By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 15 2024 – Alice went for eight weeks without Portuguese language classes after starting her first year of high school on Feb. 5 in this Brazilian city. Her chemistry teacher taught only two classes and disappeared. But the worst part is the classroom without air conditioning in the heat of more than 35 degrees Celsius some days during the southern hemisphere summer.

Her public school in a central neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, with more than 500 students, illustrates the conditions of public education in Brazil, with poorly paid teachers and the resulting poor work attendance, as well as precarious infrastructure and other problems.”The statistics show a challenging scenario, with many students lagging behind because they flunk or drop out of school. In addition to the ‘pe de meia’ program and other measures, systemic policies are needed, such as adequate infrastructure, teachers and full-time education.” — Natália Fregonesi

It is precisely in secondary education – the last three years of high school after nine grades of primary and middle school – that the biggest bottleneck in Brazilian education is found, according to an assessment agreed on widely by experts. The first nine years are for students up to the age of 14 and the last three years for students between the ages of 15 and 17.

Since Mar. 27, the Senate has been discussing a reform of the New Secondary Education Law, which came into force only two years ago. The government, in office since January 2023, proposed the modifications whose key points were already approved by the lower house of Congress.

Brazil is thus trying to overcome the shortcomings in education that have placed the country among the lowest ranked in comparative assessments, such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which studies 81 countries.

The new reform raises from 1,800 to 2,400 the number of hours to be dedicated during the three years of high school to compulsory subjects such as mathematics, natural and human sciences, and the Portuguese, English and Spanish languages.

It also provides for the extension of full-time education to a minimum of seven hours per day, and in technical-vocational schools as well.

In full-time primary and secondary institutions, students are at school for at least seven hours a day, attend regular classes in the morning and extracurricular activities, such as technical courses, sports or special subjects in the afternoon, or vice versa.

In addition, they receive two or three meals at school and in some cases can take a shower there – an attraction for students from low-income families in a country marked by huge social inequalities.

Even so, opportunities are not the same for everyone because the nine years of public basic education are in the hands of the municipalities, secondary education is run by the state governments and university education is the responsibility of the central government.

The new reform now depends on ratification by the Senate.

In secondary education, another 600 hours would be allocated to optional subjects, depending on the students’ interests, and may be extended further in the case of technical courses.

Currently, the flexibility applies to 1200 hours, but without adequate management in many educational centers. Alice, the student who preferred to use a fictitious name, complained that the extra hours are used for classes of the regular subjects or without a specific purpose.

“One teacher spent a long time explaining what the colors of the national flag symbolize,” she complained to IPS.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Jan. 26, 2024 in Brasilia the “Pe de meia” (savings) program, which will pay poor students in public secondary education 40 dollars a month, as an incentive to stay in the classroom. CREDIT: Ricardo Stuckert / PR

Curbing the school dropout rate

The government also created the “pe de meia” program, which in Brazil means savings. It offers 2,000 reais (400 dollars) per year, divided into 10 monthly installments, to high school students whose families are poor and are registered in the government’s Unified Social Assistance Registry. To receive it, they must demonstrate at least 80 percent school attendance.

The aim is to curb the dropout rate, which is higher in secondary education than in primary or middle school.

In 2023, the number of students who dropped out of school totaled 480,000, according to the Ministry of Education’s school census, released on Apr. 2.

In this country of 203 million people, of the adolescents and young people aged 15 to 29, nine million are out of school and have not completed high school, according to 2023 data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

The savings program seems like little money, but it is important “as a complement” for adolescents, who are generally engaged in informal work, and for low-income families, who benefit from social programs, said Natália Fregonesi, coordinator of Educational Policies at the non-governmental organization Todos pela Educação (Everyone for Education).

The annual IBGE survey points to the need to find work as the main cause of school dropout, which stands at 47.1 percent among young people aged 15 to 29 years. There is a strong contrast between men, with an index of 53.4 percent, and girls and women: 25.5 percent. Pregnancy is the second cause of dropout of girls and women, accounting for 23.1 of all young female dropouts.

Among boys and men, a lack of interest in studying is in second place, accounting for 25.5 percent.

Education Minister Camilo Santana released on Jan. 16, 2024 the results of the exam taken by high school students to enter universities. CREDIT: Marcelo Camargo / Agência Brasil

More time in school

“The statistics show a challenging scenario, with many students lagging behind because they flunk or drop out of school. In addition to the ‘pe de meia’ program and other measures, systemic policies are needed, such as adequate infrastructure, teachers and full-time education,” said Fregonesi, a chemist who specialized in education policies.

Full-time schools are an efficient model, as they create a different relationship between students and schools, offer other subjects in addition to the regular curriculum, help youngsters think more clearly about their future, and give students a leading role, in addition to having full-time teachers, the expert told IPS by telephone from São Paulo.

The idea is to increase the number of full-time schools, which already exist throughout the country, but in a very unequal manner. While in the state of Pernambuco, in the impoverished Northeast region, 66.8 percent of students are in full-time education, in the Federal District, where Brasilia the capital is located, the proportion is only five percent, and in São Paulo, the richest state, only 25.9 percent.

On average, only 21.9 percent of students in the public education system are in full-time schools.

But increasing the number of full-time schools requires a large investment and Brazil has limited availability of public resources. According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which brings together 38 countries, Brazil ranks among the last in terms of spending per basic education student.

The National Education Conference, held in Brasilia in January 2024, was one of the hundreds of forums in which the high school reform to be approved by the Senate was discussed. The Chamber of Deputies has already approved a version, with an increase in hours and classes in regular subjects taken by all students and of technical courses. CREDIT: José Cruz / Agência Brasil

Putting a priority on technical-vocational education

Another measure being pursued is to expand technical education. In Brazil, only 11 percent of students enrolled in secondary school take technical courses, while the average exceeds 40 percent in the other OECD countries, said Fregonesi.

“There is a certain prejudice in relation to technical education in Brazil, where it is seen as ‘inferior’ to high school, as preparation for university,” he said. But vocational training is lacking in the national economy and prepares students just as well for higher education, he argued.

In Brazil, there is growing unmet demand for skilled labor, for example, in information and communication technologies, which makes it necessary to expand technical secondary education.

The country’s educational challenges are colossal. In 2023, there were 47.3 million students enrolled in primary and secondary education and 6.5 million in university courses. But there were 68 million Brazilians without basic schooling.

Above and beyond these figures, the fact remains that the falling birth rate is reducing the school population. In 2019, the year before the outbreak of the pandemic, 57 million students were enrolled in school. The pandemic reduced that number by 9.5 million.

Education in Brazil operates both as a factor of social ascent and, at the same time, of inequality. Around 20 percent of students from the higher income sectors attend private primary and secondary schools, which generally are better funded and produce better results than public schools.

In higher education, the situation is paradoxically reversed. The children of the higher-income segments, who are better educated in private schools, gain easy admission to public universities, which offer better education than private colleges and therefore better possibilities for professional advancement.

To correct this imbalance, progressive governments in recent decades created racial and social quotas or affirmative action to benefit the generally poorer blacks and students in public elementary and secondary schools.

All these measures and some policies, such as financing systems for basic education maintained by city and state governments, have fomented small advances in Brazilian education, which have fallen far short however.

That process suffered a setback with the pandemic and the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). The current administration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is trying to get back on course.

By Catherine Wilson
SYDNEY, Apr 15 2024 – Winning a battle for survival requires understanding the opponent. And, for the peoples of 22 island nations and territories scattered across more than 155 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean, the volatility and wrath of the climate are their greatest threats.

The region harbours three of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, while eight are among those that suffer the highest disaster-related losses to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But decision-makers at all levels across the region are grappling with a lack of reliable, detailed information about the connections between climate extremes and changes occurring on their islands. In a bid to bridge the deficit of data, the regional scientific and principal organisation, the Pacific Community (SPC), is spearheading a new project, called Digital Earth Pacific, to capture extensive satellite information about climate change and natural disasters in the region.

“This is a real first for the Pacific and will bring incredible value to the region, which is so vast, but managed and stewarded by a small number of overstretched people in our member governments,” Dr Stuart Minchin, Director-General of the Pacific Community in Noumea, New Caledonia, told IPS.

Mary Nipisina cultivating her peanut garden in Tanna, Vanuatu. Farmers will be able to access the DEP for easy access to up-to-date satellite derived information. Credit: SPC

Pacific Island communities cannot afford escalating economic consequences of climate disasters. Credit: SPC

“Digital Earth Pacific provides a solution to the tyranny of distance that our Pacific people have to live with every day, allowing operational earth observation satellites to assist in monitoring and management of the vast Blue Pacific Continent,” he continued.

Satellites provide an invaluable timeline of pictures, past and present, of the ways climate change and natural disasters are affecting coastlines, forest cover, population centres, and food production.

The Pacific Islands are home to about 12.7 million people and natural disasters are leading to annual average losses in the region of USD 1.07 billion, reports the Australian Aid Agency.

Digital Earth Pacific, launched by the Pacific Community in October last year, aims to halt that trend. To do this, it will set up far-reaching digital public infrastructure that gives national leaders, decision-makers, policymakers, and citizens, including farmers and local communities, easy access to up-to-date satellite-derived information. It will equip islanders to make better decisions about everything from building climate-resilient infrastructure to planting crops.

The project will draw on the wealth of scientific information from Microsoft’s Planetary Computer and treat it as ‘public goods’ to be used by those who need it. It is now in the last stages of the first phase of development, with significant progress already made in establishing the digital infrastructure and designing products and applications. Minchin said that they had captured “coastline change, mangroves, and surface water resources, and each of these products is available for every island atoll and rock across the entire Blue Pacific Continent.”

This is only “the beginning, though, with a significant pipeline of other products in development, bringing the region not just a historical view of how these issues have impacted local areas but an ongoing operational monitoring tool that will be updated regularly with new satellite observations,” Minchin explained.

The development of products and services has been informed by extensive consultations with Pacific Island countries. “The insights from the consultations gave the project a very good indication of what kind of baseline data is missing and where earth observations can fit in for sound decision-making,” Sachindra Singh, the Geoinformatics Team Leader in the Pacific Community’s Geoscience Division in Suva, Fiji, told IPS.

There is no Pacific Island nation that has not suffered the blow of devastating cyclones, the merciless corrosion of land by the sea or human hardships when the necessities of food and water perilously decline in the face of droughts or saltwater contamination.

This century, the Pacific faces a forecast of relentless temperature increases, extreme rainfall, and floods that risk the perishing of crops and rises in human illness and disease, such as heat stress and dengue fever, reports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). More destructive cyclones and rising sea levels will lead to continued loss and damage to towns, villages, and basic services, for instance, water, sanitation, power, and roads.

In recent years, the region has been burdened with exorbitant loss and damage bills from cyclones. In 2015, Cyclone Pam cost Vanuatu USD 449.4 million, while Cyclone Winston, which descended on Fiji in 2016, caused damages to the value of US$600 million.

SPC Director General Stuart Minchin at the DEP Launch in Noumea last year. It is hoped that the project will assist in the containment of the impacts of climate disasters in terms of lives and livelihoods. Credit: SPC

Destruction from the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami in 2022. Natural disasters are leading to annual average losses in the region of USD 1.07 billion. Credit: SPC

Pacific Island nations cannot afford the escalating economic consequences of climate disasters. Especially because ‘countries in the Pacific region commonly face low GDP growth, high reliance on grants and external loans and under-development in disaster-resilient infrastructure, the economic impact of natural disasters tends to be larger than for other comparable low-income and emerging economies,’ reports the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The new digital project is, therefore, an essential tool for prevention, ensuring that islanders can act effectively before the next disaster hits and build lives that are resilient to climate excesses in the decades ahead.

At this stage, the project will have operational products ready to use by 2024.

“All this information is made easily accessible through the Digital Earth Pacific website in a user-friendly viewer,” Singh said.

Users can then “identify how their shorelines have changed over time, what areas of their islands are flood-prone or have historically faced droughts. They will be able to identify how the health of their mangroves recovers after a severe tropical cyclone and monitor the progress of replanting efforts over the years,” he continued.

A major beneficiary will be the Cook Islands, a self-governing group of 15 islands, including low-lying coral atolls, located between Tonga and French Polynesia.  It has a population of about 17,500 people who live on a total island landmass of 240 square kilometres. Here, people contend with limited land for food production, an expanding population, and constrained water resources. And, from November to April each year, the country is exposed to tropical cyclones.

John Strickland, Director of Emergency Management in the Cook Islands, told IPS that the country was particularly prone to cyclones, flooding, sea surges, and drought.

“With 30 years of satellite data collected through Digital Earth Pacific…[it] has provided images of how the Cook Islands’ coastal area has been affected by climate change, also indicating water observations during floods,” Strickland said.

“With the data captured, this will assist the Cook Islands in future planning on ensuring that affected coastal and low-lying areas affected by floods are captured and monitored. It will provide us the ability to report on affected areas and forecast, in the future, zones that are vulnerable during a disaster.”

The Pacific Community also believes that access to the data will aid economic growth by informing better investment and planning by local industries and businesses.

Bringing such a massive infrastructure scheme to fruition will take an equally sizeable investment. And the Pacific Community is currently seeking donors and partners who will help the vision become reality.

“We have already received strong support from the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United Kingdom and New Zealand governments and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, allowing us to develop the Digital Earth Pacific capability for the first year or two of operation and we are very grateful for this support to date,” Minchin said. But he emphasised that ongoing financial and technical support is vital in the coming years.

Ultimately, the Pacific Community’s goal is to give islanders the power to forge sustainable lives, limit climate-related poverty, reduce fiscal exposure, and retain their sovereignty.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence
APEX, North Carolina / DUBLIN, Ireland, Apr 15 2024 – Could a UN insider take the top job? Amina J. Mohammed is the current Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She has been in the role since early 2017, making her something of a veteran within senior circles.

A British-born Nigerian, Mohammed’s UN experience goes back even further. For instance, she played a critical role in the development of the post-2015 Development Agenda as an Assistant Secretary-General within previous Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office.

In that role, she acted as the link for the Secretary-General and the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons Annan set up under several global political leaders. This UN experience means Mohammed not only understands the internal workings of international relations, but has interacted with many world leaders for more than a decade.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Credit: United Nations

Mohammed’s Nigerian credentials are also noteworthy. Before becoming UN Deputy Secretary-General, she served as her country’s Environment Minister, where she steered the country’s efforts on the Sustainable Development Goals and action on climate change. Her prior experience cuts across government agencies, the UN, and academia, including a spell at Columbia University in New York.

Mohammed’s time as Guterres’ deputy at the UN has seen her carve out an important role for sustainable development. She is Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group and has attempted to reposition sustainable development and the SDGs at the center of the organization’s work.

She has also overseen reforms that give the UN Resident Coordinators—who are the most senior UN development staff at the country level—greater independence and authority to coordinate UN activities in their country. In an interview with UN News, Mohammed said these changes would allow “a much more independent and impartial leader” at the country level.

“What I would say is that, in previous times, we’ve sort of had a conductor that, through no fault of their own, is conducting a cacophony – the left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing,” she said. “Today, we have an opportunity to make a symphony for the SDGs. That’s really the difference on the ground.”

Assessing Mohammed’s Prospects

Could Amina Mohammed be the next UN Secretary-General?

While a final decision is more than two years away, here is our assessment of her advantages and disadvantages, should she choose to throw her hat into the ring.

Advantages

– A Woman Leader: The UN has never had a woman leader. As the organization approaches its 80th birthday, many observers rightly view this as almost scandalous, especially given the number of strong female candidates over the years.
– UN Experience: Mohammed is a UN veteran. There is an argument that an insider with the right knowledge would be able to hit the ground running more easily than an outsider. What’s more, much of Mohammed’s recent experience has been at UN headquarters in New York, where much of the organization’s key strategic decisions are made. This knowledge of how the UN works at the highest levels would surely be an asset during these uncertain times.
– Proven Impact: Mohammed can point to a number of successes during her time as UN deputy, particularly her internal reforms and championing of the Sustainable Development Goals. Given the headwinds the organization has faced in recent years, a candidate who can point to some genuine successes could arguably make a compelling case for promotion.
– Connections: Mohammed has had many years operating in the rarefied air of global political leadership, shaking hands and making deals with top politicians from around the globe. Could her networks and connections with senior politicians help her?

Disadvantages

– Wrong Region? There is a tradition—or at least, an expectation—that the UN Secretary-General rotates through the different UN regions. In reality, this does not always happen. For instance, António Guterres is Portuguese, whereas it was supposed to be an Eastern European who was appointed last time. This time around, however, many believe it is Latin America and the Caribbean’s turn. If enough people agree, Mohammed’s chances would be significantly diminished.
– Outsiders Usually Win: Internal promotions to the top job at the UN are rare. In fact, a Deputy Secretary-General has never been promoted, ever. Of course, it could be argued that the deputy’s job is fairly new, since there has only been a Deputy Secretary-General since 1998. Furthermore, fans of internal promotions point out that Kofi Annan, a previous Secretary-General, had been a senior UN staff member before taking the top job. However, the lack of a recent precedent for internal promotions and the fact that no former UN deputy has ever taken the top job could well be an obstacle.
– Name Recognition: Amina Mohammed is very well known in international diplomatic circles. Outside them … not so much. Will the fact she is not widely known by the public-at-large tell against her?

Prof. Felix Dodds and Chris Spence have participated in United Nations conferences and negotiations since the 1990s. They co-edited Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage (Routledge, 2022), which examines the roles of individuals in inspiring change.

IPS UN Bureau

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2024 (IPS-Partners)

The conflict in Sudan is one of the worst in the world today, and millions of children and adolescents bear the brunt within and across the border from Sudan.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of this vicious conflict, we call on world leaders to ensure that all girls and boys impacted by the conflict can access life-saving quality education. Their hope and future hinge on this.

Sudan experiences a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Without urgent international action, this catastrophe could engulf the entire country and have even more devastating impacts on neighboring countries, as refugees flee across borders into neighboring states.

The brutal conflict continues to take innocent lives, with over 14,000 children, women and men reportedly killed already. According to the United Nations, half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people, including 14 million children – urgently need humanitarian assistance. An estimated 5 million people are one step away from famine.

Sudan also has the outside Sudan since 15 April 2023, including 4 million children.

Most schools are shuttered or are struggling to re-open across the country, leaving nearly 19 million school-aged children at risk of losing out on their education. To put this in perspective, that’s more children at risk than the total populations of Finland, Ireland and Norway combined.

As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises hosted within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and our global strategic partners have responded with speed, agility and coordination to provide girls and boys impacted by this complex conflict with the safety, hope and opportunity of a quality education.

ECW has provided US$10 million to date in response to the largest forced displacement crisis in the world today. Over 8 million people have been displaced inside and regional refugee education needs, with First Emergency Response grants announced in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. In Sudan, we have provided US$28 million in funding, including a US$5 million grant announced in August 2023 that will reach over 86,000 girls and boys with access to an inclusive, quality education.

Yet, these investments are simply not enough. We must step up global funding for education in all the world’s forgotten crises, in places like Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, the Sahel, South Sudan and so many more. In all, over 224 million girls and boys are having their futures ripped from their hands by armed conflict, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises around the globe.

This not only threatens global security and efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, but it is also an affront to their humanity. Without safe places to learn and grow, girls face a number of grave risks, including child marriage, sexual violence, human trafficking and forced labor. Boys find themselves against impossible odds and risk forced recruitment as child soldiers, forced labor and other assaults on their human rights. It’s an impossible un-ending cycle of violence, displacement, poverty, hunger, chaos and uncertainty.

With school feeding programmes, they have nutritious meals. With gender-inclusive classrooms, they have safe places to learn. With mental health and psychosocial support, they find a way to regain their dignity and build strong, resilient communities. It’s a systems-wide approach that puts children first in our investments in sustainable development and puts humanity first in our global efforts to end war and build a better future for generations to come.

As we build on calls from today’s International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbours, the African Year of Education, and other important efforts to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, we appeal to public donors, the private sector and philanthropic foundations to urgently mobilize US$600 million in renewed support for ECW’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. With a total of US$1.5 billion, we can reach 20 million children and adolescents.

In South Sudan, education is an opportunity to “change my life” for Living Sunday, a young teenage mother who resumed her education against all odds. In Ethiopia, where prolonged drought made worse by climate change has disrupted education for an entire generation, it means Nakurchel, 12, is attending school for the first time in her life. In her own words: “Education has given me wings to fly.” Still more needs to be done, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 1 out of 9 children can read a simple text.

Sudan cannot wait. Africa cannot wait. The rest of the world needs to be unapologetically impatient in heeding their calls.

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Excerpt:

ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif Statement on the One-Year Anniversary of Hostilities in Sudan

By Jaime Atienza
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 15 2024 – As leaders gather for the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank amid the cherry blossom trees of Washington, DC, there is some good news to celebrate.

After three years of difficult negotiations within the G20 Common Framework on Debt, with the support of the IMF, Zambia has finally secured serious debt relief and restructuring with both government and private creditors, which will help enable vital and urgent investments in health, education, and social protection.

For too long, Zambia’s plans for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, and for realising crucial development needs, have been held back by constraints in investment caused by the debt crisis. The debt relief and restructuring that has been agreed at last gives the country a fighting chance. All those who have facilitated this agreement have saved and transformed lives.

The leaders gathering in Washington DC, including G20 Finance Ministers and international financial officials, can and should do much more, however. They can secure a much greater legacy than helping one country begin to untie itself from debt distress whilst leaving many other countries choking.

The agreement with Zambia has shown that the debt crisis is not fate but is a man-made situation which people can unmake. But so far, Zambia has been the only country which has benefitted from the new debt framework.

Slow and opaque international negotiations have not resolved the crisis that is leaving half of African economies either facing debt distress or at high risk of doing so.

Sub-Saharan African countries’ debt repayments have unaffordably high interest rates: for years they have been paying rates that are between four to eight times the rates that high income countries pay.

Sub-Saharan African countries are spending far more on debt servicing than on health – indeed, half are paying three times more. Last year, in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda, debt service obligations exceeded 50% of government revenues.

The damage that fiscal constraints are causing to health security is not only a moral outrage, but also dangerous for the whole world. In contrast, coordinated significant debt restructuring and relief by leading creditor countries, and by the investment firms based in those countries, will be good for the whole world – facilitating health security, stability and sustained prosperity.

Fiscal modelling demonstrates that the costs of inaction would be much larger than the costs of action.It is deeply concerning, therefore, that even at this time of polycrisis, some officials are continuing to pressure countries to maintain fiscal restraints, or even to tie them tighter. Continuing with austerity would be a grave mistake.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has highlighted, the global financial system is perpetuating and exacerbating inequalities, and is failing to provide a global safety net for developing countries.

Reform of the global financial architecture is urgent. This includes the need for a stable and timely debt restructuring mechanism, and for increased aid and sustainable and affordable concessional financing for low and low-middle income countries. It includes also the need for global coordinated action, and global rules, which will help advance fair taxation and the tackling of tax evasion.

There is, rightly, a consensus that low- and middle-income countries need to become increasingly fiscally self-reliant. The evidence is clear: achieving this requires growing new avenues for countries’ domestic revenue collection.

Brazil, host of November’s G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, has placed the establishment of new taxes on the agenda as a way for countries to source revenue that can be invested in health and other social priorities.

Needs include taxes on the wealth and on the capital gains of individuals and companies to ensure a reduction in inequality, with revenues collected redeployed for social priorities such as health, HIV, child welfare, gender equality, and social protection.

Investing in health works. The extraordinary advances secured by the global HIV response have proven what can be achieved. Since 2010, AIDS-related deaths have declined by 51% worldwide. New HIV infections have fallen by 38%. And three quarters of the 39 million people living with HIV are on antiretroviral treatment.

But right now, there is significant shortfall in the global investments required to end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. The US$ 20.8 billion available for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries in 2022 was 2.6% less than in 2021, and well short of the US$ 29.3 billion needed by 2025. The final miles are the hardest, and need more investment, not less.

The world can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, be well-prepared for the next pandemic, and overcome the world’s dangerous health inequalities. But to ensure sufficient and sustainable resources requires leaders meeting in Washington DC need to be bold.

Now is the moment to frontload investment in health, education, and social protection. Economic stability and health security depend on multilateral coordinated action to drop debt, increase aid and concessional financing, and facilitate progressive taxation.

Decisions that leaders take this year will help determine whether the world successfully navigates the challenges of this decade and beyond. For the health security of everyone, leaders need to break the chokehold of debt and austerity, now.

Jaime Atienza is UNAIDS Director of Equitable Financing

IPS UN Bureau

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