Speaking, via a video message, at the launch of the Fund, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described safe sanitation and hygiene as “critical to the response that we want to see, first, because it is about human dignity; second, it is a health issue.”
4 billion people worldwide do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, and until they do, the world cannot meet the goals of inclusive and sustainable development by 2030.
Many of the world’s most serious diseases stem from poor sanitation and hygiene, the coronavirus pandemic has blown the lid off this fact, with over three billion lacking access to basic hand washing facilities – a key action to keep the virus at bay.
“Basic hygiene of washing your hands and being able to have a toilet that is accessible is key [to enabling healthy communities] in the longer term,” stressed Ms. Mohammed.
The Sanitation and Hygiene Fund is hosted by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), a specialized UN entity providing service, technical advice and implementing projects for the Organization and partners globally.
A global financing mechanism, the Fund will provide accelerated funding to countries with the heaviest burden and least ability to respond, focusing on four strategic objectives: expanding household sanitation; ensuring menstrual health and hygiene; providing sanitation and hygiene in schools and healthcare facilities; and supporting innovative sanitation solutions.
It aims to raise $2 billion over the next five years to support the efforts.
‘A great equalizer’
Even though proper sanitation is at the core of development to any community, family or individual, over 600 million schools and countless households do not toilets and many lack basic sanitation services.
Terming sanitation and hygiene as “a great equalizer for children”, Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called on countries to treat sanitation as a public good.
“During a lockdown, how do you cope with the fact that your household does not have a toilet? This is particularly difficult for girls and women. If everyone had access to sanitation and hygiene in households, in their schools, in their health facilities and communities, it would make an enormous difference in our world,” she said.
“Good sanitation has to be a public good. Governments have to own the fact that sanitation is their problem to solve, and that they have ways to solve it,” added Ms. Fore.
“The Economy of Francesco is a really innovative event,” says Si Chun Lam, one of the young people taking part in the meeting.
Pope Francis, he says, is hoping that the young economists, entrepreneurs and change makers, as well as some of the world’s leading minds that have been invited to take part in the event will “come up with some ideas for the global economy that serves all humanity and all creation.”
In an interview with Vatican News, Si Chun says, “What’s really quite special” about the Economy of Francesco “is that, instead of having the leading minds teach and lecture us, they’re invited here to listen. They’re listening to our ideas as young people… about our ideas to transform the global economy.”
Reflecting on happiness and human flourishing
The participants of the event have been grouped into twelve thematic “villages” dealing with topics such as finance, the economy, women, and family.
Si Chun took part in the Policies and Happiness Village, which focused on individual and social welfare, relations in families, communities and cities. In the lead up to the final meeting, members of the Policies and Happiness Village learned about, shared, and debated ideas “about what makes our life full of purpose, how our current economic models can hinder and limit our ability to fully prosper.”
After “many hours” online and in Zoom chats “developing and nurturing those ideas and offshoots into practical proposals,” says Si Chun, the group “met” in October to choose their “very, very best ideas” to bring to the main event.”
Listen t o the interview with Si Chun Lam
Inspired by penguins
Si Chun says his Village’s ideas are “about how we can really invest in relationships, invest in spending that time to build and nurture relationships to create the flourishing new global economy where everybody can take part.”
The first, he says, was inspired by penguins.
“Why penguins?” he asks, admitting that the idea sounds “a bit strange.”
He explains that penguins are “able to build sustainable colonies that don’t just survive, but they thrive in the most inhospitable and challenging environments. And that actually teaches us as humanity a lesson about how we can build thriving small to medium cities where we can be better connected to each other, and also to creation.”
Maps that include rather than divide
The group’s second idea focuses on mapping, and turning the very idea of maps on its head. On a normal map one sees boundary lines that divide people and place from one another.
“Our proposal turns this around, by using maps in an inclusive way to draw up what connects us,” says Si Chun. “It creates a bit of a narrative where it’s about unity in place of division.”
Helping future generations flourish
Finally, Si Chun says the Village wanted to find ways to promote human flourishing by encouraging decision makers “to support policies that ensure future generations can flourish.” This, he says, means looking beyond the concrete, present realities, like the gross domestic project; and even going beyond broader notions such as human development, and instead “looking to the future.”
It involves “nourishing things that protect the future. Like nature. Like beauty. Like curiosity. And like being able to dream about the future, and of course things like equality and participation as well,” Si Chun says.
Passionate about making the world a better place
Si Chun says the experience of the Economy of Francesco has helped him gain “a bit of a network and connection with other like-minded individuals around the world who are also really passionate about how we can make the world a better place.”
He also notes the “prayerful” and “positive” atmosphere of the event, saying he and the other participants were able to really reflect on the words of the Gospel and the Bible, as well as the encyclicals of Pope Francis.
“So, really I think that’s what I really gained,” he says, “that bit of network, that prayerful approach and that bit of positivity and hope in quite a difficult time with the pandemic and everything as well.”
Rabat – Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita said on Monday during an international ministerial conference that religion is a “vector of unity against divisions.”
The minister participated in the Third Ministerial Conference on the “instrumentalization growth of religion for terrorist purposes in the context of the pandemic,” hosted by Poland and the US.
In an address via videoconference, the minister said Morocco’s conviction is that religion is hijacked when it should be a “vector of unity in the face of divisions advocating the negation of the other.”
For Morocco, religion should also be “a factor of dialogue in the face of the rejection of tolerance and coexistence and a source of light in the face of obscurantist currents which refuse moderation and remain in ignorance.”
Bourita also recalled that Morocco’s model of religious tolerance centered around three aspects: Clairvoyance, openness, and pragmatism.
Referring to clairvoyance, the minister said King Mohammed VI has stressed that religion is “no longer an alibi for the ignorant, because religion is light, knowledge, and wisdom.”
In terms of openness, Morocco’s foreign minister recalled the meeting of King Mohammed VI and Pope Francis in 2019, saying that the trip came at a time “when the world needed a renewed leadership for a dialogue between religions.”
Pope Francis’ visit to Morocco was deemed as historic. The visit marked the Moroccan monarch and the pope’s appeal — or the Al Quds Call — emphasizing the sacred character of Jerusalem.
Regarding pragmatism, the minister vowed that Morocco’s commitment to religious freedom is based on concrete actions.
“Morocco has set up two flagship insitutions to promote the values of a tolerant Islam: the Mohammed VI Insitute for the training of Imams, Mourchidines, and Mourchidates and the Mohammed VI Foundatin of African Ulema,” he underlined.
Thousands of imams come from foreign countries, including from states across Africa, to benefit from Morocco’s training programs.
Several reports lauded Morocco’s approach, including those from the US Department of State.
“Morocco’s approach [to religion] is always constant, even in difficult times,” Bourita said.
The minister aso spoke of Morocco’s “courage and determination” to protect Jews from Nazism during World War I. Decades later, Morocco continues to support its Jewish community and heritage through the renovation of synagogues and cemeteries and the creation of scientific and cultural institutions, including the House of Memory in Essaouira and the Museum of Jewish Culture in Fez.
Bourita concluded his speech with a quote from King Mohammed VI, who called during the visit of Pope Francis for an embrace of “the values of moderation to achieve the imperatives of co-knowledge and to apprehend the awareness of otherness” to live in a better world.
JAIPUR: In a break from the past, a non-Muslim candidate from Rajasthan has topped the all-India entrance exam for a master’s course in Islamic studies at the Central University of Kashmir.
“Islam is portrayed as a radical religion and there is lot of misconception about it. The division in the society is growing today and it is really very important to understand each other’s religion,” said Shubham Yadav, who would join the course in Kashmir for two years.
The result of the common entrance test, held on September 20, was declared on October 29.
The university, which had set up the Islamic studies centre in 2015, confirmed that Yadav is the first non-Muslim candidate to top the exam.
“This is the first time a non-Muslim has topped the entrance exam. We’ve had non-Muslim scholars in the past,” Professor Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi told PTI.
Yadav (21) has done BA honours in philosophy from the Delhi University and hails from Alwar where two lynching cases of Pehlu Khan in 2017 and Akbar alias Rakbar Khan in 2018 took place.
“Such kind of incidents also made me think and gave motivation to read about the religion (Islam). I convinced my parents to pursue Islamic studies by making them understand that it will be about Islamic history and culture and they agreed,” he said.
Yadav said that he developed an interest in Islamic studies during his college days and has informally studied about the Arab spring, Iran issues, early days of Islam and Prophet Muhammad and is looking forward to learn more about it in the formal course.
“Some of my friends who are from Muslim community are studying global Islamic politics,” said Yadav, who is also preparing for the civil services exam.
Yadav has a younger brother studying in class 11 while his father runs a general store in Alwar.
European Commission Speech Brussels, 17 Nov 2020 Cher Monsieur Almunia, cher Joaquín,
Mesdames, messieurs,
Je vous remercie pour votre invitation à cet événement qui porte sur un su…
The Lead Bishop for Prisons of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (Cbcew) has called on the British Government to go further in protecting prisoners and staff during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last Spring, the Government introduced an Early Conditional Temporary Release Scheme allowing the release of vulnerable prisoners who do not pose a threat to the public, including pregnant women and new mothers. The head of the Department, Bishop Richard Moth, contacted the UK Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC, to express the Catholic Church’s support to the decision.
The letter
In a new letter to the Secretary, the prelate asked the British Government to consider measures to counter the growing number of Covid-19 outbreaks among prisoners and staff by extending the Scheme. “Through releasing some prisoners who pose a low risk of harm and who are nearing the end of their sentences, it may be possible to ease pressure on the prison estate. This can also help to protect vital family support networks, which have come under increasing strain throughout the pandemic”, he said.
Although recognizing the great efforts of governors and prison staff in minimising the loss of life from Covid-19 among the prison population, Bishop Moth also highlighted the “significant cost that has been paid in terms of prisoners’ mental and physical health, restrictions to rehabilitation activity, and reduced family contact”. According to the prelate “this situation needs further attention.”
Over one third of Ukrainians were tobacco smokers in 2019, according to the results of the first nationwide, large-scale STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) survey on the main risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Ukraine. The data also demonstrate a large gender gap: 50.3% of men smoked compared to 16.7% of women.
“While NCDs represent a significant global public health challenge, this is particularly so in Europe, where they cause 89% of deaths and 84% of years lived with disability. The current COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder of the impact of NCD comorbidities, which have a detrimental effect on both disease severity and sickness duration,” said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
“The STEPS survey in Ukraine makes an important and relevant contribution to the European Programme of Work, as it measures not only the prevalence of NCD risk factors but also the coverage and effectiveness of selected priority interventions,” Dr Kluge added.
“WHO has supported Ukraine in addressing NCDs in the country in the past years,” explained Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative and Head of the WHO Country Office in Ukraine. “To complement actions with population-level surveillance, the STEPS survey, conducted in Ukraine for the first time, allows us to determine the behavioural and biological risk factors for NCDs, and to collect extensive relevant data across the country to evaluate progress, set priorities, and plan policies, interventions and actions to protect Ukrainian people’s health and reduce the rate of mortality due to NCDs in coming years.”
Tobacco and alcohol use, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diets are the major risk factors for NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases. NCDs cause 91% of all deaths in Ukraine.
To assess the major behavioural and biological NCDs risk factors among the Ukrainian population, the nationwide population-based health examination survey was conducted in 2019 using the WHO STEPS methodology. In total, 4409 adults aged 18–69 years were interviewed and examined to collect data on key NCDs risk factors, including tobacco and alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.
The study revealed very high prevalence of NCDs and their risk factors in Ukraine, including high tobacco and alcohol consumption, very high salt intake, and low fruit and vegetable intake. Despite relatively low levels of insufficient physical activity, overweight and obesity are widespread in the country.
“Ukraine, like most other European countries, is characterized by a significant prevalence of NCD risk factors, which are responsible for the critical health indicators of the Ukrainian population,” said Mr Maxym Stepanov, Minister of Health of Ukraine.
“As the STEPS survey was conducted in Ukraine for the first time, it was mainly aimed at obtaining basic information on the main NCD risk factors, both behavioural and biological. The country included some additional questions related to mental health, cervical and breast cancer, and injury and violence in the survey. In this way, the information obtained can serve as a starting point for monitoring NCD risk factors in Ukraine, allowing the effectiveness of the National Plan implementation to be monitored,” he added.
The study results were presented during an online event in Ukraine on 17 November 2020. They will allow the country to track progress on the health-related Sustainable Development Goals as well as national, regional and global action plans and commitments related to the prevention and control of NCDs and their risk factors.
The survey was conducted by WHO, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health and the Oleksandr Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research, with support from the World Bank.
The WHO STEPS tool is a standardized method for collecting, analysing and disseminating comprehensive data on NCDs, their risk factors and the responses of health-care systems. Data are collected on a wide range of behavioural and biological risk factors, as well as on individuals’ medical history of NCDs.
The path of conversion to Catholicism that primarily included care for our common home was the path taken by Knox Peden, a Texan from Dallas who had moved to Australia in 2011. Thanks to Pope Francis’s teaching in the Encyclical Laudato si’, he put his relationship with creation at the center of his own human and professional life. “I took to heart the call to ecological conversion,” he explains to Vatican News. “It’s also built on the idea of integral ecology which builds on other forms of Catholic teaching about, you know, the integral nature of our community, and our family and our society.” The Pope, he says, “encourages us to expand these ideas of relationship and communion to all of creation and realise that our life is based in relationships, it is essentially comprised of relationships and that we have a responsibility to maintain those relationships.” Among these relationships, Peden believes that, “the most important is our relationship to creation, to our common home on this planet.”
Knox Peden outside of his parish in O’Connor, Canberra
A historian and philosopher, and professor of European Enlightenment Studies at the University of Queensland, Knox Peden is one of over 10 thousand Laudato si’ Animators throughout the world formed by the Global Catholic Climate Movement. These are people who, for the most part, were already dedicated in their own local parishes, associations, or religious traditions and who feel particularly called to live integral ecology and Laudato si’, committing themselves to service in their own communities.
Within his own parish community, dedicated to St Joseph in O’Connor, a suburb of Canberra, Peden organizes conversations among the faithful around the message of the 2015 Papal document, as well as prayer walks in nature. Though “not an activist by nature,” he clarifies, “I never turn down the chance to talk about ideas I’m passionate about.” During the Season of Creation, from last 1 September to 4 October, he participated in the redevelopment of his parish’s flowerbeds and gardens, collaborating with Erin, a fellow-parishioner who guided the group in the planning and planting.
Erin guides the planting project at St Joseph’s Parish
Pope Francis’s teaching
Peden grew up in the United States as a Presbyterian. Later on, he did not practice his faith for many years. Among the various aspects that Peden highlights regarding his conversion to Catholicism, which came about in July 2019, is that of the Pope’s “perspective” regarding the climate crisis and his teaching in general: “the more I read, the more I was drawn into his teaching,” he recounts. Talking about the course of his conversion, Peden says, “It had been coming on for several years, through developments in my academic work and also in my personal life. Convergence all around, no doubt due to God’s grace.” Becoming a father, he confesses “was a catalyst for change.”
A new discovery
“I was baptized and confirmed Presbyterian when I was 12 years old. My family”, Knox recalls, “wasn’t religious, but the church and its community were very important to me at that time. So when I started going to services again several years ago, I initially went to a Presbyterian church in Canberra.” Then, during a trip to Paris in 2018 with his family, he crossed the threshold of a Catholic Church to participate in a Eucharistic Celebration. “I found the experience intoxicating, and for the remainder of our trip I went to as many Masses as I could. I’d lived in Paris for four years as a PhD student and walked by all these churches countless times without ever going in. It was a new world for me, a new discovery.”
Parishioners working at St Joseph’s Church
Fires in Australia
The devastating fires that hit Australia last year pushed him to become active in the safeguarding of creation. Vast fires burned uninterruptedly for 240 days, devouring the forests in the south-east of the country in particular, destroying millions of hectars of wooded areas, causing more than 400 death, as well as the loss of livestock, homes and businesses. The Global Catholic Climate Movement points out that forest fires have been occurring in Australia for decades, but that climate change increases both their likelihood and intensity. The fact that this is happening in the United States and regions in the Amazon is also testimony of a planet in flames.
The fires in Australia
“The fires were horrifying”, the historian from Canberra recalls: “days of smoke that had us wearing masks well before the pandemic arrived” of Covid-19.
A social-environmental crisis
When he discovered Laudato si’, he felt a “shock of recognition”, he explains, recognizing himself in the critique the Pope made regarding modernity and the current crisis. He is referring to Pope Francis’s exhortation regarding the environment as well as the relationship between nature and the society that inhabits it, because, as the Pope writes in the Encyclical, “We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (Par 139). The climate crisis, Peden confirms, “is part of a more general crisis stemming from our comportment to the world and to ourselves. Even if the planet were not ravaged by storms and fires, our commitment to consumption and waste – what Pope Francis calls ‘throwaway culture’ – would be self-destructive” anyway.
Ecological conversion and evangelization
Based on his experience, the University of Queensland professor reads Laudato si’ as a means of ecological conversion as well as a resource for evangelization. “Ecological conversion is a matter of opening and expanding our sense of dependency. Spiritual conversion tells us we depend on God; ecological conversion extends the idea to tell us we depend on creation, what God has made.” Today, “having everything at hand gives us an illusion of self-sufficiency. But,” he emphasizes, “it’s still just that: an illusion. We do depend on others, even if we don’t realize it.”
Dedicated to creation in O’Connor
The Covid-19 crisis
As has been said a few times, the world-wide coronavirus crisis has highlighted how, in our exposure to vulnerability, we are more interdependent, connected. “The stratifications of our society have only become more apparent as the pandemic has worn on,” Peden observes. He defines the virus as an “equal-opportunity offender”. Therefore, he adds, “if it’s the more vulnerable who are suffering – and it is – we are forced to confront our failures to protect” those in need. The coronavirus, he points out, has basically shown, “our capacity to change our behaviours actually quite quickly when we’re faced with a crisis and when there is the political will to do so.”
“When we’re faced with the challenge that confronts the whole community we see that the community really can act together to take care of each other.” To put it in the words of the Encyclical, this is so, “because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another.”
