Complete Wellness

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

A nurse on a maternity ward in a rural hospital powered by solar energy through the UNDP-led Solar for Heath initiative in Zimbabwe. Credit: Karin Schermbrucker for Slingshot/UNDP

PANAMA CITY, Mar 7 2022 (IPS) – Access to clean energy improves women’s lives in a myriad of ways. It supports access to education and quality healthcare, opens new economic opportunities, and reduces unpaid domestic labour and gender-based violence. Yet too often, the sector as a whole – from industry to policymaking – still fails to include women as energy users, decision-makers and agents of change of the energy transition.

To succeed, the energy transition must be just. It must be done in a way that delivers sustainable energy access for all, leaving no one behind. It must be done with women. Here are three ways the clean energy sector and related policies can help to unleash the power of women for a just energy transition.

1. Accelerating action on clean cooking, which is a vast health crisis impacting women disproportionately

Household air pollution leads to a staggering nearly half of all air pollution-related deaths – and 60% of which are women and children. This is driven by a lack of access to clean technologies and fuels for cooking, which directly impacts a third of the world’s population yet receives little attention and action. 2.6 billion people rely on solid fuels for cooking, which comes at significant health and social costs that disproportionately impact women and children. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa, in the world’s poorest and most remote communities.

In these communities, women and children are often in charge of collecting wood for cooking and heating, spending doing so. . They also breathe in harmful gas every day from open fires or inefficient stoves while cooking.

A woman using an electrical blender in a remote village in Cambodia. Cerdit: Okra Solar

Clean cooking solutions such as electrical or more efficient stoves not only improve the lives of billions of women by freeing up time that can be used for education, income-generating activities, or rest and leisure; it also saves millions of women’s and children’s lives each year.

Yet too often, clean cooking is not seen as the policy priority it is. While a lot of progress has been made in the past decade when it comes to access to electricity – with the share of people lacking electricity decreasing –, relative progress on clean cooking has been much slower, with the share of people lacking access to clean cooking only decreasing . This lack of progress maintains gender inequalities. Women’s energy needs must be identified, prioritized, and adequately addressed. This includes involving women in the design and promotion of clean cooking technologies to ensure that these adequately meet their needs.

2. Empowering women with new economic opportunities

Beyond clean cooking, access to clean energy can also open up new economic opportunities for women by supporting livelihoods and generating new sources of income.

In Yemen for instance, with UNDP’s support, a group of women have near the frontlines of the conflict– bringing much-needed electricity from clean energy to their community while earning an income and pushing gender boundaries. In Peru, an energy school by teaching them to install, maintain and commercialize solar panels and improved cookstoves.

In India, in the remote village of Khunti in Jharkhand, women entrepreneurs produce face masks and sanitary pads thanks to solar-powered, electric sewing machines – enabling women to earn an income while providing women in rural areas with much-needed menstrual hygiene products.

Access to clean energy, especially when it supports the productive uses of energy, is a powerful means to advance socio-economic development in a way that reduces inequalities and increases women’s resilience. When this gender perspective is foreseen and included in clean energy projects and policies, these become transformational for the entire community.

3. Improving women’s representation at all levels of the clean energy sector

The energy sector is one of the sectors with the lowest levels of women representation – even though the , with women representing on average 32 percent of the renewable energy workforce compared with an average of 22 percent in the oil and gas sector.

But while the energy transition is expected to create , current predictions show that the proportion of women in the clean energy sector will decrease because the subsectors expected to drive this job creation such as in construction and electric machinery equipment, are the ones with the lowest women representation.

The clean energy sector must do more to identify and address the barriers preventing women from entering and thriving in the sector.

To be just and effective, the energy transition must be done with all parts of society – including with women, and in a way that addresses women’s needs and preferences.

Women need to be included as agents of change not only as beneficiaries. As part of UNDP’s Sustainable Energy Hub, UNDP’s gender and energy strategy ensures that gender is a pillar of our programming on energy, and feeds in every policy and program that we support countries with.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 2022 (IPS) – The world is being pressed by financial interests to raise interest rates, ostensibly to check inflation. After the US Federal Reserve started raising interest rates, more central banks have been doing likewise.

Considering inflation’s contemporary causes, such ‘follow the leader’ central bank mimicry cannot check it except by slowing economies. Worse, this has meant taking on huge new risks, seriously damaging world economic prospects in the medium and long-term.

Anis Chowdhury

Inflation bogey dangerous
Much earlier, had shown moderate inflation – in the range of 15–30% – was not harmful to growth, and could “be reduced only at a substantial cost to … growth”.

Nonetheless, “ on this topic”. Unsurprisingly, central banks are still trying to keep inflation below 2% – an arbitrary target “”, due to a “” by New Zealand’s finance minister then.

Raising interest rates will derail recovery and worsen supply disruptions and shortages due to the pandemic, war and sanctions. European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Fabio Panetta has the euro zone is “de facto stagnating” as economic growth has almost stopped.

As policymakers struggle with inflation, growth and wellbeing are being subjected to huge risks. As Panetta warns, “monetary tightening aimed at containing inflation would end up hampering growth that is already weakening”.

Interest rates rising globally
Among emerging markets and developing economies, South Africa’s central bank raised interest rates for the in November 2021.

On 24 March 2022, the Bank of Mexico raised interest rates . On the same day, Brazil’s central bank raised interest rates to its .

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

On 4 May, the Reserve Bank of India raised interest rates – . On 5 May, Chile’s central bank . Pressed by finance to curb inflation, more central bankers are tightening monetary policy.

Without evidence or reasoning, they insist higher interest rates will check inflation. Their recognized adverse effects for recovery and growth are dismissed as unavoidably necessary short-term costs for some unspecified long-term gains.

But despite facing higher inflationary expectations, tightening international monetary conditions, and Ukraine war uncertainties, the ECB and Bank of Japan have not joined the bandwagon, refusing to raise policy interest rates so far.

Interest rate – blunt tool
But central bankers’ dogmatic stances, knee-jerk responses and ‘follow the leader’ behaviour are not helpful. Even when inflation reaches dangerous levels, raising interest rates may still not be the right policy response for several reasons.

First, raising interest rates only addresses the symptoms – not the causes – of inflation. Inflation is often said to be a consequence of an economy ‘overheating’. But overheating can be due to many factors.
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Higher interest rates may relieve overheating, by slowing economic activity. But a good doctor should first investigate and diagnose an ailment’s causes before prescribing appropriate treatment – which may or may not require medication.

It is widely accepted that the current inflationary surge is due to supply chain disruptions – exacerbated by war and sanctions – especially of essential goods such as food and fuel. If so, long-term solutions require increasing supplies, including by removing bottlenecks.

Higher interest rates reduce aggregate demand. But simply raising interest rates does not even address the specific causes of inflation, let alone rising prices due to supply disruptions of essential goods, such as food and fuel.

Interest rate – indiscriminate
Second, the interest rate affects all sectors, everyone. It does not even distinguish between sectors or industries needing to expand or be encouraged, and those that should be phased out, for being less productive or inefficient.

Also, raising interest rates too often, and to excessively high levels, can squeeze, or even kill productive and efficient businesses along with inefficient or less productive ones.

in the early 1980s after US Fed chair Volcker’s legendary interest rate spike. “Thousands of businesses that took out bank loans could fail”, a leading UK tax advisory firm recently.

Third, interest rates do not distinguish among households and businesses. Higher interest rates may discourage household expenditure, but also dampen all kinds of spending – for both consumption and investment.

Hence, overall demand may shrink – discouraging investment in new technology, plant, equipment and skills. Thus, higher interest rates adversely affect long-term productive capacities and technological progress of economies.

Debt, recessions and financial crises
Fourth, higher interest rates raise debt servicing costs for governments, businesses and households. With the exceptionally low interest rates previously available after the 2008-09 global financial crisis (GFC), debt burdens rose in most countries.

These undoubtedly risky, speculative behaviour as well as unproductive share buybacks, increased dividends, and mergers acquisitions. Interest rate hikes many recessions and financial crises. Thus, raising interest rates now will likely trigger a new, albeit different era of stagflation.

The pandemic has pushed public debt to historic new highs. Forty-four per cent of low-income and least developed countries were at high risk of, or already in external in 2020.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, half the , i.e., were at high risk of, or already in debt distress. Thus, raising interest rates can trigger a global debt crisis.

Fifth, paradoxically, higher interest rates raise debt-servicing expenses, especially mortgage payments, for indebted households. Costs of living also rise if businesses pass higher interest costs on to consumers by raising prices.

Hence, the main beneficiaries of low inflation and higher interest rates are the holders of financial assets who fear the relative diminution of their value.

Developing countries vulnerable
Developing countries are particularly vulnerable. Higher interest rates in developed countries – particularly the US – trigger capital outflows from developing countries – causing exchange rate depreciations and inflationary pressures.

Higher interest rates and weaker exchange rates will aggravate already high debt service burdens – as happened in Latin America in the early 1980s after US Fed chair Volcker greatly increased US interest rates.

To discourage sudden capital outflows and prevent large currency depreciations, developing countries raise interest rates sharply. This may lead to economic collapse – as in Indonesia during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Although pandemic response measures – such as debt moratoria – provided some relief, business failures from 2019. Middle- and low-income countries saw more business failures.

The World Bank’s – of 24 middle- and low-income countries – found 40% of businesses surveyed in January 2021 expected to be in arrears within six months.

This included more than 70% of firms in Nepal and the Philippines, and over 60% in Turkey and South Africa. Business failures of such scale can trigger banking crises as non-performing loans suddenly soar.

Instead of checking contemporary inflation, raising interest rates is likely to greatly damage recovery and medium-term growth prospects. Hence, it is imperative for developing countries to innovatively develop appropriate means to better address the economic dilemmas they face.

IPS UN Bureau

Rawan Bo-khuntod (left) and another farmer planting seedlings. Credit: Pattama Kuentak/IPS

KHLONG SONG, Thailand, Jul 6 2022 (IPS) – Hidden in Pathumthaini province just outside of Bangkok, 0.24 hectares of land adjacent to Seangsan temple has been turned into an urban vegetable farm managed by members of the Association of the Physically handicapped of Pathumthani.

‘Farm Samart Khon Samart’ consists of a large open greenhouse that sits at the back of the land. In a small grass field at the front stand six raised beds of bok choy and coriander. To one side are the office building and workshop.

Inside the greenhouse, three rows of elevated beds are filled with seedlings of a variety of salad vegetables, still too small to recognize. The soil is covered with rice straw to protect the young plants.

One of the first steps after partnering with DEPA was to install a digital watering system using a mobile phone application. Automated water sprinklers were hooked up along with mist sprayers. Temperature-controlled, the system delivers four minutes of mist watering five times a day

Ten years ago, Khoen Sapanyabut founded the association to spotlight the rights to education and employment of differently-abled people. The land, donated by the temple, sits almost two kilometres from the main highway. One side of the tree-lined road is flanked by a canal that is dotted with poor community homes and shops. The other side alternates from factories to empty land, to a school.

The land secured, Khoen, who uses a wheelchair, was musing over what activity the members should focus on. He chose vegetable-growing. “Handicapped people have different skills. Some are good at computer or fixing devices. But growing vegetables is an activity that everyone can do, even without proper education,” he says.

The association first adopted hydroponic farming and grew vegetables like lettuce, water spinach and bok choy. Although these veggies are easy to grow and sell, they are cheap and not profitable.

Also, due to limited space, production couldn’t keep up with demand. The full cost of hydroponics, including the electricity, water system and chemical fertilizer, also exceeded profits.

The shift to soil-based agriculture happened when the association partnered with Bangkok University three years ago and started to receive annual funding and support, including the greenhouse.

The farm now has 28 raised beds in total. All are designed to a certain height to accommodate wheel-chaired farmers. The aisles are accessible by wheelchairs too.

Today the farm grows red and green oak lettuce, kale, cos lettuce, Frillice Iceberg, and butterhead lettuce which are high-value vegetables. All production follows organic farming practices including the compost, which is made by the members.

Rawan Bo-khuntod, 53, is responsible for the farm’s day-to-day paperwork. She also does accounting and sometimes helps the farmers prepare and plant the seeds. Rawan says the job has boosted her working life as a disabled person because she particularly likes doing administration.

It has also made her healthier. “I found it hard to eat vegetables before. Now I’ve come to like butterhead lettuce and usually add it in the salad.” Not only do organic vegetables taste better than chemically grown ones, Rawan adds, “I feel safe eating them knowing that it s 100 percent organic.”

Praset Raitim (left) and Khoen Sapanyabut harvest bok choy. Credit: Pattama Kuentak/IPS

One additional boost came in the form of a partnership between the farm and the Thai Government’s . Rittirong Chutapruttikorn, dean of the School of Architecture at Bangkok University, who led the design of the greenhouse, says that he was looking for ways to make the farmers’ lives easier. He had seen how tending to the crops, such as watering while sitting in wheelchairs, was both time and energy-consuming for them.

One of the first steps after partnering with DEPA was to install a digital watering system using a mobile phone application. Automated water sprinklers were hooked up along with mist sprayers. Temperature-controlled, the system delivers four minutes of mist watering five times a day.

Prasert Latim, who is disabled as a result of polio in his childhood, is one of two people tasked with accessing the app via his phone. He tells IPS that using the automated water sprinklers is more convenient as he doesn t have to keep monitoring and watering veggies all day. It also prevents soil spattering, which can deplete nutrients.

Prasert, 56, notes that smart irrigation will not only save water but money too, especially as utility costs are rising.

Farm Samart, is part of the (DVI) project supported by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), in collaboration with DEPA, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Kasetsart University.

“Our goal is to find a way to encourage the farmers to adopt more digital technologies,” says Witsanu Attavanich, Associate Professor of Economics at Kasetsart University and an FAO lead consultant.

“We can apply the Internet of Things (practical digital applications) in planting and harvesting processes. All of this should generate more income for both farmers and the community,” says Witsanu. His team of professors from the agriculture and engineering faculties will assist the farmers in both agricultural and technological areas.

Despite members’ determination, the farm faces challenges. The first one is limited space. Also, the farm cannot meet market demand because of inconsistencies in production.

It is Witsanu’s job to find sustainable business models not only for Farm Samart but for two other DVI farms in Nonthaburi and Chumphon provinces.

For Farm Samart, the professor says he plans to collaborate with local government agencies and villagers in nearby communities in order to increase land, manpower and eventually, production to meet the demand. Witsanu also plans to implement a long-term business plan in an attempt to nudge more people to join the project.

On the technological side, he says that the team will also explore additional practical tools from the Internet of Things to better assist the farmers and ensure that whatever they adopt keeps up with emerging technology.

Although “the application (that runs the watering system) is very advanced,” as it can support sensors for air temperature, humidity levels in air and soil, and light intensity, Rittirong says that “we are not there yet” because the farmers still lack knowledge about technology, soil, pests and diseases in vegetables.

The digital sprinkler system watering the vegetables. Credit: Pattama Kuentak/IPS

Witsanu says training on agriculture, technology and business will be provided to both the farmers at Farm Samart and nearby villagers. That information will be collected in a guide at the end of the project.

Khoen has a vision of the association becoming a learning centre with a small cafe selling drinks and healthy food made with vegetables from the farm. He hopes to set an example for other associations and surrounding communities.

Although it is still at the nascent stage, “I’m proud (of the farm) because it proves that disabled people can grow vegetables like normal farmers,” he says.

A global initiative inspired by FAO’s Director-General, Mr QU Dongyu, the DVI is being piloted in the Asia-Pacific region. This village is among many being showcased and sharing its advancements with other villages and areas in Asia and the Pacific, as well as other regions of the world.

Gregory Chen is Managing Director of BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative

The Graduation approach’s impact goes well beyond that of the individual participant. Not only does the household greatly benefit from its various interventions, but now studies show subsequent generations are able to stay out of the poverty trap. (Rangpur, Bangladesh). Credit: BRAC/2021

WASHINGTON DC, Oct 10 2022 (IPS) – As we approach 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals look harder than ever to achieve. Shocks to the global economy caused by climate change, COVID-19, and conflict . For the most vulnerable, trends are moving in the wrong direction with an additional 75 to 95 million people now living in extreme poverty . By the end of this year more than 657 million people will still be living in extreme poverty substantially more than in 2018.

Though we cannot blame the recent crises alone. Even before the crises of the past few years the globe was beginning to realize required new approaches. Economic growth alone remains insufficient and conventional anti-poverty policies and programs addressing the root problems affecting the most marginalized.

What can countries do to end the most severe forms of poverty?

While private organizations like BRAC (where I work) have a role to play, it is to take the lead tackling extreme poverty at scale. Governments have the mandate, the infrastructure, and the financing to transform the lives of the most vulnerable people.

Governments increasingly recognize a growing body of which tells us people in extreme poverty face a lack of nutrition, education, and social exclusion which contribute to a deficit of hope and self-confidence. Together, these multiple factors create a poverty trap that is challenging to escape. Addressing only a few of these barriers at a time is insufficient for people out of poverty traps. Many governments have begun to recognize this in the past decade as growth lifted many out of poverty but large pockets of people remained excluded.

Women gather to discuss social issues and add to their group savings as part of the Bab Amal (Door of Hope) Graduation project in Upper Egypt (Sohag, Egypt). Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

Escaping a poverty trap requires a “big push” a significant transfer of resources and\ support that can address multiple barriers in one go. One “big push” is referred to as the (though it may be called different things in diverse settings). Graduation is a sequenced set of interventions that address the unique circumstances of poverty within the local context. This approach meets participants’ day-to-day needs, provides training and assets for income generation, financial literacy and savings support, and social empowerment through community engagement and life skills training all facilitated through coaching that calls for regular interactions with participants.

A period of intense coaching enables participants to and self-confidence by empowering them to save, diversify their sources of income, access safety nets, and develop coping mechanisms to major shocks and build up self confidence. These combined interventions are delivered in a 2-3 year time bound period, empowering participants to begin an upward trajectory out of extreme poverty and with greater ability to link to wider government support.

Graduation programs are designed to positively impact all household members, but the approach focuses on direct engagement with . These women are disproportionately affected by extreme poverty and most likely to use their greater capacities to .

At its core, Graduation is about recognizing that when empowered with the right tools and resources, people can be agents of change for themselves, their households, and their communities.

A high return on investment

The Graduation approach is an investment with returns that grow over time. Rigorous evaluations report that four years after participants start, Graduation delivered benefits that began to exceed . Compared to standalone narrower interventions like lump sum cash transfers, after , Graduation programs deliver greater household benefits . shows that ten years after starting the program, participants see approximately 400% ROI, and projections suggest this return could reach 1100% over the participant’s lifetime. Since the investment is time limited and may not be repeated its ROI over the longer term can save costs and build resilience.

Many Government are Adopting Graduation

Due to Graduation’s proven impact, many governments are investing in the approach, . It is estimated that more than have developed Graduation approaches across Latin American, Africa, and Asia. Among them include governments in Kenya, the , and India. These are most often not new standalone programs but integrated within existing Graduation programs, where the Graduation package is particularly emphasized for certain target populations.

Yolanda, a participant of the DSWD s Padayon SLP Graduation project, is visited by her coach Julius, who helps ensure she is making steady progress and has the tools and knowledge she needs to overcome any challenges or shocks. (Iloilo City, Philippines). Credit: BRAC/Robert Irven 2022

In the Philippines, despite the many challenges created by COVID-19 in 2020, participants in the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Graduation program had , according to Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Government of the Philippines is now on its offered through the Department of Social Welfare and Development with support from ADB and the Australian government.

The Government of Kenya is also investing in Graduation with the in partnership with Global Development Incubator, BOMA Project, Village Enterprise, the World Bank, and the UK government (FCDO). Following a successful pilot in 2019, KSEIP will transition from a narrower unconditional cash transfer to a fuller package of Graduation.

A Few Leading Governments are Implementing at Scale

Some governments have moved beyond testing to delivering at scale. In the Province of Bihar in India, a large rural development program (called JEEViKA) established a special window for a Graduation program known as , which has reached 140,000 households in extreme poverty since 2018. Other Provinces in India may follow suit expanding their own Graduation programs as well. Additionally, countries such as Ethiopia and South Africa are looking to further adapt their already large scale programs with more Graduation elements added that can deliver long term results.

As governments implement scaled programs we have reasons to be confident that these investments will bring durable results. While we must address today’s crises, our work to dramatically reduce and eliminate extreme poverty will not happen with slipshod short-term band-aids. Governments can begin to fully address extreme poverty with smart investments that will over time lead to permanent changes that eliminate extreme poverty.

While governments will lead, they cannot do it alone. The international community, particularly multilateral institutions, can provide the financing required to operate at scale. NGOs and community-based institutions can be partners in last mile delivery assisting the government where needed. Researchers can focus their methods more on how scaled programs operate (rather than on repeat small scale impact evaluations) so that we can make wider decisions on adapting for scale.

It is high time for us to lean on the evidence, evolve programmatically, put government in the lead, and benefit from all the testing and research that has led us to solutions that can work.

IPS UN Bureau

Nelly García is 65 years old, and for 30 years she has been selling flowers at a market in Lima because she was unable to return to her profession as a nurse technician after taking a break from work to raise her children when they were young. She says sadly that “if the government does not care about children, it cares about us even less. They must think ‘let these old people die because they’re no good for anything anymore’.” CREDIT: Mariela Jara/IPS

LIMA, Feb 6 2023 (IPS) – Latin America and the Caribbean is no longer a young region and it will be one of the regions with the largest aging populations by 2050, which poses great challenges due to the social inequalities the countries face, but also opportunities to overcome them.

Currently in the region an estimated 8.1 percent of the population is over 65 years of age, and this percentage is projected to increase to 17 percent by 2050, higher than the global average, said Sabrina Juran, a regional technical advisor on population and development for Latin America and the Caribbean of the .

In 2022, the region was home to 658 million people, of whom some 52 million were older adults, creating great challenges for the countries in terms of work, health and pensions, in a context in which according to international organizations the economic slowdown will deepen in the region in 2023.

“I am 65 and employers already saw me as too old to hire at 35, and I did not manage to get another job as a nurse technician,” says Nelly García, who moved to the capital, Lima, with her parents when she was 10 years old from her hometown of Huancayo, a city in Peru’s central Andes highlands.

The case of García illustrates the labor problems faced by many older adults in Latin America, especially women whose job opportunities are often hindered by motherhood and their responsibilities to care for family members.

“Imagine at this age what chance of insurance or pensions exist for people like me or people who are even older and work in the informal sector,” she told IPS with bitterness, adding that “if the government does not care about children, it cares about us even less. They must think ‘let these old people die because they’re no good for anything anymore’.”

García lives in Breña, a working-class district of 75,000 people that is one of the 43 districts in the department of Lima. Since she failed to find work in any hospital 30 years ago, she has been selling flowers.

She had taken a break from her work as a nurse technician to raise her four children. When she sought to return to her profession, the doors of the hospitals slammed shut on her. I was already seen as old at the age of 35, she repeated several times.

She has social health insurance from her husband, who is about to retire from a book import company. But his pension will be less than 200 soles (52 dollars); that will not even cover the electricity bill, she lamented.

Peru, a South American country of 33 million people, is facing a severe economic, political and social crisis, with a poverty level that climbed during the pandemic to a national average of 30 percent, although in rural areas it is 45 percent.

There are more than four million people over 60 according to official figures, only one third or 35 percent of whom were in a pension system. And although 89 percent have access to public health insurance, coverage and quality do not go hand in hand

“I try to save up for when I m older, although the truth is I don t think I ll reach the age of 75 because in my family we suffer from heart disease. But I m not going back to the public health insurance system,” García said emphatically.

She talked about her experience of the system: “It’s an ordeal, you have to go to the hospital at dawn to make an appointment, they order tests for several months later and who knows when you’ll get the results back. If I go through the same thing now, I ll surely die before they call me, so when it s my time, I hope to leave in peace.

García is referring to the Social Health Security, a public system that covers 35 percent of people over 60, which draws harsh criticism for its poor facilities, shortage of medical personnel and poor quality of care.

A group of Peruvian women take part in a demonstration for the rights of the elderly in Lima. Latin America and the Caribbean will become one of the regions with the most aging populations by 2050 due to advances in medicine and the decrease in the birth rate. Life expectancy at birth was 72 years in 2022. CREDIT: Wálter Hupiú/IPS

An irreversible path

On Jan. 12, the Division for Inclusive Social Development of the presented the on demographic change, which ratifies the global tendency that the population over 65 is growing faster than younger age sets and that people are living longer.

Greater life expectancy at birth due to the advancement of medicine and the decline in the fertility rate, which stands at 2.1 births per woman, are factors contributing to this trend.

Sabrina Juran of UNFPA told IPS from Panama City, where the U.N. agency’s regional headquarters is located, that the birth rate in Latin America is 1.85 and regional population growth is below 0.67 percent per year, both of which are lower than the global rates.

She said that according to the latest U.N. projections, there would be around 695.5 million inhabitants in the region in 2030 with a peak of 751.9 in mid-2050, after which the population would constantly decrease until reaching 649.2 million in 2100.

Sabrina Juran, a regional technical advisor on population and development for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), poses for a picture at the organization s headquarters in Panama. By 2050, 17 percent of the regional population will be over 65, the agency projects. CREDIT: UNFPA LAC

Juran explained that further reductions in mortality are expected to lead to a global average longevity of about 77.2 years in 2050 and 80.6 years regionally. Life expectancy at birth in Latin America and the Caribbean was 72.2 years in 2022, three years less than life expectancy in 2019 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This scenario means governments in the region must focus on meeting greater demands for healthcare, employment, housing, and pensions.

Juran said the growth of the working-age population from 38.7 percent in 1990 to 51 percent today can help boost per capita economic growth, known as the demographic dividend , which offers to maximize the potential benefits of a favorable age distribution.

“But this increase in the working-age population will not remain constant: it will peak in 2040 at 53.8 percent before decreasing,” she said. “This means there is a window of opportunity to be taken advantage of.

The region faces steep inequalities. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Jan. 18, 22.5 percent of the population – in other words, at least 131.3 million people – were unable to afford a healthy diet.

Countries must invest in the development of their human capital, guaranteeing access to healthcare, quality education at all ages, and promoting opportunities for productive employment and decent work, Juran remarked.

She added that they must take measures to adapt public programs to the growing number of older people, establishing universal healthcare and long-term care systems, and improving the sustainability of social security and pension systems.

“At UNFPA we advocate measuring and anticipating demographic changes in order to be better prepared for the consequences that arise,” said the regional advisor.

She said the commitment is “to a world where people have the power to make informed decisions about whether and when to have children, exercise their rights and responsibilities, navigate risks and become the foundation of more inclusive, adaptable and sustainable societies.”

Achieving this demographic resilience, Juran said, starts with a commitment to count not only the number of people, but also their opportunities for advancement and the barriers that stand in their way, which requires transforming discriminatory norms that hold back individuals and societies.

According to the United Nations, the world’s population is more than three times larger than it was in the mid-twentieth century. The global human population reached 8.0 billion in mid-November 2022 from an estimated 2.5 billion people in 1950, adding 1 billion people since 2010 and 2 billion since 1998. The world’s population is expected to increase by nearly 2 billion persons in the next 30 years, from the current 8 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050 and could peak at nearly 10.4 billion in the mid-2080s.

ST PAUL, Minnesota USA, May 10 2023 (IPS) – India’s population has just reached people, as the world’s most populous nation four years earlier than projected. Spurring this growth is a in which women’s identity is constrained by the social expectation they bear children.

Across the globe, undermine women’s autonomy and self-determination. Pronatalism is an underlying driver of the global population growing to 8 billion and counting, with 80 million added each year.

The new is wrong to “population anxiety” as groundless and assert that “population sizes are neither good nor bad.” Population growth is not good for people or the planet, and anxiety is not an unwarranted response to how it affects us.

Population growth deepens social and economic inequality and has negative impacts on unemployment, housing costs, inflation, infrastructure, resource scarcity, pollution, and well-being. It even fuels resource conflicts and wars.

It’s also one of the key variables determining overall consumption and pollution levels, which are on which we and Earth’s remaining biodiversity depend.

according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Over the past three decades, it has most climate gains from renewables and efficiency.

Going forward, population growth will be concentrated in the developing world. Dismissing its environmental impacts betrays an assumption that low-income populations in the Global South will stay that way.

This is false as well as unjust. Across the globe, the middle class is the fastest-growing segment of the population, projected to . This will bring better living standards for a billion of today’s poor. But we must recognize that it will also bring more peril to an already overburdened planet.

Beyond its impacts on GHG emissions and the climate, population growth also drives broader “overshoot,” meaning that human demands are exceeding Earth’s regenerative capacity.

Currently, we than the Earth can provide sustainably, resulting in , dwindling freshwater supplies, ocean acidification, expanding desertification, and resource scarcity.

Much of this damage comes from our global food systems, which are directly tied to population growth, and which have already transformed at least . They are the to 86 percent of endangered species.

Much of agriculture’s negative impact is due to the Green Revolution, which is often invoked to inspire confidence that human ingenuity can solve the problems associated with population growth.

But the Green Revolution has posed wicked problems of its own, including , soil health and the nutritional content of food, and . In the Global South, where these problems are especially acute, it has failed to improve and .

Similarly, , including the unfounded belief renewable energy will somehow from environmental damage, ignores real-world negative impacts which disproportionately affect poor people and frontline communities.

Scaling up without working to downsize demand wreaks environmental devastation. So does, dirty and dangerous work which is done in by people in the Global South.

The UNFPA report displays this kind of misplaced faith in technology and human ingenuity. Such faith is rooted in a bias toward , propagated by those who have most benefited from the current economic system and who are . It ignores the ecological unraveling of continued human expansionism, and the massive toll it takes on human well-being.

According to the , the climate crisis will lead to increased death and illness from extreme weather and heat waves, growing agricultural losses, destruction of small island states, debilitating drought, declining freshwater supplies, and escalating losses of marine and terrestrial biodiversity.

Over a billion people are expected to be by 2050.

From , to decreased , population growth’s impacts are felt most , whose status in developing countries is already low, and by , including those yet to be born. UNICEF the outlook for a billion children in climate-vulnerable countries “unimaginably dire.”

In a time when are on track to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and we are witnessing a human-driven , dismissing the profound impacts of population growth is shockingly irresponsible.

The UNFPA makes this mistake. It seeks to champion reproductive rights, yet dismisses the importance of population growth, which is driven by that pressure women into obsolete gender roles and abrogate their rights.

Failure to make this connection between is the report’s most disappointing aspect.

Population deceleration and human rights go together; we need to advocate both. They are both achievable by the same set of human rights-based policies: universal education, women’s empowerment, children’s rights, and free, state-of-the-art family planning for all.

Truly advancing the causes of human rights and ecological sustainability requires humanity . It’s our only chance to achieve a high standard of living for all while staying within planetary boundaries.

Nandita Bajaj is the executive director of Population Balance and co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast. She also teaches the first graduate course of its kind: Pronatalism, Overpopulation, and the Planet, through the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University.

IPS UN Bureau

“Migration is a right,” read the handkerchiefs held by two women at a demonstration in the Argentine capital for migrants’ rights. At left is Natividad Obeso, a Peruvian who came to Buenos Aires in 1994, fleeing political violence in her country. CREDIT: Camilo Flores / ACDH

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 27 2023 (IPS) – Remi Cáceres experienced gender-based violence firsthand. She struggled, got out and today helps other women in Argentina to find an escape valve. But because she is in a wheelchair and is a foreign national, she says the process was even more painful and arduous: Being a migrant with a disability, it s two or three times harder. You have to empower yourself and it s very difficult.

When she came to Buenos Aires from Paraguay, she was already married and had had her legs amputated due to a spinal tumor. She suffered violence for several years until she was able to report her aggressor, got the police to remove him from her home and raised her two daughters watching after parked cars for spare change in a suburb of the capital “The places where women victims of gender-based violence are given assistance are not accessible to people who are in wheelchairs or are bedridden. And the shelters don’t know what to do with disabled women. Recently, a woman told me that she was sent back home with her aggressor.” — Remi Cáceres

On the streets she met militant members of the , one of the central unions in this South American country, who encouraged her to join forces with other workers, to create cooperatives and to strengthen herself in labor and political terms. Since then she has come a long way and today she is the CTA s Secretary for Disability.

The places where women victims of gender-based violence are given assistance are not accessible to people who are in wheelchairs or are bedridden. And the shelters don t know what to do with disabled women. Recently, a woman told me that she was sent back home with her aggressor, Remi told IPS.

From her position in the CTA, Remi is one of the leaders of a project aimed at seeking information and empowering migrant, transgender and disabled women victims of gender violence living in different parts of Argentina, for which 300 women were interviewed, 100 from each of these groups.

The data obtained are shocking, since eight out of 10 women stated that they had experienced or are currently experiencing situations of violence or discrimination and, in the case of the transgender population, the rate reached 98 percent.

Most of the situations, they said, occurred in public spaces. Almost 85 percent said they had experienced hostility in streets, squares, public transportation and shops or other commercial facilities. And more than a quarter (26 percent) mentioned hospitals or health centers as places where violence and discrimination were common.

One of the trainings held by the Wonder Women Against Violence project. On the left is Remi Cáceres, who escaped domestic violence and today is Secretary of Disability at the Central de Trabajadores Argentinos central trade union. CREDIT: María Fernández / ACDH

Another interesting finding was that men are generally the aggressors in the home or other private settings, but in public settings and institutions, women are the aggressors in similar or even higher proportions.

The study was carried out by the , an NGO that has been working to prevent violence in Argentina since 2002, with the participation of different organizations that represent disabled, trans and migrant women s groups in this Southern Cone country.

It forms part of a larger initiative, dubbed , which has received financial support for the period 2022-2025 from the . Since 1996, this fund has supported projects in 140 countries for a total of 215 million dollars.

The initiative includes trainings aimed at providing tools for access to justice to the most vulnerable groups, which began to be offered in 2022 by different organizations to more than 1,000 women so far.

Courses have also been held for officials and staff of national, provincial and municipal governments and the judiciary, with the aim of raising awareness on how to deal with cases of gender violence.

María José Lubertino, president of the Citizen Association for Human Rights, takes part in a feminist demonstration in Buenos Aires. Lubertino coordinates the project on violence against disabled, transgender and migrant women in Argentina that runs from 2022 to 2025. CREDIT: Camilo Flores / ACDH

Fewer complaints

Argentina has made great progress in recent years in terms of laws and public policies on violence against women, but despite this, one woman dies every day from femicide (gender-based murders), ADCH president María José Lubertino told IPS.

In this case, we decided to work with forgotten women. We were struck by the fact that there were very few migrant, trans and disabled women in the public registers of gender-violence complaints. We discovered that they do not suffer less violence, but that they report it less, she added.

Lubertino, a lawyer who has chaired the governmental , argues that these are systematically oppressed and discriminated groups that, in her experience, face their own fears when it comes to reporting cases: migrants are afraid of reprisals, trans women assume that no one will believe them and disabled women often want to protect their privacy.

Indeed, the research showed that 70 percent of trans, migrant and disabled women who suffered violence or discrimination did not file a complaint.

Many spoke of wanting to avoid the feeling of wasting their time, as they felt that the complaint would not have any consequences.

Each group faces its own particular hurdles. Migrant women experience discrimination especially in hospitals. Transgender people, in addition to suffering the most aggression (sometimes by the police), suffer specifically from the fact that their chosen identity and name are not recognized. Disabled women say they are excluded from the labor market.

More than three million foreigners live in this country of 46 million people, according to last November s data from the . Almost 90 percent of them are from other South American countries, and more than half come from Paraguay and Bolivia. Peru is the third most common country of origin, accounting for about 10 percent.

Of the total number of immigrants, 1,568,350 are female and 1,465,430 are male.

As for people with disabilities, the official registry included more than 1.5 million people by 2022, although it is estimated that there are many more.

Since 2012, a recognizes the legal right to change gender identity in Argentina and by April 2022, 12,665 identification documents had been issued based on the individual s self-perceived identity. Of these, 62 percent identified as female, 35 percent as male and three percent as non-binary.

Women participate in one of the trainings on gender-based violence in Buenos Aires. The project is carried out by the Citizen Association for Human Rights with financial support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. CREDIT: Camilo Flores / ACDH

Different forms of violence

Yuli Almirón has no mobility in her left leg as a result of polio. She is president of the Argentine Polio-Post Polio Association (APPA), which brings together some 800 polio survivors. Yuli is one of the leaders of the trainings.

Through the trainings, those of us who participated found out about many things, she told IPS. We heard, for example, about many cases related to situations of power imbalances. Women with disabilities sometimes suffer violence at the hands of their caregivers.

The most surprising aspect, however, has to do with the restrictions on access to public policies to help victims of gender-based violence.

The runs the Acompañar Program, which aims to strengthen the economic independence of women and LGBTI+ women in situations of gender-based violence.

The women are provided the equivalent of one monthly minimum wage for six months, but anyone who receives a disability allowance is excluded.

We didn t know those were the rules. It s a terrible injustice, because disabled victims of violence are the ones who most need to cut economic dependency in order to get out, said Almirón.

Another of the project s partner organizations is the H. Its founder is Natividad Obeso, a Peruvian woman who fled the violence in her country in 1994, during the civil war with the Shining Path guerrilla organization.

Back then Argentina had no rights-based immigration policy. There was a lot of xenophobia. I was stopped by the police for no reason, when I was going into a supermarket, and they made me clean the whole police station before releasing me, she said.

Natividad says that public hospitals are one of the main places where migrant women suffer discrimination. When a migrant woman goes to give birth they always leave her for last, she said.
Migrant women suffer all kinds of violence. If they file a complaint, they are stigmatized. That s why they don t know how to defend themselves. Even the organizations themselves exclude us. That is why it is essential to support them, she stressed.

Zoltán Kálmán is Permanent Representative of Hungary to the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP). He was President of the WFP Executive Board in 2018.

ROME, Feb 10 2020 (IPS) – Reducing poverty and inequalities, eliminating hunger and all forms of malnutrition and achieve food security for all – these are some of the most important objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals. Still, the rate of poverty and inequalities is increasing and over 820 million people are going hungry. In addition, 2 billion people in the world are food insecure with great risk of malnutrition and poor health. This alarming situation is further aggravated by current trends such as the rate of population growth, impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation and many others. Transition to more sustainable food systems can provide adequate solutions to all these challenges. Pulses could play an important role in this transition, having nutritional and health benefits, low environmental footprint, and positive socio-economic impacts as well. What is required to promote and support the production and consumption of more pulses? This question is particularly relevant now, since 10 February is the World Pulses Day.

Following the successful implementation of the International Year of Pulses (IYP) 2016, the Government of Burkina Faso took the initiative and proposed the establishment of World Pulses Day (WPD). Under Resolution A/RES/73/251, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) designated 10 February as World Pulses Day to reaffirm the contribution of pulses for sustainable agriculture and achieving the 2030 Agenda. WPD is a new opportunity to heighten public awareness of the multiple benefits of pulses. Pulses are more than just nutritious seeds, they contribute to sustainable food systems and a ZeroHunger world. The UNGA has invited FAO, in collaboration with other organizations, to facilitate the observance of WPD.

The topic of this year’s WFD celebration is “Plant proteins for a sustainable future”. According to FAO data, pulses are an important source of plant-based protein, providing on average two to three times more protein than staple cereals such as rice and wheat on a gram-to-gram basis. Additionally, the amino acids found in pulses complement those found in cereals. Protein is crucial for physical and cognitive development during childhood. Pulses are nutrient-dense, providing substantial amounts of micronutrients that are essential for good health. They are a good source of iron and can play an important role in preventing iron deficiency anaemia. They also provide other essential minerals such as zinc, selenium, phosphorous and potassium and are an important source of B vitamins, including folate (B9), thiamine (B1) and niacin (B3). The high B vitamin content of some pulses is of particular benefit during pregnancy as it supports the development of the foetus’ nerve function.

Pulses have a number of well-known agronomic benefits as well. They can fix nitrogen, improving soils’ organic content and reduce fertilizer needs, thus contributing to mitigating climate change impacts. Pulses increase productivity through appropriate crop rotation or intercropping. Producing a wide variety of pulses has an important role in preserving biodiversity. Pulses have very low water footprint, which is an essential feature particularly in dry areas.

These are well-known scientific and empirical evidences and I think we can simply say pulses are good both for the health of people and for the health of the planet.

Pulses are important also from socio-economic point of view, including income diversification, providing employment opportunities, improving livelihood in rural areas, etc.

Having all the nutritional and health benefits, having a numerous positive agronomic impacts, as well as the favourable socio-economic implications, why pulses do not have appropriate place in our production and consumption patterns? I can give you my answer: because of the lack of appropriate policy environment for the production and consumption of pulses.

As we know, farmers, in particular family farmers are the producers of our food and they are the best custodians of our land and other natural resources, including biodiversity, to preserve them for future generations. Family farmers have the traditional knowledge and experience, combined with innovative solutions to do farming sustainably. At the same time, farmers are also very clever and smart: their decisions to follow one or another farming method depends on the profit they can realize. To some extent farmers’ profit is linked to the markets, but their profit is mainly the consequence of governments’ policies, to provide subsidies (or policy incentives) to orient farmers’ choices, to ensure the economic viability of farming.

It is generally accepted that governments provide policy incentives to shape their food systems, including orienting farmers’ and consumers’ choices. The important question is whether the appropriate food systems are promoted and supported by these incentives?

As a current prevailing practice, high percentage of farm subsidies supports unsustainable, input-intensive, monoculture farming, with all the well-known negative consequences (biodiversity loss, soil degradation, etc.).

On the other hand, policy incentives can and should promote sustainable solutions, better reflecting the real interests and priorities of governments to preserve soil health and biodiversity, through crop diversification, including the production of a variety of pulses.

To take the right decisions policy makers should be provided with appropriate information, giving due attention to all the positive and negative impacts (the so-called environmental and human health externalities) of the various food systems. These externalities are translated in dollar terms and there are existing scientific studies showing the real costs of environmental damage and the enormous costs of public health expenditure in national budgets, as a consequence of unsustainable food systems.

This true cost accounting principle, based on solid scientific evidence, provides a good basis for taking appropriate decisions which food systems (including production and consumption patterns) should be promoted by national policy incentives. While providing assistance and policy advice to countries, UN organizations (including FAO) should pay due attention to the real costs of food and suggest national policy makers to support and promote sustainable solutions, including the production and consumption of pulses.

Pulses should also receive appropriate attention during the elaboration of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. This process is going on now, and the Guidelines will be adopted in October this year by the Committee of World Food Security (CFS).

It would also be desirable if the Food System Summit in 2021 could help promote pulses as important elements for the transition towards more sustainable food systems.

Africa is grappling with managing diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis as health systems that are unable to cope with both this and the coronavirus pandemic. Sleeping under a net and taking antimalarial pills helps prevent malaria. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 11 2020 (IPS) – Experts across Africa are warning that as hospitals and health facilities focus on COVID-19, less attention is being given to the management of other deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which affect millions more people.

“Today if you have malaria symptoms you are in big trouble because they are quite close to COVID-19 symptoms, will you go to the hospital when it is said we should not go there?” Yap Boum II, the regional representative for Epicenter Africa, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders, told IPS.

“Hospitals are struggling because they do not have the good facilities and equipment; it will be hard to take in a patient with malaria because people are scared. As a result the management of malaria is affected by COVID-19,” Boum, who is also a Professor of Microbiology at , said, pointing out that HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis were also being ignored.
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In fact, the has warned that four times as many people could die from malaria than coronavirus.

“With COVID-19 spreading, we are worried about its impacts on health systems in Africa and that this may impact negatively on the delivery of routine services, which include malaria control. The bans on movement will affect the health workers getting to health facilities and their safety from exposure,” Akpaka Kalu, team leader of the Tropical and Vector-borne Disease Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, told IPS.

The has urged member countries not to forget malaria prevention programmes as they race to contain the COVID-19 spread. Without maintaining prevention programmes, i.e. should all insecticide-treated net campaigns be suspended and if access to effective antimalarial medicines is reduced because of lockdowns, malaria deaths could double to 769,000 in sub-Saharan Africa this year.  At the same time the agency has predicted that some .

, as of today, May 11, Africa has recorded over 63,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 2,283 deaths in 53 affected countries in the region.

Though preventable and treatable, Africa is battling to eliminate malaria despite a decline in cases over the last four years.
The continent has the highest malaria burden in the world, accounting for 93 percent of all cases of the disease.
Malaria is one of the top ten leading causes of death in Africa, killing more 400 000 people annually.

Poorly equipped and understaffed national health services in many countries in Africa could compromise efforts to eliminate the malaria scourge, noted Kalu.

Africa must cope with COVID-19 without forgetting malaria

Mamadou Coulibaly, head of the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako, Mali, concurred that the pandemic was straining health systems in developing countries. He urged malaria-endemic countries not to disrupt prevention and treatment programmes.

“To avoid this catastrophic scenario, countries must tailor their interventions to this challenging time, guaranteeing prompt diagnostic testing, treatment, access and use of insecticide-treated nets,” Coulibaly, who is also the principal investigator of Target Malaria in Mali, told IPS. 

Mali is one of the top 10 African countries with the high incidence of malaria.

Malaria needs more national money

Kalu stressed that domestic financing for malaria was needed. He commended the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other private sector partnerships that have provided funds for malaria. But he pointed out that this was neither ideal nor sustainable unless national governments contributed a lion’s share to malaria control.

There is a $2 billion annual funding gap when it comes to malaria prevention, which should be closed to sufficiently protect people in malaria affected countries, according to the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, a global private sector initiative established in 1998. The partnership has sourced funding and equipment for malaria prone countries, providing mosquito nets, rapid diagnostic tests and antimalarials.
More action, less talk

While pleased with progress made towards eliminating malaria in Africa since 2008 when the Abuja Declaration on Health investment was signed, Kalu said Africa could do better.

In 2001 African governments drew up the to invest 15 percent of the national budgets in improving health care services.

In countries like Malawi, there are simply not enough mental health professionals to go around. The local faith community can help fill this void. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.

BLANTYRE, Malawi, Oct 14 2020 (IPS) – The world is actually in the throes of two pandemics. The first is COVID-19. The second is the wave of stress and anxiety, depression and substance use it has unleashed around the world. Most mental health disorders are treatable.

This so called “” is raging in poor and wealthy countries alike. But across Africa, and in much of the Global South, people facing mental health crises have nowhere to turn.

The reason is that governments and aid agencies are not making the investments needed to provide these services. In the lead up to “World Mental Health Day,” the recently released new statistics on the share of health budgets that nations and international donors devote to mental health.

Fear, and the loss of the livelihoods, loved ones, and companionship, that give life meaning and purpose, are leaving people bereft. The need for mental health counseling and care far exceeds what we are equipped to give. The question is what is to be done?

It is miniscule – between one and two percent – even though the calculates that every US$ 1 invested in scaled-up treatment for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety returns US$ 5 in improved health and productivity.

On the African continent, the consequences of underinvestment are especially glaring. Here, at least 90% of those with mental health problems are not getting the . My own country, Malawi, illustrates the chasm between what is needed and what we are able to provide. I am one of four registered clinical psychologists here and there are just three psychiatrists.

Malawi has a population of 18 million.

The consequences of untreated mental health problems are serious. According to the released for World Mental Health Day, one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. And in Malawi, the police have just released new statistics showing suicides between January and August of this year have by 57% compared with the same period last year.

Fear, and the loss of the livelihoods, loved ones, and companionship, that give life meaning and purpose, are leaving people bereft. The need for mental health counseling and care far exceeds what we are equipped to give. The question is what is to be done?

I believe the best, and perhaps only, viable option is to invest in the networks and social support systems that already help troubled people endure suffering and make sense of their lives.

In countries like mine, it is faith leaders that they turn to.

This safety net is already firmly in place. Here, and in many other parts of Africa, faith is woven into everything. Churches or mosques can be found in every village and often on every street corner. Public meetings begin with prayers.

When they encounter personal problems, including depression, anxiety or substance use, people ask faith leaders to help them cope. Faith can often offer strength and solace. Indeed, the link between faith and mental health is well established. Researchers have found correlations between religious faith, and hope, optimism, satisfaction, self-esteem, and a sense of .

But bipolar disorder, clinical depression, and many other ailments require a level of care and intervention that faith leaders are not prepared to offer. Many tell me they are grappling with complex and frightening problems that worry them. One lamented, “all I can do is pray for them and I don’t know what else to do.”

Others perform exorcisms for mental illnesses, trying to get rid of the demons they believe are to blame. The idea that people with psychological or neurological disorders are possessed by demons them further. In these cases, faith traditions can deepen people’s suffering, force them to endure in secret, or be cast out of their communities, and access to treatments that could change or even save their lives.

Faith leaders are already on front lines in countries like mine and this is not about to change. So why not give them the tools to navigate this treacherous terrain? With basic mental health they could learn to recognize, understand, manage, and even prevent mental health disorders. They would know the symptoms of anxiety, depression, or psychosis, the resources available, and where people can go for treatment.

Would African clerics, steeped in religious doctrine and faith, be amenable to this? Those who talk with me not only need, but want this knowledge. Elsewhere, like this are already proving . Studies show that faith leaders have welcomed and benefitted from this kind of training, and that it has the kind of advice they give.

Mental health literacy training already empowers primary care providers to provide patients with the care, information, support, skills, and resources needed to mental health challenges. Governments, aid agencies, and NGOs should create and fund these trainings. Umbrella religious councils and associations should work with them to ensure that the trainings are as useful, relevant, and widely accessible as possible.

The need is overwhelming. In countries like Malawi, there are simply not enough mental health professionals to go around. The local faith community can help fill this void. Armed with more knowledge, faith leaders can play a pivotal role in promoting global mental health and reaching those who desperately need mental health services. The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, is “.”

We do need to invest much more, and training faith leaders in mental health literacy is one way we can do it now.

Chiwoza Bandawe is a clinical psychologist with the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. He has several publications in international journals and has published three mental health education books.