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The Guest, Corona, Didn’t Come to Play

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) – It’s true that Coronavirus is not among the top five most deadly diseases in Africa today. But it’s also correct that at this time, we know far less about the COVID-19 pandemic than we know about malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, Ischaemic heart diseases, meningitis, tuberculosis, or HIV/AIDS.

Yet, we’re fooling around with COVID-19 and making convenient excuses as if ignorance or malicious defiance is a remedy.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 31 December 2020

EEPA Report on the Horn of Africa Situation December 31

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The Belgium-based Europe External Programme with Africa has put together the latest report on the Horn of Africa situation. EEPA is a Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peacebuilding, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. It has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 31 December 2020

Photo: Collage of Indian Ambassador Brajendra Navnit with WTO Director Roberto Azevedo and front of the WTO.

Science Has Delivered the Vaccines, The WTO Should Make Them Accessible and Affordable

TRIPS waiver proposal from India, South Africa and other members

Viewpoint by Brajendra Navnit

The author is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The views expressed are personal.

GENEVA (IDN) – A proposal by India, South Africa and eight other countries calls on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents, and other Intellectual Property (IP) rights under the organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPS, for a limited period of time.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 December 2020

Photo: A World Food Programme (WFP) representative in Bolivia talks to Uru-Murato indigenous women about COVID-19 awareness and healthy nutrition practices. Credit: WFP/Morelia Eróstegui

The Rich-Poor Gulf Widens 5 Years After Adoption of Sustainable Development Goals

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – 2020 will be remembered as a year in which a contagious virus shut down the world, widened the gulf between the rich and the poor, triggered a spike in poverty for the first time in decades, and pushed back the United Nations efforts to create more equitable societies jeopardising the Sustainable Development Goals universally agreed in September 2015.

By early December, the United Nations was warning that a record 235 million people would require humanitarian assistance in 2021, comprising an increase of some 40 per cent on 2020 which is almost entirely a consequence of the pandemic.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 30 December 2020

Photo: Tigrayan women washing clothes in Santarfa. CC BY-SA 4.0

EEPA Report on the Horn of Africa Situation December 30

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 30 December 2020

Photo: From left to right, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger chat at the State Luncheon in honour of the Prime Minister at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on March 10, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Encourage USA To Compromise with Russia, Iran, China and The Islamic World

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – We are waiting. Waiting for a quick decision on whether the US will renew its agreement with Russia to extend the New Start Treaty, that cuts the long-range nuclear weapons each possesses by 1550 (a 30% cut). It’s due to expire in just over a month on February 5. The Russians have said they want to renew it. President Donald Trump has done nothing about nuclear arms control- despite ridiculously being accused at home of being in President Vladimir Putin’s pocket. Indeed, he has made Russia more vulnerable to a nuclear attack than it was before he came into office.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 29 December 2020

EEPA Report on the Horn of Africa Situation December 29

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 29 December 2020

Peace Prize for Humanitarian Work – Debt Dims Recovery – Better Times for Mental Health Groups

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Mixed news from Africa: the Somali Practitioner of ‘Yogadishu’, Ilwad Elman, is the German Africa Peace Prize Winner for 2020. Ilwad Elman has been helping former child soldiers and rape survivors overcome their trauma. Analysts say that recovery for the African States could be dimmed by debt. and African maternal health groups expect better times for women under Biden as the next US President.

: Global Information Network; Africa; 28 December 2020

Photo: Somali security forces and AMISOM. Credit: Independent Uganda.

EEPA Report on the Horn of Africa Situation on December 28

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 28 December 2020

Photo: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury at 2019 HLF-CoP observing the 20th anniversary of the culture of peace at UN on 13 September 2019. Credit: UN

The Culture of Peace: For a Safer, Saner and Sustainable World

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

The author is a former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN, former Permanent Representative and Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Nations, and founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP). The following are extensive excerpts from his virtual special lecture at the International Studies Institute at University of La Verne, California on 19 November 2020. "The objective of the culture of peace," he said, "is the empowerment of people, as has been underscored time and again by the global leader for peace and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda."