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The Indian government put an end to large scale protests by revoking the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir – a status provided for under the Indian Constitution. Thousands of troops were deployed and the valley region faced unprecedented lockdown. Credit: Umer Asif/IPS

By Abdullah Yusuf
Sep 9 2019 (IPS)

August is immensely important in the history of the Asian subcontinent, marking the month that India and Pakistan gained independence from the British in 1947. Now, in 2019, it has once again proved momentous, when, ten days before India’s Independence day celebrations, prime minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir – a status provided for under the Indian Constitution.

This latest move was a manifesto pledge from Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which claims that Kashmir’s autonomy has hindered its development while fostering an area of thriving terrorism and smuggling.

Soon, thousands of troops were deployed and the valley region faced unprecedented lockdown. Experts say that Modi’s move to tether the Muslim majority of Kashmir is a gamble that could trigger conflict with Pakistan while reigniting an insurgency that has already cost tens of thousands of lives.

Kashmir: a brief history

Until 1947, Kashmir was a territorially well-defined and functional state that had existed for a century before its seizure by the British in 1846. The British decolonisation of the subcontinent in 1947 was instrumental in creating disorder that pushed Kashmir into a repeated cycle of war and stalemate between Pakistan and India, which have both claimed the region as sovereign territory for the last 70 years.

Today, Kashmir’s geopolitical position and glacial water reserves – which provide fresh water and hydro-electric power to millions – add an extra dimension to the existing sectarian and ideological conflict between India and Pakistan over this small northern region.

The Kashmir issue has resulted in three wars between these two countries – in 1947, 1965 and 1999 – triggering numerous UN Security Council Resolutions – which unequivocally call for the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist project

Many within the region feel that Modi’s BJP is brazenly trying to change Kashmir’s ethnic composition to disadvantage India’s Muslim minority by encouraging more Hindus into the region. Since the revocation of Article 370 (which assured the region’s autonomy), Indian Kashmiri leaders who vehemently opposed the decision – including two former chief ministers – have been sent to jail.

Modi’s government has a history of stoking tensions between Hindus and Muslims, with its political rule now focused on “Hindutva”, which translates roughly as “Hindu-ness”, and reframes Hinduism as an identity rather than a theology or religion.

Modi has fostered Hindu nationalism through anti-Islamic rhetoric, accusing Muslim men of attempting to change India’s demographics by seducing Hindu women, as well as encouraging lynching of Muslims falsely accused of eating beef (from the sacred Hindu cow) in BJP controlled states. Clearly, these are tactics designed to expand the notion of Hindutva and further isolate the Muslim population within India. Targeting Kashmir is a crucial part of the strategy.

Dangerous tensions and nuclear options

In the wake of India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status, there are two key questions.

First, will it be beneficial to Kashmir as claimed by Modi’s government? The situation on the ground would suggest not. After a month of curfew and lockdown, protests have turned violent. The Indian government has been unable to restore peace in the valley despite the increasing atrocities. According to news reports, 4,000 people have been arrested since the territory lost its status.

Second, how is the situation affecting the already tense relations between India and Pakistan? India’s land grab comes just five months after a breakdown in relations following claims by India that a Pakistani-based suicide bomber killed 44 Indian soldiers in the Kashmir region, leading to airstrikes by both sides. The situation threatens to reignite this conflict with both countries cautioning the world about the nuclear option.

Addressing a joint session of Pakistan’s parliament on August 6, prime minister Imran Khan briefed lawmakers on the steps his government had taken towards peace in the region. But he maintained the situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir would deteriorate and its neighbour would blame and attack Pakistan.

Days later, Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh stated that India is committed to “no first use” of nuclear weapons, but future policy is dependent on the ever-evolving circumstances. These sentiments have led to international debate over the possibility of nuclear weapons being unleashed.

Parallels with East Timor

With this nuclear threat ever present, the situation in Kashmir is now one of the most dangerous in the world. Since the two countries have consistently failed to make any progress, external help from the international community and the UN is crucial in resolving the conflict and preventing further escalation.

As the world witnessed in the case of East Timor in 1999, independence from Indonesia after two decades of bloodshed was achieved following a referendum held under the stewardship of the UN. This result was not accepted by Indonesia, which launched a scorched-earth campaign, killing more than 1,500 Timorese, displacing nearly half the population, and razing much of East Timor to the ground.

The subsequent progression towards independence and peacebuilding was facilitated by external bodies such as the UN-mandated International Force in East Timor and the Transitional Administration in East Timor, underscoring the importance of support from both the UN and the international community.

The UN didn’t achieve success overnight, but endured through increasing international pressure, combined with a change in the Suharto government. Soon, Indonesia found itself falling out of favour with the international community.

There are parallels here for the Kashmir situation. Although progress may be slow while Modi’s populist BJP remains in power, pressure from the international community would likely go a long way towards pulling both countries back from the brink. In the meantime, while Modi tries to remake India in the BJP’s Hindutva image, for Kashmiris the struggle for self-determination goes on.

Abdullah Yusuf is a lecturer in politics at the University of Dundee

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

The post Kashmir: How Modi’s Aggressive ‘Hindutva’ Project has Brought India and Pakistan to the Brink – Again appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Abdullah Yusuf is a lecturer in politics at the University of Dundee.

The post Kashmir: How Modi’s Aggressive ‘Hindutva’ Project has Brought India and Pakistan to the Brink – Again appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Key leaders from the coalition of faith based organisations, trade unions, NGOs and corporate South Africa marched in 2015, speaking out against xenophobia during a peoples march in Newtown. Courtesy: GCIS

By Steven Gordon
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Sep 9 2019 (IPS)

Mobs have attacked foreign-owned businesses on the streets of at least three South African cities in recent days. This has caused outrage across Africa. There have even been retaliatory attacks. The South African government, under pressure to protect her large international migrant community, quickly defused the attacks.

Such attacks are not new. For more than two decades, this type of crime has bedeviled the country. There is growing frustration that so little has been done to stop it.

To combat anti-immigrant hate crime, we need to understand its drivers. Scholars at the Human Sciences Research Council have recently made new discoveries about the drivers of anti-immigrant hate crime in South Africa.

We found that a significant share of the general population hold anti-immigrant views and blame foreign nationals for many of the socio-economic challenges facing South African society. Yet there is little empirical evidence that immigrants are driving problems like crime or unemployment.

But beliefs about the role played by foreign nationals in the country clearly influence how people think about anti-immigrant hate crime. Anti-immigrant statements by politicians also feed into the problem.

Tracking anti-immigrant hate crime

Data from the South African Social Attitudes Survey, conducted annually since 2003, was used. The survey series consists of nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional surveys. It is designed as a time series and is increasingly providing a unique, long-term account of the speed and direction of change of public participation in anti-immigrant behaviour in contemporary South Africa.

Using this data, researchers have found that anti-immigrant hate crime is more widespread than previously thought.

Beginning in 2015, the following item was added in the survey questionnaire:

Have you taken part in violent action to prevent immigrants from living or working in your neighbourhood?

People may be disinclined to disclose this type of potentially incriminating information during face-to-face interviews. But community research suggests that the stigma attached to participation in xenophobic activities may not be as great as we may imagine. Still, the reader should be aware of this possible under-reporting of anti-immigrant behaviour when reviewing the survey’s results.

A minority of the South African adult population reported that they had participated in this form of anti-immigrant aggression. The share of the general public who admitted engaging in violence fluctuated within a very narrow band over the period 2015-2018. This shows the willingness of survey participants to respond to this question varies by only a small margin between the two periods. It also suggests a linear relationship between behavioural intention and attitudes.

The survey results demonstrate the ugly reality of violent anti-immigrant hate crime in South Africa. Although this is an important and dangerous type of prejudice, such crime is not the only form that xenophobia may take. Other forms of peaceful anti-immigrant discrimination are also evident in South African society.

Research has shown that more peaceful forms of anti-immigrant activities are often the first step in a process of escalation that leads to xenophobic violence. Past participation in peaceful anti-immigrant activity (such as demonstrations) was found to be a major determinant of this type of violence.

For this reason, we suggest in our study,

policymakers should consider non-violent anti-immigrant activities as early warning signs of forthcoming anti-immigrant hate crime.

Conclusion

One of the most troubling findings to have emerged concerned possible participation in anti-immigrant aggression among those who had not taken part before. More than one in ten adults living in South Africa reported in the 2018 survey that they had not taken part in violent action against foreign nationals – but would be prepared to do so.

This finding is quite disturbing given that there may be under-reporting of the propensity for violent action. Anti-immigrant stereotypes were shown to be a robust driver of this kind of behavioural intention. This suggests that anti-immigrant attitudes could have a mobilising effect, spurring individuals towards acts of violent xenophobia.

The results of this study show that millions of ordinary South Africans are prepared to engage in anti-immigrant behaviour. So it is vital that the resources dedicated to combating xenophobia be equal to the size of the problem.

The South African government has a national action plan to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The progressive measures put forward in the plan include immigrant integration, better law enforcement, civic education and increased immigrant access to constitutionally entitled rights.

Recent research suggests that many of these measures have a degree of public support. The plan was approved in March this year. If it’s to work, it requires adequate resources and support from all sectors of South African society.

Instead of focusing on short-term solutions civil society, foreign governments and the general public must work with the state to progressively implement this plan.

Steven Gordon is a senior research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council.

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

The post What Research Reveals about Drivers of Anti-immigrant Hate Crime in South Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Steven Gordon works for the Human Sciences Research Council as a senior research specialist. He receives funding from the Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witswaterand.

The post What Research Reveals about Drivers of Anti-immigrant Hate Crime in South Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Professor Ai Kurosaka, author of the book Fighting Prejudice in Japan: The Families of Hansen's Disease Patients Speak Out, describes how a lawsuit has helped Hansen's disease affected people get justice and compensation. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
MANILA, Sep 8 2019 (IPS)

Professor Ai Kurosaka remembers the day she first interacted with a person affected by Hansen’s disease. It was 2003 and Kurosaka, then a graduate student of sociology at the Saitama University in Japan, had been assigned to interview ex-patients and their family members to document what kind of discrimination they faced. It was a very difficult task because nobody wanted to speak or identify themselves.

“They had already faced a lot of social discrimination such as bullying faced by children at school, physical violence by partners at home, refusal of marriage and employment and so on. They were scared of facing more of it by publicly admitting they were associated with Hansen’s disease,” Kurosaka recalls.

Fifteen years later, Kurosaka, who has since written a book on people affected by Hansen’s disease in Japan, is sharing their stories globally.

At the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s disease currently underway in Manila, Philippines, Kurosaka shared one story in which 561 ex-patients of Hansen’s disease and their family members filed a class action lawsuit seeking justice and financial compensation against Japan’s government.

Compensation was sought for the discrimination and violations of rights they suffered for generations, especially due to a government policy that segregated Hansen’s disease patients from their families before the country was declared free of the disease in 1996.

The suit was filed at the Kumamoto court of Japan in March 2016, and for the first time two generations came together and reveal how their human rights were violated for decades.

This June, the court passed a verdict in their favour and ordered the government to pay compensation.

According to Kurosaka, this is a fine example of using litigation as a tool to hold the government responsible for allowing discrimination and to also right the wrongs that have been done to Hansen’s disease patients and their families.

“Every country where Hansen’s disease patients have been facing stigma, can use this tool to ask for justice. Maybe not everyone will win a monetary compensation, but they can ask the government to abolish any discriminatory law or policies that still exist,” Kurosaka told IPS.

The success story from Japan created a wave of reactions in the global forum as it resonated with many who have faced discrimination on multiple levels. Lilibeth Nwakaeogo, a human rights lawyer from Nigeria, said that she was now considering filing a lawsuit to ask for compensation for the most stigmatised people living with Hansen’s disease in the West African nation.

“In Nigeria, women who have Hansen’s disease face tremendous amount of stigma. They are neglected, treated as untouchable and almost dehumanised. For these women and their children who also face the same kind of stigma, I would consider filing a lawsuit to seek monetary compensation,” Nwakaego told IPS.

However, a lawsuit would take years and could test the strength of the community, cautions Pramod Kumar Jha, a participant from Nepal. Under Nepal’s constitution it is still legal for a man or woman to divorce their spouse on the grounds of leprosy. The removal of this discriminatory provision from the constitution is one of the priorities before the Nepali community of Hansen’s disease-affected people.

“We have already met the Chief Minister and appealed to him to annul this law. Filing a lawsuit could ideally be possible, it would also need for the entire community to stay united and fight a long fight,” he told IPS.

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The post Litigation, a Mechanism to Ensure Justice and End Stigma for Hansen’s Disease appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ariel Lazarte of the Coalition of Leprosy Advocates of the Philippines (CLAP) shows off the dried fish production run by patients of a transient house operated by HD (Hope & Dignity) Philippines. Courtesy: Ariel Lazarte

By Ben Kritz
MANILA, Sep 8 2019 (IPS)

Organisations supporting people affected by Hansen’s disease (leprosy) have social rather than capitalist aims, but they need to take a business-minded approach to their work if they wish to be sustainable, experts at a global conference in Manila, Philippines said.

In workshops conducted at the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s Disease in Manila on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 7 and 8, representatives of organisations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America agreed that sustainability is the biggest challenge they face.

Every organisation faces some uncertainty over the continuity of donor or government financial support, so reducing or eliminating reliance on external funding is considered a critical priority.

Japan’s The Nippon Foundation (TNF) and Sasakawa Health Foundation (SHF), which sponsored the global forum and provided capacity support to the participating organisations, have long taken the view that sustainability should be the ultimate goal.

At a regional conference of people’s organisations held here in March, SHF Executive Director Dr. Takahiro Nanri stressed that his foundation’s goal was to see its beneficiaries become self-supporting. “In order to be truly sustainable, the organisation needs to develop an income-generating programme,” Nanri said at the time.

Dr. Marie Lisa Dacanay president of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) outlined the fundamentals of effective social enterprises, which were derived from research conducted by ISEA in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Credit: Ben Kritz/IPS

Fundamentals of social enterprises

On Sunday Sept. 8, Dr. Marie Lisa Dacanay president of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) outlined the fundamentals of effective social enterprises, which were derived from research conducted by the institute in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Social enterprises have three common traits, Dacanay explained:

• They are driven by a social mission instead of an enterprise mission;
• Successful social enterprises are wealth-creating organisations that provide some form of marketable products or services; and
• They follow a distributive enterprise philosophy in that profits are directed towards the social mission rather than being collected as return on investment.

In carrying out its mission, a social enterprise faces a number of external and internal challenges, Dacanay said.

External pressures come in the form of climate or environmental factors – a significant concern of agriculture-based enterprises; unfavourable government policies; harmful industry or market practises; inadequate government support for social programs; and institutional corruption.

Internal challenges include difficulty in accessing needed technology; securing initial financing; organisational and management capacity; production efficiency; and developing practical measures of the enterprise’s social impact.

Based on ISEA’s research, successful social enterprises can be organised following an entrepreneur non-profit model, a social cooperative model, a social business model, or what she described as “social entrepreneurship intervention,” which is a hybrid combining characteristics of all three models.
In determining which form of organisation is most suitable to the social mission, Dacanay told IPS, “I think everything starts with the reality. Every social entrepreneur starts with, ‘what are the needs, and the problem?’”

“The first step is really understanding the stakeholders you want to help,” Dacanay continued, “find out what they are doing already, and look at what gaps there are. That, along with the resources and capabilities available, define a way of moving forward, and then the organisational form will follow.”

Social business is still business

In the Saturday workshop, Earl Parreno, the chairman of the Philippines’ Altertrade Foundation, Inc. (ATFI) conducted a training in business planning basics for the assembled people’s organisations.

Defining a social enterprise as one that pursues a triple bottom line philosophy (financial, social, and environmental results), Parreno explained that the fundamentals of business planning must still be applied, but that organisations that are made up of people who are both the providers and beneficiaries of a social mission are often handicapped by a complete lack of capacity.

“Poverty is not just lack of financial resources,” Parreno told the workshop participants in his presentation, “It’s really incapability, a lack of knowledge.”

Developing the capabilities can be an arduous process, but is achievable. One of ATFI’s areas of focus in the Philippines is among poor farmworkers in Negros Province, a centre for sugar production. Parreno described the success of the social enterprise supported by ATFI in marketing Muscovado sugar – semi-raw sugar that was at one time considered “poor man’s sugar,” but is now a premium-priced staple in organic food stores.

“The business ideation is really critical,” Parreno explained to IPS. “We have a saying here in the Philippines: gaya-gaya puta maya, which means something like ‘copycat.’” A common problem among new social enterprises, Parreno said, is a lack of originality in the revenue-generating product or service they wish to pursue.

“What we stress to our social enterprise partners is that they should not conceive a product or service that’s just better, but one that is truly different and has a ‘solidarity market,’” Parreno said, such as the market of “mindful consumers” for organic Muscovado sugar discovered by the Negros sugar farmers. “That solidarity market is so important. It really gives the people’s organisation a fighting chance.”

According to Parreno, developing a sound business plan, from business ideation through resource mapping, feasibility study, and market analysis answers one of the key concerns expressed by many of the forum participants in the post-workshop discussion: The difficulty in securing initial funding to launch a social enterprise.

“The only difference between this kind of (social) business and a conventional business is where the profits go,” Parreno explained. “The discipline and the steps that need to be taken to develop it are very much the same, and if the result is a good business plan, the investors to get it off the ground will follow.”

A poultry and dried fish production project located in Baras, Rizal Province, east of the Philippine capital, employs about 10 people, all residents of a transient house for leprosy patients. It is a good example of a social enterprise that has proved successful.

Ariel Lazarte, a member of Coalition of Leprosy Advocates of the Philippines (CLAP) who runs the social enterprise, told IPS that sales have been good enough that his out-of-pocket expenses have been fully covered by the revenue, as well as providing much-needed funding for the transient house residents.
The social enterprise, part of HD (Hope and Dignity) Philippines, a non-profit managed by Lazarte, makes about 560 dollars a month.

Half of this is ploughed back into the social enterprise and the remainder is used to pay for the living expenses of the patients, including paying for medicines, transport, food, water, and vitamins.
“The only outside funding we had was for [the pen for the chickens],” Lazarte told IPS, noting that the Tikkun Olam Foundation, which supports Hansen’s disease in the country, provided the funding for this.

“The residents of the house who are capable help to tend the chickens, which are layers, and produce the dried fish. We then sell the eggs and fish in the local market.”

Part of the marketing advantage the poultry project has is that the eggs are organic. “We use organic feed for the chickens,” Lazarte said. “No synthetic feed.”

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The post The Business of Social Enterprise appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Participants at the first Global Forum of People’s Organizations on Hansen’s Disease which began on Sept. 7 in Manila, Philippines, play a game to build better connectivity among themselves. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Ben Kritz
MANILA, Sep 7 2019 (IPS)

Organisations of people affected by Hansen’s Disease or leprosy agree that a global network of volunteer groups is key to eradicating the disease, but concrete steps need to be taken to move the idea from an often-discussed concept to a reality.

“I don’t think anyone here is not convinced about the importance of a network,” Dr. Arturo Cunanan Medical Director of Culion Sanitarium and General Hospital told attendees following a workshop on volunteers and networking at the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s Disease in Manila on September 7. “But we need to put our foot forward.”

Artur Custodio Moreira de Sousa, who heads Brazil’s Movement for Reintegration of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease (MORHAN), led the workshop and firmly agreed with Cunanan’s observation, but was more upbeat.

“This forum exists because the network already exists,” Sousa said, speaking through an interpreter. “The idea exists, the network is created, the work needs to continue to solidify and formalise it.”

Sousa conducted the workshop at the forum organised by Japan’s Sasakawa Health Foundation (SHF) and The Nippon Foundation to share some ofMORHAN’s success in organising volunteers and networks in Brazil, encouraging the participating groups from Asia, Africa, and South America to consider ways in which they could contribute to an effective global network.

Making the most of volunteers

As Sousa described it, the development of a network is in a sense development of a volunteer organisation writ large. MORHAN, which was formed after the fall of Brazil’s dictatorship in 1981, is itself a network of local volunteer groups. Keeping these human resources organised and making the best use of individual talents and intentions is a significant focus area for MORHAN.

“Attracting the people (volunteers) is easy,” Sousa told the forum attendees. “Maintaining the people is very difficult.” Where MORHAN has been successful in this is by encouraging its volunteers to decide how they can contribute. “The people must be free to create,” Sousa said.

Morhan community outreach volunteer Glaucia Maricato, who was doing double duty at the forum as an English interpreter for her Portuguese-speaking colleagues, is a good example of how MORHAN uses volunteers to the best advantage for the individual and the organisation.

Maricato, an anthropologist, explained that she first was introduced to MORHAN in 2010, after the group made an agreement with a group of geneticists to reunite children who had been separated from their families due to leprosy – with either the children or the parents isolated in a sanitarium. “The idea was to use DNA testing to prove who the children’s parents were,” Maricato explained. “I was interested in the project so I got in touch with MORHAN, and then started doing fieldwork,” as the project was related to Maricato’s doctoral studies.

To Maricato, the volunteer work has far more significance than simply applying a person’s skills to a task. “MORHAN was born with democracy in Brazil [in 1981],” Maricato said. “And that spirit really carries on its work, in the DNA testing project and overall. It’s the sense of building equality, removing barriers between people.”

From local organisation to network

Organising volunteers into effective networks can greatly facilitate management of organisations and the services they provide, the chairperson of the Philippines’ Coalition of Leprosy Advocates of the Philippines (CLAP) Francisco Onde agreed.

“Our country is an archipelago, so traveling from one place to another to deal with situations is sometimes difficult,” Onde told the forum participants.

“For example, we had an issue between one of our groups and the administration of the Tala Sanitarium [located north of Manila], but we’re located in Cebu [in the central Philippines]. But through our network and our Luzon coordinator, we were able to get an attorney to assist our colleagues to resolve the problem.”

Scaling up that sort of effective communication and action to a global level is the aspiration of the people’s organisations gathered at the forum, with representatives from the various groups urging their colleagues to join the effort by applying the tools to organising volunteers discussed in the workshop. Kofi Nyarko, president of International Association for Integration, Dignity, and Economic Advancement (IDEA) Ghana stressed that the key to effective action was for people’s organisations “to first help themselves.”

“If we do this, we can do something for the public as much as the public can do something for us,” Nyarko said. “Inclusiveness is very important.”

Evidently encouraged by Cunanan’s call to not let the idea of a global network “be a talking network just within this four-cornered room,” representatives of the people’s organisations in attendance held an impromptu meeting led by Sousa and Cunanan following the workshop that ended the forum’s first day to discuss formalising efforts to create the global network, the initial details of which Cunanan told attendees he hoped would be available for presentation “at the next meeting”.

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The post Global Network Key to Strengthening Leprosy Organisations appeared first on Inter Press Service.

At the first Global Forum of People’s Organizations on Hansen’s Disease, which begun on Sept. 7 in Manila, Philippines, participants present their ideas on entrepreneurship models to attain sustainability. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
MANILA, Sep 7 2019 (IPS)

Being part of a platform where leprosy-affected people from all over the world can freely interact, exchange and share opinions, ideas, experiences and strategies was always something Tasfaye Tadesse dreamt of.

So this week, Tadesse packed his bags and travelled for 36 hours from his home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to reach the Philippine capital of Manila.

The journey was worth it.

Tadasse, the managing director of Ethiopian National Association of Persons Affected by Leprosy, arrived to attend the first-ever global forum for people with Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy. There he found an increasing family.

Participants from 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting from Sept. 7 to 10 at the Global Forum of People’s Organizations on Hansen’s Disease.

Organised by The Nippon Foundation (TNF) and Sasakawa Health Foundation (SHF), the forum aims to allow participants to share their common challenges, including a lack of organizational sustainability and capacity to enable them to achieve their long-term goals.

Today, Sept. 7, at the first day of the 4-day forum, Tadesse shared some of the activities and developments that had taken place recently in Africa, including providing feedback on a a regional meeting of all people living with leprosy in East and West Africa.

Held in February, the meeting was the first time that leprosy-affected people from across the continent came together as one community with a common goal of dealing with the challenges they face.

“We only knew about each other until then, but never spoke directly. The assembly brought us together and helped us have a conversation. We came up with a number of ideas and recommendations,” Tadesse told IPS.

One of the recommendations was to not use the word leprosy as it still evokes negative reaction.

“People start to judge the moment they hear the word leprosy, without even caring to find out if the person is cured or almost cured. So, this is clear stigmatisation and its very common everywhere,” he said.

Other recommendations included the African regional assembly deciding to form a social media group for smooth and regular communication among the areas impacted by Hansen’s disease across Africa.

“I didn’t know how to use what’s app before. So after I joined, I felt a sense of accomplishment,” he said. The group first included only the five countries that participated in the African regional assembly: Morocco, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana.

Since February, people from organisations in other countries such as Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa have joined. With the network expanding, Tadesse says it is becoming truly pan Africa.

Lilibeth Nwakaego is a Lagos-based lawyer who has been instrumental in creating and growing the What’s app group across Africa.

“Information is power. So, sharing information is not just about good communication, but also about empowerment of [leprosy-affected] people,” said Nwakaego.

“We now have eight African countries in our What’s app network and I am going to make everyone an admin, so that they can all keep adding new members in their respective countries. We need to take information and ideas out of papers and meeting rooms to the people who need that and this is our way to do so,” Nwakaego told IPS.

The forum participants also learnt of recommendations from Asia and Latin America, regions which had also organised similar assemblies earlier this year. Speaking of the event held in Manila in March, Frank Onde, chairperson of Coalition of Leprosy Advocates of the Philippines (CLAP), recalled how the assembly had highlighted the connection between climate change and leprosy.

“Our participants from Kiribati are suffering more because of climate change. There are now more flooding which is adding to the challenges. During flooding, one must evacuate to higher ground but people who have advanced stage of leprosy cannot do this and so they are suffering. It was the first time that we came to hear about such an issue,” Onde said at the forum.

Foustino Pinto, the national coordinator for the Movement for Reintegration of People Affected by Hansen’s Disease (MORHAN) – an organisation of leprosy affected people in Brazil, shared the highlights from the Latin American regional assembly that took place this April.

One of the biggest outcomes of the assembly was a demand to adopt a higher level of respect and make leprosy affected people central to any policy decision.

“Right now, what we see is that our voices are casually heard and our opinions and ideas are not really listened to. There is a lack of seriousness. Take the term leprosy, for example. Who is deciding how this disease should be mentioned? Not the people living with it! So, we feel that there is a lot of room for improvement here. For us, the most important issues are dignity, equality and respect for the human rights of leprosy-affected people,” Pinto told IPS. 

Earlier while delivering the key-note address, Dr. Maria Francia Laxamana, the assistant secretary in the Philippines Ministry of Health, said that there was a need to make policies that would truly help leprosy-affected people empower themselves. In the Philippines, the government was considering providing subsidies to all leprosy-affected people. Such a policy would help the leprosy-affected people live a better life as their current economic condition was a big concern.

Takahiro Nanri, executive director of SHF, called out for the free flow of ideas and experience sharing among the participants. This would help lead the future course of action to eliminate leprosy, he said.

The participants will also attend the International Leprosy Congress scheduled to take place in Manila Sept. 11 to 13.

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By Sasakawa Health Foundation - The Nippon Foundation
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, Sep 7 2019 (IPS-Partners)

World Health Organization’s (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and recipient of the 2019 Order of the Rising Sun as well as the 2018 Gandhi Peace Prize, Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, is in the Philippines to call on academics, medical stakeholders and those affected by the disease to unite towards “Zero Leprosy”. 

Mr. Sasakawa, chairperson of The Nippon Foundation (TNF) – one of Japan’s largest private organisations – is attending two key global conferences on the disease being held in Manila this week. The first is the Global Forum of People’s Organizations on Hansen’s Disease, which is being held September 7 to 10, and the 20th International Leprosy Congress (ILC), from September 11 to 13.

Mr. Sasakawa will also call on experts to continue working on discovering the causes of transmission of the disease but to also continue developing vaccines, and create prosthetics and orthotics for those with Hansen’s disease.

“With globalization, human mobility and migration are increasing. Leprosy remains a global disease, even though the number of medical specialists are decreasing rapidly world-wide,” Mr Sasakawa said.

People with Hansen’s disease face severe social stigma and widespread discrimination about the disease and organizations representing them want a a greater voice in creating solutions.

For the last 40 years Mr. Sasakawa has been a leading figure in the global fight against Hansen’s disease. He has visited more than 90 countries and met more than 150 national leaders, including presidents and prime ministers, sharing his message and gaining their support and commitment to eliminate leprosy.

 

Significant contributions to leprosy elimination

• Since 1975 TNF and its sister organisation, Sasakawa Health Foundation (SHF), have contributed over USD200 million in financial support for the WHO’s Global Leprosy programme. This funding also covered the free distribution of multi-drug therapy (MDT) from 1995 until 1999 when Novartis took over provision of the drug.
• Mr. Sasakawa’s advocacy for discrimination against people with leprosy to be included in the United Nations human rights agenda, resulted in the landmark 2010 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members and accompanying principle and guidelines.
• TNF and SHF have supported 23 organisations in 16 countries that are working to promote the social and economic rehabilitation of persons affected by leprosy.
• TNF and SHF have organised a number of conferences, symposiums and workshops to raise awareness around Hansen’s disease such as International Symposium “Towards Holistic Care for People with Hansen’s Disease, Respectful of their Dignity” at the Vatican in 2016 and National Leprosy Conference in Myanmar in 2018.

 

The Global Forum 

The Global Forum, organised by TNF and SHF, is a gathering of delegates from organisations of persons affected by Hansen’s disease, as well as other stakeholders representing public health, charitable and social services organisations.

Almost 100 participants from 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean will share their know-how and experiences in eliminating Hansen’s disease, or leprosy as it is commonly known.

    Objectives of the Global Forum of People’s Organizations on Hansen’s Disease

• • A key objective of the forum will be to explore ways to enhance the organisations’ influence over health policy in their respective countries.

• • Another objective of the global forum will be to focus on organisational sustainability and capacity to enable the organisations to achieve their long-term goals.

“Our role is to provide a platform for people’s organizations to discuss the issues that matter to them. The Global Forum is their meeting. We hope they will use the opportunity to network, learn from each other, and make their voices heard as never before,” SHF said.

“Ahead of the 20th International Leprosy Congress, they can provide a “people’s perspective” on leprosy and what still needs to be done.”

 

Attendees of the forum are also scheduled to hear from Dr. Francine Laxamana, Assistant Secretary of the Philippines Department of Health, Dr. Alice Cruz, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and Dr. Huong Tran, Director of Diseases Control Division at WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific.

 

International Leprosy Congress

Following the global forum, the 20th ILC, hosted by the Philippine Department of Health, will take place. A key objective of the ILC will be to assess the progress of the WHO’s Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020.

Delegates from the Global Forum will provide a “people’s perspective” on efforts to combat Hansen’s Disease at the ILC.

Mr. Sasakawa will speak to experts and stakeholders at the ILC on September 11.

“This is probably the only academic conference in the world in which persons affected by the disease participate so actively,” said Mr. Sasakawa.

//ENDS.

 

For further information and interviews with Mr. Sasakawa please contact:

Chiemi Sanga

Sasakawa Health Foundation

Phone: +81-70-4509-4213

email: c_sanga@shf.or.jp

 

Notes to reporters:

• Hansen’s disease – commonly known as leprosy – is a serious bacterial infection and mainly affects the skin.
• Hansen’s disease is curable and early treatment averts disability.
• The disease has an incubation period of about 5 years with symptoms presenting within a year and sometimes up to 20 years after infection.

• With the information of an effective antibiotic multi-drug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s, a global effort to provide treatment free of charge to patients has reached some 16 million people.
• WHO data shows that some 200,000 cases are identified annually. India, Brazil and Indonesia account for the largest number of cases.

 

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Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 2013 pictured here at a Southern African Development Community heads of state summit in Malawi where he was given a standing ovation. Mugabe died of an undisclosed illness on September 6, 2019 in Singapore. Credit: Kervin Victor/IPS

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAY, Zimbabwe, Sep 7 2019 (IPS)

Former Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, who died this week, aged 95, leaves a mixed and divisive legacy.

Mugabe – the oldest African leader when he was removed from power in November 2017 – died of an undisclosed illness in a hospital in Singapore on Sept. 6.

Once a revered hero who liberated Zimbabwe from the brutal colonial rule in 1980, Mugabe ruled the country for 37 years before he was deposed in a military coup in 2017. Mugabe’s once-trusted comrade and enforcer, who later turned foe, Emerson Mnangagwa, became president in a 2018 election which was disputed by the opposition.

Describing Mugabe as the iconic leader of the struggle for national liberation, Mnangagwa paid a glowing tribute to Mugabe who sacked him as vice-president in 2017.

“A pan Africanist fighter, Comrade Mugabe bequeaths a rich an indelible legacy of tenacious adherence to principle on the collective rights of Africa and African(s) in general and in particular the rights of the people of Zimbabwe for whom he gave his all to help free,” Mnangagwa said in tribute broadcast hours after he confirmed Mugabe’s death on his official twitter account.

The fighter Mugabe was known for many things, including securing and protecting his own hold on power after he became the country’s Executive President in 1987, the same year he forged an uneasy unity accord between the country’s main political parties, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front  (Zanu PF) and the Patriotic Front Zimbabwe African People’s Union (PF Zapu).

A political colossus

Many adjectives easily fit Mugabe; liberation fighter, diplomat, patriot, pan Africanist, Marxist, strategist, shrewd contriver and master manipulator. Mugabe was also a highly intelligent man and an accomplished scholar, attributes that endeared him to many.

“There is no doubt that Robert Mugabe will go down as a colossus in Zimbabwean history,” David Coltart, former Education Minister and human rights activist, told IPS.

“He has a remarkable impact on Zimbabwe both positively and negatively and his positive legacy is that he fought a bitter struggle with Joshua Nkomo to end white minority rule that will be an enduring legacy. The other positive legacy is he expanded a quality education to all Zimbabweans and he must be given credit for that. He built on the legacy of Garfield and Grace Todd from the 1950s and expanded education.”

Coltart concedes to Mugabe’s less than illustrious legacy, noting that Mugabe perpetuated the violence of the former minority white Rhodesian Front government by disrespecting the rule of law and constitutionalism, growing corruption, abuse of office and the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy which forced hundreds of thousands to leave this southern African nation.

“History will tell on balance whether his legacy is more positive than negative,” Coltart said. “There is no doubt he was revered within Zimbabwe and revered throughout Africa. Indeed one could argue that he was more popular in the rest of Africa than he was in Zimbabwe himself. There is no doubt he mellowed in the final few years of his life, he mellowed in the inclusive government and reached out to the [opposition] MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] and the country settled to a certain extent and the country grew.”

“As Education Minister I worked well with him and we had a good functional relationship and we managed to stabilise the education sector and get it on a growth trajectory again, but of course during that period corruption continued to flourish in the country and after 2003 he allowed corruption to continue and allowed the constitution to be breached in the many ways that it was,” he said.

From liberator to dictator

Praised as a nation builder at independence when he extended the hand of reconciliation across the racial divide, Mugabe was not only a political liberator per se. He sought to liberate his country from poverty too, promoting investment in education, social welfare, industrialisation and food security.

In 1998, Mugabe was awarded the 100,000-dollar Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger given by the Hunger project, a New York global aid organisation in recognition of his stewardship in Zimbabwe’s agriculture success story. The country’s agricultural programmes were praised for having ”pointed the way not only for Zimbabwe but for the entire African continent in fighting against hunger”, the organisation had said at the time.

Tragically, Zimbabwe is today no longer the food security champion in part as a result of its well-meaning but poorly executed land reform programme in 2000.

But Mugabe was a gifted orator with a quick wit and memorable sound bites. The fight for land and self-rule became hallmarks of this tenure.

“We fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are, we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…so Blair keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe. We are still exchanging blows with the British government,” Mugabe once said in a famous spat with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

David Moore, researcher and political economist at the University of Johannesburg, said Mugabe manipulated the very deep factions and divisions both in Zimbabwean society and the political system to his advantage, starting from the formation of Zanu PF in 1963. Mugabe, Moore told IPS, had a knack of getting people to do his dirty work and finding allies when he was in trouble. For example, Mugabe made alliances with the war veterans in 1997 that pushed him onto the fast track land reform and triggered an economic meltdown that the country has battled to recover from.

“We cannot forget the Gukurahundi where he destroyed a political party and ended up with almost a genocide evolving from that, so l mean anybody who says he is a hero is really missing the point,” said Moore. Gukurahundi is remembered as a series of massacres on civilians and members and officials of Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu that were carried about by the Zimbabwe National Army.

Moore added that this ability to manipulate and work out and exacerbate these factions kept Mugabe in power and Zanu PF unified to a degree even though the unification was based on subterfuge, lying, deceit and playing groups against each other.

“It is a complicated and contradictory legacy how this shy, almost paranoid guy managed to stay on top of the heap and created also a culture of corruption, even though he would say, we need a leadership code,” Moore said.

The emergence of the political party MDC led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai in 1999 unnerved Mugabe. Mugabe’s turned to violence in the elections in 2000, 2005 and 2008 of which the opposition claims to have won outright.

Violence in the form of beatings, torture and of late kidnappings became emblematic of Mugabe’s intolerance of dissenters. Individuals and civil society were not spared.

Human rights activist an Mugabe critic, Jenni Williams, was a victim. As the national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), she was arrested a number of times as the organisation continues to pursue a “non-violent struggle for socio-economic rights”.

“Unfortunately Mugabe’s leaves a legacy of repression and persecution which overshadows any good he may have done,” Williams said.

“I find it hard to mourn a man who caused me such personal persecution and suffering. Under his rule and orders I faced arbitrary arrest, inhuman and degrading treatment and constant persecution by prosecution. I am just one of many who suffered the mayhem of his rule and hatred of the people of Matabeleland leading to mass murder.”

Williams says the dictatorship system Mugabe nurtured is still in place and no real development and economic recovery can be achieved without serious reforms at all levels. Therefore poverty levels are systemically increased out of cruelty.

Burying Mugabe will close a chapter in the life of founding figure but the economic and political fortunes triggered from his rein are worsening.

It is not only food that Zimbabwe is in short supply of these days. Many other things, such as lack of health care and education, can be traced to the ill-informed policies that Mugabe enforced in securing his hold on power.

 

Related Articles

• Zimbabwe Traverses a Rugged Political Terrain

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Forest fires, droughts and other forms of land degradation cost the global economy as much as 15 trillion dollars every year and are deepening the climate change crisis. Pictured is a drone visual of an area in Upper East Region, Ghana prior to restoration taken in 2015. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah /IPS

By James Reinl
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 7 2019 (IPS)

Forest fires, droughts and other forms of land degradation cost the global economy as much as 15 trillion dollars every year and are deepening the climate change crisis, a top United Nations environment official said Friday.

Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said the degradation of land was shaving 10-17 percent off the world economy, which the World Bank calculates at 85.8 trillion dollars.

“In very simple terms, the message is to say: invest in land restoration as a way of improving livelihoods, in reducing vulnerabilities contributing to climate change, and reducing risks for the economy,” Thiaw said in response to a question from IPS.

Thiaw spoke to reporters in New York through a video-link from New Delhi, India, where delegates from UNCCD signatories are gathering for talks on tackling the desertification threat, which runs until Sept. 13.

Droughts and desertification currently hit 70 countries each year, while sand and dust storms are becoming a growing menace around the world, leading to asthma, bronchitis and other health problems, Thiaw warned.

“The good news is that the technology, the science and the knowledge is there to actually reduce land degradation and fix this phenomenon once and for all,” said Thiaw, formerly a Mauritanian official and deputy chief of the U.N. Environment Programme.

“Land restoration is being done in many parts of the world and by restoring land we are able to mitigate climate change.”

Some 100 government ministers and 8,000 delegates from 196 countries are at the UNCCD talks, which will cover drought, land tenure, restoring ecosystems, climate change, health, sand and dust storms and funding to revamp cities.

Thiaw praised a record-breaking turnout of decision-makers in the Indian capital that “could mark a major turning point for how we manage the scarce land and water resources we have left.”

Attendees include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his counterpart from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, and the world body’s deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed.

An outcome document, known as the “Delhi Declaration”, will inform this month’s climate summit in New York and spur a “coalition of like-minded countries” to make firmer pledges on tackling droughts, said Thiaw.

“We are fast running out of time to build our resilience to climate change, avoid the loss of biological diversity and valuable ecosystems and achieve all other Sustainable Development Goals,” said Thiaw, referencing the U.N.’s SDG agenda. 

“But we can turn around the lives of the over 3.2 billion people all over the world that are negatively impacted by desertification and drought, if there is political will. And we can revitalise ecosystems that are collapsing from a long history of land transformation and, in too many cases, unsustainable land management.”

Droughts are getting worse, says the UNCCD. By 2025, some 1.8 billion people will experience serious water shortages, and two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in “water-stressed” conditions.

Though droughts are complex and develop slowly, they cause more deaths than other types of disasters, the UNCCD warns. By 2045, droughts will have forced as many as 135 million people from their homes.

Last month, a report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed that better management of land can help limit the release of greenhouse gases and thus combat global warming.

Tackling desertification and other forms of land degradation could help keep the global rise in temperatures below the benchmark figure of 2 degrees Celsius, IPCC scientists said in the 43-page study. 

Related Articles

• Achieving Global Consensus on How to Slow Down Loss of Land
• Burning Forests for Rain, and Other Climate Catastrophes
• Desertification a Frontline Against Climate Change: IPCC

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SOURCE: WWW.BLONCAMPUS.COM

By Talisha Faruk
Sep 6 2019 (IPS-Partners)

After a week’s absence, Nazma entered the house with a lacklustre expression spread across her normally cheerful demeanour, with the slack of her sari pulled low over her face. When questioned in regards to her absence, while hesitant at first, she later revealed that she had been repeatedly threatened, forced to have sexual intercourse, and consequently suffered a miscarriage.

A few weeks prior to Nazma’s revelation, I learned about a friend’s divorce from her longstanding abusive husband. While I was elated at the news that my friend was finally free from the reigns of domestic violence, she revealed how her divorce, instead of securing a life of freedom, had instead thrown her into a custody battle over her only child and had caused further suffering as a result of constant threats from her ex-husband and his family. When the fights became unbearable, my friend turned to both the police as well as her family and received the same dire response: “These things happen in a marriage. Learn to compromise.”

Domestic violence remains an issue irrespective of socioeconomic status in Bangladesh. I hear the same outcry for help from Nazma, whose spouse works as a rickshaw-puller, as I do from a friend, whose former spouse owns a thriving garments company in Bangladesh. This is an issue, which holds no bias.

Violence against women is one of most rampant human rights violations worldwide, and is further exacerbated by unequal power dynamics between women and men that is reinforced by inequalities under the law. According to UN Women, one in five adolescent girls, in Bangladesh, between ages 15 and 19, reported experiencing sexual violence at the hands of their partner. Moreover, more than 80 percent of currently married women have experienced abuse at least once during their marriage, in most cases from individuals they knew and trusted, and more than one in four women experience sexual or physical violence of some sort during their lifetime. In total, according to the Violence Against Women Survey 2011, a nationwide study conducted by the government, at least 87 percent of Bangladeshi women face domestic violence.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. Over the last few decades, the country has adopted several laws and policies meant to address violence against women and girls, such as the 2009 High Court’s Directive on Sexual Harassment, the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act (DVPP) 2010, the Women and Child Repression Suppression Act, and the revision and launch of the National Action Plan on violence against women and children in November 2018. Bangladesh further experienced advancements made in terms of policy framework, with victories such as the High Court’s eradication of the degrading “two-finger test” for rape victims and the more recent removal of the term “Kumari” (virgin) from column 5 of Bangladesh’s standardised Muslim marriage contract.

In the third chapter of the DVPP Act of 2010, the duties and responsibilities of police officers, enforcement officers (EO) and service providers are detailed. Under Section 4, if a “police officer obtains, by any means whatsoever, the information as to the commission of an act of domestic violence or becomes aware of such occurrence”, such an officer shall inform the survivor of her rights, “including the right to make an application for obtaining relief by way of any order under this Act,” of the availability of medical services, and of the services offered by the EO. The police officer must also inform the individual of her right to free legal help under the Legal Aid Services Act, 2000 and her right to file a formal complaint under other existing laws.

Bangladeshi women’s and human rights organisations, including Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Mahila Parishad, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA), and several other organisations actively provide different forms of assistance (legal aid, mediation, halfway homes, etc.) for those affected by domestic violence. Some organisations such as ASK even provide free legal advice to any person who contacts the organisation at any of the legal clinics located across Dhaka city. Given the safety battles associated with filing a formal complaint, ASK also provides fieldworkers who accompany clients to police stations, the Marriage Register’s (Kazi’s) offices, hospitals, and to the courts when necessary. The BNWLA shelter homes, Proshanti, also provide shelter services to women and children as they await legal aid.

Furthermore, Maya Apa, a messaging platform provides on-demand health and well-being information online, whereby users can pose their health and legal questions anonymously to experts within the respective fields. This allows users to overcome the social stigma oft-associated with seeking support and discussing sensitive subjects.

With such a myriad of services and legal sanctions in place throughout the country, it was expected that domestic violence against women would decline; yet, current statistics have contradicted such assumptions and violence against women remains widespread.

One of the primary pitfalls within the system lies in the enforcement of legal doctrines, lack of adequate training for law enforcement officers, the public’s inability to navigate the legal arena, and in the inability/refusal to seek refuge when required. As of 2015, only 2.6 percent of women in Bangladesh took legal action against the physical or sexual violence they have endured at the hands of their partners. Cultural norms also make it difficult for women to seek assistance because of the sociocultural stigma associated with seeking legal aid and taking a case to court, which is often equated with “dishonouring the family name”.

Like many battles in Bangladesh, it evidently comes down to which party has more power—the victim or the perpetrator. Even if survivors do manage to access the law, they often experience trauma on their journey to obtain justice. Incidents of police inertia as well as brutal harassment of women are commonplace, along with having to pay bribes to register cases, which often unravel based on political patronage and economic influence. Furthermore, patriarchal social structures, cultural and religious dogma and superstitions further aggravate the problems.

However, the tendency to commit violence within the family is so deeply rooted that it is only by the proper enforcement of law that we can curb it. Moreover, there exists a strong need, for capacity building of institutions, ensuring sufficiency of resources, coupled with education and awareness of the drivers, and increased cooperation between state and non-state actors. As stated by the UN CEDAW Committee, in order to promote Women’s Human Rights, the Bangladeshi government must commit to ensuring greater gender equality, improving service delivery, and heightening access to immediate means of redress, rehabilitation, and protection.

A home is meant to serve as a sanctuary. Unfortunately, it is also a breeding ground for some of the most life-threatening forms of violence. Therefore, the next time we are approached for assistance by a loved one or we witness the suffering of someone we know, we should provide them with the reassurance and direction they so desperately need, for such incidences are not matters to be resolved at home, alone and in fear. Our women are putting enviable successes in different sectors all over the map, and it is high time we do the utmost to encourage their safe and healthy development.

Talisha Faruk has a bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently working as an Immigration Paralegal for the law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden, LLP in California. Additionally, she is also working as an intern for Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Domestic violence: Still a formidable challenge appeared first on Inter Press Service.

UN Staffers with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 6 2019 (IPS)

With the rapid leap in digital technology – including increased access to conference calls, e-translations, skype, text messaging and emails—more and more offices in the United States are providing employees with an option to “work from home”.

The new concept was frivolously illustrated in a recent cartoon in the Wall Street Journal where the waiter at a restaurant tells an impatient customer: “Your order will be up in another 45 minutes. Our chef is working from home today.”

The option to work “from another location” – euphemism for working from home—has now spread to the United Nations where it is categorized as “flexible working arrangements”—and described in official circulars either as “staggered working hours”, “compressed work schedule”, “working away from office” or “alternate work place” .

Ian Richards, President of the 60,000-strong Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA), told IPS “home-working can be a great way to find focus and concentration, and avoid the stress of the daily commute. However, experience shows it is best kept within reasonable limits”.

With home-workers fearful of colleagues’ suspicions about their work activities, many have reported it harder to define the start and end of the work day, and separate their private and work lives, he said.

He pointed out that some also feel pressured to work when ill and make use of sick leave. Lack of interaction at the office means they are less aware of developments at work and more likely to miss out on career advancement, Richards argued.

A recent circular by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, says “the normal working week is subject to exceptions when staff members have been authorized to avail themselves of flexible working arrangements, in accordance with the Secretary-General’s bulletin on flexible working arrangements.” (ST/SGB/2019/3)

The new working arrangements have been prompted primarily by a shortage of work space in the 38-storeyed UN Secretariat building which houses more than 2,000 staffers. ST/IC/2019/15

And more so, by the UN opting out of renewing leases on several rented offices in the neighborhood – due to a growing cash crunch — and thereby forced to re-locate staffers to an already over-crowded Secretariat.

More worryingly, said Richards, the organization has been known to refuse cover for work-related accidents at home. And in times of tight budgets, some managers have argued that those who work extensively from home could be replaced by consultants.

At the same time, supervisors who work from home when not travelling are less able to supervise.

“For this reason, no-one should be pushed to work from home and neither should it function as a pressure valve for the UN’s inability to provide staff with an office and a serene work environment,” he declared.

A UN staffer told IPS that not only are they given the option to work from home— “maximum of three days during the work week” – but also, in some cases, “forcing” staffers to do so, much against their wishes.

Credit: UN

Currently, some UN offices do not have even designated work spaces which are now doled out on a first-come, first-served basis.

“I was working on my desktop computer when I was summoned to an office meeting,” one staffer recounted, “but when I got back an hour later, my computer and my desk had been taken over by another staffer— leaving me stranded momentarily while I had to hunt for another work space.”

Samir Sanbar, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Department of Public Information, told IPS it will be interesting to find out who precisely prepared that circular; certainly not someone with a credible U.N. record.

There may be financial reasons to save cash on non-renewal of rentals. “Yet it seems like an attempt to display an emerging work practice more attuned to market business than the U.N. spirit. It would erode further the credibility of a dedicated international civil service,” he noted.

“During my tenure, we spent more time at the office than at home. I recall leaving the Secretariat building one evening, after meetings with colleagues, to discover it was 11 p.m. Working at home meant at weekends or during holidays”, he said.

“Once when the Secretary General called while I was in Southampton, continuing the discussion meant returning immediately to the building”, said Sanbar, who worked under five different Secretaries-General during his tenure at the UN.

“Working for the United Nations is not like in a business enterprise or government post. In my belief, that means being seen there — whether at headquarters or in the field.”

Drawn from equitable cultural and geographic backgrounds, dedicated staff displayed human dignity, almost pride, in observed productive work, he noted.

A visible presence openly confirmed a central relevance, said Sanbar. Lack of visibility would undercut its perception and play into the determination to erode further the role of its challenged leadership.

Iftikhar Ali, a former UN staffer who worked as Director of UNIC in Tehran (1994 to 2000) and in UNMIK’s Public Information Department in Kosovo (2001 to 2003), told IPS there are both pros and cons in the current flexible working arrangements.

Some American and European companies have been successful in letting their workers operate from their homes, and in most cases, it has improved efficiency.

“But I don’t know how it will work for the UN. After all, the UN is not a company selling goods or services; it is an international organization struggling to achieve higher goals: world peace, security and economic development that would benefit all,” he said.

To promote those ideals, UN staffers must remain dedicated and work together to meet those tasks, however difficult.

In this regard, he noted, UN staffers need to interact with each other more closely and also with representatives of member states.

“Therefore, the best places to develop and remain imbued with the spirit and dedication to serve the cause of peace are the UN offices and complexes where staffers meet each other face-to-face.”

Staying away from the places of work, he pointed out, would gradually erode those linkages and their international outlook, thus weakening the peace movement.

“The atmosphere at home, with lots of distractions, is not very conducive to building global mindset. The UN carries ideas, not cargo,” said Ali.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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By Stella Paul
HYDERABAD, India, Sep 6 2019 (IPS)

Professor Takahiro Nanri is the executive director of the Sasakawa Health Foundation, co-organiser of the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s Disease, which will take place from Sept. 7 to 10 in the Philippines.

A 4-day event, the forum will be the first of its kind to bring together grassroot organisations that are of, by and for the people affected by leprosy across the world.

On the eve of the forum, IPS correspondent Stella Paul spoke with Nanri who shared in brief the rationale of the event and some of the expected outcomes.

The forum, he said, is entirely focused on bringing together all the leprosy-affected people’s organisations on one platform and give them an opportunity to share their experiences, especially the positive ones, so that they can inspire others to follow and start new collaborations.

 

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Credit: UN

By Saber Azam
GENEVA, Sep 5 2019 (IPS)

Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on American soil, the United States and their allies went to Afghanistan to “smoke out” Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors. The most fundamental primary mistake was to let all terrorists flee to Pakistan instead of sealing the border and capturing their main figures.

Furthermore, the foundation of the new political make-up of the country was built with “wrong stones”. The power-sharing government agreed upon in Bonn on 5 December 2001 under the auspices of the United Nations with strong backing of the United States did not consider historic hurdles of the past and lacked vision for the future.

Whoever the United States liked was given parts and parcels of the power. Deployment of troops and erection of multiple military bases in major corners and cities of the country were impressive. The peoples of Afghanistan, nevertheless hoped earnestly for a better future, embraced the presence of foreign troops and establishment of the transitional power.

The third significant error consisted of bringing Hamid Karzai, the man of their choice, who had no credibility or required knowledge and experience, to the realm of power. Some years back, the Soviet Union had propelled Babrak Karmal under similar circumstances with devastating effects that ended in their military and political defeat.

Karzai thought Afghanistan was still a feudal country and surrounded himself with kin and “loyalists”. He governed through chieftains, poured money into their pockets and awarded undeserved titles.

The fourth main mistake of the United States was to avoid nation building efforts. Centuries of discrimination against some ethnic groups, the bloody civil war between 1992 and 1996 as well as five years of the horrendous Taliban regime had never allowed the populations of the country to feel as a nation.

Saber Azam

It was a golden opportunity to finally bring positive forces together for the benefit of the country. But, the occasion was horribly missed; George W. Bush made it clear that the International Community had not come to Afghanistan for nation building.

In addition to the aforementioned political and military howlers, the United States made some fundamental cultural mistakes that demonstrated their amateurish knowledge of Afghanistan. Violation of private premises was the most serious offense.

Certain of their military might, foreign troops brook into the houses without notice in “search of terrorists”, ignoring the basic courtesy rule of asking the head of the family for permission, something that they would have been granted with pleasure.

The reaction was instantaneous, summarized in total rejection of the methodology. Lack of respect for women in rural Afghanistan was another unforgiveable mistake. Afghans are definitely poor, but extremely rich in their pride. Search of women by male soldiers and tiding hands with plastic rope before even interrogating an individual should have never happened, had essential briefings been provided to the troops.

The United States and their allies, including the multilateral branch of the International Community, also failed to fulfill the essence of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1378, 1383 and 1386 of the year 2001 and 1390 of 2002. Afghanistan was supposed to be an example of safety, democracy, rule of law and equal opportunity for all citizens. This was short lived.

A government that was composed of corrupt, inept and inefficient individuals was entertained. Abuse of democratic principles, “selection” of parliament chiefs, systematic violation of law by its “guardians”, rampant fraud and embezzlement of public and international aid money by the government wolves as well as their allies and family members, nepotism and tribalism gangrened quickly the apparatus of a state that should have been exemplary.

The International Community on their part opted for the policy of “dumb, deaf and blind”, contributing further to the “endorsement” of venalities. Ethnic biased both at central and provincial levels composed the essence of governmental actions at all layers.

UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Credit: UN

Ineptness became the trade mark of a team that was totally supported, funded and kept in power by the International Community. Soon, people were frustrated to see billions of US dollars allocated for their welfare and reconstruction of their country wasted, embezzled and misused by the bigwig of the regime and some foreign companies.

Aware of people’s disdain, the Taliban regrouped. Encouraged, trained and armed by Pakistan, they begun to enter Afghanistan to terrorize the population and security forces. Less than a year after they were supposed to be smoked out, the Taliban and their terrorist associates were back in Afghanistan while the leader of Al-Qaeda was left “scot free” in Pakistan!

President Karzai’s election in 2005 did not pose a problem However, his second term “election” that coincided with the last months of Georg Bush’s presidency was marred with massive fraud to the extent that his challenger, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah had to withdraw from the second round, leaving most observers to believe that the United States had obviously taken side in Afghanistan.

The arrival of President Barak Obama into the White House had a positive effect. He effectively put pressure on Karzai to curb corruption and nepotism, oblige government legislative, judiciary and administrative leaders to abide by the rule of law and endeavor to bring Afghan fragmented communities together.

Under such circumstances, the erratic leader of Afghanistan, the man who used to thank the United States and George Bush exaggeratedly in his public appearances, turned into a “patriot” blaming America for his own wrong doings. Nevertheless, the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 in Pakistan provided some basis for optimism about security in the country.

But unhappiness of the population at large and corrupt government officials allowed the Taliban to make further progress, capture districts, hit the hearts of Kabul and other major cities, attack foreign troops and commit mass murders and genocide in the country. The 2014 presidential election was another shameful blunder to democracy and rule of law.

It was marred by scandalous rigging. Ashraf Ghani was propelled to the second round to face Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. After months of delay in announcing the final results, the United States had no other choice but to opt for temporary freeze of the constitutional requirements, a political agreement between the two contenders and formation of a government of national unity. It was a mockery of democratic principles.

Ghani caused further fragmentation of the society, did not curb corruption and nepotism and further exacerbated the population. The “second most intelligent brain” proved to be a mediocre politician and low-level manager who survived by instigating tribalism and giving empty promises to the people.

America’s effort to sign a “peace deal” with the Taliban, one of the most violent terrorist groups signifies their failure in Afghanistan with dramatic consequences on the lives of each one of us. It gives tremendous strength to other such organizations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere to “dream” about their success and will render them more determined and virulent.

This deal will not bring peace and security in Afghanistan, but further fragment the society leading to another prolonged war against terrorism!

The post Is America Defeated in Afghanistan? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Saber Azam is a former official of the United Nations and author of the recently-released book, “SORAYA: The Other Princess”, a historical fiction that overflies the recent seven decades of Afghan history.

The post Is America Defeated in Afghanistan? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The post Exclusive: Winnie Byanyima Speaks about Inequality in Africa and Next Steps at UNAIDS appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam's outgoing director who is taking up the post executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, speaks exclusively to IPS on the main issues in the report.

The post Exclusive: Winnie Byanyima Speaks about Inequality in Africa and Next Steps at UNAIDS appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 5 2019 (IPS)

The United Nations will be hosting six high level plenary meetings –- unprecedented even by its own standards—during the beginning of the 74th session of the General Assembly in late September.

The meetings are being viewed primarily as an attempt at reviving multilateral diplomacy at a time when a rash of hard-right nationalist leaders, including US President Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, are either rooting for authoritarianism, abandoning international treaties or undermining multilateralism—not necessarily in that order.

Regrettably, they are joined by a fistful of other demagogic leaders both from the North and the South, including from Russia, Italy, Myanmar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Poland and Turkey – among others.

The United Nations is expecting over 180 world leaders, including foreign ministers and high-ranking government officials, to participate in the six-day mega event.

The multilateral bodies — and international treaties– that have taken a beating include the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Human Rights Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and Paris Climate Change agreement.

As one delegate puts it: “It is either a resurrection of multilateralism or a prelude to an obituary for international order”.

Scheduled to take place September 23-27, the meetings will cover a wide range of political and socio-economic issues on the UN agenda, including climate change, universal health care, sustainable development goals (SDGs), financing for development (FfD), elimination of nuclear weapons and the survival of small island developing states (SIDS) facing extinction from rising sea levels.

Speaking to reporters last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that multilateralism is under attack from many different directions precisely “when we need it most.”

“In different areas and for different reasons, the trust of people in their political establishments, the trust of states among each other, the trust of many people in international organizations has been eroded and … multilateralism has been in the fire,” he complained.

On the upcoming six summits, Guterres warned “the people of the world do not want half measures or empty promises. They are demanding transformative change that is fair and sustainable.”

But will the talk-fest produce concrete results or end up being another political exercise in futility?

In an interview with IPS, Jayantha Dhanapala, a former Sri Lankan Ambassador and UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, said: “As we survey the graveyard of multilateral security, environmental and economic agreements underpinning the mutually beneficial liberal order, fires burn 20% of the lungs of the world in the Amazon and even the Arctic has its tundra burning.”

“And the numbers of refugees fleeing violence and persecution are the highest in recorded history.”

With the unrivalled super-power under the quixotic leadership of Donald Trump, even developing countries like the Philippines, Brazil and others have abandoned global norms, Dhanapala told IPS.

“A rule based international order is collapsing before our eyes and Britain is on the brink of a messy Brexit while trade wars ruin Sino-US trade and drive the world towards a ruinous recession and the end of sustainable development.”

Martin S. Edwards, Associate Professor and Chair, School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University told IPS: “I think you’re right that the depth and breadth of the work that the UN is launching is more than just symbolic.”

With Bolsonaro set to address the General Assembly right before President Trump (on September 24), their comments will mirror each other, and will be in stark contrast to many of the other delegates, he added.

But the important thing, he pointed out, is that there’s needed substance here.

“The US might well sit out the Climate Action Summit, and that’s fine. The work of the UN and the member countries will go on without it”.

As for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said, this is a signature UN initiative that needs more attention and focus.

“The world is not on track to reach many of these goals, and without greater commitment by member governments, they are not likely to be met by 2030. With the US disengaged from many of these discussions, it falls to the Secretary General to recommit leaders to these goals,” Edwards noted.

James Paul, a former executive director of the New York-based Global Policy Forum, told IPS “This is a time of great international uncertainty and instability. What does this mean for the UN as a cluster of high-profile meetings approaches? And what can we expect from these events?”

“My sense is this: nationalistic enthusiasm is now waning at the popular level and posturing leaders are under increasing pressure from below to deliver more than rhetoric. So multilateral diplomacy may be headed for a much-needed revival, with a stronger and more egalitarian agenda coming to the fore.”

“As we have seen at the recent G-7 meeting in Biarritz, leaders are changing course and opting for more cooperation, though still far less than what is required. Above all, the environmental crisis is serving to mobilize public attention and energized youth are insisting that their voices be heard,” said Paul, author of the recently-released book titled “Of Foxes and Chickens: Oligarchy and Global Power in the UN Security Council”.

Greta Thunberg, the dynamic young Swedish activist, he said, will be at the UN climate meeting to dramatize the need for common action and to symbolize the essential role that the UN can play.

Will the leaders act with the seriousness and determination that she demands? It may be, as climate activists rightly say, our last chance. No politician will be excused for inaction in such a dramatic circumstance.

The UN has much to offer at this moment in history, Paul declared.

Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, sails into New York Harbor flanked by a fleet of 17 sailboats representing each of the Sustainable Development Goals on their sails. She embarked on a trans-Atlantic voyage on 14 August from Plymouth, England to New York City on a solar-powered, zero-emission racing boat, the Malizia II, to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in New York September 23, one of six summit meetings scheduled to take place late September. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

Dhanapala told IPS a gloomy future lies ahead unless a new leadership replaces the present.

The UN, he argued, has lost its moral influence and not even the upcoming ritualistic General Assembly gathering of heads of state can salvage sensible limits on nuclear weapons, conventional weapons and a new generation of Lethal Autonomous Weapons or robotic weapons while negotiating an end to regional wars.

Next year, in 2020, he said, the UN will observe its 75th anniversary when a new chapter rededicating this unique global body to the ideals of the Charter opens.

“New stringent agreements must be negotiated at the planned gatherings without the charade of rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. The UN has the creative minds to do this. Can its member states summon the political will to do so?,” he asked.

Edwards said one other thing that is important to underscore is that these upcoming meetings will be a real credit to Secretary General Guterres’ quiet leadership style.

He has responded to the President’s call for a more minimal multilateralism by going big, but doing so without the bombast that is a hallmark of the Trump administration.

So, this might be an interesting inflection point. The world has proven with climate that it can move forward without the US. The question is how much this happens in other areas moving forward?, he asked.

“I like the attention on Financing for Development (FfD), but that meeting is probably not going to be a successful as developing countries raise the issue of G20 broken promises on foreign aid, and G20 countries are too cheap to admit it,” he declared.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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By Farhana Haque Rahman and Raghav Gaiha
ROME, Sep 5 2019 (IPS)

In an inaugural lecture at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, Amartya Sen began with a swipe at Queen Victoria who complained to Sir Theodore Martin in 1870 about & quote: this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights’ “, as in her rarefied world nobody could trample upon her rights. The world has of course changed dramatically and women’s rights are widely acknowledged but injustices persist. Our concern here is with health injustices that are widely prevalent in India. These take multiple forms: female foeticide, widespread morbidity and denial of access to good quality healthcare until a critical condition develops. Our focus here is on vulnerability of women to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their limited access to good quality healthcare in India.

Farhana Haque Rahman

NCDs kill 40 million annually, accounting for about 70 % of all deaths globally. NCDs are chronic in nature and take a long time to develop. They are linked to aging and affluence and have replaced infectious diseases and malnutrition as the dominant causes of ill-health and death in much of the world, including India. The major NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. These account for 42 % of deaths in India. Some of the risk factors associated with NCDs are aging, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive use of alcohol and excess weight.

The burden of NCDs shifted to the older segments of population ( 60 years), highest prevalence being amongst to the oldest men and women ( 80 years+), with higher prevalence among women.

In sharp contrast to women who recorded a significant rise, overall prevalence of NCDs among men fell significantly during 2004-14, based on the National Sample Survey data for India. Men accounted for the majority in 2004, but women did so in 2014. The majority of NCD cases were in the rural areas for both men and women. However, the prevalence among urban women was higher than among urban men in 2014.

There was a significant affluence gradient to prevalence of NCDs among men, with a sharp increase in the prevalence from the lowest expenditure quintile to the highest in 2004. This is similar to what women experienced. A similar pattern is reproduced among both men and women in 2014, but with one reversal. While the prevalence among the most affluent men was higher than among the most affluent women in 2004, the latter recorded a higher prevalence ten years later, in 2014.

Raghav Gaiha

An important issue is whether higher vulnerability of women to NCDs manifests in greater access to good quality healthcare. To assess this, we rely on the India Human Development Survey 2015. To assess the quality of health care, we distinguish between two healthcare providers: public hospitals/doctors and private hospitals/doctors. More respondents rank private healthcare providers higher in quality than public providers. Another proximate indicator of quality is location of healthcare facilities. Quality of treatment received at home and in the same village is often inferior to treatment received in another village/town/district. The point to note is that a village may or may not have a primary healthcare centre but towns and districts are much better equipped with healthcare facilities for specialized treatment of NCDs. So location is another predictor of quality of healthcare.

Public providers were chosen by just under one-third of old women suffering from at least one NCD. In a striking contrast, large majorities –about two-thirds- depended on private providers (excluding traditional faith healers) in 2012. Similar proportions are reproduced for old men. So on this quality criterion, there was little difference between old men and women.

But the distance travelled by women and men reveals a contrast.

Large shares of old women, about 45 %, suffering from at least 1 NCD had their first treatment at home and in the same village. The majority, about 55 %, travelled to another village/town/district. Large shares of men suffering from 1 NCD, about 40 %- were treated at home and in the same village while the majority, about 58 %-travelled to another village/town/district.

From this perspective, the fact that larger shares of women received treatment at home and in the same village than men with a chronic NCD suggests that women had lower access to costlier and more specialized treatment despite their greater vulnerability to NCDs; however, the difference between men and women in their reliance on private providers is not significant.

In brief, while women are more prone to NCDs, their access to costlier and more specialized healthcare is lower than that of men. So the evidence favoring discrimination against women in good quality healthcare is limited but suggestive of a bias.

Social and family norms that restrict women’s access to health care are not as rigid as generally believed. Greater awareness of equity and better recognition of women’s contribution to household and social welfare could enhance their access to health care. Besides, outside employment options for women with some bargaining power (eg, high school education) could reinforce their autonomy.

(Farhana Haque-Rahman, a journalist and communications expert, is a former senior United Nations official and Raghav Gaiha is Visiting Scholar, Population Studies Centre, University of Pennsylvania and (Hon.) Professorial Research Fellow, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, England).

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By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Sep 4 2019 (IPS)

Some world leaders try to prove their alpha male status by presenting attractive and submissive wives as tokens won in virile scrambles with other potent stags. A recent example of such puerile machismo was exposed in a twitter battle between the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his French equivalent Emmanuel Macron. Since taking office in January, Mr Bolsonaro has railed against what he considered to be foreign meddling in Brazilian environmental politics. Wild fires raging in the Amazonian rain forest have generally been blamed on a rampant deforestation said to be endorsed by Bolsonaro´s regime. Emmanuel Macron tweeted a photo of burning Amazonian forestland with the comment: ”Our house is burning. Literally.” Bolsonaro reacted immediately and accused Macron of supporting an international alliance intending to take control over Amazonia while treating Brazil like a ”colony”. Bolsonaro twittered:

We cannot accept French President Macron´s improper and wanton attacks on the Amazon, nor can we accept that he disguises his intentions. 1

Some days later, Bolsonaro expressed approval of a Facebook-posting by one of his supporters. It presented an unflattering photo of France´s First Lady, mocking her appearance and comparing her unfavourably to Brazil’s First Lady. The post declared: ”Now you understand why Macron is persecuting Bolsonaro” indicating that Brigitte Macron is not as attractive as Michelle Bolsonaro, who is 28 years younger than Brigitte. Emmanuel Macron is 24 years younger than his wife and in the opinion of chauvinist males this makes him less macho than Jair Bolsonaro who has a wife that is 27 years younger than him. Bolsonaro replied to his Facebook fan: ”Do not humilate the guy, ha, ha,” while Macron retorted by stating that Bolsonaro had been ”extremely disrespectful” to his wife, adding that:

It’s sad, it’s sad first of all for him and for Brazilians. Brazilian women are probably feeling ashamed of their president. Since I have a lot of esteem and respect for the people of Brazil, I hope they will very soon have a president who is up to the job. 2

Unfortunately, I doubt that Bolsonaro´s fans had been offended by their president´s behaviour. It is common, not only in Brazil, that people confuse competent leadership with displays of masculinity. A macho man may in political propaganda be depicted as a guarantee for strength and security, while female leaders may, due to their gender, be presented as less determined and accordingly unfit for the presidency, defined as the most masculine institution of all.

The recent U.S. presidential election was by many viewed as a battle between manhood and femininity, where opponents to Hillary either judged her as a proponent of ”feminine traits” making her weak and unfit for office, or as a menacing ”mannish”, maybe even lesbian lady who threatened male dominance and masculinity.

The mix-up of masculinity with politics means that women candidates to influential positions often are forced to navigate an assumed ”masculine deficit” of strength and dedication by excessively exhibit willpower, vigour and toughness, displaying ”hawkish” attitudes, while downplaying their roles as mothers and/or wives, altering their vocabulary and lower the tone of their voices. This while female partners of male contenders are expected to display beauty and youthfulness, as well as an unquestionable loyalty to the virile men they ”belong” to.

To perceive strong women leaders as imbued with ”manly” traits appears to be quite common. The future Israeli prime minister Golda Meir wrote in her memoris that when she in 1956 became foreign minister in Ben-Gurion´s government a story – which as far as I know, is all it was – went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as ‘the only man’ in his cabinet. What amused me about it was that obviously he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government! 3

However, such statements did not mean that Meir was a feminist. In 1973, she told Oriana Fallaci: ”Those nuts that burn their bras and walk around all disheveled and hate men? They’re crazy. Crazy.” 4 Golda Meir was often called The Iron Lady, as the strong-willed and outspoken Otto von Bismarck, who in his lifetime was considered to be the epitome of Prussian manhood was called The Iron Chancellor. British prime minster Margaret Thatcher was also labelled The Iron Lady. She has been described as uniting a ”dual nature of masculine and feminine imagery” 5 radiating ”feminine” housekeeping qualities, combined with aspects of a hard, masculine warrior and leader.

Contrary to what is generally the case of male leaders, women´s qualities tend to be connected with their dress and looks. Mrs. Thatcher kept her hair swept back from her face, giving her hairdo the impression of a helmet. She wore earrings and a necklace of pearls – not any frivolous diamonds, often wore gloves and almost always carried with her a black, square handbag, thus creating the image of a decisive and serious woman, not sexy or glamorous, but self-assured and effective. An appearance that occasionally created fear and insecurity among male opponents, like the French president Jaques Chirac who once famously exclaimed: ”What more does this housewife want from me? My balls on a tray?”, or Labour politician Tony Banks who in 1997 in a sexist manner described Thatcher as behaving ”with all the sensitivity of a sex-starved boa constrictor.”

A woman who through her manner and dress does not emit feelings of control and self-assurance, but adaptability, submission and accessibility may not be taken seriously and thus not be accepted as a leader. This might be the reason to why several strong and influential women leaders seem to cultivate a persona that does not make them appear as excessively feminine or sexy. The powerful Indian prime minster Indira Gandhi once declared:

I do not behave like a woman. The ”lack of sex” in me partly accounts for this. When I think of how other women behave, I realise that it is the lack of sex and with it a lack of woman’s wiles, on which most men base their views on me. 6

This reminds of the image Angela Merkel appears to cultivate – a political style transmitting a sharp sense of power, a scientist´s strict devotion to data projecting effectiveness and leadership qualities. Vogue has described the German chancellor as a short matronly woman […] wearing her signature black trousers and sensible walking shoes. 7

The same article characterised Merkel as a courageous and strong woman, for example by describing a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2007 when the Russian president had allowed his huge Labrador to enter the room, well aware that the German chancellor since her early childhood is traumatized by dogs after having been severely mauled by one of them.

Her aides were furious with the Russian, but she was not. ´I understand why he has to do this,´ she said, ´to prove he’s a man. He’s afraid of his own weakness.´ What Putin and other alpha-male politicians often miss is that Angela Merkel may be afraid of dogs, but she is not afraid of men. 8

It may be denied that male and female roles remain an important part of human power games, though I assume Merkel was right about Putin´s behaviour – it was based on fear. Fear of losing a mask of a virile masculinity, something which also is apparent in the ridiculous discourses of male leaders like Bolsonaro and Trump, who brag about their beautiful and submissive wives, whom they display as hunting trophies conquered in competition with other alpha males.

At the same time they show contempt for female adversaries. Jair Bolsonero told a female congress woman: “I’m not going to rape you, because you’re very ugly”. Appalling misogynist language is also a trademark of Donald Trump who labels leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Meghan Markle and Mette Fredriksen as ”nasty” women, calls his one-time aide Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth ”that dog”, the actress Rosie O´Donell a ”pig”, and famously stated that when Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly critizised him she had ”blood coming out of her wherever” and that the political commentator Mika Brzezinski was ”bleeding badly from a face lift”. Unfortunately, these are just a few examples of a misogynist stance that still is evident within a global political discourse that deny women the right of being respected as equals to men. Several world leaders present their female partners as adornments to their power display, at the same time as they fear and attack female opponents, accusing them of having transgressed traditional boundaries of ”womanhood” to become ”hags and witches” who constitute a threat to male dominance.

1 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-27/macron-hits-back-at-bolsonaro-over-post-about-his-wife/11451166
2 Ibid.
3 Quoted in Hall Jamieson, Kathleen (1995) Beyond the Double Bind: Women and Leadership. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 128.
4 Fallaci, Oriana /1973) ”Golda Meir: On Being a Woman,” Ms.Magazine, April.
5 Webster, Wendy (1990) Not a Man to Match Her. London:The Women´s Press, p. 73.
6 Jayakar, Pupul (1992) Indira Gandhi: A biography. New Dehli: Penguin Books, p. 479.
7 Marton, Kati (2017) “How Angela Merkel Became the Most Powerful Woman in the World,” Vogue, July 18.
8 Ibid.

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

The post Women in Politics: Adornments and Witches appeared first on Inter Press Service.

India’s minister for environment, forests and climate change, Prakash Javadekar (left), said he would be happy if CoP 14 could achieve consensus on such difficult issues as drought management and land tenure. Courtesy: Ranjit Devraj

By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Sep 4 2019 (IPS)

Expectations are high, perhaps too high, as the 14th Conference of the Parties (CoP 14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), now into the third day of its two-week session, is being held outside the smog-filled Indian capital of New Delhi.

At the inauguration on Monday, India’s minister for environment, forests and climate change, Prakash Javadekar, soon after ceremonies to mark his taking over as president of the Convention for the next two years, said he would be happy if CoP 14 could achieve consensus on such difficult issues as drought management and land tenure.

Other issues on the agenda of CoP14, themed ‘Restore land, Sustain future’ and located in Greater Noida, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, include negotiations over consumption and production flows that have a bearing on agriculture and urbanisation, restoration of ecosystems and dealing with climate change.

According to Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the Convention, CoP14 negotiations would be guided by, its own scientific papers as well as the Special Report on Climate Change and Land of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in August.

The IPCC report covered interlinked, overlapping issues that are at the core of CoP14 deliberations — climate, change, desertification, and degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.

“Sustainable land management can contribute to reducing the negative impacts of multiple stressors, including climate change, on ecosystems and societies,” the IPCC report said. It also identified land use change as the largest driver of biodiversity loss and as having the greatest impact on the environment.

Javadekar said he saw hope in the fact that of the 196 parties to the Convention 122, including some of the most populous like Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa have agreed to make the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets by 2030 as national objectives.

But the difficulty of seeing results on the ground can be gauged from India’s own difficult situation. Nearly 30 percent of India’s 328 million hectares, supporting 1.3 billion people, has become degraded through deforestation, over-cultivation, soil-erosion and wetland depletion, according to a satellite survey conducted in 2016 by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

A study, conducted last year by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), an independent think-tank based in New Delhi, estimates India’s losses from land degradation and change in land use to be worth 47 billion dollars in 2014—2015.

The question before CoP14 is how participating countries can slow down loss of land and along with it biodiversity threatening to impact 3.2 billion people across the world. “Three out of every four hectares have been altered from their natural states and the productivity of one every four hectares of land has been declining,” according to UNCCD.

Running in parallel to CoP14 is the 14th session of UNCCD’s committee on science and technology (CST14), a subsidiary body with stated objectives — estimating soil organic carbon lost as a result of land degradation, addressing the ‘land-drought nexus’ through land-based interventions and translating available science into policy options for participating countries.

On Tuesday, as CoP4 launched into substantive business, the participants at the CST and other subsidiary bodies began to voice real apprehensions and demands.

Bhutan representing the Asia Pacific group, highlighted the need for cooperation at all levels to disseminate and translate identified technologies and knowledge into direct benefits for local land users.

Bangladesh pointed out that LDN targets are sometimes linked to transboundary water resources and also called for mobilising additional resources for capacity building.

Colombia, speaking for the Latin America and Caribbean group, appreciated the value of research by the scientific panels, but urged introduction of improved technologies and mitigation strategies to reduce the direct impacts of drought on ecosystems, starting with soil  degradation.

Russia, on behalf of Central and Eastern Europe, mooted the establishment of technical centres in the region to support the generation of scientific evidence to prevent and manage droughts, sustainable use of forests and peatlands and monitoring of sand and dust storms.

Civil society organisations, led by the Cape Town-based Environmental Monitoring Group, were also critical of the UNCCD for putting too much emphasis on LDN and demanded optimisation of land use through practical solutions that would ensure that carbon is retained in the soil.

“Retaining carbon in the soil is of particular value to India and its neighbouring countries, which presently have the world’s greatest rainwater runoffs into the sea,” says Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), a New Delhi based NGO, working on the water and environment sectors.

“What South Asian countries need to do urgently is to improve the rainwater harvesting so as to recharge groundwater aquifers and local water bodies in a given catchment so that water is available in the post-monsoon period that increasingly see severe droughts,” Thakkar tells IPS. “This is where governments can be supportive.”

Benefits such as preventing soil degradation and consequent landslides that have become a common feature in South India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

A study published in May said half of the area around 16 of India’s 24 major river basins is facing  droughts due to lowered soil moisture levels while at least a third of its 18 river basins has become non-resilient to vegetation droughts.

Responding to the suggestions and demands the Secretariat highlighted  recommendations to ensure mainstreaming of LDN targets in national strategies and action programmes, partnerships on science-policy to increase awareness and understanding of LDN and collaborations to assess finance and capacity development needs.

In all, the delegates, who include 90 ministers and more than 7,000 participants drawn from among government officials, civil society and the scientific community from the 197 parties will thrash out 30  decision texts and draw up action plans to strengthen land-use policies and address emerging threats such as droughts, forest fires, dust storms and forced migration.

“The agenda shows that governments have come to CoP14 ready to find solutions to many difficult, knotty and emerging policy issues,” said Thiaw at the inaugural session. The conference ends with the parties signing a ‘New Delhi Declaration’ outlining actions to meet UNCCD goals for 2018-2030.

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Smallholder farmers in Isiolo, Kenya sorting beans before sending them to the market in Nairobi. the latest Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR) shows that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main drivers of food economy on the African continent. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
ACCRA, Ghana/ELDORET TOWN, Kenya, Sep 4 2019 (IPS)

Viola Kiptanui, a resident of Langas estate in the outskirts of Kenya’s Eldoret town, has discovered a new way of life – eating only what she knows the source – thanks to a new smallholder entrepreneurship venture.

“Given the many health problems that have emerged, there is need for one to know exactly what they are feeding their families,” said Kiptanui a mother of three children.

Within the Langas shopping centre, residents stream to a newly-established grocery called ‘iAgribizAfrica’ to buy fresh green vegetables and fruits that are grown by Uasin Gishu County’s smallholder farmers and sold directly to the grocery.

“Such entrepreneurships represent a profound turnaround from mere decades ago,” said Dr. Thomas Reardon of Michigan State University, a lead author of the latest Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR).

The report, released on Sept. 3 on the sidelines of the Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Accra, Ghana shows that entrepreneurs from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main drivers of the food economy on the African continent.

According to the 220-page document compiled by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), 64 percent of total food consumed on the continent is sourced from SMEs, with only 16 percent coming from larger enterprises, and the remaining 20 percent being grown and eaten by farming households.

“There has been a ‘Quiet Revolution’ in agrifood private sector value chains linking small farmers to burgeoning urban markets and growing towns in Africa. This has spurred farmers’ participation in food and farm input markets,” said Reardon during a media briefing prior to the launch of the report.

These SMEs, often women-led, include food processors, wholesalers, and retailers, and they provide a range of services, from transport and logistics to the sale of inputs such as fertilisers and seed to farmers – says the report.

According to Rodgers Kirwa, a 27-year-old farmer and founder of iAgribizAfrica, there is a growing demand for food whose origin can be traced. 

“I started this business in 2018 and so far, I have 40 smallholder farmers within my network,” he told IPS at the AGRF in Ghana.

The 40 farmers were all recruited and registered by the young entrepreneur, and at some point supported for farm inputs on credit in case of a pressing need.

“The idea is to have farmers we know very well, so that we can monitor what they are growing, advice them on farm inputs, and monitor how they are using them for the safety of our customers,” said Kirwa.

Besides the entrepreneurship, Kirwa is a member of another online platform known as ‘Mkulima Young’ (young farmer) which was started with 10 partners, among them three young agronomists, two marketers, and social media enthusiasts. The platform now has 30,000 subscribers from Kenya and Uganda, mostly seeking information about farming enterprises. It is from this platform that farmers get answers to all their questions.   

“SMEs are the biggest investors in building markets for farmers in Africa today, and will likely remain so for the next 10 to 20 years,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President of AGRA in a statement. “They are not a ‘missing middle,’ as is thought, but the ‘hidden middle,’ ready for support and investment to thrive further. Today, we bring them out into the light.”

Contrary to common belief, the report shows that large enterprises play a relatively minor role in directly supporting small-scale farmers, and the food value chain in Africa.

“We live in a global market,” Kalibata said. “Our job today is to ensure that these SMEs are grounded enough to provide the right kind of support to family farms; and to be competitive so that they can survive and thrive in an increasingly interconnected and global market,” she said noting that the smallholder entrepreneurs’ success will determine the future of agriculture and food security on the African continent.

However, according to Reardon, there are challenges. “The journey has taken off, but not flying in its full potential,” said the lead researcher. “We need sound policies that will support these SMEs, good infrastructure and capacity building for them,” he said.

So far, governments that have invested in this have already registered a positive impact.

In Ghana, for example, the government has subsidised the cost of fertilisers by 50 percent, an intervention programme that has been in place since 2008 when the country ran into a food crisis due to poor yields, according to Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the country’s Minister of Food and Agriculture. “This has been a huge success, and farmers have more than enough produce from their farms at the moment,” he told journalists at the AGRF.

According to Vanessa Adams, Vice President of Country Support and Delivery at AGRA, there is need to use appropriate technologies and available food systems to ensure that what is produced is sold at the right time.

“Bumper harvests are fantastic, but not after market crushes,” she said.

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The post SME’s the Main Drivers of Africa’s Food Economy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Ganga Tilakaratna, Deshal de Mel and Zhengian Huang
BANGKOK, Thailand, Sep 4 2019 (IPS)

On the road to sustainable development, Sri Lanka provides an interesting case study. Having overcome a three-decade domestic conflict, Sri Lanka has begun its transformation towards a sustainable and resilient society. The extreme poverty rate ($1.90 a day) dropped to 0.8 per cent in 2016. The unemployment rate is below 5 per cent since 2010.

Free education and health policies have resulted in high youth literacy rates (98.7 per cent) and high life expectancy (75 years). Measured by its index of human development, Sri Lanka is a high achiever.

However, Sri Lanka still faces major challenges. Improving the quality and relevance of education, providing medical treatment and care facilities for the ageing population, and fighting climate disasters call for further policy support, financial mobilization and partnership strengthening.

Government initiatives to mainstream Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Sri Lanka has been incorporating the SDGs into its national policy framework. Since the endorsement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Sri Lanka has taken several momentous initiatives.

The most important one is the Sustainable Development Act in 2017, which establishes the legal framework to implement the SDGs with improved institutional and policy coherence. Under this Act, the Sustainable Development Council has been established, which formulates related national policies and guides new development projects.

From increasing investment to raising investment efficiency

Investments needed to achieve the SDGs are huge, but not beyond reach. Preliminary estimates by ESCAP suggest that Sri Lanka needs an annual additional investment of 4.4 per cent of the 2018 GDP through 2030 to provide a social protection floor (1.7 per cent), poverty gap transfers (0.2 per cent), quality education (1.6 per cent) and climate-resilient infrastructure (0.8 per cent).

Some of these investment needs have been mainstreamed into the Sri Lankan Government’s budgets. For example, the Budget 2019 focuses on:

• Quality education

• by reforming curricula to enable the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and the Arts (STEM + A), enhancing continuous professional training for teachers, and introducing more technology in education delivery;

• Healthcare

• services and facilities by enhancing investments in healthcare delivery, quality and infrastructure;

• Agriculture

• by linking smallholder farmers to value chains of larger enterprises, investing in climate-proof warehousing, and enhancing natural disaster insurance for farmers;

• Climate resilience

• by improving irrigation infrastructure quality, strengthening eco-system conservation, and expanding natural disaster insurance scheme; and

• Gender

equality by sharing costs of maternity benefits, facilitating childcare services by businesses and schools, and encouraging participation of women on corporate boards.

Despite the Government’s initiatives, financing the SDGs remains a challenge. Relatively low level of tax revenue constrains Sri Lanka’s domestic resource mobilization.

The country’s access to concessionary finance (e.g. ODA) has declined given its elevation to middle-income status. Its export earnings and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have remained below potential.

Various measures have been taken to attract FDI and boost export earnings including implementation of a new National Export Strategy and easing business environment by digitalizing company registration and land registry.

In addition to these measures, improving investment efficiency is critical. ESCAP estimates that the developing Asia-Pacific countries can achieve similar levels of outputs and outcomes in health and education sectors using 30 per cent fewer resources. Among its peer countries, Sri Lanka performs well in health and education sectors; however, its investment efficiency in infrastructure could be improved.

To enhance infrastructure investment efficiency for the public sector, public financial management institutions – notably project appraisal, selection and management – need to be strengthened.

Effective coordination among different government branches for construction permits, environmental clearance and land acquisition is important, as these processes often lead to project delays.

Ensuring a steady flow of resources for operations and maintenance is a necessary condition for success. Good maintenance generates substantial savings, reducing the total lifecycle costs of infrastructure projects.

Multi-stakeholder partnerships

Raising awareness among relevant stakeholders and building capacity of relevant institutions are necessary to achieve the SDGs. Developing multi-stakeholder partnerships provide much room for improvement in Sri Lanka to fully engage the general public and the private sector. An effective mechanism is needed for collaborative engagement in SDG implementation, from policy formulation to monitoring.

Furthermore, regional cooperation is an area with great potential that has not yet fully entered the SDG discourse in Sri Lanka. Regional cooperation in South Asia and the broader Indian Ocean economy can help Sri Lanka accelerate its SDG progress in several areas, including climate change, renewable energy transition and food security.

The 2030 Agenda provides a blueprint to achieve a more sustainable future for all. Sri Lanka’s efforts in mainstreaming the SDGs into its national planning and budgeting are an interesting case for the rest of the Asia-Pacific region to learn – a country does not need to wait until it achieves economic affluence before tackling social well-being and environmental health. Developing countries should incorporate social and environmental goals into their path towards prosperity.

The post Sri Lanka Faces Major Challenges on UN’s 2030 Development Agenda appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Ganga Tilakaratna is Research Fellow & Head of Poverty and Social Welfare Policy Research, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Deshal de Mel is Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka & Zhenqian Huang is Associate Economic Affairs Officer, Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division, ESCAP

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