THE LANCET: Global child and adolescent health targets in jeopardy without urgent, comprehensive reform, experts warn

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE LANCET

LONG READ

Peer-reviewed/ Review, Analysis, and Opinion/ People

• With 8.6 million deaths reported globally among stillbirths, children, and adolescents up to 20 years of age in 2019, achieving targets to reduce child and adolescent mortality by 2030 remains a global challenge.
• Economic inequality continues to drive disparities in health outcomes, with children who face early life poverty being at least twice as likely to experience detrimental health outcomes compared to children at the top of the wealth spectrum.
• COVID-19 has worsened global inequalities and threatens to reverse recent gains made to improve maternal, child, and adolescent health as children and families face interrupted health and social services and economic strain.
• A new Lancet Series provides abundant scientific evidence to support a holistic agenda for children and adolescents that spans maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, offering comprehensive social and health support from preconception through age 20. 

Despite recent progress, the world is at risk of failing to meet child and adolescent health targets, with more than 8.6 million deaths among children and adolescents (aged 0-20 years) recorded in 2019. Comprehensive, coordinated care that begins at preconception and lasts through adulthood is urgently needed to reduce childhood mortality and improve child and adolescent health, according to a new Series published in The Lancet.

The authors of the Lancet Series on optimising child and adolescent health and development call on global leaders and policymakers to replace current approaches to child and adolescent health, which are often fragmented by age groups or specific health conditions, to offer comprehensive care that spans nutrition, preventive health, education, economic, and community support across age groups from preconception through age 20.

The new collection of papers also highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health and education services as well economies and social systems, putting recent progress toward achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1] in jeopardy and increasing children’s vulnerability to violence, abuse, and mental health conditions.

“The challenges faced in responding to the needs of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a wake-up call to the global community, underlining the urgent need to transform the child and adolescent health agenda on a global scale,” says Series coordinator and author Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Centre for Global Child Health, Toronto (Canada) and the Aga Khan University, Karachi (Pakistan). [2]

Bhutta adds, “We have less than eight years to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and many child and adolescent health targets are off track. A holistic approach that supports children and their families from before birth through early adulthood is urgently needed to bring us back in line, building a foundation that will last a lifetime and improve health outcomes, economies, and society.” [2]

A holistic approach to child and adolescent health from preconception through age 20

The probability of mortality in the first five years of life is a commonly used indicator of human capital [3] and country progress. However, this indicator only provides a narrow view of child health and development.

Instead, Series authors considered conditions of survival, growth, disability, and education across different world regions and their effects on crucial life stages from the third trimester of pregnancy to 20 years of age. In this age range, there were 8.6 million deaths in 2019. Of these deaths, 1.9 million (23 %) were stillbirths and 2.4 million (28%) were neonatal deaths. Additionally, 2.75 million (32%) children died between one month and five years of age. Among older children and adolescent deaths, 506,000 (6%) occurred among five-to-nine-year-olds, 368,000 (4%) deaths occurred among 10–14-year-olds, and 595,000 (7%) deaths occurred among 15–19-year-olds.

“By looking at mortality and nutrition from the third trimester of pregnancy until age 20, we can have a more complete understanding of child and adolescent health. Our analysis clearly indicates that the first two years of life are crucial indicators of future health, but that age range is only one piece of the puzzle,” says study author Professor Robert Black from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore (USA).

“Interventions such as improved nutrition during pregnancy and infanthood work in tandem with education and social support networks that reach children and families across a broad range of interventions, from offering mothers’ care during pregnancy to providing mental health and reproductive health services to adolescents,” adds study author Tyler Vaivada from the Centre for Global Child Health, Toronto (Canada).

Strong health and social systems must come together to support all children

Preconception, pregnancy, and infant interventions that address child survival and nutrition have a strong influence on weight, height, and development, and serve as key indicators of future health, nutrition, education level, and intelligence quotients – if they are delivered at high level of quality.

However, these interventions must be scaled up and continued through early childhood and adolescence via school-based and community delivery platforms, where children and families can have consistent access to immunisations and screening programmes to address often neglected areas of child health such as anaemia, vision, dental conditions, non-communicable diseases, neglected tropical diseases, and mental health conditions (including anxiety and depression).

Building on this analysis, the Series authors point out that to maximize children’s health, strong health systems need to partner with equally effective social systems such as schools, communities, families, and digital platforms that offer promotive, preventive, and curative services relevant to a child’s life stage.

“Although scaling up high quality health facility-based interventions in children younger than five years will have the greatest effect on reducing child mortality rates, we also have to engage with families to boost children’s development and think beyond the clinic to schools and communities to reach older children whose health needs have been relatively neglected,” says Dr Margaret Kruk from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston (USA).

The authors also point out the growing challenges older children and adolescents face because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the lack of social support and the mental health effects such as feelings of isolation, loneliness, and anxiety.

“The COVID-19 pandemic showed us the devastating effects that gaps in care and education can have on children. Health and social systems must be better equipped to work together to address the emerging needs of children and families as part of the effort to rebuild equitable and resilient services,” says Professor Maureen Black from RTI International and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (USA).

Overcoming long-term effects of early life poverty

An analysis of data from 95 national surveys in low and middle income countries (LMICs) [4] confirms that vast economic inequalities persist both between and within countries, with strong connections between early-life poverty and health, nutrition, and cognitive development of children and adolescents.

Of the countries included in the analysis, children at the lowest end of the wealth spectrum had at least double the risk of detrimental health outcomes linked to early life poverty, such as childhood mortality, stunting, development delays, teenage motherhood, and incomplete primary school compared to children at the top of the wealth spectrum. Furthermore, the magnitude of inequality in child mortality, nutrition, and development was positively associated with the degree of economic inequality.

The authors also analysed data from six long-running birth cohorts in LMICs [5] to observe specific effects of early life poverty. The most striking differences were observed in intelligence quotients examined in two different cohorts from Pelotas, Brazil, where children and adolescents at the top of the wealth scale scored 20 points higher compared to children at the bottom of the scale. These disparities were also observed in children younger than five years of age, indicating that while overall differences in access to school likely played a role in cognition scores, environmental factors linked to poverty from early childhood (such as nutrition, childhood illness, and living in a conflict zone) have a large impact starting in gestation and continuing throughout childhood and adolescence.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the factors that already drive early-life poverty,” says, Dr Cesar Victora from Pelotas University (Brazil). “However, as pandemic recovery programmes are developed, policymakers have an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen existing anti-poverty policies and create new, multisectoral programmes that will work with health and nutrition interventions to offset the pandemic’s impact on women and children.”

Placing children and adolescents at the centre of the global policy agenda

The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families is not yet fully known. However, evidence suggests that disruptions caused by the pandemic, particularly in children’s access to preventive health services and education, are likely to result in excess mortality and morbidity for infants, children, and adolescents – undermining hard-fought gains in recent years.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization and Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF (who were not involved in the Series), say, “At this especially perilous moment in history, with conflict and fragility around the world, all countries need to prioritise child and adolescent health, and tailor health and multisectoral programmes to meet their needs and risk factors. This is the time for governments, donors, and institutions to come together not only to end the pandemic, but also to prevent future ones, fix long-standing structural deficiencies in fragile health systems including strengthening the health workforce, and address the social and environmental determinants of health that put children at risk. It is time for solidarity to triumph over politics, for the sake of our children and future generations. Failure to do so could result in close to 21 million children and adolescents aged 5–24 years and 43 million children under-five years dying before 2030. This prospect is unconscionable and unnecessary, because as seen in this Lancet Series, stakeholders know what needs to be done so that every child, everywhere, can survive and thrive.”

Dr Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief for The Lancet, adds, “The most extraordinary success story in global health’s recent history has been the rapid decline in deaths of children younger than 5 years…[But] the frightening truth is that despite all the lives saved, millions of children are still dying of preventable causes. Those who survive remain unable to reach their full potential…[We] need political commitment. We need the leaders of multilateral agencies, governments, and civil society to step up to the challenges this Series lays out and the opportunities it describes.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

A full list of funders, authors, and institutions is available in the papers.

[1] United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
[2] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.
[3] The World Bank’s Human Capital Project uses the Human Capital Index, which includes measures of mortality, growth, and education, to assess how countries invest in the capabilities and economic potential of citizens. https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/human-capital
[4] These countries included 28 (90%) of 31 low-income countries, 37 (79%) of 49 lower-middle-income countries, and 30 (50%) of 60 upper-middle-income countries.
[5] The six cohorts included populations from Cebu, Philippines; Delhi, India; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Pelotas, Brazil (1982 birth cohort and 1993 birth cohort); and Soweto, South Africa

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com  
 

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www.lancet.com/series/optimising-child-adolescent-health

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JOURNAL

The Lancet

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Optimising Child and Adolescent Health and Development

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Apr-2022

COI STATEMENT

Paper 1: REB serves on the Board of Directors of Vitamin Angels, a non-profit charitable organisation supporting maternal and child nutrition services in low-income and middle-income countries. ME reports a grant from AstraZeneca for the Young Health Programme, and personal fees from Prudential, outside the submitted work. REB, FV, LH, LL, ADS, DYo, and DYe report grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. LH and DYo report grants from USAID, outside the submitted work. Paper 2: REB serves on the Board of Vitamin Angels, a non-profit charitable organisation supporting maternal and child nutrition services in LMICs. AS and ADS report grants from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AS reports grants from the Wellcome Trust. ZAB reports grants from the International Development Research Centre (reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health in conflict settings: case studies to inform implementation of interventions) and Countdown to 2030–UNICEF. All other authors declare no competing interests. Paper 3 : We declare no conflicts of interest Paper 4: ZAB reports grants from International Development Research Centre, UNICEF, WHO, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Institute of International Education, during the conduct of the study. TZ reports grants from International Development Research Centre, UNICEF, WHO, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Institute of International Education, during the conduct of the study. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Machine learning can help address stigma of substance abuse in developing countries

Culture-specific research helps overcome stigma and taboo

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

In developing countries, people with substance-abuse issues can sometimes face shame and find it difficult to get help.

Now, a research team is using machine learning and anonymized data to get a clearer picture of the underlying factors that influence tendencies to abuse drugs and alcohol.

The research provides a rare insight into a somewhat neglected subject because of social and cultural taboos. The research team hopes their work can eventually make it easier for people to get help.

Some of the most significant risk factors identified through the research include family relationships, a general curiosity about experimenting with drugs, and whether friends also abuse substances.

“In a country like Bangladesh, people can be hesitant to discuss substance abuse issues,” said Enamul Haque, a PhD researcher in computer science at the University of Waterloo. “This kind of research will enable policy-makers to have better information and then be able to design better programs to help address substance abuse.”

The new research incorporated data from multiple sources, including mass online surveys and one-on-one interviews. Most of the survey data came from developing countries in South Asia.

“Within the countries where we conducted the survey, we collected data from a broad and diverse pool of respondents,” Haque said. “We looked for different respondents based on age, gender and socio-economic context.”

After collecting a massive amount of data, the team used machine-learning algorithms to find patterns and help identify key risk factors for substance abuse. The computer science aspect of the research project involved several stages of data analysis and refinement.

“I really hope this research can help people dealing with substance abuse issues and get them the support they need,” Haque said.

The new paper, A Machine Learning Model for Predicting Individual Substance Abuse with Associated Risk-Factors, from Haque and co-authors Uwaise Ibna Islam, Dheyaaldin Alsalman, Muhammad Nazrul Islam, Mohammad Ali Moni, and Iqbal H. Sarker, appears in the journal Annals of Data Science. 

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JOURNAL

Annals of Data Science

INDIA

Give bidi cigarette rollers a voice to find new jobs, researchers say

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: BIDI CIGARETTE ROLLERS AT WORK. view more 

CREDIT: PAVAN MUKHERJEE

India’s bidi cigarette workers need to be at the heart of discussions about finding alternatives to working in the tobacco industry, according to a new study.

Bidis are hand-rolled leaf cigarettes and are the main way tobacco is smoked in India.

Ninety per cent of workers are women who largely work from home and earn a lower-than-average wage of approximately £1.50 (about 150 Indian rupees) for rolling up to 1,000 bidis each day.

Bidi production can cause a number of health issues for workers and their families, while children are also sometimes enlisted by bidi rollers to help meet targets.

New research by the Bidi Workers’ Alternative Livelihoods Project - which includes partners in India, the UK and the USA - has found that despite awareness of the industry’s adverse effects, bidi rollers saw the work as convenient in the absence of different jobs that could fit around other commitments such as cooking or childcare.

Workers would be more inclined to consider other work if they were involved in shaping the alternative employment available. This would help create new jobs that provided workers with better conditions and suited their personal circumstances, the researchers said.

The researchers added that with some exceptions, the voices of bidi workers concerning their current situation, the occupational and public health problems they face, and the potential for alternative livelihoods, were rarely heard.

Bidi rolling fits the remit of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article 17, which aims to provide economically viable alternative jobs to tobacco. India and the UK are both signatories to the Convention, the study points out.

The research is published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

CAPTION

Women take part in group discussion as part of the research project.

CREDIT

Pavan Mukherjee

CAPTION

Women take part in tie and dye skill development training.

CREDIT

Pavan Mukherjee

Research co-author Professor Andrew Russell, of the Department of Anthropology, Durham University, said: “Bidi rolling is an exploitative source of income across South Asia and a discriminatory occupation.

“It can negatively impact on women’s education, while breathing in the dust and the hunched posture of bidi rollers can have consequences for the health of the workers and their families. If they are running out of time, workers sometimes get their children involved in the production process.

“However, despite being aware of the negative impacts of their work, some of the workers we spoke to said that bidi rolling is the best option for their current situation when there aren’t many alternatives available.

“That’s why it’s hugely important for bidi rollers to be at the centre of discussions about alternative employment that would allow them to bring in an income through a job that is less harmful to health while also suiting their circumstances.”

Community health volunteers used a questionnaire to interview 46 women involved in bidi rolling in two cities in the north of Tamil Nadu state, southern India.

Questionnaires were followed-up with focus groups and a panel of 11 bidi rollers also attended a workshop where the findings and possible alternatives to bidi rolling as a profession were discussed.

Alternative professions could include the production of masala spices or tie-dye fabrics where workers could continue to work at home while managing their other responsibilities.

The study was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and carried out through Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore, India, and Durham University, UK. The research team also included the D Arul Selvi Rehabilitation Trust, Tirupattur; the Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices, New Delhi; Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Mumbai; Institute of Public Health, Bengalaru (all India); and the University of Colorado and Ohio State University (both USA).

Prof Sushil John, of CMC Vellore, India, said: “It has been great to work with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally on this project which looked at tobacco control from a different perspective. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a devastating blow to many communities worldwide and impacted our work too, but we look forward to reinstating some of the training and business initiatives that came out of the Bidi Workers’ Alternative Livelihoods Project soon.

“It is also exciting to be able to work on some of the broader determinants of health with members of the communities we serve.”

In future, the team is planning to organise more training and workshops for women who have been involved in their study, which they hope will lead to other forms of employment for bidi rollers.

ENDS

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JOURNAL

Nicotine & Tobacco Research

DOI

10.1093/ntr/ntac075 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Implementing FCTC Article 17 through Participatory Research with Bidi Workers in Tamil Nadu, India

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Apr-2022

Disposable masks could be used to improve concrete

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE WSU RESEARCHERS DEVELOPED A PROCESS TO FABRICATE TINY MASK FIBERS, RANGING FROM FIVE TO 30 MILLIMETERS IN LENGTH, AND THEN ADDED THEM TO CEMENT CONCRETE TO STRENGTHEN IT AND TO PREVENT ITS CRACKING. view more 

CREDIT: WSU

PULLMAN, Wash. –  With the pervasive single-use masks during the pandemic now presenting an environmental problem, researchers have demonstrated the idea of incorporating old masks into a cement mixture to create stronger, more durable concrete. 

In a paper published in the journal, Materials Letters, a Washington State University research team showed that the mixture using mask materials was 47% stronger than commonly used cement after a month of curing. 

 “These waste masks actually could be a valuable commodity if you process them properly,” said Xianming Shi, professor and interim chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the corresponding author on the paper. “I’m always looking out for waste streams, and my first reaction is ‘how do I turn that into something usable in concrete or asphalt?’”

Production of cement is a carbon-intensive process, responsible for as much as 8% of carbon emissions worldwide. Microfibers are already sometimes added to cement concrete to strengthen it, but they’re expensive. The microfiber-reinforced concrete can potentially reduce the amount of cement needed for a project or make the concrete last longer, saving carbon emissions as well as money for builders and owners.

Made of a polypropylene or polyester fabric where it contacts the skin and an ultra-fine polypropylene fiber for the filtering layers, medical masks have fibers that can be useful for the concrete industry. If they are not reused, disposable masks can remain in the environment for decades and pose a risk for the ecosystem. 

“This work showcases one technology to divert the used masks from the waste stream to a high-value application,” Shi said. 

In their proof-of-concept work, the researchers developed a process to fabricate tiny mask fibers, ranging from five to 30 millimeters in length, and then added them to cement concrete to strengthen it and to prevent its cracking. For their testing, they removed the metal and cotton loops from the masks, cut them up and incorporated them into ordinary Portland cement, the most common type of cement used around the world and the basic ingredient for concrete, mortar and grout.  

They mixed the mask microfibers into a solution of graphene oxide before adding the mixture to cement paste. The graphene oxide provides ultrathin layers that strongly adhere to the fiber surfaces. Such mask microfibers absorb or dissipate the fracture energy that would contribute to tiny cracks in the concrete. Without the fibers, these microscopic cracks would eventually lead to wider cracks and the material’s failure. 

The researchers are conducting more studies to test their idea that the graphene oxide-treated microfibers could also improve the durability of the concrete and protect it from frost damage and from deicing chemicals that are used on roadways. They also envision applying this technology to the recycling of other polymer materials, such as discarded clothing, to incentivize the collection of such waste.

Zhipeng Li, a graduate student in WSU’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, led the work, which was funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Center for Transportation Infrastructure Durability and Life Extension.

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JOURNAL

Materials Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.matlet.2022.132238 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Upcycling waste mask PP microfibers in portland cement paste: Surface treatment by graphene oxide

Remote Ireland community survived a millennium of environmental change

Study finds social conditions key to long-term resilience during times of dramatic change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: THE PEAT-COVERED UPLANDS OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND ARE TODAY USED MAINLY FOR COMMERCIAL FORESTRY, SHEEP-GRAZING AND OUTDOOR RECREATION, BUT WERE FORMERLY WOODED AND FARMED. view more 

CREDIT: HELEN ESSELL, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

A remote community in Ireland was adaptable enough to persist through a millennium of environmental change, according to a study published April 27, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Gill Plunkett and Graeme Swindles of Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, U.K.

There are numerous examples of past societies severely impacted by environmental changes, including climate change, natural disasters, and other dramatic ecological shifts contributing to food crises, epidemics, and other calamities. However, it’s more difficult to determine long-term effects of environmental disturbances. In this study, the authors examine environmental and community changes over a thousand years of occupation in the Antrim Plateau in the north of Ireland.

This study analyzed a peat core recording environmental changes over the last millennium at a site called Slieveanorra. The authors inferred environmental and human occupation changes with data from microbes, natural plants, and crop plants, and they established fine-scale dating with ash layers, organic remains, and historical accounts. Their record provided no evidence of long-term disruption to human occupation related to environmental changes.

These results reflect a community that was able to either escape the effects of environmental change, or to rebound quickly. This surprising resilience from a relatively remote occupation was likely the result of social factors – such as agricultural and trade practices – which made the community flexible and adaptable. In the face of environmental change, the authors suggest, not all human communities respond the same way, and this variation is largely linked to social conditions of each respective population. Understanding this complexity is key to understanding what conditions make communities vulnerable to cultural collapse in the face of environmental change.

The authors add: “Ireland’s uplands today seem barren, but they were occupied and farmed for centuries, despite climate change, famines and plague.”

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266680

Citation: Plunkett G, Swindles GT (2022) Bucking the trend: Population resilience in a marginal environment. PLoS ONE 17(4): e0266680. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266680

Author Countries: U.K., Canada

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0266680 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Bucking the trend: Population resilience in a marginal environment

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Apr-2022

Indonesia stuns markets as it widens palm oil export ban; Jokowi says domestic needs ‘more important’

The ban now includes crude and refined palm oil and other products, instead of only refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil

President Joko Widodo says the Indonesian people’s need for affordable food trumps revenue concerns


Reuters
 27 Apr, 2022

Workers load palm oil fresh fruit bunches to be transported from factories in Pekanbaru, Riau province, Indonesia. Photo: Reuters

Indonesia widened the scope of its export ban on raw materials for cooking oil to include crude and refined palm oil, among other products, its chief economic minister said on Wednesday, leaving markets in shock over the latest policy reversal.

The announcement flipped the minister’s statement a day earlier, in which he had said the export ban would cover only refined, bleached, and deodorised palm olein.

The change was “in line with the president’s decision and after taking into account the feedback and views from the people,” Airlangga Hartarto said in a short statement.

President Joko Widodo said in a separate statement that people’s need for affordable food trumped revenue concerns for now.

“Once domestic needs have been met, of course I will lift the export ban because I know the country needs taxes … foreign exchange … a trade balance surplus, but meeting the people’s basic needs is a more important priority,” he said.

Indonesian palm oil export ban could ‘lead to unrest’ as inflation hits poorest

25 Apr 2022

Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, said Indonesia has enough capacity to meet domestic demand and it was “ironic” that the country is facing cooking oil shortages.

Palm oil markets have been jittery ahead of the ban and Indonesia deployed navy ships and personnel in an effort to thwart illegal shipments.

The new rules were due to take effect at midnight local time, and the navy and other agencies had been instructed to step up patrols of Indonesian waters to ensure compliance, said navy spokesperson Julius Widjojono.

Palm oil futures on the Malaysia exchange surged by 9.8 per cent on Wednesday, as some market participants feared exporters in Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, could not get their products on board vessels in time before the ban starts.

US soy oil futures jumped more than 4 per cent to a record high after Indonesia extended ban to include CPO.

A worker loads fresh palm fruit bunches to be transported from the collector site to factories. Photo: Reuters

It was unclear if palm oil companies had been informed of the latest policy change.

Industry sources and traders, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they were shocked by the latest development.

“It’s a drastic measure to rein in the prices and we hope it has the intended effect within a short period, and avoid hurting the industry,” a palm industry source said.

“This is crazy. We are paying a price for Indonesia policy flip-flops. Every vegetable oil is going through the roof. Securing supplies of any vegetable oil for May shipments is a challenge,” said a New-Delhi based dealer with a global trading firm.

In Malaysia’s Johor, mines and palm oil plantations are replacing forests

17 Oct 2021

Eddy Martono, secretary general of the Indonesia Palm Oil Association (GAPKI), earlier on Wednesday said the industry was trying to “operate as usual while continuing to monitor market movements”.

Eddy said that with such short notice on the ban, first announced by President Joko Widodo on Friday evening, there was no way exporters could rush their products out.

“Its impossible to get a vessel instantly, everything would’ve been chartered,” he said.

Indonesia’s restrictions have driven up global edible oil prices as supplies were already choked by factors like drought and shortages after Russia’s invasion of major crop producer Ukraine.

A worker loads palm oil fresh fruit bunches to be transported from the collector site to CPO factories in Pekanbaru, Riau province in Indonesia on Wednesday. 

Photo: Reuters

Indonesia’s ban on palm oil exports is unlikely to last more than a month due to limited infrastructure to store the surplus oil and because of mounting pressure from buyers to resume shipments, industry officials said.

The ban would remain in place until prices of bulk cooking oil dropped to 14,000 rupiah (US$0.9720) per litre, Airlangga said.

In Jakarta, bulk cooking oil prices were offered at around 19,000 to 20,000 rupiah on Wednesday and in other regions prices could be higher, Reynaldi Sarijowan, a senior official at the traditional market traders’ association, said.

In Riau province on Sumatra island, small farmers already saw a drastic drop in price of palm oil fruits due to the export ban, local planters said, and they fear that palm oil companies will stop buying from independent farmers.


Ukraine war benefits Malaysian palm oil, but foreign worker shortage curbs production output

Amid labour shortage and high demand, Malaysia will hire 180,000 workers to harvest palm oil as alternatives to cooking oils no longer available from Ukraine

One analyst believes the Ukraine-Russia war – now in its second month – could last 15 years which could mean an extended boost for Malaysian palm oil exports

Amy Chew in Kuala Lumpur
 14 Apr, 2022


Harvested oil palm fruits are loaded into a trailer at a plantation in Kapar, Selangor, Malaysia. Exports of palm oil have increased as supplies of other cooking oils have been affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Bloomberg


Malaysian palm oil exports could see a prolonged lift as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on indefinitely, observers say, as the likes of India and the European Union secure alternatives to sunflower and rapeseed oil no longer available from Ukraine.


A prominent geopolitical risk forecaster suggested the conflict – now in its second month – could drag on for 15 years, likening it to the civil strife in Syria.


Data released this week by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board showed exports of the commodity from the Southeast Asian country to the European Union surged 48.3 per cent in March compared with February.


“One notable bright spot was the strong exports to the EU, with palm oil demand rising to fill in the shortage of sunflower and rapeseed oils from Russia and Ukraine,” said Public Investment Bank (PIVB) in a report released on Wednesday.

A worker uses a motorised harvesting sickle to cut a palm oil fruit bunch from a tree at a plantation in Kapar, Selangor, Malaysia. Photo: Bloomberg

In India, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said Indian palm oil exports jumped 18.7 per cent. Malaysian palm oil exports to India rose 20.8 per cent in March 2022. Experts said the shift towards palm oil by India, the world’s largest importer of edible oils, was very likely to help Malaysian exports too.

Chong Hoe Leong, a commodities analyst with PIVB, said EU members the Netherlands, Spain and Italy were expected to buy more palm oil as they were “normally the big palm oil countries”.

Brokerage firm UOB Kay Hian said in a note that alongside the EU, countries in Central Asia and the Middle East had also increased palm oil imports.

Some countries with high sunflower oil usage increased their palm oil imports by 100 per cent in March, due to supply shortages from the Black Sea tensions, the note added.

Malaysia, the second largest palm oil producer after Indonesia, has in the past locked horns with the EU for its imposition of anti-palm oil measures – including classifying the commodity as having a high risk of displacing food crops.

Last year the government filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, charging that the EU’s actions contravened the global body’s rules of engagement.

Likewise with India, a diplomatic rift between New Delhi and the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 2020 saw the South Asian power temporarily suspend imports of refined palm oil. Indian buyers resumed buying Malaysian palm oil last year.

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Labour shortage

Despite the buoyancy in demand, expectations are that Malaysia will not be able to immediately increase its palm oil production owing to a severe shortage in manpower.

About 80 per cent of Malaysia’s plantation workers are migrants, with most coming from neighbouring Indonesia.

The broad closure of borders during the Covid-19 pandemic seriously impacted the flow of these workers.

Plantations typically harvest palm oil fruit once every 10-14 days. But with the labour shortage, many small plantations are only harvesting the fruit once a month.

Workers plant oil palm seeds at an oil palm plantation in Slim River, Malaysia. The country is expected to hire 180,000 foreign workers to alleviate a labour shortage. Photo: Reuters

The country is expected to hire nearly 180,000 workers over the next six weeks, according to Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan. A special committee will meet daily from April 15 to speed up the approval process, state news agency Bernama reported on Wednesday, citing Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.

Chong, the commodities analyst, said the industry had a shortage of 75,000 harvesters.

In 2021, Malaysia produced 18.1 million metric tonnes of crude palm oil down from 19.1 million in 2020.

“The labour shortage impacts on 10-15 per cent of palm oil production. I am looking at 19.5 metric tonnes production for 2022,” said PIVB’s Chong.

Workers load harvested palm oil fruit bunches onto a truck at a plantation in Kapar, Selangor, Malaysia. Photo: Bloomberg

Big plantation companies managed to harvest more than once a month by appointing contract workers during peak production periods, and redeploying high performance harvesters to high yield plantations, said Chong.

The owner of a small palm oil plantation told This Week In Asia his farms have a manpower shortage and only harvested the fruit “once a month most of the time” the past two years.

On Monday, crude palm oil traded at RM6,526 (US$1,543) per metric tonne.

Analysts expect the price to stabilise later in the year.

“I am looking at a price level of RM4,300 per tonne for 2022. Current price is toppish, in my view,” said Chong. UOB Kay Hian forecast 2022 crude palm oil price at RM4,200 per metric tonne.

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The prospects for Malaysian palm oil could also be determined by how much edible oil EU nations buy from Russia, whose global pariah status has been increasing since it invaded Ukraine.

EU representatives in Malaysia said there were currently no private sector restrictions on purchasing commodities from Russia.

“In general, EU countries are characterised by liberal economies with little state intervention in the markets and where prices are based on the free interplay of supply and demand,” said a spokesman of the Delegation of the EU to Malaysia.

As for the concerns of the environmentalist lobby in the EU about the negative effects of palm oil, this was also unlikely to be a short term issue for Malaysia, going by the comments of experts and the EU representative.

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James Fry, a commodities expert and chairman of the agribusiness consultancy LMC International, said for now the EU and British governments had given sellers of foodstuffs leeway in how they label oils in their products, without necessarily identifying palm oil as an ingredient.

The EU spokesman said the bloc’s legislation currently does not require nor regulate any description indicating that a certain ingredient is absent from certain products, such as, “no palm oil”.

Individual manufacturers can however, voluntarily indicate that a certain ingredient was not used, the spokesman said.

In the longer term, all eyes will be on how long the Ukraine war will last.

“Obviously this is an estimate but conflicts in Syria or civil wars have lasted 10 to 15 years. There is no reason why Ukraine would be any different, unfortunately,” Olivier Guitta, London-based managing director of GlobalStrat, an international security and geopolitical risk consultancy firm, told This Week In Asia.

“Even in the now unlikely case that Russia can take over the whole country, the resistance from the Ukrainians in the cities would turn the conflict into urban warfare à la Syria,” Guitta added.

Guitta believes a prolonged battle in Ukraine is inevitable, despite the growing sanctions affecting Russia’s economy, because President Vladimir Putin won’t be satisfied until he achieves his ultimate goal – to “restore the great Russia.”


Additional reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg




Amy Chew is an independent journalist based in Kuala Lumpur. She covers Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East. She was previously based in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore. A former correspondent for Channel News Asia and Reuters, she has also worked in investment banking where she was an analyst for Daiwa Capital Markets Singapore.

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US Marine Trevor Reed released from Russia in surprise prisoner swap

The exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko took place with Washington-Moscow ties at their lowest point in decades over the Ukraine war

Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken say they are working to free another American citizen held in Russia, Paul Whelan, also a former Marine

Russian prisoner Trevor Reed’s parents Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with his portrait at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, in February. Photo: AP

The United States and Russia swapped prisoners on Wednesday amid their most tense relations in decades over the war in Ukraine, with former US Marine Trevor Reed released in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

The swap, announced by both countries, was the result of months of work and did not involve negotiations on any other of the sensitive topics involving the United States and Russia, US officials said.

Russian-American ties have been at their worst since the Cold War era following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Reed, from Texas, was on his way to be reunited with his family in the United States, senior Biden administration officials said, with one saying the 30-year-old was in “good spirits”.

Former US Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019 and accused of assaulting police officers, is escorted before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia in March 2020. Photo: Reuters

“Today, we welcome home Trevor Reed and celebrate his return to the family that missed him dearly,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, noting their concerns about their son’s health.

Reed was convicted in Russia in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The United States has called his trial a “theatre of the absurd”.

Russia had proposed a prisoner swap for Yaroshenko in July 2019 in exchange for the release of any American. Yaroshenko is a pilot convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the country. He was arrested by US special forces in Liberia in 2010.

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they were working to free another US citizen held in Russia, Paul Whelan, also a former Marine.

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Biden said he had shared the news with Reed’s parents, Joey and Paula Reed, who have been pressing his administration to help their son. The Reeds thanked Biden and others, saying “our family has been living a nightmare” for the past 985 days.

“The president’s action may have saved Trevor’s life,” they said in a statement.

Biden met Reed’s parents at the White House on March 30. In a statement the following week, the parents said a prisoner swap seemed to be the only way to bring Reed home and urged the White House to take all possible steps to do so.



The talks that led to Reed’s release strictly focused on securing his freedom and were not the start of a wider diplomatic conversation, senior Biden administration officials said in a call with reporters.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan stands inside a defendants’ cage in Moscow in October 2019. Photo: AFP

“We’re strictly limited to these topics, the detainee topics. They were not part of broader diplomatic discussions. They were not the beginnings of discussions on other issues,” one of the officials said.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said later on CNN that diplomatic talks with Russia were “at a dead end” despite the releases.

The Reeds said their son would tell his own story as soon as he was ready.

“We’d respectfully ask for some privacy while we address the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag,” they said.

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Price said Reed’s condition required “urgent treatment.”

Biden did not comment on details of the swap, except to say “The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”

Biden said his administration has put a priority on bringing home Americans wrongfully detained abroad and will continue to work on the release of Whelan and others.

Whelan has been held on spying charges that he denies and that he has likened to a political kidnapping.

US basketball player Brittney Griner faces up to 10 years in prison in Russia over drug charges. Photo: AP

US basketball star Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, has been held nearly two months in Russia and faces up to 10 years in prison. Griner was detained at a Moscow airport on February 17 when a search of her luggage allegedly revealed multiple cannabis oil vape cartridges.

Russian news agencies reported on April 4 that Reed had ended a hunger strike and was being treated in his prison’s medical centre. The prison service said Reed had gone on hunger strike on March 28 to protest disciplinary action against him.

Reed’s parents said at the time he had been exposed to an inmate with active tuberculosis in December, but their son had not been tested for the illness despite a rapid deterioration in his health.

The prison service said at the time he had repeatedly tested negative for tuberculosis and had not come into contact with anyone infected.

APPARENTLY HE IS NOT THAT WELL

Canadian wellness coach who did naked haka faces Bali deportation

WAS IT THE NAKEDNESS OR THE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION OF THE HAKA
26 Apr, 2022 

Jeff Craigen. Photo / Instagram

NZ Herald

A Canadian wellness coach is facing deportation from Bali after performing a haka naked on a sacred mountain.

Jeff Craigen posted a video of himself on social media naked atop Mount Batur, performing the haka. Mount Batur is considered sacred by many Balinese, after a volcanic eruption in 1926 wiped out an entire village – but left the mountain's shrine intact.

"When you strip naked without shame and the fear of being seen, you become a fearless child of God," Craigen said in his video.

The video received a swift backlash from Balinese people, and drew the attention of the authorities.

He is reportedly now awaiting deportation, and posted a tearful 18-minute apology video in which Craigen said he didn't know what he had or hadn't done, and blamed his behaviour on not having been "seen" as a child.

"When I was on the mountain, I was just dead inside ... I don't know how to face this feeling and I still don't ... And I was hoping someone would see me, because I don't know how to see myself because I've never seen myself, I just see others," he said through tears.

"So, I'm very sorry 'cause I'm hurt inside and it's all just expressing myself because I'm so unseen."

Comments on his social media are condemning his actions, and telling him to leave Bali after being so disrespectful – but it may not be so simple for him to get out.

According to media reports, Craigen is unvaccinated, so finding an airline to take him out of Bali is challenging.

"Airlines have not agreed [to transport him]," Tedy Riyand, the head of the Denpasar immigration office reportedly told AFP on Tuesday.