Since the beginning of the pandemic, health workers, journalists, human rights defenders and other frontline workers have courageously criticized, scrutinized and reported on the inadequate responses to COVID-19. For doing so, many of them have been threatened, attacked or arrested.

Development banks have played a crucial role in funding and shaping the responses to the pandemic, providing more than 150 billions of dollars. However, they have failed in taking concrete actions to ensure that – in the context of the COVID-19 response they were supporting – people could freely and safely express their opinions and raise their concerns. When cases of retaliations occurred, they stayed silent.

The report “Unhealthy silence: Development banks’ inaction on retaliation during COVID-19 ”, published on July 27, 2021 by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, ARTICLE 19 and IFEX, presents eight emblematic case studies of reprisals and statistical analysis of 335 cases of people attacked for speaking up around COVID-19 responses. The report also shows how development banks have failed to uphold their own commitments and presents a set of recommendations to address reprisals.

Original Source: rightsindevelopment.org

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This Week, the Electoral Commission released the 2021 road map for the elections with an increment of the budget from Shs 500 billion in 2016 to Shs 868 billion for the next election.

But the Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) Coordinator, Crispin Kaheru, said the plan stands on shaky ground because the necessary legal reforms that are supposed to support the implementation of the plan as proposed by the Supreme Court and other stakeholders are not yet in place.

He added that this means even with a good plan, this may continue to create lowering confidence in elections, more electoral malpractices and election petitions because the legal and administrative leakages that were there in the past, may still continue unabated.

“This plan is quite costly – Shs 868 billion compared to about 500 billion shillings in 2016. This is quite a cost especially for a struggling economy.”

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As the African delegates prepare to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate change in Katowice in Poland this week, the leaders have been called to empower the women on climate change.

Research shows that when women are involved in decision making, agreements on the environment are more likely to be ratified and projects around natural resources, such as water, are more likely to succeed.

If given access to education and finance, African women can contribute to finding technological solutions and driving the continent’s renewable energy industry too.

Dana Elhassan, Senior Gender Expert at the African Development Bank, said in a press release by APO that: “When you empower women in the context of climate change you empower a family, a community and a country.”

There is also strong evidence that women play a vital role in dealing with disasters by mobilising communities, something that will become increasingly important as climate change advances.

“You cannot solve a problem with half the team. A lot of the unpaid work that women do, such as collecting firewood and water, and caring for the family, are massively affected by climate change – so we have to make sure adaptation initiatives address their needs, vulnerabilities and potential.”

Women as agents of change

Studies show that when women are part of decision making, ratification of multilateral agreements on the environment are more likely, adds Mafalda Duarte, head of the $8.3 billion Climate Investment Fund, one of the largest climate financing instruments in the world.

“Discourse is quite tilted to considering women as victims of climate change – but we are agents of change and if we are perceived as such this will make a big difference,” says Ms Duarte.

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