We know that competition is something that is inherent in human nature and competition in sports is a peaceful competition. You can compete, you can support different clubs, teams and at the end of the day you do it peacefully. And sports have led to massive improvements in people’s lives, investments, big games have given the economy a boost. 

So, sports is not only encouraging peaceful competition but also leads to development of technology in things that we use eventually in everyday lives.

In situations where there’s a lot of energy among young people, sports can be a positive space for them to use that energy to build on to improve their lives. 

IPS: As a marathoner, what does lockdown mean for you in terms of having lost access to sports and outdoor activities?

MN: I took up running only six years ago…Running a marathon is something I always thought about doing but couldn’t get around to doing it. I was introduced to the concept of fundraising through social media, and without that I probably would’ve never probably become a marathoner. 
In 2014, I ran a race and raised $6,000 and sent them to refugees in Gaza.

In 2015, I qualified for running the marathon, put it on Facebook to raise funds for scholarships for women in Gaza and the West Bank because I know women have fewer opportunities to go to university unless their university [fees] are covered. 

After the first contribution came in, then you’re morally committed. You can’t not do it. I can’t tell you how many times I regretted doing it — with the training having to run five times a week but eventually I raised $26,000 and that was enough for three scholarships. 

I finished and I told my wife whatever happens again, never let me run. Afterwards, I received letters from the young women who got the scholarships and I signed up again. I ran in 2016 and 2017 and raised funds for four more scholarships.

IPS: For a lot of people, their mental health is tied to their physical activity, which has been affected. Do you have any advice for them?

MN: So I grew up with curfews. We had weeks-long curfews stuck at home. In those days, sometimes we would break the curfew to go out and visit a friend, or just out of defiance. But now getting out isn’t about yourself, it’s also about the people with you and whether you want to risk bringing the virus to your loved ones. And I think the advice that we have is to stay at home and to avoid any unnecessary interaction with people outside your household so staying home is necessary until we manage to contain this virus.

Staying home can have a toll on your body and a bigger toll on your mind so I think it’s important for people to create a programme for themselves and [not] just let the day drag on.

IPS: Many are comparing this lockdown to how communities live under occupation live. As someone who grew up in Ramallah, how do you feel about that? Is it a fair comparison?

MN: I don’t think it’s an issue of comparing situations. What is clear now is that the crisis has created a situation where the entire world has been shown that no matter where you live, no matter how rich you are, no matter how powerful your position is, you can get the virus and end up in the ICU. And that the most vulnerable are the ones that are probably still paying the highest price. Viruses know no borders and as such we’re as strong as the weakest link in the health system in the world. So, we can get rid of the virus in Europe and the United States but if the virus continues somewhere else it could mutate and it could come back.

What is important is that people can now maybe empathise more with people who have to live through curfews or with hardship but nobody needs to live like this. And what we need to do now is ensure we build better health systems, we’re better prepared and the U.N. has an agenda for this. We can’t go back to business as usual: when we go back, recovery needs to be a recovery to build better.

The post Q&A: How to #BeActive during COVID-19 Lockdown appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Apr 13 2020 (IPS)

In the second week of March the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. By mid-March the disease had spread rapidly in many countries around the world.

Governments are taking drastic steps, including the complete lockdown of cities, as well as extensive health interventions to try and stem the disease which is caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.

There is still a great deal that’s not known about SARS-CoV-2. This limited scientific information has contributed to a slew of myths and misconceptions. Some claims being made are harmless. Others can be potentially dangerous.

We have identified nine misconceptions doing the rounds on social media in Africa and set out to counter them. The purpose of debunking these myths is to provide people with trusted information. And to provide people with valid scientifically backed answers which they can share on social media to counter the misinformation and disinformation out there.

 

Myth 1: SARS-CoV-2 does not affect Africans

Across the continent rumours have been rife that the virus does not affect black people. This was fuelled partly by the fact that a Cameroonian student in China, who was among the first people to contract the disease, responded well to treatment.

But there is no proof that melanin protects black people from the coronavirus. There is also no scientific evidence that African blood composition prevents Africans from contracting the coronavirus.

This misinformation persisted even after the deaths of high-profile black Africans, such as legendary Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango, and Zimbabwean media personality Zororo Makamba.

This myth is not limited to Africa. Twitter has recently been abuzz with claims of African-Americans being immune to coronavirus.

 

Myth 2: SARS-CoV-2 cannot survive in Africa’s warm climate

This myth arose after research, which hadn’t been peer reviewed, pointed to temperature having a role in the survival of the virus. One of the most widely quoted sources was John Nicholls, a pathology professor at Hong Kong university who said that “in cold environments, there is longer virus survival than warm ones”.

This claim, however, was not based on verified research. It was nevertheless seized on as proof that the virus cannot thrive in Africa’s warm climate.

According to the WHO, the virus can be transmitted to all areas, event hot and humid countries.

The only continent that has no cases of COVID-19 is Antarctica. This could change.

 

Myth 3: Spray alcohol and chlorine all over your body

Using hand sanitisers that contain 60% or more of alcohol has been found to kill the coronavirus. But, there has been a myth that spraying alcohol and chlorine will kill the virus.

Alcohol and chlorine will not kill the virus if it has entered the body already.

Spraying alcohol all over your body can be harmful, particularly to your eyes and mouth. Importantly, the alcohol in the sanitiser is not the same as the alcohol that people drink. The latter ranges up to 40% while hand sanitisers need to be 60% and above.

 

Myth 4: Drink black tea first thing in the morning

The media in Kenya have been reporting on false claims that drinking black tea first thing in the morning is effective against the COVID-19 disease.

This is untrue. There is no evidence to suggest that tea can protect a person from the virus. These claims can result in a sense of false security and can be dangerous.

Coronavirus can be prevented by maintaining a safe social distance and washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds.

 

Myth 5: Pepper soup with lime or lemon flushes out the virus

The pepper soup myth has been circulating mostly in Nigeria.

Pepper has anti-oxidant, detoxification and antimicrobial properties. But, there is no evidence that it prevents or kills SARS-CoV-2. It is also a rich source of vitamin C, which helps maintain a good immune system.

Likewise, lemon and lime also contain high amounts of vitamin C. But there is no evidence to support the claim that they flush the virus out of an infected person’s system.

 

Myth 6: Steam your face with and inhale neem tree leaves

There have been claims, mostly in Ghana, that steam therapy with neem can prevent COVID-19. What we know is that according to ayurvedic medicine experts, neem can assist in strengthening the immune system and prevent viral infections.

Neem is known to exhibit immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycaemic, anti-oxidant and anticarcinogenic properties. But, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has emphasised that there is no clinical evidence to suggest that steaming and inhaling with neem will prevent coronavirus.

 

Myth 7: Vitamin C tablets prevent COVID-19

Vitamin C is a known anti-oxidant. It prevents damage to tissue in the body by neutralising free radicals, which are charged particles that cause damage to cells and tissues and result in inflammation. Vitamin C is also known to protect against pathogens.

But there is no proof that vitamin C can prevent one from contracting COVID-19 though there are trials being undertaken on the use of vitamin C among COVID-19 patient. None has provided conclusive proof.

 

Myth 8: Having had malaria makes one immune

There have been several social media posts that suggest that malarial endemic countries have a decreased risk of acquiring new coronavirus cases.

There is no evidence to support this.

Malaria – which is caused by a parasite and is transmitted from the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito to humans – used to be treated with the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. These have been used, respectively, as an anti-malarial and as an auto-immune disease drug for inflammation.

The over-hyping of chloroquine has led to worldwide shortages and resulted in people self-medicating. Experts have warned that high doses of the drug are toxic.

 

Myth 9: The flu injection will protect you

The fact that health practitioners encourage people to vaccinate themselves against the flu, might have led to the mistaken view that the flu shot protects against the new coronavirus.

No, it does not. The flu vaccine is only effective against the influenza virus – and even then against only some flu viruses.

Humans have been known to be affected by six coronaviruses, four causing the common cold. The other two were the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2002 and 2012, respectively.

Now there is a seventh coronavirus, the SARS-CoV-2.

There is no scientific evidence that a flu shot can protect people against coronaviruses.

Neelaveni Padayachee, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of the Witwatersrand and Lisa Claire du Toit, Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand

 

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

The post Debunking 9 Popular Myths Doing the Rounds in Africa About the Coronavirus appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Peter Paul van de Wijs
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Apr 13 2020 (IPS)

In recent days we have seen the understandable decision reached to postpone the UN climate change conference – COP26 – which was due to take place this November. As the world reels from the widespread impacts of the coronavirus crisis, it is the right call.

COVID-19 is a pressing global issue that is starting to strain health systems, cut down economic output and undermine efforts to address poverty and inequality. These are challenges that, in the coming months, will need concerted and collaborative effort between and within nations to overcome.

But what does this mean for one of the most enduring and universal challenges we face – that of climate change? The delay of COP26 until 2021 does not mean that efforts by countries to meet their climate change commitments have to be on hold. Far from it.

Fulfilling Paris Agreement promises

As with coronavirus, climate change is a significant cause of reduced outcomes for health and wealth around the world. We know that the consequences of climate change continue to escalate, disproportionately impacting communities that have contributed the least to the problem of carbon emissions, with devasting effects on the environment and global biodiversity.

So, while the COP26 global gathering of opinion formers and climate change experts won’t take place this autumn in Scotland, there can be no delay or dialling back of ambition when it comes to climate action. Indeed, if countries are to fulfill the promises made in the Paris Agreement we need levels of ambition to grow.

A green transition in the COVID-19 recovery?

Even as countries strive to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 crisis, we cannot lose sight of this. That’s why climate action needs to be kept in the mainstream of political discussions – and even consider how the recovery phase of the pandemic, when it comes, can be implemented in a way that supports a green transition.

Peter Paul van de Wijs

The European Commission has been forthright already, with Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans stating on 1 April that, when it comes to addressing climate change, “we will not slow down our work domestically or internationally”. That position is welcome – and one we need the world’s other major economies to echo.

Business input to the solution

Efforts by governments to tackle climate change need to include greater engagement of the private sector. Businesses have a huge role in helping reduce carbon emissions and contributing towards solutions. That’s why sustainable business practices need to be front and center of corporate efforts to realign the way they operate, both now and in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Indeed, contributing to climate change mitigation makes sense to companies from both environmental and economic standpoints. So-called sustainable investing has been on the rise for some time – and the current crisis is demonstrating why ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors are increasingly important to major investors.

Business resilience, continuity planning, community engagement and employee rights – these are all ESG risks to be managed. Responsible companies, that are transparent about their practices and take obligations to people and the planet seriously, stand to benefit.

Understanding impacts can drive improvement

GRI is the independent and multi-stakeholder organization that provides the most widely used sustainability reporting framework, the GRI Standards. And during this testing period, we are continuing to help companies to disclose their impacts and support governments to collaborate with the private sector in fulfilling national climate change commitments.

This includes engaging business in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which articulate the efforts by individual countries to cut emissions and adapt to climate change.

The NDCs are central to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, with all new or updated NDCs requiring to be submitted this year. While acknowledging the huge challenges many governments face as a result of coronavirus, we cannot let this timetable slip.

In a very short space of time, the impact of COVID-19 has sent shockwaves around the world. When it comes to climate change, the risks are longer-term, more diffused and harder to quantify.

Yet they remain real and more volatile than ever. Future generations will look back on 2020 as a year when the global community either stepped up or fell short. Let’s ensure this year of crisis brings out the best in us and we do not let them down.

The post Time to Raise the Ambition for Climate Action appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Peter Paul van de Wijs is Chief External Affairs Officer, Global Reporting Initiative

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Two women fill sacks of charcoal made in mud igloos in the small town of San Juan Evangelista Analco in the mountains of the state of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico. A group of women from this Zapotec indigenous village created a charcoal company in 2017, to take advantage of the wood that the community logs sustainably. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
OAXACA, Mexico, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

Rosa Manzano carefully arranges pieces of wood in a big mud igloo that, seven days after it is full, will produce charcoal of high caloric content.

“Our forest also produces oak, which in the past was only sold as firewood and had little value. But with forest management and the work of women who have organised, we began this project,” Manzano told IPS, as she stacked the pieces of wood neatly and without leaving empty spaces inside the large igloo-shaped ovens.

Manzano belongs to the “Ka Niulas Yanni” – “active women” in the Zapotec language – Group of Women Charcoal Producers. The organisation was founded in 2017 by 10 women and two men in San Juan Evangelista Analco, a Zapotec indigenous municipality of fewer than 500 people, located in the northern highlands of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

With financing from the government’s National Forestry Commission, the women built seven eight-cubic-meter igloo-shaped ovens and set up a warehouse for their community logging project. Under a 10-year plan that began in 2013, the community can extract 1,500 cubic meters of oak wood annually to make furniture and sell wood.

The charcoal makers light the ovens through a hole called a “rozadera”, and through a similar hole they check the progress of the fire and then block up the entrance with mud bricks. As the fire descends through the structure, smoke spews from the igloo’s “ears”.

“We work hard, because there is a market for charcoal, but being pioneers involves an effort,” says Manzano, a married mother of one, whose workday starts very early and ends mid-afternoon. She also works in the restaurant at a community-owned ecotourism site.

The women fire up the ovens twice a month, to produce 23-kg bags of black charcoal, which they sell for about five dollars a sack.

Wasted bioenergy

Despite these local initiatives, Mexico is wasting the potential of bioenergy, especially solid biofuels, including all forms of energy from different kinds of biomass.

This alternative source represents 10 percent of final energy consumption, with 23 million users of bioenergy for cooking (especially in rural areas), 10 million for heating (mainly in urban areas), 100,000 small factories and 100 medium and large ones, according to the Thematic Network on Bioenergy (RTB), an association of bioenergy researchers and entrepreneurs.

In Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, almost 19 million tons of dry waste are produced and consumed annually in the residential sector for cooking, heating and water heating.

The installed capacity totals about 400 megawatts, based on raw materials such as firewood for domestic and industrial use, bagasse, charcoal and biogas.

Industrial uses of biomass are gaining ground in Mexico, such as the sawmill of the Sezaric Industrial Group, owned by the General Emiliano Zapata Union of Ejidos and Forest Communities, located in the municipality of Santiago Papasquiaro, in the state of Durango in northern Mexico. At the facility, forest waste fires the boiler that dries the wood and generates electricity. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

The country also generates some 70 million tons of organic waste per year, which can be used in this area.

In terms of electricity generation, the sector’s contribution is modest – 894 gigawatt-hours (Gwh) – compared to other alternative sources of energy. In the first quarter of 2019, gross generation totaled 80,225 Gwh, up from 78,167 in the same period last year. Gas-fired combined cycle plants produced 40,094, conventional thermal power plants 9,306 and coal-fired plants 6,265.

Hydroelectric plants accounted for 5,137 Gwh, wind farms 4,285, nuclear plants 2,382 and solar stations 1,037.

One technology that is expanding is the biodigester, for the treatment of manure and agricultural waste to obtain biogas and electricity. Some 900 of these operate in rural areas. Of this total, around 300 generate electricity, according to the state-run Shared Risk Trust.

In this country of 130 million people, around 19 million use solid fuels for cooking, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The main material consumed by 79 percent of these households is LPG, followed by firewood or coal (11 percent) and natural gas (seven percent).

In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, gas and firewood each represent 49 percent of household consumption.

“It is a renewable energy that is largely untapped in the areas of agriculture, urban waste and industry,” said Abel Reyes, president of the non-governmental Mexican Association of Biomass and Biogas.

The expert stressed to IPS that if the country were to develop the sector’s value chain, it would be equivalent to five or six points of GDP, with energy, economic, labour, health and climate benefits.

While bioethanol and biodiesel have boomed over the past decade, their growth now seems to be slowing down due to high costs compared to alternative sources and to competition with food crops.

Teresa Arias, president of the non-governmental organisation Nature and Development, noted that the industrial sector is interested in using waste to fire boilers, while households, hospitals, restaurants and hotels can use pellets of agglomerated sawdust.

“The most viable variables are determined by the market. It has a lot to do with competitiveness against fossil fuels. Solid biomass does not compete with natural gas, and in hotel heating it could compete with liquefied petroleum gas,” she told IPS.

The environmentalist said that “there is enough biomass for electricity, its costs just have to be lower or equal to those of the fuel they currently use. But it couldn’t compete with solar, although mixed systems could be installed.”

Forest and jungle management, agro-industrial residues, forest plantations, sugar cane and agricultural waste offer the greatest biomass potential. Replacing fossil fuels with bioenergy and solid biofuels would mean savings of some 6.7 billion dollars a year, in addition to social and environmental benefits, according to the RTB.

Although Mexico has adopted ambitious goals for bioenergy, the pro-fossil fuel policies of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in office since December 2018, have clouded the picture, according to analysts.

The 2017 “Biogas Technology Roadmap” predicts production of between 32 million and 120 million cubic meters of biomethane per year from animal waste by 2024, and 57 million to 100 million by 2030, in the face of barriers such as low production attractiveness and lack of project financing.

With respect to solid biofuels in 2030, the map projects 160 petajoules of energy, 130 of which would correspond to households, 20 to the commercial sector and 10 to government institutions. The joule is the energy measurement unit that is equivalent to one watt per second and estimates the amount of heat required to carry out an activity. Each petajoule represents one quadrillion joules.

Arias, the environmentalist, who is preparing diagnoses of biomass in the north of the country, said the outlook is discouraging, because “there is no defined and determined policy for pushing alternative energies.

“They’re taking a position that looks to the past instead of the future; they’re taking steps backwards after many efforts to have a diverse energy mix that would make us less vulnerable, and to transition to climate benefits,” she said.

In this context, she proposed incentives for their use in households and businesses; adapting commercial technologies to the conditions in Mexico; increasing the efficiency of supply chains; disseminating the benefits of bioenergy; implementing favourable policies for this sources; and designing programmes for rural areas.

For his part, Reyes, from the Biomass Association, called for the design of regional and local policies, aimed at boosting the use of bioenergy with adequate financial support.

Meanwhile, the charcoal makers of San Juan Evangelista know what they want: to take care of the forest, foment self-employment and consolidate their organisation and thus their community.

“We are trying to earn an income, but we are working precisely because we know it has a future. We’ve tried to organise ourselves as women, because in the social sphere it’s difficult to get out,” Manzano said during the day that IPS accompanied their activities in this town, 48 km from Oaxaca, the state capital, and 540 km from Mexico City.

Along with other Oaxacan community-owned companies, the group offers its products on new digital platforms.

Some say the government does not support initiatives like those of her group, but Manzano and her colleagues are confident that wood and charcoal will continue to be available in Mexican kitchens thanks to sustainable efforts like theirs.

Related Articles

• Mexico’s Plan to Upgrade Hydropower Plants Faces Hurdles
• Mexican Women Use Sunlight Instead of Firewood or Gas to Cook Meals
• Millions of Homes in Mexico Suffer from “Energy Poverty”

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By SWAN
Apr 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced it is “launching initiatives” to support cultural industries and cultural heritage, sectors hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“COVID-19 has put many intangible cultural heritage practices, including rituals and ceremonies, on hold, impacting communities everywhere,” the organization stated April 9. “It has also cost many jobs, and across the globe, artists … are now unable to make ends meet.”

UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay. Credit: UNESCO/Calix

Governments ordered the lockdown of museums, theatres, cinemas and other cultural institutions (along with schools) as infections from the new coronavirus spread around the world in March and April – resulting in 95,000 deaths as of April 9. (The victims have included cultural icons such as playwright Terrence McNally and musicians Manu Dibango, Ellis Marsalis Jr, and John Prine.)

Many arts businesses will find it economically difficult to recover, officials have acknowledged. Bookshops too have had to close their doors, while publishers have largely postponed the publication of books. Numerous international visual-art, literary and music events have been cancelled as well, including the UNESCO-sponsored International Jazz Day main concerts, which were scheduled to take place in South Africa April 30.

The UN had already launched measures to assist the estimated 1.5 billion students affected by school closures, but this is the first time its cultural agency has directly addressed the impact on the arts.

“UNESCO is committed to leading a global discussion on how best to support artists and cultural institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and ensuring everyone can stay in touch with the heritage and culture that connects them to their humanity,” stated UNESO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay on Thursday.

The agency (whose headquarters in Paris remain closed, in line with French lockdown rules) will convene a virtual meeting of the world’s culture ministers on April 22, to discuss the impact of COVID-19 in their countries and to “identify remedial policy measures appropriate to their various national contexts”.

UNESCO’s Paris headquarters are closed during France’s lockdown. Credit: SWAN

This follows an emergency online meeting of education ministers hosted on March 10, and a meeting of science ministries’ representatives on March 30. Earlier this month, the organization introduced a “CodeTheCurve” Hackathon to “support young innovators, data scientists and designers across the world to develop digital solutions to counter the COVID-19 pandemic”. The Hackathon will run until April 30, in partnership with IBM and SAP, UNESCO said.

For culture, the organization said it was launching an international social media campaign, #ShareOurHeritage and initiating an online exhibition of “dozens of heritage properties across the globe”, with technical support from Google Arts & Culture.

It will give information via its website and social media on the impact of COVID-19 on World Heritage sites, which are partly or fully closed to visitors in most countries because of the pandemic.

Children around the world will be invited to share drawings of World Heritage properties, giving them the chance to “express their creativity and their connection to heritage”, UNESCO added.

On World Art Day, 15 April 2020, the organization will partner with musician and Goodwill Ambassador Jean Michel Jarre to host an online debate and social media campaign, the “ResiliArt Debate”. This will bring together “artists and key industry actors to sound the alarm on the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of artists and cultural professionals”, UNESCO said.

The Eiffel Tower is one of many World Heritage sites closed to the public during the pandemic. Credit: SWAN

It remains to be seen how these initiatives will help the cultural and creative sectors, which provide some 30 million jobs worldwide. Many artists have reported dire circumstances, but many are also using their creativity to deal with the situation.

Since the health crisis started, artists have been providing online concerts, sharing artwork digitally and taking other steps to reach out to audiences, as “billions of people around the world turn to culture for comfort and to overcome social isolation”, to use UNESCO’s words.

“Now, more than ever, people need culture,” said Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, assistant UNESCO director-general for the sector.

“Culture makes us resilient. It gives us hope. It reminds us that we are not alone,” he added.

For an earlier article on the impact of COVID-19 on cultural and creative industries, please see: http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/03/arts-culture-trying-keep-lights-amid-covid-19/

Follow SWAN’s founder on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale

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Wuhan City. Credit: UNESCO

By Manuel Manonelles
BARCELONA, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

We have long speculated on the moment when the shift of global leadership from the United States to China would take place. From Washington to Beijing for the political power, from New York to Shanghai for the economic one. It seems that we are witnessing it now.

Some saw the Beijing Olympics (2008) and especially its opening ceremony as an attempt by China to display this new reality. Others saw it later, with the creation of the Asian Investment and Infrastructure Bank (2015), as opposed to the Bretton Woods system (IMF and World Bank) that for decades has been a fundamental pillar of North American hegemony.

A certain truce came with Obama and Xi Jinping, with some sort of a de facto confirmation of a new bipolar global regime. A regime that, even if temporary, could punctually have some positive effects for global governance, such as the two leaders’ pact on climate change that made the Paris Agreement feasible, also in 2015.

However, with the arrival of Trump and his “Make America Great Again”, the escalation of this quarrel for global leadership increased in both speed and visibility. The most relevant examples, so far, are the trade war between the two countries -with the World Trade Organization as a hostage-; or the open battle over the control of 5G, with the Huawei controversy at its the core.

Manuel Manonelles.

Others examples are less obvious to general opinion, but a matter of debate in specialised settings. An example is the full-fledged offensive that China has made to increase its presence and influence in the multilateral system. Obtaining important first-level positions, but also second level postings key to influence these institutions, in the face of the neglect of the early years of the Trump administration.

One case is that of Geneva, where the US administration has vacated for more than three years the position of ambassador of this key place, the city with most diplomatic activity in the world. Three long years has taken to the State Department to realize the space that China and other powers were gaining by taking advantage of the US “empty seat” policy.

They did so by appointing a new high political-profile ambassador in November last year. However, the positions of the battles for the future of the WTO or the leadership of the International Telecommunication Union (key in the management of satellite orbits, the management of radio space or digital world governance) were already well advanced at that time.

History is capricious, and again the unexpected ends up precipitating Copernican changes. No one expected the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 with the chain of fatalities that would follow.

Nor could be expected that a clumsy press conference on the afternoon of November 9, 1989 would lead to the Berlin Wall immediate collapse; something that none of the Western intelligence agencies had anticipated.

Then, between November and the beginning of last December something happened in the Huanan market, in the city of Wuhan. It seems that the first case occurred on November 17. But it was not until December 31 that an “outbreak of an unknown pneumonia” in this city was reported to the World Health Organisation.

The Huanan market was closed down on January 1. The following day the new virus was confirmed, with the technical name of SARS-CoV-2. On January 16, Japan reported the first case, on the 17th, Thailand did.

The 21st was Taiwan and the United States. On the 24th, France reported the first three cases within the EU, the number of countries increased as the first border closures took place, especially in countries bordering China.

On January 30 the WHO declared an International Public Health Emergency, the same day that Italy reported its first case; the next day it was Spain at the same time that the virus was already spread in India, Russia, the Philippines or Australia. On March 11 the WHO declared the global pandemic and, while the world trembles, global leadership transits.

On March 20, while the White House or Downing Street were still flirting with denialism in relation to COVID-19, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a plan to support 82 countries in their fight against this virus.

Two weeks later, as the virus wreaked havoc on hospitals on both coasts in the United States, and the British Prime Minister was admitted to the ICU, 18 countries in central and western Africa had already received hundreds of tons of Chinese donations of medical supplies, and 17 more were waiting to receive them in a matter of days. Pakistan, South Korea, Spain or Italy are other countries that have received help. In the latter, this help was not only of material, but accompanied by experts and medical staff.

Putin’s Russia also took advantage of the pandemic in the first weeks to project its role as international power; by sending military personnel to Italy – in a context of astonishing silence and blockage of the European institutions- or aid in health supplies to his “friend” Trump.

And even as COVID-19 spreads through Moscow and other cities and regions of the Federation these rather symbolic activities continue. Turkey also tried, by responding to Spain’s NATO urgency request, but soon changed its policy once they realised how the situation was deteriorating in Ankara and Istanbul.

It is too early to evaluate the full scope of COVID-19. In fact, no one can really assert at this point what the evolution and global impact of the pandemic will be, neither in terms of public health, nor in its humanitarian, social or economic dimensions.

The outlook is not good, and particularly worrisome is the uncertain effect that this pandemic will have in less developed countries, considering how it is affecting higher-income ones.

However, it is quite clear that this will be a turning point in terms of global governance and hegemony. Once again, the arbitrariness of history precipitates change. The strategists, the intelligence agencies, the think tanks that for years have debated and conspired from Langley through Georgetown, Xijuan or Gouguan had not foreseen what would end up igniting in a provincial market in Wuhan.

But what does seems plausible is that, in the midst of such drama, we are witnessing the hanging over of global hegemony.

 

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Excerpt:

Manuel Manonelles is Associate Professor of International Relations, Blanquerna/University Ramon Llull, Barcelona

The post Hegemony Shift in Times of COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.