Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

A damning reporting by the United Nations on the Myanmar’s army crimes against the Rohingya may come too late for these Rohingya children, many of whom remain traumatised as witnesses of the genocide. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

By Farid Ahmed
DHAKA, Aug 27 2018 (IPS)

At 12, Mohammed* is an orphan. He watched his parents being killed by Myanmar government soldiers a year ago. And he is one of an estimated half a million Rohingya children who have survived and been witness to what the United Nations has called genocide.

According to accounts in a U.N. fact-finding report released today, the children were likely witnesses to their homes and villages being burnt down, to mass killings, and to the rape of their mothers. As girls, they would have likely been raped themselves.

It has been a year since the atrocities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state led to the exodus of some 700,000 Rohingya—some 60 percent of whom where children, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF)—into neighbouring Bangladesh and to the coastal Cox’s Bazar district were the refugee camps have been set up.

And life remains difficult for the children in these camps.

While some who live in the squalid camps find it hard to envision themselves returning to a normal life; others, like Mohammed, dream of justice.

“I want justice… I want the soldiers to face trial,” he tells IPS, saying he wants justice from the soldiers who “ruined his life”.

“They killed our people, grabbed our land and torched our houses. They killed both my mother and father. I am now living with my sister,” he says.

Women and children who escaped the brutal violence in Myanmar wait for aid at a camp in Bangladesh. Credit: Parvez Ahmad Faysal/IPS

A year ago, on Aug. 25, Myanmar government forces responded to a Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attack on a military base. But, according to the report by the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, “the nature, scale and organisation of the operations suggests a level of preplanning and design on the part of the Tatmadaw [Myanmar’s military] leadership.”

The report outlines how  “the operations were designed to instil immediate terror, with people woken by intense rapid weapons fire, explosions, or the shouts and screams of villagers. Structures were set ablaze and Tatmadaw soldiers fired their guns indiscriminately into houses and fields, and at villagers.”

It also notes that “rape and other forms of sexual violence were perpetrated on a massive scale” and that “sometimes up to 40 women and girls were raped or gang raped together. One survivor stated, “I was lucky, I was only raped by three men.””

The report calls for a full investigation into genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, calling for Myanmar’s top generals to be investigated for genocide in Rakhine state.

Senior-general Min Aung Hlaing is listed in the report as an alleged direct perpetrator of crimes, while the head of state, Aung San Suu Kyi, was heavily criticised in the report for not using her position “nor her moral authority, to stem or prevent the unfolding events, or seek alternative avenues to meet a responsibility to protect the civilian population.”

While rights agencies have responded to the report calling on international bodies and the U.N. to hold to account those responsible for the crimes, local groups have been calling for long-term solutions to aid the surviving Rohingya children.

A Rohingya girl proudly holds up her drawing at a UNICEF school at Balukhali camp, Bangladesh. Credit: Farid Ahmed/IPS

Since their arrival in Bangladesh many Rohingya children have not received a proper education, while the healthcare facilities have been strained by the large numbers of people seeking assistance.

While scores of global and local NGOs, aid groups, U.N. agencies and the Bangladesh government are working to support the refugees, aid workers are concerned as many of the children remain traumatised by their experiences.

While they are receiving trauma counselling, it is still not enough.

“Whenever there is a darkness at night, I’m scared and feel somebody is coming to kill us… sometimes I see it in my dream when I’m asleep… sometimes I see our room is filled with blood,” 11-year-old Ayesha Ali*, who was studying at a madrassa at Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, tells IPS.

UNICEF in an alert last week warned that denial of basic rights could result in the Rohingya children becoming a “lost generation”.

“With no end in sight to their bleak exile, despair and hopelessness are growing among the refugees, alongside a fatalism about what the future has in store,” the alert states.

It is estimated that 700,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are housed in Cox’s Bazar district in Bangladesh. Credit: Mojibur Rahaman Rana/IPS

A number of children in the camps have lost either one or both parents. Last November, Bangladesh’s department of social services listed 39,841 Rohingya children as having lost either their mother or father, or lost contact with them during the exodus. A total of 8,391 children lost both of their parents.

“Most of the children saw the horrors of brutality and if they are not properly dealt with, they might have developed a mind of retaliation. Sometimes the small children talk like this: ‘We’ll kill the army…because they killed our people.’ They are growing up with a sort of hatred for the Myanmar army,” aid worker Abdul Mannan tells IPS.

And while there are 136 specialised, child-friendly zones for children and hundreds of learning centre across Cox Bazar, UNICEF notes it is only now “developing a strategy to ensure consistency and quality in the curriculum.”

BRAC, a development organisation based in Bangladesh, points out current learning centres and other facilities for children are not enough for the proper schooling and future development of the children.

“What we’re giving to the children is not enough to stand them in good stead,” Mohammed Abdus Salam, head of humanitarian crisis management programme of BRAC, tells IPS.

Newly arrived Rohingya refugees enter Teknaf from Shah Parir Dwip after being ferried from Myanmar across the Naf River. Credit: Farid Ahmed/ IPS

Salam says that the children and women in the camps also remain vulnerable. “Especially the boys and girls who have lost their parents or guardians are the most vulnerable as there was no long-term programme for them,” he says, adding that many were still traumatised and suffered from nightmares. Cox Bazar is a hub of drugs and human traffickers, and children without guardians remain at risk.

Both the Bangladesh government and international aid officials say that they are trying hard to cope with the situation in Cox Bazar which i the largest and most densely-populated refugee settlement in the world.

But Salam says that it is urgent to formulate long-term plans for both education and healthcare if the repatriation process was procrastinated. “Otherwise, many of the children will be lost as they are not properly protected,” he says.

*Names changed to protect the identity of the children.

Additional reporting by Nalisha Adams in Johannesburg.

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• Rohingya Crisis May Be Genocide, UN Officials Say

The post Damning U.N. Report Outlines Crimes Against Rohingya As Children Suffer from Trauma One Year Later appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By International Organization for Migration
BERLIN, Aug 27 2018 (IOM)

Resettlement has long been an important mechanism for refugee protection, and one that promotes international solidarity and durable solutions. In recent years and against a background of large-scale global displacement, the potential of resettlement to provide solutions for the worsening global refugee situation has been debated.

The relationship between resettlement and territorial asylum as well as the potential of alternative forms of refugee intake, such as humanitarian admission or private sponsorship, have also been on the agenda – as illustrated in this infographic and discussed in a recent policy brief by the Research Unit of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration.

How many refugees benefit from resettlement each year? Which countries accept the largest numbers of resettled refugees?

These would seem to be straightforward questions with straightforward answers to them. But resettlement statistics harbour a number of uncertainties and pitfalls that are not immediately evident to most readers.

Read More

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By Nalisha Adams
JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27 2018 (IPS)

Access to safe water for drinking and an adequate supply of water for other purposes is challenging in the rural areas of Vanuatu. A new project, that uses solar water pumping technology, will save time and energy for rural women whose task it is to collect and make water more accessible to their communities.

Just over half the population in Vanuatu had access to appropriate facilities for basic sanitation in 2015, but with an annual progress of 0.2 percent, the country is projected to achieve basic sanitation targets far in the future. For Vanuatu, the rate of progress on water is slow.

The Vanuatu Government is working with ministries and institutions to mobile finance and implement projects to ensure that communities in the country have access to clean and safe drinking water.

A recent partnership to provide solar-powered water pumps to 30 communities in rural areas and on remote islands will address the lack of secure freshwater access, which also results from extreme climatic events such as drought, which frequently hit Vanuatu. 

“This in turn should improve rural livelihoods [and] also improve sanitation and health for the project beneficiaries,” says Paul Kaun, Global Green Growth Institute’s (GGGI) senior project officer for Vanuatu. It will also cut CO2 emissions and improve “opportunities for income generation in rural areas through more reliable and safe water supplies.”

In July, the government of Luxembourg signed an agreement with GGGI committing about USD 1,750,000 to the provision and installation of the solar-powered pumps on Vanuatu. GGGI, an international organisation that works with developing and emerging countries to create programmes according to a sustainable green growth model, will administer the funds through the agreement.

The project will be implemented in close partnership with the Vanuatu ministry of climate change, the department of energy and department of water.

“Vanuatu is one of the small island states in the Pacific region that faces climate change because they are very vulnerable. But given that, there is a lot of potential for sustainable development,” says Dr. André Weidenhaupt, director-general at the department for environment in Luxembourg’s ministry for sustainable development and infrastructure.

Considered the world’s most vulnerable small developing nation to climate change and natural disasters, Vanuatu, which is located just east off Australia’s Queensland coast, is regularly affected by droughts, cyclones and volcanic eruptions. In recent years it has experienced rising sea levels, increased frequency and intensity of cyclones, and drastic changes in weather patterns that affect agricultural production.

Vanuatu ranks 134 out of 188 countries o the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index. The project goals address crucial areas of development on the island archipelago as some 43 percent of Ni-Vanuatu are categorised as living in poverty and the nation remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

According to the GGGI Vanuatu Country Planning Framework (CPF) 2017-2021, a strategic planning document which commits GGGI and the Government of Vanuatu to common goals for green growth, “rural electrification rates are very low—under 10 percent of households.” The large majority, 76 percent, “are located in rural areas, where only one in 10 homes, under half of the schools (42 percent), and one in four health facilities have some self-generated electricity (mainly petroleum fuel based).”

“A challenge is to make energy accessible to all, but by means that are climate safe. This can be [done] with small scale photovoltaic systems, which are assessable to everyone, and which is feasible,” Weidenhaupt says.

“The goals [of the project] are at first level to provide clean and safe drinking water and, in parallel, to give access to sustainable energy for all at local and regional level. And at secondary level this allows economic rural development in Vanuatu,” Weidenhaupt adds.

The Need for a Clean Water Supply

In 2015, the category 5 Cyclone Pam—the strongest on record in the region at the time—affected 74 percent of the islands’ 300,000 people. It cost the nation more than half—USD450 million—of its national gross domestic product, says Kaun.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Pam, access to clean water was a major challenge as “68 percent of rainwater harvesting structures were damaged and 70 percent of the existing wells and water systems were contaminated,” Kaun tells IPS via email.

The Vanuatu islands sit 90 centimetres above sea level. But according to a U.N. Children’s Fund report, the sea level has been rising by 5.6 millimetres per year since 1993, and is expected to reach more than 50 centimetres by 2100. As sea levels rise, and people migrate to the islands’ interiors, water quality is under threat. According to the CFP, “access to reliable safe water supplies in rural areas is low.”

The many islands that make up Vanuatu are too small to have significant natural lakes or artificial reservoirs, and “river courses are short and the flows are short lived especially in dry periods,” according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N.

“The migration of people into the islands’ interiors also threatens the quality of surface water supplying downstream coastal villages. The water supply is either taken from groundwater via open wells and bores, from surface water sources, or rainwater collection with storage in ferro-cement or polyethylene tanks,” Kaun says.

The Need of Aid in Building Climate Resilience

The country’s economy depends largely on tourism and agriculture. A government report, funded by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change for the Least Developed Countries, noted “small-scale agriculture provides for over 65 percent of the population while fishing, offshore financial services and tourism also contribute to the government revenues.”

It is one of the reasons why the Luxembourg government/GGGI/government of Vanuatu partnership is key to assist the people of Vanuatu. “Vanuatu has a relatively smaller revenue base. Tourism has been the main contributor of national GDP and also contributes to government revenues, most of which are on government operations. Therefore, Vanuatu relies a lot on external aid for development and building climate resilience,” says Kaun.

Weidenhaupt points out that “this nexus between water supply and renewable energy is a very important one.” He says both technologies can be conceived in a decentralised way that has advantages in places like Vanuatu.

“You can install them in a couple of households, in small municipalities [and] even in larger municipalities. They are like building blocks and can be conceived in whatever dimension,” Weidenhaupt says.

Weidenhaupt notes that GGGI is an ideal partner as the organisation has a wide range of experience and scope in projects that are at the nexus of climate change, sustainable development water management and other environmental objectives.

“In relation to climate action, Luxembourg immediately realised we needed an additional geographic focus, and that’s the small pacific island states. We looked to find a partner for that, and obviously GGGI is very active in this area,” Weidenhaupt says.

Vanuatu’s Challenge in Accessing Climate Resources

Vanuatu became a member of GGGI in 2015 and since then GGGI has been working with the government of Vanuatu to promote green growth and assist in meeting Vanuatu’s national development objectives.

For the Luxembourg government-funded solar water-pumping project, GGGI has formed a partnership with both the department of energy and the department of water, to implement the project.

“We have also regularly involved other key government agencies such as the ministry of finance and the prime minister’s office in training workshops at both national and regional level and country meetings. These national agencies are consistently involved in GGGI’s in-country activities and programmes,” Kaun says.

GGGI has assisted in reviewing and updating the National Energy Road Map (NERM) in 2016.

“One of the objectives of NERM is to achieve the NDC target of 100 percent renewable energy (RE) by 2030, aimed at reducing the national CO2 emissions. Another objective on the NERM is to use renewable energy for green growth, including in the water sector,” says Kaun. Nationally determined contributions or NDCs are blueprints or outlines by countries on how they plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The government of Vanuatu also aims to achieve 100 percent rural electrification by 2030.

Kaun adds that GGGI’s open and transparent processes played a key role in gaining the confidence and trust of the Vanuatu government.

A Sustainable Way Forward for Vanuatu

Meanwhile, Weidenhaupt envisions the potential for a sustainable economy on Vanuatu.

“There is the whole ensemble of sustainable aqua culture, which can be developed in these island states. There is the whole potential of sustainable tourism which can provide for development [while] staying in the limits of our planet,” he says.

Weidenhaupt notes that in order to benefit from Vanuatu’s resources there is a need to better coordinate management of energy, water and marine sectors and to integrate environmental management with economic development.

But finally, Vanuatu has the potential for rural development, which, Weidenhaupt says, “is very key to sustainable development and which is perfectly adapted to smaller areas like Vanuatu or Luxembourg – to give this as a comparative example.”

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Credit: Abir Abdullah/WaterAid

By Ruth Romer
LONDON, Aug 27 2018 (IPS)

Tea picker Bina, 45 from Sylhet, Bangladesh, used to walk for an hour each day to collect water from a well, also using water from a nearby stream, which was contaminated. Bina and her children were often sick as a result; leading to missed work and a loss of income.

WaterAid worked with the owner of the tea estate to introduce clean water and toilets in the tea gardens and surrounding areas. The new pumps and latrines have transformed Bina’s life, and have benefitted the estate too. A tea garden manager said: “Waterborne diseases have reduced so we pay fewer sick days. Efficiency has increased.”

It is clear that access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) increases productivity and results in economic benefits. There are fewer illnesses and deaths due to diarrhoeal disease, time benefits as staff seek less healthcare, and greater productivity.

In macro-economic terms, it is estimated that every dollar invested in sanitation returns US$5.5 in benefits and every dollar invested in drinking water supply returns US$2. Yet 844 million of people still don’t have access to this vital resource.
In macro-economic terms, it is estimated that every dollar invested in sanitation returns US$5.5 in benefits and every dollar invested in drinking water supply returns US$2. Yet 844 million of people still don’t have access to this vital resource.

Business must be part of the solution to the global WASH crisis; no one organisation or sector will be able to tackle it alone.

The global challenge and the role of business

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 is clean water and sanitation for all by 2030, and currently, the world is on course to fail to reach this. Good governance and partnerships are vital for progress.

Globalised operations and supply chains mean businesses are often operating where the lack of access to WASH is most serious. In a report released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, water is posed as both a risk and an opportunity for businesses. And while it commends the 47 companies that have committed to providing access to clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene to their employees, it calls on more to get on board.

Some companies are starting to recognise there are business benefits from investing in WASH, which go beyond the moral commitments of companies to invest and contribute to the human rights, health and safety of workers like Bina in the tea gardens.

Making the business case for WASH

However, one key problem is there is not enough company-level data to build a compelling case for business action on WASH. There is a growing body of positive case studies, but the evidence remains largely anecdotal and unquantified. To drive action at the speed required to reach everyone everywhere by 2030, the sector needs more robust evidence showing the financial value.

In response, WaterAid has launched a new guide, which has been championed by Diageo, Gap Inc. and Unilever, and endorsed by the initiative WASH4Work. The guide will help companies provide evidence of the benefits and financial value, or return on investment, of their WASH programmes, and make the case for greater investment in it within the company and beyond. It provides an opportunity for progressive companies to lead and showcase the incentives for business investment on these basic facilities whilst catalysing action.

It also responds to the growing need for the evidence that improving access to clean water, good sanitation and hygiene should be more than a philanthropic measure or means to tick a corporate social responsibility box; it should be a core business priority.

Diageo, Gap Inc., Unilever and HSBC are already leading the charge and investing in WASH. Diageo is rolling out the guide in Ethiopia, HSBC in India and Bangladesh. Gap Inc. is exploring current opportunities to test the guide in its supply chain as is Unilever.

The new guide launched at World Water Week in Stockholm this August and calls for companies to use the guide – test it, learn from it and share your results with us. We will be developing a community of learning via WASH4Work and we will plan to compile the data and share a consolidated business case in due course.

For real change to be made, more companies need to scale up their WASH investments in the workplace, communities and in supply chains.  Sustainability is no longer a fringe ‘green’ issue.

It has moved from the corporate margins into the mainstream, and it’s time for SDG thinking to be absorbed into business-as-usual. As far as citizens are concerned, waiting isn’t an option – nor is leaving SDGs for others to achieve.

The post Making the Case for Investing in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ruth Romer is Private Sector Advisor, WaterAid UK

The post Making the Case for Investing in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Andrew Stanbridge / Amnesty International

By Amnesty International
Aug 27 2018 (Amnesty International)

A blistering report released by the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) today brought yet more damning evidence of the Myanmar security forces’ atrocity crimes against the Rohingya and against ethnic minorities in northern Myanmar, Amnesty International said.

The FFM – a body of independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council – released its key findings and recommendations today in Geneva, with a more detailed report to follow in the coming weeks.

“This report, which adds to a mountain of evidence of crimes under international law committed by the military, shows the urgent need for independent criminal investigation and is clear that the Myanmar authorities are incapable of bringing to justice those responsible,” said Tirana Hassan, Director of Crisis Response at Amnesty International.

“The international community has the responsibility to act to ensure justice and accountability. Failing to do so sends a dangerous message that Myanmar’s military will not only enjoy impunity but is free to commit such atrocities again.

“The UN Security Council must refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court as a matter of urgency. Until it does, it’s vital that countries establish a mechanism through the UN to collect and preserve evidence for use in future criminal proceedings.”

Background

Ahead of the shameful one-year anniversary of the Myanmar military’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya in northern Rakhine State, Amnesty International slammed the international community’s failure to hold those responsible to account.

More than 700,000 Rohingya women, men, and children were forced to flee from northern Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh after 25 August 2017, when the Myanmar security forces launched a widespread and systematic assault on hundreds of Rohingya villages. The onslaught came in the wake of a series of attacks on security posts by a Rohingya armed group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

Amnesty International has documented extensively the military’s ethnic cleansing campaign, which included targeted burning of Rohingya villages, the use of landmines and the commission of crimes against humanity including murder, rape, torture, forced starvation and forced deportation as well as other serious human rights violations against the Rohingya.

Amnesty International has also documented war crimes and other human rights violations by the Myanmar Army against ethnic minorities in Kachin and northern Shan States, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced labour, the use of landmines, and indiscriminate shelling. Serious violations against civilians remain ongoing in northern Myanmar, amidst the armed conflicts that continue to rage.

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Secretary-General Kofi Annan (centre) addresses a Security Council Meeting on Iraq. 07 June 2004. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Ian Williams
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 2018 (IPS)

Looking at the deserved outpouring of eulogies over Kofi Annan I could not help remembering the advice of the old Latin saying, “Say nothing about the dead unless it’s good.”  

But one can’t help wishing that there had been more support of Kofi Annan when he was alive, not least when the Murdoch media Faux News fabricators persecuted him with the spurious Oil For Food scandal.

It was one of the greatest Fake News concoctions in history, almost up there with Iraqi WMDs, perhaps unsurprisingly since many of the sources for both were the same based on alleged UN corruption in the program that delivered food to Iraqi civilians in the face of US insistence on maintaining sanctions against the Iraqi regime.

They knew what they were doing: it was not just an individual they were slandering. Kofi Annan epitomized several facets of the role of a UN Secretary General, but none better than being an inspiring public face for the organization whose manifested dignity and integrity helped mitigate the sad reality of a body often hamstrung by the self-seeking sordid squabbles of its member states.

The attack was both an attempt to punish him for his temerity in saying that the Iraq war was illegal, and to challenge the prestige of the UN and the whole concept of international order.

The onslaught was all the heavier because they sought to demolish the reputation of someone who was the archetypal nice guy, who would have made a good electoral candidate. He remembered families and people, greeted everyone of all ranks affably and kept his cool.

The attack was both an attempt to punish him for his temerity in saying that the Iraq war was illegal, and to challenge the prestige of the UN and the whole concept of international order.

The only time I saw him lose his temper was when he reprimanded the juvenile behavior one of the Murdoch press corps who was baiting him about trivia associated with the Oil For Food scandal. Some of the correspondents were shocked that when this animal was attacked he fought back. Others welcomed the well-merited comeuppance.

His original election had come about against the background of the Balkan Wars and it must be remembered that it was the result of an American veto against the reappointment of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who suffered from a bipartisan alliance of Madeleine Albright and Republican Senator Jesse Helms, who were both incensed by the Secretary General’s refusal to bow to Washington.

Of course, that made Kofi Annan the American candidate, subject to some suspicion from other nations, and indeed his ideas of world governance and policy were not too far from the stated principles of the Clinton administration. However, as he was well aware, because an administration declared lofty ideals did not necessarily mean they would implement them in practice, and even more often they would  he was alive.

Boutros-Ghali was also posthumously the subject of eulogies from many who stayed silent when he was under attack, since he confronted the same quandary as Annan: how to cope with a US that wanted to treat the UN as, not just an instrument of foreign policy, but as a foil in domestic politics.

The White House wanted to make reassuring liberal noises about stopping atrocities to one wing of American politics, while promising the isolationist wing that it would trim spending on the UN and would not risk American lives to implement policies that the US supported.

At the time of Rwanda, that entailed a Presidential Directive from Clinton that was in essence more isolationist than anything most of the Republicans could dream up: that the US would veto any peacekeeping operation that did not directly benefit US foreign policy objective, which did not at the time seem to include the prevention of genocide, as untold thousands of Bosniaks and Rwandans discovered

It was at first unsure whether Kofi Annan’s years of service in the UN were an asset or a disadvantage, but it became clear how useful they were, since he knew just how the organization worked and was all too aware of the competing pressures on UN staff, not least the political pressures.

And among those pressures was the major one: how to accommodate the US, which was essential for the effective functioning of the organization, while preventing the organization from becoming a mere instrument of US policies often opposed by most of the members.

He was no mob orator. He was not cut out for the bully pulpit or the soapbox. When he was first elected, his advisors pushed him into being coached for public speaking but gave up and people realized that his quiet authority was in some ways more effective than soaring rhetoric and inspired but content-free demagoguery. People had to strain to listen to him – and they did, because what he had to say was worth listening to.

His statements were carefully weighed  before delivery and designedly non-provocative. They aspired to higher things, but they were definitive and authoritative, and usually soundly based both in ethics and his own pragmatic sense of what was possible. He was an accomplished tightrope walker, even he was wobbling by the end, since while most of the member states recognized the competing imperatives. American administrations, of all complexions have a notorious lack of empathy for other agendas beyond the re-election of the President.

People sometimes say that he was not outspoken enough, not loud enough, but that was actually a strength. When he spoke, it was not just a trite soundbite, he said what had to be said even it was sometimes unpopular.

When he came back from negotiating with Saddam Hussein and said it was a testament to the efficacy of diplomacy, not enough people listened to his corollary – when backed with the threat of force.

His other breakthrough was teamwork. He had risen through the UN ranks without acquiring the pompous self-importance of many promoted above their capabilities and assembled an articulate and confident team who could push out the envelope on events and say what needed to be said, without implicating him directly.

One of his landmark changes to UN culture was to open up a degree of transparency: Before only designated spokespeople were allowed to talk to the media but he mandated staff to respond to journalists’ enquiries as long as they did not purport to represent the organization’s views.

That posture of dignity allowed him to steer the landmark Responsibility to Protect resolution through the sixtieth anniversary summit and it is still a landmark even if many of those who did not have the political courage to oppose him and it at the Summit have done so much to frustrate it since. It allowed him to rally support for an ambitions world development agenda backed by a wide spectrum of disparate constituencies.

All idols have feet of clay, but for some the mud goes much higher than others. No one is perfect, high office demands compromises for practical achievements to win allies and majorities. But in office, on development goals, poverty, human rights, gender equality, Rwanda, Cyprus and many other issues, he advanced the UN agenda even as he rewrote it.

After leaving the UN he continued to do so, with the Elders and his own foundation. He was no mere bureaucrat, he was not after the big desk and the title, he wanted to contribute to the world and thought the SG’s office was the best place to do so.

His legacy  will survives for sometime, but one must wonder how he would have coped with the present President who unlike Clinton is unable to betray his principles, since he does not seem to have any.

But it is perhaps not too late for the present Secretary General to study and emulate Kofi’s tradition of quietly but prominently presenting himself on behalf of the organization, and the team work that made it possible.

Ian Williams is also a senior analyst who has written for newspapers and magazines around the world, including the Australian, The Independent, New York Observer, The Financial Times and The Guardian.

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Excerpt:

Ian Williams is a former President of the UN Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) and author of UNtold: The Real Story of the United Nations in Peace and War

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A Rohingya refugee finds an enterprising way to carry his belongings. PHOTO: NAYANA BOSE/ISCG

By Sumbul Rizvi
Aug 27 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

It is a tented city of nearly a million souls crammed in just 26sq km of undulating terrain. Plastic and bamboo sanctuaries perched upon clay mounds flap in the wind, succouring the hapless Rohingyas who fled horrific violence in Rakhine. Shrubs and trees gave way to settlements in Ukhiya and Teknaf Upazilas in the southernmost district of Bangladesh sitting on the edge of the tumultuous Bay of Bengal.

As the monsoons descended, rainfall triggered mudslides and floods as the soft clay collapsed in heaps, bringing down some of the flimsiest shelters that form the world’s largest refugee camp—Kutupalong/KTP, or more popularly, the Mega Camp. In addition, smaller camps dot the southern tip of Teknaf between the Naf River flowing down in muddy torrents from the Arakan mountains. For a layperson, the sight of the camps in the monsoons is chilling, though experienced humanitarians will appreciate the massive effort it took to create this landscape. The UN Secretary General António Guterres has poignantly captured both sentiments when he called it “a miracle—on the edge.” Closely monitoring the Bangladesh Meteorological Department reports, we pray for the weather to be kind. While record-breaking rainfall has lashed the camps, the wind factor has been limited, though for how long? September storms and the October-November cyclone season are still to come—a daunting reality in the absence of cyclone shelters in the area.

Until it holds, the bit-by-bit efforts of building mud-track roads and bridges, digging drains, culverts and water channels, strengthening clay slopes with bamboo and sandbags have ensured some safety in a fragile environment. Shelter upgrade kits comprising ropes, bamboo and tools have been widely distributed to strengthen fragile homes. Efforts to improve safety continue, including through the Ministry of Disaster Management and Response-led Cyclone Preparedness Programme and its volunteers, training refugees on disaster response. Relocation of those at high risk continues as camps become more congested; vulnerable families uprooted from their homes and communities agonise about moving “yet again” away from their neighbours and village folk. Convincing the families of the risks of being on a 40-degree mud slope or at its bottom—sure to flood—challenges the persistent community volunteers. Latrines and water points jostle for space and, during heavy rains, merge into the other. The risk of disease is high and breaths are drawn as frequent water contamination tests determine results.

Amelioration

Amidst shoring up to survive an “emergency within an emergency”, little boys and girls play with their multi-coloured wrist strips attached to identify them in case of family-separation in a disaster. None of the prevention work would be enough on its own: in an emergency situation, it is the inspiring commitment demonstrated by government-assigned camp officials, military, United Nations staff, national and international NGOs and refugee volunteers who unhesitatingly wade through thigh-deep mud and slush to assess damage or conduct repairs even though it is pouring—this camaraderie has prevented casualties, helped move families to safety, repaired roads and bamboo bridges, as all joined hands with site maintenance teams to fix damage as rapidly as humanly possible so that the majority of refugees could retain access to food distribution and safer shelters.

Having worked for over three decades with forcibly displaced persons, I have rarely seen a refugee population as maligned and downtrodden, yet I am repeatedly amazed by their spirit. The Rohingyas, young and old, women and men, display an inner strength. Generations of statelessness and persecution have left them proudly resilient. They have so little, yet remain community-oriented. I can now begin to comprehend how orphaned children, single women, as well as injured and disabled individuals, all managed to flee from Rakhine. An overwhelming 80 percent of refugees in the camps are women and children who are eager and impatient for opportunities to live a full life. The vulnerability of this population is astounding—as is their tenacity. They manage to survive as community networks in the camps are strong, staying together, sharing and working hard. Their spirit is the backbone of this response.

Regional context

South Asia is not new to refugees. None of the states have signed the Refugee Convention, yet a strong tradition of asylum endures. The 1947 partition of India resulted in over 14 million people uprooted in the most violent manner. They could have become refugees overnight in the new dominions of India and Pakistan, if both states had not immediately absorbed them. The liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 displaced an estimated 10 million refugees to India. Like most refugees, nearly all chose to return to their liberated homeland once Bangladesh was created. It is perhaps this memory that guides the generosity of spirit in Bangladesh, despite its own constraints of population density and natural disasters.

Fulfilling basic needs

One year ago, the most recent influx of the Rohingyas began. They fled to Bangladesh at a staggering pace; some 500,000 refugees arrived within the first month. Undoubtedly, the main responder and largest donor have been the government and people of Bangladesh as the local community opened their homes and hearts. The world community has notably stood alongside Bangladesh, as evidenced by the rapid international response to the influx. Now, one year on, as the generosity of the local community risks being outpaced by the sheer scale of needs, the international community needs to continue their partnership and to walk the talk.

The Joint Response Plan (JRP) launched in March 2018 is a prioritised appeal for USD 951 million to assist 1.3 million individuals including 884,000 Rohingyas and 336,000 affected Bangladeshis. The JRP is just about one-third funded, at 34 percent. Urgent funding is critically required to meet life-saving humanitarian needs. More than half the appeal (54 percent) is for food, water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter and non-food items combined. Food alone is 25 percent of the overall appeal while just 18 percent of food security needs are funded. Some 850,000 refugees require food rations monthly; health care, both psychosocial and physical, as well as other basics for sustainable human life are needed. Camps remain dangerously congested, and most refugees lack adequate shelter from high winds and heavy rains. Children have lacked education for years: in Rakhine, they were denied, now we need funds and access to quality education to prevent a generation of lost children.

Protection needs are significant and the impacts of funding gaps are alarming. Through no fault of their own, the Rohingyas have been forced into near-complete dependency on aid compelled by inadequate attention to self-reliance initiatives. Humanitarian responders have maximised their available resources to the extent possible, but the needs far outweigh existing capacity. Important projects remain pending and the expanse of protection activities remains limited. Multiple government departments have stretched themselves in addressing the needs of not only an underdeveloped part of the country but of a million more in an area lacking previous infrastructure. Admirable progress is being made, however, including rapid establishment of governance systems marking the assertion of state authority through Camp-in-Charge officials and the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner expanding their previous ambit.

Much is being achieved through fostering the innate strength of the Rohingya community, keen to overcome the traumas that forced their escape. This work is done every day by individuals in women’s groups, child-friendly spaces, as well as elderly and disabled support networks. This work is also done through more systemic changes, such as restructuring how camp representatives are elected to provide equal opportunity to the majority female population to contribute to social cohesion. But more is needed to support and mutually sustain a protection-sensitive environment.

What now?

The Rohingya crisis is the most globally compelling refugee situation in terms of the numbers of people affected. These numbers are exacerbated by location, terrain and climate, adding to the complexity of the response. The historic joint visit of the UN Secretary General and the World Bank President to Cox’s Bazar in July underscored the need for collaborative humanitarian and development action. Given remarkably early on in the crisis, the World Bank Refugee Grant to Bangladesh demonstrates the flexibility of an international community in addressing an unusual situation. The nimble response by the Asian Development Bank also echoes a similar approach. Quick and visible implementation is critical.

One year on, as we await improvements in Rakhine, one that will allow for a voluntary repatriation process, the here-and-now is more imminent. Will we continue to manage the situation as we have this past year? Or will we seize the initiative? Can we turn around a seemingly confounding situation to mutual advantage for both refugees and the local population? A well-planned common vision can boost an underdeveloped district in a country already on the fast path to growth, one that facilitates access to opportunities for both refugees and local communities alike. Plans are being tested in Cox’s Bazar to merge development opportunities with humanitarian work. These plans must deliver for the sake of the Rohingyas and for Bangladesh—a country that has bucked the global trend by demonstrating humanity in action. Their courageous leadership deserves all our support.

Sumbul Rizvi is Senior Coordinator of the Rohingya Refugee Response in Cox’s Bazar.

The post The Rohingya influx: One year on appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
DUBAI, Aug 27 2018 (WAM)

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has launched a digital campaign that aims to secure much-needed support for millions of displaced Syrian children, both inside Syria and in neighboring countries. The campaign, which comes at a time when students around the world are preparing for the new academic year, aims to help millions of school-aged Syrians access education and to go back to school.

According to UN reports, one out of every three schools in Syria has been damaged or destroyed, while more are used as a shelters or for other purposes, thus creating a major impediment for more than 2 million children’s access to education within the country. In neighboring countries, the situation is equally troubling as increasing poverty and debt among refugees has prevented some 700,000 Syrian children from attending school.

One out of every three schools in Syria has been damaged or destroyed, while more are used as a shelters or for other purposes, thus creating a major impediment for more than 2 million children’s access to education within the country

Noting the importance of access to education for displaced children, Houssam Chahine, Head of Private Sector Partnerships in the Middle East and North Africa region at UNHCR, commented, “As parents and caregivers in the region prepare their children to return to school, we hope that children who have been deprived of their basic right to education remain in their thoughts. We believe that we can all ensure that they do not lose out on their education.”

The humanitarian crisis in Syria, now in its eighth year, has resulted in multiple challenges for Syrian children, particularly with regards to access to education which directly impacts future. Conflict, harsh conditions and limited financial resources have deprived almost 3 million Syrian school-age children of education, including inside Syria and neighboring countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

“Supporting education is one of UNHCR’s most important priorities – it is an invaluable investment in the future of refugee and displaced children as well as a key form of psycho-social protection. Education protects displaced families and children from having to resort to negative coping mechanisms such as child labor, early marriage, among others”.

UNHCR and its partners have been providing education to refugees and displaced persons since the onset of the humanitarian crisis in Syria. This has been achieved by focusing on three key aspects: access to education, improving the quality of education and strengthening educational systems. Through this campaign, UNHCR seeks to complement its efforts to ensure the rehabilitation of schools, training of teachers and the provision of resources to displaced and refugee families to ensure education for millions of children.

WAM/مبارك خميس/Esraa Ismail

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By WAM
DUBAI, Aug 26 2018 (WAM)

The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, MOCCAE, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, on Sunday, with Etihad Energy Services Company, to bolster the principles of sustainability in the public and private sectors.

In the presence of Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, the MoU was signed by Saif Mohamed AlShara, MOCCAE’s Assistant Under-Secretary for the Sustainable Communities Sector, and Ali Mohammed Al Jassim, Etihad ESCO’s CEO.

Under the MoU, the parties seek to encourage the principle of cooperation on the consolidation of sustainability principles in the public and private sectors by exchanging knowledge and experiences on global best practices in sustainability, as well as raising awareness of successful business practices.

Commenting on the signing, AlShara said that the MoU comes in line with the joint commitment of both sides to achieve the vision of the UAE 2021 and to implement the UAE Green Agenda 2030.

“In accordance with the directives of our visionary leadership, MOCCAE is keen to promoting partnerships and cooperation on integrating sustainability in the public and private sectors. The ministry also seeks to involve UAE businesses in the diverse supply chain of financial institutions and technology service providers across the enterprise development stages,” AlShara added.

In turn, Al Jassim said, “We are keen to implement green projects in partnership with the MOCCAE and cooperate with them to achieve the UAE Sustainability vision of 2030 and in the implementation of the government directives.

MOCCAE and Etihad ESCO aim to identify the key elements of success and enhance mechanisms of data collection and information exchange in climate change and green development. They also aim to promote partnerships in the creation and application of innovative and sustainable solutions for the conservation of natural and environmental resources, and the ensuring coherence and planning between strategies and policies with regards to sustainability.

Both sides also agreed to prepare sustainability-related documents and reports to raise the level of stakeholders’ scientific knowledge on various environmental issues and support national and global partnerships to develop innovative and intelligent industry related to climate change and green development.

WAM/سالمة الشامسي/Rola Alghoul/Tariq alfaham

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Mother Teresa at Mji wa Huruma Elders' Home when she visited Nairobi in August 1981. Photo courtesy: The Standard.

By Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Aug 26 2018 (IPS)

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”   This profound statement was made by the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, who was born on this day, August 26, 1910. An icon of love, tolerance, generosity and tremendous integrity and spirituality.

Recently, Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in America’s National Catholic Register: “The reason the church names anger as one of the ‘seven deadly sins’ is because it’s simultaneously so poisonous, so delicious and so addictive. Anger congeals quite comfortably into hatred.”

Where ideas used to take years – and sometimes centuries – to spread around the globe, they now do so in seconds, thanks to the new communication technologies. While this is a force for good in countless ways, it has also facilitated and strengthened the rise of movements that are based on hatred rooted not in nation or state identity, but in extremist ideologies based on rancorous opposition to a particular faith or race, sexual orientation or to liberal democracy in general.

Across the world, politics of division and rhetoric of intolerance are targeting gender, racial, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, and migrants and refugees. From anti-Semitism to attacks on hijab-wearing women, racism to sexual assault, we are witnessing what words of fear and loathing can do, and the damaging consequences.

If we need proof that it often takes surprisingly what seems like simple gestures to reduce the levels of polarising animus in society, we only need to look at how the ‘handshake’ between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Honourable Raila Odinga has brought political reconciliation to levels that nobody would have predicted.

A handshake says a thousand words- President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader, Hon Raila Odinga at Harambee House on March 9, 2018. /Jack Owuor.

From just under a year ago, when political partisanship gridlocked this country and seemed destined to polarize Kenyans, we are now witnessing an important and urgent discourse on vital issues such as the fight against corruption.

These are hopeful signs; this is a demonstration of true leadership.  One must not, however, underestimate the challenge of combating hatred. If hatred is an epidemic, then we need to treat it as such and plan to contain and reverse it.  

So, what is the antidote to the rise of chauvinism, xenophobia, racism, bigotry and misogyny?

The human spirit is strong, and never stronger than when joining forces for justice. Around the world hatred has been met with purposeful love, and with actions engineered to counter the hatred. From the Women’s March in the United States to demonstrations against discrimination in many European countries, people have joined hands to fight hatred and discrimination.

First, incendiary speeches driving bigotry against any group based on religion, race, gender or sexuality must be reined in.

Second, citizens standing up against hate must continue to use and expand all available avenues to engage with others across the world who share their concerns and bolster their ability to affect change.

Third, meaningful change often comes from the bottom up, thus citizens must be educated on how they can change their leadership by voting with their conscience –in national, state, municipal and civic body elections.

Fourth, it is the duty of elected officials to reflect the will of the electorate. They must therefore support their citizens with actions and not merely words in the pursuit of social justice.

Fifth, the voices of moral and thought leaders from around the world who espouse tolerance must be amplified. The lessons of acceptance and mutual respect and equality must be heard, especially by the young, because if we teach them that it is unacceptable to hate and that it is their responsibility to speak up or stop hatred from spreading, we have the odds in favour of justice prevailing in the future.

To Kenya’s advantage, the growth of social media as an established influential platform used ubiquitously by the youth could be a persuasive avenue for mobilising them against all forms of intolerance.

There is a chance to change the world here – to counter hatred with love, anger with joy, and bigotry with acceptance – but it requires the deliberate coming together of concerned people around the world. It requires the understanding that, despite our different realities, we have common hopes for ourselves and for our children, as well as common destinies.

The UN Secretary General, Mr. Antonio Guterres has said, “Diversity enriches us.  But if we want diversity to be a success, we need to invest in social cohesion.”

Despite the forces of pessimism that have at times painted a picture of gloom, I am convinced that Kenya can harness the reality of a shared humanity, that they can overcome the fraying forces and bridge the chasms that nurture intolerance. And serve as a beacon of hope for the world.

That would be a real tribute to the memory of Mother Teresa.

The post Shared Humanity our Only Hope Against Hatred appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya and was born in the city that was Mother Teresa’s home- Calcutta, India.

The post Shared Humanity our Only Hope Against Hatred appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Aid agencies have only received a third of the USD 951 million needed to support nearly a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh through year end. Photo: Muse Mohammed / IOM 2018

By International Organization for Migration
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Aug 24 2018 (IOM)

One year into a crisis that has seen over 700,000 refugees escape violence in Myanmar by fleeing into Bangladesh, the Rohingya once more stand on the verge of another disaster if more funding for the humanitarian response cannot be secured.

The immense efforts of the UN Migration Agency (IOM) and its partners to support the Government of Bangladesh in the humanitarian response since the influx began a year ago are evident across what has become the largest refugee settlement in the world.

Almost a million Rohingya now live in Cox’s Bazar. From the early days of the crisis when thousands were crossing the border daily, sleeping under open skies, many injured and on the brink of starvation, conditions on the ground have improved immeasurably. All the refugees now have access to basic shelter, food and healthcare.

Intensive cooperative efforts to avert landslides – including work to prevent soil erosion, preparing ground to make it flatter and safer, emergency response planning, awareness raising and the relocation of more than 24,000 people most at risk – mean major tragedies have so far been avoided in the camps, despite the dangerous topography and extreme weather conditions.

But that does not mean danger has passed. Another cyclone season looms at the end of September and severe funding shortages threaten the delivery of vital services.

“The achievements of the past year have been remarkable,” said Giorgi Gigauri, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Bangladesh. “This was the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world and the challenges have been immense. Countless lives have been saved thanks to the generosity of the Government of Bangladesh, the local community and donors, and the hard work of all those involved in the humanitarian response. But we now face the very real threat that if more funding is not urgently secured, lives will once again be at risk.”

Over 212,000 families – almost the entire refugee population – have now received shelter upgrade materials, with IOM providing shelter assistance to over 120,000 households.  Work is also ongoing to increase access to clean water and improve sanitation. IOM Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) teams have completed over 330 deep tube wells in the camps, with dozens more currently being installed.

Protection services are integral part of IOM’s response and over 23,000 extremely vulnerable people with protection needs have been identified since the crisis began. As lead agency in the fight against human trafficking in the camps, IOM is working with authorities and communities to tackle this growing threat to the refugee population.

Meeting the needs of the host community, which has also been impacted by the crisis, has also been central to the response. IOM is working with partner agencies on a range of longer-term initiatives to address environmental damage through alternative fuel provision, as well as reforestation projects that can provide work opportunities. Local farmers are being supported with machinery and seeds to help boost food production.

But as of now, the overall humanitarian response has just one third of the funding that it needs to see it through the end of the year.

“IOM medical staff this month logged half a million consultations since this crisis began. That shows you the level of need we are facing. But the stark reality is that without more support, such services are under threat,” said Gigauri.

“That will not just impact on those who need immediate medical treatment, but also on public health measures such as vaccination and outreach, without which the risk of large scale disease outbreaks will increase dramatically. Meanwhile, maintaining drainage and emptying latrines costs money. Without this we will see overflows leading to water contamination and the spread of disease.”

Gigauri stressed that in a humanitarian response of this scale, restrictions or cut backs to any one service would have a knock-on impact on the wider response.

“We must not underestimate the dangers the Rohingya refugees still face. One year on from the start of the crisis, they must not be forgotten,” he said. “These people have survived almost unimaginable suffering. The international community must not now turn its back and allow the Rohingya to be plunged into yet another tragedy.”

For more information please contact Fiona MacGregor at IOM Cox’s Bazar, Tel. 88 0 1733 335221, Email: fmacgregor@iom.int

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Journalists covering the arrival of delegations to address the General Assembly’s seventy-second general debate. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

By Carmen Arroyo and Emily Thampoe
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 24 2018 (IPS)

The United Nation’s Department of Public Information (DPI) last week withdrew UN press credentials from Matthew Lee, a longstanding journalist who reported for his blog, Inner City Press (ICP).

Although UN officials have argued that the reason for the withdrawal was his lack of adherence to guidelines every reporter has to follow for UN coverage, Lee’s accreditation predicament is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Throughout a running battle leading to his ban, he has argued he did not have the opportunity to be heard.  “This is a new low for the UN: no due process for journalists, no freedom of the press,” he told IPS.

Lee is perhaps only the third journalist to be banned from the UN, the other two being barred in the 1970s, one of them for harassing colleagues, and the other losing his credentials when Taiwan lost its UN membership to the People’s Republic of China in 1971, according to a veteran UN correspondent who has been covering the world body for over four decades.

Since his beginnings as a UN correspondent over 10 years ago, Lee has been known for asking thought-provoking questions during daily briefings and at press stakeouts. He has reported on global conflicts such as those in Sri Lanka, Congo, Somalia, and others, as well as news coverage within the UN.

For many people who worked within the UN framework, and even those who were simply fascinated by the unfolding events in the world body, Lee’s blog posts have been well-read and well-received, for the most part.

However, the incidents with Lee started back in 2012, when he was warned by the DPI to treat his fellow journalists with respect. At that time, nothing was done to affect his access to meetings and to his physical presence in the UN premises.

"Even if Lee was technically in violation of the UN's rules for non-resident correspondents, there was no reason for UN security guards to grab him and forcibly escort him out of the building, ripping his shirt in the process. It is never appropriate for security guards to use force against journalists."

Two years ago, things changed: he was in an interpreter’s booth recording a closed-door meeting of UN correspondents, without their consent. Then, DPI’s Media and Liaison Unit (MALU) made the decision to downgrade his accreditation from “resident correspondent” to “non-resident correspondent”, which means he was deprived of his own office space, barred from going to the UN on weekends and prevented from staying late hours and restricted from some areas in the building.

Although Lee believes this was “bogus reason” for the treatment he received, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary General, told IPS: “Matthew has come up with his own version on his website. But in that case I know to be true what I saw with my eyes”.

Despite the downgrading of his credentials, Lee continued reporting and asking abrasive questions during the noon press briefings.

Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary General, along with the UN officer that had to deal with Lee’s questioning, has constantly repeated that they had no problem with his reporting, but with his behavior. It seemed that the change in his accreditation pass had no effect. “After that, the problems with his behavior did not subside”, said Haq.

On June 22nd, Lee had to be removed from the UN premises as he stayed long after his accreditation permitted him, and on July 3rd, he was similarly found long after 9 pm within a restricted area of the complex. UN Security removed him from the premises, but he apparently resisted.

According to Lee, that was an invalid reason, since he can cover specific meetings past 7 pm but UN representatives insist this situation was in breach of the UN press guidelines. UN Security grabbed Lee, who resisted, escorted him forcefully to the exit, ripping his shirt in the process. Lee also claims his laptop was damaged and his arm twisted by a UN security officer.

After that incident, his press accreditation was put under review and he was temporarily banned from UN headquarters. Many sympathized with him.

Peter Sterne, senior reporter at Freedom of the Press Foundation and managing editor of the US Press Freedom Tracker, told IPS: “Even if Lee was technically in violation of the UN’s rules for non-resident correspondents, there was no reason for UN security guards to grab him and forcibly escort him out of the building, ripping his shirt in the process. It is never appropriate for security guards to use force against journalists.”

Since that day, Lee has defiantly continued working outside the UN premises, with interviews being conducted in the sidewalks, with delegates and other officials on their way in or out of the building.

He also sends emails on a daily basis to the Office of the Spokesperson. His questions include policy matters, his suspension, and other issues.

On August 17, his press accreditation was permanently withdrawn, banning him from UN premises, and detailed in a four-page letter sent by Alison Smale, Under Secretary General for Global Communications.

Smale explained the reasons behind Lee’s pass withdrawal.

Four mis-behaviours stood out: staying inside the complex past the hours he was allowed to, going to areas he was not supposed to be in, questionable behavior towards delegates and fellow journalists, “including videos/live broadcasts using profanities and derogatory assertions towards them without due regard to their dignity, privacy and integrity”.

In an interview with IPS, Haq said: “Of course, we respect his press rights, but we also want to respect other’s press rights. And some journalists feel their press rights have been impeded by his actions.”

At the noon press briefing on August 20, in the latest development in the ongoing saga, Dujarric was asked about Lee’s expulsion.

“Mr. Lee’s accreditation was — as a correspondent here – was revoked due to repeated incidents having to do with behaviour, with violation – violating the rules that all of you sign on to and accept when you receive your accreditation, rules that are, by far, self-policing.  We trust journalists to respect the rules.  The rules are clear, and they’re transparent.”

He added: “The removal of his accreditation had nothing to do with the content of his writing. The allegations include recording people without their consent, being found in the garage ramp late at night, using abusive and derogatory language towards people.”

On the same day, Lee shared with IPS his thoughts over Dujarric’s responses: “What he said today in the briefing makes it clear how little a case the UN has – I was in a garage? When? If so, my non resident correspondent pass worked to get there. ”

However, Haq told IPS: “The fact is that what we’ve been able to see is that he has a track record of different types of behavior that impede the activities of other journalists and members of member states, and he has created difficulties with security”.

He went on by stating: “I know for a fact that he has his own version of these events, but we have security records and cameras that do not coincide with his version of events”.

But Lee believes there is a conspiracy from the top of the United Nations to keep him silent: “They dug up everything they could, a real hit job, which I’m told comes right from the top: Guterres, who didn’t like my questions and writing that he was weak on the killings in Cameroon because he needed or wanted the support of the chair of the UN budget committee, Cameroon’s ambassador Tommo Monthe.”

Accusing the UN of conspiring against him, Lee said: “I am not going to allow Antonio Guterres, Alison Smale and Dujarric to prevent me from covering the UN. This is a shameful period for the UN, and I don’t intend to stop”, he claimed.

“I think large institutions like the UN need to be held accountable, including by journalists who daily ask them questions using information from those impacted (and sometimes injured) by the institutions.”

He added:  “This explains the approach I take with my reporting and I think it is appropriate and needed and that the UN has no right to try to hinder or prevent it.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with IPS, a veteran journalist in the UN press corps, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:  “Coverage of the United Nations is very important for the peoples of the world and the organization must facilitate journalists to do their job. After all, the UN is a tax-payer funded organization and its activities should be open and transparent.”

“But some rules have been devised, in consultations with the United Nations Correspondents’ Association (UNCA), the representative body of journalists, for orderly coverage of events.”

It is important to note, he said, that Lee is not a member of UNCA, and he has consistently criticized it. The veteran journalist went on: “There are do’s and don’ts for correspondents — for instance, journalists trying to get into closed-door or restricted meetings will be stopped. The elected president of UNCA will always put the first question at press conferences/news briefings. Journalists should not make statements, just ask questions, etc.”

Lee has not been the first journalist to be denied press accreditation, he pointed out. On the contrary, there have been more than two previous cases.

The veteran correspondent recalled that in the late 1970s, a journalist called Judy Joy sued UNCA for alleged irregularities in handling its funds. After a long and arduous process, UNCA was cleared of any mishandling but the association was left bankrupt due to lawyer fees.

Joy was not satisfied, and she said that the then UNCA president had threatened her for going to court, so the police picked up the president from his apartment early in the morning. But the case was proved bogus, as the president completely denied talking with Joy and she lacked any evidence. After that, the UN correspondents asked the UN to expel her to prevent her from further harassing her fellow journalists.

Another case he recalls was a political one: “After China’s entry to the UN in 1971, Beijing demanded the expulsion of Taiwan’s correspondent at the UN as its push for recognition of its goal of one China. Some western journalist protested, but the UN couldn’t do anything as it was also the demand of majority of member states.”

Other UN sources have mentioned another case during their time at the headquarters, in which a reporter’s accreditation was withdrawn for misbehaviors.

Nevertheless, Lee’s questions, directed to the Spokesperson’s Office, have been answered via email since he was expelled from the complex.

Haq explained: ““He sends us questions by email and we try to get them answered as best as we can. And we’ll keep doing that regardless where he is.”

However, Lee insisted: “Today’s UN is so corrupt they just look for a pretext to throw a critical journalist out. For life.”

The post Lee, Journalist Banned from UN for Misconduct, Plans to Fight Back appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
VIENNA, Aug 24 2018 (WAM)

The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has signed public sector loan agreements with Cote d’Ivoire and Malawi to help boost socio-economic development and living standards.

The agreements, totaling US$34 million, were signed by OFID Director-General Suleiman J Al-Herbish and Roger A Kacou, Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire to Austria, and Michael B Kamphambe Nkhoma, Ambassador of Malawi to Germany, OFID said in a statement.

Al-Herbish said the loan represented OFID’s third involvement in helping strengthen the country’s water sector, which supports the government’s 2016-2022 Growth and Development Strategy with the view to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth and infrastructure development.

WAM/Hatem Mohamed

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The enforcement of the online content regulations has scared people from stating their opinions online in Tanzania. Credit: Erick Kabendera/IPS

By Erick Kabendera
DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 24 2018 (IPS)

JamiiForums was Tanzania’s largest whistleblowing online platform, with one million visitors each day. But now some 90 percent of staff has been retrenched and the owners are considering shutting down their offices since the June implementation of the country’s online content communication law.

Across this East African nation, social commentators and celebrities have shut down their blogs as many cannot afford the hundreds of dollars required in licence fees to register them. And internet cafes may start closing down too as the new law requires them to install expensive security cameras.

A once-famous blogger in Dar es Salaam tells IPS he was forced to close down his blog because he couldn’t afford paying USD 900 in licence fees to register it in compliance with the new regulation.

A minimum jail sentence of 12 months

In June many bloggers and content providers were contacted by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and asked to immediately shut down their services and apply for a license within four days.

It was the beginning of the enforcement of the country’s Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations 2017. Civil society and digital rights activists have condemned the regulations as draconian.

This is what the law states:

• All blogs, online forums, content hosts and content producers must register online and pay licence fees of up to USD 900;
• Internet cafes must install surveillance cameras to monitor people online;
• Material deemed “offensive, morally improper” or that “causes annoyance,” is prohibited and a minimum fine of USD2,230 or 12 months in jail as a minimum sentence is recommended for anyone found guilty;
• Social media comments are even subject to the new regulations.

The regulation, however, doesn’t provide a maximum jail term, meaning a magistrate could send an offender to prison for an indeterminate period of time.

Terrified of saying something wrong online

The source, who wished to remain anonymous, tells IPS that other bloggers he met in recent weeks who have paid the licence fees and registered with the TCRA have complained that they are registering a low number of visitors to their blogs. In addition, visitors have stopped leaving comments as they are afraid of being arrested and taken to court.

“The ordinary people are scared to make comments on blog posts. They are scared because a single post could either land a blogger or their followers in the hands of authorities,” Maxence Melo, one of the founders of JamiiForums, tells IPS. He adds that authorities are focused on implementing the law but have not educated bloggers about what is deemed “offensive, morally improper” or “causes annoyance”.

In addition, people can be charged for not having passwords on their computers, laptops and smartphones.

A senior government attorney tells IPS on the condition of anonymity, because he wasn’t authorised to speak on the matter, that this act will be used against people who post defamatory content or hate porn online but claim that a third party had access to their mobile phone or devices and posted the content without their consent.

Since the June implementation of the act, the impact has been far-reaching across the country.

The owner of a famous internet café in Tanzania’s commercial capital says he has at least 50 customers a day but he wasn’t aware of the new requirement for internet café operators to install CCTV cameras on their premises.

He tells IPS that one hour of computer use costs 35US cents, which is not enough to sustain his business. So he supplements this with a stationary business in the cafe.

“Installing CCTV cameras would cost about USD500, which is a lot for a small business like mine. So if the authorities come and ask me to do it, I will have to shut down the business,” he tells IPS, requesting to remain anonymous.

A challenge to Tanzania’s freedom of expression

These regulations together with other laws aimed at curtailing freedom of expression and press freedom are one of the reasons for Tanzania’s poor performance in the latest Freedom Index rankings. The country ranks 93 out of 180 countries across the globe.

There is also the Cyber Crime Act, which can be used to arrest dissenting journalists and citizens and the Statistics Act, which limits the publication of data to the government’s Bureau of Statistics. Both acts were passed before the 2015 elections and activists are worried that worse is yet to come as the country prepares for the 2019 local governments elections and the 2020 general elections.

Rugemeleza Nshala, a prominent Tanzanian lawyer, tells IPS that freedom of expression is facing the biggest challenge in recent times here.

“We have reached a point where former Ugandan president Idi Amin’s famous quote when he said ‘there is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech’ is becoming relevant in Tanzania.

“Newspapers are shutdown unconstitutionally, and citizens criticising the president are arrested and magistrates, who want to please the president, jail suspects without hesitation,” Nshala tells IPS.

Last year alone, three newspapers were suspended:

• In June 2017, the Tanzania Information Services banned a weekly Swahili newspaper Raia Mwema for 90 days after it had published a story claiming that president John Magufuli would fail in his job as president;
• In September 2017, another weekly newspaper, MwanaHalisi, was suspended for 24 months;
• In June 2017, the Mawio newspaper was also banned for 24 months.

Nshala says that enforcement of the online content regulations has scared people from giving their opinion openly according to Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, which grants citizens freedom of expression and opinion without interference.

And it seems that for now the online content laws have succeed in squashing the voice of JamiiForums.

Melo says that the impact of the country’s new online content law, together with three cases JamiiForums is facing in court—which has resulted in them appearing 122 time in court over the last two years—has made them retrench 64 employees. They have only eight now, and are considering closing down their physical offices.

In the past JamiiForums has been threatened and forced to share user data with the regulator or the police. In one incident, the TCRA forced them to reveal the identity of users who had leaked details of mass corruption in the country’s biggest port and the case has been pending since 2016.

That case, together with two other lawsuits that are pending against JamiiForums, made Melo cautious when the TCRA wrote requiring blogs to shut down before applying for a licence. Melo and his team decided to voluntarily shut down their website for 21 days and registered within four days. They have since had an opportunity to sit down with the regulator to express their concerns about the new law.

“We were concerned with sections of the law, which gives content providers only 12 hours to remove content deemed inappropriate from online. In one case, the regulator had submitted a letter to us at 5 pm asking us to take down content failing to do so could result in us ending up in court. The law doesn’t give us a room to consult with the source of information and your lawyers before removing the content,” Melo tells IPS.

Maria Sarungi, director of the social media citizen movement Tsehai, the Change Tanzania, tells IPS that prior to the enforcement of the regulations, the ability to freely post content online had liberated the media industry.

“Some online TV [platforms] such as Millard Ayo started off as bloggers and have grown into full-fledged media houses because of the [former] liberal policies for online content,” Sarungi says.

Uganda just as repressive

However, Tanzania isn’t alone in establishing such repressive legislation against freedom of expression. Its neighbour Uganda introduced a daily fee of USD0.5 to anyone accessing social media after its president Yoweri Museveni had suggested the introduction of the law to curb online gossiping.

However, activists and lawyers have challenged the law in court. Uganda’s Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said in parliament on Jul. 11 that the government was in the process of reviewing the tax, which is commonly referred to as the “gossip tax”.

Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan blogger, says despite many young urban Ugandans using virtual private networks to avoid their location being detected and to bypass the tax, recent statistics show that Facebook usage went down by 75 percent in the first weeks.

She further says that apart from limiting access to information and freedom of expression, the tax has prevented young unemployed Ugandans from getting online in search of employment. In addition, small enterprises that have their base on social media have declined.

“Besides limiting access to information and expression, this tax is economically punishing the poor. Recent pressure against the legislation has seen the government come up with amendments but the fees (including the mobile money transfer tax) are anti-freedom of expression and hinder digital inclusion,” Kagumire tells IPS.

In Tanzania, for Nshala, it is not all doom and gloom.

He says the constitution gives final say to citizens about how they want the government to be governed and therefore citizens have to stand firm to protect the country’s democracy. He finally says political leaders must understand that they are servants of people and have to accept criticisms.

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The post When Being ‘Offensive’ or ‘Morally Improper’ Online Carries an Indeterminate Jail Sentence in East Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The post The Fight for the Right to Abortion Spreads in Latin America Despite Politicians appeared first on Inter Press Service.

IOM is supporting the relocation of Venezuelans from Boa Vista to Sao Paulo and Manaus, Brazil. Photo: IOM

By International Organization for Migration
GENEVA, Aug 23 2018 (IOM)

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and the Director General of the United Nations Migration Agency, IOM, William Lacy Swing appealed for greater support from the international community to the countries and communities in the region receiving a growing number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela. With an estimated 2.3 million Venezuelans living abroad, more than 1.6 million have left the country since 2015, 90 per cent of them to countries within South America.

Grandi and Swing commended States in the region for generously hosting Venezuelan nationals arriving at their borders. They nonetheless expressed concern over several recent developments affecting refugees and migrants from Venezuela. These include new passport and border entry requirements in Ecuador and Peru, as well as changes to the temporary stay permits for Venezuelans in Peru.

“We recognise the growing challenges associated with the large scale arrival of Venezuelans. It remains critical that any new measures continue to allow those in need of international protection to access safety and seek asylum,” stressed Grandi.

“We commend the efforts already made by receiving countries to provide Venezuelans with security, support and assistance. We trust that these demonstrations of solidarity will continue in the future,” said IOM´s Director General, Ambassador Swing, in Geneva Thursday.

Of particular concern are the most vulnerable—such as adolescent boys and girls, women, people trying to reunite with their families and unaccompanied and separated children who are unlikely to be able to meet documentation requirements and will therefore be placed at further risk of exploitation, trafficking and violence.

UNHCR, IOM, UN agencies and other partners are working in support of national responses by governments in the region to this complex human mobility and protection situation. This current situation underlines the urgent need to increase international engagement and solidarity in support of the governments’ response plans and addressing the most pressing humanitarian needs, in order to assure that those are met, safe transit is guaranteed and social and economic integration can be provided in line with larger development strategies.

Following the commitments of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, timely and predictable support by the international community is needed for fairer sharing of responsibilities and to complement the efforts of host countries.

Media contact details:

For IOM:
Joel Millman at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 79 103 8720, Email: jmillman@iom.int
Juliana Quintero, IOM South America, Tel.  +54 11 48133330
Mobile. +54 11 32488134 QUINTERO Juliana juquintero@iom.int

For UNHCR:
In Geneva: Cécile Pouilly, pouilly@unhcr.org, +41 79 108 26 25
In Bogota Olga Sarrado Mur, sarrado@unhcr.org, +57 310 202 6029

The post UNHCR and IOM Chiefs Call for More Support as the Outflow of Venezuelans Rises Across the Region appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Former Comoros president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has been charged with corruption and the misappropriation of public funds in a passport fraud. He has been under house arrest by current president Azali Assoumani for the last three months. Courtesy: Abubakar Aboud

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Aug 23 2018 (IPS)

President Azali Assoumani of the Comoros Islands is tightening his grip on power. First, he insisted on holding a referendum allowing him to extend his term of office and abolish the country’s constitutional court. Which he won. And now, the lawyer of former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi has said that his client has been charged Tuesday with corruption and the misappropriation of public funds in a passport fraud.

This July, Assoumani held a referendum in the Indian Ocean archipelago, giving himself a mandate that widely extends his powers.

The constitutional draft allows for the President of the Union of the Comoros to now ratify international treaties and agreements without consulting parliament. The text also provides for the abolition of the three vice-presidencies, as well as the Constitutional Court. The Comoros was plunged into crisis in April when Assoumani suspended the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, sparking opposition protests.

Under the current constitution, power rotates every five years between the archipelago’s three main islands. But this has also been done away with through the referendum.

Sambi, who is a leading critic of Assoumani’s rule and president of the vocal opposition, the Juwa Party, was placed under house arrest three months ago. Since then has not been allowed any visitors, though his lawyer Mahamoud Ahamada saw him on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 21.

The Juwa party has rejected the mandate extending Assoumani’s powers, and has called for immediate international intervention to restore democracy.

Comoros, situated in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is one of the world’s poorest countries. It has been repeatedly shaken by separatist movements and instability prior to the passing of a new constitution in 2001, which provides for the rotation of power between the islands.

Advisor to Sambi, Abubakar Aboud, told IPS that they have reached out to the international community to intervene in the political crisis unfolding in the Comoros to avoid bloodshed. Excerpts of the interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): The referendum has given Assoumani carte blanche to grab power, as it were, with an extension to his rule. Do you accept this outcome?

Abubakar  Aboud (AA): We do not approve at all the electoral process that Colonel Azali [Assoumani] has started. This process is illegal to the extent that it has violated the fundamental texts of our country. Colonel Azali [Assoumani] put an end to the Constitutional Court without consulting the people. From that moment on, we cannot accept the results of this illegal process.

IPS: What about the charges against Sambi?

AA: The arrest as well as all the charges are purely political. In parallel, the lawyers will ask for a provisional release of president Sambi, who has now been a political prisoner of Colonel Azali [Assoumani] for over three months.

IPS: What does this mean for the fragile democracy in Comoros?

AA: I fear the worst for the fragile peace of our country. It is very disturbing to see a colonel put our country in danger for the sole purpose of holding on to power. Our country has not tasted the benefits of democracy for long, and now Colonel Azali [Assoumani] is demolishing everything that we have built for his own interests.

IPS: What action will you take, or can you take, now if you are to save the country from the autocratic rule?

AA: We do not want violence in the country. And yet, Colonel Azali [Assoumani] is doing everything to crush the discordant voices we are part of as members of the opposition. To avoid confrontations that could cause bloodshed, we regularly call on the international community for help. These calls are becoming more and more urgent as almost all the members of the opposition are either arrested or have suspended sentences.

IPS: What is the feeling on the other islands’ about this result?

AA: Everyone feels betrayed by the colonel and his men. The Comoran people are very peaceful. But Azali [Assoumani] is driving the people to revolt. I feel a lot of anger and frustration among the population. I don’t know how long the current patience will last, but we are dangerously close to reaching [the] limit.

IPS: Where do you see the future of Comoros now?

AA: I hope to see my country return to the democracy that we fought so hard to achieve. I hope for a brighter future, even though we are crossing the darkest path of our history… I see this future without Colonel Azali [Assoumani], because he will have to answer for the violations of human rights and the acts of high treason.

IPS: What of ex-president Sambi? Is he safe and how does he feel about this turn of events?

AA: His lawyer, Mahamoud Ahamada, saw him Tuesday [Aug. 21] and told us he seems a little bit weak but he is okay.  I did not have the ex-president’s opinion on this electoral masquerade. But knowing him, I’m sure he shares our opinion on it.

IPS: What are your next steps to challenge this result?

AA: We are waiting for the international community to react. If they don’t do it fast, we’ll be obliged to do it ourselves by any means necessary. Formal letters have been signed by president Sambi and his lawyers have sent them by mail today [Aug. 22] to the United Nations and the African Union.

The post Q&A: Comoros Power Grab Rejected by Opposition, Amid Pleas for International Intervention appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Ayodele Odusola
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 23 2018 (IPS)

The best time to invest in Africa is now. However, foreign investors have not moved into the continent as quickly as expected because foreign investment decisions are often methodically over-structured. One of the major factors cited is too much risk. But risks and profits are inseparable twins: high-risk ventures are frequently associated with higher profits.

Africa is the most profitable region in the world. A report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development states that between 2006 and 2011, Africa had the highest rate of return on inflows of Foreign Direct Investment: 11.4%.  This is compared to 9.1% in Asia, 8.9% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The global figure is 7.1%.

Six of the world’s 12 fastest-growing countries are in Africa (Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Rwanda). Further, between 2018 and 2023, Africa’s growth prospects will be among the highest in the world, according to the IMF.

Examples of companies benefiting from bountiful profits in Africa abound: Sonatrach’s turnover from oil and gas alone was $33.2 billion; MTN Group’s turnover was about $10 billion; and Dangote Group’s turnover was $4.1 billion—all in 2017.

A variety of factors drive up Africa’s profit prospects, making it imperative for European, North American, Asian, and Latin American businesses to invest, helping to foster the continent’s economic progress.

Africa’s economic growth prospects are among the world’s brightest. Six of the world’s 12 fastest-growing countries are in Africa (Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Rwanda). Further, between 2018 and 2023, Africa’s growth prospects will be among the highest in the world, according to the IMF.

Good news: sectors where foreign companies could have a comparative advantage, such as banking, telecommunications and infrastructure, are among the drivers of current economic growth in Africa—creating clear investment opportunities for foreign businesses.

Africa’s growing, youthful population, amidst an aging population in most other regions, constitutes a formidable market. The continent’s population is predicted to quadruple from 1.19 billion in 2015 to 4.39 billion by 2100.  In 2015 alone, 200 million Africans entered the consumer goods market. Maximizing this bourgeoning market size calls for actively engaging Africa’s structural economic transformation.

Africa’s youthful population contributes to an abundancy of labour, which is one of the region’s highest potentials for labor-intensive industrialization, and lowers production costs, leading to benefits that far outweigh the cost of doing business on the continent. 

The hourly wage in Africa is less than 50 cents (for example, it’s $0.27 in Mozambique, $0.34 in Nigeria and $1.62 in Morocco) compared to $10.49 in UK, $7.25 in the USA and $6.57 in Japan. Engaging more foreign companies may help raise wage rates in Africa, improve labour market efficiency and generate additional resources for those left behind on the age ladder.

Africa’s large deposits of natural resources promise a bright future for developing value chains. Agriculture and the extractive sectors are linchpins of national, regional and global value chains. Africa hosts 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. In 2015, the continent produced 13% of global oil, up from 9% in 1998.

The growth trend of oil and natural gas production between 1980 and 2012 was amazing: from 53.4 billion barrels to 130.3 billion barrels for oil; for natural gas, from six trillion cubic meters in 1980 to 14.5 trillion cubic meters in 2012.  As of 2012, Africa also controlled 53.9% of the world’s diamond resources.

In 2017, the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone accounted for 58% of the world’s cobalt (used in electronics production) while South Africa accounted for 69.6 % of the world’s platinum production in 2016 (used for catalytic converters and in other goods). Actively investing in adding value to these commodities, among other extractive activities, will shape global economic activities over the next five decades.

Finally, emerging domestic developments lend credence to actively engaging Africa’s economic transformation agenda. Some of these developments include improvements in macroeconomic prudence and overall governance. For instance, evidence from the 2017 Ibrahim Index of African Governance shows that Africa’s overall governance index improved at an annual rate of 1.4% since 2007, an improvement of more than 5% in at least 12 countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Rwanda and Ethiopia. This improvement helps to mitigate perceived risks for many investors on the continent.

African governments should build on this positive trend to maximize foreign investments. This includes eliminating corruption; improving safety and security; strengthening macroeconomic environment, investing in quality education and skill development in science, technology and innovation; and avoiding a ‘race to the bottom’ syndrome, that gives unnecessary tax holidays and waivers to foreign companies.

Investing in Africa is good business and a sustainable corporate strategy for foreign investors. Advanced and emerging countries’ governments and the private sector should leverage these profitable, emerging investment opportunities.

Using official development assistance to leverage and de-risk the investment climate in Africa is a key component in attracting FDI. Japan’s Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) initiative, to insure a facility in Ghana, is a laudable effort that should be scaled-up and supported by other actors.

Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa offers investment opportunities to foreign companies. Good examples abound: the Sumitomo Chemical’s insect-proofing mosquito nets technology is helping to fight malaria; the Sonatrach, JGC, and Hitachi’s desalinating seawater technology is accelerating access to clean water; and the Commodity Risk Management Group and the Sompo Japan Niponkoa’s weather index insurance is helping to mitigate climate change.  In Africa, each SDG offers business solutions and investment opportunities to foreign companies.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is working with African governments and private sector actors to de-risk and improve the continent’s investment climate. Developing industrial strategies and clusters, promoting special economic zones, improving energy access, facilitating innovative funding, advocating for value chain development across countries and supporting investment promotion through the International Conference on the Emergence of Africa are some of UNDP’s efforts.

The best time to invest in Africa is now.

The post Africa’s Economic Growth Prospects Amongst the World’s Brightest appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Ayodele Odusola is Chief Economist, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa

The post Africa’s Economic Growth Prospects Amongst the World’s Brightest appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Migrants arriving at Lampedusa, Italy in this picture dated 2011. Jim arrived in Italy via an ocean port in 2010. Credit: Ilaria Vechi/IPS.

By Maged Srour
ROME, Aug 23 2018 (IPS)

Jim*, a 34-year-old Nigerian, has been living in Italy for the last eight years. And even though he has a legal permit to reside in the country, he is yet to find steady employment. Instead, for three days a week you will find him begging for alms in front of a supermarket in Rome.

“Nobody is giving me a job even if I go four days a week to give my resume all around the city,” he tells IPS.

Before leaving Nigeria in 2009, he was president of a Christian youth congregation in his hometown. One day, his church was bombed. Jim blames the bombing on a major, central-right political party in Nigeria.

He says the party was against the donation of a generator to his church by another political party."More closure creates only more illegality and consequently the impossibility of promoting and applying integration policies for those migrants, who do not have a legal permit to stay in Europe.” -- Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesperson for IOM.

“We were not subtly colluding with any party,” says Jim.

“Simply, a certain party that had been successful in the last elections, had given us an electric generator and this was not good with the [major central-right political party] because it was afraid of losing its influence.”

As an important figure-head at the church, Jim’s life was at risk.

“One day I was beaten by some militants of the [central-right political party],” Jim tells IPS, closing his eyes when he describes those moments.

He eventually fled the country. And when he arrived in Libya in 2009, Gaddafi was still in power.

When IPS asks him if it was a good place to live, Jim does not hesitate: “It was a terrible place. There was no freedom. I could not walk freely on the streets. [If I did] I would have been stopped by the Asma boys, the criminal gangs who would have robbed me and called the police to lock me up. This was daily life there.”

He says in order to feel safe he would pay to travel by taxi. In 2009, it cost him between USD 7 to USD 144.

“Walking in the streets for a black African was too dangerous.”

Jim worked for five months as a car washer in Libya and saved the USD 1,200 he needed to pay for the trip to Italy.

“The journey is not easy at all, my friend,” he says, his eyes full of emotion.

“I remember that big wave.”

The boat’s captain, a young Algerian man, was able to navigate the wave without any losses.

“Everyone was alone with himself [in that moment], praying to God not to die.

“And when they came to rescue us, I just felt so relieved.”

Nigerian migration to Italy: trends and facts

Jim is one of the 106,069 Nigerians, according to the Italian ministry of interior, who are residing in Italy as of the start of the year. These numbers do not include the many irregular migrants, estimated by the ministry to be in the thousands.

According to the United Nations Migration Agency (IOM), although the number of Nigerian migrants entering Italy decreased between 2017 and the first half of 2018; from 2015 to 2017 Nigerian migrants were the largest single group entering the country, largely via ocean ports.

These are the numbers:

• In 2015: out of 153,842 arrivals, 22,337 were from Nigeria;
• In 2016: out of 181,436 arrivals, 37,551 were from Nigeria;
• In 2017: out of  119,369 arrivals, 18,158 were from Nigeria.
• In the first six months of 2018 Nigerian arrivals numbered only 1,229.

The sharp decrease in 2018 is mainly due to the new closure policies regarding the migration flows, which was initiated in April 2017 by the previous Italian government and supported by the current one.

According to data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics, which is the main producer of official statistics in Italy, Nigerians living in country have risen from:

• 48,220 registered as of January 2012,
• to 88,527 in 2017,
• and to 106,069 in 2018.

“More closure creates only more illegality”

It seems incredulous that Jim, who has a legal permit to stay and work in the country, is still begging for money almost a decade since his arrival.

The only job he was ever able to secure, he tells IPS, was one selling drinks at the Stadio Olimpico. But that had been only for a few months, and the salary was incredibly low.

Flavio Di Giacomo, spokesperson for IOM, tells IPS that something has to change in terms of integration policies.

“Today we are witnessing the management of immigration by European countries marked by closure. This is very wrong: we need to reopen the legal routes,” Di Giacomo says.

“Let’s not forget that an efficient immigration policy, must include everything, even forced repatriations. More closure creates only more illegality and consequently the impossibility of promoting and applying integration policies for those migrants, who do not have a legal permit to stay in Europe.”

In Italy, thousands of migrants struggle to find a regular job that will allow them to legalise their documents.

So in Jim’s case, the paradox is a bitter one. While he has legal rights to stay in Italy, he just cannot find employment.

And struggles to feed himself, let alone his wife and son who live back in Nigeria.

IPS asks him if he ever though about doing something illegal to earn money. But he says: “I am a good Christian, I could never do that.”

*Not his real name.

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The post I am a Nigerian Migrant, Struggling to Live the ‘European Dream’ – Part 1 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Rohingya refugees now cramped in hilly terrains of Ukhiya in southeastern regions of Cox’s Bazar along Bangladesh border with Myanmar. Credit: ASM Suza Uddin/IPS

By Jan Egeland
OSLO, Aug 22 2018 (IPS)

Aid funding for refugee relief is running out while conditions are still not in place for the safe return of over 700,000 people forced to flee Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh after violence broke out one year ago.

The mass human exodus of refugees from Myanmar to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which started on 25 August 2017, was one of the fastest growing refugee crises last year. It then attracted huge international attention, but one year on only 34 percent of the United Nations aid appeal to help the refugees and the host community has been funded.

The Rohingya refugees are living in limbo. The safety of families returning to Myanmar cannot be guaranteed, yet they’re receiving scant international support in Bangladeshi camps.

We urgently need to scale up the support. The international community must shoulder more of the enormous responsibility that the Bangladeshi authorities and local communities have taken on, as well as show persecuted Rohingya refugees they are not forgotten.

Facts

Around 900,000 refugees from Myanmar are currently sheltering in Bangladesh. About 725,000 have arrived after 25 August 2017, according to UNHCR.

By 21 August the UN appeal for support to the Rohingya refugee crisis joint response plan was less than 34 percent funded, according to Financial Tracking Service.

NRC is working in Myanmar and through partners in Bangladesh.

NRC’s expert deployment capacity, NORCAP, has worked in Cox’s Bazar since the onset of the disaster last year. So far more than 40 experts have provided shelter, education opportunities, health, water and sanitation services.

Today, Cox’s Bazar is the world´s largest refugee settlement. Most of the displaced are Rohingya, a Muslim minority who have escaped extreme violence and persecution. In total, around 900,000 refugees from Myanmar are currently sheltering in Bangladesh, with the humanitarian aid system overwhelmed by the vast scale of needs.

“I have not cooked any food for my children today. I do not feel safe enough to go out and collect firewood, so I exchanged some food items for fuel, but now I do not have enough to eat,” Janoara, a single mother of two sons, told the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The humanitarian emergency was further compounded by the onset of the monsoon season in June, with heavy rain, flooding, landslides and high winds damaging or destroying refugees’ shelters. Despite ongoing relocations to safer land, the camps are still dangerously overcrowded, with the average usable space reported to be a mere 10.7 square meters per person.

Far more appropriate land is needed – a major challenge in one of the already most densely populated countries in the world. In Cox’s Bazar, rumours abound and people are worried about being expected to return to their villages before their own preconditions for repatriation are met.

“I will not return before Rohingyas get citizenship, equal rights, free movement and compensation for the houses they burned down and my land. I will not return with my family before we feel completely safe,” Nurul Amin (35) told the Norwegian Refugee Council. He fled Rakhine about one year ago and his demands are echoed by many others in the camps.

The Rohingya people have the right to return. One year after the start of this crisis, we urgently need to speed up efforts to ensure conditions for voluntary, safe and dignified return, in line with international standards.

Access for humanitarian agencies to people requiring assistance in northern Rakhine State is currently restricted and it is not possible to independently verify information about conditions in the locations of return. There are also no guarantees in place that returnees will be allowed to return to their original homes and land, or to a place of their choice.

Humanitarian agencies need full access to people in need in northern Rakhine State to make independent assessments, provide assistance and protect communities who want to return.

The post Rohingya Refugees Left in Limbo One Year On appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jan Egeland is Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council

The post Rohingya Refugees Left in Limbo One Year On appeared first on Inter Press Service.