Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

A dated photo of a mother and her child from West Point, a low-income neighbourhood of Monrovia, Liberia. Advocates worry that there will be numerous kinds of impact on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities around the world as countries and cities are under lockdown under the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2020 (IPS)

A little over half of women across the globe are able to freely make choices about their sexual and reproductive health, according to a latest report based on data from 57 countries. 

However, as much of the world has gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, with countries implementing social distancing and restricting the free movement of people, experts are concerned that even this small gain in sexual and reproductive health may suffer negatively.

“Globally, as COVID-19 has taken hold, access to sexual and reproductive health care services, from routine services and testing for STIs to antenatal care, contraception, and abortion, has suffered significantly,” Liza Kane-Hartnett, communications officer at the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), told IPS.

“Sexual and reproductive health services are always vulnerable to falling to the bottom of the priority list because decision-makers (male, white, heterosexual, older, affluent) are not the people who will suffer from lack of access,” she told IPS.

The “Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights” report was launched by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at the end of last week to highlight the various levels of access (or lack thereof) women have to sexual and reproductive health facilities. This includes a woman’s agency to choose her options for herself. 

UNFPA has three pillars to measure the level of autonomy women have in making their decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health:

• the person involved in making decisions about healthcare for the women,
• the person making decisions on the contraception used, and
• if the woman is able to say no to her husband/partner if she does not want to have sex. 

The data for the report includes primarily sub-Saharan African countries on its list of 57 countries. The report states that “gaps still exist in women’s autonomy, even where high levels of individual decision-making are observed in some dimensions”.

While improvements need to be made, it’s especially difficult under the current circumstances. Advocates worry that there will be numerous kinds of impact on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities around the world as countries and cities are under lockdown under the coronavirus threat.

“Sexual and reproductive health services are always vulnerable to falling to the bottom of the priority list because decision-makers (male, white, heterosexual, older, affluent) are not the people who will suffer from lack of access,” Kane-Hartnett said.

A question of access

Emilie Filmer-Wilson, Human Rights Adviser at UNFPA, says there’s a “myriad of factors” that determine a woman’s ability to access these facilities: on an individual level, institutional level, and community level. 

One of the most key determinants for a woman’s decision-making ability at this time is her education level, as well as that of her partner’s, Filmer-Wilson told IPS, adding that that will now be especially impacted given many are out of school at the moment. 

Beyond education, they are also expecting to see a risk at the institutional level, she says, that helps determine one’s ability to make the decisions and whether the institutions are affordable, accessible, and of good quality. 

For accessibility, she says, they usually take into account the geographic distance. But given the current situation of social distancing as a crucial measure to contain the coronavirus pandemic, this poses a difficult challenge. 

“In this context, it’s not only geographic, it’s also [that] there are issues that will impact that distance. Distance would be one of the risks that are involved in just going to a healthcare service center,” she told IPS. “So if these at the institutional, service levels are impacted, it’s going to [be] much harder for women.”

Kane-Hartnett of IWHC has noted similar concerns.

“Misguided attempts to control COVID infection – for example, by banning partners or doulas from accompanying women in labour – have also played a role, showing how little decision-makers value and understand women’s health and needs.”

Question over data

Meanwhile, the issue of access also means there are certain communities that will be disproportionately affected. 

“Already marginalised communities suffer the most,” says Kane-Hartnett. “Poor women, black women, indigenous women, rural women, LGBTQI+ individuals, adolescent girls, people with disabilities already struggle to access comprehensive health care services and social protection systems; the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these existing inequalities. In the United States, COVID is affecting African-American communities particularly hard.”

In order to measure this impacts, it’s crucial to have proper data. However, data collection at a time of social isolation is further limiting opportunities for researchers to collect the information and generate data on how the pandemic is affecting the stakeholders. 

“We need to have the data pre-COVID and post-COVID in order to make this kind of comparison,” Mengjia Liang, Technical Specialist (Population and Development Branch) at UNFPA, told IPS. “

“Agencies that manage those international household surveys [are] very likely to delay their household planning survey as well,” she added. 

In essence, given the current circumstances, data collection in general might be taking a backseat, even though it’s at the core what helps researchers measure these impacts of something like the pandemic on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health facilities. 

The lack of data will be yet another salt to the wound.

Related Articles

• UNFPA Highlights Need to Address Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women in Crisis Areas
• A Key Role for 1.8 Billion Youth in UN’s 2030 Development Agenda

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By Linda Eckerbom Cole
KAMPALA, Uganda, Apr 7 2020 (IPS)

We are living in uncertain times. All of us are experiencing the Corona pandemic in various ways. For most it means quarantine and physical isolation. We worry about family members, loss of income and not knowing what the future will look like- or how long this will continue.

While the spread of Covid-19 across Sub-Saharan Africa is a few weeks behindwhat is happening in the US and Europe, the situation in Uganda and other east African countries has begun to shift dramatically in recent days.

A month back there were only a few cases, now the numbers are starting to increase. As a response the Ugandan government has ordered a complete shutdown of the country. International borders are closed, markets and trading no longer allowed, schools have shut, social gatherings banned, transportation has been severely restricted and only essential businesses and personnel are able to continue.

This has significant implications for AWR and all of the women in our programs. At the moment we are temporarily closing down the majority of our operations, except for some targeted agricultural activities to help ensure food security.

We are also redeploying a dedicated group of staff into Covid-19 response.

Many of the women in our programs live in remote and isolated areas. For them the biggest issue will not be fear of the virus but rather access to food. We are especially concerned about older women who are dependent on the income from trade to be able to buy food.

Children sharing a meal in Palabek Refugee Settlement camp in Northern Uganda. Close to 50,000 people from South Sudan live in close quarters in this camp. There are 11 camps in Northern Uganda, a country that hosts 1.4 million refugees. Credit: Brian Hodges for African Women Rising

Many of these women care for orphans and other dependents and the risk of hunger and malnutrition for those households is significant.

We are working together closely with local leaders as well as our staff that live in those communities to identify households that are at higher risk of vulnerability.

Our biggest worry is for all the refugees who live in the country. Northern Uganda currently hosts 1.4 million refugees. The cramped living conditions in the camps means that isolation and social distancing are next to impossible.

As of January 31, 2020, the United Nations has received only 9% of total funding needed to care for the refugees, the majority of whom have fled violence in their home countries. That means all services are under-funded.

There is a lack of food, health care, water and sanitation. A Covid-19 outbreakin these settings would be a disaster. Most of the South Sudanese refugees we work together with cannot afford soap. How to even begin talking about prevention when people are unable to wash their hands properly?

We are working together as part of a taskforce with the UN, the Ugandan government and other aid organizations to provide support, both to local communities and within the refugee camps.

Classroom in Palabek Refugee Settlement camp in Northern Uganda. Close to 50,000 people from South Sudan live in close quarters in this camp. There are 11 camps in Northern Uganda, a country that hosts 1.4 million refugees. Credit: Brian Hodges for African Women Rising

Given our long-term presence in and connection to these areas, AWR is in aunique situation for rapid response. Our work in the past has earned the trust of local government and community leaders, and we have a network of mobilizers and local contacts that can help identify and reach the most vulnerable.

So how are we responding and how can you help?

• Security and continued wellbeing of AWR staff– we are committed to paying all staff salaries for the next several months, even if we have to suspend operations. For those who continue to work we will ensure access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and knowledge on how to stay healthy
• Nutritional food support for vulnerable groups– contingent on resources, AWR will mobilize supplemental support for those most in need
• Covid-19 prevention in refugee camps– in collaboration with the taskforce, our team will provide information on how to keep refugee families healthy, identification of symptoms, what to do if someone becomes ill, and how to prevent spreading of the disease. Each household will receive soap.

If we have learned one thing from this, it is the realization that we are all connected and dependent on each other. Now is the time to step up – to show kindness and compassion beyond our own comfort zones.
This is a critical emergency situation and we have the opportunity to help change the outcome. We are counting on you to make that possible. Your donation today is pivotal.

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Excerpt:

Linda Eckerbom Cole is the Founder and Executive Director of African Women Rising. She shuttles between Santa Barbara, California and Uganda.

The post Women in Africa Most Vulnerable to COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 7 2020 (IPS)

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation jointly launched the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The African Green Revolution Forum claims AGRA is the “world’s most important and impactful forum for African agriculture”.

The initial AGRA goals – to reduce food insecurity by half in at least 20 countries, to double the incomes of 20 million smallholder families by 2020, and to ensure at least 15 countries achieve and sustain a Green Revolution – have been revised to “increase the incomes and improve food security for 30 million farming households in 11 African countries by 2021”.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

In Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers and the Battle for the Future of Food, Timothy A. Wise argues that many millions of dollars spent on fertilizers and seed subsidies in Africa – and favoured by African politicians seeking rural votes – have not delivered their promised outcomes.

Without publicly available evaluations of its effectiveness by either AGRA or donors, Wise estimated cereal output rose by only 33 per cent in the 13 AGRA countries between 2006 and 2014. As land planted with cereals has increased, actual land productivity gains were more modest.

Agrarian reform or regression
Wise shows how transnational giants gain from farm input subsidy programmes. Without the subsidies, increased output rarely generated enough additional income to justify farmer purchases and application of commercial fertilizers and other inputs.

Subsidies have induced farmers to plant AGRA promoted crops, especially maize. After structural adjustment killed research in Africa in the late 20th century, promoting maize, well researched elsewhere, was tempting, butoften meant abandoning nutritious, drought-tolerant traditional crops.

But even where yields and net incomes rose, increases often diminished once soils were depleted. Julius Sigei, a newspaper agriculture editor, notes that Kenyan farmers produce only a fifth of US maize yields on comparable land and a third of Chinese levels as soils in Kenya are too poor to sustain higher yields while increased fertilizer application raises soil acidity.

Although water was crucial for the Asian green revolution and is necessary for effective fertilizer application in Africa – long subject to accelerating desertification, and increasingly to uncertain rainfall and droughts, due to global warming – AGRA efforts to improve water supplies have been modest.

Food and agriculture expert, MaterneMaetz cautions, “it is risky to use fertiliser if you don’t have cash and are not sure about rain”. Hence, in the African context, he favours ‘associating’ leguminous with other crops and developing neglected,drought-resistant, traditional food crops.

Dubious gains
Probably inspired by the neoliberal mantra of ‘vampire states’ exploiting farmers, and expecting markets to work better without governments, AGRA has promoted public-private partnerships, and may even have enabled land grabbing by the private sector.

Whereas Asian governments provided a broad range of crucial infrastructure and services – such as credit and agricultural extension – with AGRA, these have been less, with transnational agribusinesses getting millions of dollars in subsidies for synthetic fertilizers and ‘miracle seeds’.

Instead, Wise found that actual productivity and income gains were mainly in countries supportingtechnology adoption with government-sponsored agricultural input subsidy programmes(FISPs), and not those relying on large AGRA investments alone.

Experienced Malawian agricultural analyst Mafa Chipeta observes “what little increased yield comes from subsidised inputs is often lost as predatory buyers beat down weak and balkanised farmers on produce price. Unless governments intervene to stabilise markets, the subsidy programmes will not help farmers.”

Agribusiness transnationals
In some countries, transnationals have influenced national policies and laws in their favour, e.g., by seeking to outlaw farmers exchanging and selling seeds for planting. Such seed policies leave farmers with little choice but to purchase high-cost seeds and agrochemicals every season.

Thus, agribusiness transnationals, such as Monsanto and Yara, have not only benefited from subsidies from governments, official aid and philanthropies, but also abused their monopolistic perches in developing country markets, at the expense of farmers, consumers and governments.

In this connection, Chipeta astutely observes that “subsidies seem to help more the input sellers and the produce buyers, with farmers as mere conveyors for subsidies”. For Wise, the Green Revolution has become a “high-input treadmill” on which farmers and their governments are “running without getting anywhere”.

Although the input support programme and Food Reserve Agency in Zambia took 98 per cent of the government budget for poverty reduction, according to Wise, “78 per cent of family farmers are … in extreme poverty, living below $1.25 a day”. Clearly, “farmers and consumers weren’t the main beneficiaries of Zambia’s ‘poverty reduction’ programmes in agriculture”.

With trade liberalization and the retreat of the state accelerated by structural adjustment, Africa was transformed from net food exporter to net food importer, becoming more food insecure. Nevertheless, African family farmers still produce four fifths of the food consumed on the continent.

Despite its much smaller population, Africa is overtaking Asia as home of the most poor people in the world. Meanwhile, AGRA’s promised African green revolution has failed, while inducing subsidy dependence, andreducing crop, food and dietary diversity, butlittle for agricultural climate resilience.

Food systems approach
Meanwhile, following its World Food Summits from 1996, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has promoted a comprehensive ‘food systems’ approach.

In October 2019, the UN Secretary-General announced that it would host a Food Systems Summit in late 2021to maximize the benefits of such an approach, embed food systems transformation initiatives around the world in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and promote growth on inclusive and sustainable pathways that address climate change.

Incredibly, the principal partner appears to be the World Economic Forum, with the UN’s Rome-based agencies serving as a pliant secretariat. Unlike FAO’s earlier summits, which had a unifying concept of food security, and built consensus among stakeholders on food systems for nutrition, the 2021 summit seems to eschew inter-governmental collaboration.

The Secretary-General’s decision to name the AGRA head as his Special Envoy for the Summit preparation process suggests an intention to make ita largely private sector-led affair. Civil society organizations working for years on these issues are understandably outraged with its likely implications.

As the ultimate owners of the United Nations, Member States may respond to such erosion of multilateralism and its remaining institutions,through various intergovernmental channels, to ensure that the Summit involves a truly inclusive and transparent process that effectively energizes initiatives to ensure food systems drive Agenda 2030.

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Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk tour guide Edgar Ochieng shows a handbook documenting birds found at Dunga Beach. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
KISUMU, Kenya, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

At around 11am on a Saturday, Luke Okomo arrives at Dunga Beach, on the outskirts of Kenya’s Kisumu City, and heads straight to what is known as the ‘Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk’.

He pays Sh200 ($2), the daily fee for local tourists and students, and then joins a group of five visitors already taking a tour of the boardwalk, which is elevated above a wetland swamp and surrounded by  papyrus reeds. He then takes a seat in an open café and orders a drink as he enjoys the view of Africa’s biggest fresh water body.

It’s a good spot for some bird watching.

It’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago, Dunga Beach, which is one of the most popular fish landing sites in Kisumu, used to be filthy and a source of pollution that spilled into Lake Victoria.

But two years ago the Dunga Eco Tourism and Environmental Youth Group, with financial support from the French Embassy in Kenya, came up with the idea to turn the marshland here, which extends into the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, into a tourist site.

“Our main aim was to generate extra income for the youth, apart from what we get from the fishing business, while at the same time conserving the aquatic environment,” Samuel Owino, the coordinator of the Dunga Eco Tourism and Environmental Youth Group, tells IPS.

Edgar Ochieng, a 28-year-old boardwalk tour guide, tells IPS that along the small museum onsite, the boardwalk has become a perfect tourism site for local and foreign visitors.

“Local visitors, most of them students from different parts of the country, come over the weekends during the day to learn from our small museum, which displays the traditional wares and crafts such as musical instruments, various functional artefacts, ornaments, costumes, all made by the local residents, most of them women groups,” Ochieng says.

The Dunga Beach Museum, which displays the traditional wares and crafts such as musical instruments, various functional artefacts, ornaments, costumes, all made by the local residents, is located on top of the boardwalk. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Owino points out though that many foreign visitors prefer visiting very early in the morning in the hope of catching site of the rare and threatened bird species that make their home here.

According to Birdlife International, the Winam Gulf is one of the most reliable sites in Kenya for viewing  the scarce and threatened bird species — the Papyrus yellow warbler (Chloropeta gracilirostris) — which is often seen along the lakeward side of the swamp.

One can also see the  white-winged swamp warbler (Bradypterus carpalis) and papyrus canary (Serinus koliensis) — all papyrus endemics.

Ochieng notes that the Dunga Eco Tourism and Environmental Youth Group has have identified 46 different bird species, which they have documented in a handbook called ‘Dunga Wetland Birds’.

There are also many snakes here too.

“During the early hours, there is an opportunity to see different types of snakes, but most importantly, many visitors are interested in seeing a huge python that lives in this swamp and the sitatunga antelopes,” says Owino.

Though the guides are quick to point out that the boardwalk, which extends about 50 metres, has been coated with waterproof material that also prevents reptiles from climbing it.

“This kind of innovation is a good thing for the lake ecosystem,” says Ken Jumba, a county environment officer at the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in Kisumu.

“We encourage entrepreneurs from all other communities around the entire lake to learn from what is happening here in Dunga,”Jumba tells IPS.

The construction of the boardwalk in 2016 also resulted in establishing a protected area around the wetland. 

“When our proposal was approved for funding, we involved the county government who helped relocating the traders from the wetland, some of whom had erected pit latrines above the water so that the sludge drops directly in the lake,” recalls Owino.

Now small businesses, including food places run by local entrepreneurs, have moved away to the upper side of the beach, which has led to improvement of the lake’s biodiversity.

The boardwalk extends 50 metres into the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

About 100 metres away, there is a huge biogas plant that has been welcomed. The plant, which produces some 50,000 litres of ethanol gas daily, makes use of the invasive water hyacinth that grows wildly on the lake as a key ingredient. 

• Agricultural activities in the lake basin has meant that fertiliser and agricultural chemicals have found their way into Lake Victoria through the rivers that feed it. This has resulted in the flourishing of the water hyacinth and algae, both of which put the aquatic ecosystem around the lake at risk.
• Water hyacinth or Eichhornia crassipes has been responsible for decreasing numbers of fish species found on Lake Victoria. It grows so rapidly that in some areas the water beneath cannot even be seen and boats are unable to pass through it.

“We usually shred the water hyacinth, which is considered to be pollution on the lake, and then mix it with all the inedible waste material from the fish to generate the gas,” Daniel Owino, the technical operator of the biogas plant, tells IPS.

Meanwhile, industrial activities around Kisumu and other towns in neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania–Lake Victoria also extends to these countries–have turned the lake into a health hazard.

It will take much more commitment and cooperation to ensure that the lake is saved. Though the creation of the Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk and the cleaning up of Dunga Beach can be considered a good start. 

Related Articles

• Investors Turn Kenya’s Troublesome Invasive Water Hyacinth into Cheap Fuel
• The Russian Government and the UN join to fight water hyacinth in Kenya

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By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan
AMSTERDAM/ROME, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

What is likely to be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing economies? In the first of this two part article  we looked at possible short term disruptions and discussed actions by the private sector and Governments.

These included mobilizing available public resources to augment what private citizens are doing to help the poor and vulnerable; working on some of the national macro-economic levers to sustain businesses; and discussing with international creditors about cancelling – or rescheduling – repayments, of some of their debts. 

This second part will look at possible medium to longer term developments. 

Clearly, it is too early to say how long this first phase of infections will last; if there will be return waves; how many people will be infected; and how many will have mild or severe symptoms. Most likely we will not get a precise number even for deaths.

Whatever its medical trajectory, the fear and anxiety it has generated is unprecedented and will most likely mean the end of globalization as we know it. It will very likely also accelerate the isolationist trends in the USA and Europe

This is partly due to a lack of accurate data, especially from developing countries that often lack adequate testing facilities; and partly as many victims may have pre-exiting conditions, and establishing the primary cause of death is difficult. 

However, we need to stay positive and believe that the COVID-19 outbreak will run its course as other pandemics have done.  Resources are being allocated to cure the sick, and both Governments and private companies are working together to find a cure, improve diagnostic tests and develop a vaccine.

Moreover, lessons from previous pandemics, as well as lessons from the current pandemic coming from China, South Korea and Singapore about early containment and social distancing are being mainstreamed in all countries. And there is a lot of international cooperation on all fronts.  

Provided that countries take the right steps, the number of deaths is likely to be much smaller than the three great pandemics of the 20th century – the “Spanish Flu” in 1918–1919 (20–50 million deaths); the “Asian Flu” in 1957-58 and the “Hong Kong Flu” in 1968 (1–4 million deaths each).

A first guess is that the death toll, at least for this year, could be similar to that for the 2009 “Swine Flu” pandemic which caused between 100,000–400,000 deaths worldwide. But whatever its medical trajectory, the fear and anxiety it has generated is unprecedented and will most likely mean the end of globalization as we know it. It will very likely also accelerate the isolationist trends in the USA and Europe.  

There is little doubt that the pandemic will result in a very large cut in international trade as a result of falling global demand, both for consumption as well for investments. Sectors such as travel, tourism and construction would be particularly hard hit.

There may be some recovery as Governments in the USA and Europe launch expansionary fiscal and monetary interventions to counter the expected recession, but the positive impact of these interventions on international trade may be limited. 

A key factor is that expansionary measures would likely favor domestic production and employment. In particular, Government support funds would be focused on employment intensive activities which have been hardest hit, such as the retail trade, catering and entertainment – which have limited import needs. 

Trade will also be affected by changes in production patterns. Over the last two decades the thrust for improved efficiency and productivity has driven manufacturing, as well as many service industries, towards minimizing costs.

Two key elements of this have been just in time delivery which meant firms holding minimum stocks and inventories; and outsourcing to reduce costs, which meant long supply chains.  The crisis has brought to the fore the vulnerability of both these processes.

With disrupted supply chains and low stocks, firms are already finding it hard to maintain operations. As time goes on, supply shortages will become a major constraint in Europe and USA. 

As firms make future investment decisions in the post-COVID world, diversifying risk is something that they will be obsessed with and this will mean a strong push to reduce dependence on suppliers in other countries. 

The countries most likely to be hit hardest by the changing international trade patterns are China and India, who are major suppliers of components and services to the international markets.

However, a number of other countries, irrespective of whether they are exporters of raw materials or finished good, from Viet Nam to Bangladesh, and from Nigeria to Mexico, will suffer as a result of lower export revenues and balance of payments difficulties.  

These trade problems will be exacerbated by developments on the monetary side. Falling sales and liquidity shortages are beginning to hit companies around the world.  Many risk having to lay off workers or even close down completely.

Central banks everywhere are trying to push money into the system and cut interest rate. However, its impact may be limited in the USA and Europe where base interest rates are already close to zero, and further cuts may not be enough to overcome pessimistic market sentiments. 

Nevertheless, banks and other lenders may maintain or expand lending as a result of Government guarantees or pressure, or a combination of the two. However, they will almost certainly curtail lending to firms in developing countries who may see even normal lines of credit being restricted and foreign direct investments drying up.

The combination of trade and monetary problems emanating from Europe and the USA will put severe strain on Governments in developing countries which are already battling with soaring medical costs, pressing demands to provide emergency assistance to the poorest sections of the population, and assistance to bail out faltering firms. 

It will also put tremendous pressures on banks and firms in these countries. With their backs to the wall, there is a serious risk of defaults. 

External debts of developing countries, by both Government and the private sector, have risen sharply in the last decade as a result of low interest rates, high commodity prices and availability of credit due to quantitative easing by developed countries.

For middle and low-income countries external debt (excluding China) now stands at around US$6 trillion – more than the combined GDP of France and UK.  The poorest countries (those with Gross National Income per capita of below US$1,175) have doubled external debt since 2008.

A World Bank report issued late last year pointed out their debt-vulnerability and stated  that “with increased access to international capital markets, many low- and middle-income countries shifted away from traditional sources of financing and experienced a sharp rise in external debt, raising new concerns about sustainability”.

If, due to problems caused by the COVID-19 crisis, there is widespread defaults among poor countries this would pose serious problems for the global economy. It is therefore imperative that requests for debt forgiveness or rescheduling do not fall on deaf ears. 

 

Daud Khan works as consultant and advisor for various Governments and for international agencies including the World Bank and several UN agencies. He has degrees in Economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology. He lives partly in Italy and partly in Pakistan

Leila Yasmine Khan is an independent writer and editor based in the Netherlands. She has Master’s degrees in Philosophy and one in Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric – both from the University of Amsterdam – as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome (Roma Tre). She provided research and editorial support for this article. 

 

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By Esther Ngumbi
ILLINOIS, United States, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

During a crisis, such as the novel coronavirus, whose impact changes with every passing minute, the urge to listen to and watch the news, and get firsthand insights and real time updates can be constant. Indeed, millions of Americans are frequently checking the news. I know I am. What I’ve noticed on three of the major TV stations I’ve watched across the day is the absence of diversity in the experts commenting on the pandemic. This is inexcusable.

The United States is made up of people of many different races and ethnicities, many of whom are professional experts in fields relevant to the coronavirus, so why are those we are hearing from mostly people from one race-white?

The United States is made up of people of many different races and ethnicities, many of whom are professional experts in fields relevant to the coronavirus, so why are those we are hearing from mostly people from one race-white?

Further, countries in other parts of the world have faced pandemics before – pandemics like Ebola, Lassa Fever, SARS – and we should be turning to experts in those countries for insight into how to act now, but we aren’t. When I finally saw an article about what “Africa can teach the world about beating the coronavirus,” I shook my head to see the author was white.

As a scientist, a person of color from Kenya, I keep finding myself switching off the TV, or moving from one news channel after another, in search of an expert voice that looks like me. And it’s not just racial diversity that is lacking.

We also should be hearing from more experts who are women, people with disabilities and people from the LGBQT community. How is the pandemic affecting them? What can we learn from their experiences?

Not only are we missing out on important information by limiting the types of experts in the news, but it perpetuates the narrative that health experts are mainly white. To see such a glaring lack of diverse expert voices in 2020 is disheartening.

Of course, while the data shows that these minority groups are still underrepresented in health occupations and  fields like medicine, many still work in the health care as nurses, medical doctors, epidemiologists, disease spread modelling experts and so on.

In addition, many people of color are graduating with MD’s and PhD degrees. We also can call on experts from the African continent and other continents that have previously gone through previous pandemics including the Ebola virus. They have been through something like this and survived. They can help us.

It’s not too late to change who we see in the news. Going forward, expert voices from minority and underrepresented groups must be centered in the ongoing pandemic conversations. It matters who is featured. Failing to tap onto diverse expert voices hurts us all. It actively crops these voices out and reduces the chances that their views and takeaways will help inform the ongoing discussions.

Additionally, tapping into diverse expert voices sends a message to young people and the public at home, watching news, and aspiring young people that they, too, can be the expert voice on issues of our day.

In contrast, by not tapping onto different voices, we continue to perpetuate the narrative that only certain people can be experts. Only certain people get to comment on a global pandemic that is affecting all-rich and poor, black and white, young and old.

Furthermore, tapping on diverse voices helps to bring out the unique challenges, people of color and minorities are facing. For example, recently, Senator Kamala Harris was interviewed by CNN’s anchor Don Lemon.

During her interview, she raised several challenges that were not being discussed. She shared about the 3 million children of color that do not have access to broadband, and talked about how black women have pre-existing health challenges including asthma, blood pressure that put them at higher risk.

One of the approaches that can remedy this problem is to ensure that there are databases, containing a list of these diverse expert voices. These lists should also be made available to the media channels. She Source for example, has a database of female experts.

At the same time, news media channels and major newspapers also need to be proactive in setting policies and rules to ensure that diversity in experts being called upon to comment on the news is the norm. It is the 21st century, and we have a big pool of women and minority and underrepresented groups health experts.

Importantly, the news anchors must also take a stand on diversity and inclusion. For every segment they are running, they should do their best to bring out diversity. Imagine if all news anchors for major channels such as CNN, CNBC, and NBC would take a stand-in appreciation and support of qualified and competent health experts from minority and underrepresented groups that fail to be included?

During these unprecedented times, turning to diverse experts will go a long way in helping to solve the pandemic as well as showing aspiring future health experts that they, too, can be experts.

Evermore, news media channels must continue to tap on expert commentary from people of color and those from marginalized groups. As  CNN’s anchor “Chris Cuomo” always says—we are in these together, let us also be use the same phrase to showcase that the experts fighting this novel disease are equally diverse.

 

Dr. Esther Ngumbi (@EstherNgumbi) is an Assistant Professor at the Entomology Department and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is a Senior Food security fellow with the Aspen Institute.

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Sustainable Agriculture Management Team, FAO

By Dr. Kakoli Ghosh
ROME, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

Together with medical services and transportation, farming and food production have been correctly identified as ‘essential services’ by all countries under lockdown. The Covid-19 pandemic has not yet made a dent in the food supply and so far, there are no reports of shortage of essential food and agricultural goods. All cities and towns are actively coordinating with government agencies, farms, businesses and transport companies to maintain the supply chain and ensure full availability of food for the population,

Kakoli Ghosh

However, despite the efforts, farm gate prices have crashed, there is a drastic drop in demand and farmers recognize that they are facing a substantial economic loss as fruits, vegetables, fish or meat have to be discarded due to the lockdown. There are warnings about the shortage of labor to harvest seasonal fruits and crops due to the restrictions in movements, fear and uncertainty. Should the lockdown continue for long, one expects price fluctuation, food crisis and a further exacerbation of hunger around the world. A similar spike in food prices and food crisis was experienced in 2008, although that was for different reasons.

This is the overall situation and the basic fact is that no country, rich or poor, has ready capacity to handle an emergency that requires a ‘whole-of-country approach’ all at once. It is becoming clear that the ground reality is very different for different metropolis, cities, towns and villages. Therefore, in a relatively short period since the onset of the pandemic, a range of innovative approaches and targeted, strategies have been developed and being employed to ensure food production and supply across the value chain.

For instance, in Wuhan an efficient, closely monitored and executed food procurement and e-distribution strategy was in play through its food outlets, supermarkets and home deliveries. It was supported by a robust digital architecture for operation at scale and there appears to be no major hiccups in food supply for its 11 million inhabitants. In Rome, there is a spike in the online ecosystem- something that was a modest initiative before the pandemic. Local agri-preneurs have increased and expanded their range of e-services and door-deliveries of farm products through innovative ways. In Delhi, swift policy measures have been deployed to avert food hoarding and cash support for farmers, incentives to ensure staggered transport of harvests among others.Similar innovative measures and new ways of working are being used and can be widely adopted for long-term recovery.

By all counts, three points seem to be of utmost priority. First, the role of government agencies must be reinforced decisively. The pandemic is bound to hit crop cycle, availability of inputs, storage and the entire farm value chain and the governments will need to coordinate and monitor an efficient, flexible strategy to handle the fall out. Public sector agencies have to be empowered to be able to provide the administrative network and infrastructural support needed for operating at scale. This would include for disbursal of resources, engaging the private sector, regulatory support, and managing externalities in line with the national priorities.

Secondly, food security should be the top concern. Having access to nutritious basic food for all the citizens can become a challenge especially for countries that rely on imports, when shipments are halted or borders are closed. Overall, lack of labor, lack of inputs or lack of finance and subsidies can all lead to major disruptions in the production cycle. More emphasis can be on developing and sustaining local food production that can be a lifeline during and after the pandemic. Such efforts must be sustainable, built on good practices and expanded to provide income, occupation at least at the local level. Natural resources, especially soil, water and agro-biodiversity should not be degraded any further.

Finally, agriculture has to embrace digital tools more quickly. Although online applications have been influencing many aspects of the society, it has not yet been given a priority in the agriculture sector. The pandemic has shown the immense value of digital tools and agriculture cannot be left behind. Especially for countries where food production and supply involves many smallholder farmers systematic application of digital tools can support sustainable production, quality control, price support and timely supply. Estonia operates fully online and an example on how to manage the transition. Better connectivity can unlock wider opportunities for the governments and the farmers and smallholder communities. This is the path to the future.

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Excerpt:

Sustainable Agriculture Management Team, FAO

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President Uhuru Kenyatta leads the charge against Covid-19. He speaks to the nation fromHarambee House, Nairobi, March 14, 2020. Photo-State House

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

Covid-19 infections continue to rise, bringing normal life to a virtualstandstill and causing countries to shut themselves off from the rest of the world.

Increasingly, governments are turning to ever more stringent measures including curfews and lockdowns, with police and military being used to enforce those measures.

Perhaps necessary as the velocity of the virus has already infected nearly 1.2 million people and killed nearly 65,000 people worldwide, wreaking havoc to the health systems of the most advanced countries of the world.

Frontline health workers, are succumbing to the virus as they selflessly treat those under their care, upholding the Hippocratic Oath. Italy and Spain have been among the hardest hit, with more than 25,000 dead and more than 250,000 infected. In Italy, 73 doctors have died treating patients affected by the virus.

Health workers are the real heroes in the fight against the deadly new Corona Virus.

China’s ability to turn the coronavirus corner is a result of what has been described by WHOas “China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic,” it says. “This decline in COVID-19 cases across China is real.”

But such effort will inevitably come at a cost, but should not at a cost to basic human rights and the rule of law.

For example in India, my home country, authorities have come under fire after videos surfaced on social media showing officers beating people on the streets to enforce the country’s 21-day coronavirus lockdown.

There is no justification for breaching human dignity and using corporal punishments to humiliate people.Scenes of such violence anywhere in the world, should deeply concern all who want to defeat this faceless enemy.

The way we respond to national challenges such as disease pandemics is an opportunity to hold up a mirror to ourselves as human beings and as societies.

Millions of people across the world are fearful of what the future holds.Those with jobs know they may very well lose them, while those without are already struggling to provide for their families in often desperate circumstances. Shops and businesses will close, transport will be interrupted and gradually vital supplies may be hard to come by.

For the poorest, coronavirus is an existential threat to their tenuous grip on survival.

So excessive use of force by police to enforce the curfew is counter-productive: it does not make people safer and increases the chances that people already struggling to meet basic needs will lash out in fear and frustration, could lead to social unrest.

The Ministry of Health in Kenya, is doing an excellent job in screening and isolating suspicious cases as well as stepping up measures for tracing and quarantining people. Kenya has imposed a curfew from 7pm to 5am and all international flights have been suspended.

These are sensible measures, given that Covid-19 is extremely infectious. People with no or only mild symptoms can spread the virus, unaware that they are even infected, and some epidemiological models suggest that a single source can lead to 400 infections within a month.

The curfew and perhaps lockdowns area painful but necessary measure that we must endure if we are to break the chain of transmission.

This is an all of society fight where every individual regardless of rank or station must observe the rules, of hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, physical distancing and quarantining themselves.

However, forcing crowds of people to huddle together is wrong and dangerous, even to the police themselves.The enforcement of the curfew in Mombasa on 20 March 2020 was an aberration. I commend President Kenyatta for his public apology.

It is better to educate people, inform them of the risks and urge them to go home – as one police officer was captured on video doing in Baringo County on the first night of the curfew. A lesson for countless law enforcement agencies.

To ‘flatten the curve’ in Kenya, we must target resources at those who are most vulnerable, enabling them to take measures that will protect their families and communities – and to help those with the fewest coping mechanisms to ride out the crisis.

Kenya has an opportunity here to be a beacon for the world by modelling wise measures, sanely implemented. We the United Nations family are determined to do everything possible to support Kenya’s drive to flatten the COVID 19 curve.

There is much we still don’t know about the Covid-19 virus, but we do know that defeating it depends on the realization that we’re all in this together, regardless of social status, rank or station. The UN Secretary General, Mr Antonio Guterres has said, “ We are in this together – and we will get through this, together”.

Such cohesiveness can only be built and maintained through communication, cooperation and compassion, underpinned by human rights and dignity.

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya.

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Yusuf KanoteHuka has worked as miner for the last 30 years, in Mungama ridge, Taita-Taveta County. The majority of artisanal miners in Kenya use rudimentary tools which make the process laborious, dangerous and time-consuming. Yusuf was one of the 100 county artisanal and small-scale miners who participated in environment management & environmental protection trainings offered in 2018 and 2019 under the Environmental Governance Programme for Sustainable Natural Resource Management (EGP), supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, UNDP and Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). Credit: UNDP Kenya/Allan Gichigi

By the Kenya team of Young Environmental Journalists*
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

The mining sector in Africa is facing radical change as youth activists take action against the environmental degradation caused by mining industries. Tensions between activists and the mining industry have raised, however, concerns over human rights abuses.

Kenya’s National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders reported, for instance, cases of harassment and intimidation “against at least 35 environmental activists” in 2018. There are also legal maneuvers that still limit activists’ right to protest.

As conflict grows, some municipal governments are trying to enforce ambiguous legal measures, like unjustified arrests, to prevent demonstrations.

Undeterred, young activists are finding a way to make their voices heard all over Africa, including Kenya. An organization called Youth County Projects Kenya, led by social entrepreneur Mbiti, has been using surveys to collect data from over 100,000 young Kenyans on their biggest social concerns ranging from healthcare to corruption.

This provides young people with a safe platform to make their voices heard. They are able to hold people to account and put pressure on policy makers to address their concerns.

Similarly, Kaliki Paul Mukutu, a young Kenyan activist who is passionate about environmental justice, has been working with a global group called 350.org.

Their current campaign, “DeCoalonize”, pushes for more investment in renewable resources and away from the fossil fuel industry:“We do this by organizing community action, where we work with marginalized and local groups to create awareness and hear what they want in the communities and how they want it to improve their livelihoods as opposed to it being a more mainstreamed and government project”, says Mukutu.

Inspired by growing up near the Ukambani zone in Eastern Kenya, he was shocked at the destruction of the natural landscape caused by the mining industry. He shares the ideals of many young activists in Kenya, believing that people should work towards a better, cleaner world and the only way to achieve this is to push for change from current practices.

Many young activists are working towards the same goal: having their voices heard and their needs addressed. Through their determination and collaborative work, real strides are being made towards positive change.

Kaliki Paul Mutuku from Kenya joins AumeerRookayah from Mauritius in a press interview in Stockholm on June 2018, as part of the Stockholm Dialogue on Human Rights, Environmental Sustainability and Conflict Prevention, hosted by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency/Naturvårdsverket and the United Nations. Credit: UNDP/Francisco Filho

The African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) is another youth-led network trying to raise awareness of environmental issues. Zelda Kerubo from AYICC explains that raising awareness among youths about the impact of mining is an important task but one that comes with challenges: people often discredit the young voices based simply on their age and young people are also forced to confront powerful individuals and large organizations.

But as she explains, they remain undeterred: “AYICC will continue raising awareness, continue reaching out to these communities, not only in Lamu and Kitui but also the society in general for us to be able to weigh in the benefits and the negatives of mining and so that we can be able to make an informed and a better decision that would be beneficial to all of us.”

She also believes one of the most important things is to create “a mental shift in all of us to understand that everyone can do something”.

Kaliki Paul Mukutu seems to speak for many other activists in Kenya when he said he believes that: “The youth in Africa are indeed comprising a huge fraction in their population, so it’s high time that we invest in them and try to give them the best years that they need in order to lead their country, be it in the mining sector or any other kind of an industry. We need to support youth inclusion and proper youth inclusion should be a focal point that everyone should consider as we develop as a nation.”

These organizations and their actions have all obtained extensive media coverage and initiated important discussions on the effects of the mining sector. Thanks to restless organizations, youths and other activists, the mining industry in Kenya is now under pressure to address its impact on the environment and on human rights.

While more work needs to be done to ensure that youth organizations can work without fear of intimidation and punishment, young activists have demonstrated that their voices can carry Kenya towards a more sustainable and just society.

*The Kenya team of Young Environmental Journalists comprises AkinyiChemutai; Charity Migwi; Patience James Adaka; Purity Nzioka; Hillary Kibet; Rachael Gachui; Fredrick Kamencu; MehnazShafquat; Sami el Geneidy; and Tun Pa Pa Kyaw. They are based in Nairobi, Kenya; Atlanta, United States; Bangkok, Thailand; Helsinki, Finland; Lagos, Nigeria

The Young Environmental Journalist pilot initiative is aimed at raising awareness and fostering youth engagement in environmental and human rights protection in the mining sector in four resource-rich countries: Colombia, Kenya, Mongolia and Mozambique. This initiative was organized by the joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency – UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) in collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers’ online volunteering service.

The views expressed in this story are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP or the UN Member States.

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Dr Mah Hui Lim has been a university professor and banker, in the private sector and with the Asian Development Bank.
Dr. Michael Heng, Former professor in Management Science.

By Mah Hui Lim and Michael Heng
PENANG and SINGAPORE, Apr 6 2020 (IPS)

The Chinese word for crisis consists of two characters – “weiji”. Wei means danger and ji means opportunity. Every crisis is pregnant with danger and risks but also with opportunities – for some to make money, for others to learn valuable lessons, and for society to reorient or restructure its priorities, institutions and even the system.

Mah Hui Lim

Major crises are moments when classes in society contest for power to restructure the economy, politics and society. The failure of President Hoover to deal with the devastations of the Great Depression led to the election of President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-38) who introduced major structural reforms in the economic, financial and political spheres.

Hoover’s 3 Rs policies were relief, recovery and reforms. He implemented large scale public works to mop unemployment, introduced social security safety net which still exists today, tamed and regulated finance by separating investment banking from commercial banking, and set up regulatory watchdogs for the stock market.

The 3Rs led to the eventual recovery of the economy and most significantly to a well-regulated financial system that did not experience major financial crises for over 40 years. Government took on a bigger role in the economy.

The negative aspects of the crisis have been widely covered in the mass media, and would not be repeated.

If there is any silver lining to this dark cloud, it is found in some of the unintended positive consequences of this crisis – carbon emission choking the world is down significantly, traffic congestion has lighten up, crime rates have declined, the mountain of garbage generated has declined, communities have come together to help the afflicted, nature is reclaiming its space.

As one US celebrity who was infected said in his interview it is nature’s way of hitting back at what humanity has done to it. We were supposed to be the guardian and trustee of this earth but we abused it.

Deforestation and the destruction of natural habitat has reduced the space between humans and wild life opening more chances for new forms of virus and contamination. Epidemiologists have warned for decades the potential and dangers of new epidemic but they went unheeded. This is the most serious but, unfortunately, it may not be the last.

Michael Heng

This multiple crises – health, economic, financial and environmental – is a wake-up call for humankind to rethink its hyper consumerist economy that prides growth above all else, and one that benefits a tiny segment at the expense of the majority. It prompts us to think more seriously about restructuring society to one that is more socially and economically equitable, more respectful of nature and our environment, and restore a balance between non-materialism and materialism.

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, there was a nascent effort to move away from the obsession with GDP growth as the measurement of a society’s welfare and wellbeing.

The small nation of Bhutan spearheaded the alternative concept of Gross National Happiness. But these movements were muted and side lined. This crisis offers us the opportunity to bring it to the fore. Prime Minister Ardern of New Zealand recently said she would prioritise her people’s wellbeing over growth.

Karl Polanyi 70 years ago published the Great Transformation. His great contribution was that markets has existed for thousands of years before the rise of industrial capitalism in 18th century. Markets, where goods and services are exchanged to meet social needs, were subordinated to social, political and cultural norms. But this arrangement was overturned when market was deified to become the only organizing principle in society. Markets in society became the market society.

Polanyi presciently predicted that policies inspired by market liberalism, if unchecked, would result in the destruction of human society, the natural environment, and even productive forces.

Classical market liberalism convulsed in the 1930s with the abandonment of the Gold Standard. But fifty years later, it was resurrected in the form of neoliberalism which has formed the basis of the government policies in many countries since late 1970s.

This crisis lays bare the myth of the invincibility of the market. Market has broken down in a big way and the state is asked to step in to solve this crisis – from bail out of companies, to paying wages of workers, to cutting interest rates, soft and loans to small business guaranteed by the state etc.

There are calls in the US for the President to invoke emergency authority to direct companies to produce vital health equipment needed to fight the epidemic. Once this is over, we should not be going back to business as usual.

Markets will continue to exist and play a part in the economy. But it must be subordinated to society, to be regulated by the state to serve a greater good. For market to function well as a public good, it must not only be free but also fair. Both attributes are equally important, like the two wings of birds. The new economy must prioritise people’s as well as nature’s wellbeing over profit making for a few.

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Excerpt:

Dr Mah Hui Lim has been a university professor and banker, in the private sector and with the Asian Development Bank.
Dr. Michael Heng, Former professor in Management Science.

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Congestion in public hospitals is frequent in Latin America even without epidemics. Long waits and the need to resort to out-of-pocket spending to obtain medical assistance are common in the region. CREDIT: Courtesy of Integralatampost

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Apr 4 2020 (IPS)

Health systems in Latin America, already falling short in their capacity to serve the population, especially the poor, are in a weak position and face serious risks when it comes to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Low levels of health spending and a relative scarcity of hospital beds are indicators that most countries in the region do not guarantee universal access to healthcare and risk being overwhelmed by the wave of the new coronavirus.

“Even in well-organised and robust health systems the challenges posed by a pandemic are felt swiftly, and this is even more true in weak ones like those in much of Latin America. In epidemiology, if you trail behind an epidemic, you are going to suffer havoc,” former Venezuelan health minister José Félix Oletta (1997-1999) told IPS.

Of the 630 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean, 30 percent do not have regular access to health services, mainly due to geographic or income issues, according to the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), an affiliate of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

That figure is in line with the proportion of people living in poverty, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which counts 185 million poor people in the region, and reports that over 10 percent of the total regional population – 68 million people – live in extreme poverty.

The regional average for health spending is under four percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and only 2.2 percent is central government expenditure, according to ECLAC and PAHO figures.

In 2014, the region’s governments committed to raising health spending to at least six percent of GDP, but only Cuba (10.6 percent), Costa Rica (6.8 percent) and Uruguay (6.1 percent) have met that goal.

The most industrialised countries spend eight percent of GDP on health, between 3,000 and 4,000 dollars per inhabitant per year, compared to about 1,000 dollars per person in Latin America. Argentina, Chile, Cuba and Uruguay spend around 2,000 dollars per person, but Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela spend less than 400.

Out-of-pocket spending (the amount people spend directly on a service) is low in Cuba, Costa Rica or Uruguay (10 to 20 percent) and very high in others such as Venezuela (63 percent), Guatemala (54 percent) or the Dominican Republic (45 percent).

These out-of-pocket payments by individuals illustrate the inadequacy of public health provision, as well as of social security or private insurance, and the fact that the poor are the most vulnerable because they sometimes refrain from seeking care that they cannot afford.

Another indicator is the number of beds available in hospitals, which does not measure the quality of infrastructure, staffing or efficiency in these facilities: the regional average is 27 per 10,000 inhabitants. A portion, sometimes very small, are intensive care beds.

But “it is not enough to have hospitals and health centres. They must properly combine human resources, infrastructure and equipment, medicines and other health technologies, to provide quality care,” said PAHO Director Carissa Etienne.

If the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in the region, Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela are “the Latin American countries most at risk,” according to PAHO.

A view of the University Hospital of Maracaibo, the “oil capital” of Venezuela, in the west of the country. Large hospitals do not guarantee good-quality service in and of themselves, because skilled staff and adequate equipment and technology are also needed, says PAHO. CREDIT: SAHUM

IPS took a closer look at the situation in four countries to show the different weaknesses and strengths of health systems in the region.

Brazil, persistent inequality

Over the last three decades, the largest country in the region, with a population of 211 million, has developed a unique public health system, with programmes such as Mais Médicos, Farmácia Brasil Poupa Lar and Estratégia Saúde da Família. The latter is a strategy enabling a team of doctors, nurses and assistants to care for up to 3,000 people at a local level.

Mais Médicos deployed up to 18,000 doctors, more than half of them Cuban, in remote villages and isolated rural communities in Brazil. But since December 2018 the programme shrank after Brasilia severed relations with Havana and thousands of Cuban doctors were forced to return home.

The social gap is widening, since public health, with 44 percent of the hospital beds, must serve 75 percent of the population, while private clinics have more than half of the beds for 25 percent of the inhabitants.

In 2009, Brazil had 18.7 beds per 10,000 inhabitants, which dropped to 17.2 in 2017, half of them in four of its 27 states, in the wealthier southeast. It has 47,000 intensive care beds, but for every one in the public health system – 90 percent of which are occupied – there are 4.6 in the private health sector.

Brazil “is not prepared to face the coronavirus epidemic, not so much because of a lack of resources, but due to their poor distribution, the high level of inequality in terms of access to services, poor management and lack of equity,” epidemiologist Eduardo Costa, an international cooperation advisor at the National School of Public Health, told IPS.

Cuba, medicine for export

The Cuban health system, touted by the socialist government as one of the achievements of the revolution, is public and free of charge for the country’s population of 11.2 million, with 90 doctors for every 10,000 inhabitants, according to official figures.

Although there are no precise figures on how many of its 47,000 beds are for intensive care – and there are complaints from the public about delays for non-urgent surgical procedures – Health Minister José Ángel Portal said the island nation has 274 beds to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients and plans to add another 200.

One of Cuba’s flagship programmes is the international medical cooperation missions, which began in 1963 and have sent 407,000 doctors, technicians and assistants to 164 countries, providing free medical assistance to poor countries, under the format of cost-sharing to other nations, or as a source of income in some cases.

The annual income from this programme – 29,000 doctors worked in 65 countries in 2019 – exceeds six billion dollars. For the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba is setting up 14 medical brigades with 600 members, more than half of whom are women.

Chile is prepared, although it’s never enough

In Chile, a country of 18.7 million people, health coverage is public for 14 million and private for three million, and there is a separate system for the 400,000 members of the armed forces, put in place by the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), which has not been modified.

All workers are required to contribute seven percent of their wages to the health institution of their choice. Those who are covered by the public health system complain about long waits of weeks or months to see a doctor and of up to a year or even more for surgery.

These were some of the shortcomings that fueled the mass protests that broke out in Chile in October 2019 and raged for months until a referendum was agreed to allow voters to choose whether to replace the constitution inherited from the dictatorship.

Chile has 22 hospital beds for every 10,000 inhabitants. That is a total of about 32,000, with 3,300 for emergencies, which the government aims to increase to 5,200 in the face of the pandemic.

Nelly Alvarado, a professor at the Diego Portales University and a public health specialist, told IPS that “the health system’s capacity is never going to be enough in the face of an unexpected situation coming from the rest of the world.”

She pointed out that critical care beds “have never been abundant either in Chile or the rest of the world. They are expensive and highly complex, because sophisticated equipment and specialised staff are required.”

Venezuela, on the verge of collapse

Official health statistics became unavailable in Venezuela over the past decade. But studies by non-governmental organisations warn that the health care system is on the verge of collapse and that the country is experiencing a “complex humanitarian emergency.”

Venezuela, a country of 30 million people, is at the bottom of the regional charts in terms of health spending and the provision of hospital beds. The NGO Doctors for Health reported that during 2019 there were power failures in 63 percent of 40 large hospitals it monitors, and water supply failures in 78 percent.

Barrio Adentro, a programme launched in 2003 that brought thousands of Cuban doctors to low-income areas, has almost disappeared and most of its premises have closed.

“We are at the bottom of a PAHO list of 33 countries in the hemisphere in terms of preparing for COVID-19,” Oletta said. “And the pandemic follows setbacks in vaccination campaigns and containment of preventable diseases that have re-emerged, such as malaria, measles and tuberculosis.”

The health crisis is part of the general collapse of basic services that has accompanied the economic recession over the past five years and hyperinflation over the past three years, driving the exodus of almost five million of Venezuela’s 32 million inhabitants. Among those who have emigrated were more than 22,000 doctors, according to the medical association.

Latin America, lagging behind in health care and spending, should heed the call of Maria Neira, WHO Director for the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health: “Something we have all forgotten is that investment in public health and health systems should not be regretted…it is always going to be a profitable investment.”

This article includes reporting by Ivet González in Havana, Mario Osava in Rio de Janeiro, and Orlando Milesi in Santiago.

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New cases daily for COVID-19 in world and top countries. Chris55 /wikipedia, CC BY-SA

By External Source
LONDON, Apr 3 2020 (IPS)

Suppose we wanted to estimate how many car owners there are in the UK and how many of those own a Ford Fiesta, but we only have data on those people who visited Ford car showrooms in the last year. If 10% of the showroom visitors owned a Fiesta, then, because of the bias in the sample, this would certainly overestimate the proportion of Ford Fiesta owners in the country.

Estimating death rates for people with COVID-19 is currently undertaken largely along the same lines. In the UK, for example, almost all testing of COVID-19 is performed on people already hospitalised with COVID-19 symptoms. At the time of writing, there are 29,474 confirmed COVID-19 cases (analogous to car owners visiting a showroom) of whom 2,352 have died (Ford Fiesta owners who visited a showroom). But it misses out all the people with mild or no symptoms.

Different countries may appear to have different death rates, but only because they have applied different sampling and reporting policies. It is not necessarily because they are managing the virus any better or that the virus has infected fewer or more people

Concluding that the death rate from COVID-19 is on average 8% (2,352 out of 29,474) ignores the many people with COVID-19 who are not hospitalised and have not died (analogous to car owners who did not visit a Ford showroom and who do not own a Ford Fiesta). It is therefore equivalent to making the mistake of concluding that 10% of all car owners own a Fiesta.

There are many prominent examples of this sort of conclusion. The Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service have undertaken a thorough statistical analysis. They acknowledge potential selection bias, and add confidence intervals showing how big the error may be for the (potentially highly misleading) proportion of deaths among confirmed COVID-19 patients.

They note various factors that can result in wide national differences – for example the UK’s 8% (mean) “death rate” is very high compared to Germany’s 0.74%. These factors include different demographics, for example the number of elderly in a population, as well as how deaths are reported. For example, in some countries everybody who dies after having been diagnosed with COVID-19 is recorded as a COVID-19 death, even if the disease was not the actual cause, while other people may die from the virus without actually having been diagnosed with COVID-19.

However, the models fail to incorporate explicit causal explanations in their modelling that might enable us to make more meaningful inferences from the available data, including data on virus testing.

We have developed an initial prototype “causal model” whose structure is shown in the figure above. The links between the named variables in a model like this show how they are dependent on each other. These links, along with other unknown variables, are captured as probabilities. As data are entered for specific, known variables, all of the unknown variable probabilities are updated using a method called Bayesian inference. The model shows that the COVID-19 death rate is as much a function of sampling methods, testing and reporting, as it is determined by the underlying rate of infection in a vulnerable population.

Therefore, different countries may appear to have different death rates, but only because they have applied different sampling and reporting policies. It is not necessarily because they are managing the virus any better or that the virus has infected fewer or more people.

With a causal model that explains the process by which the data is generated, we can better account for these differences between countries. We can also more accurately learn the underlying true population infection and death rates from the observed data. Such a model could be extended to include demographic factors, as well as social distancing and other prevention policies. We have developed such models for many similar problems and are currently gathering data required for populating the kind of model that we outline in the above figure.

 

Random testing

In the absence of community-wide testing, only random testing applied throughout the population will enable us to learn about the number of people with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic or have already recovered. Only when we know how many people don’t show symptoms, will we know the underlying infection and death rate. It will also enable us to learn about the accuracy of the tests (false positive and false negative rates).

Random testing therefore remains the most effective strategy to avoid selection bias and reduce the distortions in reported statistics. Ideally, this should be combined with a causal model.

Currently it seems there are no state-wide protocols in place in any country for randomised community testing of citizens for COVID-19. Spain did attempt it. But that involved purchasing large volumes of rapid COVID-19 tests, and they soon discovered that some Chinese-sourced tests had poor validity and reliability delivering only 30% accuracy – resulting in high numbers of false positives.

Countries like Norway have proposed introducing such tests, but there is uncertainty around how to legislatively compel citizens to test – and what might constitute an appropriate randomisation protocol. In Iceland, they have voluntary sampling which has covered 3% of the population, but this isn’t random. Some countries with large scale testing, like South Korea, might get closer to being random.

The reason it is so hard to achieve random testing is that you have to account for several practical and psychological factors. How does one collect samples randomly? Gathering samples from volunteers may not be sufficient as it does not prevent self-selection bias.

During the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009–2010, there was a lot of anxiety about the disease that created “mass psychogenic illness”. This is when hypersensitivity to particular symptoms leads to healthy people self-diagnosing as having a virus – meaning they would be highly incentivised to get tested. This could, in part, further contribute to false positive rates if the sensitivity and specificity of the tests are not fully understood.

While self-selection bias is not going to be eliminated, it could be reduced by running field tests. This could involve asking the public to volunteer samples in locations where, even in a lockdown state, they might be expected to attend and also from those in self-imposed isolation or quarantine.

In any event, when statistics are communicated at press conferences or in the media, their limitations should be explained and any relevance to the individual or population should be properly delineated. It is this which we contend is lacking in the current crisis.

 

Norman Fenton, Professor of Risk and Information Management, Queen Mary University of London; Magda Osman, Reader in Experimental Psychology, Queen Mary University of London; Martin Neil, Professor in Computer Science and Statistics, Queen Mary University of London, and Scott McLachlan, Postdoctoral Researcher in Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London

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

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
PENANG, Apr 3 2020 (IPS)

Martin Khor Kok Peng passed away just after the end of the first quarter of 2020. He leaves behind an unusually rich legacy. Atypically for people mainly working in the worldideas, he was also a very practical and pragmatic activist who successfully built and sustained several important initiatives which will live on after him.

Martin Khor

Martin was widely well known,both in Malaysia and internationally,and will be remembered for his commitment to a variety of causes perhaps best summed up by the concept of sustainable development, adopted by world leadersat Rio in 1992, and reaffirmed in Johannesburg in 2002, Rio again in 2012 and, most recently, through the Sustainable Development Goals declared in 2015.

Born in 1951, Martin’s passing,less than a year after the demise of his mentor and close collaborator, the nonagenarian Mahathir contemporary, S M Mohammed Idris, suggests the end of an era, not only in Malaysia, but also beyond.

Already there are many pronouncements about the end of the Third World, of the solidarity of the global South, and most recently, about the related demise of multilateralism, especially as it was transformed in the 1970s when the United Nations committed to a New International Economic Order, thanks to the G77 caucus of developing countries at the UN.

Paths not taken
Reflecting on Martin’s career path, one cannot but be struck by the choices he made, and by paths not taken. Leaving his hometown of Penang, Martin wasa pre-university classmate of current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Singapore, before going to Cambridge together.

Later, after a few months in Singapore’s civil service during 1974-1975, which almost surely would have led him to a cabinet position in Lee’s cabinet, Martin ‘broke his bond’ to return to Malaysia to start teaching for a pittance at the Science University of Malaysia (USM).

From there, he began his lifelong engagement with the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) and Friends of the Earth, Malaysia (SAM), collaborating closely with Haji Idris, to wage efforts to protect Penang, and later the countryagainst ecological and other disasters in the name of development.

From local to global
Followingan international civil society solidarity conference in 1984,Third World Network (TWN) was born and rapidly developed by Martin to promote collective solidarity to protectdeveloping countries’ national interests as the global South came under siege with the neoliberal ascendance of the 1980s.

The South Summit in Kuala Lumpur in 1986 established the South Commission worked under former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which recommended establishing the South Centre as an intergovernmental policy research and analysis institution for developing countries headquartered in Geneva and chaired by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. Years later, Martin took over the South Centre in 2009, strengthening its finances, capacities and impact, by creatively mobilizing resources.

The personal is political
Martin’s widow, Meenakshi Raman was a victim of Malaysian political repression in 1987. But without personal rancour, Martin worked closely with the Mahathir and subsequent Malaysian administrations, especially on internationalcauses, includingtrade, intellectual property, biopiracy and climate change.

Martin touched many, inspiring all by his tireless commitment. He was often more than happy for others to getcredit for his discreet efforts behind the scenes with relevant research and skilled drafting. His persistence was legendary, but everyone knew his efforts were not for personal gain.

Martin waswell known for his indefatigable energy and meticulousness in preparing policy and advocacy briefs on many key matters of concern to developing countries, often working late into the night as necessary. This reputation gained him access to many government and other leaders.

The post Martin Khor, Third Worldist appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A United Nations report states that the fact that women make up 70 percent of the global health workforce puts them at greater risk of infection. This is a dated photo of Catherine a nurse at Jinja referral hospital,in Uganda. Credit: Lyndal Rowlands/IPS.

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 3 2020 (IPS)

As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow, concerns are simultaneously growing about the current and long-term effects this will have on certain demographics — specifically, women, the youth, migrant workers, and many employees around the world. 

This week, the United Nations launched a report “Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19” that detailed how these communities are affected disproportionately by the current pandemic and quarantine. 

A burden on women

At the centre of it remains one demographic that likely bear the strongest brunt of it: women. 

“The fact that women make up 70 percent of the global health workforce puts them at greater risk of infection,” read part of the report. “The current crisis threatens to push back the limited gains made on gender equality and exacerbate the feminisation of poverty, vulnerability to violence, and women’s equal participation in the labour force.”

But just because women make up almost three-quarters of global healthcare professionals, does not mean they’re given the proper respect. According to a March 2019 report by the World Health Organisation, despite having such a crucial role in the public health industry, women continue to face various kinds of abuse or negligence in society, including but not limited to being attributed to a “lower status” or engaging in paid and often, unpaid roles, and being subject to gender bias and harassment. 

Meanwhile, given such a large percentage of the workers are women, the requirement of child-care can hinder a woman’s ability to work during the pandemic. According to the Centre for American Progress, currently millions of healthcare workers have a child under the age of 14, who might be struggling to manage between going to work and taking care of their children. 

“Because mothers’ employment is especially likely to suffer when they cannot find reliable child care, this finding suggests that millions of vital health workers currently could be struggling to secure child care, endangering their ability to work at a moment when the U.S. health care infrastructure is already spread too thin,” the report reads. 

At the launch of the report, U.N. secretary general António Guterres called for policies to not only address the pandemic and contain its spread, but also that would adopt measures to address the long-lasting impact of the crisis. He called for “designing fiscal and monetary policies able to support the direct provision of resources to support workers and households, the provision of health and unemployment insurance, scaled up social protection, and support to businesses to prevent bankruptcies and massive job losses.”

Plight of migrant workers, lack of connectivity further problems

Another demographic that is deeply affected as a result of the pandemic are migrant workers, according to the report.

“Migrants account for almost 30 percent of workers in some of the most affected sectors in OECD countries,” read the report. “Massive job losses among migrant workers will have knock on effects on economies heavily dependent on remittances, such as El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Tonga, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.” 

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Nepal cites the government’s figure that estimates between 700 000 to 800 000 Nepali migrants workers in India. 

“With the outbreak of COVID-19 and measures by the GOV to mitigate the risks, country is in a national lock – down. Economic production has stopped and many seasonal Nepali migrant workers had to stop working,” Lorena Lando, Chief of Mission at IOM Nepal, told IPS.

“Thousands returned back to Nepal before the lock down, others are still in India but unable to work. Many of the migrant workers are daily wages earners, and now they no longer have an income to support their families. Even for those that return back home, job opportunities will be scarce, keeping in mind that was the first reason why they travelled abroad for work.”

“The economic impact of COVID-19 in countries such as Nepal will be much bigger than other countries, and while some actions to take are good for the short term, other will need be a socio economic recovery response in longer vision,” she added. 

Beyond migrant workers, International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that the current crisis in the labor market could see between five and 25 million job losses. 

“The current crisis exacerbates the feminisation of poverty, vulnerability to violence, and women’s equal participation in the labour force,” the report noted, highlighting that even amid joblessness, women will be affected disproportionately. 

Furthermore, connectivity to the internet, especially at a time when all work and courses are moving online, is also of priority. The report states that currently an estimated 3.6 billion of the world’s population remain without connectivity, which means they may not have access to education, health information and telemedicine. 

As advocates had told IPS last week, digital access and internet connectivity is key at this time in order to ensure communication among communities.

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By PRESS RELEASE
Apr 3 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Education Cannot Wait Global Fund (ECW) allocates a total of US$15 million in an initial series of emergency grants for the rapid delivery of holistic education services to protect and support vulnerable children and youth hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 16 countries/emergency contexts. These girls and boys are already impacted by armed conflicts, forced displacement, natural disasters and protracted crises. An additional series of grants to support the response in other crisis-affected countries will be released shortly and reach partners in-country in the coming days.

“1.5 billion children are out of school. The majority of the 31 million children uprooted from their homes today – including over 17 million internally displaced, 12.7 million refugees and 1.1 million asylum seekers – are at great risk,” said Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, Chair of Education Cannot Wait’s High-level Steering Group and UN Special Envoy for Global Education. “Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of ‘the fierce urgency of now,’ and the crisis for these vulnerable children is right now and that is why ECW is making its full emergency reserves available immediately.”

This emergency allocation supports the United Nations coordinated $2 billion global humanitarian appeal launched on 25 March to fight COVID-19 in many of the world’s most vulnerable countries – already wracked by crises and now doubly-impacted by COVID-19.

As the pandemic continues to spread, upending entire countries and education systems worldwide, some 75 million children and youth – whose education was already disrupted due armed conflict, forced displacement, climate change-induced disasters and other crises – now find themselves in double jeopardy. Without the protection of a safe, equitable, inclusive quality education, they face increased risk of suffering the brunt of the pandemic, at higher risk of neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence, and of being even further left behind. Education is indeed be lifesaving for these vulnerable children and youth.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis upon an already existing global education crisis affecting 75 million children and youth, of whom 39 million are girls, in war-torn countries and forced displacement. They are at extreme risk in the face of this unprecedented pandemic. We need to double our efforts and act with decisive speed. In the face of such immense exposure, immediate action is not only essential – it is existential. They are the ones furthest left behind and the ones we need to reach first,” said Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif. “We are releasing our entire emergency reserve in two batches to support governments, UN agencies and civil society to reach them. ECW’s emergency funding will be with them in just a few days.”

The series of ECW’s First Emergency Response grants is allocated to 30 UN agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations who are coordinating their efforts together with host-governments in-country through inter-agency humanitarian structures, such as the Education Cluster or the Education in Emergencies Working Group.

The duration of grants varies from 6 to 12 months. Activities ensure quality learning for the most vulnerable, in a safe, equitable, inclusive environment and through innovative and cost-effective responses in affected countries. Interventions are focusing on the following areas:

Emergency Education Measures: With the total disruption of the usual education systems in emergency-affected areas, grants are to support alternative delivery models, including informal education materials at the household level, as well as scaling up distance education programmes, particularly via interactive radio. Social emotional learning and psychosocial support are prominent components of the academic curriculum to be provided in these alternative delivery models.

Messaging and Support Around Risks: ECW grants are to support information campaigns and the scaling up of risk communications and community engagement with target populations. Messaging, tailored to local languages and contexts, are to give practical advice about how to stay safe, including through handwashing and social distancing. Refugees, displaced and marginalized people may also experience xenophobia and stigma, requiring mental health and psychosocial support. Parents and teachers are to receive COVID19-specific guidance to promote the resilience and the psychosocial wellbeing of children and youth at home.

Upgrading Water and Sanitation Facilities in Schools: This is to benefit both students and the wider community as handwashing is a first line of defense against COVID-19. Even when schools and learning facilities are officially closed, in many cases there is still access to these facilities, and they can serve as crucial hubs to increase access to handwashing and distribute hygiene materials and kits.

ECW’s First Emergency Funding (FER) window is specifically designed to support rapid, agile coordinated education responses in times of new sudden onset or escalating crises. It is uniquely designed to ensure education can play its crucial lifesaving and life-sustaining role for affected children and youth in emergency settings.

Due to the exceptional nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, ECW issued a simplified application process to fast-track applications from partners for this emergency, ensuring funds can urgently be disbursed to roll out activities on the ground.

ECW’s allocation of much needed emergency funding to address critical education needs as a result of COVID-19 leaves a $50 million funding shortfall that will affect the Fund’s ability to respond to other needs or emergencies in the immediate future. ECW calls on the private sector, foundations, governments and other donors to urgently make new donations to ECW to support these efforts.

With these new emergency funding grants, ECW has now allocated over $100 million through its First Emergency Response window since the Fund started its operations in 2017 – supporting rapid education responses in more than 30 crisis-affected countries.

To contribute to ECW’s emergency reserve, please contact Nasser Faqih (nfaqih@unicef.org) or Madge Thomas (mathomas@unicef.org).

Additional information on emergency grants per country/crisis:
• Afghanistan: Total of $1.25 million allocated. Grantees: UNICEF ($1.25 million)
• Bagnladesh: Total of $1.5 million allocated. Grantees: BRAC ($900,000), Save the Children ($600,000)
• Brazil: Total of $250,000 million allocated. Grantee: UNICEF ($250,000)
• Burkina Faso: Total of $1.5 million allocated. Grantees: EDUCO ($300,000), Plan International ($500,000), Save the Children ($250,000), UNICEF ($300,000), UNHCR ($150,000)
• Colombia: Total of $1 million allocated. Grantees: Save the Children ($1 million)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Total of $1.5 million allocated. Grantees: AVSI ($340,000), Save the Children ($140,000), UNESCO ($520,000), War Child Canada ($500,000)
• Ethiopia: Total of $1million allocated. Grantees: Save the Children ($500,000), UNICEF ($500,000)
• Palestine: Total of $850,000 allocated. Grantees: Save the Children ($400,000), UNICEF ($450,000)
• Somalia – Federal Government of Somalia and Member States: Total of $800,000 allocated. Grantee: ADRA ($800,000)
• Somalia – Puntland: Total of $650,000 allocated. Grantee: Save the Children ($650,000)
• Somalia – Somaliland: Total of $700,000 allocated. Grantee: UNICEF ($700,000)
• Syria: Total of $500,000 allocated. Grantee: UNICEF ($500,000)
• Uganda: Total of $1 million allocated. Grantees: Save the Children ($525,000), UNHCR ($475,000)
• Venezuela: Total of $1 million allocated. Grantee: UNICEF ($1 million)
• Zimbabwe: Total of $500,000 allocated. Grantees: Plan International ($75,000), Save the Children ($175,000), UNICEF ($175,000), World Vision ($75,000)
• Regional Response for Palestine Refugees:Total of $1 million allocated. Grantee: UNRWA ($1 million)

###

Notes to Editors:
View Original

Information on the ECW Fund and its investment modalities are available at: www.educationcannotwait.org

About Education Cannot Wait (ECW)
ECW is the first global fund dedicated to education in emergencies. It was launched by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with public and private donors, to address the urgent education needs of 75 million children & youth in conflict and crisis settings. ECW’s investment modalities are designed to usher in a more collaborative approach among actors on the ground, ensuring relief and development organizations join forces to achieve education outcomes. Education Cannot Wait is hosted by UNICEF. The Fund is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations, while operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

Please follow on Twitter: @EduCannotWait @YasmineSherif1 @KentPage
Additional information available at: www.educationcannotwait.org

For press inquiries:
Anouk Desgroseilliers, adesgroseilliers@un-ecw.org, +1-917-640-6820
Kent Page, kpage@unicef.org, +1-917-302-1735

For other inquiries: info@un-ecw.org

The post The Fierce Urgency of Now – ECW Allocates $15M in Emergency Funds appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Yilmaz Akyüz and Richard Kozul-Wright
GENEVA, Apr 3 2020 (IPS)

We are greatly saddened by the passing of Martin Khor, a long-time friend and colleague, an undaunted fighter for the poor and underprivileged, a passionate believer in a more balanced and inclusive multilateralism, a rare intellectual and eloquent orator, an icon of the Global South worthy of veneration, greatly respected for his struggle for justice and fairness against the dominance and double-standards of big economic powers.   

Martin was born in 1951 in colonial Malaysia, still under British rule, to a family of journalists. After his primary and secondary education in Malaysia, he left for the UK in 1971 to study at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained his B.A Hons and M.A. in economics, before completing his second Masters in Social Sciences at the University of Science, Malaysia in 1978. 

Martin Khor

In his Master’s thesis, he grappled with the changing nature of external dependence and surplus extraction in Malaysia as it moved from colonial to post-colonial status, with a view to its implications for the scope and limits of industrialization and development; a study which left an indelible mark on his subsequent engagement and activities in a world characterised by increasingly asymmetric power relations.  

He started his professional career as an Administrative Officer at the Ministry of Finance, Singapore before joining the University of Science, Malaysia as lecturer in Economics in 1975.   

He became the Research Director of The Consumers’ Association of Penang in 1978, an independent non-profit international research and advocacy organization on issues related to development.

The Third World Network (TWN) was created in 1984 at an international Conference on “The Third World: Development and Crisis” organized by the Consumers’ Association of Penang.   In 1990, Martin became the Director of the TWN, perhaps the most important NGO from the developing world with operations globally, both in the North and the South, through offices, secretariats and researchers, including in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Geneva, Beijing, Delhi, Jakarta, Manila, New York, Montevideo and Accra.  

Martin’s approach to advancing progressive solutions on all these fronts was always one of quiet determination driven by a passionate commitment to strengthening the voice of developing countries.

He had an envious ability to synthesise and explain complex negotiating issues to a broad audience and in a way that could bring on board activists and policy makers alike

Martin held both positions at the Consumers’ Association of Penang and the TWN until 2009 when he became the Executive Director of the South Centre in Geneva, an intergovernmental organization of developing countries established in 1995 to undertake research in various national and international development policy areas and provide advice and support to developing countries in a variety of international negotiating fora. 

Under his leadership, the South Centre became an important voice in discussions on international trade and investment, intellectual property, health, global macroeconomics, finance, sustainable development, and climate change.

During his tenure, the Centre extended significantly the scope and quality of its policy research and advice, building an enhanced reputation and level of trust among developing countries in the struggles to protect and promote their interests.   After leaving the South Centre in 2018, Martin returned to Penang, already suffering from cancer, and acted as Chairman of the Board of TWN until his death on April 1, 2020.

Martin was a staunch multilateralist but not an advocate of globalization, at least in the neo-liberal guise it acquired from the early 1980s.   On the one hand, he was well aware that individually developing countries could not obtain fair deals with major (and minor) developed countries in the international economic system. 

On the other hand, he knew that multilateral rules and practices were unbalanced, designed to subject developing countries to the discipline of unfettered international markets shaped by transnational corporations and self-seeking policies of dominant powers in the North, denying them the kind of policy space they themselves had enjoyed in the course of their industrialization.  His efforts focussed on reshaping multilateral rules and practices as a way to bring about systemic changes in the service of development.     

Martin did this on three fronts.  From the mid-1980s he focussed mainly on international trade issues, particularly those raised by negotiations during the Uruguay Round, and subsequently in the WTO and the proliferating free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties that accompanied the shift to a neo-liberal international economic order.

Martin was instrumental in bringing the attention of policy makers and activists to the implications of new trade rules for the industrialization and development of the Global South arising from more demanding obligations on tariff and non-tariff measures, industrial subsidies, investment and intellectual property rights. 

He made several proposals for reform in these areas to remove imbalances and constraints over industrialization, and economic diversification more generally, in the Global South. He opposed free trade agreements with developed countries on the grounds that, by simultaneously curtailing the policy space available to governments while expanding the space for abusive practices by the large international firms that dominate international trade, they posed an even greater threat to development than the earlier generation of trade rules under the GATT.

In the aftermath of the Marrakech agreement, Martin was a prominent figure blocking efforts by OECD countries to push for a multilateral investment agreement, to extend the neo-liberal agenda at the first WTO ministerial in Singapore and subsequently at the third meeting in Seattle and to water down the Doha Development Agenda at the Cancun Ministerial in 2003.

The second front concerned the issues around the operations of the Bretton Woods Institutions, notably debt and development finance.  Martin had been a long-time critic of the Washington Consensus, and in particular, the use of policy conditionalities attached to lending by the IFIs which sought to push a series of damaging measures on developing countries in the name of efficiency, competitiveness and attracting foreign investors.

But he started to pay greater attention to these after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, arguing against austerity, advocating capital controls, orderly debt work-out mechanisms, multilateral discipline over exchange rates and financial policies of major advanced economies and global regulation and supervision of systemically important international financial firms.

He was a particularly strong advocate of these positions in his role as a member of the Helsinki Group on Globalisation and Democracy.  Martin took the helm of the South Centre just before the 2009 Global Financial Crisis hit and was quick to provide substantive assistance to developing countries during the 2009 UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development, identifying the key issues for them and working to ensure their insertion in the Outcome Document.

He continued to push hard on these issues through the research output from the Centre while adding the related areas of illicit financial flows and international tax issues to its workload as developing countries sought support on these matters.

The third, and increasingly prominent, front was climate change and sustainable development which gained added importance in international discussions in the new millennium. Environmental issues had always been part of Martin’s work as head of TWN and as a member of the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Change. 

But this widened significantly after the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. Subsequently, Martin became a member of the Consultative Group on Sustainable Development and a regular attendee at the UN Climate Change Conferences that began in 1995 playing a particularly important role in the Copenhagen COP in 2009 where the neglect of the development dimension by advanced economies, their reluctance to acknowledge common but differentiated responsibilities and their naïve belief in market-friendly solutions to the climate challenge led to acrimonious discussions and the eventual collapse of the conference.

While he clearly recognized the need to reduce the pace of emissions and protect the environment, Martin was wary that the measures promoted by industrial countries could become instruments to stem development in the Global South.  Under his leadership an important part of the work in the South Centre focussed on this issue.

During this time Martin was a strong critic of tighter intellectual property rights, particularly through trade agreements, that restricted the transfer of the technologies developing countries needed to help in the fight against rising global temperatures and to mitigate the climate damage they were already experiencing.

This work had a parallel in Martin’s fight to ease the burden of TRIPs on developing countries in dealing with public health emergencies which, thanks to a successful civil society coalition where Martin was a pivotal figure, eventually succeeded in a permanent amendment to the TRIPs agreement in 2017.

Martin’s support to developing countries in the climate change negotiations, carried out through the South Centre and TWN, fostered greater coordination among developing countries in protecting and promoting their development policy space in the climate negotiations, highlighting equity, and stressing the international obligation of advanced economies to provide support to developing countries.

Martin’s approach to advancing progressive solutions on all these fronts was always one of quiet determination driven by a passionate commitment to strengthening the voice of developing countries.

He had an envious ability to synthesise and explain complex negotiating issues to a broad audience and in a way that could bring on board activists and policy makers alike. He became a trusted advisor to policy makers and diplomats across the developing world.

But Martin was equally comfortable engaging in a productive debate with policy makers from advanced countries and in mainstream institutions.   His was a uniquely calming but authoritative voice for increasingly anxious times, one that has been silenced too soon and at a moment when his commitment to building a fairer and more resilient world was needed more than ever.

 

Yilmaz Akyüz, Former Director, Globalization and Development Strategies Division, UNCTAD; and Former Chief Economist, South Centre, Geneva.

Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Globalization and Development Strategies Division, UNCTAD, Geneva. 

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The post In memoriam ‒ Martin Khor appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Mir Suhail, Tough Goal, 2020

By Vijay Prashad
Apr 3 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Madness engulfs the planet. Hundreds of millions of people are in lockdown in their homes, millions of people who work in essential jobs – or who cannot afford to stay home without state assistance – continue to go to work, thousands of people lie in intensive-care beds taken care of by tens of thousands of medical professionals and caregivers who face shortages of equipment and time. Narrow sections of the human population – the billionaires – believe that they can isolate themselves in their enclaves, but the virus knows no borders. The global pandemic driven by the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus holds us in its grip; even as China seems to have bent the curve of infections, the charts for the rest of the world are forbidding: the light at the end of the tunnel is as dim as it has ever been.

Incompetent and heartless governments put the hammer down on society without any planning or concern for those with few resources. It is one thing for the elite or the middle class to stay at home, work using the Internet, and muddle through teaching their children from home; it is another for the billions of migrant labourers and day labourers, people who live hand to mouth, and people who have no homes. Lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing – these words mean nothing for the billions of people who work hard each day to socially reproduce the world and to produce the millions of commodities; they have not benefited from their work, but they have certainly enriched the few who are now hiding with their wealth behind their curtains, afraid of the reality that made them rich.

Vito Bongiorno, Terzo Millennio (Third Millennium), 2011

Italian author Francesca Melandri’s ‘Letter to the French from the Future’ (Libération, 18 March) says, ‘Class will make all the difference. Being locked up in a house with a pretty garden is not the same as living in an overcrowded housing project. Nor is being able to work from home or seeing your job disappear. The boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was’. Her judgment is mirrored by OluTimehin Adegbeye, who looks at the six million daily wage workers in her city of Lagos (Nigeria); if they survive the coronavirus, they will perish from hunger (and, amongst them, the most at risk are women and girls who will be tending to the sick in their families and – like medical personnel – will likely catch the coronavirus in large numbers). In South Africa, the state is threatening to evict workers from shacks, saying that they need to break up these congested areas; Axolile Notywala from Ndifuna Ukwazi of Cape Town says, ‘De-densification is just a fancier word for forced eviction’. This is what is happening to the global working class in this CoronaShock.

Ram Rahman, Workers near Kashmere Gate Inter-State Bus Terminal, Delhi, 28 March 2020

The display of disparities condenses at the Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi (India), where thousands of factory workers and service sector workers stood cheek-by-jowl as the country closed down. P. Sainath, our Senior Fellow, writes that ‘the only transportation now available’ to the working class is ‘their own feet. Some are cycling home. Several find themselves stranded midway when trains, buses, and vans stop functioning. It’s scary, the kind of hell that might break loose if this intensifies. Imagine large groups walking home, from cities in Gujarat to villages in Rajasthan; from Hyderabad to far-flung villages of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh; from Delhi to places in Uttar Pradesh, even Bihar; from Mumbai to no-one-knows-how-many destinations. If they receive no succour, their rapidly diminishing access to food and water could trigger a catastrophe. They might fall to age-old diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, and others’.

Neeraj Kumar, age 30, works at a cloth factory, where workers are paid on a piece-rate basis. ‘We have no money left’, he told The Wire. ‘I have two children. What will I do? We live in rented accommodation and did not have any money or food left’. He will have to go to Budaun, two hundred kilometres away. Mukesh Kumar is from Madhubani (Bihar) and has a 1,150-kilometre journey ahead of him. He worked at a food outlet, where he used to get food as part of his wages. But the outlet is closed. ‘I have no money left’, he said. ‘I have no one here who would look after me if I get infected. So, I am leaving’.

The Delhi office of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research did a survey of garment workers, most of whom do not have permanent jobs. ‘We are here for work’, one worker told us. ‘We left our families in our villages. We try to work as much as possible to earn that little extra income to feed and support our families’. Three-quarters of the workers we interviewed said that they are the only wage-earning member in their family; the agrarian crisis has beaten down the earning capacity of their families, who rely on remittances from these migrant workers, even though they themselves provide unpaid labour for the social reproduction of family life in the village. Now it is these workers – with no state support – who are marching back home, some carrying the coronavirus, back into the heart of the agrarian crisis.

Ram Rahman, Kashmere Gate, Delhi, 28 March 2020

Umesh Yadav, a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, wrote as these masses of workers left Delhi: ‘These migrant workers did not suddenly fall from the sky. They have existed on the peripheries of the cities, in the ghettos and the slums; they are deliberately kept invisible and unnoticed by the elite’. A hasty show of compassion for them as they form long lines on the roads that leave the cities is not enough; the system that uses them, keeps them barely alive, and then throws them out must be struggled against, another system put in its place. The hideousness of social inequality produces a heap of sorrow and anger amongst the damned of the earth.

What happens when the government tells three hundred million casual workers to sit at home for three weeks after they have made their long exodus? These are workers who have never been paid enough to save, and who have few resources to sustain themselves during this period. It is essential for the government to organise the provision of food through public distribution systems and through free canteens (as pointed out by Subin Dennis of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research). If there are no such schemes, the global pandemic will lead to widespread hunger and famine. It might also lead to a deepening crisis in the countryside, as the winter (rabi) crops such as mustard, pulses, rice, and wheat might not be properly harvested due to a labour shortage occasioned by the lockdown. A failure of the winter crops in India would be cataclysmic.

Satish Gujral (1925-2020), The Despair, 1954

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that at least 25 million people across the world will lose their jobs due to the coronavirus, and that they will lose income worth about $3.4 trillion. But, as the ILO’s Director-General Guy Ryder correctly said, ‘it is already becoming clear that these numbers may underestimate the magnitude of the impact’. There were already 71 million displaced people before the CoronaShock – one person displaced every two seconds. Numbers are bewilderingly difficult to estimate – how many people will lose everything, with nothing from any of these ‘stimulus packages’ trickling down to them? These enormous infusions of trillions of dollars trickle down from central banks into the coffers of financial institutions and large corporations and into the vaults of the billionaires. By some miracle, the money that falls from heaven gets stuck in the penthouses. None of the hundreds of millions who will find their lives disjointed will be able to catch any of that money because none of it will reach them.

Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002) whose verses dug deep into the soil of the Indian peasantry and workers, wrote a sublime poem called Makaan (House), which is a song of the construction workers:

Once the palace was built, they hired a guard to keep us out.
We slept in the dirt, with the sound of our craft;
Our heartbeat pounding with exhaustion,
Bearing the picture of the palace we built in our tightly shut eyes.
The day still melts on our heads like before,
The night pierces our eyes with black arrows,
A hot air blows tonight.
It will be impossible to sleep on the pavement.
Arise everyone! I will rise too. And you. And you too.
So that a window may open in these very walls.

Kerala – the state governed by the Left Democratic Front – is a window in the ghastly wall. The government is opening thousands of camps for migrant workers in Kerala who would need accommodation. As of 28 March, 144,145 migrant workers had been housed in 4,603 camps, and more camps are being opened. The government is also building camps for homeless and destitute people – 44 camps have been opened so far in which 2,569 people are staying. The state has opened community kitchens across the state to provide free hot meals; for those who cannot come to the kitchens, the food is delivered to their homes.

Please break the walls and build windows.

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By Inge Kaul
BERLIN, Germany, Apr 3 2020 (IPS)

My recent study on “The G20@10: Time to shift gears” 1 shows that, during the past decade, the main joint, collective action of the G20 has been to issue communiqués and other types of statements.

As a group, G20 Leaders have expressed concern about all kinds of challenges, recommitted themselves to goals already agreed in other multilateral meetings or –even repeatedly – stated in earlier G20 communiqués.

They have also lauded other entities for actions they have taken or asked others, such as the IMF, OECD, the World Bank or other international agencies to consider taking one or the other policy measure.

They have even promised they will take action individually or seek to bolster their coordination – not necessarily among themselves but, for example, with the private sector.

Inge Kaul

During the virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit on 26 March 2020 they continued this behavioral pattern. Their joint statement opens with the words: “The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful reminder of our interconnectedness and vulnerabilities. The virus respects no borders…We are strongly committed to presenting a united front against this common threat.” However, what follows then? Words – promises on paper, no concrete, tangible action.

Again, leaders state: they “are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life” and that they are “committed to do whatever it takes to overcome the pandemic”, including, among other things, to “support and commit to further strengthen WHO’s mandate”, undertake “immediate and vigorous measures to support our economies”, “mobilize development and humanitarian funding”.

But no mention of specific initiatives that some or all of them will jointly undertake, no figures and target dates specifying the amount of additional money they will put on the table.

Of course, I am not expecting the G20 suddenly, due to COVID-19 to take on an operational role. However, I would have expected that, this time, they would have acted differently: lived up to the exceptional scale and urgency of the crisis the world confronts.

For example, they could have decided to act as lead investors in a global mission-oriented project, perhaps executed, by the World Bank, in close collaboration with WHO and other multilateral development banks or other appropriate agencies, and aimed at establishing a sizeable special fund that could be used to bulk-purchase face masks (if and when available), security equipment and gowns for hospital staff, beds, medicines and, in due course, vaccines –in order to make these supplies available at affordable prices to poorer developing countries.

An action like this would, in my view, have added some credibility to the last sentence of the G20 Leaders’ communique of 26 March 2020, which says: “We will protect human life, restore global economic stability and lay out solid foundations for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.”

Unfortunately, an important opportunity of building trust and offering hope to the world during these difficult times was missed.

1 See, (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10220461.2019.1694577?journalCode=rsaj20).

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Excerpt:

Inge Kaul is Senior Fellow, Hertie School, Berlin and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Center for Global Governance, Washington DC. She can be contacted at contact@ingekaul.net.

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Gender equality concept as woman hands holding a white paper sheet with male and female symbol over a crowded city street background. Sex sign as a metaphor of social issue.

By External Source
GENEVA, Apr 2 2020 (IPS-Partners)

Globally, women are more vulnerable to economic shocks wrought by crises such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Why are women so at risk?

Firstly, women are more likely to lose their jobs than men. In many countries, women’s participation in the labour market is often in the form of temporary employment.

Across the world, women represent less than 40% of total employment but make up 57% of those working on a part-time basis, according to the International Labor Organization.

As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic roll through economies, reducing employment opportunities and triggering layoffs, temporary workers, the majority of whom are women, are expected to bear the heaviest brunt of job losses.

Part time employment (as % of total employment)

Source: ILOStat – Percentage of respondents who report borrowing any money in the previous 12 months (by themselves or together with someone else) to start, operate, or expand a farm or business (% age 15+).

Safety nets not wide enough

Many women will not be rescued by social safety nets. as access to safety nets frequently depends upon a formal participation in the labour force.

But since women tend to work without clear terms of employment, they often are not entitled to reliable social protection such as health insurance, paid sick and maternity leave, pensions and unemployment benefits.

In many developing countries, women are either self-employed or work as contributing family workers, for example in family farms.

In South Asia, over 80% of women in non-agricultural jobs are in informal employment; in sub-Saharan Africa this figure is 74%; and in Latin America and the Caribbean, 54%of women in non-agricultural jobs participate in informal employment.

Service sector reeling under restrictions

The service sector is being hit hard by the restrictions imposed to manage the spread of the coronavirus.

Given that some 55% of women are employed in the service sector (in comparison with 44% of men), women are more likely to be adversely affected.

Moreover, female-dominated service sectors such as food, hospitality and tourism are among those expected to feel the harshest economic effects of the measures to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Limited access to credit

Women entrepreneurs are often discriminated against when attempting to access credit. This will be a challenge as credit will be of paramount importance in the survival of firms.

Without open and favourable lines of credit, many female entrepreneurs will be forced to close their businesses.

Access to credit (as % of entrepreneurs by sex)

Source: ILOStat. Part time employment refers to regular employment in which working time is substantially less than normal.

More work, no pay

Women’s unpaid work is set to increase. Women remain responsible for the lion’s share of domestic chores and care work.

Measures to contain the pandemic such as quarantines and closures of schools imply additional household work and responsibility.

Some women may be forced to make difficult decisions to leave the labour market or opt for part-time jobs, as juggling between caring for family members and paid work becomes untenable.

Safeguard gender progress

As governments take steps to address the economic and social effects of COVID-19, they should not let it reverse the gender equality progress achieved in recent decades.

To avoid this, we must retain women’s productive participation in the labour force. Something we did not do in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Here support measures were provided to large infrastructure projects that mainly employed men, while jobs were cut in teaching, nursing and in public services, all female-intensive sectors.

Support measures in response to COVID-19 should go beyond workers who hold formal employment and include informal, part-time and seasonal workers, most of whom are women.

This is particularly necessary in female-dominated spheres such as the hospitality, food and tourism sectors, now at a standstill due to confinement measures by governments.

Some countries are already moving in this direction. For example, Italy is considering putting into place support measures to cover informal and temporary workers once their contracts are over.

Government bailouts and support measures should not only prop up large and medium-sized enterprises, but also micro- and small businesses, where women entrepreneurs are relatively more represented.

In addition, private sector financial support and access to credit should be equally available to women and men.

More transparency and a simplification of public procurement processes would also help women’s businesses to benefit from increased government support.

The reallocation of public funds should avoid any possible increase in the burden of women as principal suppliers of unpaid work.

Create a gender-equal future

The coronavirus pandemic presents us with an opportunity to effect systemic changes that could protect women from bearing the heaviest brunt of shocks like these in the future.

Improved education and training opportunities for women would facilitate the shift from precarious jobs to more stable and better-protected employment.

Gender-responsive trade policies would open new opportunities to women as employees and entrepreneurs.

Broader provision of social services would lift women’s care burden and give them more time for paid jobs and leisure.

Flexible work arrangements, currently in place in response to the pandemic, should continue beyond it and provide a new model of shared responsibilities within households.

Our ability to bounce back from this crisis is dependent on how we include everyone equally. If more women take part in shaping a new social and economic order, chances are that it will be more responsive to everyone’s needs and make us all more resilient to future shocks.

The post COVID-19 requires gender-equal responses to save economies appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Written by Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, and Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Director, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD

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New communications technologies essential to empower poor rural women – UN. Credit: FAO/Hoang Dinh Nam

By Alan Gelb and Anit Mukherjee
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 2 2020 (IPS)

As the world grapples with COVID-19, governments face a daunting challenge: limiting the adverse impact of a pandemic that has ground economic activity to a halt, affecting people at a scale rarely seen before.

More than 50 countries, including the United States, have announced some form of cash transfer or social assistance to help tide over the immediate challenges faced by their citizens.

While many of these efforts are one-off measures to mitigate the immediate impact, some may turn out to be more long-term depending on how widespread the economic and human cost of the pandemic turns out to be.

Delivering on these promises will require an enormous increase in the capacity of states to make payments to their citizens, or government-to-people (G2P) transfers, as they are widely known.

Every government transfers money to people in some form—public sector salaries, pensions, scholarships, grants and vouchers to the poor, and so on—so there is existing capacity, including delivery mechanisms, to draw upon.

But in most countries existing systems will not be adequate, either in volume or coverage, to help those affected make it through the economic disruption.

The immediate challenge is how to make G2P transfers efficiently, equitably, and at scale—and how best to use technology to do so. And once the crisis is passed, the development challenge remains: How can digital technologies help accelerate global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and eliminate poverty?

Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have attempted to answer some of these questions in a three-year project at CGD, culminating in our newly launched Citizens and States report. It has taken us on a journey through three continents—Asia, Africa, and Latin America—to understand how digital technologies are shaping the future of governance.

We travelled through villages in India to see how people receive food subsidies and pensions using the country’s biometric ID, Aadhaar, and how they perceive the new system compared to the old one.

We have accompanied community health workers in Bangladesh as they deliver maternal health services using their mobile phones. We talked to agents in rural Kenya who are at the frontlines of the mobile money revolution that is now a global phenomenon.

Through our collaborators, we have tried to understand the challenges of delivering cash transfers to rural women in Pakistan, providing fertilizer e-vouchers to farmers in Nigeria, and opening bank accounts in remote areas in Mexico.

We also documented how governments can replace wasteful fuel subsidies by converting them into individualized cash transfers delivered through bank or mobile money accounts and use the savings to expand access to clean energy, for example, providing LPG cooking gas for poor women in rural India.

Finally, we saw how governments are creating the infrastructure to harness the power of data to monitor the delivery of services and subsidies in real time, improving accountability of providers and voice of the citizens.

Our experience makes us hopeful for the future, especially when we see how developing countries are transforming their ability to deliver public services, subsidies, and transfers.

Leveraging the almost-universal coverage of Aadhaar, bank accounts, and mobile phones, India now electronically transfers nearly $350 billion to over 800 million people every year.

The just-passed US plan to give $1,200 to every citizen—including in some cases by check—will be far more logistically challenging for the US government than transferring the payment digitally, as India has been doing for government payments for the last seven years, and far more subject to errors and fraud.

Many developing countries will similarly struggle to distribute payments, but others have built up robust systems that they can now leverage in a crisis.

In Bangladesh, a mother can now receive her child’s education scholarship through her mobile phone account instead of having to stand in long lines at the school on a pre-arranged day for a cash handout.

Not only does this save her time and effort and provide accurate and documented payment, it also relieves school officials of a burdensome administrative process and of the risk that—rightly or wrongly—they can be accused of corrupt handling of funds.

In Kenya, a farmer can invest his or her savings directly in a small slice of a government bond through a mobile phone. He can become eligible for a small loan on the basis of a stable record of receipts and payments on his mobile account without posting collateral.

In Andhra Pradesh, a state in India with 50 million people, the authorities can drill down through state-wide reporting data on government programs in real time and across thousands of delivery points, to monitor the state’s provision of rations to poor beneficiaries. They can detect transaction failures almost immediately and instruct local officials to rapidly follow up and remediate the error.

These are just a few examples of how digital technologies are changing the lives of people in the developing world. With the spread of digital identification, access to financial accounts, and mobile phones, citizens increasingly demand the same convenience and responsiveness in dealing with their governments that they experience in their personal lives.

In turn, governments around the world are moving rapidly to harness the power of technology to improve their ability to serve people—in other words, increasing state capacity in an increasingly interconnected, digital world.

In the current dynamic and evolving context, how can digital technologies play a positive role to achieve the ambitious objectives and targets embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals?

What can we learn from the experiences of digital reform in developing countries? What can we say about the future trajectory of digital governance—the guiding principles, the harmonization of policy design and technology, and the challenges going forward?

Finally, how can technology both empower citizens and improve state capacity? We offer some answers to these questions but recognize that there is still much more research ahead.

We also see that technology is only a tool. It opens up new opportunities to make the state more capable and efficient. But technology amplifies the power of data, and its impact on development depends on how this power is used. States can use data to improve service delivery, but they may not be benign users of data.

The rapidly evolving tools available to governments also have the potential to further isolate marginalized groups and to track citizens. New checks and balances will be needed to ensure that digital technology serves the needs of all citizens—to make the capable state a good state.

It has been both exciting and challenging to bring the lessons together in a single report. Our experience leads us to believe that we are only just beginning to understand how digital tools can be used to achieve the SDGs, which we use as our guiding framework in the report.

The SDGs recognize that development policies and programs are increasingly embedded in the digital world, and that digital applications cannot be leveraged to reform the citizen-state relationship unless all are able to use them.

We agree: some of the leading cases that we examine offer a picture of the potential to implement digital governance at scale, but these are still isolated examples on the global stage.

There is still much to learn about the application of digital technologies to development—and much to reflect on the possibilities as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the report here.

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Excerpt:

Alan Gelb is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington, DC-based research organization, and a former director of development policy at the World Bank; Anit Mukherjee is a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development

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