Kaburu Anthony: It’s not too late to reform the Democratic Republi...

Kaburu Anthony: It’s not too late to reform the Democratic Republi...: Opposition leader Félix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) presidential elections held in late ...

It’s not too late to reform the Democratic Republic of Congo crisis

Opposition leader Félix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) presidential elections held in late December 2018 and was inaugurated in January 2019. The transfer of power from former President Joseph Kabila, who ruled for eighteen years and had delayed elections multiple times, marked the first peaceful transfer of power in the DRC’s history. However, election results have since been questioned.

Tshisekedi inherited a number of crises across the DRC, including an Ebola outbreak in the east and ongoing violence across the country, particularly in the Ituri, Kasai, and Kivu regions. More than one hundred armed groups, such as the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces, are believed to operate in the eastern region of the DRC.

Despite the presence of more than sixteen thousand UN peacekeepers, these groups continue to terrorize communities and control weakly governed areas. Millions of civilians have been forced to flee the fighting: the United Nations estimates there are currently 4.5 million internally displaced persons in the DRC, and more than 800,000 DRC refugees in other nations.

Background

The origins of the current violence in the DRC are in the massive refugee crisis and spillover from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. After Hutu génocidaires fled to eastern DRC and formed armed groups, opposing Tutsi and other opportunistic rebel groups arose. The Congolese government was unable to control and defeat the various armed groups, some of which directly threatened populations in neighboring countries, and war eventually broke out.

From 1998 to 2003, government forces supported by Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe fought rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda in what is known as the Second Congo War. While estimates vary greatly, the death toll may have reached over three million people. Despite a peace deal in 2002 and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, ongoing violence perpetrated by armed groups against civilians in the eastern region has continued, largely due to poor governance, weak institutions, and rampant corruption.

One of the most prominent rebel groups to emerge in the aftermath of the war was known as the March 23 Movement (M23), made up primarily of ethnic Tutsis who were allegedly supported by the Rwandan government. M23 rebelled against the Congolese government for supposedly reneging on a peace deal signed in 2009. The UN Security Council authorized an offensive brigade under the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) to support the DRC state army in its fight against M23. The Congolese army and UN peacekeepers defeated the group in 2013, but other armed groups have since emerged.

The country’s massive resource wealth—estimated to include $24 trillion of untapped mineral resources—also fuels violence. The mineral trade provides financial means for groups to operate and buy arms. The United States passed legislation in 2010 to reduce the purchase of “conflict minerals” and prevent the funding of armed militias, but complex supply chains in the DRC mineral sale business have made it difficult for companies that purchase resources from secondhand buyers to obtain certification. As a result, multinational companies have stopped buying minerals from the DRC altogether, putting many miners out of work and even driving some to join armed groups to gain a source of livelihood.

My Proposal Plan for DRC

The 15-year plan I propose for DRC comprises seven pillars of development, with the private sector driving growth and international and diaspora expertise tapped as needed. In its first phase, the program must aim at advancing human capital, through education, health, and nutrition; creating opportunity and a level playing field for all, including Congolese women, who suffer not only legal discrimination, but one of the world’s highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence; promoting peace, security, rule of law, and democracy by restructuring the army and police and building strong democratic institutions and transparent practices; mobilizing domestic resources through transparent, effective tax collection and anticorruption measures; and supporting a responsible domestic private sector backed by functioning public administration and the rule of law. These initial pillars would lay the foundation for establishing strong institutions that President Barack Obama has often emphasized in his African policy as opposed to dictatorial strongmen who are to blame for the current state of affairs.

The second phase of the plan should endeavor to create opportunities for the people by taking on large-scale, labor-intensive infrastructure projects to create jobs as well as desperately needed enablers of trade and growth; boosting and accelerating local industrialization to refine and process minerals and mechanize farming, livestock and fisheries; promoting sustainable forest management; and supporting service sectors including tourism; and finally identifying and tapping domestic and regional market synergies.

What will this plan cost? I estimate about $800 billion over 15 years, in domestic resources, bilateral and multilateral aid, and foreign direct investment. It will also require a wholesale rethinking of development strategy and governance, with transparency a top priority. Executed wisely, it could turn one of the world’s poorest economies into a driver of African growth.

Economies most often succeed or fail based on the caliber and integrity of political leaders and governance structures. Good governance, rule of law, transparent management of natural resources, and honest, efficient tax collection should allow the state to develop an annual budget of at least $72 billion, lifting GDP per capita to $15,000 in a decade and a half.

Proverbial wisdom, repeated recently only in irony, says that “what’s impossible isn’t Congolese.” Bitter experience has taught too many of my compatriots quite the opposite. But we know from recent experience that great progress is possible, even in the poorest, most fragile corners of the world—progress that conveys prosperity and security not only for individual economies but, in this era of fast-moving global threats, for us all.

Refining and implementing this new Marshall Plan is where the country’s transformational work should begin to create conditions for a sustainable development beyond the usual cosmetic reforms. This plan can be a big step toward stabilizing and promoting development of one of the most important countries in Africa

Finally, the current #DRC crisis is catastrophic for Africa. Weak governance and the prevalence of many armed groups have subjected Congolese civilians to widespread rape and sexual violence, massive human rights violations, and extreme poverty.

The solution is political one, and it must be resolved peacefully through dialogue but what is now desperately need is not deployment of more troops to the region, but increased capacity for diplomatic work, and emergency humanitarian relief assistance for people who were forced to flee.

It is a call for the Africa Union and International Community to renew their efforts to address the source of the conflict. Continued violence in the DRC may eventually spill over into Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda.  #My15YearPlan4DRC #PeaceandStability #SDG16 #SustainableCommunities #PeaceBuilding #SDGS #MakeCongoGreatAgain

Kaburu Anthony: Health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

Kaburu Anthony: Health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa is often viewed as a region of extremes, with both tremendous resources and enduring difficulties. In recent years, dema...

Health challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is often viewed as a region of extremes, with both tremendous resources and enduring difficulties. In recent years, demand for those resources has stoked strong economic growth but that growth has played out amid well-documented—and daunting—challenges: conflict, poverty, and the twin scourges of HIV and AIDS, Ebola to name just a few. A deeper look at what is occurring in Africa today reveals a more complex—and hopeful—picture.

 Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Despite these low ratings, health care is not a primary policy concern for people in these countries. Instead, sub-Saharan Africans cite jobs as a top priority, followed by improving agriculture and tackling corruption.

In recent decades, global attention to the harrowing state of health in sub-Saharan Africa has increased dramatically. Funding to combat the major health problems there has reached unprecedented levels, and marked improvements have been made. In Zanzibar (Tanzania), for example, malaria deaths have been cut substantially. And in Uganda, maternal mortality has dropped by more than half.

These efforts have also produced important results. In a growing number of African nations, the catastrophic rate of new adult HIV infections appears to be falling: according to the UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), the number of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa declined by approximately 24 percent in 2019. Similarly, tuberculosis rates are slowly decreasing across the region. Malaria incidence and mortality are declining not only in Zanzibar but also in several other parts of Africa.

But while health aid has increased to sub-Saharan Africa from high-income countries, residents there do not view health care as a top policy priority. Instead, 31 percent of people picked new jobs as their top concern, and 21 percent picked improving agriculture. Tackling corruption was next at 14.4 percent. Education and health care were chosen by 13.6 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively. Providing electricity was picked by only 6.3 percent.

The region continues to face profound health challenges. Tanzania, for example, has made progress against childhood mortality, yet one in every nine Tanzanian children still dies before age five. And the country’s maternal mortality rate remains stubbornly high, despite almost three-quarters of these deaths being preventable.

Of course, just because people in sub-Saharan Africa do not see health care as the highest priority does not mean that aid agencies are incorrect to prioritize it, People in the region may be poorly informed or after centuries of high morbidity, they may not believe the government or anyone else is capable of providing meaningful relief. But even if they are well informed, it might also be the case that aid agencies believe -- correctly or not -- that they are more effective at saving lives than at generating economic growth.
Basic solutions

A third of sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) population comprises persons aged 10-24 years. These youth are growing up in a context marked by pervasive poverty, limited educational opportunities, high HIV/AIDS prevalence, widespread conflict, and weak social controls.

 For the sub-Saharan African region to take advantage of the dividends of a growing youthful population, the region must raise her capacity to generate rigorous scientific evidence to inform policies and programs designed to improve the health and wellbeing of her young people. This means that governments should not only encourage and fund research on young people’s health and development but also actively use evidence generated to inform policies and programs geared towards the youth.

To address the rising burden of diseases, improve health systems, and attain better health, the continent needs strong public health research capacity. Countries with a weak population and public health research capacity have limited capacity to identify and prioritize their health needs and, hence, are unable to develop and implement effective interventions to promote well-being.

Strengthened capacity to understand the determinants of health in relation to gender, ethnicity, cohorts, and communities among different African populations holds the key to effective interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. It is now generally accepted that Africa's progress depends on her ‘ability to understand, interpret, select, adapt, use, transmit, diffuse, produce, and commercialize scientific and technological knowledge in ways appropriate to [her] culture, aspirations, and level of development approaches to science and technology in development.

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers associated with child and maternal mortality.

Major progress has been made on increasing access to clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging health issues.

The private sector plays a significant role in spearheading innovations across Africa. In addition to providing capital investment, businesses can share strategic logistics and marketing know-how, source from local distributors and assess the scalability of projects –all key measures in ensuring lasting social and economic value. The private sector also drives other stakeholders to advocate for sound policies, tailored solutions, improved infrastructure and relevant research.

Instilling a culture of innovation is a promising way to propel the whole of Africa in its efforts to eradicate diseases and improve health. All health organizations should pioneer solutions customized to the unique context and culture of communities across Africa. Nevertheless, more support is needed, particularly from governments, to encourage future entrepreneurs to seek to invent new solutions with the potential to create a lasting impact on the health of hard to reach communities.

The Ebola crisis has also highlighted the urgent need for national and international investment in the affected countries in order to strengthen the health and surveillance systems, as one of the major priorities.  If we are to win the current war on Ebola, we must employ unconventional approaches, even ones that might be considered controversial. The fact is, people who are poor and neglected are more susceptible to infectious diseases and distrustful of authority. Distrust of authority, civil war and Ebola are a recipe for disaster even with the most costly response and medical counter measures.

 This epidemic is in a truly frightening phase and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon; we can expect and should plan for more cases in DRC and neighboring countries. The Ebola crisis has shown that, in global health, turning a blind eye may result much more expensive than acting on time. That moment, unfortunately, has arrived.

Solving Africa’s health and development problems takes more than statements of good intention, empty promises of aid — or movie stars’ adoption of African children. But there definitely are ways to solve them. In fact, many diseases affecting children and adults can be addressed with minimal resources — if they are used strategically.

Furthermore, to ensure solutions are scalable, sustainable and impactful, governments, businesses, academics and NGOs must all bring their respective strengths to the table, combining local and international capacities in advocacy, fundraising, business expertise, scientific knowledge and data, holistic and integrated solutions can be developed, resulting in a larger positive impact – a win-win situation for all involved.

Researchers need to develop innovative ways to reach out to national authorities, policy makers and key stakeholders who will use their evidence in their operations in the continent.  Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region.

Finally, Funding agencies and governments should support research on typically under-researched areas of people’s health in SSA including mental health, injuries, and non-communicable diseases and encourage future entrepreneurs to seek to invent new solutions with the potential to create a lasting impact on the health of hard to reach communities #SDG3 #HealthforAll #UniversalHealthCare #StrengtheningHealth #HealthyLives #SDGS #Wellbeing

Kaburu Anthony: Education is the way to gender equality in Africa

Kaburu Anthony: Education is the way to gender equality in Africa: Access to and completion of a quality basic education is widely accepted as a fundamental human right and a key way for citizens to gain va...

Education is the way to gender equality in Africa

Access to and completion of a quality basic education is widely accepted as a fundamental human right and a key way for citizens to gain valued knowledge, including learning the skills and attitudes necessary to lead an active, engaged and productive life. Over the past 25+ years, the global community has sought to prioritize educational development as a key strategy for national development and economic growth.

However, given the importance of education for development, it is deeply concerning that despite the progress achieved over the years in terms of expanding enrollment, particularly at the primary/basic levels, so many children and youth remain out of school around the world, the majority of whom are girls.

 Moreover, beyond the challenge of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to attend school is the matter of how schooling is experienced differently by boys and girls and what this means for gender equality in terms of retention, attainment, quality learning and educational outcomes.

The need to address gender-based inequalities that limit girls’ schooling opportunities, experiences and outcomes is supported by evidence demonstrating a wide range of valuable individual, social and economic benefits associated with girls’ and women’s education. For example, for every year of primary schooling she receives, a girl’s earning potential increases by 10 to 20%, and for every year of secondary education the increase is between 15 and 25%.

As further quantified evidence of the extrinsic value of girls’ education, a child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five, and educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school (according to UNICEF).

Beyond the extrinsic values associated with girls’ education in terms of how much more an educated woman can do for her family, community and country are the intrinsic values of education as a human right and what it means to the individual person in terms of their own human and personal development.

The purpose of this short piece is to provide a snapshot of contemporary gender and education issues/trends and the policy options available to governments and their partners that can support the elimination of gender inequalities in schooling in the sub-Saharan and North African regions.

Despite differences in socioeconomic, cultural, religious and political contexts, gender inequality in education is a recognized global phenomenon and as such represents a shared challenge amongst nations of the world. Before discussing contemporary gender (in) equality trends and challenges and the available policy responses, I first offer a brief conceptual discussion of key analytical and measurement terms.

Distinguishing between “sex” and “gender” difference

To start with, the concept of gender is not synonymous with “sex” or “girls” or “women”. When we speak of sex differences, we are referring to the biological differences between males and females; when we speak of gender differences, we are referring to the socially defined and enacted differences between women and men in terms of characteristics, capabilities, roles, etc.

We learn our gender roles through socialization practices in our families, communities and schools. Over the past 15 years or so there has been a movement in the scholarly literature to better understand the nature and significance of various masculinities or femininities in relation to educational access, retention/attainment, learning and outcomes.

The concept of gender stereotype refers to attitudes and beliefs about the characteristics associated with, and the activities appropriate to, men or women in a given community or society. Gender bias occurs when people make assumptions or stereotypes about behaviours, abilities or preferences based on gender. For example, gender-based assumptions concerning girls’ future roles as wives and mothers can shape what is learned in school and to what level.

Yet, despite the deeply entrenched and taken-for-granted nature of gender, recognizing that gender roles and gender identities are socially rooted and performed brings us to the powerful conclusion that gender norms and values can and do change. The significance of this realization cannot be over-stated as it suggests that we have the power to address gender-based inequalities in schools and through schooling.

Distinguishing between “gender parity” and “gender equality”

While the concepts of gender equality and gender equity are often used interchangeably in international and national development frameworks and policy, gender parity has dominated as a key indicator of progress towards gender equality in education.

A key theme in current scholarship and policy advocacy concerns the limits of pursuing gender parity – or the achievement of “equal participation of girls and boys in all forms of education based on their proportion in the relevant age-groups in the population” – and instead suggests the need to re-calibrate our compasses to focus more on gender equality and equity and less on gender parity.

Gender equality, emphasizing sameness, refers to the provision of equal conditions, treatment and opportunity for both men and women to realize their full potential, whereas gender equity emphasizes difference and refers to the process of being fair to men and women.

What gender equity is and how to achieve it involves value judgments, understanding of the different experiences, positions and needs of different women and men in a society, and the recognition that treating individuals or groups equitably sometimes means treating them differently.

Gender (in) equality in education: trends and challenges

Notwithstanding emergent concerns with issues of boys’ education, promoting girls’ education has been a global policy priority because this has and continues to be the area where the need is greatest. The sub-Saharan African region, despite showing a gender parity index (GPI) increase from 0.85 to 0.92 between 1999 and 2012, remains the furthest from achieving gender parity at this level.

Close to three quarters of the countries with fewer than 90 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in primary education were in the sub-Saharan Africa region. The situation is worse at the secondary level, with the average GPI only increasing from 0.82 to 0.84 between 1999-2012.

And again, almost three quarters of the countries considered to be far from achieving gender parity at the secondary level are in the SSA region. Indeed, worrying trends in terms of girls’ (and some boys’) transition to and completion of secondary education is the main focus of gender equality in education research and policy advocacy

The challenges to achieving gender equality in education have been well documented over the past decades and continue to persist in the contemporary moment. In terms of challenges related to demand-side factors, we know that poverty, labour market structures/employment opportunities, gendered socio-cultural expectations and practices (e.g., early marriage/pregnancy, domestic work burdens) and security concerns continue to represent some of the greatest barriers to girls’ (and some boys’) education.

 With respect to supply-side factors of gender (in)equalities in education, we know that school and classroom cultures, teachers, teaching and learning materials, the physical condition of schools, and the overall policy landscape (e.g., presence of equity policies, anti-sexual harassment policies, etc.), all shape the degree to which gender equality and equity is enacted (or otherwise) in school systems.

Linking school and society, or supply- and demand-side barriers, gender-based violence (GBV) has become an urgent policy concern over the past decade:

“Gender-based violence [GBV] may take a psychological, physical and/or sexual form and relates to the enforcing or upholding of power imbalances between the sexes… It [GBV] acts of sexual, physical or psychological violence inflicted on children in and around schools because of stereotypes and roles or norms attributed to or expected of them because of their sex or gendered identity. It also refers to the differences between girls’ and boys’ experience of and vulnerabilities to violence.

GBV manifests itself in a range of school setting and interactions, including but not limited to teachers sexually harassing and/or assaulting students, students harassing or assaulting other students, victim blaming, early marriage/pregnancy, and punishing individuals for failing to conform to gender role expectations. GBV has a high social and economic price in terms of parents not wanting to send their children to school, in that it often leads to dropping out of school, causes psychological trauma with long-term and unpredictable consequences, in addition to pregnancy, disease and injury.

Policy responses for the promotion and achievement of gender equality in education

There are five main principles or patterns underpinning successful gender equality in education approaches8.

·         First, partnership approaches that bring together governments, donors and civil society are key.

·         Second, is the need for enacting multiple and multi-sectoral interventions to address the complex demand and supply-side challenges to girls’ education and gender equality in education more broadly.

·         Third, there is a need for strategic and evidence-based policy advocacy and support for continued research, monitoring and evaluation.

·         Fourth, there must be commitment on the part of governments and their partners to the promotion of gender equality in education.

·         Fifth, governments, with the support of donors and civil society, must ensure adequate and sustainable education financing.

Research suggests that successful policies address change and drive action in three main interconnected areas: interventions, institutions and interactions. The following offers a brief discussion of exemplars of policy responses associated with each of the preceding action areas.

Interventions

The concept of “interventions” refers to specific policy levers that can be used to promote access to education, addressing both demand- and supply-side challenges to gender equality in schools. The building of more schools and the recruitment of more teachers, including more women teachers to act as positive role models, is one relatively straightforward way governments can support educational access.

 Limiting the distance that children ‒ girls in particular ‒ have to travel to get to school can go a long way to addressing the security concerns of parents. Innovative interventions have included pairing volunteers from the community with children to walk with them to and from school to ensure their safety.

Reforms aimed at improving the quality of education are also an important part of stimulating demand for schooling. Such reforms can include the improvement of school facilities (e.g., ensuring access to clean water and secure and separate toilet facilities) and the provision of adequate and effective teaching and learning materials.

Gender-responsive teacher training, both in-service and pre-service, is also seen as an effective way to support gender equitable teaching and learning in the long term, and as such represents a valuable policy lever available to governments and an area for serious investment.

An excellent resource for governments and an example of good practice is the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)’s Gender Responsive School model, “where the academic, social and physical environments of the school and local community recognize the specific needs of both boys and girls”. For example, the innovative model supports the “development of gender‐responsive pedagogy, which focuses on lesson planning, language use, classroom interactions, and the role of management in supporting gender-responsive approaches in schools. It targets practical skills as well as the training of school management teams.

Promoting the establishment of school-based clubs (e.g., school governance/student councils, girls’ and boys’ clubs, science clubs, etc.) and other venues for participation and the development of self-esteem and leadership skills is an effective component of inclusive and gender-responsive learning environments. A further supply-side intervention to support gender equality in education is curriculum reform and textbook revision to remove gender bias and promote gender awareness.

To address constraints related to poverty and marginalization ‒ two of the most serious challenges to gender equality in education – several demand-side interventions have proven quite successful in getting more girls (and marginalized boys) into school.

·         First, the elimination of school fees has been critically important.

·         Second, many governments offer financial subsidies to help off-set the direct and indirect costs of schooling for the most vulnerable groups, particularly girls.

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) incentive schemes are a more recent policy innovation that have been used with considerable success in a number of sectors, including education, to change behaviour and promote gender equality in education. Additionally, the documented success of school-based feeding programs and reproductive health education (as well as other child-health supportive programming) support the claim that multiple and multi-sectoral interventions are necessary to address educational challenges related to poverty.

Institutions

Enacting and promoting gender equality in education involves institutional reform and transformation. Gender mainstreaming and gender-responsive budgeting represent two of the most important policy approaches that governments have adopted to demonstrate their commitment to the realization of gender equality in education and beyond. Institutional reform also covers the need to develop strong monitoring, accountability and enforcement mechanisms for successful policy implementation and development.

The collection of sufficient and appropriate data concerning participation, gender relations, context, experience, learning and outcomes is critical here, and a commitment to the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data is of paramount importance for monitoring progress and identifying challenges to the achievement of gender equality in education.

 Effective enforcement mechanisms are also needed to ensure, among other things, the implementation of gender equality policies, including anti-sexual harassment policies and others aimed at combating gender-based violence in schools.

Interactions

More recent research and advocacy has sought to highlight the importance of engaging all stakeholders – government, school administrators, teachers, parents and students – in gender equality in education policy processes, a critical component of which is dialogue and debate.

Value differences associated with varying socio-economic, political and cultural contexts are a reality and such differences need to be recognized and engaged in order for societies to develop the policies that best reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities they serve. Thus, reforming policy processes to create genuine spaces for dialogue and debate represents a further critical component of gender equality in education strategies.

In addition to the creation and support of Parent-Teacher Associations, School Management Committees and the like, national and regional forums must be established where actors can come together to take stock, assess challenges, identify assets and plan accordingly for taking the necessary actions to achieve gender equality in and through education.

Given that education is a human right and a cornerstone of human and national socio-economic development, promoting gender equity in and through education ought to remain a policy priority for governments, donors and civil society in the 21st century. I hope that the trends, challenges and strategies discussed above can help support and guide effective gender equity policy and practice going forward.  #SupportGirlChild #GirlEducation #UniversalEducation #GenderEquality #GenderEquity #EqualOpporturnities #EndGenderDiscrimination #SDG4 #SDG5

Kaburu Anthony: Hunger in Africa is widening every minute

Kaburu Anthony: Hunger in Africa is widening every minute: Over the last 30 years, significant progress has been made towards reducing poverty and global hunger. However, one in every eight people l...