The Knotted Gun Sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd on display in the UN Visitor's Plaza. Photo credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

The United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and Issue of Impunity failed to be endorsed by UNESCO’s International Program for the Development of Communication Council (IPDC) last month due to a block by Pakistan, India, Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba.

The UN Plan, created during the Inter-Agency Meeting on The Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in late 2011, acknowledged that journalists globally are routinely threatened and that these attacks or ignored or are met with impunity. Ultimately, it argued that this handicapped journalism’s vital role in developing countries of exposing corruption and crime in government. While advocates, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), had hopes that the UN Plan would enable greater security for whistleblowers and journalists in developing countries, the UN Plan has been delayed.

“It is the first time that we have seen an effort on this scale to mobilize UN agencies into a coordinated response,” Elisabeth Witchel, CPJ’s Consultant on Impunity told MediaGlobal prior to the meeting. “It also means that the UN will come to terms with the significance of press freedom for its work in many different areas. With strong implementation and follow up, we expect the Plan will result in measures to strengthen the safety of journalists and provide them with access to help when threatened.”

The UN Plan is influenced by Resolution 1738 that was adopted unanimously by the 5613th Security Council. The resolution urgently called for the protection of journalists in conflict zones and the end of impunity.

“Conflict will always be dangerous by definition not only for journalists but for civilians as well,” Kaiser tells MediaGlobal.

According to CPJ, the top 20 deadliest nations for journalists are all developing countries, five of them least developed countries. Worldwide, 909 journalists have been killed since 1992 and 88 percent of these murder cases were met without justice.

“When journalists are killed, others are intimidated. Where there is less reliable information put into circulation, the result is a fertile ground for rumors and for human rights abuses to occur under the cover of darkness,” Guy Berger, UNESCO’s Director of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, tells MediaGlobal.

Unable to evacuate from a conflict zone, local journalists ultimately take the blunt of any retaliation against the media. They consist of 87 percent of total murders since 1992. Organizations such as CJP have attempted to assist these journalists through advising on safety as well as highlighting injustices against journalists to create international scrutiny for the targeted government.

“Recognizing a journalist with our International Press Freedom Award can bring a level of scrutiny to their situation which will serve as a cloak of public solidarity to protect the journalist,” Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, Advocacy and Communications Director of CPJ, tells MediaGlobal. “CPJ has also enlisted international bodies to intervene when journalists are at risk. For example, at our urging the UN mission in the Ivory Coast evacuated to a safer ground 12 local journalists under siege in Abidjan.”

While publicizing a threat may sometimes deter it, it only stops that single attack. Kaiser notes that impunity will only beget further violence from the perpetrator. Consequently, enforcing measures towards ensuring justice is the keystone to ending the murder of journalists.

Through a combination of actions, including the establishment of an inter-agency mechanism to handle journalist safety and raising awareness through public relation campaigns, the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and Issue of Impunity was supposed to fulfill the goal of Resolution 1738. Instead, the document is on hold.

“We are appalled that this historic opportunity for the international community to take concrete action has been thwarted.” Kaiser said in a public statement.

While the UN Plan has been delayed, is it not dead. According to a UNESCO, it will now be brought to the attention of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination where it may be considered for endorsement in the future.

MediaGlobal interviews award-winning photographer Walter Astrada. Native to Argentina, Astrada has made it his career’s mission to bring global awareness about human rights abuses, especially violence against women and children. His work in Guatemala and their femicide problem, along with his work in Africa, has won him several awards and global recognition. Interview by Jika Gonzalez and LaShawn Pagan. Presentation by Laurent Y. Peter.

MG: We will start with your work in Guatemala, what inspired you to focus on the femicide?

WA: I was scouring the newspapers for ideas on what to work on; I read a story on Doctors without Borders, and their work in Liberia and I thought that was a good idea – but, in the same newspaper there was a small story about a woman killed in Spain (where he was residing at the time). I decided to stay local and do a project on on women’s rights. As I began researching the topic, I studied material on women’s rights violations around the world, by the end I had a map of sorts, where women’s rights were being violated every day.

I designed a project that would concentrate on one country for each continent. Afterwards, I began applying for grants and scholarships, while beginning to work on my own. Guatemala was easily accessible to me, since I spoke the language and had friends living there.  After the first trip I won a first place on Contemporary Issues on the World Press Photo (2006) award and that enabled me to go back to Guatemala and continue my work in the country.

MG: I saw your documentary on India’s selective abortion (Undesired). After spending time in Guatemala and India, is there any way to compare the two countries, when it comes to the rights of women?

WA: It’s very difficult to compare such different countries, the religions are different. Violence in India has much to do with religion and the interpretation of it plus the cultural practices; in Guatemala it doesn’t. The only comparison is that in both countries there is a type of violence, and women do not have the same social status as men, but anything more than that is quite difficult to associate to one another. We could maybe compare Guatemala to El Salvador, or maybe even Mexico, but India seems a little complicated.

MG: Leaning a bit more toward photography; when you find yourself in situations where you are so close to violence, is there a feeling of disconnect,  is having a camera a sort of shield or protection? Have you ever felt the need to step from behind the camera?

WA: Let’s put things into perspective: the camera is a tool, I’m a photographer. I’m not a nurse, or a psychologist. But I can’t disconnect from what I’m seeing, feeling, so, my mission is to try to do my job well, and that means ensuring the photo conveys the message it needs to.  That photo impresses those people it needs to impress, that puts pressure on those who need pressure to act and stop or change what is going wrong.

The camera is not a form of protection; it’s only a tool, that piece of metal that can take a picture that, hopefully, moves us all.

MG: As a photographer, you have witnessed a lot of violence – do you feel you have accomplished your mission in bringing awareness to the problem?

WA: I had tried my best to do it, to bring awareness about human rights violations, but to get your pictures given the message you need to show them.

So, there are different ways of doing it, through publications, exhibitions, screenings, internet, and also awards. With my work I had won several awards which normally come along with an exhibition, so through those awards my photos are able to be seen in more places. The point is: there is something wrong when your goal is to win a prize.  Although someone at some point found your work to be important enough to reward you for it, and give it that recognition, what’s most important is getting the image [message] out there.

MG: There was a situation when you had to send a female to do interviews; is this something you’ve had to deal with several times?

WA: No, only in India, because of their strong sense of culture. For example, the maternity photos took me a while to take because I am a man — if I were a woman it would have been much easier. As a woman, some situations are easier to work in and vice versa as a man. It also helped that I was a foreigner.

MG: Tell us about a time where you haven’t gotten more than an “award” for your work:

WA: There several times where you don’t get an award but the pictures makes the pages of newspapers or magazines and the people start talking about the problems.

But there an example when I won the PGB (Photographers Giving Back) prize for both photo and photographer of the year. With that prize there was a monetary award as well. Both the prized photographer and the PGB association decide where the money should go. The association wanted to donate the money to the child or the child’s family (Kenya Post Election Conflict), but I thought it would be more productive to donate the money to a group of 200 women (in Congo), the same women that housed me while I was working there. The amount was $ 5,000 and these women used that money to continuing renting land where they cultivated seeds, and bought tools for faming. In the end, it helped almost 1610 people in the community.

MG: After you complete your Norwegian project on domestic violence, what are your plans?

WA: I want to do a ride on my motobike from Europe to Southern Asia next year.

Across the world, women’s rights organizations are using sport to empower women and girls by building their confidence and self-esteem.

Sports can be used to develop skills at an individual level, but the participation of women in sport can also help create awareness by challenging cultural norms and stereotypes in a society at large.

“Sport can be an effective platform to provide women and girls with leadership skills they can transfer to other domains, such as civic engagement or professional life,” said UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri at the 5^th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport, Los Angeles on 17 February 2012. “Sports programs have been successful at reducing restrictions and offering girls and women greater mobility.”

Gender inequality affects the social, economic and political position of women often making them second-class citizens. According to UN Women, between 15 and 76 percent of women are targeted for physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime and 50 percent of sexual assaults are committed against girls under the age of 16.

“Some of these girls are exposed to so much they aren’t accepted into the communities any more.” Astrid Aafjes, founder and CEO of Women Win, a global organization using sport as a strategy to advance women’s rights, tells MediaGlobal. Sport can be “a way to get out of isolation and to better address what they’re living.”

Haitian women, like this market seller on the outskirts of the Dajabón market, tend to have modest vegetable and dry food stalls, or to sell used clothing that arrives in bales. Photo credit: Hillary Petrozziello

On 18 February, the reconstructed Dajabón market, located on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, was inaugurated.  With $7.1 million in funds from the European Union, the revamped market is expected to boost trade between these two countries and better conditions for Haitians after the earthquake.

Of the many markets already along the border, the choice to rejuvenate Dajabón was strategic, to say the least.  The bridge linking the Haitian town of Ouanaminthe with the Dominican town of Dajabón traverses Massacre River, where up to 30,000 Haitians were murdered under Dominican President Rafael Trujillo during the 1937 “Parsley Massacre.”

Though relations between Haiti and the DR have improved substantially in the last 75 years, the border remains a focus of ever shifting tensions between these two countries.  According to Bridget Wooding, Director of the Observatorio Migrantes del Caribe, the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is “instrumentalized” for the political, social, and economic aims of these two countries, at the expense of those living upon, and traveling across it.  For Wooding, those who pay the highest price for the border’s instrumentalization are Haitian women.

Haitian women converge at the border to sell goods at border markets, and to cross into the DR, where they seek temporary employment as domestics, laborers, or sex workers.  Since the earthquake, the number of women frequenting the border between Haiti and the DR has risen dramatically.  Accordingly, the conditions along the border for women have become increasingly unstable.

After the earthquake, 200,000 Haitians crossed into the DR.  After the initial waves of migrants, the Dominican Republic tightened its border regulations and immigration policies.  These border regulations were justified by the need to defend national security, Haiti’s cholera epidemic, and the preservation of social services.

“These measures are in accordance with the natural and sovereign right of any country to control entry into its territory,” the Dominican Embassy tells MediaGlobal.

But border regulations have caused an increase in illegal, informal border crossings.  The “Fanm nan fwontyè, Fanm toupatou

” report, written by Wooding and Allison J. Petrozziello and released by the Observatorio Migrantes del Caribe, states that unregulated border crossings correlate with higher incidences of violence against women, through human trafficking schemes, border patrol abuses, and smuggling operations.

Nevertheless, says Wooding, in the absence of alternatives, informal border crossings have become overwhelmingly normalized, and stubbornly internalized.  Despite acknowledged risks of robbery, rape, and murder, women are consistently compelled to cross.

Dr. Maria Cristina Fumagalli, Professor of Caribbean Literature at The University of Essex, claims the Dominican military greatly benefits from informal border crossings between Haiti and the DR.  “They let Haitians in and then ask for money, more and more at each point until they reach the last one where they ask an exorbitant sum – if the Haitian cannot pay s/he is sent back and has lost all her/his money.”

Poorer Haitians thus have the economic incentive to cross the border, but lack the ability to do it safely. Dr. Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, professor of Hispanic studies at Vassar College, says that by contrast, “The middle classes have an easier time going in and out from Haiti to the DR.  They have property in the DR, relatives, they have houses, they’re known at the border, it’s easier for them to cross.”

When the DR closed several border markets in January 2011, due to the cholera epidemic, it was again poor Haitian women who paid the price.  “Sellers were desperate,” explains Fumagalli.  “We saw Haitians (mostly women) arrive at the market from far away with huge parcels on their heads only to be told that the market was to remain closed.”

Wooding adds: “With the cholera outbreak, more extortion went on, people were crossing more dangerously than before.”

While the Dominican embassy maintains that “programs to combat the continuing spread of the disease have largely succeeded in controlling the pace of the outbreak,” Wooding questions the necessity these programs. “It was unclear if what was happening had anything to do with public health, and eventually the measures were dropped,” she says.

For Wooding, several forces profit from arbitrary border regulations and border instrumentalization. “The military, migration officials – who may allow migration provided they can get their cut in it – the smugglers, and the traffickers.”

And though there is a lot of excitement over the Dajabón market, it too participates in a system of inequality along the border.  “Although these are called binational markets,” says Wooding,  “in reality they’re border markets because they take place almost but exclusively at the moment on the Dominican side.”

Dominican authorities thus collect taxes from the Haitian sellers, and Haitian women must undertake expensive and dangerous journeys across the border.

Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the Batey Relief Association, describes Haitian women living on the border as “a population that doesn’t have a voice in the system to protect them, to help enhance their lives.”

The Batey Relief Association has implemented a micro-finance program for women in Haiti’s isolated and poor southeastern border region.  Gaillard hopes to increase the agency, pride, and security of women, and their communities. “When you look at it in a very cultural way, the Haitian women are the foundation for the survival of the country. So if they are not well, the country will not be well.”

Storm clouds roll into Mahe, Maldives. Photo credit: Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeg

Former president of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed had often said that climate change could not be fought without democratic governance. Now, more than two months after the 7 February coup that deposed him from the presidency, the implications of that statement are being felt anew in the Indian Ocean island nation.

In 2008, Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives. A longtime pro-democracy and human rights activist, during his time in office he spearheaded the Maldivian transition to democracy and became one of the most vocal heads of state on the issue of climate change.

Jon Shenk, filmmaker and director of the currently showing documentary about Nasheed, “The Island President,” spent a year and a half filming with the former head of state. “When he stepped into the presidency, he decided he was going to do whatever he possibly could to combat climate change, and use the power of his office to try to do that,” Shenk tells MediaGlobal. “To him, the climate change struggle is really an extension of his human rights struggle. He sees climate change as a threat to human rights and human livelihood.”

The Maldives has good reason to be concerned about the dangers of a transforming environmental landscape. With an average elevation of one and a half meters, the nation’s 1,190 islands only barely break the surface of the Indian Ocean. Phenomena such as coastal erosion, freshwater contamination, and coral bleaching have already been observed for many years, and the nation’s acute vulnerability to the effects of sea level rise and weather aberrations has been well documented.

Nasheed installs solar panels on the Maldivian presidential residence's roof last year. Photo credit: 350.org/Mohamed Ali

While the political turmoil that followed the coup has drawn worldwide attention to the fragility of the Maldives’ young democracy, its effects have also revealed the fragility of the nation’s 2020 carbon neutral target and its international leadership role on climate change.

“The Maldives has been the most outspoken and engaged nation on earth about the climate crisis, mostly because of President Nasheed,” BIll McKibben, longtime environmental activist and founder of 350.org, tells MediaGlobal. “Until the coup, the Maldives was on track to become the planet’s first carbon-neutral nation. They were building windmills and so on—and in the process shaming the much richer countries doing far less.”

Nasheed announced that the Maldives would become entirely carbon-neutral by 2020 in March 2009. Though other countries, including Costa Rica, Iceland, Monaco, New Zealand, Niue, and Norway had previously revealed such plans, the Maldives would be the first to accomplish the feat if the 2020 target is met.

Since the announcement, two years of planning have gone into the project. Focusing mainly on the energy sector, the strategy involves implementing a combination of solar, wind, and biomass energy initiatives and storing extra power in batteries. Aviation emissions are also to be offset by purchasing and destroying European Union emissions trading certificates.

“We were in the process of moving from planning to implementation,” says Paul Roberts, Nasheed’s Advisor on International Media and Communications. “This year was going to be all about cutting green ribbons on solar.”

Until the coup, these efforts had already borne some fruit. Last December, the installation of solar panels on a number of public buildings in the Maldivian capital, including the president’s residence, was completed. In January, 61kW solar panels were powered up on the island of Villingili, the first installation of a 652kW project that will eventually cover six islands.

Furthermore, the Maldives had lined up over $40 million in startup funds in order to begin a full-scale implementation of the plan. Of this sum, the largest pledge was a $30 million commitment made by the Climate Investment Funds’ Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Program for Low Income Countries (SREP). Its terms require the Maldives to procure an additional $120 million in capital, most of which were expected to come from private investments.

The coup raised serious doubts as to whether the Maldives will be able to attract these funds, and for the moment, it appears that it will not. At the intersessional meeting of the SREP Sub-Committee, held in Nairobi, Kenya in early March, the Maldives failed to present its investment plan for endorsement by the Committee and was not awarded the grant.

“Due to political developments in February, it was decided by the government that the submission date be delayed,” Yusuf Riza, the newly appointed Minister of Economic Development of the Maldives, tells MediaGlobal. “The government is currently reviewing the plan and looking at submitting it for approval, shortly.”

A timeline for this process was not presented to the Sub-Committee. According to Zhihong Zhang, Senior Program Coordinator of SREP, who was present at the March meeting and observed the update presentation made by the Maldivian government representative, Saeeda Umar, “It was not clear when the Maldives would be able to officially submit the investment plan for review and endorsement.”

The political instability that has resulted from Nasheed’s ouster has shaken investor confidence and raised the cost of borrowing drastically. “Nobody in their right mind would ever invest in the Maldives now,” Roberts tells MediaGlobal. “It’s too risky, and therefore I would be surprised if the Maldives even gets all that money that was pledged.”

Not only that, but the question of who will be able to carry on the plan’s implementation is up in the air. The team of advisors heading the project under Nasheed’s administration, including former Minister of Economic Development Mahmood Razee and Energy Advisor Mike Mason, resigned after the events of 7 February. At least for the moment, it seems that along with them went the economic and technical leadership necessary to realize the plan.

“That’s really tragic, because we really felt that we could deliver on this carbon neutral goal,” Roberts tells MediaGlobal. For the Maldives, which spends approximately 16 percent of its annual GDP on fossil fuel imports and suffers from the shocks of fluctuating oil prices, adopting renewable energy would go a long way toward assuring the nation’s economic and energy security.

“We felt that if the Maldives could prove it could do that,” says Roberts, “Then lots of other small island states and developing countries would follow suit, because there are lots of advantages to not being dependent on oil.”

On the international level, Nasheed and his team, in partnership with the TckTckTck Campaign of the Global Campaign for Climate Action, were organizing a large event at Rio+20 to urge other nations to jump on the bandwagon. The goal for the event was to persuade ten other heads of state to adopt a 100 percent renewable energy target by 2025, and according to Roberts, a number of countries had already indicated willingness to commit.

“That would’ve been a huge diplomatic push and that would’ve started to change people’s perceptions about renewable energy,” Roberts tells MediaGlobal. “But it’s off the table. Not only is the carbon neutral policy basically dead in the water now, the Maldives just won’t have the capacity to think about climate change diplomacy.”

START workshop at el-Hussein refugee camp in Jordan. Photo credit: START

Commercial art fairs typically conjure a mental image of collectors and other well-heeled ‘art-world’ affiliates meandering through a labyrinth of gallery stalls whilst sipping champagne. Art Dubai, while certainly conforming to this stereotype, also transcends it. Through the nonprofit START, they channel a great deal of the wealth and enthusiasm for art that descends upon the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the fair each March to benefit disadvantaged children.

Inspired by the UN Human Rights Council’s Declaration of the Rights of the Child, START seeks to heal, educate, and enrich the skills and opportunities of children in the poorest areas of the Middle East through art. With arts education programs at refugee camps and orphanages throughout Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, as well as workshops for special needs children in the UAE, START actualizes Art Dubai’s commitment to give back to the region. They currently serve over 730 children per week and plan to reach more in the near future.

START came into being in 2006 when Art Dubai enlisted the collaboration of Al Madad Foundation, a Saudi Arabian charitable organization registered in the UK and dedicated to alleviating poverty and exclusion in the Middle East. The partnership developed naturally, START Director Tanaz Dizadji tells MediaGlobal, owing to “Al Madad’s founders’ longstanding appreciation for art and patronage of Art Dubai.”

In 2007, START began operating daily two-hour art workshops at Baqa’a refugee camp in Jordan for children between the ages of 11 and 16.  Designed to complement school curriculum, which now lack arts education, workshops are led by local and international artists and supported by a certified teacher. “We try to give children a background in art history and technique etc., but the most important thing for us is really developing their creativity and confidence and giving them an avenue to express themselves,” Dizadji tells MediaGlobal.

The content of workshops varies according to the artist’s expertise. Typically artists come for month-long residencies during which they receive complementary accommodations at one of the two “START Houses” in Lebanon and Jordan. Although they receive no compensation, most laud it as an incredible experience. Word-of-mouth praise for the program sends many new artists knocking on START’s door wanting to participate, practically rendering START’s recruitment through collaborating galleries unnecessary. Notable participants include Farhad Moshiri (Iran), Zara Mahmood (Pakistan / UK), James Clar (USA), and Nadim Karam (Lebanon).

Sometimes, the emphasis is more on art therapy – using art to help kids express themselves and work through traumas – rather than on building painting or photography skills. In these cases, partnering universities lend their professors, behavior specialists, and other expertise.

This is especially true with START’s UAE program, which works exclusively with special needs children and young adults. Referring to their collaboration with the Dubai Autism Center, Dizadji explains, “It was a natural development once we saw how powerful art can be in transforming the kids’ lives.”  She adds that art presents a language other than words that enables greater communication with them. In addition to running the center’s art program, START also funds autism therapy for children whose parents lack the means.

Financially independent, START relies on corporate sponsors and the generosity of art patrons for funding. This year, their annual gala held during Art Dubai greatly exceeded expectations, bringing in $900,000.. Expenses cover operating costs, including a permanent staff of 6, but the organization relies overwhelmingly on volunteers.

Listening to Dizadji speak about START’s staff, volunteers, and participants, a sense emerges that it is more like a family than an organization. For instance, curiosity drew many mothers in the camps to observe and sometimes even participate in the workshops. They enjoyed it so much that it precipitated a new initiative to train and hire them to lead their own subsidiary workshops. Meanwhile, many of the older teens stay involved as mentors to younger children. For a lucky few, START Scholarships enable them to pursue higher education in the arts.

Ceremoniously awarded at START’s annual gala at Art Dubai on the basis of artistic and academic merit, the annual Jordan scholarship covers university tuition fees, accommodation, and subsistence costs. This year, it went to 17-year old Narmeen Abu-Shashieh who grew up at Jabal el-Hussein camp in Jordan. She accepted the award with poise, thanking START and it’s supporters for the opportunity of a lifetime. She will begin studying architecture at the University of Jordan in the fall and dreams of one day becoming a leading architect. Her artwork will be on display at next year’s gala.

Plans for expanding START programs are underway, with workshops set to open in Dharavi, a slum outside Mumbai. Why India? According to Dizadji it makes sense because India is not only a “really interesting cultural hub” with a rich art scene, but also “a brother to the Middle East” and home to millions of disadvantaged children. She also notes that efforts to expand to other Arab countries have been on hold since the uprisings began last year.

Indian child receiving one of the four necessary poliovirus vaccine doses. Photo credit: Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

After a year without a polio outbreak, India was crossed off the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of polio epidemic countries last month, leaving only Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.

However, experts warn that mitigation and containment are not enough. Using strategies proven successful in India, final efforts in the world’s vulnerable regions are being implemented to ensure that the poliovirus cannot regain a stronghold.

“India is now in the same situation as all other polio-free countries in the world, in that they are at risk of re-infection from the remaining endemic countries until the disease has been eradicated everywhere,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration, tells MediaGlobal. “We have seen time and again that poliovirus from endemic areas can spread to re-infect polio-free countries.”

Previously viewed as the most formidable stronghold of the poliovirus due to sanitation issues, remote rural villages, and an extensive migration population, India was not a prime candidate for poliovirus eradication. When the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) launched in 1988, in partnership with WHO, Rotary International, and UNICEF, India reported 24,000 cases per year.  By 2009 though this number had dropped to 741, then to 42 in 2010, and finally zero cases in 2011.

“India is proof of concept that polio can be eradicated. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and yet with their political will, their financial commitment, and their drive towards excellence, they finished the job,” Carol Pandak, Manager of Rotary International’s PolioPlus Program, tells MediaGlobal.

Due to the proven commitment of the Indian government, a variety of strategies were implemented to ensure complete immunization coverage of children under the age of five. Specifically, education and communication were key tools. “You cannot just go house to house,” Pandak tells MediaGlobal. “You have to figure out where these people come from, who do they trust to get those people to do the immunization?”

Consequently, strategies that engaged and educated local religious and traditional leaders on the benefits of polio immunization were vital in reaching rural communities. Extensive mapping of the migrant population, found to be an originator for the emergence of the poliovirus, was also conducted to ensure every child was immunized. Finally, India ensured the completion of its strategies though a strict accountability system.

“Ultimately, these efforts ensured that virtually all children were reached with the right vaccine, enough times, across all areas of the country, to actually stop the individual transmission chains,” Aylward tells MediaGlobal. “From a technical and operational perspective, it is an unparalleled success, and it clearly underscores the technical feasibility of polio eradication worldwide.”

In the remaining epidemic classified countries, the current local strategies to prevent a polio outbreak are lacking.

“In Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, there is strong support from the national governments, and innovative activities are being implemented in all of these countries,” Aylward tells MediaGlobal. “However, this commitment has not yet fully translated into consistent improvements at the district-level, which is where the program is implemented.”

During the recent PolioPlus Summit 2012 in Delhi, these countries evaluated India’s strategy towards ensuring complete immunization of children.

“India did it by mapping out their entire migrant population, by going into the slum areas, by conduction immunization over and over, but really understanding where those missed children were and figuring out how to get them. Pandak tells MediaGlobal. “I think if you can replicate that in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria, the job will be finished.”

While finishing the fight will save the world $40-50 billion in poliovirus containment costs over the next 25 years, and prevent over 10 million cases of paralysis, the current strategy is hampered by a $1.09 billion funding gap. With sufficient funding experts believe the disease could be eliminated within the next 18 months.

There is a realistic plan to achieve a polio-free world in the near-term.  But we are currently lacking the financing, and this dangerously augments the risk of failure,” Aylward tells MediaGlobal. “And frankly, the consequences of failure are unthinkable: as many as 200,000 children again paralyzed by this disease each and every year, within the next ten years.  Given how close we are, failure should not be an option.”

If the effective local strategies of India can be implemented in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, the poliovirus will soon be the third infectious disease, after smallpox in 1980 and rinderpest in 2010, which has been successfully eradicated.

Lauren Bush Lauren, co-founder of FEED Projects, at UN headquarters following her keynote address at the conference "Role of Business in Empowering Women." Photo by Ian Wagreich / © U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Walking into the United Nations on International Women’s Day, the positive energy was palpable. A conference on “The Role of Business in Empowering Women” spawned a gathering of a geographically and experientially diverse individuals eager to advance financial inclusion, transparent corporate supply chains, and economic opportunities for women.

Representing socially conscious enterprises, multilateral agencies, and NGOs, these women (and spattering of brave male souls in attendance) are spurring momentum for women’s empowerment. The impact of their work extends far beyond the women they serve directly, thanks to women’s tendency, to a far greater extent than men, to invest their income into improving living conditions for their families. To boot, hiring female workers benefits corporations’ bottom line, which creates an incentive for companies to adopt fair hiring practices even if the moral argument fails to compel them.

Consequently, despite the gravity of topics discussed – poverty, malnutrition, exclusion from the formal economy and civic life – optimism abounded, fueled by the tremendous progress recently made toward resolving some of these issues.

“The way I see it,” exclaimed Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor to the Chief Economist of the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, “The glass is half full. No, in fact, it is completely full!”

Chamlou boasts that a recent World Bank survey of over 30,000 firms across the Middle East and North Africa found 20-25 percent to be owned by women, adding that many of them are very large. “Not that there is anything wrong with being a micro-entrepreneur, but we are proud to shed light on the fact that there are 1,000 to 1,500 major female entrepreneurs in the region,” she tells MediaGlobal

Journalist Sherly WuDunn (co-author with her husband Nicholas Kristof of “Half the Sky,” a book championing women’s rights) and CEO Jane Wurwand, whose company Dermalogica provides loans to 25,000 women entrepreneurs around the world, figure among myriad speakers sharing inspiring anecdotes. Chamlou credits improved access to education as a major factor underlying women’s advancement, noting that more women earn engineering degrees in Iran and Egypt alone than throughout the whole of Europe.

Nonetheless, those striving for gender equality across all regions still have plenty of work cut out for them. Besides the obvious legislative and social hurdles, a problematic gap between reality and perception is emerging. Apparently, tangible improvements on the ground are outpacing changes in attitudes, creating its own set of stumbling blocks.

For instance, Becky Straw, founder of Adventure Projects, an NGO dedicated to reducing poverty, recounts her puzzlement over the reaction of a TV news station who wanted to film a segment on her cookstove initiative in Haiti.

With 3,000 Haitian children dying from toxic smoke each year, Adventure Projects provided start-up funding for a local factory to produce charcoal-efficient cookstoves that are cleaner as well as cost-saving. The success of the female vendors, who earn a relatively astronomical $60 in daily commissions, disappointed the TV crew, who were hoping to portray poor women in tents.

“You’re kidding?” Straw remembers thinking to herself in disbelief. “They don’t want to report on this initiative because the women are no longer poor?” Clearly, reshaping attitudes and perceptions is paramount so that women need not embody the cliché of helplessness in order to merit the attention of the international community.

According to Andrée Simon, CEO of Women for Women International, even among people who like to think of themselves as enlightened, studies have shown evidence of unconscious bias. As a well-educated, sophisticated, and accomplished Iranian women living in the West, Chamlou is all too aware of this. She expresses bewilderment at how often Westerners think of her as an anomaly.

“I’m not the exception, I am the rule,” Chamlou exclaims in exasperation, adding, “The exceptions are those who conform to the stereotype of being oppressed.” She further insists, contrary to popular belief, that men throughout the Middle East have been instrumental in achieving progress toward gender equality. Recalling how they often support their wives, sisters, and daughters fight against extremist groups who want to restrict women’s rights, she tells me “Our struggle is not women against men, rather it’s modernity against strict conservatism.”

So how does one go about overcoming stereotypes and disproving misperceptions about women’s roles in society? According to Simon, the key lies in leading by example. “It takes a huge amount of courage on the part of the individuals who are willing to be that example,” she admits. Yet, ultimately, in her experience, once the pioneering women “can demonstrate the benefit of earning an income, the logic of investing in childcare becomes compelling” to the entire family, creating a virtuous cycle as the neighbors begin following suit. If properly communicated, success stories can inspire other women to follow in the footsteps of their entrepreneurial sisters.

While the conference centers on economic empowerment, some participants are working to improve women’s lives at a more basic level: providing adequate nutrition. “Its been proven that women in poverty are the ones to eat last because they feed their families first,” Lauren Bush Lauren, co-founder of FEED Projects and the event’s keynote speaker, tells MediaGlobal. Recognizing that starvation hinders everyone’s ability to live up to their full potential, she is committed to ensuring universal access to food because proper nutrition is a pre-condition for participation in the formal economy.

The thoughtfulness, exuberance, and dedication on display here offers hope to women wherever they may fall, by virtue of geography and circumstance, on the sliding scale of equal rights. The devil’s advocate might argue that celebrating these success stories risks whitewashing the dirty realties — physical abuse, inadequate healthcare, culturally sanctioned oppression –  still afflicting millions of women around the world. Yet, listening to these accomplished women assert that self-confidence and faith in the possibility of improvement often begets tangible progress, I would wager that even a skeptic could surrender to their optimism. At the very least, the statistics, anecdotes, and personal histories shared the attendees galvanized my own faith in the prospect that women will increasingly exercise the rights and command the recognition they deserve.

Walking out of the building, I thought of a long-forgotten a cappella chant by Libana that we used to sing in rounds at my all-girls school: “There’s a river of birds in migration, a nation of women with wings.” If stakeholders around the globe manage to harness and grow the momentum that decades of work has already set in motion, women everywhere will surely grow wings.

As a quick fix for hunger, many Haitians resort to biscuits made from dirt, water, and available oil, salt, or butter. Photo credit: www.fmsc.org

Over two years and billions of dollars in aid later, Haiti is still working to find a firm footing in its recovery.  A key impediment to sustained progress has been food insecurity for approximately 4.5 million Haitians. While ongoing programs providing access to staple foods for households have been critical in the recovery effort, with nearly two-thirds of the population reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods, a long-term solution is needed to tackle this challenge.

Andrew Pugh, Director of Oxfam in Haiti, tells MediaGlobal, “Two years after the earthquake, agricultural production is still not a priority in the reconstruction as Haitians have demanded. The biggest challenges remain lack of investment in the agriculture sector, lack of technical assistance, lack of government support to small farmers in the form of agricultural inputs.“

This was evident to Patrick Belizaire, Founder and Executive Director of Cooperative Farm Initiative for Haiti, who returned home to Thomonde, Haiti in 2007 to find farmers employing outdated technology and farming techniques. Belzaire describes Haiti as a “time capsule” without having any large-scale investment to revolutionize the sector.

The earthquake, however, resulted in renewed international attention that brought with it a range of resources. In addition to financial assistance, the country has seen technical and infrastructural investments. “All of a sudden [after the earthquake], there’s this huge rush of technology,” says Belizaire.  “I mean, there’s Internet now, roads are being built, and all of this has happened within the span of three years.”

The Cooperative Farm Initiative is harnessing this investment to empower farmers. “Give them more power over their crops, thus giving them more power over purchasing, selling, buying power,” explains Belizaire. This helps farmers acquire political power and agency. “Even if they’re not educated in a classroom,” he explains, “they understand what they bring to the table. And the way to do it is to reconnect them once more.”

Belizaire and his organization are doing this by opening access for small-scale farmers to more efficient methods of farming, as well as access to buyers. His organization has set up partnerships for farmers with hospitals and organizations like World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that has been involved in relief and recovery efforts in Haiti, to generate reliable revenue streams. Additionally, they are creating farming resource centers that aid in everything from seed and planting assistance to educating farmers on the use of various farm machines and tools.

Another initiative working on the ground is the Lambi Fund of Haiti, which partners with both rural communities as well as multilateral agencies. Sarah Leavitt, Digital Outreach Manager for the Lambi Fund, describes their range of services, from setting up credit funds to animal husbandry projects, to creating seed banks that will allow for affordable access to seeds for planting.

“Life after the earthquake has gotten increasingly difficult,” Leavitt tells MediaGlobal. “Farmers have had to deal with family members and friends moving back to rural communities — all needing food and shelter because their homes were destroyed in Port-au-Prince. Competing with food aid and food imports that undercut local food production has made it very hard for farmers to make any sort of profit on their crops.”

Many local initiatives like these have been buoyed by international support from international aid agencies and organizations. Oxfam has been one such critical player in securing food access both in terms of availability and access for Haitians. “In the Artibonite valley, Oxfam supports more than 2,000 rice producers to increase their production and improve the transformation process by using innovative technologies and practices to increase yield which results in better incomes,” says Pugh. “By working in the rice sector, Oxfam is focusing on a strategic sector to improve food security.”

In addition to working with rice and coffee growers in northern Haiti, Oxfam is assisting with disaster management and improving infrastructure to mitigate flooding. For relief work in the capital of Port-au-Prince, Pugh says, “Oxfam has focused on livelihoods and recapitalization of small businesses and a long term program of revenues generation in urban areas helping Haitians improve accessibility to foods.” Oxfam plans to launch a new initiative on urban gardening to help families increase their income through small scale agricultural production.

Not all international assistance has proven effective, however. The debate continues on the application of funds and why progress has been so slow in Haiti. Belizaire describes seeing first-hand heavy machinery and tractors in rural areas, left abandoned for lack of knowledge in their operation or maintenance. Such forms of aid look to provide quick fixes that overlook the underlying problems associated with the situation on the ground.

Belzaire notes that farming is a long process, especially when the existing infrastructure has been uprooted. “When a farmer’s farming for the first time,” Belzaire says, “they don’t really see profits. Most of the time it’s building up that profit and building up that crop, and finding that market, to efficiently bring that crop to market.”

Looking at the work ahead in Haiti, Pugh states, “The lack of employment and revenues is a serious concern for the population to access food. If Haiti is to move towards more sustainable development, poverty reduction, and food security in both urban and rural areas, it must give high priority to agricultural development.”

Photo courtesy of Feed My Starving Children: www.fmsc.org

White crosses with the names of those who have died crossing the US border adorn the Mexican side of the wall in Heroica Nogales, Mexico. Photo Credit: Jonathan Mcintosh ( Creative Commons)

Each year, between 150,000 and 400,000 Central American migrants enter Mexico, hoping to make their way to the United States.  But over the past five years, the incidence of human rights abuses against these migrants has soared, with migrants increasingly subject to extortion, rape, and murder.  In the six months between September 2008 and February 2009, the National Human Rights Commission reports that 9,758 Central Americans were kidnapped.  In the six months between April 2010 and September 2010, that number increased to 11,333 people.

Organized crime networks and traffickers increasingly station themselves along migrant corridors in Mexico.  Pressure from the international community, as well as individuals, organizations, and human rights advocates, has prompted Mexico to take action.

Under the Mexican Migration Act, passed on 25 May 2011, Mexico’s Institute National de Migration took reformative measures, training 17,072 immigration officials, and placing 62 in inactive status.  A special operations group, called the Grupos Beta, was also established, charged with the duty to protect the personal safety of migrants traveling through Mexico, regardless of their immigration status. To date, the Beta group has assisted 27,183 migrants.

Yet this most recent discovery of captives on the border underlines the extreme challenges facing the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), and focuses on several emerging patterns. Evident to the authorities is that money motivates individuals to migrate, and money dictates their ultimate fate in the journey.

“Migrants are being viewed as cargo with an exchange value by the international crime networks,” Frederick B. Mills, Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, tells MediaGlobal.

The truth is: Kidnapping migrants is incredibly profitable. For each migrant captured, kidnappers demand between $7,000 and $11,000 in ransom from families or friends. If the ransom isn’t paid, migrants are typically killed.

Historically, migrants have sought the help of “coyotes,” guides that smuggle migrants through Mexico.  In recent years, however, many coyotes themselves have become incorporated into the crime networks, oftentimes leading those they’re escorting directly into trafficking schemes.

Crime networks range across the immense geography of Mexico, and often charge coyotes a fee to shuttle migrants through their territory. When coyotes fail to pay, it’s the migrants who suffer.

Mills speculates the multiple mass graves of Central American migrants found since 2010 are likely a result of coyotes who didn’t pay.  “If you don’t pay for your cargo,” he says, “the cargo gets destroyed.”

According to INM Director Thomas Lothar Weiss, 17 percent of migrants entering Mexico use coyotes.  Ever-tightening American border controls push other migrants into more desperate circumstances. Even with the knowledge of coyotes’ complicity in trafficking schemes, 42 percent of migrants seek the aid of coyotes to cross the US border.

Despite these anticipated hardships, desperate circumstances compel thousands of Central Americans to migrate. “People are basically fleeing violence, fleeing insecurity, fleeing the gangs that are basically dominating many parts of daily life in Central American countries,” says Weiss.

According to data from SEDLAC and the World Bank, Honduran migrants, who make up 44 percent of the 11,333 Central Americans kidnapped from April 2010 to September 2010, are leaving a country with 36.2 percent of the population living in extreme poverty.   Guatemalans face similarly grim poverty rates, accompanied by human rights violations and high levels of organized crime.

In El Salvador, by contrast, the proportion of the population prone to migration is significantly decreasing.  Mills reasons that economic and humanitarian strides enabled by the FMLN ruling party in El Salvador are impacting migration rates.

The US has implemented a program that grants people in El Salvador tourist visas, allowing them to travel to the US legally, for a certain period of time. Yet these tourist visas can themselves be discriminatory.  Successful visa applicants must have employment in El Salvador, bank accounts, and demonstrable ties to their communities.

These stipulations create a paradox. Without these elements of privilege, poor Salvadorans are more likely to turn to migration, yet are unable to do so legally. “Class has a lot to do with it,” says Mills. “If you’re someone of means and education you’re more likely to be able to cross safely.”

This unequal access to mobility and self-preservation creates a situation of fiscally driven discrimination. “If you’re poor in Central America,” says Mills, “you’re more likely to be viewed as an object. In other words, to be dehumanized.”

Mills underlines the need for the humanization of migrants first within their home countries, and then abroad.  Weiss, foreseeing a future of continued migration, supports “Orderly and humane migration which also includes the promotion of regular labor migration programs.

Dr. Cecilia Menjivar, professor of sociology at Arizona State University, argues that with measures for legal migration, migrants would be better protected, and Mexico would see a reduced crime rate. “Migration would be less clandestine and people wouldn’t be pushed to the margins so much.”

Across these perspectives, one point becomes clear. For Mills, “Human rights are portable. They’re something that persons take wherever they go.” It’s time legal measures reflect this.