Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Health workers are at the frontlines in the fight against the new Corona Virus. Credit: John Njoroge

By Mutahi Kagwe and Siddharth Chatterjee
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 24 2020 (IPS)

Many soldiers have seen first-hand the horrors of war and, terrifying though it often was, they knew who they were fighting, and could recognise their enemy.

The COVID 19 or the new Corona Virus is different. In this virus we have an enemy which is invisible and sometimes deadly, and the task is harder.

About a century ago the Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, more than the combined total casualties of World Wars I and II. Our understanding of disease transmission and treatments is far ahead of our position in 1918, but this new coronavirus has shown the limits of our ability to deal with major disease outbreaks.

Advice to protect ourselves is clear: wash your hands well and often, self-isolate if you feel unwell, maintain social distance by avoiding crowded and public spaces and, if your symptoms worsen, contact medical services. Only by following this advice rigorously can we hope to stem the tide of new infections.

For now, however, the virus is spreading and, on the frontline between a nervous public and those responsible for directing national responses, the healthcare workers on whom we all depend can easily be forgotten.

During the Ebola outbreak six years ago, the World Health Organisation estimated that health workers were between 21 and 32 times more likely to be infected with Ebola than people in the general adult population. In West Africa more than 350 health care workers died while battling Ebola.

Mutahi Kagwe

Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities, and with no end in sight. They are working in stressful and frightening work environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected, overworked and themselves vulnerable to infection.

The risk to doctors, nurses and others on the front lines has become plain: Italy has seen at least 18 doctors with coronavirus die. Spain reported that more than 3,900 health care workers have become infected,

We need a whole-of-society resolve that we will not let our frontline soldiers become patients. We must do everything to support health workers who, despite their own well-founded fears, are stepping directly into Covid-19’s path to aid the afflicted and help halt the virus’s spread.

In sub-Saharan Africa as elsewhere, pressure on the healthcare workforce will intensify in the coming months. A recent survey of National Nurses United (NNU) members in the US, revealed that only 30% believed their healthcare organization had sufficient inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE) for responding to a surge event. In some parts of France and Italy, hospitals have run out of masks, forcing doctors to examine and treat coronavirus patients without adequate protection.

Siddharth Chatterjee

The situation in poorer countries will be worse. Demand has far outstripped supplies. In Kenya to enable health workers to do their jobs safely we will dedicate resources to providing gowns, gloves, and medical grade face masks, and also arm them with the latest knowledge and information on the virus. As partners the Government of Kenya, the United Nations and the international community are determined to explore every avenue to ensure all the possible support for the health workers.

Evidence indicates that coronavirus can survive on some hard surfaces for up to three days, but it is also easily killed by simple disinfectants. Health workers need the back-up of ancillary staff to increase the frequency and rigour of cleaning light switches, countertops, handrails, elevator buttons and doorknobs. Such measures can give much-needed reassurance to stressed care givers and protect the public too.

Like soldiers, health workers also face considerable mental stress. It is often forgotten that as humans, they feel the sorrow of loss when their patients succumb to the virus. They too have families, and so will also naturally be fearful that the virus might reach those they love most.

Whenever possible we will ensure that healthcare workers have access to counselling services so they can recharge before moving on again, given that this could be a long, drawn out battle.

We need to also use accurate information as a means of defence. Misinformation can cause public panic, suspicion and unrest; it can disrupt the availability of food and vital supplies and divert resources – such as face masks – away from health workers and other frontline workers whose need is greatest.

Covid-19 will not be the last dangerous microbe we see. The heroism, dedication and selflessness of medical staff allow the rest of us a degree of reassurance that we will overcome this virus.

We must give these health workers all the support they need to do their jobs, be safe and stay alive. We will need them when the next pandemic strikes.

Mr. Mutahi Kagwe is the Minister of Health in Kenya and Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 24 2020 (IPS)

The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is hard to predict as events are still unfolding, and estimates vary dramatically. UNCTAD estimates lost output in the order of US$1 trillion, just over a third of Bloomberg’s expectation of US$2.7 trillion in losses. The OECD expects global economic growth to halve from already anaemic levels.

Dire consequences for achieving the already failing Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are inevitable. Developing countries are particularly vulnerable, with meagre resources available for the new threat and its consequences.

As resources are urgently needed to cope with the pandemic, their ability to spend on other development priorities will be even more constrained. As with previous economic and health crises, poor and vulnerable sections of the population will be worse affected.

Ahead of the forthcoming G20 leaders’ virtual emergency meeting, the UN Secretary-General warned that current national responses to the coronavirus pandemic “will not address the global scale and complexity of the crisis”.

Anis Chowdhury

Millions could die without a more “coordinated global response, including helping countries that are less prepared to tackle the crisis”, as “global solidarity is not only a moral imperative, it is in everyone’s interests”.

Impact on developing countries
Besides the direct socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic will affect developing countries otherwise via: global value chain and tourism disruptions, falling commodity prices and foreign direct investment, as well as the consequences of capital flight and a stronger dollar.

Analysts project reduced investments in global value chains, energy, mining, and other sectors, as well as falling travel and tourism in African countries due to reduced Chinese demand for raw materials as its economy slows further. Sub-Saharan Africa is also expected to lose up to US$34 billion in export revenue due to reduced global demand, especially collapsing oil prices.

Commodity prices have already fallen sharply, and exporters expect more problems due to falling demand as the global economy slows. Heavily indebted developing countries are in a particularly difficult situation as their exports decline with falling global demand, and import and debt service costs rise due to weaker currencies as money flees to ‘safe havens’.

The Institute for International Finance estimates that around US$67.45 billion has flowed out of emerging countries since late January, an amount larger than emerging market capital outflows in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Impacts on working people
A new International Labour Office report projects almost 25 million jobs could be lost worldwide, and workers could lose some US$3.4 trillion in income by year’s end.
Without paid sick leave, workers in the informal economy cannot afford to stay home.

Lockdowns will disproportionately hurt low-income households, casual workers and the poor, especially where social protection is grossly inadequate. Many lack the means to stockpile food or seek medical treatment.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Malnutrition, poverty and hunger induced health stresses compound vulnerability and feed vicious cycles of disease, destitution and death. As the Ebola epidemic revealed, poverty worsens contagion, which can, in turn, deepen poverty.

Studies of 11 sub-Saharan African, South and Southeast Asian countries found that without universal health coverage, poor people respond to health shocks with impoverishing ‘distress sales’ of their limited assets and by taking on more usurious debt.

Urban slums and refugee camps can become virus hotspots. For the world’s more than 65 million displaced people, who have fled war and persecution, and live precariously, the risks posed by the pandemic are dire.

By disrupting economic activity and cutting incomes, the pandemic is a new cause of impoverishment, besides limiting the ability of vulnerable households to escape from – and stay out of – poverty.

Support measures lack coordination
As of 9 March 2020, ‘donors’ (including governments, multilateral organizations and private funders) had pledged or given an estimated US$8.3 billion – directly to countries and to the WHO – for COVID-19 responses.

This included US$15 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to help vulnerable countries, not very much as the organization struggles with its own persistent underfunding.

Meanwhile, the World Bank announced US$12 billion in immediate support, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made available about US$50 billion in emergency financing for low income and emerging market countries, and “stands ready” to use its US$1 trillion lending capacity to help countries coping with the pandemic.

Concessional support from the IMF and the World Bank usually comes with onerous “one-size-fits-all” policy conditionalities, typically favouring influential shareholders.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust have set up a US$125 million coronavirus drug fund, while Michael Bloomberg’s US$40 million plan seeks to stem the coronavirus spread in developing countries. Philanthropic support is typically oblivious of national development priorities, and may ‘distort’ public health or social protection.

These funds are inadequate, given the scale and complexity of the problem, especially as an early end to the pandemic remains highly unlikely. Different modes of pandemic control need to be considered to minimize the scale of disruption and threat.

Crucially, multilateral coordination remains seriously lacking beyond the valiant efforts of the WHO in the face of persistent criticisms and its own financing problems. The UN should show how slow progress on the SDGs has made us all much more vulnerable to the pandemic and its various consequences.

It will be important for the UN to play a stronger coordinating and leadership role, e.g., with the UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) rapidly assessing the adverse impacts and funding needs of the Covid-19 pandemic in relation to Agenda 20.

The post Stronger UN Leadership Needed to Cope with Coronavirus Threat appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Writers who were supposed to be at the now cancelled PEN World Voices Festival. (Courtesy of PEN America)

By SWAN
Mar 24 2020 (IPS-Partners)

With the spread of the Covid-19 disease, the arts and culture sectors have seen a flood of cancellations and postponements, affecting artists around the world and putting the global 2,000-billion-dollar creative industry at risk.

Concerts, book fairs, film and literary festivals – including the famed Cannes Film Festival – and a range of other events have had to move their dates or cancel outright, while bookshops, museums and cinemas have been forced to close their doors.

The sectors, which employ some 30 million people worldwide, will be among those hit hardest by the pandemic, according to analysts, and individual artists are already fighting to maintain their livelihood.

“Everyone is impacted and suffering,” says American jazz singer Denise King. “As a member of the artist/musician community, I’ve gone from a fairly heavy touring and gig schedule … to nothing. To face this sudden loss of income is devastating. Many artists like myself are scrambling to come up with creative ways to generate income.”

With some 210,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, and 8,778 deaths by March 19 (about three months after the outbreak in Wuhan, China), both wealthy and low-income countries are affected, but vulnerable states are particularly at risk, according to the UN. Along with the health sector, culture and other areas will struggle to recover.

In the Caribbean, several festivals have announced postponements. The popular Calabash literary festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, will now take place in September 2020 instead of May, while the national Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago is similarly postponed.

“We watched and waited to make this decision,” stated Calabash co-organizers Justine Henzell and Kwame Dawes, who stressed that there was no other option given the travel restrictions.

Jamaica was among the first in the region to order lockdowns and to restrict travel from several affected countries. The minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, announced the closure of cultural and sport facilities, including museums, galleries, and stadia run by the government, on March 13, with effect from the following day.

She said the closures were “in keeping with the government’s strategy to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Jamaica and to minimise the potential health impact on the country”, and she urged those in the cultural, sport and entertainment sectors to “take all necessary precautions and follow the guidance of the health authorities”.

The island had 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of March 19, and the government has been commended by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for its response to the pandemic. But officials are aware of the fiscal effects of the crisis.

The Caribbean economy is strongly tied to tourism, including cultural tourism, with the sector representing around 14% of the region’s total GDP, while the arts and culture fields employ thousands of workers.

UNESCO HQ shuttered. Credit: AD McKenzie

According to the United Nations agency UNESCO (which has had to close its doors in Paris), the cultural and creative industry sectors generate annual revenues of US$2,250 billion and global exports of more than US$250 billion.

These industries currently provide nearly 30 million jobs worldwide and employ more people aged 15 – 29 than any other sector, the agency said in a 2018 report, “Reshaping Cultural Policies”. Nearly half of the people working in the cultural and creative industries are women, the report showed.

For states such as France, which is the most visited country in the world with 90 million tourists annually, the shuttering of the cultural sector is unprecedented in peacetime.

The Paris Book Fair, or Livre Paris, was the first major event to announce its cancellation. Normally attracting about 160,000 visitors each year, the Fair was scheduled for March 20-23 and was set to put Indian literature in the spotlight. But when France banned events with gatherings of 5,000 or more people in early March, there was no choice but to cancel.

“Everyone is going to lose a lot of money. Some of us won’t survive,” an independent Paris-based publisher, who asked not to be named, told SWAN. “Those who do manage to keep going will have to push back their planned publications.”

The owners of some bookshops had hoped to stay open, arguing that people need material to read when in confinement, but they too have had to pull down the shutters, although newsagents can remain in operation.

The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, first closed its doors for a few days at the beginning of March because staffers invoked their right to walk off the job if they felt at risk. It reopened, but soon it and all museums, galleries and cinemas had to close because of the government’s decree on March 16, putting the population in lockdown.

“We’re at war” against the virus, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address, ordering the confinement. Since March 17, only places offering essential services are allowed to be open, and residents may leave their home for brief periods only after filling in a form, on their honour, called the “attestation de déplacement dérogatoire”.

With confirmed Covid-19 cases above 10,000 in France, the organisers of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival said on March 19 they had decided to postpone the event. The festival had earlier announced that American director Spike Lee would head the competition jury – the first person of African descent to have this role – and he is expected to be present for the new dates.

“The Festival de Cannes cannot be held on the scheduled dates, from May 12 to 23. Several options are considered in order to preserve its running, the main one being a simple postponement, in Cannes, until the end of June-beginning of July 2020,” the festival team stated.

The organisers said they would make their final decision known following ongoing consultation with the French government and Cannes City Hall.

In the United States, where the government has been widely criticised for being slow to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, cultural events are being cancelled one after the other as well.

PEN, the international association of writers, said it was with “heavy hearts” that it had decided to cancel the 2020 PEN America World Voices Festival scheduled for May 6 – 12.

“We were hoping that this awful public health crisis might ebb by May, and that we could emerge with the exciting events we had curated for audiences in New York and Los Angeles. It’s now plain such plans are neither realistic nor safe for our participants and our audiences,” stated Suzanne Nossel, CEO, PEN America, and Chip Rolley, director of the festival.

“We join the ranks of cultural institutions in New York, Los Angeles, and across the country that will temporarily go dark this spring,” they added. “The World Voices Festival was founded in the wake of 9/11 to provide a beacon for writers and audiences from around the world and to build bridges across borders as an antidote to cultural isolationism. As a new and unexpected isolation is thrust upon us, we regret deeply that we won’t be able to shine that light or foster those vital in-person connections.”

The organisation said it was “seeking new means” to bring directly to audiences the “words, ideas, and artistry” of the writers who’d been invited, including Arundhati Roy and Colm Tóibín. This might be done “through a variety of digital means”, including a new podcast set to launch soon.

The branch of PEN in England, English PEN, meanwhile said it was “with great sadness” that the organization had decided to postpone or cancel all its events “at least until 30 April 2020 following the latest public health advice from the government”. The group announced the creation of an Authors Emergency Fund on March 20, to “help support authors impacted financially by the growing health crisis”.

In the face of the pandemic, not all is doom and gloom in the cultural sector, however. Singers such as John Legend and Chris Martin have been streaming concerts via their social media accounts, as part of the “Sessions: Together, At Home” series – an initiative launched by the Global Citizen Festival and the World Health Organization.

In addition, some publishers are offering significant discounts on their books, while others have made stories, poetry and textbooks available online. From confinement, one can also view many of the world’s art masterpieces via museum web platforms and see films that festivals have decided to stream for free.

King, the jazz vocalist, said she will present a performance on FB live, and she called on the public to assist at-risk artists in whatever way they can.

“We have to hold each other up,” she told SWAN. “Perhaps this virus serves as way to help us focus on what really matters and to reconnect.”

This article is published with permission from Southern World Arts News and editor A. D. McKenzie.

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The post Arts, Culture – Trying to Keep the Lights on amid Covid-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 24 2020 (IPS)

When US President Donald Trump repeatedly characterized the fast-spreading COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” last week, it prompted some white supremacists to resurrect an age old ethnic slur against Chinese and East Asians: the “Yellow Peril” which, in a bygone era, was touted as a xenophobic threat to the Western world.

But Tendayi Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, is highly critical of the racist interpretation to a disease which has claimed over 16,500 deaths worldwide and accounted for more than 378,000 infections, with the epicenter shifting from China to Europe.

Singling out Trump, she said: it’s dismaying, however, “to witness State officials—including the President of the United States—adopting alternative names for the COVID-19 coronavirus”.

“Instead of using the internationally recognized name of the virus, these officials have adopted names with geographic references, typically referring to its emergence in China,” said Achiume, who is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.

“This sort of calculated use of a geographic-based name for this virus is rooted in, and fosters, racism and xenophobia. In this case, it serves to isolate and stigmatize individuals who are, or are perceived to be, of Chinese or other East Asian descent”, she added.

Meanwhile, white supremacist groups in the US have justified the label, mostly in Facebook postings, by arguing that if diseases like German measles (1814), Spanish flu (1918) and Lyme disease (1975), are widely accepted, why not a “Chinese virus”?

Asked for her response, Achiume told IPS it’s disingenuous to try and make this an issue of semantics, where defenders of racialized disease-names point to historical examples of related naming practices.

“We have individuals today who are being attacked and abused on racial and ethnic grounds, in part because their attackers are emboldened by xenophobic leaders stoking intolerance on the basis of national origin”.

She said this is not a time for semantics.

“We are facing a global pandemic that requires leaders to defend and protect the dignity of all people, irrespective of race or ethnicity”, declared Achiume, who is also a research associate of the African Center for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

According to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), one of the primary TV channels in the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has, in an intelligence briefing last month, revealed plans involving white supremacist groups allegedly attempting to “weaponize the coronavirus” to attack non-whites and minorities—through infected saliva, spray bottles and laced items.

And in a report on Yahoo News, Hunter Walker and Jana Winter write: “Violent extremists continue to make bioterrorism a popular topic among themselves,” reads the intelligence brief written by the Federal Protective Service, which covered the week of Feb. 17-24.

“White Racially Motivated Violent Extremists have recently commented on the coronavirus, stating that it is an ‘OBLIGATION’ to spread it, should any of them contract the virus.”

Matthew Lee, a health policy researcher and a doctoral candidate in sociomedical sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, points out that during disease outbreaks, attacks on marginalized groups are not an exception, but the norm.

This racism and xenophobia are additionally stoked by discourse that casts the bodies and behaviors of Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans as suspicious, and even at fault, for spreading disease, he noted.

“While viruses and other pathogens do not discriminate between hosts based on race, ethnicity, nationality or immigration status — stigma and misinformation certainly do,” Lee added.

Achiume said irresponsible, discriminatory State rhetoric is no minor issue.

As noted by the World Health Organization in 2015: ‘disease names really do matter to the people who are directly affected … certain disease names provoke a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities … This can have serious consequences for peoples’ lives and livelihoods’.

“These consequences have already become a reality. Over the past two months, people who are perceived or known to be of Chinese or other East Asian descent have been subject to racist and xenophobic attacks related to the virus. These attacks have ranged from hateful slurs to denial of services to brutal acts of violence,’ she added.

COVID-19-related expressions of racism and xenophobia online have included harassment, hate speech, proliferation of discriminatory stereotypes, and conspiracy theories.

Not surprisingly, she argued, leaders who are attempting to attribute COVID-19 to certain national or ethnic groups are the very same nationalist populist leaders who have made racist and xenophobic rhetoric central to their political platforms.

“Political responses to the COVID-19 outbreak that stigmatize, exclude, and make certain populations more vulnerable to violence are inexcusable, unconscionable, and inconsistent with States’ international human rights law obligations”.

“Furthermore, political rhetoric and policy that stokes fear and diminish the equality of all people is counterproductive. To treat and combat the spread of COVID-19 effectively, individuals must have access to accurate health advice and sufficient healthcare without fear of discrimination,” she declared.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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Sungai Nibung village chief Syarif Ibrahim (second from left) leads by example in planting mangrove trees in Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan province.

By Kanis Dursin
JAKARTA, Mar 23 2020 (IPS)

Samsul sounded very happy last Monday (Mar. 16) when recounting his experience of catching crabs worth more than $60 in a single day. 

“I hauled over 12 kilograms of crabs on that day, which I sold to local traders,” Samsul told IPS during a phone interview from Sungai Nibung, a fishing village inside a protected mangrove forest in Kubu Raya regency, in the West Kalimantan province on Borneo Island. The island is a 90-minute flight north of the country’s capital Jakarta.

But that was some time ago.

Decades of overfishing and rampant use of fish bombs, poison, and trawls, combined with the rapid conversion of land into oil palm plantations in neighbouring villages, had severely depleted crab, shrimp and fish stocks in the area, resulting in dwindling catch and declining incomes for local residents.

To help make ends meet, Sungai Nibung residents would cut down mangrove trees to sell as firewood, often playing cat and mouse with law enforcers as the mangrove forests were protected areas.

But in 2017, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in Jakarta set aside 3,058 hectares of mangrove forest for the community to manage under a village forest scheme. Village residents were allowed to cultivate the mangrove forest to improve their economic circumstances but were not allowed to cut down mangrove trees.

Since then many fisherfolk like Samsul not only continue to have an income, but some have even doubled theirs.

“I have been a fisherman since childhood. Prior to 2017, my income was around $6 gross per day. Now, I take home an average of $18 daily,” Samsul, a father of two, said.

Muhammad Tahir, 47, another Sungai Nibung resident and a colleague of Samsul, also had a similar story.

“My income was uncertain before but now I get an average of $242 gross per month. With that income, I was able to send my second child to study at a university in [the provincial capital] Pontianak and my youngest to a junior high school. On top of that, we can also now save around $6 monthly,” the father of four told IPS.

• West Kalimantan’s minimum wage is currently around $140 per month. It was approximately $133 a month in 2019.  

Sungai Nibung, a fishing village located inside a protected mangrove forest in Kubu Raya regency, West Kalimantan province.

Dividing the mangroves for profit

Syarif Ibrahim has been the head of Sungai Nibung village since 2005. He told IPS that the village residents decided to divide the community forest, locally known as hutan desa, into zones for development, conservation, and sustainable agriculture.

“The development zone covers an area of some 1,800 hectares and is designated as fishing grounds, with 400 to 600 hectares of conservation area dedicated to mangrove research and education activities. The sustainable agriculture zone has some 600 hectares for dry-land paddy field and horticulture plants,” Ibrahim said.

“We also agreed that rivers and tributaries in the development zone are closed for fishing for three consecutive months at different times of the year to allow crabs, fish and shrimps to breed and replenish the stock,” Ibrahim said.

Riansyah, a Planet Indonesia Foundation activist who assisted villagers in the area with understanding sustainable fishery, said the first closures ran from August to October 2017, involving five rivers and tributaries.

“Since then, 11 of the village’s 21 rivers and tributaries have been closed and opened alternately for fishing at different times of the year. Each closure lasts for three months,” said Riansyah, adding that five rivers and tributaries were scheduled to be closed in the next round of closures from March 22 to June 22 this year.

During the closures, two fisherfolk are assigned daily to patrol the rivers and tributaries to ensure no one violates the agreement, Riansyah told IPS.

Entering its third year, the open-closed fishing system has proven to improve local people’s economic condition as reflected in both Samsul’s and Tahir’s experiences.

But more importantly, Sungai Nibung residents have learned to save the mangrove forests from destruction. In the conservation zone, for example, fishing is strictly prohibited except in designated areas. Local residents, including fishers, have also learned about the important role mangroves play for coastal ecosystems.

“Now fishers here know mangroves are very important for the sustainability of crab, shrimp and fish in the village and have agreed to stop using fish bombs, poison, and trawls,” Ibrahim told IPS.

According to the Food Sustainability Index, created by the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Indonesia has a score of 61.1 out of 100 when it comes to sustainable agriculture, where 100 is “the highest sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic Key Performance Indicators”. This is just below the average of 65 of other middle income countries.

Saving the mangroves for climate mitigation and sustainable food supply

But aside from the conservation and ensuring that fish stocks are allowed to replenish before fishing, residents have also participated in various mangrove campaigns, planting over 32 hectares of the village forest with mangrove trees since 2017, according to Riansyah.

West Kalimantan, with around 100,000 hectares of mangroves, is home to 75 percent of Indonesia’s mangrove species. Aside from Kubu Raya, mangrove forests are also found in other areas such as Ketapang, Kayong Utara, Mempawah, Sambas and in Singkawang municipality.

According to an international paper, mangroves capture four times more carbon than rainforests and store captured carbon in the soil beneath its trees. This ability to mitigate climate change is a key to a sustainable food system.

The FSI also notes that addressing deforestation is important for countries across the globe adding that, “climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies will be essential in creating a more sustainable food system since agricultural activities make a significant contribution to climate change, accounting for up to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to some estimates.”

Asep Sugiharta, director of Essential Ecosystem Management at the ministry of environment and forestry, told IPS that Indonesia recorded 3.3 million hectares of mangrove forests in 2019, almost 23 percent of the world’s total mangrove forests. At least 252,071 hectares are found in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.

“At least 2.6 million hectares of the country’s total mangrove forests are located outside conservation forests and only 0.7 million hectares are in conservation forests,” Sugiharta told IPS during an interview in Jakarta.

• Indonesia recorded annual greenhouse gas emissions of 2.4 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2015, around 4.8 percent of the world’s total global emission for that year, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).  
• Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged to cut emissions by 29 percent without international support and 41 percent with international cooperation by 2030, compared to a “business as usual” scenario.

Environmental benefits aside, the open-closed fishing system has given new optimism to Samsul, particularly when it comes to the future of his two children.

“I was not able to finish my elementary education due to dire poverty. With the success of the open-closed system, I am optimistic my income will continue to grow and thus I can send my two children to higher education,” Samsul said. “More than that, I was told the system would ensure the sustainability of the coastal ecosystem for our great grandchildren.”

Meanwhile, village head Ibrahim breathed a sigh of relief that Sungai Nibung residents have bought into the idea of sustainable food production.

“The challenging part was changing people’s paradigms. The villagers were so used to fishing anywhere throughout the year in the mangrove forest, taking big and small crabs, shrimps, or fish. Now, they have started thinking about their sustainability.”

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The post Fisherfolk Fix Both Food and Climate by Closing Fishing Grounds appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Shloka Nath
MUMBAI, India, Mar 23 2020 (IPS)

Over the past few years, worsening air quality in India—and in north India specifically—has awakened policy makers and civil society to take urgent action.

There have been some efforts to address air quality, specifically the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which was launched in January 2019 with the aim of improving air quality standards by 20-30 percent over the next five years. While this has been a positive step, we not only need a more ambitious agenda, but also a strong compliance framework that ensures accountability to the targets we have set.

With growing congestion in cities—a trend which is only likely to increase—we need to also look at the transport sector, especially at a time when infrastructure investments such as the Mumbai Coastal Road Project do little to factor in environmental impacts. It is no surprise that fewer cars on the road mean less traffic, less time on the road, and therefore less air pollution exposure.

Air pollution, both outdoors and in households is the second most serious risk factor for public health in India, after malnutrition, contributing to 6.4 percent of all healthy years of life lost

Despite how much needs to still be accomplished, we have come a long way in the past few years. We are now in a place where we are starting to get the science and technology right, in terms of monitoring air quality and understanding the impact it has on our lives. We have more data and evidence than ever before; now we must focus on enabling its use to identify and implement solutions.

The fight for the right to cleaner air in India is unique and important because it is not championing one solution, or one approach. That a diverse cross-section of players has chosen to stand up and take action underlines the fact that no one is protected, and everyone has a responsibility.

What we need today is greater urgency and action to ensure clean air in our homes, villages, and cities. The development sector, especially foundations and philanthropists, have a unique role to play given their varied expertise and backgrounds.

 

To start with, here are the four most important ways Indian philanthropists can get involved

 

1. Pinpoint the problem

The current lack of effective monitoring and measurement is a peculiar issue within air pollution, and it is also one of the areas where funders can play a meaningful role. This can take a few forms:

a) Monitor air quality

In India, according to estimates, we require around 4,000 continuous monitoring stations to give us an accurate picture of the air pollution problem—2,800 in the urban areas and 1,200 in the rural areas. Currently data, when available, comes from a little over 600 manual stations and less than 100 continuous monitoring stations.

Funding a data gap like this could go a long way in starting to solve the air quality issue in India, because better data generation means better informed people and policies. More importantly, it is a fundamental human right of any citizen to have access to information on the quality of air they are breathing.

b) Identify pollution sources

Mumbai’s air pollution problem is a good case in point. The relatively clear skies of today’s Mumbai create the perception among residents that air quality can be a low priority. Yet, a study released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in December 2019, stated that Mumbai’s air has the highest concentration of PM10 out of 24 cities in peninsular India.

In many parts of the city, Air Quality Index (AQI) readings frequently register 24-hour averages of between 120 and 300, classified anywhere between unhealthy and hazardous.

Worse still, is that we don’t have a clear enough picture on what’s causing these numbers. We know the pollutants—the result of construction, road works, waste burning, industrial activity, fires, vehicular emissions, and so on—yet, attributing exact data around source contributions is complicated.

The information needs to be analysed in real time and requires more monitoring infrastructure for more granular data collection.

c) Assess health and economic impacts

The Global Burden of Disease analysis released in November 2017, for instance, identified air pollution, both outdoors and in households, as the second most serious risk factor for public health in India, after malnutrition, contributing to 6.4 percent of all healthy years of life lost (Disability Adjusted Life Years) in 2016. According to the World Bank, India lost over 8.5 percent of its GDP in 2013 due to air pollution. Anumita Roychowdhury of the Centre for Science and Environment says, “If you add up the number of years we are losing because of illness, because of the productive time, all of these are coming at huge economic costs.”

Today, we know that there are health and economic consequences of poor air quality, but we don’t have a comprehensive picture, one that allows us to truly assess the impact and to mobilise action accordingly.

 

2. Engage the public

a) Elevate impactful stories

People are at the heart of the air pollution epidemic. We need to increase communication efforts to drive citizen engagement through impactful storytelling. Here, philanthropy can play a crucial role in increasing public awareness by supporting targeted campaigns that spread information around the health impacts of air pollution. Importantly, we must encourage communication that showcases how short-term investments in clean air have a long-term effect on reducing expenditure on healthcare in the future.

b) Advocate for policy change and regulation

There is still a lot of work left in terms of getting the right message to the right audience set. We need an increased effort in communicating not just the problems that arise as a result of air quality, but what the solutions are. This would help bridge the disconnect between the work specialists are doing in the field and the actionable insights that arise from it, which can influence decision makers.

Citizens too, need to be better informed so they know how to demand that their elected officials make clean air a priority. These efforts—bringing data and evidence from specialists to decision makers and growing public demand for clean air—can together play a role in policy change and more effective regulation.

c) Build movements

Lastly, there is still a great need to create consistent, crisp, and relatable public messaging around the effects of air pollution. Not only would this help avoid confusion around the problem, it would also increase the urgency for action.

Take for instance, the Save the Tiger campaign. They focused their communications on just one number—1,411, which was the number of tigers left in the world. This was enough to inspire urgency and action.

Compelling messaging like this does not exist in the air quality debate right now. There is a need for innovative communication strategies to reach the masses—we need to leverage social media, influential personalities, and the press—so that people are empowered with the right knowledge and tools for action. This will allow the air quality crisis to grow into a movement.

 

3. Enable solutions

a) Strengthen enforcement capabilities

Many parts of India are experiencing air pollution at hazardous levels. Yet, pollution control measures are at best reactive and ad hoc. The courts, and now the central and state governments, have set up various committees, designed action plans and schemes, and issued prohibitory orders in order to address the crisis at hand. But these measures to regulate and control emissions are incomplete.

This is where philanthropy and policy can go hand in hand. Directing funding to address specific problems has limited impact if the lessons learned are limited to grant recipients, and not disseminated for the greater good. Foundations are often in a prime position to impact policy because of their influence and networks.

There is a need to support a variety of efforts, including analysing and recommending policy, providing technical assistance to government bodies, and strengthening enforcement capabilities.

b) Boost innovation

There are many ways in which philanthropy can boost innovation, some of which include supporting:

• The design and implementation of financial products that incentivise retro-fitting polluting technologies
• Urban plans that reduce transportation pollution
• Research and development for alternate large-scale uses for pollution in the air, or agricultural residue which is otherwise burned and causes pollution

4. Organise collaboration

Lastly, donors can play an important role in facilitating collaboration, be it between implementing organisations, academics, practitioners, government departments, the public and private sectors, and so on.

Doing so involves not only working towards getting a larger community of diverse stakeholders involved, but also helping them to collaborate at local and other levels of administration. For example, the NCAP is not connected to the work of the pollution control board in every state—bridging this gap would enable resources to be pooled together, instead of having people working in silos, on overlapping or similar issues.

Similarly, donors can collaborate—for instance, a foundation with expertise in air pollution can work with another focused on maternal and newborn health, given the inter-linkages between both areas.

The general adage for philanthropy is that donors shouldn’t limit themselves to issues they can influence during their lifetimes. We are learning that we need to let go of our compulsion to see the change we seek. But in the case of the air quality crisis, the opposite is true.

Provided we choose to step into the ring, this is a fight we can most definitely win in our lifetimes. The time for us to act together is now, because every breath we take depends on it.

Know more:

• Learn about what AQI is and how it is measured.
• Understand how air pollution is linked to impaired judgement, mental health problems, poorer performance in school, and higher levels of crime.
• View this one-page infographic on why climate change is important for Indian philanthropy.

Do more:

• See how the world’s most polluted air compares with your city’s.
• Check out the India Climate Collaborative, an India-focused collaborative that seeks to direct funding and visibility towards climate action in India.

 

 

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

The post Air Pollution: A Problem We Can Solve in Our Lifetime appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Shloka Nath is Executive Director, India Climate Collaborative

The post Air Pollution: A Problem We Can Solve in Our Lifetime appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photojournalists stage a demonstration demanding the safe return of Shafiqul Islam Kajol, in front of the National Museum in Dhaka, on March 18, 2020. PHOTO: COLLECTED

By Sushmita S. Preetha
Mar 23 2020 (IPS-Partners)

A barrage of fireworks light up the smoggy skies of Dhaka and I feel as if I’m in the opening scenes of a dystopian film.

There’s anxiety and despair all around about what’s to come—those who have been following the developments in other parts of the world know there’s no way to avoid the impending crisis in our healthcare system as it scrambles, without any preparation, to tackle what may soon become a tsunami of patients showcasing symptoms of the coronavirus. The streets are uncharacteristically empty, and the rickshaw puller, for whom self-quarantine would mean the loss of his daily wages on which his family of five depend, asks me if I know how much these pyrotechnics cost.

Our conversation is silenced by the loud explosions. Yes, I remind myself, celebrations must go on—priorities are priorities, after all—and I know better than to mention the unmentionable, even in a private conversation with a rickshaw puller, even on social media and particularly in opinion pieces published in The Daily Star. The nagging thought that I’m trapped in a dystopia returns as, with each firework that sounds like a gunshot, my mind finds itself ruminating over the fate of photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, who has been missing since March 10, 2020. The coronavirus crisis and the resultant chaos and mismanagement have understandably taken over the news, and while we worry about what will happen to our loved ones if the virus spreads beyond control, Shafiqul’s son has been living an unimaginable nightmare of his own, not knowing where his father is and whether he is still alive.

Kajol is the editor of a fortnightly magazine called Pakkhakal, with past experience in working as a photojournalist with Dainik Samakal and Banik Barta. He “disappeared” a day after a case was filed against him and 31 others, including the editor-in-chief of daily Manabzamin, under the Digital Security Act by lawmaker Shifuzzaman Shikhor, a former aide to the prime minister. They were accused of “deteriorating the law and order” by publishing a report with “false information” and circulating it on social media.

The report in question, published in Manabzamin, simply stated that Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Nur Papia, during police interrogation, had shared the names of 30 MPs, bureaucrats and businessmen who used to frequent her prostitution and extortion racket. The report itself did not name any of these lawmakers and others, but it was later shared by some, including Shafiqul, on social media with a list of names.

Shafiqul was last seen at his office in Hatirpul at 6:51 pm on March 10. A CCTV footage from outside his office, verified and shared by the Amnesty International, on March 22, shows several unidentified men keeping a track on his motorbike for at least three hours before he was last seen. Between 5:59 pm and 6:05 pm, three men are seen approaching his motorbike separately and meddling with it. At 6:19 pm, Shafiqul walks out of his office with another person but does not take his bike with him. He comes back alone after a while and leaves the area on his bike at exactly 6:51 pm.

Mysteriously, following his disappearance, his Facebook posts from this year have also disappeared. In fact, the last post that can still be accessed on his page dates back to November 27, 2019. According to a report by Prothom Alo, many of the missing posts involved the arrest of Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Nur Papia. The report further added that Shafiqul was known to be on good terms with many activists and leaders of Jubo Mohila League (Prothom Alo, March 17).

Shafiqul’s son, Monorom Polok, claims that he collected his father’s call list from Grameenphone, according to which, Shafiqul spoke to two Jubo Mohila League leaders shortly before he disappeared. One of these two women told Prothom Alo that she had spoken to Shafiqul at 6:30 pm about where he was and when he would return, and about setting up a time to meet to discuss his latest Facebook posts. The second woman on his call list denied speaking to Shafiqul but admitted that she had sent him a text and that she, too, had wanted to meet to talk about his social media posts.

For almost a week, Shafiqul’s family pleaded with the police to file an abduction case, but both the Chawkbazar and New Market police stations refused to take the case, each insisting it fell under the other’s jurisdiction. The case was finally lodged with the Chawkbazar police station on March 18 following a suo moto move from the High Court asking the police why it had not filed a case yet.

Why was there such a delay in filing a case? It would be easy enough to dismiss it as bureaucratic ineptitude of our law enforcement agencies, but was there something more sinister in the reluctance of law enforcers to file and pursue the case? When there is a CCTV footage that clearly identifies men who were following Shafiqul and tampering with his motorbike, why hasn’t the police been able to apprehend them yet—in the 12 days he has been missing (as of this article going to print)? Why is Shafiqul’s son having to collect call lists when it’s the police who should be following leads and questioning all those who may have crucial information on Shafiqul since they were the last to speak to him?

It’s ironic that our law enforcers can go to any lengths when they have to track down a dissident using their sophisticated surveillance mechanisms but cannot bring themselves to track a missing person, even when there is a CCTV footage identifying the suspects!

Where did Shafiqul go? What could have happened to him? No one claims to know anything, but if what happened to Bangla Tribune correspondent Ariful Islam is an indication of how journalists who ruffle the feathers of the political elite are treated, we have reasons to be deeply worried. On March 14, Ariful was dragged from his home in the middle of the night, beaten, stripped and threatened with “crossfire” by Senior Assistant Commissioner (RDC) Nazim Uddin and two magistrates as part of a mobile court raid (which was later declared “illegal” by Kurigram municipality mayor Abdul Jalil, following widespread criticism). It is now clear that Ariful was targeted for his investigative reports about the activities of Kurigram Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sultana Pervin. As he was being humiliated and tortured, Nazim told him, “So, you are a journalist! We will teach you what journalism is, you dared to write against our DC”—and “You will be put in a crossfire. Your time is up. Recite the kalima.”

Ariful’s description of that night is chilling, to say the least, and offers a window into those unknown, untold stories of men disappearing into the night only to appear—if they appear at all—as dead bodies in so-called shootouts or after “falling ill” while in custody, with some rare exceptions. Ariful is no doubt lucky that his story was picked up by the media right away and that he had the backing of a powerful media outlet, which protected him from further harassment and mistreatment.

But what about those who aren’t so fortunate, those like… Shafiqul?

That freedom of expression is no longer an inalienable right in Bangladesh is not breaking news. According to Article 19, a UK-based human rights organisation, in February 2020 alone, there were at least 50 incidents of violations of freedom of expression—four involved serious bodily injuries, nine assaults, one abduction, five destruction of equipment, two defamation cases and one involved gender-based violence. Despite widespread criticism of the Digital Security Act which essentially authorises state agencies to pick up whoever they want without so much as a warrant or approval of any authorities, under various vague and misleading sections of the law, more than 1,000 cases have been filed under the Act since October 2018—sometimes for as little as disapproval of government decisions on social media. The systematic way in which freedom of expression has been, and continues to be, throttled has created an environment of fear, uncertainty and self-censorship which has caused irreparable damage to the democratic fabric of this country. The disappearance of Shafiqul Islam is one more nail in the coffin of the free press.

And so you and I keep silent in a cowardly bid to protect ourselves from the virus that has seeped deep into our psyche and political systems. As for a dystopian future, haven’t we been living in one for a long time anyway?

Sushmita S Preetha is a journalist and researcher.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Kazimir Malevich, Children on the Grass, 1908 (Pushkin Museum State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).

By External Source
Mar 23 2020 (IPS-Partners)

SARS-CoV-2 or COVID19, now declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation, has begun to wreak havoc in large parts of the world, with other parts waiting in anticipation. We are in a real struggle, which needs total mobilisation; a struggle that needs to put life before profit. We will only win this struggle – as China has already done – if our people are united and disciplined, if governments earn our respect by their actions, and if we act in solidarity across the globe.

Global debt is at $250 trillion, with corporate debt already enormous. On the other hand, there are trillions of dollars swirling around stock markets and in tax havens. As economic activity contracts, corporations will line up for bailouts; this is not the best use of precious human resources in this time. In the midst of this, that financial markets remain open is a failure of imagination. The drop in the value of stocks – in the markets from the Hang Seng to Wall Street – is merely a way to intensify global social anxiety, since the health of the stock market has come to be seen – erroneously – as an indicator of economic health in general.

Long-term quarantines and shutdowns have taken place in large parts of the world, certainly in Europe and North America, but increasingly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Economic activity has already begun to shudder to a halt. Estimates of the net losses are not possible to make, and even the major international institutions are adjusting their numbers every day. An UNCTAD study on 4 March, for instance, said that the slowdown of manufacturing in China will by itself disrupt the global supply chain and decrease exports by $50 billion; this is only one part of the loss. The total losses are – as yet – beyond calculation.

The IMF has pledged to use $1 trillion to help countries stave off economic disaster. Already about twenty countries have come to the IMF to request assistance; Iran, which had stayed away from the IMF for the past three decades, has now requested IMF help. It would be an auspicious change in the IMF’s policy, unprecedented in history, if not for the shameful refusal to help the people of Venezuela under the pretext of not recognizing the Venezuelan government. The IMF must not require any adjustments or strings for the provision of these bridge loans. The rejection of a loan to Venezuela is a sign of great political failure by the IMF.

International solidarity from China and Cuba is exemplary. Chinese and Cuban doctors have been in Iran, Italy, and Venezuela, while they have offered their services and expertise around the world. They have developed salves and medical treatments that prevents the fatality rate for those afflicted with COVID19, and they want to distribute this – without any patent or profit – to the world’s people. The example of the Chinese and Cubans in this period must be taken seriously; thanks to this example, it is easier to imagine socialism in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic, than it is to live under the heartless regime of capitalism.

European countries, now the focus of the pandemic, are seeing their weakened health systems collapse after decades of under-funding and neo-liberal austerity. European governments, as well as the European Central Bank and the EU, allocate the bulk of their resources on trying to safeguard the financial and business sectors from a sure economic debacle. The adoption of timid actions aimed at strengthening the capacities of States in the face of the crisis – targeted renationalisations, temporary public control of health service providers – or of palliative measures – limited exemptions from the payment of rent and housing mortgages – do not represent a decisive commitment to provide for basic guarantees for labour and safeguarding the health of the working class that is most exposed to the devastating effects of the pandemic: healthcare workers, women that are caregivers, employees of the food industry and basic services companies, etc.

This is a partial repudiation of the neoliberal prescriptions that have dominated the world for the past fifty years. The IMF must take cognizance of this, since it has otherwise participated actively in cannibalising resources in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and creating institutional deserts in country after country. Strengthening the state and redistributing wealth in favour of the masses should be the global orientation.

Scientists tell us that this struggle against the virus could last for the next thirty or forty days. That is why it is essential that each country and each government take measures to prevent the death of multiple thousands of people.

The movements, unions, and parties that make up the International Assembly of Peoples propose that a programme of structural change be formulated and implemented to allow us to win this struggle and reshape the world. This programme must include:

1. Immediate suspension of all work, except essential medical and logistical personnel and those required to produce and distribute food and necessities, without any loss of wages. The State must assume the cost of the wages for the period of the quarantine.
2. Health, food supply, and public safety must be maintained in an organised manner. Emergency grain stocks must be immediately released for distribution amongst the poor.
3. Schools must all be suspended.
4. Immediate socialization of hospitals and medical centres so that they do not worry about the profit motive as the crisis unfolds. These medical centres must be under the control of the government’s health campaign.
5. Immediate nationalization of pharmaceutical companies, and immediate international cooperation amongst them to find a vaccine and easier testing devices. Abolishment of intellectual property in the medical field.
6. Immediate testing of all people. Immediate mobilization of tests and support for medical personnel who are at the frontlines of this pandemic.
7. Immediate speed-up of production for materials necessary to deal with the crisis (testing kits, masks, respirators).
8. Immediate closure of global financial markets.
9. Immediate gathering of the finances to prevent the bankruptcy of governments.
10. Immediate cancellation of all non-corporate debt.
11. Immediate end to all rent and mortgage payments, as well as an end to evictions; this includes the immediate provision of adequate housing as a basic human right. Decent housing must be a right for all citizens guaranteed by the state.
12. Immediate absorption of all utility payments by the State – water, electricity, and internet provided as part of a human right; where these utilities are not universally accessible, we call for them to be provided with immediate effect.
13. Immediate end to the unilateral, criminal sanctions regimes and economic blockades that impact countries such as Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela and prevent them from importing necessary medical supplies.
14. Urgent support for the peasantry to increase the production of healthy food and supply it to the government for direct distribution.
15. Suspension of the dollar as an international currency and request that the United Nations urgently call a new international conference to propose a common international currency.
16. Ensure a universal minimum income in every country. This makes possible to guarantee support from the state for millions of families who are out of work, working in extremely precarious conditions or self-employed. The current capitalist system excludes millions of people from formal jobs. The State should provide employment and a dignified life for the population. The cost of the Universal Basic Income can be covered by defence budgets, in particular the expense of arms and ammunition.

To add the signature of your organisation to this declaration, please send an email to secretaria@asambleadelospueblos.org by Thursday, March 26, 2020

The post In Light of the Global Pandemic, Focus Attention on the People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

International Assembly of the Peoples and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

The post In Light of the Global Pandemic, Focus Attention on the People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: Mohamed Fofanah/IPS

By Isabel Ortiz and Thomas Stubbs
NEW YORK and LONDON, Mar 23 2020 (IPS)

Austerity policies pushed by international financial institutions have weakened public health systems, despite current financial support packages, condemning many people to die.

As health systems of East Asia, Europe, and the Americas buckle under the strain of coronavirus, developing countries are expecting an even higher human toll. Decades of austerity promoted by international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and regional development banks have weakened public health systems, impeding the ability of governments to respond to the pandemic.

The IMF pledged $1 trillion, and the World Bank a further $12bn, in immediate funds to assist countries to cushion the impact of Covid-19. Yet, these organisations are implicated in decades of brutal austerity and privatizations that damagedpublic health systems in the first place. And it is in regions with fragile health public systems where outbreaks spread the fastest, witnessed most acutely during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak.

Governments across the globe have implemented spending cuts and the commercialization of health services since the 1980s, advised by IFIs during regular surveillance missions or as part of their lending programmes. Austerity policies are criticised for prioritising short-term fiscal objectives over longer-term social investments such as health.

Isabel Ortiz

Under IMF guidance, for example, governments reduced health budgets, cut or capped public sector wages, and limited the number of doctors, nurses, and other public health staff. In the name of efficiency, governments – often advised by “development” banks – decreased the number of hospital beds, closed public services, and underinvested in health research and medical equipment. This undermines the ability of health systems to cope with infectious disease outbreaks, leaving billions of people highly vulnerable during pandemics.

What is worse, governments were discouraged from raising alarm to the debilitating impact of scarce funding for public health. With the publication of “From Billions to Trillions: Transforming Development Finance Post-2015” and related documents, IFIs reassured governments of a simple solution to declining budgets: private sector delivery of public goods and services. This advice came despite multiple failures in public-private partnerships and privatizations over the last decades – for example, the US private health model is the world’s most expensive health system, but it has low effectiveness, leaving millions of Americans without health coverage.

From Lesotho to Sweden, public-private partnerships on health were costlier to citizens and resulted in poorer service delivery than public health systems.

So who benefits from these policies? IFIs have not prioritized public health issues, but fiscal or private sector objectives instead. Macroeconomic or business interests were often considered over the public good, and people’s welfare was an afterthought. This has already resulted in higher morbidityand millions of avoidable deaths, with many more yet to come.

A recent report shows how IMF-induced austerity cuts are negatively impacting about 75 percent of the world population– a total of 113 countries in 2020 – despite urgent health and developmental needs. Spending cuts apply to 72 developing countries and 41 high-income countries, many of which have already been suffering decades of adjustments. Another study shows how 46 countries prioritised debt service over public health services at the beginning of 2020, when coronaviruswas spreading.

Despite contributing to the crisis, IFIs now aim to become part of the solution by making new funds available. While laudable, the World Bank’s $12bn financial package represents a smokescreen to the public relations disaster related to its flagship Pandemic Emergency Financing (PEF) bonds. PEF bonds were designed with markedly stringent pay-out criteria to reduce the risk of losses for private investors – who have so far made annual yields of up to 14 percent, funded by the aid budgets of Germany, Japan, and Australia. Ultimately the bonds have diverted aid from crucial investments in public health systems of developing countries.

At its core, the reckless actions of IFIs represent the absence of effective global governance for health. Decades of IFIsundermining public health systems highlight how desperately the world needs global leadership and a coordinated response.To that end, the G20 has scheduled a virtual Summit over Covid-19. But will G20 leaders have the foresight to permanently abandon outdated austerity policies and urgently invest in universal public health systems?

Thomas Stubbs

Given the coronavirus emergency, even the IMF is advising governments to ramp up public health expenditures. This needs to be more than just a short-term measure, to then later return to a situation where millions are excluded from healthcare. The building blocks of global health security should be based on prevention and universal public health systems, especially in countries with underdeveloped healthcare.

The United Nations, in particular the World Health Organization (WHO), is more capable than IFIs to coordinate universal public healthcare systems, but the WHO currently lacks resources to move beyond monitoring and surveillance. The US Trump Administration recently cut contributions to the organisation, instead funnelling trillions of US dollars on restoring short-term confidence in the markets. European countries could have given meaningful aid in solidarity to East Asia and developing countries, where thousands are infected of Covid-19. But, from the outset of the crisis, they instead adopted inward-looking responses that often entrenched or intensified authoritarian and populist nationalism.

How many more people need to die? While we are now reaping the consequences of austerity policies imposed around the world, the coronavirus pandemic also offers an opportunity to redress public health gaps and do things differently. State intervention is necessary to address the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic, develop long-term public health, and realize the right to health of populations everywhere. It is time for world leaders to abandon myopic austerity policies and instead focus on building robust public health systems for all.

Dr. Isabel Ortiz is Director of the Global Social Justice Program at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University, and former director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.

Dr. Thomas Stubbs is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Research Associate in Political Economy at the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.

The post Fighting Coronavirus: It’s Time to Invest in Universal Public Health appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Credit: UN Photo/Lamphay Inthakoun

By Rita Ann Wallace and Cynthia S Reyes
NEW YORK and TORONTO, Mar 23 2020 (IPS)

In January of this year, Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, shocked much of the world when they announced they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals.

Much of the world, that is, except members of their loosely knit online supporter group the “Sussex Squad”, who had been following their doings closely. In the prior two months, one part of the “Squad” had planted over 30,000 out of a targeted 100,000 trees in their honor. And therein lies a tale.

On World Children’s Day, 20 November 2019, a group of 11 women, mostly women of color, and connected only by a wish to counter the tabloid and social media negativity around Harry and Meghan, launched “Sussex Great Forest”, a Twitter- and Instagram-based campaign to plant trees around the world.

The goal was modest: plant 10,000 trees by 6 May 2020, the first birthday of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The target was met and surpassed in one week.

The initiative started with a Twitter Direct Message conversation in July 2019 among four women on how to counter the tsunami of online and tabloid vitriol aimed especially at the former Meghan Markle, a bi-racial American.

This negativity was due in part to the racism and xenophobia which have become a well-documented feature of post-Brexit Britain, and in part to the tendency of Britain’s notorious tabloid media to scandalize even the couple’s most mundane doings.

The group of four soon grew to 11 women, from various countries – USA, UK, Canada, Jamaica, Guyana, Ghana, South Africa – unknown to one another except by their twitter handles. They included an author; an anesthesiologist; a restaurateur; an insurance broker; an IT professional; an accountant; a UN retiree; and others.

As women of color, all of us were disturbed by the misogynoir confronting Meghan, and wanted something positive to trend on social media to replace the hateful hashtags.

Credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

We decided planting trees in the couple’s names was a fit with Prince Harry’s known passion for conservation; Duchess Meghan’s work to empower women; and in keeping with all the latest recommendations on climate action.

An online campaign in support of a couple whom others are determined to drag publicly had to be done in stealth. We brainstormed and communicated only through Twitter direct message chats. We created the @sussexgtforest handle on both Twitter and Instagram, invited known Harry and Meghan supporters to follow, and closed the accounts to all others.

We set a launch date of World Children’s Day, which also coincided with UK National Tree Week. We set up campaigns on tree planting organizations which had good reputations and good scores with Charity Navigator and its equivalents.

We chose UK-based International Tree Foundation and Tree Sisters; US-based One Tree Planted; and Kenya-based the Green Belt Movement.

Visuals are important for an online campaign, so we encouraged supporters who were going to plant trees themselves to do so early and take photos so we would have content on our pages on launch day.

Students and parents at a primary school in Malawi, with funding from two donors, planted 50 trees and sent us pictures. People in dozens of other countries planted trees in their yards or in pots and sent photos. Those who were donating online to the tree-planting charities also sent screenshots of their receipts.

Ahead of our launch, we pitched our story to one journalist on the royal beat. He was interested, and promised to do a piece on launch day. On the day, we opened up the Twitter and Instagram accounts, and pushed out our content with an ask to join the movement and plant trees for Harry, Meghan, Archie, and the planet.

The response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. People donated to the charities and spread the word. Our campaign was picked up by traditional media and dozens of stories ran. The campaign got a boost when Harry and Meghan heard about our effort and acknowledged us from their Instagram account.

At the end of only a week, we had exceeded our 10,000-tree goal – five months ahead of schedule.

Jubilant, we set a new goal of 100,000 trees; and to date over 60,000 have already been planted or donated. We have recently added two more tree planting charities – US-based Trees for the Future and National Forests Foundation.

We think there are several lessons to be drawn from this about how individuals and small groups can use social media for good:

• 1. Don’t be deterred by the size of your Twitter or Instagram following, or the lack of financial resources to create and upkeep a website. The tools of activism are mostly free. Get involved in the conversations online about the things which interest you, and in a short time you will be part of a network of like-minded people. Social media is about engagement, not numbers of followers.

 

• 2. Don’t be deterred by national and geographic boundaries, which are meaningless online. A global campaign can start from a computer in Maputo as much as from one in Montreal. Use the opportunity to bring diverse perspectives and skills to your undertaking.

 

• 3. Assess your potential, and if necessary, start small, with a manageable goal, and use your success at a smaller target to propel you forward.

 

• 4. Publicize your efforts. Speak up about your campaign in your chosen forums.

 

• 5. Use sub-groups to help expand your network and get feedback on tactics. We received helpful suggestions from outside the core group that helped us improve the initiative.

 

6. Your cause must be trustworthy. We collect no money ourselves, and deliberately chose charities that donors could verify for themselves – all funds go directly to them. We also aim for transparency, providing regular updates and responding promptly to questions.

Our 6 May deadline is now only weeks away. We are trying to close the gap between 60,000 and 100,000 trees – and doing so at a time of global crisis.

But our love for the Earth, and our wish to show support for Harry and Meghan, continue to propel us forward. We do believe we will be able to meet our target in time for a great birthday present for Archie, as representative of his generation: better hope for the planet.

But whether we get to 100,000 trees or not, we will still have accomplished multiple times our initial goal – without a website or any of the normal tools many people think are necessary for a climate activism campaign.

The power of social media had been used to fan hate against Harry and Meghan. “Sussex Great Forest” recognized social media’s power for good, harnessing its capacity to connect strangers and galvanize them to take positive action on something they feel passionately about.

The post Women & Climate: Planting a Global Forest in a Connected World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Rita Ann Wallace, a Media Consultant in the UN, and Cynthia S. Reyes, an author and former senior journalist with Canada’s national broadcaster, are two of the 11 co-founders of the “Sussex Great Forest” Global Tree Planting Campaign.

The post Women & Climate: Planting a Global Forest in a Connected World appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The United Nations Country team in Kenya hosted a meeting on responding to the COVID 19 pandemic with the Government of Kenya and development partners observing social distancing etiquette. Credit: UNIC Kenya

By PRESS RELEASE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The Government of Kenya, United Nations and International Community convened today at the UN Complex in Nairobi to combine their forces in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya.

The United Nations Country Team in Kenya is in lockstep with the UN Secretary General’s call to action and it continues to mobilize full support to the Government of Kenya in its fight against the virus on all fronts.

Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya, said: “This crisis can only be solved through partnerships and we stand with the Government of Kenya and its people to fight COVID-19 in Kenya.”

As the COVID-19 outbreak takes hold in Kenya, the United Nations Country Team has continued support from the preparation phase to the current response in the areas of strengthening the Emergency Operations Centre, Coordination and Leadership, Case Management, Laboratory management, Surveillance strengthening, Communications and Resource Mobilization and Procurement. Dr Rudi Eggers, WHO Representative to Kenya is a key member of the National Public Emergency Steering Committee chaired by the Principal Secretary of Health.

The World Bank country director for Kenya, Felipe Jaramillo confirmed that his bank has allocated US$60 million to finance efforts to fight coronavirus in Kenya.

The United Nations is providing intense technical support to the coordination pillar of the National Task Force that developed the Kenyan COVID-19 Contingency plan, which has become the basis of all response activities. The UN has initiated an Incident Management System, in some cases repurposing some staff to assist in the COVID-19 response activities. A total of 15 technical officers have been seconded to the Ministry of Health in order to boost capacity as the response activities go countrywide.

One of the major issues during such emergencies is the availability of technical guidelines on how things should be handled. United Nations has been able to support the MOH in training of 34 County Rapid Response Teams and provided guidelines and the necessary tools. Another group of 32 level 4-5 clinicians from 9 counties were trained on critical care case management while another 33 frontline workers from level 4-5 health facilities were trained on infection control. The UN also supported the training of Health Promotion officers from all 47 counties. WHO training materials have been used in the roll-out of training to all health workers across the country.

“As indicated by the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, governments must do all they can to prepare for an eventual outbreak and respond rapidly to contain and isolate these initial cases: time is critical now,” Dr Rudi Eggers says.

As of yesterday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kenya stood at seven since the time the government confirmed its first case on the 13th of March 2020. The Government of Kenya has already stepped up measures in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The United Nations Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres has said, “All of us face a common threat – the coronavirus – COVID 19. This pandemic is a call to action – for everyone, everywhere. It’s also a call for responsibility and solidarity – as nations united and as people united. As we fight the virus, we cannot let fear go viral. Let’s overcome this common threat together”.

The convening of the entire United Nations family in Kenya and nearly 30 Ambassadors and Heads of International Cooperation in person and remotely is an incredible show of support and solidarity with the Kenyan response to Covid-19.

The European Union Ambassador to Kenya, Simon Mordue, said,” We stand with Kenya in solidarity in these challenging times and are swiftly reviewing our support to ensure that funds can be urgently mobilized to support the government’s efforts in addressing the health and socio-economic consequence of Covid-19.”

Today’s convening clearly demonstrated that the people of Kenya can count on the United Nations Country team and International Community as their ally in this fight.

Dr. Rashid Aman, the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Health, stated, “Given the speed and scale of spread of Covid-19 that we have seen globally, the entire globe must stand together in this fight against the pandemic and stronger nations must stand by the weaker nations for us to succeed. The Government of Kenya appreciates the UN Country Team, World Bank, EU, and other Development Partners from the International Community for their support and solidarity.”

The post The UN and International Community united in fighting COVID-19 in Kenya appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By PRESS RELEASE
SEOUL, South Korea, Mar 20 2020 (IPS-Partners)

On Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) and the University of Queensland (UQ) held a validation workshop on the 3Returns Model and Framework, presenting an Investment Case for Coastal Landscape Mangrove Restoration in Myanmar through the findings from an Economic Appraisal of Ayeyarwady Mangrove Forests, Bio-based Value Chains for Mangrove Restoration and Benefit Sharing Mechanisms. The event proved informative for both participants and presenters alike, providing critical insights and opening dialogue between multiple government departments.

The Importance of Mangroves on the Ayeyarwady Delta

The mangroves of the Ayeyarwady Delta are an important natural resource for local residents as well as the nation-at-large. They provide significant ecological, social and economic benefits. Ecologically, mangrove habitats provide breeding grounds and hatcheries for birds, fish, crustaceans and other organisms. Additionally, mangroves constitute a major source of carbon sequestration, making them an important asset for Myanmar’s climate change mitigation.

Mangrove forests support coastal disaster resilience through their protection of communities from inundation from tidal surges and strong winds. Importantly, for neighbouring communities, mangroves also provide economic benefits. The collection of fuelwood, fish and crustaceans supplements the incomes of many people in the delta, with products reaching as far afield as China. However, not all members of local communities have been able to share in the benefit from these activities, in particular landless – who account for 73% of people in coastal areas – and women.

Above: U Hla Maung Thein, Director General Environmental Conservation Department – ‘conservation of mangroves is a national responsibility’

The mangroves’ positive impacts have been degraded by unsustainable land use practices. Less than 10,000 hectares of good quality mangroves exist within a total habitat range of 85,000 hectares. This degradation has largely occurred as a result of illegal logging and fuelwood extraction and the conversion of mangrove habitat into agricultural rice paddy and large-scale shrimp ponds. The significance of the mangroves of the Ayeyarwady Delta from an ecological, social and economic perspective highlights the need for a change in landscape management practises in order to preserve their benefits.

Above: Dr. Aaron Russell, GGGI Country Representative delivering welcome remark

The 3Returns Model and Framework

In order to assess sustainable landscape management practices and support green growth alternatives for the local communities, the Global Green Growth Institute has developed a 3Returns Model and Framework for analysing different green growth forest governance scenarios compared with continuation of current practices, known as a “Business as Usual” (BAU) scenario. The 3Returns Framework provides a holistic approach which considers each intervention’s benefits through natural capital, social and human capital as well as economic/financial capital. It differs from a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) as the Return on Investment Analysis considers not only financial investment but also natural, social and human investment. This allows measuring a Return on Investment Ratio that considers the benefits from investment in capitals and defines a desired intervention scenario measured as the most efficient when compared with the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario. It also differs from a CBA as the Return on Investment Analysis also quantifies non-monetary benefits and capitals’ status as indicators for decision making.

The Economic Appraisal of Ayeyarwady Mangrove Forests used the 3Returns approach to consider four policy intervention scenarios. A key difference between each scenario was the percentage of land allocated between the two types of community user groups by 2026. The two community user groups types are Village Woodlots (VW) and Community Forest User Groups (CFUG). All the scenarios other than BAU implement the enhanced Myanmar Reforestation and Rehabilitation Program (MRRP).

The scenarios were the following:

1. Scenario 1, allocates 11% of mangroves to be managed by CFUG and an annual increase in area under VW management until 2026. The maximum community forestry mangrove area is 35% of the Reserve Forest area.
2. Scenario 2, allocates 25% of mangrove management to VW and 25% mangrove management to CFUG. The community forestry mangrove area is 50% of the Reserve Forest area.
3. Scenario 3, allocates 47% of mangroves to CFUG and only 3% to VWs. The community forestry mangrove area is 50% of the Reserve Forest area.
4. Scenario 4, allocates 39% of mangroves to be managed VWs and 11% to be managed by CFUGs. The community forestry mangrove area is 50% of the Reserve Forest area.

There are important differences between these two forms of community management. VW officially remain under the control of the Forestry Department, but are a community managed common with a mandate for sustainably managing logging/fuelwood production. They are regarded as democratic in structure, giving all local people the ability to influence decision making. An important aim of VWs is to reduce poverty through enabling community participation for marginalised groups.

CFUGs are less democratic in structure. They only require five people to form a group to apply for a land permit – as a result they have the potential to be susceptible to elite capture. CFUGs enable groups to participate in a wider range of activities including agriculture, aquaculture as well as logging.

CFUGs have a low rate of female participation – only 8% of female headed households are involved. The level of female participation in VWs is not yet know.

The results of the analysis revealed that scenarios 2,3 and 4 achieved roughly the same outcomes in terms of natural capital and net present value. However, Scenario 4 achieved the highest social and human capital not-monetary benefits, resulting in the engagement of 48,618 people in community forestry and capacity building by 2026. Furthermore, when analysing the loss of informal jobs and livelihoods through improved resource management scenarios, Scenario 4 shows the least reduction in jobs and livelihoods (64,978) compared to BAU (65,008). For this reason, the report concludes Scenario 4 is the most desirable landscape management strategy which best takes into account natural, social & human and economic capital benefits.

It must be noted that all scenarios are anticipated to reduce illegal logging activity. However, the removal of this activity will disproportionately affect poorer, landless groups who previously relied on mangrove resources to supplement their income. It is important that community management design incorporates these stakeholders, incentivising them to undertake sustainable activities with the larger landscape system.

Value Chain Interventions

In addition to analysing the impacts of forest governance structures, the report has identified two viable value chains which incentivise the conservation of mangroves. The two value chains are hard-shell mud crab and dried products through the implementation of solar dome dryers.

The hard-shell mud crab value chain provides a lucrative opportunity to connect people of the Ayeyarwady Delta with the markets of China. In 2016, the trade was valued at over 4 Million Euros. Currently 90% of mud crabs are exported to China. Mature crabs can reach over 20,000MMK/kg in local and export market. The value chain currently consists of small-scale village catchers and hatcheries, pond owners and farmers, and middlemen/traders who connect the crabs to markets in Yangon and China.

The financial assessment showed that primarily the pond owners/farmers and middlemen/traders are benefiting from the activity. The middlemen often provide informal finance to poor people engaged in crab catching. As part of this arrangement, debtors are required to provide juvenile crabs at discounted rates to the middlemen. However, the middlemen have also been found to provide equipment and interest free loans to the small-scale village catchers.

The middlemen gain from the higher prices associated with larger crabs through fattening them, earning a profit.

Several actions are required to fully realise the green growth opportunity of this value chain. Firstly, it is important that hatcheries are developed so that the natural populations of mud crabs are not depleted through overharvesting.

Secondly, it is important that an alternative pellet feed for the crabs are produced. Currently ‘trash fish’, small fish with no other practical use, are fed to the crabs. They are a cheap source of food for crab fattening; however, ongoing use of the resource could also have negative effects on fish stocks. Another reason to emphases the importance of feed is the cannibalistic nature of crabs – not feeding the crabs and relying on natural feeding results in an increased crab mortality rate. Investing in crab feeding enables crab farmers to operationally perform better.

Providing financial support to communities at the farmer production stage of the value chain will hopefully allow them to share in the benefits of the value chain by enabling them to grow crabs to larger sizes and receive higher prices than what is currently demanded by the middlemen.

An additional reason to prioritise this intervention is its capacity to empower women. Often it is women who are in charge of the crab ponds.

Left: Intensive hard-shell mud crab fattening; right: natural hard-shell mud crab fattening

Dried products through the implementation of a solar dome dryer is another intervention in the value chain which will assist in protecting mangrove habitat. It achieves this by reducing the amount of fuelwood which is sourced from mangroves required to dry fish, crustaceans, and other agroforestry products. There is also an indication that the dryer dome increases the success rate and quality of preservation, which will be hoped to increase the price at sale.

Dried shrimp production modelling from the report found that if drying occurred for 180 days within a solar dryer dome, the amount of fuelwood required would be 40% less than current drying methods. Savings from fuelwood are reduced to 15% if the facility is operated at its maximum capacity during the year (for 260 days).

Solar dome dryers are estimated to have a life-span of 10 years and are suitable for community-level or user group association investments as they are too expensive for one person to purchase. Through the increased efficiencies in drying and input use, the analysis based on dried shrimp found that most communities would be able to pay off their investment loan in less than 2 years.

Above: traditional sun-drying process of shrimp in Ayeyarwady Delta

Workshop Insights from Policy maker

A number of interesting insights arose during discussions and activities at the workshop. One observation made by a government participant was the need for more co-ordination and dialogue between government departments. There are multiple government departments which have jurisdiction over the Ayeyarwady Delta, often with significant overlap and conflicting policies and procedures. A possible solution to this problem was based on a delegate’s personal experience. They highlighted the need to firstly locate the conservation area, then discuss with other departments to consolidate laws and enforcement.

Another interesting insight relates to attendees’ perceptions of different management types (e.g. BAU, MRRP, VWs, CFUG). There was a broad understanding that BAU is untenable for mangrove landscape restoration, especially in regards to livelihoods and mangrove restoration. However, there was a recognition that it provides some beneficial employment opportunities though some of these are unsustainable or illegal.

Participants generally had positive perceptions on MRRP, CFUG and VWs. Despite the beneficial nature of VWs in terms of participation, conservation and job creation, the survey revealed on average a larger preference towards MRRP and CFUG by participants. In particular, this was displayed in the results in the livelihood and mangrove restoration sections.

This prompts the need for further advocacy on the benefits of inclusive and democratic institutions based off the principle of free, prior and informed consent of local stakeholders. This message should focus on the weakness of government management of forest reserves (MRRP) in order to convince the government to allocate more mangrove habitat to CFUGs and VWs for management. In all, the workshop was a success as it progressed the green growth agenda in the Ayeyarwady Delta.

Above: Group activity during workshop

The post 3Returns Blog appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Ifeanyi Nsofor
ABUJA, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)

Coronavirus is now a pandemic and the World Health Organization considers Europe as its new epicenter. Italy, Spain and France are on lockdown and several nations are banning travelers from countries where cases are on the rise.

But it’s a problem beyond Europe too, and governments in 61 countries have closed schools to slow the spread of the virus. In the U.S., President Trump recently declared a national emergency after the virus had spread to nearly every U.S. state, and he urged state governments to set up emergency operation centers immediately.

Most of these measures occurred after a significant number of cases were documented. In contrast, Nigeria, where I am based, has shown a remarkable level of preparedness and response to the Coronavirus pandemic even with just 12 cases diagnosed.

These efforts are led by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Nigeria’s past experiences of quickly responding to the 2014 Ebola outbreak and continuously responding to other infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, have strengthened its health security capacity. Consequently, there are lessons that other countries can learn from Nigeria’s response to Coronavirus.

Nigeria’s past experiences of quickly responding to the 2014 Ebola outbreak and continuously responding to other infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, have strengthened its health security capacity. Consequently, there are lessons that other countries can learn from Nigeria’s response to Coronavirus

First, invest in epidemic preparedness before an outbreak occurs. The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu believes that nations should build systems in ‘peace time’ that can be used during outbreaks. Working with subnational governments and partners, the NCDC since 2017 have been supporting Nigerian States to set up Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOCs).

At the last count, 23 States in Nigeria have set up PHEOCs. The PHEOCs serve as an epidemic intelligent hub for effective communication and efficient resource management during any outbreak. Therefore, the U.S. should have set up PHEOCs long before this Coronavirus pandemic.

Second, be open and transparent about Coronavirus cases. The index Coronavirus case recorded in Nigeria was reported within 48 hours of the Italian arriving Nigeria. The federal minister of health, NCDC and the Lagos state commissioner of health did not waste time informing Nigerians.

They have also continuously followed that with regular updates. The NCDC now has a microsite to provide regular updates to Nigerians and the international community. Other information available on the microsite are videos on risk reduction and summaries of the global Coronavirus situation report.

Third, invest in laboratory diagnoses of Coronavirus. Within weeks after the Coronavirus outbreak began, NCDC, with the support of partners, upgraded four of its reference laboratories to diagnose Coronavirus.

This led to quick diagnosis of the Italian despite his falling ill in a neighboring state to Lagos. These reference laboratories are located strategically around the country, so that delays in moving samples are reduced.

Fourth, the highest political will is imperative for epidemic preparedness. In 2018, after 7 years of operating without a legal backing, the NCDC was legalized through a bill signed into law by President Buhari.

This action puts NCDC in its rightful place as the national public health institute, with the mandate to lead the preparedness, detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. President Buhari backed the legal mandate with an approval for NCDC to receive 2.5% of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund – a funding mechanism designed to improve primary health care in Nigeria. This is unprecedented in the history of health security in Nigeria.

Likewise, some Nigerian legislators are advocating for increased funding for epidemic preparedness. For instance, the chairpersons of Nigeria’s senate committees on health and primary health care/communicable diseases have been advocating for increased budgetary allocation to NCDC.

Without a doubt, health security is an area that Nigeria’s executive and legislature agree. With hindsight, the U.S. should not have cut its Centres for Disease Control’s budget by 20% in 2018.

Fifth, pay attention to what is happening outside of one’s own country. Infectious diseases do not respect borders. Perhaps the most important lesson we should learn from Nigeria’s response to the Coronavirus is what Chikwe Ihekweazu said when he was interviewed by an international media outlet; “The concept of every country trying to look only within its own borders is completely, mindbogglingly, a waste of everybody’s time”.

To be sure, Nigeria is currently dealing with its largest Lassa fever outbreak, attempting to rebuild its health system and still requires more funds to prepare for the next epidemic. However, NCDC has shown what is possible in reducing the impact of a virus with accountable leadership, use of science for decision-making and ensuring value for money in epidemic preparedness.

Chikwe Ihekweazu’s admonition on borderless approach in responding to infectious disease outbreaks is very important because as far as global health security is concerned, the world is as prepared as its weakest link.

Other countries do not have to reinvent the wheel in managing this Coronavirus pandemic. Nigeria has succeeded in containing Coronavirus and is willing to share lessons learnt.

 

The post Lessons from Nigeria in Responding to Coronavirus appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor is a medical doctor, the CEO of EpiAFRIC, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Nigeria Health Watch

The post Lessons from Nigeria in Responding to Coronavirus appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Primary School students in Grenada are seen here working together to promote awareness on water conservation on World Water Day. Credit: Global Water Partnership

By Inge Kaul
BERLIN, Germany, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)

Water is essential and indispensable for life on earth. We know that; and many of us have perhaps heard, written and uttered these words themselves a ‘million’ times.

Therefore, I am astonished and increasingly worried about the relatively low-level of attention and priority accorded to water at the practical-political level.

Certainly, quite some attention has been paid to increasing people’s access to safe drinking water and sanitation services; and important progress has been achieved in this respect.

However, what will happen to this achievement, in the case of water scarcity – when pipes run dry? For many people and countries, an estimated one quarter of the world’s population, dried-up water pipes are not only a hypothetical risk but already reality.

Analysts warn that the spillovers from water scarcity can be serious and many.

Agricultural and industrial production, mining and transport could, for example, be disrupted, economic growth falter, social tensions, conflict and, even, war be funneled, leading, in turn, to swelling flows of internal displacement and international migration. Importantly, while some spillovers may ‘just’ be of local, national or regional reach others will be worldwide. Just think of the high volume of so-called virtual water trade.

About 40% of Europe’s water footprint is virtual water, i.e. water embedded in imported goods, including goods from water-stressed countries.

Clearly, water stress is a global challenge. It concerns us all, current and future human generations, animals and plants – the planet as a whole.

Given these facts and figures, isn’t it odd that policymakers tend to treat water as, what I call, a second-tier policy issue, i.e.: as a good (thing) that matters, because it is needed for the production of desired first-tier policy outcomes, such as wheat, maize, avocados, bananas, cotton (including cotton clothes), urban development and road construction, lithium mining, or swimming pools and other spa-facilities?

Water as an input is in high demand. Many need it; and forward-looking investors have already obtained water-use rights. Not only land-grabbing but water-grabbing, too, could soon intensify, as global warming proceeds.

But global warming is only one driver of water scarcity besides population growth and increasingly water-intensive production and consumption patterns. Water, too, is a most complex good and, importantly, one that is available only in limited supply, even if we manage its use carefully.

All the more to govern it efficiently and equitable so that it can meet to basic conditions viz. (i) be there for all and (ii) be used sustainably.

However, who is in charge of water at the national and international levels? Where is the global intergovernmental water forum mandated to address water as a global policy issue in its own right and complexity – a first-tier issue?

And who would be the national counterparts of this global intergovernmental water forum?

My impression is that we urgently need to build a global water architecture that deals with the various national and international, public and private facets of water in a comprehensive and integrated manner and is endowed with competencies and resources commensurate with water’s essential role for life on earth.

Therefore, on 22 March, this year’s World Water Day, let’s not just pour out more nice words about water as a human right or that progress towards SDG 6 should be scaled-up and accelerated. We said it all before. Let’s shift policy gears and translate words into deeds!

This year’s Water Day is the 27th! In three years, we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of this Day which was proclaimed in 1992 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and observed, for the first time, in 1993.

Therefore, my recommendation to concerned UN Member States, civil society and business is: Please, do consider requesting the UN Secretary-General to establish a small special commission on water security to hold worldwide multi-actor and stakeholder consultations on national and international water governance, report on its findings in the autumn of 2021 so that delegations have time in 2022 to prepare for a high-level debate and decision-making on a new global water governance architecture in 2023 –in honor of the 30th World Water Day.

Aren’t you, too, thirsting for water security, for doing first things first?

The post Thirsting for Water Security? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

This article is to commemorate World Water Day on March 22

 
Inge Kaul is Senior Fellow, Hertie School, Berlin and Non-resident Senior Fellow, center for Global development, Washington, DC. Comments are welcome and can be sent to: contact@ingekaul.net

The post Thirsting for Water Security? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

In Iran, which has seen some of the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the world, a number of reporters are now facing jail after being detained earlier this month for challenging official statistics about the outbreak of the disease in the country. People in Rasht, Gilan Province, Iran, taking precautions to prevent infection by wearing masks in public. unsplash-logomojtaba mosayebzadeh

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)

Growing intimidation and repression of journalists reporting on the coronavirus is threatening public health in some countries, press freedom monitors have warned.

Repressive regimes desperate to control the narrative around the disease’s spread have stepped up their harassment of journalists challenging official information on cases and their handling of the outbreak, they say.

And by cracking down on those trying to report accurately on the disease, these regimes are jeopardising the dissemination of essential facts the population may need to keep themselves safe, the groups argue.

“When the truth is repressed, everyone’s lives are put in danger, not just journalists,’” Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told IPS.

Since the emergence of the disease at the end of last year in China and its subsequent transformation into a global pandemic, there have been growing concerns over the treatment of reporters covering virus outbreaks in some states.

In China, there have been reports of local journalists who criticised the government’s response to the virus being harassed by security forces. Some have even vanished, presumed taken by police and detained in an unknown location.

Meanwhile, last month, three Wall Street Journal reporters were expelled from China over an article about the impact of the virus on the Chinese economy. And just this week 13 journalists working for The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post had their credentials revoked by Chinese authorities.

Beijing said this followed United States authorities’ tightening of rules for Chinese media outlets operating in the country, but the editors of the three newspapers all condemned the decision. Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the New York Times, said it was “especially irresponsible at a time when the world needs the free and open flow of credible information about the coronavirus pandemic”.

But it is not just China where journalists are facing problems for not toeing the government line.

In Iran, which has seen some of the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the world, a number of reporters are now facing jail after being detained earlier this month for challenging official statistics about the outbreak of the disease in the country.

Fardin Moustafai, the editor of a news channel on the Telegram instant messaging app, was this month formally charged with publishing figures contradicting official information about the epidemic’s progress, according to press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

It says two journalists were detained for questioning in Rasht, one of the Iranian cities worst hit by the disease, after publishing information about the situation in the city and the number of victims while four journalists were questioned over official information about the epidemic.

Reza Moisi, head of the Afghanistan-Iran Desk at RSF, told IPS that some journalists who had been brought in for questioning over their reporting will now stand trial and could face jail sentences.

He said though that the regime’s approach to such journalists would “do nothing to help combat the coronavirus epidemic, quite the contrary.”

“The repression of press freedom in Iran is systematic and therefore the control of information there is implacable. This repression targets journalists, of course, but also the public’s right to be informed. Researchers and journalists themselves have said this is one reason why situations, especially in a crisis, worsen.

“In the current crisis, the concealment of information and lack of complete and independent information has clearly put the population in danger,” he said.

The crackdown on journalists in Iran, and in other places such as China, is little surprise, said Mahoney.

“We have seen journalists face repression in places like China and Iran in the past. There are governments which want to control the narrative when something embarrassing, something they appear to be dealing badly with, or has got out of their control, like a pandemic, happens,” he said.

“The apparatus of censorship is already in place, this is just another time that it has been turned on to control the flow of information,” he added.

But concerns over the press’s ability to report accurately on the crisis are not confined solely to countries seen to have repressive regimes.

In the U.S., for instance, there has been criticism about the way the White House has informed about the disease. Critics say there has been a litany of scientifically baseless, false, misleading or confusing statements from President Donald Trump and other officials for months.

U.S. media also reported that Trump tried to have at least one health expert, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, muzzled after she publicly contradicted the President’s statements and that the White House tried to gag health officials who wanted to warn elderly people to avoid air travel.

Officials have also openly attacked media for their reporting on COVID-19. At the end of last month, acting White House chief of staff David Mulvaney said the media was overplaying the dangers of the disease as a way to “bring down the president”.

Mahoney said that in situations where governments effectively bypass the press and speak directly to the people, or do not give them proper access to relevant officials and experts, incorrect or misleading information can end up being passed out to the population unchecked.

“Look at the US where the White House was telling people for weeks that the coronavirus was just like seasonal flu, and then suddenly it’s an emergency,” he said.

“The work journalists do in uncovering things, such as corruption or political scandals, is important but often does not have an immediate impact on normal people’s lives. But their work now has real-time consequences – it could be a matter of life and death. This is why journalists need to have, and be able to disseminate, correct information. If the truth is repressed, the correct information is not getting out,” he explained.

The importance of ensuring accurate information is relayed to not just the public but healthcare workers and scientists has recently been pointed out by health professionals.

Last month, dozens of public health scientists wrote in The Lancet medical journal of their concerns that misinformation about COVID-19 could be hindering efforts to contain the disease.

Previous studies, including on recent Ebola outbreaks on Africa, have shown that misinformation can worsen infectious disease outbreaks.

To this end, governments around the world have taken action to stop the spread of hoaxes and fake news about the disease. Some of this has been drastic, including criminalisation and long jail terms for people found guilty of posting or sharing misinformation about the virus and its spread.

This has led to fears that in some countries these measures are being used to silence critical voices, including journalists.

In China alone, as of February 21, China’s Ministry of Public Security had registered more than 5,500 cases of people “fabricating and deliberately disseminating false and harmful information”.

In Malaysia, for example, dozens of people, including a journalist, have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the virus via social media. There have been similar arrests across Asia, including in India, Thailand and Indonesia, in recent weeks.

Moiri told IPS that in Iran, more than 130 people have been arrested since the end of February for publishing false information. “Not all these people are journalists, but many of them are probably citizen journalists who have published something that contradicts official information,” he said.

Journalism experts have cast doubt over the effectiveness and motivations behind such measures.

Lynette Leonard, Associate Professor at the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of the American University in Bulgaria, told IPS: “Censorship is always a concern even with ‘fake news’. There is rarely a clear way of distinguishing the political goals of criminalising information dissemination from public health goals.

“Fake news, the intentional spread of false information to gain influence or power, is a real problem but the term has been manipulated so much that any legislation that is enacted quickly will likely lack the precise definitions needed to be useful in the fight [against it].”

With no end expected to the pandemic anytime soon, it is unclear what further threats journalists in some countries will face for challenging their governments’ handling of the crisis.

But in at least one country they are unlikely to be effective in completely suppressing critical reporting.

During a string of crises over the last year, including floods in March 2019, popular protests last November, the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner in in February, and now the coronavirus outbreak, the regime has made increasing use of censorship and repression, particularly to control the population, according to Moisi.

“But the question is, will the Islamic Republic of Iran win this war on information? The country’s recent history shows that repression and imprisonment have not kept journalists quiet,” he said.

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By IPS International Desk
NEW YORK, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)

For Dr Edna Adan Ismail maternal health and midwifery is deeply personal. In an interview with Women Deliver Young Leader Musu Bakoto Sawo, Ismail recalls her mother’s devasting experiences which impacted on her own life’s choices.

Dr. Edna Adan Ismail

“As detailed in my memoir, ‘A Woman of Firsts,’ my own parents lost two of their five children because of poor maternal and child health services in my country,” the former Somaliland Foreign Minister and founder of Edna Adan Hospital says.

“My mother lost one baby to a forceps delivery when a Caesarean section could have saved the foetus that had become impacted in her narrow bony pelvis.”

Several years later her parents lost a second baby who was “delivered alive but was then accidentally dropped by the untrained midwife who had delivered it. The newborn fell on his head and died instantly.”

Because of this tragedy, midwifery became her lifelong passion.

When Ismail returned from the UK to Somaliland as the country’s first qualified nurse-midwife, she found herself faced with a myriad of problems during pregnancy and childbirth. These were due to education, poverty, unemployment and because of the damage caused by female genital mutilation (FGM).

Women also did not have a political voice.

These conditions led her to a lifetime of activism which led to the setting up of women’s organisations which could put pressure on the government and political parties. Working for the World Health Organisation also helped in spreading the word.

“What really inspires me today is how far we have come but also how far we still have to go to achieve our goal of equal human rights for all,” Ismail says.

The distance to needed to travel was starkly highlighted in WHO’s “Cost Calculator” released earlier this year. The organisation estimated that FGM incurs a massive economic cost of about for $1.4 billion annually treating health complications arising out of FGM practices. This is based on 27 countries on its dataset.

“I know many battles have been won during the past 42 years and the fact that the world knows about it is proof that our message has been heard,” she says.

“Sadly, however, little girls are still cut, damaged and killed all because of this cruel tradition that has no place in the world. While every action that saves even one child is good, we should broaden our campaigners and now include college and university students who are the parents of tomorrow.”

Women Deliver Young Leader Sawo agrees there is no easy solution to FGM.

“In my experience in The Gambia, there is sometimes a gap between the laws, knowledge and practice, whereby existing laws to combat FGM or knowledge of the negative health consequences of FGM do not always influence the exercise of this practice within communities,” Sawo says, pointing out that there “instances where gaps in the law create minimal protection of women and girls from FGM.”

Ismail acknowledges this but says: “I know many battles have been won during the past 42 years and the fact that the world knows about it is proof that our message has been heard.”

“Sadly, however, little girls are still cut, damaged and killed all because of this cruel tradition that has no place in the world. While every action that saves even one child is good, we should broaden our campaigners and now include college and university students who are the parents of tomorrow.”

Ismail advocates for fathers and young leaders to become involved in the fight against FGM. “We strongly wish for and welcome the support of fathers whose daughters are the ones who are being damaged to the point that they may not be able to one day give them the grandchildren every parent wishes for,” Ismail says.

The solution to saving the young girls, is, however, for society to take a stand. Parents, traditional and religious leaders, legislators, activists, and women’s organisation tall have a role to play.

“Passing a law alone will not be enough, and at the end of the day, we cannot put all our mothers and grandmothers in jail. Legislation that punishes the one who performs FGM is the kind of legislation that I would like to see.”

Young people’s voice in this is vital – and Ismail is adamant that within her university, all must take a stand against it.

“In my university … every student must have a course on the harmful effects of FGM and every student must make a public statement condemning FGM. Any student who does not wish to do this cannot remain in my university.”

It’s been more than 25 years after the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD. Governments and civil society are in the process of developing ambitious programmes of action for the next decade to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

As an African woman, who is a health practitioner and a gender equality activist, Ismail wishes to see “concrete actions that prioritise the health and rights of girls and women.”

While organisations and governments left the 2019 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Nairobi motivated to achieve the development goals for women and girls, is task not going to be an easy one.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), puts the cost of delivering Sustainable Development Goal #5 on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls over the next decade at $264 billion, with $683 million needed to address sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls in conflict areas.

For Ismail and her interviewer Sawo young people in particular have a critical role to play.

“Become better educated, study the issue thoroughly, develop your strategies collectively, make your voices heard as a group and through written articles, research results for publication and discussions in the local media and journals,” Ismail says.

Most of all Ismail’s message is:
“Learn what works from others and share with them what has worked for you. Never give up!”

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By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 20 2020 (IPS)

The devastating spread of the deadly coronavirus across every continent– with the exception of Antarctica– has triggered a conspiracy theory on social media: what if the virus was really a biological weapon?

And more specifically, was it an experimental weapon that accidentally escaped from a laboratory in China?

Or as others contend, is it a weapon surreptitiously introduced to de-stabilize a country with more than 1.4 billion people and described as the world’s second largest economy, after the United States.

Both narratives are considered false, and probably part of a deliberate disinformation campaign, according to military experts.

Still, in the US, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has repeated the charge that the virus was a creation of the Chinese military while others source it to North Korea.

And US President Donald Trump has been roundly condemned for “a racist remark” after describing the deadly disease as “a Chinese virus.”

But one hard fact remains: the potentially destructive power of biological weapons, which were banned by an international convention, going back to 1975.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates predicted in a TED talk in 2015: “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it is likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war.”

They will not be missiles, he warned, but microbes.

And two years later, according to GeekWire, Gates repeated the same warning at a side event during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos: “It’s pretty surprising how little preparedness there is for it,” Gates was quoted as saying in 2017.

Addressing the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle last month, Gates said the impact of COVID-19 could be “very, very dramatic,” particularly if it spreads to areas like sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

Meanwhile, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged about $100 million to fight the virus, “as part of its broader efforts in global health”.

Dr Filippa Lentzos

Dr Filippa Lentzos, Associate Senior Researcher, Armament and Disarmament Programme, at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told IPS a biological weapon comprises a biological agent and a delivery mechanism.

In theory, she pointed out, any virus could be used as a weapon, but historically some agents have been viewed as more effective than others, e.g. anthrax, brucellosis, Q fever, tularaemia, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, glanders, plague, Marburg virus disease and smallpox.

She pointed out that much will depend on what ends or purpose the weapons are being used for.

“In terms of the coronavirus, there would no longer be a surprise factor, and resistance to the virus may in future have been built up, though the jury is still out on that one”.

As of March 19, the coronavirus has accounted for over 208,000 positive cases worldwide and over 8,700 deaths—and rising.

In the United States, there have been 49 deaths so far, and over 10,000 positive cases of the spreading virus.

The New York Times of March 18 cites a study by Imperial College, London, which estimates the virus can kill over 250,000 in the UK and more than a million in the US –- “unless officials took action to slow its spread.”

Asked if there are any countries identified as still manufacturing or hoarding biological weapons despite their ban, Dr Lentzos said over the past 100 years, about 25 countries are believed to have possessed a biological weapons programme for some period of time.

“Most programmes were of a short duration. They were small and developed limited, unsophisticated capabilities”.

Credit: United Nations

Only two countries are known to have had sophisticated capabilities that could inflict mass casualties or extensive economic harm: the United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia), said Dr Lentzos, who is also a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London and a biosecurity columnist at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Today, she said, “there is limited public information on possible illicit biological weapons activity. The main concern today is not really that countries have offensive biological warfare programmes, but that they are building dual use capabilities.”

https://thebulletin.org/2018/07/darpas-prepare-program-preparing-for-what/

Asked about the use of biological weapons as part of germ warfare during World War I, she said there was some covert use by Germany during World War I to infect horses with biological agents to block their use by Allied military forces.

“In World War II, there were substantial covert attacks on China by Japan, as well as some clandestine use in Europe against Germany. There has been very limited known use since 1945”, said Dr Lentzos, who is also an Associate Editor of the journal BioSocieties, and the NGO Coordinator for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

According to the Washington-based Arms Control Association, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is a legally binding treaty that outlaw biological arms.

Opened for signature on April 10, 1972, the BWC entered into force on March 26, 1975. It currently has 182 states-parties. Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BWC, including Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan and Tuvalu.

*Thalif Deen is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group.

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 19 2020 (IPS)

The human factor is intimately involved in the origin, spread, and mitigation of the Coronavirus and we cannot afford to ignore that our future existence depends on compassion and cooperation. Response matters!

Some quarantined Italians might recall Giovanni Boccaccio´s The Decameron from 1353 in which people escaping the plague are secluded in a villa where they tell stories to each other. Boccaccio introduced his collection of short stories with an eyewitness account of horrifying human suffering in Florence, which in 1348 was struck by a ”pestilence” that every day ”grew in strength” while it swept relentlessly on from one place to another. In the face of its onrush all the wisdom and ingenuity of man were unavailing. Large quantities of refuse were cleared out of the city by officials appointed for the purpose, all sick persons were forbidden entry, and numerous instructions were issued for safeguarding the people´s health, but all to no avail […] it seemed that all the advice of physicians and all the power of medicine were profitless and unavailing. Perhaps the nature of the illness was such that it allowed no remedy: or perhaps those people who were treating the illness […] being ignorant of its causes, were not prescribing the appropriate cure.1

Boccaccio describes the Black Death as a natural phenomenon and it was common to consider epidemic outbreaks as an inevitable scourge beyond human control. In the mid-1400s the Black Death killed between thirty and eighty percent of Europe’s population. It was not spread by a virus, but by a bacterium nurtured within a flea, that fed on the Black Rat. Everything indicates that the plague’s rapid spread was supported by human action. By the beginning of the 1330s Mongolian armies attacked the Chinese Yuan Empire. During three years following the Mongol conquest, the plague decimated the population of the Hebei Province by ninety percent. Five million people died, while millions fled from the misery caused by war and disease. The plague rapidly expanded throughout Asia, almost simultaneously with the conquering Mongolians. It reached Europe with Genoese galleys arriving in Italy in 1347. They came from the port of Kaffa on the Crimean Peninsula, which had been captured and looted by the Mongolian Ulug Ulus, the Golden Horde.

Even more devastating than the Black Death were diseases that Europeans and Africans, together with cows, pigs and poultry, after 1492 brought with them to the American continent. Millions of people succumbed to viral diseases such as influenza, smallpox, chickenpox, and hepatitis. The effect was generally syndemic, i.e. several diseases coincided to infect and kill people. However, in the mid-1500s the bacterial disease salmonella singlehandedly killed eighty percent of Mexico’s population, which already had been decimated by syndemic epidemics, the disease returned 25 years later killing half of those who had escaped its first attack.

Between 1600 and 1650 malaria and yellow fever, carried by parasites brought by the slave trade, decimated large populations in South America. During the 1700- and 1800s, smallpox killed 80 percent of the indigenous populations in North America.

What made the situation in the Americas unique was that indigenous populations rarely recovered from the pandemics. In Europe, the economy and public health were generally boosted after ravages of epidemic diseases. Due to reduced labour supply, farmers and workers were generally treated better than before the onslaught of a pandemic. The shock effect of mass death made people aware of the importance of cooperation and respect to make life more bearable for their fellow beings. On the contrary, in the Americas, indigenous peoples and imported slaves continued to be treated ruthlessly and their numbers were further decimated by deliberate extinction and inhuman oppression.

The three most deadly plagues recorded by history were the Justinian Plague, which in the mid 500s CE killed an estimated 30 million people, the Black Death and the so-called Third Plague Pandemic, which during the second half of the 19th century killed at least twelve million in China and India. Just like other pandemics the Third Pandemic was worsened by human behaviour and triggered several social upheavals. The natural reservoir of the Third Pandemic was located in southern China. Like the current nCoV-2019, bats were probably infected with the disease, while other kinds of mammals served as intermediate hosts between bats and humans. The plague erupted after Han Chinese had been brought into Western Yunnan to exploit mineral deposits. Returning miners spread the plague to urban centres, while the outbreak helped to recruit desperate and uprooted people to the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1863). Taiping means ”general equality” and was to a great extent a reaction to repression from Imperial Government. Most sources estimate the number of deaths during the rebellion to have been between 20 and 30 million, most of them attributed to plague and famine.2

The plague was brought from Hong Kong to British India, where it in a short time killed at least 10 million and subsequently killed millions more until it abated after thirty years. Colonial Government measures to control the disease included quarantine, isolation camps, and travel restrictions, all enforced by the British military. By 1899, it was apparent that the use of force to implement plague regulations had been counter-productive. Public reactions to the health measures had revealed how medical interventions had been forged by a colonial mentality making a difference between people according to class and ethnicity, thus triggering several revolts and inspiring independence movements.3

Plagues are caused by bacteria, Yersinia pestis, while influenza is spread by a virus. However, both diseases generally originate in rodents, or bats, spreading the disease to other mammals, which transmit it to humans. The worst recorded influenza pandemic is the Spanish Flu, which agonized the entire world by the end of World War I and during a year following the final truce. Tightly-knit groups in trenches and barracks, or during troop transports spread the virus at great speed. Spain was not harder hit than most other European nations, but since this nation did not participate in the war and furthermore had better health control than most other countries, the flu epidemic could be ascertained and tracked, while containment was enforced earlier than in other nations. The pandemic raged at its worst between March 1918 and June 1920, reaching Inuit in the Arctic and Polynesians in the Pacific. The Spanish Flu became the pandemic known to have killed most humans in the shortest time. In twenty-five months, it killed three to six percent of the world population. Human suffering was terrifying. Symptoms were gruesome, lack of oxygen from infected lungs gave faces of the sick a blue tinge, hemorrhages filled their lungs with blood, causing uncontrollable vomiting and nosebleeds with victims drowning in their own fluids. Families were decimated and many orphans were left to die since people were afraid of taking care of them. Just as now, several authorities were for political reasons reluctant to act, thus hastening and widening the spread of the disease.4

Humans are undoubtedly involved in the original extension of the current pandemic. Like many other influenza viruses, nCoV-2019 probably originates in bats. The virus transmitting animal was likely the endangered pangolin, which meat is in many places in South East Asia considered to be a delicacy, while its scales are erroneously assumed to be a remedy for rheumatism. The pangolin is an anteater and may have been infected by insects feeding on dead bats.

After causing the pandemic, humanity has now entered phase two – trying to mitigate its spread and treat those who have been smitten by it. Let us hope that nCoV-2019 will not bring so much misery and death as the Spanish Flu. We live in different times and can now see the actual virus through electron microscopes, researchers can isolate it and establish its genetic sequence, test antiviral drugs and develop vaccines. People can be tested and respirators provided for those in a critical state of infection. Furthermore, we can count upon experiences from earlier epidemics. However, preparedness for a looming pandemic has proven to be utterly deficient. Test kits are lacking. There are not sufficient beds and respirators for moribund patients. Protective gear for hospital staff is insufficient and even missing. Lonely people are isolated in their homes, while information is inadequate and even contradictory. Patients with other ailments than influenza are blocked from medical care. In short – social services, our entire society, are actually badly prepared to cope with an ever worsening situation.

Scientific findings and medical resources have to be implemented and mobilized by decision-makers. Several highly influential politicians have nevertheless, due to ignorance, prestige and political deliberations, allowed critical time to pass before ordering the deployment of necessary measures to attack a ruthless killer like nCoV-2019. Some of them have even had the audacity to bamboozle us with obvious lies and stupidities. People are currently dying and suffering from the ineptness of such elected leaders who are supposed to be servants of the people. If they do not react in time we have to force them to do so and not accept their indifference to human suffering. We all have to support the battle against nCoV-2019 – #StayAtHome.

1 Boccaccio, Giovanni (2003) The Decamaron. London: Penguin Classics.
2 Spence, Jonathan D. (1996) God´s Chinese Son: The Taiping Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. New York: W.W. Norton.
3 An analysis of the interaction between humans and plagues is provided by McNeill, William H. (1998) Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books.
4 Deadliest Plague of the 20th century, the Spanish Flu of 1918. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDY5COg2P2c

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By Vladimir Popov and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 19 2020 (IPS)

It is now clear that most East Asian government responses to novel coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreaks have been effective. In Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, the number infected have remained relatively low despite their proximity and vulnerability, while containment in China and South Korea has been impressive.

Vladimir Popov

Some other countries hit by the Covid-19 pandemic are trying to replicate East Asian policy responses, not only in public health, but also in handling economic contraction. More than two decades after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crises, some media are praising East Asia again.

Structural recession?
The contraction is largely due to the government lockdowns to ensure ‘social distancing’ to check the spread of the virus. Mainstream economists call this a structural or supply side recession, to be overcome by expansionary fiscal and monetary policy, predicted to trigger higher inflation.

Less work has reduced incomes and hence demand. To make matters worse, share price collapses have also reduced wealth income. The crisis also offers an opportunity to reallocate resources, among industries and services, or even spatially, from one region to another.

While the pandemic has hit some activities far more than others, e.g., travel, tourism, retail, events, restaurants, entertainment, schools, universities, etc., the crisis offers an opportunity to shift resources to activities of the future, e.g., renewable energy and care work, besides the urgent need to cope with public health emergencies and order.

But a quicker and more efficient solution is elimination of supply constraints by expediting or even mandatorily reallocating labour and finance. One analogy is the transition from manufacturing gramophone records to producing tape-recorders, CDs, DVDs, i-pods, and smart phones with better techniques. Another is the conversion of energy intensive industries into much more energy efficient operations.

Such structural changes are happening all the time, and should not cause recessions if gradual and small scale. But sudden, large scale structural shifts may be more disruptive as time and effort are needed to reallocate resources. Thus, output drops in declining industries are not immediately compensated by production increases in the emerging new industries.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

In a market economy, adjustments typically increase unemployment: industries that become less profitable, due to higher costs, may lay off workers; growing unemployment lowers wages, and it may take a while before the lower labour costs make it worthwhile to raise production in other industries.

Without government assistance to retrain laid off workers and encourage new investments, adjustment will be more painful, lengthy and costly. The recessions in Western countries following the oil price rises in 1973, 1979 and 2007 were due to poorly managed ‘structural shifts’.

Transformational recessions in post-communist economies in the 1990s also exemplify poor management of such structural shifts. In many countries, output reductions during such transitions were greater than in the US Great Depression of the 1930s.

Coping with recession
Managing structural shifts was generally more successful in East Asia as costs and benefits were generally better shared and governments have been less reluctant to intervene in markets and direct investment finance accordingly.

In China, production of protective masks increased from 15 million daily in early February to over 100 million every day by the end of month! Over 3000 enterprises that previously had nothing to do with health products started producing masks, special protective suits, sanitizers and hygiene goods.

The South Korean company Seegene developed a Covid-19 test kit in three weeks and started mass production with its 395 employees dropping all their other work to focus on making kits. Production of the company’s fifty or so other products temporarily ceased for two weeks. Molecular biologists with PhDs stopped research and development to work on the kit assembly line, as senior scientists packaged the kits.

In Western countries, similar examples can be seen in the conversion of industries to defence production during war. In most countries, state assistance has eased and accelerated such transitions. Increased defence procurement caused US economic growth to speed up after the 1937-38 recession to 17-20% annually during 1941-43.

Centrally planned economies were even better at quickly achieving structural shifts while maintaining full employment. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, just before and during the Second World War, the Soviet Union moved considerable resources from agriculture to industry, and from light to heavy industry, especially for defence.

In 1940, Germany produced twice as much steel and more armaments than the Soviet Union, but by 1943, the USSR had surpassed Germany in producing tanks, aircrafts and artillery, decisively changing the course of the war.

Eight decades later, Professor Jamie Galbraith has argued that there is “no acceptable alternative” to the US government covering the full costs of testing and treating Covid-19 cases, without exception and legal risk; to be effective, care should be universal and free of cost.

If the Covid-19 epidemic continues to spread quickly, the ability of countries to quickly redeploy resources will be crucial, not only for fighting the pandemic, but also to overcome the likely recession.

During the 2008-09 Great Recession, China’s huge fiscal stimulus package mitigated the economic slowdown. Its growth rate dropped from 14% in 2007 to 9% in 2009, as some other countries experienced their deepest post-war recessions, even contractions.

Betting only on market forces to do the necessary is not only slow, but also dangerous. The capacity to cope with the inevitable forthcoming slowdown will depend crucially on how governments manage resources to guide structural transitions.

This opinion draws on an earlier paper by Popov which can be read at:
https://doc-research.org/2020/03/how-to-deal-with-the-coronavirus-economic-recession-social-solidarity-and-state-intervention/

Vladimir Popov is a Research Director in the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute in Berlin.

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