SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: Mozambican musician and environmental defender Feliciano dos Santos supports local communities in Niassa Province to develop their skills in sustainable natural resource management. He is founder and the executive director of the NGO ESTAMOS, and was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2008, for his use of music to promote the need of improving water and sanitation infrastructure in northern Mozambique. Credit: ESTAMOS/Mozambique.

Communities in Mozambique Inspired to Curb Deforestation

By Mariane Almeida and Sofia Barbeiro

The two writers are part of a team of Young Environmental Journalists covering Africa.

RIO de JANEIRO | LISBON (IDN) – In Mozambique's province of Gaza, 9,240 tons of charcoal are produced every year placing pressure on the region's natural resources. Wood burning for charcoal production has led to high rates of deforestation.

Unfortunately, what is happening in the Gaza province mirrors a nationwide trend. Data from the Global Forest Watch show that Mozambique has lost nearly 3 million hectares – or 10 per cent – of its forests since 2000.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 15 May 2020

Image: Collage of pictures about biomedical research. Source: Delhi Posr

COVID-19: An Opportunity to Fix Dysfunctional Biomedical R&D System

Viewpoint by Sreenath Namboodiri*

The author is Assistant Professor of Law at School of Ethics, Governance, Culture & Social Systems, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth (deemed to be university), Ernakulam, Kerala, India. He can be reached on twitter @SnathNamboodiri

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Failures of the patent system to meet the public health priorities demand a new approach in research and development (R&D) financing and incentive to pharmaceutical innovations. An R&D model delinking the cost of R&D from the price of the product is the way forward.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 May 2020

Image: Abstract image of the impact of covid-19 on the economy. Source: SciencesPro

COVID-19 To Push More Than 34 Million People into Extreme Poverty in 2020

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to deal a huge blow to global efforts for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, two of the vital goals of the 17 SDGs. A new UN report expects more than 34 million people to fall below the extreme poverty line in 2020. 56 percent of them will be in African countries. An additional 130 million people may join the ranks of people living in extreme poverty by 2030.

: Santo D. Banerjee; COVID-19; 14 May 2020

Our Oceans Keep Our Health, The Economy and Our Lives Above the Waves

Healthy oceans: keeping Asia and the Pacific afloat

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

BANGKOK (IDN) – Memories of idyllic beaches and sonorous waves may seem far away while we remain at home. Yet, we need not look far to appreciate the enduring history of the ocean in Asia and the Pacific. For generations, the region has thrived on our seas. Our namesake bears a nod to the Pacific Ocean, a body of water tethered to the well-being of billions in our region. The seas provide food, livelihoods and a sense of identity, especially for coastal communities in the Pacific island States.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 May 2020

Photo: Religious leaders in an online meeting. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

UN Chief Appeals to 'Common Humanity' Across All Faiths to Tackle COVID-19

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) – Our shared vulnerability to the coronavirus pandemic reveals “our common humanity”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told religious leaders in an online meeting to discuss the role they can play in limiting the damage caused by COVID-19.

Speaking during the meeting on May 12, Guterres said “it lays bare our responsibility to promote solidarity as the foundation of our response – a solidarity based on the human rights and human dignity of all … and it highlights the crucial role of religious leaders in your communities and beyond.”

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 13 May 2020

Photo: Transporting new migrant workers to Doha, Qatar. Source: tellmemoreblogger.com

COVID-19: Should Economy Have Priority Over Migrant Workers' Health?

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – Many critics have described labour migration as the 21st-century slave trade and Covid-19 crisis has exposed this stark reality. Eastern European migrant labour in Europe. Unpaid construction workers on the brink of starvation in the Middle East. Hundreds of South Asian dormitory locked down migrant labourers infected with Covid-19 in Singapore. Global economy’s lack of compassion for the migrant workers that drives its engines is very much in display today.

Speaking on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, Thulsi Narayanasamy, head of labour rights at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) argued that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the structural inequalities that face migrant workers all over the world.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 13 May 2020

Photo: A detention camp for immigrants and asylum seekers in Greece. Source. Human Rights Watch.

Greece Extends COVID-19 Lockdown at Refugee Camps

Viewpoint by Eva Cossé, Human Rights Watch

The writer is Western Europe researcher, works on issues related to discrimination, migration, asylum and minority rights, with a focus on Greece. This article first appeared on Human Rights Watch, and is being reproduced with the author's permission.

LONDON | ATHENS (IDN) – The Greek government has begun easing lockdown measures, given the country’s success in keeping Covid-19 under control. Starting last week, people could leave their homes without authorization, most shops have re-opened, and older students have returned to the classroom.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 12 May 2020

Photo: Collage with images from Ghana and Sierra Leone.

COVID-19: Fake, Shocking & Good News Stalks Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new fact-checking industry had its hands full recently in Senegal when a fake news post on social media claimed that children were “dying on the spot” from vaccines against the corona virus.

The post, titled “Scandal in Senegal”, was shared thousands of times on Facebook even as the fact checkers insisted it was a hoax.

"There is a big scandal in Senegal,” the misleading news spot was heard to say on a Facebook video in Wolof. “There is a guy who came into a house to vaccinate kids for coronavirus. He vaccinated seven children who died on the spot."

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 12 May 2020

Image: Collage of images of biomasks and COVID-19 with graphics from Internet.

Beware of Weaponizing COVID-19

Viewpoint by Jayasri Priyalal

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) were something that USA and UK coalition forces were trying to find in the armouries of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in March 2003. Anglo-Saxon media was painting the fears of death, destruction and sufferings to humankind unless those weapons were destroyed – justifying the illegal invasion of the allied forces into a sovereign Iraq, violating all international laws and order.

They found neither any evidence of WMD nor chemical weapons for justifying the invasion. Will the COVID-19 too, become an invisible WMD with the ongoing global pandemic which has locked down nearly the entire world economy?

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 May 2020

We Are Fighting Two Enemies at the Same Time: a Deadly Virus and a Deadlier Hunger

By Bea Cordia

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 has shattered the entire world. As a result of what some people have called the ‘Great Lockdown’, economic activity has plummeted, borders have been closed, and national health systems are on the edge of collapse.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, more than 250,000 people have died from the highly contagious disease, which spread across geographical, racial and ethnic borders. The worst, however, is yet to come.