First elected in 2017, his re-election by secret ballot, was confirmed during the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He was the sole candidate.
The vote was the culmination of an election process that began in April 2021 when Member States were invited to submit proposals for candidates for the post of Director-General. The WHO Executive Board, meeting in January of this year, nominated Dr Tedros to stand for a second term.
His re-election was met with wide and loud applause from ministers and others at the Assembly in Geneva. According to news reports he received 155 out of 160 votes cast, although he did not win the support of his native Ethiopia, due to opposing views over the Tigray conflict.
The WHO chief’s new mandate officially commences on 16 August. A Director-General can be re-appointed once, in accordance with World Health Assembly rules and procedures.
‘Humbled and honoured’
In a tweet following the vote, Tedros said that he was “humbled and honoured” by the vote of confidence, adding that he was “deeply grateful for the trust and confidence of Member States.”
“I thank all health workers and my WHO colleagues around the world”, he continued saying he was looking forward to “continuing our journey together.”
In remarks after the vote, he said his re-election was a vote of confidence in the whole WHO adding: “this is for the whole team.”
He acknowledged the pressure and attacks from “many quarters” during the pandemic, saying that despite the insults and attacks, he and the organization always kept an open mind and did not take it personally.
“We have to focus on promoting health…number two, we have to focus on primary healthcare” and thirdly, he cited the importance of emergency preparedness and response, being dependent on the first two priorities.
Transformation
During his first term, Tedros instituted a wide-ranging transformation of the WHO, the agency said in a press release, “aimed at increasing the Organization’s efficiency driving impact at country level to promote healthier lives, protect more people in emergencies and increase equitable access to health.”
Tedros guided WHO’s response to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, where he sometimes faced criticism, most notably, from former United States President, Donald Trump, who took the decision to withdraw the US from the WHO – a move since reversed.
The WHO chief also steered the response to outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and led the agency dealing with the health impacts of multiple other humanitarian crises, most recently the war in Ukraine.
Ministerial career
Before first being appointed WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ethiopia between 2012 and 2016 and as Minister of Health prior to that, from 2005.
He had also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
A group of Farmacoop workers stand in the courtyard of their plant in Buenos Aires. Members of the Argentine cooperative proudly say that theirs is the first laboratory in the world to be recovered by its workers. CREDIT: Courtesy of Pedro Pérez/Tiempo Argentino.
by Daniel Gutman (buenos aires)
Inter Press Service
BUENOS AIRES, May 24 (IPS) – “All we ever wanted was to keep working. And although we have not gotten to where we would like to be, we know that we can,” says Edith Pereira, a short energetic woman, as she walks through the corridors of Farmacoop, in the south of the Argentine capital. She proudly says it is “the first pharmaceutical laboratory in the world recovered by its workers.”
Pereira began to work in what used to be the Roux Ocefa laboratory in Buenos Aires in 1983. At its height it had more than 400 employees working two nine-hour shifts, as she recalls in a conversation with IPS.
But in 2016 the laboratory fell into a crisis that first manifested itself in delays in the payment of wages and a short time later led to the owners removing the machinery, and emptying and abandoning the company.
The workers faced up to the disaster with a struggle that included taking over the plant for several months and culminated in 2019 with the creation of Farmacoop, a cooperative of more than 100 members, which today is getting the laboratory back on its feet.
In fact, during the worst period of the pandemic, Farmacoop developed rapid antigen tests to detect COVID-19, in partnership with scientists from the government’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet), the leading organization in the sector.
Farmacoop is part of a powerful movement in Argentina, as recognized by the government, which earlier this month launched the first National Registry of Recovered Companies (ReNacER), with the aim of gaining detailed knowledge of a sector that, according to official estimates, comprises more than 400 companies and some 18,000 jobs.
The presentation of the new Registry took place at an oil cooperative that processes soybeans and sunflower seeds on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, built on what was left of a company that filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and laid off its 126 workers without severance pay.
Edith Pereira (seated) and Blácida Benitez, two of the members of Farmacoop, a laboratory recovered by its workers in Buenos Aires, are seen here in the production area. This is the former Roux Ocefa laboratory, which went bankrupt in the capital of Argentina and was left owing a large amount of back wages to its workers. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS
The event was led by President Alberto Fernández, who said that he intends to “convince Argentina that the popular economy exists, that it is here to stay, that it is valuable and that it must be given the tools to continue growing.”
Fernández said on that occasion that the movement of worker-recuperated companies was born in the country in 2001, as a result of the brutal economic and social crisis that toppled the presidency of Fernando de la Rúa.
“One out of four Argentines was out of work, poverty had reached 60 percent and one of the difficulties was that companies were collapsing, the owners disappeared and the people working in those companies wanted to continue producing,” he said.
“That’s when the cooperatives began to emerge, so that those who were becoming unemployed could get together and continue working, sometimes in the companies abandoned by their owners, sometimes on the street,” the president added.
Two technicians package products at the Farmacoop laboratory, a cooperative with which some of the workers of the former bankrupt company undertook its recovery through self-management, a formula that is growing in Argentina in the face of company closures during successive economic crises. CREDIT: Courtesy of Farmacoop
A complex social reality
More than 20 years later, this South American country of 45 million people finds itself once again in a social situation as severe or even more so than back then.
The new century began with a decade of growth, but today Argentines have experienced more than 10 years of economic stagnation, which has left its mark.
Poverty, according to official data, stands at 37 percent of the population, in a context of 60 percent annual inflation, which is steadily undermining people’s incomes and hitting the most vulnerable especially hard.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security indicate that 12.43 million people are formally employed, which in real terms – due to the increase of the population – is less than the 12.37 million jobs that were formally registered in January 2018.
“I would say that in Argentina we have been seeing the destruction of employment and industry for 40 years, regardless of the orientation of the governments. That is why we understand that worker-recovered companies, as a mechanism for defending jobs, will continue to exist,” says Bruno Di Mauro, the president of the Farmacoop cooperative.
“It is a form of resistance in the face of the condemnation of exclusion from the labor system that we workers suffer,” he adds to IPS.
“He who abandons gets no prize” reads the banner with which part of the members of the Farmacoop cooperative were demonstrating in the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires, during the long labor dispute with the former owners who drove the pharmaceutical company into bankruptcy. The workers managed to recover it in 2019. CREDIT: Courtesy of Bruno Di Mauro/Farmacoop.
Today Farmacoop has three active production lines, including Aqualane brand moisturizing cream, used for decades by Argentines for sunburn. The cooperative is currently in the cumbersome process of seeking authorizations from the health authority for other products.
“When I look back, I think that we decided to form the cooperative and recover the company without really understanding what we were getting into. It was a very difficult process, in which we had colleagues who fell into depression, who saw pre-existing illnesses worsen and who died,” Di Mauro says.
“But we learned that we workers can take charge of any company, no matter how difficult the challenge. We are not incapable just because we are part of the working class,” he adds.
Farmacoop’s workers currently receive a “social wage” paid by the State, which also provided subsidies for the purchase of machinery.
The plant, now under self-management, is a gigantic old 8,000-square-meter building with meeting rooms, laboratories and warehouse areas where about 40 people work today, but which was the workplace of several hundred workers in its heyday.
It is located between the neighborhoods of Villa Lugano and Mataderos, in an area of factories and low-income housing mixed with old housing projects, where the rigors of the successive economic crises can be felt on almost every street, with waste pickers trying to eke out a living.
Edith Pereira shows the Aqualane brand moisturizing cream, well known in Argentina, that today is produced by the workers of the Farmacoop cooperative, which has two industrial plants in Buenos Aires, recovered and managed by the workers. CREDIT: Daniel Gutman/IPS
“When we entered the plant in 2019, everything was destroyed. There were only cardboard and paper that we sold to earn our first pesos,” says Blácida Martínez.
She used to work in the reception and security section of the company and has found a spot in the cooperative for her 24-year-old son, who is about to graduate as a laboratory technician and works in product quality control.
A new law is needed
Silvia Ayala is the president of the Mielcitas Argentinas cooperative, which brings together 88 workers, mostly women, who run a candy and sweets factory on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where they lost their jobs in mid-2019.
“Today we are grateful that thanks to the cooperative we can put food on our families’ tables,” she says. “There was no other option but to resist, because reinserting ourselves in the labor market is very difficult. Every time a job is offered in Argentina, you see lines of hundreds of people.”
Ayala is also one of the leaders of the National Movement of Recovered Companies, active throughout the country, which is promoting a bill in Congress to regulate employee-run companies, presented in April by the governing Frente de Todos.
“A law would be very important, because when owners abandon their companies we need the recovery to be fast, and we need the collaboration of the State; this is a reality that is here to stay,” says Ayala.
Argentine President Alberto Fernández stands with workers of the Cooperativa Aceitera La Matanza on May 5, when the government presented the Registry of Recovered Companies, which aims to formalize worker-run companies. CREDIT: Casa Rosada
The Ministry of Social Development states that the creation of the Registry is aimed at designing specific public policies and tools to strengthen the production and commercialization of the sector, as well as to formalize workers.
The government defines “recovered” companies as those economic, productive or service units that were originally privately managed and are currently run collectively by their former employees.
Although the presentation was made this month, the Registry began operating in March and has already listed 103 recovered companies, of which 64 belong to the production sector and 35 to the services sector.
The first data provide an indication of the diversity of the companies in terms of size, with the smallest having six workers and the largest 177.
Lucky Agbavor survived child labour in Ghana and put himself through school by selling ice cream. The Pentecostal Church pays for his tuition during his nursing studies, but he still sells juice to put food on the table. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS
by Fawzia Moodley (durban)
Inter Press Service
Durban, May 24 (IPS) – Lucky Agbavor sleeps on a mattress in a church in Accra, Ghana sells juice to earn an income, and has been a child labourer since he was four. Now he has made his way onto the international stage, participating in the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child labour.
Agbavor’s life’s trajectory lays bare the horrors of child labour and how poverty and lack of education rob people of their childhood and the prospect of a decent future.
The link between the lack of education primarily driven by poverty as a root cause of child labour underpinned virtually every discussion at the Conference which was held in Durban, South Africa in May 2022.
Now a second-year nursing student at the Pentecost University, Agbavor never enjoyed a childhood. At four, his mother sent him off to her uncle in a remote village because she could not provide for her son. He had to help his ‘grandpa’ in his fishing enterprise.
His mother took him back home four months later, fearful for Agbavor’s life after he fell off her uncle’s canoe and almost drowned.
Two years later, he was sent to another relative, a cash crop farmer. So here was this six-year-old who had to wake up at 3 am every day to start work: “I had to collect the fresh ‘wine’ drained from the palm trees to be sent to be distilled for alcoholic extraction. I was doing this alongside household chores every morning.”
By the time Agbavor got to school, he was already exhausted. “Sometimes I was very stressed and dozed off, and often I didn’t grasp anything taught in class”.
After school, he tried to make money to pay for his fees by fetching cocoa from the farm and packing it for processing.
“Sometimes, we went to the forest to cut and load wood. We used chain saws and then carried the beams to a vehicle for transportation.”
The chopping of the trees was illegal.
“Forest guards would intercept us because it was illegal. So, they would arrest the operator, and you would not get paid even the paltry money we worked so hard for,” he says.
Agbavor often went to school in torn uniform and used one book for all his subjects.
This continued for ten years, but at least he managed to get a rudimentary education.
“Glory to God I passed my basic education in 2012 where I could continue high school, but unfortunately my ‘grandfather’ said he had no money even though I had worked for him for the past ten years,” he says.
Agbavor returned to live with his mother, whose financial situation was still dire, and he had to fend for himself.
“I started selling ice cream, coconuts, bread. I even ventured into photography with my uncle, who had a studio where he promised to give me a job and take me to high school, but after working for him for a year, he failed to keep his promise.”
Agbavor says he then went into full time ‘business’ selling ice cream on the streets to raise funds for high school. He worked long hours and had to sell lots of ice cream to earn enough money.
Lucky Agbavor addresses the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child labour. Credit: Cecilia Russell/IPS
Unfortunately, Agbavor, who wanted to be a doctor, did not achieve the results needed to go to medical school, so he decided to do a nursing degree as a way to eventually study medicine.
The Pentecostal Church agreed to pay his fees, but he still had to find the money for food and other necessities. He now sells juice to earn an income and says he is grateful to some local benefactors who help him from time to time. But life is still far from rosy. He has no home and sleeps on a mattress in the church.
Agbavor’s presence at the conference is thanks to the National Union of Ghana Students, who felt Agbavor’s story would be an eye-opener. He was one of several child labour survivors including several saved by the Kailash Satyarthi Foundation who shared their stories..
It’s Agbavor’s first trip outside his country. Yet, his self-confidence and charisma have allowed him to hold his own at a conference attended by politicians, business people, trade unionists, and NGOs worldwide.
He attributes his ability to stand his ground to his tough upbringing.
“I have seen the worst of life. It made me strong. I am like a seed. I sprouted out of the soil. It is the same potential millions of other children (in bondage) have.”
Agbavor’s message to the conference is that while access to free education is key to liberating children in bondage, the quality of that education is equally important.
“I want to tell people that the schools that educate the children of ministers, politicians, doctors, those same schools can absorb and educate child labourers,” he says.
IPS UN Bureau Report
This is one of a series of stories that IPS published around the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in Durban, South Africa.
The impressive string of world leaders visiting the UAE following the recent death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, made clear that the UAE plays an outsized role in regional and global affairs. The U.S. in particular, has a keen interest in maintaining and strengthening ties with new UAE President, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as an ally in diplomatic and military matters and as a partner in current and future energy supply and innovation.
The Cipher Brief talked about what this means and what comes next with Middle East Expert Norm Roule, who served as the National Intelligence Manager for Iran at ODNI and since retiring, travels extensively through the region for meetings with top regional leaders.
The Cipher Brief: What are the prospects for broadened U.S.-UAE ties, and what are the incentives and obstacles to stronger bilateral relations in the future?
Roule: The rank and stature of the U.S. delegation that traveled to the UAE following the passing of UAE President Shaykh Khalifah bin Zayed was significant. The list of officials chosen to be part of this delegation tells us why the relationship is vital to Washington. The group included our senior-most officials on foreign policy, national security, and energy issues.
The security angle is easy to understand – the UAE is a trusted and valued partner and earned that reputation. The enemies of the UAE are our enemies, and Abu Dhabi has deployed personnel to fight with our forces on multiple occasions.
Energy discussions with the Gulf appropriately center on oil and gas. By late 2022, the UAE and Saudi Arabia will likely be the only remaining members of OPEC with spare production capacity. But the UAE’s green energy efforts are respected for their ambition and prospects, as shown by the presence of former Secretary John Kerry. Secretary Kerry has made multiple trips to the GCC, and my understanding is that he has been impressed by their investment in climate change technologies. The U.S. has also been impressed by the Emirati commitment to interfaith and multicultural engagement and its role in the development of the Abraham Accords.
Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (sydney and kuala lumpur)
Inter Press Service
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 (IPS) – A class war is being waged in the name of fighting inflation. All too many central bankers are raising interest rates at the expense of working people’s families, supposedly to check price increases.
Forced to cope with rising credit costs, people are spending less, thus slowing the economy. But it does not have to be so. There are much less onerous alternative approaches to tackle inflation and other contemporary economic ills.
Short-term pain for long-term gain?
Central bankers are agreed inflation is now their biggest challenge, but also admit having no control over factors underlying the current inflationary surge. Many are increasingly alarmed by a possible “double-whammy” of inflation and recession.
Nonetheless, they defend raising interest rates as necessary “preemptive strikes”. These supposedly prevent “second-round effects” of workers demanding more wages to cope with rising living costs, triggering “wage-price spirals”.
They insist the resulting job and output losses are only short-term – temporary sacrifices for long-term prosperity. Remember: central bankers are never punished for causing recessions, no matter how deep, protracted or painful.
But raising interest rates only makes recessions worse, especially when not caused by surging demand. The latest inflationary surge is clearly due to supply disruptions because of the pandemic, war and sanctions.
Raising interest rates only reduces spending and economic activity without mitigating ‘imported’ inflation, e.g., rising food and fuel prices. Recessions will further disrupt supplies, aggravating inflation and worsening stagflation.
Wage-price spirals?
Some central bankers claim recent instances of wage increases signal “de-anchored” inflationary expectations, and threaten ‘wage-price spirals’. But this paranoia ignores changed industrial relations and pandemic effects on workers.
With real wages stagnant for decades, the ‘wage-price spiral’ threat is grossly exaggerated. Over recent decades, most workers have lost bargaining power with deregulation, outsourcing, globalization and labour-saving technologies. Hence, labour shares of national income have declined in most countries since the 1980s.
Labour market recovery, even tightening in some sectors, obscures adverse overall pandemic impacts on workers. Meanwhile, millions of workers have gone into informal self-employment – now celebrated as ‘gig work’ – increasing their vulnerability.
Pandemic infections, deaths, mental health, education and other impacts, including migrant worker restrictions, have all hurt many. Contagion has especially hurt vulnerable workers, including youth, migrants and women.
Workers’ share of national income, 1970-2015
Ideological central bankers
Economic policies by supposedly independent and knowledgeable technocrats are presumed to be better. But such naïve faith ignores ostensibly academic, ideological beliefs.
Typically biased, albeit in unstated ways, policy choices inevitably support some interests over – even against – others. Thus, for example, an anti-inflation policy emphasis favours financial asset owners.
Politicians like the notion of central bank independence. It enables them to conveniently blame central banks for inflation and other ills – even “sleeping at the wheel” – and for unpopular policy responses.
Of course, central bankers deny their own role and responsibility, instead blaming other economic policies, especially fiscal measures. But politicians blaming central bankers after empowering them is simply shirking responsibility.
In the rich West, governments long bent on fiscal austerity left the heavy lifting for recovery after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC) to central bankers. Their ‘unconventional monetary policies’ involved keeping policy interest rates very low, enabling corporate shenanigans and zombie business longevity.
This enabled unprecedented increases in most debt, including private credit for speculation and sustaining ‘zombie’ businesses. Hence, recent monetary tightening – including raising interest rates – will trigger more insolvencies and recessions.
The German Collective Bargaining Act does not oblige ‘social partners’ to enter into negotiations. The timing and frequency of such negotiations are also left to them. Such flexible arrangements are said to have helped SMEs.
Although Germany’s ‘social market economy’ has no national tripartite social dialogue institution, labour unions, business associations and government did not hesitate to democratically debate crisis measures and policy responses to stabilize the economy and safeguard employment, e.g., during the GFC.
Dialogue down under
A similar ‘social dialogue’ approach was developed by Australian Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke from 1983. This contrasted with the more confrontational approaches pursued in Margaret Thatcher’s UK and Ronald Reagan’s USA – where punishing interest rates inflicted long recessions.
Although Hawke had been a successful trade union leader, he began by convening a national summit of workers, businesses and other stakeholders. The resulting Prices and Incomes Accord between the government and unions moderated wage demands in return for ‘social wage’ improvements.
This consisted of better public health provisioning, pension and unemployment benefit improvements, tax cuts and ‘superannuation’ – involving required employees’ income shares and matching employer contributions to a workers’ retirement fund.
Although business groups were not formally party to the Accord, Hawke brought big businesses into other new initiatives such as the Economic Planning Advisory Council. This consensual approach helped reduce both unemployment and inflation.
Such consultations have also enabled difficult reforms – including floating exchange rates and reducing import tariffs. They also contributed to the developed world’s longest uninterrupted economic growth streak – without a recession for nearly three decades, ending in 2020 with the pandemic.
Social partnerships
A variety of such approaches exist. For example, Norway’s kombiniert oppgjior, from 1976, involved not only industrial wages, but also taxes, salaries, pensions, food prices, child support payments, farm support prices, and more.
‘Social partnerships’ have also been important in Austria and Sweden. A series of political understandings – or ‘bargains’ – between successive governments and major interest groups enabled national wage agreements from 1952 until the mid-1970s.
Consensual approaches undoubtedly underpinned post-Second World War reconstruction and progress, of the so-called Keynesian ‘Golden Age’. But it is also claimed they have created rigidities inimical to further progress, especially with rapid technological change.
Economic liberalization in response has involved deregulation to achieve more market flexibilities. But this approach has also produced more economic insecurity, inequalities and crises, besides stagnating productivity.
Such changes have also undermined democratic states, and enabled more authoritarian, even ethno-populist regimes. Meanwhile, rising inequalities and more frequent recessions have strained social trust, jeopardizing security and progress.
Policymakers should consult all major stakeholders to develop appropriate policies involving fair burden sharing. The real need then is to design alternative policy tools through social dialogue and complementary arrangements to address economic challenges in more equitably cooperative ways.
Director-General of Swiss Development Cooperation Patricia Danzi said the long-term education crisis also needed addressing, and private sector participation would assist ensuring the mismatch between business needs and skills could be addressed.
by Joyce Chimbi (davos)
Inter Press Service
Davos, May 23 (IPS) – Against a backdrop of ongoing social changes, education is becoming increasingly important for success in life. But with disasters, pandemics, armed conflicts, and political crises forcing children out of school, a future of success is often placed far out of reach.
Despite data showing the number of children living in the deadliest war zones rising by nearly 20 percent, according to Stop the War on Children: A Crisis of Recruitment 2021 report, education in emergencies is a chronically underfunded aspect of humanitarian aid.
Speaking today at the backdrop of a high-level panel titled Education in Times of Crisis: How to Ensure All Children are Learning. Why Cross-Sectoral Engagement is Needed at the World Economic Forum, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Director Yasmine Sherif stresses the urgent need to engage the private sector better.
“Private sector has a hugely important and instrumental role to play to address the education for an estimated 222 million children and adolescents in countries affected by climate-induced disaster and conflict,” says Sherif.
“We live in a world of huge socio-economic inequities, and those who have, need to share with those who do not have. It starts with financial resources. This is why ECW is part of the ongoing World Economic Forum because there is a huge private sector audience, and we are engaging with them to get them to rally (behind education).”
Panel discussions were opened by President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis and included Sherif, Jacobs Foundation co-CEO Fabio Segura, Ramin Shahzamani,CEO War Child Holland, and the Director-General of Swiss Development and Cooperation (SDC), Patricia Danzi.
Director-General of Swiss Development Cooperation Patricia Danzi said the long-term education crisis also needed addressing, and private sector participation would assist ensuring the mismatch between business needs and skills could be addressed.
Danzi tells IPS that governments cannot support education alone, and more so, education in emergencies where millions of children are out of school.
“We need other actors to take responsibilities, mobilize, and we need this scaling of other actors as quickly as possible.”
“There are two scenarios where private sector engagement is needed, in emergency situations such as war, a pandemic or disaster where you need money quickly, and this is philanthropy. We also have long-term education crises. This includes a mismatch of jobs and skills. Here the private sector requires a certain skill set that the education system cannot provide – and this goes beyond a crisis.”
Danzi said the mismatch was due to various reasons, including basic education inadequacies, access to (quality) education not guaranteed, or not enough girls being in school.
Sherif agrees, stressing that the focus is on quality education in countries in conflict with large numbers of refugee and internally displaced children.
“Funding and financing are a very big issue here. The private sector is very important because they have the finances required, and we need to get them on board.”
“Education cannot wait,” she says. There is an urgent need for more financial assistance from the private sector because this will make a difference and place SDG 4 and other related SDGs firmly within reach.
Segura says the participation and contribution of the private sector have other advantages.
“One of the things we have learned is that it is not just the financing of the gap in education but the logic and the thinking that the private sector can bring or contribute to managing education and scaling education solutions. That logic, thinking, and intellectual capital are critical even though we do not often discuss education matters in the private sector.”
In emergencies and conflict, the private sector could play a role in scaling what works.
“Also (it can) maintain a line of thinking that will prevail beyond the conflict or emergency situation. We have also learned that the private sector has a way of maintaining consistency beyond situations of emergency and conflict. We need to tap into that logic and their array of resources and infrastructure to finance the gap in education in conflict and emergency education.”
Jacobs Foundation co-CEO Fabio Segura stressed the need to look at the contribution of education in business and, at the same time, look at the contribution of business to education.
Segura stresses the need to look at the contribution of education in business and, at the same time, look at the contribution of business to education. This, he says, makes a case for engagement beyond capital and financing in emergencies as it means expanding horizons for investments and horizons for education returns.
As recent as 2019, and before the complexities introduced into global education by COVID-19, more than 130 million children in school were not learning basic skills like reading, writing, and math, according to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
“Access to education is critical, and we owe it to the next generation to be well educated. When a child goes to school longer, an opportunity for prosperity is higher for individuals, households, and society,” Danzi emphasizes.
Cross-sectoral engagement is needed to shape the future of learning and development by accelerating the speed of response in crises and helping connect immediate relief and long-term interventions to provide a safe, quality, and inclusive learning environment for affected children.
“We are in a time where all of the funding gaps to achieve SDGs are becoming very obvious, especially post-COVID-19, and so we have to redefine the role of philanthropies, government, business, and private sector in profiting from achieving those objectives that also allows us to cooperate better across sectors to achieve better goals,” he observes.
Sherif says the private sector has resources. They need to join forces with public donors, especially against a backdrop of substantial socio-economic inequities in the world and countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon that lack resources to finance education because of a history of conflict.
Sherif will also be speaking at another high-level panel discussion titled Neutral Ground: Education in Emergencies-Building Blocks for a Safer Future on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, highlighting the central role of education in facilitating success for children and youth in their diversity. This is a joint event by The LEGO Foundation, Street Child International, and ECW. The panel features Sherif; Chair of Learning through Play, The LEGO Foundation, Bo Stjerne Thomsen; CEO & Founder-Street Child International Tom Dannatt; Deloitte Representative/Moderator Melissa Raczak.
PORTLAND, USA, May 23 (IPS) – Illegal immigration in the 21st century poses a serious dilemma for the world. Governments in virtually every region of the globe appear to be at a loss on how to address the two central dimensions of the dilemma.
The first dimension concerns the continuing waves of illegal migration arriving daily at international borders. The second dimension of the dilemma centers on the presence of millions of men, women, and children residing unlawfully within countries (Table 1).
Source: Author’s composition.
Various aspects of international migration with a focus on the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration were discussed at the first United Nations International Migration Review Forum convened 17-20 May. The primary result of the Forum was an intergovernmental agreed Progress Declaration, which includes calling on governments to intensify efforts for safe and orderly migration, crack down on human smuggling and trafficking, and ensure that migrants are respected and receive health care and other services. However, the 13-page declaration did not come up with explicit guidelines nor enforceable actions that would effectively resolve the illegal immigration dilemma.
Three fundamental aspects of the illegal immigration dilemma involve demographics, human rights, and profits.
First, the demographics aspect clearly shows that the supply of people wishing to migrate largely from developing countries far exceeds the demand for immigrants in developed countries. As a result of that demographic imbalance and despite the costs and risks, millions of men, women, and children are turning to illegal migration in order to take up residence in another country, which are generally wealthy developed nations.
While more than a billion people would like to move permanently to another country, the current annual number of immigrants of several million is just a small fraction of those wanting to immigrate. Also, the total number of immigrants worldwide is also comparatively small, approximately 281 million in 2020, with an estimated quarter of them, or about 70 million, being illegal migrants (Figure 1).
Source: United Nations, Gallup, and author’s estimates.
In addition, the numbers of people attempting illegal migration are reaching record highs. In the United States, for example, the number encountered, i.e., arrested or apprehended, at the U.S.-Mexico border in April reached the highest recorded level of 234,088.
The numbers of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach the European Union and English Channel to reach the United Kingdom are on the rise again. In the first two months of 2022, illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders rose 61 percent from a year ago, or nearly 27,000. The British government also reported that the number of illegal migrants arriving in small boats could reach 1,000 a day.
The second fundamental aspect of the illegal migration dilemma involves the asymmetry of human rights concerning international migration. Article 13 of the International Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has a right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his home country. However, a human right does not exist for one to enter another country without the authorization of that country (Table 2).
Source: Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In addition, Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides individuals the right to seek asylum and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. However, to be granted asylum, a person typically needs to be unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Poverty, unemployment, domestic issues, climate change, and poor governance are generally not considered legitimate grounds for granting asylum. Unfortunately, many of the asylum claims advanced are not genuine, but simply aimed at first entering and then remaining in the destination country.
Most asylum claims are denied but considerable amounts of time, often several years, are needed to reach a final decision on an individual’s claim. Such lengthy periods of time permit claimants to become settled, employed, and integrated into a local community.
In addition to the logistics, governments face economic consequences and public opposition from various quarters to repatriating illegal migrants to countries having high levels of poverty, corruption, and social unrest. Consequently, unless illegal migrants commit serious crimes, they are typically not arrested and deported.
One notable recent exception, however, is the United Kingdom, which is seeking to send illegal migrants to Rwanda. The British government recently announced that those making dangerous, unnecessary and illegal journeys to the UK may be relocated to Rwanda to have their claims for asylum considered and to rebuild their lives there.
The third fundamental aspect of the illegal migration dilemma concerns the profits derived. Charging high fees for their services, smugglers accrue large profits by promoting, facilitating, and encouraging the illegal migration of men, women, and children across international borders.
Once illegal migrants are settled at their desired destination, many businesses, and enterprises profit from their labor. Given their precarious status, illegal migrants are not only willing to work for below normal wages but are also reluctant to report workplace abuses as that can lead to their dismissal, arrest, and repatriation.
Faced with continuing waves of illegal migrants, many countries are building walls, fences, and barriers, increasing border guards, having more pushbacks, returns and expulsions, and establishing more detention centers. However, based on recent illegal migration levels and trends, those and related steps have not achieved their desired goals.
Similarly, faced with the presence of large numbers of illegal migrants residing within their borders, governments are struggling with how best to address this troubling dimension of the illegal migration dilemma. Governments are not inclined to grant an amnesty or path to citizenship for illegal migrants nor are they prepared to deport the illegal migrants residing within their borders. As a result, the current situation in most countries remains unresolved for most illegal migrants, who remain in a precarious status.
In sum, it appears that governments are unlikely to be able to resolve the illegal immigration dilemma any time soon. In fact, the dilemma is likely to be exacerbated by increasing illegal immigration due to growing populations, worsening living conditions, and the effects of climate change in migrant sending countries.
Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his book, “Births, Deaths, Migrations and Other Important Population Matters.”
James Swan, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) urged both the authorities and the international community to capitalize on this “moment of opportunity”.
Spirit of collaboration
“We call on Somali leaders to work together in a spirit of collaboration and national purpose. We call on Somalia’s international friends and partners, including those on this Council, to offer constructive support and encouragement,” he said.
Somalia’s electoral process wrapped up on 15 May when parliamentarians voted in Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the country’s 10th President.
The presidential election was held following what Mr. Swan called “an unduly protracted and contentious process” for choosing the legislature.
Shortcomings and violence
While welcoming the successful poll, Mr. Swan also pointed to some of the shortcomings.
The Somali people did not have the chance to vote for the House of the People in a “one-person-one-vote” election, and only 21 per cent of the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) were women, despite a 30 per cent quota.
He added that many irregularities in the selection of MPs were noted throughout the process, which was repeatedly marred by violence, with numerous civilian casualties recorded.
Presidential priorities
Underlining the UN’s readiness to work with the new Government, Mr. Swan said he has heard directly from President Mohamud about his immediate goals, which include national reconciliation, improving relations between the central Government and federal states, and addressing the security threat from the militant group al-Shabaab.
Other priorities are finishing the constitutional review and judicial reforms, completing election-related laws, ensuring compliance and international requirements for debt relief, and focusing on the dire drought marring the region.
“We believe this is an appropriate list of initial priorities and look forward to learning more details as the new leadership takes charge and as a new Prime Minister and cabinet are named in the coming weeks,” said Mr. Swan.
Dire humanitarian situation
Turning to the worsening humanitarian situation in Somalia, the UN envoy reported that the number of people affected by drought has risen to 6.1 million.
“The country faces a heightened risk of localized famine in six communities if food prices continue to rise and humanitarian assistance is not sustained,” he warned.
Despite a scale-up in humanitarian operations, a $1.45 billion appeal for this year is only 15 per cent funded. Furthermore, donors have to deliver on pledges and commitments made last month at a high-level event in Geneva focused on humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa.
“Without immediate receipt of funding to expand humanitarian operations, we face the prospect of significant loss of life in the period ahead,” he told ambassadors.
“Even as we focus now on saving lives and averting famine, there is also a need to increase resilience, development, and climate responses so that those affected by recurring crises can adapt and thrive in the future.”
Al-Shabaab resurgent
Mr. Swan also addressed the security situation which remains “highly volatile”. Deadly Al-Shabaab attacks in March and April appeared to be an effort to disrupt the final phases of the electoral process.
He commended the Somali security forces and their counterparts from the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) “who safeguarded the electoral process and bore the brunt of Al-Shabaab’s deadly attacks then and after.”
Earlier this month, the group carried out a complex assault on an ATMIS base in the Middle Shabelle region, killing several peacekeepers from Burundi.
AU representative Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira said attacks like these indicate a resurgent Al-Shabaab “which will continue to pose multiple challenges to both Somalia and ATMIS, pointing to the urgent need for a robust and adequate response to them.”
He underlined the vital need to scale-up air support with transport and attack helicopters, as well as adequate offensive weapons, for both ATMIS and the Somali security forces.
The AU mission was established last month and follows on from an earlier operation known as AMISOM
Those in need will be provided with urgently needed shelter, health, cash, protection services and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support.
The situation is also getting worse for migrants in Yemen, especially women – IOM mission chief
Over the last seven years, the conflict in Yemen between a Saudi-led pro-Government coalition, and Houthi rebels, has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, displacing over 4.3 million people, destroying vital infrastructure and exacerbating the needs of migrants, displaced and host communities, said IOM.
“The situation is also getting worse for migrants in Yemen, especially women, who are living in dire conditions in Yemen with little control over their lives,” said Christa Rottensteiner, Chief of the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Mission in the country.
And across the country, at least 7.4 million Yemenis need shelter and household items while 17.8 million require WASH support.
Meanwhile amid rising food and fuel prices, needs continue to intensify as the population struggles to survive in an economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which supplied nearly 30 per cent of Yemen’s wheat supply prior to the fighting.
“Conflict remains the main driver of displacement, but the humanitarian needs of communities have been aggravated by a weakened economy,” said Ms. Rottensteiner.
UNDP Yemen
People in rural parts of Yemen are suffering from extreme hunger.
Despite the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis, Yemen remains a major point on the migration route from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia, where many go in search of work opportunities.
Tens of thousands are estimated to be stranded and unable to return home or make it to their destination, and many are subject to grave human rights violations. So far this year, migrant arrivals into Yemen are picking up again, with nearly 25,000 estimated to have arrived in the first four months of 2022.
Contributions from the EU are allowing IOM to provide thousands of these migrants with health assistance, information on safe migration and individualized protection assistance.
For internally displaced persons, IOM is supporting site management and service coordination across 61 displacement sites. Cash assistance is being provided to those newly displaced by fighting and to families whose shelters require rehabilitation which prevents the risk of flooding and fire hazards.
The funding also enables the distribution of life-saving water to communities, provide hygiene kits, rehabilitate water and sanitation infrastructure and run hygiene promotion campaigns to reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.
“This renewed partnership with the EU is allowing IOM to continue its activities and reach thousands of displaced people and migrants with assistance that is essential to their survival,” added Ms. Rottensteiner.
But before discussing disaster risk reduction strategies with policymakers, humanitarians, and members of the private sector there, she heard from 15 youth leaders from across Indonesia, about the struggles they have faced, implementing climate-related projects in their own communities.
After listening to presentations on projects that ranged from founding digital food banks, to charting air pollution – and launching education courses on sustainable farming – the Deputy Secretary-General said she wanted to relay “the energy, the anger, the frustration, the optimism, and the hope,” of youth in Indonesia, during her meetings with delegates in Bali in the days ahead.
Tectonic plates
Bali is appropriate venue to host the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction. Situation along the volatile Pacific Rim of Fire – where tectonic plates meet along a volcanic fault line – Indonesia recorded 3,034 natural disasters in 2021, according to the national disaster risk agency, which impacted 8.3 million people and caused at least 662 deaths.
Those figures will skyrocket if the world continues on its current trajectory of accelerated global warming towards 3.2 degrees above pre-industrial levels – more than double the 1.5 degrees limit scientists say is essential for avoiding the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
The IPCC’s latest report reaffirms that any rise above 1.5 degrees would lead to a dramatic increase in extreme weather events such as floods, which made up more than a third of all disasters in Indonesia last year.
But acting on climate change is not only a national imperative. In December 2021, Indonesia took up the Presidency of the G20, whose members account for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Indonesia, a ‘well placed’ advocate
As the world’s largest archipelagic nation, Indonesia is “well placed to advocate for the interests of less developed countries and small islands states on the world stage,” says UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia Valerie Julliand. “That includes holding rich countries to account for their commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year, to help poorer countries deal with climate change.”
Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s appearance at the COP26 climate change conference last year in Glasgow served as an example of how seriously Indonesia takes the issue.
Home to the world’s third largest area of forest after Brazil and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Indonesia pledged to halt or reverse deforestation by 2040 at the two-week climate summit in Glasgow. It also joined Member States in promising to “phase down” coal use.
However, Indonesia has not committed to ending its pipeline of coal generation projects under its current ten-year national development plan. The pipeline, which includes 13.8 GW of new coal capacity by 2029, more than 10GW of which is already under construction, is not compatible with Indonesia’s climate goals, environmental groups argue.
Besides being the world’s largest coal exporter, coal mining employs an estimated 450,000 Indonesians and supports millions more – mostly in economically impoverished areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Helping Indonesia transition from coal to clean energy generation is the focus of the FIRE Dialogue partners, an international platform that brings together UN representatives, ambassadors and diplomats from multiple countries, and organizations such as the Asian Development Bank.
Optimistic for the future
“It is going to be difficult, but I am optimistic”, the Deputy Secretary-General told a UN in Indonesia Town Hall event, following a meeting with FIRE Dialgoue partners on Monday. “We need concerted efforts to accompany this country in the next five years to really make that pivot towards renewable energy and a green and blue economy.”
She added that young people would be at the centre of this pivot, including through making sure critical facts are widely understood, among them, that the green and blue economy, can create three times as many jobs as those coming from the fossil fuel sector.
It was a sentiment that carried echoes of the conversations at the weekend with young climate leaders. After the 15 young activists presented the objects that helped sum up their inspiring work, the deputy UN chief shared some significant objects of her own, which she had brought along to the conversation.
These included a piece of sea glass, and a seashell, with a pale pink exterior.
The shell, she said, represented communication, and specifically, the need to get beyond the shell’s hard exterior to communicate a fundamental inner truth: “human beings picked a fight with nature. Nature fought back. And now we have to make peace with nature.”
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