PENSION FUND ACTIVISM

UK

Pension funds ‘must help create a world people want to retire in’

According to one estimate, changing your pension investment can be 27 times more effective than slashing many of your own carbon emissions.

August Graham
2 days ago

Pension funds can encourage companies to become greener (Nick Ansell/PA)
(PA Archive)

Pension funds are starting to think they have a duty to look after their members in old age, not just give them a big pot of money, the head of pension investments at one of the UK’s biggest funds has said.

Scottish Widows’ Maria Nazarova-Doyle said there is little point giving someone a massive payout when they turn 65 if they need to spend it on mitigating the effects of climate change.

Traditionally, pension funds simply focused on getting the highest returns for the lowest levels of risk, she told the PA news agency.

But today “more and more pension schemes are starting to understand that pensions don’t exist in isolation”, she said.

“If you have a large pension pot, but you have to spend it on hazmat suits and flood-proofing your property in retirement – then what’s the point of a large pension pot?”

The world needs to be a “place people want to retire in,” she said.

The UK has set a target of slashing its emissions to net zero by the middle of the century and pension funds will have to step up to be part of the effort.

Earlier this year, the All Party Parliamentary Group on local authority pension funds said pension funds should engage companies on how to transition to net zero in a fair way.

“Funds should ensure that collaborative engagements on climate change include a just transition as a central theme for discussion,” the paper read.

Experts believe that by unlocking the UK’s pension funds and putting them towards the net zero transition, it can rapidly encourage companies to change their practices.

There is some evidence this is already happening. Following shareholder pressure, not least from pension funds, oil giants Shell and BP have set out plans to get to net zero by 2050 in the last couple of years.

The power can also lie with the individual. By choosing where to invest their pensions, savers can have a major impact.

One study by Swedish bank Nordea found that moving pension savings into sustainable funds can be much more effective than normal carbon-cutting measures.

Switching your pension is 27 times more effective than shortening your showers by two minutes, taking one less international flight per year, ditching your car and taking the train and only eating one piece of meat a week.

Ms Nazarova-Doyle said there are two ways that the funds can work towards slashing emissions: “On the one hand it’s about finance flows: Where do you invest the money, what do you actually support and what do you not support.

“But also it’s about stewardship. So, once you have those investments you have voting rights, and you can engage with companies, you can use your shareholder power to engender real change.”

COMPASSIONATE CAPITALI$M

How Mentorship Changed the Game for This Kenyan Entrepreneur

ACCESS TO SANITATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT — AND WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE







KIMBERLY-CLARK SPONSORED SERIES
Words by Roya Sabri
OCT 19, 2021

Sylvia Nyaga (left), founder of Syna Consultancy, training people on how to use the Utulav toilet in Kenya.


“My child has a reason to smile. We used cans before, but now we have a reason to smile.” This is one of many heartfelt testimonials for the Utulav toilet, created by Syna Consultancy in Kenya. The portable toilet meets the needs of people with mobility challenges in a safe, dignified and sustainable way.

The idea for Utulav was born after engineer and entrepreneur Sylvia Nyaga spoke with the parents of a child with a physical disability. Nyaga was already thinking of designing a toilet, but the conversation opened her eyes to how underserved the mobility challenged were and how much they needed a new solution. “I thought that was a more noble cause than whatever I was doing before,” she told us.

Three years and four prototypes later, Nyaga and her team now have a product ready for pre-order. The Utulav is portable, comfortable, and has an easy and sanitary disposal system. Manufacturing, however, proved a challenge. How could Nyaga’s team trust external manufacturers and hold them accountable? Today, Syna is manufacturing a key component of the Utulav in-house, and the team has a second, more affordable product in testing. Nyaga was even nominated this year for the Kenyan Zuri Awards, which recognizes outstanding women who are changing lives in Kenyan communities. Still, leaping from final product to market entry and expansion took a lot of work, and one aid that helped Nyaga overcome these hurdles was mentorship.

  

Sylvia Nyaga and the Utulav toilet.

To mentors: Don’t start by giving advice

Over the past six months, five entrepreneurs in the sanitation space participated in a mentorship program created by Kimberly-Clark and its foundation, the company’s Kotex brand and the Toilet Board Coalition, a public-private partnership that brings businesses, investors and governments together to scale market-based solutions for sanitation issues. Through the Women in the Sanitation Economy Innovation Lab, the up-and-coming Kenyan entrepreneur was paired with multiple mentors from Kimberly-Clark, each with specialized expertise to help Syna, ranging from marketing to manufacturing and quality control.

In particular, Syna had a unique challenge: building product specifications that establish a common language with suppliers without the use of any lab equipment, said Inbar Bengio, a Kimberly-Clark senior quality manager based in Israel who served as one of Syna’s mentors. “What can you measure when you don’t have any lab equipment that would be relevant to the product performance?” Bengio asked rhetorically.

Bengio and Nyaga worked together to develop tests that were as simple as possible while still yielding valid results. For example, they used bags of cement as weights to test product durability. “It was a simple idea that I could not think of initially because, for me, I was thinking I need to go to a plant that has the big machines to test it,” Nyaga said.

As the relationship developed, Bengio realized she had a lot to learn from Nyaga. “I analyze big data … every minute of my day, and here we were with basically no data available, so how do you start from scratch?” Bengio explained. “One of the very important things Sylvia taught me was to listen. Don’t assume that you understand. Don’t start by giving advice…. she’s in the field. She sees people using the product, and she knows best.”

Syna used to fully outsource its manufacturing, but the team ultimately realized it could manufacture one key component locally while importing another. “It’s a little lower production cost because we source the materials ourselves, and because we’re the ones doing it, we’ll ensure we have a high-quality product, as opposed to having to deal with external manufacturers,” Nyaga said.

She attributes a lot of Syna’s forward movement to mentorship: “If it was not for the mentorship, we would not be as far as we are right now,” she told us. “If it was not for those conversations, I would not be having a second product.

The Syna Consultancy team in the field in Kenya, training people to use the Utulav toilet and doing monitoring and evaluation.

Mentorship pays off for mentees and mentors alike

The data is clear: Mentorship benefits mentors and mentees alike. In a 2018 survey from the American Express finch brand Kabbage, 92 percent of small business owners said mentorship had a direct influence on the growth and survival of their businesses, and 89 percent of those who didn’t have a mentor said they would want one.

Mentors benefit from these relationships, too. Bengio, for example, has been a mentor for quite some time — she even earned an external mentorship certificate — and she has seen her role as a mentor strengthen her work. “The biggest contribution or benefit that I gain from it is supporting my team and other people’s growth — seeing people getting stronger and more capable. I love watching them develop wings so they can fly,” she said.

The numbers back up Bengio’s experience of gaining by giving. One meta-analysis from the Journal of Vocational Behavior found that mentors are more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their organizations than non-mentor counterparts. “The findings support mentoring theory in that mentoring is reciprocal and collaborative and not simply beneficial for protégés,” the report reads.

As such, mentorship tends to create ripple effects. Nyaga now plans to be a mentor to fledgling entrepreneurs herself. “It’s important to pass this down, because I also have people behind me,” she said. “That’s also something I would love to do -- mentor people who do not have the same experience as me.”

This article series is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

Images courtesy of Syna Consultancy

ROYA SABRI
Roya is a writer and graphic designer based in Kailua Kona, HI. She writes about the circular economy, advancements in CSR, the environment and equity. Find her on LinkedIn.
Read more stories by Roya Sabri

USA

Comments renew debate over adoption as abortion alternative

IT'S NOT
By DAVID CRARY and JOHN HANNA

1 of 6

Kelsey Wright holds her 4-month-old daughter, Berklee, on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, in Montgomery, Texas. Year after year, several thousand women in the U.S. choose to carry an unintended pregnancy to term and then place the baby for adoption, relinquishing their parental rights. Wright chose adoption — twice — before having Berklee.

 (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Year after year, several thousand women in the U.S. carry an unintended pregnancy to term and then offer the baby for adoption. It’s a choice commended by many foes of abortion.

Yet despite a huge demand for babies from Americans yearning to adopt, perhaps 40 times more women opt for an abortion, and a large majority of those who proceed to give birth make the choice to keep the child.

The reason, say people familiar with unintended pregnancies, is that even in those circumstances, a powerful bond is likely to form between the mother-to-be and the developing baby — and to vastly complicate any decision to put the newborn up for adoption.

That idea is well known to doctors, clinic operators and other abortion-rights advocates, who say recent comments from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and other abortion opponents perpetuate a misleading narrative that adoption can negate the need for abortions.

“It’s ridiculous to say it’s no problem to eliminate abortion — just place the kids for adoption,” said Elizabeth Bartholet, a law professor at Harvard University and an outspoken advocate of adoption. “It’s not going to be an emotion-free nonevent. There’s going to be bonding and connection, and a sense that it’s an unnatural act to give your child away.”

Discussion of adoption as an alternative to abortion intensified this month when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. If the high court’s conservative majority upholds the law, it could lead to the demise of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to abortion, and enable conservative states to impose sweeping bans.

During the arguments, Barrett, an adoptive mother, said women who give birth due to lack of access to abortion could avoid being forced into parenthood by leaving the baby at a safe location, without fear of criminal consequences, so the infant could be adopted.

“It’s just not the reality,” said Ashley Brink, manager of a clinic operated by the abortion-rights group Trust Women in Wichita, Kansas. “It’s undermining people’s decisions and choices and ability to control their lives and their futures.”

Bartholet described the justice’s comments as “breathtakingly thoughtless” by failing to acknowledge the deep emotional bonds that many women have with their babies even when they result from an unwanted pregnancy.

Those bonds can grow more powerful immediately after birth, said Grace Howard, who has worked as a doula assisting women in childbirth and women seeking abortions.

“Your body’s like, ’Bond! Bond, damn it!’” said Howard, an assistant professor in justice studies at San Jose State University.

The U.S. government tracks how many children are adopted out of foster care and from foreign countries, but there are no official, comprehensive figures on private adoptions of infants. Nonetheless, it’s clear that only a small fraction of women carry unwanted pregnancies to term and then place the baby for adoption.

In 2014, there were an estimated 18,000 private infant adoptions nationwide, according to the National Council for Adoption, a private organization serving adoption agencies and other parties. That same year, there were 926,190 abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a prominent source of abortion-related statistics.

The adoption council is working on a new estimate of infant adoptions for 2019 and 2020. Its acting CEO, Ryan Hanlon, predicted the number would be similar to the 2014 estimate.

Hanlon says there’s a huge gap between the number of U.S. infants available for adoption and the hundreds of thousands of Americans – single adults and couples – who want to adopt.

“There are dozens waiting with each agency for every child they place,” Hanlon said.

Kelsey Wright chose adoption — twice. She became pregnant in high school and, at 18, gave birth to a son in 2011. Feeling unprepared for parenting, she placed the baby for adoption with a family she knew.

Six years later, as a subsequent relationship was breaking up, she again became pregnant. And again, she chose to continue with the pregnancy and place her second son with the same family that adopted his brother.

“Initially, I was thinking, ‘How do I get out of this?’ and abortion comes to mind, but I don’t think that lasted more than 24 hours,” Wright said. “From a Christian background. I just couldn’t do that — there was no way I could terminate their life because of what I did.”

Now 29, Wright lives in the Houston suburbs and got married last year. She and her husband have a 4-month-old daughter. She stays in touch with her sons, visiting occasionally even though their family moved to New Mexico.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Wright said. “It took time to heal, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’m so grateful adoption was an option.”

Some women who opted for abortion in response to an unintended pregnancy say the decision was difficult – yet they’re also grateful they had a choice. Among them is U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, who says she received a “back-alley” abortion in Mexico after a teenage pregnancy.

Lee said adoption “is an alternative to parenting, not to pregnancy.”

“The fight for abortion rights is not about our individual stances on abortion or adoption — it is about every person’s right to make decisions about their personal health,” she said. “Your choices about your body, health, and family are nobody’s business but your own.”

Many abortion-rights advocates are wary of some aspects of private adoption, viewing it as part of the agenda of anti-abortion activists.

Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, said the anti-abortion pregnancy centers that proliferate in many states are part of that system.

“The role of crisis pregnancy centers is to trick people, coerce them out of making the right decision for themselves so that they choose to give up — choose to carry a pregnancy and then give up a baby to be adopted,” Schwarz said.

Jeanneane Maxon of the Charlotte Lozier Institute — former general counsel for a network of pregnancy centers — denies that there’s systemic coercion. Most women who visit the centers, and then carry a pregnancy to term, choose to raise the baby themselves, she said.

It’s often a challenge for staff members to even discuss adoption, Maxon said.

“Some women will say, ‘I don’t want to hear about it,’” she said. “My hope is that we can overcome the stigma that adoption is abandoning a child. It’s not – it’s about finding a child a loving home.”

In the past, unwed pregnant women in some communities were shunned, or pressured to place their babies for adoption. But even in conservative religious denominations, attitudes have evolved – for example, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arms have initiatives aimed at helping unwed moms obtain health care, financial support and other services.

“Some pregnant women were afraid to come to the church for help – they thought they were going to be judged,” said Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications for the bishops’ conference.

“Our goal is walk with them as sisters,” she said of a recent initiative, Walking with Moms in Need. “We’re showing them a positive vision of motherhood.”

___

On Twitter, follow David Crary at https://twitter.com/CraryAP and John Hanna on at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pakistan: How a tribal woman is defying patriarchal norms

Women aren't allowed to participate in politics in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, but Duniya Bibi overcame many challenges to win a local council seat, setting an example for other women in the area.


Defying odds
Duniya Bibi, a 58-year-old illiterate woman, likes to keep herself abreast of the latest political happenings in the country. Every morning, her husband reads out news from a newspaper to her. Bibi defeated female candidates from leading political parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muslim League Nawaz, in the recent local council election for Tehsil Yakawand, Mohmand District.

PHOTOS
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Africa's democracy under threat in 2021

Coups, conflicts and the coronavirus pandemic put Africa's democratic institutions to the test in 2021. But there are signs of hope.



Sudanese youths raise their national flag as they rally against the coup leadership

Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a spate of military takeovers in 2021, highlighting the precarious state of democracy on the continent.

Upon the death of Chad's President Idriss Deby in April, the military installed his son as interim president in what has been called a "dynastic coup."

In Mali, the military booted out the transitional civilian government in May and has yet to finalize a date for promised elections.

Guinea's military overthrew President Alpha Conde in September, with coup leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya since being sworn in as president for an unspecified transitional period.

Armed forces in Sudan kicked out civilian leaders from a power-sharing agreement and declared a state of emergency in October.

Coup leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (r) has appointed himself head of Sudan's army-run interim governing body

Although 2021 might seem reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s when the African continent was rocked by regular coup attempts each year, there was one major difference.

"The good news for Africa with regards to the coups now, compared to the '70s and '80s , is that Africans themselves are no longer willing to be submissive or to be complicit or to acquiesce to coup-makers," said African governance expert Christopher Fomunyoh from the National Democratic Institute, an American pro-democracy nonprofit.

"That's why we saw that even in Sudan, when the military staged its coup, there were massive demonstrations," he told DW.

In Sudan, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets since the coup, risking their lives to protest against the military leadership.
AU action

African regional organizations are also acting tougher than before.

"One bright spot for me has been the relatively consistent response of regional organizations, especially the African Union (AU). Sudan, for example, was suspended after the coup," said Julia Grauvogel from the German-based GIGA Institute for African Studies.

But the AU was not always consistent in its stance against anti-democratic regimes in 2021.

The AU remained silent, for example, when Uganda's longtime ruler Yoweri Museveni was re-elected in January 2021 for a sixth term in a vote that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as "neither free nor fair."

Opposition leader Bobi Wine has been arrested several times, including in March 2021 during an anti-government rally

In a DW interview, opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, called the elections "the most fraudulent in the history of Uganda."

Many opposition supporters were arrested or disappeared under unexplained circumstances before and during the election, while Wine was placed under house arrest after the polls.

Weaponizing a pandemic

Authorities in many Africa nations also weaponized the COVID-19 pandemic to repress the opposition and other dissenting voices.

"The restrictions … around COVID-19 made it extremely difficult for people to gather, for pro-democracy advocates to be able to mobilize as they did in the past, to engage with their parliaments or with political parties and with civil society," said governance expert Fomunyoh.

This was also the case in Uganda, where police arrested Wine and other opposition politicians for allegedly breaching COVID-19 rules by mobilizing crowds for campaign rallies.
Popular protests

Despite all of this, democracy enjoys widespread support in Africa.

"People on the continent still prefer democracy to any other form of government," said GIGA expert Grauvogel. "That means there is a very strong desire for democracy."

This is demonstrated by the mass protests in 2021 in many African nations, not just in Sudan.

In Senegal, young people, in particular, took to the streets in March under the hashtag #FreeSenegal to demonstrate against the increasingly authoritarian rule of Macky Sall, who has been president since 2012.

In the Kingdom of Eswatini, protests demanding democratic reforms to the monarchy also broke out.

Bobi Wine said he hopes that such examples will set a precedent across the continent.

"In Uganda and many parts of Africa, the powerful, the government limit themselves to self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. This will only stop if young people stand up against them and assert their rights, not just verbally," 39-year-old told DW.

Senegal's March protests were triggered by the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko over rape allegations

Peaceful transitions, important tests

Elsewhere on the continent, democratic institutions are functioning.

In Zambia, for example, August elections led to a peaceful transfer of power.

In South Africa, a court sent former-President Jacob Zuma to prison for 15 months, and the high court has just ordered his return to jail after Zuma was controversially released on medical parole.

Next year will bring further tests for Africa's democracy.

In Angola, President Joao Manuel Lourenco has said he will run for a second term in elections scheduled for August 2022.

The vote is being seen as a test of Lourenco's commitment to democratic reforms in a country riddled with corruption and nepotism under the 39-year-long leadership of previous President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

In Kenya, too, the stakes are high in 2022, when Uhuru Kenyatta is due to step down after two terms as president.

Kenya's 2017 elections were overshadowed by massive fraud allegations and widespread violence.

Despite the challenges, expert Fomunyoh is optimistic.

"I believe that the combined efforts of a vibrant African civil society, the many young people who want to be better governed and the efforts of Western partners will help consolidate democracy in Africa in 2022," he said.

This article has been translated from German.

Sudanese block streets after day of protest RESULTING IN STATE violence


Sudanese demonstrators in the streets of the capital Khartoum on Thursday

 in protest at the army's October 25 coup (AFP/-)


Fri, December 31, 2021

Sudanese pro-democracy demonstrators blocked streets in Khartoum on Friday, protesting against violence a day earlier that left five people dead and sparked condemnation.

Protesters barricaded roads in the east Khartoum district of Burri as well as in nearby Khartoum North using rocks, tree branches and tyres, an AFP journalist reported.

Sudan has been gripped by turmoil since military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a coup on October 25 and detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.


Hamdok was reinstated on November 21, but mass protests have continued as demonstrators distrust Burhan's promises of seeking to guide the country toward full democracy.

As the authorities on Thursday cut off communications across the country, security forces clamped down on demonstrations, firing live rounds and tear gas as tens of thousands gathered in Khartoum and its neighbouring cities.

Four protesters were fatally shot in the head or chest in Omdurman, according to the pro-democracy Doctors' Committee, while a fifth succumbed to his wounds Friday after he was shot in central Khartoum.

Protesters charge that the deal to reinstate Hamdok simply aims to give the cloak of legitimacy to the generals, whom they accuse of trying to continue the regime built by former autocratic president Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled in 2019 following mass protests.

- Resignations -

A civilian member recently appointed to the ruling Sovereign Council, Abdel Baqi Abdel Qader, announced that he intends to resign.

He said he had sent a message to Burhan's office requesting a meeting "to present to him my resignation... over the violence against demonstrators".

Interim health minister Haitham Mohammed also announced his resignation in a letter made public, denouncing attacks on medics and hospitals treating protesters.

Two journalists from Saudi Arabia's Asharq television channel, Maha al-Talb and Sally Othman, were released after they and their crews were held for several hours, the channel said.

Police had also stormed the bureau of the Al-Arabiya television network funded by Saudi Arabia -- seen as a traditional ally of Sudan's military leaders.

The violence and attacks on the media drew widespread condemnation.

"Deeply troubled by reports that Sudanese security forces used lethal force against protesters, blacked out the internet, and attempted to shut down media outlets," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted after Thursday's events.

The Doctors' Committee has accused security forces of blocking ambulances and of forcibly removing at least one seriously injured protester from an ambulance.

Videos have circulated on social media showing men in uniform beating protesters with sticks.

- 'International solidarity' -

The Sudanese Communist Party called for "urgent international solidarity to demand an end to the bloody repression in Sudan and the immediate release of all political detainees".

Christian figures in the country announced the cancellation of New Year's celebrations in memory of Thursday's victims.

Protesters have renewed demands that the military "return to their barracks" as promised in 2019 when Bashir was toppled and the country came under the control of the Sovereign Council, a body composed of both civilian and military figures, headed by Burhan.

A police spokesman had said four people died in Thursday's unrest and 297 people were injured, "including 49 police officers".

He also said "three police vans were set on fire" and accused protest leaders of having sought to "turn a peaceful march into violence and confrontations with the security forces".

An adviser to Burhan told the state news agency that "the demonstrations are a waste of time and energy" and would not lead to a political solution.

The bloody crackdown since the October coup has claimed 53 lives and left hundreds wounded.

bur/mon/sbh/jsa/lg/kir

Sudan anti-coup protests: 'It's often the men with guns who prevail'

During a crackdown on nationwide protests against military rule, security forces fired tear gas, stun grenades and shot dead four people. This as tens of thousands of protesters marched through Khartoum and the neighboring cities of Omdurman and Bahri towards the presidential palace. With the crackdown intensifying and protests escalating, Eric Reeves, Sudan Researcher and Analyst, joins France 24. There is "a sense of betrayal that the military has overreached," explains Mr. Reeves, "It has violated the terms of the constitutional declaration and, at this point, there is no civilian support for any role for the military in any governance going forward." But we warns that "the crisis is only growing and deepening" as security forces resort to mass violence, rape and murder to crush the civilian uprising.

Endemic, epidemic, pandemic: what's the difference?

A lot of people hope that the coronavirus will disappear as quickly as it came. But many virologists assume that the virus will become endemic, especially with omicron. This means we will have to live with it.


If SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic it must not neccessarily become less dangerous, but it may.

Endemic: the constant threat

A disease that occurs regularly in certain regions is called endemic. When a disease becomes endemic, the number of people falling ill remains relatively constant over time.

The number of cases is higher than in other areas but does not increase over time. Over a certain period of time, approximately the same number of people repeatedly contract the disease.

A typical example is malaria, which annually affects 300 million people worldwide, with most cases in the tropics.

As early as May 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that the coronavirus could become an endemic virus. The delta and omicron variants have since shown how adaptable the virus is , much-like the flu. An endemic means the virus is out there in the world. We have to learn to live with it in certain regions around the world. It will not disappear.


Epidemic: only in one region

The spread of a disease is termed an epidemic when it occurs with unusual frequency in a certain region and for a limited period of time.

When the number of cases of a disease in that particular region rises above the expected (endemic) level, it is called an epidemic. When the disease incidence is localized, it is often referred to as an outbreak.

An epidemic occurs, for example, when the virulence of a particular pathogen changes: A virus mutates and becomes more contagious.

Epidemics can also occur when diseases are newly introduced into a certain area. The prerequisite is that a disease can be passed from person to person.

An example of this is smallpox, which was introduced to the Americas via the arrival of Europeans from the beginning of the 16th century. Because the indigenous population had never been in contact with the pathogens before, their immune systems could not fend off the virus.

Individual projections suggest that up to 90% of the indigenous population of the Americas fell victim to smallpox.

Pandemic: worldwide spread

If a disease spreads across countries and continents, experts refer to it as a pandemic.

This means, above all, that successful control of the disease depends on cooperation among the health systems of different countries. It does not mean that a disease is particularly dangerous or deadly.

According to the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), pandemics are usually caused by newly emerging pathogens or virus types. For example, these can be zoonoses — diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans.

If a disease is new to humans, very few people will be immune to the virus. Vaccinations are also not available in this case. This can lead to vast numbers of people becoming infected.

How dangerous or fatal the disease is depends on the specific virus and the health of the individual.

Even if, in percentage terms, a disease is harmless in most cases, the absolute number of serious illnesses during a pandemic can be very high. This is simply because a very large number of people are infected with the pathogens overall.

A typical disease that repeatedly assumes pandemic proportions is influenza. The 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, killed 25 million to 50 million people, that's more than died in World War I. Swine flu also triggered a pandemic in 2009.

However, even during a pandemic, individual isolated areas can be spared from the disease, for example, island or mountain areas. Air travel, however, favors the spread of pandemics.

'Epidemics' that are not the real thing

The terms epidemic and pandemic normally refer to infectious diseases. However, because it conveys a need for urgent action, noncommunicable diseases or unhealthy habits are sometimes referred to as epidemics as well.

Strictly speaking, those formulations are essentially metaphoric: "Diabetes epidemic" or "opioid epidemic," for example.

The term has even been used to describe the increase of criminal behavior in society with media referring to an "epidemic of rape." However, some note that this misuse of the word distracts from the responsibility of the perpetrators.

This article was translated from German.

COVID: SARS-COV-2 AND OTHER VIRUSES IN PICTURES

Virus with a crown

May we present: The coronavirus! This is how 10-year-old Andrej from Russia views SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and is behind the pandemic that's had the world in its grip for almost two years now. The name for this virus family is derived from the Latin "corona" for crown. It was first used in 1968 and refers to the spike proteins on the virus' surface.

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The coronavirus pandemic is far from over

Some countries are reporting more new coronavirus infections compared with the previous two weeks. Global data trends show that the pandemic isn't over yet. DW sums up the current situation in three charts.

Case numbers are still rising in many countries

These charts and this article are updated every Friday between 1100 and 1300 UTC. Last updated: December 31, 2021. You can always find this article at dw.com/covid19-trend

What's the current global trend? 

The goal for all countries is to make it to the blue section of the chart and stay there. Countries and territories in this section have reported no new cases for four weeks in a row.

Currently, that is the case for four out of 188 countries and territories. 

Please note: The number of newly reported cases highly depends on a country's ability to conduct tests and its strategy for administering tests. Additionally, some countries have been criticized for not accurately reporting case numbers.

How has the COVID-19 trend evolved over the past weeks?

The situation deteriorated further: 107 countries have reported more cases in the past two weeks compared with the previous 14 days.

What is the current COVID-19 trend in my country? 

Based on the newly reported case numbers — which can reflect local outbreaks as well as nationwide spread — in the past 28 days, countries and territories classify as follows:

More than twice as many new cases:

• Africa: Bahrain, Cyprus, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
• Africa: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Zambia
• Americas: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Suriname, United States of America, Uruguay
• Europe: Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom
• Oceania: Australia, Fiji

More new cases:

• Asia: Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Lebanon, Maldives, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Taiwan, Turkey, Palestinian territories
• Africa: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Mali, Niger, Seychelles, Tunisia
• Americas: Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru
• Europe: Estonia, Finland, France, Kosovo, Latvia, Luxembourg, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland
• Oceania: Solomon Islands

About the same number of new cases (no change or plus/minus 2%):

• Africa: Egypt
• Europe: Bulgaria

Fewer new cases:

• Asia: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, Timor Leste, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
• Africa: Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Eritrea, Eswatini, Mauritius, South Africa, Sudan, Zimbabwe
• Americas: Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela
• Europe: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine
• Oceania: New Zealand, Vanuatu

Less than half as many new cases:

• Asia: Armenia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Jordan
• Americas: El Salvador, Haiti
• Europe: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
• Oceania: Papua New Guinea

Zero new cases:

• Asia: Tajikistan
• Europe: Vatican
• Oceania: Marshall Islands, Samoa

If you have questions regarding the analysis, please refer to the project's Github repository for code and methodology. For feedback regarding the charts, please contact: data-team@dw.com 
The charts in this article were inspired by the work of Lisa Charlotte Muth.

Fake news hinders Africa's fight against COVID

Damaging myths about the coronavirus have been spreading across Africa through social media — fueling mistrust for vaccines designed to protect people. Even prominent influencers have been peddling false news.


The fight against the coronavirus pandemic has lingered on for almost two years amid the emergence of new variants. In Africa, the battle is often a daunting one.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had set a year-end target for each African country to fully vaccinate 40% of their population, but that goal has been missed.

Just seven out of 54 countries on the continent have reached the 40% target, according to the WHO. That translates to about 9% of Africans being fully vaccinated against COVID.

A lot of African countries have been unable to inoculate a majority of their people because of a lack of doses. Even more worrying, though, is the high level of vaccine hesitancy.

Fake news about COVID-19 vaccinesthat has spread across social media in Africa has played a major role.

Since the start of the pandemic, rumors and conspiracy theories have been rife, unsettling many people and making vaccination campaigns more difficult.

One woman who joined a queue to get vaccinated in a small village in eastern Kenya told DW that many of her friends had refused to get jabs. "I also had a queasy feeling," she said.

But she finally took the opportunity and got her jab. The reason for her friends' mistrust, she said, was because they were "afraid that they will supposedly die two years after the vaccination."


Influencers spreading fake news

False information is spread by prominent people.

"Great influence in spreading [fake news] also comes from religious leaders who claim vaccinations have effects on women's fertility, breastfeeding, and even death," the WHO's infodemic manager, Sergio Cecchini, told DW.

Such false reports are one reason why many people do not get vaccinated.

The WHO also found that the majority of fake news is produced and spread in North America, Australia, and Russia and elsewhere in Europe. From there, they also reach African social media channels.

The global health body is fighting this kind of misinformation on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

Since December 2020, the WHO has been working with 20 partners in Africa. They formed the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, whose aim is to debunk dangerous myths about the pandemic and COVID vaccines.

Fighting back against false news

"We identify misinformation with our social media listening tools and track it as it spreads rapidly," Cecchini said.

"We immediately create a video debunking the rumor and providing accurate information," he added.

The network said it had produced more than 250 videos so far, reaching about 170 million people in Africa.

It works to educate people across the continent with facts about the pandemic.

"We are trying to find gaps in knowledge and fill them with correct information," Cecchini said.

Alphonce Shiundu, the editor at Africa Check, a group of fact-checkers in Kenya, told DW that such work is crucial to ensuring that people don't get the wrong information on the pandemic. His team has also found that even prominent people give dangerous advice.



"The governor of Nairobi distributed alcohol to the poor in the slums — it was cognac — and told them it helped disinfect the throat and protected against COVID-19," Shiundu said.

Apparently, the politician thought that alcoholic drinks might protect people because hand sanitizers also contain alcohol.

Misinformation is a big problem in Kenya and other African countries, Shiundu said.

"We did a training with journalists. One participant told us that some of her friends came to her after she had been vaccinated and said that she was now infertile," he said.

It was also not uncommon for economic interests to be behind dubious reports with which providers wanted to sell miracle cures for COVID-19 or other diseases.

In Ghana, a similarly doubtful message recently went viral in a video that was viewed 19,000 times on Facebook, said Rabiu Alhassan, editor-in-chief atGhanaFact in Accra.

According to the video, a cocktail of ginger, garlic, lemon and paracetamol was supposed to cure the viral disease.

Punishable by law

Alhassan wants to reach even larger segments of the population with credible information about the pandemic in their own local languages — even offline. In doing so, he plans to work with respected local leaders and influencers to reach these communities.

In Kenya, spreading misinformation and hate comments online has been a criminal offense since 2018, with the threat of a fine and jail time.

Shiundu also advised social network users to be vigilant and check every message for credibility. The work of fact-checkers could just provide people with the right information to aid the fight against the pandemic.


AFRICA IN 2021: WHO SAID WHAT?
A lobby in Cameroon
Njobati Sylvie is campaigning for Germany to return the Ngonnso — an artifact prized by the Nso people of Bamenda in Cameroon's northwest. The restitution campaign gathered momentum when the Ngonnso went on display at Germany's new Humboldt Forum earlier this year. Times are changing, albeit slowly: In 2021 several other European countries gave back looted artifacts to African nations.
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Jan-Philipp Scholz contributed to this article.

Edited by: Keith Walker

Africa CDC Chief: 'The response to Covid on the continent of Africa has been exceptional"

France 24 is joined by Dr. John Nkengasong, Virologist and Director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The Africa CDC Chief lauds Africa's political leadership for taking the pandemic very seriously from the moment it emerged in 2020. Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Nkengasong has worked closely with African heads of state and the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat. Despite limited resources, the African continent really came together, explains Dr. Nkengasong, and displayed a remarkable "ability to coordinate the (overall) response, to distribute diagnostics, to deploy responders, and to create platforms like the African Medicine Supply Platform (AMSP) and the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT). Whether it's Ebola or Covid-19, Dr. Nkengasong describes "certain core principles that guide all pandemics." He calls them The Five P's of a Pandemic: pathogen, population, political, policies, partnerships. And, speaking from 30 years of experience, the Africa CDC Chief proclaims "you can actually apply them from one pandemic to another."