.png)
A GLOBAL WOMAN, MAN, PEOPLE
- INYOHOOD Admin Team
- Jan 28, 2020
- 30 min read
Updated: Apr 17, 2021
Japanese animation has influenced an entire generation of adults from a string of highly successful shows that made their way to the United States starting in the late ’90s. This has led many to pursue an interest in a career in the animation field, which has sparked a conversation around diversity among animators. For these brothers, it led to an opportunity to create their own anime studio in Japan.
Arthell Isom and his twin brother, Darnell Isom, are the co-founders of D’ART Shtajio, a 2-D animation studio located in Tokyo, established in 2016 with animator Henry Thurlow. The three started the company to create Japanese anime infused with American culture.
Prior to starting his studio, Arthell worked with animation studio Ogura Kobo as a background animator on highly acclaimed shows like Bleach, Black Butler, and Naruto. He credits working with his mentor Hiromasa Ogura, best known as the background animator on Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell, for helping him shape his career after spending 12 years working alongside him in Japan. Arthell also studied art history in Italy in addition to attending art schools in San Francisco and Osaka, which greatly influenced his art and love of Japanese anime.
“I watched Ghost in the Shell every day for a year,” said Isom in an interview with Japan Times. “I didn’t even know why I liked it until a teacher asked me to focus on that question. That’s when I discovered that I liked the backgrounds and the way the animation moved through them.”
As reported by the Japan Times, roughly 5% of workers in the field are of non-Japanese descent although there are no formal statistics published, according to Tadashi Sudo, the former CEO of Anime! Anime!. Isom says he feels confident about the road saying there is a growing demand for diverse creators.
“The great thing is with us being here, Black creators seek us out,” said Isom in another interview with SyFy Wire.“It’s a great opportunity to work with them. We’ve worked with quite a few like independent manga creators with projects like Tephlon Funk and XOGENASYS; we get the opportunity to then tell more Black stories. These are storytellers who want to see their story adapted to anime form.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Human Rights Council, in Geneva today:
I welcome this opportunity to speak to this urgent and necessary debate of the Human Rights Council. I bring you warm greetings from Secretary-General António Guterres, who shares your abhorrence of racism and is committed to fighting it with every tool we have.
Allow me to quote from the letter he sent last week to all UN staff: “The position of the United Nations on racism is crystal clear — this scourge violates the United Nations Charter and debases our core values.”
The Secretary-General has called for dismantling racist structures and confronting the systemic ills of institutions. In the United Nations, he has launched a one-year process to address these grave staff concerns. He has also called for massive investments in social cohesion. Diversity, he has stressed, “is a richness, not a threat”.
I wish to echo the recent cogent words of United Nations Under-Secretaries-General who are African or of African Descent. In a statement three days ago, they stressed that: “Not enough can ever be said about the deep trauma and intergenerational suffering that has resulted from the racial injustice perpetrated through centuries, particularly against people of African descent. To merely condemn expressions and acts of racism is not enough. We must go beyond and do more.”
The Human Rights Council meets as marches for racial justice and equality fill the streets of cities and towns around the world. The most recent trigger for these protests was the killing of George Floyd in an appalling act of police brutality. But, the violence spans history and borders alike, across the globe. Today, people are saying, loudly and movingly: “Enough.”
The United Nations has a duty to respond to the anguish that has been felt by so many for so long. This cause is at the heart of our Organization’s identity. Equal rights are enshrined in our founding Charter. Just as we fought apartheid years ago, so must we fight the hatred, oppression and humiliation today.
We must also never forget the crimes and the negative impacts, in Africa and beyond, of the transatlantic slave trade, one of history’s most appalling manifestations of human barbarity.
Across the world, Afro-descendants continue to be trapped in generational cycles of poverty created by unfair obstacles to their development. They receive unequal services and face unjustifiable housing and employment practices. Racial profiling is widespread.
And because of poverty and structural racism, they are also among the communities hardest hit by COVID-19. As we recover from the pandemic, returning to these systems is out of the question.
We also need measures that will genuinely reset law enforcement. The battle against racism did not end with this or that legislation, and racism was not vanquished by this or that election. The poison of racism still rages, and so the fight must still be waged.
On a personal level, from my high school days in the United Kingdom through my career across the private sector, civil society and now international public service, I have grown thick skin. I have even become numb, to the extent that one has forgotten how to feel the injustice of racial slurs and my human right to live a life of dignity and respect.
When I consider the beauty of my diversity and the amazing diversity of race… when I consider that we are born equal, only to find that the colour of one’s skin sentences us to a life of discrimination and injustice… I ask myself, I ask all of you, I ask people everywhere: How can we possibly continue to turn the other way? Enough is enough.
The world must rise to end racism in all its obnoxious forms. Let us turn the page of history today by making this a turning point when we agree that all humans have the right to thrive with dignity and freedom from racism and discrimination in all its forms.
I, too, like Martin Luther King, Jr., have a dream where my granddaughter Maya will grow up in a world where she will not be judged by the colour of her skin, but by the strength of her character. Lasting peace and sustainable development can only be built on the equality, human rights and dignity of everyone.
The United Nations, its leadership and staff, stands with all those who are pursuing the end of the scourge of racism in all its forms. This is today’s sacred battle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Nicolas de Rivière (France):
The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the multiple terrorist attacks on 9 and 10 June in Felo, on 13 June in Monguno against a UN humanitarian facility and on 13 June in Nganzai in Borno State, Nigeria, which together resulted in at least 120 killed and others injured.
The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the people and Government of Nigeria. The members of the Security Council wished a speedy recovery to those injured.
The members of the Security Council commended the efforts of countries in the region, including through the Multinational Joint Task Force, to effectively combat terrorism, and encouraged further progress in this regard.
The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.
The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of Nigeria and all other relevant authorities in this regard.
The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.
The members of the Security Council reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist attacks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the virtual high-level meeting “The Impact Women Leaders Are Having in the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic”, in New York today:
I am delighted to join such a powerful group of women this morning. Women who are leading our response to COVID-19 across different fields. Every time I look at the “Rise for All” video, it resonates in a different way.
As our lives have shifted online, one advantage has been in the way we are able to engage with each other despite distance, and to bring together our collective expertise and experience to go a step further.
This pandemic is an unprecedented wake-up call, laying bare deep inequalities and exposing precisely the failures that are addressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. As the Secretary-General has said, had we been further along in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we would not be facing the scale of development emergency we are today for the most vulnerable.
This pandemic has been with us for just over six months now. In that time, it has caused an unprecedented health, humanitarian and economic crisis. It is straining health and care systems, widening socioeconomic divides and creating deep political and social insecurity. What we didn’t realize at the time was that the side effects of the prescriptions we took for the health crisis would also impact in an unprecedented way our social and economic recovery. I hope this discussion today talks about challenge but also pathways we have taken up.
Sadly, these dynamics are disproportionately impacting women and girls. Gender-based violence is increasing — at home and online – impacting both women and children. Access to sexual and reproductive health services is being compromised. Women’s unpaid care burden is rising. And millions of girls are out of school with the risk that many may not return.
Our shared global agenda remains the clearest path to mitigate, respond and recover from the current crisis.
At the same time, perhaps more clearly than ever, we see women on the front lines of the response, as Heads of State and Government, health and care workers, and community leaders and mobilizers. We need to protect them and listen to them.
Local women’s organizations and women’s rights activists are providing essential services for those often left behind, as well as information, advocacy and oversight to help ensure that the most marginalized are not further excluded.
We are going to hear today from many women leaders that are showing through their example how women’s leadership and participation brings more effective, inclusive and fair policies, plans and budgets. And yet, the number of women leaders remains dismally low across the board – in COVID-19 task forces and in decision-making bodies steering our crisis response.
Women’s under-representation in the health sector and decision-making positions is especially concerning: while women make up 70 per cent of health sector workers, less than 20 per cent of the world’s health ministers are women, and they only hold 25 per cent of senior roles in health institutions. Only 7 per cent of Heads of State and 6 per cent of Heads of Government are women. Similarly, women represent only 25 per cent of national legislators and 35 per cent of local counsellors — still far short of gender balance.
Now is the time to leverage the visibility on women’s leadership and push for change, including through quotas and temporary special measures. This will achieve not only greater gender balance and representation, but greater credibility and delivery in all our institutions.
In our response to COVID-19 we must ensure that women are in decision-making roles, take leadership positions and participate in public life.
As the United Nations, we are leading efforts to safeguard the gains made of gender equality and push for transformative change. We have 50 per cent women in the leadership of the United Nations today and they are at the forefront of our COVID-19 response. We have women leading in the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Hannah Tetteh at the African Union and many more. And these women are speaking out. Whether it’s Natalia Kanem speaking out about the levels of violence against women and the need for continued access to health services for women, or Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka taking Generation Equality online so that we can continue in this moment to celebrate gains and strengthen our efforts for gender equality. Women leaders in the United Nations are at the forefront of our efforts.
In the first weeks of April, the Secretary-General issued a call for peace in the home as levels of violence against women and girls escalated alongside the pandemic.
Our United Nations agencies are working with Member States to ensure that domestic violence prevention and response are part of national COVID-19 plans, that shelters are declared essential services, and that services for survivors can be shifted online. The United Nations is shifting resources to civil society organizations on the front line of the COVID-19 response, supporting women’s organizations to deliver public health messaging in communities, working with Governments to inform gender-responsive stimulus packages, and ensuring that vital sexual and reproductive health services remain accessible to women.
COVID-19 is exposing how inequalities of all types have hollowed out our societies, institutions and systems, making them more vulnerable to health, climate, economic and human security threats.
Women’s leadership and participation is essential to overcome this inequality and to create the strong and functioning socioeconomic systems we will need to address the challenges of today and tomorrow.
There has never been a greater opportunity to seize the intergenerational opportunity. To bring together in dialogue women leaders.
This is the reason why I have initiated “Women Rise for All” — a platform to shine a light on and recognize women’s extraordinary front-line leadership that is winning against COVID-19. Across the globe, as women leaders, we are taking action to overcome the pandemic and build back better. Our aim is clear: societies and economies that are more resilient, climate‑just and gender‑equal. Let’s help women leaders rise for all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Commission on the Status of Women opened its sixty-fourth session today, adopting a political declaration commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which together offer the world’s most progressive blueprint for achieving gender equality.
Operating under extraordinary circumstances ushered in by the coronavirus, participants met for a one-day procedural meeting only, having postponed its general debate and cancelled all side events associated with the annual gathering, which was meant to take place from 9 to 20 March and attract thousands of representatives from Member States and civil society alike.
By the six-page declaration, delegates reaffirmed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and committed to their implementation. They welcomed progress made in accelerating their implementation through policy actions at national, regional and global levels, and looked forward to the upcoming General Assembly high-level meeting on 23 September to commemorate the Fourth World Conference on Women.
As well, they expressed concern that overall progress “has not been fast or deep enough”, that it has been uneven in some areas, and that structural barriers, discriminatory practices and the feminization of poverty all persist. “Twenty-five years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, no country has fully achieved gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls,” they declared.
Also through the text, they firmly committed to tackling existing and emerging challenges in all 12 critical areas — broadly centred on poverty, education, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, the media, the environment and the girl child — through intensified efforts to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Despite the day’s greatly scaled-down programme, speakers delivering opening remarks maintained a palpable enthusiasm to carry forward the torch lit 25 years ago in Beijing — perhaps most vocally expressed by Heela Yoon, a young Afghan woman who urged all parties involved in her country’s peace process to remain committed to women’s rights. “Without women, this peace will be a broken peace,” she cautioned.
Secretary-General António Guterres likewise underscored the imperative of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality. Centuries of discrimination, deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny have created a gender power gap in global economies, political systems and corporations. “This simply has to change.”
Women in Parliaments are outnumbered three-to-one by men, he said. Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, and unpaid care work remains stubbornly feminized. In some areas, progress has gone into reverse amid a rolling back of laws to protect women from violence, and increased use of biased economic and immigration policies. With the vision of Beijing only partly realized, “we must push back against the pushback”, he said.
On that point, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), said women of the world are “radically impatient” for action that improves their lives. Younger women do not want to go through the experiences of their elders, while the elders are tired of waiting.
Drawing attention to the Secretary-General’s report on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, she said 131 countries have enacted 274 legal and regulatory reforms in critical areas. More girls are in school than ever before, while girls’ leadership is strong in climate activism. These solutions must have money behind them and be delivered to those who have not yet benefited from progress.
Economic and Social Council President Mona Juul recalled that the Commission on the Status of Women was among the first subsidiary bodies created by the Council in 1946. “Your efforts remain as fundamental as when the Commission was created nearly 75 years ago,” she said. General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande meanwhile pressed the international community to create cultures of respect. “We must teach our sons and daughters that every individual, regardless of gender, is entitled to be treated with equal dignity and respect.”
Anita Nayar, Director of Regions Refocus, said women are at the forefront of interlocking movements for justice — from food security to climate rights. She urged the Commission to ensure meaningful participation from Governments as well as civil society.
Commission Chair Mher Margaryan meanwhile said the political declaration reflects the common political will to deliver on the Beijing Platform for Action — and importantly outlines areas that will guide the body’s work. “We are called on to recommit to gender equality and women’s empowerment,” he said. The best way to mark its twenty-fifth anniversary is by working to achieve results.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), HE Mr Kwesi Quartey, received United Nations (UN) Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Human Security, HE Amb Yukio Takasu, at the AUC today. Amb Takasu was at the AU to participate in a two-day consultative meeting jointly organised by the AU and the UN under the theme, ‘Towards the Development of an African Human Security Index: On Practices, Methods and Designs’.
Welcoming to the AUC, HE Mr Quartey commended Amb Takasu for his exemplary leadership over the years in drawing the world’s attention to the Human Security Index, an important subject that underpins all developmental efforts. He applauded the deepening partnership between the UN and the AU and called for closer collaboration towards the achievement of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs. He opined that at the heart of the two developmental frameworks was the quest for tangible change in the welfare of the people, as was the AU theme of the year, ‘Silencing the Guns: creating Conducive Atmosphere for Africa’s development’.
The overall objective of the consultative meeting is to provide an overview of the principles of the human security approach and elaborate on the use of human security as a tool for developing effective policies and programmes for achieving Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Amb Takasu thanked the Deputy Chairperson and the AUC for their collaboration in initiating this important process of having a defined and definite scheme for Africa’s Human Security Index (AHSI). He stressed that the UN took the call of the Deputy Chairperson for the development of the AHIS seriously, and reaffirmed the commitment of the UN to the ongoing fruitful partnership with the AU.
The consultative meeting is expected among other outcomes to produce: a work plan for developing the AHSI, a framework methodology for indexing human security in Africa and selection of pilot countries.
The Deputy Chairperson proposed for consideration, inclusion the inclusion of the five Regional Economic blocs and the diaspora, which represents the sixth region of Africa.
HE Mr Quartey also proposed that outcomes of the Consultative Meeting and Piloting be discussed at this year’s UN General Assembly and the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) which is billed to take place in Africa.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The House of Representatives approved legislation Friday decriminalizing marijuana and attempting to “address the devastating injustices caused by the War on Drugs.” The vote in the Democratic-led chamber marks the first time in U.S. history a chamber of Congress has voted on federal decriminalization, although the bill has almost no chance to pass in the Republican led Senate.
The MORE Act would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and eliminate criminal penalties for those who grow, manufacture and sell marijuana. The act would also create a process for removing previous marijuana convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings for felony convictions. The act would also authorize a five percent sales tax on marijuana products that would be used for investments in job training, legal aid and substance abuse treatment for individuals that have been impacted by the war on drugs. The revenue would also provide funds for small business loans and access to marijuana licensing and employment. 222 Democrats, five Republicans and Justin Amash, a libertarian voted in favor of decriminalization while 158 Republicans and six Democrats voted against. The Republicans who voted decriminalization included Florida Rep Matt Gaetz, who co-sponsored the bill, Brian Mast (Florida), Denver Riggleman (Virginia), Tom McClintock (California) and Don Young (Alaska).
According to the New York Times, Republicans who voted against decriminalization considered the vote nothing more than a superficial distraction from negotiations and work on a second coronavirus stimulus package.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the House for moving on the bill during a time when the coronavirus is on everyone’s mind. “The House of Representatives is spending this week on pressing issues like marijuana. You know, serious and important legislation befitting this national crisis,” McConnell said sarcastically on the Senate floor Friday according to CNN. However, others see the vote alone as a milestone mark in the fight for legalization. Marijuana has gone from a gateway drug in the 1980s, to a legal purchase in multiple states today.
Jose Chapa, Senior Policy Associate at the Immigrant Defense Project said nationwide decriminalization would also help immigrants who are arrested and deported for marijuana possession.
“Thousands of immigrants have been deported as a result of marijuana convictions,” Chapa told Black Enterprise. “This house bill sets precedent for the upcoming congress and Biden administration to end this needless destruction of immigrant families and communities.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CapWay Founder Sheena Allen is catering to people looking beyond conventional banking services to make monetary transactions and get help with their personal finances.
To do that, Allen started the fintech mobile bank and app. Providing a fresh way for people to manage money and avoid paying high-priced fees for alternative financial services, CapWay’s products include checking accounts, debit cards, and financial education, its website reveals.
The customers Allen is targeting offer a potentially huge market. They include people without bank accounts, folks who do not trust banks, and others with no savings accounts to build emergency funds. Customers also could include millennials and others tapping into CapWay. A whopping 63 million American adults, or 22%, are reportedly either unbanked or underbanked, a 2019 Federal Reserve report shows. Six percent of Americans lacking bank accounts turn to costly outlets like check-cashing services and payday lenders to tend to their finances. And 16% of underbanked Americans with some kind of bank account still must rely on substitute financial services.
Tech-savvy millennials who do not bank like their parents or previous generations could bring another market sector. Consumers from 21 to 34 report greater participation in mobile banking than any other age group, Nielsen research shows. Observers assert this segment is a growing market that digital financial providers are trying to capitalize on in the so-called cashless economy.
CapWay’s website states Allen grew up in a small town with one bank: Terry, Mississippi. Accordingly, the people there, including Allen’s friends and family, kept money in their home or used other fee-heavy alternative banking options.
“I know this problem from a personal point of view, from my family and friends, but I didn’t know this problem from outside of Mississippi,” Allen told CNN Business.
Allen saw an opportunity to serve financially underserved people in Mississippi while helping solve a problem that impacts over 2.5 billion people worldwide. According to LinkedIn, Allen launched CapWay after doing R&D with her team from 2016 to 2019. A millennial entrepreneur, Allen reflected on her new venture on Facebook: “From the day I started CapWay, my mission has been to challenge the current financial system by creating opportunities and access to fair financial services and equity.” Allen’s business offers some features most traditional banks typically don’t. CapWay’s website reports that it include no hidden fees, no overdraft fees, and no monthly fees. Users can access 30,000-plus sites for free ATM withdraws plus track all transactions, deposit checks, and transfer money among services.
Allen told CNN Business that her company makes money off paid partnerships, fees from pre-paid cards, and sponsored content and advertising.
To finance her startup, Allen told Inc. that she raised $25,000 from Backstage Capital early on. That business is a venture capital fund that invests in new U.S. companies led by underrepresented founders. CNN Business reported Allen also got funding from Liberty Bank, which is on the latest BE Banks list.
On the competitive front, observers say CapWay’s rivals could include tech startups and perhaps others such as Walmart and Amazon pursuing the same market. Allen told Forbes her products are different from others in her business. “Our financial literacy is culturally relevant to the audience we serve. We mix in working with financial experts to working with influencers to speak and teach money in a language that millennials actually care about and understand.” Additionally, Allen is confident with her business model. She told Inc., “We can be profitable, have a social impact, and have a great company.”
In her Profiles of Principled Entrepreneurship video, Allen, shared on CapWay and what she hopes it achieves. For sure, she wants to be a game-changer for the unbanked and underbanked.
“When I look back five to 10 years from now,” she says, “I want to say we actually had an impact and changed those numbers.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excellencies, Distinguished guests, ladies and Gentlemen
- It’s a great honor for me to welcome you to this High-Level Meeting on the theme: “AU Silencing the Guns initiative - the role of illicit financial flows in fuelling instability in Africa”. And we are particularly honoured to organize this event in partnership with OSAA, with co-sponsorship from the governments of Nigeria and South Africa.
- Illicit financial flows have a massive negative impact on socioeconomic development and continue to stunt the development of all affected countries. Besides draining foreign exchange reserves, reducing domestic resource mobilization, preventing the flow of foreign direct investment, exacerbating insecurity and worsening poverty and economic inequality, IFFs also undermine the rule of law and worsen macroeconomic conditions in the many countries.
- Today, there is a wide global acknowledgment that IFFs constitute a drain on the resources required for Africa’s development, particularly given the domestic resource requirements for actualizing Africa’s Agenda 2063 and our global Agenda 2030.
- Several milestones have been crossed in the journey to reach where we are today. In 2011, African Member States flagged the threat imposed by IFFs on their socioeconomic development, and in order to assess the complex and long-term implications of IFFs on Africa’s economics, the AU commissioned the High-Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa to further explore and gain a better understanding of IFFs nature and impact.
- These efforts resulted in the Mbeki Panel Report in 2015, which provided a deeper understanding of the nature and patterns of illicit financial outflows from Africa and helped raise awareness among African governments, citizens and international development partners of the scale and effect of such financial outflows on development.
- Endorsement of findings and recommendations from the Mbeki report in the 2015-AU Special Declaration on IFFs by the AU Assembly, demonstrated the concern shared by AU-Member States about illicit financial flows and marked the beginning of the work ahead.
- The findings and recommendations from the report attributed to be the basic foundation galvanizing an African position on issues related to IFFs. For the following five years, the African Union played a major role in ensuring that commitments to end IFFs were made by key actors.
- In addition, the work of the HLP contributed to the enhancement of collaboration and cooperation amongst African countries as well as their external development partners to promote better global understanding of the scale of the problem for African economies.
- Despite these achievements however, there is still a need to reinforce and continue these efforts with the aim to foster regional and international cooperation to curb IFFs.
Excellencies, Distinguished ladies and Gentlemen
- Ending conflicts in Africa is a collective global responsibility towards building peaceful societies that can enhance dignity, prosperity, and security for all.
- In pursuing this vision, the African Union heads of state and government pledged in the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration to ‘silence the guns and to free future generations from the burden of conflict’ as part of efforts to promote an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa.
- Although the role of illicit financial flows (IFFs) in hindering economic development is well recognized, the implications for security and political stability, both national and global, have not received enough attention.
- There is circumstantial evidence that illicit financial outflows contribute to the devastation of peace and security by providing conflict, terrorist and criminal groups the financial means to conduct their operations and undermine peace.
- IFFs, for instance, facilitate crime transactions: they aid those associated with transnational organized crime to move and spend their illicit gains. They are also integral to the financing of terrorist and insurgent groups, which threaten peace and security. Moreover, the ability to launder, stash, and spend funds overseas enables corruption, which can destabilize countries and regions. IFFs undermine security forces, rendering them less able to respond to threats of criminality and terrorism.
- A sustainable strategy to silence the Guns must directly address in first place the root structural causes and deficits in areas of: development, governance and climate change. These socio-political and economic challenges are sources of unrest in Africa and continue to threaten peace, security and the structural transformation of Africa. Thus, if IFFs deficit is not addressed as it should be, the AU agenda of silencing the guns may not be reached.
- Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the link is clear: we must dry the sources by adopting and implementing policies to help mitigate IFFs and the crime, terrorism, insurgency, and corruption they facilitate. These policies will not eliminate security threats, but at the minimum they can assist law enforcement and reduce the leverage of actors that threaten peace and security. IFFs should be recognized as contributing to threats to the peace and security in Africa, and we should make countering IFFs by using regional and global instruments a priority.
- Lastly, I cannot conclude without saying a word about the COVID-19 pandemic which has imposed new realities, disrupted many aspects of our lives across the board, shifting our focus and efforts to combat the devastating impact of the virus.
- In support of the efforts employed by various fronts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, the AUC and the UN reiterated the call for silencing the guns in calling for a global ceasefire during these crucial times.
- This is the end of year 2020 and it is clear that we still have work to do in order to ensure we truly silencing the guns on our continent while we refocus our efforts towards development and prosperity for our peoples.
- We have a number of distinguished speakers and panelists in our meeting today who will address these issues, with a special focus on interdependencies between peace, security and Illicit financial flows.
I wish you fruitful deliberations, thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two renowned Black developers are proceeding with plans on Angels Landing, a new $2 billion luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles projected to be an economic boom for the nation’s second-largest city. Angels Landing will include two towers, each anchored by five-star hotels, according to a news release. Plus, the development will feature an expansive modern urban park known as Angels Landing Plaza. It is geared to serve as a pedestrian-centered, transit-adjacent, open space environment downtown.
The project in LA’s Bunker Hill neighborhood is being developed by Victor MacFarlane of MacFarlane Partners and R. Donahue Peebles of The Peebles Corp. They are majority-owner principals of Angels Landing Partners L.L.C., which is conceiving, designing, building, and operating Angels Landing. MacFarlane Partners and Peebles are BE 100s companies, an annual listing of the top Black-owned businesses in the nation. Economically, more than 8,300 new jobs will be created during Angels Landing’s project design and construction, an analysis by BJH Advisors shows. The New York City-based firm’s report estimates that Angels Landing would additionally create over 800 permanent jobs in downtown LA. The analysis further reported an estimated 500 jobs would be created by vendors in the LA County region providing goods and services to the two luxury hotels.
Moreover, the analysis projects Angels Landing would give L.A.’s local economy a $1.6 billion boost and contribute $731 million to local worker’s earnings during its construction. And the project would bring an estimated $12 million in recurring tax revenues and $2.4 million annually in local property tax revenues. Victor B. MacFarlane, chairman and CEO, MacFarlane Partners, commented on the project. “The foundation of our business has always been to strengthen communities where we do business,” he stated. “We believe we can help communities prosper. We know Angels Landing will have a significant positive impact on L.A.’s economy. The ripple effect of Angels Landing’s substantial economic and employment activity will reverberate throughout L.A. County by providing good-paying union jobs to construct our hotel project and extensive career opportunities when the project is completed, and its hotels are open to the public. We have spent more than $10 million to move our project forward. We’re not letting the coronavirus pandemic slow us down. We anticipate our project entitlement this year.” Peebles Corp. Chairman and CEO R. Donahue Peebles, stated, “Equity and inclusion are bedrock principles at the Peebles Corporation. My success is predicated on opportunities I received because of those two important tenets. I have built an impressive collection of commercial and residential projects in New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, and other U.S. cities. “In each city, I’ve been most excited about using my influence to empower Black-owned, Latino-owned, and women-owned business leaders. My company works diligently to help minority-owned enterprises grow their businesses through procurement contracts established through our development projects.”
Angels Landings also is expected to create new opportunities for Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) and professionals. Peebles added, “With Angels Landing, the transformative impact of empowerment and economic inclusion will be felt by an array of businesses, including Latino- and Asian-owned businesses. We have committed to a goal of 30% M/WBE contracting across the board for our project. We’re raising the bar for economic inclusion for development projects in Los Angeles.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Former National Football League player Marshawn Lynch has announced the launch of a “premium, crafted cannabis brand-platform” named Dodi Blunts, which are 24kt diamond-infused blunts. According to Forbes, Lynch is entering the cannabis business with “Oakland’s premiere craft blunt.” Dodi Blunt’s first product, THCa diamonds-infused blunts, is slated to go on sale at Bay Area dispensaries beginning next month. The blunt is made from an organically grown Zkittles marijuana strain curated by Lynch and his friends.
Lynch is also giving back with the launch of the product by becoming partners with the Last Prisoner Project. “We are devoted to getting social equity “right” and creating opportunities that The War on Drugs annihilated for Black and Brown people. ESPECIALLY in Oaktown.
“To do this we are partnering with the Last Prisoner Project here in the Bay Area. The Last Prisoner Project (LPP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cannabis-related criminal justice reform. Through intervention, advocacy, and awareness campaigns, the Last Prisoner Project works to redress the past and continuing harms of these inhumane and ineffective laws and policies. We will work together to raise money, build awareness, and drive significant, lasting change.”
“Dodi has always been a part of my life,” Lynch tells Forbes. “If I was going to have a marijuana company, I wanted to make sure I did it the right way.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gender inequalities persist at several levels. Resources and factors of production are unequally distributed. Women are far from being fairly treated in public services, and their limited access to land ownership reduces their ability to undertake economic or political activities. The legal framework governing elections including laws on elections and on political parties, the Independent electoral commission statutes and laws are still not gender sensitive. Still, progress has been noted in few countries in terms of legislation and implementation such as Rwanda, Senegal and Cabo Verde and Tunisia. Africa has also a woman President in Ethiopia and Women Prime Ministers in Namibia, Gabon, Togo, to mention just a few. However, women representation remains limited and they rarely holding leadership positions. Violence remains an issue of serious concern in the region and one of the main obstacles to women’s progress in public life. It manifests in various forms: psychological, sexual and physical and prevents women from exercising and realizing their political and civil rights. A woman involved in politics in some parts of Africa is often seen as “the one who wears the pants” or as “a promiscuous girl who is easy to get”. Perpetrators of violence often seek to stop women from accessing political power and to silence them to limit their perspectives in policy formulation. Women politicians have been killed in office or have had to quit their positions after receiving death threats. Some women have also often withdrawn from elections citing abuse. Women voters, candidates and ministers have faced various forms of targeted, gender-based violence, including sexual violence, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment. Risks from violence against women in politics and during elections are even more daunting in African countries experiencing political polarization, armed conflict and/or managing a post-conflict transition.
COVID-19 has added a new threat dimension to participation in elections, with women (and men) potentially risking their health if they choose to vote. Conversely, that threat has the potential to depress voter turnout, including by discouraging first-time and/or young women voters from participating. A recent analysis found that “with the outbreak of COVID-19, there is a high risk that women and men may not be able to exercise their rights to vote, as the majority may opt to stay home. The CSW being a unique space for building convergence among governments, civil society organizations, and technical and financial partners, it is therefore necessary and essential for Africa to speak with one voice and to jointly examine trends, achievements and challenges, and existing gaps as well as actions to be taken to accelerate the implementation of gender equality commitments.
On the above backdrop and building on past experiences in undertaking pre-CSW consultations, the Africa Union Commission (AUC), Women, Gender and Youth Directorate in partnership with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment (UN Women) and the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) proposes to convene the Africa Pre-CSW65 virtual consultations on Monday 22 & Tuesday 23, 2021 for technical experts which will then be followed by the Africa Ministerial consultation on 26 February 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The AfCFTA promises to unlock the potential for African women to move from micro to macro businesses
For decades, African women have been trapped in poverty cycles due to several underlying factors including unequal access to education, factors of production, and trade facilities; inequitable labour saving technologies; underpaid or unpaid labour; harmful cultural practices; and limited legal protection from gender inequality practices entrenched in society.
To break the cycle of poverty and inequalities, the African Union continues to advocate for the development and implementation of policies and legal; frameworks that will create a wider array of opportunities for women, and which will lead to their economic empowerment at the national and regional levels and ensuring that the development envisaged for Africa is inclusive sustainable.
With the launch of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in January 2021, the expectations are high as relates to the expanded business prospects for women led business which will unlock the potential for African women to grow their business from micro to macro enterprises. The Agreement establishing the AfCFTA recognises the need to build and improve the export capacity of both formal and informal service suppliers, with particular attention to micro, small and medium size enterprises in which women and youth actively participate. Furthermore, the AfCFTA Protocols on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Policy provide clear guidelines to ensure emerging enterprises and infant industries are protected thus adding impetus to the Agenda 2063 goals of gender equality, women empowerment and youth development.
Through the AfCFTA, informal and micro and small enterprises will be integrated into the continental markets breaking the barriers these businesses constantly encounter as they try to penetrate more advanced regional and overseas markets. Women who are estimated to account for 70 per cent of informal cross-border trade in Africa, will be well positioned to tap into regional export destinations and use regional markets as stepping stones for expanding into overseas markets.
By reducing tariffs and with simplified trading regimes for small traders, AfCFTA makes it more affordable for informal traders to operate through formal channels, which offer more protection by addressing the vulnerabilities women in cross-border trade often encounter such as harassment, violence, confiscation of goods and even imprisonment. Through deliberate efforts to integrate informal businesses into the larger continental trade structure, the challenges related to accurate data will also be addressed, to adequately capture and reflect women’s trading activities in national accounting systems and regional statistical databases.
“The prospective shift from micro to macro business opportunities for women will not be spontaneous and the expected benefits for women should be tempered with realism and commitment to address existing challenges women often face.”
The AfCFTA is expected to enhance competitiveness, promote industrial development through diversification and regional value chain development, and foster sustainable socio-economic development and structural transformation. Small and medium-sized enterprises will benefit from easier means to supply inputs to larger regional companies, who then export to overseas markets. For instance, women can benefit from initiatives to connect female agricultural workers to export food markets. Regionally, there have been practical examples such as the preferential Southern African Customs Union trading regime where before exporting cars overseas, large automobile manufacturers in South Africa source inputs, including leather for seats from Botswana and fabrics from Lesotho, enhancing the concept of value addition and boosting local manufacturing and industrialization. Replicated at the continental level, the AfCFTA will then scale up opportunities for women to benefit from Intra-African trade.
Combined with the African Union’s parallel efforts to increase skills in science and technology, the blue economy, infrastructure, manufacturing and high growth, Africa is well on its way to actualise Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 which calls for “An Africa, whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.” Further, Aspiration 6, underpins African women’s economic empowerment, where women are fully empowered in all spheres and where women will have the rights to own and manage businesses; therefore, contributing significantly to innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives within the continent.
In addition, the African Union Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), underscores the need for women’s economic empowerment as under Pillar I, maximizing economic outcomes and opportunities (outcome 1.2), where women are challenged to push for their economic freedom thereby re-affirming the Africa Agenda 2063 - “The Africa We Want.”
Trade experts and gender equality advocates have however cautioned that the prospective shift from micro to macro business opportunities for women will not be spontaneous and the expected benefits for women should be tempered with realism and commitment to address some of the existing challenges women often face. The “Futures Report on making the AfCFTA work for women and youth”, identifies these challenges to evolve around the limited property rights for women farmers’ which leads to low levels of investment and limits the full potential of export-led growth. Similarly, women and youth may be limited from gains in agriculture due to barriers in accessing finance, productive resources and other assets. This, in addition to foreign direct investment (FDI) flows towards high productivity and better established exporting operations to capture scale economies, may enlarge the gender income gap. Without complementary national policies, the gender wage gap may be used to drive competitiveness in exports and keep women in low-productive activities and sectors that may also be at risk of automation.
The report therefore recommends the critical need to promote women as ‘achievers’ in, rather than ‘sources’ of, trade competitive advantage. These issues could well be addressed and articulated in the proposed Protocol on Women in Trade to ensure African women on the continent and those in the diaspora, are at the centre stage of the AfCFTA.
“The AfCFTA is also a catalyst for women following the Declaration 2020 to 2030 as the new Decade of Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion. African leaders recommitted to scale up actions for the progressive gender inclusion towards sustainable development.”
As country negotiations on AfCFTA continue, it is expected that pertinent issues to ensure seamless trading will be addressed such as the e-commerce negotiations specific to operational aspects of e-commerce and utilisation of digital tools, which include: data protection, portability, security and privacy; cross-border data flows and data localisation provisions; coordinated cybercrime laws; and harmonisation of laws for the taxation of cross-border e-commerce. Whilst the AfCFTA is a continental agreement, the implementation will take place primarily at the national level. Therefore, the agreement must be translated to and contextualised in domestic realities. Those domestic realties are expected to involve the needs to women and to have women leading the negotiations, as part of the fulfilment to gender equality and inclusion.
The AfCFTA is also a catalyst for women following the Declaration of the years 2020 to 2030 as the new Decade of Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion. In the Declaration, African leaders recommitted to scale up actions for the progressive gender inclusion towards sustainable development at the national, regional and continental levels. The exponential potential on the continent will not be realized in a vacuum but through purposed gender sensitive economic policies, a sound business environment and political commitment focused on gender mainstreaming in AfCFTA National Strategies.
The aspect of financial inclusion will ensure women, who are commonly excluded from the formal financial sector either because of their income level and volatility, location, type of activity, or level of financial literacy, benefit from strengthened financial services and capacity building. This will be especially useful for women living in rural areas and urban-informal settlements, to gain access to technology and to use it to increase productivity in all industrious sectors and benefit from tailor-made financial products such as the use of mobile money applications as a tool for expanding access to banking and finance that respond to the need for formal and reliable means to save, access and borrow money.
Correlated, the African Union Fund for African Women (FAW) is being converted into a Trust Fund for African Women (TFAW) and it will be part of the concrete solutions that will be made available for women to realize economic justice and financial inclusion.
In doing this, the efforts will be aligned to the African Union strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa, which push for the inclusion of women in Africa’s development agenda and which recognise that that gender equality is a fundamental human right and an integral part of regional integration, economic growth and social development.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments