OPINION

Photo: Dr Wim Naudé, Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics with the Cork University Business School in Ireland with the image of AfCFTA from African Union website.

African Free Trade Area Expected to Lift Millions out of Extreme Poverty and Boost Growth

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) — The long-awaited African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)—set to be the world’s biggest free trade zone by size—which entered into force on January 1, 2021, promises a new era for African trade.

An Africa-wide free-trade pact could bolster the region’s income by $450 billion and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035, if accompanied by significant policy reforms and trade-facilitation measures, according to the World Bank. When fully operational, the Free Trade area will create a market of 1.2 billion and drive a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 April 2021

The West Should Declare It Has No Strategic Interest in Israel

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Yesterday morning [April 5] I watched on BBC News the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, walking into the courtroom where he is to be tried for corruption. He is impossible to read—his mask makes it even more difficult. In repose his intentions and personality are inscrutable.

On the most important political issue of all—whether to support a two-state solution—sometimes he has said he is for it, but now he says he doesn’t. He prefers, it seems, to keep to the status quo, which means expanding Jewish settlements on Arab Palestinian land and refusing any political life to the occupied Palestinians. But we don’t really know what his inner thoughts are.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 April 2021

Photo: Waiting in line for vaccine. Credit: Raphael Alves/IMF Photos

The Global Pandemic Is Intensifying and Widening Inequality

By David Amaglobeli, Vitor Gaspar, and Paolo Mauro*

This article was first published on April 1 with the title Giving Everyone a Fair Shot. It is also available in عربي, 中文, Español, Français, 日本語, Português, Русский

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN | IMF Blog) — The COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vicious circle of inequality. To break this pattern and give everyone a fair shot at prosperity, governments need to improve access to basic public services—such as health care (including vaccination) and education—and strengthen redistributive policies.

For most countries, this would require raising additional revenue and improving the efficiency of spending. These reforms must be complemented by greater transparency and accountability, which can help increase overall trust in government and contribute to more cohesive societies.

: J C Suresh; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 04 April 2021

UN Striving to Ensure Media and Information Literacy

By Ramu Damodaran

The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd was first published in the latest #WhyWeCare. It highlights efforts of the UN to combat the "infodemic" — misinformation or disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic that is having a disastrous social and economic impact on societies around the globe. The efforts include a proposal for declaring October 24-31 as a Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week. — The Editor.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 03 April 2021

Photo: Sri Lanka Sinharaja Forest Preserve. CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Human Rights’ and Ecological Crisis in Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Dr Asoka Bandarage

The writer, a scholar and practitioner, has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, American and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad

COLOMBO (IDN) — The recent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 of March 16 has brought extensive charges against Sri Lanka over alleged human rights violations but is arguably seriously flawed.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 03 April 2021

Photo: Nigerian Port Harcourt Refining Ltd in Alesa-Eleme. CC BY 2.0

Nigeria Decides to Invest $1.5bn in Irreparable Refinery

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

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

ABUJA (IDN) — Brazil has proved a disaster in the management of COVID-19, but there are other areas where we can use their examples.

Like what to do about failing refineries. This hot-button topic returned to the front burner after the Nigerian government recently announced plans to repair the Port Harcourt Refinery.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 01 April 2021

Photo: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev discussing German unification with Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Russia, July 15, 1990. Credit: Bundesbildstelle / Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung.

Rolling Back on NATO's Expansion Should Be President Joe Biden's Immediate Task

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — History and events have not been kind to Russia. Napoleon’s invasion, revolution, two world wars, Hitler’s invasion, Stalin’s communism and, most recently, the expansion of NATO, have shattered the Russian people’s equilibrium and self-regard time and time again.

At the end of the Cold War and with agreement on the NATO-Russia Founding Act it seemed that big steps towards a new kind of future were being taken. First, Russia would have a seat at NATO's table. Later it would join NATO. Later still, the European Union. Some said this would happen over ten years, others twenty.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 March 2021

COVID-19 Bares Chronic Development Fault Lines in Asia-Pacific

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer is United Nations-Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) — The world is emerging from the biggest social and economic shock in living memory, but it will be a long time before the deep scars of the COVID-19 pandemic on human well-being fully heal.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 March 2021

Photo credit: China Global Television Network, or CGTN.

Internal Conflict Over Carbon Neutral China by 2060

Viewpoint by Alexander Kallweit

Last year, President Xi Jinping announced ambitious climate targets. But China's reluctant state apparatus struggles to reconcile high growth and climate policy, writes Dr Alexander Kallweit, who heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Beijing. Previously, he led the foundation's International Dialogue Department in Berlin. This article first appeared in the International Politics & Society Journal.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 March 2021

Photo: Tibet President Lobsang Sangay in Vienna, Austria, in 2012. CC BY-SA 3.0

The World Must Stand with Tibet

Viewpoint by Lobsang Sangay

The author is President of the Tibetan-government-in-exile, called as Central Tibetan Administration.

DARJEELING, India (IDN) — Tibet, famously called the roof of the world, a state in the Himalayas neighbored by India and China has for long been in a state of the tussle with Beijing. China lays the claim over the entire Tibet and calls it its own territory; however, Tibet has always strived for an independent existence. This is among the many conflicts currently brewing in South Asia, probably the worse as far as the power imbalance is concerned.