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Month: May 2020

North Gonder Invests 22.5m Br in Sport Facilities

Posted on by Web Master

The Administration of North Gonder Zone has invested 22.5 million Br in the construction of an athletics centre and small stadium in two towns.

The athletic centre, which is set to be built in Dabat town, will have a one-storey structure that rests on 7,500ha of land. The centre, which is expected to cost 7.5 million Br, will have 30 rooms for different purposes, a gymnasium, dining space and an entertainment hall. The athletic centres will have the capacity to accommodate over 400 athletes at once.

Zewdu Yohanes General Contractor, a local grade-five construction company that has been in business for a decade, was awarded the project that is set to be completed in six months. Fiseha Tesfaye Consulting, another local architectural firm, was hired to supervise the construction of the centre.

In the Zone there are 47 athletic clubs including Red Fox Athletics in the Janmora District, the Arada Dejan in Dabat District and Walia Athletics Team in Debark. Established five years ago, the teams have been participating at national championships and at tournaments in Africa and around the world.

However, the athletic teams have faced challenges finding facilities for training, according to Alelign Kassa, a sports team leader under the Social Development Department of North Gonder Zone.

“Building the centre is part of the strategic plan of the Zone to support athletic sports and athletes from the area to be successful at the national and global level,” said Alelign.

The small stadium will be built in Debark town for 15 million Br. Expected to take five years, the stadium that rests on 10,000ha will have a standard track. It will also have a one-storey structure with 38 rooms for the administrative offices of the athletics federation.

The Zone is in the process of hiring a company for the construction of the stadium, according to Alelign.

The Zone is investing in infrastructure for sports activities since the area has a favourable environment, according to Fantaye Fikadu, head of the communications office of North Gonder Zone.

In the Zone, which incorporates six weredas and two administrative towns, Debark and Dabet, no large-scale projects existed until 2010, when Debark University was built. The second and third large projects in the area will be the athletics facility and the stadium.

Fikir Yirekel, a sports journalist, appreciates the construction of the facilities for their contribution to enabling competent athletes, who can represent the country on the regional and international front.

It is also good when centres are built close to the villages of the athletes since most of them have to come to Addis Abeba for training, according to Fikir.

“It’ll save their costs for house rent and other daily expenses,” he said.

The objective of these facilities should also be to encourage as many citizens as possible to engage in physical activities and sports, according to Fikir.

“The centres should also be used for other sports activities for the community such as summer camps and jogging,” he said.

Most importantly, the centres should not be neglected after being built like Tirunesh Dibaba Athletics Training Centre in Bokoji and Woldia Stadium, according to the sports commentator.

“After these facilities were built,” said Fikir, “they didn’t serve their purposes and were neglected.”

Ethiopia Grapples with Flood Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on by Web Master

On a Friday afternoon, April 24, 2020, the bodies of two individuals, 19 and 45, were discovered in Hamdael area, Dire Dawa City, following a flood caused by heavy rainfall. The bodies were found by local residents a kilometre away from their homes, swept downstream. The flash flood, which also took the lives of two children, ages four and two months, left six people injured and close to 500 households displaced in a day.

The flood has exposed over 2,000 families to food shortages in the area and destroyed close to one million Birr worth of property. Destruction of varying levels was caused to over 250 houses, power poles and water pipes. Out of the nine kebeles, eight were struck by the flood.

So far, Dire Dawa’s Disaster Risk Management Coordination Office has distributed materials worth 600,000 Birr, including clothes, sanitiser, and mattresses, and food items that cost about 700,000 Br to the victims, according to Harbi Bouh, head of the Office.

Vulnerable households are being evacuated, and people are taking shelter with their neighbours. The city is collecting funds to buy housing materials for the victims, according to Abdurrahman Birre, administrator of Kebele 09, where seven houses were completely destroyed and 60 houses partially ruined.

This is not unique to the administrative state of Dire Dawa. Regional states like Harari, Southern Nations Nationalities & People (SNNPR), Somali and Oromia have also been experiencing flash floods following heavy rainfall.

In the past month of April alone, flooding and landslides affected 220,000 people, and close to 110,000 people have been displaced in the Southern, Somali and Afar regional states, as well as Dire Dawa.

In Godere Wereda, Gambela Regional State, over a million trees have been destroyed by a flash flood after heavy rainfall that came down for two and a half consecutive hours on May 10, 2020, according to Udol Aguwa, head of the Gambela Regional State Government Press Secretariat.

The loss of human life and property damage has been an inescapable element in most of the regions.

The Southern Nations, Nationalities, & People’s Regional State has experienced extensive rainfall that has resulted in the loss of human life and damage to property. In Jinka town, a heavy flood that overflowed the Neri River inflicted damage on infrastructure and crops and swept away livestock. A few days later, the same town flooded leaving 20 houses razed, 84 households displaced, and 1,430ha of crops and crop fields destroyed.

Two people lost their lives and two more were injured in a landslide in Gacho Baba and Geresse Weredas in the Gamo Zone on April 11, 2020. Consequently, 33 livestock died, 52 houses were destroyed, 305 households were displaced, and 481 households with about 3,000 family members were left in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

On May 28, 10 people died in Gamo Zone, Gacho Baba Wereda, because of a landslide that followed heavy rainfall and a flash flood.

Over the past two months, flood accidents have become a headache for the country while it battles the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Seasonal flooding in April and May has so far affected 470,163 people, of whom some 301,284 people are displaced in Somali, Oromia, Afar, SNNP and Harari regional states as well as Dire Dawa City Administration, according to a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA).

“The situation is particularly severe in the Somali Regional State where more than 79pc of the flood-affected and displaced people are located,” reads the report.

The unprecedented heavy rainfalls during the last winter season, from December throughout February, is due to the ever-increasing warming of the northwestern Indian Ocean and positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), according to reports from the National Meteorology Agency.

Heavy rainfall ravaged the West Guji Zone, Oromia Regional State, on May 15, 2020, causing the death of three people and 40 million Br in damages. The flash flood displaced 63,000 families and affected close to 9,000 households.

These kinds of natural disasters are contributing to the number of internally displaced people in the country. As of October 2019, Ethiopia has over 1.6 million internally displaced people, of which, 1.1 million were displaced by conflict, 424,845 by drought, and 35,995 by floods.

The heavy rainfalls, however, were forecasted, according to Ahmedin Abdulkerim, communications affairs director at the National Meteorology Agency.

“The Agency has been warning about the flash floods and the landslides,” Ahmedin said.

Concerned government offices should heed the forecasts the Agency projected and take precautionary measures such as evacuating potentially susceptible households and resettling them, according to Ahmedin.

Shinile Zone in the Somali Regional State is another area that was hit by a flash flood last month. The accident affected 34,500 people and swept away 1,200 livestock. More than 3,000ha of vegetables and crops have also been destroyed and 200 water pumps have been washed away.

To withstand the impact, the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC), a national agency tasked with disaster response, risk management, preventive measures and recovery programmes, has prepared food and non-food items and shelters to assist victims, according to Debebe Zewde, public relations director at the Commission.

But this is far from over.

According to forecasts from the Meteorology Agency, unusually extensive rain is expected to fall in eastern, southeastern, southern, southwestern and central parts of the country in the coming weeks and months due to the northward progression of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

In May 2020, around 21,000 people are likely to be affected by flash floods, and out of these 19,000 are anticipated to be vulnerable to displacement, according to the Commission.

UN-OCHA Ethiopia has allocated 23 million dollars worth of non-food items provided by humanitarian assistance for prioritised IDPs, according to Malda Nadew, public relations head at UNOCHA.

The severity of flash floods is aggravated by man-made factors such as soil degradation and deforestation, according to Gemedo Dalle (PhD), an associate professor of vegetation ecology and biodiversity management at Addis Abeba University and the former minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change.

“The land is so degraded and eroded that it’s unable to absorb and conserve the rainfall,” he said.

While there are precautionary actions, working on early warning systems, evacuation and resettlement, and reforesting degraded areas with a non-cereal plant can be some of the short-term solutions, Gemedo advised.

The expert recommends land policy improvement as one possible long-term measure.

The government should have a clear-cut policy and strategy on land utilisation, institutionalised and consistent reforestation campaigns, integrative agricultural practices, settlement regulation and livelihood diversification as well, he recommends.

An integrated approach from all government bodies is also vital.

“Rainfall is very important, and if we manage it improperly droughts will be caused which are even more disastrous than excess rainfall and floods,” he added.

The Ethiopian government has been busy with the fight against the spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). It passed many decisions that committed most of its resources to prevent the potential transmission of the virus to grassroots-level efforts.

The extensive rainfall is caused by the escalation of the positive Indian Ocean Dipole over the Horn of Africa, cold wind moisture pressure from northern Australia and hot moisture pressure from the coasts of Somalia coming across the Horn of Africa, according to Tadesse Terefe, assistant professor of atmospheric physics and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics Space Science & Astronomy under Addis Abeba University.

Because of the oscillation of the sea surface temperature between the southeastern and northwestern poles of the Indian Ocean, the southern and south-eastern parts of the country are more likely to experience the effects of the positive IOD and heavy rainfall, according to the researcher.

“The hot and cold wind moisture from the northern and southern Indian Ocean couldn’t traverse beyond East Africa because of cyclones in Madagascar, and the moisture pressure condenses there and results in heavy rainfall,” said Tadesse. “Countries located in tropical East Africa are most likely to experience extensive and to some extent devastating rainfall because of the increasing occurrence of the positive Indian Ocean Dipole.”

High cloud pressure is also the cause of heavy thunderstorms and cyclones.

The government should heed meteorological predictions, recommends Tadesse.

 

 

Home Together: The Power Dynamics

Posted on by Web Master

Although it is crucial, and we should heed the calls for social distancing and home quarantining from health professionals, we cannot help but realise that it is driving us a little crazy.

On the quest to sanity and purpose, we find ourselves far more often trying to feel productive, either by doing house chores we have not done in a while or getting creative on social media.

When we run out of things to do, we also start focusing on others around us, studying and observing their every move. Occasionally, we get annoyed at the realisation that their ways are very different from ours.

Recently, as I was walking home, I overheard a conversation two ladies were having. It is preferable not to eavesdrop, but I was behind them, and they were walking slow and blocking a narrow road that leads to my house. I did not have a choice.

The women were talking about their husbands and children. One of the ladies had hair dyed brown and was wearing a sweater and jeans. The other donned a colourful long-sleeved dress with heels. They looked to be in their 30s.

“My husband is driving me crazy. He is spending most of his time playing video games and doesn’t give me any time,” said the lady in the sweater.

The lady in a dress shared her friend’s frustration. Her husband was also not giving her enough attention and spent most of the time on his phone. Whenever she tries to talk to him, he does not really listen but just nods and gets back to scrolling on his phone.

“I told him how boring he was making me feel every time he went to his phone,” she said. “But he brushed me off and said he was trying to establish a business online and asked me to bear with him for a while.”

It is interesting how women crave attention from their spouses. We want them to recognise our efforts, to look good for them. Even if what we do is small, like getting our eyebrows done, we demand recognition.

“Thank God for schools,” the lady in the sweater continued, now moving on to her children from her husband. “I don’t know how teachers deal with children all day. They deserve respect and higher salaries. I had to keep myself from smacking my kid more than once.” Her friend agreed, “I can’t imagine. I hear boys are difficult to raise and give you a hard time.”

There may not be truth to this. It is not an issue of gender but of a child’s upbringing and their personality. But sometimes, as parents, we want our children to listen to each thing we say and do as they are told without asking questions. This, in the long run, creates an individual who grows up to conform to society and does not really challenge anyone.

The ladies continued their banter. The woman in  the dress said that she tries to let things go to avoid arguing with her husband.

“I guess it took me this quarantine to realise how annoying my husband can be at times,” she said. “I think to myself, ‘Who does that?’ and I want to shake some sense into him.”

She mentioned how she asked him not to stay over at his brother’s house, as he was spending up to five days a week there. He agreed. Shortly after, she caught him on the phone with his brother, asking him to come and pick him up. She stopped talking to him for two days. When he finally realised how angry she was, he tried to apologise, in his own way, and they managed to clear up the issue.

There is always a power struggle in relationships, and the COVID-19 lockdowns are making that all too clear. There will be a struggle to either gain autonomy or control over the other person. This means that sometimes one of the spouses in a relationship loses sight of what is important and chooses a road that does not benefit either themselves or their partner. When this happens, one of them feels the need to address the concern.

Usually, women are the ones that voice their concerns and, when that happens, men feel threatened and think their spouses are trying to change them. They get defensive. And on and on it goes.

When the Elephants Fight, Developing Nations Get Sick

Posted on by Web Master

Controversies are engulfing the global response toward the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Threats and counter-threats of support for the World Health Organisation (WHO), the agency mandated to look after the health of the globe, have dominated the news for some time. We will probably continue to hear about it for the foreseeable future, at least until the United States’ upcoming presidential election.

The WHO’s relevance, effectiveness and clout have always been a source of debate in the global health field. For those of us in the health system, this is not new, and it will continue to divide opinion depending on where one is on the globe.

For those that work in the health systems of low and middle-income countries, the WHO remains a source of much-needed guidance, knowledge and resources to tackle both local and global health issues. Developing nations rely heavily on the organisation to implement their national health policies.

On the other side of the divide, in the developed countries the WHO has little significance in guiding the operations of health systems. Coupled with a rigid bureaucracy and an increasingly troublesome budget, a new debate has been sparked over its effectiveness.

A global pandemic was always going to put these inherent frailties of the organisation in the spotlight. The COVID-19 pandemic is now serving as the script for global powers to showcase where they stand and what they can do in terms of carrying out their global responsibilities. The decision by the US to hold back its funding is one example of how a powerful nation could take away significant portions of funding and put the lives of millions of people in the developing world in danger.

One can only imagine the consequences of interrupting even for a short time the funding that goes into combating diseases that affect women and children, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. For many of us who have lived through the devastation AIDS has caused to the poor of the world, there is no need for imagination. Memory serves us very well.

The other side of this story is, of course, the counter-narrative. As soon as the US announced its decision to withhold funding until the WHO complies with its demands, China swiftly pledged an additional 30 million dollars for the Organisation – a move that was as commendable as it was intriguing. We will never know if China is moving to position itself as a potential candidate to fill the void that will be left in case the US delivers on its threat to leave the WHO.

But why would two powerful nations fight over crucial funding needed to combat a world pandemic to the world’s only international health organisation?

This has to do with global health politics. In the relatively pure mind of many citizens, health is a sacred state of being – a good that needs to be cherished and protected from the evil hands of politics. It is considered a right that needs to be respected like all the other benefits we believe are entitled to anyone by virtue of being human.

However, these same qualities make health a commodity too – something one can have and something that can be given and denied. It is these characteristics that make health a focal point for politics. Health is socially determined, and the social is almost always determined by politics, rendering health a political tool at a national level.

However, as the movement of people has increased over the years with the advent of globalisation, a new paradigm emerged for health at the global stage. When people move, they move with their illnesses and vulnerabilities. This means the entire world becomes one big risk zone for ailments from other faraway lands. This forced nations to come together and decide what kind of policy they should follow to deal with the health of people around the globe and eventually made health one of the pillars of the global security agenda.

Countries adopted one of two policy approaches in determining their role in global health issues. They either opted for cooperation or an isolationist policy. In the former, global health issues are generally taken as challenges to humankind. This attitude perceives national health systems. When global health problems like pandemics arise, the rest do not sit and watch. They act in unison, and they all commit to a shared health governance in policymaking. This approach to policy gives the WHO a lot of power and the mandate to govern global health issues to help reduce global health inequality.

For the most part, it has led to success in eliminating or at least containing pestilences that threatened the world in the past, such as smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. However, there is still a long way to go to bridge the equity gap between poor and rich countries. This approach has also not been without its disadvantages, especially since it has made developing nations dependent on rich nations for even some of the most basic healthcare needs of their citizens.

An isolationist policy takes global health to be a private endeavour, and each nation stands on its own. Global health issues are regarded as threats rather than common challenges. Local health policymaking tends to focus on protecting the country from global health problems, and health becomes a matter of sovereignty. In this approach, an organisation such as the WHO will struggle to maintain a suitable influence on global health issues.

Most countries have oscillated between the two approaches in response to specific global health issues. For instance, the United States has championed the cooperative approach several times in the past, especially in its response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding, the US helped save millions of lives in Africa and the developing world. It still does.

This is why the switch of the United States to an isolationist health policy in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic caught everyone off guard. Pandemics are times to cooperate, because there is simply no other choice. It requires effort and humility for each nation to do its share to the best of its ability for the world to survive as a whole. A cut in funding for the WHO will lead to the death and suffering of millions of lives in the developing world.

The scar this leaves behind will be recorded by history in a similar way to colonialism, as a moment when part of the world abandoned the poor, while the rest stood by with indifference.

Irrespective of its intentions, China and the United Kingdom seem to have taken note; and, at this juncture, intentions do not matter but controlling this pandemic does. Other countries should also take note and be counted so that the poor of the world do not pay with their lives, while the two giants of the world duke it out for dominance. This may sound naive, but that is precisely what the world needs right now: a bit of naiveté to embrace the other, to consider the other as a mirror of oneself and to assume the risk together.

The remedy for the huge gap in global health equity depends not only on adopting a cooperative approach but also on each country’s response and investment in its own health sector. African countries and their governments have forgotten to invest in their health systems for such a long time that they have taken global cooperation for granted.

If this controversy surrounding the WHO is not a lesson for us to start to develop an independent health system, we are doomed to remain with our colonised minds. We will be the dependents and the victims while the elephants fight.

COVID-19, As Much Illness of Mind as Body

Posted on by Web Master

Recently, I received a text from a friend living on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. She reached out to me to ask for advice on what I thought were the best ways to resume social interaction without exposing herself or her parents to COVID-19.

While contracting the virus was a serious fear she had, months of forced isolation with limited physical contact was becoming a source of distress.

As one of the worst COVID-19 hit countries, residents of Italy have been under severe lockdown for months. It was not until two weeks ago that the government started to cautiously ease the restrictions it had in place to contain the spread of the virus.

Governments across the board have taken similar measures in the face of this pandemic. Yet, the consequent months-long physical isolation coupled with economic turmoil, constant information on death and disease, and general uncertainty have led to serious mental distress in millions of people globally.

In essence, as the UN states, while “the COVID-19 crisis is, in the first instance, a physical health crisis, it has the seeds of a major mental health crisis as well”.

For countries like Italy, the national response to COVID-19 includes some form of mental health component. From moving psychological services online to creating systems that protect high-risk individuals, some governments have taken steps to minimiSe the mental health consequences of this pandemic.

However, these nations have had an already in-built mental health service pre-COVID-19. For nations such as Ethiopia, “where mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS) are already limited” at best, the mental health toll of COVID-19 “can be devastating – especially for children and young people,” notes UNICEF Ethiopia.

Although there have been some governmental efforts in the past to create a mental health strategy, conversations around mental health in Ethiopia have been anything but mainstream. The stigma attached to mental illnesses and the dismissal of them as a ‘western or a privileged problem” has meant that few people get the dire services they desperately need.

In the context of COVID-19, it is imperative to rethink the psychosocial damages this pandemic can have on fellow Ethiopians. Distress during a crisis like this one is understandable. However, the impact of COVID-19 alongside pre-existing root problems like impoverishment, high rateS of domestic violence and inadequate access to alternative ways of schooling, have and will continue to contribute towards widespread psychological distress.

The loss of livelihood is one of the primary sources of worry for people. The economic impact of COVID-19 on Ethiopia’s job market is estimated to result in over one million job losses.

In Addis Abeba for instance, where the hospitality industry plays a big role, “the sector is facing an almost complete loss of customers” due to the pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures taken by the Ethiopian government.

Consequently, tens of thousands could potentially lose their jobs. With a frail welfare system, the loss of economic prospects is a serious source of angst and fear for many across the city and the nation.

The economic turmoil then trickles down into home life.

Schools and universities remain closed with no notice as to when they may reopen “meaning that huge numbers of children and young people [in Addis Abeba] … are stuck in cramped and overcrowded family homes with little to do. And a sharp uptick in poverty will exert even more strain on already stretched households, increasing the risks of domestic violence, abuse and neglect,” writes UNICEF Ethiopia.

For many children, schools are a sort of refuge from toxic households. The abrupt change to their routine, with a possibility of increased abuse and social isolation comes at a pivotal point in their emotional developmental phase. Additionally, extremely few students in the capital have the financial and parental support to continue their schooling from home using online correspondence with their schools or through hired tutors. Hence, the lack of learning environments and lessened intellectual stimulation could also then adversely affect brain development of children.

Domestic violence has also increased globally during this pandemic. There could be as many as 31 million additional cases of gender-based violence if restrictions continue for at least six months, according to the UN. With a culture that largely deems conversations about domestic violence a taboo, it should be expected that women in Ethiopia, unfortunately, face increased abuse and violence during this lockdown period.

Like women and children, there are also at-risk populations whose mental health needs are overlooked. Those with disabilities, older adults with no families and internally displaced individuals are some of them. They are prone to multiple stressors, which then lead to substance abuse and mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

In the past couple of days, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen rapidly in Ethiopia. Despite the low death count, the upsurge has caused psychological distress across the city and the nation. As numbers keep increasing, so does deep uncertainty about the future. With the rising cases, the healthcare system in the city is bound to primarily focus on dealing with COVID-19 infections. This means that actions addressing mental health will be unable to get the attention it deserves.

The multiple factors causing distress and mental health conditions will have a long-term impact on our society as a whole. On a governmental level, we need to reassess mental health and MHPSS in the Ethiopian context. While that will take time, it is also important to highlight the emerging community sources of psychosocial support. Given the closure of religious institutions’ public spaces, last month’s televised national prayer was a source of comfort for many. As a deeply conservative country, the chance for members of the different denominations to take part in a month-long prayer service served as a place to access resilience and empathy.

Moving-forward, work needs to be done in including mental health as part of the national health strategy. Doing such is no way an act of privilege. A mentally healthy society is absolutely essential for it to function well.

Africa’s Hour of Need

Posted on by Web Master

It is too soon to tell how heavy the human toll from the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will be on sub-Saharan Africa. But the pandemic’s terrible economic impact on the region is already clear.

I have worked across sub-Saharan Africa on and off since the early 1990s, and the scale of the economic challenge now unfolding is unlike any other during that time. The region’s expected economic contraction this year – with GDP set to shrink by at least 1.6pc and by four percent in per capita terms – will be its sharpest decline since at least 1970.

There are several reasons why this pandemic is such a potent threat to the region. For starters, previous African crises, such as those stemming from natural disasters and commodity price slumps, have always had a differential impact on its economies. But no country will be spared from the economic fallout of the virus.

Although the COVID-19 disease burden in some African countries has so far remained limited, this is the result of aggressive containment and mitigation measures, ranging from complete lockdowns to border closures. Formal economic activity has thus been brutally curtailed across the board.

Moreover, the poor will likely endure the brunt of the crisis. People who must go out and earn a daily living to put food on the table for their families are now being required to stay home and practice social distancing. And few of them will be able to work from home.

The significant deterioration of the external environment compounds the impact of these factors. In particular, tighter financial conditions and sharp declines in commodity prices (especially for oil) are exacerbating the challenges facing many economies.

Finally, and regrettably, most sub-Saharan African countries’ ability to mount anything approaching the necessary fiscal and monetary policy response is severely constrained. Many have high levels of public debt and limited domestic savings, and private external financing options have dried up just when they would have helped the most.

What are the region’s governments to do?

The critical priority, of course, is to protect their citizens’ health and well-being. This requires boosting spending to improve the preparedness of healthcare systems and providing targeted cash or in-kind transfers to the most vulnerable groups. Wherever possible, governments should also consider extending liquidity support to small and medium-sized enterprises to ensure their survival through this difficult period. This assistance must be provided in a transparent manner and in accordance with the highest governance standards.

But more than ever, sub-Saharan African countries also need large-scale external financing. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank estimate that the region faces a government financing gap (assuming a modestly supportive fiscal stance) of at least 114 billion dollars in 2020. African governments cannot mobilise this amount domestically.

For its part, the IMF can provide close to 19 billion dollars of rapidly disbursable financing to African countries this year; 26 have already received funding from its emergency facilities. In addition, 19 of the region’s poorest countries will receive direct debt relief with the IMF Catastrophe Containment & Relief Trust providing grants to cover their upcoming debt-service payments to the Fund.

Other development partners such as the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank are also ramping up financing. And G20 countries have stepped up with an important initiative to suspend debt-service payments until the end of 2020 for low-income countries that request relief.

Despite these efforts, however, African governments still face a significant residual financing gap of at least 44 billion dollars for 2020.

The case for the international community to bridge this shortfall is overwhelming. Providing these funds would greatly increase African countries’ ability to deploy fiscal measures to mitigate the pandemic’s adverse effects. And international lenders would be making one of the most strategic long-term investments possible if they supplemented this financing with further support to buttress the region’s economic recovery.

One way or another, what happens in Africa will shape this century. Just ten years from now, sub-Saharan Africa will account for more than half of the annual increase in the global labour force. Moreover, the marginal increase in global consumption and investment demand will increasingly come from this region. The healthier Africa’s population is, the more robust the future global workforce will be. And the more climate-friendly the continent’s urbanisation, the greener our future.

The amounts involved are certainly manageable. For example, 100 billion dollars in new financing to support the region’s economic recovery amounts to only about two percent of the fiscal support that G7 governments have injected into their economies in recent weeks. And with global interest rates as low as they are now, it is hard to think of a more opportune time to make such a commitment to Africa – or a more important investment in our planet’s future.

COVID-19, Friend to Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

Posted on by Web Master

Since the first few months of the year, the focus of much of the healthcare apparatus in Ethiopia has been on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This is understandable since the virus poses an unexpected threat and requires immediate mobilisation of resources and personnel.

With time, however, this pandemic will pass, and Ethiopia will remain deficient in other aspects of its public health goals. This is also the case for vaccinations, which we should not lose sight of.

Even after two decades of vast improvement, the rates of infant and under-five mortality in Ethiopia are still among the highest in the world, while Diarrhoeal diseases and vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs), paired with malnutrition, still cause a majority of childhood deaths in Ethiopia.

Immunisation coverage has not met public health targets, and, without renewed focus, the nation may fall further behind. Improvements in the vaccine delivery pipeline ought to be sustained to protect Ethiopia’s children from preventable suffering. Most notably, achievements in cold chain infrastructure must be maintained to hold onto the gains made in previous years.

Cold chain management describes the recommended procedures and technology for maintaining storage temperatures of vaccines at every stage between the lab and the patient. Otherwise, vaccines lose their potency. Cold chain failure could result in major outbreaks of VPDs.

The primary constraints on vaccination in the Ethiopian context are a lack of top-down supervision, high drop-out rates (meaning children fail to receive follow-up doses of their vaccination regimen), an insufficient number of trained health workers and inadequate supplies like cold chain equipment, according to the most recent review of Ethiopia’s Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI), its main vehicle for carrying out the expansion of childhood vaccination.

Diphtheria, measles, pertussis, tetanus, polio and tuberculosis are the six VPDs included in the EPI programme. Additionally, there are long-term plans to introduce more vaccines, such as Hepatitis B and Hemophilus Influenzae Type B.

The focus of many medical professionals when it comes to vaccination is mostly on delivery, accessibility and public awareness. But due to social distancing and the state of emergency, including policies that restrict movement, it has become more difficult to carry out vaccination services for those in more remote sections of the country.

In Addis Abeba, vaccinations in most case are available in public health clinics in every district of the city. But for some, especially in the rural areas, it can be challenging to reach those targeted groups because of lack of transportation or limited access to certain areas of the country. Another obstacle or challenge is the required refrigeration system that the drugs require, without which vaccines become useless.

Another barrier at the moment comes to the social messaging campaigns that are paramount to creating awareness among parents about the need to vaccinate their young children. Due to COVID-19, these messaging campaigns, an integral part of the overall public health strategy, are not being carried out.

In normal times, local members of immunisation outreach teams distribute information about VPDs through theatre and dance routines on market days, at religious meetings, at schools, and at regular women’s group meetings. But with ongoing lockdowns and social distancing decrees, many of these events have been cancelled for the time being, leaving the messaging campaigns in limbo.

This is damaging to the country’s overall public health goals because advocacy helps to gain the commitment of decision-makers and build community support for immunisation. This is why the Ministry of Health has made health structures incorporate health messaging in all its health programs.

One additional barrier to immunisation that predates the COVID-19 pandemic is the lack of trained human resources at all levels. Until recently, the situation was improving, though a high attrition rate remains a pressing issue. The shortage of trained personnel is most acute at the health facility level in rural areas that only have a few health workers in charge of maternal and child health services. Due to the pandemic, more staff would need to be diverted to fight the virus.

All is not lost. In fact, all available information points to the government reigniting the Reaching Every District (RED) strategy once the pandemic dies down. This strategy involves the inclusion of lower-level staff in tactical planning and, in turn, offering them more training. RED also provides quality and recurrent supervision, which is key to achieving high vaccination coverage and is needed to counteract the effects of heavy staff turnover. The RED plan also calls for reaching all qebelesat least four times a year in remote regions with a large number of unvaccinated children using health extension workers.

The challenges to vaccination the COVID-19 pandemic poses could have dire consequences. But with more imagination and perseverance, they are not insurmountable.

COVID-19 Pandemic Threatens to Roll Back Women’s Hard-won Gains

Posted on by Web Master

There has never been a great time to be a woman. The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is no different. It may even be worse. Over the three months that this disease has been devastating the world, female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage and violence against women have all increased.

It is crushing to realise that this disruption to our socioeconomic lives is being used as an opportunity to perpetuate the victimisation of women and girls. It speaks to the fact that this is a battle that needs to continue to be fought. If not, all the progress that has been achieved will be easily rolled back.

Crimes against women stem from the historical marginalisation of women in socio-political and economic decision-making processes. Although remarkable progress has been made, especially in terms of legal protection, for millions of women globally, many are still denied their birthrights, fundamental freedoms and rights. Despite extensive effort, harmful traditions and customs continue to prey on women.

Staggeringly, a third of all women experience physical or sexual violence at one time in their lives, according to the estimates of the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the United States, over half of the women that are murdered are killed by their intimate partners, according to The Washington Post. Over a third of the women that are murdered are also victims of domestic abuse, and millions of women around the globe have experienced FGM.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that those tasked with fighting violence such as legal enforcement personnel have also been known to engage in the perpetuation of these crimes against women.

As a developing nation, Ethiopia is more vulnerable to gender-related violence. Men in low-income countries, especially if they are themselves being discriminated against within their societies, are more prone to perpetrating violence against women. Economic stress brought on by unemployment and feelings of social exclusion lead to anger, and this frustration is oftentimes taken out on women. We have been made to absorb men’s insecurities for far too long.

Moreover, substance abuse and childhood trauma also lead men to become prone to violence. Young boys that are subjected to harsh physical punishment and witness their mothers getting beaten are more likely to commit violence in adulthood.

I was a witness to how men might slowly progress into becoming violent four years ago when I was working for a private company. My former employer used to buy the staff lunch made by a great chef who moved back to Ethiopia from Kenya. He owns restaurants in Addis Abeba and in Nairobi. Despite his busy schedule, he manages his restaurant activities. When his team cooks in the kitchen of our company, he makes an appearance to make sure his staff are working as well as they should.

In just a couple of years, though, he lost both his restaurant overseas and in Addis due to debts that he could not pay off. Soon after, he became a substance abuser and was violent towards his wife and child.

One weekday, he came to my office to ask if I could support him with his divorce case. His wife wanted a divorce and had filed for one. He was certainly hurting from losing his business and missed his wife and child, who had separated from him. He felt that he was a failure as a man because he could not provide for his wife, who has her own successful shop in the Bole area.

I had to ask what the reason was for their divorce. He explained that, as a man, he could not live being supported by his wife. She provided for him and their child, and yet he returned the favour by beating her.

Unless society recognises the equal role women could play in every facet of life, progress will remain elusive. We need to have mutual respect, compassion and care for one another. We know that this helps create a more productive and stable society. We have also learned that men could, if they chose to, be role models that recognise the societal and institutional pressure women are under and play a crucial part in our collective hunt for equality and justice.

When women and girls are not integrated as both beneficiaries and shapers, countries lose out on the skills, ideas and perspectives that are critical to progress in terms of social and economic development.

The Future of Global Power

Posted on by Web Master

The COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the first truly global crisis of the 21st century. The only modern historic parallel to the economic disruption triggered by this microscopic pathogen are the world wars of the last century.

The start of World War I in August 1914 not only ended a long period of peace but also suspended an earlier epoch of economic integration and globalisation. As governments around the world pursued new protectionist agendas, economic growth collapsed across the board. A generation later, another world war followed, after which the Cold War began immediately.

The world, and global politics, looked very different at the end of this period of constant conflict and power politics – from 1914 until 1989 – than it did at the beginning. Prior to World War I, the British Empire was the dominant economic and military power. After World War II, it was supplanted by the United States, whose hegemonic position was further strengthened following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The question, then, is how the distribution of global power will change as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Whether the pandemic’s impact will be comparable to that of either world war remains to be seen. Clearly, a global economic crisis on this scale will bring serious geopolitical shocks. America, the incumbent superpower, may well cling to its position at the top of the global pecking order. But most signs suggest that China, the emerging superpower, will prevail, inaugurating an East Asian century.

The Sino-American rivalry was shaping up to be the 21st century’s defining hegemonic conflict long before the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, the pandemic, along with election year politics in the US, seems to be amplifying and accelerating the confrontation. For US President Donald Trump, everything is at stake in November’s election. Having mismanaged the pandemic and presided over an unprecedented domestic economic crisis, he needs a scapegoat, and China is the obvious choice.

After all, while most of Trump’s policies have, as a general rule, divided American society, his approach to China is a major exception. In going on the offensive against China, he can count on broad bipartisan support. Even deep into liberal Democratic Party ranks, American attitudes toward China have soured substantially in recent years.

Many US objections are hard to dismiss. The People’s Republic is indeed an authoritarian – even totalitarian – state under the exclusive control of a Leninist party. It has engaged in economic and technological espionage against the US on a grand scale, resorted to unfair trade practices, and violently asserted territorial claims vis-à-vis India, Taiwan, and in the South China Sea. From its persecution of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and its recent move to consolidate control over Hong Kong to its initial mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China’s government has done little to inspire trust.

Nonetheless, the Trump administration’s persistent efforts to repudiate America’s global leadership role raises a fundamental question about its approach: what does the US under Trump want? To lead without taking responsibility?

That is unlikely to work. While the US remains mired in short-term thinking, China is establishing itself as an alternative source of global leadership and investment, patiently pursuing a long-term strategy to exploit the geopolitical vacuum created by America’s inward turn.

In any case, the blow to America’s international image, especially following the Trump administration’s disastrous failure in the face of COVID-19, will be hard to repair. The pandemic is reinforcing the general impression that the US is a decadent superpower, soon to be supplanted by a strategically deft and economically dynamic China. The age-old story of the rise and fall of great powers is now being written by a virus. We can only hope that this chapter plays out peacefully.

Against the backdrop of the Sino-American confrontation, Europe finds itself caught uncomfortably between two opposing geopolitical forces – and left in the dark about America’s true intentions toward China.

Does the US want to pursue containment or all-out confrontation – up to and including military conflict – to block or even reverse China’s ascent?

The second strategy, reprising the West’s approach to China during the late 19th century, would be extremely dangerous, to say the least.

The alternative for the West is to pursue long-term containment on the basis of strategic rivalry. Europe would be well-advised to choose this option. In a Chinese-led world order, Europe, situated at the western end of the Eurasian supercontinent, would be the loser. As a totalitarian one-party state, China can never be a genuine partner to Europe in normative terms. Even after three years of Trump, Europe’s relationship with the US remains much closer than the relationship it could ever expect with China.

But China is already too big, too successful, and too important to ignore. The facts on the ground call for cooperation. The key is to distinguish between strategic engagement with China and submission to it. And maintaining that crucial distinction will require Europe to avoid becoming economically or technologically dependent on the West’s rival.

Effective Quarantine Best Way to Combat COVID-19

Posted on by Web Master

In the sphere of public health, the effectiveness of monitoring, controlling and responding to infectious diseases not only affects the health status of people but also national security, the economy and society. This often happens in unpredictable ways.

Unavoidably, there needs to be enhanced management strategies to reduce community transmission pressures and to slow or limit transmission levels to ensure public health.

During the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a multitude of mitigation measures have been outlined to prevent the spread of the disease and minimise the operational and financial impact on the health system. The different case containment measures rest on the foundational concept of detection and isolation, the latter of which is invariably connected to quarantining.

Quarantining is a tool that was used as far back as the 14th century when it was utilised to mitigate the transmission of the Black Plague, a bubonic disease that struck Europe and Asia. An Italian word that was derived from the number of days – 40 – that travellers were required to stay in isolation before they were allowed to enter society.

It is the restriction of people that have travelled recently or have had contact with people infected with the disease. It can be implemented on a voluntary basis or by legal enforcement at the individual, group or community level. As in olden times, this tool has been crucial in the fight against the virus.

It has been all the more important considering that COVID-19 has no known treatment or vaccines available. It is the most effective strategy for suppressing the transmission of infectious diseases like COVID-19 but requires a great deal of planning for implementation and protocols that must be followed.

Following the first confirmed case of the virus in Ethiopia, the country imposed restrictions to protect the public. Through a state of emergency, the movement of people was restricted. Social distancing measures were applied to public transportation, restaurants and even offices. Recently, even walking in the city centres without a mask has been prohibited.

Most importantly, any international traveller to Ethiopia has to be kept in mandatory quarantine in designated hotels for 14 days before they are allowed to enter society.

It is understood that it would be impossible in actual practice to apply the same approach to all cases, especially because of the limited number of rooms that are available; the location of the quarantine spaces; and the level of awareness of the individuals concerned. Not observing quarantine rules, disregarding social distancing rules and a lack of effective communication have been some of the drawbacks.

Hence, there should be constant monitoring of the situation to maintain the best possible balance of measures in place so that there is an acceptable trade-off of benefits and harms.

The silver linings of this pandemic are that it has bought time to implement surveillance measures, identify hot spots, perform contact tracing and strengthen the health facilities with essential equipment and supplies.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts are unlikely to change soon, and it is not possible to precisely predict its future trajectory. Hence, there should be some reconsiderations in our current enforcement of the quarantine. This should include early and effective communication with quarantined individuals to proactively identify their public health needs to maximise the health of the community – and minimise the operational and financial impact on the health system.

However, this intervention must be integrated with public policies since good health is not merely the result of good medical care but the result of what we do as a society.

Fighting COVID-19 is a multifaceted challenge. It includes diverse actors and skills in operational negotiation and the formulation of policy wish lists needed to mobilise resources and create awareness. The array of manoeuvres and approaches performed jointly by different sectors will serve as a diagnostics test to prescribe a remedy for any impairment.