FEEEDS Global Issues Update: Concordia's 2021 Summit Report, Women's Health Index, Democracy Regression & Climate Change/COP26

As a follow-up to its recent, and well-respect annual summit, always held on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, Concordia's 2021 event highlighted the state of the world's social and business issues. This year's Concordia Summit, its 11th, had nearly 300 speakers addressing international issues. You can learn more by reading the report on the summit now live, as well as review some of the key factoids around global issues, which were  highlighted at the 4-day event(2021 summit: by the numbers). The Summit was held both virtually, and with limited in-person interaction. 

Ambassador Sanders, as a global advocate on key development issues, is a senior advisor to Concordia. One of the key session for Dr. Sanders, as CEO-FEEEDS, was the data presentation on the Women's Health Index done by Hologic with polling done in partnership by Gallup World Poll on key health concerns for women. The Index focuses on health issues as well as servicing gaps for women world-wide in some 116 countries based on interviews with 120,000 women. Other issues during the Summit which resonated with FEEEDS' advocacy were turn-backs on democracy, COVID'pushing more people into extreme poverty, and  COP26. Below are some highlights on these key FEEEDS's advocacy issues, which were highlighted by various speakers in various ways during the Summit:

-- Turn-backs on Democracy:  Pressures on democracy (what FEEEDS calls "Democracy Regression") continues to increase across every region of the world, through both government and unilateral actions (from Myanmar to Brazil and coups in West Africa) as well as extreme societal and political divides in countries like the United States, France, Germany and India;

-- COVID-19 & Poverty: COVID-19, is not only turning back the clock on previous global efforts to reduce poverty (2000-2015 MDGs & 2015-2030 SDGS underway now), but possibly pushing another 97 million more people into extreme poverty (define as less than $1.90/day). We must step up and make three-times the effort to get back to pre-pandemic levels, which in and of themselves were stark. Pre-pandemic 2019 levels had 635 million people (see chart on 2015-2020) living in extreme poverty, even though great global reductions had been achieved year-on-year over the last decade. COVID-19 not only stopped progress, but turned back the clock on poverty reduction. The most recent extreme global poverty figures by the World Bank has the combined the 2019 pre-pandemic poverty figure (635 miilion), with the COVID-driven additional 97 million -- resulting in a projected 2021 total figure of  711 million people who face extreme poverty today. (NB: U.S., Brazil & India, in that order, had highest COVID deaths);

-- Climate Change & COP26: Bottom line is faster action and larger financial commitments are needed to reduce the affects of climate change by both governments, business, and institutions. Underscoring these two points, numerous Concordia's Summit sessions further stressed that we need to move three times faster in order to reach the net zero goal of reducing carbon emissions by 1.5˚C. In addition, there needs to be more action on helping with climate refugees and climate famine as both are growing at alarming rates.  It was recognized that a lot depended, of course, on what the 26th United Nations' climate change meeting of the Conference of Parties in Glasgow, United Kingdom produced, (better known as COP26). So far here is where we are on a few areas coming out of COP26 (section will be updated as other commitments come in and are clarified):

-- 100 world leaders attended;

-- 450 global businesses promised to climate reduction by 2023, valued at  USD$130 trillion;1

-- Net 0 - United Kingdom announced it would become a "net zero financial center," where firms would publish their climate actions;2 

-- $11 billion pledged by the United States to help developing countries with climate change;3

-- $19 billion committed by 100 countries to address deforestation and forest degradation, including assistance with rebuilding and rejuvenating the world's forest over the  next 8 years. Included in this pledge was $1.7billion to assist and support indigenous peoples in the world's key rain forest area. (NB: Of note, rain forest areas as large as the United Kingdom were lost last year due to climate change; 85 percent of the world's forest are in Brazil, Congo Basin & Indonesia. Dr. Sanders has been to all three);4

-- 100 countries signed on to the U.S. & UK led push for reductions in methane gas, another contributor to climate change CO2 emissions;  (NB: Top U.S. CO2  emissions in this order are fossil fuels (transportation, industry, electricity, homes & businesses); agriculture (methane gas); unmanaged land and forestry use.5

 -- 40 countries also pledged to shift away from coal/fossil fuel. However, there is a lot of leeway in what this might mean from new investments to financing and production.  Varying dates for ending total use were conveyed. Biggest polluters -- China, U.S., Australia, India and Japan -- did not sign onto this pledge.6

-- $105 billion committed to help spur green energy projects in developing nations was also pledged.7

resource notes:

1. World News Live, CGTN 11/4/21

2. World News Live & BBC news 11/3/21

3. World News Live, CGTN, BBC news & NPR 11/2/21

4. World News Live, CGTN & BBC news 11/3/21

5.  COP26 11/2/21

6. BBC & Reuters 11/4/21

7. NYTimes online 11/4/21

A FEEEDS Series Blogspot
 

Human Rights of U.S. Policing A Year After George Floyd: What the Data Tells Us? - By Dr. Robin Sanders

As we approach the May 25, 2021 year anniversary of George Floyd's death, and 100^th anniversary of the Tulsa Oklahoma Massacre of over 100 African Americans on May 31-June 1, 1921, it is time for reflections, or better said a data report card, on where things are, and where they are not. Has anything changed? Has progress been made, particularly on perceptions regarding the racial divides that have existed and still exist in American society today? All brought to the fore, once again, in such a brutal way, with the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

Clearly, this nation continues to struggle with a myriad of historical and present-day social justice, economic, health (COVID underscoring this further), and opportunity inequalities -- predominately impacting America's people of color and America's poor. Also, part of this reflective discussion is the attendant optic of how the U.S. is viewed overseas (especially in Africa, other world regions of color, and in key UNHC and UN sessions) as a result of not only how and why George Floyd was killed, but also his death turned an international spotlight on present day U.S. racial challenges.

This world attention on America's social justice and racial issues had not happened in such a global way since the beatings, dog attacks and water-cannoning of peaceful black protesters in the South during the 1960 civil rights movement. Summer 2020 protests also spurred revisiting of other recent past police killings of African Americans such as Breonna Taylor (2020), whose case had previously languished; Atlanta's Rayshard Brooks and Ahmaud Abery (2020); and, currently Daunte Wright and Ma'Khia Bryant (2021). Earlier high-profile cases from Alton Sterling (2016), Walter Scott (2015), and Eric Garner to Michael Brown and Tamir Rice (2014) – have all underscored the gravity and need for different policing, reform and transparency.

U.S. Policing: A Human Rights Issue:

On one hand America wants to return as the global leader on democracy, human rights and providing voice for the voiceless -- be they suffering at the hands of violent extremists, kidnappers or military conflicts from Nigeria, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen to biases and violence against women, LGTBQ and discriminatory mistreatment of ethnic groups from Myanmar's Rohingya, the Uighurs of China to Ethiopia's Tigray.

The U.S. bona fides to both regain and continue being an international leading voice on global human rights is also going to be viewed in the context of our own progress on social justice reform and inequalities against people of color. We cannot be a human rights and social sector reform advocate abroad if our nation is not in better shape than it is today on these issues at home, and it is not in good shape – the tensions, protests, and continued police shootings demonstrate this.

                                                                                                                                                 Shutterstock

Reform and fairness in policing (called "human rights issues" anywhere else in the world) remains front and center as arguably one of America's most pressing social challenges, (immigration and upticks in attacks on Asian and Muslim Americans included). But since George Floyd's killing, there has been very little systematic, clear action (outside of the conviction of Derek Chauvin) on these issues, including not moving forward on such as things as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (GFJIP), currently being debated in the U.S. Congress as well as other changes at local and state levels.

Some of the debates could be aided by determining where differences in perceptions on these issues match up, or not, with objective data. Objective data can take politics and perception out of the mix by providing information from polling on what people are actually thinking, saying, and feeling. Research data can be helpful in educating all of us as to where we should end up as a nation on these very difficult human rights, racial, social justice and police reform issues. Let's start with looking at polling data associated with some of the most challenges issues at the top of the reform list – "policing and defunding the police."

Policing:

A recent poll from Gallup's Center on Black Voices, (launched July 15, 2020, just months after Mr. Floyd's death), showed that 67% of all U.S. adults (combining all groups) want current levels of police presence in their communities to remain the same. Within groups, the breakdowns were as follows: 61% of African Americans and 71% of white Americans want police levels in their neighborhoods to remain the same. While data from this same poll showed that only 19% of Black Americans and 12% of White Americans wanted less police presence in their communities. Further, Hispanic American responses, in the same research, were also high with 59% wanting the same level of police presence, and only 17% preferring less police presence. Asian Americans also scored high at 69%. It will be left to you to determine if your perceptions on these elements of policing matchup or differ.

                                                                                                      Shutterstock

'We cannot be a human rights and social sector reform advocate abroad if our nation is not in better shape than it is today on these issues at home, and it is not in good shape – the tensions, protests, and continued police shootings demonstrate this.' – Robin R. Sanders

Attendant to the issues of policing are the questions around the phrase defunding the police. This can mean different things to different people -- from directing funds toward mental health and social services to the city of Minneapolis' model (where George Floyd was killed), which voted to find a new paradigm for its police department. The percentage responses above could help inform how many Americans feel on this key attendant issue.

Police Reform & Changing Police Practices:

On actual police reform, the Center's data also revealed that the majority of Americans agree that reform is needed, particularly at the community level. However, differences arise over type and level of reforms.

The Center's graph shows at least 58% of Americans agree "major change [reform] is needed," with only 36% saying minor changes are needed. Here it is likely that perceptions and data are more aligned given that the actual breakdown between groups on reform indicates that the desire among African Americans is 88%, among Asian Americans 83%, for Hispanics 63%, and 51% for white Americans. There is an additional key data marker on this issue -- age differential. The majority of Americans in the 18-34 age group polled higher on wanting reform (81%), with those 50-60 years, and 65 and older polling respectively at 43% and 46%.

 Also, overall, 98% of Americans support developing "change management practices" that tracks police officers with records and histories of abuses, so they are "not allowed to serve." The breakdown is as follows: Black Americans 92%, Hispanics 87%, and whites 81% in support of this viewpoint. Furthermore, 76% of Americans want "change management practices so officer abuses are punished." (See full report - Most Americans Say Policing Needs 'Major Changes' - gallup.com.

Black-White Race Relations – Perceptions Appear to Match Data:

Social justice and police reform are connected to race relations in America today. In Pew's 2019 research, (pre-George Floyd) its data graphs showed that 58% of Americans said that race relations "were generally bad," with African Americans expressing high levels at 71%, and whites at 56%. Furthermore, Pew's data revealed that it is more "common" today for people to express racially insensitive views, even if "these views," are not "necessarily more acceptable."

Gallup Center on Black Voices - Relations Between White and Black Americans

 

Pew's polling also highlights that this sentiment was slightly higher among minorities in America than for whites (African Americans 76%, Hispanics 75%, and whites 60%). In addition, when asked about racial inequality in America, of the people polled, "half or more said being poor, Muslim, black, or Hispanic puts people at a disadvantage in our [American] society."

Meanwhile, the Center for Black Voices data, which includes Gallup's research from nearly two decades (2001-2020), shows from 2007-early 2013 that 28-30% of Americans thought black-white relations "were somewhat bad," whereas in 2020, 55% of Americans are feeling this way as can be seen on the embedded Gallup chart on "Relations Between White and Black Americans, 2001-2020."

Including Data Can Help:

Thus, as we approach these huge social justice anniversaries in the coming weeks (year passing of Floyd and Black Tulsa Massacre's 100^th anniversary), on top of 62 African Americans out of the 292 people killed by police since the beginning of 2021, it is important to underscore the importance data can play in helping us achieve much-needed change.

It will continually be harder for America to overcome social unrest, discord, or be a model for international human rights (especially when pointing out faults of other nations) if we cannot come to terms with these social justice issues at home and changing the trajectory of some of these negative data trends on black-white race relations.

Note: See Pew Research Center's and Gallup's Center for Black Voices websites and articles for more on their research on these key social justice, human rights, police reform in the U.S. and on other issues. The Center for Black Voices is a 100-year commitment by Gallup to listen and report on the Black Experience in America. Article first appeared in Allafrica.com

A FEEEDS Blogspot

Amb. Sanders Discuss SouthSudan Crisis on Al Jazeera English and Nigeria's TVC-See Clips

Ambassador Robin Sanders, who served as a diplomat in Sudan when it was one Sudan, toward the end of the long civil war and work on US-Sudan policy issues as special assistant in the Africa Bureau at the State Department, and as a Director for Africa at the National Security Council at the White House discusses the current South Sudan Crisis see clips on: Aljazeera English:
 https://fc.aljazeera.net/workflow/jsp/downloadFiles.jsp; and  Nigeria's Television Continental (TVC): https://youtu.be/WITBh-cLkXw

Amb Sanders Speaks Out On One Year Anniversary of Chibok Girls Kidnapping

We all remember the news tragic new of April and May 2014 where more than 247 young school age girls were brutally kidnapped from their village of Chibok, Borno State, in Northeastern Nigeria. Sanders who was in Nigeria in May 2014 when the international community took more note of the tragedy when it was focusing on Nigeria hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF), comments that when the young women were initially abducted on April 14, 2014, more should have been done in the first 48-72 hours after the abduction to find the girls. Ambassador Sanders remarks in an anniversary interview on Al Jazeera American that the "entire international community failed these girls because more should have been done in the first 48-72 hours, not two weeks after the abduction. Sanders made similar statements in June 2014 when testifying before the House Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Congress.  Her full Al Jazeera America interview can been viewed this link : http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2015/4/one-year-later-the-girls-abducted-by-boko-haram-are-still-not-found.html


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