Quality Education

COVID-19 Shatters Hopes for Industrial Advance in Africa

But the Next Decade Might Trigger the Change Needed

Viewpoint by Jenny Larsen*

VIENNA (IDN) – Industrial development in Africa has been sluggish for some decades. Now, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic kick in, hopes for better progress, at least in the short term, appear to be fading. But if countries grasp the right opportunities, the next decade can deliver the industrial change needed to meet the challenges ahead.

Industrialization and development go hand in hand. There is hardly a country in the world that has developed without building a strong manufacturing base. But for Africa – sometimes referred to as the continent of the future – the fruits of industrialization have often seemed just out of reach.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 November 2020

UNAI Celebrates 10th Anniversary Stressing Partnership with Universities Worldwide

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), launched in 2010 as an initiative to align colleges and universities with the work of the United Nations, celebrated its 10th anniversary on November 18. The program has more than 1500 members in 147 countries, all applying their academic inquiry, research and innovation to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges while educating the next generation of global leaders.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 19 November 2020

Pressing Need to Ensure Responsible African Digitalisation

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The profound importance of data is underlined by the fact that the United Nations is measuring progress towards the 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the help of a global network working together to ensure the new opportunities of the data revolution.

Youth are being referred to as the "torchbearers" of the 2030 Agenda and have a pivotal role to play both as beneficiaries of actions and policies under the Agenda and as partners and participants in its implementation. Indeed, both explicitly and implicitly, the 2030 Agenda calls for the development and activation of sound, evidence-based youth policies and actions to ensure its full realization.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 November 2020

Photo: An attack on the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, by armed terrorists taking the lives of six children and leaving over a dozen seriously injured. Source: Netzfrauen.

Brutal Attacks on Bilingual School in Cameroon

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A long-running conflict between Cameroon's French and English-speaking communities brought new horror on October 24 with an attack on the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in the city of Kumba, in the country’s Southwest Region, by armed terrorists taking the lives of six children and leaving over a dozen seriously injured.

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi called it "a terrorist act of unbearable cruelty and barbarity".

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 October 2020

Photo. Mauritanian students return to school after several months of school closures due to COVID-19. Credit: UNICEF/Raphael Pouget

Financing and Political Will Critical to Avert A ‘Generational Crisis’ Triggered by COVID-19

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The world is at risk of suffering “a generational catastrophe”, as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the education of students globally, the Secretary-General António Guterres has warned.

In a video message to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Education Meeting (GEM), on October 22, he reminded delegates that the pandemic had had a “disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and marginalized children and youth”.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 23 October 2020

Photo: Hanization raising discontent among Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Credit: The Kootneeti.

China Continues 'Hanization' Violating the Freedom of Ethnic Minorities

By Nadir Ali Wani*

SRINAGAR, India (IDN) – China claims, as in a 2019 white paper, "Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China”, that it fully protects the freedom of ethnic minorities to use and develop their spoken and written languages and that the state protects by law the legitimate use of spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities in the areas of administration and judiciary, press and publishing, radio, film and television, and culture and education.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 October 2020

Photo: Mark Apel, second from the left. Credit: HAF, 2018.

Cathartic Returns to Morocco: From Peace Corps to Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer

By Ellen Hernandez and Katie Bercegeay *

MARRAKECH (IDN) – Upon hearing the words “Hamdullah wa inshallah,” Mark Apel is transported as if in a time capsule to the many times he and Yossef Ben-Meir, President of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF), uttered them in gratitude for the food set before them or in hope for something good to come of their efforts as Peace Corps Volunteers. “It makes you more mindful of the moment,” he remarked in a recent interview conducted by Yossef for HAF.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 01 October 2020

Image: Building on the traditions of the past, UCD is a university of the future, connected and connecting, engaged and engaging, committed to a sustainable future built on a healthy biosphere. Credit: UCD

Of Joyce, Univ. College Dublin and Sustainable Development

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), an initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the UN. The following article was published on the UNAI website.

NEW YORK (IDN) – An old college friend, Pramesh Ratnakar, shared with me William Butler Yeats’s recollection of his first meeting, at the age of 37, with James Joyce, who was 20. Yeats felt the meeting had gone off well and he had “conquered” Joyce until the younger writer asked him how old he was. When told, Joyce replied “it’s too late now. I wish we had met when you were younger.”

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 11 September 2020

Photo: Eritrean asylum seekers in Tunisia, in search of a better life ©MorganeWirtz

Migrants Prefer Returning to Libya Than Staying in Tunisia

By Morgane Wirtz*

This year, hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers settled in Tunisia have packed up to risk their lives again in Libya. For them, "It is better to die for something than to live for nothing".

BRUSSELS (IDN) – It is a large white house with blue shutters in Al-Maharas, a small town in central Tunisia. The ground is immaculate. The rooms are empty. Through the open windows, we hear the sea. The scent of seaweed and sea salt tickles our nostrils. If we close our eyes, it feels like we are on vacation. If we close our eyes.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 September 2020

Photo: Patrón cortando caña (Patrón cuts the cane), Colombia, 2015. Credit: Pablo Fierro.

Colombian Sports Hero Patrón's Assassination Targets Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Communities

Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad and Zoe PC

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts (IDN) – Not much, apart from football, unites the Colombian people. If a 2014 Interior Ministry survey called “The Power of Football” is to be believed, then 94 percent of the Colombian population say that football is either important or very important. Patrocinio Bonilla—called Patrón—was on the side of those who believed that football was very important, indeed essential. Patrón was murdered on August 11, 2020.