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

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

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

Paul S. Teng

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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The post COVID-19: Maintaining Food Security in Asia Pacific appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sharing information about the coronavirus has also been key.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Credit: WHO

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

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

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

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

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

But now is not that time, he cautioned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is not just feeding kids’ bellies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Impact on families and communities

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

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

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

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

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

Photo Credits: WFP/Photolibrary

This story was originally published by Degrees of Latitude

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Credit: United Nations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Safe abortion still a dream for many

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Liberalising the law

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

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

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

Medical practitioners and health exerts also welcomed the amendment.

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

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

Lack of accountability fuels discrimination

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

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

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

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

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

Stigma – a global challenge

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

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

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

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

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

Safe abortion for a better life

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

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

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

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

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

Fathima agrees.

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

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

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

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

Related Articles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

Seema Sanghavi is Founder Cooks Who Feed

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

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

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

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

Anis Chowdhury

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By External Source
Apr 13 2020 (IPS)

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

Myth 3: Spray alcohol and chlorine all over your body

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

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

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

 

Myth 4: Drink black tea first thing in the morning

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

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

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

 

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

The pepper soup myth has been circulating mostly in Nigeria.

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

Myth 7: Vitamin C tablets prevent COVID-19

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

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

 

Myth 8: Having had malaria makes one immune

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

There is no evidence to support this.

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

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

 

Myth 9: The flu injection will protect you

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Fulfilling Paris Agreement promises

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

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

A green transition in the COVID-19 recovery?

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

Peter Paul van de Wijs

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

Business input to the solution

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

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

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

Understanding impacts can drive improvement

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wasted bioenergy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related Articles

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

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By SWAN
Apr 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow SWAN’s founder on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale

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Wuhan City. Credit: UNESCO

By Manuel Manonelles
BARCELONA, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

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

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

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

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

Manuel Manonelles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Excerpt:

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

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Courtesy: WaterAid/ CS Sharada Prasad/ Safai Karmachari Kavalu Samiti

By External Source
NEW DELHI, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

In addition to healthcare professionals, there is another group of people at the frontlines of the global crisis caused by COVID-19. They put their lives at risk every day and play a critical role in preventing the spread of the virus, by ensuring our streets, parks, public spaces, sewers, septic tanks, communities, and public toilets are kept clean and hygienic.

They are our often-overlooked sanitation workers. These five million public health and safety workers—who continue to work through the COVID-19 pandemic—are unprotected, stigmatised, unappreciated, and seen as people to be shunned.

One of the biggest challenges they face is that they have no information about affected households, nor about those who are at high risk. If they contract the virus, they have very little recourse to health safety nets, insurance, or access to already overflowing public health facilities.

This is particularly stark for women sanitation workers, who make up more than 50 percent of urban sanitation workers.

 

What needs to be done to ensure the health and safety of these essential workers?

 

Provide protective equipment

While we recognise that frontline staff in hospitals and health facilities face a dire shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), the need of the hour is also to find ways to provide sanitation workers with the following necessities: masks (at the very least, double-layered stitched cloth masks), rubber gloves, aprons, protective footwear or boots, sanitiser, and soap.

In Maharashtra, the government has allowed all Urban Local Bodies to use the Fourteenth Finance Commission funds to purchase PPE for sanitation workers, and allowed sanitation workers to work in shifts. In Telangana, self-help groups (SHGs) have been roped in to produce masks for sanitation workers.

Provide financial support

This can be done both at individual and organisational levels.

• Protection of salaries: An advisory has been issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs stating that the salaries of sanitation workers must be protected if they are unable to report to duty due to lockdown.
• Allocation of CSR funds to organisations that work with sanitation workers: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has declared that CSR funds may be utilised for activities related to COVID-19 including preventive healthcare, sanitation, and disaster management.

While such efforts by government at national, state, and city levels are welcome, they do not reach all the five million sanitation workers in India.

 

Offer support at a local level

Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) should ensure that sanitation workers who work in their localities have proper PPE. If required, funds can be collected at a local level to ensure that workers have proper safety gear. RWAs can also support the sanitation workers’ organisations to ensure that all sanitation workers are provided health insurance and regular health checks. MPs, MLAs, and municipal councilors have annual funds available for development in their respective constituencies and can be encouraged to allocate amounts from these for the welfare of sanitation workers.

 

Provide access to food and boarding facilities

In Chennai, sanitation workers are provided free meals at Amma Canteens. Local communities could also pool resources to ensure that sanitation workers have access to food and other supplies. This will ensure that they do not have to worry about providing for their families while they are at their jobs.

In terms of helping them self-isolate, to keep their families safe, state governments should explore the option of providing sanitation workers with boarding in designated hostels and residential facilities. The Delhi government has undertaken a similar step, wherein hotel rooms have been rented for doctors who do not want to go home for the fear of infecting their families with COVID-19.

Finally, it is important to raise the profile of sanitation workers—just like we do with all the other health workers—and pay them their due respect, acknowledging their importance as frontline warriors.

Because, just as the nation’s health workers tirelessly work to save lives, our sanitation workers have also been working in every ward and mohalla to ensure that we remain safe and healthy. It is time for all of us to recognise this.

 

The authors are members of the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance.

 

Abhinav Akhilesh is a director with a leading consulting firm in India, in the human and social services practice. 

Meera Mehta is a Professor Emerita at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and executive director of its Centre of Water and Sanitation (C-WAS)

Zara Juneja is a consultant, working with partners across the urban WASH and communities sectors in India. 

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

The post How Can We Support Sanitation Workers During COVID-19? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By External Source
Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

The World Health Organisation (WHO), in its quest to find efficacious therapies to treat COVID-19, plans to conduct a multi-arm, multi-country clinical trial. The trials have yet to begin, but ten countries have already signed up. Only one of them, South Africa, is on the African continent.

Of course, the WHO isn’t the only organisation trying to find treatments or even a vaccine for COVID-19. The United States National Institutes of Health maintains an online platform that lists all registered, ongoing clinical trials globally.

Africa’s virtual absence from the clinical trials map is a big problem. The continent displays an incredible amount of genetic diversity. If this diversity is not well represented in clinical trials, the trial findings cannot be generalised to large populations


On March 26, a quick search of the platform using the term “coronavirus” revealed 157 ongoing trials; 87 of these involve either a drug or a vaccine, while the rest are behavioural studies. Only three are registered in Africa – all of them in Egypt.

This low representation of African countries in clinical trials is not unusual. Poor visibility of existing sites, limited infrastructure and unpredictable clinical trial regulatory timelines are some of the key issues hindering investments in this area.

Africa’s virtual absence from the clinical trials map is a big problem. The continent displays an incredible amount of genetic diversity. If this diversity is not well represented in clinical trials, the trial findings cannot be generalised to large populations.

The same goes for the outcomes of the COVID-19 studies. They too may not be relevant for people in African countries unless conducted locally. This is because responses to drugs or vaccines are complicated and can be influenced by, among other things, human genetics: different people will respond differently to different drugs and vaccines.

More countries on the African continent must urgently get involved in clinical trials so that the data collected will accurately represent the continent at a genetic level.

Time is of the essence. The usual approach, of developing site or country specific protocols, won’t work. Instead, African governments need to look at ways to harmonise the response towards COVID-19 across the continent. Now, more than ever, African countries need to work together.

 

Centres of excellence

Africa does have clinical trial infrastructure and capabilities. But the resources remain unevenly distributed. The vast majority are in Egypt and South Africa. That’s because these countries have invested more heavily in research and development than others on the continent.

Traditionally, clinical trials are conducted at centres of excellence, which are sites that have the appropriate infrastructure and human skills necessary to conduct good quality trials. These can be located at a single university or research organisation, or work can be split between a few locations.

But setting up these centres requires significant time and financial investment. Most that I am aware of on the continent have developed over the years with heavy support from external partners or sponsors. In many cases, African governments have not been involved in these efforts.

Once such centres are set up, the hard work continues to maintain these centres and to ensure they’re able to attract clinical trial sponsors. They require continuous funding, the establishment of proper institutional governance and the creation of trusted, consistent networks.

Usually African scientists leading clinical trial sites can apply for funding to conduct a trial; if the site is well known the scientists may be approached by a sponsor such as a pharmaceutical company interested in conducting a trial.

Clearly this approach takes time and usually benefits well-known sites or triallists. So what alternatives are available in the face of an epidemic that’s moving as fast as COVID-19?

 

How to change direction

Key stakeholders should work together to expedite the rollout of trials in different countries. This would include inter-country collaborations such as working with different governments and scientists in co-designing trials; and providing harmonised guidelines on patient management, sample collection and tracking and sharing results in real time.

African governments, meanwhile, should provide additional funding to clinical research institutions and clinical trial sites. This would allow the sites to pull resources together and rapidly enrol patients to answer various research questions.

Because of the uneven distribution of skills and resources the continent should also adopt a hub-and-spoke model in its efforts. This would involve countries that don’t have much capacity being able to ship samples easily across borders for analysis in a centralised well-equipped laboratory, which then feeds back data to the country of sample origin.

Governments should also form a task force to quickly engage with key pharmaceutical companies with drug candidates for COVID-19. This team should establish the companies’ appetite for collaborations in conducting relevant trials on the continent.

Through all of this, it is necessary for stakeholders to identify and address key ethical issues that may arise. Ethics should not be compromised by haste.

 

Beyond COVID-19

Every country’s epidemic preparedness kit should contain funds set aside for clinical trials during epidemics or pandemics.

This would require governments on the continent to evaluate their role and level of investment in the general area of clinical trials. This will augment the quality and quantity of clinical trials in the face of the constant challenge of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases as well as a steady rise in non-communicable diseases.

On top of this, clinical trial centres, clinical research institutions and clinical triallists on the continent should strive to increase their visibility in the global space. This will make them easy to find in times of crisis, and enhance both south-south and north-south collaborations.

The African Academy of Sciences is currently building an online platform to facilitate this visibility and encourage greater collaboration.

 

Jenniffer Mabuka-Maroa, Programme Manager, African Academy of Sciences

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

The post Few Clinical Trials are Done in Africa: COVID-19 Shows Why this Urgently Needs to Change appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Sahle-Work Zewde is Ethiopia's first female president. Since coming to power in 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reorganised the cabinet to ensure that 50 percent of the government’s top ministerial positions have been given to women. Never before in Ethiopia have so many high-ranking government positions been held by women. Courtesy: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

By James Jeffrey
YORK, United Kingdom, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

Recent gains by women in the Ethiopian political landscape offer a chance to improve gender equality around the country and put an end to long-standing societal iniquities.

Since coming to power in 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reorganised the cabinet to ensure that 50 percent of the government’s top ministerial positions have been given to women.

Sahle-Work Zewde became the country’s first female president, while Aisha Mohammed became the country’s first defence minister. Never before in Ethiopia have so many high-ranking government positions been held by women.

In 1991, the share of seats held by women in the Ethiopian parliament was under 3 percent. Today it stands at 38 percent, almost twice the ratio of women in the United States Congress.

But, at the same time, stark gender disparities persist all around the country. The hope is that improved representation in the federal government will tangibly affect and improve the status of Ethiopia’s more than 50 million women and girls.

“There is strong evidence that as more women are elected to office, there are more policies enacted that emphasise quality of life and reflect the priorities of families, women and minorities,” Katja Iversen, president of Women Deliver, an international organisation advocating around the world for gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women, tells IPS.

“Studies also show that women are more likely than men to work across party lines, help secure lasting peace, and prioritise health, education and other societal priorities key to the wellbeing and prosperity of both constituents and societies at large.”

At the same time, there are concerns that Ethiopia’s most recent female politicians are not in elected positions rather are making up a quota. 

“The women who are in power are more loyal to the prime minister than the public that is why they find it difficult to act—for fear of disappointing the person who put them there,” Hadra Ahmed, a freelance Ethiopian journalist, tells IPS.

“We can only say women are in politics when they are represented as candidates and as decision makers,” she adds.

Women in Ethiopia have long faced systemic inequities. The discrepancies begin early and often persist throughout Ethiopian women’s lives. Nearly twice as many men than women over age 25 have some secondary education. Women often face more economic constraints than men, including less access to credit and limited market access.

“Ethiopians strongly believe that women can never be as good as men and this is specially heart breaking when it comes from your mother [or] a well-educated person that you probably look up to [such as] your teacher,” Ahmed says.

“And the whole system tells you that you are not as capable through different policies like affirmative actions that lower the passing grade rather than helping girls to study and making sure they make it to school in time.”

Female genital mutilation rates remain high, with 74 percent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years of age experiencing FGM, according to UNICEF. Child marriage still occurs, with about 58 percent of Ethiopian females marrying before they turn 18.

Eighty percent of Ethiopia’s population resides in rural areas and women provide much of the agricultural labour in these communities, while shouldering the majority of child-rearing duties.

But the contributions of women can go largely unrecognized. Fathers or husbands often restrict access to resources and community participation. One in three women experience physical, emotional or sexual violence, according to USAID.

“Ethiopian society practices negative social norms that reinforce inequality and perpetuate deep power and gender imbalances,” Dinah Musindarwezo, director of policy and communications for Womankind Worldwide, a global women’s rights organisation working in partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements, tells IPS.

“The perceptions and attitudes that women should belong to the kitchen and men in the board room are widely spread across the world. Although we have seen changes and progress towards women participating in public sphere including in political leadership, we are seeing less progress of men entering the kitchen and taking leadership in care work. Globally, women still perform majority of unpaid and domestic work.”

Ethiopia is no exception, Musindarwezo says, illustrated by the widespread expectation that women should not only be the primary childcare providers but they should also perform the majority of unpaid and domestic work.

In Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, life for the majority of women follows a traditional course, centred on family and agriculture. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

In 2017, Ethiopia ranked 121 out of 160 countries on a Untied Nations gender equality index based on various social, health and political factors.

“If you look at the experience of other countries like India, the media representation of strong women is what helped women become stronger in the society,” Ahmed says. “Seeing a stronger version of us somewhere pushes us to be better. Assigning to women a quota in government positions and exploiting them in these positions will not solve anything.”

Iverson says that in order to make sure women’s political participation is not only symbolic, governments must also fully commit to gender equality through equal pay, affordable childcare, gender sensitive budgeting and auditing, and paid parental leave.

Parental leave—including paternity leave—has proven a significant “norm changer” in improving women’s participation in the workforce, Iverson says. When men take paternity leave, she explains, it both affirms that caregiving is everyone’s responsibility, helps improve pay equity, and makes it easier for more women to be successful and climb the career ladder.

Despite the Ethiopian government’s bold moves to empower female politicians, the country’s fraught political realm—which can be dangerous for anyone, regardless of sex—still poses many hurdles for women to overcome, especially given the pernicious influence of social media.

“Women politicians face unique forms of online and offline attacks and deliberate actions to discourage their participation in politics,” Daniel Bekele, commissioner of the Ethiopia Human Rights Commission, said during the keynote speech at the “Women’s Political Participation and Election in Ethiopia: Envisioning 2020 and Beyond for Generation Equality” national conference at the end of 2019.

“This reflects how patriarchal [our] society is in its functions.”

Musindarwezo notes that in addition to having women in political leadership, it’s just as important to create an environment that is conducive for women to be effective leaders.

“Often times we expect women to magically address all the issues especially gender issues without removing structural barriers they face,” Musindarwezo says. “Women political leaders face barriers such as their voices being overshadowed by political parties’ voices, limited access to adequate resources they need to make a difference and being held to different standards to those of men. Women leaders often face biased public criticism, harassment and intimidations just because they are women.”

Bekele says that Ethiopian women face particular challenges in times of elections that seriously impact and discourage their participation. Ethiopia is due to hold an all-important national election this year, but currently it has been delayed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

“There must also be implemented legal protections for women including laws against gender-based violence, policies regarding sexual harassment, and accessible justice systems for accountability,” Iverson says. “Countries must ditch discriminatory laws that are holding women back and enact legal frameworks that advance gender equality at work, in society and at home.”

Those at Women Deliver note how, to Ethiopia’s credit, it has brought in a new law that annulled previous legal provisions that gave authority to a husband over a couple’s assets and whether his wife could work outside of the home.

As a result of the legal change, spouses are now equal with regard to the administration of assets, and a husband cannot unilaterally prevent his wife from working. The World Bank estimates that this law has enabled an increase in the participation rate of women in productive sectors.

Despite continuing challenges for Ethiopian women, change is afoot beyond the political level. In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Setaweet is the country’s first feminist research and training company, which offers tailor-made gender equality services for schools, agencies and corporate companies. Its flagship project is a feminist curriculum for secondary school students dealing with femininity and masculinity, healthy relationships and positive self-images.

“Women are powerful agents of change, and their participation at all decision-making levels is a prerequisite for politics and programs that reflects societies and are effective, sustainable and inclusive,” Iversen says.

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The post A Gender-equal Ethiopian Parliament can Improve the Lives of all Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

In 1991, the share of seats held by women in the Ethiopian parliament was under 3 percent. Today it stands at 38 percent, almost twice the ratio of women in the United States Congress. Experts say when women are better represented in government office, the gains are likely to spill down and improve the lives of all women.

The post A Gender-equal Ethiopian Parliament can Improve the Lives of all Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
AMMAN, Apr 10 2020 (IPS-Partners)

We find this to be a difficult time in the history of humanity. COVID-19 has brought about ever-increasing tragedies of death and deprivation all the while inflaming our social and economic problems. The time has come to form a humanitarian consensus – strong and active – to face the challenges and dangers that threaten humankind and its future onour small planet.

As a group of Muslim scholars and thinkers that share in the ethical commitment and humanitarian obligation towards others, we call on all individuals wherever they may be to take part in the blessed efforts of international, regional and national organisations and carry out their human, ethical and religious duty to overcome a deadly pandemic that has affected humankind, our ways of being, world economies and indeed a majority of life systems, and afflicted the impoverished with the additional suffering of a livelihood constricted and constrained.

With a view to reviving the ethical and humanitarian responsibility towards others as the governing and organizing principle of human behavior and activity, and out of the belief that the concept and practice of Zakat, or the giving of alms, entails good formankind and with respect to the conference that the Arab Thought Forum planned to hold on the subject of the ‘Universalism of Zakat – Dimensions and Institutional Manifestations’ in Ramadan of 1441H, we issue a call of support to the initiative made by Prince El Hassan bin Talal under the heading ‘Solidarity and the Awakening of the Human Conscience’ and a call to action for the establishment of an international institution for Zakat and human solidarity, an undertaking that His Royal Highness called for many a year ago.

In all its reverberations and consequences, the present calls for reform from within. We must find inner peace and security, seek the soundness of our hearts andresuscitate acollective consciousness that leads us tothereinforcement of values that elevatethe dignity of Man above polychromatic nationality,religion, color and gender.

Reason and human existence today face monumental challenges –in awe of a miniscule organism, intelligence has stood befuddled.An egalitarian pathogen perseveres in its mightand obliges us to underline the potential of human sufferingto bring people together further than the vocabulary of interests andgains. In truth, each of us harbors the feeling that the threat to humanity is one. And, that truth ought to marshalour capabilities and give rise to thoughtful reflection on the meaning of our collective humanity in all its strengths and weaknesses whilst it uncovers for us novel spaces of convergence and joint action.

The good of an individual lies in hishumanityand his humanitya cornerstone of human solidarity around which all of our shared values revolve. An imperative that beckons us to recognize our shared responsibility towards future generations, the injunction to give serious thought to the challenges facing humanity is a corollary of the belief in the dignity and the rights of Man.

These arduous times are a test ofthe humanityof Man and his humilityjust as they are a test ofthe truth, rituals and fruits of faith: Will we fail or will we succeed? WeMuslimscarry the flag of a mercifuland compassionate religion. An international institution for Zakat and human solidarity should be preceded by interpretive jurisprudential activity on the issues of our time such as Zakat and social solidarity. Zakat could be a starting point from which mercy – which God Almighty rendered as the principal purpose behind the sending of His Messengers – is realised. The revival of our human and ethical duty towards others is in effect a revival of the common sense that God has endowed us with. A revival as such would be a faithful representation of the true religion of God in all its doctrines and fundamental parameters.

We thus refer to a fatwa byMuslim scholars that permits nay applauds accelerating the payment of the Zakat owed over the course of one or two years to the impoverished and even favors the rapid payment of Zakat over waiting for thestart of the holy month of Ramadan to give alms.The value of that Zakat in the Muslim world this year alone is estimated in excess of four hundred billion dollars–a tremendous sum which if collected in the current circumstances,where curfews and shutdowns have meantinterruptions to the livelihoods of many, may salvage the faith, lives and dignity of the needy.

The ability of the mind to innovate, invent and face challenges is resounding. The problems that arise from a knowledge alien to the idea of a balance with nature can be addressed through the integration of the natural and social sciences. An opportunity to exhibit the extent of our involvement in the deft management of a crisis and showcase our collaborative efforts to realise the common good and blunt the effects of poverty, destitution and illness on people, the present brings to the fore the role of networking and coordination, the obligation to learn from others and the importance of working together to rebuild the trust that remains lostand that which has weakened between the young and the old and the rich and the poor.

We find it vital to emphasise the role played by faith in strengthening our capacity for hardship and our ability to persevere in the face of that hardship as well as the role played by faith in encouraging supportfor and the alleviation of the suffering and pain of others. “We shall certainly test you with fear of hunger, and loss of property, lives and crops. But [Prophet], give good news to those who are steadfast” – the Qur’an (The Cow 2:155).

We view Man as a part of nature rather than asa creature outside of God’s natural creation. Man is thus entrusted with the care of the Earth and the creatures that inhabit the Earth: “We offered the Trust [of reason and moral responsibility] to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains; yet they refused to undertake it and were afraid of it; but mankind [undertook to] bear it” – the Qur’an (The Joint Forces 33:72).

We call for a reconciliation betweenhumankind and nature. Mankind must develop a sense of responsibility towards the environment and begin to protect the environment. A balance between the requirements of modern civilization and the preservation of life must be found: pollution of all stripesand encroachments of all kinds must be curtailed, natural resources must be carefully managed, and troves of buried ore must be maintained and preserved. Institutional responsibility thus lies in the increase of funds made available for the purposes of scientific research in our contemporary societies

The here and now is a truly encouraging moment for the humanitarian side of religion to come to the fore and a moment conducive for the development of a civilizational discourse anchored in the shared values of humanity. In its entirety, humanitymustunite and bring repertoires of knowledge together and synchronize the endeavor to find a way out of the global catastrophe that we all face regardless of race, colorand belief.

We are all children of a civilization united by common bonds of a far greater kind than the differences – cultural, racial or other – that divide us: “People, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them spread countless men and women far and wide”– The Qur’an (Women 2:1). We must come to sense the moral responsibility that we hold for the disasters caused by Man, or those natural disasters that come as a consequence of the actions and conduct of Man, as the Holy Quran says,“Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of the people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done so that they may return [to righteousness]” – The Quran (The Byzantines 30:41)

In the sake of Allah/God

Signatories:

1- El Hassan Bin Talal, President and patron of the Arab Thought Forum
2- Abdullah Gül, Former President of Turkey
3- The International Union For Muslim Scholars (IUMS), on their behalf
Shaikh Dr. Ahmed Abdul Salam Raissouni, President of IUMS and Shaikh Dr. Ali Al-Qardaghi, Secretary General of IUMS
4- MajelisUlema Indonesia (Indonesian Ulema Council) on their behalf Dr. Anwar Abbas, Secretary General
5- Arshad Hurmuzlu,Former Adviser to the President of Turkey
6- Khalil Al-Khalil, Former member of Shura Council – Saudi Arabia
7- Shaikh Abdullah Azzi, Yemen
8- Shaikh IkrimaSabri, Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque – Jerusalem
9- Haji AllahshükürHummatPashazade, Shaik ul-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Caucasus, and Secretary General of Baku International Centre for Interfaith and inter-Civilization Cooperation – Azerbaijan
10- Dr.HichemGrissa, President of Ez-Zitouna University, Tunisia
11- Shaikh Abdel Karim Khasawneh, Mufti of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
12- Professor Mohammed Abdel Haleem, University of London
13- Imam YahyaPallavicini, President of the Religious Islamic Italian Community; ISESCO Ambassador for Dialogue among Civilisations, Member ECRL European Council of Religious Leaders and Co-Coordinator of the European MJLC Muslim and Jewish Leadership Council.
14- Dr. Sayed Zafar, President of Zakat Foundation of India
15- Prof. Azza Karm, VRIJE University, Amsterdam
16- Imam IzzeddinElzir, Imam of Florence
17- Dr. Mohamed Hussein El Zoghbi, Federação das AssociaçõesMuçulmanas do Brasil – FAMBRAS (Union or Islamic Associations in Brazil)
18- BAZNAS, Republic of Indonesia; on their behalf: Prof. Dr. BambangSudibyo, MBA, CA, Chairman of BAZNAS and the Vice-Chairman Dr. Zainulbahar Noor
19- Dr. Mohammad Abu Hammour, Secretary General of the Arab Thought Forum

The post The Declaration of the Human Solidarity Initiative Against the Coronavirus Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jemimah Njuki
NAIROBI, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

As of April 8, there have been 1.5 million reported cases of coronavirus and over 83,000 deaths. Most of these deaths are of men. Italy, for example, has so far had 71 percent of all case deaths attributed to men while Spain, another major global hotspot, has seen 65 percent of all deaths being men.

While the mortality rates for men are higher, women are disproportionally affected by the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. Indeed, there is evidence that pandemics affect men and women in different ways, and COVID19 is no different.

Women comprise seven out of ten health and social care workers and contribute US$ 3 trillion annually to global health, half in the form of unpaid care work. Health workers continue to be exposed to the virus due to lack of basic protective equipment

Women are facing higher risks of infection compared to men due to their large numbers in the health sector. The health and social sector, with its 234 million workers, is one of the biggest and fastest growing employers in the world, particularly of women.

Women comprise seven out of ten health and social care workers and contribute US$ 3 trillion annually to global health, half in the form of unpaid care work. Health workers continue to be exposed to the virus due to lack of basic protective equipment.

The care work burden which disproportionality falls on women has increased with the pandemic. In addition to women making up most of health-care workers, women are overwhelmingly the primary caretakers in their families.

As schools have closed, as COVID 19 measures, which require services and activities mainly done by women, such as requirement for water, women have found themselves with a bigger workload.

Gender based violence has increased as families find themselves in lockdowns with low economic security and feeling of helplessness. For example in France, domestic violence cases went up by 30% during the lockdown, while calls to the domestic violence line in Argentina went up by 25%.

New research has shown the multiple pathways between pandemics and gender based violence. Recently, UN chief António Guterres called for measures to address a “horrifying global surge in domestic violence” directed towards women and girls linked to lockdowns.

The economic impact of COVID-19 has hit women harder, as more women work in low-paying, insecure and informal jobs. Disruptions, including movement restrictions, are likely to compromise women’s ability to make a living and meet their families’ basic needs, and access much needed sexual and reproductive health and maternal health services.

In addition to understanding these kinds of gender differences at times of pandemics like COVID-19, research can play a much more long-term role.

Indeed, it can play a critical part in documenting and studying the long-term impacts of the pandemic and suggesting ways to ensure that systems protect women and girls during pandemics. This is how.

First, research can help understand, test and scale interventions that build the economic and social resilience of women and girls, as well as provide evidence on how programs can be designed to cope with and minimise the gendered impacts of future pandemics.

For example, unconditional and conditional cash transfers that aim to shift power imbalances by targeting women are likely to be important design features for reducing gender based intimate partner violence. While these have been studies out of pandemics, research during pandemics can help understand the impacts and potential adaptations of these programs.

Second, while the focus with COVID 19 has been on the negative impacts on women’s workloads  and women’s rights, pandemics can bring much desired shifts in gender roles and responsibilities.

The key question is how to sustain these changes long after the pandemic has passed.  Understanding how short-term pandemic-induced changes in gender roles and responsibilities can be sustained over a long time can generate evidence on pathways to equitable role sharing within households.

For example, the Spanish flu disproportionately affected young men, which in combination with World War I, created a labor shortage gap that was filled by women, entrenching women’s right to work.

Third, research can provide insights that inform a more gender sensitive and effective response to epidemics. While there has been a focus on the role of social sciences in understanding and managing pandemics, there has not been enough application of a gender lens to this research.

For example, understanding how men and will be affected in different ways before pandemics occur, how proposed management and response measures will affect them and can be designed to have positive outcomes, and even understanding the power dynamics and how they will affect response are all key areas of research.

And finally, research and researchers can play a role in ensuring the collection and analysis of age and sex disaggregated data both so that the needs and realities of men and boys, women and girls women’s do not fall through the cracks.

As we address the very immediate needs of different groups in the pandemic, let us also invest in long term gender research that ensures there is no disproportionate impact of pandemics, especially on women and girls and that their voices are heard.

 

Dr Jemimah Njuki is an Aspen News Voices Fellow and writes on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Follow her @jemimah_njuki

The post Gender and COVID-19: Where Can Research Help? appeared first on Inter Press Service.