Complete Wellness

Bibbi Abruzzini, Forus Communication team, Paris.

Credit: Forus International

PARIS, Dec 10 2020 (IPS) – On Human Rights Day, civil society calls for the protection of civic space as a fundamental freedom, as more than 80% of the world’s population live in countries where civic space is closed, repressed or obstructed.

Protecting civil society and fundamental freedoms means protecting the rights to associate and assemble, to express views and opinions. Civic space is the bedrock of any open and democratic society. When civic space is open, citizens and civil society organizations are able to organize, participate and communicate, claiming their rights and influencing the political and social structures around them. But this is not the case for most citizens around the world, new data unveils.

, with data from over 40 National NGO platforms, by Forus, , and , finds that 40% of NGO platforms continue to face high levels of impunity in the use of excessive force against human rights, gender and environmental defenders, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.

For 50% of NGO platforms, national laws and regulations are a key barrier to civil society activities in their country. In times of Covid, hurdles have multiplied, with 68% of NGO platforms noting that the health crisis was used to justify restrictions on their activities within the boundaries of legal and regulatory frameworks, and for 23%, the health crisis led to increased arbitrary restrictions.

“We’ve been really alarmed and we’ve spoken loudly through our megaphones, wherever we have been able to speak up, to say that governments should stop using the state of emergency to crack down on civil society,” says Sarah Brandt from Globalt Fokus, the Danish national platform of NGOs.

Some groups are more subject to harassment or interference by the government than others. In Cambodia, media outlets are particularly targeted. In Spain, the Occupy movement and those fighting against la “ley mordazas” or “gag law” introducing limitations on protests and imposing administrative sanctions against demonstrators both online and offline. In Colombia, Chile and Argentina, organisations representing indigenous, social leaders and trade unions are routinely scrutinized and attacked. In the UK, organisations that work with migrants, refugees, and the Muslim community face continuous pressures. In Denmark, the organisations being targeted include anti-establishment groups such as ANTIFA and Extinction Rebellion.

With increased surveillance, persecution and violence, only half of NGO platforms turn to national governments as institutional channels to promote accountability for attacks on civil society, while over two thirds use Human Rights Councils and the judiciary system. This shows the crucial role played by human rights institutions, which continue to be guardians of fundamental rights and never cease upholding democratic values.

Credit: Forus International

Carlos Andrés Orellana Cruz, joined , the Honduran national platform of civil society organisations, to support local communities defending their territory from mining projects in one of the world’s most infertile lands when it comes to human and civil rights.

“The only way to protect ourselves is by protecting others. No struggle is or should be isolated, social change cannot happen in small groups of people seeking quotas of power, but in an active and mobilized citizen participation, with effective exchange of knowledge and commitment to principles of social justice and democracy,” Carlos explains.

In countries like Honduras, this is becoming increasingly difficult, as . , according to CIVICUS, attacks continued to target activists as well as journalists, and the Honduran government introduced a new criminal code enabling the criminalization of these actors. This dire context is coupled with the little support civil society receives from institutional channels. 42% of NGO platforms report examples of efforts by governments or other major development actor to actively discredit their work.

Lockdown has forced many protests off the streets, yet changes in the digital environment, including the implementation of new technologies, software and access to information, have positively contributed to an enabling environment for civil society, according to a third of NGO platforms interviewed in the study. In contrast, 40% have experienced mixed to negative impacts and 15% merely negative impacts, as online spaces exacerbate the risk of widening the digital gap, privacy breaches and crackdowns.

For activists like Yasmine Ouirhrane, former Young European of the Year and Founder Podcast Host at , digital realms have opened new spaces for much needed cross-cultural dialogues. With her online platform and podcast she amplifies the voice of the “new daughters of Europe”, focusing on conversations with young women representing the diversity of the region, breaking stereotypes, navigating multiple identities, and challenging the conventional wisdom of what it means to “belong”.

“As Youth, we have been great advocates for our own rights. We have been outspoken: raising our concerns, tweeting our moods, demonstrating during Fridays for OUR future, even gaining seats at the decision-making table,” says Yasmine. “Yet, not all of us can speak up, not all of us are heard, not all of us are seen. Stories remain untold. The road for inclusion is still long and it’s time that we reflect on the invisible youth, the ones that have no means or hope to engage”.

The Forus Enabling Environment study calls for the inclusion of civil society in policy dialogues especially in rural and regional settings, in local languages and using diverse and locally appropriate technologies.

Only 7,5% of NGO platforms indicated that their governments effectively support civil society organisations with more limited capacities and resources.

This needs to change. Promoting a healthy civil society means protecting fundamental human rights, essential to the creation and maintenance of civic space, but more importantly of a healthy and just society.

The new report by Forus , Cooperation Canada and AidWatch Canada was produced with the financial support from Bread for the World and the French Development Agency.

NOUMEA, New Caledonia, Jan 25 2021 (IPS) – In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 challenges all nations to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by the year 2030. As we think about this in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the emerging post-COVID-19 environment, what does inclusive and equitable education look like and how do we ensure that lifelong learning opportunities are benefitted by all?

EQAP Director Michelle Belise

Pacific Island Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PILNA) results have provided us with rich data that identifies trends in literacy and numeracy for primary school students in the region. The PILNA data in recent cycles have also provided additional insights that speak to learning more broadly in terms of the learning skills that primary students are developing. PILNA 2018 data indicates that problem-solving and critical thinking skills are a challenge for many students in the Pacific region. For example, over 70% of year 6 students struggled with questions that required interpretation and reasoning in numeracy. Similarly, over 50% of students were unable to provide an explanation for their responses to questions in literacy that asked them to interpret what they had read or to make a decision or support an opinion, based on their reading.

At the senior secondary level, student results for the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC) have shown similar trends in recent years. Higher-order questions requiring students to apply their knowledge and problem solve in subjects across the spectrum, but particularly in the sciences and maths, are challenging. Students are generally able to respond to questions by applying recall or direct application of skills and knowledge, but struggle when asked to inter-relate multiple concepts, to address real-world situations or to extend their thinking into a more abstract use of skills and knowledge.

“…traditional education has frequently focused on problems that already have solutions…”

How do we equip learners for the demands of lifelong learning in an ever more rapidly changing world? Traditional education has focused on skills and facts, the kind of education many of us have experienced and the kind of education that has long been a staple of formal education systems around the world. It has frequently focused on problems that already have solutions and in supporting students in getting to those solutions. In recent years there has been increasing recognition that if learning is a lifelong effort, education needs to provide learners with skills that will allow them to solve problems that don’t yet have solutions.

Learning in the twenty-first century should be less focused on facts and figures, which are far more readily available than was the case in past centuries. Instead, education for lifelong learning must emphasise the importance of critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information, as well as collaboration and digital literacy skills. Gaining these skills, however, involves different ways of engaging in learning that are often not as readily available in large classrooms or in settings where students are not encouraged, or perhaps even overtly discouraged, from questioning what the teacher is saying. The efforts to develop the many skills needed by learners are complicated by the added challenge of disruptions to learning caused by the pandemic and efforts to fill the gaps with distance learning and virtual gatherings.

As we navigate the COVID crisis, we have a unique opportunity to reset standards in education, by providing the tools to ensure future generations embrace critical thinking both here in the Pacific, and globally.

Michelle Belisle Director, Educational Quality and Assessment Programme

The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day March 8.

NEW YORK, Mar 4 2021 (IPS) – In 2020, progress on gender equality in many countries in large part because of the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a , by 2021, around 435 million girls and women will be living on less than $1.90 a day, including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of the pandemic. Global lockdowns contributed to a , and estimates show that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), the bedrock of gender equality, have been severely disrupted, at risk of experiencing an unmet need for modern contraception. Our most pressing global issues have seldom been so daunting, and fault lines in existing social, political, and economic systems have never been so deep.

Kathleen Sherwin

Fortunately, the evidence-based solutions we need to lay the groundwork for a future that delivers for all, including for girls, women, and underrepresented populations1 , are in plain sight. As a global community, by using gender equality as our shared North Star, we can set in motion actions that help us not only recover, but come out on the other side of our most pressing global challenges stronger. Achieving gender equality, with a focus on girls’ and women’s health and rights, must be central to the actions we take in response to COVID-19, and other deeply entrenched barriers to progress, such as .

On this International Women’s Day, we’re calling on governments, the private sector, and civil society leaders to firmly position gender equality as our collective roadmap for coordinated action on COVID-19 and sustainable development. As essential first steps, together, we must prioritize collecting and using disaggregated data, securing the full and effective participation of girls and women in all aspects of decision-making, and investing more in gender equality. Sustainable progress toward a world that works for everyone depends on it.

Decision-makers must collect and use disaggregated data to set equitable action in motion.

Girls and women are too often invisible to decision-makers because data and knowledge about them is either incomplete or missing. To create policies that advance gender equality by addressing the disproportionate impacts of global challenges on girls, women, and underrepresented populations, we first need to invest in disaggregated data to get a full, intersectional picture of the uneven impacts of global issues.

In August 2020, in partnership with , we set out to do just that, conducting a — in 17 countries, representing half of the world’s population — to better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on girls and women, and global public opinion and expectations for policymaking on gender equality. We learned that girls and women are shouldering the worst of the pandemic’s impact: across 13 of 17 countries surveyed, women report experiencing greater emotional stress and mental health challenges than men, and taking on an even greater share of household tasks.

Girls and women must be fully and effectively engaged in charting our shared path forward.

Building a sustainable future for all requires the full participation — and potential — of girls and women in all aspects of our international and domestic response to global issues, and the realization of that potential depends on their health and rights. In fact, we now know that believe women must be involved in all aspects of COVID-19 global health response and recovery efforts.

Crucially, we must engage today’s youth, who will ultimately bear the consequences of our action — or inaction — and who have the highest expectations for more government funding for gender equality. expect their government to spend more on gender equality, and are ready to take personal action to make sure that they do.

Gender equality is what citizens want, and it’s what the world needs to build a healthier future for all.

The resounding call for action on gender equality, matched by robust funding and accountability mechanisms, holds across countries surveyed for men and women, young and old alike. want their government to invest more to promote gender equality, and are ready to act — from the way they vote, to the products they buy — to make sure that this happens. The resounding majority of citizens also believe that increasing access to SRHR is a top priority for immediate government action.

As governments, the private sector, and civil society leaders come together on International Women’s Day, and during upcoming global fora including the 65th session of the and the to discuss how to transform words into action that improves the health of all people and the planet, ensuring that gender equality is our shared roadmap for responding to global challenges is crucial to sustainable progress now and in years to come. It’s what citizens want, and it’s what the world needs to build a healthier, more gender-equal future.

1 People of underrepresented sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), and those who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression.

The author is Interim President CEO,

Continued inequity in COVID-19 vaccination means virus mutations occur and newer variants emerge that may be resistant to currently available vaccines. Credit: United Nations.

ABUJA, Apr 2 2021 (IPS) – As richer western nations continue hoarding COVID-19 vaccines to the detriment of poorer nations, there is some light on the horizon. On April 15, 2021, the U.S. will join the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and of the Investment Opportunity for COVAX Advance Market Commitment.
The aim of the event is to raise more funds to ensure at least 1.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are available to 92 low-income nations. The U.S. recently donated $4 billion to COVAX and this new leadership role is highly commendable.

“The more the virus that causes COVID-19 is out there in the world, the more opportunities it has to evolve—and to develop new ways of fighting our defenses against it. If we don’t get the vaccine out to every corner of the planet, we’ll have to live with the possibility that a much worse strain of the virus will emerge.” 
Bill Gates

However, even if all the commitments are met from the launch, only 20% of people in poorer nations would be vaccinated. Furthermore, it could take until late 2022 for that population to be vaccinated.

Continued inequity in COVID-19 vaccination means virus mutations occur and newer variants emerge that may be resistant to currently available vaccines. Therefore, it is in the interest of every nation (both rich and poor) that everyone everywhere has a fair chance of being vaccinated simultaneously.

Bill Gates alluded to this in his recent : “The more the virus that causes COVID-19 is out there in the world, the more opportunities it has to evolve—and to develop new ways of fighting our defenses against it. If we don’t get the vaccine out to every corner of the planet, we’ll have to live with the possibility that a much worse strain of the virus will emerge.”

Simply put, to end this pandemic, we must vaccinate everyone, everywhere.

As the COVAX investment commitment launch approaches, these are three ways the U.S. especially can ensure more equity in ending the COVID-19 pandemic globally:

First, support the push by the World Trade Organization for temporary COVID-19 vaccine patent waivers so that vaccines can be manufactured locally in Africa and other parts of Asia. Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls for the World Trade Organization to back a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to speed coronavirus vaccine production in poor countries.

If this continues, it could take until late 2023 or even early 2024 to vaccinate all those eligible across Africa. President Joe Biden has to intervene to authorise these waivers so that vaccine production can take place simultaneously in rich and poor countries.

Local production of vaccine in African countries will also lead to reduction in logistics costs and waiting times in transporting the vaccines from the west to African countries. has concluded preclinical trial and would soon begin clinical trial for a vaccine locally.

Likewise, Johnson and Johnson pharmaceutical has of their single-dose vaccine to the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team. Most of the supplies would be manufactured locally by Aspen Pharma in South Africa The U.S. should support more local production across African countries to speed up COVID-19 vaccination on the continent.

Second, block capital flight via corruption from poorer nations. . This theft amounts to a staggering $800 billion stolen from 1970 to 2008. These funds are stolen via electronic transfers.

Surely, banks and other agencies are aware as the theft is happening. The U.S. can work with banks and national anti-corruption agencies to stop funds being stolen. We do not have to wait for funds to be stolen and then go through all manners of legal and regulatory bottlenecks to repatriate the funds.

For example, no one really knows how much Nigeria’s former military dictator, General Abacha stole from the country. Twenty-three years after his death, funds he stole are still being repatriated back to the country.

The U.S. should also impose sanctions on banks, bank executives, politicians and civil servants who aid these thefts. With $50 billion yearly, Africa will not be dependent on richer western nations to vaccinate her people. Indeed, at $10 per dose, $50 billion will buy 5 billion doses of the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine more than enough to vaccinate all Africans three times over.

Third, ending the pandemic is not just about vaccines. Therapeutics, personal protective equipment and other commodities are essential. Sadly, the U.S. hoarded these at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. These hoardings must stop.

The African Union’s Africa Medical Supplies Platform () chaired by Zimbabwean billionaire, Strive Masiyiwa has succeeded in creating a platform for linking manufacturers with African nations especially for pre-ordering of COVID-19 commodities, including vaccines. The AMSP is an innovative idea to make Africa self-sufficient in COVID-19 response. This should be supported by the U.S.

All lives are created equal. The U.S. government should deepen its global health leadership by ensuring that this COVAX launch is an opportunity to demonstrate the sanctity of lives everywhere. It is the equitable thing to do to end this global pandemic for everyone.

Dr. Ifeanyi McWilliams Nsofor is a graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University. Ifeanyi is the Director Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch.

NEW DELHI, India, May 17 2021 (IPS) – Somalia is one of the most complex regions of the world, with threats and political instability, extreme weather conditions, movement of internally displaced people (IDPs), decades of conflict, poverty-related deprivation, poor health and communicable diseases that are killing people. There is a constant risk of gender violence making women, children and members of minority groups particularly vulnerable, and more so during displacement or while seeking work. Three decades of civil war and instability have weakened Somalia’s health system and contributed to it having some of the in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has added yet another strain on its tremendously fragile infrastructure presenting unexpected challenges and dilemmas.

Dr. Deqo Mohamed

This states that, “the multitude of crises and rates of inflation have left the majority of families food insecure and without income, halted education and health services, and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and the incidence of violence. Needs far exceeds the current available resources and capacity.”

One of the doctors leading healthcare and currently involved in the fight against COVID-19 in Somalia is Dr. Deqo Aden Mohamed, an obstetrician-gynecologist, founder of ‘The Hagarla Institute’ and co-founder of ‘The Somali Cancer Society’.

Dr. Deqo has been working full time on the ground in Somalia, and leads multiple projects on maternal health and the National Call Center for COVID-19, and is part of the Somali National Taskforce for COVID-19, 2020. In an interview given to me, Dr. Deqo says, “the pandemic has been exhaustive, we created a national call centre last year, which helped reduce the effect of COVID-19 to some extent. We have a very young population in Somalia who are all below 40 and they were able to recover from COVID-19 with very mild symptoms. A few elderly with comorbidity needed beds, but we were not ready when COVID-19 hit last year. We barely had 19 beds, and we didn’t even have ventilators.

“The good thing in Somalia is that because we have been through several famine and natural disasters, people or the government or the non-profit organizations/ international ones, are set in their mechanisms, where they are able to quickly react in emergency situations. They were able to set up one hospital last year very quickly, which also was just not enough.” Dr. Deqo said.

Last year amongst many, Somalia also lost one of its fearless and most compassionate humanitarian whose life’s work gave hope to , while inspiring countless others worldwide. Also known as “Mama Hawa and “the Mother Teresa of Somalia , Dr Hawa Abdi, Somali’s in a refugee camp close to the Adbi hospital, which was dubbed as Hawa Village. It is estimated that two million were served by her foundation over a period of 35 years. It was in these camps, Dr. Deqo grew up feeding the refugees her mother was harboring and shaping her destiny of becoming a doctor herself.

“My mother, (Dr Abdi) started the Hawa Abdi Foundation, it was started with the goal to help mothers have access to maternal healthcare. But once the civil war began, it transitioned from rural healthcare to an organization that did everything. It was very inspiring to watch her, the way she stood up as a woman, the way she negotiated with the elderly, the way she taught that your femininity should not hold you back, because in a society as a woman you are undermined. She was a strong woman,” Dr. Deqo added.

What began as a one-room clinic, changed the course of healthcare in Somalia, and helped in alleviating poverty and suffering in the country. However, the in Somalia still remains one of the weakest, poorly resourced and inequitably distributed in the world and in the absence of functioning public sector facilities, the country’s healthcare system has been “.”

While private health services and the pharmaceutical sectors largely remain unregulated, they are the backbone of healthcare in the country. Most funding for the health sector comes from international donors and is ‘’.

“The government runs only three hospitals here, so imagine in Mogadishu we have 4 million people and just three hospitals. The second wave of COVID-19 was much harder than last year. What we lost in one years time, we lost in one month in 2021,” says Dr. Deqo.

Currently the country is grappling with the triple threat of drought, COVID-19 and insecurity in Mogadishu which is driving severe humanitarian needs in Somalia. Somalia a 48% increase in deaths from COVID-19, doubling of cases from 6687 to 13,812 cases in just 59 days. The in Mogadishu, is adding to the difficulties in deliveries of humanitarian services in several parts of the country.

In a issued by International Rescue Committee, (IRC) Richard Crothers, IRC Somalia Country Director said, “Over 80% of the country is suffering from drought conditions, cattle and crops are dying as the frequency of climate-related hazards increase. We’ve seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths over the last month, with many cases going undetected and untested. In a country already suffering from severe humanitarian crises, with almost 6 million people in need, the drought will drive even more displacement and food insecurity. Now more than ever we need an increase in support and funding in order to meet the rising humanitarian need.”

In this , co-authored by Dr. Deqo, lack of access to screening services and important information about COVID-19, could put millions of internally displaced people in Somali settlement camps at risk.

“Three million internally displaced people (IDP) live in more than 2,000 settlement camps in Somalia. The large-scale camps are a tinderbox for potential outbreaks of infectious disease. Overcrowded conditions restrict opportunities for physical distancing and the camps often lack reliable access to basic amenities such as running water, soap, and medical treatment. The humanitarian crisis is already acute in Somalia,” the report states.

“The government wants to help, they communicate everyday, but the capacity is very limited, they don’t have funding, allocation of funding to government healthcare is very limited, basically they cannot run their own hospital, so that s the situation.

“ If we have people in place those with the right skills, knowledge and moral compass, things will be fine. Right now, as a doctor I am putting my energy and resources to have the best people in place. The country was brain drained, it lost two generations due to civil war and I think that’s what we are missing. I cannot solve all the issues from the ground, but I think we have the best opportunities in Somalia right now, and if we can learn from the mistakes, we can have a good healthcare system in the country,” says Dr. Deqo.

Somalia is among the to receive doses of COVID-19 vaccine delivered through the COVAX Facility. According to UNICEF, 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Somalia, but health officials say have been used. One of the major reasons according to this is “the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab s warning in Somalia that people are used as guinea pigs for AstraZeneca, large sections of Africans are steering clear of vaccines.”

Despite mechanisms in place to react quickly, as mentioned earlier by Dr. Deqo, the broader challenge for Somalia to battle through is the combination of a weak healthcare system, raging political and humanitarian crisis and adding to this, vaccine hesitancy must be a priority for the Somali government to overcome. If not, then COVID-19 will not only remain a regional threat, but possibly a global one as well, given the aggressive and uncontrollable mutation of the virus, which Somalia cannot afford to risk.

The author is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where Muslim women from around the world are invited to share their views.

The author is Commonwealth Secretary General

Patricia Scotland

LONDON, Jun 25 2021 (IPS) – Over the past 18 months, the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have transformed our lives and prompted a period of deep reflection as a global community. In some sense, we are only now starting to understand our vulnerabilities, and in particular, how deeply exposed and interconnected we are as people, communities and as countries.

At the same time, the pandemic has been a stark eye opener on our capacity to deal with the risks and shocks, at both individual and country level. The experience has shown us our vulnerability, and comparatively, our resilience is only partly determined by our income or economic status.

For small states in particular, the focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a figure which sums up the economic strength or income of a country, can never fully reflect the potential impact of external shocks outside the control of any government. A country’s high income, for example, does not negate its vulnerability to climate disasters, which can reverse years of development gains overnight.

In other words, measures such as GDP, or other equally narrowly focused economic statistics only provide us part of the picture. We need much more nuanced and comprehensive measurements and indicators to assess our full risk factors, and more precisely, our susceptibility to harm.

This has been regrettably demonstrated by the ongoing pandemic, during which as someone recently noted, ‘while we are all in the same storm, we re not all in the same boat.’

GDP was settled upon as the simple and translatable measure of economic progress over 75 years ago, with the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions.

It has certainly been a useful measure, yet most economists and experts today would agree that it is not the best measure of a nation, whether in terms of its economic progress, its sustainability or its potential. Put frankly GDP is too blunt a tool to serve as the only measure of success and progress, especially in these times of rapidly accelerating economic, social and environmental change.

We face a much more complex world than we did decades ago, a world which is also much better understood, and more thoroughly analysed any point in our history. And we need to update the tools we use to tackle this new world in a way that is fit for purpose. Big data, analytics, and Artificial Intelligence permeate every aspect of many of our lives. And yet, when it comes to development finance, we still rely singularly on an incomplete GDP figure to assess what type of funding countries should get, and how much.

This is why the debate has been building around new ways to assess less-developed and at-risk countries, and how they can be best supported by international financial institutions. It is also why the Commonwealth alongside many organisations, including the UN, has started to consider other more nuanced and constructive ways of assessing nation states and vulnerabilities.

The Commonwealth has approached this debate objectively, not to be swayed by one interest or group but to use rigorous analysis to lead an open discussion about how best to target support the poorest and most vulnerable nations in the world.

With over a third of the world’s sovereign nations as members, including 32 small states, and approximately 2.4 billion people living in the Commonwealth, we have a duty to address and advise on these issues, and to find consensus on a way forward.

In this vein, I am immensely proud of the work done by my team to produce the Commonwealth’s for consideration by Commonwealth member countries. This Index, which weights country s vulnerability against their built up and policy-related resilience, will give policymakers and financial institutions a sound tool by which to assess who is most in need of support.

And if adopted, we are convinced that the Index will transform the way we invest and deliver finance to developing countries.

One thing is clear. As we emerge from this crisis, we cannot return the business as usual. In order to respond effectively as an international community to the interlinked global crises confronting us today, we must overhaul the way we think about development finance, particularly in the post COVID world. We need to move beyond the thin analysis that GDP and per capita income provides us and to come up with a new way of determining the type of support vulnerable countries could receive. It is crucial that we do better, and we indeed can, through a tool such as the Universal Vulnerability Index.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx, New York. January 2021. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16 2021 (IPS) – As New York city struggles to cope with the widespread outbreak of the deadly new coronavirus Delta variant -– which has claimed more than 100,000 cases per day in the US— the United Nations is laying down strict guidelines at its headquarters (UNHQ) for staffers, diplomats and visiting delegates.

In a letter released August 13, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Delta variant “is posing some challenges to our planning, and we will be taking additional precautionary measures to ensure a safe work environment for our personnel and delegates. “

The UN will continue to follow all restrictions imposed by New York, the host city for the world body. Under new restrictions announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio, proof of vaccination is mandatory to go to restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, theatres and gyms—with more restrictions to follow. Those unvaccinated will be barred from these premises.

Conforming to city guidelines, the UN is expected to insist on proof of vaccination to use several of the dining facilities in the Secretariat building and also mandatory in-house mask-wearing.

“In order to align UNHQ’s approach to indoor dining with that of NYC’s guidance, we will soon require proof of vaccination for seated meals at cafeterias and other dining facilities on premises.,” says Guterres.

Further guidance on full return to work is being developed and will be issued in September.

To ensure adequate protection for all colleagues, effective August 13, all UN personnel must wear masks when indoors on premises. “We will reassess this requirement as conditions warrant.”

The letter says the most significant driver of COVID19-related risk is vaccination status. Accurate information on the vaccination status of staff is therefore essential to determine risk and appropriate mitigation strategies.

Aitor Arauz, President of the UN Staff Union in New York and Vice-President, UN International Civil Servants’ Federation (UNISERV), told IPS: “We are dealing with simultaneous crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, where the UN has a lot of staff currently in danger.”

“What I can say on the issue of dining facilities at UNHQ is that, as a general principle, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Staff Union has supported close alignment with host city and NY State guidelines; an approach that provides staff a sense of coherence and consistency”.

However, he cautioned, enforcement of these particular measures may prove a challenge given the particularities of our working environment.

Ian Richards, former President of the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA) told IPS requiring proof of vaccination in duty stations where all have had a chance to get jabbed is a sensible way to get things up-and-running again while keeping staff and diplomats safe.

“We’re looking forward to similar measures in Europe and in due course elsewhere,” said Richards, who is based in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN has placed several TV monitors outside committee rooms, primarily aimed at diplomats and visiting delegates, with warnings that read: “No face to-face meetings unless individually risk-assessed; 2 people per elevator; Lower your mask and present your valid UN ID when requested by Security: By swiping your valid UN ID you confirm that in the past 14 days you have no Covid-19 symptoms, no positive Covid-19 rest result; and no close contact with a confirmed or suspected Covid-19 case.”

In several US cities and businesses, the ultimatum is more severe than the UN: “Get Vaccinated or Get Fired.”

At the Winchester Medical Center, nurses were told: “Get the shot or face termination”. In Sacramento, California, the Mayor has insisted that all new hires and current city employees should get vaccinated, or face being terminated. Both proposals are getting major pushback from unions, who say workers have the right to choose.

In Washington state, Governor Jay Inslee announced that some 60,000 employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to keep their jobs.

The governor’s proclamation has given state workers until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated, with few exceptions. And employees who do not provide proof of vaccination will be dismissed from employment, unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

Since December last year, more than 353 million doses have been administered, fully vaccinating over 167 million people or 50.4% of the total U.S. population.

The rest remain unvaccinated either for personal, political or medical reasons. But the UN does not have a head count as to how many of its more than 3,000 staffers in New York have been vaccinated.

Dr Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS that as a vital member of the New York community, the UN also has a responsibility to contribute to the city s efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded Covid19.

“The UN enjoys wide immunities under international law but the virus does not recognize rights and immunities invented by man,” he pointed out.

Many of the staff members, he said, live in communities scattered in places far from the Head Office and travel to work. They could be exposed to the virus.

“The restrictions imposed by the Organization are for the protection of all. Most importantly, the Organization must further refine options for working from home”.

“With modern technology, this should not pose too many difficulties , said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the letter from Guterres also says all staff at UNHQ, in consideration of the need to protect one another, will be required to report their vaccination status including through EarthMed with immediate effect.

In addition, any personnel who has been on site and has a positive COVID-19 or Antigen test result must report the results immediately to the Division of Healthcare Management and Occupational Safety and Health through the confidential self-reporting portal () in order to ensure effective risk mitigation at the workplace.

“I continue to be very grateful to those staff who have been working on premises throughout the pandemic, either because their functions could not be performed remotely or when remote work would have impacted their effectiveness and efficiency,” says Guterres.

“I particularly commend those who did so when we did not have the protection of vaccination. As the presence of unvaccinated staff potentially increases the risk for other staff members, whether vaccinated or not, vaccinations will be mandated for staff performing certain tasks and/or certain occupational groups at UNHQ whose functions do not allow sufficient management of exposure.”

This mandate may be waived where a recognized medical condition prevents vaccination.

Those staff members who will be required to be vaccinated must receive the final dose of a vaccine no later than 19 September 2021.

Any COVID-19 vaccine that is recognized by the WHO, or under routine approved-use by a Member State’s national health authority, is accepted. Affected staff will be notified by their respective offices during the week of 16 August.

“As personnel serving in New York, we are privileged to have access to effective vaccines through local vaccination programmes. In addition to requiring certain staff to be vaccinated, I strongly encourage all personnel who have not already done so to take advantage of this opportunity to be vaccinated to promote your safety and health and all those around you.”

“The situation continues to be monitored and the possibility of additional measures announced will remain under consideration and will be reviewed and adapted as needed,” says Guterres.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that United Airlines, Amtrak, Capital One, McDonald’s, Facebook, Disney, Netflix and Google, among others, have joined a growing list of companies to mandate vaccines for all or some workers.

NEW DELHI, India, Oct 5 2021 (IPS) – There is broad consensus that realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change require a transformative agenda for agriculture and food systems. In this context, the importance of mobilizing more investments and aligning them to sustainable development and inclusive rural transformation objectives, is widely acknowledged.

The gaps in investment
Estimates of investment required for achieving these goals show that the financing needs are considerable although the appraisals of incremental financing requirements differ significantly.

Raghav Gaiha

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (), International Fund for Agricultural Development () and the World Food Program () estimate that US$265 billion per year is needed to reach “zero hunger” by 2030 (, 2021).

In 2019, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development () estimated total investment needs for food and agriculture at US$ 480 billion to achieve related SDGs in developing countries, with actual investment at US$220 billion, thus leaving a gap of US$260 billion.

These estimates suggest that transforming food systems to deliver healthy people, a healthy planet, and a healthy economy will require US$300 – US$350 billion extra per year over the next decade.

The swift and massive shock of the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the global economy into a severe contraction. The prospects of economic revival are highly uncertain and downside risks are predominant. Development finance gap is thus likely to worsen.

Towards meeting the financing gaps
To meet these needs, finance will be required from all sources to work in alignment with the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. The extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) through to the end of 2021 led by the – will help most developing countries to focus on domestic priorities including getting SDG delivery back on track.

A Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI is in the making, while some International Financial Institutions (IFI) are expecting historical highs in their replenishments (IFAD, IDA, ). In addition, there is a call for a new general allocation of USD 650 billion ( Special Drawing Rights) to be channelled to benefit vulnerable countries.

Shantanu Mathur

A Role for Public Development Banks
Public Development Banks (PDBs) have considerable untapped potential here, as financial institutions with state capital have a mandate to pursue developmental goals, (as opposed to solely commercial objectives in their bank operations. PDBs are distinct from State-owned commercial banks; they also differ in their mandates and instruments (World Bank Group World Federation of Development Financing Institutions, 2018, IFAD, 2020, SAFIN, 2021). Non-sector specific PDBs have significant portfolios in agriculture or in other activities within food systems (e.g. in financing rural infrastructure, agro- processing, or other).

Yet other PDBs have a primary focus on agriculture but their portfolio includes other sectors. This is based on the notion that supporting sustainable small-scale farming through inclusive agri-food value chain development is between two to three times more effective as a means to eradicate poverty than other sectors.

Some PDBs target small-scale enterprises including producers, while others focus their portfolios on larger agribusinesses or larger investments, for instance, in agricultural infrastructure and markets. This diversity is key to understanding the role of different types of PDBs in advancing the 2030 Agenda.

The overarching goal, however, is to address market failures, with counter-cyclical roles, and greater risk tolerance than what other financial institutions have. Given their public mandate and close proximity to public policy and governance institutions, PDBs can play a catalytic role supporting accessible, affordable and usable financial services for rural poor people socially, environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes across food systems.

PDBs (which are already responsible for over two-thirds of formal financing for agriculture), can facilitate a change of course across the financial ecosystem. This includes mobilizing sustainable and green finance, issuing investment products, structuring blended solutions and public-private financing schemes.

At the same time, adopting digital solutions across their business operations, and delivering a suite of financial services and products to different types of clients in food systems – including women, youth, SMEs and smallholders. It is known that private investment in agriculture and/or in other activities within food systems is often constrained by many risks associated with poor infrastructure and economic returns. PDBs are capable of increasing their capacity to crowd in, de-risk, and help align commercial finance to the SDGs and to climate-related goals such as those set in the Paris agreement.

Mobilizing catalytic investments
Stimulating responsible private investment and financial innovations such as through blended finance are required to improve food security and nutrition and inclusive rural transformation, and to address the post pandemic gap in ODA. UNCTAD has estimated that around 75 per cent of the gap could be financed, in principle, by the private sector – with the potential to mobilize US$195 billion annually. PDBs are actively engaged in platforms where private investors, businesses, philanthropists and other entities are investing to fund SDG aligned projects.

In their Communiqué (Matera, June 2021) the G20 Development Ministers have welcomed the establishment of a “Finance in Commons” Working Group on Financing Sustainable Food Systems, led by IFAD, that is meant to bring together PDBs, recognizing the critical role of the private sector to build upon public efforts to improve agri-food systems.

As a concrete action emerging out of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is the advent of a Coalition for Action to launch a PDB global Platform, with focus on increasing investments in inclusive and sustainable food systems chains, for accelerated learning, innovation, mobilization and deployment of capital and services.

Going forward, closing the financing gap will require strong international cooperation and political will to enhance the fiscal space to ensure sustainable domestic financing. Multilateral Development Banks can work with PDBs and test/validate sustainability-related financial instruments, encompassing (sustainability/green) bonds, funds and other investment vehicles aimed at advancing sustainable development objectives. This will play an important role in mobilizing much-needed finance to reduce the SDG financing gaps in developing countries and become possible long-term financing instruments of international and national public financial institutions.

Raghav Gaiha is Research Affiliate, Population Aging Research Centre, University of Pennsylvania, USA, (Hon.) Professorial Research Fellow, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK; Shantanu Mathur is Lead Adviser Senior Partnership Officer, Global Multilateral Engagement International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
(The views are personal)

DUBAI, Nov 18 2021 (IPS) – In the whirl of effort nations are making to combat COVID-19, the powerful role that children and young people can play in overcoming the harmful effects of school closures is too easily overlooked.

Children are making a difference on their own within their families, schools, and communities, while also joining forces with adults in countless compelling ways. Their efforts offer us all much hope and inspiration. But we need to do so much more to ensure they can all get back to school, and safely.

At EXPO 2020 DUBAI, now underway after a postponement, the spotlight is on the grassroots efforts and remarkable actions children themselves are taking to mitigate the global learning crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Wear My Shoes” Award, organized by and sponsored by the , will be given on 19 November at the EXPO to five grassroots organizations who made outstanding contributions to mitigating the educational crisis during the pandemic in 2020-21; four of these projects were co-led by children.

The award is one part of a larger campaign organized for this year’s World Day of Prayer and Action for Children, celebrated globally on and around November 20.

Rebeca Rios-Kohn, J.D.

The award specifically recognizes exceptional efforts that focused on the most vulnerable and excluded children who were hit hardest by the pandemic and had no access to education, and which also explicitly addressed their mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Each winner will receive US$5,000 to support their continuing activities.

Increasingly, organizations working to improve the lives of children are involving them in shaping and implementing the decisions affecting their lives, fulfilling one of the key child rights set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

By recognizing the participation and engagement of children, the award also seeks to empower other children to claim their right to education, and to step forward to insist that their best interests be put at the heart of all policymaking, including COVID-19 responses.

If we listen, it is not difficult to discern the message. Children are saying it loud and clear: they want to be in school, learning, with their peers – and safely. We owe them no less.

Children are among those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet they are emerging around the world as key agents of change by taking concerted action to help improve the lives of their peers. Innovative activities co-led by children are taking place in many countries in response to the unprecedented crisis, with school closures leaving millions of children without access to learning.

With the support of their faith communities, in countries like Bhutan, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan and Serbia, for example, children are taking action to help their peers access education even when schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We should celebrate children are finding their own solutions, including to help their peers access online classes and educational materials during the education crisis, but we also need to recognize that public policy has a major impact. As inspiring as they are, children’s efforts alone will of course not be enough and the support of their local faith leaders and faith communities adds value to their efforts.

As of the end of October 2021, UNESCO warned that nearly 800 million students around the world were still affected by full or partial . UNESCO further warns that school closures during the past two academic years have resulted in learning losses and increased drop-out rates, impacting millions of children, particularly the most vulnerable students.

Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Violence against Children, has recently expressed concern stating that “school closures contributed to increased anxiety and isolation among children, along with sadness, frustration, stress, disruptive behavior, hyperactivity, and sleeping and eating disorders.”

Together with Arigatou International and UNICEF, some 18 international organizations (including faith-based organizations such as the World Council of Churches, World Vision, Religions for Peace and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists), joined forces this year on the Wear My Shoes Campaign to draw global attention to the urgency of getting children back to school.

The aim is to mobilize children and adults – including religious leaders, policymakers, parents/caregivers, and educators – to take immediate action for students’ safe return to school and to prioritize addressing the grave impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

The Wear My Shoes Campaign is part of this year’s celebration of the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children 2021, an annual event initiated by Arigatou International to engage diverse faith communities to raise the status of children’s rights and help take action to end violence against children on November 20, the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Wear My Shoes Award event at EXPO 2020 DUBAI falls within the Week of Tolerance and Inclusivity at the EXPO, which seeks to foster greater common understanding to create more tolerant societies under the theme, “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,”

Indeed, our future depends on the children of today, and they depend on access to education to develop their minds and help them acquire the broad capacities for global citizenship they will need to build the better world we all dream of and which they deserve.

The message from Dubai today is that children themselves are taking urgent action to address the harms caused by the continuing education crisis. So should we.

Rebeca Rios-Kohn, J.D. is Director, Arigatou International – New York

The link to the online event on Nov. 19 at 8:30 AM EST (UTC – 05:00):

Arigatou International is “All for Children” and works with people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds to build a better world for children. Believing that every girl and boy is a precious treasure of humanity, Arigatou International draws on universal principles of common good found in religious and spiritual traditions and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities was established to empower faith leaders to work for the safety and security of our communities, tackling issues such as child sexual abuse, extremism and radicalization and human trafficking. It aims to facilitate the building of bridges between faiths, NGOs and experts in various domains.

Community support workers are key in raising awareness about TB and promoting diagnosis and treatment. Credit, Busani Bafana/IPS

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jan 7 2022 (IPS) – Global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) are futile without dedicated investment in research into the debilitating disease that is killing 4000 people a day, Stop TB Partnership warns.

“TB is a disease that is not a darling of donors and investors,” Lucica Ditiu, the Executive Director of the S, told IPS in an interview from Geneva.
Related IPS Articles

“We do not have a Bill Gates that can support TB research, yet TB remains a disease of concern with deaths increasing for the first time in over a decade,” she added.

TB, a bacterial disease mainly affecting the lungs, has been around for over millennia and remains one of the top killer diseases globally. But it is preventable and curable with the right investment in diagnosis and treatment.

Ditiu attributed the rise in TB incidents to several factors; many people diagnosed and on treatment for TB have defaulted owing to the disruption of health services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdown. Furthermore, many people remain undiagnosed because they have not been reached.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. Credit: Stop TB Partnership

“Southern Africa has done a good job in respect of Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa as well as Rwanda in trying to disrupt as little as possible the treatment and diagnosis of people with TB,” Ditiu said. She commended awareness programmes in the media and community door-to-door campaigns to promote diagnosis and treatment.

Countries need to invest more in finding people with TB and putting them on treatment. Until you find people, you cannot put them on treatment, and this is where we are very much lagging, she said.

Ditiu fears the worst should the world fail to change the current TB transmission trend. An estimated 5.8 million people received treatment for TB in 2020; a drop of 21 percent from 2019, and more than 4 million people worldwide remain untreated. According to Stop TB Partnership, half of those untreated are likely to die from the disease.

Admitting that funding for TB has always been insufficient, Ditiu said TB was the poor cousin compared to the deep pockets for HIV and AIDS.

“In general, we have available only 30 percent of the funding needed globally. We have places that have done well in preventing TB in people living with HIV. Prevention of TB in people living with HIV is going well, especially in African countries because HIV has resources.”

According to the Stop TB Partnership, a network of international organisations established in 1998 to help end TB as a public health problem, funding for TB research and development (R D) has remained flat since 2018.

Global funding for tuberculosis (TB) research totalled 915 million US dollars in 2020 less than half the goal of 2 billion US dollars set forth by participating country governments at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB.

In 2021, TB had a funding gap of 13 billion US dollars globally, with only 5,3 billion US dollars available for its programmes. It experienced a drop in funding amounting to 500 000 US dollars in 2020 as many countries took money away from TB to respond to COVID-19.

A new report, Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, 2005–2020 by Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Stop TB Partnership, found that TB received less than 1 percent of the amount invested in COVID-19 Research and Development over the first 11 months of the pandemic.

“The mobilisation of over 100 billion US dollars for COVID-19 research and development in the first 11 months of the pandemic shows us just how powerful a coordinated effort against a disease can be,” noted Ditiu.

While the pandemic has shown that effective vaccines can save lives, the world is still banking on a 100-year-old vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin or BCG. However, a more effective vaccine could have higher efficacy rates, especially for adults. Why has it taken so long to develop a new, more effective TB vaccine when the health burden of TB is increasing?

“This is the drama,” Ditiu commented. “We have a vaccine for a hundred years that we know for the last 40 years does not work (effectively) except for newly-born babies, and yet we have not done much about it.”

While ongoing research on new vaccines had been slow because of poor funding, Ditiu said several potential vaccines were in the pipeline, and a vaccine could be expected by 2027.

“It takes a long time to get a vaccine. But because of COVID (we realised), it is possible to have a vaccine much quicker, and we hope to use the learnings from COVID-19 to get a TB vaccine,” Ditiu told IPS.

Tuberculosis vaccine research has been slowed by chronic underfunding with only one moderately effective century-old TB vaccine, compared to over 20 COVID-19 vaccines.

“What’s enabled the development of dozens of COVID-19 vaccines in less than a year has essentially been money,” noted Austin Aurinze Obiefuna, Executive Director of the Afro Global Health Alliance and incoming Vice-Chair of the Stop TB Partnership Board.

“I think that the same enormous amount of funding should be applied with equal vigour to the development of TB vaccines. But that simply doesn’t seem to be happening.”

According to the Stop TB Partnership, making much-needed progress against TB demands investment that matches the threat of the disease around the world. This includes a commitment to rectify the inadequate funding of the past. Over the next two years, 10 billion US dollars are needed to close the tuberculosis R D funding gap.

“Wealthy countries need to step up and put more money into correcting global health inequalities, which COVID-19 vaccine allocation inequities laid bare,” urged Mark Harrington, Executive Director of , an independent activist, and community-based research and policy think tank.

“COVID-19 made more people around the world aware of the importance of R D spending than ever before. Now is the time to finally start making investments ambitious enough to end TB for good.”