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    Sri Lankan trade unions campaign for hike in minimum wage

    OWSA Contributor
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    Sri Lankan trade unions campaign for hike in minimum wage

    Sri Lankan trade unions have launched a joint campaign to demand a rise of 10,000 Sri Lankan Rupees in the monthly minimum wage of private sector employees.

    Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crisis is resulting in unavailability of bare essentials and runaway inflation. A strike by health workers has made other government employees restless. The government has, in turn, provided employees a monthly monetary allowance of 5,000 Sri Lankan Rupees to public sector employees and pensioners.

    Now 12 Sri Lankan trade unions have launched a joint campaign to demand a rise of 10,000 Sri Lankan Rupees (approximately US $50) in the monthly minimum wage of private sector employees.

    The government’s decision to hike wages was limited to those working for government and public undertakings. The trade unions are opposing the government’s decision to exclude private sector employees from its scheme.

    Leading the campaign are the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees’ Union, the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya and the Ceylon Mercantile Industrial and General Workers Union.

    The present campaign was preceded by an island-wide protest on 21 January.

    Says Anton Marcus, joint secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees’ Union, “Unions have resolved to convene and establish provincial and village committees of social activists across the country to mobilise citizens to demand from the government to pay 5,000 rupees as monthly allowance to all categories of workers, to increase the minimum wage of private sector employees to 26, 000 rupees and to reduce the prices of essential food items by 50 per cent.”

    Unwilling employers

    Anticipating the situation ahead of the budget, unions members of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) had, in October 2021, submitted a proposal to the ministry of finance to increase the minimum wage of private sector employees to 26,000 rupees (US $129), and for a 50 per cent reduction in the price of essential goods in the 2022 budget.

    But the government refused to mandate the private sector to enhance the carry-home wages or provide similar allowances to its workers. Employees in the private sector are entitled to a minimum wage of 16,000 Sri Lankan rupees (US $80) per month. The trade unions say that this stipulation needs to be revisited urgently in the light of the increased cost of living.

    The unions are also campaigning with members of parliament to introduce a private member’s bill on the minimum wage in the parliament.

    Following this, the cabinet instructed the minister of labour to make the necessary arrangements to pay the 5,000 Sri Lankan rupees allowance for the private sector employees. The minister of labour called a meeting with the members of the NLAC on 7 January, followed by a meeting with the employers’ associations on 10 January.

    The employers had refused to pay the 5,000 rupees proposed by the unions, citing economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the issue of minimum wages, employers claimed that they already pay the minimum wage of 26,000 rupees.

    The present campaign is also collecting pay slips from private sector employees to rebut the minimum wages claims of the employers.

     

    Photos: Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees’ Union

    Top UN diplomat in Afghanistan bats for aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

    OWSA Contributor
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    Top UN diplomat in Afghanistan bats for aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

    Deborah Lyons, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, lobbied for deepening engagement with the war-torn country’s new authorities and action to prevent an irreversible economic collapse.

    In her briefing to the UN security council in New York on Wednesday, Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary general’s special representative for Afghanistan spoke for engagement with the Taliban.

    Suggesting that the Taliban feels misunderstood, Lyons, a career diplomat from Canada, said that the Taliban cite reduced corruption and the re-opening of schools to girls and boys. “This clash of perspectives forms the basis of a serious distrust that must be addressed,” said the Special Representative.

    According to her briefing, it is now clear that truly assisting the Afghan people will be all but impossible without working with the de facto Taliban authorities.

    Acknowledging the enduring distrust between the Taliban and much of the international community, Lyons said the group feels misunderstood. She said that the Taliban leadership complains that international reports “do not reflect reality as they see it”.

    Civilian casualties in the war-torn country have declined by 78 per cent since the previous government was ousted, the Taliban have claimed, implying that the country is more secure. The Taliban want acknowledgement for this, Lyons said.

    But she also cautioned that more needed to be done and mitigation has to be accompanied with giving hope to the Afghan people by preparing a strong foundation for Afghan self-reliance.

    “It is imperative that we not find ourselves six months from now in the situation we faced six months ago: with millions of Afghans facing another winter of starvation and the only tool at our disposal being expensive and unsustainable humanitarian handouts,” her briefing to the security council reads.

    Dire economy

    In the six months since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Afghanistan faces an economic collapse.

    “Six months of indecision … are eroding vital social and economic coping systems and pushing the population into greater uncertainty,” she said, adding that, “As the winter season comes to an end, we have perhaps averted our worst fears of famine and widespread starvation.”

    A looming economic tipping point awaits Afghanistan. In such an even, more businesses will close, more people will be unemployed and more families will fall into poverty. Lyons cited a cessation of all development assistance and restrictions on international payments, as well as lack of access to hard currency reserves, lack of liquidity and constraints on the Afghan central bank to carry out some of its core functions.

    Welcoming the unfreezing of some of Afghanistan’s assets by the US treasury facilitating commercial and financial activity and allowing work with all governing institutions, as a “huge step forward”, she said that there were yet other challenges to reviving the economy that has been in freefall mode.
    ”These [challenges] include the collapse of demand due to cessation of all development assistance, restrictions on international payments, lack of access to hard currency reserves, lack of liquidity, and constraints on the central bank to carry out some of its core functions,” she said.
    While UNAMA has taken all conceivable measures to inject liquidity into the economy, including the physical import of cash, she stressed that more international action is needed.
    Lyons has consistently supported the provision of money from the US treasury. Even in her briefing to the security council on 9 September, she had stressed that “a modus vivendi must be found, and quickly, that allows money to flow to Afghanistan to prevent a total breakdown of the economy and social order.”
    Of course, she had also said that, “Safeguards must be created to ensure that this money is spent where it needs to be spent, and not misused by the de facto authorities.”
    Complicated situation

    For its part, she said, UNAMA, continues to report on what it sees on the ground, including concerning restrictions on fundamental rights, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.

    Describing the country’s situation as complicated – with both positive and negative trends occurring simultaneously – she said UNAMA can do more by working with the Taliban on the main issues facing Afghan society.
    “You are about to approach a critical moment in your relationship with Afghanistan,” she warned, noting that the security council has the opportunity to build a more solid and relevant UN Mission that will avert the country’s further collapse.

     

    Image: Mark Garten / UN

    COVID-19 impacts Bangladesh banks’. Bad loans rise by 8 per cent in December

    OWSA Contributor
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    COVID-19 impacts Bangladesh banks’. Bad loans rise by 8 per cent in December

    In what clearly looks like a case of pandemic blues, cases of default on bank loans have been pushed up by 8 per cent in December 2021. This amounts to 1.3 trillion Bangladeshi Takas.

    The COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on business in Bangladesh. This is evident from the upward trend in the incidence of defaulting on bank loans. Loan defaults have been to the tune of 8 per cent or 1.3 trillion Bangladeshi Takas, in December 2021.

    The country’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank, provided a number of facilities like a loan moratorium and also helped further negotiations on installment payments. But none of that worked. The lending institutions have failed to curb the trend of defaulting loans.

    The defaulting loans, amounting to 1.3 trillion Bangladeshi Takas constitute 8 per cent of all bad loans. It was 88,734 Bangladeshi Takas (7.66 per cent) during the same period last year.

    The total debt of the banking sector stood at Tk 13.18 trillion, according to data made available from the central bank.

    The debt balance was Tk 12.45 trillion end-September. Of this, the defaulted loans shot to Tk 1.15 trillion, or about 8.12 per cent of the total debt.

    Past experience suggests that the default rate among the disbursed loans is a little more than 5 per cent – so, but that watermark, the defaults of 8 per cent have been very high in the data made available for December.

    Optimism belied

    Earlier, on 20 February, Fazle Kabir, the governor of Bangladesh Bank had said that the economy faced a challenge following the COVID-19 pandemic, “but with the power of the resilient private sector of Bangladesh, the economy is performing relatively well in recent past.”

    “Our GDP and total size of the economy have increased which is a good sign and reflects that we are on board,” he had said.

    The release of the December data has belied the Bank governor’s optimism.

    Kabir had claimed that the situation was in control because the government declared a stimulus package at the right time and ensured that there would be no liquidity shortages in banks.

     

     

     

    Image: Wikimedia, Bangladesh Bank, By A Saber91

    A million species endangered risk the web of life 

    OWSA Contributor
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    A million species endangered risk the web of life 

    Illegal wildlife trade continues to pose a real danger to biodiversity, ecosystems and human health, as a number of emerging diseases stem from animal products, both domestic and wild.

    By Baher Kamal / Inter Press Service

    A million wild plant and animal species are now facing extinction. Three-quarters of the land-based environment, 85 per cent of wetlands, and two-thirds of oceans have been significantly and negatively altered by human activity.

    This warning comes from the United Nations, which revealed these facts in a curtain-raiser to the World Wildlife Day, marked 3 March. These are not by any means just mere figures – it points to risk of extinction of the whole life cycle. 

    Moreover, the world body reports that over 8.400 species of wild fauna and flora are “critically endangered,” while close to 30.000 more are understood to be “endangered or vulnerable.”

    Wildlife, in peril everywhere

    “Today, all around the world, wildlife is in peril. A quarter of species face the threat of extinction, in large part because we have destroyed nearly half of the ecosystems in which they live,” said the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

    Wildlife needs to be cared for, the UN boss said. “Beyond a moral duty to sustain the earth, humanity depends on the essential products and services that nature provides, from food and fresh water to pollution control and carbon storage,” Guterres said. “By damaging the natural world, we threaten our own well-being.”

    Incalculable value

    Animals and plants that live in the wild have an intrinsic value and contribute to the ecological, genetic, social, economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic aspects of human well-being and to sustainable development, the UN statement underlined.

    “The world is dealing with unprecedented threats to wildlife. Illegal wildlife trade continues to pose a real danger to biodiversity, ecosystems and human health, as a number of emerging diseases stem from animal products, both domestic and wild.”

    Humanity as a whole, threatened

    For its part, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that continued loss of species and degradation of habitats and ecosystems threatens humanity as a whole, as people everywhere rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet all their needs, from food, medicines and health to fuel, housing, and clothing.

    Ivonne Higuero, the secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) had  said last November that “Biodiversity loss is an existential threat to people and the planet. The continued loss of wildlife species threatens to undermine entire ecosystems and puts into peril the well-being of all who rely on them…”

    There is no dearth of research and evidence pointing to the growing intensive and extensive human activities being among the main causes behind the loss of wildlife.

    On this, says the UN that “climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can increase contact and the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) like COVID-19.”

    Concurrently, Marie Bout, a Global Communications Strategist with Greenpeace International’s political unit had said on this day in 2021 that just 15 per cent of the world’s forests remain intact, and only 3 per cent of the world’s oceans are free from human pressures.

    “The Planet is losing species – its biodiversity – at an alarming rate, thought to be comparable only to the fifth mass extinction 65 million years ago.”

    Why is biodiversity important?

    Biodiversity is built from three intertwining threads, Marie Bout explained: ecosystem diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity. “Put simply, the more diverse these interwoven natural systems are, the more resilient they are to disturbances.”

    But the disappearance of a specie is like a thread in the web that is cut, leaving holes in the planet’s safety net and shifting the finely balanced systems, she warns.

    “That’s exactly what’s happening on Australia’s Great Barrier reef, one of the world’s most diverse reef ecosystems, which has lost more than half of its coral population since 1995 due to mass coral bleaching events and is dying before our eyes.”

    Supporting life on earth

    According to the Greenpeace activist, nature gives us what we need – food, clean air, and water are the foundations of life. Earth’s biodiversity has provided civilisations with the essentials we need to survive on this planet.

    Nature protects us, she says. Some of the most important roles of biodiversity are defensive. Our ecosystems help to regulate our climate and insure against disease outbreaks like Covid-19. Forests are important carbon sinks and essential for fighting the climate crisis, but oceans also play an important role.

    Nature also keeps things flowing – for example, nitrogen and phosphorus, two primary biological nutrients required by all life on earth circulate through Earth’s ecosystems. But human activity has so thoroughly disrupted Earth’s natural nutrient cycles that we have degraded soils and created aquatic dead zones.

    Lastly, according to Bout, nature even has the potential to solve future problems. Scientific knowledge continues to grow and evolve. The more that we can keep alive and thriving, the greater that knowledge can be. For example, nature has helped, and continues to help in important medical advances.

    What is destroying biodiversity?

    Greenpeace’s Marie Bout further says that as societies (and economies) have grown, so has their ecological footprint.

    “Destructive industries are piling more pressure on our planet’s web of life than at any other point in human history,” she says. “Mega corporations are burning polluting fossil fuels, are setting forests on fire to clear land to grow agricultural commodities and for single use products, and are plundering ever deeper and more remote areas of the oceans, they’re also polluting politics and holding our governments hostage in the process.”

    “Endless pursuit of limitless growth, on a planet with finite resources, has a predictable end that’s already in sight. So much of the wildlife on this planet, including humanity most likely, is heading for extinction.”

     

    Image: Hippopx, licensed to use Creative Commons Zero – CC0

    Study points to doubled carbon losses from deforestation in tropics in early 2000s

    Aditi Angelina Patro
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    Study points to doubled carbon losses from deforestation in tropics in early 2000s

    According to a newly published study in the journal, Nature Sustainability, the acceleration of forest carbon loss highlights the urgent need to halt tropical deforestation to meet global climate change commitments.

    By Aditi Angelina Patro

    A new study reveals that global tropical deforestation has led to a doubling of carbon loss in the early twenty-first century.

    Tropical forests are large carbon stores. When cleared, these forests release these vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This makes protecting forests critical in the fight against climate change.

    The acceleration of forest carbon losses from the tropical forests highlights the urgent need to halt tropical deforestation to meet global climate change commitments.

    The study, published in Nature Sustainability, is led by Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, and co-authored by scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society along with more than a dozen other organizations. The results reveal that tropical forest loss between 2001 and 2019 has led to more than a doubling of carbon loss, from 3.5 billion tons of CO2 per year in 2001–2005 to 7.3 billion tons of CO2 per year in 2015–2019.

    The carbon losses were calculated from high-resolution satellite datasets. The doubling of gross tropical forest carbon loss worldwide from forest conversion is “higher than in bookkeeping models forced by land-use statistical data,” the scientists have said.

    Forest land to agriculture

    To arrive at a correct calculation, the authors paired high-resolution satellite measurements of forest loss with carbon density maps from three sources (aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, and soil) to create detailed maps of where, when, and how much carbon was impacted by forest loss during each year between 2001-2019.

    Said Paul Elsen, climate adaptation scientist at the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society and a co-author of the study: “This new approach reveals carbon losses from tropical deforestation that were overlooked in previous assessments. This provides a more accurate accounting of carbon emissions from forest clearing.”

    The authors note that most of the forest that was cleared between 2001-2019 remained cleared into 2020. Only about 30 percent of the forests that were cleared during that period began to regenerate to either forest or shrubland by 2020.

    “We find that about 70 per cent of former forest lands converted to agriculture in 2001–2019 remained so in 2020, confirming a dominant role of agriculture in long-term pan-tropical carbon reductions on formerly forested landscapes,” the scientists say in the study published Wednesday.

    Glasgow commitments

    The results of the study are counter to those of previous assessments, such as the Global Carbon Budget 2021, which showed a slightly negative trend in tropical carbon loss from deforestation in recent years. The authors note that this is largely due to much more accurate accounting of carbon losses through the use of high-resolution, spatially explicit maps of carbon and forest loss, rather than simply calculating losses from government data.

    The study was released on the same day as the release of the latest IPCC report, which highlighted the overwhelming vulnerability of socioeconomic and natural systems to climate change if left unabated. Late last year, nearly 150 countries convened at COP26 in Glasgow to formally commit to halting and reversing deforestation by 2030.

    This acceleration and high rate of forest carbon loss suggests that existing strategies to reduce forest loss have not been successful, underscoring the importance of monitoring deforestation trends following the new pledges made in Glasgow.

    “The accelerating trend of forest carbon loss we observe underscores that we need to do much more to meet our international commitments on climate change,” said Elsen. “Continued forest and carbon losses of the magnitude that we’ve seen over the past five years could push limiting climate change to between 1.5-2°C out of reach, which we now know would have huge consequences for both people and nature.”

     

    Image: Hippopx – Licensed to use under Creative Commons Zero – CC0

    Pet trade driving disappearance of India’s most beautiful tortoise

    OWSA Contributor
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    Pet trade driving disappearance of India’s most beautiful tortoise

    Despite a ban on international sales, persistent smuggling of the threatened Indian star tortoise flags gaps in global wildlife trade controls.

    By Rebecca L Root

    Stuffed into suitcases, bundled into shopping bags and trapped in cool boxes: every year, thousands of Indian star tortoises are forced to endure horrific conditions as they are trafficked from their native India and Sri Lanka. The majority are destined for life as an exotic pet in places as far afield as Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.

    Regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful tortoises, Indian star tortoises are so named due to the yellow and black star-shaped patterns on their shells. They are found only in parts of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where they inhabit dry grasslands and scrub.

    They’re attractive, easy to care for and have a long lifespan, Jose Louies, joint director of the wildlife conservation charity Wildlife Trust of India, told The Third Pole. There’s a belief in parts of Southeast Asia that tortoises bring luck, he added.

    It is these qualities that make the Indian star tortoise sought after as a pet. Against a backdrop of habitat loss and degradation, collection for the international pet trade has reached such a scale that the species’ survival in the wild is under threat. Research in 2016 found that the Indian star tortoise is seized from illegal trade more than any other tortoise species. These threats have led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to categorise the Indian star tortoise as “vulnerable” – one step away from endangered – on its Red List of Threatened Species.

    Despite CITES

    In 2019, international commercial trade in Indian star tortoises was banned when the species was added to Appendix I of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, following advocacy efforts from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Senegal.

    The Indian star tortoise had previously been on Appendix II, meaning regulated trade was allowed with export permits. But according to the CITES trade database, no permits for the commercial export of Indian star tortoises collected from the wild had been issued by India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan since 1999. Yet star tortoises continued to be traded illegally in their thousands. In 2017 alone, 6,040 Indian star tortoises were seized in 11 incidents across India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

    The successful proposal to uplist the species to Appendix I highlighted a significant population decline and a sharp increase in illegal trade. In one example, over 55,000 star tortoises are reported to have been illegally collected from a single area in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh during 2014.

    An Appendix I listing can lead to stronger action to control commercial trade in the species, explained Kanitha Krishnasamy, director for conservation NGO TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia, in an email to The Third Pole.

    “In most countries, targeting crimes involving Appendix I species is prioritised, and penalties are commensurately higher, in the hopes of creating a deterrent effect. Unfortunately, this hasn’t quite happened in most consumer states [of the Indian star tortoise], resulting in India’s population of the species continuing to face immense pressure,” said Krishnasamy.

    Star tortoise trade continues

    In India, data collated by the non-profit the Wildlife Protection Society of India and shared with The Third Pole shows that authorities seized 3,500 star tortoises in 24 incidents across 2020 and 2021 – after the CITES ban came into effect. In 2022 so far, there have been two reported seizures in the country, involving a total of 1,498 star tortoises. Given that only a small proportion of smuggling attempts are likely intercepted by authorities, the true number of tortoises in ongoing illegal trade is likely far higher.

    Their journey usually begins, according to Louies who has worked undercover identifying star tortoise trade routes, with a local person spotting the tortoise in the wild and passing it on to a collector in exchange for a small finder’s fee. It is then given to an exporter who packs numerous tortoises together, hiding them in vegetable cartons, suitcases, or cargo. Tape is wrapped around the star tortoises’ legs to limit movement before they are flown out of the country, most often to a destination in Southeast Asia.

    Airport staff, trained to look for narcotics or metal objects rather than reptiles, tend to miss the tortoises, Louies explained.

    Once landed, traders might sell them locally. Alternatively, they might be sent on to another country further afield for higher prices. New owners of star tortoises on Facebook groups list locations from Glenrothes in Scotland to Davao City in the Philippines. “Hong Kong and Thailand act as gateways,” said Neil D’Cruze, head of animal welfare and research at the NGO World Animal Protection, which has conducted research on Indian star tortoise trade.

    But many don’t make it to their final destination. “When taped up or packed too tightly, they can’t move their heads and their limbs. With the kind of distress, disease and respiratory problems [they experience], can come cracked shells and suffocation,” D’Cruze said.

    The eventual owners will be likely unaware of their new pet’s backstory, Louies said. “It’s like a camera or mobile phone. You purchase but you don’t worry about whether your iPhone is manufactured in a sweatshop in China or Vietnam or Bangladesh,” he added.

    Law enforcement fails

    In India, where the star tortoise is protected under Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, anyone found in possession of the species could face criminal charges, with sentences of up to six months’ imprisonment. But in reality, the punishment is likely to be only a small fine and a shorter jail sentence, even for those who are known to be seasoned smugglers, Louies said. One man in particular, he said, flew between Chennai and Bangkok with star tortoises in his possession over 34 times in two years before he was caught. While his case is still ongoing, Louies believes he is unlikely to receive a sentence longer than three to six months.

    The lack of clear punishment for illegal trade of the star tortoise means there isn’t enough of a deterrent for traders, according to Louies. “It boils down to intelligence-led investigations to crack down on criminal networks and enforcement of regulations and laws,” Krishnasamy said.

    Another challenge is the fact that in many countries, legal protections are limited to native species. While the act of smuggling an Indian star tortoise into a country itself is illegal thanks to CITES, once a star tortoise has entered many countries – including Thailand and Indonesia – it is not protected. This means authorities may be unable to investigate and prosecute buying, selling and possession of the smuggled animals.

    In Indonesia, loopholes mean “if you make it past customs you’re basically home free and can sell them openly in the shops”, said Chris Shepherd, executive director at Monitor Conservation Research Society, a non-profit dedicated to preventing a decline in species impacted by wildlife trade through research.

    Tortoises for fish

    NGOs such as TRAFFIC have encouraged Thailand to expand its laws to cover non-native species. Campaigners have also urged the European Union to follow the example of the United States, where the Lacey Act makes it illegal to buy or sell any species that was collected in violation of laws in its native country.

    Malaysia’s listing of the star tortoise as a protected species under its Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 has meant its removal from pet shops. Yet even when laws do exist to protect species like the star tortoise, Shepherd warned in many places they are “almost a bad joke”. He called for countries failing to enforce CITES to be penalised.

    Trade sanctions are supposed to be enforced on countries if they don’t fulfil their duties under CITES, but in practice these have been few and far between, said Alice Hughes, professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, focusing on Southeast Asian conservation science. “Even the tools it [CITES] does have are not being used,” said Hughes.

    Embedding heavy fines or year-long prison sentences into national frameworks alongside proper investigations into supply chains could help tackle persistent illegal trade in Indian star tortoises, said Louies.

    Investigations that tackle players higher up the trade chain – rather than simply penalising often vulnerable (and replaceable) smaller players – have been repeatedly emphasised by wildlife trafficking experts as a key missing piece of the enforcement puzzle. But following the money to unearth such groups can be difficult, Louies said, as traders often negotiate in terms of product rather than any money being exchanged. “I send you star tortoises, you give me fish.”

     

    Illustration: Kabini Amin / The Third Pole

    This piece has been sourced from The Third Pole

    Women demand peace and justice on the streets of Myanmar

    Inter Press Service
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    Women demand peace and justice on the streets of Myanmar

    The coming Tuesday 8 March will be the second international women’s day since the brutal coup erupted in Myanmar – and women remain fiercely in the lead in demanding justice and peace in the streets and behind closed doors.

    By May Sabe Phyu

    Last February, the military coup threw Myanmar into further chaos and violence. The military used excessive force, indiscriminate killings, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, limits on civic space, nightly raids, and more.

    With this complete upheaval, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are in the midst of a set of complex emergencies. The world watched in horror, but as usual, the situation quickly faded from the headlines, the public conscious, and policy priorities.

    Under these circumstances, the people of Myanmar have held steadfast. With the onset of the coup, people expressed their dissent and opposition against the seizure of political power. Everyday sheroes and heroes shunned the security of their secure jobs and pensions to join the civil disobedience movement.

    Myanmar has seen protracted civil war for 70 years, but what makes this time difference is the scope of the conflicts. There are new armed clashes across the country with local forces standing up to defend their lives and their communities.

    Meanwhile, old conflicts have also re-emerged due to the military’s crackdown of the pro-democracy movement. There is widespread violence against the civilian population and on humanitarian workers. The junta has committed atrocities., prompting the UN General Assembly to declare the army’s actions as crimes against humanity.

    Gender violence

    This year, the women activists of Myanmar will be campaigning with the themes of “Break the Bias, End Discrimination” and “Break the Bias, End Dictatorship.” It takes a lot to keep the women of Myanmar off the streets, but escalating threats are forcing many to raise their voices and awareness through different means.

    In addition to some public protests, social media and digital campaigns are sharing women’s stories of discrimination. Any act of resistance under the military rule brings risk, but we will not be silenced.

    Women account for more than half of those participating in the protests and aid response, and they face heightened risks for violence and more. Women peacebuilders and girls in the community face gender-based violence without warning, and we must protect them from these risks before and after they develop.

    Women often need to flee without notice, but the current system does not meet their specific needs. We would like to develop a special fund for women who are forced to leave their communities abruptly.

    Access to funds

    More than the very real threats of physical violence, NGOs and civil society organizations face other challenges that block the assistance they aim to provide – many organizations cannot access their funds and are unable to formally register their organizations because the Central Bank of Myanmar is controlling the foreign money coming into the country.

    Despite these hurdles in all directions and threats to themselves and their families, first responders continue to jump into the fray, scrambling to find resources necessary for their work.

    Even after many countries condemned the SAC’s egregious acts against their own people, we have seen little concrete action or improvement in the situation. It feels like many in the international community are overwhelmed and therefore paralyzed, but international solidarity and pressure makes a difference at all levels and is needed more than ever.

    Release political prisoners

    We appeal for leaders to listen to the people on the ground and to be willing to support for women’s human rights organizations with the creativity and flexibility that is necessary to meet our specific and changing needs.

    The United States has tools at their disposal to support the people of Myanmar and bring accountability to those committing atrocities – and one in particular that could move the needle:

    The Burma Act is an important piece of legislation that provides urgently-needed resources to civil society, pro-democracy organizations, and humanitarian agencies. It also calls for the United States to exert pressure on the UN to take decisive actions on Burma.

    The Burma Act also outlines the unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Myanmar. The Burma Act is very much in line with what the people of Myanmar have been calling for. I and my fellow activists urge Congress to pass this legislation urgently.

    The Burma Act would be a vital step, but it’s one of many we need to see real and lasting progress: The United Nations, the international community, and leaders must do all in their power to support the women-led movement for peace and democracy in Myanmar.

    Activists – with women at the forefront – continue to bravely flash the three-finger salute, wave the sarong flags, and tell their stories. The international community must match their bold acts to make sure their insistent dream of democracy, human rights, and peace can be realized.

     

    May Sabe Phyu is a Kachin social worker and activist from Burma. She is the director of the Gender Equality Network and founded the Kachin Women’s Peace Network and the Kachin Peace Network to promote the rights of Kachin women.

    Lack of early warning systems ‘leave millions at risk’

    SciDevNet
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    Lack of early warning systems ‘leave millions at risk’

    A damning climate report shows billions in the global South are highly vulnerable. The report’s authors call for urgent investment in adaptation, such as early warning systems and warn that the window for global action to address crisis is ‘rapidly closing’.

    By Fiona Broom

    A lack of extreme weather early warning systems means millions of lives are at risk in climate-vulnerable communities in the global South, climate scientists warn in a landmark report.

    Billions of people are living in hotspots of high climate vulnerability in Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, and small island developing states, warns the latest adaptation assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

    Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said during the launch of the report’s summary for policymakers that it was critical to increase attention on adaptation, as extreme weather events continue to get worse in the coming decades.

    “One of the powerful ways to adapt is to invest in early warning services. But the basic weather and climate observing networks have severe gaps in Africa and island states,” Taalas said. Only half of the 193 members of the WMO had these services, resulting in higher human and economic losses, he added.

    Increasingly frequent and intense global weather events have reduced food and water security and hindered efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, the report found.

    “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group II that produced the report.

    UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that the assessment report was like no other scientific report he had ever seen, calling it an “atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership”.

    The document examines the risks posed by global warming, while offering ways that communities in different regions can adapt to the impacts of climate change.

    Urgent adaptation

    Small islands present the most urgent need for investment in capacity building and adaptation strategies, the report found, while Asia is facing increasingly severe heatwaves, monsoons and glacier melting.

    Impacts on rural livelihoods and food security, particularly for small and medium-sized farmers and indigenous peoples in the mountains, are projected to worsen in Central and South America.

    Working Group II co-chair Debra Roberts said that current global finance for adaptation was insufficient, especially for developing countries.

    The “overwhelming majority” of global climate finance was targeted at emissions reductions, said Roberts, head of the sustainable and resilient city initiatives unit at South Africa’s eThekwini municipality, which includes the city of Durban.

    Climate finance for adaptation in Africa is billions of dollars short of what it needs to be to reach even the lowest adaptation cost estimates, according to the report.

    Analysis released last week (25 February) by Power Shift Africa, a think tank led by founding director Mohamed Adow, found that governments in Africa are spending up to US$90 million a year on climate adaptation, despite contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions.

    Meanwhile, small island developing states lack access to data for climate modelling, the report says, which impedes their abilities to plan for and adapt to future extreme weather.

    “This report shows that the rich world needs to radically increase adaptation support to those on the front lines of this emergency,” said Adow. “With 2022 seeing the UN climate summit COP27 taking place in Africa, this is the perfect year to address the adaptation crisis.”

    Mami Mizutori, special representative of the UN secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, said: “The IPCC report points to many solutions on improving regional and local information, providing sound data and knowledge for decision-makers. This does work. Countries have succeeded in saving many lives through improved early warning systems and preparedness.”

    Mizutori said that more investment in disaster prevention and risk reduction was needed for the world’s most vulnerable countries.

    The report identified 127 risks covering a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, economies, infrastructure, and ecosystems. However, it suggests there are adaption measures that are feasible and effective and can reduce risks to people and nature.

    Ecosystem restoration is a powerful tool for improving adaptation, the report says, while flood risks can be met by enhancing natural water retention by restoring wetlands and rivers, or upstream forest management.

    Effective adaptation strategies and supportive public policies can enhance food availability and stability, and reduce climate risk for food systems while increasing their sustainability, the report says.

     

    This piece has been sourced from SciDev.Net

    Image: Jessie F. Delos Reyes, Public Domain.

    Indian economy: Growth slows down; Ukraine crisis triggers inflation fears

    Policy Circle
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    0
    Indian economy: Growth slows down; Ukraine crisis triggers inflation fears

    The Ukraine crisis will have serious repercussions for the Indian economy, which is still struggling with post-COVID-19 recovery.

    The Indian economy expanded 5.4 per cent in the October-December quarter, much slower than in the previous two quarters, forcing the National Statistical Office to cut its growth forecast for the financial year ending March to 8.9 per cent from the earlier projection of 9.2 per cent.

    While the economy has managed to notch up decent growth numbers, it is still troubled by slack demand and rising prices. The Reserve Bank of India had pegged GDP growth rate at 9.2 per cent for the current financial year, while projecting a lower 7.8 per cent for 2022-23. The RBI left key policy rates unchanged to support economic recovery despite inflation testing its tolerance limit. The economy grew 8.4 per cent in the September quarter, sharply lower than the 20.1 per cent in the June quarter.

    The NSO puts the real GDP for the current financial year (2011-12 prices) at Rs 147.72 lakh crore, compared with the first revised estimate of Rs 135.58 lakh crore. The GDP for the December quarter stood at Rs 38.22 lakh crore, compared with Rs 36.26 lakh crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

    Slow growth to hurt Indian economy

    Slow growth may hurt investment and employment creation in the economy. The biggest worry for the government is persistently low consumption demand which is yet to regain pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic and lockdown measures hit sectors such as travel, tourism, restaurants and small businesses, resulting in the loss of a large number of jobs.

    Rising crude prices in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could further cause problems for the Indian economy. The country imports close to 80 per cent of its oil needs. The rising prices of crude oil may fuel inflation and hit the rupee further. A 10 per cent increase in crude prices could pare the growth rate by 0.2 percentage points.

    Inflation based on the consumer price index stood at 6.01 per cent in January 2022, higher than the 5.66 per cent in the previous month. While the rate is just above the RBI’s comfort level, it masks the problem of rising food inflation which soared to 5.4 per cent in January from sub-1 per cent levels in October 2021. This spike is on account of a 24 per cent increase in edible oil prices during the period, while costlier fruits, vegetables and cereals accentuated the problem.

    Inflation in the category of cereals is perplexing. India’s foodgrain policy has contributed largely to this new phenomenon. The country’s foodgrain stock as of February 1 was 87 million tonne, more than four times the required buffer stock. By keeping such huge stocks in its godowns, India is stifling the availability of cereals in the domestic market, thus fuelling inflation.

    Moody’s Investors Service had raised its growth projection for the financial year 2022-2023 to 8.4 per cent from 7.9 per cent, while cautioning of the rising oil prices and supply disruptions. Moody’s higher growth projection is based on the speed of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Fitch Ratings, however, kept its earlier projection of 10.3 per cent unchanged.

     

    This piece has been sourced from Policy Circle — www.policycircle.org/ 

    CIC Information commission annual report shows data mismatches, discrepancies

    OWSA Contributor
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    CIC Information commission annual report shows data mismatches, discrepancies

    The trends of submissions and disposals of RTI applications, as conveyed by the annual report of the central information commission, suggests that the data submitted public authorities, ministries and departments has not been examined adequately.

    By Venkatesh Nayak

    The central information commission’s 2020-21 annual report, prepared in accordance with the mandate under Section 25 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, contains a wealth of statistics, all of which require a detailed analysis and comparison with the data published in the previous year’s annual report.

    Is there a pattern to the disposal of RTI applications across key ministries, departments and public authorities and the performance of the various union territories administrations?

    2,182 of the 2,275 central level public authorities registered with the central information commissioner (CIC) submitted their RTI statistics for preparing the latest annual report. According to the CIC, this amounts to 95.91 per cent compliance. While the number of registered public authorities increased by 82 over the figure of 2019-20, this figure is much lesser than the 2,333 public authorities which had registered with the CIC in 2012-13.

    Further, according to the RTI online facility set up for electronic submission of RTI applications, there are 2,464 public authorities at the Central level. Despite 16 years of implementation of the RTI Act, all public authorities are not dutifully registering themselves with the CIC for filing RTI-related returns and even among those registered, over 200 of these do not comply with the reporting requirement. This is cause for concern.

    Downward trend

    According to the annual report, 13,33,802 (13.33 million) RTI applications were received across the reporting public authorities in 2020-21. This is 2.95 per cent fewer RTI applications than the 2019-20 figure (13,74,315 or 13.74 million). It appears that there was only a marginal decline in the number of RTI applications filed during the first year of the pandemic as compared with the previous year which recorded the highest number of RTI applications filed with central public authorities since the enforcement of the law in 2005.

    The total figures presented in the annual report include the RTI application statistics from the union territories administration as well. So, if the figure of 1.25 lakh (125,000) RTI applications filed with the union territories is deducted, the total figure for the central level public authorities, the number of RTI applications filed with them falls to 12.08 lakhs (1.20 million) for 2020-21. Central level public authorities (minus union territories) received 12.39 lakh (1.23 million) RTI applications in 2019-20. So the reduction in the number of RTIs files in 2020-21 is only 2.48 per cent. This suggests that the pandemic did not prove to be a dampener. Instead, people continued to seek information from various ministries much like before;

    The biggest fall in the number of RTI applications received during the pandemic year was reported by the Ministry of Finance (including banks, insurance companies and other finance and tax related public authorities) with 21,657 fewer RTI applications coming its way in 2020-21 followed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs reporting a shortfall of 20,269 RTI applications as compared with the 2019-20 figure.

    Upward Trend

    While the downward trend in the number of RTI applications filed in 2020-21 is noticeable across several ministries and departments, some of them reported a rising trend as well when compared with 2019-20. For example, the ministry of health and family welfare reported a 79.09 per cent increase in RTI applications during the pandemic year (60,423) as compared to that in 2019-20 (33,738 RTIs). The ministry of steel reported an increase of 149.40 per cent and the ministry of textiles 54.64 per cent.

    Ministries and public authorities which reported  up to 50 per cent increase in RTIs during the pandemic year are: the ministry of external affairs (48.11 per cent), the ministry of labour and employment (46.90 per cent), the ministry of rural development (41.18 per cent), ministry of electronics and information technology (39.61 per cent), the ministry of civil aviation (33.94 per cent), the ministry of home affairs (33.37 per cent), ministry of information and broadcasting (13.95 per cent), ministry of panchayati raj (13.54 per cent), ministry of ayush (13.27 per cent), ministry of women and child development (10.90 per cent), ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions (10.30 per cent), ministry of law and justice (5.67 per cent), ministry of coal (3.09 per cent), ministry of power (2.41 per cent), ministry of social justice and empowerment (2.40 per cent), ministry of housing and urban affairs (2.12 per cent), and the ministry of science and technology (2.01 per cent).

    It is clear from the above figures is that both line ministries which were involved in coordinating relief efforts (health, labour, home etc.) and several ministries looking after infrastructure reported a hike.

    Trends with regard to fees collected

    According to the annual report, a total of Rs. 66.87 lakhs was collected by way of application and additional fee (reproduction charges) from RTI applicants in 2020-21. This is a short fall of more than a quarter (26.62 per cent) of the amount collected in 2019-20 (Rs. 91.13 lakhs or Rs. 9.11 million);

    As regards the breakups, the pandemic year accounted for Rs. 45.53 lakhs (Rs. 4.55 million) collected in the form of application fees – a shortfall of 20.38 per cent over the previous year’s total of Rs. 57.18 lakhs (Rs. 5.71 million).

    The shortfall in the collection of additional fees (Rs. 21.34 lakhs or 2.13 million) was more than a third (37.15 per cent) as compared to the additional fees collected for reproducing information in 2019-20 (Rs. 33.95 lakhs or 3.39 million).

    The trends with regard to the collection of application fees raise two important issues. First, as explained above, the shortfall in the number of RTI applications was only 2.95 per cent across the over 2,000 central level public authorities including the union territory administrations during the pandemic year. If the number of RTI applications submitted in the union territories is deducted, the decline in the number of RTI applications during the pandemic year is only 2.48 per cent. This ought to have corresponded with the shortfall in the collection of application fees. However, the shortfall in application fees collected is ten times higher than the shortfall in the number of RTI applications filed. The annual report does not contain any observation or comment about this mismatch.

    Damn statistics

    More importantly, if the total amount of application fee collected is only Rs. 45.53 lakhs, this can account for only 4,55,300.09 applications submitted during the pandemic year. Were the remaining 8.78 lakh (878,502) RTI applications (out of 13.33 lakhs or 1.33 million) submitted and processed without the accompanying application fees? According to the RTI rules notified in 2012, an RTI applicant who does not belong to below the poverty line family is required to pay Rs. 10 per RTI application for it to even be processed. Under Section 7(6) of the RTI Act, only BPL applicants are exempted from paying both application fee and additional fees (reproduction charges). It is highly unlikely that such a large majority of RTI applications were submitted by BPL applicants. This mismatch between the number of RTI applications received and the quantum of application fee collected is mysterious;

    Perhaps the discrepancy between the number of RTI applications clocked and the amount of applications fees collected during the pandemic year might be due to the transfer of RTI applications between public authorities where every public authority which receives an RTI application by way of transfer under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act as a fresh application and adds it to its total. In other words, the same RTI application might be accounted for multiple times depending on how many times it was transferred between public authorities. An additional factor could also be the double counting of RTI applications which are forwarded by one CPIO to another within the same public authority as is common practice. If this is true the total number of RTI applications filed uniquely i.e., after deducting the number of times they were transferred or forwarded might be much lower than the total figure reported in the annual report.

    Transfer of RTI applications

    According to the annual report, a total of 1.95 lakh RTI applications were transferred between public authorities during the pandemic year. This is 6.78 per cent more than the number of RTI applications transferred in 2019-20 (1.82 lakh or 182,988).

    Even after accounting for the number of RTI applications, officially recognised as having been transferred between public authorities, the mystery about the mismatch between the number of RTI applications filed and the quantum of application fee collected during the pandemic year does not clear up. A similar mismatch is noticeable in the comparative figures in the annual report for previous years. Even if this is just a case of oversight, it has a glaring connotation to the Central Information Commission’s work of ensuring that the narrative part of its annual report matches with the data. Or is there more to it?

    Macro-level rejection trends

    According to the annual report, a total of 51,390 RTI applications were rejected by public authorities during the pandemic year. This is 11.9 per cent fewer RTI applications rejected than what was done in 2019-20 (58,364 rejections). According to the annual report, the proportion of RTI applications rejected during the pandemic year was 3.85 per cent, a tad lesser than the 4 per cent reported in 2019-20.

    However, there is a discrepancy between the total number of rejections and percentage as calculated at row #7 of the data-tables contained in Annexure I of the annual report on the one hand, and the total displayed at the bottom of the data-tables on the other hand, after the clause-wise rejections are accounted for. The figure mentioned at the bottom of the data-table is 53,537 instances of rejection. This is a discrepancy of more than 2,147. In some cases, the totals in row #7 and the total at the bottom of the data table tally with each other. How can this happen in this era of computerised tables?

    The CIC has not elected to comment on this discrepancy. If 53,537 rejections are taken as the correct figure because it is backed up by clause-wise data, the total rejections amount to 3 per cent of the total number of RTI applications that were available for processing (backlog from 2019-20 plus fresh receipts during the pandemic year). If the rejections are taken to be a proportion of only the fresh receipts during the pandemic year, the figure is 4.01 per cent. i.e., a tad more than the rejections reported in 2019-20. So how did the CIC arrive at the figure of 3.85 per cent is yet another mystery.

    Dubious others

    Almost two-thirds of the RTI applications appear to have been rejected for reasons other than permissible grounds contained in Sections 8, 9, 11 and 24 of the RTI Act. The rejection under the dubious “Others” category accounts for 32.29 per cent (17,286 instances) of the total number of rejections. It might be just a consolation that this figure has reduced since previous year when the number of rejections recorded under the “Others” category was 38.69 per cent.

    An end note

    Does all of this inspire confidence? It must be pointed out that the CIC does not appear to have examined the data submitted by public authorities, ministries and departments adequately. After 16 years of enforcement of the RTI Act, the CIC must make the effort to redefine its role from being a mere accountant of RTI statistics to that of an auditor of the performance of ministries, departments and public authorities.

     

    Venkatesh Nayak is an RTI activist and he works for the Commonwealth Human Rights Institute. The views expressed here are his personal views. 

     

    Imaga: Wikimedia  /  Author: Saachith

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