Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Batara slum in a Dhaka suburb. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Sabine Saliba
BEIRUT, Jul 31 2020 (IPS)

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have spared children from the direct health effects of the virus but the crisis has affected their social and economic rights directly and indirectly beyond what we could have foreseen. And there’s no doubt that children who come from more vulnerable backgrounds will feel the long-term impact of the pandemic and the measures taken to prevent its spread the hardest.

Social and economic rights are crucial to ensure the fulfilment of basic rights like sustenance, housing, food, education, health, employment and freedom from discrimination. The enforcement of these rights is instrumental to properly respond to any economic crisis. But what are the challenges today to the fulfilment of these rights for children, and how can they be met during and after a pandemic?

 

Looking at the long-term risk

Masses of funding have been made available at national and international levels to recover from the economic crisis the Covid-19 pandemic has created, but how can they be allocated so that we don’t repeat the failures of past crises?

The Covid-19 pandemic has already exposed how things like unemployment, poverty and missing education can all give rise to other problems. For instance, recent estimates show that millions of children under 5 years of age risk suffering from wasting as a result of the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

Migrant and displaced children are also a particularly vulnerable group during this crisis as they live in deprived urban areas or slums, overcrowded camps, settlements, makeshift shelters or reception centres, where they lack adequate access to health services, clean water, sanitation and access to nutrition.

According to UNICEF, 91 percent of the world’s children are also seeing their education interrupted, with girls and those relying on school-based nutrition programmes less likely to return when classrooms reopen.

Explaining why, Human Rights Watch says that “widespread job and income loss and economic insecurity among families are likely to increase rates of child labour, sexual exploitation, teenage pregnancy, and child marriage. […] As the global death toll from Covid-19 increases, large numbers of children will be orphaned and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”

The impact of unemployment should not be underestimated. Millions of parents are already struggling to maintain their livelihoods, with the International Labour Organization estimating that 25 million people may lose their jobs and that youth, older workers, women and migrants will bear a disproportionate burden of the job crisis.

We’ve seen these issues before in the aftermath of events that led to higher unemployment and poverty, but the fact that they’re happening again this time around raises the question of whether structural reform can help.

Today more than ever, any action to end child poverty should look at the structures that create poverty. Masses of funding have been made available at national and international levels to recover from the economic crisis the Covid-19 pandemic has created, but how can they be allocated so that we don’t repeat the failures of past crises?

 

Bailouts: saving the economy through corporations

Government and corporation bailouts seem to be the go-to solution for the crisis, with the focus being on saving the economy instead of finding solutions to poverty and financial hardship.

Countries around the world have approved more than US$11 trillion worth of emergency measures, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and big businesses and multinational corporations are receiving the largest share of the bailouts.

Human rights groups say that this approach has put concerns for human rights in the shadows and replicated the responses to the 2008 financial crisis, weakening “labour protections…buil[ding] regressive tax systems and impos[ing] austerity on the majority while providing subsidised prosperity for the elite few.”

The Center for Economic and Social Rights has also highlighted that, as many governments are focusing on bailing out for-profit corporations, there’s a major risk that the crisis will even be used by commercial companies as an opportunity to expand their markets and profits, including in sectors like education, where major global IT players are positioning themselves.

In fact, we’re already seeing how privatisation and commercialisation of education have increased during the 2020 pandemic. With mass school closures, commercial online educational tools have sprung up as “emergency respondents”.

So what kind of bailout could have social justice and human rights at its core? And is there room for children and young people in it?

 

Cash transfers: a people’s bailout

From a human rights perspective, the ultimate measure of any economic system or policy is its impact on people, particularly the most vulnerable. The rising critics of corporate bailouts have brought an old debate back to the table: Universal Basic Income (UBI).

UBI is a regular government payment that each member of society receives equally, to guarantee basic costs of living and financial security for everyone. The supporters of this model go way back; for instance in 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. supported “a guaranteed income” as a means of abolishing poverty.

A similar model has also been brought to the table: Universal Basic Services (UBS). Under this approach everyone receives free and unconditional access to basic services such as health care, education and transport, while other services like basic housing and nutritional programmes would only be accessible through an application process and restricted to those who need it the most.

But rather than being substitutes for one another, experts argue that UBS and UBI are both beneficial as “there is no contradiction between having some public quasi-universal basic services and a basic income”.

But these systems still face much opposition, especially towards UBI, on the basis that it would be too costly. In response to those who oppose UBI for this reason, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) explains that “the alternative will result in a greater surge in inequality, increasing social tensions that would cost governments even more and open countries to heightened risk of societal conflict”.

The UN agency also adds that “a new social contract needs to emerge from this [Covid-19] crisis that rebalances deep inequalities that are prevalent across societies [and] UBI promises to be a useful element of such a framework.”

 

Cash transfers for under-18s

Even though the UBI model is based on the individual rather than the household, children are rarely expected to be beneficiaries of a regular payment. Almaz Zelleke, a political science professor at NYU Shanghai, believes in including children as recipients because “only basic income that goes to children, as well as adults, can actually eliminate the poverty of families with only a single parent, or a single earner.”

In other words, if more members of a family beyond just the breadwinner receive a regular income, it can make the family more resilient to economic crises and the threat of job loss.

Similarly in a discussion with CRIN, Argentinian sociologist and teacher Santiago Morales explained the importance of giving children an income and the “recognition of the social contribution children make […] by having an income they can manage themselves”.

However, adults rarely give children’s capacities enough credit and the first argument against giving an income to children would probably be that they would waste it. According to Morales, this is a “typical adultist argument” because it’s based on the presumption that children lack capacity.

But, he explains, “we need to distinguish between capacity and know-how… If children don’t know how to manage money, it’s because they haven’t been taught.”

The post Corporate Bailout or Cash Transfers for All, including Children? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Sabine Saliba is Regional Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at the Child Rights International Network (CRIN)

The post Corporate Bailout or Cash Transfers for All, including Children? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jul 30 2020 (IPS-Partners)

In the IPBES Global Assessment report, we learnt that to safeguard all life on Earth, we need transformative change. So what does that mean? How can we make it happen? This week’s guest is Kai Chan. He is a professor at the University of British Columbia and one of the Coordinating Lead Authors of the Global Assessment. To find out more about IPBES, head to www.ipbes.net or follow us on social media @IPBES.

 

Episode 3

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Unless diversity is accepted and inclusion becomes everyone’s business, it will be impossible to achieve the goal of universal health coverage because 15% of the global population who have some form of disability will be left behind. Credit: Bigstock.

By Shubha Nagesh and Ifeanyi Nsofor
Jul 30 2020 (IPS)

Over the next seven years, Google will invest a whopping $10 billion in India to improve technology, health and education, according to CEO Sundar Pichai. This is unprecedented and could be a game changer that could improve health, education and economic empowerment. 

While Google should be commended for such foresight, it is also pertinent to note that there was no mention of how this investment would benefit India’s 26 million persons living with disabilities. Without a doubt, investments in the Indian economy must be all-inclusive. This means including persons living with disabilities, particularly women and children.

For long, disability has been neglected to the detriment of millions of Indians who live with various forms of it. The plight of persons living with disabilities in India is not unique. In the global south, efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of persons with disabilities are usually led by individuals with disabilities, civil society and disabled persons organisations.

In the global south, efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of persons with disabilities are usually led by individuals with disabilities, civil society and disabled persons organisations

Unless diversity is accepted and inclusion becomes everyone’s business, it will be impossible to achieve the goal of universal health coverage because 15% of the global population who have some form of disability will be left behind.

Indeed,  inequities faced by persons living with disabilities have been magnified at this time of COVID-19. These challenges include unprecedented number of deaths, lack of access to finances, people-centered healthcare, home–based caregivers etc. Furthermore, closure of intervention centres and special schools, have postponed assessments and therapy sessions for children with developmental disabilities.

Education is also a major challenge as most schools turned online, without working on accessibility and barriers to inclusion, and so left out thousands of children.

There are many non-profits and government organisations in India that provide services to persons with disabilities, and most have been closed since April 2020, but staff are working overtime to provide the best services through online mediums thereby avoiding disruption of services and ensuring continued developmental progress in children.

So far, feedback from families are varied: from increased involvement of parents to no progress because such parents do not have access to digital technology.

This is the time to build a new era with accessibility as its key feature in India. However, to realise this, the private sector must play a key role as a funder and incubator of ideas.

These are five ways Google could ensure that its $10 billion investment in India is inclusive of persons living with disabilities.

First, involve persons living with disabilities in any plans to discuss the investment. This involvement must be from the beginning when plans are developed to when impact is evaluated. New initiatives must actively seek inputs from persons living with disabilities with different kinds of impairment. If this diverse representation is pursued, the inputs would be inclusive and could mitigate some challenges that may arise.

Second, ensure at least 20% of all roles are reserved for persons living with disabilities, to be well distributed along gender and age groups. Women are needed in leadership positions as the impact they make are phenomenal, with valuable indices like empathy, wellbeing and happiness. Also, children living with disabilities should not be left out.

Third, improve healthcare delivery by training health workers on providing care that is respectful and meets the needs of persons living with disabilities. Health facilities must be obligated to provide services without discrimination.

To achieve this, the investment should include partnerships with schools where health workers are trained to make the curriculum disability-friendly. Health workers already in service should also be trained and retrained on disability-centered care. Disability competencies for health professionals adopted by medical schools in India, should be used to train students, as well as train and retrain health professionals.

Fourth, ensure provision of social determinants of health such access to education, economic empowerment, access to clean water and sanitation for persons living with disabilities. For instance, access to clean water and sanitation helps reduce the incidence of infectious diseases.

Indeed, one of the most important public health interventions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is frequent hand washing with soap under running water. Moreover, the more educated people are, the better their health-seeking behaviours.

Also, providing economic empowerment interventions would empower persons living with disabilities to pay for their healthcare themselves when the need arises.

Lastly, such a huge investment requires regular monitoring and evaluation. Persons living with disabilities should be included in monitoring teams. No one better than persons living with disabilities can evaluate the impact and the influence of programs that create change and transformation to improve the quality of life of members of the community. Also, lessons learnt can help others know how to cater for the needs of persons living with disabilities.

To be sure, Google is a private business and is entitled to deploy its corporate social responsibility however it deems fit. However, as one of its biggest markets, India is deserving of this investment.

It would amount to perpetuating gross inequities in India if persons living with disabilities are left behind again.

 

Dr Shubha Nagesh is a medical doctor and works with the Latika Roy Foundation, Dehradun India

Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, is a medical doctor, a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the CEO of EpiAFRIC and Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch. He is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University, a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a 2006 International Ford Fellow. 

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By External Source
Jul 30 2020 (IPS-Partners)

In order to help captains onboard longline fishing vessels and port samplers collect data, SPC has developed two digital apps, Onboard and Offshore. Let’s travel to Nuku’alofa, capital of the Kingdom of Tonga, to see innovation in action!
For further information, please contact SPC: spc@spc.int


 

Source: Pacific Community SPC

The post The Pacific Community launches the Pacific Healthy Recipe Contest appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jul 30 2020 (IPS-Partners)

In order to help captains onboard longline fishing vessels and port samplers collect data, SPC has developed two digital apps, Onboard and Offshore. Let’s travel to Nuku’alofa, capital of the Kingdom of Tonga, to see innovation in action!
For further information, please contact SPC: spc@spc.int


 

Source: Pacific Community SPC

The post Pacific Tuna Fisheries: Electronic reporting in Tonga appeared first on Inter Press Service.

But critics say Sierra Leone’s new media law gives the government the powers to shut down media houses and ban individual journalists from practicing their professions. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah
FREETOWN, Jul 30 2020 (IPS)

Last week, Sierra Leone’s parliament voted to repeal the country’s 55-year-old libel law, which criminalised the publication of information that was deemed defamatory or seditious, and which had been used by successive governments to target and imprison media practitioners and silence dissenting views. But not everyone is convinced it was in the best interest of media freedom.

On Jul. 23, in an unanimous vote, Sierra Leone’s parliament repealed Part V of the 1965 Public Order Act (POA), which criminalised  libel. It was replaced with the Independent Media Commission (IMC) Act 2020, which was also approved unanimously.

But critics say the IMC Act 2020 gives the Sierra Leone government the power to shut down media houses and ban journalists from practicing their professions.

Sylvia Blyden, who served as a minister of the main opposition All People’s Congress, and is currently editor of the local newspaper, Awareness Times, told IPS that she was against the repeal of all of the provisions in the POA.

Blyden, a prominent journalist and activist, is presently facing charges brought by the government for defamatory libel, publishing false news and seditious libel — charges that existed under the repealed Part V of the POA.
But Blyden told IPS that there are many protective caveats of that act, which made it not as bad as some people believed it to be. She added that the importance of the criminal libel laws went far beyond the practice of journalism and politics.

“It is sad for poor citizens who cannot afford the money to pay lawyers to institute civil libel litigation to protect their names and good reputations as there is no more punitive deterrent in place.
“I am not speaking of journalists, I am speaking of citizens assaulting other citizen’s reputation. We still have our laws to protect against physical assault on us but we have removed the laws that protect us against assault on our good names. Not much thinking went into this process of repeal,” she argued.

Others have noted that the IMC Act 2020 will serve only to “undermine media pluralism and completely eliminate the registration of newspapers as a ‘Sole Proprietorship’ business, and only provides for registration under the Partnership Act 1890 and the Companies Act 2009”.

Lawrence Williams, writing for the Sierra Leone Telegraph, said, “It’s important to note that many newspapers in Sierra Leone are registered under ‘Sole Proprietorship’ as one among several options provided for under the current IMC Act”.

He said the elimination of newspapers registered under sole proprietorship could lead to the closure of many independent publications, and could therefore “end media scrutiny of government institutions and public officials; and inevitably result to ending governance accountability and transparency in Sierra Leone”.

Amin Kef Sesay, writing in the Calabash Newspaper, said that the IMC Act 2020 would allow the government to “tie the hands of citizens from freely investing in the media and heading those institutions as editors, publishers, etc”.

But Sierra Leone’s information and communication minister Mohamed Rahman Swaray told IPS that the POA had been in violation of 12 international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that government had to comply with international standards.

He said that the IMC Act would enable the mitigation against sedition and libel against private citizens. He added that the Independent Media Commission, the regulatory body of the media, had been given quasi-judicial functions under the IMC Act 2020, and had powers of the high court to hear civil matters of sedition and libel.

• When the act is signed into law, the commission will be able to monitor and regulate the media, its content, ensure that a minimum wage $60 is paid to media practitioners, and to ensure that only qualified and trained media personnel are employed as editors/station managers etc.

Swaray also argued that the IMC Act 2020 was not government exercising further rights over the media. “We discussed the draft bill with the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) and they all agreed to the contents of the draft which was then sent to parliament so there was endorsement of the contents of the bill by SLAJ,” he said.

Swaray told IPS that government was very concerned about improving the media landscape in this West African nation as the old law meant the country’s brightest and best brains shied away from the profession because they could face criminal charges. “Women also were refusing to practice,” he added.

He is confident that the recent decriminalisation of the libel law will now see more women taking up the profession.
“Now the best minds and women will come on board and we will make the media and journalism a professional, lucrative and serious institution in the country,” Swaray told IPS.

Speaker of parliament Dr. Abass Bundu said at the time that parliament had restored the dignity of the media and he hoped that, going forward, responsible and professional journalism would hold sway.

Hassan Samba Yarjah, a commissioner of the Human Rights Commission in Sierra Leone, told IPS that the commission had called for Part V of the POA to be repealed every year for the last 10 years in its annual ‘State of Human Rights Report in Sierra Leone’.

He said that as a commission they could not emphasise the importance of the passing of the IMC Act 2020. Yarjah told IPS that the press and citizens would now have greater freedom to express their views, speak out, challenge government on issues affecting them, constructively criticise and speak truth to power without being arrested and branded a criminal.

He said that this return of power to the people was a big development for democracy here, adding that this would change the landscape of journalism and develop the media. “The commission will, however, continue to monitor these freedoms and also ensure that the Media and everyone enjoy this freedom with greater responsibility,” Yarjah told IPS.

Both the repeal of the POA and the passing of the IMC Act 2020 have been sent to President Julius Maada Bio for his signature.

 

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 30 2020 (IPS)

Covid-19 threatens economic life the world over. The most urgent and important need is for governments, businesses and families to survive. Governments must revive economies and livelihoods to prevent Covid-19 recessions from becoming protracted depressions.

The Covid-19 crisis is clearly a ‘black swan event’, threatening both public health and livelihoods. Both the pandemic and containment efforts are not due to business operations and decisions, but nonetheless have compelling consequences for them.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Covid-19 contagion contractionary, costly
In East Asia and a few other societies, successful early precautionary and preventive measures, as well as testing, tracking and treatment of the infected, plus sufficient physical distancing, isolation and quarantine measures have been enough to contain the contagion so far.

When such measures were not taken, inadequate or failed, ‘stay in shelter’ lockdowns became necessary as contagion spread. Nationwide lockdowns have been imposed in many countries. Such preventive and other precautionary measures have reduced economic activity and demand in many sectors.

But trying to maintain aggregate demand as if there is no pandemic does not make sense. No matter what governments do, some output losses are unavoidable. So, the main challenge in addressing Covid-19 recessions is to avoid protracted recessions or depressions.

Due to the continued need for physical distancing and other precautionary measures, likely to remain for some time to come, vaccine or no vaccine, some business disruptions may be more lasting than others, i.e., more likely to be medium, if not long-term.

No ‘one size fits all’
Economies are neither monolithic nor homogenous, and no single inflexible policy can possibly be suitable for all. As recessions are uneven in impact, different sectors, industries, services and businesses are affected differently. Covid-19 recessions are also unlike other past recessions.

Many businesses may not be able to survive major stoppages and demand shortfalls, however temporary. Such businesses could go bankrupt, severely affecting workers’ families, related businesses and those directly and indirectly employed.

Much has to be learnt quickly from other experiences, and from learning by doing. Some businesses and sectors may not be able to survive, and options should include business redeployment, infrastructure and facility repurposing as well as staff retraining.

Strict verification and correction can take place later, even after the lockdown is over. Conditions should be strict enough to deter abuse, but not participation. For example, government grants or subsidies, later found to be ‘excessive’, can be converted into low interest loans that governments recover later, rather than treated as criminal fraud.

Business disruptions threaten livelihoods
Business disruption has broader implications, threatening the entire economy with long-term costs. If relations — including trust among entrepreneurs, workers and customers — are disrupted, they will need to be rebuilt, requiring time and expense.

Conventional economics ignores ‘transactions costs’ incurred in recruiting workers, seeking and keeping clients and customers, obtaining credit and investing capital, building trust, and other relations, and thus is a poor guide to policy.

The adverse effects of livelihood disruption should be minimised. Income maintenance policies need to help fired workers and others whose livelihoods have been greatly diminished. Hence, extraordinary and novel social protection measures are needed.

Helping businesses survive enforced idleness or hibernation due to such measures, and protecting livelihoods are both needed. Businesses, especially smaller ones with fewer reserves, will need help to keep their workers and to avoid liquidating their businesses.

Simple payment systems help. Idle workers should immediately receive special social protection, while staying formally employed. Such measures will minimise rehiring costs when they return to work, but should not excessively burden their employers with debt.

Only governments can help
Governments may not be able to stop, let alone reverse or fully compensate for the effects of public health measures. But they can certainly help alleviate economic hardship due to the epidemic, and minimise lasting damage to the economy.

Crucially, timely government interventions can prevent unavoidable, potentially brief recessions from becoming longer lasting stagnations or depressions. Without appropriate government measures, output losses due to work disruption will cause large business losses leading to mass layoffs.

Even when no longer operating, rent, lease, infrastructure, utility and other such payments vital for business maintenance and employees’ welfare, such as health protection for employees, need to be made or absorbed. Some, mainly developed countries have acted promptly and appropriately to minimise layoffs, business destruction and worker welfare.

Governments can also act more boldly to subordinate unproductive rentier claims, based on asset ownerhip or property rights, to much more essential operating costs — not unlike how US bankruptcy law enables businesses to continue operating to work themselves out of their predicaments.

Current support often inappropriate
Many governments have provided liquidity — e.g., usually by offering low-interest or interest-free loans — to help businesses and workers survive the crisis. But such measures only ‘smoothen’ debt burdens over longer periods, ‘postponing the pain’, without reimbursing or compensating victims for their income losses.

Temporary and partial compensation for income losses enables businesses to quickly resume operations after lockdowns end, rather than having to also contend with additional debt burdens. Many businesses need help to survive, and aid can be provided conditionally, e.g., on avoiding or minimising employee retrenchments.

Postponing tax payments also helps, but tend to benefit the better-off, liable for more tax, rather than those most adversely affected or needy.

Direct payments undoubtedly help. But without some ‘easy’ targeting, especially for businesses, often, too little is available for those in greatest need, while benefiting some who are not.

Although policymakers typically insist on means-testing for anti-poverty programmes, they rarely demand targeting for businesses, reducing the efficacy of government relief.

An already existing, developed social protection system makes it easier to ‘compensate’ idle workers, but is rarely available in developing and transition economies.

Lowly-paid and casual workers and many self-employed typically have debt, more than savings. Not able to survive temporary losses, they are more likely to be displaced by lockdowns, and less likely to work from home. Government ‘unemployment benefits’ can easily be made progressive, with a higher fraction of previous earnings for the poorest.

Government ‘payer of last resort’
In March, French economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, both at Berkeley, proposed that governments help ease pain and disruption with payer-of-last-resort programmes, with adversely affected businesses reporting unavoidable monthly overhead and maintenance costs to qualify for government aid.

A government ‘payer-of-last-resort’ during lockdowns can thus help ‘suspended’ or ‘hibernating’ businesses to continue paying unavoidable maintenance bills to avoid insolvency on condition of keeping their involuntarily idle workers, instead of firing them.

Such a payer-of-last-resort programme would reduce hardship for workers and businesses. It could enable businesses to temporarily suspend or scale down operations, to limit haemorrhage and avoid insolvency, and to pick up quickly as conditions improve.

It would maintain ‘cash flow’ for families and businesses, minimising Covid-19 shocks’ adverse secondary impacts on demand (e.g., due to fired workers spending less on consumption), while enabling more rapid recovery as demand resumes.

Payer-of-last-resort programmes can be affordable if well complemented by effective contagion containment measures, enabling early resumption of business operations. While unavoidably high for lockdowns, government spending, typically financed by sovereign debt, can remain manageable.

The post Only Governments Can Prevent Covid-19 Recessions Becoming Depressions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Emmanuel, a Luminos teacher, with his class in Loweh, Liberia (2019). Credit: Carielle Doe for the Luminos Fund

By George K. Werner and Caitlin Baron
KAMPALA, Uganda, Jul 30 2020 (IPS)

“It has gotten really tough for us,” says James, a father in rural Liberia, of COVID-19 lockdown and school closures. “My son is trying but he is missing his friends and teachers. Children want to be in school.”

“When Coronavirus passes, will your school still be there to help us with our children?” asks Fatu, a Liberian mother of six.

Around the world, over one billion children are out of school. All will face learning losses (data from World War II and other crises offer grim indications on this) and far too many will be lost to learning forever. Estimates suggest the COVID-19 pandemic will cause this generation to lose $10 trillion in future earnings.

Headlines exclaim that the global education system has never seen a moment like this and, in some sense, that is true. However, in Liberia, where we work, this is the second pandemic in six years. Our experiences in Liberia provide important lessons for COVID-19 education system recovery in low-income countries – and the uniquely important role of “last mile teachers.”

In 2014, the Ebola crisis closed schools across Liberia for six months to a year. One and a half million children were excluded from school, in addition to 500,000 children who were already excluded before Ebola roared through the country.

As Liberia’s Minister of Education, I led the country’s education response. I traveled with my team to schools across Liberia, speaking with teachers, parents, and children to assess the magnitude of the task to bring children back to learning.

I concluded that the education system was failing and bold reform was needed urgently: the Ministry of Education needed to rethink everything about its education delivery system for post-Ebola Liberia. The Luminos Fund, where Caitlin is CEO, was one of several education organizations that launched operations in Liberia as part of the recovery journey following Ebola.

A view of Loweh village (2019). Credit: Carielle Doe for the Luminos Fund

Reflecting on past school closures in Liberia and beyond, and our experience educating vulnerable children, we identify three key steps for education systems to come back strong after a crisis like COVID-19.

First, targeted outreach must be conducted to bring the most vulnerable and older students back to school. Next, each child should be assessed to understand the extent of their learning loss, and to meet students where they are in the curriculum. Finally, remediation should be provided to bring students who have fallen behind back up to grade level.

Here is the key, and challenge: all of these steps rely on the efforts and tenacity of frontline educators, but low-income countries do not have nearly enough teachers. UNESCO estimates a global shortage of nearly 69 million teachers, 70% of whom are needed in sub-Saharan Africa.

Furthermore, many countries cannot graduate teachers fast enough to fill the shortfall. South Sudan, for example, would need all of its projected graduates from higher education – twice over – to become teachers to fill its gap. Traditional teacher training alone is insufficient to meet demand, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are helping address the need. The Luminos Fund manages an education program in Liberia that has achieved powerful success with a different model of teacher preparation (James’s son and Fatu’s daughter are students this year).

Emmanuel with students (2019). Credit: Carielle Doe for the Luminos Fund

Luminos recruits local, motivated, high potential young people with minimal qualifications as teachers. The program has shown that, with an intensive three-week training followed by ongoing classroom-based coaching, these recruits deliver transformative learning for children who are often the first in their family to learn to read.

Luminos teachers are so successful that, in less than one year, their students advance from still learning the alphabet to reading 39 words a minute. After one year of schooling, Luminos students read at a rate that only 15% of Liberian third graders can match.

Today, school systems across Africa and beyond must think expansively about the assets they can deploy to respond to the current crisis – and take action. Status quo thinking is inadequate to respond to the moment.

Here, Liberia has another powerful lesson to share with this world. In the provision of basic healthcare, Liberia hosts perhaps the world’s most famous example of the creative extension of government delivery capacity through collaboration with civil society: Last Mile Health.

Last Mile Health has reached over 1.2 million of the poorest Liberians through a network of 3,600 community and frontline health workers. Community health workers are paid professionals, recruited from these same poor communities and empowered to provide basic healthcare in consultation with the formal system.

This model is now being scaled to reach nine million people with primary care services globally by 2030. Last Mile Health has created a model community health system in Liberia and marshalled a movement to develop the global workforce of community and frontline health workers.

The same approach could be used in education and is not dissimilar to how Luminos operates. Far too often, though, the global education sector has viewed community-based educators as a threat, unlike global health’s careful but open-minded exploration of alternative models.

The world may never see another global school closure like the one we are experiencing, but in Liberia, COVID-19 is the second pandemic in six years. Low-income countries – and countries everywhere – need to build resilient school systems that can weather periodic closures and still deliver transformative learning for students.

Building a global workforce of frontline education staff from remote communities to serve remote communities – last mile teachers – is a critical part of the formula.

 

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Excerpt:

George K. Werner served as Minister of Education in Liberia from 2015 to 2018. Caitlin Baron is CEO of the Luminos Fund, a non-profit working in Liberia and across Africa to bring a second chance at education to out-of-school children.

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A group of women of Central Africa receives training in production diversification and improvement to expand the food security of their communities. Credit: FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
ROME, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)

Recent world reports confirm that the goals set by the international community to end poverty and hunger, and create a more balanced, sustainable and fair world by 2030, are currently in danger. If effective and rapid global action is not taken, the goals will not be met and the results in just 10 years may be very negative for all of us.

In 2015, when heads of state and government, as well as other senior representatives from 190 countries, decided at the United Nations General Assembly onthat would change the profile of our world, the international community had confidence that it would reach them all.

These important goals to create a world with true peace include the elimination of poverty and hunger, guaranteeing a healthy and sustainable life, gender equality, the availability of water for all, sustainable economic growth, effective action to fight against climate change, and protecting oceans and forests. 

The International Community had such confidence because back in 2000, when 189 countries set out to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), significant progress was made. These eight goals aimed to reduce poverty and hunger, improve conditions in education, reduce infant mortality and other diseases, achieve greater gender equality, and achieve better environmental sustainability.

In 2015, it was about expanding the goals and entirely eliminating the most negative aspects that affect humanity.

Mario Lubetkin. Credit: FAO

But just five years later, in 2020, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), an annual report prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)  and other agencies of the United Nations (UN), showed that if the negative trend that we are living consolidates, it is doubtful that the goals that the international community set out by mutual consent to solve the main problems we have before us will be achieved.

The report noted that 690 million people still suffer from hunger, 10 million more than a year ago, and 60 million more if we include the last five years.

Although Asia is the most affected, hunger is a problem in all continents: in Africa it is increasing very rapidly, and numbers also remain high in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 2015, the positive trend of hunger reduction began to reverse and undernourishment and malnutrition have been on the rise.

This whole situation cannot be considered “as a threat that may arise in the future. We have to do more to safeguard both the food systems and our most vulnerable populations right now”
Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General

According to the SOFI report, 381 million Asians suffer from undernourishment, as well as 250 million Africans and 48 million Latin Americans and Caribbean people. On the other hand, if we analyze the percentage in relation to its populations, Africa is the most affected region with 19.1 percent of the undernourished population, followed by Asia with 8.3 percent and Latin America with 7.4 percent.

This analysis was made before the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it is still early to have definitive data on the effects of this new dramatic reality, experts estimate that another 83 million people, and perhaps up to 132 million people may start suffering from starvation in 2020 as a result of the ongoing economic recession.

In this regard, another recent report by FAO and the World Food Program (WFP) identified 27 countries that will be imminently affected by the food crisis resulting from COVID -19. No region will be exempt from it, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, Haiti to Central American countries, Iraq to Lebanon and Syria, Burkina Faso to Liberia, Niger, Mozambique, Mali, Zimbabwe and others will be reaching levels of acute hunger.

Many of these countries were already affected by famine before COVID-19, due to pre-existing factors and tensions, such as economic crises, instability and insecurity, extreme weather events, plant pests, and animal diseases.

But the COVID-19 crisis compounded all of these situations with the decrease in jobs and wages, disturbances associated with preventive sanitary measures to face the pandemic, the fall in government revenues with direct effects on social security and protection, and generating political instability with the increase of different types of conflicts that are due to natural resources, such as water and grazing lands, and  migratory phenomena that affects agricultural production and markets.

Undernourishment must be permanently included in the analysis of the situation regarding hunger because its consequences (including malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency, overweight and obesity) continue to worsen, especially since for a significant amount of the population nutritious food is too costly and inaccessible. 

Remember that high-nutrient foods, such as dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and protein foods, are the most expensive food products. They cost about five times more than filling your stomach with low-nutrient and unhealthy foods. 

Although each country has its own specific way to solve this difficult situation, SOFI summarizes many of the reflections of recent years to face solutions to these problems with actions that can be implemented throughout the food supply chain and in trade policies, public spending and investment. 

Some of the actions to achieve this include reducing the costs of food production, storage, transportation, distribution and marketing, as well as reducing inefficiency, food loss and waste, supporting small local producers to produce and sell more nutritious food by accessing new markets, promoting behaviour change through education and communication, integrating nutrition into the social protection system, and implementing investment strategies at national levels.

As FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu pointed out, this whole situation cannot be considered “as a threat that may arise in the future. We have to do more to safeguard both the food systems and our most vulnerable populations right now.”

The outlook is clear, and so are the combined solutions. It is about acting to avoid being witnesses to a dangerous failure in just 10 years of the 2030 Agenda that was set by the international community to put an end to the millions of people that face the humiliation of hunger and poverty.

 

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Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)

On Friday the 24th of June, President Trump announced he was skipping a weekend at his New Jersey golf resort to ”ensure law and order in Washington”, tweeting:

I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues – and combatting recent Criminal Violence. Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!

This time, Trump acted with remarkable speed and much more decisively than he had ever done when it came to denouncing racism, or mitigating the COVID19 pandemic. What angered him was an intent to topple over an equestrian statue in Washington, on Monday 20th of June.

President Trump was already incensed by the tearing down of statues and monuments all over the country. Fuelled by the police killing of George Floyd on May 25, people expressed their anger and frustration by vandalizing and destroying monuments – so far almost two hundred have been destroyed, disifigured, or taken away. Similar incidents occur in other areas of the world, where monuments erected to honour racists, colonialists and abusers of native populations are being destroyed, or removed.

After Trump’s announcement, his White House staff added that ”monument destroyers”:

seek nothing more than to destroy anything that honors our past and to erase from the public mind any suggestion that our past may be worth honoring. President Trump will never allow violence to control our streets, rewrite our history, or harm the American way of life.

Trump labelled the monument wreckers as left-wing extremists, ”who identify themselves with ideologies – such as Marxism” and are endowed with a ”deep ignorance of our history”. Such a statement makes one wonder what history Trump is talking about. It must be some kind of home-made construction in accordance with a statement he made in his fourth of July speech in front of Mount Rushmore:

Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.

What values? The vandalization of memorials began as a protest against homages to Confederate heroes. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was fought between northern states loyal to the Union and southern states, which in an effort to maintain slavery had broken loose to form The Confederate States of America. After the war, most supporters of the defeated Confederacy realized that it made little sense to argue that slavery and oppression of people of a darker complexion had been a just cause to die for. Instead, the war was recast as a battle over the principle of states’ rights and Southern honour. It was lamented that the children of brave soldiers instead of revering their fathers had to be ashamed of what they had done.

To unite the nation, the victorious U.S. Government was willing to appease the vanquished and allow them to continue discriminating against people with a different skin colour, while denying them their constitutional rights. Furthermore, it gave free reigns to local chapters of the United Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Sons of Confederate Veterans to fund and erect monuments paying homage to men who had fought for the preservation of slavery and preached inequality of human beings. Their statues and monuments now embellish parks and squares all over the U.S., an honour they occasionally share with killers of the native population, from Juan de Oñatre (1550-1626) and onwards.

It is not difficult to imagine the rancor felt by ”coloured” people while being confronted with statues praising the heroism of white oppressors. They live in a society that not long ago (and often still do) characterized them on the basis of their skin colour. As Ralph Ellison wrote in his novel Invisible Man from 1952.

I am an invisible man […] I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me […] When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.

Trump declared that the highly visible statues of white murderers and chauvinists are among ”our most sacred memorials”. When the U.S. president affirm this as a fact I wonder if he for one second has contemplated what it means to be the descendant of victims of such ”heroes” and confronted with tangible tributes to these ruffians. Trump would probably not condemn the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue by U.S. troops. He might not disapprove of the fact that hundreds of thousands of statues of Hitler and Stalin were destroyed all over Europe, since people could not stand being confronted with images of such tyrants.

I am not shedding any tears over recently destroyed, or removed, statues representing bullies and profiteers of slave trade and forced labour like Cecil Rhodes, Edward Colston, Robert Milligan, John Cass, Leopold II of Belgium, John Hamilton in New Zealand, or some offensive colonialists in India, who now join ranks with Hoxha, Marcos, Gaddafi, Lenin, and other toppled heroes.

However, statue smashing remains a thorny issue, particularly since representations of controversial, but to a great extent beneficial personalities like Winston Churchill recently have been vandalized, as well as those of generally admirable persons like Gandhi and Frederick Douglass. The right thing would probably be not to destroy any statues at all, and when it comes to the worst tyrants and murderers follow the motto of Indiana Jones, namely that they ”belong in a museum”.

Monuments dedicated to great women and men are often erected after their deaths in remembrance of good deeds and the admiration they fostered. Worse is when dictators and vainglorious men erect monuments in their own honour, like the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo who besides having the highest mountain peak and the capital of the Dominican Republic named after himself, succeeded in entering Guinness Book of Records due to the fact that he during his lifetime had more than 2,000 statues and busts of himself erected in public places. I am somewhat sceptical to that record, assuming that Stalin and Mao Zedong were far superior champions in that particular area of self-glorification.

Another manner of glorifying a living person is to commission her/his portrait and hang it in a public space, an honour generally bestowed upon business leaders and heads of state. One example of this tradition is the official portraits of U.S. presidents, generally loaned from the National Portrait Gallery and hung in the White House. Some controversy arose when Donald J. Trump refused to bring the official portraits of his predecessor Barak Obama and his wife to the White House.

Trump has not yet decided who is going to paint his official White House portrait, though he was recently portrayed by one of USA´s highest paid portrait painters, John Howard Sanden, who painted the official portraits of George W. Bush and his wife Laura, which are ably executed but nevertheless quite bland. Sanden’s portrait of Trump was finished in August 2019 and intended as a homage to a president the artist admires:

I am grateful for the President’s strong pro-life policies, and he sees a need for Christians to defend and proclaim Biblical truth as the culture celebrates immorality in a way that would have seemed inconceivable 50 years ago. Somebody’s got to take a stand for the Lord because we’re going down the tubes.

When I quite recently saw Sanden’s portrait of Donald J. Trump I was struck by the details in the background. On his website, John Sanden describes his painting:

The President wears his signature red tie and dark suit and sits in an attitude of thoughtful determination, an expression well-known to all Americans. Just behind the President´s chair is the American flag, the honoring of which has been a central theme of his Presidential leadership.

As a matter of fact, the Stars and Stripes does not appear in any of the White House´s presidential portraits, but the most curious prop is a miniature of the bronze statue of President Andrew Jackson that occupies the center of Lafayette Park, opposite the White House. The inclusion of Jackson’s equestrian statue in a portrait of Trump now seems to be almost prophetic. As mentioned above, an effort to topple the statue was made on the 6th of June and perpetrators have been charged for attempting to ”destroy federal property”. They will thus be the first offenders charged according to Trump’s new directives and thus run the risk of being condemned to ”up to ten years of imprisonment for lawless acts against our Great Country.”

Why did they try to demolish Andrew Jackson’s statue? Probably because Jackson was a plantation owner who also owned a cotton cleaning factory, and an adjoining whiskey distillery, operated by 150 slaves. One of Jackson’s most controversial decisons was his enforcement of the Indian Removal Act, which allowed for the forced expulsion of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. Approximately 45,000 Native Americans were forcibly displaced during Jackson’s presidency. His policies were continued by his successor Martin Van Buren, when an already planned ”relocation” of Cherokees was initiated, about 4,000 men, women and children died during this so-called Trail of Tears. The anger against the Andrew Jackson´s memorial might thus be understandable, though in its defence it may be said that is not at all a bad piece of art. What is incomprehensible, however, is why the ”historically conscious” Donald J. Trump has chosen to have a replica of it as a background for his portrait.

Ellison, Raph (2001) Invisible Man. London: Penguin Classics. Foner, Eric (1988) Reconstruction: America´s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper & Row. Wallace, Anthony F.C. (1993). The long, bitter trail. Andrew Jackson and the Indians. New York. http://www.johnhowardsanden.com/president_donald_trump.asp

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

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By External Source
Jul 29 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The illicit trade of human lives is happening right under our noses every day. It is primarily affecting the lives of millions of women and children.

Today, human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.

Sexual exploitation, forced labour and illegal organ trafficking are the hallmarks of an industry worth $150 billion dollars per year.

One fifth of the world’s estimated 60 million modern day slaves are children.

And even as the COVOD-19 pandemic rages on, this sinister business has begun to adapt.

Criminals are adjusting their business models to the ‘new normal’, especially through the abuse of modern technologies.

According to UN independent rights experts, travel restrictions have spawned new ways to sexually exploit and abuse children, such as attempts to establish “delivery” or “drive-thru” services.

There has also been a spike in people trying to access illegal websites featuring child pornography.

COVID-19 has impacted the ability of state authorities and non-governmental organizations to provide essential services to the victims of this crime.

To defeat Covid19, some countries have diverted resources meant for fighting crime. Services to assist trafficking victims are being reduced or even shut down.

Most importantly, the pandemic has exacerbated the entrenched economic and societal inequalities that are among the root causes of human trafficking.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations includes goal 8.7: to take immediate and effective measures to end human trafficking, and the use of child soldiers and labour.

The Global Sustainability Network was formed to help achieve this goal. With over 1200 members it is actively working to combine efforts of individuals, governments and international organizations to combat human trafficking.

This year, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons will focus on the first responders to human trafficking.

These are the people who work on identifying, supporting, counselling and seeking justice for victims of trafficking.

During the COVID-19 crisis, the essential role of first responders has become more important, as pandemic restrictions have made their jobs even more difficult.

“As we work together to overcome the global pandemic, countries need to keep shelters and hotlines open, safeguard access to justice and prevent more vulnerable people from falling into the hands of organized crime” – Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

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Inga Rhonda King (left), Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations and seventy-fourth President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), hands over the gavel to Mona Juul, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations and newly-elected seventy-fifth President of ECOSOC, at the opening meeting of the 2020 session of ECOSOC. New York, 25 July 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

By Mona Juul
NEW YORK, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)

This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, written and signed during a period of great global change. Today, the world is again shifting beneath our feet. Yet, the Charter remains a firm foundation for our joint efforts.

These uncertain times of global disruption shine a light on the interdependences of our world. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the inequality it has exposed, are a global challenge that we must solve through global solutions. These solutions call for more, not less, cooperation across national borders.

Global cooperation is the enduring promise of the Charter of the United Nations. I am honoured to preside over the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the principal organs of the United Nations, at its 75th anniversary.

In January 1946, 18 members gathered for the inaugural meeting of ECOSOC under the leadership of its first President, Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar of India. ECOSOC was vested with a powerful mandate, to promote better living for all ¬¬by fostering international cooperation on economic, social and cultural issues.

The Charter recognizes the value of social and economic development as prerequisites for stability and well-being. In a 1956 speech, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld said that “while the Security Council exists primarily for settling conflicts […] the Economic and Social Council exists primarily to eliminate the causes of conflicts.”

For me, this is a reminder that sustainable peace and prosperity rely on global solidarity and cooperation.

Today, this unity of purpose to reach those furthest behind first is also the spirit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda is our shared road map to transform the world as we recover better, protect our planet and leave no one behind. With ECOSOC serving as the unifying platform for integration, action, follow-up and review of the SDGs, our promise to eradicate poverty, achieve equality and stop climate change must drive our actions.

ECOSOC has the unique convening power to make this happen. It brings together valuable constituencies such as youth and the private sector to enhance our work and discussions. ECOSOC also remains the gateway for civil society engagement with the United Nations. Civil society has been central to progress on international economic, social and environmental cooperation, from the small but critical number of organizations present in San Francisco when the Charter was signed in 1945, to the 5,000-plus non-governmental organizations with ECOSOC consultative status today.

Wilhelm Munthe Morgenstierne, Ambassador to the United States, member of the delegation from Norway, signing the Charter of the United Nations at the Veterans’ War Memorial Building in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945. Credit: UN Photo/McLain

The Charter also outlines that ECOSOC should promote universal respect and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. While much has shifted in our world, this mandate remains just as important today as in 1945. After all, human rights are a part of the foundation of the United Nations, quite literally. When Trygve Lie, the first Secretary-General and fellow Norwegian, laid the cornerstone of United Nations Headquarters at Turtle Bay in October 1949, it contained, together with the Charter, a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Human rights have always been a part of the work of ECOSOC. The former United Nations Commission on Human Rights was one of the first functional commissions created within ECOSOC and was charged with drafting the Universal Declaration. Today, ECOSOC remains committed to playing its part to promote all rights: civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.

In stark contrast to the 18 men who formed the first meeting of ECOSOC in 1946, I am proud to be the third consecutive female president of ECOSOC and one of five female presidents in its 75-year history. Although slow, this is progress, especially compared to 1945, when out of the 850 international delegates that convened in San Francisco to establish the Charter of the United Nations, only eight were women, and only four of them were signatories to the Charter. Today, the Secretary-General has achieved gender parity in all senior United Nations positions, and the Commission on the Status of Women is perhaps the highest profile part of the work of ECOSOC. The Commission’s annual session is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

ECOSOC must work to place gender equality at the heart of all our work. Women’s rights and gender equality are imperative to a just world. In all my endeavours, I strive to promote and advance these rights with a vision of a more prosperous, peaceful and fair world, for the benefit of women and girls—and men and boys alike.

Before the current crisis, more people around the world were living better lives compared to just a decade ago. More people have access to better health care, decent work and education than ever before. Nevertheless, inequality, climate change and the lasting negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are threatening to undo these gains. While we have technological and financial resources at our disposal, unprecedented changes will be needed to align resources with our sustainable development objectives. The United Nations must remain at the forefront of our collective efforts guided by our commitment to the Charter.

The true test of our success will be whether persons, communities and countries experience improvement in their lives and societies. The United Nations must be of value to people. To our family. To our neighbours. To our friends. Unless we achieve this, our credibility is at stake.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, let us remind ourselves of the promise it embodies, to help the world become a more prosperous, just, equitable and peaceful place.

To me, the opening words of the Charter, “WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS”, are a humble and empowering reminder of our capability to overcome current and future challenges. Even in troubling times, there remains great hope in the power of working together. That is the founding spirit of the United Nations—and in this 75th anniversary year, as we face grave and global challenges, it is the spirit we must summon today.

This article was first published by the UN Chronicle on 26 June 2020.

 

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Excerpt:

Mona Juul is the seventy-fifth President of the Economic and Social Council and Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations.

The post Reflections on the Charter of the United Nations on its 75th Anniversary appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The SafeBoda ride hailing app can now be used to order essential reproductive health supplies. . © SafeBoda Credit: SafeBoda/UNFPA

By Martha Songa - Cedric Muhebwa - Rakiya Abby-Farrah*
KAMPALA, Uganda, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)

When Betty Nagadya walks through the trading centre on her way home, she sings a song in the local Luganda language: “SafeBoda, SafeBoda, who needs a helmet?” she sings. “For those who feel cold, I have a coat for you.” But her song is not about clothing – it’s about condoms.

Ms. Nagadya is a village health team volunteer. She distributes condoms in her community in partnership with the motorcycle taxi company SafeBoda, all as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under Uganda’s COVID-19 lockdown, contraceptives and other reproductive health supplies – such as HIV tests, pregnancy tests and mama kits, which contain the supplies for clean, safe childbirth – have been in short supply.

But now these items can be ordered through the popular ride-hailing app SafeBoda, and they will be delivered directly to the individual’s doorstep. Ms. Nagadya’s song helps raise awareness about this new service. And her openness invites community members to ask questions. Many do, especially young people.

“Many of them are still shy to talk about using condoms,” she said. “But when I sing my song, they understand what I mean, so they come and ask questions. I teach them how to use condoms and give them to them. I also go to houses where I know there are people who might need condoms,” she said.

Ride-hailing app to the rescue

Even before the pandemic, there was a need to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services and supplies. For instance, an estimated 19 per cent of women in Uganda want to prevent or delay pregnancy but are not using a method of contraception, according to recent reports.

A SafeBoda driver delivers reproductive health commodities to a communitiy health team member. © Uplift Foundation Uganda. Credit: SafeBoda/ UNFPA

The outbreak of COVID-19 has only compounded the situation. Supply chains interruptions and transport restrictions have limited the availability of a wide range of essential reproductive health supplies.

In response, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), together with health officials, Marie Stopes and SafeBoda, with financial support from the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda, created an e-shop where individuals can order the products they need. By making the e-shop available via the widely used SafeBoda app, organizers were able to reach an extensive user base.

When a user requests an item, the app identifies the nearest pharmacy within a 7 kilometre radius where the item is in stock. A SafeBoda driver then picks up the item and delivers it to the user.

SafeBoda drivers also deliver reproductive commodities to local health centres – where health team members like Ms. Nagadya collect them for distribution – helping to fill gaps in the supply chain.

Most of the e-shop’s reproductive health items shop are subsidized and inexpensive. Free government-provided condoms can also be ordered. All delivery charges have been waived during the pandemic period. The service will continue post-COVID-19, for a nominal delivery fee.

The service is now up and running in the populous Kampala and Wakiso districts.

Re-thinking services for youth

Users of the SafeBoda app say this new service is an important development, “especially [for] things we fear to order over the counter,” said Flora Peace, from Nansana. “I am sure most people are excited about this.”

Many drivers are also happy about the development.

A SafeBoda driver delivers condoms. © AIDS Information Center Uganda. Credit: SafeBoda/ UNFPA

SafeBoda driver Moses Okanya, 25, has been delivering boxes of condoms to St Francis Hospital in Kakiri. He says this new responsibility is rewarding.

“I feel I have played a role to reach my fellow young people, because if the condoms are not in the hospital, then the young people are going to put themselves at risk. Making the condoms available to them is something I am proud of,” he said.

Mr. Okanya takes precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while working, diligently wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer. At the same time, he wants to make sure the COVID-19 crisis does not lead to the neglect of people’s other health needs. “We may put more emphasis on COVID-19, and then we are losing people from other diseases which have been there before,” he said.

Now is the time to consider new solutions to longstanding problems, UNFPA’s representative in Uganda, Alain Sibenaler, said.

“We have had to rethink and become more innovative in reaching young people and women with sexual and reproductive health-related information and services,” he said.

• This article was originally published in the UNFPA website (web@unfpa.org)

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A total of 9,144 solar panels were installed on the rooftops in this complex for a thousand poor families, on the outskirts of Juazeiro in the Northeast Brazilian state of Bahia. The system had a distributed generation of up to 2.1 MW, leaving a surplus whose profits were used for the community and its members. But it was not used until 2016, three years after it was installed, by decision of the regulatory authority. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

Solar energy has continued to expand in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic and should contribute to the economic recovery in the wake of the health crisis.

That is the assessment of Bárbara Rubim, vice-president of the Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar), in charge of distributed generation.

“The pace of growth has slowed down a bit, but it is still exponential,” she said. “The pandemic has had a smaller effect than was expected and the installed power increased 30 percent in the first half of 2020.”

The total potential was 5,918 MW on Jul. 2, up from 4,533 MW at the end of 2019, according to official data from the National Electrical Energy Agency (Aneel), the energy regulator in this South American country of 211 million people.

This is a small amount in a country with a total capacity to generate 172,709 MW.

In Brazil, 60.4 percent of energy is hydropower, 8.7 percent comes from wind, 8.4 percent from biomass, 8.3 percent from natural gas, 5.1 percent from oil derivatives and 2.0 percent from coal.

But solar energy is the fastest growing source of energy, in line with the global trend.

Brazil was a late bloomer when it came to harnessing the enormous solar potential in its vast territory. The initial push came in 2012, when the country adopted rules that encourage distributed electricity generation, also known as decentralised generation because it is based on many small sources.

This coincided with the sharp drop in the cost of installing solar panels, which played a decisive role in the boom in recent years.

But this South American nation lags far behind the foremost countries in the development of this energy source, led by China, which added 30,000 MW last year to end 2019 with 205,700 MW of solar energy, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

This intergovernmental institution estimates that each installed MW generates 25 to 30 new jobs.

In Brazil, the expansion led to the creation of 37,000 jobs in the last semester, a period in which unemployment rose across the board due to the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in late February.

The initial forecast of generating 120,000 jobs this year has become more unlikely but has not been ruled out, according to Absolar.

Solar panels generate electricity to pump water to a tank on a neighbouring hill and to supply water by gravity to 120 families in a neighbourhood in Aparecida, a city in the state of Paraíba, in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

The industry had already proved its counter-cyclical nature by growing during the economic recession that hit Brazil in 2015 and 2016.

“In the crisis, people choose products that allow them to save money,” explained Frank Araújo, a solar energy businessman in Sousa, a city of 70,000 in the Northeast state of Paraíba.

Generating your own electricity is good business: the savings on the electric bill cover the initial investment in just a few years, said the owner of Ative Energy, which installs solar plants in dozens of cities in the Northeast region of Brazil.

His company’s turnover fell by 25 percent after the start of the pandemic, in April and May, but it rallied in June, he said.

“Some companies postponed their investments, out of caution until the economic situation becomes more clear,” he told IPS by phone from Sousa. “That happened mainly in the case of industries, but not in the case of pharmacies and supermarkets, which managed to maintain or expand their sales.”

At a national level, Rubim said the largest expansion of solar energy was in the commercial sector, keen on cutting energy costs, as well as among residential consumers.

Rural residents and businesses also invested heavily in this energy source, increasing their generating capacity by 120 percent in the first half of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, said Rubim, who is also director of Bright Strategies, a renewable energy consulting firm.

This is because rural energy has become more expensive due to the gradual reduction of a discount they enjoyed on the electricity tariff. In addition, rural producers tend to seek “synergies” to make more efficient use of the land, Rubim said in a telephone interview from São Paulo.

According to her analysis, the pandemic will favour renewable sources, especially solar, by reducing costs, including maintenance, and because it will drive up the price of electricity supplied by the distribution companies.

Consumers will have to pay at least part of the so-called “COVID bill” – a bank loan arranged by the government to help the power industry overcome the losses suffered in the face of falling energy demand due to the pandemic.

The loan aims to spread over five years the increase in energy tariffs that would otherwise affect consumers in one fell swoop. However, it will cause an additional cost that will make solar energy more attractive, Rubim hopes.

Solar panels were installed on the roof of the building of the Catholic Archdiocese in the city of Sousa, which houses administrative offices, an auditorium and a sports field. The electricity generated allows the “solar archdiocese” – as it has been dubbed – to save almost all energy costs and thus expand its social work in the municipality of 70,000 inhabitants in Brazil’s Northeast region. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

In addition, interest rates have fallen during the crisis, making it cheaper to provide the necessary credit for investments in solar plants, which are also favoured by greater sensitivity to environmental and climate problems.

Distributed generation, installed by its own consumers, has grown the most in Brazil in recent years. At the end of June, output reached 2,987 MW, three times higher than the previous year, and exceeded by 0.02 percent the output of large commercial plants.

In 2017 distributed generation was equivalent to just 17 percent of centralised generation. But the expansion of decentralised generation has been very uneven across the country.

The state of Minas Gerais, in the southeast of the country, is the leader, with 594 MW of installed power, 19.9 percent of the national total.

The state’s leading position highlights the importance of public policy, Rubim said. In 2013 Minas Gerais adopted the tax incentives, two years ahead of the other 26 Brazilian states.

It also pioneered the authorisation of units of up to five MW for multi-consumer shared generation, a formula allowed by Aneel since 2015.

Solar panels are also disseminated throughout the country for social and environmental reasons.

Sonnenhauss, a company located in João Pessoa, capital of the state of Paraíba, offers training and consultancy, in addition to installing solar energy systems and promoting projects.

Currently, it is installing 13 units in the interior of the state to serve rural communities. The idea is to pump water, in one case to supply 200 families and in others to implement irrigation systems for agricultural production and to promote a fruit pulp factory.

“In addition to the installation, we offer training to local personnel for the maintenance of the equipment and support at all levels,” Manoel Alves, one of the company’s electrical engineers and a professor at the Federal Institute of Paraíba, told IPS from that city.

In the same state, based in Sousa, the Semi-Arid Renewable Energy Committee (Cersa), a group of activists, has already promoted the installation of solar systems in several Catholic dioceses, schools and rural communities.

The “More Light for the Amazon” programme, created by the Brazilian government in February, aims to bring clean, renewable energy to some 300,000 people living in isolated communities that still lack electricity.

“The source will basically be solar, because of the ease of implementation, the low cost and the feasible maintenance, including by trained local residents themselves,” said Joilson Costa, coordinator of the Front for a New Energy Policy for Brazil, which brings together 31 social, environmental and academic organisations.

In the southern state of Paraná, the regional government decided to adopt solar energy in the 5,500 municipal schools in the state, beginning this year with 224 schools in seven municipalities.

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Credit: United Nations

By Isabel Ortiz
NEW YORK, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

 

Failing to help those in most need

COVID19 is devastating on older persons. The numbers are staggering, more than 80 percent of the fatalities due to coronavirus in the US and East Asia occurred among adults aged 65 and over. In Europe and Australia, the figures are even higher, 94 and 97 per cent of the deaths were persons aged 60 and over.

However, when contagions spread, older persons were denied access to beds and ventilators, despite being the most vulnerable group. Human rights experts were alarmed by the decisions made around the use of scarce medical resources in hospitals and intensive care units, discriminating solely based on age. Despite being helpless and most at risk, older persons were not prioritized; they were de facto sacrificed, denied treatment and emergency support.

“Older people have the same rights to life and heath as everyone else. Difficult decisions around life-saving medical care must respect the human rights and dignity of all,” stated the UN Secretary-General, deeply concerned about events during the pandemic.

The silent massacre in care homes

About half of the coronavirus casualties in high income countries were in care homes, though this is an underestimation because originally official death tolls did not include those who had died outside hospitals without a COVID19 test done.

Most countries reported insufficient protective equipment and testing in care homes for both residents and care workers. Thousands were infected of coronavirus in nursing homes, and while some staff heroically worked in dangerous conditions, others did not. Staff absenteeism added to real horror stories.

Isabel Ortiz

For example, in a nursing home in France, 24 persons passed away in only 5 days; they died alone in their rooms of hypovolemic shock, without food or water, because 40 percent of the staff was absent. In Canada, a criminal investigation was launched after 31 residents were found dead, unfed and unchanged at a Seniors’ Residence; after other disturbing cases, the Canadian military had to be deployed to assist and the government is considering to take over all private long-term care institutions.

In Sweden, protocols discouraged care workers from sending older persons to hospitals, letting them die in the care homes. In Spain, when the military were deployed to disinfect nursing homes, they were shocked to find people “completely abandoned or even dead in their beds.” Spain has launched criminal investigations into dozens of care homes after grieving relatives of thousands of elderly coronavirus victims claimed ‘our parents were left to die’.

Families demand justice, suing care services

In Italy’s Lombardy region, a resolution offering 150 euros (US$175) to care homes for accepting COVID19 patients to ease the burden on hospital beds, accelerated the spread of the virus among health workers and residents. Coffins piled up in nursing homes. Families are filing lawsuits for mishandling the epidemic.

In the US, more than 38,000 older persons have died in residences because of COVID19 and many families have filed lawsuits against nursing homes for wrongful death and gross negligence.

In the UK, families of care home residents who died from COVID19 are suing the Health and Social Care Secretary; the claims accuse the government of breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, National Health Service Act 2006 and the Equalities Act.

The multi-billion care industry lobbying to secure immunity against lawsuits

Long-term care is a lucrative and powerful industry. Europe’s care sector is concentrated in the hands of a few large private groups, often run by pension and investment funds. Also in the US, 70 percent of the 15,000 nursing homes are run by for-profit companies; many have been bought and sold in recent years by private-equity firms.

In the US, nursing homes and long-term care operators have been lobbying state and federal legislators across the US to pass laws giving them broad immunity, denying responsibility for conditions inside care homes during COVID19. Nineteen states have recently enacted laws or gubernatorial executive orders granting nursing homes protection from civil liability in connection with COVID19. Nobody is responsible for the suffering of thousands of older persons that died alone in care homes.

A better future: Redressing the deplorable situation of residences and long-term care

Due to the rapidly ageing population, all countries should invest more on health and long-term care services for older persons.

Health system capacity is strained because austerity cuts in earlier years. It was the shortage of beds, staff and equipment that made doctors discriminate against older persons and prioritize those younger, with more chances of survival to COVID19. Governments and international financial institutions must stop mean budget cuts that have condemned many to die, and instead invest in universal public health and social protection systems.

Countries must also invest in quality long-term care services for older persons. Half the world’s elderly lacks access to long-term care. At the moment, governments spend very little on long term care; instead, they have allowed private care services to develop, with minimal regulation. As a result, most older persons have to pay up to 100 percent of long term care out of their own pocket and most cannot afford quality services – a highly unequal system.

Societies have failed older persons during the COVID19 pandemic. Countries must redress this neglect and support survivors by properly regulating, inspecting and investing in quality care services for all older persons.

Isabel Ortiz is Director of the Global Social Justice Program at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University in New York, former director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, and former official of the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations.

 

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Credit: Nidwan.

By Pratima Gurung
KATHMANDU, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

In Nepal the COVID-19 crisis has been especially hard on indigenous peoples. We had to learn a new vocabulary and use words like quarantine, self-isolation, hand sanitizers and social distancing.

We also had to respect rules that did not previously apply to our lives. Indigenous peoples are not used to washing their hands all the time because our culture is so much closer to Mother Earth and because much of the time we don’t have running water.

The situation has been even more difficult for indigenous persons with a disability, like me. I cannot keep my social distance if I need help at the same time. I can manage on my own but as I only have one hand I have not been able to follow the health recommendations to the letter, which causes me a lot of anxiety. The pandemic has made me feel more “disabled” than ever.

Pratima Gurung, General Secretary, IPWDGN President, NIDWAN.

This is the situation that indigenous people with disabilities face everyday. Most of them don’t have access to vital medical supplies – for instance, people with spinal cord injuries who need catheters or those with hemophilia in need of plasma.

Indigenous women with disabilities have faced discrimination, violence and abuse. There have also been rising levels of suicide during this pandemic.

Indigenous people make up around one third of the country’s total population, approximately 11 million out of the 30 million Nepalese. Their special needs need to be addressed in a way that takes into account their cultures.

When the authorities announced the lockdown, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples could not get information about this virus in native, local and sign languages, because health and public campaigns around COVID-19 are still not indigenous and culture friendly.

The situation has been even more difficult for indigenous persons with a disability, like me. I cannot keep my social distance if I need help at the same time. I can manage on my own but as I only have one hand I have not been able to follow the health recommendations to the letter, which causes me a lot of anxiety. The pandemic has made me feel more “disabled” than ever

While the government is distributing relief packages to some residents, most indigenous people do not have the required paperwork to receive these supplies. To get help either you need to have a citizenship or disability card or your name should be registered. Most often vulnerable, marginalized groups like indigenous people and persons with disabilities do not have these documents so they are excluded from services. People are dying of starvation.

We don’t have a full picture of what it is really happening in the country. Nepal has been under nationwide lockdown since March and it has been extended about half-a-dozen times since. As COVID-19 cases continue to surge these measures will be extended until 22 July.

To improve things we first need to properly evaluate the situation on the ground. Indigenous people, especially those with disabilities, have special needs. Without disaggregated data by sex, age, ethnicity, disability, health status, income and geography we cannot properly address them. A blanket approach does not work.

In spite of all the difficulties, indigenous peoples are rising to the challenge. Some organizations, including the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal are disseminating information about COVID-19 and providing food and sanitation supplies to some communities. The indigenous TV channel has been giving information in both indigenous and sign language, with the support of the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association Nepal.

I hope the measures they have put in place (which aim to strengthen health systems, ensure job recovery and enhance access to social protection) will not leave us behind. We need to be part of any discussion that addresses these issues because only we know how the pandemic is affecting us. Implementation of ILO Convention No. 169 has therefore become more important than ever.

As an activist, this situation has been a real challenge for me and for my organization. I am confined in Katmandu and cannot travel. I feel that I am not helping my people as much as I would like. I fear that when we know what is really happening on the ground we will face a worse situation than the one we suffered after the 2015 earthquake that devastated our country.

 

This opinion editorial was originally published here

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Excerpt:

Pratima Gurung is General Secretary, the Global Network of Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities (IPWDGN) President, the National Indigenous Disabled Women Association in Nepal (NIDWAN).

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Rights experts say that the Myanmar government “has long shown a lack of commitment to breaking the cycle of impunity for widespread sexual and gender-based violence”. This is a dated photo of women travelling on a crowded train in Myanmar. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

A legislation that aims to protect women against violence in Myanmar, while long overdue, is raising concern among human rights advocates about its inadequate definition of rape, vague definition for “consent”, and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rhetoric.

Myanmar is soon to see the latest version of its Prevention of and Protection from Violence Against Women (PoVAW) introduced in parliament. But the Global Justice Centre (GJC), an international human rights and humanitarian law organisation focusing on advancing gender equality, has pointed out that the legislation falls short of addressing violence against women.

According to GJC, the language used in the law borrows from Myanmar’s 1861 Penal Code and thus perpetuates antiquated understandings of rape, such as; considering rape as violence committed only by men, the definition of “rape” constituting only of vaginal penetration, and no acknowledgement of marital rape.

“The Myanmar government has long shown a lack of commitment to breaking the cycle of impunity for widespread sexual and gender-based violence, a problem that is exacerbated by broader structural barriers with respect to Myanmar’s military justice system, and a lack of robust domestic options for accountability,” the GJC analysis has claimed.

Last week, Khin Ohmar, an exiled human rights advocate from Myanmar and founder and chairperson of the advisory board of Progressive Voice — a participatory rights-based policy research and advocacy organisation rooted in civil society, with strong links to grassroots and community-based organisations throughout Myanmar  —  shared how sexual violence in the country is used in a “systematic pattern to target ethnic women and girls”.

Ohmar was speaking at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, where she further reiterated how the military in Myanmar has carried out “unspeakable crimes” against ethnic minorities in the country.

Meanwhile, GJC has also published a list of recommendations that leaders can follow to ensure the law is comprehensive as well as applicable in today’s time.

IPS had a conversation with Akila Radhakrishnan, president of GJC, on the issue. Some parts have been edited for clarity purposes.

Inter Press Service (IPS): The year is 2020. How is Myanmar only now introducing the Prevention of Violence against Women Law (PoVAW)?

Akila Radhakrishnan (AK): There’s been a couple of things – I think the lack of will is a starting point. This is something consistently being pushed for by women in civil society since about 2013.

It has been raised as an issue and a part of the reason it’s such a priority is because the original laws we’re talking about date back to 1861.

We’re really talking about laws that haven’t been updated so with the political transition there was a moment when women in civil society saw the opportunity to think it’s time we had a comprehensive law on violence against women, updating progressive positions in the penal code and bring in things like protective orders or a more robust categorisations of kinds of sexual and other types of violence.

And in some ways, the military continues to perpetrate mass sexual violence. Some of the key things that civil society has been pushing for is bringing the military under a mandate of the law, which is antithetical to the military’s interest as well.

IPS: Despite Aung San Suu Kyi being the leader of the country, why are there still discrepancies in the legislation?

AK: Aung San Suu Kyi is no feminist. She has certainly in the past made stronger statements on sexual violence than she currently takes on but she’s very much seen certain types of political reform as her priority. If you look at the trajectory of the laws that were initially passed through the transition, most of the laws were really wound around issues that enabled foreign investment, for example.

There were certain laws that were due to be changed around issues such as certain types of press freedoms, many of which have been regressing in recent times in any case. There was never kind of a feminist priority set from the leadership.

There were certainly some amazing feminists who got elected, including from local women’s civil society who were elected to parliament. They even felt they’ll have the power to set what are the priorities to be passed, to be considered to be looked at in the context of a country that has a range of reforms that need to be undertaken.

Another issue is that it’s been really slow going in the part of some of the agencies that are involved in this as well such as others, such as the attorney general’s office, department of social welfare. There’s a complicated range of actors involved in the development of the law and in the pushback against the law as well

IPS: Where would you say the PoVAW law lacks most glaringly and needs to be most urgently addressed?

AK: Probably the most urgent one is the places where they continue to cling to the penal code and not really think through how to amend it. They kind of cling to the penal code definition of rape itself – it refuses to let go of rape as it was defined in the 1861 penal code.

We detail a range of issues with that specific definition. And a major part of the impetus was to say our more modern definitions of rape, that are more inclusive, that are gender neutral and have better definitions of consent and at the end of the day you’re creating this whole process and you’re clinging to something that’s there.

And related to that is issues such as marital rape as a crime that is somewhat separate from rape, it’s a lesser crime, a lesser penalty and you know that also stems out of an antiquated mindset.

IPS: Is this legislation only for cisgendered women?

AK: There’s a little bit of a tension there. The law itself is a violence against women law and that’s in the framework it’s been developed over quite a bit of time, so there’s been tension wanting to certainly to try to make the law as inclusive as possible [and] really thinking through how difficult it is to even bring this to fruition.

In this moment, it’s important to try to think of how you take an intersectional inclusive approach to this. But unfortunately we’re going to end up only with a VAW framework so we want to at least within that context — and this is really belying on the expertise of groups that do this work better than we do — to really think through how to make something like this as inclusive as possible.

IPS: There are many ethnic minorities in Myanmar, many who often flee the country. How are ethnic minorities targeted for violence and sexual violence?

AK: The military uses sexual violence as a tactic weapon in its conflict, as its violent actions against all ethnic minorities. It is a systematic pattern —  one that is met with impunity which is why legal reforms and accountability are so important. 

IPS: What are your hopes for the steps ahead for the PoVAW law?

AK: The law is an important step forward but in order for it to be a meaningful step forward it actually needs to take into account — and through the process be amended — so it meets international standards, and addresses some of the key issues with the law itself. Otherwise you get kind of a patchwork law where a lot of time and energy has been put into it, but it’s not going to achieve what it could’ve achieved to actually come in line with international standards.

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Child in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Credit: UNICEF/UN0316934/Pasqualli

By Tapan Mishra
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

Mongolia has recorded very few cases of COVID-19, less than 300 as on date, despite its more than 4,000 kilometre porous border with China. However, the country faces a major economic impact from the pandemic.

The general picture of the COVID-19 situation in Mongolia is very positive. The Government of Mongolia closed all educational institutions including kindergartens, schools and universities at the beginning of the year.

It also introduced strict measures on social distancing, such as a ban on public gatherings, limiting public transportation, closing public spaces such as gyms, and making the wearing of masks in public compulsory. Travel has been very limited, including a complete ban on any international travel by road, rail, or air.

Mongolia has been very vulnerable to the pandemic, not only because of its physical proximity to China and Russia including close links and dependence for economic interests, but also due to its own inadequate health care system.

Despite these challenges, there has been no local transmission reported (cases have been limited to patients importing the virus), and I would say that the leadership of the country has dealt well with the pandemic.

Another factor that has helped in making Mongolia’s response a success story, is that the citizens of the country have diligently complied with the government’s directives and regulations.

The requirements to wear masks, ensure good hygiene, such as frequent hand-washing, and physical distancing, have been seriously adhered to. Even during the Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year in February, they complied with government orders, and did not even visit their extended families and elders, which is a tradition for Mongolian families.

Mongolian students adjust to remote learning. Credit: Global Press Journal/Dolgormaa Sandagdorj/ UNDP

Minimizing the impact

Several UN agencies are physically present in Mongolia, with more providing support from outside. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the UN bodies came together under the leadership of the office of the Resident Coordinator, and we have been following the World Health Organization’s response plan, and the UN’s humanitarian and socio-economic response plans.

This has involved setting up a socio-economic task force, and identifying the needs and priorities of the most vulnerable people in Mongolian society.

The UN Country Team has utilized well the $1 Million UN Secretary-General’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery MPTF (multi-partner trust fund) allocation, for supporting the Government of Mongolia in improving the national testing capacity, and have more supplies of personal protective equipment.

We have been also supporting development of the digital learning curriculum to enhance the quality of online learning, as children have not been able to go to school for around six months.

We stand ready to support the Government in every possible way, from their health, humanitarian, and socio-economic response plans, to their longer-term economic recovery.

The economic fallout

We do not know the full impact the pandemic is having yet, but we know it is significant. For instance, in the first quarter of 2020, the economy contracted by 10.7 per cent, and government revenue fell by 8.6 per cent year on year, whilst expenditure went up 19.3 per cent.

National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) team. Credit: NCCD of Mongolia

Mongolia has a large amount of debt, which means that there is an increased risk of defaulting on debt. According to the IMF, GDP is also expected to fall sharply to minus one per cent this year, down from 5.3 per cent in 2019.

To bolster the economy, the Government approved economic stimulus packages, worth over 10 percent of GDP, which included several measures to support vulnerable groups, including cash benefits; mortgages, consumer and business loan repayments were deferred; and the mortgage rate was reduced.

Development setbacks

Unfortunately, it is highly likely that the pandemic will set back the progress we have been making in Mongolia. The Government took early, effective action against the spread of COVID-19, but the increased borrowing, amid an economy hit by reduced exports, means that it will be difficulty to recover from the socio-economic impacts of the crisis.

In collaboration with the IMF, World Bank and other partners, we are conducting detailed studies to look at the real impacts, but we are also working with the Government of Mongolia to ensure that the recovery plans do not leave anyone behind.

I only hope that donors provide the funding that is needed to support the most vulnerable people in Mongolia, and help to ensure that the post-pandemic recovery benefits all members of society.

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Excerpt:

Tapan Mishra is the UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia.

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 28 2020 (IPS)

With uneven progress in containing contagion, worsened by the breakdown in multilateral cooperation due to mounting US-China tensions, recovery from the Covid-19 recessions of the first half of 2020 is now expected to be more gradual than previously forecast.

Pandemic response measures
In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, many governments, especially of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies, have introduced massive fiscal and monetary packages for contagion containment, relief and recovery.

Anis Chowdhury

Such efforts represent a U-turn after long eschewing countercyclical fiscal policy, mostly for ideological reasons, such as dogmatic commitment to ‘budgetary balance’ and ‘fiscal consolidation’, besides giving central banks more economic policy discretion since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC).

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated new government measures through mid-June 2020 at almost US$11 trillion. The Fund projected new borrowing by all governments to rise from 3.7% of global output in 2019 to 9.9% in 2020.

Projecting gradual recovery from the second half of 2020, the Fund expects average fiscal deficits to rise by 14% as global public debt reaches an all-time high, exceeding 101% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020-2021.

After much wrangling, EU leaders compromised on a new US$2.1 trillion (€1.8 trillion) package on 21 July. The European Commission has also activated the general escape clause in EU fiscal rules, allowing deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.

Complementary monetary initiatives include relaxing recommended Basel 3 capital buffers, lowering mandatory reserve ratios and easing terms for additional temporary credit facilities for banks and businesses.

Thus, central banks have committed an estimated US$17 trillion to extend ‘unconventional’ measures to buy corporate bonds, besides government bonds and government-sponsored mortgage-backed securities introduced during the GFC.

Windmills of financial minds
Macroeconomic economic policy makers must resist quixotic impulses to fight against financial ‘windmills of the mind’, instead fulfilling their responsibility to pursue consistently counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Financial market analysts exaggerate real concerns, even using discredited research. Citing old research, even doubted by The Economist, a Forbes columnist insisted that “the surge in government debt” would cause “economic growth to decline”, claiming that government debt beyond 85% of GDP would slow growth.

Global public debt came to 83% of world output in 2019, up from 60% in 2008, before the GFC. This sharp rise happened despite austerity measures since 2010 when many G20 and OECD countries adopted fiscal consolidation.

That turn to austerity followed advice from the IMF, OECD and European Central Bank, who invoked influential, but misleading academic research. But fiscal consolidation “after the Great Recession was a catastrophic mistake”, concluded a Forbes columnist. It failed to deliver robust recovery, let alone sustained growth.

Subsequent IMF research found fiscal consolidation raised short-term unemployment, with even harder impacts in the long-term, hurting wage-earners much more than profit- and rent-earners. IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard and his colleagues found Fund advice for early fiscal retrenchment inappropriate.

Windmills can block recovery
Reversing emergency expansionary measures too soon risks aborting recovery and may even trigger new recessions. Even an assets fund manager has acknowledged, “Like a course of antibiotics, an economic relief package is most efficacious when administered to completion”.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to balance the budget in 1937 after securing re-election, the ensuing downturn ended the recovery, only revived after deficit spending resumed in 1939. Also, countries that abandoned fiscal expansion for consolidation from 2009 had worse recovery records than others.

Deficits and debt have, in fact, not been reliable indicators of long-term growth prospects. Obsessed with debt and deficits, while ignoring spending composition and efficiency, ‘deficit hawks’ tend to downplay the potential growth impacts of expansionary fiscal policy.

Nevertheless, the Fund continued to warn in January 2019 that high and rising public debt constituted “a potential fault line”. Pre-pandemic economic stagnation, tax cuts and poor commodity prices induced larger fiscal deficits, requiring more government debt, now compounded by Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery efforts.

Clearly, government macroeconomic policies should not be guided by financial market whims. Leaving policy making to such influential market signals can push an economy in recession into a lasting depression. The recent IMF leadership transition appears to have led to greater pragmatism just in time.

Investing for the future
The Fund’s April 2020 Fiscal Monitor urged governments to take advantage of historically low borrowing costs to invest for the future—in health systems, infrastructure, low-carbon technologies, education and research—while boosting productivity growth. After all, a year ago, advanced economies were spending only 1.77% of their combined GDP on debt interest—the lowest since 1975.

Unusually, it also advised governments to enhance automatic stabilizers, including a tax and benefit system to stabilize incomes and consumption, involving progressive taxation and social security payments or unemployment assistance.

Undoubtedly, politicians are often tempted, by lower debt costs, to borrow to spend more on “populist” programmes while cutting taxes. Such irresponsible fiscal policies need to be corrected.

Clearly, governments need to look at how money, borrowed or otherwise, is spent. If, for example, borrowed money goes into investments enhancing productivity, public assets can contribute not only to growth, but also to revenue.

Covid-19 recessions are quite different from recent ones following financial crises. Yet, all recessions threaten to become depressions if not quickly and appropriately addressed.

We are in for a long hard struggle, on both public health and economic fronts. Policies must not only be appropriate for the problems at hand, but should also create conditions for a better future, rather than simply trying to return to the status quo ante Covid.

As visionary leaders did during and after the Second World War, we need appropriate plans, not only to revive economies and livelihoods, but also to build a more dynamic, sustainable and equitable economy.

 

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