Experts
No alternative to collective plan to tackle cut in Rohingya aid: Experts
Experts and stakeholders Wednesday said there must be a collective plan to cope with the slashing of aid for Rohingyas.
They made the call at a webinar organised by Cox's Bazar Civil Society and NGO Forum, a network of 60 local organisations.
KM Tariqul Islam, director general NGO Affairs Bureau, said aid for Rohingya response is being slashed due to the global crisis. "So, the government and donors should find realistic ways to attract global donors."
Shireen Huq, a member of Naripokkho, urged the government to announce a plan and redouble its global efforts on Rohingya repatriation.
READ: Rohingyas: Dhaka asks Nay Pyi Taw to expedite verification for early repatriation
Shireen and Disaster Forum Member Secretary Nayeem Gowhar Warha also called on the government to consider signing the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
Ashis Damle of Oxfam requested the international non-governmental organisations to initiate a global campaign to facilitate the early repatriation of the displaced Myanmar citizens.
Bangladesh needs to boost climate diplomacy: Experts
Though Bangladesh is one of the worst victims of climate change with almost no contribution to the cause, experts have bemoaned that the wealthier nations--who have historically contributed the most to the depletion of the ozone layer--are doing very little to help the country overcome this problem.
They said Bangladesh should boost its climate diplomacy to make tackling climate change an important issue of bilateral discussions with developed countries and thus encourage them to fulfill their pledges made in the Paris Agreement.
“Bangladesh is one of the worst victims of extreme weather caused by climate change for a long time. Climate change is a global issue that needs a global solution through collective efforts,” Dr Ainun Nishat, a noted climate expert, told UNB.
Also read: Small solutions, big impacts: How five community-based projects tackling climate
He said they have long been highlighting the issue of climate finance for reducing the climate change impacts, but only pledges have been made so far instead of allocating sufficient funds globally.
“Bangladesh and other vulnerable countries should play an active role in different forums and international conferences on climate change in encouraging the developed countries to deliver on their commitments to support the badly affected countries to face the devastating impacts like flash floods, droughts, heat waves, storms, cyclones, and rising sea levels,” the expert said.
“Our country has been experiencing frequent natural disasters like floods, cyclones, increasing incidents of lightning strikes and landslides triggered by global warming, causing huge losses to human lives and natural resources,” Dr Nishat observed.
Bangladesh was the seventh most-affected country in the world by “extreme weather events” over the 20 years, according to a report by Global Climate Risk Index 2019.
Renowned environmental expert Dr Atiq Rahman, who was recognised by the UN as one of the Champions of the Earth in 2008, Bangladesh is not only facing the loss of lives and resources due to the adverse impacts of the climate change, but also facing a threat to food security due to an abnormal shift in its traditional six seasons.
Also read: Dhaka calls for more IOM role in helping climate migrants
He said farmers in Bangladesh are going through serious difficulties with the cultivation of various crops due to changes in temperature, wind-flow and rainfall patterns. “For an example, farmers face problems in the process of ‘retting’ the jute plants for lack of rainwater. At the same time, the farmers cannot plant their paddy timely during the monsoon period for lack of adequate rainfall.”
Besides Dr Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, said winter in Bangladesh is getting less biting, but foggier, hampering the crop production.
Dr Ainun Nishat also the impacts of climate change will continue to affect the country‘s agriculture sector in many ways. “The agricultural calendar that has long been followed by the farmers of the country is changing erratically due to rise in temperature and variations in wind-flow and rainfall patterns which is eventually harming the food chain.
Besides, he said crop production is also being hampered due to flash floods and droughts caused by growing temperature.
Citing different local and international studies, the expert said around 30 million people are “predicted to be at risk” of sea-level rise in Bangladesh by 2050 while the annual rise in sea level in the country ranges between 6mm and 20mm.
He said the rise in sea level is contributing to increasing salinity and climate-induced migration in the coastal areas. “People in some coastal districts are being forced to migrate to different districts due to an increase in salinity.
According to a World Bank study, climate change will cause significant changes in river salinity in the southwest coastal region during the dry season (October to May) by 2050, and will likely lead to shortages of drinking and irrigation water and cause changes in aquatic ecosystems.
Under the circumstances, Both Dr Nishat and Dr Rahman said Bangladesh should focus on climate diplomacy to mount pressure on the industrialised countries to compensate for the losses and damages the country is facing due to climate change and ensure sufficient financing for adaptation and resilience building.
Experts say US suspension of COVID aid will prolong pandemic
In the latest Senate package targeted at stopping the coronavirus, U.S. lawmakers dropped nearly all funding for curbing the virus beyond American borders, a move many health experts slammed as dangerously short-sighted.
They warn the suspension of COVID-19 aid for poorer countries could ultimately allow the kind of unchecked transmission needed for the next worrisome variant to emerge and unravel much of the progress achieved so far.
The U.S. has been the biggest contributor to the global pandemic response, delivering more than 500 million vaccines, and the lack of funding will be a major setback. The money has paid for numerous interventions, including a mass vaccination campaign in the Cameroonian capital that saw hundreds of thousands of people get their first dose, as well as the construction of a COVID-19 care facility in South Africa and the donation of 1,000 ventilators to that country.
Other U.S.-funded vaccination campaigns in dozens of countries, including Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Mali, could also come to a grinding halt.
Also read: US experts wrestle with how to update COVID-19 vaccines
“Any stoppage of funds will affect us,” said Misaki Wayengera, a Ugandan official who heads a technical committee advising the government on the pandemic response. He said Uganda has leaned heavily on donor help — it received more than 11 million vaccines from the U.S. — and that any cuts “would make it very difficult for us to make ends meet.”
“This is a bit of a kick in the teeth to poor countries that were promised billions of vaccines and resources last year in grand pledges made by the G7 and the G20,” said Michael Head, a global health research fellow at Britain’s Southampton University.
“Given how badly we’ve failed on vaccine equity, it’s clear all of those promises have now been broken,” he said, adding that without concerted effort and money to fight COVID-19 in the coming months, the pandemic could persist for years.
While about 66% of the American population has been fully immunized against the coronavirus, fewer than 15% of people in poorer countries have received a single dose. Health officials working on COVID-19 vaccination in developing countries supported by the U.S. say they expect to see a reversal of progress once the funds disappear.
“Vaccination will stop or not even get started in some countries,” said Rachel Hall, executive director of U.S. government advocacy at the charity CARE. She cited estimates from USAID that the suspended funding would mean scrapping testing, treatment and health services for about 100 million people.
Although vaccines are more plentiful this year, many poorer countries have struggled to get shots into arms and hundreds of millions of donated vaccines have either expired, been returned or sat unused. To address those logistical hurdles, U.S. aid has financed critical services in countries across Africa, including the safe delivery of vaccines, training health workers and fighting vaccine misinformation.
For example, in November the U.S. Embassy in the Cameroonian capital set up a tent for mass vaccination: Within the first five days, more than 300,000 people received a dose. Those kinds of events will now be harder to conduct without American funds.
Hall also noted there would be consequences far beyond COVID-19, saying countries struggling with multiple disease outbreaks, like Congo and Mali, would face difficult choices.
“They will have to choose between fighting Ebola, malaria, polio, COVID and more,” she said.
Jeff Zients, the outgoing leader of the White House COVID-19 task force, expressed regret the legislation doesn’t include resources for the international pandemic fight, noting that would also compromise efforts to track the virus’ genetic evolution.
“It is a real disappointment that there’s no global funding in this bill,” he said. “This virus knows no borders, and it’s in our national interest to vaccinate the world and protect against possible new variants.”
Still, Zients announced the U.S. would be the first to donate “tens of millions” of doses for children to poorer countries and said more than 20 nations had already requested the shots.
J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, lamented that lawmakers were erring on the side of optimism about the pandemic precisely when another surge might be arriving.
Also read: India reports first case of XE Covid variant
“We’ve made that mistake several times in this pandemic. And we may be making that mistake again,” he said. In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases caused by the hugely infectious omicron subvariant BA.2 have surged across Europe, and American officials say they expect a U.S. spike soon.
Other experts worried the suspension of U.S. global support for COVID-19 might prompt officials to drop current vaccination goals. The World Health Organization had set a target of immunizing at least 70% of people in all countries by the middle of this year, but with nearly 50 countries vaccinating fewer than 20% of their populations, hitting that target is highly unlikely.
Instead, some organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation have pushed for officials to “refocus vaccination goals away from vaccinating 70% of all adults by summer to vaccinating 90% of those most at-risk in each country,” in what some critics say is an implicit acknowledgment of the world’s repeated failures to share vaccines fairly. Others point out there shouldn't be competing vaccine targets and that health authorities simply need to do more, rather than adjusting global goals.
In Nigeria, which has so far received at least $143 million in COVID-19 aid from the U.S, authorities dismissed suggestions their coronavirus programs would suffer as a result of lost funding. The Nigerian president’s office said help from the U.S. was mostly “in kind” via capacity building, research support and donations of laboratory equipment and vaccines. “We are confident that this will not cause any disruption of our current programs,” it said.
However, others warned the U.S. decision set an unfortunate precedent for global cooperation to end the pandemic at a time when fresh concerns like the Ukraine war are drawing more attention.
U.S. President Joe Biden originally planned to convene a virtual summit in the first quarter of this year to keep international efforts on track, but no event has been scheduled.
“In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, we don’t yet have a final date for the summit, but we are working closely with countries and international partners to advance commitments,” said a senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly.
As of this month, WHO said it had gotten only $1.8 billion of the $16.8 billion needed from donors to speed access to coronavirus vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.
“Nobody else is stepping up to fill the void at the moment and the U.S. decision to suspend funding may lead other donor countries to act similarly,” said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center.
Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, described the U.S. suspension of funding as “devastating.”
“How could this possibly be what we’re debating right now?" she asked. “It’s a moral obligation to the rest of the world to continue to contribute to this global pandemic response, not only to protect ourselves but to protect people from around the world.”
Transmission from hepatitis B infected mother to child poses major risk: experts
Transmission from hepatitis B infected mother to child, unsafe blood transfusion, hazardous uses of medical equipment, including syringes, are major risk factors for spreading hepatitis in Bangladesh, according to experts.
Speaking at a discussion, they also said poor knowledge about hepatitis, lack of awareness in testing and treatment options, misinformation, stigmatisation and discrimination against infected people are obstacles to eliminating the viral disease.
National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh, World Hepatitis Alliance and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine jointly organised the programme participated by local and international experts in the field at The Daily Star Centre on Friday.
Also read: China starts research on liver cancer in hepatitis B patients
National Liver Foundation founder professor Mohammad Ali said Bangladesh has a plan for eliminating the hepatitis virus by 2030.
He said about 10 million people in Bangladesh were living with viral hepatitis and it was causing 20,000 deaths annually. “Hepatitis is a major cause of liver cancer, the 3rd cause of cancer death in Bangladesh.”
Hepatology Society, Bangladesh’s general secretary Prof Shahinul Alam said the unsafe blood transfusions by unskilled people bear a major risk for Hepatitis infection.
He also said professional blood donors are among the vulnerable for easily getting infected and spreading the virus.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital Hepatology department head Dr Faruque Ahmed said the Hepatitis virus causes chronic infections in the liver as vaccinations and testing are the major safety and prevention mechanism.
He said that all the infants at birth, children under 6 years, dialysis patients, blood donors, surgical & dental staff, nurses, people engaged in hazardous work coming into contact with blood & blood products, sex workers, must be prioritised in vaccinations.
Also read: Hepatitis B spread in under-5 children lowest in decades: WHO
Hepatitis B virus transmission from Hepatitis B infected mother to her child is the most common way of transmission of hepatitis B virus, every pregnant woman to be tested for Hepatitis B virus & all children should be vaccinated within 24 hours of birth (Birth dose) followed by more two doses, said Dr Golam Azam, Associate professor of BIRDEM General Hospital.
Professor Syed Alamgir Safwath of Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College in Sylhet said many hospitals and health facilities in the county lack standard blood screening and pre-operative hygiene posing risks for spreading Hepatitis.
Situation in Rohingya camps alarming
Bangladesh Armed Forces former director-general of medical services Major General (retired) Rabiul Hossain said the prevalence of Hepatitis in the Rohingya community in Bangladeshi refugee camps is alarming.
He said the study of the National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh found that 11 per cent of over 1 million Rohingya people are infected with Hepatitis C.
Experts call for wildlife census in Sunderbans to halt extinction crisis
Environmental experts have stressed the need for a wildlife census to enumerate the wild animals in the Sundarbans that are threatened by climate change, poaching and habitat loss.
There has long been no count of wild animals in the world's largest mangrove forest, which is spread across an area of 6,017 sq km of which 4,832 sq km is forested and the remaining marshy tracts.
The 2015 tiger census recorded a Royal Bengal tiger population of just 106 in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans, which rose to 114 in 2018.
Similarly, a survey in 2017 put the number of crocodiles in the Sunderbans between 150 and 205.
READ: Sundarbans tourism: Now focus on automation to improve services
However, the census also pointed out that the crocodiles are at the risk of extinction due to seven reasons, including deaths of baby crocodiles in fishing nets, movement of water vessels in the Pashur river, and dumping of industrial waste in the river.
Prof Abdullah Harun Chowdhury of the environmental science department at Khulna University, said, “The forest department should conduct a wildlife census periodically to enumerate wild animals like wild buffaloes, crocodiles, tigers and leopards in the Sunderbans."
The census can also help the Bangladesh government in adopting a proper wildlife management system in the Sundarbans, he said.
Hawladar Azad, officer-in-charge of Karamjal Wildlife Breeding Centre in East Sundarbans, said the authorities conducted a wildlife census of deer, monkeys, otters and bhodors in 1997.
According to the 1997 census, there were one to 1.5 lakh deer, 40-50 thousand monkeys, 20-25 thousand pigs and 20-25 thousand otters.
However, there has been no census of water monitors, pythons, turtle, birds and other animals to date.
Dr Sheikh Faridul Islam, chairman of Save the Sundarbans Foundation, said, “We must find out the actual number of wildlife animals inhabiting the Sunderbans. The forest department should take necessary steps in this regard."
The number of wildlife animals could also fall due to the movement of tourists and vessels in rivers inside the Sundarbans, he said.
READ: 44 held for illegal fishing in Sundarbans
Mihir Kumar Do, Forest Conservator (Khulna circle), said that they do carry out "smart patrolling" using GPS for protecting the wildlife in the Sunderbans.
Experts for increased rural digital connectivity for poverty reduction in APAC
Cross-sector collaboration is needed to lower the costs of rural area connectivity and improve digital literacy to close the digital divide and drive economic recovery during the pandemic, experts said at a webinar recently.
The Financial Times and Huawei organised the event "Strategies for Addressing the Asia-Pacific Digital Divide – Increasing Connectivity to Drive Economic Recovery."
Read Huawei to invest $150 million in talent development
The Asia Pacific is speeding up for digital transformation and underpinned by dynamic markets and a young population.
The significant rift of digital access yet hinders wider shares of digital benefits, which in turn leads to slower recovery from the pandemic. ICT leverages fundamental ways to drive economic rebound.
"This starts with fair access to digital services specifically on connecting the unconnected," said Michael Macdonald, the chief digital officer of Huawei Asia Pacific.
Read Mobile World Congress 2021: Huawei wins 5 awards
The ICT talent shortage is one of the key fields revealing the digital divide.
Poon King Wang, director of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design, called for long-term strategies and sustained support to upskill people across generations and ensure the wellbeing of workers in digital transformation.
In 2017, Huawei, the ICT Division of Bangladesh, and Robi Axiata jointly launched the Digital Training Bus project to bring digital skills to women in the heart of rural Bangladesh. More than 60,000 women have received training till now, and 160,000 more will benefit from it by 2023.
Read Huawei launches new 5G products
To lessen the imminent labour deficit in APAC, 400,000 more people are expected to be digitally upskilled in the next five years through Huawei educational flagship programs such as Seeds for the Future and ASEAN Academy, according to Michael MacDonald.
Government urged to prepare integrated power-energy master plan
The government needs to prepare an integrated master plan for the power and energy sector by engaging the local professionals who have vast experience in the sector.
Experts said this at the webinar "Power-Energy Integrated Master Plan" organised by Energy and Power Magazine Saturday.
Read: CPD calls for discontinuation of Speedy Supply of Power and Energy
An integrated master plan for the power and energy sector is crucial for the future of the sector, said Special Envoy of Climate Vulnerable Forum Presidency of Bangladesh Abul Kalam Azad at the programme.
Involving the experienced local professionals in preparing the master plan will be more pragmatic and efficient, he said.
Bangladesh should focus on the development of renewables and hydrogen fuels as they will be the dominant sources of energy in the future, the envoy added.
Read: 'Demand, supply need to be matched to ensure low-cost power energy
"The country had set a target to generate 10% electricity from renewable sources by 2020, but it could not achieve over 3% of it. The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority did not get the right kind of leadership to achieve the goal, perhaps," Abul Kalam said.
There was a plan to set up solar plants at railway stations and all government buildings to generate renewable energy, but it was not implemented, he added.
Read: Power distribution entities urged to introduce one-stop service
Former Petrobangla chairman of Muktadir Ali said all the previous master plans and projects were undertaken on an ad-hoc basis. "That is why there was always a lack of coordination between the plans and their implementation in the power and energy sector."
Vaccine institute in Bangladesh can be a gamechanger for its economy: Experts
As the government has planned to establish a vaccine institute, experts have appreciated it as a timely and bold move as they think Bangladesh has huge potential to grab the international vaccine market like medicines.
They also said the local and international vaccine markets will continue to grow as vaccine safety is now becoming as important as food security with the emergence of various diseases, flues and viruses like Covid.
The analysts think an international standard vaccine institute will not only be a gamechanger for the country’s economy but also for its image and reputation building globally.
Also read: International vaccine institute to be set up in Bangladesh: Hasina
They said the government should focus on developing skilled human resources alongside setting up the institutes to run it effectively and produce quality vaccines as Bangladesh’s many public institutions fall apart only because of poor management and lack of efficient manpower.
Bangladeshi scholars invited to join Saudi events
The Saudi government has invited Bangladeshi scientists, academics and experts to participate in an international competition and conference on various scientific knowledge on Disability Research.
The Authority for the Care of Persons with Disability in Saudi Arabia will host the international competition for disability research - third session - and the 6th international conference on disability and rehabilitation during the January 25-27 period.
The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Dhaka informed that the competition and conference will be held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.
Also Read:Saudi investors want to invest $5bn in Bangladesh: Ambassador Essa
The title of the competition is “Empowering Individuals with Disabilities from Childhood to Adulthood-Between Research & Practice.”
The Organising Committee will bear all the expenses, including travel expenditures and accommodation for the selected participants from outside of Saudi Arabia.
Interested participants from Bangladesh can visit the following website https://icdr.org.sa for detailed information regarding the participation in the competition and conference, said the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka on Thursday.
Asymptomatic patients are ‘corona bombs’: Experts
As the government is now focusing on detecting those showing symptoms of Covid-19 to isolate them from others amid limited testing capacity in the country, health experts think silent spreaders have become a bigger threat to the efforts to stop the virus.