COVID-19: Education replaced by shuttered schools, violence, teenage pregnancy. World

World/06-08-2021/Author and Source: news.un.org

A culture of “safety, friends and food” at school has been replaced by “anxiety, violence, and teenage pregnancy”, with remote learning out of reach for millions, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Tuesday.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “more than 600 million children in countries not on academic break are still affected by school closures”, James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson at a press conference at UN Geneva.

In countries such as Uganda, this has led to a “20 per cent spike in the last 15 months in teen pregnancies, or pregnancies of 10-24-year-old girls, who were seeking antenatal care. Across the globe in all continents we’ve seen child helplines, a good precursor to understanding kids who are reporting violence, seeing often triple-digit increases,” said Elder.

COVID-19 school closures

In nearly half of countries in Asia and the Pacific, schools have been closed for around 200 days. Latin America and the Caribbean have seen some of the longest closures ever with 18 countries and territories affected by either full or partial closures.

As of today, the UN agency estimates in Eastern and Southern Africa that 40 per cent of all children aged 5 to 18, are currently out of school.

Elder added that if these figures “did not resonate with those in power, then a World Bank report estimates a loss of $10 trillion in earnings over time”, for this generation of students.

Remote learning ‘out of reach’

A teenage student studies at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.
© UNICEF/Francis Emorut
A teenage student studies at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.

Equally alarming is the fact that the solution of remote learning is “simply out of reach” for at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren, the UNICEF spokesperson continued. In East Asia and the Pacific, “80 million children have no access whatsoever to any remote learning.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, Uganda school children have gone more than 300 days out of school, while home internet connectivity “is the lowest on the planet there at about 0.3%”.

‘Situation cannot go on’

In a call for action, UNICEF appealed for five main steps: Schools should reopen as soon as possible; governments and donors must protect the education budget; enrolment should be extended to children who were already out of school pre‑COVID‑19 – by removing financial barriers and loosening registration requirements – and cash transfers to the most vulnerable, must be increased.

“Everything needs to be done to bring an end to the pandemic,” Mr. Elder said, starting with making vaccines available everywhere by sharing excess doses and financing to support the roll-out of vaccines.

Source and Image: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/07/1096502

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Afghanistan: Top UN officials strongly condemn ‘heinous’ attack on girls school

Asia/Afghanistan/14-05-2021/Author/Source: news.un.org

Two senior UN officials on Wednesday, condemned in the strongest terms, a terrorist attack targeting girls and their families outside a high school in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

The terrorists who exploded a bomb near a girls’ school in the mostly Shiite district of west Kabul in Dasht-e-Barchi on Saturday “must be held accountable” for their “heinous crime”, the UN Special Representatives for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, and on Violence Against Children, Najat Maalla M’jid, said in a joint statement.

According to news reports, scores of people – many of them students between the ages of 11 and 15 – were killed and hundreds of others injured.

Safeguard girls education

The UN officials also called on the Afghan authorities to urgently protect the right to education in armed conflict, especially for girls, which is too often overlooked and neglected.

“In many contexts, access to education is particularly harsh for girls for economic and cultural reasons, but also for security reasons of which the recent attack in Afghanistan is only one latest tragic example”, they said, pushing for the safety of schools “and that girls just like boys are given equal opportunities to pursue their education”.

Afghanistan schools targeted

Afghanistan schools and hospitals remain one of the most attacked, according to the 2019 Secretary-General Report on Children and Armed Conflict. And preliminary data for 2020 show a similar worrying trend, with COVID-19 further exacerbating the vulnerabilities of children, including girls.

“Girls may not be given the choice to go back to school when they reopen, because they had to work or be married off to support their families”, said the two UN officials.

Against the backdrop of the unremitting challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, they stressed that “countries must make the strategic decision of prioritizing education, including in armed conflict in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of reaching the furthest behind”.

Undermining women’s roles

Targeting girls undermines the crucial role that educated girls and women play in the social and economic development of their societies.

The Special Representatives underlined the urgency of ending the violence in Afghanistan and achieving a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

They also extended their condolences to the victim’s families and the Government of Afghanistan and wished a full recovery to those who were injured in the horrific terrorist attack.

Source and Image: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1091842

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World: Lack of women in key decision-making ‘should not be allowed’ – UN Women chief

World/03-12-2021/Author and Source: news.un.org

Exclusion of women in decisions that affect their lives is “bad governance [and] should not be allowed”, the UN Women chief said on Monday, International Women’s Day.

“We stand on a crossroads as we ponder the recover from a pandemic that has had a disproportionate impact women and girls”, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women said at an event celebrating the efforts of women and girls to shape a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is why, at this point in 2021, when we are at crossroads, we have to bring this to an end”, she added.

Although women have been most negatively impacted by the pandemic, Ms. Mlambo- Ngcuka shone a spotlight on the lack of women at the helm of who will be guiding the COVID recovery.

She pointed to their under representation in key institutions and emphasized that building back “will not be adequate and inclusive if it does not include women in decisions that affect their lives”.

Opportunities and responsibilities

The UN Women chief highlighted the upcoming session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as both an opportunity and a responsibility of women leaders “to call for representation of women in all decision-making bodies”.

Recalling last year’s 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for action, when heads of States lamented the underrepresentation of women in their countries, she upheld that the CSW, which will open next Monday, can address this along with continuing gender inequality – both of which will help in COVID recovery and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed”, Ms. Mlambo- Ngcuka said.

Women battling COVID

In celebrating women who are leading their nations and communities through the pandemic, Secretary-General António Guterres said that “countries with women leaders are among those that have suffered fewer deaths and put themselves on track for recovery”.

He also noted that women’s organizations “have filled crucial gaps” in providing services and information and while women peacebuilders have played “a vital role” in public health messaging.

“70 per cent of frontline health and care workers are women – many from racially and ethnically marginalized groups and at the bottom of the economic ladder”, the UN chief said.

Right to ‘speak with authority’

Yet despite their critical roles during the pandemic, there has been a roll-back in hard-won advances in women’s rights, which he maintained harms everyone’s work towards peace and prosperity.

“In this Decade of Action” to deliver the SDGs, “we must turn things around”, said Mr. Guterres, adding, “too often, services are delivered by women, but decisions are made by men”.

“Women have an equal right to speak with authority on the decisions that affect their lives — UN chief

Just 22 countries have a woman as Head of State, only 21 per cent of Ministers are women, and women parliamentarians make up less than 25 per cent of national legislators.

“Women have an equal right to speak with authority on the decisions that affect their lives…from the pandemic to climate change, to deepening inequalities, conflict and democratic backsliding”, said the UN chief.

Power increase

While gender equality is essentially a question of power, Mr. Guterres pointed out that in our male-dominated world, “equal power will not happen by itself”.

He spelled out the need to “transform social norms…put in place laws and policies to support women in leadership…appoint women to high-level positions…tackle violence against women, both online and offline… increase access to financing for women candidates, women’s organizations and feminist movement [and] support women leaders in all their diversity and abilities”.

While Covid-19 has been “a calamity” for everyone, he said that it has also “forced a reckoning with global inequalities, fragilities and entrenched gender discrimination”.

“Women must be at the center of the recovery as we make the course corrections that the pandemic has highlighted so vividly”, concluded the Secretary-General. “This is a job for all of us”.

Gender mainstreaming

General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir highlighted that as an International Gender Champion he was working hard towards gender equality “not just when the time is right, but to make the time to discuss gender equality”.

And so he has raised the issue throughout bilateral engagements and high-level events, including in a Special Session that featured many women in science, hoping that “by passing the microphone to women” it would inspire girls and young women to fulfill their potential and participate in traditionally male-dominated fields.

“On International Women’s Day, I think it is important to reiterate the fact that women’s empowerment is something that we need to work on every single day”, the UN official said.

Source and Image: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1086702

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World: UN Women calls on countries to accelerate progress in women assuming decision- making roles

World/05-02-2021/Author: Beth Nyaga/Source: www.kbc.co.ke

New analysis from UN Women shows that despite women’s increased engagement in public life, equality remains far off. For example, women serve as Heads of State or Government in only 21 countries and 119 countries have never had a woman leader; at the current rate, parity will not be reached for another 130 years.

Additionally, just 14 countries have achieved 50 per cent or more women in Cabinets.

The data, prepared for a UN Secretary-General’s report in advance of the upcoming UN Commission on the Status of Women, demonstrates global trends, persistent barriers and opportunities for women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life.

“These data really brings home the handicap so many countries are struggling with when they don’t have a balanced decision-making process. We’ve seen all too clearly how the lack of women in the public sector leaves governments desperately ill-equipped to respond to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo- Ngcuka.

When more women are elected and appointed to office, policymaking is better able to meet the needs of society as a whole.

Underrepresented groups such as rural women, women with disabilities and indigenous women are also better served when they are in decision making positions.

According to Mlambo-Ngcuka, transforming the balance of power is essential for solving the urgent challenges of our age, from deepening inequalities and polarization, poverty, the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, violence against women in public life is being used as a deterrent to keep more women from gaining access to power.

Cyber violence is increasingly common and is being used to silence women in government, as well as women rights defenders and members of feminist groups.

More than 80 per cent of women parliamentarians surveyed globally experienced on-the-job psychological violence; 1 in 3 economic violence; 1 in 4 physical violence; and 1 in 5 sexual violence.

Women parliamentarians recently reported experiencing nearly twice as much exposure to ill-treatment and acts of violence compared to men, with the COVID-19 pandemic potentially exacerbating violent threats.

The analysis and the recommendations for action in the report are part of UN Women’s commitment to responding to the complex problems of gender equality.

 

This also includes the Generation Equality Forum that aims to accelerate gender equality actions and enable the participation of all groups of women, especially young women.

The Generation Equality Forum is hosted by UN Women, along with the governments of Mexico and France, and in partnership with civil society.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/un-women-calls-on-countries-to-accelerate-progress-in-women-assuming-decision-making-roles/

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UN supports education in S. Sudan pastoralist communities

Sudan/November 21, 2017/Source: http://www.sudantribune.com

South Sudan government in partnership with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have unveiled on an initiative to provide extended education services to nomadic pastoralist communities.

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A cattle keeper carrying a gun in Lakes state (File/ST)

Officially launched on Thursday, the Pastoralist Livelihoods and Education Field Schools (PLEFS) and the Pastoralist Education Program Strategy Framework will reportedly offer active and constructivist approach tailored to meet the needs of adults, youth and children in pastoralists’ communities.

Serge Tissot, the FAO Representative in South Sudan, said PLEFS, the first of its kind in South Sudan, will provide pastoralists with sustainable and high-quality learning opportunities as they move.

«The partnership between the three line ministries, FAO and UNESCO is unique and has realized a way for marginalized communities to access vital services in challenging conditions,» said Tissot.

«FAO is committed to strengthening livelihoods, and integrating basic literacy and numeracy skills into the field school approach really improves pastoralists’ way of life,» he added.

The program, officials said, is currently being implemented by FAO and UNESCO in the central regions and it will be brought to other pastoral communities across the country in the near future.

«It is our long-term vision to see to it that pastoralist communities receive adequate services and infrastructure to improve their livelihoods,» said James Janka Duku, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries.

Illiteracy rates are high in South Sudan, a country that broke away from Sudan in July 2011. More than 80% of the South Sudanese population, UN estimates show, cannot read or write. Also, according to the UN Children Fund (UNICEF), fewer than 1% of girls in South Sudan complete primary education.

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